The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the

views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

Documentation of Gender Equality Results in ADB Operations

A Presentation by Dr. Sujata Basu, Social Development Consultant

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Documentation of Gender Equality Results in ADB Operations

GENDER: A MISNOMER The word gender is often used imprecisely as a catch-all term.
COMMON PERCEPTION: ALL WOMEN ACTIVITIES THIS PROJECT IS PURELY INFRASTRUCTURE, CIVIL WORKS.....LESS SCOPE FOR WOMEN/GENDER ACTIVITIES INFRASTRUCTURE FOR WHOM??? WHO ARE THE BENEFICIARIES??? WHAT ABOUT TARGETED INTERVENTIONS, if any ???
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GENDER: A MISNOMER The word gender is often used imprecisely as a catch-all term.
Common Perception: All Women Activities Women are there as labours during construction phase---Ask how many vis a vis men??? Cant Say. Data not Available What has been the working conditions of those women vis a vis men labours during construction?.......Any idea about safety measures, working environment, equal wages??? Common Answer: Cant Say. Data Not Available
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GENDER: A MISNOMER The word gender is often used imprecisely as a catch-all term.
Common Perception: All Women Activities What about staff in PIU/PMU? How many women and men in Technical and non technical positions? Work Environment and Conditions(Separate Washroom, Flexible working hours) Safety measures, Equal opportunity and pay??? Common Answer: Cant Say. Data Not Available
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GENDER: A MISNOMER The word gender is often used imprecisely as a catch-all term.
Common Perception: All Women Activities ANY IDEA ABOUT GENDER CATEGORIZATION OF THE PROJECT? Common Answer: Cant Say. At Times: Refer to RRP Document

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GENDER: A MISNOMER The word gender is often used imprecisely as a catch-all term.
Common Perception: All Women Activities AVAILABILITY OF BASELINE DATA IS THE DATA GENDER DISAGGREGATED??? Whats that and for what??? Common Answer: Cant Say. Data Not Available At Times: Some Data is there but do not know whether Gender Disaggregated

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GENDER: A MISNOMER The word gender is often used imprecisely as a catch-all term.
Common Perception: All Women Activities GENDER SENSITIZATION, AWARENESS TRAINING PROGRAM ATTENDED SO FAR OR CONDUCTED FOR PMU/PIU STAFF Common Answer: Cant Say. Data Not Available At Times: May be one or two but not sure whether gender training or not

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Lets Decipher the word Gender: Gender does not mean' women or girls although the word is frequently used as shorthand for women, womens empowerment, womens human rights, or, more broadly, for any initiative that is geared towards girls or women.
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In broad terms, gender defines and differentiates what women and men, girls and boys, are expected to be and do(their roles, responsibilities, rights and obligations).

To differing degrees depending on the cultural context, gender can condition what these different groups are expected to think and feel (e.g., their preferences, hopes and the nature and extent of their aspirations). Gender also governs how girls, boys, men and women are expected to relate to one another. It is a key determinant of who does what, who has what, who decides and, importantly, who has power.

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Gender equality means that women and men, girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It also means that girls and women have agency to use those rights, capabilities, resources and opportunities to make strategic choices and decisions about the course of their lives.

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Merely working with girls and women does not necessarily advance gender equality or the empowerment of girls and women. Many think that because their programme caters to girls or women, they are taking a gender perspective and/or promoting equality. In fact, an effort can be gender-blind even when women are the target group if it fails to account for questions related to the gender division of labour (Who does what?), access to and control over resources (Who has what?), and power imbalances between women and men (Who decides?).

EX. Girl-friendly Toilet with Napkin Incinerators in Kerala

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For the most part, equality between women and men cannot be achieved by providing them the same set of services, opportunities and protections, delivered in the same ways. Equality of opportunity often will not create equality of outcomes given the significant disadvantages and status differentials that girls/women face. Targeted interventions that promote the empowerment of girls and women are often a precondition for true equality. For example, quotas have served as effective affirmative action for promoting the participation of girls and women in public forums. For Ex.: Panchayati Raj System, Women member quota in Pani Panchyats in Chhattisgarh.

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Thus, Gender equality is not a womens issue alone: The issue of men in development is critical because ending womens subordination involves more than simply reallocating economic resources it also involves redistributing power. There is a strong case to be made that transformed gender relations will benefit men as well as women in terms of overall family income, for instance, or mens emancipation from imprisoning expectations and stereotypes concerning masculinity. It is important, however, to emphasize that men will have to relinquish some economic, political and social power if women are to have their fair share of it.

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Gender is addressed in many organizations as a cross-cutting issue. There are so many cross cutting issues such as HIV/AIDs, Environment etc. From an operational standpoint, making gender a cross-cutting issue can render it institutionally homeless.
Also, by making gender mainstreaming everybodys job, it can easily become nobodys job. It requires sensitized and informed team approach. Gender mainstreaming is a continuous process to achieve gender equality.
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During the assessment phase, identify gender gaps through the use of sex and age-disaggregated data and gender responsive data collection methods.
During the analysis phase, perform a gender analysis, an in-depth evidence based examination of the ways in which gender inequality is reproduced, including the influence of gender relations, roles, status, inequalities and discrimination in legislation and policies, as well as access to and control of resources.

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Gender analysis is the cornerstone of gender mainstreaming and arguably the most useful tool available to organizations seeking to promote equality between men and women, though their regular programmes. It helps to ensure that programme design is informed by facts and analysis rather than by untested assumptions.
A sound gender analysis and systematic use of its findings throughout the programme cycle make initiatives more effective and more likely to advance equality. Gender analysis tells us, in essence, who does what, who has what and who decides.
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Good Practice to Develop Effective Project GAPs Undertake quality social and gender analyses. Identify constraints to participating and benefiting women and men. Develop strategies for each loan component to ensure that women and men participate and benefit. Revisit gender design strategies at inception to develop a detailed GAP. GAPs are essential roadmaps for project implementation. GAPs need to be tested and reviewed early in implementation. Detailed activities, targets, resources, and responsibilities for implementation need to be identified. GAPs must be fully owned and understood by the executing agency. Use a participatory and flexible approach to developing the GAP. A strong rationale that is directly linked to overall project objectives is needed for targeting and working with women. 10/8/2013 sbasu

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Identify realistic targets linked to loan objectives. Targets and strategies should enable step-by-step progress bringing incremental changes and challenging culture without threatening it. Linking targets to loan objectives helps all stakeholders to understand the rationale for focusing on women. Targets facilitate monitoring of participation and benefits. Include gender capacity building in the GAP. Both formal training and ongoing support and mentoring are needed for developing skills, ownership, and commitment. Provide adequate skills and resources for GAP implementation. Long-term gender specialists in the executing agency and/or project team and adequate resources have ensured that GAPs are implemented. Nongovernment organizations contracted to implement project activities should have a demonstrated gender capacity.
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Monitor and follow up gender-related targets and activities. Systematic follow up is needed to ensure that policy reforms and GAPs are implemented. Routine monitoring and reporting promotes good results. Gender sensitive indicators and gender-related risks must be included in project logical frameworks. se loan covenants tranche release conditions in program loans. U Tranche release conditions in program loans helped achieve positive gender equality policy reforms in governance policy loans. Implementation of GAPs and/or strategies should be included as an assurance and/or loan covenant with reference to specific GAP elements such as activities and targets for womens participation and access to project resources. Loan covenants increase the likelihood that executing agencies, project teams, and the Asian Development Bank will monitor the implementation of the GAP and gender-related results.
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CHALLENGES IN GAP IMPLEMENTATION
Limited knowledge and understanding of existing government policies on gender equality and lack of incentives to achieve gender based objectives. Lack of full time gender specialists. Lack of Ownership. Lack of leadership support. EAs reluctance and insufficient allocation of project resources for GAP Implementation. Weak gender expertise and monitoring mechanism lead to limited reporting on GAP implementation and results. Lack of Training Program, capacity development. Lack of continuity in staff.
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SOLUTIONS
GAP is not a separate project but an essential part of the overall project design and GAP implementation needs project funds for achievement of project outputs and outcomes. Regular training, peer exchange, lateral learning seminars for PDs Visit to successful projects & use of results to encourage EA to replicate. Prepare a very realistic GAP and its implementation plan with EAs in the early stages rather than putting plenty of Jargons Regular capacity building for PIU/PMU Staff Regularly visit the project sites to observe how GAP activities are being implemented, in case of delay....how to mitigate etc. Incorporate sex disaggregated indicators in PMS of EA/IA with baseline data. Ensure that GAP implementation status is reported in the quarterly project progress reports submitted by EA to ADB.
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How to document GAP implementation Progress

Component wise: Enhanced Productivity of Livestock Systems
DMF Indicators GAP Activities GAP Targets for current year Responsible Organization/Pers on Progress to date Issues & Challenges Latest Update

50% women beneficiar ies in 300 villages

Organize training at a convenient time

50% women in village based training program me

PIU

Partially achieved: 40% were trained i.e. 1200 out of 3000 farmers are women.

Seasonal migration

Sept.2 013

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Apart from quantification, have qualitative/participatory information as well in the GAP quarterly report such as how one time skill training itself gave confidence to women to speak out her mind or at least built a self esteem. For Ex. Skill training for Juvenile Inmates in Calicut, Kerala.
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DOCUMENTATION & RECORDING: Even where gender-sensitive indicators and methods for measuring change are being used, the process is rarely documented. Thus, it is important: Institutions working on the measurement of gender (in)equality should explicitly examine, track and document the process of using indicators or otherwise measuring change. Grassroots organisations in particular should document their experiences in this area, as less information is published (whether formally or via the internet) at this level than at the international level. This process of documentation should include case studies, description and analysis of what the process was, how it was undertaken, what the challenges and limitations were, what was successful and why. Documentation and experiences should be shared internally and made available to all staff, whether gender specialists or not. They should also be disseminated for external audiences, especially via the internet so as to be available to as wide an audience as possible. Documents can be submitted to online resource collections specialising in gender issues.

Documentations in vernacular as well as in English.

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A format for documenting good practice examples: Background on the overall intervention in which the good practice process/ activity takes place. The reason changes in relation to gender equality were required- related to achievement of social justice/human rights and/or effective achievement of the goals of the programme. The objective of the process / activity being recorded as good practice. The strategy adopted to achieve this objective. The outcome - specific changes as a result of the process /activity, and how these relate to the objectives set. The factors contributing to / hindering the success of the process / activity. Any ways in which the good practice activity could have been improved. Plans to follow-up the good practice activity and the potential / constraints in relation to moving forward. Any other lessons learned from the process. The possibility for replication or spin-off effects. Further documentation on the example (if anything exists) and contacts for further information.

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THANK YOU

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