Mainstreaming a gender perspectivein development was the overallstrategy adopted at the Fourth UN

Conference for Women, held in Beijing in1995, to support the goal of gender equality.The rationale for this strategy is that it isimportant to bring the goal of genderequality to the centre of the developmentprocess. After three decades of gender anddevelopment activism, most in developmentinstitutions continue to need constantreminders of the need for gender analysis intheir work. Why is it that policy makers stillhave to be lobbied to include the �g� word,and colleagues need to be convinced thatintegrating a gender analysis in their workmakes a qualitative difference?

There are two ways in which genderequality concerns can be mainstreamed.Integration aims to ensure that such concernsare integrated in the analysis of obstacles todevelopment, and that these concernsinform the formulation of policy, programmes,and projects. Specific targets are set foroutcomes, and the monitoring and evaluation

of policies and programmes must capturethe progress made in the achievement ofgender equality. For example, an agri-cultural development project might focus onensuring that women involved in farminghave equal access to technology andinformation. In contrast, the transformationapproach aims to move beyond integratingwomen�s concerns relating to the demandsof their daily lives, to focus on improvingwomen�s position (status), and therebytransforming the agenda. For example, if thekey issue facing women in agriculture is lackof independent land rights, this approachwould move far beyond ensuring thatwomen have equal access to technology andinformation, to advocating for changes ininheritance practices and land ownership.

Integration and transformation requirework at two different institutional levels.Integration involves working withindevelopment institutions to improve thequality of their work � improving the�supply� side of the equation. A trans-formative agenda requires efforts to support,

45

Creating citizens whodemand just governance:gender and development in the twenty-first centuryMaitrayee Mukhopadhyay

The issue of good governance assumed enormous significance in debates on global development in the1990s. By and large, this translated into policies aimed at building accountability of publicadministration institutions to the broad ‘public’, but omitted to consider two key issues: first, the‘public’ consists of women and men, who have gender-differentiated needs and interests; second, civil-society institutions have a role to play in creating the demand for democratic, accountable, and justgovernance. To address these omissions, and to reinforce the importance of bringing a genderperspective to global debates and approaches to international development, KIT Gender, at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, initiated a three-year programme in 1999. It is entitled‘Gender, Citizenship, and Governance’. This article discusses the programme and its relevance tointernational development, and provides three case studies from the programme; from India,Bangladesh, and South Africa.

Gender and Development Vol. 11, No. 3, November 2003

nurture, and create constituencies whodemand change. To do this, developmentorganisations need to understand the natureof government and of state�societyrelationships, and the degree of autonomythat policy-making institutions have frominternational development and financialinstitutions. In many countries in Africa, forexample, social and political movementshave marginal influence on what the policy-making institutions are doing, becausemany governments are dependent not onlyon the people, but on international support,to stay in power. Working on governanceinvolves understanding the interconnect-edness of institutions at different levels, anddetermining the role that social movementscan play in demanding justice for the poor.

KIT’s programme

KIT�s programme on gender, citizenship,and governance was set up in order toaddress such issues. The programme aimedto make gender equity and equality a coreconcern in governing development. Itprovided a framework to facilitate innovativegender and governance initiatives in ninecountries and in two regions of the world:South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan,and Sri Lanka) and southern Africa(Namibia, Zambia, South Africa, andZimbabwe). The programme was under-taken in collaboration with 16 organisationsfrom these countries. The development ofthese partnerships, and of collaborativeaction research, was the cornerstone of theprogramme. The aim was to construct aforum for linking and learning, in the besttraditions of participatory and action-oriented research, and contribute theinsights generated to improve developmentpolicy and practice.

The international development contextIn the 1990s, the issue of good governanceassumed enormous significance in thedebates on global development. One reasonfor this was the growing realisation on the

part of many that conventional developmentefforts had failed to achieve the desiredends. These were to eliminate poverty andinequality, and promote respect for humanrights.

Attention began to shift away fromtraditional development concerns towards agreater consideration for the way in whichpower is exercised in the management ofeconomic and social resources for develop-ment. International financial institutionssuch as the World Bank, bilateral donors,and donor groupings like the EuropeanUnion (EU) and Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development/ Develop-ment Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC),highlighted the need for good governance,to ensure that development aid had thedesired results of bringing about economic,social, and political changes in developingcountries.

Good governance meant different thingsto the donors and other actors involved indevelopment, according to their differentpriorities and mandates. However, on thewhole, the good-governance agenda aimedto make public administration institutionsaccountable to the public whom they aresupposed to serve. Most money spent by donors in support of good governance in developing countries went towardsreforming the state and attempting toimprove public administration. Democraticreform concentrated, in the main, on reformof electoral systems, decentralisation anddevolution of government, and reform ofadministrative and legal systems.

Good governance and the international‘crisis of control’The good-governance agenda did notautomatically address the question ofgender inequality. For example, establishingthe rule of law has not automaticallytranslated into the legal recognition ofviolence against women as a crime.Similarly, expanding the scope of citizens�participation in governance, by decen-tralising government, has not by itself

Gender and Development46

ensured that women and men arerepresented on an equal basis.

The attempts to improve governancetook place at a time when the processes ofrapid economic globalisation were at theirpeak. Over the last three decades of thetwentieth century, the speed and range ofthe globalisation of economics, politics, andculture have involved bringing in new-comers into governance. The traditionalactors � the state, civil society, and politicalinstitutions � have been joined byinternational development and financialinstitutions. State capacity to manage thepolitical economy of a country has beenseriously undermined in both the North andthe South, because of the processes ofeconomic globalisation. Needless to say,Southern countries have suffered morebecause they start from a position of greaterpoverty, less social development, inade-quate development of markets andinstitutions, and weaker bargaining powerin international trade and financial systems.The processes of globalisation have resultedin a crisis of control in the world order. By thisI mean that no single centre of authority hasthe ability to manage economic and socialchanges in a way that will take care of thosegroups of people who are harmed by thechanges (for example, those whoselivelihoods are lost). The crisis of control,and the negative effects that the currentmodel of global development has had onpeople�s lives, has resulted in movementspromoting global justice. These have movedthe struggle to rights beyond individualnation states.

One of the more successful instances ofglobal citizen action has been women�sactivism for rights, equality, and policiesthat enhance human development andjustice for all. Women�s constituencies haveemerged as global citizens, arguing for theright to development, freedom fromdomestic and sexual violence, sexual andreproductive rights, and the implementationof the Convention on the Elimination of allForms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform forAction.

While global citizen action has beennecessary to provide the wider politicalenvironment for the construction of newrights, entrenching these rights has involvedhard work at local and national levels. It has been necessary to work with powerfulinstitutions to change the rules and todemand responsiveness and accountability.This has meant working within the politicalspaces provided by these institutions, andalso constructing new political spaces.

Gender, citizenship, andgovernance: what did wedo?

In the KIT programme we have focused onthree areas of concern: taking office,engendering governance institutions, andclaiming citizenship. Organisations whichhave participated in KIT�s Gender, Citizen-ship, and Governance programme haveadopted a three-pronged strategy, consistingof the following elements:

� creating access to governanceinstitutions

� effecting change within theseinstitutions to improve their ability torespond to women�s needs and interests

� staking women�s claim to newentitlements, arising from the needsarticulated by those women affected bylack of rights and influence.

The organisations have worked hard tobring about changes in institutionalpractices that would help women to securetheir strategic gender interests. The projectsundertaken by these organisations have notbeen limited to advocating decentralisationof government, or getting more women intogovernment and political office, orreforming the law. Rather, the participatingorganisations have intervened in these areaswith the objective of reforming and

Creating citizens who demand just governance 47

rewriting the �rules of the game�. The casestudies presented here illuminate what isinvolved.

India: building political legitimacy forminority women in local government In India, the question of representation ofdisadvantaged groups has been debated inpolitical circles since independence in 1947,with caste-based discrimination as the majorconcern. The Indian Constitution banneddiscrimination on the basis of caste andincluded those castes that had historicallybeen wronged and treated as �untouchables�in a special schedule of the Constitution.These caste groups came to be known as�scheduled castes�, and quotas wereinstituted for their representation inParliament, state assemblies, the publicsector, and in educational institutions. In1993 the 73rd and 74th amendments to theConstitution were passed, making Local SelfGoverning Institutions (LSGIs) mandatoryas part of government. A uniform three-tiersystem � district; taluk/block (a cluster ofvillages); and village levels in the rural areasor Municipalities and Corporations in largeurban centres � came into formal existence.An important aspect of the amendment wasthat one-third of the seats in all levels of localgovernment was reserved for the election ofwomen. In the following year, 350,000women entered local government as electedrepresentatives. Civil-society groups ralliedto support the new incumbents, offeringtraining in order to enhance theireffectiveness.

The Confederation of VoluntaryAssociations (COVA) � a non-governmentorganisation based in Hyderabad, southIndia � is one of the NGOs that took up workin this area. COVA saw that the opportunitypresented to women to become politicalagents and address women�s gender-specific concerns was not being realised,despite the large numbers of womenentering local government as a result of thequotas. COVA was particularly concernedabout the effectiveness of women

representatives from Muslim, Dalit, andother marginalised groupings.

COVA saw its main task as establishingthe legitimacy of female political repre-sentatives, in a context where the dice wereloaded against women on two counts. First,political parties and male representativessaw the women representatives as enteringpolitical office on the basis of favours bygovernment, rather than on account of theirleadership qualities. Second, political partiesand individual politicians had captured thereserved seats for women by placing �proxywomen� in these seats. These were womenwho did not take active office, but whosemen (usually husbands) did this for them.

COVA�s strategy was to hold fourworkshops for a core group of womenrepresentatives. The workshops were heldat six-month intervals, and aimed to supportthe women and foster a sense of account-ability to their constituents. The trainingfocused on ensuring that women gained abetter understanding of rules and pro-cedures, and developed skills such as publicspeaking, interaction with the media, andinteraction with government officials.COVA produced an information handbookfor each participant.

In between the workshops, the womenrepresentatives were required by COVA toput their training into practice by meetingtheir constituents and engaging with localadministration officials, political parties,and the media. The women�s performancewas monitored by COVA, whose repre-sentatives met with constituents, officials,political parties, and the media to get a senseof whether perceptions of the politicalrepresentatives were shifting. This monitoringacted as a further impetus for the womenrepresentatives to undertake the agreedtasks.

For the first time, the women politicalrepresentatives visited constituents unaccom-panied by male relatives. They also began toengage with officials, and address councilmeetings and the media. This gained themrespect as leaders, which in turn improved

Gender and Development48

their confidence and self-esteem. At thesecond workshop, the majority said theywere not interested in continuing a career inpolitics; by the fourth workshop, themajority were interested. The womenrepresentatives now saw themselves aslegitimate political actors, and thisreinforced the perceptions of others thatwomen were to be taken seriously aspolitical leaders.

The case of Ameena, who participated inthis programme, illustrates both thepossibilities and difficulties of establishingwomen as legitimate political actors.Women�s position in relation to men shapesthe nature of their political participation.Ameena came to be a political representativeat the instigation of her husband and thelocal Member of the Legislative Assembly(MLA).1 Her husband had always beenactive in politics; he was a former councillorfor his wife�s ward, and the City President ofthe Minority Cell of the Congress Party. He was planning to contest the election, butwhen the ward was reserved for women, heasked his wife to stand. She was notinterested in politics and declined, but theelders of the area, including the local MLA,pressed her. Ameena reluctantly agreed,although she was a little scared and tenseabout taking on the job.

Ameena�s husband undertook a door-to-door campaign, with six women of the area,covering 1,000 houses. She won by 987 votes,the highest margin of victory in the history ofthe ward. Her husband motivates her to visitthe field and meet with officials on her own,and also encouraged her to participate in thetrainings organised by COVA. He feels thathis wife is capable of discharging herresponsibilities without support, and hedoes not interfere with her activities andfreedom of movement. However, he saysthat he does not feel like sharing domesticwork, because he has never done this and itis not a man�s role. Unlike men, womenentering politics have to manage both roles �their new role as public representative andtheir traditional role of caring and being

responsible for the family. This imposesspecial limitations on women�s participationin politics and in public life, limitations thatmen do not face. Thus, while Ameena�shusband was extremely helpful infurthering her public role, her private/domestic role was seen by him, and by thelarger society, as something that women, inorder to be �women�, are obliged to do.Ameena�s participation in the COVAprogramme helped to open up discussionabout gender roles, and this is a first steptowards change. Her husband had neverbefore been confronted with the �taken forgranted� nature of gender roles andrelations.

Ameena is a graduate in Home Science,was active during school and college days,and successful in many quizzes and debatingcompetitions. Despite her education andexperience in public speaking, she felt a littlescared during the Municipal Corporationmeetings and did not speak in the first threemeetings. By the fourth meeting, shedecided to move a resolution about a civicproblem in her area. She was the first womanto speak in the Corporation meetings.Gradually others also started speaking, andnow women take an active part in theproceedings.

Ameena now says she wants to continuein politics, and does not want to become ahousewife again. She admits that earlier shenever used to read about politics in thenewspapers, but now the first thing shereads is the political news. However, herconstituency will not remain reserved forwomen during the next elections, and herhusband is keen to contest this seat himself.Under the circumstances, Ameena may notcontest the elections and may have to makeway for her husband, in order to keep peacein family relations.

Bangladesh: ensuring accountability ofhealth-service providers to stakeholdersNaripokkho is a women�s rights organi-sation based in Bangladesh. Founded in1983, it has established a reputation as an

Creating citizens who demand just governance 49

advocacy group for women�s health andrights. Bangladesh has a very high maternalmortality ratio, at 450 per 100,000 live births.These deaths are largely due to preventablecauses. The statistic shows the failure of thepublic health system to provide effectiveservices for women.

Around 1979, primary health care inBangladesh was organised around theupazila (sub-district level). The UpazilaHealth Complex (UHC) is the compre-hensive primary health-service providerinstitution, and is administered by theUpazila Health and Family PlanningOfficer, who convenes the Upazila HealthAdvisory Committee (UHAC) which is to bechaired by the local Member of Parliament.The Committee, which should haverepresentation from the providers (govern-ment health officials), citizens, and electedrepresentatives in local governmentinstitutions, is supposed to meet everymonth. Its objective is to improve health andmedical services at the hospital that it servesand solve any problems that might arise atthe local level. Naripokkho worked in oneupazila, Pathorghata, in collaboration with alocal NGO, to improve the response of thegovernment health-service providers towomen�s reproductive health needs. TheUHAC of Pathorghata was defunct, with nomeetings having been convened for fiveyears. Doctors took fees from patients at theUHC for services they were supposed toprovide free, and sometimes resorted toextortion.

Naripokkho explored how the forumoffered by the monthly meeting of UHACcould be used to enforce accountability on asustainable basis. The organisation made aseries of strategic choices about the mosteffective ways to stimulate debate aboutwomen having a right to health care, andacceptance of this as a principle, through theforum of the UHAC. This included ensuringthat all members had faith in using theUHAC as a problem-solving forum, as wellas ensuring respect for its decisions,especially on the part of health-care

providers. At the outset, Naripokkho choseto engage first with the concerned localofficial, rather than engaging with theMinistry, which would have resulted in top-down directives.

Following this, Naripokkho encouragedstakeholders to see the UHAC as a body that could address and solve some of theproblems being raised, and to see itsmeetings as an �invited space� for citizens toparticipate in decision making. Naripokkhobuilt up support among the stakeholders forthe revived UHAC, so that it could actuallystart functioning, and service providers andusers could support each other in problemsolving. Since this was an effort tostrengthen �citizen voice� as well as �stateresponse�, it was important to involvediverse actors. These included women fromthe community, NGOs, elected repre-sentatives, the doctors of the UHC,journalists, other health practitioners, andthe local government administration.

Naripokkho also engaged with the localelected representatives, since they werealready motivated to improve women�shealth and rights, and were also members ofthe UHAC. As such, they were accountableto their electorate. They monitored com-pliance with the decisions of the UHAC.This was very effective, as it was based onthe power of the �public mandate� of electedrepresentatives to take decisions on behalf oftheir constituencies. Journalists helped bycreating a public debate about the need forhealth providers to be accountable to users,no matter how poor. This was very effective:whenever there was a lapse in service, therewas immediate media coverage. Thisenforced compliance with the agreements ofthe UHAC, since anyone violating the normsrisked exposure and public embarrassment.

Some significant results of the projectinclude enhanced and proactive partici-pation of the UHAC members in thecommittee meetings; monitoring of hospitalpractices by the journalists and councillors;improved professional behaviour on thepart of the doctors; better service provision

Gender and Development50

(for example, fewer instances of bribery, andregular health education classes); andencouragement for women to negotiatelower fees for consulting the doctors.

South Africa: reform of customary law The Centre for Applied Legal Studies(CALS) is a research organisation at theUniversity of Witwatersrand, South Africa.The Gender and Research Project (GRP) atCALS was formed in 1992. It had the broadobjectives of promoting gender equality andhuman rights. From its inception, the GRPwas involved in the negotiations about thenew South African Constitution. It providedtechnical assistance to the Women�sNational Coalition, and to women in theAfrican National Congress (ANC), whichformed the first democratically electedgovernment. It also played a role in one ofthe key disputes during these negotiations,which was the place of customary law in theConstitution.

Customary law is a set of rules andpractices which governs the lives of themajority of black South Africans. Prior to theonset of democracy in 1994, customary lawdid not enjoy a status equal to civil law. Thecustomary system, which was not codifiedbefore colonial rule, had been manipulatedby successive white governments, incollaboration with state-supported maleelders, into a codified system whichentrenched and extended the subordinationof women.

In 1995, the Rural Women�s Movement(RWM) identified reform of customarymarriage as a key priority, and asked CALSto conduct research and advocacy with themon this topic. CALS began a research projectwhich sought to identify the practices,needs, and interests of women in relation tocustomary marriage. It documented theexperience of women who had marriedunder customary law, as well as theirattitudes towards their marital status, and tothe idea of reform. CALS believed that theinformation collected would provide a basisfor influencing the state to reform customary

laws on marriage. It hoped that the resultwould be a law that would meet the needs ofwomen. When the South African LawCommission (SALC) started investigatingreforms to customary law in 1996, CALSengaged in this process through providing awritten submission, oral advocacy, andattending SALC meetings and workshops. Itrelied on the research undertaken to informthe process. CALS also hoped that womenwho were involved in the research(especially those who were part of anorganised constituency) would go on toparticipate in the democratic process.

One issue � that of polygyny, in whichone man marries two or more women �caused much debate within CALS and the RWM. The RWM and CALS researchfindings overwhelmingly showed thepractice to be oppressive to women.However, questions were raised aboutwhether or not prohibition of polygynyshould be called for. Certain events causedCALS to rethink the issue. Significant herewas the annual general meeting of the RWMin February 1998, where members werechanting the slogan �one man, one woman�.CALS noticed that some members satquietly, without chanting the slogan. Whenasked why they did not chant, they repliedthat they were living in polygynousrelationships, and this prevented them fromchanting the slogan. During discussionsfacilitated by CALS, the divisiveness of theslogan was raised. CALS became aware thatwomen were not a homogeneous group, andthey were not condemning polygyny withone voice. It was critical to ensure that thelaw offered protection to women andchildren in existing polygynous households.In the CALS research, enormous concernhad been expressed about the rights ofwomen and children to property in poly-gynous marriages. Prohibition of polygynymight result in making wives and childreneven more vulnerable and marginalised.

When the Bill was finally tabled inParliament, CALS had to make a series ofstrategic choices about its content. The Bill

Creating citizens who demand just governance 51

provided for equality within customarymarriage, reflecting the wishes of women formarriages that gave them legal security(especially in respect of property), whileenabling them to maintain positive culturallinks. The Bill sought to contribute to thedecline of the practice of polygyny, yetprotect vulnerable women in polygynousunions. The Bill did not reflect all CALS�proposals, and aspects of it were contro-versial (especially the provisions onpolygyny).

However, CALS was aware of thecompromises and choices that had beenmade during the SALC process, as well asthe lengthy process of research andconsultation. CALS decided to support theBill, and focused on its strengths, whilehighlighting the concerns of rural women.The Bill was fast-tracked throughParliament, which meant that the resultantRecognition of Customary Marriages Actwas made operational only two years afterits enactment in November 2000.

The engagement of CALS did not endhere: the organisation was particularlyconcerned to examine the way in which theAct was implemented, from the perspectiveof women using it. Given that the law hadbeen structured around the expressed needsof women, did it actually address theseneeds, and solve the previously identifiedproblems of minority legal status, whichaffected access to property during marriage,lack of decision making power, and non-consensual polygyny? To measure this,CALS began to collect information on howthe Act affects the lives of women connectedto the original research sites. CALS alsointerviewed officials responsible for imple-menting the Act. A number of problemswith implementation came to light throughthe monitoring research; for each of theproblems identified, CALS has sought toengage the stakeholders to seek solutions.

Governing for equity:lessons learned

We at KIT began the Gender, Citizenship,and Governance programme with theintention of contributing to the generation ofknowledge and practice that would help tomake gender equity and equality a coreconcern in governing development. Throughtheir action-research projects, participatingorganisations arrived at understandings anddefinitions of good governance from agender perspective.

The meaning of good governance from agender perspectiveWe found that �women taking politicaloffice� means not only creating mechanismsfor their entry into public office. It alsomeans establishing women as legitimatepolitical actors, as opposed to privatepersons who do not have a place in politicsand the public sphere.

�Engendering� the institutions of nationalgovernance means ensuring that they areaccountable to women as citizens; changingrules, procedures, and priorities that excludethe participation of poor women and theincorporation of their interests in thedevelopment agenda; and mobilising andorganising women�s voices in civil society.

The meaning of citizenshipWhat does citizenship mean for poorwomen? First, we found that it means theright to participate and to be agents. Forgroups on the margins of society, citizenshipmeans acquiring the power and under-standing to define the problem of lack ofrights, and the solutions to this problem.

Second, it means aspiring to substantiveequality, as opposed to formal equality. Thecase studies highlight the need to bepragmatic, and discuss and analyse rightsaccording to the priorities of the affectedpopulation, rather than relying on ortho-doxies about women�s rights. However, thisis not to suggest that we should promotecultural relativism. Rather, as the case

Gender and Development52

studies show, this is a way of finding asuccessful way to struggle for substantiveequality � and make rights real. It involveshonestly understanding and representingthe lived experience of specific categories ofwomen (the most marginalised, or thosewho are most affected by lack of specificrights). It means moving away from the ideathat women�s interests are only aboutgender relations � that is, about women inrelation to men � towards a more nuancedunderstanding of the specificities of awoman�s position, the construction of whichdepends on other social relations (forexample, race). The best illustration of this isthe case study of customary-law reformundertaken by CALS in South Africa. In itswork on reforming customary law, CALSestablished that women�s experiences andneeds must be the key to the reform process.The organisation moved away from auniversalistic idea of women and women�sinterests, once it was made aware of therealities of women who lived in polygynousmarriages.

The practice of good governanceConstructing voice Women face barriers which restrict theirclaims to citizenship, preventing them fromparticipation in politics and the institutionsof governance. To break through these, theyneed to have a voice, and organise as apolitical constituency within civil society.The projects outlined here all helped toarticulate the voices of the most margin-alised women, by highlighting real-lifeexperiences of exclusion from entitlementsand rights.

Creating ‘communities of struggle’The case studies highlight the important roleof a political constituency of women inbuilding awareness. This awareness is key to creating a public which is broadlysympathetic to the principle of genderequality, and in challenging prevailingnotions of women�s subordination. In orderto give voice to women�s demands, an

immense amount of work has to take place,to organise and mobilise constituencies thatgrow into an awareness of the right to have aright, and the right to participate in decisionsaffecting one�s life.

Shaping the accountability interface�Constructing and articulating voice� doesnot necessarily lead to better outcomes forwomen. The case studies highlight thesignificance of ensuring that this voice isheard by the institutions that affect the livesof citizens, so that changes take place, andthere is an accountability and responsive-ness from these institutions. The projectundertaken by Naripokkho sought todevelop the accountability of local health-service providers to women. Naripokkhodid this through a gamut of strategies, whichincluded giving providers a voice toarticulate their problems; reviving a defuncthealth-accountability body and making itfunction as a problem-solving body,including multiple stakeholders; andproviding information about women�shealth needs so that the service providerswere aware of what they had to address.

Carving out spaceThe projects discussed here also demon-strate the importance of carving out spaceswhich enable women to articulate theirinterests, and provide an �accountabilityinterface� between interests and institutionsof governance. Sometimes these spaces areopened up by decision-making institutions,and at other times spaces have to be createdthrough women�s own efforts. The projectsconstructed, created, and, on occasion,opened up spaces that were by all accountsclosed to public participation.

Working on both sides: in and out of the stateOn the one hand, women in civil societyneed to become more aware of their rightsand more aware of how to hold institutionsto account. On the other, women need towork within institutions of governance toreshape how they function. Most of theprojects worked in tandem with state

Creating citizens who demand just governance 53

institutions, sometimes aligning with theagenda of the state, and other times agitatingfor change.

Establishing authority through contributingknowledge In all cases, the organisations whichparticipated in our programme were able toengage with civil society and state actors asthey did because of the legitimacy andauthority that they had established throughtheir active contributions. Some organi-sations, like the International Centre forEthnic Studies (ICES) in Sri Lanka, and Sisterin Namibia, worked to increase the numberof women elected to political office, andundertook research into the kinds ofelectoral system and mechanism that wouldbe needed to increase women�s access topolitical office. CALS in South Africabecame an important resource for the SALC,because of the extensive research that it hadundertaken to identify the practices, needs,and interests of black women in relation tomarriage. PRIP Trust in Bangladesh andSakhi in India researched the structures andfunctioning of local government insti-tutions, and was able to suggest withauthority changes that would enable bothwomen and men elected to these institutionsto perform their roles. Naripokkho inBangladesh researched and providedinformation on women�s needs to the localhealth-accountability forum set up tomonitor health-care provision.

Understanding institutions and whose intereststhey represent The projects demonstrate that once civil-society organisations have insinuated theirway into the functioning of governanceinstitutions, a main task is to maketransparent the manner in which theinstitution functions, how decisions aremade, and how resources are allocated.Bringing poor women�s needs and intereststo bear on the agenda of decision-makinginstitutions makes visible the deficiencies ofthe structures and processes that make upthese institutions. PRIP Trust in Bangladesh

did this by involving elected representativesof local government bodies in a resource-mapping exercise; undertaking a situationalanalysis of how these function, andpresenting the results to the stakeholders;and organising workshops and meetings todevelop the capacity of elected members. Inthe process, undemocratic practices wereunearthed, the marginalisation of electedwomen representatives was made visible,and information regarding resourcesavailable to local government was morewidely shared.

All the action-research projects highlightthe importance of understanding organi-sations of state bureaucracy, their structures,and processes of policy formulation,planning, and implementation, in order tolocate strategic entry points � in terms oflocation and timing � for beginning to turnaround seemingly monolithic organisations,to make them operate in ways that are awareof, and accountable to, the interests of poorwomen.

Decentralisation of government is beingoffered as the panacea to improve gover-nance, make governance transparent andparticipatory, and bring governmentstructures closer to people and thereforemake them more relevant to people�s lives.The experiences of the action-researchprojects that have worked with localgovernment institutions have helped todestroy many of these myths, preciselybecause the myths have been interrogatedfrom the point of view of women. Thisprocess has shown the following.

First, since local government is moreembedded in local social structures thannational government, and since prevailinggender ideologies are more concentrated atthe local level, it is more difficult for womento penetrate as independent political actors,or for them to raise controversial genderissues at this level.

Second, the experiences with localgovernment institutions highlighted that,even where attempts are made to put in

Gender and Development54

place structures for people�s participation inthese institutions, this does not mean thatwomen are taken into account. Procedureswere found to be gender-neutral andgender-blind in decentralised development,despite strict guidelines for democraticdecision making, women�s participation,and budgetary allocations. There was theincorrect assumption that women and menhave equal power and status, and the modelof development did not consider the need totransform unequal gender relations.

Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay is the Area Leader forSocial Development and Gender Equity in theDepartment of Development Policy and Practiceat the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam. In the last four years she has developed a specialfocus on citizenship and participatorygovernance, and its relevance to developmentpolicy and practice. Address: Royal TropicalInstitute, PO Box 95001, 1090 HA Amsterdam,The Netherlands. m.mukhopadhyay@kit.nl

Notes

1 India consists of 25 states, each with itsown legislature with elected repre-sentatives. An elected representative to astate legislature is called Member of theLegislative Assembly.

Bibliography

This article draws on all the followingsources:

Budlender, D. (ed.) (1997) The SecondWomen’s Budget, Cape Town: Idasa

Edwards, M. and J. Gaventa (eds.) (2001)Global Citizen Action, London: Earthscan

Goetz, A.M. and D. O�Brien (1995)�Governing for the common wealth? TheWorld Bank�s approach to poverty andgovernance�, IDS Bulletin 26(2): 17-27

Jahan, R. (1995) The Elusive Agenda:Mainstreaming Women in Development,London: Zed Books

Kabeer, N. (2002) �Citizenship, affiliationand exclusion: perspectives from thesouth�, IDS Bulletin 23(2): 12-23

Lister, R. (1997a) Citizenship: FeministPerspectives, Basingstoke: Macmillan

Lister, R. (1997b) �Citizenship: towards afeminist synthesis�, Feminist Review 57:28-47

Lister, R. (1998) �Citizen in action:citizenship and community develop-ment in Northern Ireland context�,Community Development Journal 33(3):226-35

Mukhopadhyay, M. (1998a) LegallyDispossessed: Gender, Identity and theProcess of Law, Calcutta: Stree

Mukhopadhyay, M. (1998b) �Gender equityand equality: the agenda for goodgovernance�, Connections 10: 16-20

Mukhopadhyay, M. (2003) Governing forEquity, Amsterdam: KIT Press/OxfamPublications

Mbatha, L. (2002) �Reforming thecustomary law of succession�, SouthAfrican Journal on Human Rights 18(2):259-86

Nunnenkamp, P. (1995) �What donorsmean by good governance: heroic ends,limited means, and traditional dilemmasof development cooperation�, IDSBulletin 26(2): 9-16

O�Brien, R. et al. (eds.) (2000) ContestingGlobal Governance: Multilateral Economic

Creating citizens who demand just governance 55

Institutions and Global Social Movements,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Pateman, C. (1992) �The patriarchal welfarestate� in L. McDowell and R. Pringle(eds.) Defining Women: Social Institutionsand Gender Divisions, Cambridge: PolityPress

Phillips, A. (1992) �Feminism, equality anddifference� in L. McDowell and R. Pringle (eds.) Defining Women: SocialInstitutions and Gender Divisions,Cambridge: Polity Press

Phillips, A. (1993) Democracy and Difference,Cambridge: Polity Press

Robinson, M. (1995) �Introduction: towardsdemocratic governance�, IDS Bulletin26(2): 1-9

Sen, A. (1997) �Human capital and humancapability�, World Development 25(12):1959-61

Sen, A. and J. Drèze (1995) India: EconomicDevelopment and Social Opportunity,New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Sen, G. (1997a) �Globalization in the 21st

Century: Challenges for Civil Society�,The UvA Development Lecture,Amsterdam, 1997

Sen, G. (1997b) �Globalization, justice andequity: a gender perspective�,Development 40(2): 21-26

United Nations (1995) Beijing Platform forAction, Fourth World Conference onWomen

White, G. (1995) �Towards a democraticdevelopmental state�, IDS Bulletin 26(2):27-35

Gender and Development56