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15. Locating Gender In Development Discourse
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231 15 Locating Gender In Development Discourse Manthiba Phalane University of Limpopo (South Africa) Abstract The central question in this discussion concerns how development discourse in Africa constructs women and gender across geographical regions. Gender has been a particularly contentious arena within the field of development as institutions and communities struggle over the nature of representation, the construction of social problems, and the appropriation of resources directed towards development intervention. The discussion focuses on the construction of gender within the context of a development discourse engaged through global development programs. The question raised specifically is -when development discourse is conceptualized and applied, how are gender roles and needs framed within the process? Furthermore how do gender issues differ across Africa within which the development intervention is implemented? The central focus includes attention to issues of development discourse and gender within the context of African debates and discussions. The problem with the development discourse is that it is conceptualized as a form of institutional discourse communicating assumptions about problems, communities and solutions. The discussion analyses the theoretical perspectives on gender and development and scrutinizes the main phases of the development debate for their perception of women’s role in development. Given the lack of attention to gender and development discourse in Africa and the prospects for its future growth this symposium is indeed timely. For purposes of our discussion gender is understood as a social construct interpreted and engaged within organizational settings, connected with considerations of race ethnicity and other markers of cultural difference through policies and practices of states and development institutions. 232 Linking Development Discourse to Gender Interest Gender inequality undermines the effectiveness of development discourse and policies in fundamental ways. In Africa this issue still lies only at the periphery of policy dialogue and decision making both in national and international arenas. On one level the neglect comes from policy makers’ reluctance to deal with topics that affect societal norms, regional or cultural traditions. On the other level neglect comes from teal or feigned ignorance about the nature of gender disparities if not indifference to women’s wellbeing and countries’ prospects for development. Feminists engaging with gender and development discourse in different parts of the world have different experiences, which come from the ways in which their nations ami regions are positioned materially, politically and discursively. It is therefore difficult to exercise urgency in debates and influence draft legislation as an educated feminist working as a policy advocate when the only African woman portrayed as having a ‘voice’ in declarations and country constitutions is a grassroots woman who is perpetually poor, powerless and pregnant. This indicates accounts of the often-limited social, political and research identities available to African women in a world dominated by development institutions, national and international gender networks of researchers and activists. These accounts should remind us of the continuing importance of geo-political positions on the basis of the ways in which research debates, development actors and initiatives want such discourses to be conceptualized. These are ignored because they are seen through distorted and rigid stereotypes. Debates on gender and development in Africa, particularly in Southern Africa tend to overlook the fact that gender is a core development issue and a development objective in its own right. It has the ability to strengthen countries to grow, reduce poverty and to influence effective governance. The overlook is partly illustrated in three parts on the focus of debates: First, it is illustrated by the fact that the architects of all the existing documents on development (regarded as ‘the first generation right’) in Africa are almost exclusively men. It also explains why the declarations [18.221.146.223] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 20:42 GMT) 233 are more directly preoccupied with the state (another patriarchal institution) than they are with the more gender related aspects of development. The declarations duplicate international legal and human rights instrument and the highly sexist discourse about the generations of human rights and development (Tamale &Oloka-Onyango, 2000). Overlapping the field of human rights and development are male intellectuals who support thegeneration paradigm and give priority to civil and political rights debates an arena within which men dominate at the expense of female exclusion. While making an important contribution to the first generation rights and to the politics of gender and development in our continent it is worth noting that none of the African declarations addresses the root causes of inequities based on the underlying division of labor by gender. Another...