Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality. This work explores the experiences of Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia from Eastern Africa; and Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Swaziland from Southern Africa. All cases show the varied attempts to mainstream gender at national, institutional, and civil society levels, including grassroots experiences.

In Gender and Practice: Insights from the Field, twelve chapters contribute to the creation of an accessible body of knowledge that looks to provide gender practitioners with examples of what works, and what doesn't, in the attainment of gender equality.

This book focuses on southern Africa by engaging with ‘norms’ from various perspectives and how they have proliferated within a neo-liberalising context since the 1990s. It particularly examines gender norms in relation to agency, influence and their impact. Despite growing transnational activities, regional studies analyses have so far maintained a primarily linear logic not incorporative of the increasing interface between state and non-state regionalism in a transnational context since the advent of liberalisation and democratisation. Increasing non-state activities, and their connection to state processes involved in norm creation, adaptation, diffusion and implementation around broad questions of security (including gender security), amount to regional thickening. The book’s analytical approach is informed by alternatives to mainstream approaches, emphasising processes rather than linearity inherent in regional international relations studies. The research reveals that transnational activities and regionalisation of gender and women-focused civil society actors are critical for advocacy and diverse representation within intergovernmental policymaking structures at the regional scale.

Recent years have seen a shift in the international development agenda in the direction of a greater emphasis on rights and democracy. While this has brought many positive changes in women's rights and political representation, in much of the world these advances were not matched by increases in social justice. Rising income inequalities, coupled with widespread poverty in many countries, have been accompanied by record levels of crime and violence. Meanwhile the global shift in the consensus over the role of the state in welfare provision has in many contexts entailed the down-sizing of public services and the re-allocation of service delivery to commercial interests, charitable groups, NGOs and households. Gender Justice, Development, and Rights reflects on this ambivalent record, and on the significance accorded in international development policy to rights and democracy in the post-Cold War era. Key items on the contemporary policy agenda-neo-liberal economic and social policies; democracy; and multiculturalism-are addressed here by leading scholars and regional specialists through theoretical reflections and detailed case studies. Together they constitute a collection which casts contemporary liberalism in a distinctive light by applying a gender perspective to the analysis of political and policy processes. Case studies from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, East-Central Europe, South and South-east Asia contribute a cross-cultural dimension to the analysis of contemporary liberalism-the dominant value system in the modern world-and how it exists, and is resisted, in developing and post-transition societies.

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture covers major theoretical issues as well as critical empirical shifts in gender and agriculture. Gender relations in agriculture are shifting in most regions of the world with changes in the structure of agriculture, the organization of production, international restructuring of value chains, climate change, the global pandemic, and national and multinational policy changes. This book provides a cutting-edge assessment of the field of gender and agriculture, with contributions from both leading scholars and up-and-coming academics as well as policymakers and practitioners. The handbook is organized into four parts: part 1, institutions, markets, and policies; part 2, land, labor, and agrarian transformations; part 3, knowledge, methods, and access to information; and part 4, farming people and identities. The last chapter is an epilogue from many of the contributors focusing on gender, agriculture, and shifting food systems during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters address both historical subjects as well as ground-breaking work on gender and agriculture, which will help to chart the future of the field. The handbook has an international focus with contributions examining issues at both the global and local levels with contributors from across the world. With contributions from leading academics, policymakers, and practitioners, and with a global outlook, the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture is an essential reference volume for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in gender and agriculture. Chapter 13 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems can result in greater food security and better nutrition, and in more just, resilient, and sustainable food systems for all. This paper uses a scoping review to assess the current evidence on pathways between gender equality, women’s empowerment, and food systems. The paper uses an adaptation of the food systems framework to organize the evidence and identify where evidence is strong, and where gaps remain. Results show strong evidence on women’s differing access to resources, shaped and reinforced by contextual social gender norms, and on links between women’s empowerment and maternal education and important outcomes, such as nutrition and dietary diversity. However, evidence is limited on issues such as gender considerations in food systems for women in urban areas and in aquaculture value chains, best practices and effective pathways for engaging men in the process of women’s empowerment in food systems, and for addressing issues related to migration, crises, and indigenous food systems. And while there are gender informed evaluation studies that examine the effectiveness of gender- and nutrition- sensitive agricultural programs, evidence to indicate the long-term sustainability of such impacts remains limited. The paper recommends keys areas for investment: improving women’s leadership and decision-making in food systems, promoting equal and positive gender norms, improving access to resources, and building cross-contextual research evidence on gender and food systems.

With the inclusion of access to energy in the sustainable development goals, the role of energy to human existence was finally recognized. Yet, in Africa, this achievement is far from realized. Omorogbe and Ordor bring together experts in their fields to ask what is stalling progress, examining problems from institutions catering to vested interests at the continent's expense, to a need to develop vigorous financial and fiscal frameworks. The ramifications and complications of energy law are labyrinthine: this volume discusses how energy deficits can burden disabled people, women, and children in excess of their more fortunate counterparts, as well as considering environmental issues, including the delicate balance between the necessity of water for drinking and cleaning and the use of water in industrial processes. A pivotal work of scholarship, the book poses pressing questions for energy law and international human rights.

ABSTRACT The equality of women and men is a prerequisite for peace. Social development interventions over recent decades have sought to achieve equality primarily by educating and liberating women from the shackles of customs and paradigms that serve to maintain gender inequality. It is increasingly recognized that due attention must be given to men’s essential role in the process, to men’s education and liberation. In East Timor the latter process has begun, albeit on a small scale. This study looks at ways to further advance this process. Three and a half years in East Timor provided the opportunity to engage in applied research using the methodology of ethnography. I gathered data using three main techniques: semi-structured interviews with more gender-equitable men, and with women and men occupied with the engagement of East Timorese men in gender equality; observation and direct participation within a wide range of settings from informal encounters on local beaches to high-level meetings with the president and government ministers; and analysis of pertinent primary and secondary documents. I identified that a number of interventions are being applied to the issue of engaging East Timorese men in gender equality, including use of: workshops and trainings; the performing arts; campaigns and the mass media; role-modeling; and the techniques of popular education, with varying levels of success. I found that the Association of Men Against Violence and its members are key players in the advancement of this process, and that they work closely with feminist organizations within East Timor. While I drew on much secular theory and practice in the course of this study, my personal beliefs and practices are guided by the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. The Bahá’í teachings include much that is relevant to this study and thus I have drawn on and presented Bahá’í perspectives and approaches to such things as equality and men’s role in its establishment; social and economic development; and the culture of contest, and have 3 drawn on Bahá’í principles in the discussion of results; and subsequently in drawing my conclusions. By exploring the implications of interventions implemented in other parts of the world, and of theory pertaining to social development; masculinities; and a culture of contest, I identified that interventions in East Timor to engage men in gender equality would be strengthened by giving due consideration to the following: developing participants’ ability to communicate; providing opportunity for and developing the capacity of participants to critically reflect on their environment; addressing participants as whole human beings and members of one human race; and actively engaging participants in the development and ownership of knowledge. I concluded that three areas requiring immediate attention include the development of evaluation tools and processes, and the systematic documentation and sharing of learning, as well as research into masculinities in an East Timorese context.

Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises argues that building enduring peace in post-conflict states in Africa requires comprehensive, state-specific approaches that address the multidimensional crises that generated civil conflict and instabilities in these countries. Contributors examine states such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Sudan to demonstrate that peacebuilding projects in each of these states must address the cultural, economic, political, and social root causes of their respective underlying civil conflicts. In addition, contributors prove that peacebuilding projects must be shaped by the centrality of human security: the respect for ethno-cultural diversity, the advancement of human material well-being, the protection of political rights and civil liberties, and the redesigning of the military and security architecture to ensure the safety of all citizens from both internal and external threats.