Policy Inaction on Gender Mainstreaming in Infrastructure Projects for Sustainable

Abstract

The study examines the primary individual and organizational drivers of policy-making on women's development in Pakistani infrastructure development projects. There is general consensus that large-scale projects could be planned and carried out to improve the conditions of communities, especially women, as well as to lessen the project's negative consequences. 33 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior Pakistani decision-makers who are active in formulating policy were done for this study. This paper employs McConnell and Hart's (2019) fivefold typology of policy inaction and the results reflect four types of policy responses to gender components in infrastructure projects among our participants: 1) Ideological inaction 2) imposed inaction 3) inadvertent inaction and 4) support for gender policy. Furthermore, mid-career participants with extensive face-to-face interactions with community people in the field showed the highest levels of support for gender policy. Lastly, our research points to the existence of multi-level obstacles to the creation of a national gender policy.