https://medium.com/@ssranjani62/the-times-i-was-caught-by-surprise-lessons-on-qualitative-research-on-gender-transformation-bc0949c10759…

I do evaluations which I often call participatory. I have a consultation with the primary stakeholders on what should be evaluated, involve them in the process of evaluation, and analyse and validate findings with them. While it is participatory, the control rests with me, and I act as a proxy or surrogate for the marginalised women/girls, men/boys and transwomen/transmen.

However, being a "surrogate", do I really capture the voices of marginalised, which may be contradictory given…

Photo credit: Center for Health and Social Justice

This article explores lessons from evaluations that I have done on work with men and boys to challenge dominant masculinities in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.  It also asks what lessons are different from evaluating work with women and girls on…

In-spite of several decades of development, the progress has been limited in reducing gender based violence, gender gap in economy, and gender gap in political participation globally. Yet a lot of development programmes and projects focus on these issues, and several evaluations have been carried on 'gender integrated' and 'gender specific projects". 

A key question is "Are evaluations creating to knowledge building on what works and what does not work with regard to reducing gender…

Sometimes, while evaluation progress towards gender equality and women's empowerment (GEWE), I am asked to give a rating on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 6 on criteria used by the commissioning organisation.  Normally, sub-criterias are listed for women's access to and ownership of resources, reduction in violence against women, increase in decision making of women etc. Sounds simple?

On the surface yes, but there are three challenges

Challenge of Interpretation:…

Of late there has been considerable discussions about gender transformative evaluations, as distinct from gender ameliorative, gender instrumental or gender-blind ones.  The gender transformative evaluations seek to assess changes in gendered (and other) power relations and norms & resources in different institutions and contribution of policies, programmes, or projects to these changes, apart from adopting a transformative evaluation methodology.  The gender ameliorative ones assess…

Gender and Indicators - Eldis
www.eldis.org › Home › Topics › Resource Guides › Gender › Key Issues
... contribute to the process of determining how best to move forward. This key issues guide was written by Angela de Prairie with advice from Ranjani K Murthy

http://www.comminit.com/job_vacancies/content/womens-empowerment-strategic-rebellion

This report presents findings from a Qualitative Evaluation of a sports-based adolescent girls and young women's empowerment programme in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai called the Goal Programme. The evaluation was commissioned by the Naz Foundation and Dasra. It argues that the Programme has strengthened self-esteem, leadership and life skills of adolescent girls and young women, and made a dent on ability to handle gender based violence, menstrual health, and financial literacy. Gender…

Gender-transformative evaluations seek to assess impact of policies, programmes and projects on transforming gender and other social relations. They adopt transformative evaluation methodologies and methods, are done people with gender expertise, and findings are fed back to marginalized women and men.

Are gender-transformative evaluations in conflict situations different from similar evaluations in non-conflict settings? Does the evaluator have to keep specific aspects in…

Assessing%20progress%20towards%20SDG-5%20from%20national%20to%20community.pptx

Guest lecture by Ranjani K Murthy organized by Community of Evaluators, Nepal, 20^th June, 2016

Coming from India, when asked to evaluate livelihood activities I used to wonder why development agencies introduced beauty parlours.  After all, do not they not promote stereotypes that women should be 'beautiful' in the eyes of men. I used to ask agencies why do not you promote non traditional activities for women like driving, two wheeler mechanic, masonry etc.

The women who run these parlours explained to me

"Madam I get good income, more than by working in a super…

The Global Gender Gap Report 2016 draws attention to the widening of gender gap in health and economic sphere. Two indicators are used in this report with respect to gender gap gap in health: gap in healthy life expectancy and sex ratio at birth (after adjusting for the fact that more males are born). Sex ratio at birth (female-over-male) amongst the countries studied has declined from 0.94 to 0.92 (1 being equality) between 2006 and 2015, while gender gap in healthy life expectancy has…

In this blog I would like to use parts of the  Rajagopalan’s (2015) Immersive Systemic  Knowing framework. He distinguishes between four ways of knowing:  being, cognition, doing and learning. Being refers to ways of living, existing and relating with others and environment which is shaped by culture and history.  Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Doing refers to activities in which one engages.…

Gender equality, SDGs and floors & ceilings

Recently I was facilitating a workshop on team building with an activist NGO in South India. 

As part of this workshop I raised the workshop I asked the staff (from field to team level) when did they feel powerful and powerless in the organisation. 

Interestingly the field and middle level staff spoke mainly on the impact of their work (and constraints) on changing gender and social relations, while the team level staff focused on issues related to internal…

http://http://www.comminit.com/job_vacancies/content/world-banks-world-development-report-2015-justice-lens

 Justice is about fairness and equity. It is also about equitable distribution of power, resources, and outcomes in society. It requires expanding rights of the marginalized and ceilings on the privileged.

Does the…

- When I asked women and men from six Chennai [India] slums: "What are the changes - positive and negative - you have seen in the last five years in the institutions of marriage, family, markets and state?" they pointed to quite a few changes and recommendations. These are discussed first, followed by recommendations from evaluations of government schemes in the same city. The disjuncture between women’s evaluations and government evaluations is then contrasted, and, finally, recommendations…