scholarly journals Gender-inclusive Development and Decentralised Governance: Promoting Women’s Voice and Influence through Collective Action in Rural Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Diprose ◽  
Amalinda Savirani ◽  
Tamas Wells

This peer-reviewed research and policy paper draws on analysis of how women influence decision making in Indonesia's multi-level governance structure under the new Village Law in Indonesia. The analysis identifies the ways that women, through different causal processes, influence development priorities, spending, projects, policies and policy actors, as well as social norms in communities. The analysis draws from a large, qualitative comparative study conducted in different places throughout Indonesia, providing an analytical framework for understanding variation in social and politico-economic contexts in terms of the constraints and opportunities for gender inclusion and women's empowerment. The research also explains variations in the processes by which women exercise voice and influence in these differing contexts, providing considerations for policy makers and others concerned with gender inclusion, women's empowerment and everyday wellbeing.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Diprose ◽  
Amalinda Savirani ◽  
Tamas Wells

This peer-reviewed research and policy paper (available in English and Bahasa Indonesia) draws on analysis of how women influence decision making in Indonesia's multi-level governance structure under the new Village Law in Indonesia. The analysis identifies the ways that women, through different causal processes, influence development priorities, spending, projects, policies and policy actors, as well as social norms in communities. The analysis draws from a large, qualitative comparative study conducted in different places throughout Indonesia, providing an analytical framework for understanding variation in social and politico-economic contexts in terms of the constraints and opportunities for gender inclusion and women's empowerment. The research also explains variations in the processes by which women exercise voice and influence in these differing contexts, providing considerations for policy makers and others concerned with gender inclusion, women's empowerment and everyday wellbeing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Saida Parvin

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Hemant Patidar

Fertility has declined in India during the last few decades because of socio-economic development. Women’s empowerment has been identified as an important determinant for demographic change. Tribals in India have relatively high fertility because of their traditional socio-cultural practices and poor economic condition. This study aims to examine the role of women’s empowerment on fertility behaviour by utilising primary data collected from ten tribal dominated districts of Rajasthan. These tribal communities belong to the Bhils, the Meenas and the Saharias. Results reveal that women’s empowerment is negatively associated with fertility behaviour. Women’s education, employability, participation in decision-making, exposure to media and spousal communication bear significant impact on fertility behaviour. This study may have some implications for future studies and policy makers for regulating fertility.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. p102
Author(s):  
Dr. Nadia Al-Sakkaf

Despite the existence of women’s empowerment strategies since the late nineties and qualified women in decision-making positions in charge of implementing them, these strategies failed to significantly improve women’s conditions and the situation of Yemeni women in the Republic of Yemen remains dismal. This article attempts to explain this failure through a mixed-method approach, surveying and interviewing Yemeni women leaders who were involved as authority figures or people of influence between 2006 and 2014 in said strategies. Findings from this research have strong policy implications on future development and gender equality policies in the country placing the experiences of women as policy makers, activists, advocates at the center of the analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
April Mackey ◽  
Pammla Petrucka

Abstract Background Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have empowered people to communicate and network at a global scale. However, there is lack of in-depth understanding of the use of ICTs for women's empowerment. This study examines how the concept empowerment is defined, utilized and measured in research studies, the existing evidence on the use of ICTs for women’s empowerment and the gaps in knowledge at the global level. Methods The authors’ conducted a scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley methodology. The search identified papers from ten databases, including Scopus, Embase, ABI Inform, Soc Index, Sociological Abstracts, Gender Studies, Springer Link, PsychInfo, Science Direct, and Academic Search Complete over the period of 2012–2018. Search criteria included articles that focused on women’s empowerment and utilized technologies as interventions. Out of a total of 4481 articles that were initially identified, 51 were included. Results Technology played a variety of roles in supporting the development of women’s capacities and resources. Results revealed the use of ICT interventions in the overarching areas of outreach (e.g., health promotion), education (e.g., health literacy opportunities), lifestyle (e.g., peer coaching and planning), prevention (e.g., screening opportunities), health challenges (e.g., intimate partner violence apps), and perceptions of barriers (i.e., uptake, utilization and ubiquity to ICTs for women). Despite the positive use of technology to support women in their daily lives, there was a lack of consensus regarding the definition and use of the term empowerment. The concept of empowerment was also inconsistently and poorly measured in individual studies making it difficult to determine if it was achieved. Conclusion This scoping review provides a comprehensive review of current and emerging efforts to use ICTs to empower women. The findings suggest a need for collaborative efforts between researchers, program implementers and policy makers as well as the various communities of women to address the persistent gender disparities with respect to ICTs.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Kaffenberger ◽  
Lant Pritchett

Women’s schooling has long been regarded as one of the best investments in development. Using two different cross-nationally comparable data sets which both contain measures of schooling, assessments of literacy, and life outcomes for more than 50 countries, we show the association of women’s education (defined as schooling and the acquisition of literacy) with four life outcomes (fertility, child mortality, empowerment, and financial practices) is much larger than the standard estimates of the gains from schooling alone. First, estimates of the association of outcomes with schooling alone cannot distinguish between the association of outcomes with schooling that actually produces increased learning and schooling that does not. Second, typical estimates do not address attenuation bias from measurement error. Using the new data on literacy to partially address these deficiencies, we find that the associations of women’s basic education (completing primary schooling and attaining literacy) with child mortality, fertility, women’s empowerment and the associations of men’s and women’s basic education with positive financial practices are three to five times larger than standard estimates. For instance, our country aggregated OLS estimate of the association of women’s empowerment with primary schooling versus no schooling is 0.15 of a standard deviation of the index, but the estimated association for women with primary schooling and literacy, using IV to correct for attenuation bias, is 0.68, 4.6 times bigger. Our findings raise two conceptual points. First, if the causal pathway through which schooling affects life outcomes is, even partially, through learning then estimates of the impact of schooling will underestimate the impact of education. Second, decisions about how to invest to improve life outcomes necessarily depend on estimates of the relative impacts and relative costs of schooling (e.g., grade completion) versus learning (e.g., literacy) on life outcomes. Our results do share the limitation of all previous observational results that the associations cannot be given causal interpretation and much more work will be needed to be able to make reliable claims about causal pathways.


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