Chapter 5. Integrating gender concerns into policymaking.

Chapter 5. Integrating gender concerns into policymaking. Public policy is an important lever for removing genderinequalities and providing women with equal opportunities to participatein development. But addressing socioeconomic causes of inequity andchanging socially deep-rooted gender roles are a long-term process. Theyrequire a clear policy directive, a high level of political commitment,and a sustained, coordinated effort from line ministries and otherstakeholders StakeholdersAll parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. . Mechanisms to incorporate gender concerns into public policy shouldbe comprehensive and institutionalized in��sti��tu��tion��al��ize?tr.v. in��sti��tu��tion��al��ized, in��sti��tu��tion��al��iz��ing, in��sti��tu��tion��al��iz��es1. a. To make into, treat as, or give the character of an institution to.b. in such a way that issues can beaddressed consistently and systematically. This means improvinggovernment's capacity to diagnose gender constraints, analyze theirunderlying causes, identify appropriate policy and program responses,and incorporate those in the normal functioning of all stakeholders.Doing all of this effectively means sensitizing sen��si��tize?v. sen��si��tized, sen��si��tiz��ing, sen��si��tiz��esv.tr.1. To make sensitive: "The polarity principle . . . policymakers to the fullimpact of their actions. Gender issues cut across all sectors socapacity-building efforts need to recognize deficits in capacity in allrelevant institutions and sector ministries and must address themcomprehensively. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES The first step is for policymakers to understand the need toaddress gender inequality and promote women's advancement. TheNational Council on Women and Development was created in 1975, under theOffice of the President, to see to the welfare of women and to advisethe government on issues affecting women. More recently the council andits 10 regional secretariats advocated integrating gender considerationsinto national policies and programs through its representation onsectoral and multisectoral planning bodies. In practice the council's wide mandate has been limitedbecause of its ill-defined relationship with line ministries, the donorcommunity, nongovernmental organizations Transnational organizations of private citizens that maintain a consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Nongovernmental organizations may be professional associations, foundations, multinational businesses, or simply groups with a common interest in (NGOs), and other organizationsworking on gender issues. Its inability to move beyond advocacy toeffective leadership accounts for the haphazard hap��haz��ard?adj.Dependent upon or characterized by mere chance. See Synonyms at chance.n.Mere chance; fortuity.adv.By chance; casually. manner in which genderissues are addressed and for the council's failure to be properlyrecognized by partner organizations. That the council does not have aclearly articulated mandate to coordinate gender efforts furthercomplicates the problems already posed by a too small professional staffand an inability to effectively deploy the staff that is available.These deficiencies account for the absence of either a fully functioningclearinghouse on gender data or the effective coordination ofwomen's programs and projects needed to provide strong nationalleadership on matters of gender. Ghana has shown an increasing awareness of gender issues in thepast two decades, and the Beijing Conference on Women added momentum togender concerns. At that 1995 conference the government committed itselfto such actions as enacting legislation to protect women's propertyrights, providing work opportunities for women, establishing creditinstitutions for women's small businesses, and improvingwomen's educational attainment Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticans to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed.[1]The US Census Bureau Glossary defines educational attainment as "the highest level of education completed in terms of the . The government has taken measures to follow up on thosecommitments. A committee on affirmative action affirmative action,in the United States, programs to overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific groups, such as minorities and women. has developed andsubmitted to the cabinet proposals aimed at ensuring women'sparticipation in policy decisionmaking. A committee on mediadissemination disseminationMedtalk The spread of a pernicious process–eg, CA, acute infection Oncology Metastasis, see there is publicizing pub��li��cize?tr.v. pub��li��cized, pub��li��ciz��ing, pub��li��ciz��esTo give publicity to.Noun 1. publicizing - the business of drawing public attention to goods and servicesadvertising the messages from the Beijing Conferenceand another committee has prepared a research document on the Rights ofWomen in Ghana. But stronger institutional capacity is needed totranslate these proposals and initiatives into action and to monitortheir implementation. Without stronger institutional capacity no genderstrategy can produce much concrete action. At the sectoral level several ministries have set up Women'sDesks or have created special units for women's affairs. TheMinistry of Food and Agriculture has a Women in Agricultural DevelopmentDivision; the Ministry of Education has a Girls' Education Unit.Whether these groups have achieved their objectives is open to question.The Woman in Agricultural Development unit has been active longer so itmaybe a better subject for review. Such units often become marginalizedwithin ministries and bogged down with peripheral "women only"projects--reflecting the persistent bias against creating effectivewomen's units. NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS In Ghana many NGOs focus their activities on gender issues. MostNGOs are small and operate at the grassroots level. The 31st DecemberWomen's Movement women's movement:see feminism; woman suffrage. women's movementDiverse social movement, largely based in the U.S., seeking equal rights and opportunities for women in their economic activities, personal lives, and politics. is the largest gender-focused NGO NGOabbr.nongovernmental organizationNoun 1. NGO - an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal governmentnongovernmental organization in the country.With a membership of more than one million, it has branches in eachregion and is represented in all the districts (NCWD NCWD North Carolina Western District (US federal court system)NCWD National Center for Women Development (Nigeria)1995). Some NGOsdeal with broad issues such as literacy, income generation, andreproductive health Within the framework of WHO's definition of health[1] as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, reproductive health, or sexual health/hygiene ; others work in smaller, more clearly defined areas.The Forum for African Women Educationalists, for example, works ongender issues in girls' education; the International Federation ofWomen Lawyers concentrates on legal issues. The National Council on Women and Development has instituted anetworking forum with representatives from women's workplaceassociations, social and religious societies, and NGOs. The forum meetsmonthly to exchange ideas, share information, and discuss commonconcerns. About 20 NGOs attend these monthly meetings regularly.Unfortunately, the mixed and constantly changingrepresentation--resulting in generally unstructured meetings--means thatno clearly defined gender goals and outputs have emerged so far. Government agencies and NGOs are constrained con��strain?tr.v. con��strained, con��strain��ing, con��strains1. To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force; oblige: felt constrained to object.See Synonyms at force.2. in influencingpolicies and programs and addressing gender issues among other reasonsby: * Weak leadership. * Limited financial resources. * Lack of basic infrastructure support for activities. * Lack of the skills needed for gender analysis. * Inadequate access to information and technology. These deficiencies, although serious, can be remedied. STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY Ghana should systematically integrate gender concerns intopolicymaking pol��i��cy��mak��ingor pol��i��cy-mak��ing ?n.High-level development of policy, especially official government policy.adj.Of, relating to, or involving the making of high-level policy: , planning, budgeting, and program implementation. In thisregard, the efforts of CEDEP CEDEP Centro Brasileiro de Documenta??o e Estudos da Bacia do Prata (Brazil)CEDEP Centre European d'Education Permanente and ISODEC merit support. In building capacity, the main challenge will be to transformsociety's negative attitudes toward change. Resistance is strongerwhen changes are not in the interest of those who have to make thepolicy changes, so it is important to highlight the benefits to begained by including women in development. This process is the concernnot only of line ministers, but also of district assemblies and theNational Council on Women in Development, whose close association withthis process is critical. A leading institution with a clearly articulated mandate, such asthe National Council on Women in Development, must show the way andbring others along. Interactions between institutions and actors will bethe basis for a more informed policy dialogue and action on genderissues. It is important to develop networking links among allstakeholders, and between researchers and development workers. Sectorministries and NGOs need to be helped to work together toward commongoals and monitorable benchmarks. The National Council on Women and Development The National Council on Women and Development and other leadingstakeholders need strengthening for the task ahead. As the lead agency,the council defines a vision and develops monitorable indicators formeasuring progress. The council is directly under the Office of thePresident, so it is well placed to advise government on policy, but ithas been unable to fulfill its mandate effectively. It lacks the imageand authority needed to examine sectoral policies and provide guidanceand policy direction, and it has not yet established itself as the bodymandated to coordinate gender-related activities. Its current focus onempowerment needs to be internalized by the national machinery, so thatprogram shifts can effect productive changes. A strengthened andrevitalized re��vi��tal��ize?tr.v. re��vi��tal��ized, re��vi��tal��iz��ing, re��vi��tal��iz��esTo impart new life or vigor to: plans to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods; tried to revitalize a flagging economy. council is essential to such renewal. The council's main problems have been administrative: rapidturnover in leadership, (without proper plans for succession), lack ofqualified staff, and poor conditions of service (including low pay) havemade it difficult to recruit skilled staff. Poor accommodations and alimited staff of skilled people have limited the council's abilityto manage the volume of documents received. And inadequate resources andmobility make it difficult to disseminate dis��sem��i��nate?v. dis��sem��i��nat��ed, dis��sem��i��nat��ing, dis��sem��i��natesv.tr.1. To scatter widely, as in sowing seed.2. information or monitorregional activities. The council should be the clearinghouse for research materials ongender, but it does not currently have the capacity to link researcherswith institutions, to have gaps in research filled, or to facilitateaccess to resources. The council is filled only with women, whichnegates its status as a gender-sensitive institution. It needs a morebalanced representation. The council still relies on the government's inadequatebudgetary allocation from subvention funds. The government has notsupported its commitment to gender equality with the resources needed toachieve gender equality. So far the council has relied on the good willof some donors rather than mobilizing fresh funding support for newprojects. As a result it has been unable to assist NGOs even when suchsupport was critical. NGOs are not required to register with thecouncil, so it is unaware of how many NGOs do gender work. Even if ithad the budget, however, the council would not be able to monitor NGOoperations. Sectoral Ministries and Related Organizations Many policymakers do not fully understand women's importanceto development and long-standing negative attitudes toward women meanthat no special efforts are made to remedy the problem. Policymakersneed to be aware of how gender issues limit development in specificsectors as well as nationally and how gender-sensitive policy canbenefit everyone. District assemblies need to know how men and women in theircommunities experience poverty differently and how that affects nationaldevelopment. They need to know the implications for program developmentand resource allocation resource allocationManaged care The constellation of activities and decisions which form the basis for prioritizing health care needs of not addressing gender concerns. Districtplans need to acknowledge women's special needs and elicit theirinput about the development of systems appropriate to women'sproductive and reproductive needs. The institution responsible for budget allocations needs to knowthe importance of gender work, so that budget allocations are sensitiveto gender inequalities. Educational programs are needed to teachinstitutions such as the National Council on Women and Development howto prepare and defend budgets. The media require support and advice inprocessing and disseminating unstereotyped gender data. Research bodies and universities need to know about the gaps inwomen's research and the inadequacies in current data analysis.Neither currently emphasizes gender differences in data collection, sothey do not sort data by gender. The need for research data to givepolicymakers, planners, and others involved in development must bestressed. Nongovernmental Organizations NGOs and other civil organizations have the will to assist women,but do not always understand gender issues and do not always have theanalytical skills needed to design and manage gender-responsiveprojects. They tend to be starved of basic infrastructure supportservices support servicesPsychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services and equipment. Poor financial management, lack of transparencyand accountability, and poor report-writing skills often constrain con��strain?tr.v. con��strained, con��strain��ing, con��strains1. To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force; oblige: felt constrained to object.See Synonyms at force.2. theirability to sustain access to funding. Some NGOs lack the ability togenerate, analyze, and use gender data in project monitoring,evaluation, and improvement, or to formulate strategies for translatingthe results of research analysis into action. NGOs need strong analytical skills to foster awareness ofinequities. Many NGOs need to develop advocacy and lobbying skills tomobilize women to make the demands on government needed to promotechange in societal behavior and in the processes that lead to genderequality. It is important to learn which NGOs are effective so otherNGOs can learn from their experience and forge collaborative links withthem. The Financial Sector Financial institutions offer services to women but with suchburdensome administrative and regulatory requirements that womeneffectively have little access to them. These institutions needsensitivity training on gender issues. Their procedures and operationsshould be analyzed and their client records disaggregated Broken up into parts. by sex to showhow they exclude a large segment of their potential client population.Given more information, they can be pressured to take measures to make preparations; to provide means.See also: measure toeliminate biases, unintended or not. PROVIDING BETTER DATA AND GENDER ANALYSIS FOR POLICYMAKERS Integrating gender perspectives into public policy requiresimproving the government's capacity for gender analysis, whichrequires better gender-disaggregated information about different sectorsof the economy and for different line departments. Also needed areinstitutional mechanisms for coordinating the gender-related work ofline departments, for supporting NGOs' gender work, and forchanneling the results of gender analysis to policymakers so that itwill improve policymaking. Information is rarely disaggregated by gender for most sectors andprograms, and project evaluation rarely considers gender issues. Lack ofgender-sorted data prevents policymakers from identifying genderconcerns, designing actions to address them, and monitoring the results.The exclusion of gender from current management information systems isincreasingly recognized as a problem. Ghana Statistical Services is nowsorting information by gender and will produce a report about the gendergaps in various spheres. Future surveys and existing management information systems invarious line departments should include a gender dimension. In thefourth round of the Ghana Living Standard Survey, for example,data-collection instruments should be designed to be gender-sensitive.Information on intrahousehold dynamics between men and women and boysand girls boys and girlsmercurialisannua. is essential for gender analysis. Other surveys could alsoinclude instruments for collecting such information. Each line ministrycould assess various survey instruments and management informationsystems for their ability to disaggregate See disaggregated. information by gender. Making gender-disaggregated data available is the first step towardidentifying policy-relevant gender issues. Ghana also urgently needs theinstitutional capacity to undertake gender analysis--by analyzing datato identify important issues and potential policy prescriptions. Suchcapacity could exist within each line ministry and in such policysupport institutions as the Ghana Statistical Services, NDPC NDPC National Domestic Preparedness ConsortiumNDPC National Disclosure Policy CommitteeNDPC National Military Information Disclosure Policy CommitteeNDPC National Disaster Preparedness CommitteeNDPC Normalized Downlink Power Consumption , and theNational Council on Women and Development. The capacity for such genderanalysis is still weak in Ghana and staff in the statistical units ofline ministries and institutions lack the skills, equipment, andinstitutional support for such analyses. Even the Women in DevelopmentUnit of the Ministry of Agriculture has little gender-disaggregatedinformation and no staff trained to collect and analyze information ongender issues in agriculture. The country is fortunate in having some highly qualified,well-trained professionals with extensive experience analyzing genderissues, but many do not have adequate institutional support. Given solittle support, their skills and knowledge would be most effectivelyused taking the lead in such analyses and in training governmentofficials. Ghana's universities have several institutes withsubstantial capacity for gender research and some NGOs and privateconsulting firms are capable of gender analysis, but researchersgenerally have limited access to information and minimal resources to dotheir jobs. Closer coordination is needed between the research andacademic communities and policymakers. Government support to theresearch community in collecting and analyzing gender-disaggregated datawould help make data available for use in developing recommendations forpublic policy. LINKING GENDER ANALYSIS AND PUBLIC POLICYMAKING Research projects on gender often have no direct link topolicymaking. As a result, gender-related research is rarely consideredin project formulation or design. Effective institutional channels areneeded to link the results of gender analysis to policymaking. TheNational Council on Women and Development already has a mandate todevelop the national agenda and to give the government policy advice,but the council is not a research body; it needs support from otherinstitutions and agencies for operations research operations researchApplication of scientific methods to management and administration of military, government, commercial, and industrial systems. It began during World War II in Britain when teams of scientists worked with the Royal Air Force to improve radar detection of and policy analysis.Academic communities and research institutions could join the council inidentifying key areas for policy research and in providing the resultsof gender research for policymaking. Institutional capacity for integrating gender concerns intopolicymaking would be strengthened by: * Reinforcing research institutions' ability and capacity tocollect, analyze, and use gender-disaggregated data. * Providing financial and technical support to the researchcommunity so it can conduct gender research on key topics. * Improving gender experts' ability to develop and implementtraining in gender analysis and local planning. * Training policymakers about gender issues. * Strengthening the National Council on Women andDevelopment's leadership on the gender dimensions of public policy. * Building partnerships with NGOs and other stakeholders andmobilizing their support on gender issues important to policymaking. * Including gender studies in the educational curriculum andsetting up programs of gender studies in higher institutions oflearning. * Providing technical and financial support to improve the capacityof relevant sectors, NGOs, community-based organizations, andbeneficiary groups to plan and monitor activities. * Strengthening the capacity of government sectors, NGOs, anddistrict-level institutions to make their interventions more efficientthrough continuous evaluation. This evaluation could be providedinternally, cross-departmentally, or by an independent body such as theaudit office, or externally by the World Bank, NGOs, or otherstakeholders. Edited by Shiyan Chao