Can development initiatives be gender neutral?
Decisions made in planning an initiative shape the type of impact that it will have on culture. Even if gender equality is not explicitly considered, decisions made in the planning process will have an effect on gender equality. For example: • a community-based rural water supply initiative: • could include efforts to involve women as well as men in problem identification and management; • or not, in which case the strategy reinforces the idea that decision-making is a male function and results in decisions that reflect only the priorities and perceptions of men. • a governance initiative concerned with the reform of the civil code: • could include research and public consultations on the equality implications of provisions on marriage, divorce, property in marriage, inheritance, etc.; • or not, in which case it ignores an opportunity to review aspects of the civil law that in many countries institutionalize discrimination against women; • an infrastructure initiative that restructures
