Abstract
A great deal of legal and policy foundation has been laid for promoting gender mainstreaming in development and, since the 1995 International Women’s Conference in Beijing, there have been serious attempts to implement this strategy at various levels. Plausible as the concept may be, this article contends that the status of women can only be advanced through gender mainstreaming strategies that are adapted to each specific culture, place and political context. Following the African Union’s declaration of 2010-2020 as the African Decade for Women, some critical questions engage the dominant ideas of gender equality and mainstreaming in the continent’s ongoing development initiatives. Should men be integrated into development programming and policies relating to women? How can male integration be made most beneficial to the goal of transformative development in Africa? Highlighting relevant normative and institutional interventions, the article demonstrates how an inclusionary approach to gender mainstreaming for development in Africa resonates in such areas as education, sexual and reproductive health, fatherhood and families, work and economy, conflict resolution and domestic violence.
Highlights
More recent literature is replete with diverse factors to which this state of affairs is attributable: societal discrimination; gender inequalities; women’s unequal access to education, health and other social services; harmful traditional practices including forced marriages; the negative involvement of traditional and community leaders; the economic disempowerment of women; legal pluralism; violence and abuse against women and girls; and denial of access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights.26. It serves no useful purpose revisiting the volumes of cited works. That this is where this article makes its entry point: why is the concept of gender mainstreaming problematic in Africa? What exactly are the connotations of the concept that have rendered it problematic in culture-specific contexts? Should or shouldn’t men be integrated into development programming and policy relating to gender? How can male integration be made most beneficial to the goal of transformative development in Africa? What frameworks and benchmarks would inform such an integrative approach? We turn to examine this barrage of questions in some detail, proceeding from the general to the particular
gender and development” (GAD) approaches are characterised in part by the goal of “gender mainstreaming”, in which gender issues are made an integral part of organisational thinking and practice
There is a moral imperative that men give up their unjust share of power, and men themselves will benefit from advancing towards gender equality in African communities
Summary
Developmental efforts tended to focus on either men or women but seldom on both. For decades, development assistance often took the form of providing technologies, loans and training to men. Starting in the early 1970s, analysts pointed out the need to pay more attention to women as agents of development. The initial focus was to direct more resources to women and, later, focus attention more broadly on gender dynamics and inequalities. The global movement for gender equality itself has undergone a similar shift over the course of time, from an early emphasis on women alone to the recognition of the need to engage men in the process. Starting in the early 1970s, analysts pointed out the need to pay more attention to women as agents of development.. The global movement for gender equality itself has undergone a similar shift over the course of time, from an early emphasis on women alone to the recognition of the need to engage men in the process. In the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, governments expressed their resolve to encourage men to participate fully in actions towards gender mainstreaming. This resolve was made in the follow-up meeting, otherwise known as Beijing+5, in 2000. The role of men and boys has been addressed at other intergovernmental platforms, including the World Summit on Social Development, 1995 and its review session in 2000, as well as the special session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on HIV/AIDS in
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