Comments on: What is happening to Donor Support for Women’s Rights?

By: josh

josh — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:40:46 +0000

She makes some good points about short budget cycles, but she never says what she’s calling for. What does it mean to “do real work to support the realisation of women’s rights”? She abhors the language of “investing” in a girl, but to me such an investment includes lots of tangible steps that see the girl’s rights being realized: right to play, freedom from harmful labor and cultural practices, creating space for her in the community, engaging men and boys to unpack gender norms and ensure her safety, helping her exercise her economic rights in the future, on and on. Anything the intl community does means investing in people, systems, institutions. Shouldn’t that investment be more proportionately allocated to girls, where returns are known to be highest? Isn’t that a question of rights, too? If not, then why do we bother with gender budgeting?

And why does she present “a rights-based approach” and “an efficiency approach to gender equality” as mutually exclusive? To me the latter is just a tool in the toolbox needed to achieve the former. If she wants to transform power relations as the ultimate goal, then let her talk about the steps required. How about giving a functionally enslaved, socially isolated girl the space to make some friends, learn a skill, earn a living, and when she grows up safer and more empowered, raise a new generation of safe and empowered children that can stand up for themselves against the patriarchy?

I doubt this is what she means, but it sounds like she wants more money for advocacy salaries, at the expense of on-the-ground programming. Not to mention less accountability.

By: EUNICE KIMANI

EUNICE KIMANI — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:59:28 +0000

Women need to be empowered on their rights.Most of them do not know their rights even when they are denied their rights, they always think that is how they should be treated.I am a kenyan woman who really yearns to see women empowered on their constitutional rights.If I can be sponsored i can facilitate this exercise and empower women in kenya.I am an Entrepreneurial trainer and I can also empower women economically is sponsored. Most women that would benefit from these services are very poor and cannot afford paying for the same.

By: How Matters / Hallowed Halls or Ghost Towns?

How Matters / Hallowed Halls or Ghost Towns? — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:33:23 +0000

[...] dealing with the constraints of donor-controlled, project-based funding, which ties their hands and shuts down any possible processes that could result in local ownership and [...]

By: What’s happening to the rights-based approach? | Justice for all

What’s happening to the rights-based approach? | Justice for all — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:26:19 +0000

[...] wanted to share an incredible article I recently ran across, by Rosalind Eyben on Contestations: Dialogues on Women’s Empowerment: Recent years have seen a marked shift in official development discourse, with less emphasis on a [...]

By: ottilia chikosha

ottilia chikosha — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 05:49:45 +0000

“If the quality of our existence is more than the quantity of what we consume and possess, then a concern for development must surely be a concern for a process that expands people’s ability to be and to do, as much as their possessions.”

By: Gita Sen

Gita Sen — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:07:56 +0000

Ros, this is a sharp piece that picks up one of the major challenges women’s orgns and social movements are facing. The rise of philanthro-capitalism is arguably responsible for the most insidious transformation of the agenda. The more so because who can be against ‘technology’ per se especially when it claims to be for the good. But it was ever so. Focusing on technology to the exclusion of social relationships has always been the way that progressive political agendas have been subverted. And it goes beyond this. Look at the current flavour of the month - randomised control trials to determine development policy with nary a word about power relations!

one more reason to go back to the basics: it’s about power and its transformation, stupid!

By: Tweets that mention Contestations / Dialogues on Women’s Empowerment -- Topsy.com

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:53:36 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anand Philip, Julie Cowdroy and Margo Pellegrino, Alanna Shaikh. Alanna Shaikh said: The end of the rights based approach for women? http://adjix.com/vnae [...]

By: Davos Man meets Girl

Davos Man meets Girl — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:02:15 +0000

[...] the website girleffect.orgIn the new issue of the e-journal Contestations, Rosalind Eybens asks, What is Happening to Donor Support for Women’s Rights?:Recent years have seen a marked shift in official development discourse, with less emphasis on a [...]