Sensitizing Nepalese students for gender mainstreaming in sustainable planning and design

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming (GM) is increasingly recognized in architecture and design education. This goes especially for sustainable planning and design, which acknowledges interdependencies of, e.g., SDG 5 Gender equality, SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities. The following chapter presents GM within the curriculum of the Master’s and PhD program “Energy for Sustainable Social Development” (MSSED) at the Institute of Engineering (IOE), Tribhuvan University, Nepal. The program is conducted since 2015 and addresses architect, urban planning, and engineering students. MSESSD was co-developed by IOE and the Department of Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Some of IOE’s GM strategies were adapted from NTNU, while others were specifically designed for the program. The chapter responds to the question of whether the adapted NTNU GM strategies are feasible for IOE/MSSED and what both institutions can learn from each other. Following the introduction, Section “Gender mainstreaming in politics and higher engineering education” of the chapter briefly introduces the background of GM in politics and higher engineering education in Nepal and Norway. An overview of the MSESSD curricula with a special focus on the course “Stakeholder Inclusion: Gender Mainstreaming and Energy Management” is presented in Sections “Gender mainstreaming in sustainable planning and design” and “Results and reflections: Stakeholder inclusion: Gender mainstreaming and energy management (EL3)”. Section “Results and reflections: Stakeholder inclusion: Gender mainstreaming and energy management (EL3)” also discusses results and reflections on GM in the course, illustrated by student works and fieldwork examples in context-specific cultural settings. Section “Summary from integrating GM strategies in design and architecture curriculum and academia and Nepal” appraises the feasibility of NTNU GM approaches for IOE/MSESSD conditions and summarizes findings from integrating GM in a sustainable design and architecture curriculum.