1. Mainstreaming Ge de
a st ea g Gender
in the CPWF
Basin Leader Meeting,
Vientiane, January 20, 2011, Amy Sullivan
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2. Plan
We are going to talk about:
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• Why is gender such a sensitive topic?
• How did it get onto the development agenda?
• How are we going to handle it in the CPWF and BDCs?
• Are we ready to mainstream it?

6. What is Gender?
Gender is our assumptions about what men and women do
despite overwhelming visual, physical, or scientific evidence
to the contrary. It is one way we organize the world in our minds.

7. Let’s talk about sex

8. What is Gender?
• Gender is NOT women
• Gender is NOT biology
• Gender is NOT human rights in development
• Gender is NOT a western ideal
• Gender IS the socially constructed differences between
the roles/expectations of men and women
• Gender IS girls playing with dolls and boys riding bikes
• Gender IS men selling crops and women feeding families
• Gender is NOT determined by biology—it is what societies
or cultures or groups expect men and women to do.
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9. Gender in the developing world
• Women grow over 70% of the food produced in Africa
• Women are minority property owners, water rights holders
• Women responsible for child care and family welfare
• Women touch the water used by households
• Women have to ask others’ permission for access
• Women rarely have secure tenure or inheritance rights
• Women often do not control the proceeds of their work
• Women get less attention from research and extension

10. Why Gender in the BDCs?
• Because we do not recognize it and the role it plays
• We cannot say—with certainty—who does what in the
basins
• We do know that women play significant roles in rural
livelihoods that vary considerably w/in & across basins
• We cannot make recommendations without knowing who
is responsible for the task/resource/activity
• We cannot develop technologies, guidelines or suites of
interventions without knowing about access, control
and tenure
• We know that gender CAN be driver of system change
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11. What is mainstreaming
• Efficiency, Equity, Empowerment
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• Add gender and stir
• Gender in real life of the CPWF

12. How: Gender in the LBDC?
• Check all assumptions about who is making decisions
• Be explicit about who has control over resources
• Prove that gender is NOT a driver of systems
• Observation
• Seasonal activity calendars
• Activity profiles including access and control
profiles—including
• Disaggregate all data