This slide shares gender and equity aware participatory methods that could be used in the context of development, complex environments and globalisation. It also shares some of the 'dos' and 'don'ts' while using participatory methods.

1. Grappling With Complexity:
Gender and Equity Aware Participatory Processes in
Evaluation
Ranjani.K.Murthy, Consultant
Supported by Indian Social Studies Trust to be present at AEA

2. Objectives
• Complexity of gender relations in India
• Opportunities & challenges-globalisation
• Gender and equity aware participatory
processes/methods.
• Factors to be kept in mind.

3. Inequities that affect Indian Women
Gender
Caste and
Class
Ethnicity
Religion
Age
Reproduction
related
Relation
position
Abilities/
illness
Sexual
orientation
Which inequity
is more stark
depends on
what one is
talking about

4. Changes in gender and social relations
Household
11
Community
Markets
State
Rules
Practices
Resources
People and power
1 4
Globali
-sation
Life
cycle

5. Why gender-aware participatory
evaluation processes?
• To capture changes in social
norms, practices, issues of power
• To capture contributions/unintended impact
of projects/programs in complex
environments.

6. Gender and equity aware participatory
evaluation
Methods
Methods that are gender and social relations
sensitive and participatory
Processes
……also that marginalised women participate in
defining the contours of the evaluation, process of
evaluation, validating findings, and recommending
changes (Gaventa and
Cornwall, 2006, Harding, 1997, Tupuola, 2006).

7. Poverty (Sen, 1980, Murthy and Kappen, 2005)
Dimensions
Food
Clothing
Shelter
Water
Health
Education
Sleep/Sex
Causes:
Ownership
Consumption
Exchange
Production

8. Women’s Empowerment
(Rowland, 1998, Kabeer, 2005)
Power
to
Power
with
Power
within
Increase in
choices
and agency
of women

9. Gender and equity aware participatory
methods
Engendering
existing
participatory
methods
Evolving new
gender and equity
aware participatory
methods

10. Example 1: Engendering social mapping and resource mapping
Women’s empowerment and natural resources management
project with dalit women (TN)

11. Gender and diversity aware resource
mapping (TN)

12. Example 2: Engendering participatory ranking
Making government services accountable to women
School
teachers
come, sexual
harassment
reduced
Health
Services :
Doctors
spend more
time
Less
corruption

13. Gender and equity-specific
participatory methods
Methods Methods
Gender division of labour mapping Gender aware road map of changes
Gender based access and resources profile Happiness mapping
Body mapping Caste and gender discrimination
mapping
Control over body mapping Story telling on discrimination
Power walk Conflict mapping
Attitude mapping Incidence of violence against women
mapping
Gender analysis matrix Empowerment mapping

14. Poverty reduction and women’s
empowerment projects
• Mobilization of women
• Women and livelihoods
• Women and governance
• Gender-aware participatory evaluation process ??
• Semi structured intra-household interviews (Control)
• Focus group discussion- semi structured
• Validation through discussion with service providers
• Discussion with implementing agencies
• Gender-aware participatory methods at individual and group level

15. How did we choose women?
Representation of progress
Choose women who have
progressed, remained
same, and deteriorated during
the project period
Inter-section of marginalised
identities
Selection of women who are
dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, single
, differently abled, living with
HIV, and sexual minorities

16. Gender based control over resources
(Overholt et al 1985)
Control of
women over
small animals
and cattle
had
improved as
a result of
the projects.
Control over
land and
housing still
rested with
men

17. Body mapping:
• Pleasure-womb- giving birth to her children
• Pain- heart-when husband died, also relief
• Shame- vagina/breast –desires, skin dark
• Pride- in her heart as leader/member of her
group, she has income in her hand, as manager of
common property resources.

18. Attitudinal change mapping
Inter caste
marriage
Sons as
security
Right to
say no to
sex
Women
Contraception
Property
Rights
HW by
men
Lineage
through sons
Menstrual
taboos
Only sons
can light
funeral
pyre
What is
present
attitude?
If
positive,
has it
changed,
why?

19. Power walk
10
0
Husband
Sarpanch
Police
Mother in
law
Upper caste
employer
Income
Group
backing
Ethnicit
y
Age

20. Caste and gender discrimination
mapping
Little impact on
interaction, and work
and resource division
Manual scavenging
reduced
Dalit women
beginning to
attend Gram Sabha

21. Violence mapping
Reducti
on in
child
marriag
e

22. Gender and decision making matrix
PGIs placed
on the
agenda in
village
assembly, an
d 60% met

23. Overall findings using gender aware
participatory evaluation process
Poverty reduction
• Agricultural land and water bodies declining
• Women’s access to immovable assets difficult to change
• Impact on productivity of assets mixed; labour increasing but..
• Equity in consumption still an issue, but improving
• Women continue to slip into poverty in gender specific ways
Empowerment:
• Attitudes on gender and caste slow to change
• Marginalized women beginning to exercise collective power. Not
SGIs.
• Women’s mobility and access to productive work is
expanding, accompanied by a little help in care work.
• Women’s control their bodies still an issue.

24. Things to be kept in mind while using gender-aware
participatory evaluation methods
• Participant-non participant comparison difficult
• Difficult in conflict zones
• Difficult if linked to funding
• Quantification possible!

25. Things to be kept in mind while using gender
aware participatory processes/methods
Hamlets
of
margina
lised
Safe
space
Expertise
Knowled
ge.
Keeping
men
away
Democr
atic
Drawing
a means
Have a male facilitator s to
engage men/upper caste
Songs,
proverbs, story
telling

26. Things to be kept in mind while using gender
aware participatory processes/methods
Choose
methods
Ethical
Same sex
facilitator
Reflexivity
Subjectivity
Timing
Time
Power
withCounseling
TOR
Planning
Interpreting
Recommendati
ons

27. To sum up
• It would be good that we use gender-aware
participatory methods to evaluate if social
norms and institutions are changing and
contributions of policies, programmes and
projects to rather than if “sectoral goals” are
being achieved. Resistance to evaluations
would also be less.