Social and Gender Analysis in Development Practice

Abstract

This article describes a large-scale, long-term initiative by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. The mandate of IDRC is to support research that contributes to improved human well-being, particularly in developing countries. The goal of the initiative was to engender development practices in natural resource management (NRM) in Asia. The strategy employed was SA/GA—social and gender analysis. Project activities sought ways to institutionalize SA/GA in NRM practices, at both village/commune and organizational/policy levels. Such a goal was complicated by constraints specific to NRM, as practitioners are trained in natural rather than social sciences. The IDRC initiative, therefore, included practitioners from a range of social science disciplines. The primary activities entailed “capacity building” in SA/GA through learningby-doing research aimed at empowering learners. Capacity building was informed by theoretical debates surrounding the notion of “gender” itself. The papers in this collection thus share theoretical and practical lessons about incorporating SA/GA into development research in ways that critique but also build on available “gender tools.”

Key Words:

• engendering development
• capacity-building
• natural resource management
• North–South collaboration