Written and produced in collaboration with partners, Cutting Edge Packs provide accessible overviews of the latest thinking on a gender theme and summaries of the most useful resources. Each pack includes an Overview Report, a Supporting Resources Collection and a copy of Gender and Development In Brief, which can be downloaded in PDF, html or Microsoft Word (without images) formats.

In Brief is available in English, French and Spanish. Cutting Edge Packs are usually translated into French and Spanish. Some are also available in Arabic, Chinese and Albanian.

Note - to view PDF files you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.

Upcoming Cutting Edge Pack themes include Gender and Social Movements and Gender and Climate Change.

Contact Hazel Reeves, BRIDGE Manager, if you are interested in funding the BRIDGE programme of work (H.Reeves @ ids.ac.uk).

Governance processes – with their emphasis on principles of accountability, transparency, responsiveness and inclusiveness – should be a means to social transformation. But despite this potential, they are failing to deliver on gender equality, and women are having to struggle to get their voices heard and needs met. This Cutting Edge Pack maps out persistent obstacles to gender equality in governance and offers possible ways forward - including promoting gender balance in positions of authority, making rights central to governance institutions and processes at all levels, and building political will for change.

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/ Portuguese Version

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Providing care can be both a source of fulfilment and a terrible burden. For women and girls in particular, their socially prescribed role as carers can undermine their rights and limit their opportunities, capabilities and choices - posing a fundamental obstacle to gender equality and well-being. How can we move towards a world in which individuals and society recognise and value the importance of different forms of care, but without reinforcing care work as something that only women can or should do?

Overview Report:
By Emily Esplen

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/ English Version

Gender and Development
In Brief

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Version en castellano
Version française

What does a world without gender inequality look like? Realising this vision requires inspiring and mobilising social change. But what would indicate we are on the right track - and how will we know when we get there? Gender-sensitive indicators and other measurements of change are critical - for building the case for taking gender (in)equality seriously, for enabling better planning and actions, and for holding institutions accountable for their commitments on gender.

Related activities:
In March 2007 BRIDGE and The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) Gender Team undertook an Expert Panel Discussion on Gender Sensitive Indicators and Measurements of Change at the 51st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. An e-discussion on measuring gender equality was also held to contribute to the Gender and Indicators Cutting Edge Pack. The respective write-ups are below.

Panel Discussion - Gender Sensitive Indicators: /
E-discussion - Measuring Gender Equality: /
Version française pdf / word
Version en castellano pdf / word

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Sexuality can bring misery through sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, female genital mutilation, or marginalisation of those who break the rules, such as non-macho men, single women, widows who re-marry, sex workers, people with same-sex sexualities, and transgender people. Sexuality can also bring joy, affirmation, intimacy and well-being. How can we make possible more joy and less misery?

Overview Report:
By Pinar Ilkkaracan
and Susie Jolly

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Gender and Development
In Brief

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Trade and trade liberalisation have very different impacts on women and men - which can result in fundamental shifts in gender roles, relationships and inequalities. Moreover increasing claims that countries should be enabled to 'trade their way out of poverty' means that there is an urgent need to address how trade can promote gender equality and development. What policies are likely to have an effect on gender equality and how can such policies be influenced? How can development practitioners promote gender equality and better support women's access to the benefits of trade?

Overview Report:
By Zo Randriamaro

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Gender and Development
In Brief
(Chinese language software available here)

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How does migration advance or impede gender equality? How can policy-makers and practitioners promote gender equality in work on migration? Migration can bring new opportunities for greater gender equality and a better life, for those migrating and those they leave behind. It can have positive impacts on sending and receiving areas. However, migration also brings risks, and may entrench inequalities around gender.

Overview Report:
By Susie Jolly
with Hazel Reeves

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Supporting Resources Collection:
By Susie Jolly

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Who benefits from information and communication technology (ICTs)? ICTs have created new economic and social opportunities the world over. The positive changes brought about by ICTs, however, have not touched all of humanity. Their use continues to be governed by existing power relations where women frequently experience relative disadvantage. Amidst this inequality are individuals and organisations that are working to use these technologies to further gender equality.

Overview Report:
By Anita Gurumurthy

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/ Arabic Version
/ Indonesian Summary

Supporting Resources Collection:
By Susie Jolly and
Lata Narayanaswamy
with Ra'ida Al-Zu'bi

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Gender and Development
In Brief

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There are those for whom citizenship is a site of achievement, of power and validation of their place in the world - a way of achieving positive change and gaining a better standard of living for all groups. For others it can be a malign concept - exclusive, alienating or threatening - serving only to marginalise and exclude by allowing some in and expelling those who do not fit on the basis of gender, class or race. Some may say citizenship has “no relevance” to their lives, lives that are already too full with the pressures of daily life to consider participating in broader decision-making or struggles over rights. Yet many development workers have argued that using the language and the arguments of citizenship is a powerful way of working in development programmes that seek to bring about gender equality through focusing on people and how they interact with institutions.

Overview Report:
By Shamim Meer
with Charlie Sever

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Supporting Resources Collection:
Charlie Sever

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Gender and Development
In Brief

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Mainstream approaches to conflict and reconstruction fail to recognise how armed conflict exacerbates gender inequality. This pack explores the impact of armed conflict on gender relations, analysing the distinct ways that both women and men are affected. The overview report demonstrates that interventions must respond to the diverse needs of women and men who may simultaneously play the roles of activists and parents, soldiers and victims. The supporting resources collection features summaries of key materials, case studies, tools, web resources and networking contacts.

Overview Report:
By Amani El Jack

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Supporting Resources Collection:
Emma Bell with
Lata Narayanaswamy

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Gender and Development
In Brief

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Everyone who has struggled to mainstream gender into public policy recognises that programmed action without money attached amounts to inaction. While government budgets allocate resources in ways that perpetuate gender biases, budgets also offer the potential to transform gender inequalities. This pack shows how in recent years gender budget initiatives (GBI), both inside and outside government, have risen to this challenge.

This Cutting Edge Pack is also available on cd-rom. You can view it online or order copies by writing to:
Ms. Ana Maria Luey, The Gender Unit (BDP), UNDP, 301 East 45th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10017, USA. Email: ana.maria.luey@undp.org

Overview Report:
By Helena Hofbauer Balmori

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Supporting Resources Collection:
By Hazel Reeves
and Charlie Sever

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Gender and Development
In Brief

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Why, after 20 years of international responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic are infection rates still on the increase? Why are the numbers of women living with HIV increasing faster than the number of men? HIV/AIDS is not only driven by gender inequality - it makes gender inequality worse, putting women, men and children further at risk. What can be done to address a problem entrenched in this inequality, denial and stigma? International experience demonstrates that an approach which transforms gender relations is needed to effectively tackle the epidemic.

Overview Report:
By Vicci Tallis

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/ Albanian Version
(Albanian not edited by Bridge)

Supporting Resources Collection:
By Emma Bell

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/ Albanian Version
(Albanian not edited by Bridge)

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Is gender and development a northern imposition on cultures of the south? Yes, in the sense that much of development, including gender and development, is dominated by northern agendas. On the other hand, cultures are changing and diverse, and within any culture some people will oppose and some will favour greater gender equality. Furthermore, the argument that gender is a northern imposition is often used to obstruct constructive action for gender equality, even when this is led by local priorities.

Overview Report:
By Susie Jolly

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Supporting Resources Collection:
By Susie Jolly

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Gender and Development
In Brief

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Participation can provide an effective way to change cultures. This pack explores participatory approaches to gender change in project and programme implementation, policy, and organisations and institutions. Successful experiences and practices are identified. Examples of failure, and mistakes to avoid, are also described.

Overview Report:
By Supriya Akerkar

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Report Summary:
By Supriya Akerkar

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Supporting Resources Collection:
By Emma Bell
and Paola Brambilla

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