Chapter 1: Introduction and Framework
This first chapter introduces the partners in this project, outlines the purpose and content of the guide, and explains the language and concepts which will be used throughout the Guide. This guide has been developed through a partnership between Danish Gendernet and the Social Development and Gender Equity team of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam.
Gendernet
Gendernet is a network of Danish Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs), institutions and resource persons. It was established in 2006 to contribute to the joint coordination and sharing of gender and rights issues in development work in Denmark. Gendernet consists of 31 member organisations, which cover a wide spectrum of thematic areas. The member organisations work on governance, education, aid relief, environment and many other issues. Gendernet builds the capacity of Danish development actors to address gender and rights by strengthening awareness and commitment, developing organisational capacity and strengthening cooperation and knowledge sharing between organisations. This is done through a range of different activities, including an up-to-date homepage, newsletters, Gendernet’s electronic library and training events. Additionally, Gendernet arranges public meetings and seminars on issues related to gender and development work, and thematic groups have been established under the network to provide a framework for specific capacity-building and knowledge sharing. Gendernet has among other things participated in the MDG3 Gender Equality - Global Call to Action, a campaign launched by the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation to put the third Millennium Development Goal on the agenda. In 2009 Gendernet arranged an international conference on gendered governance and launched a new resource, Facilitators' Guide for Gender Training in cooperation with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT).
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Royal Tropical Institute
The Royal Tropical Institute is an independent, not-for-profit organisation with a mandate to alleviate poverty, support sustainable development and promote cultural preservation and exchange. The Development Policy and Practice department of KIT supports knowledge for development in four areas: health, education, sustainable economic development, and social development and gender equity. The Social Development and Gender Equity (SDGE) team works with partners to understand and document approaches that promote the rights, inclusion and participation of marginalised social groups, particularly women, in the development process. These approaches are developed through collaborative action research undertaken with partners in Southern countries. We provide technical assistance to donors and governmental and non-governmental agencies to integrate equality concerns into their policies and programmes and to build organisational capacity. We specialise in integrating gender equality into development programmes and gender training. Currently, our focus is on building inclusive citizenship and participatory governance and on mainstreaming rights-based approaches in development by supporting both rights claimants and duty bearers.
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Background of the project
Since 2000, most member organisations of Gendernet have taken up a rights-based approach to development. For some, an organisational commitment to furthering gender equality through development preceded the adoption of a rights-based approach; for others, gender equality policies and gender mainstreaming practices are more recent. In both situations there is an identified need to integrate the two approaches more effectively. There are concerns (shared by many practitioners of gender and development outside of Denmark) that rights based approaches are being pursued without sufficient understanding or integration of gender issues, and that the bodies of knowledge developed through gender equality work over the past decades are being marginalised in the process. From a practical perspective there is a concern about over-burdening field staff and partners with two frameworks, two sets of tools and competing priorities. On the other hand there is a sense that – conceptually and in practice – rights-based approaches and gender and development should be mutually reinforcing and that both are critical to transforming development.
The overall purpose of this project is therefore to strengthen the capacity of Danish NGOs to combine gender and rights frameworks and approaches. Originally, Gendernet envisioned doing this through an annotated overview of the best resources available from different organisations and institutions - within and outside Denmark - on integrating rights-based issues in gender work. After some discussion, however, the group decided it would be more helpful to develop a resource guide that introduces and narrates that literature in order to explain how, why and under what circumstances rights-based approaches (RBAs) can add to gender equality, and how gender and development (GAD) theory and practice can contribute to rights based approaches.
The development of the Resource Guide has been informed by the practices and challenges of Gendernet members and their partners, as well as by literature on gender and development, human rights and rights-based approaches to development. The Guide begins by ‘unpacking’ concepts of rights in order to understand why past approaches to human rights have often failed to further women’s rights or address gender inequality. It also captures practices emerging from struggles for gender equality and rights and proposes ways in which RBA and GAD can be mutually enriching. The Guide clarifies concepts, introduces analytical tools, and identifies the implications of these concepts and tools for development practice, providing examples where possible.
In this way, the Guide aims to present tools for thinking through integrating RBA and GAD, so that this thinking can then be applied to specific issues and challenges in development practice. It does not, however, go as far as setting out precisely the steps that development practitioners should take to bring about rights and equality in their day-to-day work. Neither does it answer specific operational questions, but instead sets out an analysis which can underpin operational decisions.
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