2.1. The Department for International Development, UK
2.2. Sida
2.3. UNICEF
2.4. Conclusion
DFID has never had an institutionalised WID presence (Goetz, 1996). From the 1970s, attempts were made to mainstream gender in the organisation rather than form a separate gender unit. It is likely that this decision was partly based on expediency given that the Social Development Division (SDD) had few funds and only three officers in post at the time. However, after the 1985 United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi, DFID did produce a WID strategy (in 1988) which stressed the importance of integrating gender in all aid activities (DFID, 1996). Whereas DFID at that time had tended to follow a welfarist approach, from the late 1980s, gender concerns have been more closely integrated into the work of the organisation a process actively promoted by the SDD.
Sectoral advisers take the lead in implementation so it was essential for social development advisers to be present on the ground. Until the early 1990s, gender was introduced into the aid programme by means of 'flying visits' from centrally based SDAs. Since then, however, SDA's have been posted to the field offices in most major programme countries - including East and Central Africa. At the present time, the SDD has a small team of five staff at headquarters and 22 SDAs in the field offices of the regional development divisions. This new system of working has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of the SDD in introducing gender into sectoral programmes. Research funded by ESCOR and other donors on gender equality has also enhanced the theoretical underpinnings of the SDD.
Between 1988 and 1996 great strides were made by the SDD in persuading the organisation to appreciate gender as a key analytical tool for understanding the development process. In 1992, 'enhancing the status of women' became one of DFID's seven priority objectives and the SDD became a separate government division with a remit to monitor poverty, participation and social welfare with a special task to promote WID throughout the organisation Given its broad policy concern with improving the welfare of women, DFID has generally avoided the funding of WID-specific projects. Since then the focus has shifted to achieving gender equality across the aid programme. In April 1996, ODA underwent significant restructuring as a result of a Fundamental Expenditure Review. A key consequence of the Review is that the SDD is now represented on the Project Evaluation Committee, a powerful high level decision making body that deals with sector programming.
With the election of the Labour government in May 1997, ODA was upgraded to a full government department and renamed the Department for International Development (DFID). As part of a renewed commitment to overseas aid, DFID produced a new White Paper on Development entitled 'Eliminating World Poverty: a challenge for the 21st Century' in November 1997. The overall of Britain's international development effort is to focus on the elimination of poverty and economic growth to benefit the poor. Gender equality is a central issue in the White Paper: 'The empowerment of women is a prerequisite for achieving effective and people centred development...effective poverty reduction requires policies which recognise women's multiple roles and DFID encourages and supports macro-economic policies and development strategies that respond to the needs and efforts of poor women' (DFID, 1997:31).
However, substantial variations still exist in the extent to which WID/GAD has been addressed between the main sectors. The 1995 progress report on DFID's Policy Objectives 1991-1994, notes that 'translating intentions into practice is not complete even though there have been notable successes in realigning the aid programme to better address women's needs'.1 Although DFID has monitored its WID strategy since 1989, the report considered that gender issues were not being addressed as a 'matter of routine' throughout the full range of aid activities. The report also draws attention to the low correlation between WID and education. A DAC² gender equality marker was introduced in 1997 which replaced the former DAC-WID classifications and DFID's own Project Identification Marker System (PIM) was revised in order to more effectively monitor the gender impacts of aid policies. Gender objectives are now being introduced into the logframe at an early stage.
1 During 1993/4, 68% of expenditure marked for direct assistance to poor people was also marked for WID as compared with 40% in 1992/3.² OECD, Development Assistance Committee.
DFID has extensively used gender training to promote mainstreaming in the organisation Gender training for ODA staff between 1988 and 1996 was compulsory but since then it has only been voluntary. Gender training is also provided for overseas partners and is usually conducted by consultants employed by DFID. An evaluation was undertaken in 1997 of DFID's gender training programme which was found to have been successful in raising the level of gender awareness across the organisation although the gender planning course has had less impact (Stewart, 1997).
Support for education is a central component of DFID's overall strategy to assist the poorest. 'Education is closely linked with people's health, their environment, their living conditions, their children's well-being and their ability to acquire knowledge and realise their potential'.³ DFID is committed to meeting various international development targets including Universal Primary Education by 2015 and eliminating gender inequalities in primary and secondary education by 2005. 'The focus of our support will be on fundamental elements of an effective education system: access, quality, retention and equity (DFID White Paper, 1997:25).
³ 'British Aid to Education', ODA, Central Office of Information, London 1/95.
Two documents, 'Into the '90s: an educational policy for British Aid' (1990) and 'Aid to education in '93 and beyond' (1994) outline DFID's current education policy although a new Education Policy is being prepared. There has been a decisive shift in emphasis from traditional areas of support (most notably, higher and vocational and technical education) in favour of primary education. ODA's expenditure on basic education as a percentage of total donor commitments to the education sector rose significantly in the 1990s from 1.7% in 1990 to 44.2% in 1995 (Bennell, 1998). Virtually all new commitments made by DFID over the past few years have been in the area of basic education (mainly primary).
In the 1994 Education Policy Paper, while improving access of all children to primary education is a major concern, gender issues tend to be subsumed within the category of 'rural poor'. Unlike some other bilateral donors, DFID does not seek to de-link adult basic education from primary education. The above document stresses the need to pay particular attention to 'basic education including adult (especially women's) literacy'. However, there is no specific focus on gender in education policy because it is supposed to be mainstreamed within the education programme However, a document produced by DFID for the 13th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers held in July 1997 in Botswana signals a shift in approach from aid delivery to cooperation with partners and a move towards closer cooperation between related sectors like health and agriculture. Unlike earlier policy papers, this document has a section which looks specifically at the positive social outcomes associated with the education of women and girls. DFID is currently revising its overall education policy.
DFID is increasingly providing sector/budgetary support for education (i.e. in Uganda and Tanzania) and social development inputs concentrate on the link between gender and poverty. The sector plans for Tanzania and Uganda set specific targets for achieving improved levels of participation of women and girls in the education sector.
The Senior Education Advisers posted to DFID's regional development divisions are responsible for ensuring that gender is integrated into the education aid programme The regional offices have a considerable degree of autonomy and the extent to which gender is taken up often depends on the way in which the education and social development advisers work together.
The development of a substantial knowledge base around education is seen to be of use to both DFID and other donors as well as the ministries of education partner countries. Since the early 1990s, DFID has developed an active research and publications programme to inform the work of the Education Division and a number of reports have been produced on gender and education since 1994. The Economic and Social Committee for Overseas Research (ESCOR) also sponsors social and economic research on developing countries and its outputs assist DFID's development goals by 'informing policy and practice in developing...countries'. ESCOR consults sectoral advisers about developing major research programmes. DFID has recently improved the dissemination of the findings from the research that it has sponsored.
Sida's gender policies have also been strongly influenced by events in the international arena such as the Nairobi and Beijing conferences on women and the goals of the Education for All conference at Jomtien in 1990. As early as 1979, Sida began to extend aid to women's organisations in their programme countries and in 1985, Sida drafted a set of guidelines for planning so that it could more effectively meet the needs of women and men, taking account of women's greater workloads.
The current overall framework for Sida's gender policies is based on a plan of action and guidelines for development assistance for women elaborated in 1985. This essentially welfarist strategy was aimed at providing women and children with social and health-oriented measures.4 The guidelines provide a framework for integrating gender into steering documents at the sector level. This 'combined approach' emphasises the incorporation of goals and concerns about women's development throughout Sida's aid programme and also provides for women-focused projects and initiatives. The guidelines also call for the use of gender-disaggregated data in project planning and monitoring and for minimum levels of representation by women in project preparation teams (Schalkwyk, 1995). In the ten years since Sida first adopted the gender guidelines, there has been a shift in emphasis from women as a social category to gender equity and integration of a gender perspective.
4 Sida's Guidelines for Development Assistance to Women, 28/5/85.
Up until the mid 1980s, a central gender office oversaw the introduction of gender aware methods into aid programmes. Thereafter gender officers were deployed at the Development Country Office (DCO) level. Up until 1995, these Officers had their own budgets to support in-country trading and other gender specific projects.
Sida's Gender Office is strategically located in the Department for Policy and Legal Issues. After an interim review in 1994, the Gender Office had its responsibilities redefined from programme to policy support and the number of staff at the headquarters has been reduced to three. Furthermore, overall responsibility for gender within the regional departments has been delegated to the DCOs in the field. The head of each DCO has the responsibility for integrating a gender perspective in each programme.
The gender officers who have been posted to the DCOs since the late 1980s have acted as catalysts to promote gender projects and programmes, although evaluations have identified a number of problems. Despite the many positive impacts of their interventions, the effectiveness of gender officers has been impaired by their low status (often locally hired) and lack of knowledge of Sida structures and relative isolation (Woroniuk and Valdelin, 1995). In order to remedy these weaknesses, Sida is in the process of appointing social sector advisers to replace gender officers (initially in Tanzania and South Africa) whose main responsibility is to ensure that gender is integrated across the sectors. These officials have a broader brief and strong poverty dimension to their work. The process of mainstreaming of gender assumes a high level of gender awareness amongst Sida's own staff and of their national partners in programme countries.
From the late 1980's, Sida began to develop its gender training programme using the 'Moser' model. All Sida personnel and consultants are required to attend a training course lasting three days to develop gender competence. However, despite extensive investment in gender training, a 1995 evaluation concluded that some Sida staff remain uncertain about the goals and intent of policy and key concepts on which it is based. In some cases this has resulted in a difficulty in translating gender policy into practice in a meaningful way (Schalkwyk, 1995).
In 1995, gender equality was formally adopted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a central goal for Sweden's international developments cooperation. Sida has also produced a new policy on gender equality, poverty reduction, education and the environment which is now in operation. In July 1995, Sida underwent a profound organisational change when five organisations (including Sida) were merged to form a new agency, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Gender focal points have been introduced in each division of the new organisation in order to ensure that gender is taken up in education and other areas. The staff members responsible for 'gender focal points' will spend 30% of their time promoting gender. However, competing demands on their time make it difficult for them to operate effectively and they are somewhat dependent on the goodwill of departmental heads. It is too early to assess Sida's mainstreaming strategy, which is aimed at developing support networks in particular areas.
In terms of resources, education is the largest sector in the Democracy, Education and Social Development (DESO) division. Sida was the first donor organisation to allocate a sizeable proportion of its education budget to primary and non-formal education (Bennell, 1998). The general objectives of Sida's education policy are to support the broad process of policy reform, raise the quality of education, and improve the provision of basic education services for previously neglected groups and people.
Sida's 1996 education policy document gives particular attention to the education of girls and women. However, in terms of overall educational goals and strategies, there are no substantial changes in the 1996 document. The main areas of Sida's support to basic education are the production and distribution of educational materials (particularly textbooks), curriculum development, teacher education and non-formal education, school construction, and education planning and management. With regard to content, particular attention is paid to special needs education, environmental and health education, especially HIV/AIDs. Sida is increasingly interested in supporting curriculum development in core areas such as maths, science and language as well as improving teaching and learning processes in the classroom. Furthermore, it supports policy development (including research) as well as processes aimed at building consensus with the country of cooperation. Like other bilateral donors Sida increasingly supporting sector wide approaches and educational reform. This approach offers the prospect of greater donor consideration in all areas, including gender. Educational aid programmes are developed on the basis of an analysis of the education system, the socio-economic context and on a dialogue with the implementing agencies (the main partner usually being the MOE). Sida's gender unit stresses the need for policy dialogue to be included as part of gender training.
Sida's education policy document, however, does not indicate how monitoring and follow-up will be institutionalised, nor how gender equality can be operationalised depending on different circumstances. Indeed, there has been a lack of clarity with regard to how gender is monitored and followed up in the education sector (Lexow, 1996 and Schalkwyk, 1995). However, Sida has recently produced a 'handbook for the integration of a gender perspective in the education sector' which is being used as a tool to assist in the mainstreaming of gender in the education sector.
Largely as a result of its persistence in raising gender issues with partners and at international fore, gender equality is now a central part of all initiatives from the stage of formulation through to the final specification of the logframes. Research and evaluation has played an central role in policy formulation in Sida. The organisation has commissioned numerous studies and activities with the aim of monitoring the way in which gender equality issues are translated into policy and practice.
Gender and development is of critical importance to UNICEF's overall mandate of providing strategic development support for the well-being and healthy growth of children. It is clear that women and mothers as principal care providers and guardians of children are the key actors in all efforts aimed at improving the welfare of children (Aklilu, 1995). The primary mandate of UNICEF concerns children and its initial focus was on welfare. At the 1985 Nairobi Womens' conference, UNICEF presented a paper on gender inequality. As a result of its experience of working in South Asia, UNICEF came to recognise the differential treatment of girl children.5 In 1991, UNICEF published 'The girl child: an investment in the future' which stressed the need to advocate for girl children in the light of their economic and cultural discrimination at all levels.6 In 1992, the women's equality and empowerment framework (WEEF) was adopted as a conceptual basis for gender analysis training. Although UNICEF's empowerment approach is not seen as 'radical', it does recognise the right of females to make decisions about their own lives (Stromquist, 1994). The WEEF has been used in conjunction with the 'Triple A' (assessment, analysis and action) framework to enable a sharper understanding of gender dynamics and its impact on priority sectors. A reservation about WEEF is that, although working in a GAD framework, little reference is made to male gender needs (Aklilu, 1995).
5 The concept 'the girl child' has been challenged by some who argue that girl children are not a homogeneous group, subject to the same experiences.6 Interview with a UNICEF (Tanzania) representative.
In 1994, the executive board of UNICEF endorsed a policy concerning 'Gender equality and empowerment of girls' which highlighted three main operational areas for UNICEF's development work in support of women and girls: mainstreaming gender concerns, promoting gender specific programme activities, and giving special attention to the girl child. This reflects a shift from a WID to a GAD approach. In its 1994 policy review, training and sensitisation of UNICEF staff in gender formed a central part of the gender mainstreaming strategy. Previously, training of staff and counterparts had taken place on an ad hoc basis. There have been intensive efforts since 1994 to provide training for all staff in the geographical regions with training courses usually lasting for between one to four days. Many staff members have now been trained and there is considerable evidence of the positive impacts of this training on UNICEF programme frameworks, particularly at the country level. UNICEF training also covers capacity building for NGOs and women's professional associations. Monitoring and evaluation are important means of measuring the relevance and effectiveness of the gender training experience. The training package contains evaluation formats, although it is felt that a more systematic approach to monitoring and evaluation is required and specific gender sensitive indicators need to be identified and established.
As part of the UN system, UNICEF is an agency with complex partnership arrangements and goals which cross sectors. Accounting for inputs can, therefore, be problematic An evaluation of UNICEF in 1992 suggested that this situation would be helped by a stronger role being played by the Head Office and the regional offices. More recently, UNICEF has tried to strengthen the position of regional offices in order to temper the high degree of country autonomy.7
7 Interview, personnel at UNICEF/ESARO, 1996, Nairobi, Kenya.
UNICEF devotes its entire education sector support to basic education - both formal and non-formal, and it is one of the few agencies that has greatly increased its education spending since the early 1990s8. UNICEF is committed to quadrupling its education spending by the year 2000 (Stromquist, 1994). Furthermore, UNICEF has played an important advocacy role with regard to basic education, having jointly sponsored the Education for All (EFA) education summit with the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank. It is one of the main proponents of EFA and is firmly committed to Universal Primary Education (UPE). The strategies proposed by UNICEF to accomplish the EFA goals include such measures as improving primary school infrastructure, using complementary non-formal education (NFE) approaches, and promoting the enrolment and persistence of girls. UNICEF is unusual in combining an interest in primary education with non-formal education, an approach which is particularly conducive for tackling the particular needs of girls. These programmes are designed and managed at the country level.
8 UNICEF's spending on education rose by 24% between 1990 and 1991.
UNICEF prioritises capacity building and research. Both UNICEF and Sida have funded several country level analyses of education and many of the UNICEF situation reports done on girls and women cover both education and health aspects. In 1994, UNICEF and Sida funded an important study by Nelly Stromquist 'Gender and Basic Education in International Development Cooperation', although it is not clear how it has been used from a policy perspective.
The considerable degree of autonomy9 of UNICEF country offices makes it in most cases highly responsive to local needs. UNICEF in the 1990's has developed a clear and successful advocacy role for the girl child at the same time as making a high level of commitment to basic education. It works on the ground with a wider range of partners (i.e. local authorities and NGOs) than the two bilaterals.
9 This degree of autonomy, however, has posed problems of accountability to UNICEF's head office.
Gender advocates within donor agencies have benefited greatly from the momentum of the international women's conferences (in 1985 and 1995) as well as the Cairo Population conference. Furthermore, the DAC gender group has supported the development of a gender perspective within both the bilaterals and organisations under scrutiny.
Mainstreaming is now the main method of infusing gender objectives, throughout donor organisations This has been developed through the use of gender training at agency headquarters and field office level. However, institutional mechanisms for monitoring progress that have existed in the past in all three organisations have been problematic and new ones are being developed. Both Sida and UNICEF are able to work cross sectorally between education and health, an advantaged only just being developed by DFID. This is particularly useful in addressing the pressing needs of girls in SSA in relation to AIDs/HIV. Unlike the two bilaterals, gender has become a specific aspect of UNICEF's interventions in education through 'the girl child' focus at the same time as being 'mainstreamed' within the organisation
