Gender equality in European Union development policy: incorporating women’s voices or confirming hierarchies? (original) (raw)
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This article examines gender mainstreaming in European Union (EU) development policy towards southern Africa. The aim is to detect how gender (in)equality in southern Africa is framed by the EU, and the extent to which this overlaps with Southern African Development Community (SADC) and civil society framing of gender (in)equality. We also explore potential reasons for the overlap and mismatch of frames. Using the methodology of critical frame analysis, EU policy programming documents are analysed and compared to SADC's Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, and civil society texts on gender equality. We conclude that the EU approach to gender mainstreaming in its development aid towards southern Africa is to a large extent instrumentalist, predominantly integrationist and only partially participatory. Gender mainstreaming is framed as a way of more effectively achieving existing policy goals, and civil society groups are poorly integrated in the drafting process. Although the EU approach has significant overlap with the frames used by SADC, the latter seem to hold a broader, more holistic conception of gender mainstreaming. A major gap exists between civil society organisations' views on gender (in)equality and those expressed by the EU. This gap might be harmful for the relevance of EU policies and may compromise their effectiveness.
The Quality of Gender Policies in EU Development Co-operation with South Africa
Promoting gender equality abroad : an assessment of EU action in the external dimension, 2017
This chapter examines the quality of gender equality policies in EU development co-operation with South Africa to gain a deeper understanding of the EU as a global gender actor. In this chapter the perspectives of South African gender advocates are used as a touchstone for the evaluation of both process and content dimensions of quality. The research shows that EU-South African co-operation conforms with dominant development paradigms which seem to neglect the specific South African contextual legacy. If the EU wants to stay relevant as a global promotor of gender equality, it would do good to include national gender advocates’ voices in external policy processes in a more meaningful and systematic way, as to avoid Eurocentric ideas on the meaning of “quality” in gender policy abroad.
Matters relating to women and gender equality have been at the helm of many discussions for the past decades. Several international legal and policy measures have been adopted to advance gender equality at various levels, as well as to position women to become key players in the economic, social and political spheres of society. Despite the progress made, there is still a cavernous fissure in women's participation in the economic and political sphere, especially in Africa. The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979 and the African Union enacted a regional Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) relating to the Rights of Women. The Protocol concerns specific problems faced by women in Africa. Subsequently, in 2013, the African Union adopted a blueprint to guide the development of Africa in the next 50 years, commonly dubbed 'Agenda 2063'. Generally, the Agenda seeks to engender an inclusive development that puts women and youth at the centre of the continent's development programming. The paper will examine how the various legal and policy instruments at the international and regional levels are incorporated and applied at the national level. It identifies the critical issues, challenges and prospects in advancing a gender-responsive inclusive development in Africa. The paper concludes that despite efforts at the regional level to advance gender equality, it has not been achieved due to poor enforcement at national level. Résumé Des sujets ayant trait aux femmes et à l'égalité des sexes ont été à la tête de nombreuses discussions ces dernières décennies. Plusieurs mesures juridiques et politiques internationales ont été adoptées pour faire avancer l'égalité des sexes à divers niveaux, mais aussi pour positionner les femmes à devenir des acteurs clés dans les domaines économiques, sociaux et politiques de la société. En dépit des progrès faits, il reste néanmoins une énorme fissure dans la participation des femmes aux domaines économique et politique, surtout en Afrique. Les Nations unies ont adopté la Convention sur l'élimination de toutes formes de discrimination contre les femmes en 1979, et l'Union africaine a adopté un protocole régional à la Charte africaine sur les droits de l'homme et des peuples relative aux droits de
Gender mainstreaming in the European Union development policy: the Tunisian case
Journal of Feminist, Gender and Women Studies, 2021
This paper examines gender mainstreaming in the European Union development policy to Tunisia. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the way in which Gender Mainstreaming is included in the European Union Development polity in a strategic country such as Tunisia. In doing this, I will examine to which extent the Gender Mainstreaming integration is genuinely achieving its aim of transforming unequal gender relations. The first section of the paper develops the theoretical frame. The second section explains the research methodology. The third section explains the research results showing how the European Union has overlooked a unique opportunity that would has given the chance to integrate Gender Mainstreaming in the post-revolution European Union development policy, into the national public policies and lastly, in establishing a more inclusive dialogue with an embryonic civil society and mature feminist movement. The paper concludes with the hope that this study will serve t...
Analysing European gender equality policies abroad: A reflection on methodology
2015
Can gender equality quality criteria developed for assessing EU internal policies be used unequivocally for evaluating EU external policies? Or might a methodological adaptation be necesary? To engage with this dilemma, the author evaluates the two-dimensional quality model of Krizsan and Lombardo and examines what a reorientation of the model would entail to better allow for the analysis of gender policy implemented outside of Europe. The author argues that to allow for an in-depth analysis of EU gender policy abroad, the model’s procedural criteria ‘empowerment of women’s rights advocates’ and ‘transformation with reference to the prevailing context’ need to be brought centre stage and mainstreamed throughout the research design. The author suggests doing this by explicitly involving the views of gender activists from the national context in the analysis and using their perspectives as a touchstone for the evaluation of quality. To examine the proposed methodological model’s suitability for analysing the quality of gender policies in EU external relations, this operationalization is applied to the case of EU–South African development cooperation. The article concludes that the inclusion of gender advocates’ perspectives is necessary to avoid stereotypical, paternalist and Eurocentric ideas about the meaning of gender equality abroad and allow for a contextually grounded reflexivity on the quality of gender policy. Finally, it is argued that it is the role of feminist research to enhance women’s capacity for self-determination methodologically and to hear the voices of national actors that might otherwise not be heard in EU external relations.
This article maps an application of gender mainstreaming with the aim of investigating how gender is institutionalised within EU development aid. I consider the case of aid towards Liberia from 2008 to 2013, examining first the extent to which gender was included in policy formulation and implementation. Next I attempt to explain this by analysing institutional inputs and networks at the EU Delegation in Liberia. Based on text analysis and expert interviews, I argue that gender factors were abolished in the actual implementation, despite relative support from the Delegation leaders, and the availability of training and expertise. The largest stumbling block to effective implementation was institutional weakness, represented by the disconnect between formal and informal institutional rules; gendered assumptions at the EU external services constraining the expression of marginalised perspectives; and a gendered double democratic deficit in the power play over which ideas matter and who accumulates resources.