Author: Dr Valentina Baú
B
y unearthing the connections between the literatures on participatory communication and civic engagement with the reality of postconflict peace, this article demonstrates how a communication for development (C4D) approach to engaging citizens in peacebuilding contributes to strengthening the reconstruction process at the end of the violence, while engendering a bottom up process based on dialogue and inclusivity. After offering a brief overview of the peacebuilding contexts, this article presents a theoretical discussion that brings to the surface not only the role of C4D in facilitating citizens participation in government decision making, but also its significance in creating an inclusive peacebuilding process that starts from the community. At the same time, this discussion begins to shed light on the relationship between communication for development and participatory governance.
You can access the article here: Baú, V. (2016) Citizen Engagement in Peacebuilding. A communication for development approach to rebuilding peace from the bottom up, Progress in Development Studies, Vol.16, No.4, pp.348-360
This paper provides insights and guidance on the value of participatory approaches for understanding and measuring empowerment of women and girls and grounding measurement in the lives and perspectives of women and girls. The paper aims to inspire practitioners, M&E specialists and policy makers working on the measurement of empowerment of women and girls in development programmes.
Why did 11 million fewer women than men vote in Pakistan’s 2018 general elections? Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is a much higher gender gap in each province’s largest metropolitan city compared to its remaining constituencies. This gap relates to men’s views about women’s vote and women’s knowledge of politics and the electoral process. Poor knowledge is, in turn, associated with a low interest in politics, which links to the failure of political parties to directly engage women and address their issues. These challenges can be addressed with better targeted voter education campaigns and a concerted effort by political parties to engage women directly and reduce their perception of being ‘politically invisible’.
Bringing the perspectives of local women and men who have experienced climate impacts into relevant policy arenas is seen as key to just decision-making and meeting the Paris Agreement commitment to a country-driven gender-responsive approach. But there is a lack of robust evidence on how these experiences can increase the ambition, urgency and quality of climate responses at different levels. This paper reviews existing evidence and proposes a theory of change for how the systematic inclusion of women and men with lived experiences of climate change could strengthen climate action.