MY WISH FOR GENDER & EVALUATION IN 2018! WHAT'S YOURS?

[Michele Tarsilla]

Dear Colleagues,

This is my #Gender & #Evaluation Wish for 2018. What's yours? Please check out my post and let me hear back from you. You can post your ideas and thoughts on our Community of Practice Website.

To access the post, please click on the following link: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:63503005485536...

LET’S WALK THE GENDER TALK: MY PERSONAL WISH FOR 2018. This morning, I was looking at the new #WorldBank #IEG cartoon calendar devoted to #Water & #Sanitation. I especially liked the picture on the May page: it reminds all of us, in #evaluation too, of how misinterpreted the concepts of #gender #equality and #equity could be. I’ve seen evaluation ToR and inception reports where the gender equality dimension translated into a single and not-so-well-worded evaluation question (generally placed under the #effectiveness #OECD #DAC criterion). Similarly, I have seen evaluation reports where gender equality was mentioned in the methodology section but no specific framework was adopted or any specific measure was taken to « walk the GENDER talk ». In this vein, I truly hope that 2018 will bring much more intentionality and coherence with respect to the inclusion of gender equality in all of our evaluation #deliverables. Likewise, I hope that evaluation commissioners as well as practitioners will start looking at the degree to which the program or policy design (not just implementation) has adequately (or not) integrated gender. To this end, a question on the compliance with the related #UNEG guidelines could be added under the Relevance criterion. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Michele 

[Rituu B Nanda]

More responses on linkedin

Aysel Vazirova

Aysel Vazirova

I think we need to examine connections between how evaluations imagine beneficiaries and agents of change. What I observe in relation to women specifically, is that assigning them as beneficiaries at times allowes power-holders to deny them agency. Real agency is substituted by token representation and box ticking. I believe we need to look at the issue of gender and agency and we need to do it in a truly intersectional manner. (edited)

4w

Paramita Majumdar (Ph.D)

Paramita Majumdar (Ph.D)

Let us focus on gender equity issues across sectors, pr

[Rituu B Nanda]

Responses received on linkedin

3d

Madhumita Sarkar

Madhumita Sarkar

Of course nearly equal Participation!!!!!!Ha Ha Ha

2d

Moshood Abolore Folorunsho (MMP)

Moshood Abolore Folorunsho (MMP)

Equal quality representations at all levels

2d

Fiona Fandim

Fiona Fandim

Equality and Equity as well

2d

Michaela Raab

Michaela Raab

We still see this all over the place, don't we?

1d

Prashant Pastore

Prashant Pastore

The Sham of equal participation....

[Fabiola Amariles]

Hello, dear colleagues! Wishing that you have started a wonderful 2018, and thank you Michele for inviting us to think of our wishes for the New Year. 

My wish for Gender and Evaluation in 2018 is to continue to demystify the concept of “gender” within the “non-gender” evaluation community, through promoting more and more the arguments that support the application of a gender transformative approach in evaluation: We cannot progress in development if the needs of half of the population are not attended, and if the existing high inequality gaps between men and women persist!

The field of evaluation has an important role in presenting evidences on these inequalities and making visible what is working or not to advance to social justice. Every person in the evaluation community can contribute to this goal from whatever role she or he plays.

That is my wish and dream! I hope to continue working on it from this community.

[Rituu B Nanda]

What is your wish for Gender & Evaluation in 2018?

• Posted by Yahia Yahia AlBabily on January 10, 2018
  

I fully agree with with our collegue Rituu , with a a quote by Dom Helder Camara: When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.

[Rituu B Nanda]

Reply by Juliet 3 hours ago

Delete

Is to see how some of the Evaluation findings can be used to influence policy to increase inclusion and participation as drivers to enhance better remuneration and working conditions for women working in cities. And how those conditions can attract males to take up jobs which are predominantly being occupied women to ultimately address poverty disparities especially in Uganda. A recent Report shows unemployment among women at 65% of the 38 Million Ugandans. Important to note is that Uganda has more women than men.

[Michele Tarsilla]

Dear Colleagues,

Great to read your comments on some of the issues that I raised in my original post. I really liked Vidhya's note encouraging all of us to shift from "inclusion" to "centering". That resonates very well with a topic that I discussed on a variety of online fora in the past: the need for evaluation practitioners and funders to shift from "functional capacity building" to "transformative capacity development". If you would like to have more details,  feel free to read the related article that I presented during my keynote speech at the African Evaluation Association Conference in Cameroun in 2014. To download the article, click on the following link: Tarsilla's Article on ECD (2014)

I look forward to hearing from more members of our community on their respective "gender and evaluation" wishes for 2018!

Once again, Happy New Year to all!

Michele

[Srividhya Shanker]

I mean much of what I said after. Inclusion maintains a hierarchical structure in which we are near the top, answering to donor countries and other funders. Centering creates a circle. Including requires that we serve as gatekeepers, entrusted with the authority over who gets included and how many. Centering requires that we serve as supports on the margins to those who are most affected and most aware and most involved. Including them means that they are objects of our inclusion. Centering their work means that they are the protagonists--the producers of knowledge and agents of change. It shifts the colonial dynamic in which "we" seek input on "our" work (if we are fortunate to be funded with time and space and processes to do so) to one in which we simply offer our specialized training and skills to ongoing socio-political movements for liberation from these oppressive structures.

[Rituu B Nanda]

Wonderful Vidhya! Please could you elaborate on I would like to center (not just include)

[Srividhya Shanker]

I would like to center (not just include) and sustain (not just incentivize) the analysis, interpretation, meaning- and sense-making (not just the experiences or "participation") of all those most violated, exploited, marginalized, and over-powered along all dimensions of identity and artificially produced difference (not just assigned sex) throughout the problem definition, program/ policy develoment, and program/ policy evaluation decision-making (not just data collection) processes. I would like to offer my research and evaluation training, skills, and relationships to support the daily work and critical reflection that members of these groups are already engaged in through their ongoing struggles for structural change and self-determination. That is:

Justice (not charity)... Reparations (not aid)...

[Rituu B Nanda]

Thanks Emebet for your response to Michele. What are you going to do this year to address the concern you have raised? Warm new year greetings!