Gender and project management

Project Management

Gender

Gender and project management

Sex or gender?1. 'Women get paid less in the building trade because they can't do

heavy work'2. 'Women are better at raising children'3. 'Men can't have children'4. 'Men make better decisions than women' 5. Women give birth to babies, men do not6. Little girls are gentle, boys are tough7. Women can breast feed babies, men cannot8. Most drivers in Australia are men9. Men’s voices break at puberty, women’s do not10. According to UN statistics, women do 67% of the world’s work,

yet their earnings for it only amount to 10% of the world’s income11. Men are less sensitive than women12. Women have weaker sexual needs than men13. Women should breast feed because of the health benefits for the

woman and baby, therefore they should stay home with children

Gender and project management

‘Gender’ vs ‘Sex’

Sex identifies the biological difference between men and women. (This is something that cannot be changed and is universal.)

Gender identifies the social relations between men and women. It describes differences between men and women that are determined by cultural, social and economic conditions. Gender roles are dynamic and change over time.

Gender and project management

Examples of gender characteristics

In Australia (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work

In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate

In Saudi Arabia, men are allowed to drive cars while women are not

In most of the world, women do more housework than men, whether or not they also do paid or unpaid work outside the home.

Gender and project management

Why consider gender? In every society, men and women have different roles, different

responsibilities, allocate their time differently, have difference access to resources.

A given issue, policy or project will affect them in different ways, and may produce a different outcome for men and women. (example)

What are the main health concerns of women/men? • What are women’s and men’s responsibilities related to the health issue? • What barriers (e.g., self confidence, mobility, financial resources, role in making decisions) do women/men encounter in performing their responsibilities related to the health issue? • What support systems or services currently exist to help with the health-related problem? Are these systems and services available to meet the needs of women/men? Unless you can see and understand these differences, it is difficult to

respond in ways that involve and benefit men and women equally.

Gender and project management

Why consider gender?

Often, men’s and women’s different roles and responsibilities will be so accepted as to seem ‘natural’ when they are in fact socially constructed, and thus changeable.

Difference is not a problem per se – the issue is that these differences have historically constrained and limited the life choices and participation of women.

Gender and project management

Gender and development

‘Since the majority of the world's poor are women and girls, the failure to focus on gender has held back progress in development around the world.’ UNDP Director Mark Malloch Brown, International Women's Day 2003

Gender and project management

Gender inequality in development

Despite much progress in recent decades, gender inequalities remain pervasive in many dimensions of life—worldwide.The World Bank Group (2006) World Development Indicators 06

More than 1 billion people live in poverty around the world, and a great majority of them are women. (United Nations 2007)

Women continue to be paid less than men in every country in the world.

And women’s role in governance and decision-making is a far less than men’s.

Violence against women is a greater cause of ill-health than traffic accidents and malaria combined. (Asian Development Bank 2004)

Gender and project management

Gender and development

Gender analysis is fundamental to effective, sustainable development.

We need to know who does what, who can access what, and who has decision making power about what, before we can determine how people will be effected by development.

There are many examples of water and sanitation projects that have failed because community decision-makers were consulted, rather than women, who in most communities do most of the practical day to day work that requires water, particularly washing, growing food, tending animals and preparing food.

Gender and project management

Who does what? Activities profile

Developing an activities profile involves an analysis of tasks/labour done by men and women, girls and boys.

It is a gender analysis tool that identifies who does what work, and helps to raise awareness of the distribution of domestic, market and community activities according to gender.

An activities profile draws out information essential to the planning of effective project interventions, allowing project designers to identify the degree of role flexibility associated with different activities, and participants’ allocation of time to existing tasks.

Gender and project management

Who does what? Activities profile

Production: Work done by men and women for food or income—eg. agriculture, income generating activities, employment

Reproduction: eg. water-related, health-related, fuel-related, food preparation, child rearing/child care, other domestic tasks

Community management: activities undertaken for the welfare of the community—eg. work in relation to schools, religious institutions, community development

Community leadership: Decision making related to community services, projects and activities

Gender and project management

Analysing your household

Working in pairs, use the headings Production, Reproduction, Community management, and Community leadership, to identify activities that are done in your household on an average day.

Are some activities regarded as ‘men’s work’ and some as ‘women’s work’? Is there any pattern to this?

Does the division of work into ‘men’s work’ and women’s work’ reflect biological differences, gender differences, or both?

Gender and project management

Resource access & control

Resource access assessment is a participatory technique that provides insights into how access to and control of domestic and community resources varies according to gender.

Simple activities can be adapted for use in various professional and cultural contexts, drawing on the daily experience of participants.

One gender analysis technique uses large drawings of a man, a woman and a couple, and a set of cards depicting different resources and assets owned by people in a community (eg house, land, animals, farm implements). Participants then assign the resources to the man, woman or couple, depending on the patterns of ownership (as distinct from use) in their community (Rietbergen-McCracken and Narayan 1997) Why is it important to distinguish between access and control?

Gender and project management

Gender division of labour & project work

Projects are implemented in a social context and are influenced by the gender division of labour in families and communities.

For example, if women’s time is disproportionately engaged in reproductive labour and social maintenance, then this will impact the time they have available for participating in community decision making about a project.

What are some ways you could take account of the gender division of labour in planning community consultations? Or Project Design implementation monitoring, evaluation

Gender and project management

Project Design

Conduct of gender analysis to identify the gender issues that the proposed project must address

Goals, objectives, outcomes, and outputs Activities that respond to the identified gender issues, including

constraints to women’s participation Conduct of gender analysis of the planned project to anticipate

gender-related issues arising from the implementation of the designed project

Monitoring indicators and targets which include reduction of gender gaps or improvement of women’s participation

Resources and budgets for the activities c. What gender issues do you anticipate as a result of the way

the project has been designed? Access control participation what gender risk are there

Gender and project management

Gender and projects management

Why do we need to address issues of gender in project design and project implementation?

Gender and project management

Gender and project management

All development projects impact on both men and women, and will generally impact on men and women differently

Gender has to be taken into consideration at all stages of the project cycle

Gender analysis tools are a key resource for project designers and managers in identifying existing gender roles and relations, how planned interventions are likely to affect these, and ways in which project activities can promote gender equity.

Gender and project management

Gender is always relevant

Not all projects will have gender as their primary focus. But all projects should ensure that gender equity is addressed in a way that is appropriate to effectively address the targeted development challenge.

Gender equality should be explicitly considered in the analysis underlying the rationale for choice of project focus and implementation approach;

The project approach needs to reflect awareness of the resources available to strengthen gender equality;

Project design must clearly reflects a gender-nuanced analysis Gender-analysis conclusions must be integrated into the project

implementation strategy there is no point in doing the analysis if you don’t incorporate it

in the project design and implementation arrangements!

Gender and project management

Projects should be gender smart

Given the centrality of gender to sustainable development, development interventions need to be more than gender-informed – they need to be ‘gender smart’

Every project presents specific opportunities to promote participation of and benefits for men and women

‘Gender smart’ means that gender equality is addressed in project analysis and acted upon in project implementation.

Gender and project management

Key steps for addressing gender in a project1. Data collection

2. Identification of issues

3. Identification of strategies to promote gender equity

4. Formulation of gender equity results

Gender and project management

Data collection for gender-aware projects

You need to understand the differences between women and men in the project area in terms of Access to and control over resources Perspectives, roles, needs and interests Political participation and decision making The cultural constraints and disadvantages that affect

them Common sources of information for gender analysis could

be interviews with people in the project area, the team’s experience in the area and existing documents.

Gender and project management

Identification of issues

Using the data collected, what are the specific obstacles to men or women gaining equal access to the benefits of the project?

Gender and project management

Step 3 – Identification of strategies to promote gender equality

Describe a strategy for dealing with the obstacle(s) identified so that women and men would not be prevented from enjoying equal access to the benefits of the project.

This strategy should identify “entry points,” which would allow obstacles to the full participation of women and men to be addressed and effective actions to be taken.

Gender and project management

Step 4 – Formulation of gender-equality results Based on the strategy and entry points you

have identified, identify the activities, outputs, outcomes and indicators that are specifically meant to ensure that the disadvantaged gender group is not excluded from the benefits of the project.

These should be included in the project implementation plan and reported on.

Gender and project management

Planning for women’s participation

Are women included in project design? Have women been included in:

the statement/definition of the problem addressed;

the preparation of the project proposal; the project team/management structure; all levels of decision-making?

Is there a budget line for gender activities? Are all project members sensitive to gender

issues?

Gender and project management

Encouraging women’s participation

Can women participate in project activities? Socio-cultural barriers to women’s participation can

present a risk to projects’ gender equality objectives and thus need to be identified and addressed. These barriers may include: women’s lack of authority in households and

communities; the social value of women’s lost labour; women’s lack of mobility; women’s level of literacy and education; women’s lack of confidence or self-esteem.

Gender and project management

Encouraging women’s participation

Will women participate in project activities? Once it has been established that women can

participate in project activities, a number of factors determine whether they will, such as: perception of benefits from participation; attitudes of project workers toward women; role models of participation in the project team itself; scheduling of activities to suit women’s responsibilities; language and communication barriers.

Gender and project management

Discussion

What do you see as the key difficulties and challenges in developing gender awareness in project work?

What do you see as the key difficulties and challenges in developing gender smart projects?

How can these be addressed in practice? How will you incorporate gender awareness

in your development practice?

Gender and project management

‘GENDER MAINSTREAMING’ IN THE PLANNING CYCLE

PRE-REQUISITE/ELEMENTSoPOLITICAL COMMITMENTSoPOLICY FRAMEWORKoSEX DISAGGREGATED DATAoCONSULTATIONSoSTAFFING POLICY oCOMMUNICATION STARTEGYoBUDGETING

PLANNING•GENDER ANALYSIS, •GENDER ISSUES IDENTIFICATION •GENDER ACTION PLAN

MONITORING & EVALUATIONoGENDER INDICATORS

oPOLICY IMPACTS ON FEMALE AND MALE BENEFICIARIES

IMPLEMENTATION•IMPLEMENTATION

GENDER RESPONSIVE INTERVENTIONS

Gender and project management

Gender and project management

Gender and project management

Gender and project management

When and if to include gender in the log-frame

If there is explicit references are required in the logical framework

If the policy/project is concerned with making an impact on poor people’s lives

A Gender responsive project requires a project log frame that incorporated social and gender analysis that are intrinsic to project design, implementation, and M&E.

It can be made to new projects ( by utilizing gender analysis and gender responsive log-frame) and on-going projects (by engendering the log-frame).

Gender and project management

Is it a Gender Responsive Project? Are women and men, girls and boys participated in the project

cycle? Have the needs of women and men both known and responded

in the Project? Have women and men (or certain groups of women) had a

complementary or competing agenda during project formulation or delivery?

Have women and men both have been actively involved in project M&E?

Have there been any intentions to consult women, both as a separate group as well as in the presence of men, during the discussions?

Gender and project management