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GENDER AND , POLICY AND

PRACTICE THROUGH A FEMINIST POSTMûDERN LENS:

A CASE STUDY OF CIDA'S POLICIES ON WOMEN 1995-2000

ELIZABETH ASIEDUA ASANTE

A thesis submitted to the Department of in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of

Arts

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

August, 2000

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The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts kom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenirise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT

This thesis infums the debate about the potential contributions of postmodern feminist thought to theory, policy and practice . Through critical examination of how the Canadian International Development Agency has incorporated strategies and criticisms of the Gender and Development approach in its policies on women, the study illuminates the contributions of postmodern feminisrn as an oppositional discourse. DEDICATION

EBENEZER

Thus far has the Lord brought us.

iii 1 wish to acknowledge with thanks the help 1 have received from many people who, in diverse ways, made it possible for me to write this thesis. My first sincere gratitude is to Professor Roberta Hamilton for her careful and patient supernision of this study. Without her kind support, generosity and constant encouragement throughout my time at this Department, I would not have completed this programme or this thesis. My special thanks also to Professor Ena Dua for her constant support, kindness and for the benefit of her authoritative insights. I wish also to express my deepest gratitude to June Pilfold for her thoughtful kindness and help which 1 cannot ever repay. 1 am also grateful to Professor Bruce Berman, Political Science Department, for suggesting important reading material. My special thanks to the department faculty, especially to each of the professors in whose class 1 sat with my baby. 1 would also like to thank my fellow graduate students in the Department of Sociology, QueenfsUniversity for their sympathy and constant support. To the CIDA staff who took time to partake in interviews, 1 am deeply grateful. My deepest gratitude is to my farnily, co my husband and friend, Prince Yaw Donyina, for always putting my needs above his, and to my mother and sister for their help and prayers. Finally, 1 am grateful to each of the authors listed in the bibliography. Their work was a joy of learning. TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION ...... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... v PREFACE ...... vi INTRODUCTION ...... 1 CHAPTER ONE: of Dsvelopment Theory ...... 21 CHAPTER TWO: Integrating Women into Development ...... 49 CHAPTER THREE:C1DAts Policies on Women and Gender ...... 79 CHAPTER FOUR: Analyais of CIDArs Policies on Women and Gender ...... 94 CHAPTER FIVE: CIDAfs Policies . A Critique ...... 112

CgAPTER SIX : Conclusions ...... 147 =NOTES ...... +...... 161 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 173 APPEM)IX A ...... 188 APPENDIX B ...... 190 APPENDIX C ...... 203 VITA ...... 204 PREFACE

My interest in pursuing this subject stems from my previouç work experience in development assistance and rny fascination with the possibilities that postmodern offers development theory, poiicy and praccice. Tnis nes sis is mainly to contribute to the debate on the relevance of postmodern feminist thought to gender development theorizing. 1 attempt to make this contribution through an empirical analysis of the Canadian International Development Agencyts policy documents and data from interviews with CIDA staff. In analyzing this data, 1 focus on how recent development priorities are reflected in CIDAts recent adoption of gender and approaches. Analyzing transformatory development strategies from the postmodern perspectives of the politics of participation and context, reveals inherent differentiation and power relations that are continually played out in the development arena and in North-South relations. My analysis revealed that power relations that discriminate against women and people in the South are not necessarily only included in the dynamics of gender relations of a country as CIDAts policy indicates. Decisions about the development path the South is to pursue continues to be the prerogative of the North in spite of the adoption of empowerment and participatory approaches to development. 1 Say this because of two main failings in CIDAts policies and strategies on women in the South. The first is that participation continues to be an elusive concept for CIDA. Policy is still dictated from the North in spite of policy rhetoric on participation. The second is that CIDA1s policies do not challenge global cqitalist hierarrkical stxxtrirec cf pmor in which the South is located. In its policy dialogues therefore, CIDA continually fails to successfully address in structural adjustrnent. My analysis shows that feminist postmodern approaches offer possibilities for the theoretical reconceptualization of development. Feminist postmodern approaches to gender and development reveal the political nature of development. Development is revealed to be another major category of social life which is contested and politicised and which has also become a privileged and contested site for questioning and negotiating control of the Southfsdevelopment and North-South relations.

vii INTRODUCTION

In recent years, transformatory paradigms have been adopted by the international development enterprise in which development as an empowerment concept shifts decision-making to the people of the South and development discourses towards North-South partnership. Development assistance agencies targeting women in the South have sought to employ these progressive transformative strategies on women. The emphasis has turned from integrating women into development to identifying and addressing gender-based constraints in key sectors of the economy. Many development assistance agencies have expanded their policy not just to include women but to infuse gender into al1 their programme operations. Such processes of mainstreaming aim to transf orm exis ting development agendas with a gender perspective in which women and men not only become a part of the mainstream, but also actively participate to re-orient the nature of development (Jahan, 1995, 1997; Staudt, 1997, 1998). These gender approaches to womenls development aim to transcend the limitations of previous integrationist policies of Women in Development (WID) programmes where women were added onto programmes without any fundamental change in the general policy or direction of development assistance. Several development assistance agencies have adopted different strategic frameworks to reduce gender inequalities and and bring about transformation.

1 In the 1960s development meant an acceleration of economic growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) or GDP per capita, while the approaches used emphasized acceleration of industrialization and import-substitution of rnanufactured goods and capital equipment (, i999! . The development enterprise at thls tirrie saw the economic role of women only in reproduction, as home-makers, bearers and rearers of children and as housewives. Development policy and strategy targeted men only. It was expected that whatever resulting benefits would trickle down to wornen. In the 1970s pioneering research on womenls role in gave birth to the Women in Development (WID) regime which, translating the findings of these research into development practice, sought to integrate women into the development Stream: In the 1980s it became clear that development, which had been conceptualized as a Western project to modernize post-colonial nations, was not achieving the promised improvements in the lives on the people in the South. Rather the development process was contributing to the growth of poverty, increasing structural and gender inequalities, environment degradation and further intensifying the hardship faced by poor people especially women.- From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, there has been a shift in positions and political priorities in the development business. One reason for this change results from shifting relations between the South and the North due to continued deterioration in global environment, crisis in economic development and deepening structural dislocation of Southern economies. Another is emerging challenges in the relationships between Northern and Southern actors in the development enterprise that prioritize humanitarian and

pcïerty rzdÿctizn cznceyrs, xi! hrcader çccial zîvomontc fcr social justice issues such as , gender and environment. The growing recognition of gender inequality has focused development debate on recognizing womenls voices as a means of integrating social aspects into . This focus has brought empowerment, participation and gender with the needs of the poorest of the poor (women and children) to the forefront of the development debate. The Fourth World Congress on Women, the Beijing Conference in Decepber 1995,

(as well as other United-Nations affiliated conferences), have advocated these new approaches to development. Prior to this conference, at the World Sumrnit for Social Development in Copenhagen in March 1995, world leaders and international development institutions, committing to eradicating poverty through decisive actions, identified strategies to increase incomes, opportunities and the influence of the poor. Among the components identified for successful integrated development strategies were, the specific targeting of the poorest group, including women; the equitable gender access to basic education and health services; reco~itionof specific needs of the South; and participatory poverty reduction strategies. The pro-poor focus in development also shifted attention to gender. This results from a growing recognition of the importance of contextualizing development. Gender relations in the South differ from those of tne North. In the both men and womeri suffer from the effects of economic crisis, though perhaps women more than men. Another seeming shift in discourse is the recognition of subjugated knowledges. The Summit came to the conclusion that much of the inability of programmes to alleviate poverty hinged on the differences in the meanings attached to key concepts such as ttpovertyfl, "poverty alleviation", tldeveloprnenttland "participation" (United Nations, 1999: 5-6). While these terms meant one thing to governments and development agencies, it meant another to the poor and to the development experts and professionals representing the poor in the local community. The Summit recognized that poverty was multifaceted and the purely economic definitions of development in the 1980s were limiting. The means therefore to "understanding the multifaceted nature of poverty is .... to listen to the poor themselves [and to give theml an opportunity to express their experience of povertyU (ibid:6) .

When indigenous knowledges are incorporated through active participation of recipients , the concepts that emerges is clearer and starker than the one espoused by development professionals (who are necessarily at the least one removed from the condition of the people they are assisting)If (ibid) .

Among the ingredients advocated for successful participation in development at the World sumrnit and Beijing conferences was the total participation by the poorest in al1 the key phases of development planning, implementation and reflect the priorities and needs of the poor in their own terms (United Nations, 1999) . The World Summit l s special emphasis on development was, to address the needs of the poorest of the poor and to include them not only among the priority benef iciaries of development programmes, but also as full participants in the twin process of socio- economic development design and delivery and political decision-making, with the potential of makinq a ma j or contribution to the development process (~nitedNations, 1999 : 3) . These new approaches are the result of incorporation of criticisms of scholars and experts mainly from the South (and also from the North) whose findings on the sex-gender systems, socio-economic and historical experiences of the South indicate that it is important to be systematically aware of the complexity of such issues in development planning. These criticisms, increasingly, have come from postmodern perspectives on development which are seen as the next step forward in development theorizing. Debates on the relevance of postmodern feminist thought to gender and development issues, however, continue to dominate academic discussions as the possibilities, strengths and limitations of postmodern feminist approaches are explored by scholars in the humanities and the social sciences. This study explores the possibilities and problematics of postmodern feminist approach to development by examining how the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has incorporated these new development paradigms into its policies on women. Before 1 present an outline of thiç study, however,

it is expedient that 1 elaborate on the feminist postmodern perspectives on development.

POSTMODERNISM AND DEVELOPMENT

Since the end of the cold war, new needs for development assistance in the North, as well as the escalation of development problems in the South, has forced a radical rethinking and reformulation of fomç of knowledge and social identities anchored in and authored by and western domination. This has led to calls for new approaches and ideas for developrnent assistance. Feminist postmodern approaches to development which arose out of these calls clah to provide comprehensive tools in analyzing development . Feminists who are sympathetic to postmodern thinking called for a strategic engagement between feminisrn and postmodern thought in a mer that transcended both perspectives rather than a mere alliance of the two (Marchand and Parpart, 1995) .

Af ter all, though feminism has mainly f ocused on political questions and on philosophical criticisms, both perspectives have sought to develop new paradigms of social criticism that do not rely on traditional philosophical

underpinnings id.) . The encounter between the two is

deemed to provide an arena where difference can be celebrated without sacrificing the search for a broader, richer and

more compirx and muitilayerad fêniinlst solidâritÿ .... i~liiuh is essential for overcoming the oppression of women in its 'endless variety and monotonous similarityf" (Fraser and

Nicholson, 1990 :35) . Postmodemism stems from the longstanding interest in questioning the philosophical implications of the discourses of and sociological implications of theorising in society. It is currently a conglomerate of purposively ambiguous and fluid ideas which encompasses various approaches including discourse analysis, genealogy, deconstructionism and textuality (Marchand and Parpart, 1995) . Postmodernism originated in the criticisms of modern art and architecture, and in the philosophical attack on assumptions of Enlightenment thinking' and modernity in the 1970s by pos t - structuralists such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Delueze, Jacques Derrida, Baudrillard, as well as the economic theories of post- developed by sociologists such as

Daniel Bell and Alain Touraine (ibid.) . These diverse ideas, brought together under the tem fpostmodernismr by Jean- Francois Lyotard (1984) in his book The Postmodern Condition, questions basic assumptions about universal knowledge. Postmodernism challenges Enlightenment thinkinghodernity and therefore the belief that rational thought and technological innovation can lead to and enlightenment of society. Consequently it questions the ability of Western thinkers to understand the world or to arescribe solutions for it.

Postmodernism maintains Il an incredulity towards metanarrativesM or universal theories to understand reality (Lyotard, 1984: xxiii-iv, 5) . Foucault was one of the pioneers of the postmodern strategy of employing counter-hegemonic discourses that offer alternative explanations of reality, to challenge the power of hegemonic knowledge. In his work on power, Foucault questioned the adequacies of metanarratives. Foucault linked power and knowledge production and advocated the importance of examining the specificitieç of power and its relation to knowledge and language which he called discourse.' Claims to formulate scientific truths is no more than the production of power knowledge regimes which operate at both micro and macro levels. According to Foucault, what was problematic about discourses of Western societies was that the centres of truth and the centres of power were identical. Western institutions and the discourses they produced have claimed the 'truthl about development and hence have wielded the power to fundamentally reshape reality globally in the economic interests of the North (Foucault, 1980; Braidotti et al, 1994) . Images of modernity and Western values have permeated al1 corners of the globe with the help of Western media, but continuing environmental and economic crises made it clear that this development pattern was neither possible nor desirable for everyone. Foucault proposed the recognition of multiple centres of truth as opposed to the belief in its central and unique location as a necessary premise to the political process of resisting the hegemony of western knowledge (ibid.). Foucault conçequently defined truth as no more than a "partial, localized version of reality trançformed into a fixed form in the long process of historym (Marchand and Parpart, 1995:3} .

Derrida's writings also emphasised the important role of textuality in understanding social reality. He saw social life as a tissue of text (Derrida, 1976). Derrida argued that Western philosophy depended a great deal on binary thinking, in the construction of binary opposites "such as truth/false, unity/ diversity, man/woman whereby the first term dependç on the definition of its opposite (other) and whereby the first term was also superior to the second1' (Marchand and Parpart,

1995:3). This contributes to the construction of the 'othert in opposition to one's own perceived strengths. Derrida recommended the deconstruction of text. Postmodernisrn challenges the epistemological and ontological discourses of modernity in general including the hegemonic dualisms such as the centrality of western binarism.

9 Using Foucaultls concept of power, Escobar illustrated how the West has in many ways been able to control and even create the Third World politically, economically, sociologically and cuïturaily by placing develop~ent into discourse (Escobar, 1984) . Development discourse was conceived in the aftermath of the Second with the aim of providing an alternative to communism for the decolonizing countries of the South (Braidotti et al, 1994).

The tripartite post-war order was based on the construction of

"the , the modern, l developedl l self l, that is the capitalist West, in opposition to the lotherl,...ll(ibid:20) .

The Second World was the socialist East which was subsecpently left out of the developrnent discourse altogether as the 'underdevelopedt South, the residual category with its large variety, was subsumed under the unitary category Third Worldf. The line of differentiation fox the Third World then became the political alliance to either the capitalist West or socialist East as development models. This categorization is argued to be a political move which set up ideological opposition between capitalism and çocialism as two different roads to progress (ibid). By positing development as a linear progress, development practice became the instrument to organize the post-colonial Ibackward societies. This discourse, in essence, devalued non-Western systems of knowledge, cultures and social arrangements. Third World capitalist elites, educated and trained in Western patterns of political and economic thinking, become prime movers of Western-style economic development which they perceived as necessary for progress in their own countries (ibid.). While feminist postmodern theorists do not posit these theories as a universal panacea, they draw on them to put together a conceptual reformulation of development theorizing.

The postmodern approach re j ects claims to knowledge or particular forms of rationality that invalidates al1 other forms of knowledge. Language or discourse analysis from the perspectives of subjugated vernacular knowledges of local people is employed as part of political resistance to hegemonic knowledges and practices. For postmodern feminist theorists, discourse becornes the site where meaning is created, contested and power relations determined; "the ability to control knowledge and meaning, not only through writing but also through disciplinary and professional institutions and in social relations, is the key to understanding and exercising power in societyu (ibid.:3).This has proved usef ul in redef ining development discourses and policy priorities but as my analysis later shows, it does not guarantee the end of hegernonic practices. Related to the interrogation of knowledge production is the postmodern distruçt of the subject especially modernist subjectivity. Foucault refused to take for granted the idea of an autonomous and sovereign l subj ect ' . In his work on historical transformation, he viewed the subject as the product of discursive and power relations (McHoul and Grace, 1993). Drawing on this idea, postmodern theorists primarily maintain that since no individuals can comprehend Itrutht, there is the need to search for previously silenced voices. This analysis of subject groduction is also emoloyed to encouraged the recognition of the contingent nature of the subject in the construction of social meaning. Postmodern theorists argue that the tselftis not a merely a reflection of experience. Rather it is constituted in complex social and historical circumstance which need to be analyzed to understand what 'realityl is. This conceptualization iç deemed more fniitful because the individual subjects experience and understand their own social reality within a discursive and material context, and indeed "no subject is its own point of departurev (Butler, 1992:9). A distrust of the subjectts ability to know does not deny agency, rather this more nuanced approach to the subject is a method of I1interrogating its constructions as a pre-given or f oundationalist premisetf(ibid. ) . These concepts have also generated the postmodern interest in the importance of 'differencetin the construction of social identity and in the contextualization of analysis in order to understand the social reality of people. Postmodern feminists offer new ways of conceptualizing these categories which order social life. These theorists argue that social categorieç such as Iwoman' and 'Third Worldl are neither homogeneous nor undifferentiated concepts. They are also not biological givens. These categories are completely socially constructed (Nicholson and Seidman 1998) . Postmodern theorists therefore conceptualizes these categories of analysis as historically emergent rather than naturally given, as multivalent rather than unified, and as the result of struggles for power and the present instrument in the struggle of power (ibid.) .

Postmodern feminists maintain that essentializing categories is polematic and therefore problematic. The tendency to naturalize or universalize these social categories leads to the failure to see important differences within each.

Thus essentializing the category Iwoman1, for example, makes it difficult to analyze and plan for the multiple reality of women in development programmes. Grouping people and ideas in essentializing ways, marginalizes non-identical concerns.' Deconstruction, by locating them in history, institutions and social processes is the method employed by the postmodern approach to adequately analyze key social categories without naturalizing or essentializing them. This is an important tool which transcends the standpoint limitation because, primarily, it enables the analysis of differences within and among categories of woman or Third World. Secondly, it is able to account for contextual difference as well as the effect of change and social processes on human action (Nicholson and Seidman, 1998). Women have multiple aspects to their lives including nationality, ethnicity, gender, family, social class, caste, marital status and levels of education

(Chhachhi and Pittin, 1996)). Historically, al1 these areas have been sites for the construction and reconstruction of subordination, conflicts, activisrn and political struggles (Johnson et al., 1997). Women have historically, selectively activated these multiple identities in the fight for recognition. The salience of contextualization is that social reality of women or people in developing countries Vary with situational and political factors. Conceptualizing social categories as multiple, fluid and interlocking enables policy planners to understand and plan for the complex articulation that surround the social category which they are dealing with. These theorists maintain that because specific socio- economic, historic and political situations influence and define the social realities of people, in development theorizing, therefore, it is also limiting to extrapolate concepts from one culture to the other without first recognizing the limitations of its applicability. This is evident in the feminist postmodern writings and criticisms of development theory, policy and practice. By such conceptual and theoretical refomlation of social categories, postmodern theorists hope to continually expose sites of conflict and alliance difference, inequalities, oppression, and social injustice (Nicholson and Seidman 1998). While feminists of differing persuasions have been seduced by postmodern concepts, they have generated in others severe criticisms.' The apparent obsession with Idifference', the recognition of alternative and previously silenced voices and acceptance of the partial nature of al1 knowledoe claims has led to concerns about the ability to maintain a unif ied feminist political project. Critics of postmodern ideas have called into question the very idea of postmodern politics. They argue that a theoretical perspective that rejects a concept of the 'self' as unif ied or as a coherent identity, surrenders any basis for political mobilization (Nicholson and Seidman, 1998) . But, as I will argue later in this thesis, difference could actually constitute the fulcrum for a more effective coalitionally based activism that is a broader, varied, complex and multilayered reflection of what a global feminist solidarity should in reality be. In spite of the efforts by Western development assistance - agencies,' the South continues to experience an escalation of poverty. Postmodern feminist theorists blame the lack of success in the development enterprise to modernization discourses embedded in development theories, policies and practices. They believe that liberal and Marxist development frameworks fail because of their embeddedness in modernization or Enlightenment thought. The development theory, whether drawing on liberal or Marxist perspectives is mainly embedded in Enlightenment thought (Marchand and Parpart, 1995) . Development is perceived as a unilinear path where people in the South adopted the Western political and economic systems. Even Marxists, while pointing out the unequal development of capitalism, rarely challenged the notion that development was

and rnodernization (Marchand and Parpart; 1995).' Postmodern feminist writings on development challenge this assumption. Postmodern feminist theorists do recognize the contributions made by liberal and Marxist perspectives in the different development regimes. Their criticisms notwithstanding, postmodern theorists claim to want to build on these contributions by transcending their limitations. Their dialoguing and contesting of language (knowledge production), is meant to create discursive spaces for the production of knowledge for development theories, policy and practice. Such production of knowledge because it exposes the limitations inherent in their assumptions is a means to resist hegemonic assumptions of universal ideals and dualisms of rnodernization and Enlightenment thinking. It calls attention to the power of representation and the agency of people both in the South and North in the development process. Feminiçt postmodern theorists therefore daim to have much to offer that transcends the impasse in development theory and development crisis in the South. The attack on Western hegemonic discourses, the acceptance of subjugated knowledge, the attention to the relationship between language and power provide deeper insight about the terrain which is being contested. These insights may help find alternative and appropriate strategic policies that speak to the interests and needs of the people to whom these policies are directed. Postmodern feminist theorists also explore as well as challenge the possibility that a critical and flexible adoption of postrnodern concepts could provide the baçis of a more sensitive and transfomative approach to gender and development and provide tools to dismantle patriarchal gender ideologies in the South and in the North. As a result, they not only employ postmodern concepts in their analysis, they also take issue with these concepts. Postmodern theorizing is, therefore, able to re-examine established orthodoxies and keep an open mind towards new ideas that continually foster debate and dialogue. This thesis aims to contribute to this debate in an empirically informed marner, by examining how these progressive ideas are being incorporated into development practice. There are two main reasons for this examination. One reason is to see whether these attempts result in transformation and changes in development or whether they leave existing practices unchanged. The other reaçon is to address the major concern about feminist postmodern theorizing on gender and development. Critics of postmodern ideas have called into question the very idea of feminist postmodern politics, arguing that a theoretical perspective that is obsessed with Idifference' and rejects a concept of the 'selff as unified or as a coherent identity, surrenders any basis for political mobilization (Marchand and Parpart, 1995; Nicholson and Seidman, 1998). This thesis will employ the conclusions from its analysis to address this question. These conclusions will be based upon an analysis of policy documents and practices of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and will confine itself to its current 1995 and 1999 development policies and strategies targeting women in the South. CIDA is Canada's federal development agency through which Canada seeks to alleviate poverty in the South. CIDA has been at the forefront among donors in initiating major programmes on women and gender.

CIDA was among the few bilateral donors to adopt detailed

Women in Development (WID) and then Gender and Development (GAD) approaches and policies. Given its participatory and gender orientation, CIDA is an excellent choice to illuminate the possibilities and problems associated with such discourses and practices . I propose an evaluation of development theory and policies on women by: a. reviewing developrnent theories and regimes, and by analyzing the 1995 CIDA1s Policy on Women in Development and

Gender Equity, and the 1999 CIDA1s Policy on Gender and mali ty, b. applying postmodern concepts or perspectives to examine how CIDA has incorporated recent criticism in these two policies. c. and using these assessments to evaluate the epistemological and ontological limitations and strengths of a postmodern feminism and its usefulness to gender and development.

Certain hypotheses are also explored to question assumptions and designs of the dominant development paradigm targeting women in the South. I will argue in this thesis that changes in woments (and the South's) experience of marginalization and oppression is located in specific relationships generated by global economic and political institutions operating in project countries and that these specific fonns of power relations and contexts are not adequately addressed. 1 will also argue that the nature of econornic remedies and intrusion in the lives of women by international aid agencies and NGOs is often political and relates to the historical -political antecedences of North- South relations. Chapter One begins with a historical analysis of the role of social theory in development regimes. The chapter is also intended to bring out the development 'contextt within which the South is situated. Chapter Two gives a history of how women have been integrated into development theory, policy and practice. Chapter Three introduces CIDA and its engagement with women. This chapter also presents the two policies which are the focus of =alysis. Chapter Four and Chapter Five both analyze CIDA'S recent policies and strategies (1995 and 1999) on women. Chapter Four examines how recent approaches to development have been incorporated into these two policies, while Chapter Five empirically interprets the findings of the analysis of the previous chapter through a postmodern lens.

Chapter Six presents conclusions. Here, the main criticism against feminist postmodern theorizing on development, that is, its ability to offer political unity, will be addressed.

This atternpt to contribute to the fluid dialogue on postmodern feminist theorizing is not making any claims of a comprehensive nature. Indeed it would require more intensive research than the space and time an M.A. thesis allows. In many ways development policies and strategies have become the context in international political economy within which Third World nations re-negotiate their identities and regain access to social, economic and political resources of a global society in which they are marginalized. 1 hope that by illuminating issues central to the lives of women of the South, this thesis would help clarify perspectives and enable policy plamers, and activists to see more clearly what issues to re-address. CHAPTER ONE

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Borrowing from the postmodern of gynealogizing,

1 will, in the next two chapters, review and analyze in chronological order, the debates so far in development theories and regimes in an effort to reveal why postmodern theorists clah they have substantive contributions to make.

1 will especially consider debates from the 1970's to date.'

Role of Social Theories in Development Practice

Social theory has had a definite role in generating, preventing or sustaining , by claiming to provide adequate explanation of the character of poverty and in proposing remedies for eliminating or containing the problem. Development theory itself was originally just theory about the best way for colonial and then ex-colonial States to accelerate national economic growth in an international capitalist system. Indeed, according to Leys (1996), the term development theoryt emerged in the 1950s to deal with the specific problem of how the economies of the colonies of

Britain, France, Portugal and other European powers Ynight be transformed and made more productive as decolonization approached, in te context of the still semi-colonial condition of Latin Arnerica ...Il (ibid:5). Leys argues that the post-war theorists and theories of development were influenced and contaminated by three main important considerations: by the fact that the new nations, for whom these theories were being generated, were also considered prime stakes in the Cold War; by the very preactical aim to incorporate the economies of these post-colonial states into the international capitalist system and finally by the intrusion of nation states who saw fit to arrange the conditions attached to capital flowing outside its borders in such a way as to benefit and secure the interests of domestic economies and interests. That is not to suggest that academic theorists drawn to the field may not have had sincere commitment to intervention. These contaminations, however, militated against any attempt to be truly sincere . It is noteworthy also that 'sincere commitmentt itself often militates against philosophical dispassion and reflective self-criticism. Not surprisingly theref ore, up until recently the dominant theories of development have been produced by people of the North such as Truman, Rostow and Perroux who generally did not locate these theories in the historically orientated and ethical tradition of general development theory founded by early theorists of rising capitalism such as Hegel and Marx (Leys, 1996) . Since the 1970s, many development regimes have arisen in response to the predominant theories of development in the social sciences. Development theory generated from within international institutions such as the UNDP, , the IMF and the like, which are generally creations of Western countries, borrowed from these early and mainly tended to be ahistorical, unself-critical and politically partisan in nature (Rist, 1997). The neo-liberal policies of the World Bank/IMF, blueprints of orthodox theories of the sociology of developrnent and , (including modernization, diffusion/evolution and neo-classical theories) al1 saw the future of developing countries as the present West

(Roxborough 1979 ; Sparr , 1993 ; Marchand and Parpart, 19% ; Preston, 1996; Leys, 1996; Cooper and Packard, 1997) . The policies of the IMF/World Bank in particular have been embedded in the dominant development discourse of modernization. Modernization theories of development are themselves extensions and derivatives of the market discourse on markets because they are based on the same premise of f reedom and individualism of market discourses, and on the goal to turn Third World economies into capitalist market economies (Crush, 1995; Chowdhry, 1995 ; Pieterse, 1991) . Modernization theories of development were based on the much criticised distinction between modern and traditional. Neo- evolutionary and diffuçio~ist theories shared common ideas with modernization thecries. They saw the world as evolving Erorn traditional societies into modern societies. These theories, which have their origins in Parsonian functionalism, Spencer, Eisenstad and ~evy" and in orthodox development economics, generally proposed that the Third World could, with a little diffusion of capital, aid, values and , develop along similar lines as the West. Their claims of not adopting a unilinear dogma of nineteenth century evolutionism can be safely ignored as they strongly advocated the capitalist path to development through plural as the best and most efficient strategy. These theories are rooted in social darwinism and as an ideology, therefore, considers wealth as de facto evidence of evolutionary superiority and

poverty as proof of evolutionary inferiority. The limitations of these theories are almost .. innumerable.'- But among the most basic weaknesses are, primarily, the fallacious assumption that societies in the South have the same social structures and go through the same development cycle as the West. Secondly, these theories

tended to be ahistorical. There was the tendency to see underdevelopment as taking place in a vacuum. They were quite blind to the exploitative role of pre-colonial contact (and for some countries the disruptions of 400 years of slavery), mercantile and colonization in eçtablishing the present structures of disarticulation in these countries. In sum, orthodox and neo-orthodox theories are based on false premises and this predicates ab initio their social irrelevance for explaining and proposing solutions to underdevelopment in the South. The exacerbation of crisis in Third World economies especially in the 1980s were unmistakable evidence of the failure of these theories to provide realistic explanation and solutions to development problems of the South. The I~F/~orld Bank neo-liberal policies were the main development strategies operating in Third World nations at this tirne. -7-- Until the crisis in the 1980s, the main programmes of the IMF/World Bank had included anti-poverty campaigns, growth-oriented programmes especially infrastructure development and balance of payment stabilization programmes. With the deepening of the crisis, and to silence calls for cancelling of debts strangling Third World nations, the two institutions joined roles and developed the Programme (SAP) also known as the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP). This programme required intervention in the economic development of debt-ridden nations through injection of aid by the Bank and maintenance of financial discipline of borrowing countries by the Fund. The programme, ostensibly to enable debt-ridden Third World economies to overcome their interna1 and external disequilibrium, effectively ensured that transnational capital, working through the IMF/World Bank, was able to secure repayment of Third World debts. The theoretical assumptions underlying neo-liberal policies and strategies enable an appreciation of the rationale for adopting these reforms or conditionalities. The economic principles and theories from which the IMF and World Bank based their policies are a combination of classical, Keynesian, neo-classical and monetary economic theories. In sociological tems they were neo-liberal, diffusionist and evolutionist theories. These two institutions saw the problem facing countries of the South as internai. Third World nations needed an infusion of foreign capital to develop. Indeed when th IMF and the Bank had their raison dletre, the insufficient supply of foreign capital was identified as the main reason for the chronic deficit in Third World economies. The World Bank was consequently established to promote foreign investment by means of guarantees or participation in loanç and other investments made by private investors; and when private capital was not available on reasonable terms, to supplement private investment by providing finance for production purposes out of its own capital fundç raised by it and other resources.

The Bank was, therefore, to commence a period of immense improvement of investment capital throughout the world . 1 t was to become a lender of last resort and its investments would be to expand the sphere of private capital. To achieve this aim, preconditions for structural adjustment loans were developed to bridge the gap between potential borrowers and investors. These preconditions included devaluation, controlling trade balances and liberalising exchange restrictions. This was the special duty of the IMF - to ensure that transnational corporations could easily export directly into and out of recipient countries without facing restrictive import licences and profit repatriation laws. Thus, for example, where a country had closed its economy, either to diversify or to protect its indigenous manufacturing or external trading, the IMF facilitates its re-absorption into the circuit of financial capital by demanding the removal of restrictive barriers, while the Bank acts as a safe pilot to guarantee f oreign capital.'' The IM~/WorldBank analysis of the development crisis was based on the belief that Third World nations were simply living beyond their means. In other words, domestic consumption and expenditure was higher than domestic production. The solution, therefore, was to increase domestic income and revenue mainly through increased export and reduce domestic consumption through cutting government spending. The policy would also release the needed resources to enable the affected nations to meet their debt obligation. The SAP measures and their effects are well documented. Only a brief discussion here is needed to bring out the point of this analysis. These packages of essential reforms were to realign the debt-ridden stagnating economies. The SAP conditionalities included abolishing al1 state-imposed price controls to regulate inflation and devaluing the currency of the recipient country. The rationale for devaluation was to make the country's exports more cornpetitive on the international markets. And since devaluation discouraged imports (because of higher import prices), resources would be 1 saved. The combined anticipated effect was that the country would be able to resolve its balance of payment problems by meeting its debt burden. In reality, the results of devaluation were that exports were underpriced while the ability to import needed machinery for production (in economies which relied heavily on machinery for production from abroad) was severely diminished. Now this was disastrous for Southern economies who had now been made, by the same IMF/World Bank, to rely on production and export of cash crops.'' Government expenditure reduction was also applied indiscriminately in al1 economies. This came with removal of state subsidies, job redundancies and privatisation of public enterprises to remove the onerous burden from the over-inflated state apparatus. The wage caps and resulting lower wages and higher profits from the lower cost of labour were meant to increase the investment potential of the economy. It was clear soon enough that it was not the people or the state who benefitted but the foreign transnational corporations who bought these public enterprises and who inherited such cheap labour.i' The reduced government expenditure especially in social spending and the elimination of fuel, food and other consumption subsidy brought untold suf fering to women, children and f amilies raising international uproar against the effects of these inhuman conditionalities. This uproar led to the of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment which was no more than an attempt by the IMF/World Bank to do some damage control. The exact successes of this programme remains ambiguous (Havnevik, 1989) . In alone, at least 36 countries experienced the effects of the SAP of the IMF/World in the 1980s. These neo- liberal policies, ostensibly to enable debt-ridden Third World economies overcorne their interna1 and external disequilibrium, have only escalated poverty among these nations, further

-. disernpowering them in the international political economy . -' The IMF/World Bank continue to be the main development agencies in the South. Even though orthodox and neo-liberal theories have few academic supporters today, their blueprint of theories and solutions continue to dominate development regimes and economies of developing countries. Marxist approaches to development mainly replaced neo- liberal theories providing the discipline with some concepts and tenets to explain underdevelopment. Marxist theoristst rejection of orthodox and neo-liberal policies and theories was based on the hypothesis that development and underdevelopment are partial interdependent structures of one global system (Foster-Carter, 1974). International capital was benefitting from underdevelopment of the South and actually perpetrating it. They also pointed out that the West and Third World follow different development paths and any serious analysis should take into account the historical context in which they operate. Arnong the major criticisms levelled, in turn, at the ~arxistschool is the fact that the empirical evidence offered in support of these hypotheses and theories have been scanty, obscure and causal (de Kadt & Williams, 1974; Mouzelis, 1988) . Early Marxists failed to carry through a historically oriented comparative investigation of development trajectories. The result was that they were unable to explain the diversity of development tra j ectories that are classified as Third World and resorted to finding general overarching fonnulae that provided a universal explanation of how capitalism developed in the Third World as a whole (Mouzelis, 1988). Mouzelis maintains that early attempts to spell out different mechanisms creating underdevelopment or dependent development such as unequal exchange, technology transfers, unfavourable terms of trade, the nature of multinational investment , the mode and insertion into global economy or the nature of the state, indigenous capital and classes to mention a few, could perhaps have explained the differences in Third World trajectories and the application of those generalizations . Some neo-Marxists such as Franz Fanon, Samil Amin and Gunder Frank have attempted to do this, presenting a detailed historical analysis of underdevelopment. The tendency still, however, was to generalize their analysis to al1 Third World countries, thus, limiting the ability to explain why some countriest engagement with capitalism led to development while othersf catapulted them further into poverty. Neo-Marxist theorists do present powerful historical analysis of development, but this tendency to apply their explanations to al1 contexts is limiting. Pos tmodern theorists applaud their historical analysis, but advocate the need to contextualize these analysis. 1 will here employ these neo-Marxist historical explanations by locatina them in specific contexts to illustrate briefly how an explanation of the diverse trajectories may be attempted. The focus here will not be to explain al1 development trajectories, but to explain why Africa in particular, lags behind other regions of the South even though they al1 had impediments to their development in the form of . The history, timing and mode of insertion of Third World countries into the global capitalist system largely explains the diversity of development that exists today. For sub- Saharan Af rican countries , the central role of slavery , colonialism and the subordinate role in the new international division of labour are important historical accounts that need to be analyzed in any such attempt to comprehend their development pattern. Up to the seventeenth century under mercantile imperialism, Africa was not generally inferior to the rest of the world (Wight et al, 1929; Amin, 1981) . Transitional conjunctures produced by the Euro-American slave trade, colonialism and post colonialism intensified and transf ormed periodic ' innate crisis l and laid the basic structural foundation for the systematic underdevelopment of the continent (Rodney, 1972). This 'innate or inherent crisisf in the economies of African state were a feature of most parts of the international capitalist system (Davidson 1974) . The scenario for Africa before the nineteenth century was generally applicable to most ore-caoitalist societies. Prooress through growth rather than development was more typical of the slow development of productive forces under pre-capitalist social formations . Latent institutional breakdowns or 'innate crisis' corresponded to periods of transition from one mode of production or one social formation to another as, for example, from feudal to petty-cornmodity mode of production in Europe. In ocher words, as the economy moved from one mode of production to the other, there was a slow-down of growth for a brief period as the economy adjusted to these dynamics of change. The breaking of growth, through its institutional constraints, was the change in the superstructure concomitant with the transition from one mode of production to another (as from feudalism to petty-comodity in the latter part of the pre - capitalist epoch) . In varying degrees , as economic his tory reveal s , these dif f erent phases or innate crisis ' could be identified in the history of al1 industrialised countries (Knight et al, 1929). Societies have transcended this 'inherent crisis1 over time through their own interna1 dynamics, but on an important condition - that their transition was not blocked by external forces. For example, for the West, after such debacles as autocratie monarchies, interstate warfare, revolutions, American civil war and the Tokugawa restoration in , to mention a few, these regions liquidated underdevelopment and experienced uninhibited growth. Third World countries however continued to remain

trapped in these 'crisis' periods because of external inhibitions to their growth. The fundamental non-unilinearity of historical experiences between industrialised and underdeveloped countries, between the North and South lies in the crucial role of imperialism and the consequent present subordinate role in the global capitalist system. The effects of these

are well documented (de Kadtç & Williams, 1974; Leys, 1996; Rists, 1997). For Africa, the situation was confounded by the role of slavery. The effects of this annihilation of productive capacitieç through intergenerational destruction of human and material productive forces and the destabilizing effects of slave raids on these societies al1 worked to stultify technological development, intensifying the contradictions of the 'initial crisis' (Durand 1967). Slave trade, on the other hand, provided an important part of primitive capitalist accumulation for North America and Europe for the launching of their industrial and agricultural revolutions from the mid-eighteenth century, supplying in essence, the material preconditions of the accumulation and concentration of money capital for the transition from feudal and petty-commodity producing social formations to industrial capitalism (Williams 1972). For example, Alexander and David Barclay used their slave profits ta establish a financial conglomerate including the now transnational Barclays Bank Investment Group, while the Great Western Railway in Britain, was built with slave profits from Bristol Slave Merchants. Bridges, roads, rail and other such important infrastructure were built mainly with slave labour. In these different ways, while slavery accelerated any inherent crisis of disintegration in African economies at that crucial time in history, by destroying traditional technology through forced export of its practitioners, it also greatly retarded primitive by destroying al1 foms of capital, inhibiting any attempts at additional accumulation over four centuries of human exploitation. The significance therefore of this dominant external constraint on

Africa was that it forestalled and delayed the global diffusion of the to the continent. Comparing economies thus affected to industrialised countries reveal that the latter were free from the effects of such external constraints at that crucial era. For example, the USA, a former British colony gained independence in 1798 before the crucial mid-nineteenth century when began to spread around the world." Japan, far from being colonised, exploited colonies in parts of , Korea and the pacific islands for her early industrialisation. China, partly colonised by Japan, needed a socialist revolution to texminate the abuses of underdevelopment. South-East Asia ( , Pakistan, ) and Africa were under colonial rule up until the mid-twentieth century while post-colonial Latin America, from the 1830s was virtually a USA neo-colony. During this crucial phase of industrialization colonies were kept under primary production and technology was severely restricted to the extraction of basic raw material from the mining industries and for the production of cash crops for export. Basic infrastructure such as roads, rail, were limited to links between harbours and ports of export and areas of mining, timber, coffee and cocoa plantations mainly serving the needs of the colonial settlers and home countries. What about the present day divergent development trajectories then? How do we explain the development that is taking place in East Asia and not in Sub-Saharan Africa in spite of external constraints? East Asian, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin American countries have al1 been subject to some fom of external constraint. Yet it is obvious that the South is dif ferentiated by diverse developmental profiles. While some have moved to the semi- periphery, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have mainly experienced stagnation. East Asia has out-distanced the rest of the Third World in terms of gross domestic product per capita, export content and industrial sophistry of exports . Latin America ranks next, with South Asia and Africa far below. Social indicators of development also match the economic development pattern. Sub-Saharan African countries, followed by South Asia, have the highest fertility, infant mortality, adult illiteracy and lowest life expectancies in the world (Gereffi and Fonda, 1991). Deconstruction by locating these differences in specific socio-economic, political, historic and geographical contexts and processes produces some explanations. 1 will illustrate very briefly here. Differences in the timing and manner in which international capital articulates with specific socio- political structures and groups within the Third World reveals the importance of the role of the post-colonial state and local structures in aiding or hindering development .

Dif f erences in development tra j ectories rnay also be attributed to the ef fects of multinational investment in different regions, the effects of and the type of relationship the state establishes with indigenous and international capital (Mouzelis, 1988). The character and ability of the post-colonial state in negotiating and intervening to transf orm and ensure a more egali tarian distribution of resources or in retaining existing structures and intensifying thereby the colonial type of domination and exploitation, becomes an important factor for analysis. Having said that it is important to bear in mind that no capitalist development outside of the sphere or orbit of the global capitalist system has emerged to date (in modern times) , while capitalist development in both the South and North has always been characterized by inequalities, dependencies and disarticulations. In other words, no single underdeveloped country operating under bourgeois social theory has achieved successful transformation.'' The recent crisis in South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, demonstrates that the tiger economies of East Asia are no exception. East Asia and Latin America have seen the influx of Western transnational corporations from the middle of the twentieth century following the failure of the import- substitution industrialisation. Multinational investment, however, was accompanied by balance of trade problems and growing socio-economic inequalities." Even here there are differences. Whereas East Asia countries, with the notable exception of the , appeared to pay back their debts witbout visible trauma, Latin American countries have seen harrowing social declension in their attempts to do this (George, 1988). Some countries notably South Korea appeared to have managed multinational and indigenous investments in such a manner as to have achieved a more balanced development trajectory. South Korea has experienced a more rapid growth in favour of the masses and a lesser degree of marginalization than is found in Latin America. When countries in East and South Asia and Latin America began import-substitution industrialization, sub-Saharan Africa was still actively involved in the export of cash crops to the industrialising countries (Szereszewski, 1965). Even during the inter-war period Africa was still unable to ir.dustrialize because her economy was under colonial extractive domination. Compulsory cash crop production led to a systematic neglect of domestic food production. Minerals were being extracted for export to meet the production requirement of the colonial empires. Manufacturing activities were eliminated as the raw materials were shipped off to Europe and replaced with imported manufactured goods. Thus the backward and fomard linkages that agriculture and primary production should have established with the secondas. sector were entirely destroyed. Between the 1950s and 1960s while Latin Amarica and East Asia were moving from import- substitution to foreign-led industrialization or multi- national investments, African countries were fighting to be rid of colonial rule. The development criçis in Africa is a composite of underdevelopment and cyclical fluctuation. It is a result of the perpetration of inherited structural disarticulation from before colonial times, and the effects of external factors such as worsening terms of trade and recession of the global capitalist system. As argued above, unlike the West, sub- Saharan and most of Africa was not given the opportunity to modernize agriculture, a strategy that would have created the basic and necessary linkage for the development of the secondary sector and thereby increased its capacity to absorb excess labour released from agriculture. With reçu1 t ing f rom prevent ive health care, the burden on inadequate productive resources was enormous. Given the structural nature of dislocation, any genuine attempt by domestic and international asencies to assist development in Africa (and most of the South for that matter) should have sought the transformation of the basic structures of disarticulation. However, policies of domestic, bilateral and rnultilateral institutions have perpetrated the same basic relationship of domination and exploitative production in the post-colonial state, accentuating structural distortions, external dependence, low productivity, technological backwardness and mass irnpovorishrnent. This trend makes it important to look at the nature of the post-colonial state and the role of interna1 actors in any attempt to understand the present crisis. At independence, the nationalist coalitions comprised a petty-bourgeois class of politicians, intellectuals, professionals and traders and the masses comprising of workers and peasants (Wallerstein, 1976; Ninsin, 1989; Cohen & Daniel,

1981; Davidson 1976) .'" The export economy was well established and certain classes had interest in maintaining and expanding it. The state at that early stage was not the classic class construct but a situation of society divided into classes, symbolizing the unity of social formations and providing the ideological cement for the continuance of a capitalist system. As a result freedom from colonial exploitation did not resolve class contradictions and class

struggles that were muted under the unified fight for independence. After independence, these interests developed rapidly. In most post-colonial ca~italistAfrican countries, various factions forged alliances to control the state. In most cases, these alliances developed into one-party States, which were coalitions of the tpetty-bourgeois'consisting of civilians, nilitary and some members of the working class, to suppress class opposition. These local power alliances then formed external alliances with different rival world powerç as was seen in the case of Nigeria and Kenya. Shifting alliances with the West constituted the crisis in hegemony which the West termed [Political Instability in Africa' (Ninsin et al., 1989) . As 1 have argued elsewhere, international development agencies such as the IMF/World Bank have been found to be directly associated with the rise and fa11 of governments in Af rica..'' In transitional socialis t formations such as Tanzania, the petty-bourgeoisie constituted the Vanguard party linking up with the working class and peasants to share power, and build socialism. This IAfrican Socialisml and power sharing were, in most cases, mere rhetoric. Socialism in Tanzania was not an attempt to break away from capitalism. Nationalism served as a vehicle to solidify class alliance and the collectivization helped to concentrate state power and

decision-making in the hands of the ruling class. 1 find the Mozambican experience of 'scientific socialisml under FRELIMO, a stronger commitment to economic transformation and equalitarian distribution of resources (Mozambique did make efforts at agrarian reforms). I would root the failure of the socialist path to development attempted in these two African countries to the global capitalist context within which they were situated, as well as pressures from global capitalist system seen in the destabilizing war waged by South African

supported and equipped RENAMO. This does not eliminate policy mistakes of the regimes themselves. In the transitional capitalist formations, factions of this petty-bourgeois class with the support of the military, some sections of academics and professional, promoted orthodox economic policies mainly to entrench themselves and for economic gain. These policy actions failed to generate appropriate policies to transform the structural dislocation of the economy because they were basically exploitative. Many African leaders adopting liberal policies, failed to modernise agriculture . The rush towards import-substitution industrialisation accentuated the weak linkages between agriculture and industry, inhibiting the capacity of the secondary sector to absorb labour and overinflating the state bureaucracy and service sector. Those leaders who attempted any structural transformation such as Kwame Nkrumahrs attempt to negotiate the terms of trade for cocoa and the socialist ~ozambicangovernment's agrarian reforms were hounded out of power with the help of Western capitalist governments.--7 - In sum, class interest, policy rnistakes in the form of imported modernisation theories, with their extortion of the values and virtues of the so called modern sector that encouraged official policy towards urbanisation and industrialisation, and the systematic neglect of the rural economy resulted in the recurrent agrarian crisis and the collapse of the economy. These have ensured the continuation of the subordinate role in which many African countries find themselves in the global capitalist system. In the last two decades, development problems of the continent are exacerbated by the burden of servicing external debt and the results of structural adjustment policies imposed by the agents of dominant multinational capital, the IMF and the World Bank. The adverse effects of SAP on economies of Third World nations have been discussed above. Repayment of loans supplied to these economies eçpecially after SAP has intensified underdeveloprnent. Massive debt servicing has led to the systematic transfer of huge amounts of economic surplus from Africa, decapitalising these poor countries, sustaining technological backwardness and intensifying mass impoverishment. As a result of the power international capital has over debtor countries, they are able to raise interest rates at will. The result is that African economies spend over half of loans on debt servicing, retaining very little to sustain any meaningful deve1opment.--- 1 Defaulting is not an option because default means no more credit and in some cases the incipient recalcitrant ru1ing government is o~erthrown.~'In many ways the paradox of the small debtor applies to Africa. Africa owes a srna11 percentage of the total debt owed by the Third World and unlike Latin America for example, is unable to exercise the leverage that big debtors have in negotiations. For example, in 1982, the debt crisis which hit Mexico had a devastating effect on the USA. Between 1981-82, the USA exports to Mexico fell by $10 billion (George, 1988) . Every billion dollars in export sustained 24,000 jobs in the USA, thus the Mexican crisis alone cost the USA 240, 000 jobs in one year (ibid.) .

The IMF/World Bank structural adjustment policies continue to insist on growing and exporting raw material at a time on the international market when such products have been largely replaced by synthetic and genetically engineered products. Thus low living conditions have been compounded by the effects of the austere SAP measure and sustaining mass impoverishment. Among those who have been worst hit are women and children. The gross economic mismanagement, corruption and clientelistic nature of the post-colonial state have also played a crucial role . As stated previously, the above analysis is not rnaking claims of a comprehensive explanation. It is merely serving to illustrate the postmodem argument about the power of analysis that contextualizes. By locating in specific his tory, social, political and economic processes and contexts, an analysis of the development trajectories of the South and of individual countries could provide a more comorehensive understandino of reality,. somethino neo- failed to carry through in a systematic manner. The neo-Marxist tendency towards economic and class reductionism also encouraged limited attention to other factors that may have contributed to underdevelopment. The penrasive flaw in reducing development and underdevelopment to the relations of production and domination meant political action was de-emphasized. The result of this limitation was that neo-Mamists soon found themselves with no tools to study the varying relations between domination and production in a theoretically coherent and empirically open-minded way. Perhaps the most serious flaw with Marxist theories is that they never challenged the modernization definition of development as Westernization. This particular criticism will be better elucidated in the next chapter. Criticisms levelled at neo-Marxism from the mid 1980s, produced a sense of a crisis or impasse in the discipline of Sociology of Development and in development theories in general (Booth, 1985; Mouzelis, 1988; Sklair, 1988, 1992) . Acknowledging the limitations of classical and neo-Marxist theories, some scholars, such as Schuurman (1993) , have adopted a post-Mamist approach to development in an effort to transcend the impasse. These drew attention to the importance of human agencies, complexities of social transformation and the fluid contingent nature of capitalist development. These approaches, like the rest of the Marxist schools, did nothing to challenge the modernization epation between development, modernity and the West (Marchand and Parpart, 1995; Chowdhry, 1995) . There is no consensus about the exact nature of the crisis in development theory and how it should be overcome (Booth, 1985; Mouzelis, 1988; Sklair, 1988) . It is clear, however, that previous development theories had not been able to provide adequate explanation and solutions for problems in the South. The main point of the above discussion is that the nature of disarticulation peculiar to developing nations with respect to the structural distortion of their econornies, and the character of the post-colonial state, makes it impossible to explain underdevelopment within the closed economic mode1 of orthodox theories of development excluding international economic relations. Neither do Marxist schools succeed in providing a more comprehensive explanation of the lack of development in the South when they fail to contextualize the timing and mode of insertion of the different developing countries into the global capitalist system. The dynamics of the ongoing processes of global political and economic restructuring, continuing poverty in the Third World, the fa11 of communism and the subsequent inclusion of countries from the North as recipient countries, have exacerbated the impasse within development calling for an urgent rethinking of development theory.

In concluding this chapter 1 will reiilerate that this chronology of development theory and development reqirnes identifies factors such as interna1 structural disarticulation, foreign interference and capitalist recession among others, as contributing to the development crisis the South faces. The chronology serves to illustrate two main issues. First it points to the power dynamics within which the very structure of Third World economies are situated. As the discussion on liberal theories illustrates, development came out of particular contexts and is implicated in relations of power. Development emerged from certain epochs in Europe and

North America when these parts of the world held considerable power over other parts of the world. These power dynamics are woven into the ways of theorizing knowledge and the production of solutions for development. They have been imbricated in the historical-political antecedences of North-South relations and representations and will continue to pose a threat to the coalitions of North-South relations currently being promoted within the development enterprise, unless, of course, the essentially political nature of development assistance is recognized and effectively challenged. Secondly it illuminates the importance of comprehending the context - political, social, economic, national, regional and international - within which Southern economies operate. For much of the South, this context is defined by the mercantile, colonial and post-colonial experience with capitalism and the dynamics of these experiences with contemporary domestic economic structures. This lends credibility to the postmodern emphasis on context . Development problems in the South are show to be rooted in particular and social structures. As shown above, the timing and mode of insertion into the capitalist system, as well as the nature of economic crisis in Africa, are closely related to the subjection of its economies to one- sided determination by external factors and events. Thus in

çub-Saharan Africa, for example, the untransf ormed disarticulated structures, because of its one-sided external orientation tends to work itself more closely into the international capitalist order, but in a position of subordination (Sawyerr, 1990). The analysis of these contexts demonstrates that the development crises in the South are not wholly explicable by reference to factors interna1 to each country alone. Western governments and the international capitalist institutions share a responsibility. It reinforces the postmodern cal1 for a broader, systematic and holistic approach to context and the dynamics of such processes. Deconstruction by locating in social processes, institutions, and historical contexts is important in development theorizing because specific socio- economic, historic and political situations influence and define the social realities of people in the South. Failure to understand context fully, at the very least, oversimplifies the reality of experiences of the poor. It will mean the failure of policies and programmes to deal realistically with the problems of development. The failure of ahistorical explanations of development excluding the role of mercantile, imperial and global capital, as proposed by liberal theories, has demonstrated the importance of macro-economic and social approaches to context. CHAPTER TWO

INTEGRATING WOMEN INTO DEVELOPMENT mORY

A brief overview of development assistance policies targeted at women in the South indicates that these have also followod the predominant social theories and development regimes of their time. Up until the mid 1960s, women were generally excluded from the developrnent process. In the 1970s, when studies by (1970) and otherç revealed that the status of women was deteriorating as a result of practices of development programmes, international social movements emerged which advocated changing and reformulating development policies and strategies to implement more gender-sensitive policies. The Women-in-Development

(WID) regirne came into being, and the developrnent enterprise followed a pattern of adapting their policies to include women while not fundamentally changing their policies and practices.

Criticisms against the WID regime led to the search for alternative paradigms. In the late 1970s an alternative strategy known as Women and Development (WAD) was meant to be a conscious move f rom liberal and neo-classical theories . Continued poverty among men and wornen in the South in the 1980s made it clear, however, that the women-only projects of

WAD were not having the desired effect. The resulting dialogue was Gender and Development (GAD) which emphasized gender rather than women particularly the social construction of gender roles and relations. Ideas from this later perspective are gradually being incorporated into the international development agenda. This chapter will proceed to examine in greater detail the different themes of the above development regimes in their efforts to assist women and their particular limitations.

Women in Development (WID)

WID contained ground-breaking ideas for developrnent. WID advocates such as Boserup and Li1 j encrantz, made important contributions to changing patriarchal views of development , producing landmark publications. Until this point, development was an exclusively male domain and the needs of women were subsumed under those of their menfolk. Lobbying by these liberal feminists led to the establishment of WID divisions in many multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental development assistance institutions and initiated the process of considering women the developrnent. However, the pattern of the WID regime involved adapting their policies to include women but not fundamentally changing their policies and practice. With time it became clear that poverty and subordination of women generally still remained (Krasner, 1983; Kardam, 1991; Marchand and Parpart, 1995). Liberal feminisrn and the WID activists are considered to have at once succeeded and failed in the attempt to establish WID divisions within international development regimes. Postrnodern critics of WID attribute its failure to the regimets embeddedness in the liberal and neo-evolution traditions of . The WID regime failed because its epistemological foundation and existence within these development agencies limited it from moving beyond the ethnocentric and androcentric assumptions of modernization (Chowdhry, 1995) . Policies of international development agencies such as the World Bank/IMF in particular, have largely generated theories of econornic modernization which are located in dualistic oppositional definitions, contrasting the Western with non-western societies, representing the non- western as the IOthert, and reinforcing negative conceptions of the IOthert who is still in need of the mission civilisatrice which colonization had set out to accomplish.

In line with the binary and simplistic dichotomization of Enlightenment thinking, modernization is equated with Westernization, industrialization and superiority, while non- modernity is equated with non-Western countries, the traditional and the inferior. Such an episternological episteme underwrites the Western experts Iclaim to knowt which denies, in effect, any ability to see modernization for what it has historically proved to be - a subjugating and

* c exploitat ive practice (Chowdhry, 1995 ) .-- The WID regime was not exempt from the production of knowledge that represented women of the South as the 'Othert. These representations were

51 particularly prominent in WID sponsorship and media representation of the poor and also in its 1iterature.-'7 The WID regime altered development practice and policy to incorporate women in the development process and improve equity between wornen and men without challenging Western gender stereotwes (Marchand and Parpart, 19%) . The idea to integrate women into development policy mainly treated "women's development ... as a logistical problem rather than [one] requiring a fundamental reassessment of gender relations and ideology" id.: 3) . This tendency was the result of undifferentiated concept of woman and . The policies of WID, in particular, are criticized for being steeped in colonial/neo-colonial representation as well as the liberal discourses on markets, which tend to portray al1 women of the South as passive traditional object victirns of the modernization project (Chowdhry, 1995). The WID literature on women in the South typically have given the

9enanaN representation of Third World women where women are portrayed as "veiled ... mindless members of a harem, . . .cloistered within the confines of a patriarchal male- dominated environment" and more preoccupied with "petty domestic rivalries than with the artistic and political affairs of their timesll (ibid:27; Enloe, 19891 . They are also monolithically represented as oblivious to the real world, unquestioningly accepting of their world and generally inferior to Western women who are liberated, do not Wear veils, are sexually liberated and have nothing in common with this tradition bound image (Chowdhry, 1995). Western and Western-trained Southern women writers and activists in the development enterprise also tend to portray women as victims. According to Chowdhry, these writers and experts base their analysis and authority to intervene in the lives of women on their claims Ito knowl and on the shared experience of gendered oppression. These representations are also primarily situated in the dualistic nature of Enlightenment and modern thinking which separates the traditional from the modern, the private from the public, the liberated from the non-liberated, the East from the West. These representations reify modernity and reinforce the North/South divi.de. Chowdhry points out that economic modernization theories also "utilize as their epistemological premise the superiority and desirability of Western-style modernization and growth before discussing the invisibilities, complementarities and eternalities of development" (ibid:29) . These basic

assumptions feed analysis that typically blame interna1 structures of Third World economies for the failure of development policies and which consequently offer Western solutions. These discourses are criticised for being grounded in Enlightenment thinking which is, in itself, "imbued with a masculine (and modernist ) epis temology and ontology characterised by self-other dualismlI (ibid:30). The masculine ontology with its emphasis on competition rather than cooperation only reasserts masculiniçt identity and the desire to dominate others. The point here is that liberal discourses on development are inherently gender biased, and WIDts embeddedriess ir? the liberal and mrket discmrse xakes It a suspect policy for addressing the needs of women. In surn, the failure to challenge modernization theories of development led to the failure of the WID regime to relieve the poverty and subordination of women. The monolithic and singular representation of the Third World women as victims of development, of undifferentiated patriarchy and oppression, produced reductionistic understandings of their multiple realities. They denied Third World women agency, further disempowering them. The modern discourses of these representations, in sum, created women discursively, separating them from the historical, social, economic and political lived material realities of their existence. I will briefly illustrate the importance of Chowdhryts criticisms by examining the WID programmes of the World Bank. The World Bank is perhaps the major development agency with the longest engagement with the South. The liberal discourses on market have defined the World Bank in al1 its policy phases and this had varying effects on its policies towards women. Basing its development policies in the liberal discourse on markets initially contributed to the invisibility of women in the Bank's early ~olicies~'(Chowdhry, 1995; Sparr, 1993; Staudt, 1998) . Women were not deemed important agents in developrnent. The Bank maintained that economic development "in the public largely elite male sphere, would naturally trickle down to women in the private spherell (Chowdhry,

1995 : 31) . The crucial ef fects of the binary opposites of public/private of Western thinking, in which the family was relegated to the domestic and private realm, served to separate men and women. This separation waç further supported by patriarchal notions and the zenana representation of women.

The combined result of dualistic thinking and neo-colonial representation was the exclusion of Third World women entirely f rom early development pro j ects . The WID projects initiated by the World Bank after the 1975 UN Decade for Women lobbying efforts were also embedded in colonial and liberal discourses. Chowdbry ( 19 9 5 ) classifies these projects under the welfare, anti-poverty and efficiency approaches. Al1 three programmes, despite slight variations and emphasis, were based on the traditional notions of motherhood. They mainly ident if ied women in their reproductive and child rearing roles. The welfare programmes, for example, included programmes, nutrition for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, reflecting the zenana representation of Third World women.

The anti-poverty approach which appeared in response to Marxist and socialist feminist criticisms in the mid 1970s

55 focused on basic needs as it identified women as the poorest of the poor. Family health and income projects, to lift women out of poverty, emphasized the activities of rural women. Education became an important aspect of these projects because Third World women needed knowledgel to ensure the welfare of their families. According to the World Bank,

" [t]he influence of the motherfs education on family health and family size is great - greater than that of the fatherfs education. Materna1 education may also have a greater effect on childrents learningI1 (World Bank, 1990:s; 1993). This approach utilized Western frameworks to analyze the material realities of Third World women, again representing them as "traditional, voiceless and a homogeneous (interchangeable) group, hapless victims of endless pregnancies, bowed down by poor health, illiteracy and poverty.It (Chowdhry 1995:33). This representation served to deny Third World women agency, reinforcing myths and stereotypical images of a homogeneous group without skills, needing help and incapable of active participation in the development process ( ibid) .

When the World Bank turned to neo-classical economics in the 1980s, the efficiency approach was adopted by its WID programme. Structural adjustments, f ree markets and and other such characteristics of the neo- classical discourses translated into projects that ostensibly recognized womenfs productive role. In reality, it took for granted womenfswork as homemakers and ignored the transfer of wage labour to women's unpaid work (Chowdhry, 1995; Hirshman, 1995) . Chowdhry cites the example of Tamil Nadu in India where even the programmes to mitigate the social cost of adjustment relied on womenfs unpaid labour without acknowledging the contributions these made to the success of the prooramme.'" This pattern was not restricted to WID projects of the

World Bank. The majority of bilateral and local NGO large- scale development projects and their attendant technology rarely included policy regarding women in their initial planning stages. This is no coincidence as NGOs were sponsored mainly by bilateral donors from the West who were steeped in liberal discourses. The World Bank also works through partnership with NGOs, and though they may not alvays agree on specific policies, there is a lot of cooperation to achieve their anti-poverty objectives (World Bank, 1996). The point here is that women, especially in rural and outlying areas, experienced changes mainly as a result of both planned and unplanned innovations in agriculture and the economy as a whole, and in many cases the far-reaching effects on woments work derived £rom the powerful drive to commercialise the potentially profitable sectors of women' s work (Whitehead, 1985; Stamp 1989) . To be fair, some WID practitioners have questioned the assumption that modernization is the solution to the problems of the Sûuth, but they continue to be firmly situated in the modernization paradigm. The World Bank (1993) interna1 report points to the Weed to bring out the centrality of womenls place in the economy whether or not this is measured or valued and to place adjustment in the broader framework of social and economic policies that critically defines economic opportunities and constraints for men and womenIt. While this calls for integration of gender dimensions into this approach, it does not advocate a fundamental rethinking of development itself. As Goetz also points out, it merely modifies ttwomenls projects to fit the blueprint of standard development projects . . . and in the end represent [SI no threat to the existing power structures and budget allocations within the development establishmenttt(Goetz, 1991:135). Indeed, when development experts continue to disregard the need for a re-orientation and transformation of action and thought, merely pointing out certain inherent sex and gender-related biases in mainstream development paradigms does not constitutes effective criticism.

Women and Development (WAD)

The failings and mounting criticisms against the WID regime led to the search for alternative paradigms. A new approach to development for women in the late 1970s known as

Women and Development (WAD) came mainly from Marxist and radical feminists. Their ideas and solutions influenced policy and project design of many non-governmental agencies operating in the South in the 1980s (Parpart, 1989) . While Marxist dependency theorists called for more self-reliant development, radical feminists advocated women's only development, arguing that women could not develop within patriarchal power structures. The result was the adoption of self-reliant women-only policies which were meant to be autonornous from patriarchal and capitalist structures. Many

NGOs who committed to the WAD discourse prided themselves on their grassroots approach to development and their greater sensitivity to the needs of the Third World (Parpart, 1995). Those assistance agencies which took up these approaches asserted the need to limit governmental interventions and to keep development proj ects to small -scale women only pro j ects, controlled by women. The WAD approaches also advocated a recognition of subjugated knowledges and began "to adopt a participatory approach to development in order to avoid domination by development experts and the smothering of grassroots points of viewn (ibid:233) .

The WAD approach, therefore, was quite different from the WID approach. However, the main criticism against the WAD regime was the neo-colonial leanings that still came through in the representation of Third World women by development experts working within this paradigm. Their representation revealed a monolithic concept of women of the South, in their application of the conditions of women or even most

Third World women. . (Parpart, 1995 :232 ; The tendency also was to portray Third World women as hapless victims with the result that many of the WAD programmes fell into some of the sarne patterns of development practices of the WID regirne. The WAD professional became the %nowledgeable expertt who . - supplied answers to the development problems of the women.-' Participation for WAD then became a complex problematic issue with variable meanings and outcornes. Some institutions adopting the WAD approach have been successful in involving local participants in planning and implementation of their programmes so that they reflected local, cultural and social and political patterns. These successes are documented to have resulted from a rethinking of the process of participation, and a reconceptualization of the Third World development expertise (Parpart, 1995 ; Macdonald, 1995) .

Gender and Development (GAD)

In the mid 1980s, there were calls for a new approach to womenls development especially by socialist feminists concerned with the growing poverty of women and men in the South, and by feminists in the South concerned about finding their own solution to developmental problems. The resulting dialogue was Gender and Development (GAD) which emphasized gender rather than women in development theory policy and practice. A reconceptualization of the development subject and reconstruction of the character of developrnent knowledge is reflected to a large extent in GAD approaches. The GAD emphasis on both long-term and short-term approaches to womenls development, however, is a recognition that a reconceptualization of the development subject and the character of development is not so easily achieved. GAD differs from WAD in that it calls for a gender- sensitive approach rather than a women-only apgroach to development. Advocates of GAD do not see the gendered division of labour and power as natural and so emphasize how gender roles and relations are socially constructed. GAD advocates a fundamental social transformation of gender roles in development policy and practice. GAD resembles WID to the extent that its short-term approaches is cast in similar language. In the short term GAD also advocates programmes for education, credit and income-generation (Parpart, 1995) . Unlike WID, however, GAD has long-term goals of challenging established rnodernization discourses and practices of international and governmental development agencies. It also seeks to find ways to empower women through collective action and to encourage them to challenge gender ideologies and institutions that subordinate women. Empowerment perspectives advocate the inclusion of grassroot organizations and the redistribution of power to enable the participation of aid recipients and Third World peoples in controlling the direction of development. GAD approaches generally advocate a reconceptualization of development that is grounded in the concrete and contextual realities, experiences and wisdom of women in the South (Chowdhry, 1995). This type of thinking may or may not draw on Western scholarship, but it is rooted in the experiences of women and men in Third World countries rather than those of the West. It is one that transcends gender and political practices that are exclusive. It challenges patriarchyls ideological claims to universalisrn, not with another universalizing tendency, but with diversity. GAD theref ore emphasizes context ' and Idifference', and the need to recognize the multiple realities of women, particularly their situated, localized character . Indeed, the focus on gender rather than woman stems from criticism of Western notions of gender relations in development theorizing. Scholars from the South maintain that patriarchy is not universal and that women and men are not antagonistically poised against each other in al1 cultures.

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) grew out of GAD perspectives. Drawing insights from both socialist and postmodern concepts and f ormulated by Third

World feminist scholars, DAWN and other GAD approaches" from mainly scholars in the South, have offered the gender approach as an alternative strategy to the WID regime. DAWN was established in Bangalore in 1984 by a group of activists, researchers and policy-makers concerned with I1developing alternative frameworks and methods to attain the goals of economic and social justice, peace and development free of al1 forms of oppression by gender, class, race and nationu (Sen and Grown, 1987 :9) Sen and Grownts, Development Crisis, and

Alternative Visions presents a theoretical articulation of the

DAWN project from a feminist perspective of gender and class (McFarland, 1988) ." The DAWNts manifesto transcended çome important limitations of previous writings on gender and development while drawing on their strengths. DAWN primarily pointed to solutions that took into consideration the particular experiences of people in the South. Previous writings such as those of Boserup and Rogers implicitly adopted a modernization approach . They were unquestioning of the process of capitalist development itself, did not critique colonialism or imperialism, lacked a historical perspective and stopped short of a class analysis (McFarland, 1988). These criticisms do not dismiss or disparage the work of these authors who made important contributions to changing patriarchal views of development and were landmark publications in their time. Rogers1 (1980) book, The

Domestication of Women, for example, called attention to the implications of having Western trained development plamers in the formulation, design and implementation of development policies programmes and projects. These issues are now also being raised by DAWN writers who are strongly advocating the participation of aid recipients in these important phases of development. However, DAWN maintained that, it waç not just patriarchy that oppressed women in the South.--7 7 As Burce, reviewing Rogers and Boserupts writings, points out, New forms of discrimination against women are more symptoms than causes of larger problems facing Third World nations; it is unlikely that food shortages, exploitation or general underdevelopment would be eradicated by changes in attitudes towards women (Burce, 1981:502) . The cal1 then was for a more political economic approach to gender and class analysis that included the spheres of both production and reproduction, that examined systematically the effects of capitalist accumulation on the division of labour and woments subordination. DAWN appeared to answer and go beyond this demand with its synthesis of gender and class analysis and the examination of the impact of . DAWN saw the various world crises including impoverishment and inequality, financial and monetary disarray, food insecurity and non availability, environmental degradation and growing demographic pressure to be interlinked. They examined these interlinked crises from the perspective of the most oppressed of al1 group - those of poor Third World women. Sen and Grown believed that it was from the perspective of the yoor woman that the link between the crises and current economic and social structures could be flrmly grasped. The DAWN manifesto examined the effects of capitalism in the form of colonial, postcolonial and the new international division of labour on Third World economies as a whole and then the gendered impact of these.--7; DAWN also examined the impact of the basic needs strategieç, population programmes and other such strategies adopted by development agencies and concluded that these generally failed to address the structural problems in Third World economies." Sen and Grown also examined the problems caused by food-water-fuel shortages , balance of payment and debt crises, effects of rnilitarization and their effects on women. They pointed out the role of women in mitigating the effects of these crises through their productive roles and the onerous burdens brought to bear on women as a result of SAP programmes. DAWN solutions, visions and methods for the empowerment of women are also proposed from poor womenls perspectives. DAWN writers sought long-term solutions that are multi- dimensional incorporating political, cultural , legal , and economic frameworks that meet the needs of the poor." Sen and Grown believed that the method for achieving empowerment is organizing at global, national and local levels . Women are urged to form alliances with interests that address their needs in order to obtain political leverage.'bey also point to the need to be ready to learn from the experience of others as a means of transcending the limitations of previous strategies as indeed the DAWN publication has done. The DAWN theoretical orientations is acclaimed by some as an achievement (McFarland, 1988 ; Chowdhry, 1995) McFarland believes that the work is innovative in terms of gender and class analysis and in its ability to examine curent global social, political and economic crises from Third World woments

perspectives id.) . But a closer look at the GAD-DAWN approach reveals some limitations. Though theirs is a radical approach to development, it is criticised for not challenging the goals and assumptions of modernization and Westernization (Marchand and Parpart, 199514; Hirshman, 1995). Postrnodern feminism challenges the assumptions of Enlightenment thinking, and therefore questions the claims to

universalism and 'truth1 embedded in WID, WAD and even in GAD approaches as Hirshmants (1995) criticisms reveal. Wbile some postmodern theorists such as Chowdhry (1995), Stamp (1996) and Shiva (1988) believe GAD-DAWN to be the beginnings of an empowement approach, not al1 postmodern feminists agree with these conclusions. Postmodern feminist theorists generally agree that while Marxist and socialist feminists may havs rightly critiqued WID projects in the South as incidental strategic tools of capitalist expansion, they still failed to challenge the issue of modernity. Marxist and socialist feminists rarely questioned the equation between modernization and development" even though they criticised international

capital and class structure (Marchand and Parpart, 1995 ; Johnston, 1991). Postmodern feminist theorists argue that, in as much as Marxism and socialism are rooted in Enlightenment thought, so also are development regimes drawing from these perspectives

(Hirshman, 1995; Marchand and Parpart, 1995). Hirshman (1995) argues that DAWN does not represent a plausibly radical alternative to both conventional development theory and practice. Hirshmanls analysis of the DAWN manifesto, maintains that DAWN iails to divest itself of WID1s assumptions, especially with regards to their analysis of tdevelopmentland 'nomant. Accordin- to Hirshman, Sen and Grownlsuse of the sexual division of Ilabour' as the means of understanding and analyzing Third World womenls lives as well as the focus on Ipoor wornenl lives, uncovers a Western modernist bias, which ob j ectifies Third World women denying them agency and creating a hierarchy among different aspects of womenls lived realities (Marchand and Parpart, 1995). . . Hirshman accuses Sen and Grown of reductionism." In analyzing development enterprise from a particular and privileged vantage point, Sen and Grown follow Karl Marx who analyzed the capitalist mode of production from the vantage point of the proletariat. This reveals the analysis as "the offspring of phallocentric institutions and ideologyrl (Hirshman, 19% :43). It keeps with the Marxist tradition and logic by presenting socio-economic and political freedom for everyone as predicated upon the "emancipation of poor women who are the real victims of race, class and gender oppressionI1 and like the proletariatls indispensable function in bringing an end to capitalism, women become the al1 important contributors as "workers and managers of human welfarettwhose contributions "are central to the ability of households, cornmunitles and nations to tackle the current crisis of

sur~ival~~(Sen and Grown, 1987:18). Like the Marxian

analysis, it is womenlç labour and effort in nurturing, in reproduction and in food production and processing that sustains Third world societies. Hirshman directs her criticisms to three main issues in

the DAWN manifesto: the deployment of the concept of woments 'labourtas the basis of understanding womenls oppression and social subordination; the relationship between labour and the construction of emancipatory forms of knowledge; and the representation of women as victims in the narratives of Western feminisrn and liberal development practitioners. In the first instance, Hirshman accuses Sen and Grown of essentialism. Sen and Grown, according to Hirshman, attribute the failure of the development enterprise to their grounding in male ethic and therefore inability to recognize the llessential factIt about women. By opting to analyze the developrnent enterprise from the vantage point of "poor womentt, and by giving analytical primacy to the concept of womenls labour, "Sen and Grown. . [make] . . themselves vulnerable to charges of essentialism, foundationalism and ethnocentricismtr

(Hirshman, 1995:45). Womenrs labour is also posited as the defining category, the foundation of womenls experiences and the grounds for DAWN1s alternative approach to development. Such an analysis attempts to "establish a priori an indisputable natural and innate essence to Third World woments lives and experiences ... [which may not be derived from biological facts] but from secondary sociological and anthropological universals which define the sexual division of labourM (ibid:45). In seeking to postulate in advance the kind of experiences deemed important in understanding womenfs lives, Sen and Grown marginalize and repress 'other1 experiences that cannot be explained or accounted for in this theoretical logic. In so doing, they implicitly treat labour and womsn as "cornmensurate analytical categories outside of race, class, history and culture. They, therefore, follow the WID literature and many feminists in the North who have sought to explain women's subordination in the universal applicability of sema1 division of labour, and patriarchy. Mohanty also criticises this practice. As she points out, privileging the semial division of labour is risky business because the flcontent of this division changes radically from one environment to the next and from one historical juncture to anothertf(Mohanty, 1991: 67) . At the most abstract level, concepts like the sexual division of labour are useful only as they are generated through local, contextual analysis ... [because when] ... such concepts are assumed to be universally applicable, the reçu1tant homogenization of class, race, religion, and daily material practices of women in the Third World can create a false sense of the commonality of oppression, interests and struggles between and among women globally (ibid). Mohanty reiterates this argument later, when she employs the notion of political alliances and struggles based on a recognition of difference rather than on imputed homology of experience, to criticize Robin Morgan's essay "Planetas. Feminism: The Politics of the 21st ~entury", '' for not having a sense of experience as socially constructed in accord with different historical contexts. Experience of struggle is as a result defined as persona1 and ahistorical and the political is limited to the persona1 conflicts among and within womenrs experiences (Mohanty, 1998). By privileging woments labour, both as producers of basic needs and as reproducers of human beings, as the structural determinant to woments existence, as an unquestionable permanent and transcendent category, Sen and Grown reduce the ltmultifariousreality of llwornentsbeingu to the single logic of production and labour (Hirshman, 1995:46). There is no denying that certain human experiences are universal facts, but when we take away their historical and cultural context, anything we Say about them Van only be tautological.. . [to suggest that] work is as natural as birth or death is to negate its historicity, its different conditions, modes and ends - specificities which matter ...."

(Young, 1990 :122) . There is no denying also that there are some common experiences underlying wornents differences. What postmodern feminists like Hirshman, Mohanty and Young are advocating is social theorizing that is more reconciliatory of the presumed universal nature of gender experience (oppression),and the individual concrete experiences of women grounded in their different and often conflicting social economic and political sit~ations.~"hile Sen and Grown caution WID project against adopting concepts of gender that ignore dif ferences and diversities, they f al1 f ou1 of the same trap of universalism. They then attempt a political alliance of diversity by turning round to argue that difference should be set aside as less important that anything that would unite women to fight against male oppression. Their solution to the political project is the formation of international support systems or global sisterhood, to gain political clout rather than because such a union is a genuine possibility (Hirshrnan, 1995) . Sen and Grownts analysis of the relationship between labour and the construction of emancipatory foms of knowledge are also questioned by Hirshman. Concepts like labour and production which are integral to the theory of the sexual division of power have been challenged by postmodernists as categories grounded in the culture of capitalism and modernity, which therefore preclude their usefulness as concepts applicable to Iother' societies including contemporary non-Western non-capitalist societies."If They are concepts which bearing the baggage of history, and have becorne cultural universals through questionable power moves. An uncritical deployment of these concepts to understand the social realities of lives of 'othert societies according tc Hirshman will only distort those lives and culture and serve to subordinate and eraçe what they seek to explain because of the productivist ideology implicit in these concepts. This productivis t ideology represents human beings as labouring machines seeking [their] telos in the conquest of nature (including women and totherst) in order to fulfil the capitalist goal of unlimited and unchained productivitytt

(Hirshman, 19% :48). Baudrillard raises the same concern when he asks whether the Vapitalist economy retrospectively illuminates medieval, ancient and primitive societies?' (Baudrillard 1975:86). As he explains, because the economy and production are the determining factors, other types of systems are only illuminated through this distorting lem, including "primitive societies [even] in their irreducibility to productionIt(ibid.) The specificities that characterize such societies including the magical, the religious and the symbolic are marginalized in such analysis. The postmodern argument then is borrowing concepts from any persuasion without recourse or consideration for its cultural and historical limitations leads any such theorizing

into the ditches of that paradigm. In the DAWN case, the Marxist ideology led to perpetrating androcentric and ethnocentric bias inherent in Enlightenment philosophy. Sen and Grown, by privileging the productive paradigm which is embedded in capitalism, foreclose the possibilities for a more radical alternative. Just like the WID project, they fail to question the basic premiçe or ontology of Marxist thought that I1labourItis the essence of "being humanit(Hirshrnan, 1995 : 52 ) . They incorporate the historical and philosophical limitations of the Marxist framework which tends to apply concepts to describe and comprehend particular forms of production to al1 areas of human life, in al1 historical epochs. According to Flax, "Marx and Marxists re~licaterather than deconstruct the capitalist mentality by essentializing what is in fact a product of a particular historical and variable set of social relations" (Flax, 1990:155). Theoretical analyses çuch as these misrepresent s social realities not only in capitalist societies, but also in different cultures.

Hirshmants final criticism of the DAWN rnanifesto 1s the representation of women as victims of development. In the theoretical articulation of the DAWN project, poor Third World Women are the Iobjectl of development. They are also represented as silent mute victims of their own menfolk who symbolize patriarchal oppression and domination, and who are in league with capitalism, symbolizing the hierarchical, exploitative structuring of the international division of labour. These victims only have the help and support of activists, researchers and policy-makers from the South and North, people dedicated to empowering the oppressed women . This creates the uneducated Third world woman as the Iother1 vis a vis her educated feminist sister whose help is needed to empower poor women. According to Sen and Grown, grassroots attempts at collective action have neither been transformatory nor effective. They have been tlsmalland fragmentedI1, but they point to the fact that if properly I1guided and instructedl!,these women could break out of their "traditional

subrnissivene~s~~into "modernityI1 (Sen and Grown, 1987 : 78) . Poor women could then effectively work towards improving the economic conditions of themselves , their f amilies and communities, and use cultural forms to raise the consciousness of men and women about injustice and inequality (ibid.).

Hirshman argues that these representations do not go beyond the narratives of Western feminism and liberal developrnent practitioners. For one thing they imply that Third world women ehare the same cultural space and political rationality as the West. Secondly, they present the same colonial self-image of modernist discourse in that Third World wornen are assumed to be able, or even want to participate in feminiçt politics appropriate to their interest, which is also assumed to be women vis-a-vis men and male establishments. These representations, in ef fect, construct these womenls collective actions in terms of s own narcisçist self-image. Sen and Grown, in al1 fairness, do point to the contextuality of womenls lives. However, they do so in much the same rnanner that liberal development writings, in their effort to promote modernization and capitalism, marginalize the historic and cultural complexities and specificities of different societies in the South. Postmodern theorists also maintain that the DAWN analysis is riddled with the same economistic bias of mainstream development theory I1which is entrenched in the belief that material needs constitute the sole determinants of human existenceIl (ibid: 53). The focus on the economic realm of womenls lives naively assumes and suggests that when development projects satisfy the basic needs of food, water and fuel al1 other needs will be resolved. This "ignores the specific historical cultures and social setting in which these needs are articulated and precludes any understanding of Third World women in their lived reality as persons in their own rightI1 (Lazreg, i988:94). The complexity of the development process and womenls lives are reduced to the universal category of 'labourfas the procurement of food, water and fuel or 'gender oppressiont as in exclusion, clitoridectomy, limited mobility etc. The result is that the DAWN alternative ideas is bogged down in androcentric Eurocentric thinking that do not in any way present a viable alternative to mainstream development theory or practice. (Hirshman, 1995) . In sum, Hirshman believes that the Mamist orientation in DAWN makes the attempt to go beyond describing the declining power and increasing workload of women, as much of the WID literature does, a f ailure . The underlying assumptions (ontology) of Marxism in which the DAWN analysis is embedded, dictated their choice and privileging of those categories (epistemology) which, in sharing those basic premises and assumptions of Idevelopment1 and Iwomen' like the WID regime, proves quite fatal to their analysis . Postrnodern f eminist perspectives are not saying that liberal and Marxist theorists are unable to provide solutions to the developmental problems in the South and North. Rather that, any liberal or Marxist frmotmrk wi th nlodemfsi/En1 ioh tenment underpinnings: that tries to develop alternatives to current development strategies (because these are themselves built on modernist discourses), will be attempting a miserable impossibility. In other words, the master's tools will never dismantle the master1s houself (Lorde, 1984) ." The GAD approaches and DAWN manifesto remain an important landmark in gender and development theorizing . " Like Boserup and Rogersf publications, Sen and Grownts book opened up important and timely issues for debate and analysis in the development enterprise. Revelations about the actual needs of poor women, from Southern womenls experience, perceptive and analysis, vis-a-vis imposed development strategies was an eye opener for most development agencies. DAWN pointed out that the WID approach assumed that women wanted to be integrated into patriarchal Western mode of development (Lycklama a Nijeholt, 1987) . Another important strength of these Southern feminists writings was the identification of the multiple nature of women l s subordination flsimultaneously on the bases of sex, race and class as well as their position in the international economic order" (Braidotti et al, 1994 : 117) . Their solutions based on a people-centred approach consequently promotes women's empowerment within the context of wider international and societal changes (ibid.). Such a method of analysis rnakes

it possible to address empowerment of women at the different

leveis of oppressive sLructür-es siriül'coiieoürly . mLIllis ïs important because woments empowerment is located in interna1 and external contradictions of race, class and nationality. DAWN may have polematically chosen poor women as their focus of analysis but this methodology advocates a bottom-up analysis of macro-level experiences of poor, rural and urban women living in the South and links these to macro-economic

analysis and vice versa id.) . This type of analysis is

more holistic than the top-down methodologies that have traditionally infomed development policy and produced programmes which were mainly inappropriate to the needs of the South. DAWN analysis have managed to incorporate social, cultural, and political micro and macro level dimensions into economic analysis. The idea of autonomous women organizations as vehicles of empowement also remains an important starting point and alternative for grassroots groups to formulate their

own ideas about development. DAWN writers have also stimulated women from the North to think of alternative visions of development from a feminist perspective (Braidotti et al, 1994). DAWN and other Southern scholars 'empowerment approach' to development was not very popular with many governments and aid agencies because of its potential for challenging both local and global patriarchal power structures (Braidotti et al, 1994) . But their perspectives on empowerment through participation has eventually found support in the international development agenda. In 1991, the Dutch development ministq took up DAWNts suggestions and fomulated their women in development policy as empowering women to transform gender as well as al1 other relations including

North-South relations." CIDA'ç 1995 WID policy also passionately espoused gender equity and empowerment through participation. It is interesting that these transitions from WID to gender equity and empowerment through participation is now considered priority on the international development agenda. Chapter Four of this thesis analyzes how these progressive ideas to women s development have been incorporated into policies, strategies and practices by CIDA. Before this analysis, the next chapter will present the adoption of a gender approach in CIDA'S policies on women. CHAPTER THREE

CIDA'S POLICIES ON WOMEN AND GENDER

The Canadian International Development Agency was established in 1968 when the government of the new Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau upgraded the External Aid Office

(EAO) to CIDA with Maurice Strong as its first president, reporting to the Secretary of State for External Affairs (Morrison, 1998). CIDA was Canada's response to the economic crisis in the South and has its roots in a history unburdened by involvement as colonial actor in any developing nation. The creation of CIDA was symbolic of Canada's commitment to development that subsequently led to an expansion of aid programme to most parts of the South making Canada one of the more generous donors among industrialized nations (ibid.).

CIDA's budget "represents three-quarters of the total Official Development Assistance effortn of Canada (ibid:6). Canada has shown in its official aid policy a firm commitment to treaties of the United Nations and other international organizations. CIDA oversees Canada's relations with UN development agencies, regional and multilateral development financial institutions as well as multilateral technical assistance. Like other bilateral assistance, CIDA1sgeneral format for aid is very much donor driven. This means that aid has involved the transfer of goods and services which is offered in the form of development projects, commodities or lines of credit for commodities and technical assistance. From the late 1980s CIDAts focus, Like other donor assistance, has shifted from projects to policies, mainly as result of IM~/~orldBank's focus on structural adjustment programmes (Jahan, 1995) . CIDA seeks to promote policies that create an enabling environment for poverty reduction (CIDA, 1999). The Agency seeks to achieve this through its programing priorities centred in the following areas: Basic Human Needs, Infrastructure Services, Human Rights and Good Governance, Private Sector Development, Environment and Women in Development.

CIDA and Womengs Development

CIDA links its policy objectives for women to its overarching policy and programing priorities. CIDA currently supports many projects and programmes targeting women in the South with the aim of promoting equality for women. This support takes the form of funding projects directly or

financing local NGOs which subscribe to CIDA1s policy objectives in implementing these programmes. A brief chronology of CIDA1s policies on women and development shows that successive formulations are indications of evolutions of policy objectives and approaches to assisting wornen. CIDA had moved, over the years, from a WID approach to

a mixture of WID, WAD and GAD. Programmes have included both WID-specific and WID-integrated proj ects . The last two policies, the 1995 CIDA'S Policy on Women in Development and

Gender Equity (hereafter WID/GE) and the 1999 CIDArs Policy

Gender Equali ty (hereafter GE) , the object of interest in this thesis, are presented in more detail below. (See also Appendix

B. CIDA first adopted policy guidelines on WID in 1976 and established a WID policy in 1984. This policy sought to promote women's full participation both as agents and beneficiarieç of development. In 1986, a Five-year Plan of Action was launched. Efforts to improve understanding of the impact of structural adjustment on women led to CIDAts involvement in a multi-donor coordinated programme, in 1988, called Special Assistance for Africa (SPA) led by the World Bank. CIDAts interest in this programme was to promote awareness of barriers to womenfs access to productive resources and to operate gender as a variable within economic reform (CIDA, 1998d). In 1992, CIDA issued its Interim Women in Development Policy. This interim policy arose out of the review of activities since the 1984 policy. As a result of the Interim policy objectives, CIDA and the Canadian North-South Institute (NSI) in 1994 played a leadership role in initiating the Structural Adj us tment and Gender in Af rica (SAGA) programme.

This was a broader effort within the earlier SPA framework to improve the design and implementation of structural adjustment programmes. The underlying rationale for SAGA was that incorporating gender considerations in the design of economic reform policy would produce more effective economic policies and lead to gender equality.

In 1995, CIDA issued its WID/GE policy establishing its Division at the Policy Branch in Ottawa. The 1995 WID/GE policy sought to incorporate evaluation recommendations of the

WID policy and strategies (1984-92). The 1995 WID/GE policy was instrumental in the assignrnent of WID Specialists to al1 programme offices. This policy went beyond the 1984 policyts emphasis on wornen as agents and beneficiaries to an emphasis on gender equity and womenls ernpowerment (CIDA, 1995a) . The present 1999 GE policy is an update of the 1995 policy. It follows the conclusions of the review of 1995 policy that advocated the need to "demonstrate clear and sustainable results in prornoting gender in line with CIDAfs policy on results-based managementf1(CIDA, 1999:l-2).

CIDA'S 1995 WID/GE AND 1999 GE POLICIES

Policies

CIDA views its curent Gender and Equality policy as an important tool in the 21st century to finally eradicating inequality on al1 grounds, be it gender, class, race, or ethnicity. The goal of the GE policy is to "support the achievement of equality between women and men to ensure sustainable developrnent" (CIDA, 1999A:7). Its objectives

82 include encouraging woments equal participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their society, supporting women and girls to realize their full human rights and reducing gender inequality in access to

and control over the resources of development (ibid.) .

The LE9 SE plicp shmvs a shift in erqhasis frûz the 1995 WID/GE policy. The visible shift is the change from emphasizing 'gender equityt to pursuing 'gender equality' .

While the focus in the WID/GE policy was on gender equity, the emphasis in the GE policy is the eradication of gender inequality. Women continued to be the centre of the 1995 WID/GE policy in spite of the new label of Igender equityt which would suggest that now the interest of both men and women would be considered. The 1999 policy is a reflection of the growing recognition of the importance of gender. Both policies have similar objectives. Active participation of project recipients is one major objective. This objective is framed differently to reflect the emphasis of each policy. Thus, while the WID/GE policy sought to increase twomentsparticipationt in decision-making processes, the GE policy emphasized advancing 'womentsparticipation with ment as decision-makers in shaping sustainable development of

their societies. The 1995 wID/GE policy also incorporated its new emphasis on gender into its existing WID programming, promoting gender consideration among its partners in development as well as building the institutional capacities of CIDA to enable the Agency to fully integrate gender considerations into its policies, programmes, pro j ects and activities. The WID/GE policy objectives also showed a cornmitment to traditional WID programmes including income generation activities, heal th and family planning services, improving levels of education and skills and gromotino hurnan rights of women.

The rationale for the 1995 WID/GE policy stems from four considerations. The first consideration is the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which supports Canada s commitments to promote equality for women both in Canada and the rest of the world. The second is its cornitment to equity reflecting a move from the focus on equal treatment of the sexes to differential treatment of groups to end inequality. The third, is the recognition of the mounting evidence that focusing on gender and gender sensitive planning is central to sustainable economic development. As the policy

States : [il nvesting in women leads to lasting economic growth, improving family welfare and a reduction in poverty - a more equitable distribution of the socio-economic benefits of developmentft(CIDA, 1995a:4). The final consideration is the incorrect assumption about development recipients which has led to programme failures. Beneficiaries have been treated as a tthomogenousgroup, rather than men and women with different needs and interestsm (CIDA, 1995a:4) . The use of gender relations as an analytical category shifts the focus away from viewing women in isolation from men. Gender relations tlexaminesthe relative position of men and women in the division of [labour], resources and responsibilities,

benef its and rights, power and privilegeu (ibid.) .

The policy f ramework for the policy, theref ore, was

process not just as beneficiaries but also as actors engaging in the planning, implementation and decision-making at al1 levels. CIDA was I1not just trying to incorporate women into existing models of development1I (1995a:S). Participation was perceived to be an opportunity to redef ine development . Through participation the aim was to ilmove towards a sustainable development that builds on peoplest potentialM

(ibid.) .

The 1995 WID/GE policy proposed gender as a cross-cutting theme. Gender was meant to be a broad developrnent theme which linked other development themes and policies. was therefore adopted as a tool in al1 programme initiatives. In line with this, the policy consisted of two distinct but interrelated components . The first was the integration of gender consideration into development initiatives, through

gender analysis at both sectoral and macro-policy levels. The second component was the participation of women as equal and active partners in development work through assessing barriers to womenlsparticipation and designing strategies to overcome these. Woments successful participation and equitable involvement in al1 policy and programming activities was to be achieved through special effort by agency staff and partners.

The overall requirement of the 1995 WID/GE policy then was the "[alttaining of wornenrs full participation as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies ... at al1

levels lt including, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and results (CIDA, 1995a:6) . The rationale for the 1999 GE policy also stems from the four considerations of the 1995 policy. There are, however, some new considerations. CIDA as a government agency was

required to conform to Canada's Federal Plan for Gender

Equality, a new law approved by Cabinet in 1995, which

committed al1 federal departments to promote gender equality in al1 areas including international c~operation.'~In the 1999 GE policy CIDA reflected Canada's commitment to recent international agreements such as the Beijing Conference. The GE policy makes reference to the Beijing Platform Action, the

final document of the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women which represents the commitment of 189 nations to support womenls empowerrnent, guarantee womenls human rights and achieve gender equality: The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are matters of human rights and conditions for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a women's issue. They are the only way to build a sustainable, just, and developed society. Empowerment of women and gender equality are prerequisites for achieving political, social, cultural, and environmental security arnong al1 peoples (United Nations, 1995:paragraph 41). The GE policy is also a reflection of CIDA1s Policy on Poverty Reduction issued in 1996. This involved a strategy to reduce poverty which included analysis of the correlation of poverty with gender and other such characteristics. The 1999 GE policy explicitly States that attempts to achieve this goal will fail if attention is not paid to the different needs of men and women. The policy frarnework for the 1999 GE policy differs from the 1995 WID/GE only in its emphasis on gender equality. The eight principles in which it is rooted promotes gender equality considerations as an integral part of al1 its other policies and proj ects . This policy, theref ore, points out that though achieving gender equality requires the recognition that programmes affect women and men differently, gender equality does not rnean women become the same as men. Woments empowerment is advocated as central to achieving gender equality. Empowerment is achieved through equal participation of women as agents of change in political, economic and social processes and is deemed essential for achieving gender equality. However, the policy recognizes that gender equality can only be achieved through partnership between women and men. The overall policy requirement is that

CIDA's policies, programmes and pro j ects should contribute to gender equality, a change from the WID/GE requirement of womenls active participation. The GE policy consequently links gender equality with CIDAfs overarching policy of poverty reduction and al1 its programming priorities.

Strategies

Like the WID/GE policy, the GE policy advocates specific

zeasilres te elixtizate ,er,Uer ineqialitiês. Agâiii th2 shif t iii emphasis from women to gender is evident in strategies. Both policies employ gender analysis and collection of sex- disaggregated data to inform policy impact and programme design. While in the 1995 WID/GE policy gender-sensitive assessrnents mainly determined the differing impacts on women and men, in the 1999 GE policy it is more detailed. The GE policy identifies gender analysis to include examining the relationship between men and women, identifying the different roles played by each in the household, community, workplace, economy and political processes. It also involves assessing the differential access and control to resources and decision- making processes as well as the differential impact of projects. There is another important difference in the way the two policies utilize gender information. In the 1999 policy, gender analysis is employed also as an indispensable tool in strategies to understand 'local contextl. A knowledge of the context is deerned Ilvital to understanding ... [gender] relations and their connection to the project in tems of needs, impact and results~ (CIDA, 1999:14). This interest in local context is a reflection of the adoption or incorporation by CIDA (and international development assistance agencies) of the criticism of WID and WAD regimes. As discussed in Chapter Two , these regimes have increasingly been criticized for seeing women and the Third World as homogeneous undifferentiated concepts. Country prosrammino became strategies to ensure that situations of specific contexts were recognized in programming. In the 1995 WID/GE policy, strategies to increase women's participation combined both integrative and women-specific actions and projects. WID/GE integrated approaches refers to act ivities where an understanding of gender dif f erences has been incorporated into the overall planning and activities. In other words, the goals, objectives and implementation mechanisms were aimed at woments needs, interests and participation. CIDA1s definition then of a WID-integrated approach is one in which a gender analysis has been done, woments issues identif ied and addressed, measures taken to include women as decision-makers and one in which women make up a greater proportion of direct participants and beneficiaries Women-specific approaches exclusively targeted women to remedy gender inequity. In the 1999 GE policy the strategies employ gender analysis as an integral part of their methodology. Both policies employ policy dialogue and capacity building as strategies for achieving goals. Policy dialogue involves actively promoting CIDA1s WID/GE and GE policy in its consultation with partners and in its dealings with developing countries government, through local, international and bilateral fora. Capacity building or institutional strengthening involves providing training and learning opportunities to CIDA staff and its partners to equip them to work with a gender perspective. The GE policy has several additional strategies to achieve its policy objectives. Programrning framework is one tool for ensuring that programming with any country or organization will support gender equality. It also identifies development needs and opportunities in terms of the areas of concern from the Beijing Platform for Action. This strategy is employed by CIDA to link its corporate programming priorities with its programmes and projects. It is also used as the criteria for al1 Canadian international cooperation in specific countries and with its international partners. Program Assistance, another strategy identified in the GE policy, supports economic and sectoral reform in partner countries. CIDA believes that program assistance should recognize the differential needs, roles and interests of women and men. It involves methodologies to carry out gender-aware economic analysis and designing economic assistance initiatives that respond the needs and interests the poor . Bilateral Programs projects are employed as a means to support gender equality through any of the previous strategies. Multilateral Programs are strategies that solicit and support the partnership of multilateral organizations such as United Nation agencies and the IMF/~orld Bank, to incorporate gender equality in their institutional capacity to support gender equality and to use gender analysis in their own programmes. The GE policy also supports projects of Canadian civil society partners4- involved in operating international CO- operation programmes abroad. Finally, CIDA support is given to humanitarian, emergency assistance and peace-building activities which advocate gender equality results in their work. This support has encouraged CIDA to build its own knowledge base of gender-specific needs and interests of people in emergency situations with regards to trauma support, security, food, shelter and health care.

Performance Assesament

The 1995 WID/GE Policy document did not contain any information on how the policy was to be assessed, nor were any specific guidelines developed to assess this policy. The WID/GE performance review reports, listed in Appendix C, were prepared by independent consultants in Canada on behalf of the Performance Review Branch. Though CIDA has a Performance

Review Policy (1994) which includes the evaluation function, this policy does not specifically address WID and GE issues, that is, there are no specific guidelines for incorporating WID and GE issues into the Agencyts evaluations. WID and GE issues are included as part of discussion of evaluation of projects and programmes because al1 CIDA projects and programmes are required to include WID and GE as a cross- cutting theme. The GE policy does include a statement on performance measurement and identifies good practices in evaluation even though there is still no specific guideline on how the policy is to be assessed. CIDA proposes to assesses its performance both at the Corpcrate ~eve1.l~and at the Branch Level by using the objectives of the GE policy as the yardstick against which implementation of policy is measured. Branch offices were also responsible for setting their own results against the general objectives of the GE policy. Programme and corporate branches as well as CIDA1spartners and executing agencies are al1 held accountable for the implementation of the policy. Assessments and evaluation would be carried out by the Performance Review Branch as part of their routine. There are however no enforcement procedures (CIDA, 1999b). As stated earlier these statements are not guidelines. CIDA has yet to develop specific indicators for measuring progress for the 1999 policy ." Over the years, therefore, CIDA has show commitment to integrating innovative approaches into its programmes on women. In 1999, CIDA1s attitude towards gender issues has become more focused. The next chapter examines how CIDA has incorporated the perspectives of the GAD-DAWN approach into its own policies on women. CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS OF CIDA'S POLXCIES ON WOMEN AND GENDER

This chapter analyzes CIDAtsattempt, especially from the latter half of the 1990s, to incorporate a gender approach in its policies and strategies on women. The chapter will specifically examine the issue of gender and policy discourse, participation and context. These are issues central to the GAD approach to woments development as discussed in Chapter Two. Certain questions will guide this analysis. The first is, how has CIDA incorporated the concept of gender from its previous focus on women, and how have its policy discourses changed through this attempt? Second, how has CIDA incorporated participatory approaches in each development phase in its efforts to empower women? Third, how does CIDA understand Ilocal contextsl in its attempt to address specific needs of the South?

Methodology

There are three sources of information for this analysis. First, are the CIDAts 1995 and 1999 policies on women, the objects of interest in this analysis which have already been thematically presented in the previous chapter. Apart from policy documents, information is also gleaned from several CIDA documents. These contain elaborations of any of the three areas of policy, strategy and evaluations which are in sununary form in the policy documents thernselves. A list of the documents used in this analysis are attached as Appendix C. The third source of information is from interviews of key informants at CIDA head-offices in Ottawa-Hull. Informants interviewed included the Director and one Policy Analyst from the Gender and Equality Division, the Senior Advisor for Capacity Building, al1 in the Policy Branch, two officers from the International Cooperation Branch and one from the Performance Review ~ivision.'" copy of the topics for the interviews are attached as Appendix A. Relevant information from the other documents and interviews will be referred to in the course of analysis.

Analytical f ramework

The analysis first examines CIDAts articulated ob j ectives , strategies , and measures of progress to primarily establish whether CIDA puts together a more transformatory programme from previous policies. Policy documents will be analyzed to see if they are integrationist or agenda setting, and what institutional and operational strategies are adopted to incorporate the gender approach." The analysis secondly examines the participatory measures adopted in the consultation, planning and policy and implementation phases of the policy. Finally, C1DA:s understanding of local context is analyzed. Under this, two main areas will be examined: Political context - analyses will focus on whether political situations in the South and within the organization allows the irnplementation of these policies. The basic question to be explored here is; do particular political contexts allow and provide the space for alternative voices and ideology?

Economic context - The focus here will be on how CTDA recognizes the global economic context within which the South is located. The question also is, how does CIDA addresç gender within neo-liberal structural adjustment policies? It stands to reason that because of the enormous contribution of global capitalist investments to development in the South some attention should be paid to their practices.

Gender and Policy Discourse

Like other international donor agencies, CIDA'S focus and articulation of policy objectives have changed. Analysis of CIDA policy text and other documents also reveals a shift in language to reflect the reconceptualization of the development subject. In these last two policies, there is little if any overt negative representation of the 'otherr in the text of policy statements and information documents. Women are now to be ladvancedl and not Iintegratedt (as an afterthought) into development . They are to be mainstreamed (as the focus) lempoweredr and through their roles as Idecision-makersl, (agentic beings), incorporated as 'equal participant1 and not beneficiaries (welfare image) , in their own development .

96 Methods have been changed to reflect the change in representation and knowledge production. Strategies adopted in the 1999 GE policy are to include in their programme assistance initiatives active promotion of ttpositiveimages of women and their needs, interests and viewsl!,and to involve tlwomenls oroanizations . . . . in the dialo-e on prooramme assistance initiativestt (CIDA, l999a:19) . In other words, there are to be fewer posters and television images of glassy- eyed emaciated starving children and the evident anguish of their equally emaciated and starving mothers, and more on women struggling against the odds to survive (Sawyerr, 1990).

The focus has moved from women to gender. Overall policy and strategy indicate a moving away from an integrationist approach to a transformatory agenda-setting approach as measured by the emphasis in the 1999 policies. While the focus in the 1995 WID/GE policy was on gender equity and womenls empowerment, the emphasis in the 1999 GE policy is the eradication of gender inequality. The 1999 GE policy shows a growing emphasis on gender rather than women. There is a clearer shif t in policy from the focus on women in the 1995 policy which in spite of the gender label still pursued an integrationist approach to gender. Women were still the centre of the 1995 WID/GE policy inspite of the new label of

'gender equityl. The WID/GE programmes were designed to enable women (but not men) overcome barriers created by gender divisions. The goal of the WID/GE policy as a result was to strengthen the full-participation of women but not men as equal partners in the development of their societies. The 1999 GE policy is, however, a more visible reflection of the growing recognition of the importance of gender. This growing recognition of gender is revealed in the change from emphasizino sender equity to pursuino oender equality and in CIDAts definitions of these two concepts. CIDA defines gender equity as "the process of being fair to women and menH (CIDA,

1999a:7). To ensure equity or fairness, certain umeasures must be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating in a level playing fieldN id. However, gender

equity for CIDA also meant moving I1beyond equal treatment ..[to]..the differential treatment of groups in order to end inequality and f oçter a~tonorny~~,and this meant that special measures for women (e.g. women-specif ic proj ects) are of ten

requiredI1 for the WID/GE programmes (CIDA, l995a: 3) . On the other hand, the shift in 1999 to gender equality is with the understanding that "women and men enjoy the same statusm and are given "equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development and to benefit from the results (CIDA, 1999a:7). Gender equality is therefore def ined as Vhe equal valuing by society of both the similarities and differences between women and men, and the varying roles that they playN bd) . CIDA believes that fi [elquity leads to equalityl1 (b.. As discussed in Chapter

Three, strategies also differed to take into account gender consideration to benefit both men and women in the 1999 policy

rather than to use gender analysis to benefit women only. In terms of institutional and operational strategies, the errphasis ci, ca~acitybdilding icCieatas that th2 a,sïîcy itss:E is instituting measures to achieve interna1 changes to match up to the new focus in development. Operational strategies include some guidelines on gender analysis and sex- disaggregated research information. There is also country programming of specific countries to understand the specific contexts of programmes. And in both policies, CIDA States the use of policy dialogues with local and international partners to promote gender equity/equality. The 1999 GE policy has a statement on evaluation but the specific guidelines are yet to be developed. The 1995 WID/GE policy on the other band, did not have statements of responsibility and accountability, neither did it have specific information on how the policy was to be evaluated. Successive evaluation recomendations indicate tbat al1 CIDA priority programmes were to have WID and GE as an integral component of projects and were therefore expected to address WID and GE issues in evaluation. The reality was that evaluations rarely did this and when they did, the analysis was not systematic, neither was the information provided of su££icient quaiity (CIDA, 1998a, 1996~.) . In a review of evaluation, llconsideration of progreçs towards WID and GE in assessments of activities, outputs or results, and benefits, effects and impactsu revealed that only half "of these evaluation reports addressed WID and GE in assessment of activities. The effects benefits or impacts as

they relate to women were not addressed in these reportsu . In most cases, the evaluation reports in the sample of some 40 CIDA evaluations did not address (WID or gender equity) results, benefits or impacts other than "in general terms. - - (CIDA, l999b: 7-91 . '- This is another indication of the integrationist nature of the 1995 approach to gender. The fact that WID and gender equity issues were expected to be a part of al1 existing CIDA programmes, and the fact that they were in practice not systematically addressed in evaluations,

is a tell-tale sign of the de facto integrationist approach of

the 1995 WID/GE policy in spite of agenda-setting discourses of participation and capacity building.

Recognition of Subjugated Knowledges/Participatory Approaches

The 1995 WID/GE policy, in its rationale and framework, promulgated a more transformatory policy from previous years in terms of its focus on participation. However, a review of assessment documents and information from interviews reveals that a shift in discourse or staternents has not corresponded with a change in actual practice. The policy "promote[d] womenls full participation in the development processn (CIDA,

100 1995a:5). The policy States that attaining womenls participation as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies requires attention at al1 levels including planning, irnplementation, monitoring, evaluation and reçu1ts . The Agency aims to foster and encourage women's participation not just as beneficiaries, but also as actors fully enoaoed in planning and carrying out activities, including decision- making at al1 levelsw bd. Furthermore if Itwomen were to participate at al1 levels, then there would be an opportunity to redefine developmenttl,and through fYullerparticipation of women and men, the possibility exists to move towards a sustainable development that builds on peoplets potential1#

(ibid.) [italics mine].

Participatory approaches to development still remained an important objective of the 1999 GE policy. The first of the 1999 GE three policy objectives is, I1to advance womenfs equal participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their societiestl(CIDA, 1999a:7). Going by policy statements and discourse, there is no doubt at al1 about CIDAts cornitment to participation. Interviews with CIDA staff to seek some background information on the development of the 1995 and 1999 policies revealed interesting insights . j' The interview with the GE Division staff primarily sought information on who was consulted in policy formulation and what informed the development of these policies (see topics of interview in Appendix A). The 1995 policy, though advocating participation, was developed not through broad consultation but by an interna1 network of specialists who also had a deadline to meet; the policy was to be developed in time to present at the Beijinz Conference. Time was su~~estedas a constraint in the development of the policy. The policy objectives were also to be in line with recommendations of previous evaluations as well as previous guidelines of the United Nations1 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC) Working Party. Considerations other than the views of project recipients also informed the evolution of the 1999 GE policy. The development of the 1999 policy was guided mainly by evaluations of 1995 policy, federal law" , guidelines of treat ies that Canadian government had ratified in al1 the major international conferences including the Beijing Platform of Action and current trends in international development assistance. The 1999 policy represents the best attempt yet at participation. According to CIDA, consultation was broader and included a network of specialists, other donor agencies, CIDA partners, fifty-three Canadian wornenls organizations and partner NGOs? An outline of the policy was also posted on the web in English, Spanish and French, with the aim of inviting coments from the general public. Gender specialists from South Asia were also invited to comment on the policy. This broad consultation still failed to be informed by the grassroots communities who are the direct targets for the policy. CIDA acknowledges this failure in their admission

-. that few poor women in the South have access to the internet."

There was only one reported case in Ecuador where a rural development worker actually discussed the policy with some womenls groups in the community in which she worked.

1 was not just at policy development stages that participation was omitted. In practice, and at the project level, participation was still a problem. Experts, recruited to develop gender sensitive indicators for CIDA staff still grappling with the concept of 'gender1,two years after the WID/GE policy, found that:

Agencyts literature, including CIDAfS policy documents, increasingly point to the need for participatory development of indicators, in practice this was rarely done in a systematic way, partly because of the cost and time constraints, partly because of mistrust of stakeholders, and partly because of a lack of methodological knowledge as to how to formulate indicators in- - a participatory fashion (CIDA, 1997a:28; 1997333.'

And yet this product of a fourteen-month research project found that, devel oping indica tors in a participa tory fashion need not be expensive or cornplex, and in the long terrn should lead to more efficient and effective projects that relate closely to the needs of local cornmuni ties and reflect their priori ties, and therefore sus tainable developmen t ( ibid . ) [emphasi s suppliedl . CIDA'S strategies still look to sources of expertise other than local experts and resources to implement programmes. For example, out of ~ightcategories of partners identif ied to implement CIDA1s health programming, only one category referred to partners who were mainly govemments, civil society institutions and NGOs. The other seven categories of partners included four Canadian groups (Canadian experts, NGOs, universities, professional associations, rivat te fims including Canadian pharmaceutical industries and Canadian provincial and regional health boards and institutions); one United Nations technical implementing agencies such as UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA; one group consisting of international NGOs; and finally the World Bank and regional development banks (CIDA, 1996a) Successive CIDA evaluation reports have brought up the failure to achieve the participation objective. The Women in

Developmen t and Gender Equi ty 1992-1995: Performance Review

Report pointed out failure to support "participatory approaches to development , monitoring and evaluat ions [even though they] are essential in raising gender issues and getting impact" (CIDA, 1998a:4). This finding, incidentally, had also been raised previously in 1992 in CIDA,s own evaluation (ibid.). Another review document, a performance review of CIDA evaluations, which sought to assess evaluations, pointed out the slow development of participatory approaches in the different phases of WID and GE development programmes. This review assessed also the extent to which observations of a previous 1993-94 assessment and its recommendations had been followed in terms of evaluation policy adjustments, in evaluation design, in irnplementation as well as in the assessment of effects and impacts. In a sample of 40 evaluations of the implementation of CIDA1s Women in Development and Gender Equity from 1992-1997, the report found

this same trend in CIDA evaluation practices (CIDA, 1999b). Examination of implementation practices in the use of participatory approaches found that only 32.5% of the evaluations reviewed employed some type of participatory approach (ibid: 14) . The most popular participatory approach used was the inclusion of local partner country evaluators as researchers. Yet, even when local experts were ernployed only at the research stages of the evaluation, the report found a positive correlation between participatory approaches in evaluations and the inclusion of sex-disaggregated figures and statistics in the evaluation reports. The same has been found to be true also for the extent to which evaluations addressed WID and GE issues in assessments of outputs, results, benefits, activities , ef fects and impacts. Seventy-seven per cent of evaluations using participatory approaches addressed WID and GE issues compared to 63% of flnon-participatory evaluations (CIDA,1999b:12). In other words, better quality information was included when participatory approaches using local experts were employed than when they were not. This points to the importance of participation of local knowledges in achieving policy objectives. Yet CIDA has mainly used expatriate consultants to do evaluations. An examination of al1 CIDAts WID/GE performance reviews listed above confirms this. Evaluations were conducted by management consultants based in Canada." Yet the review report of the WID/GE policy 1992-1995 recomrnended that practices or variables found to support

WID/GE policy objectives include the use of local expertise with a solid background in gender equity issuest1(CIDA, 1998b,

Annex 3 c17). The few consultants who employed some participatory approaches in their evaluation did so from their own initiative and not because there were directives from - - CIDA. =' Another programme strategy in which participation is still problematic is capacity development or institutional building. Results related to implementation practices spoke to uphill struggles in participatory capacity building. Capacity building within CIDA included changes in organization structures by increasing at the decision-making levels, the number and responsibilities of female staff, specialists and consultants to obtain gender equality. The report, however, states that, on the contrary, there was a rnarked decrease in the proportion of evaluations in which women participated. Though the proportion rose from 42% to 57% between 1989-1992 and 1992-1993, it decreased to 30% for those evaluations conducted between 1995-1997. Also, none of the eleven evaluations conducted by individuals between 1995-1997 were conducted by women. The report, therefore, recommended that any tools or guidelines developed by CIDA on conducting performance management, including monitoring and evaluation, should specify that women be included in evaluation teams and in evaluation approaches and methodology. Both CIDA programme branches and corporate office rarely employed local experts as resource persons in the training of their staff on gender or . - other priority programme areas." It is noteworthy that this report also stated that, there "were explicit requirements for incorporating WID and GE into project and programme design, however these were not always enforcedH (ibid:6) . In other words, though there were requirements for incorporating WID and GE into project and programme planning and management, " there were no specific enf orcement procedures" (ibid:7) . Participation may have been identified as the crux of sustainable development, but it is safe to conclude here that, as with the WID and GE reporting, with no enforcement guidelines or procedures, there is no guarantee that it will ever be achieved. Policy may state one thing, as to whether it is carried out is a different matter. Gender as a Cross-cutting Theme/Understanding of Context

Both the 1995 WID/GE and 1999 GE policies are perceived to be broad development themes which linked other development sectors. Both policies advocate that context must be understood in any attempt to promote gender equality. A closer examination however reveals that, the complex dynamics of context has perhaps not been too well recognized. Programmes and policy recognize the effects of social

processes but only up to a point. There are two main problems with CIDAfs understanding of context. The first is the exclusive focus on interna1 gender relations. The second is the failure to critically assess the international context within which the South is situated. CIDAvs policy dialogues are interested in country and local social, economic and political policies and practices only in so far as they address gender inequality. Seeking how these inequalities are created in the first place is not an issue that is pursued in policy. CIDAts concept of understanding local context is mainly to understand specific gender relations in programme communities in order to relate "these relationships and their connection to the project in terms of needs, impact and resultsu (CIDA, 1999a:14). Though the same policy states that it recognizes that development intervention operates within existing "social, cultural and . . . political structures . . . [which are not] homogeneous and which reflect social, economic and political relationships among the people concerned as well as with the outside worldw, the effects of this "outside world" are very much lef t out of these considerations (CIDA, l999a: 14) . Nowhere in policy or strategy does CIDA indicate that it interrogates the development path mapoed out by the IMF/World Bank for the South. CIDA does not consider the possibility that the development policies and practices (context) of these international organizations could be problematic . CIDA is quite accepting of this development context, and seeks to strategically support "multilateral partners , especially in the field of economic reform . . [to] . . mutually reinforce each otherls effortsH (ibid.) .

CIDA believes economic development patterns currently being carried out in most Third World countrieç by international financial and development agencies like the IMF -. and World Bank are the best paths to development .'- Policy dialogue with international development partners such as the IMF/World Bank is, therefore, to support these financial giants or Hmultilateral partners to improve their institutional capacity to support gender equalitym (CIDA, 1999:21). Increasing gender awareness and representation is not a wrong idea. More women at decision-making levels may promote gender equality. My argument, however is that, it will not be enough to change the general direction of neo- liberal development paths within which these women are 1ocated.'--? This is a line of argument 1 return to in the next chapter . It comes as no surprise, theref ore, that though previous and recent policies have promoted gender equity/equality policies among partner organizations including international financial institutions, very little success has been achieved in these policy dialogues. Successive reviews and evaluations bring up as a constant issue, the failure to address gender issues successfully and effectively in policy dialogue and in structural adjustment. And they cannot because, as I explain in Chapter Five, the Agency is working to achieve equality within structures which are incompatible with its policy objectives and goals. In sum, CIDAts understanding of the larger context of supra-econornic and political capitalist accumulation within which Southern economies are located is myopic. As a result, the Agency fails to address one of the main sources of these unequal relationships in the South. The inability or unwillingness to problematize the influence of the international capitalist context leads a myopic view of what constitutes gender relations, and theref ore, to a polematic emphasis on national macro and micro-level social, economic and relational dynamics and processes on gender. Questioning how these inequalities are conçtructed in the first place might provide more effective solutions to gender inequities. Like most bilateral donors, CIDA has associated itself with progressive ideas by incorporating the perspectives of the GAD approach to its policy on wornen. Yet there is a marked difference between rhetoric and actual practices. The next chapter will attempt to explain this failure. CHAPTER FIVE

CIDA'S POLICIES - A CRITIQUE

This chapter analyzes the findings of the previous chapter through a postmodern lem. Chapter Four found that CIDA ' s attempt to incorporate progressive practices of the Gender and Development approach, especially empowerment through participation and the addressing of specific needs of the South has not been entirely successful. From a postmodern perspective, I will here seek to illuminate and explain the failings, problematics and possibilities of CIDAts gender

approach to women l s development . Two years ago, an analysis of the history of CIDA and Canadian development assistance came to the conclusion that; Although Canada has frequently experienced both time lags and marked discrepancies between policy declaration and the reality of project implementation, there have been exceptions: in both rhetoric and practice, CIDA has been a leader internationally in wornen in development and gender analysis... . (Morrison, 1998 : 19) . Unfortunately the findings of Chapter Four reveal that some major discrepancies still exist. CIDA is to be commended for its willingness to adopt new progressive ideas. Development assistance, however, benefits communities not just by its profession or sincerity, but by the manifestation of the transforming power of its programmes on tne lives of people whom it seeks to assist. These problems are not unique to CIDA and the critiques that will be offered here could be of utility to other bilateral and multilateral development assistance agencies that are attempting to adopt these transfomative development discourses and practices.

Policy Discourse and Recognition of Subjugated Knowledges

yathTC.' *.ClWh -a.-- C1 ----la--- P=z~i~i~apy~uab~~~3 &V tz~upiefit FS a ilaiimark or' recent development priorities and have been incorporated from Gender and Development perspectives and criticisms of Southern postmodern and Marxist feminist scholars. The gender approach to development advocates empowerment through giving women a voice in controlling the direction of their social and economic development. Reflecting this, participatory approaches to development have been the stated goals and objectives of CIDA'S policies on women for the last five years. The analysis of CIDAts 1995 WID/GE and 1999 GE policies in Chapter Four indicates a clear shift in policy statements and policy objectives towards a gender approach to woments development. CIDA demonstrates a visible shift in policy discourse by passionately espousing the active participation of women in al1 phases of development. What is not so visible is the effort by CIDA staff and policy pla~ers to entrench this practice and to secure the incorporation of indigenous knowledge in al1 phases of their development planning. 1 do not think time is the main constraint accounting for the lag between policy statements and practice. CIDA has had ample time to make good this promise because participation is not a new concept to CIDA in its engagement with women in the South. Since CIDA first adopted a WID policy, successive policy statements have seen the progression from integrating women as agents and beneficiaries, to empowerment through oarticigation as decision-makers. Even in the 1976 WID policy, CIDA was advocating wornenls equal participation as agents and beneficiary and their equitable integration into the mainstream of CIDA1s programmes (CIDA, 1990) . This objective was carried into the 1984 WID policy in which CIDA pledged to be more lfresponsiveto the development objectives of Third World women by supporting their ... initiatives to improve their situationsft(CIDA, 1986). The policy stated that the full range of its development assistance would contribute substantively to the realization of the full potential of women as agents and as beneficiaries of the development process. The 1984 seven policy objectives mentioned increasing womenfs participation in development intervention, raising awareness of wornentsmultiple roles and the need to close the economic gap between women and men. However this policy still maintained an integrationist approach with no reference to a specific feminist agenda (Jahan, 1995). The revised WID interim policy of 1992 also made claims to the participatory objective, emphasizing the need to incorporate women as decision-makers as opposed to agents and beneficiaries. Participation was the only goal of the WID/GE policy. The 1995 policy emphasized empowement of wornen . The main revision in this policy from previous policies was the promise, with this policy, to ensure the "full participation of women as equal partners in sustainable development of their societiesrl(CIDA, 1995a:2). Though this ooal chanses to an emphasis on gender equality in the 1999 GE policy, the new policy still hast as one of its primary objectives, advancing woments equal participation with men as decision-makers. There is no doubt that participacion has been and still is an important concept for CIDA, however after alrnost a quarter of a century, it remains an elusive concept. Participation has been and may continue to be a problem for CIDA. Again CIDA is not alone in this. Most bilateral and multilateral development assistance agencies are struggling with this problem. Many development assistance agencies, at the 1995 World Summit on Social and Economic Development and Beij ing Conference , committed to the total participation by the poorest in al1 key phases of development planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes, so that programmes can address and reflect the priorities and needs of the poor in their om terms (United Nations, 1999). With few exceptions, many development assistance agencies have been unable to employ the participatory approach in a sustained and replicable way. One reason perhaps is the relative novelty of . . the concept on the international development agenda." Previous to this, the knowledges, policies and practices were constructed and imposed from the North. Another main reason is that models of participation being promoted by the United Nations, and development assistance agencies, still need to be well articulated in al1 their dimensions and institutionalized with systematic guidelines, a consideration 1 return to later in this chagter. The main reason for the failure to entrench participation, in my opinion, is that participation is geared towards re-addressing North-South relations, and as a strategy of development, it fundamentally challenges existing power relations. Participation is an essentially political process, but because it is not acknowledged and recognized as such, it continues to be a challenge to institutionalize. This is an important area in which feminist postmodern concepts codd offer theoretical reconceptualization of development. Feminist postmodern theorists maintain that >developmentt has also become a privileged and contested site for questioning and negotiating control of the South's development and North-South relations. Development has become another major category of social life which is contested and politicised. In the development enterprise, development discourse, discursive practices, policies and strategies become the context (contested terrain) within which North-South relations are constructed, reconstructed and transformed (Marchand and

Parpart, 1995) . Within the development business there are important social actors consisting of experts, policy makers, theorists and writers who work within the dominant development paradigms, governments, state officiais of donor and recipient countries, the public who ultimately fund these projects and the peoples towards whom the policies and strategies are directed. These often are locked in differential power struggles, and conflicting interest of which they may not be aware, their actions in many ways enacting the historical conflicts of North-South relations. The conflicting interests and power struggles are reflected in foreign policy objectives and development discourse which is translated into policies and projects. Development discourse then becomes a series of statements and nvisibilitiestl linked together as a lldispositiftlor a diagram of power (Crush, 1995:57; Escobar, 1992, 1994, 1995; Deleuze, 1988). Development can be located as a discursive field, a system of power relations which produces what Foucault calls domains of objects and rituals of truth. Charting or locating the history, institutions, social processes and economic relations on which the discursive formation of development is articulated reveals a cartography of power relations. Development, historically, was the rhetoric of hegemonic control in which development discourse became the basis for inclusion and of exclusion in political decision making. As the Introduction and Chapter One illustrated, politics has been and still is imbricated in the historical-political antecedences of North-South relations and representations in development discourse and practice. ~ecisions about what constitutes fdevelopment',and what development path the South is to pursue has been the prerogative of the North. Policy discourses and practices from the North dictated the course of lives of peoples in the South. The North's ability to dictate these solutions laid in their 'claims to know'. The South, historically, has not had opportunity or power to lay these claims. The North has been able to control and even create the Third World politically, economically and sociologically by placing development in discourse (Escobar, 1984). With the adoption of participatory approaches to development, donor agencies have modified their discourses and discursive practices to reflect a recognition of the expertise or indigenous knowledges. But as the CIDA case demonstrates a change in discourse has not led to a change in practice. mipowerment through participatory approaches is a complex process because participation itself is a contested, problematic concept which has many meanings and possible outcomes (Macdonald, 1995; Gismondi et al, 1995; Barker,

1999) . Participation is very much a political issue that involves power relations and aspects of control. It is a contested site. As stated earlier, in the development arena, participation in many ways is a strategy that challenges established power relations. It challenges established power relations because participation ideallyi' involves bottom-up strategies that pass decision-making progressively to the aid recipients. Against the centralized practices of hegemonic control, participation decentralises responsibility to local communities. It gives Third World peoples control over their own lives and in the long-term builds self-reliance and, may indeed, lead to the transformation that development has so far been unable to accomplish. Participation qives the peoples of the South the tools with which to fight against oppressive, hierarchized capitalist structures that have mainly exploited and contributed to their poverty and hardships. The failure by development assistance agencies to achieve participation is because corporate staff are dealing with power structures above and beyond them which they are unwilling or unable to challenge. I say this because participatory approaches to development do not start at the corporate level . It begins at international and national levels where North-South relations are negotiated and where overarching state policies on development are enacted. The role of development agencies in creating the public space for participation cannot be understated and I will address the dynamics of this in a moment. However the ability of CIDA to effectively institutionalize participation would depend a great deal on the extent to which the Canadian federal policy structures allow participation. As discussed in Chapter Three, CIDA has its mandate from the Canadian federal government which dictates the general direction of Canadian Aid in its foreign policies. CIDA can only institutionalize and make participation an effective strategy so far as it is not incongruous with its overall mandate and the Agency is not hindered by federal policy and ideology. It is true that the findings of the previous chapter reveal that the extraordinary effort that should be made at the corporate level to establish participation is yet to be. I am also not by this argument excusing corporate irresponsibility. My contention is that Canada's (and the North's) political structures do not provide the ideological and political space for the Third World to dictate the tems . - of aid." The general direction of Canadian aid, and CIDAts present approaches to development, undenine and hinder . . attempts to facilitate participation." Trade expansion and international competitiveness which were the watchwords for Canadian foreign policy throughout the 1980s very much continue to dictate the terms of development

- - assistance in spite of lobbying efforts'' to change this (Morrison, 1998) . Aid-trade, tied aid and donor-driven approaches to aid do not allow room for alternative voices or views which would inevitably challenge political ideology that promotes domestic private sector growth at the cost of humanitarian concerns. For example, the strategy of promoting CIDA policies with other partners in development (policy dialogue) and making it a criteria for cooperation and assistance can only promote domestic business interests when federal policy is to increase bilateral aid at the expense of multilateral, explicitly to increase domestic commercial benefits. When the Trudeau government pledged unequivocally to increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) to reach the 0.7% target by 1991, it also promised to channel more resourros thrmgh NMs, rooperatives an? oth~rnon-profit bodies (Morrison, 1998). However when the Finance Minister, Marc Lalonde, announced his budget, it was realized that the government intention was to commit up to one-half of the increase over O .5% to a new Aid-Trade Fund within CIDA id.. The planned ODA was such that, up to $1.3 billion was made available for this new Fund. Now CIDA1s mandate for the use of this new fund was mainly to actively encourage Canadian private fins to seek out export opportunities. Financial packages to CIDA-eligible countries with this Trade-

Aid Fund was to be without regard to country planning or eligibility status and be aimed at the more affluent Third World (near-NICs) such as Algeria, Mexico, Malaysia and the

Philippines. Though the development content for this new hind was yet to be appraiçed, extensive consultations with businesses had already been promised (ibid.). This example is not to criticise a federal governmenttspolicy to promote its domestic market interests at the expense of humanitarian aid. The point here is to illustrate how difficult it would be for CIDAts corporate, national or field offices, to plan and establish participatory approaches to development, when the results of such actions would challenge overarching federal policy directions and their own mandate from the federal government. It is difficult for CIDAts staff, amidst these conflicting pressures to attempt to strengthen the developmental focus of policy. I will now address the dynamics of participation at the corporate level. As the previous chapter illustrates it will not always be the indigenous knowledges of aid recipients that will inform successive evolutions of development policy. Other interests influence how and what policies are developed.'" If the views of aid recipients are to be reflected CIDA policy planners would need to put in extraordinary effort to ensure this. International aid agencies inform each other as to what is appropriate terminology and what is not. It is poignant that CIDA consulted with other bilateral donors to see what the latest trends and terminology were, what they were doing, and to benefit from their experiences in the field that had produced particular effects. CIDA also sought to keep abreast with other donors particularly SIDA and NORAD who are also at the forefront of adopting new initiatives. Since such diligence is taken to consult peers the same should be carried over to aid-recipients if they are indeed considered lequa1 partnersf in development. Failing to consult the opinions of grassroots groups speaks to the political nature of participation. These omissions are a tell-tale sign that perhaps indigenous knowledge systems are not yet considered as Itruth' in spite of rhetoric about recognition of subjugated knowledges. By such omissions CIDA policy-makers retain Northern hegemonic control in deciding who is heard as legitimate and whose views are deemed important enough to be heard. It is noteworthy that bilateral, multilateral and NGOs, before intenational conferences, make attempts to incorporate the criticisms and writings of development experts and scholars in their programmes. Usually before these thematic international conferences, donors submit papers on new policies and comrnitments to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Cornmittee (OECD/DAC). These international meetings, in my opinion, serve as the public space to articulate and publicise the 'latest thingl in developrnent business and to urge them on those who are yet to adopt these concepts. It is interesting that when CIDA submitted its 1999 policy to the OECD Working

Party, it still bore WID in its title. The label for the 1999 GE policy changed after experts at the OECD office told CIDA - - that they were not current with terminology." These fora also dictate the direction of new budgetary plans and what projects are more likely to be funded. Such practices make it difficult to incorporate a bottom-up approach in the development agenda. And it is no wonder that policy statements continue to outpace action in the development enterprise. And that is why, though CIDAts policy discourse has changsd, new policies continue in the line of previous development discourses to presume to understand and therefore to propose what the South needs. Because much of the process of participation and empowerment comes dom to the involvement of programme staff, it is important that detailed guidelines be developed in the context of micro-relations of implementation projects. As it is, CIDA has no guidelines or enforcement procedures to implementing this strategy even though successive evaluations recomend this. Important issues that should be addressed in policy guidelines to implement participation should include details of which participatory approaches to undertake and implement, and how these public/political spaces will be created. Programme staff and CIDA partners should also be trained in interactive skills and in the dynamics of developing country specific participatory approaches in programme implementation. For example, programme staff should be able to assess how people are elected to participate in forums, who has access to participatory spheres and how this access is shaped by other foms of social differentiation. Evaluations should be able to assess the nature of the relationship between NGû or programme staff and aid recipients and how this affects the structure and quality of the public discourse. The above mentioned issues become important in the light of the findings of Macdonald1s (19951 study on NGOs and the problematics of participation. The Gismondi et al (1995) study of local versus expert knowledge at a public hearing for a pulp mil1 in North Alberta in Canada, also haç important lessons for the use of public participatory models being promoted by the United Nations and other international development agencies. There are several ways in which expert knowledge may subordinate local knowledge. Policy dialogue involves public forums with recipients. These serve as the means to define the values the community associates with specific proposals, and also acts as a forum in which expert opinions on technical subjects and the choices of the community intersect and merge. Typically agencies see no power imbalance between the cornmunity and the agency staff. The assumptions are that the experts present value-f ree information and that these meetings are non-political. It is also assumed that the outcornes of these meetings would be based on facts and the communityts choices alone unaffected by questions of power. Gismondi et al, argue that these assumptions are

questionable. Their study showed that public participation was not a fair and equitable opportunity for the opinions and values of people in the cornmunity to challenge the authority of experts and specialists. The idea that local communities have differing views which are muted because of their role and place outside of the power structures and decision-making structures of society, the idea that by giving them a voice to speak we allow their views, their consciousness, their values and ideas to enter the contested terrain of public debate, is a fallacy. It is "a naive view reminiscent of pluralist ideologyu, because participation is a contested idea, a

contested right and practice (Gismondi et al, 1995:243;

Macdonald, 1995; Barker, 1999) .

In a meeting between local communities and devehprnent experts, the experts, their methodology and the use of expert language may become a control mechanism which produces or

creates the problems it then seeks to solve. The very process to empower people, could also be another process of domination. Discourse and language fom an important part of this narrowing process. As Cohn explains, professional expert discourses can define what issues are thought about, how these are thought about, "what may be heard as legitimateH,what is

credible and "what must remain unspokentt(Cohn, 1989 cited in

Gismondi et al, 1995:243). At such public hearings experts

take charge, employing the authority of their profession to identify which are issues, which are not, which impacts to measure and how they are to be measured and what concerns raised by the community and public to analyze. Bourdieu calls this Isymbolic dominationv - the proceçs of getting ordinary people to accept the terms being proposed without really knowing that a narrowing of the debate is occurring (1992:113). It is the discourses of development experts and prof essionals, their language, pract ices , tools of presentation that construct and control questions, issues,

126 debates and perspectives. As Ferguson aptly puts it, ~outcomesof planned intervention can end up coming together

into powerful constellations of control that were never intended and in some cases never even recognized but are more

effective for being subje~tless~~(Ferguson, 1990 : 19) .

Participation can taka inordinata ariioüiits of teâs programme staff seeks consensus on issues in order to reach substantive agreements (Weiss, 1998) . Taking an active role to resolve differences can antagonize one group or the other. Which representatives are chosen to speak for the communities, the agencyts staff and for state bureaucracy who develop policies to accommodate development assistance? In international development, experience reveals that formal community leaders may lack legitimacy (Salmen, 1989) . They may occupy formal positions but do not have the trust or allegiance of community members and therefore are not always effective conduits for information to or from the project communities id. The chosen agent may act on his own behalf rather than for the group whom he purports represent . Awareness of the politics of expertise, decision-making processes, of the contested nature participation should be crucial considerations participatory strategies in development. Participation policy dialogue may not be enough and may require sustained political activity beyond this for a more holistic approach to empowerment . Developrnent agencies display different understandings of what participation entails and how it is to be accomplished. My own experience in development work tells me that sometimes project recipients have been able to define what they want and how they receive it. But how and whether this participation flourishes also depends very much on the NGO concerned, their goals and mandate, how they are sponsored, their sponsorsf policies and the relative autonomy from their sponsors and the kind of training their staff has been given in this area. I have worked fully in three different NGOs and volunteered in a number and typically, their participatory policies range from zero (top-dom methods) to full participation, especially at the onset of programmes when the NGO solicits the cooperation of the local comunity. A lot of factors mediate the amount of participation an NGO incorporate into its programmes. The last NGO I worked with, PLAN International, used child sponsorship to fund its activities. Upon introduction to the community my mandate was to assess 'felt needsf. This often involved meeting with local people and asking them what they wanted and arranging (with their involvement) to provide the financial means and technical assistance to meet the expressed needs. PLAN, however , depended in part on the cooperation of parents in the community to allow their children to be photographed for sponsorship advertising and communication with sponsors, as a means of securing money for administrative and proj ect costs . The other NGO 1 worked with, ADRA-Ghana, had a top-bottom method, It was already well established, heavily sponsored by the USAID and SIDA, and had specific projects it administered. For example, food aid was given if communities were willing to plant a number of specified timber trees. Building materials were oiven only to communities who were willino to provide voluntary labour and for pre-determined projects like schools or health projects. Typically communities put in applications for aid if they felt they met the criteria for help, whereas, with the child sponsorship NGO (especially at the initial stages), the project staff went down to solicit the involvement of the community. This is not to Say that there was not a sincere desire to help the poor, but that participation is a complex process and revolves around a wide range of issues. The kind of sponsorship, therefore, influences whether participatory approaches are used. This is an important area where CIDA can make good its cornmitment to participation by planning, and by systernatic support of its partner NGOs to ensure they employ these concepts in their work in the field. It is also an area where local expert skills can be utilized to reach local people.

In conciuding this analysis of participation, 1 maintain that power relations that discriminate against women and people in the South are not necessarily always included in the dynamics of gender relations of the country. They can be practices and omissions in policy discourses of development agencies whose practical interpretation demeans the knowledges and expertise of the South. They cm be power relations which are perpetrated in policy dialogue even in the attempt to involve peoples of the South in decision-making about their own development. They often are the dynamics of social processes which are political but are not deemed so, but which form the cm of empowerment. Policies professing participation and empowerment, when consistently neglecting steps and guidelines to effect these, cannot hope to attain Iequality1 or Isustainable developmentt. This is not to doubt the sincerity of CIDA or international development agencies, however slow their promises may be forthcoming. Sincerity however is never enough. One is never going to get to Ottawa while headed West towards Toronto on Highway 401 no matter how sincere they are about reaching their goal.

CIDA9 Understanding of Context

Chapter Four found that CIDA1s understanding of 'contextl was partial. This failure to understand context results mainly from two major flaws in CIDA1s policies. The first is the failure to problematize Ilocale contextl. CIDA fails to critically assess the international context within which the South is situated. The modernization discourse and theories of SAP is accepted as the best path to development for the South. The second flaw is the essentialization of gender relations. CIDA exclusively focuses on interna1 gender relations and pays little attention to other relationships which are also unequal. These two problems are complementary and intertwined. The results of these flaws for CIDA have been the documented unsuccessful attempts to achieve results within a development paradigm which is incompatible with CIDAfs stated goals and objectives. These criticisms will be elucidated and explored f rom the pos tmodern perspective of contextualization based on evidence from the analysis of pol icy and independent performance assessment and review documents in the previous chapter. Context in postrnodern conceptualization is employed in a broad way. In postmodern writings, the theme of context is often treated with geographical, territorial, social, emotional, psychological and discursive dimensions and sometimes a juxtaposition of different dimensions to raise

complementary and comparable issues.-C In other words, postmodern feminists maintain that context should be analyzed in an encornpassing rnanner in order to understand al1 the dimensions that have bearing on any situation. Postmodern feminist theorists also see context as a privileged and contested site (Rassiguier, 1995; Emberley 1995; Bald, 1995). In the development enterprise, context is an important site for questioning and negotiating control of the South s development and North-South relations (Marchand and Parpart, 1995) . Development discourse, discursive practices, policies and strategies become the context (contested terrain) within which North-South relations are constructed, reconstructed and transformed. For the South, the development process becornes the social space or legitimate site for the resolution of social, political and economic conflict. The contested nature of context needs to be recognized in order to understand the realities, and plan for the complex articulation that surround development in the South. CIDA1s policy daims to recognize specificity. CIDA acknowledges that "few communities, countries or regions are ... homogeneoustt (CIDA, 1999:14). The 1995 WID/GE policy framework requires shaping programmes to addressing practical needs and strategic needs within "specific contextsm with the recognition that these needs and interest I1vary in each context . . " (CIDA, 1995a: 6). In the 1999 GE policy understanding local context is deemed vital and is identified as useful especially at the project design stage when planners identify constraints and design projects to meet and measure objectives. Obtaining a knowledge of local context is defined as "the recognition that development interventions operate within existing social, cultural, economic, environmental, institutional and political structures in any cormnunity or region" (CIDA, 1999: 14). However CIDAts interest in locale context appears not to be primarily in how these factors construct gender relations. CIDA1s interest is rather in how gender relations operate within these contexts. This emphasis, manifested in programmes and strategies, is in spite of policy statements like, I1knowledge of the locale context is vital to understanding these relationshipsm including Yormal and informal power structures within social, economic and

political relationshipsn (ibid.).

The C'u-b --2 LZ r: -rrr &ALDL LAILILL3LtL is linhzd tu the second criticism. CIDA1s gender policies and programme strategies also polematically ernphasize the effects and impacts of the micro- level social, economic and relational dynamics and processes between men and women. The policies assume that gender relations are naturally unequal, that in al1 social interaction between men and women, there are likely to be inequities. The underlying assumption feeds the strategy to look for these inequities and address them in more equitable programmes for the different sexes. As a result, advocacy with international (and local) partners in development is geared towards "ensuring that programming frarneworks, assessments and evaluations of multilateral organizations systematically consider gender equality as a cross -cutting goalu (CIDA, 1999 :21). Unequal access to resources and power is a vital factor in the subordination suffered by wornen, but so is the hierarchical structures that institute or reinforce these structures. CIDA has sought in policy dialogues to promote gender equity/equality policies among partner organizations including international financial institutions with very little success. As the previous chapter found, evaluation reports bring up as a constant issue, the failure to address gender issues successfully and effectively in policy dialogue and in structural adjustment. My argument is that the Agency is unsuccessful in this because the context within which it is working to achieve equality are inherently hierarchized structures which are incompatible with these policy objectives and goals.

Jahan (1995) argues that two main reasons why CIDA evaluations of past programmes have found the agency least successful in addressing gender issues in dialogue and in structural adjustment is because these dialogues generally dealt with macro-economics and sector policies, while there was little relevant data regarding gender equality. 1 would agree with these argument but only up to a point. CIDA is now doing every thing to obtain systematic information on gender relations including actively promoting gender analysis in al1 programmes, collecting sex-disaggregated data by class, race, caste, ethnicity, age, culture, abilities and disability. The 1995 and 1999 policies are steeped in gender equity/equality analysis. 1 do not doubt the importance of systematic gender analysis but would argue rather that these policy dialogues are not addressing macro-economic and sector policies in their entirety." I would argue that the very same problem is likely to be identified in subsequent evaluations in spite of systematic gender data analysis and indeed they are. The WID/GE Performance Review Best Prac tices Study : Final Report,

carried out by independent consultants for CIDA concluded that, tfmainstreamprojects that have successfully integrated a gender perspective and that support gender equity still appear to be rare within CIDA" (CIDA, 1996~24). There are of

cc~~rceseverz1 gther TO=ÇCCS fcr this . nn,x. r2aszz :chich is argued in this analysis is that CIDA's development agenda largely fails to systematically explore the context of global macro-economic and sector policies in which the South is located. The lack of success in policy dialogue and structural adjustment can be attributed to the flaw in policy that accepts context as unproblematic. SAP and the rnodernization discourse on development are seen as the way forward in the South's development. The Agency is attempting transformation

within exiting paradigms and sees no need to find alternative routes to development. CIDAts failure may be attributed to the fact that its policy objectives are operating within a context or paradigm that is incompatible with policy goals and objectives. Gender equity/equality goals and objectives are operating within paradigms which are inherently sexist and are failing to effect change because CIDAtspolicies fail, in the f irst

place, to problematize the very direction of developrnent of the IMF/World Bank. The adverse repercussions on women (and men) of neo-liberal neo classical paradigms that underlie economic reform policies and SAP prograrmes of the ~~F/World

- 'I Bank are well documented. - Gender bias is inherent in the SAP theoretical assumptions. These marginalist neo-classical economics, base their perceptions of how people operate in labour, capital and product markets mainly on male experience . This is not surprising as they are ernbedded in the experience of patriarchal industrialized economies at a certain epoch in history (Sparr, 1993) . The centrality of this presupposition to structural adjustment is that policy-makers have assumed women's unpaid domestic work is infinitely free and flexible irrespective of how resources are allocated (Elson,1987,1991; Moser, 1993 and Antrobus, 1988 cited in Sparr, 1993) . This falsity has brought hardship on women especially in countries which have submitted to IMF conditionalities. These theories also have traditionally ignored social mores and male-female power dynamics and their influence on the economy. The results have included increased male control of women to

- 7 meet development directives. - SAP theoretical assumptions also perceive household to be harmonious units and pays no attention to the gender compositions and power dynamics inside the household. However women and men are economically and politically unequal according to Sparr and the joint utility function that households are assumed to share has different social welf are implications for intended benef its of aid.-' Households do not react to market çignals as the theories assume. The gender bias of SAP is seen in the multitude of empirical evidence detailing its impact on women . The compounded impact of these policies have touched, ... womenls and girl's health and safety; educational attainment; income; employment; working conditions; access to land; marital status; family relationships; mental health; self-concept; birth rates; marriage decisions; use of time; where they live; migration decisions; access to and use of public services; and their understanding roles and responsibilities in life (Sparr, 1993: 20-21). It is important to note that the effects in al1 these areas of womenfs lives have been negative. Loss of husbandst jobs have meant women have had to look for sources of income generating work in addition to their main work and housework (Moser, 1993) . Privatization af fected women more that meri because women held the majority of positions in the state service sectors. Working conditions have deteriorated for women widening the wage differential between men and women

(Hatem,1993; Manuh, 1993 ; Jayaweera, 1993 ; Sparr, 1993) . Decrease in job opportunities in the formal sector has pushed more women into the informal sector where there is no job security or social security benef its (UNICEF, 1989 ; ATRAC, - - 1988 ; Tripp, 1992; Antrobus, 1993) . Women become poorer. ' Womenls unpaid work has escalated (Moser 1491). Agricultural expansions and export cropping have not always benefitted women (Floro, 1993) . The need to help out much more at home, as their mothers seek extra sources of income, has meant a reduction in school work, lower achievement levels and higher school dropout rates for girls more than boys (Moser, 1991; United Nations, 1989) . There has also been a marked dif ferential in mortality rates between the sexes as infant and child mortality increased for girls (Mahmud and Mahmud, 1993) . Woments health and mental health has suffer with a worsening of domestic violence and stress (Moser, 1989, 1991). With increasing debt, women have bcrn the shame and harassment of borrowing, selling off or mortgaging assets set aside for their old age to pay household debts . Household structures have changed with an increase in women headed households as males migrate to find jobs. This empirical evidence is just the tip of the iceberg. Effects and impacts have sometimes worked to reinforce each other. Structural adjustment has proved to be extremely exploitative of women. Men in the South have also suffered but women have borne the brunt of adjustment. Women are doubly disadvantaged by the sexist nature of SAP rooted in Western ideas of economic development and patriarchy. SAP fosters women subordination. Moreover SAP has been criticised for having a "cookie cutterm approach to economic solutions

(Sparr, 1993:31). Critics have consistently argued that the mode1 does not work, at least for Sub-Saharan Africa, and is

internally contradictory (ibid.) .

This is a difficult paradigm for any policy which clairns to recognize difference and specificity to locate in. Policy- makers at CIDA should be alarmed at the social implications of such an approach for the people the Agency has pledged to assist. In the light of this overwhelming evidence, how much of IMF/World Bank policy should CIDA support if it is sincere in its goal to bring about l1achievement of equality between men and womentl (CIDA, 1999:7)? The Agency should be advocating for alternative routes to development in its policy - - dialogues with these multilateral development partners. ' SAP have been well argued to be unworkable for many countries of the South especially Africa. Critics point out the lack of attention to structural transformation, and the exposure to the vagaries of the international economic environment that the conditionalities of these programmes carry with them. Among the organizations outspoken in these criticisms are the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa, recipient governments, and NGOts, local experts and scholars - the very partners whose valued opinions CIDA fails to ef fectively consult in the development of its policies. This leads to the issue of CIDAts understanding of political conditions or contexts for the success of their policies. The two main issues to be explored here are the extent to which particular political situations in the South and within the organization provide the space for their implementation. CIDA1s institutional and operational strategies have concentrated, and rightly so, on building institutional capacity to advance gender equality. At the institutional level this has included "encouraging women s participation throughout the organization and developing strategies to increase their representation at decision-making levelsI1 (CIDA, 1999a:20). Through this programme, CIDA also supports partners to develop their own I1capacity to undertake gender analysis at the policy, programme and institutional levelstland "provid[el assistance for developing capacity at the national and sectoral levels to collect and make available sex-disaggregated dataN (ibid.) .

These institutional changes focus on processes within the organization and not enough on the larger structures of Canadian federal government policy which feed institutional policies. However it is very clear that federal as well as management support are both crucial to changing the general direction of aid. As discussed earlier, CIDA like other bilateral donors is embedded in its national political structures. Policy is ideological and though no one conceptual ideology predominates, the rationale for CIDAfs policies identifies that policies are dictated in part by international treaties ratified by the Canadian governrnent and by changes in federal laws. Staudt maintains that while institutions have their own particular ideology these are in - - turn shaped by national politics (Staudt, 1998). Canada's female representation levels are higher than some countries (Staudt, 1998). Canada is able to cornbine interest group, ideological and state cornmitment inside various state bodies that address equality agendas and on which representatives of womenls organizations sit (Gelb, 1993; Vickers et al, 1993 cited in Staudt, 1998) . From these alliances CIDA and womenfs organizations have been able to recommend an advisory committee to increase project benefits to women. Though Canada s political structures provide the space to politicize gender, there are still major problems with the general direction of Canadian aid that hinders attempts to facilitate capacity building. Capacity building is viewed by CIDA staff as a broad concept informing development assistance. In other words, al1 development assistance should be seen as some form of capacity building. Some of CIDA1s present approaches to development, -. however, undermine capacity building. ' Arnong the adverse practices to capacity building are the disproportionate use of expatriate personnel, tied aid which stifles initiative, donor-driven approaches to aid and the strategy of promoting CIDA policies with other partners in development (policy dialogue) and making it a criteria for cooperation and assistance. Many of these overarching policy directions may be centralized in federal departments rather than corporate national offices or field offices in recipient countries. Increasing womenfs representation within organizational structures and at decision-king levels has definite benefits. However with policy objectives to build capacity within organization and in recipient countries, some of these adverse practices need to be reversed to enable effective capacity - - building. " CIDA management has the opportunity and mandate to inform federal and ministerial policy. Transformatory strategies will occur in those institutions which are responsive to the felt needs of the recipients. But management and policy-makers first need to listen to the voices of the grassroots of aid recipients before they can effectively advocate their concerns at the federal and national levels. The second issue, briefly, is the extent to which political situations in recipient countries allow the irnplernentation of CIDAfs policy objectives. 1 question the political will of governments who are in the process of reshaping their economies to an open-market system to initiate policies that are incompatible with these free market objectives. For example, how do we reconcile the political cornmitment to privatisation and other IMF individualistic policies with the goals of using these same governments as CIDAts partners , to provide equitable service to very poor comunit~es? Governments of the South with whom CIDA works to administer its programmes are committed to agreements with global financial institutions which virtually tie their hands and ability to pursue such paths to development. CIDA is purported to have been critical of SAP. Any such claims to criticism would need to be critically analyzed to see whether and how it mounts an effective challenge to modernization paradigms of IMF/World Bank. My readings and analysis of CIDA1s 1995 and 1999 policy and assessment documents, and information from interviews do not tell me that what has been done so far, in the area of women's development, constitutes an effective criticism of the modernization discourses on development. CIDA1s initiation of Structural

Adjustrnent and Gender in Africa (SAGA) in 1994, was mainly to improve design and implementation of SAP in Africa. The underlying assumption of SAGA was that I5ncorporating gender considerations in the design of econornic reform policy is a matter of economic effectiveness as well as of gender equalityI1 (CIDA, 1998d) .'" This accepts and does not challenge the basic assumptions of this economic reform policy as 1 have been arguing above. The rnoçt recent initiative, the Gender and Economic Refoms in Africa Program GERA (l996-2OOO), also follows in the lead of SAGA. GERA is a network of researchers, trainers and advocates which seeks to increase the capacity of African women and their organizations to research, analyze and influence economic policies from a gender perspective (ibid.).

However the ability of GERA to mount an effective challenge to international capitalism remains to be seen. GERA may have the potential to begin such a process. 1 Say this because participatory initiatives are being supported in this prograrme. The current GERA secretariat based in the North-

South Institute, was being moved to an African institution by the end of 1998. Organizations in sub-Saharan Africa were asked to apply to serve as a secretariat and manager for GERAfs next stage. At a GERA and Af rican Development Bank

(ADB) CO-sponsored workshop in February 1998, the focus was on discussing alternative gender-aware economic policy frameworks. Another public meeting held with local NGOs, policy-makers and the donor comrnunity, debated gender and economic policy (ibid.) . Students from several African countries were also hired to assist in collecting information to fil1 in research gaps in GERA'S existing research base on gender and economic reform. African organizations have been invited to submit proposais for possible GERA support. If CIDA does not make its current ideological policy direction a criteria for such support, perhaps the discursive space will now be created for alternative voices in the South to be heard . As it is, the present support of modernization discourses does not allow the creation of this discursive space . In concluding this chapter, 1 will reiterate a few points. Countries in the South typically locate in the context of global capitalist practices. Their chequered history with capitalism are important factors which have dictated the nature of political, economic and social disarticulation in the past and which largely explains the structures of poverty evident today. Context should look at both micro and rnacro level dynarnics in al1 its dimensions because they are often imbricated in each other. Gender relations would have a different sort of dynamics if they were not influenced by hierarchized exploitative structures of international capitalism with its unending cycle of crises. The bottom line is, CIDA in policy and in strategy, fails to challenge modernization discourses and concepts of development and this omission has serious implications for the successful implementation of its own policy objectives in the Third World. CIDA, like other development assistance agencies continues to locate in the developmental pattern mapped out by the IMF/World Bank for the South and do not consider it worthwhile to engage in any dialogue with these institutions to consider other options to development. CIDAts concept of operationalizing gender as a variable within the matrix of Third World economic reform therefore is to improve the design and implementation of structural adjustment programmes by advocating that it be gender sensitive (CIDA, 1998). Programmes therefore support capacity building within partner institutions to ensure gender equality within these institutions and to train their staff to carry out Ifgender- aware country economic anaiysistl CIDA, 1999:18). Gender concerns do intersect al1 developrnent areas and sectors, but dealing with patriarchy or unequal opportunities between the sexes does not take away poverty. As Burce rightly points out, male attitudes and societies practices affect only the differential impact of these on women, however these . . . f oms of discrimination are more symptoms than causes of larger problems facing Third World nations; it is unlikely that food shortages, exploitation or general underdevelopment would be eradicated by changes in attitudes

towards womentl (1981:502) . Burce made this criticism against liberal solutions to woments development being advocated by earlier WID liberal theorists such as Rogers and Boserup. But the criticism still holds for present policies because there has been no directional change in essence. This goes back to earlier arguments that discourse may have changed but it has not brought about transformation or emancipation from hegemonic development practices. It is false to think that a change in discourse would mean a de facto change in policy. Analyzing transformatory development strategies from the postmodern perspectives of the politics of participation and context, reveals inherent differentiation and power relations that are continually played out in the development arena and in North-South relations. These power relations should be acknowledged for what they are so that effective challenges can be mounted to them if developrnent assistance is to alleviate not just temporal needs but the long-terni development needs of the South. CEfAPTER SIX

CONCLUSIONS

The main goal of this thesis, was to inform the debate about the potential contributions of postmodern feminist thought to gender and development theory, policy and practice.

This thesis sought to accomplish this mainly in two ways. The

f irst was by examining, from a postmodern perspective, how CIDA has incorporated strategies and criticism of the Gender and Development approach in its policies on women in the last five years, and using these assessments to address the debate on the usefulness of postmodern feminism to gender and development. The second was, through an analysis of a chronology of development theory and practice, to illuminate the contributions of f eminist postmodern criticism of development. This thesis also explored certain hypotheses. It is important to make an important caveat before I present my conclusions. This thesis is written in quest of empirical information to inform the debate on ferninist postmodernism and development. By taking part in this debate

1 am in no way saying that 1 have become an authority in this realm, neither are the opinions expressed here in any way meant to settle the debate. A mere five chapters in any M.A. thesis cannot possibly treat comprehensively what volumes of books, articles and journals and conferences have failed to settle. However, in academic scholarship, no one can garner a monopoly of truth and knowledge over al1 others. We still need to listen to each other. But, as legal scholar Phillip Johnson points out,

to enter a field of intellectual arguments is to accept the risk that we may be proved wrong. But accepting that risk is the inescapable price for making any meaningful statements about the world. . . . . Those who will not take that risk end up saying nothing at all, like the violinist who stops playing for fear of hitting the wrong note (1995:

All social theorizing can be understood to encompass package deals which combine interlinked claims in respect of the nature of the social world itself (ontology),the nature of the knowledge in respect of that social world which might be obtained (epistemology), the manner in which such knowledge might be secured (methodology) and finally, the use to which that knowledge might be put by particular agents in practical action within the social world (practice) (Preston, 1996 :4) . In development theorizing, these package deals dictate the structuring of development discourse, policies and practices of the development enterprise. The production of knowledge and solutions to development has been until now, a Northern claim, occurring mainly within international development agencies, bilateral donor agencies and the countries within which these are situated. In recent years transformatory development paradigms have been adopted in which development, as an empowerment concept, shifts decision-making to peoples of the South and development discourses towards North-South partnership . Ferninist pos trnodern criticisms of development has played a part in this apparent shift. The claims of usefulness of postmodern theorizing for gender and development is its ability to fundamentally challenge these package deals, that is, the ontological and epistemological foundations of development theory and practice

(Marchand and Parpart, 1995). As discussed in Chagter One and Two, the development enterprise, whether drawing on liberal or Marxis t perspectives iç mainly embedded in Enl ightenment thought. Development is perceived as a unilinear path where people in the South adopt Western political and economic systems. A realization that the modernization discourse of development has so far failed to yield expected successes, and that it may neither be appropriate, desirable or achievable has influenced the shift in recent developrnent discourses. Application of postmodern concepts in analyzing CIDAfspolicy and strategies illuminated the imgortance of rethinking the foundations of modernization development discourses and strategies. It also revealed the practical applicability of postmodern concepts to development. The claims of development are such that it needs both conceptual formulations as well as action. Development is a twin process of socio-economic development design and delivery and political decision-making. Development is equally oriented towards achieving practical results. Development theory translates into policy. Policy has important effects and impacts on the lived realities of people because it forms the institutional basis for strategies and there are practical results of such actions. Postmodern feminist endorsement of the adoption of ernpowerment strategies by Third World scholars and by grassroot organizations is a practical alternative to the top-dom strategies adopted by WID and other rnodernization

arrnvna chat t~]?y~-myi_ 1 s X~~-ral~nrnan+ -Fr------p...+-*b . Empowerment perspectives advocate the inclusion of grassroot organizations in policy decisions and the redistribution of power to enable the participation of aid recipients and Third World people in controlling the direction

of development. Such an approach is able to incorporate the strengths but not the limitations of the modernization theories of development. The postmodern focus on difference and the power of narration, and their ability to explore dimensions of other categories like ethnicity, race, and age, in addition to those of class and gender, could provide valuable insights for development scholars and practitioners because it af firms l'the multiple realities of women, particularly their situated, localized characterft(Chowdhry,

1995:39). The postrnodern approach to subjectivity in development practices also places agency as central in social action by placing responsibility and accountability with persons, something anti-racist feminism, in a teleological manner, fails to accomplish." Postmodern theorizing is not characterized by theoretical extremism of one kind or other. In essence, it is a synthesis of many ideas from different traditions." The postrnodern feminist emphasis on discourse and representation as solutions to hegemonic practices has important benefits. Discourse analysis of WID policies and literature revealed the effects

of WID s embeddedness in liberal discourses in perpetrat ing womenfs subordination. Chowdhl (19%); for example: reveals that colonial and neo-colonial discourses in+ WID policies led to gendered developrnent projects that in fact disempowered the women it sought to help. The postmodern criticism of the Western creation of binary distinctions is also shown to sustain the hierarchized dichotomization and opposition between North and South and between male and female. Colonial structures, institutions and images generated over centuries, form the legacy with which subsequent development theorists have comprehended the situation of the Third World. 1 agree entirely with feminist postmodern theorists that discourse analysis is an invaluable tool in exposing hegemonic discourses in development. Discourse analysis should, however, not be seen as an end in itself. As the analysis of CIDA1s policies discourses in Chapter Four revealed, a change in policy discourse does not necessarily lead to a de facto cessation of hegemonic practices in North-

South relations. In other words, exposure of colonial discourse and misrepresentation does not constitute in itself effective f ighting of hegemonic practices . Policy is still being dictated mainly from the North, coated with the rhetoric of empowerment and participation. CIDA' s policies still support hegemonic and hierarchical capitalist practices and policies while purporting to fight inequalities and empower the poor whom these practices subordinate. Discourse analysis still remains invaluable to exposing the hegemonic character of knowledge production. The analysis throughout this thesis illuminates the essential political character of development. Policy tends to be ideological and therefore subjective. The development enterprise has so far been ttunwillingor unable to establish criteria for recognizing, correcting and avoiding errorl1 made by policy mistakes (George, 1988:264; Sparr, 1993) . In the wake of changes in the international development discourse and political priorities, employing postmodern concepts to analyze these changes provided tools to identify new areas of subordination. By applying a postmodern reconceptualization of participation, Chapter Five not only illuminated the problematics of adopting a participatory approach, it also pinpointed the inherent counter-hegemonic character of participation and the probable reasons for CIDAfs inability or unwillingness to institutionalize it. Participation was dernons trated to be a strategy that basically challenged hegemonic practices of development enterprise. CIDAts and most donor agenciesl failure to make good this pledge may be attributed to the fact that participatory approaches to development potentially challenge global political-econornic power structures, powerful ideological structures which these agencies are unable or unwilling to challenge. The findings of this thesis lend support to the hypotheses stated at the beginning of this thesis. Examination of the genealogy of development theories and practices illustrate the fact that oender relations and oppression in the South are also located in specific unequal relationships generated by global economic and political institutioris operating in Third World countries, and that these specific forms of power relations and contexts relates to the historical-political antecedences of North-South relations. The postmodern conceptualization of context again provided the tools to reveal the political nature of development. The analysis of CIDA1s failure to address the specific needs of the South also illuminates the fact that the nature of economic remedies and intrusion in the lives of women by international aid agencies and NGOs is often political and this political nature is not adequately addressed even in recent development policies and strategies. In development theorizing a comprehensive approach to context is useful in providing adequate explanations and solutions to development, as rny attempt to explain the different development patterns of sub-Saharan Africa in the context of time and space, earlier in Chapter One elucidates. Context plays an important role in the development enterprise's ability to achieve transformation and sustainable development. The dynamics of the ongoing processes of global political and economic restructuring by the IMF/World Bank have exacerbated poverty in the South. These super-structural contexts should be addressed by aid agencies if any transfomative development and a partnerçhip betwsen North and South is to take place. This thesis demonstrates that international as well as nationally situated and specific socio-political and economic analyses and strategies need to be adopted which address the social realities of beneficiaries of aid. Socio-historical contexts, and their relation to international as well as to local institutional and political forces, form a more holistic picture of the contexts within which Southern countries locate. The influences of al1 these processes need to be identified in any understanding of local context. CIDA however takes a partial approach to local context. As a result of this approach, CIDAts recognition of local context is limited to addressing gender relation within specific socio-economic milieux without addressing or challenging international macro economic and political processes in shaping and constructing these relationships . By failing to address the influences brought to bear on the majority of people in the South by the ruling interests of global capitalism, both of CIDA'S 1995 WID and 1999 GE policies fail, in many important ways, to be cross-cutting themes intersecting al1 development areas and sectors as they claim to be. Without addressing these global financial institutions, development assistance continues to be of benefit to the South only as short term, temporal solutions that slow dom underdevelopment and makes the South available a little bit loyer for the continued exploitation of olobal capitalism. So, is postmodern feminisrn able to offer useful political strategies to development? Does postmodern feminism provide political answers to development? This thesis demonstrates that it does. The ability of postmodern analysis to reveal the political character of development, as demonstrated in this thesis, points to postmodern feminism as an effective oppositional discourse. Some feminists, including certain postmodern feminists such as Nzomo, Barriteau and ~dayyagiri,?' believe that postrnodern feminism can only be relevant to gender and development if it succeeds in showing its potential for achieving political unity . The apparent obsession with difference, acceptance of the partial nature of al1 kriowledge and subsequent recognition of alternative and previously silenced voices and claims, bas led to concerns about the ability to maintain a unified feminist political project. Critics of postmodern ideas, who have called into question the very idea of postmodern politics, maintain that a theoretical perspective that rejects a concept of the rselffas unified or as a coherent identity, surrenders any basis for political mobilization (Nicholson and Seidman, 1998) . Feminist postmodern approaches to development did arise out of calls for a 'differentf approach. Feminis t s sympathetic to postmodern thinking perceived that a strategic enoaoement between feminism and postmodern rhoughr would transcend both perspectives rather than form a mere alliance of the two (Marchand and Parpart, 1995). It is tme that both perspectives have sought to develop new paradigms of social criticism that do not rely on traditional philosophical underpimings. However, while postmodernism has been focused on philosophical criticisms, feminism has been more interested in political questions (ibid.) . But to perceive the contribution of postmodernism only in political terms is to sacrifice the benefits of this amalgamation for unspecified political gains.

1 also do not think that it is a sociological contradiction that a theor). that emphasizes 'differencet,as postmodernism does, should be able to achieve political unity. Difference could actually conçtitute the fulcrum for a more effective coalitionally based activism. And this is what an engagement with postmodern analysis should primarily be perceived as leading towards. Marchand and Parpart argue that political action grounded in difference, and open to the limitations of both knowledge claims, "could be more effective in the long run, both for its capacity to build alliances with oppositional groups, and because it would (possibly) be more difficult for the state to repress or co-opt such decentered alliances" (ibid:i29). However in building alliances certain problems will exist which are not resolvable. The encounter between feminism and postmodernism provides an arena where difference can be celebrated without sacrificino the search for a "broader, richer and more complex and multilayered feminist solidarity .... which is essential for overcoming the oppression of women in its Iendless variety and monotonous similarityr (Fraser and Nicholson, 1990 : 35) . Feminism is a political project that relies on categorization. Feminism has been largely about achieving 1 iberat ion for the category ' womanl who suf fers oppression from the category 'men1 (patriarchy). The postmodern emphasis on difference and its de-essentializing and decentering tendencies makes it inevitable that it would provoke conflict with political proj ects that rely on strong classif icatory systems such as gender, ethnicity or race or class (Rattansi, 1998). Classificatory systems in human sciences and the social sciences have been employed to construct and reconstruct boundaries and to broaden and narrow boundaries about themselves and ' others ' id.) . These however are embedded in the truth regimes of Enlightenrnent thinking, which are quite vulnerable to the deconstructive criticisms of postmodern analysis. Difference speaks of multiple feminisms and the need to legitimize ferninist language in its usage among diverse women of the South and North (Staudt, 1998). As Nzomo herself confirms, postmodern feminist discourse rightly points out that women are not a hornogeneous category. They are differentiated by diverse cultural, social, economic groupings

based on class, ethnic and racial identities. The result of these differentiations is that gender subordination varies in tems of how it is experienced by al1 women. Evidently an understanding and a recognition of difference and diversity is important for any project that works with a category that is so diverse as Iwoment. This is an understanding feminism in the past has failed to achieve but which is now being offered as achievable in this alliance with postmodernism. Of course the postmodern distrust of the subject poses a few problems for feminists whose theories are predicated on subjectivities grounded in woments lived realities as are standpoint and anti-racist feminism. Ironically, these feminisms are, in essence, advocating Idifference and diversityt. Standpoint theorists Say wornen's experiences are not the same, while anti-racists and black feminists are saying differences in tcolourlmake a big difference in the category 'womant. This tells me that, if anything, feminism should be least suspicious of analysis that emphasizes dif f erence . The obsession with difference is the very characteristic which gives postmodernism its strength - the power to reveal new relationships, new structures in changing contexts (Tong, 1989). Recognition of difference in feminism can only respond to the different needs and concerns of different women as "defined by them for themselves~ (Sen and

Grown, 1987:19). Diversity should still be able to build on a common opposition to gender oppression and hierarchy which is only a first but important step in articulatins and actino upon a political agenda (ibid)." Feminism has problems with postmodernism because feminism is essentially a political project. And politics is perceived to be effective when it has numerical support. But we al1 know that, even in politics, the general will is not the will of all. Diversity may not be an important concern in the acquisition and control of power. However, in a political project such as feminism which seeks to fight injustices, the ' general will concept cannot be an acceptable compromise. Certain adaptations may need to take place in the alliance. It is true that feminism started out as a political movement. However feminism should not still hang on to political activism as its only raison d'etre. Every project or organization continues to exist in space and time only as it adapts its goals and objectives to re-invent and transform itself. A feminism that maintains that political unity is essential in a postmodern age, is basically falling into the trap of foundationalism, essentialism and Euuocentricism. To hang on to political unity is to essentialize the political over al1 other reasons to exist. Postmodern analysis in gender and development points out that the nature and dynamics of gender relations differ across cultures and the answer may not always lie in focusing on gender power relations. As research has found, women and men are not always poised antagonistically against each other. This means that the political question is no longer the most important question to ask in a diverse global world. This sounds a death knell for feminism if its sole aim is the political. 1 believe postmodern feminism is offering a rethinking of existence, and rnay perhaps be the wake-up cal1 to feminism to re-invent itself. Introduction 1. By Boserup (1970) and other women. 2. The sensitivity to ecological and environmental issues and their relation to the livelihoods of the poor especially women in the South, stimulated the debate on women, environment and sustainable development. Women in the South were perceived to bear a special reiationship with the environment. They depended ori the lad fox food water and fuel to sustain their families. Environmental degradation severely affected women. In the North, this recognition gave birth to debates on the nature of feminism and . At international development conferences the debate was on Southern women mainly as victims of the environmental crisis (Braidotti et al, 1994) . 3. The term 'Enlightenment thoughtl is summarily employed to describe major characteristics of Western knowledge and philosophy since the eighteenth century. Enlightenment thought is associated with the belief in progress or modernity, dualistic or dichotomous thinking characterised by the ordering of concepts in binary oppositional pairs, in which the first-term is superior to the second. It is also associated with making a definite distinction between objective reality and subjective interpretation as well as the search for a single grand theory to explain the world (Marchand and Parpart, 1995).

4. Foucaultls concent of discourse draws from several traditions including Marxism, çfructuralisrn, linguistics and the philosophy of Nietzsche. The term 'discourse' is used in different ways in the social sciences. The classification provided by ~oÜsins and Hussain (1984) for its uses includes the analysis of speech and language to elucidate social dynamics in socio-linguistics. It is also used to explore the relation between human subjectivity and language. It 1s again employed to examine the epistemological problem of the relationship between knowledge and reality. Finally it is used in Marxist ideology to refer to the rnechanisms of social relations including their discursive and non-discursive practices and their relation to processes of power.

S. As 1 have also found in my own research (a statistics path analysis paper tlDeconstructingIdentity: Aboriginal Women and the Politics of Self-Govermentu) in which analysis of data extracted from the 1991 Aboriginal Peoples survef pointed to similar conclusions.

6. Fem .nists,mainly f rom liberal and Mamist perpectives which are f irmiy embedded in En1 ight,enment thinking, have opposed pos tmodern ideas. Liberal femini sts who produce policies for the W'ID regimes, see improvements in the status of women within the structures of Western thought, and generally refuse to accept the "possibility that 'modernizationJ and 'progress' may be unobtainable and undesirable goals in a postmodern world" (Marchand and Parpart, 1995 :4) . The Marxist feminists' complaints rnay be summarized in Sylvia Walby's criticism that upostmodernism in social theory has led to the fragmentation of the concepts of sex, race and class and to the denial of the pertinence of overarching theories of patriarchy, racism and capitalism.. .", while the rejection of metanarratives is "a denial of significant structuring of .*. - ". .-TC Lez-.= C-. ------" ne-: + LU LLLCLC -----ALA~LLL CLLL~AA (133S : 2) . r etii~l'iiSt anthropologists,. on the other hand, maintain that feminist theory, especially in the contributions to the creation of the "Other" and long standing critique of Western notions of "truth" have always dealt with postmodern concepts. Feminist anthropology, they argue, has more to offer feminism than postmodern theory which they believe to be inherently sexist (Sharpe and Cohen 1989 cited in Marchand and Parpart, 1995). Postmodern feminists have responded to this by pointing out that, ironically, for "feminists looking overseas to the non-feminist 'Other"' the reference Ys not so much to patriarchy as the non-Western woman" (Ong, 1988:80, cited in Marchand and Parpart, 1995) . Standpoint theorists, such as Brodribb (l992), Harding (1992) and Smith (1990), have also felt threatened by the postmodern assault on the subject's ability to know. Their fears stem from the fact that standpoint theory is predicated on the f emale subj ectivity grounded in women's daily lives. The standpoint critique of male hegemony is entirely basea on feminist/feminine knowledge of women's lived experience .- 7, Such as the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF), foreign governments and non-governmental Organizations (NGOs). 8. Even though some like Gunder Frank (1979) and Samil Amin (1974; 1977) called for more self-reliant developrnent in the South.

Chapter One 9. For detailed information on the emergence of early development theories up until the 1970s see Colin Leys' The Rise and Fa11 of Development Theory (1996). 10. And can also be traced to nineteenth-century theological discourses in which development waç seen as redemption, merging Christian and Enlightenment discourses which reified modernity to planetary cause. 11. Roxborough (1979) gives a thorough discussion on the basic tenets of these theories. 12. In this analysis the World Bank and IMF are discussed together except where specific distinctions are necessary. This is because of their complementary roles, ident ical ideology and sirnilar objectives. While the IMF under Article 8 of its statute is enjoined to promote trade and liberalization of forms of international payment and to remove exchange rate restrictions, the World Bank has been concerned with eradication of poverty and acceleration of economic growth. With the economic crisis in the 1980s the IMF and World Bank have synthesized roles under the Structural Adjustrnent Programme (SAP). 13. These arguments are more extensively presented by Asante (1993). These are oversimplified here as they are not the focus of this thesis. They are however important analyses that contribute to a fuller understanding of the postmodern criticisms. 14. It bears a great resemblance to the development paths laid out by previous colonial governments. IMF/World Bank appeared to continue where colonial governments left off, only now with a carrot and stick approach.

15. Gold mines in Ghana declared by the state to be unprofitable and bought by LONHRO as part of the privatisation programme quickly turned out to be one of the most profitable ventures made by the Company less than 2 years after the transfer.

16. See Okogo (1989) article in "Structural Adjustment Policies in African Countries" for a theoretical discussion of adjustment policies. 17. USA declared themselves free from Britain in 1776, but it was not untiil 1798, after the war with Britain that the world recognized USA as an independent state. 18. That is, it is a documented fact that capitalism creates unequal development wherever it is practised (Sklair, 1991; Mouzelis, 1988). However, we do not have underdeveloped economies that have operated independent of the capitalist system for us to make cornparisons and make solid conclusions. For this reason these factors alone cannot be the only reasons for underdevelopment, but it is evident that capitalism is exploitative and leads to unequal development wherever it operates. 19. The 'feminization of labour' characterizes this period when the world labour market structure changed.

20. Theçe analyze different theories on the nature of the post- colonial state.

21. This was the thesis in my Msc. dissertation in which 1 established a definite relationship between the IMF/World Bank and succession of military and democratic regimes that have assumed power in Ghana since independence. 22. Kwame Nkrumah led the coalition that brought dom British colonial rule of Ghana. His government was deposed by a military coup dfetatplanned by the CIA of the USA. Efforts by Mozambiquefç socialist government to bring about social transf omation was severely hampered by FRELIMO rebel forces equipped and supported by capitalist Apartheid South Africa. The activities of the CIA in Africa have been extraordinary. This has included supporting the pro-West political parties in Angola to depose the Marxist Popular Movernent for the Liberation of Angola which maintained tenuous control wi th Soviet and Cuban assistance. In central Af rica, the CIA has been involved in sponsoring military and interna1 coup- makers, political assassination plots, technical assistance for presidential bodyguard and security apparatus, combat and combat support personnel, supply of arms and related equipment. 23. What is left is siphoned into Swiss bank accounts by the ruling capitalist class. 24. As happened in Ghana between 1978-1979. The 'Yentua policyt (we shall not repay) of Acheampong repudiated what he called 'bad debtsr and unilaterally rescheduled the rest. In a quiet 'palace coupt only Acheampong, the head of state was removed. He was replaced with General Akuffo and another attempt began to submit the economy to financial discipline including a significant 58% devaluation and prompt repayment of external debts. An IMF team arriving in Ghana to assess the extent to which their recornrnendations had been implemented on June 4, 1979, were met on the same day with another coup, led by the ranks and junior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces, who overthrew the Akuffo regime, set up a firing squad and summarily executed the majority of Acheampong's government. From that tirne, Ghana moved from a period of non-cooperation with the IMF to the longest period of full collaboration. This same governrnent has also ruled the country since 1979, transformed itself from a military regime to a democratic political party with the support of the British and Arnerican governments whose international elections monitoring team have consistently declared every elections won by this party 'free and fair' . Chapter Two 25. Of course rnost development theorists believe that their work is a science and not a reflection of the econornic and political commitments of capitalism or Western societies. 26. See articles of Chowdhry, Ong, Mohanty, Lazreg in Marchand and Parpart op cit.

27. And continues to be the main reason for the failure to mainstream women in its policies. 28. The World p ut rit ion project for low-weight children provided direct nutritional supplements for 3 years in six districts. The proj ect relied entirely on the communities l womenls volunteer groups to do the cooking cleaning and serving, however this labour was never factored into the projectts successful efficiency rating. 29. Parpart (1995) cites the case of a foreign funded NGO delivering primary health care in Burkina Faso in the 1980s which focused mainly on imparting scientific medical knowledge to villagers, ignoring local medical knowledge and practices. The result was that dependence on the PHC experts increased while the public health training component of the project had no impact. It was not surprising that the women involved in this project reverted to traditional health practices when left on their own. In the end the project integrated the women more into government established bureaucracies than fostering womenls self-reliance.

30. Also called Empowerment Approaches (Marchand and Partpart, 1 abc\

31. McFarland (1988) believes DAWN to be more a political economy of women approach. 1 do not think a postmodern analysis precludes the political and the economic. It actually advocates the importance of locating (but not foregrounding as Marxisrn does) any analysis of development in these social processes. 32. While Rogers focused on patriarchal structures in development planning, that is, male development expert and plamers and the resulting 'home economicsf projects they implemented in the South. Reviewers of Boserup and Rogers1 writings therefore called for a theoretical framework that did not see the elimination of patriarchal attitudes as the panacea for woments subordination or underdeveloprnent. 33. It found, for example, that whereas land privatization generally placed Third World economies in unfavourable positions in the international economy, women had the extra burden of reduced access to land because of the increase in commercial farming (McFarland, 1988). Increasing mechanization of food processing reduced women s employment and income while alternative jobs in multinational assembly plants tended to be dead-end and low paying. 34. For example, because planners had ignored womenrs perspective, and the social structures within which reproductive activities took place, they failed to understand woments mixed responses to family planning attributing it to traditional mindedness of Third World Women. McFarland mentions the role of children as assets as workers, as old age security, as heirs of family property as well as the unsatisfactory nature of the birth control methods that were being offered as some of the factors that plamers should have taken into consideration. Many of the birth control methods being promoted were quite unsuitable for the climatic and female nutrition and sanitary conditions of Third World countries. Researchers showed for example that IUDs inserted in rural women under insanitary conditions and without proper after-care led to heavier bleeding exerting undue toll on women who were already undemourished and suffering from iron deficiency anaemia. The end results of inappropriate contraceptive rnethods were serious side effects and even infertility (World Bank, 1984; Pettigrew, 1984) 35. Some of the solutions include more national self-reliance, stricter control of transnational investments, debt reduction, demilitarization or the reduction of milita- expenditure and reversing internal inequities. 36. The authors also argue that the crises of developrnent rnay inadvertently have forced empowerment of women because poor women have gained internal resilience for collective non-violent action. shedding traditional subrnissiveness in the process. Women have organised using traditional cultural forms to raise the consciousness of men and women about injustices and inequality (McFarland, 1988). 37. The tendency, as stated previously, has been to see development as "straightforward, linear process in which a nation or people moved from underdevelopment .... to full development ... based on the Northern modelIf (Marchand and Parpart, 199531; Johnston, 1991) . 38. Sen and Grown propose that, any alternative development theorizing and practice should begin from the vantage point of "poor womenm because "[tlhe perspective of poor and oppressed women provides a unique and powerful vantage from which we can examine the effects of development programmes and strategies ..... evaluate the extent to which development strategies benefit or harm the poorest and most oppressed sections of the people.. . [and] judge their impact on a range of sectors and activities crucial to socio- economic development and human welfareN (ibid:23-24). Sen and Grown argue that it- is Ilquite natural to start with womenIt , because they constitute the majority of the poor, ... the economically and socially disadvantaged in most societiesH (ibid). It is women who are the "most oppressedIt and who suffer Ifon account of class , race and nationalityIt and who therefore provide the link in understanding the chain of oppression (ibid:20). Womenls work should be the Nsecondlrfocus of analysis as it 'is vital to the survival and ongoing reproduction of human beings in al1 societies~ (ibid:24). Poor women struggle to "ensure the basic needs of their families . . . [and] . . . it is their aspirations and struggles for a future free of the multiple oppression of gender, class, race, and nation that can form the basis for the new visions and strategies that the new world now needs (ibid:9-10). The provision of minimum basic needs should then be the guiding principle for al1 development policies and as women constitute the human element linking the availability of food, rural energy resources and water, they should be placed at the centre of development practice. 39. The introduction to her much acclaimed book Sisterhood is Global : The International Women's Movemen t Anthology. Mohanty's criticisms are also directed at Bernice Johnson Reagan's essay "Coalition Politics : Turning the Century" in Barbara Smith's anthology, Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. Both essays, though di£ f erent f rom each other, also foreground analyt ical categories which address issues of cross-cultural, cross-national differences among women.

40. A related issue here is the extent to which feminism can be a viable political project given the diverse experiences of women's lives. This issue is addressed later in this thesis.

41. As well as preindustrial, feudal societies according to Baudrillard (1975). 42. This is in actual fact the title of an article by Audre Lorde "The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's house" in Sister Outsider, 1984. Freedom, California : Crossing Press.

43. McFarland (1988) believes DAWN to be more of a political economy of women approach. 1 do not think postrnodern analysis precludes the political and the economic. It actually advocates the importance of locating (but not foregrounding as Marxism does) any analysis of development in these social processes.

44. Braidotti et al. (1994) point out that these progressive transformations were surprisingly confined to policy approach to WID and not extended by the Dutch to other areas of their development cooperation.

Chapter Three 45. The Canadian government had ratif ied al1 major international human rights treaties and had committed also to international agreements such as the Uni ted Nations Declaration on Violence Against Women, hence this new enactment (CIDA, 1999aA).

45. Exampies given of a WID-Integrated Approach include fisheries projects which carry out not only fish harvesting but also associated activities usually carried out by women such as preparation of gear and bait, fi& processing and marketing; an economic policy reform project in which gender interests and impacts are incorporated into the policy pro cess; a schola ,ship programme in which any problems that would hinder women £rom participating are identified and addressed in the project de ign. 47. Societies including mainly NGOs, unions, professional associations, educational institutions, private sector firms etc. 48. The word 'corporate' is employed by CIDA to refer to its head- offices at Ottawa-Hull and is used with the same meaning in this thesis. 49. This was clarified in interviews with staff in both the Gender and Equality Division, Policy Branch, and the Perf crmance Review Branch Documents such as the CIDA ' s Guide to Gender-Sensitive Indicators and the Project Level Handbook: The Why and How of Gender-Sensitive ïndicators, developed 2 years af ter the 1995 policy, were to assist CIDA staff and partners to develop gender- sensitive performance indicators for pro j ects and programmes.

Chapter Four 50. These included Diane Rivington, Director of the Gender and Equality Division, Policy Branch, who took part in the development of both policies, Carla Casteneda a policy analyst in the Division, Ok-Kyung Pak, who previously worked in International Cooperation and took part in an unsuccessful attempt to develop a participatory development committee, Peter Craol, currently developing participation techniques to incorporate indigenous knowledges, Heather Baser, Senior Advisor in Capacity Development and Anti- Corruption and Martine Villeneuve from the Performance Review Branch. 51. This analytical framework was developed by Jahan (1994, 1995) and also employed by Staudt (1997, 1998), in their analysis of

women, development agencies, policies and -programmes. - Jahan's framework was -developed as part of a project commissioned by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development/ Development Assistance Cornmittee (OECD/DAC) expert group on WID to elaborate the concept of mainstreaming. Integrationist approach is one approach adopted by organizations in their efforts to mainstream women in development. The key çtrategy here is to build gender issues within existing development paradigms by widening women and gender concerns across a broad spectrum of programme priorities. Overall development agenda is not transformed in spite of these gender considerations (Jahan, 1995) . Agenda-setting - is an approach that implies the transformation of existing development agenda with a gender perspective. The key strategy is the participation of women as decision-makers to bring about a fundamental change in the exist ing development paradigm (Jahan, 1995) . Ins titutional Strategies - are interventions to bring about structural changes within the organizationç and governments to ensure that policy objectives can be implemented. The instruments and procedures that have been used to facilitate WID/GAD have included accountability, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and personnel policy (Jahan, 1995) . Operational Strategies - are the output-oriented instruments to achieve a change in the work practices of organizations and governments. Operational strategies that have been adopted by aid agencies include guidelines, training, research, special pro j ects, analytic tools, country programming, macro-policies and policy dialogue. 52. This was a report of an assessment of women in development and gender equity in CIDA evaluations prepared for the DAC Working Party on Aid Evaiuation in October 1998. As I stated in the outline, there was no specific evaluation guideline for the 1995 policy. This omission made the policy quite difficult to evaluate. 53. The interviews helped clarify some information contained in the document sent to me from CIDA. 1 requested documents on the evolution of both policies, but was told there was no documentation on consultation activities. 54. Canada's Federal Plan for Gender Equality approved by Cabinet earlier on in 1995. 55. This information is from the interview with head of Gender and Equality Policy Division, Policy Branch. CIDA sent out to these organizations an outline of the GE policy and invited their comments which they incorporated into the final write-up. 56. Diana Rivington admitted this freely in interview stating also that there was no way of knowing that NGOs who responded to the invitation solicited the opinions of the communities in which they worked.

57. Both documents, Guide to Gender-Sensi tive Indicators and the Project Level Handbook were researched and compiled by Dr Tony Beck of the Institute of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, and Dr Morton Stelcner of the Department of Economics, Concordia University, for the Division of Women in Development and Gender Equity in CIDAts Policy Branch. 58. Perhaps the only saving grace here is that those recruited have been independent consultants, which improves the chances of some objectivity in evaluation.

59. Probably did so from their own interpretation of the participatory f ocus of the policy objectives that participation should form part of any attempt to evaluate progress. One consultant, Francoise Coupal, who employed participatory methods in her evaluation of some CIDA programmes in Haiti did so not because CIDA required her to. 60. From interview with Heather Baser Senior Advisor in Capacity Development and Anti Corruption. 1 appreciate the candidness of Mrs Baser who forthwith told me that CIDA1s present approaches to development undermined capacity building. Mrs Baser made the important point that al1 development assistance in her opinion is essentially some form of capacity building. 61. This view is expressed in interviews with the Director of the Gender and Equality Division at CIDA office in Hull, Quebec. The answer to why CIDA policy dialogues had not made any challenges to structural adjustment policy is that CIDA believes that Third World countries who submitted to structural adjustment discipline of the IMF/World Bank are better off than those who had not. 62. If supporting multiiateral institutions also means f inancial support, then I would argue that aid money could be better spent.

Chapter Five 63. 1 Say relative novelty because participatory çtrategies did not start with these conferences. NGOVs have long been recognized as practitioners of development work in which grassroot participation flourished, especially during the WAD regime.

64. 1 Say ideally because, in the effort to empower, participation can result in disempowerment as later arguments reveal. 65. A consideration 1 return to later in the discussion of context, 66. CIDA staff also identified the adverse practices mentioned here . 67. By some CIDA staff concerned about the humanitarian content of such development policies, and by Canadian scholars and political activists located in successive federal governments. 68. Changes in management to a result-based management at the end of 1995 led to inclusion of a statement on progress measurement (evaluation) in the 1999 policy. Previous 1995 policy had not included a section on assessments and the policy did not lend itself very well to performance review. 69. From interviews. 70. See the articles by Rassiguier, Emberley and Bald in Marchand and Parpart, 1995. 71. Jahan also States that during dialogues concerns were raised about the need to achieve gender equality but the policy implications of achieving such goals were not systematically explored. 1 agree with this statement in essence but I believe we are coming at this from different angles. 72. Brief discussion of SAP in chapter one. The empirical evidence in support of the negative impact of structural adjustment on Third World economies and especially on women is too numerous to do justice to here especially since this is not the focus of the argument. For a feminist critique of structural adjustment see Sparr (1993) Mortgaging Women s Lives.

73. Failure to include gender relations into economic analysis have led to aggravation of family conflict and domestic violence. Expanding agricultural export crops where female household labour is the of labour has led to marital conflict in certain societies. Women in certain countries where they are traditionally economically independent have seen women refuse to contribute more labour in attempts to expand export crops if it would not result in additional income for them. Men have resorted to more hegemonic control of women to increase output (Sparr,1993). 74. An example is the different spending patterns of men and women. Women tend to take care of the needs of the household (husbands and children) first then themselves if there is anything left over. Men react to increases in income in different ways. 75. Though the World Bank World Development Report 1990 argues otherwise. 76. 1 address CIDAts contribution to this later in this chapter.

77. For example, proportional parliamentary systems provide more representative voice for women inside of multiple political parties, legislative bodies and government bodies whose influence according to Staudt, may not always coexist with autonomous womenls lobbies and movement groups that engage with government. 78. Heather Baser, Senior Advisor Capacity Building, supports this view and also identifies the adverse practices mentioned here as stifling capacity building in the South. 79. Bilateral institutions have historically consisted of male- majority professionals and it takes special initiatives to ensure the involvement of more women professionals. This, however, can be done at the corporate level.

80 . The long-term tt ob j ectives of SAGA include : building Af rican civil societytscapacity to undertake gender analysis in economics, as well as support for gender training for economists and key decision-makers; engaging in policy dialogue with government officials and creating awareness through workshops and training ..Il (CIDA, 1998d:3) . In light of my earlier (postmodern) arguments, these barely constitute an effective challenge to the structures of the modernization discourse on development. Chapter Six 81. Black and standpoint feminists articulate more specifically the particular experiences of women as quite remote to the average white (or other) person. Of course it requires a particular engagement with any oppressive experience to understand how repressive and primary it is. Making experience the ultimate arbiter of what is known, however, has a few problerns . Does it mean that it is only those with a particular experience who have subjugated knowledge? The daim that without a particular experience, people lack the capacity to understand, analyze and explain, also leads to teleological arguments (Miles, 1989 : 5) . To claim for example that racism is a 'blackl experience which a 'whitef person is unable to understand is to absolve the white person of capabilities and responsibility. On the other hand, to Say racism is an exclusive experience of black people leads to the logical point that it is perpetrated by white people. If experience then is the central arbiter of the ability to investigate, to learn, and to know, then racism is de facto, the prerogative of 'whitef people, a unique product of their practices. Logically, it may be asserted that only 'white1 people can understand its motives and origins (ibid:6). Yet by the standpoint postulate, the perpetrators are denied the opportunity to understand and the capacity to deal with and take responsibility for their actions. 82. Except of course Enlightenrnent/modern thinking. Its distrust of modernist assumptions of development is not entirely without base. For a long time modernization theories have mainly contributed to the lack of development in the South. 83. See their different articles in Marchand and Parpart. Despite differing assessments of postmodern feminism, al1 three agree that Vostmodern feminism can only be relevant for the field of Gender and Development if it succeeds in showing its potential for political action" (Marchand and Parpart, 1995: 128) 84. Sen and Grown however believe that dlfference should be disregarded in favour of political unity. 1 think that is an unsatisfactory way to deal with the problem of difference. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Young, R. 1990. White Mythologies, London: Routledge. Open-structured questions used in interviews with CIDA staff. POLICY 1. How were the 1995 and 1999 policies developed? That is what research, studies government enactments etc guided the evolution of each policy? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 2. Who were involved in the evolution of the policies? Who took part in consultations, in the planning and development of the policies? What were CIDAts criteria for selection of the people who were consulted? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 3. Was there any consultation dialogue between programme communities (local people) before any of these policies were developed? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? If yes what were these dialogues that is, what form did these take? And are there any documentation on this? Could 1 have access to these?

STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES TO IMPLEMENT POLICXES 4. Who inf ormed CIDA1s decisions about which strategies to adopt? (consultation and planning phases of strategy development ) . a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 5 . What informed CIDAts decisions about which strategies to adopt? (eg. past evaluations, management reforms, government legislation etc?) a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 6. How did CIDA identify development needs for these two policies? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 7a. What resources does CIDA employ to build organizational capacity? 7b. Who does the staff training in at the corporate and Branch prsgrrrne ~ffices?Eces CIDP. rse ge"er cms~lt~~tr/ex~o~~~? 7c. If yes are these resource people from the project country or from Canada/ West? 7d. Did CIDA use local consultant to do evaluation, staff training, baseline studies etc. If yes do you have documentation on who and the criteria for selection? 8. CIDA has a cornputer-based training prograrme for the WID/GE policy . Who were the resource consultants/people for the development of this programme? 9. Participation is an integral part of both policies. Could you tell me how participation by local cornmunities informed the development of the 1999 policy?

PERFORbiANCE ASSESSMENTS 10. The 1999 policy indicates CIDA had indicators to assess performance. What were these? 11. For which policy were the indicators documented in the 'Guide to Gender-sensitive Indicatorsl and the 'Project level Hand Book developed? 12. The 1995 policy does not give any information on how the programme was to be assessed. Were there any criteria for assessments? How were these developed? And has CIDA ever used local consultants to evaluate its policies? If yes what is the criteria for selection? If no, Why? OUTLINE OF 1995 CIDA 'S WOMEN IN DEPELOPMEXW AND GElWER EQUITY

POLICY AND 1999 CIDA 'S POLICY ON GENDER AND EQUALITY

Evolution of Policiea on Women

1976 The year CIDA first adopted its policy guidelines on Women in Development. 1984 First WID Policy released which sought to promote womenfs full participation as both agents and beneficiaries of development . 1986 Five-year Plan of Action was launched.

1992 The Interim Women in Development Policy was issued. 1995 Wornen in Development and Gender Equity Policy issued and its Division at the policy branch established. This waç after an evaluation of the WID Policy and strategies (1984-92) which led to the assignment of WID Specialists to al1 programme offices. 1999 Gender and Equality Policy. An update of the 1995 policy to reflect the growing recognition of the importance of gender. It follows conclusions of the review of 1995

policy that there was a need to Ifdemonstrate clear and sustainable results in promoting gender in line with

CIDA1s policy on results-based management" (CIDA, 1999:l-

2) 1999 GE POLICY 1995 WID/GE POLICY II CIDA'S Women in CIDA views its Gender and Equality Development and Gender policy as a tool to finally Equity Policy was the II eradicating inequality on any means of going beyond the grounds, be it gender, class, 1984 policy emphasis on race, or ethnicity in the 21st women as beneficiaries and century. agents of development to an emphasis on gender equity and woments empowerment . GOAL : The policyts goal is to lfsupport GOAL : the achievement of equality To strengthen the full between women and men to ensure participation of wornen as sustainable development l1 (CIDA, equal partners in the 1999). sustainable development of their societies OBJECTIVES: * Woments equal participation with OBJECTIVES : men as decision-makers in shaping * To support, encourage the sustainable development of and respond to initiatives their society. within and among developing countries to * Supporting women and girls to achieve ; realize their full hurnan rights. a. increased womenls participation in decision- * Reducing gender inequality in making processes, access to and control over the b. increase income levels resources and benefits of and economic conditions, development. c. improve woments access to basic health and family planning services, d-improve their levels of education and skills and e. promote and protect human rights of women. * Promote and support CIDAts partners in Canada overseas & in the South in their efforts to integrate gender considerations in their development work. * Build institutional capacities to effectively integrate gender into policies, programmes projects and activities . 1995 CIDArs Policy on Women in Development and Gender Equi ty

Policy Framework/Rationale

The rationale for the 1995 CIDAisWID/GE stems from five

considerations. The f irst makes reference to Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rlghts and Freedoms which supports Canada's comrnitments to prornote equality for women both in Canada and the rest of the world. This policy is thought to be a reflection of CIDAts dedication to these principles. The second The policy reflects a move from the focus on equal treatment of the sexes to differential treatment of groups to end inequality, in recognition of

'genderi and gender roles and the fact that these roles vary across time and space. This focus calls for specific measures for women and hence women specific strategies adopted under this policy. The third, is the evidence that focusing on gender and gender sensitive planning is central to sustainable economic development, lt[i]nvestingin women leads to lasting economic growth, improving family welfare and a reduction in poverty - a more equitable distribution of the socio-economic benefits of developmentil(CIDA, 1995a: 4) . The last rationale is that gender analysis is crucial to good development practice. Incorrect assumptions about development recipient has led to programme failures.

192 Beneficiaries have been treated as a llhomogenousgroup, rather that men and women with different needs and interestsu (CIDA, 1995a:4). The use of gender relations as analytical category shifts the focus away from viewing women in isolation from men. Gender relations examines the relative position of men and women in the division of [labour], resources and responsibilities, benef its and rights, power and privilegeN

(ibid).

The policy framework for the 1995 policy includes: Womenls Full Participation - the policy is deemed to promote full participation in the development process not just as beneficiaries but also as actors engaging in the planning, implernentation and decision-rnaking at al1 levels.

Redefining Development - participation was an opportunity to redefine developrnent. VXDA's is not just trying to incorporate women into existing models developmentH (ibid:5), Through the participation the aim was towards a sustainable development that builds on peoples potential.

Gender as a Cross-cutting Therne - The policy was proposed to be a broad development theme which linked other themes and policies. Gender concerns intersect al1 development areas and sectors. This the reason for the adoption of gender analysis in al1 development initiatives.

Policy Components - consists of two distinct but interrelated components. These are: a. integration of gender consideration into development initiatives (through gender analysis at both sectoral and rnacro-policy levels) and b. involving women as equal and active partners in development work (through assessing barriers to women's participation and designing strategies to overcome these; through special effort by agency staff and partners to ensure womenls equitable involvement in al1 policy and programming activities. Policy Requirement - The overall requirement of this policy then is the I1[a]ttaining of womenls full participation as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies . . . at al1 level~~~including, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and results (ibid:6). It also involves integrating women's 'practical needs and strategic interestsl into al1 policy goals, objectives and priorities . These needs and interests are defined as "inmediate necessities within a specific contextu and include housing needs, water, income, health care. Strategic needç refers to the relative status of women to men in society and are related to resources and power depending on context . Strategic interests refer to legal rights, protection from domestic violence, womenfs control over their bodies and increased decision making. CIDA believes the two

concepts should be used j ointly to effect any sustainable change. Strategies and Approaches to Achieving the WID/GE Policy

1. Approaches to Increasing Woments Participation - combines both integrative and women-specific actions, which are mutually reinforcinq. WID/GE integrated approaches refers to activities where an understanding of gender differences has

Yeaz incori;orat~d incû the ûvsrâll plânning and ac tivitiés . In other words the goals, objectives and implementation mechanisms are aimed at womenls needs, interests and participation as much as menls. Gender-sensitive assessments are the tools employed to determine the differing impacts women and men. CIDA1s specific definition then of a WID integrated approach is one in which a gender analysis has been done, womenls issues identified and addressed, measures taken to include women as decision makers and one in which women make up a greater proportion of direct participants and beneficiaries. Examples given of a WID-Integrated Approaches include; fisheries projects which carry out not only fish harvesting but also associated activities usually carried out by women such as preparation of gear and bait, fish processing and marketing; an economic policy reform project in which gender interests and impacts are incorporated into the policy process; A scholarship programme in which any problems that would hinder women from participating is identifies and addressed in the project design. 2. WID-specific Approaches - exclusive targeting of women to remedy particular gender inequity. This is believed to ensure the meeting of womenis specific and practical needs which are not addressed through mainstreaming approaches. Examples of such approaches include strengthening institutional capacities if womenis organizations, national womenls ministries and networks that work for womenfs strategic interests. Another such project would be providing legal aid clinics to give counselling for women and advocate legal ref orms to remove inequities. Womenls organizations are especially though to be invaluable in promoting womenls control over their own lives. 3. Consultation with Women - is clearly identif ied as the

It key tO the effective implementation of the Women in

Development and Gender Equity Policyn (CIDA,U95a : 9). Consulting women at the planning stage of, input from local organizations and WfD consultants are deemed essential. Mechanisms for ongoing consultation in the course of the programme would provide the necessary feedback to make adjustments. 4. Support for Womenls Organizations - to be strong articulating organizations representing wornents interests in the econorny and political levels. 5. Partnerships - relying on Canadian executing agencies both at home and overseas, woments groups, other governments and NGO l s to take equal responsibility for achieving CIDA1s policy objectives. 6. Policy dialogue - actively promoting CIDA1s WID/GE policy in its consultation with partners and in its dealings with developing countries govemment, with other donors and through local international and bilateral fora. 7. Capacity Development and Institutional Strengthening - involves providing training and learning opportunities to CIDA staff and its partners to equip them to work with a gender perspective.

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

The WID/GE Policy document itself does not contain any information on how the policy was to be assessed. There were no specific guidelines developed to assess this policy.

1999 CIDArs Policy on Gender Equality

Policy Framework/Rationale

The rationale for the 1999 GE policy stems from the five considerations of the 1995. CIDA as a government agency in this policy also seeks to confom to Canada's Federal Plan for

Gender Equality, approved by Cabinet in 1995 which cornrnitted al1 federal departments to the promotion of gender equality in al1 areas including international cooperation. In the 1999 GE policy CIDA also includes Canada ' s commitment to recent international agreements such as the Beijing Conference. The

GE policy makes reference to the Beijing Platfom Action, the final document of the Forth United Nations World Conference on Women which represents the commitment of 189 nations to support women ' s empowerment, guarantee womenfs human rights and achieve gender equality; The advancement of women and the achievement if equality between women and men are matters of human rights and conditions for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a womenls issue. They are the only way to build a sustainable. just. and develooed society. Empowerment of women and gender equality are prerequisites for achieving political, social, cultural, and environmental security among al1 peoplesu (United Nations, 1995). The GE policy is also a reflection of CIDA1s overall cornmitment to achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction.

CIDAfs Policy on Poverty Reduction (1996) involved poverty analysis in which a strategy to reduce poverty includes analysis of how poverty correlates with gender and other such characteristics. The GE policy explicitly states that attempts to achieve this goal will fail if attention is not paid to the different needs of men and women.

The policy framework for the 1999 GE policy is rooted in the following eight principles , that gender quality must be considered an integral part of al1 its policies and projects; that achieving gender equality requires the recognition that programmes affect women and men differently; that gender equality does not mean women become the çame as men; that women s empowerment is central to achieving gender quality ; that promoting equal participation of women as agents of change in political, economic and social processes is essential for achieving gender equality ; that gender equality can only be achieved through partnership between women and men; that specific measures are required to eliminate gender inequalities; and that CIDAis policies, programmes and projects should contribute to gender equality. The GE policy links gender equality with al1 of CIDA1s priorities.

STRATEGIES

Gender Analysis - The GE policy identifies gender analysis an indispensable tool in strategies to understanding local context and hence for promoting gender equality. Gender analysis involves examining of the relationship between men and women identifying the different roles played by each in the household, community, workplace, economy and political processes. It also involves assessing the differential access and control to resources and decision-making processes as well as dif ferential impact of projects. Gender analysis is also employed to understand local context. A knowledge of the context is deemed "vital to understanding ... [gender] relations and their comection to the project in tems of needs, impact and resultsu (CIDA, 1999:14), The strategies below therefore employ gender analysis as an integral part of their methodology: a. Policy Dialogue is a strategy for achieving gender equality. Policy dialogue involves promoting and exchanging information and issues related to gender equity with CIDA1s partners through consultation groups or informal contacts. b. Programming Frarnework is a tool for ensuring that prograrnrning with any country or organization will support gender equality. It identifies development needs and opportunities in terms of the areas of concern from the Beijing Platfom for Action. This strategy is employed by

CIDA to link its corporate programing priorities with its programmes and projects. It is also used as the criteria for al1 Canadian international cooperation in specific countries and with its international partners. c. Program Assistance is used to support economic and sectoral reform in partner countries. CIDA believes that program assistant should recognizes the differential needs, roles and interests of women and men. It involves methodologies to carry out gender-aware economic analysis and designing economic assistant initiatives that respond to the needs and interests of the poor. d. Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Development involves building the Agency s own resources to bring about organizational change that promotes and supports gender equality. This involves staff training and representation of more women at decision-making levels, building the capacity to collect and make available sex-disaggregated data and active promotion of women in positive images. e. Bilateral Programs Projects are employed as means to support gender equality basically through any of the previous strategies. f. Multilateral Programs involve soliciting and supporting the partnership of multilateral organizations such as United Nation agencies, international and regional financial institutions to support gender equality in their institutional capacity to support gender equality and policy dialogue and the use of gender analysis in their own programmes and policies. g. Project and Programs of Canadian Civil Society Partners. This Basically involves supporting these societies (mainly NGOs, unions, professional associations, educational institutions private sector firms etc), involved in designing and operating international CO-operation programmes abroad. h. Humanitarian and Emergency Assistance and Peace -Building involves advocating and supporting gender equality results in institutions engaged in the delivery of humanitarian and emergency assistance. It also means building CIDA1s own knowledge base of gender-specific needs and interests of people in emergency situations with regards to trauma support, security, food, shelter health care etc.

HOW PROGRESS IS MEASURED

The GE policy does have a section on performance rneasurement and identifies good practices in evaluation. CIDA assesses its performance both at the Corporate Level and at the Branch Level. At the corporate level the objectives of the GE policy becomes the yardstick or results against which the implementation of the policy is measured. CIDA still does not have specific indicators for measuring progress for the 1999 policy. At the branch level Program Branches are responsible for setting their own results against the general objectives of the GE policy. Accountability - Programme and corporate branches as well as CIDAts partners and executing agencies are held accountable for the implementation of the policy while assessments and evaluation is carried out by the Performance Review Branch as part of their routine. There are however no enforcement procedures (CIDA, 1999b) . APPENDIX C The following CIDA documents were the source of analysis for this thesis:

Policy Documents a. CIDA1s Policyon Women inDevelopment and Gender Equity, July 1995. b. CIDAIS Policy on Gender and Equality, March 1999.

Strategy ~ocuments/~ieldInformation a. Crea ting a Worl ci of Equal i ty: CIDA, Women and Eznpowennen t in Developing Countries, August , 1995 . b. Strategy for Health, November 1996 c. Project Level Hanübook: The Why and How of Gender- Sensitive Indicators. d. Guide to Gender-Sensitive Indicators, Auguçt 1997. e . Gender Mainstreaming and Insti tutional Change, July 1998. f. Gender and Poverty Reduction, January 1998.

Evaluation and Assessment Documents a. Gender as a Cross-Cutting Theme in CIDA ,s Development Assistance - An Evaluation of CIDA1s NID policy and Activitiçs 1984-1992. »WID Country Case Çtudy: Zimbabwe": Working Paper Number 2D, December 1992. b. W/GE Performance Review: Survey of Southern Women, Final Report, March 1996. c. WID/GE Performance Review: Best Practiceç Study: Final Report, March 1996. d. Development and Women in Africa : CIDA 's Contribution, April 1998. e. Women in Development and Gender Equity 1992-95: Performance Review Report, July , 1998 Performance Review Division, Ottawa: CIDA. An Assessment of Women in Development and Gender Equî ty in Evaluations: An extended version of a report prepared for the DAC Working Party on AID Evaluation, (October 1998) , February 1999. CIDAts Evaluation Guide, Work in Progress, January 2000. Framework for Results and Key Success Factors: Building Progrme Effectiveness, March 2000. How to Perfom Evaluations: Getting Started, No 1, March 2000. How to Perfom Evaluations: Model TOR, No.2, March 2000,