Gender on their agenda? Nongovernmental organisations fail fairness test

Gender is a hotly debated issue in development policy and practice. But how successfully have nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) based in the UK incorporated gender issues into the mainstream of their institutional agenda? Results of a recent University of Birmingham study suggest that implementation of gender aware practices and policies is no simple matter. In most nongovernmental development agencies it has proved a complex and contested process that tends to be relegated to the margins of their policy and work agenda. The study report suggests benchmarks for improvement, based on the experiences of those few agencies that have successfully applied gender aware practices and policies.

Employees working for a diverse selection of 17 UK-based NGOs were interviewed individually and in group workshops. It emerged that only four of these agencies had incorporated gender awareness into policies and procedures, by allocating time, staff and resources to a gender-aware rethink of their work. Why such a vacuum? Had it arisen because funding of many small NGOs is tied in to specific projects? The study report offers lessons from the four agencies already experienced in gender practice implementation. They now recognise that building a commitment to gender aware ways of operating in development field projects and in-house requires work at the level of cultural attitudes and beliefs as well as at substantive (policy and law) levels and at the structural level of standard procedures, guidelines and implementation checks. Major lessons gleaned were that:

• formulating a gender policy can be very time-consuming, taking two to three years in some cases
• such a policy sets a baseline position that all must accept - but this breadth can make it less radical
• translating policy into standard procedures for a cultural mix of field officers worldwide is never easy
• a slick policy façade of compliance can mask conflict and lack of real commitment to gender fairness.

Who formulates gender policy? A specialised unit (one such was Oxfam's Gender Awareness Development Unit 1985 - 1996) can provide plenty of focus, space and experience. But it risks stranding overall responsibility for gender within the agency in a compartment on its own. Similarly, project workers may regard a unit based in head office as a 'top-down' or culturally coercive source of gender-related recommendations. In addition, if such specialised units are not tied into the mainline of management they may lack authority or have no effective sanctions to apply if policies are ignored. It follows that it is just as important to train managers and decision makers, as it is to train operational HQ and field staff.

The Birmingham study revealed that even NGOs whose development programmes best reflect gender awareness, still appoint male dominated boards and senior management. Women occupied less than one-third of seats on the boards of trustees of all but two of the 17 agencies under review. A similar bias emerged at director level. Elements of organisational culture still exclude women. The scarcity of job shares at higher levels, the high travel demands of development work with no travel allowances for children and the 'long hours' NGO culture all count against women with dependant children. Thus though some changes might have taken hold at the policy and the procedure levels, there is less change at the level of the imprinted organisational culture, which still remains predominantly in male hands. SOS Sahel and SCF have more than just a token number of women on their Boards, but it is yet to be seen how that affects the overall culture of the organisation. Specifically, NGOs should recognise the need to:

• be culturally sensitive, recognising that gender beliefs will be deeply entrenched within any culture
• encourage more South-South gender awareness training and greater use of locally recruited trainers
• understand there will be no quick results and provide for constant evaluation of impact at all end-points
• allocate ample resources and pledge long-term commitment to forming and applying policies that work.

Source(s):
Institutionalising gender in UK NGOs in Development in Practice 8 (2) 159*171, by T. Wallace (1998)

Funded by: DFID/ESCOR (UK) 1995*1996

id21 Research Highlight: 1999-January-27

Further Information:
Tina Wallace
International Development Department
School of Public Policy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham, B15 2TT
UK

Tel: +44 (0)121 4147289
Fax: +44 (0)121 4147164
Contact the contributor: wallacec@css.bham.ac.uk

International Development Department