Potential of gender and development: a practitioner’s perspective
Gender and development practitioners experience successes and challenges, but where might we be heading and how could development and gender equity be integrated in practice?
This video features a case study looking at how two gender and development practitioners are working to integrate development and gender equity as part of both local community and international global development efforts.
In this video, our speakers talk about:
- How elected women doubled in number at the Timor-Leste village level election in 2016 and how a blend of local and international organisations worked in partnership and coalition at multiple levels to enable this change
- The first ever Royal Commission (the highest form of inquiry into a matter of public importance) on family violence conducted in the state of Victoria, Australia in 2016 and the ways in which many organisations and individuals engaged in political advocacy and lobbying to bring about the inquiry.
Challenges for gender and development practice
Compromises and challenges sit alongside successes in gender equity work.
The practitioners in the video identify the immediate appeal, but potential danger, of:
- short term responses
- technical solutions
- expert and one size fits all approaches to problems.
As you watch, notice the practitioners’ critical awareness about their own roles, including how they aim to avoid reproducing systems of inequality, patriarchy and colonialism.
These systems are a legacy from the past and an ongoing context which affects practice in the present.
Your task
Watch the video and reflect on the following:
- What are some characteristics of the approaches used by these practitioners that contributed to their success?
- How was this influenced by who they worked with, where and how?
- Why were their approaches effective or how do you think they could’ve been more effective?
Discuss your ideas with other learners in the comments.
To help enrich and extend the conversation, try using reply to develop threads that respond to others as well as adding your own posts.
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