Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Gender Mainstreaming and Women’s Roles in Development Projects: A Research Case Study from Ghana

Abstract Purpose This chapter critiques the forceful institutionalization of gender mainstreaming into development programs. Methodology/approach The data was generated from literature review and a research-based case study of the World Bank’s Community-Based Rural Development Projects in a Ghanaian township using ethnographic research methods such as participant-observation, focus group discussion, and individual interviews. Findings Our study found that gender mainstreaming has become popular, with the majority of international development agencies, such as The World Bank, AusAID, USAID, and the UNDP, adopting it as an overarching framework for developing and delivering their programs and services. The concept has also made its way into government policies globally over the past decade and has a strong influence on aid projects, even on gender-neutral programs. Our ethnographic research revealed that it is problematic to simply use gender mainstreaming as a policy initiative. The research case study presented showed that, in their quest to involve women in decision-making processes in rural localities, officials who implemented the CBRDP targeted women, although improving gender equality (through the process of gender mainstreaming) was not an objective of the CBRDP project per se. As a result, the project was jeopardized, some local people misconceptualized the CBRDP as a “women’s empowerment initiative,” leading to apathy on the part of men, some of whom resented the CBRDP by preventing their wives and daughters from participating in it, ultimately causing a negative outcome. Originality/value We seek to alert international development organizations and practitioners that implementing gender mainstreaming programs and policies without considering local conditions and social relationships will fail to deliver the desired outcomes for the intended beneficiaries.

Life after formal employment: A comparative study of female ‘garments and textiles’ and ‘all other’ factory’ workers in Sri Lanka

This paper compares the post-employment social, political and economic profiles of women previously employed in Sri Lanka’s formal manufacturing sector. We surveyed 1031 female respondents, consisting of 775 former garment and textile (GT as well as slightly higher rates of political participation. Regardless of such differences, a significant proportion across both groups shared a sense of self-confidence – even having set up their own businesses or now owning properties since leaving formal employment. Thus, contrary to the negative portrayal of factory work in Sri Lanka and the purported ‘plight’ of its largely female labor force, our research has found that most women – regardless of prior workplace – had retained and built upon their socio-economic capital across many important aspects of their lives.

Impact assessment and official development assistance: ethnographic research of the World Bank’s community-based rural development projects in Ghana

Abstract The effectiveness of Official Development Assistance (ODA) has long been a significant issue. Donor nations and organizations want to ensure that valuable monetary and other aid resources are distributed as planned and that their impacts are validly assessed. Consequently, an increasing body of literature has emerged calling for a fresh review of the use of Impact Assessment (IA) to gauge the outcomes of ODA before, during, and after implementation. We argue in this chapter that ethnography is an effective IA tool for understanding how ODA programs work at the grassroots level. The evidence presented in this chapter shows that ethnography has the capacity to unearth potential and actual issues and impact (negative or positive) of ODA programs before, during, and after their implementation in a more nuanced and context-specific way. The chapter draws on our study of the World Bank’s Community-Based Rural Development Projects, implemented in Ghana between 2005 and 2011.