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Mainstreaming Gender in Operations: Hands on Training for Managers and Staff
Held October 20-21, 2004
WBI, the PREM Gender and Development group and the Gender and Rural Development Thematic Group jointly organized a two day workshop on "Mainstreaming Gender in Operation- Hands-On Training for Managers and Staff" on October 20th and 21st, 2004.
The objective of the workshop was to understand why gender mainstreaming is critical for achieving operational goals and enhancing development effectiveness, and to assist Bank staff to better integrate gender into Bank operations.
Day One, led by Gita Gopal, gender coordinator at WBI, targeted participants who had a basic understanding of gender issues and wished to strengthen or enhance their knowledge and get a better appreciation of how gender issues may be integrated into the design and implementation of Bank operations. An introductory session informed the participants of the basic concepts of Gender equality and Gender mainstreaming and provided an overview of the World Bank gender policy. The session also provided guidance on how gender can be integrated in projects. The mode of instruction was interactive and the participants had the opportunity to discuss their thoughts, ideas and perceptions on gender and its relevance in development projects. It was underscored that issues relating to gender need to be addressed in the context of the socio cultural milieu in which they arise.
The participants then convened into small groups to discuss case studies of two separate projects and provide their input on the social assessment that was conducted in the case study and to what extent did gender matter in that socioeconomic context.
The afternoon session on Day one focused on Gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation (M&E). It was recognized that females and males have varying development priorities, needs and constraints, and development programs affect them differently. The session stressed the benefits of timely and systematic collection of sex-disaggregated information to determine how the intervention benefits males and females. The participants re-convened into their discussion groups to identify outcomes that need to be measured for the objectives , previously identified. The participants also identified priority indicators for each outcome and discussed how the information could be integrated into the Bank's Project Status Reports, Implementation/ Supervision Reports and Implementation Completion Reports.
Day Two focused on Bank Staff interested in understanding specific gender issues in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) portfolio and from ESSD perspectives. The day began with a presentation on the Key Principles of Gender Issues in ESSD/Social Development, by Reidar Kvam, Coordinator, Project Social Analysis, Social Development (SDV). Reidar emphasized the importance of considering social diversity and gender within a social assessment process across all sectors. It is important that gender analysis considers the specific development needs of men and women, the resources available and the constraints faced, the decision making processes, access and opportunities. Through examples from India, Reidar discussed the methodological entry points of diversity and gender; institutions, rules and behaviors; stakeholder analysis; participation; and social risk. The risk analysis includes but is not limited to the Bank's social safeguard policies. He specifically highlighted social issues within the Forestry sector and the definite advantages that a gender-sensitive social assessment can add to the project design by involving stakeholders and thereby strengthening the sustainability of benefits.
This was followed by a session on Gender Mainstreaming and Analysis in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) context. The session was conducted by Nora Dudwick, Lead Social Scientist in ECSSD. Nora presented, as an example, the Social Assessment (with its Terms of Reference) conducted for the Georgia Forests Development Project, as good social analysis that did go some way to address gender issues, to discuss further avenues for improvement, such as a more thorough gender disaggregation of data from the questionnaire. The participants then convened into smaller groups to discuss a Forestry Project in Uttar Pradesh, India, and a Community Driven Development (CDD) project in Sub-Saharan Africa, how to approach and structure analysis to capture relevant gender issues, and what activities and time period the analysis should cover. Also discussed were ways of ensuring that social assessment findings are incorporated into project design.
The Participants had an opportunity to join a working lunch with Parmesh Shah, Senior Rural Development Specialist, South Asia Agriculture and Rural Development (SASAR) who provided valuable insights into the process of making gender integration into rural projects workable. He provided the example of the India District Poverty Initiatives Project where funds were under the direct control of disadvantaged groups in village level bank accounts. This also ensured that group investments are demand driven over a wide range of choices by untying funds, avoiding bureaucratic interference and allowing rural people to procure technical and NGO support.
The post lunch session on Integrating Gender issues into ESSD/ CDD projects was conducted by Wendy Wakeman, Senior Community Development Specialist, PRMGE. Gender and social inclusion tools enable the poor, particularly poor women, to gain greater voice in community decisions, enable a more equitable sharing of project benefits, and help promote sustainability through appropriate involvement of various sub-groups in communities. Wendy provided several good practice examples, like the Ethiopia Social Fund project that created a concrete strategy that aimed at women’s active involvement in all subprojects. The need for training and providing information for all stakeholders and project staff about gender and development in the context of CDD is especially important, as demonstrated by the Romania Social Development Fund which took a top-down approach to gender and aimed the first gender mainstreaming workshops at supervisors and evaluators of the Fund. Participants went into small groups again to discuss project design and implementation issues for the projects they had started to examine in the morning. The final session of Day Two was conducted by Lucia Fort, Senior Gender Specialist, PRMGE on Integrating Gender Issues into M&E of ESSD projects following which the participants had the opportunity also to discuss the dynamics of participation and consultation among stakeholders in ESSD projects.
The Workshop ended with closing remarks on Gender Issues in ESSD and a wrap-up session by Eija Pehu, Adviser, Agriculture and Rural Development.
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