Policy change as one piece of the picture: outcomes among reproductive rights advocates in Peru

Abstract

In the 1990s, feminist movements in Peru began to shift strategies from a focus on community training to an emphasis on policy advocacy. Since then, they have seen many of their demands translated into public policies favoring gender equity and reproductive rights. Some scholars argue that such policy changes have a limited impact on women's daily life in Latin America and it is necessary to conceptualize the outcomes of social movements more broadly to include their cultural and political effects as well as the links between these. Findings are presented from a study of two coalitions engaged in reproductive rights advocacy in Arequipa and Cusco, Peru. The approach for evaluating the materials included participant observation, focus group discussions and individual interviews with coalition members. The study found that coalition members perceive the effects of their advocacy on government policies in terms of five dimensions: coalition–government interactions, issue visibility and recognition, policy enactments, policy implementation, and policy position. I conclude that a broader definition of social movement outcomes is needed to evaluate efficacy and models for future action and that this should take into account the complexities of social and political change, particularly concerning reproductive rights and gender equity.