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Gender, development and ICTs (Gender & Development Journal, 26:2, 2018)

The digital revolution is transforming how human beings live, work, and relate to each another. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have vast potential to communicate, gain access to information and services, and catalyse collective action for social justice.

But there is also the risk this revolution will fail to challenge stark inequalities in terms of who benefits and whose voice is heard. And technologies can be used by those who seek to challenge rights as well as realise them. In this issue, Gender & Development focuses on ICTs from the perspective of gender justice, and shares feminist experiences of using digital to advance women’s rights.

Click here for more information and access to articles.

Toolkit for Understanding and Challenging Leprosy-Related Stigma for Civil Society Organisations in India (Leprosy Mission, 2017)

This toolkit is a guide for members of civil society organisations (CSOs) in India and aims to build the capacity of CSOs in promoting inclusion of people affected by leprosy and other disabilities and encourage dialogue with communities around leprosy-related stigma and discrimination.

The toolkit was piloted with field workers from Andhra Pradesh and field workers/CSO members in Uttar Pradesh.

The overall aim of the toolkit is to bring about positive changes in attitude and practices in relation to inclusion and stigma.

Click here for full toolkit.

The Modern Slavery Trap: Bonded Labour (IDS Briefing, 2018)

The IDS briefing entitled The Modern Slavery Trap: Bonded Labour highlights is based on research conducted with villagers in Nepal and India by IDS research fellows Pauline Oosterhoff and Danny Burns, supported by the Freedom Fund.

Its key recommendations include prioritising support for local officials to enforce existing laws on bonded labour; and developing inclusive, community approaches to tackling bonded labour, as it derives from dynamics of whole families and communities – warning that focusing on individuals will have limited impact.

Generations within marginalised communities most affected

The briefing highlights that bonded labour disproportionately affects communities living in poverty that are historically socially and economically marginalised.

Generations within families in bonded labour can find themselves trapped in a cycle of bonded labour. For example, if adults who are already in bonded labour require further loans, they will often have to offer their child’s labour to repay the additional debt – thus trapping the next generation into bonded labour. Family members can also become bonded labourers through inherited debt when original debtors within their family die.

Participatory data provides critical insights into bonded labour

Participatory research involving the gathering of ‘life stories’ from villagers, revealed key factors leading households in particular areas of Nepal into debt bondage and also weaknesses in policy implementation that is enabling the prevalence of bonded labour to persist.

Click here for full report.

Understanding Social Norms Underpinning Domestic Violence in India (Oxfam India Paper 2016)

This Technical Background Paper for Oxfam India’s Campaign on Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls is a review of existing literature on social norms. Beginning with the reason for a renewed focus on social norms, this paper goes on to clarify for the common person the concept of social norms and its many aspects. It looks at evidence from existing programmes and campaigns on ending violence against women and the approach to changing social norms within them. It talks about a possible framework for changing social norms while touching upon the complexities of measuring social norm change over a period of time. It highlights some of the principles that need to be kept in mind while initiating social norm interventions within any context. In conclusion, it attempts to bring to the forefront some key lessons to be kept in mind while designing a campaign on changing social norms that underpin domestic violence in the context of the Indian realities.

Click here for full paper.

Social accountability initiatives in health and nutrition: lessons from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Making All Voices Count Research Report 2017)

South Asia is home to nearly a quarter of the world’s population and is a region of dynamic economic growth, yet it performs relatively poorly on health and nutrition indicators. As a potential route towards addressing this poor performance, a range of accountability initiatives has been implemented to improve service delivery in the health and nutrition sectors.

This is a rich and vibrant field, with a great deal to offer in terms of best practice; but there is little work that focuses on South Asian innovation and practice generally, and takes a comparative and theoretical perspective to ground existing and future accountability initiatives in health and nutrition specifically. This report fills this gap.

It highlights a set of four key considerations for the design and analysis of such programmes:

  • the need to understand community heterogeneity (rather than assuming homogeneity, as many interventions do)
  • the role of community collective action and/or its role in coercion or ‘noisy protest’ in effecting change
  • the ways in which cooperation, capacity and commitment affect the community and frontline provider relationship, and the ability and willingness to deliver
  • to meet demands the ways in which clientelism and other such extant local political structures form the backdrop against which accountability actions play out.

 

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