Book Review: the Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development
Introduction:
First of all, I would like to thank my course teacher to give me a great opportunity to read out such an effective book through which I could realize the actual evaluation of women in development issues. The book that I have reviewed for my assignment is “THE ELUSIVE AGENDA: Mainstreaming Women in Development” authored by Dr. Rounaq Jahan. The Book was published in 1995, from The University Press Limited, Dhaka.
This book is divided into seven chapters. By following on from this introductory chapter, chapter 2 looks at policy objectives and advocates. Based on a comparative review of the policy statements of donors and their development patterns, it attempts to analyze and compare policy objectives, and to highlight common patterns and approaches. It investigates whether policies have attempted to address the agenda of the women themselves, especially the concerns of the Southern feminists. The chapter also briefly describes the policy advocates: the main players who influenced the adoption of the policies in different agencies and countries.
Chapter 3 and 4 describes the WID/GAD strategies adopted by the donors and their development partners. Chapter 3 focuses on institutional strategies, whereas chapter 4 goes on to discuss operational strategies. Published and unpublished data and personal interviews are used to describe the implementation of strategies and to assess their efficacy, making a comparison between the efforts of the various donors and counterparts.
Chapter 5 attempts to assess results. Based on the available quantitative data, it constructs several indicators to measure progress in achieving three major goals. These are mainstreaming, gender equality and women’s empowerment. To a limited extend the donor agencies are already monitoring their mainstreaming efforts to increase women’s share of agency staff and budget, and have also deliberately attempted to mainstream discussion of gender issues in agency documents. In contrast,
First of all, I would like to thank my course teacher to give me a great opportunity to read out such an effective book through which I could realize the actual evaluation of women in development issues. The book that I have reviewed for my assignment is “THE ELUSIVE AGENDA: Mainstreaming Women in Development” authored by Dr. Rounaq Jahan. The Book was published in 1995, from The University Press Limited, Dhaka.
This book is divided into seven chapters. By following on from this introductory chapter, chapter 2 looks at policy objectives and advocates. Based on a comparative review of the policy statements of donors and their development patterns, it attempts to analyze and compare policy objectives, and to highlight common patterns and approaches. It investigates whether policies have attempted to address the agenda of the women themselves, especially the concerns of the Southern feminists. The chapter also briefly describes the policy advocates: the main players who influenced the adoption of the policies in different agencies and countries.
Chapter 3 and 4 describes the WID/GAD strategies adopted by the donors and their development partners. Chapter 3 focuses on institutional strategies, whereas chapter 4 goes on to discuss operational strategies. Published and unpublished data and personal interviews are used to describe the implementation of strategies and to assess their efficacy, making a comparison between the efforts of the various donors and counterparts.
Chapter 5 attempts to assess results. Based on the available quantitative data, it constructs several indicators to measure progress in achieving three major goals. These are mainstreaming, gender equality and women’s empowerment. To a limited extend the donor agencies are already monitoring their mainstreaming efforts to increase women’s share of agency staff and budget, and have also deliberately attempted to mainstream discussion of gender issues in agency documents. In contrast,
References: Jahan, Rounaq; (1995) The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development Mumtaz, Soofia; (1996) The Pakistan Development Review www.google.com