World Bank Gender Inclusion SAMVersionMay 2014(Final) fileGenderInclusion&Strategies&in&PNPM! SippiAzarbaijani,Moghaddam$ Consultancy!conductedfor!WorldBank!Programme!support!Facility!

Gender Inclusion Strategies in PNPM Sippi Azarbaijani-‐Moghaddam

Consultancy conducted for World Bank Programme support Facility

Jakarta, Indonesia

February 2014

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Gender Inclusion Strategies in PNPM

1 Consultancy conducted for World Bank Programme Support Facility S.Azarbaijani-‐Moghaddam, May 14

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Abbreviations and Terms .................................................................................................. 2

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 3

List of Recommendations ........................................................................................................... 6

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 9

Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 9

Gender in PNPM – An Overview ............................................................................................... 10

Understanding and Application of Gender Principles ................................................................ 12

Gender Affirmative Actions .......................................................................................................... 13

Recommendations: ...................................................................................................................... 13

Monitoring Progress and Evaluating Impact .............................................................................. 13


Women’s Participation ............................................................................................................. 15

Assumptions about Participation ................................................................................................. 16

The Importance of Invitation for Full Participation ...................................................................... 20

The Role of adat in Moderating Women’s Participation ............................................................. 20

Women’s Participation as Ritual .................................................................................................. 21


Empowering Women ................................................................................................................ 23

Expectations and Concerns .......................................................................................................... 26

Gender Stereotyping .................................................................................................................... 26

Group Formation in PNPM ........................................................................................................... 28

SPP and Women’s Economic Empowerment ............................................................................... 29


Appendix 1 -‐ Locations Visited .................................................................................................. 32

Appendix 2 -‐ Interviewees ........................................................................................................ 32

Appendix 3 – Gender Affirmative Actions ................................................................................. 33

Appendix 4 -‐ Responses to Questionnaires ............................................................................... 33

Appendix 5 – Resources ............................................................................................................ 36

Appendix 6 – Terms of Reference for Gender Mission ............................................................... 37

Appendix 7 – Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation ....................................................................... 39



List of Abbreviations and Terms BKAD Badan Kerja Sama Antar Desa (Inter-‐Village Cooperation Board)

BPUPK Badan Pengawas – Unit Pengelola Kegiatan (Oversight Body of the Sub-‐district Management Unit)

Faskab Fasilitator Kabupaten (District Facilitator)

KPMD Kader Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Desa (Village Community Empowerment Cadre)

MIS Management information system MKP Musyawarah Khusus Perempuan (Special Meeting for Women )

PEKKA Program Pemberdayaan Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (Women-‐Headed Household Empowerment Program)

PKK Program Kesejahteraan Keluarga (Family Welfare Program (village women’s group) )

PNPM Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (National Program for Community Empowerment )

PSF PNPM Support Facility PTO Petunjuk Teknis Operasional (Technical Operational Guidelines) RLF Revolving Loan Fund RPJMDes Rencana Pembangunan Jangka Menengah Desa (Village Medium-‐Term

Development Plan) SPP Simpan Pinjam Khusus Perempuan (Women-‐specific Savings and Loans) TOT Training of Trainers TPK Tim Pelaksana Kegiatan (Activity Implementation Team) UPK Unit Pengelola Kegiatan (Activity Management Unit) adat Local norm or custom arisan Savings group kecamatan Sub-‐District Ninik mamak Customary leader in West Sumatra



Executive Summary The Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) or National Community Empowerment Program is the world’s largest program of its kind with long term goals to reduce poverty by making development planning more inclusive, accountable, and reflective of local needs. PNPM currently covers about 70,000 rural and urban communities across Indonesia. PNPM works by giving communities block grants to spend on projects developed through a participatory, bottom-‐up planning process, facilitated by social and technical specialists who provide advice to communities without controlling funds. PNPM is supported by a multi-‐donor trust fund called the PNPM Support Facility (PSF). Part of PSF’s role is to provide more effective strategic support to the government’s objectives, especially by improving the effectiveness of PNPM’s gender action plan. The PSF engaged a gender specialist with expertise in working in challenging rural contexts to review the system and provide a short critical report and practical recommendation on gender sensitive approaches in the overall implementation of PNPM Rural. A PSF operational analyst with in depth knowledge of PNPM accompanied the specialist to the field. The report below lays out the findings and recommendations of the mission. PNPM Rural, referred to as PNPM in this report, attempts to respond to many women’s needs by funding water supply, health and education facilities, by increasing the potential for women to engage in economic activities, by ensuring that women are active participants in planning and decision-‐making, and that their voices are heard (World Bank 2012). PNPM public goods in the form of infrastructure benefit women and increase their access to basic services. The program is also one of the few programs reaching isolated areas and having near-‐blanket coverage across Indonesia. There are also plans, based on feedback from a previous gender review, to introduce female village monitoring teams and women in procurement committees. An Enhanced Empowerment Experiment and a stronger focus on good and inclusive participation are also planned (ibid). Many reports recognize PNPM’s potential as a crucial government instrument to address barriers to gender equality (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). The same reports often state that PNPM is mechanistic and too large to an apparatus to focus on nuanced differences and the needs of various groups within communities. This detracts from its capability to deliver quality facilitation and empowerment to women within the current timeframes envisaged. There is substantial unrealized potential in PNPM since it is a delivery pipeline reaching almost every part of Indonesia with ancillary systems in place. It is efficient at delivering outputs and outcomes specified within the implementation timeline but there are difficulties in involving women. Also impact, in comparison to stated objectives of empowerment, leaves a great deal to be desired. The intensive facilitation required for the level of community empowerment the program envisages does not lend itself to large scale projects which tend to have a specific focus on practical objectives and become mechanical to ease efficient implementation. Many of the technical problems faced in involving women in the program can be solved by judiciously addressing gender issues described below. Amplifying and adjusting the impact of interventions can also be fixed through gender responsive intervention. A more tactical approach to improving gender impacts of PNPM involves focusing on strategic issues and taking advantage of key ‘nodes’ or critical points in the program design and planning cycle rather than attempting a wholesale gender mainstreaming effort. The areas which need urgent attention at this stage are:

a) gender dynamics in the decision-‐making process, b) the gender division of labour related to program activities where women’s labour is invisible, c) improving possibilities for women to build, control and own assets (even if beginnings are

modest), and



d) the introduction of child care as the first in a series of measures where the program invests in women’s welfare to improve productivity and participation.

No research has been done to date to show the correlation between improved performance for PNPM on indicators related to women’s involvement and the work of other organizations with special focus on the areas mentioned in the report below. Such research may highlight the strategic benefits of cooperating with organizations which are more responsive and interested in facilitating social change on a smaller scale. They can work with PNPM beneficiaries to enhance performance. PNPM is already partially and informally outsourcing its technical gender requirements by piggy backing on existing programs within program areas. Outsourcing is occurring unintentionally at present but should be inserted into program design and made a formal, national component of the program to overcome implementation issues and to amplify and adjust outcomes and impact. Gender awareness is low – in fact it was found that ‘gender’ is equated with women’s participation in PNPM and the main ‘gender’ problem is seen as women’s non-‐participation. Less than a quarter of interviewees in categories one to four had had gender awareness training. Gender is currently not mainstreamed into NMC-‐run training for all facilitators at national level. PNPM does not currently have the in-‐house capacity to deal with the gender issues which would amplify and strengthen the impact of its product delivery and outcomes. Neither does it contract or draw such capacity in in other ways. Gender affirmative actions have been accepted as an integral part of the PTO and are executed in order to achieve the targets and outputs set. The positive outcome is that guidelines they are being adhered to. The negative outcome is that they are being implemented mechanistically with little or no understanding which reduces effectiveness and impact. Technically PNPM is realizing most of its specific objectives but as mentioned in other gender reports the actual impact of activities and processes could be improved. The description of the program’s ‘gender’ impact is numerical, based solely on participation figures for PNPM processes and SPP financial records. Social impacts, in particular those related to gender relations, and even impacts of physical infrastructure on the daily lives of men and women are not recorded, analysed or described. Staff must understand that the collection of sex-‐disaggregated data on a narrow range of indicators is not the same as addressing gender issues although collecting data on men and women on such a vast scale provides an important resource which can contribute to gender analysis. A pressure to tick boxes and to hit targets to be considered a ‘success’ will encourage a ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality in all program processes. Better indicators can be developed with corresponding small changes in program facilitation. Women’s participation is seen as problematic by program staff because there is not enough of it. Gender consultants see women’s participation as a difficult issue from gender because they believe that the quality is low. This section unpacks some of the relevant issues. Together with the gender equity and equality principle, the program has attempted to squeeze these aspects into a neat parcel bounded by forms and boxes which can be ticked but the reality on the ground is that women’s active participation in community driven development is necessary to ensure that their realities, their needs and solutions to their problems are accurately reflected in processes, outcomes and impacts together with those of men. The success in inculcating a strong belief that women must participate in the program shows the success of ‘messages’ from central level government. Not a single person interviewed at any level questioned women’s participation and program stakeholders single-‐mindedly pursued the goals related to women’s participation because it was understood that they were a non-‐negotiable part of program requirements. There are a number of assumptions about women’s participation in the design of PNPM which have not been adequately addressed and continue to plague implementers and diminish the positive impact of the program. These are as follows:



• Assumption 1: Women are willing and able to participate • Assumption 2: Women derive benefits from participating in PNPM • Assumption 3: Women have time and control how they use it • Assumption 4: The family will provide childcare. • Assumption 5: Women will automatically be involved in the decision-‐making process once

they attend meetings

Failure to acknowledge, understand and deal with these assumptions leads to smaller numbers of women facing low quality participation.

PNPM staff are deliberately avoiding interacting analytically with indigenous traditions and leave existing 'social harmony' undisturbed, even where social systems clearly discriminate against women and place them in a vulnerable position. Staff tendencies to shy away from adat dynamics which may discriminate against women and reinforce patriarchal norms ensures that community leaders help them reach program goals and targets and allows them to avoid conflict but it represents a conflict of interests. Men and women relating to each other based on a strict demarcation of gender roles generally feel constrained to cultural scripts and expectations which create a number of delineated spaces considered as belonging predominantly to one sex, with some spaces shared by both. Some individuals and groups have the resources, skills and knowledge to manipulate underpinning sociocultural systems through private negotiation in order to orchestrate a desired public sanction for their activities. Funds, capacity and time are necessary resources which empower individuals and groups to follow all the stages of a program’s cycle to achieve the desired results. It is necessary to take a good hard look at some of the factors which would form the foundation of the process which include:

a) women’s control of their time, b) the value and visibility of their skills, labour or contributions, c) asset ownership and finally, d) bargaining power.

At present PNPM rarely changes existing gender roles and relations. It tends to reinforce existing ones and in some cases, even cause deterioration. Women can have ownership of their time when they realize that it has value and when they feel they have choices in how to use it to their own advantage. Women join men in discounting the value of the work they do in the home and in the village. For them work involves a formal job in an office or similar context but most women have transferable skills from their tasks in the domestic and community context which should be noted, listed and used. An important part of improving social accountability which is mentioned in the World Bank Project Appraisal document is empowering women to be able to ask for payment for their time and skills. PNPM, however, seems to use women’s labour in many ways while reinforcing notions that it should be available at high quality and quantity for nothing. Highlighting women as social capital and women’s capacity as a community asset can be one of many positive steps towards changing such attitudes. Finally, women’s interest in increasing their income probably draws them in numbers to attend PNPM activities in the hope of accessing SPP, the savings and loans component of PNPM Rural assumed to assist in livelihood and job creation. It has been noted elsewhere that implementation of SPP needs improvement (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009; Akatiga 2010) and apparently modifications are in the pipeline. PNPM can report very little in terms of social cohesion or change especially when it comes to gender relations. Since women are not traditionally influential figures with power and a space delineated by adat practices their best course of action is to try and build groups and to influence processes by building up critical mass and creating new spaces.



List of Recommendations Understanding and Application of Gender Principles

1. As mentioned in previous reports, there is patently a need for a well-‐articulated gender strategy with clear performance indicators, qualitative as well as quantitative, included in the management information system (MIS) and reporting systems (McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012; Joint Donor and Government Mission 2009). The program’s definition of gender and its gender strategy need to be articulated and communicated more clearly to field staff and those training and supporting them.

2. It is stressed once again, as done in previous gender assessments, that PNPM should actively take advantage of the availability of locally available and external gender technical resources. Policy and planning should focus on this and specific staff members in the human resource sector should be given the responsibility, with oversight from PSF and NMC gender expertise, to decide when and where such cooperation can most usefully take place.

3. It is highly recommended that gender elements are mainstreamed into the national training for PNPM facilitators and that gender is mainstreamed into the TOTs provided longitudinally within the program structure. The gender component should be approached from a practical approach but not be honed down to a myopic focus on tokenistic program participation from women. A strategic approach should also be encouraged where possible.

4. In spite of the success in inculcating a sense of importance surrounding women’s participation quotas in PNPM it is necessary to caveat this in trainings, helping staff understand the basics of gender and working more on short messages and explanations mainstreamed into existing training which help staff understand why women need to participate.

5. Another important attitude shift which may need to occur in PNPM from national level down is to realize that the program is not only about hitting targets but achieving specific impacts and promoting change.

Monitoring Progress and Evaluating Impact

1. MIS and staff should produce more detailed sex-‐disaggregated data on the impact of infrastructure projects. This would help them see how much physical outputs are serving different groups in the community. An example might be the reduction in transport costs and time taken when a road is built. The road may go to places men want to reach but not women (e.g. a clinic). The road might also reduce transport costs for school children meaning the women’s incomes are freed up for other family expenses. Such beneficial changes should be captured by MIS and described both by quantitative and qualitative measurements.

2. MIS and staff should also capture how many sub-‐projects are proposed by women or are recommended by women or men to address women’s needs directly.

3. It is recommended that women are familiarized with the notion of expecting reasonable outcomes from their presence in meetings (information, getting their points across, making contacts, networking, outcomes, supporting a representative, etc.). An indicator which can be helpful if such facilitation takes place is how often women get what they want from a meeting or activity they attend. This is a good step towards encouraging women to demand accountability from programs and processes which require their participation and contributions while developing a quality of participation indicator.

4. A useful indicator for participation which can be added is how far women’s proposals get before they are rejected. Once program designers see at which points the obstacles exist, they can analyse the gender dynamics and come up with practical solutions for overcoming impediments.

5. Program planners should develop some success indicators based on positive impacts for beneficiaries. ‘Success’ should not only be defined as executing PTO rules effectively.



Women’s Participation 1. Planners must think of ways to help women describe and overcome structural barriers they

perceive in entering meetings and processes within the hierarchy of men and women in a given community.

2. PSF should explore ways which can help PNPM designers, staff and beneficiaries explore ways to change the cultural scripts and dialogues women feel constrained to repeat when inserted into ‘men’s spaces’. With awareness of such dynamics and potential confusion, program designers can expose men and women to possibilities for new scripts and ways of relating to one another. This may involve working with NMC to mainstream gender in an accessible way.

3. At least one module in trainings should cover the assumptions related to women’s participation mentioned above.

4. Messages on women’s participation have worked well. The key is obviously to craft more simple messages which take staff along a continuum which develops their understanding of gender and participation. Messages should define the change which is being sought. This can be done through various media such as SMS alerts repeating the goals and providing tips or inspiring messages.

5. PNPM staff should not turn a blind eye to local leaders using pressure to coerce women to participate in activities.

6. Staff must show more sensitivity constraints faced by local women and resulting from factors such as time management, family and so on.

7. Planners, staff and male leaders must understand women’s use of time as a valuable, multi-‐faceted resource and the extent to which they can control how their time is spent. PNPM should not be putting additional burdens on women’s time. Cost-‐benefit calculations of how much earning opportunity or time on household tasks may be lost in attending meetings may be useful.

8. It is recommended that assumptions around childcare provision are explored as its provision may allow more women to participate in activities farther afield from their home base, impact the quality of and time available for participation.

9. A typology of meetings as perceived by men and women is required. This must include descriptions from men and women of the various activities and attitudes permissible for women in different milieus.

10. A strategic decision needs to be made on the negative impact of some adat rules and practices. PNPM staff ignoring these should not be an option. PNPM staff can be shown ways of not supporting and reinforcing discrimination. Strategic cooperation with other organizations should also involve soliciting their intervention when PNPM is in danger of overlapping with adat principles to create discrimination. Contingencies for potential conflict should be put in place. These can be incorporated into the social safeguard modules, materials and trainings.

11. It would be extremely useful to facilitate meetings to exchange cultural norms as well as good practice where it does exist and to organize exchange visits for groups to see areas where sociocultural factors impact gender relations in a dramatically different way. An example would be an exchange between Sumba, where women are not permitted to own assets, and West Sumatera, where the matrilineal tradition allows women to own and inherit property. Such visits would have to be structured and heavily facilitated to have a constructive impact.

12. PNPM does not have the resources to facilitate the development of negotiation skills in women but it should cooperate with organizations that do in order to achieve its stated impact of empowerment.

13. To avoid ritual and wastage, it is important to include impact as well as process indicators in the MIS. This requires a contextualized participatory gender analysis which involves generating indicators for desired impacts for factors which can be addressed by the program intervention.

14. The selection, training and ongoing support to village cadres should reflect their important role and include a strong gender mainstreaming process at a level appropriate to their functions and needs.



Empowering Women Many of the recommendations below should be forwarded to NMC and their SPP/RLF specialist to develop more comprehensive trainings for SPP groups. The issues considered should be included when developing training, capacity building and support for SPP. They should also be considered when developing additional indicators for SPP/RLF.

1. Women need to learn to transfer their well-‐honed bargaining skills to other fora and situations to overcome structural barriers to their participation at community level. Determining outcomes which can be negotiated by women form strategic entry points where insertion of technical gender expertise on appropriate issues can have profound impacts.

2. The consultant proposes experimenting with facilitating ‘shame free’ zones as part of women’s meetings when women can communicate issues which they would normally find taboo by sharing them anonymously. Women should be encouraged to decide what they would do if they were unencumbered by shame. How would their behavior change? What activities would they undertake? The group can then decide which of these ‘shameful’ activities is actually feasible and would be supported by the group.

3. It is important to ascertain how much women are being pressured to shoulder the burden of all tasks which require ‘diligence’ while men lead. It is also important to ensure that women are not being ‘invited’ into the program to be given instructions to do tasks which men find below them or tedious.

4. Program staff and communities should be made aware that accepting women’s proposals for preschool and other childcare facilities frees up women’s time to pursue other activities whether it is developing their businesses or attending more PNPM or SPP meetings.

5. There is a move to involve women in the procurement committee. The program can also give women entrepreneurs a boost by ensuring that small and medium scale enterprises headed by women are given priority during procurement where feasible, especially those linked to SPP.

6. Communities should be encouraged to acknowledge and celebrate specific achievements and contributions to community life made by women. Achievements could be anything from running small businesses to the number of high school graduates who enter university, the number of professional women a community possesses and so on. Contributions can be cleaning up and the provision of snacks and food for every visiting dignitary or for religious ceremonies. This can be done through formal thanks or any other public gesture of acknowledgement. Celebrations can be actual events, tagged on to other events, prize giving ceremonies, placed on websites or communicated in ways selected by the community. The important factor is that men and women see women’s contribution and learn to value it1.

7. PNPM must ensure that it is not contributing to processes which devalue and disregard the value of women’s time, skills and contribution. Strategies must be found to encourage men and women need to begin valuing women’s time. Similarly strategies are required to make women’s work visible and to allot value to their skills and labour. Women should be empowered to ask for reasonable recompense for their time and skills.

8. Programs that seek to empower women should be looking at conditions leading to change in gendered access and control of assets. They should also be looking at asset creation and ownership.

9. Part of the facilitation processes for PNPM must include encouraging women to develop expectations for positive change as a result of their activities and for outcomes which they define. Where women’s strategic gender concerns are affecting their participation PNPM should outsource external expertise and collaborate with organisations which can assist.

10. PNPM staff must be assisted to identify where they are reinforcing negative gender stereotypes and take steps to counter this.

1 This practice was recommended by the consultant to a program building women’s business skills in Afghanistan. Anecdotal evidence has shown that it is having a profound impact. The consultant will be doing follow up work on this in Afghanistan in May 2012.



Introduction The Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) or National Community Empowerment Program is the world’s largest program of its kind with long term goals to reduce poverty by making development planning more inclusive, accountable, and reflective of local needs. PNPM currently covers about 70,000 rural and urban communities across Indonesia. PNPM works by giving communities block grants to spend on projects developed through a participatory, bottom-‐up planning process, facilitated by social and technical specialists who provide advice to communities without controlling funds. PNPM is supported by a multi-‐donor trust fund called the PNPM Support Facility (PSF). Part of PSF’s role is to provide more effective strategic support to the government’s objectives, especially by improving the effectiveness of PNPM’s gender action plan. Increasing women’s voice in community planning and decision-‐making has been an explicit goal of PNPM since its founding, and since 2007 PNPM Rural has had an overarching gender action plan to guide actions to involve women in all procedures. A maximum of 25 per cent of all PNPM funds are reserved to support proposals from village women’s groups for RLF groups referred to in this report as SPP. Women play increasingly central roles in PNPM’s kecamatan and village administration. The PSF engaged a gender specialist with expertise in working in challenging rural contexts to review the system and provide a short critical report and practical recommendation on gender sensitive approaches in the overall implementation of PNPM Rural. A PSF operational analyst with in depth knowledge of PNPM accompanied the specialist to the field. Objectives and outputs are laid out in full in described in Appendix 6. The report below lays out the findings and recommendations of the mission.

Methodology The team adopted the gender mainstreaming values of the 2012 Women’s Participation study (McGlynn Scanlon et al. 2012), namely that “addressing gender inequalities is a development aim in of itself, without which economic and other benefits are not maximized; second, women’s as well as men’s roles, viewpoints, and needs need to be actively considered in programmatic and institutional design and actions.” With the caveat that there was no time for an in-‐depth study, the same study’s definition of quality participation was also adopted. This states that: “women’s voices contribute meaningfully to project and program decisions, whether or not directly engaged; women are actively involved in every stage of project planning and implementation, and in every level of program management; a cross section of women are heard and involved, not just elite women”. Before going to the field, the team conducted a desk review on several existing studies, project documents, guidelines and manuals (see Appendix 5) as a baseline for their work. The fieldwork was carried out over 16 days in 13 villages across NTT, South Sulawesi and West Sumatera (see Appendix 1). The short timeframe and small team meant that this was not a rigorous analytical endeavor. For practical reasons and to save time, all villages except one visited were close to main roads. This was an in-‐depth qualitative study with a small sample size (149 interviewees) in the field, 38% of whom were men and 62% women. Participants can be split into five broad categories.

Category 1: PNPM office staff, provincial consultants, district facilitators, UPK. Local government (not PNPM)

39

Category 2: PNPM facilitators 17 Category 3: Local councils 26 Category 4: PNPM village cadres 13 Category 5: PNPM female beneficiaries 54



In the field interviewees, mostly women, were engaged in small focus groups. Selection of female interviewees was left to PNPM field staff in locations visited. They were under the impression that the team was checking SPP performance so all women encountered were loan recipients apart from a small group encountered in a remote village. There were also a number of key informant interviews with program staff, government and consultants at provincial and district level, singly or in small groups. In addition to the interviews in the field, the team met with some National Management Consultant (NMC) members (team leader, ‘gender’ or women’s participation specialist, training specialist and local institution specialist). The team had a checklist for semi-‐structured interviews. In addition the primary field instrument was a short questionnaire as part of a ‘quick and dirty’ survey using proxy indicators to examine interviewee’s level of gender awareness, gender sensitivity in the program and gender analysis of the context. Different questionnaires were provided for the five categories mentioned above. The field instrument was altered in the duration of the field trip in response to issues encountered which required further probing and clarification. In spite of the limitations of the crude instrument some interesting insights, observations and discussions resulted. Since the instrument was crude and created for rapid usage ‘gender’ and ‘women’ ended up being used interchangeably. Where categories of interviewees were expected to have a definition of what gender means the word ‘gender’ was used. It rapidly became clear that most conflated ‘gender’ with ‘women’. It was assumed that some categories had not received gender awareness so the word ‘women’ was used rather than ‘gender’. This is reflected in the report where survey results mention ‘gender or women’.

Gender in PNPM – An Overview PNPM Rural, referred to as PNPM in this report, attempts to respond to many women’s needs by funding water supply, health and education facilities, by increasing the potential for women to engage in economic activities, by ensuring that women are active participants in planning and decision-‐making, and that their voices are heard (World Bank 2012). PNPM public goods in the form of infrastructure benefit women and increase their access to basic services. The program is also one of the few programs reaching isolated areas and having near-‐blanket coverage across Indonesia. There are also plans, based on feedback from a previous gender review, to introduce female village monitoring teams and women in procurement committees. An Enhanced Empowerment Experiment and a stronger focus on good and inclusive participation are also planned (ibid). Many reports recognize PNPM’s potential as a crucial government instrument to address barriers to gender equality (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009) The program has specific targets for participation from female beneficiaries, set numbers of proposals which must come from women, organized special meetings for women to discuss their proposals (MKP) and loans which are technically only available to women (SPP) (Akatiga 2010) The same reports often state that PNPM is mechanistic and too large to an apparatus to focus on nuanced differences and the needs of various groups within communities. This detracts from its capability to deliver quality facilitation and empowerment to women within the current timeframes envisaged. Why should women be interested in what PNPM has to offer? If women were to conduct a cost-‐benefit analysis, is the investment of time and effort worth the tangible benefits they receive? Before starting an in depth discussion of findings and implications which answer such questions, it must be noted that there is substantial unrealized potential in PNPM since it is a delivery pipeline reaching almost every part of Indonesia with ancillary systems in place. It is efficient at delivering outputs and outcomes specified within the implementation timeline but there are difficulties in involving women. Also impact, in comparison to stated objectives of empowerment, leaves a great deal to be desired. The intensive facilitation required for the level of community empowerment the



program envisages does not lend itself to large scale projects which tend to have a specific focus on practical objectives and become mechanical to ease efficient implementation. Many of the technical problems faced in involving women in the program can be solved by judiciously addressing gender issues described below. Amplifying and adjusting the impact of interventions can also be fixed through gender responsive intervention. A more tactical approach to improving gender impacts of PNPM is focusing on strategic issues and taking advantage of key ‘nodes’ or critical points in the program design and planning cycle rather than attempting a wholesale gender mainstreaming effort. The areas which need urgent attention at this stage are:

e) gender dynamics in the decision-‐making process, f) the gender division of labour related to program activities where women’s labour is invisible, g) improving possibilities for women to build, control and own assets (even if beginnings are

modest), and h) the introduction of child care as the first in a series of measures where the program invests

in women’s welfare to improve productivity and participation.

A number of other areas for potential intervention are mentioned in this report. The caveat to handling most gender issues within PNPM is as follows: “Gender aware project staff or consultants can have a significant impact on outcomes…[H]owever, the percentage of staff and consultants who can be considered in this category is very low” (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). As in many countries, competent staff with technical gender expertise is a scarce resource which needs to be deployed strategically. It is also evident that a more prudent approach is to outsource gender expertise into the program in the short to medium term rather than try to build gender responsive critical mass within the program which should be seen as a long term endeavour. No research has been done to date to show the correlation between improved performance for PNPM on indicators related to women’s involvement and the work of other organizations with special focus on the areas mentioned in the report below. Such research should be conducted and may highlight the strategic benefits of cooperating with organizations which are more responsive and interested in facilitating social change on a smaller scale. They can work with PNPM beneficiaries to enhance performance. At present PNPM is benefitting through the employment of staff trained by small scale programs focused on social development: “Individuals with a broad empowerment mindset [in PNPM] seem to come from work backgrounds in which they were exposed to such models, such as NGOs or corporate social responsibility setting, or KDP when the program was smaller and more personal. The gender aware individuals gained them through such exposure, trainings from non-‐PNPM entities, or their personal experiences with injustice or empowered female role models. They learned their networking and community mobilization skills through previous experiences, or by individual trial and error in their roles within PNPM… There is not a formally-‐sanctioned space for peers to learn from each other, share about challenges and good practices, or to receive feedback from more senior or experienced facilitators.”(McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012) PNPM is already partially and informally outsourcing its technical gender requirements by piggy backing on existing programs within program areas. Outsourcing is occurring unintentionally at present but should be inserted into program design and made a formal, national component of the program to overcome implementation issues and to amplify and adjust outcomes and impact. It was at times observed by the team that PNPM activities benefited from the fall out of the activities of civil society, groups, NGOs and institutions (e.g. ACCESS, OXFAM, previous credit groups) with a



special focus on gender, social organization and empowerment. An example is well-‐functioning SPP groups built on the strong foundations of previous credit groups, making the work of PNPM easier. There were also communities in South Sulawesi where OXFAM was providing skills training to some of the beneficiaries registered for SPP thus improving their performance. Similar results were seen where ACCESS was working in Sumba. These overlaps are currently coincidental rather than planned. Also, most women are linked to other groups or involved in multiple activities (see Appendix 4). Some of these are listed in the PTO as ‘community groups’ that support PNPM. These involve civil society, religious groups or other government programs. There is ample opportunity to inject gender responsive trainings and activities into some of those groups to have a knock on effect on women’s participation in PNPM.

Understanding and Application of Gender Principles In the PTO principles gender equality and equity mean: “communities, both men and women, shall have equality in their role at every stage of the program and in enjoying the benefits of development activities, equality also in the sense of equality in position during conflict situations.” Gender awareness is low. Less than a quarter of interviewees in categories one to four had had gender awareness training. The overwhelming majority of respondents, asked to provide a definition of gender saw it as equality between men and women, effectively a garbled understanding of ‘gender’ principles as explained in the program manual. Questions on mainstreaming gender and gender responsiveness brought the realization that the program version of ‘gender’ as understood by field staff is currently exclusively about women attending meetings and forming SPP groups which can repay loans on time. Only fifteen people provided passable to reasonable definitions of gender based on training provided by external organizations. There is currently little or no technical advice on gender for program staff let alone other stakeholders. Gender is currently not mainstreamed into NMC-‐run training for all facilitators at national level. In the 21 day national training period in 2006/7 one or two hours were devoted to gender. Since then gender has been removed from training materials and is not an element in the 14 different types of community training offered. There are also no earmarked sessions on the gender affirmative actions. PNPM does not currently have the in-‐house capacity to deal with the gender issues which would amplify and strengthen the impact of its product delivery and outcomes. Neither does it contract or draw such capacity in in other ways. The program benefits indirectly from the gender expertise of other programs e.g. where former staff are hired as PNPM facilitators or facilitators are invited to gender workshops. ‘Gender’ is equated with women’s participation in PNPM. Most interviewees reported that gender or women’s issues were important in and affected their work but they found it difficult to explain the significance of gender and how their work was affected by ‘gender issues’ (see Appendix 4). In response to the questionnaire, the majority saw gender issues as ensuring women participated obediently in whichever part of the PNPM process the staff member was handling. A part of this group saw gender as the problem faced by women who had to juggle family responsibilities and securing a livelihood, thus impacting participation in the program negatively. They mentioned this with irritation but felt powerless to offer solutions or support to overcome the challenges women face. The main ‘gender’ problem is seen as women’s non-‐participation. Responses to other questions provided further details. Asked whom one would approach if there was a problem related to gender or women’s issues at work, a very small group responded that they would involve women’s rights activists or those with experience with gender issues. It was clear that the number one ‘gender’ problem they were envisaging was non-‐participation in meetings or late repayment in SPP. Their go-‐



to problem solvers were their supervisors, line managers, sub-‐national government personnel and village leaders who could help motivate women to behave ‘appropriately’ within program confines. In most cases, it seems target groups are facilitated to behave in ways that fulfil program expectations. Staff are not focusing on enabling the achievement of impacts and change. As noted by previous reports reviewed, facilitators at some levels are overburdened with administrative work and have to focus on program procedures. Even short interactions demonstrated that the multiple layers of bureaucracy did not create an agile and responsive program. The time and skills required for having an impact and facilitating meaningful change, as well as being gender responsive, is largely unavailable (Akatiga 2010). In spite of calls to add trainings and awareness on a range of issues including gender, it is unlikely that program staff can presently be burdened with more outcomes, more rules and activities which then have to be monitored.

Gender Affirmative Actions Appendix 3 provides a table with a summary overview of the gender affirmative actions proposed for PNPM. These have been accepted as an integral part of the PTO and are executed in order to achieve the targets and outputs set. Moving further down the chain towards field level staff, individuals are less aware of these as ‘gender affirmative actions’ and more as quotas which have to be reached because superiors say so. The presence of women is now a major concern for team projects and actors at the community level as a prerequisite for eligibility to stay within the PNPM process. The positive outcome is that guidelines they are being adhered to. The negative outcome is that they are being implemented mechanistically with little or no understanding which reduces effectiveness and impact.

Recommendations: 6. As mentioned in previous reports, there is patently a need for a well-‐articulated gender

strategy with clear performance indicators, qualitative as well as quantitative, included in the management information system (MIS) and reporting systems (McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012; Joint Donor and Government Mission 2009). The program’s definition of gender and its gender strategy need to be articulated and communicated more clearly to field staff and those training and supporting them.

7. It is stressed once again, as done in previous gender assessments, that PNPM should actively take advantage of the availability of locally available and external gender technical resources. Policy and planning should focus on this and specific staff members in the human resource sector should be given the responsibility, with oversight from PSF and NMC gender expertise, to decide when and where such cooperation can most usefully take place.

8. It is highly recommended that gender elements are mainstreamed into the national training for PNPM facilitators and that gender is mainstreamed into the TOTs provided longitudinally within the program structure. The gender component should be approached from a practical approach but not be honed down to a myopic focus on tokenistic program participation from women. A strategic approach should also be encouraged where possible.

9. In spite of the success in inculcating a sense of importance surrounding women’s participation quotas in PNPM it is necessary to caveat this in trainings, helping staff understand the basics of gender and working more on short messages and explanations mainstreamed into existing training which help staff understand why women need to participate.

10. Another important attitude shift which may need to occur in PNPM from national level down is to realize that the program is not only about hitting targets but achieving specific impacts and promoting change.

Monitoring Progress and Evaluating Impact “[I]t is not enough to report how many people—men and women, poor and non-‐poor—attend a meeting, but also who speaks to influence the decision taken. This information would show to what extent PNPM-‐Rural is reaching its self-‐defined goal of empowerment.”(Akatiga 2010)



PNPM has a complicated reporting system which absorbs most of the facilitators’ time. The administrative burden of the program makes it labour-‐intensive and implementation occurs within a very tight timeframe. As a result “facilitators in PNPM-‐Rural (from KPMDs to TPK) are good administrators” (Akatiga 2010). It is unfair to demand too much from them in terms of attention to socioeconomic impact but since the PTO highlights various forms of empowerment as program impacts, scrutiny of shortcomings in implementation cannot be avoided in this report. Technically PNPM is realizing most of its specific objectives but as mentioned in other gender reports the actual impact of activities and processes could be improved. The description of the program’s ‘gender’ impact is numerical, based solely on participation figures for PNPM processes and SPP financial records. Current indicators demonstrate clearly that the program is interested in women ‘participating in participation’ (See Appendix 7 – Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation which describes different stages of participation). The figures show as previously noted that setting specific targets for women’s participation leads to an increased presence from women (Akatiga 2010), at least on paper. The impact of this increase in numbers participating is not described or captured. There is a rigid focus on women’s participation figures reinforced and backed up by trainings, instructions and procedures which almost exclusively focus on reaching numerical targets. In every location visited interviewees were ready with quantitative and low qualitative information on women’s participation as well as related issues and problems. Very few staff could explain actual gender issues affecting the program. Social impacts, in particular those related to gender relations, and even impacts of physical infrastructure on the daily lives of men and women are not recorded, analysed or described. A clear description of the impact of the program on men, women and gender relations does not exist in official records. The figures highlight the degree to which staff successfully obeyed instructions and met targets set by the PTO. ‘Gender’ goals beyond numbers of women participating are not articulated thus staff are not driven to seek out and describe impacts. The focus is on successful implementation of program activities. Impacts are assumed as a result of implementation outcomes and specific outputs (infrastructure, activities, funds disbursed, loans revolved, etc.) produced. The impact evaluation is contracted out and the gender sensitivity of evaluation processes was beyond the scope of this mission. Most facilitators and village cadres reported success in dealing with gender and women’s issues. It became clear after probing that their definition of success was performing the tasks involving women (SPP, getting women to meetings, helping women produce proposals) efficiently rather than facilitating a beneficial impact for women. One respondent wrote rather honestly: “Gender is not important because it does not influence my job.” There were only two interesting descriptions of a different type of success. One involved succeeding in getting women to debate with men in meetings. Another from Lewa district in Sumba, described a mixed meeting in which women were allowed to lead the meeting. Some of the confusion may arise from the definition of indicators as listed in the PTO. Rate of participation for example is a success indicator, not a performance indicator. The question here is who is defining ‘success’ and setting indicators. Staff must understand that the collection of sex-‐disaggregated data on a narrow range of indicators is not the same as addressing gender issues although collecting data on men and women on such a vast scale provides an important resource which can contribute to gender analysis. Interestingly, a number of interviewees said they were confused by the questionnaire because they had never been asked to think why they were performing certain activities. The questionnaire highlighted that staff had become so invested in implementation that they had no time to think about the program process, its components and its impact, especially where gender is concerned. Principles, requirements, and program procedures aimed at women are routinely measured through attendance records and figures only.



Better indicators can be developed with corresponding small changes in program facilitation. “Local actors base their understanding of program requirements on the information that is monitored; thus that information should encourage attention to factors that influence the quality of women’s participation” (McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012) As a result it is necessary to monitor factors which impede participation, not all of which can be measured with quantitative data alone. Other reports on women’s participation in PNPM have recommended monitoring how often women speak in meetings and similar activities to determine quality of participation. A pressure to tick boxes and to hit targets to be considered a ‘success’ will encourage a ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality in all program processes. This will impact program culture, recruitment, interaction with communities and a host of other factors. This can result in potential negative outcomes such as aggressive pursuit of goals straining community relations and less interest in recruitment of female facilitators if males can cooperate with village leaders to corral the necessary numbers of women.

Recommendations: 6. MIS and staff should produce more detailed sex-‐disaggregated data on the impact of

infrastructure projects. This would help them see how much physical outputs are serving different groups in the community. An example might be the reduction in transport costs and time taken when a road is built. The road may go to places men want to reach but not women (e.g. a clinic). The road might also reduce transport costs for school children meaning the women’s incomes are freed up for other family expenses. Such beneficial changes should be captured by MIS and described both by quantitative and qualitative measurements.

7. MIS and staff should also capture how many sub-‐projects are proposed by women or are recommended by women or men to address women’s needs directly.

8. It is recommended that women are familiarized with the notion of expecting reasonable outcomes from their presence in meetings (information, getting their points across, making contacts, networking, outcomes, supporting a representative, etc.). An indicator which can be helpful if such facilitation takes place is how often women get what they want from a meeting or activity they attend. This is a good step towards encouraging women to demand accountability from programs and processes which require their participation and contributions while developing a quality of participation indicator.

9. A useful indicator for participation which can be added is how far women’s proposals get before they are rejected. Once program designers see at which points the obstacles exist, they can analyse the gender dynamics and come up with practical solutions for overcoming impediments.

10. Program planners should develop some success indicators based on positive impacts for beneficiaries. ‘Success’ should not only be defined as executing PTO rules effectively.

Women’s Participation Women’s participation is seen as problematic by program staff because there is not enough of it. Gender consultants see women’s participation as a difficult issue from gender because they believe that the quality is low. This section unpacks some of the relevant issues. PTO principles include participation which means “the people play an active role in the process or flow of program stages and their oversight, from socialization, planning, implementation, and maintenance activity phases by contributing labor, thoughts, or in material form.” Together with the gender equity and equality principle, the program has attempted to squeeze these aspects into a neat parcel bounded by forms and boxes which can be ticked but the reality on the ground is that women’s active participation in community driven development is necessary to ensure that their realities, their needs and solutions to their problems are accurately reflected in processes, outcomes and impacts together with those of men. Control of decision-‐making, funds and assets is not touched in the participation principle and the gender equality and equity principle also leaves out specifics about the decision-‐making process and the dynamics therein.



The success in inculcating a strong belief that women must participate in the program shows the success of ‘messages’ from central level government. Much research has pointed to women’s participation contributing to the success of poverty reduction, community empowerment and other socioeconomic processes (World Bank, 2000; World Bank, 2007). It has been noted elsewhere that “PMD has a strong commitment to women’s inclusion and participation in PNPM though the operational focus is largely on quantity and good practices related to quality are not being captured or mainstreamed” (McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012). In other words the program appears to be mobilizing women but the reality is more complex. This mission reconfirmed those findings. Beyond set ‘messages’ provided by manuals and trainings very few staff encountered could explain convincingly why it was important for women to participate in the process and how they were doing so. Not a single person interviewed at any level questioned women’s participation and program stakeholders single-‐mindedly pursued the goals related to women’s participation because it was understood that they were a non-‐negotiable part of program requirements. Although all interviewees agreed that women should be involved in program decision-‐making processes further probing showed this to be a vague notion. It is also well known that participation can take many forms, some less contentious than others (See Appendix 7). The voluntary contribution of labour from women was also classed as ‘empowering participation’ by a program staff member in South Sulawesi. PNPM has been successful in ensuring that a less contentious form of women’s participation be wholeheartedly accepted by community, implementers and local government alike. This reinforces findings from previous reports (Joint Donor and Government Mission 2009) which also noted that such practices are very good examples of affirmative action but once again as the same studies noted it is clear that women’s participation needs to be maximized to move them further towards the program’s empowerment goal. Participation currently hovers somewhere between non-‐participation and tokenism on the continuum to empowerment. The next steps on the road to women’s fully empowered participation have as yet to be taken (See Appendix 7). Programme and sub-‐national governance leaderships understand that women’s participation is a prerequisite for accessing program benefits and reporting target specific success. Women’s participation remains active where their presence for consultation, labour or contributions is required but predominantly passive in decision-‐making fora. Numbers from the database can certainly back claims that there is consensus for PNPM activities from women in the community but the reality is different. During the mission, for example, only a very small number of the stakeholders could provide concrete examples of listening to women’s concerns (See Appendix 4) and acting on them during program implementation. The positive aspect of women’s participation is that it exposes them to a government program, even if they are not always certain what benefit they can gain from that contact. In spite of the lack of quality participation it has been claimed that the ‘rules’ on involving women in PNPM are having a cumulative effect and “an impact on local Government decision makers, increasing awareness/ acknowledgement of the value of women’s participation and the need for affirmative action strategies/activities” (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). This has been disputed by other reports which advise a slightly modified approach: “[s]trong strategies for engaging women within PNPM can be models for stronger strategies in other government and empowerment programs, further multiplying and reinforcing the impact of strategies used within PNPM”(McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012).

Assumptions about Participation “Sometimes women don't want to think about development in the village.” PNPM Staff “It is difficult to make women understand the importance of their involvement…”PNPM Staff



There are a number of assumptions about women’s participation in the design of PNPM which have not been adequately addressed and continue to plague implementers and diminish the positive impact of the program. This section addresses some of these assumptions.

Assumption 1: Women are willing and able to participate The reality involves special efforts to increase the active participation of women because they join community meetings less frequently, do not speak, do not propose anything, and are not involved in decision-‐making. This assumption undoubtedly needs to be unpacked.

1. Participation is not always voluntary and only reinforces existing gender relations. One can safely assume that in the social hierarchy of the village a command from a respected local leader and/or men would have to be obeyed by women. Some facilitation staff complained that women only attended in high numbers in initial meetings. This indicates a number of dynamics one of which may involve a sense of having to join a village ‘ritual’ if instructed to do so by a local leader. The program should monitor numbers of women who are ‘volun-‐told' to participate in activities.

2. Interviewees showed themselves to be at a loss on how they would encourage women to participate in PNPM. As point 5 in Appendix 4 demonstrates interviewees did not often have detailed answers on how they encouraged and motivated women to participate in the process. They said they would simply invite the women.

3. Women are often not comfortable or willing to be inserted into what they perceive as male-‐dominated spaces and processes. A great deal of preparation needs to take place before the insertion occurs. Expecting women who have been invited to male fora to succeed simply by virtue of presence has proven an erroneous assumption . Without adequate preparatory work, simple insertion rarely results in women entering with an agenda which they are equipped to pursue. Other reports have described in-‐depth challenges to inclusion and participation for certain groups (Akatiga 2010).

4. Time is a valuable commodity for women impacting participation. Time has to be juggled between household chores, family duties and business, livelihood or paid employment. Many women have to supplement the family income and cover household expenses. Additionally, social sanctions have been set in place to ensure that women perform all of their tasks with the utmost diligence otherwise they may face punishments including domestic violence.

5. The biggest assumption about women’s participation is that women are seen as individuals participating on their own behalf. The reality is that women by nature of their gender triple role have to be approached by planners and designers as deeply embedded within a gendered family unit. A husband’s consent cannot be assumed. A number of women emphasised that husbands allowed them to attend meetings and saw this as encouragement to participate.

6. Women do not all understand the direct benefits the program may provide (except where they can access loans) and may be reluctant to participate. When planners say that it is important for women to participate one has to understand whose priorities are being dealt with. A woman will probably not prioritize PNPM activities in her day to day life unless she is absolutely clear about tangible benefits. Intangible benefits such as experience, exposure and so on have to be explained in concrete terms as a possible investment.

Assumption 2: Women derive benefits from participating in PNPM 1. At present, one of the few attractions for the women the team encountered in PNPM is the

possibility of getting a loan. How widespread this is cannot be answered by this report. If this is a finding which can be generalized across the thousands of beneficiaries, then what the program lacks is the availability of individuals who have the time to clearly explain to potential beneficiaries, male and female what other resources lie within PNPM and how best to access them. This is the job of facilitators but as mentioned they are overburdened with tasks which keep the PNPM machine running.

2. Women are invited into PNPM to provide labour and to fulfil reporting criteria but the program’s size makes it unresponsive and can only respond to some of their needs in general



terms. Since the program is predominantly about delivery of outputs and limited outcomes but not social change (which is assumed to occur) it provides limited benefit to women at the moment.

3. Women’s general inability to plan, articulate, organize, and lobby in groups minimizes their chances of actively seeking results from PNPM. Failure to act in established groups with an influential leadership during the PNPM process reduces women’s chances of achieving their goals.

Assumption 3: Women have time and control how they use it Women’s lack of time can be read in a number of ways. “Empowerment needs time to deepen or advance gradually over time. Most FKs do not have the skills for (nor the awareness of) this kind of facilitation.” (Akatiga 2010). In PNPM women are not given extra time because it is not a feasible change in program design.

1. Time is a precious commodity for women with their gender triple role and the prioritization process for what activities time is spent on needs to be understood before programs are designed to involve and benefit women, especially poorer women. There may be an assumption from planners that women are somehow wasting their time (since they are not in an office or do not have a formal job) whereas a lot of time is spent looking for ways to juggle family responsibilities and supplement incomes (Akatiga 2010) as well as attending to community responsibilities. Time becomes a valuable commodity and if an activity is perceived as having no immediate monetary, economic or other value it will be avoided or discarded (ibid).

2. Women’s time is largely controlled by men in the family and men in the public sphere. Women do not control much of their own time because their choices are limited by their gender roles in family and community. Many program staff complained or commented that women were prioritizing household concerns over attendance at program meetings. They were assuming that women were controlling their own time and not prioritizing PNPM.

3. Women’s time and labour is also appropriated by PNPM as by many other male dominated institutions both formal and informal. The most alarming case of this was a female staff member in South Sulawesi in charge of putting good news stories on the web. She described a ‘gender’ story focusing on the progress of an infrastructure where women were involved. One lady got sick, her relative died and her child also got sick but in spite of this her work for the project was uninterrupted and the team continued to meet deadlines. PNPM involvement may be an added burden for women and the program is blind to women’s current time and labour constraints related to existing family and community responsibilities.

4. Women’s use of their time should be an important consideration for program design where women’s participation is sought. One document mentions “specific guidance to facilitators to identify times and locations that were conducive to women’s participation” (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). Timing of meetings and time and cost of travel to and from meetings are probably one of the important variables at local level which influence gender behaviours in relation to PNPM. It may be that the consequences of domestic tasks left unattended may not be clear to male planners or that the meeting time coincides with a popular TV program which is the only time women can escape from their realities. Planners must understand that for some women meeting attendance is an irritation while for others it may be a luxury.

Assumption 4: The family will provide childcare. 1. For some reason program designers do not appear to realize that lack of childcare

significant participation barriers for female beneficiaries and staff and not only for meetings but also for expanding business activities. The burden of shame, organizing and negotiating child care and having to curtail participation in activities when there is no childcare is on women. Women do not expect assistance with childcare and cultural factors push women to relying on family and extended family. If a family does not show solidarity by making childcare arrangements rather than seeking it outside the family it is considered shameful. In some places people explained that using childcare services is like announcing that you have no family and thus carries stigma.



2. Cultural attitudes to childcare also deny women the possibility of providing childcare as a business and attaching an economic value to women’s reproductive gender roles. Childcare provision is likely to have an impact on women’s participation in a number of spheres and at every stage of the program process.

Assumption 5: Women will automatically be involved in the decision-‐making process once they attend meetings It may be useful to envisage this situation by a discussion of ‘space’. A community is composed of a series socio-‐culturally determined spaces some of which overlap. Each space is associated with specific relations, behaviours, activities and scripts. Gender relations are also affected by space e.g. public/private, domestic/professional. Programs such as PNPM occupy their own space and overlap with other spaces, sometimes being superimposed on existing space.

1. It is confusing for women to be drawn into unfamiliar space. Even if women are invited into PNPM space, for example, they sense that men are still the gatekeepers and moderators of the activity within that space i.e. decision-‐making. The tendency is to fall back on or replicate existing social scripts and relations. Their activities are prescribed and limited by social control and sanctions not only from those enacting program rules but also by nature of the relationships between women and men in the established hierarchy. They are unsure how to make good use of existing space when they are invited in temporarily. Some groups are better than others. For example, in West Sumatera women are ordinarily more involved in religious meetings, community consultations and social gatherings with men so their participation in externally driven programs like PNPM is also consistent.

2. Separate women’s meetings (MKP) have been established to give women the opportunity to voice needs and discuss problems without interference from men. This is a positive development as long as planners understand the pressures for women to fall back on existing scripts once they leave this space. It has also been noted, however, that women should be given skills to be able to function effectively in meetings with men (McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012; Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). What is required in addition to isolationist approaches typically designed to give women room to manoeuver are gendered processes which change the cultural scripts and dialogues women feel constrained to repeat. This is by its nature a slow process which requires the correct inputs from the right people at specific times, places and junctures where specific interactions need to be altered.

3. A transition has to take place where realizations and scripts developed in women only spaces are effectively transferred to male-‐dominated and gendered spaces. PNPM staff are aware of this but may not think about instances where women are put off from participating. Since women are expected to interact with male relatives as dependents and predominantly in a domestic setting, for example, entering a gendered context with a new script may involve an uncomfortable overlap between private and public spheres. It may serve as a disincentive for women who feel exposed and fear violence or other repercussions at home for challenging a relative in public, gendered space. As mentioned elsewhere “altering the quality of women’s participation is a much harder challenge to overcome. Women’s lack of confidence and inexperience in speaking out at meetings is compounded often by the presence of their own husbands, fathers or sons, thereby threatening the often delicate status quo of relationships within the home and family, as well as in the community” (Joint Donor and Government Mission 2009).

4. Socializing women to operate in male dominated space may also have to start with adolescents. There is very little for adolescents in PNPM even though they will very soon set up families and be the next batch of beneficiaries in PNPM. Many useful changes can be programmed into PNPM by changing attitudes, behaviours and practices among adolescents. As a pilot in some locations and at absolutely no additional cost, fathers can be encouraged to take their daughters to program meetings and processes for one day a month. Such a proposition is based on the hypothesis that men may start thinking of the different future they want for their daughter and young girls may start to see such meetings and processes not only as the inaccessible domain of men where something mysterious take place. Similarly women can be encouraged to take school age and adolescent children to meetings, especially girls. The hypothesis here is that accompanying mothers



will socialize children with program culture and result in mothers having to explain what is happening at an event. Any pilot activities of this nature can be part of a study2.

5. Good facilitation is critical. At the forefront of facilitation and mobilization activities are the village cadres. They communicate, facilitate and prepare the community to participate. They are instrumental in socializing and planning PNPM. Their training and support should reflect the importance of their role.

The Importance of Invitation for Full Participation It was mentioned by many individuals that they would not attend meetings unless invited but it is permissible to attend an event without an invitation. The team tried to unpack within the mission’s time limits the issue of invitation to meetings and why it was so important for women to be invited. According to interviewees if anyone turns up to a meeting uninvited they forfeit their entitlement to have a voice in that meeting. People will say that they do not know their place and have no shame. Some activities such as religious events or PKK meetings are considered open but other meetings such as those linked to adat require a specific invite -‐ others who turn up will not be listened to. Also, people do not turn up to meetings because they often assume that the “right people” are there thus delegating responsibility to others. The “right people” are invited to meetings depending on the activity which implies gatekeeping, probably by elites. The following deductions can be made and need to be taken into consideration since they impact women’s participation:

• There are obviously categories of meetings and a typology is required to define the characteristics. Presumably attendance of specific lists and categories of people at meetings also defines people’s perception of the category of meeting.

• For meetings, invitation gives a person the right to speak, establishes them as a respectable person, establishes that a person understands their place in the hierarchy, and establishes that the person is considered to have a role by those controlling the meeting.

• A meeting has to be placed into the right category if the expectation is for people to just turn up and see what is happening.

Women may feel that they are not entitled to speak when there is no formal invitation. Meetings may be seen as an extension of adat meetings because of those present. There may be an assumption that the “right” people are present, representing women’s issues. It is important to determine what types of meetings women feel they can attend to demonstrate ‘they know their place’ and which ones would be considered ‘shameful’ to attend uninvited.

The Role of adat in Moderating Women’s Participation PNPM staff are deliberately avoiding interacting analytically with indigenous traditions and leave existing 'social harmony' undisturbed, even where social systems clearly discriminate against women and place them in a vulnerable position. Some facilitators openly remarked that they do not want to upset the status quo and come into conflict with local traditions which would negatively impact program function. PNPM has brought about very small alterations to some of sociocultural scripts but much remains untouched. Some of the practical considerations in program implementation confirm men’s positions as women’s controllers. Since adat and similar factors heavily influence status, access to and control of assets, power and so on for the genders they

2 The consultant conducted a study in Afghanistan in 2012 were a number of in-‐depth case studies were written on businesswomen working with an NGO which develops their business skills. There was a possible correlation with childhood experiences. Women with fathers or mothers in businesses and paid employment had excellent business acumen. Women with fathers in community and religious leadership positions regularly ended up in community leadership positions with some running good businesses. Women who had been dressed and treated as boys when they were children had more confidence to operate in a ‘man’s world’. Women whose fathers were farm or urban labourers had very low expectations and little business acumen.



determine dynamics between them. Gender relations are left largely unchanged and women continue to operate at a disadvantage which is presumably the starting point the program is trying to move away from. The program gives men and women very limited exposure for new possibilities in terms of how the genders relate to each other. The routine and mechanistic procedures limit creativity and innovation for existing stakeholders. PNPM staff’s tendency to shy away from adat dynamics which may discriminate against women and reinforce patriarchal norms ensures that community leaders help them reach program goals and targets and allows them to avoid conflict but it represents a conflict of interests. As mentioned, facilitators are asking traditional leaders and community leaders (frequently male) to ‘encourage’ women to attend meetings to boost participation figures. The facilitators acknowledged that women will be obedient and do what is decreed by community leaders or elders. This is hardly participation because women understand PNPM benefits or because they have a desire to fight for interests and aspirations and/or feel a need to voice views regarding the suitability of proposed activities for women. Men and women relating to each other based on a strict demarcation of gender roles generally feel constrained to cultural scripts and expectations which create a number of delineated spaces considered as belonging predominantly to one sex, with some spaces shared by both. The constructs are upheld by both women and men who will see the socio-‐cultural systems, such as adat, underpinning such constructs as a given or absolute in their lives. People believe they cannot change the systems but they can work out accommodations at times, sometimes in established and specific ways, in order to extract what they need. What gender awareness and analysis should do is to make men and women increasingly aware that they operate in an artificially constructed gendered space which can be altered and that there are possibilities for change. Exposure to the range of sociocultural diversity across Indonesia in itself should be ample evidence that nothing is absolute. Some individuals and groups have the resources, skills and knowledge to manipulate underpinning sociocultural systems through private negotiation in order to orchestrate a desired public sanction for their activities. Negotiation and accommodations create new spaces within which individuals and groups can operate. Exploited individuals and groups will not have the wherewithal to engage in this kind of process and will remain hidden and devoid of voice until assisted to enter the stream of deal making and accommodations which are the difference between exclusion and empowerment in some societies. This is the type of transformations which organizations such as PEKKA successfully facilitate.

Women’s Participation as Ritual When ‘principles’ such as gender equality are interpreted into complex ritual processes, participation from women becomes purely symbolic. Sometimes programs become perceived as rituals where community representatives become the high priests ensuring the rites are performed correctly to receive the ‘divine’ gift. When programs and processes become mechanistic and ‘ritualized’ there is a tendency for the implementers to end up talking ‘at’ people in endless meetings and herding them through the various stages. Ritualistic approaches are often single-‐mindedly focused on quantifiably verifiable indicators such as numbers of people attending meetings or numbers of meetings held. Staff and volunteer workers engaged with a project may become so absorbed with these ritual aspects that they often lose sight of the basic results and desired outcomes of the process and forget that they are trying to make a change with beneficiaries. The captive audience goes through the ‘ritual’ process because they feel obliged to. The process is not participatory and interest may be lost or outcomes may not be satisfactory.



Recommendations: 15. Planners must think of ways to help women describe and overcome structural barriers they

perceive in entering meetings and processes within the hierarchy of men and women in a given community.

16. PSF should explore ways which can help PNPM designers, staff and beneficiaries explore ways to change the cultural scripts and dialogues women feel constrained to repeat when inserted into ‘men’s spaces’. With awareness of such dynamics and potential confusion, program designers can expose men and women to possibilities for new scripts and ways of relating to one another. This may involve working with NMC to mainstream gender in an accessible way.

17. At least one module in trainings should cover the assumptions related to women’s participation mentioned above.

18. Messages on women’s participation have worked well. The key is obviously to craft more simple messages which take staff along a continuum which develops their understanding of gender and participation. Messages should define the change which is being sought. This can be done through various media such as SMS alerts repeating the goals and providing tips or inspiring messages.

19. PNPM staff should not turn a blind eye to local leaders using pressure to coerce women to participate in activities.

20. Staff must show more sensitivity constraints faced by local women and resulting from factors such as time management, family and so on.

21. Planners, staff and male leaders must understand women’s use of time as a valuable, multi-‐faceted resource and the extent to which they can control how their time is spent. PNPM should not be putting additional burdens on women’s time. Cost-‐benefit calculations of how much earning opportunity or time on household tasks may be lost in attending meetings may be useful.

22. It is recommended that assumptions around childcare provision are explored as its provision may allow more women to participate in activities farther afield from their home base, impact the quality of and time available for participation.

23. A typology of meetings as perceived by men and women is required. This must include descriptions from men and women of the various activities and attitudes permissible for women in different milieus.

24. A strategic decision needs to be made on the negative impact of some adat rules and practices. PNPM staff ignoring these should not be an option. PNPM staff can be shown ways of not supporting and reinforcing discrimination. Strategic cooperation with other organizations should also involve soliciting their intervention when PNPM is in danger of overlapping with adat principles to create discrimination. Contingencies for potential conflict should be put in place. These can be incorporated into the social safeguard modules, materials and trainings.

25. It would be extremely useful to facilitate meetings to exchange cultural norms as well as good practice where it does exist and to organize exchange visits for groups to see areas where sociocultural factors impact gender relations in a dramatically different way. An example would be an exchange between Sumba, where women are not permitted to own assets, and West Sumatera, where the matrilineal tradition allows women to own and inherit property. Such visits would have to be structured and heavily facilitated to have a constructive impact.

26. PNPM does not have the resources to facilitate the development of negotiation skills in women but it should cooperate with organizations that do in order to achieve its stated impact of empowerment.

27. To avoid ritual and wastage, it is important to include impact as well as process indicators in the MIS. This requires a contextualized participatory gender analysis which involves generating indicators for desired impacts for factors which can be addressed by the program intervention.

28. The selection, training and ongoing support to village cadres should reflect their important role and include a strong gender mainstreaming process at a level appropriate to their functions and needs.



Empowering Women “Sexual division of labour is rigidly segregated, whereby women mostly work longer hours, multi-‐tasking to manage multiple domestic and productive responsibilities…Women’s bargaining power and control over assets and decision making is constrained because their contribution to the household economy (largely unpaid) is invisible while any money they do earn is seen as supplementary.” (Shatifan 2011) Funds, capacity and time are necessary resources which empower individuals and groups to follow all the stages of a program’s cycle to achieve the desired results. PNPM’s focus on “economic empowerment through job creation and income generation,…political empowerment through decision-‐making by communities [and] social empowerment [by] creating an enabling environment for women’s participation” (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009) necessitate a good hard look at some of the factors which would form the foundation of the process. These include:

e) women’s control of their time, f) the value and visibility of their skills, labour or contributions, g) asset ownership and finally, h) bargaining power.

There are also other factors closely tied to these, for example, the ability to continue in paid employment after marriage and the ability to work in locations beyond the marital family’s comfort zone. At present PNPM rarely changes existing gender roles and relations. It tends to reinforce existing ones and in some cases, even cause deterioration. A recent support mission reflected the team’s finding that husbands “play a reasonable significant role and must approve any borrowing plans within the household. For SPP applications, his KTP must be produced in order for a woman to be included (Support Mission 2014). In locations in West Sumatera this includes the ninik mamak . Such a practice would undermine existing gender relations which place women in charge of their own business finances. Empowering women cannot take place without men and requires changes in gender relations. This in turn requires a commitment to impacts and social change rather than delivery of outcomes and outputs. Ignoring such factors would ensure the “continued dominance of men and of traditional gender roles within PNPM and a continued focus on women’s physical presence rather than their voice in decision-‐making…”(McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012).

Women’s Time Women can have ownership of their time when they realize that it has value and when they feel they have choices in how to use it to their own advantage. Comments during interviews indicated that women’s time is considered to have little value except where their active yet largely silent presence in the program process guarantees flow of funds. Women clearly do not consider that their time has value and that it can be more valuably spent focusing on business development rather than trying to juggle domestic chores to gain men’s approval.

Invisible Labour and the Devaluation of Women’s Capacity Making women’s work and contributions visible at every level makes it more difficult for institutions to succumb to the historical tendency to overlook gender issues and women’s participation. Previous reports have noted that “[e]nsuring that opportunities were opened up through the project for women to participate gave them the chance to demonstrate their capabilities to the community. Several cases were seen where this lead to them being elected or chosen for other positions outside the project including in the village governments.” (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009) Women join men in discounting the value of the work they do in the home and in the village. For them work involves a formal job in an office or similar context but most women have transferable



skills from their tasks in the domestic and community context which should be noted, listed and used. Such skills include management of resources, management of personnel, quality control, purchasing, planning how to utilize space, planning for allocation of resources, multi-‐tasking and a number of other skills which is what they do at home with available resources, space, family members and time. Both men and elite women expect poorer women to provide services and products for a lower price than men thus devaluing women’s contributions. In West Sumatera we asked questions about gender relations in the market place and whether women were given the same rates as men for the same goods, The answer was a unanimous ‘yes’ but upon probing it was discovered that the expectation from buyers is for women to lower their prices after bargaining while men have a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude giving the seller an advantage. In South Sulawesi a male facilitator explained that he addressed gender by ensuring that women had access to projects which had an intensive unskilled labour component. He could not tell us whether women received the same payment as men. An important part of improving social accountability which is mentioned in the World Bank Project Appraisal document is empowering women to be able to ask for payment for their time and skills. Of course this has to be carefully balanced with efforts to sustain voluntarism but it is critical that women are given a sense that their time and skills are valuable and also that women are not cajoled into bearing the burden of voluntarism in a community. Discussions with skilled Minang women weavers, for instance, revealed that they charge buyers for materials and transport costs but not for their labour in terms of time spent or skills. The program seems to use women’s labour in many ways while reinforcing notions that it should be available at high quality and quantity for nothing. Women’s contributions at family and community level remain invisible and undervalued. Women are expected to turn up as and when required, for as long as necessary, they are expected to carry out all duties meticulously with attention to detail. It was difficult for interviewees however to discuss the specifics of what they achieve in return. If women’s time and labour is to be appropriated the program must ensure that there is a tangible benefit for women which can be described specifically in monitoring and evaluation. Highlighting women as social capital and women’s capacity as a community asset can be one of many positive steps towards changing such attitudes. Changes in attitude may also change women’s attitudes about what they can expect and what they deserve in return for their work, skills and contributions. Also, whereas infrastructure projects can be ‘seen’, women’s capacity like their labour is invisible even though it is a community asset. This is another reason why proposals for capacity building projects for women may often be rejected.

Control of Assets Access to, ownership and control of assets are good indicators of empowerment. It has been shown in studies, for example, that land ownership gives women power3. Even where social conditions still consider men as family heads women are influential and heavily involved with community decision-‐making. Property ownership and lack of reliance on a man to provide shelter put women in a stronger position to negotiate with men. Land inheritance was used as a measure of women’s empowerment by the team and led to interesting discussions.

3 Across the world women’s lack of property and inheritance rights are increasingly being viewed as obstacles to raising levels of education, hunger and improving health. Land rights impact distribution of wealth, production patterns and market development. These are seen as prerequisites for economic growth and poverty reduction (Panda & Agarwal 2005; UN Millennium Project 2005)



Field sites showed glaring differences in terms of access to and control of assets. Women in Sumba4 would appear to have limited property ownership or inheritance rights except for jewelry. Much is determined in customary meetings were sanctions and reciprocal arrangements are made about women (e.g. compensation for domestic violence where a woman is ‘damaged’) effectively reducing them to assets owned by men. Even the children belong to the husband or the male head of clan as lead decision-‐maker. In Sumba women have to consult their husbands to buy flip flops or a headscarf even if they are using money they have earned themselves. In South Sulawesi, Bugis culture reflects Islamic values with the husband being the household head and claiming ownership of large assets although there were variations. Men inherit two thirds of property and assets. In Minang culture inheritance rights for property generally favour girls and women, who can manage finances and own assets including property and land thus giving them an advantage in the decision-‐making hierarchy. Asset ownership gives women confidence to participate in public life on their own terms, although there are still social sanctions. A marital dispute here would result in the husband being thrown out of the house as it belongs to the wife. When gender relations are discriminatory and remain unchallenged the products of women’s labours are inevitably appropriated by male-‐headed institutions e.g. the family, government projects, etc. This maintains women’s dependence on men however hard they work or whatever they earn. It also leaves them unable to expect financial assistance to perform their gender allocated tasks so they still have to work hard to cover family expenses.

Bargaining Skills “Specifically, to “level the playing field”, [special] facilitation should aim to develop marginalized groups’ organizing capacity, negotiation skills, networking, and ability to access information hence enabling them to voice their needs and demand response.” (Akatiga 2010) Women need to feel empowered to bargain within the family, the community and in the marketplace. When women feel they have no choice they will accept whatever they are given. They will work hard to produce and be pushed hard to give low prices to buyers. They will be pressured to spend what little they make prudently and to stretch it as far as possible. They will negotiate hard probably only with other women to get a bargain. It has been noted that the ability to lobby and bargain hard are necessary qualities to extract what one needs from PNPM (Akatiga 2010). PEKKA’s work progresses on a foundation of helping marginalized women bargain with the representatives of patriarchy through gendered processes such as forming councils of traditional adat leaders to renegotiate on behalf of women on the ground of rules of adat5. Without women learning bargaining skills to alter and moderate gender relations to enter and challenge male domination in meetings and processes, institutions like the village parliament or council and small markets will continue to be dominated by men. None of the documents written on gender or women’s participation within PNPM explore whether women are encouraged to negotiate with men and which outcomes they can bargain over. Within PNPM, women clearly have not been able to negotiate for more capacity building projects which they need (McGlynn Scanlon et al 2012). Studies such as that conducted by Akatiga (2010) state how elites and other groups find ways to influence PNPM agendas to achieve their own goals. Women can be taught, for example, to use their presence in PNPM as a bargaining chip since community men cannot proceed and access program funds without them.

4 The culture of the Sabu living on Sumba differed somewhat. 5 Private communication with Scott Guggenheim



Expectations and Concerns The template for interactions between men and women is formed by culture among other factors. When asking Merappu women in Sumba how they selected wives for their sons they stressed that the wife should be resourceful but she must know her place, not dominate her husband or question him. This creates a challenging gender dynamic which puts a massive burden from women on women while reducing their expectations to almost nil. An important derivation from an examination of questionnaire and interview results was that women have low expectations for themselves and their lives. Expectations allow individuals to visualize outcomes for any activity from starting a business to participating in PNPM. For instance, a question asking women to give examples of when men had listened to women and changed something in PNPM provided interesting results as women could not give good examples of situations where men had actually changed anything substantial because of input from women. Men were also asked the same question and similarly responded in a vague manner about what they had changed in response to women’s requests (See Appendix 4). Overall the impression gleaned from the interviews was that women are busy trying to keep their own and their family’s heads above water. Their only expectation is a lifetime of hard work and doing what they are told. In another example, 54 women interviewees were asked how men encourage them to participate in PNPM activities. Just over half responded. Some responses were tangential or nonsensical. Of the 50% left one group thought that inviting women to meetings was encouragement enough. Another group mentioned being permitted to attend meeting by husbands and saw that as encouragement. Telling women how to behave and ensuring that they could jump the bureaucratic hurdles were also seen as ‘encouragement’. Women consider some of their concerns taboo and are reluctant to share these openly. This can impact their behavior and participation in public spheres whether the market, the development process or the political arena. In some groups, for example, women were queried as to why they did not hire labour from poorer families for domestic chores in order to free up time to expand their businesses after they receive credit. There was a great deal of smoke screening and avoidance. After prolonged questioning the issue which surfaced was the worry that husbands would have affairs with any females brought into the house. This in turn launched a barrage of comments and questions about how to keep husbands faithful and how to stop them taking second wives. This taboo issue is a major concern for women all over the world stops women from easing their burdens by hiring domestic help to free up time for more strategic pursuits. Women wholeheartedly throw themselves into the role of good, obedient wife and mother to remain blameless because society tells them that that will stop their husband straying. This kind of issue impacts women’s behavior, participation in activities and motivation. Women have expectations for a better life for their daughters but do not know how to realize these. Women in South Sulawesi talked about daughters becoming highly educated, getting jobs, moving to the city and becoming ‘independent’. This usually means from their parental families. They explained with resignation that it is still unacceptable for a woman to be independent from her husband and that she will be forced to stay at home after marriage and start a small home-‐based business. Women are never allowed to forget their responsibilities to their husband and family. This dynamic affects programs such as PNPM where qualified female staff are only available until marriage or birth of children. Men interviewed also demonstrated contradictory interests with expectations for wives to ignore educational and professional achievements to stay at home while they bemoan the small pool of educated women available to apply for positions in the workplace.

Gender Stereotyping Programs such as PNPM are too large to actively address stereotypes but designers can be vigilant in ensuring that they are not reinforced. This has been alluded to elsewhere: “The deeply engrained



heavy emphasis by government, PKK, and facilitators, on activities linked to women’s traditional role, such as cakes and snacks, or sewing, limits the opening of new opportunities for women which could more effectively lift families out of poverty”. As long as women’s choices are narrow and tie them to home-‐based economic activities and while they have the main responsibility for household tasks their interests will remain parochial. This is a legacy of “new order” ideology which saw the State defining women’s primary roles as good wives and mothers and exerting control through family welfare policies and institutional mechanisms such as PKK (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). Such notions keep women firmly in the domestic sphere and push women into volunteer position where men would be paid for the same tasks. Hidden in the questionnaire responses examined there were some interesting phrases which provided a slightly different view from the official line of encouraging women to participate to promote gender equality. “Women are the servants of the family and society.” "If women do not participate nobody cooks food" “Community contributions are a mess if women are not there to organise things -‐ nobody else will do it.” “Everything is a mess without women.” These throw away phrases point at some interesting gender stereotypes listed below:

• Women must do what they are told -‐ their time and labour is not their own • Women are the invisible organisational force behind community activities especially where

tasks are considered tedious or menial by men • Women provide invisible labour by providing food for many community occasions • Women are diligent, accountable and honest – this was frequently repeated and

emphasised

Diligent Women “Family obligations remain paramount to Indonesian women, creating a sensitivity about ‘shaming’ their husbands by being seen as ‘bad’ wives and mothers.” (Shatifan 2011) Women should be obedient and not question orders; women are the army while the men command as generals. The notion of the diligent, honest, accountable (see appendix 4) but unchallenging woman is by far the most undermining gender stereotype and has far reaching implications especially for programs designed to empower women. In day to day life women are expected to take responsibility and pay meticulous attention to detail in tasks they are set. They are expected to manage funds, resources, households, businesses and to do so without loss or wastage (or support) -‐ it is considered a gender specific attribute. Further probing revealed that women must manage but not control. Even though women’s abilities are not valued it is tacitly understood that they manage resources well. Another implication is that women should never make mistakes. It was said by several interviewees that women are more scrupulous and easily shamed if they are caught making a mistake which will prevent them from speaking and making a suggestion on behalf of others. This in turn makes it difficult for women to feel confident to represent. Women in group settings may frequently feel that they are exposed and vulnerable, fearing shame rather than feeling the support of a group of like-‐minded individuals. Men are allowed to take risks with businesses and other endeavours while women are not. Women are expected to drive a hard bargain and be prudent and frugal with funds placed in their care while men spend as they please.



It is a positive step that women are being selected as treasurers and secretaries in the PNPM village council but how their appointments are handled may reinforce existing gender roles and stereotypes. In PNPM where budgets are predetermined and there is no space for the village team to ‘play’ with funds – women are perfect custodians of funds. The head of the TPK is often male but the administrative staff, dealing with the minutiae, are often women. There are increasing numbers of women in Village Implementation Teams, Financial Management Units and Operation and Maintenance committees. Some reports state that this improves the sustainability of sub-‐projects (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). As with all such tasks, women are given little or no support in doing this by families, community or government and face pressure not to make mistakes. Such responsibilities however do not seem to give women a commensurate rise in negotiating power within the program. Control of funds, assets, resources and decision-‐making always remains with the men. An example provided elsewhere was social mapping requiring time and patience: “the men got bored and drifted away before the women did, meaning that women tended to be the substantial contributors to these”(ibid).

Group Formation in PNPM “Lessons from other programs show the benefits of organising vulnerable women into groups improves women’s knowledge of their rights, builds their confidence, supports their collective action and elevate their social position in the community by improving access to resources and the opportunity to adopt new roles and responsibilities in their families, communities and broader society6”. (Shatifan 2011) Continuing with unpacking assumptions on women’s participation, number six is that asking women to meet sporadically will lead to the development of a fully functioning, cohesive group. PNPM can report very little in terms of social cohesion or change especially when it comes to gender relations. There is little tradition of women’s communal decision-‐making (even in West Sumatra) and a corresponding ‘women’s space’ so women do not know how to create such space. Group formation is an important part of changing women’s spaces. Individual spaces where women operate in isolation within families are joined to other individual spaces to create an archipelago which, facilitated well, becomes women’s space within the community. SPP for example does not create ‘groups’ through facilitation but by necessity. The women involved often meet once a month and have little interaction beyond the project meetings. A survey of SPP groups will probably show that they do not function as groups and cannot therefore be relied on as village ‘institutions’ which can be called on during exploration and planning phases. An example of good practice in relation to women’s space which led to the creation of networks and coalitions appeared in a village in West Sumatera. This was one of the first cases the team saw where women had their own designated physical space in the village. Most other encounters with women had taken place in homes and backyards. In the village visited all the bodies related to women operate out of the same space located in the centre of the village across from the mosque – a symbolic placement. Women had access to a computer and a phone here. A women’s cooperative had been in existence since 1985. A memorandum of understanding signed by the governor and an operational manual to guide collaboration between PNPM and PKK at provincial level for District IV Koto was partially responsible for this arrangement. The initiative came from the PKK. The MoU ensures resource sharing and specifies that PKK members are involved in PNPM activities and that they help form ten new SPP groups in each sub-‐district. This example can be replicated. Since women are not traditionally influential figures with power and a space delineated by adat practices their best course of action is to try and build groups and to influence processes by building up critical mass and creating new spaces. The PTO allows proposals for the “improvement

6 See ACCESS Phase II, civil society program funded by AusAID, Indonesia and PEKKA, poverty program for female headed households funded by World Bank.



of capacity/skills of economic enterprise groups established by women-‐specific village consultation”. Lower numbers submitting smaller proposals may account for women’s lower levels of success in getting capacity building proposals accepted as mentioned by interviewees and reports such as the Joint Donor & Government Mission (2009). This mentions “[a]necdotal indications that women proposed training more often than men but these proposals were rejected – perhaps because there would be far fewer beneficiaries of training activities, than say, water supply or roads projects, and therefore the selection criteria were against it” (2009). An explanation for this provided by interviewees was the male dominated handling of budget and priorities which meant that they would aim for the ‘jackpot’ – funding for an expensive infrastructure project which the village could not ordinarily afford. Women can only compete if they can submit a large expensive proposal. Due to the lack of focus on building large groups , networks or coalitions women can probably never manage to create a proposal which is as expensive as an infrastructure project. Evidently lack of women’s presence and influence at sub-‐district level will also impact decisions.

SPP and Women’s Economic Empowerment The final assumption in program design discussed in this report is that women are capable of running successful businesses through a modest cash injection from the SPP program. Women’s interest in increasing their income probably draws them in numbers to attend PNPM activities in the hope of accessing SPP, the savings and loans component of PNPM Rural assumed to assist in livelihood and job creation. Technically it has the potential to provide women with “organizing capacity, negotiation skills, networking, and access to information to enable them to voice their needs and demand some response” (Akatiga 2010) all factors which should give women’s groups voice. A number of reports have noted that SPP is “rarely managing to change the overall economy of the family” (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009) and that activities are “very small scale and enabled women to manage their household expenses better, or invest in very low return activities”(ibid). It has been noted elsewhere that implementation of SPP needs improvement (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009; Akatiga 2010) and apparently modifications are in the pipeline. Once again, however, the obsession of stakeholders appears to be with hitting targets, ensuring that enough women participate and repay loans, automatically excluding anyone who appears to be a risky prospect (Akatiga 2010). The program is solely concerned with disbursement of funds, repayment and the avoidance of idle money. The pressure to succeed is placed on the women who facilitate and the women take loans. They are left unsupported to negotiate with family and markets to ensure that they can repay on time. This section of the program as others is replete with assumptions about women. There is an erroneous assumption that all women given access to finance have business skills – many struggle and make repeated requests for business skills, access to markets and other assistance as found by another recent field mission which found that women had “never received any guidance, training or orientation on any of the dimensions related to managing their money or small enterprises: financial management, book keeping, business planning, marketing, etc. They expressed this as a strong desire and need and, when asked for suggestions as to how to improve SPP, the request for training on business, marketing, finance was their primary demand” (Support Mission 2014). Training, extension and links to financial institutions are also listed as additional resources required (Joint Donor & Government Mission 2009). The Support Mission also found that successful groups “appear to be those with strong leaders who also ensure that the groups take care of broader needs – social support, regular meetings, arisan, etc.” emphasizing the need for social inputs such as group formation and women’s leadership. This component is assumed to generate group formation among women but it was clear that women had not been exposed to the knowledge that forming groups could help them increase production, assist



with marketing, help in negotiating for better prices and rates in markets, pool costs for productive assets and so on. Women need to be forming groups along value chains and productive activities and should be given access to market information e.g. through their mobile phones. Apart from not leading to the creation of savings and modest assets, activities like SPP can be labour intensive and time consuming. Taking a loan brings with it a pressure to work more hours in order to repay and can add to women’s burden of labour if they are not adept at organizing existing resources (human, time, funds) and have no way to save time. In spite of this women will continue to struggle and work every available moment, where family help is unavailable, to complete their domestic tasks and run a business. Other factors to consider for program design are discussed here. One is an assumption that all women are taking loans for business purposes. Some are taking loans to fulfil more pragmatic basic daily needs such as covering living expenses, home improvements or to deal with potential economic shocks. Others have put money in family farms which wreaks havoc with repayments if harvests fail. Another is that if women are indeed being ‘economically empowered’ they should be expanding their business and ‘graduating’ on to better and more secure forms of employment. Also, there has been no assessment of the impact of the loan on gender relations within families and on women’s participation in other activities (e.g. seeking health, quality time with children, skills training, attending meetings, etc.). Finally, women may be wary of overstepping the mark in terms of earning money and asserting themselves in public and private in order avoid eclipsing their husband,

Recommendations: Many of the recommendations below should be forwarded to NMC and their SPP/RLF specialist to develop more comprehensive trainings for SPP groups. The issues considered should be included when developing training, capacity building and support for SPP. They should also be considered when developing additional indicators for SPP/RLF.

11. Women need to learn to transfer their well-‐honed bargaining skills to other fora and situations to overcome structural barriers to their participation at community level. Determining outcomes which can be negotiated by women form strategic entry points where insertion of technical gender expertise on appropriate issues can have profound impacts.

12. The consultant proposes experimenting with facilitating ‘shame free’ zones as part of women’s meetings when women can communicate issues which they would normally find taboo by sharing them anonymously. Women should be encouraged to decide what they would do if they were unencumbered by shame. How would their behavior change? What activities would they undertake? The group can then decide which of these ‘shameful’ activities is actually feasible and would be supported by the group.

13. It is important to ascertain how much women are being pressured to shoulder the burden of all tasks which require ‘diligence’ while men lead. It is also important to ensure that women are not being ‘invited’ into the program to be given instructions to do tasks which men find below them or tedious.

14. Program staff and communities should be made aware that accepting women’s proposals for preschool and other childcare facilities frees up women’s time to pursue other activities whether it is developing their businesses or attending more PNPM or SPP meetings.

15. There is a move to involve women in the procurement committee. The program can also give women entrepreneurs a boost by ensuring that small and medium scale enterprises headed by women are given priority during procurement where feasible, especially those linked to SPP.

16. Communities should be encouraged to acknowledge and celebrate specific achievements and contributions to community life made by women. Achievements could be anything from running small businesses to the number of high school graduates who enter university, the number of professional women a community possesses and so on. Contributions can be cleaning up and the provision of snacks and food for every visiting dignitary or for religious ceremonies. This can be done



through formal thanks or any other public gesture of acknowledgement. Celebrations can be actual events, tagged on to other events, prize giving ceremonies, placed on websites or communicated in ways selected by the community. The important factor is that men and women see women’s contribution and learn to value it7.

17. PNPM must ensure that it is not contributing to processes which devalue and disregard the value of women’s time, skills and contribution. Strategies must be found to encourage men and women need to begin valuing women’s time. Similarly strategies are required to make women’s work visible and to allot value to their skills and labour. Women should be empowered to ask for reasonable recompense for their time and skills.

18. Programs that seek to empower women should be looking at conditions leading to change in gendered access and control of assets. They should also be looking at asset creation and ownership.

19. Part of the facilitation processes for PNPM must include encouraging women to develop expectations for positive change as a result of their activities and for outcomes which they define. Where women’s strategic gender concerns are affecting their participation PNPM should outsource external expertise and collaborate with organisations which can assist.

20. PNPM staff must be assisted to identify where they are reinforcing negative gender stereotypes and take steps to counter this.

7 This practice was recommended by the consultant to a program building women’s business skills in Afghanistan. Anecdotal evidence has shown that it is having a profound impact. The consultant will be doing follow up work on this in Afghanistan in May 2012.



Appendix 1 -‐ Locations Visited Total Locations visited Propinsi -‐ province 3 Kabupaten -‐ district 3 Kecamatan – sub-‐district 6 Desa -‐ village 13

Province District Sub district Villages

NTT – Nusa Tenggara Timur Sumba Timur

Lawe Lawepaku Kambuhopang

Umalulu Umalulu Wanga

Sulawesi Selatan Barru

Balusu Lampoko Balusu

Soppeng Riaja Kiru kiru Batu Pute

Sumatera Barat Agam

IV Koto

Koto Tuo Lambai Koto Panjang

Palembayan IV Koto Talaok

Appendix 2 -‐ Interviewees Male Female

Provincial Coordinators 5 2 7 District

Facilitator/Faskab 4 3 7 -‐District Gov Operational

Manager/PJOKab 1 0 1 UPK1 5 4 9 UPK2 5 5 10

Sub district Gov Operational

Manager/PJOKec 1 2 1 3 Sub district Gov Operational

Manager/PJOKec 2 1 1 2 Sub District

Facilitators/FK & FT 13 4 17

Village Cadres/KPMD 2 11 13 BKAD 10 0 10 BPUPK 3 2 5 TPK 5 2 7



PKK 0 4 4 Women -‐ 54 54 Total 56 93 149

-‐ Women were gathered by PNPM staff and were mostly SPP members -‐ The BKAD or inter-‐village board is a male-‐dominated institution as most members are village

or nagari heads, traditionally men.

Appendix 3 – Gender Affirmative Actions

Gender Affirmative Actions Beneficiaries

Targeting Specific Women’s Groups Quota attendance in meetings ( min 40 % ) Mandatory Proposals from women’s groups

Decision Makers

3/6 ( min 50 % ) of village representatives in decision making process of inter-‐village forums are women 30% of public consultations are with women: village forum, hamlet forum, bidding meeting

Implementers

Minimum one woman as member of village Implementation Team Minimum one woman as member of village procurement team

Monitoring and Controlling

Minimum one women staff in financial management unit (UPK) at sub-‐district level 1/3 ( minimum 30 % ) women in village monitoring team, verification team and in team preparation of village mid-‐term planning (RPJMDes) Bidding meeting -‐ O &M team

Facilitators

50% village facilitators are woman 50% sub-‐district assistant facilitators are woman

Appendix 4 -‐ Responses to Questionnaires 1. Interviewees who stated that gender or women’s issues affect their work were asked to explain how. The

answers are listed under generic categories the table below:

Category Number MUST BE ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE IN PNPM PROGRAM OR SECTION OF IT

42

GENDER EQUALITY NEEDED FOR CDD PROGRAMS (Women and men work together, women can work like men, we need to involve the whole community, women have the same rights)

21

GENDER TRIPLE ROLE INTERFERING WITH PARTICIPATION IN PNPM (women prioritize family, women have to work on the farm, etc.)

11

WOMEN MUST PERFORM GENDER ROLES/OVER COME GENDER STEREOTYPES (Some jobs must be done by women, if women do not participate nobody cooks food, women are timid, women are weak, etc.)

7

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN’S GENDER ISSUES (There are more women than men, women more affected by poverty, only women can understand their own problems, etc.)

5

WOMEN HAVE GOOD QUALITIES (Women consider everything in more detail, provide motivation, organizers, etc.)

3

UNCLEAR RESPONSES (e.g. “In one case women chose a beauty salon 3



over a kindergarten”) 2. Additional PNPM activities recommended by women Type of Assistance Number Give us business/skills training 18 Give us bigger loans 16 Help with farming inputs 4 Build a public toilet 1 Work on children's health 1 Help with marketing 1 Help with women's issues 1 3. Answers to why women manage rather than control money ended up being more about why women were

allowed to manage money. It demonstrated that women treasurers have become role models.

Reasons Why Women Can Manage Money Number Women are good at managing/organising/admin/treasurer in the program

18

Women are focused/disciplined/diligent/careful/responsible/honest/accountable

20

Women are part of SPP 12 Many women in council/project/implementation team 9 Community trusts women more than men 3 Women manage family 2 Women have same ability/rights as men 3 Women need the opportunity to control money 1

4. Asked why interviewees unanimously agreed that women should be part of decision-making the answers

ranged as follows. The answers are listed under generic categories the table below:

Category Number GENDER EQUALITY -‐as explained in the operations manual – (e.g. activities should benefit men and women, men and women should be involved, etc.) 41 KNOWLEDGE OF GENDER NEEDS -‐Women understand their own/ their family needs and problems/ Women have more needs and problems than men 29 WOMEN AS ACTORS IN FAMILY AND COMMUNITY -‐Women understand community needs and problems/ Women have a role in/are part of the community/family 21 EMPOWERMENT -‐ Women need information/Women should know how to make a proposal/It is time for women to act/So many activities related to women's issues are not a priority at village level/ Women have knowledge/skills/ideas 9 WOMEN’S ASSUMED INNATE GOOD QUALITIES -‐ no ulterior motives/transparent/more careful/more diligent/smarter 8 REPRESENTATION -‐ There are more women than men/ Women are more dominant in the community 3 RIGHTS BASED -‐ Women want the same opportunities as men 1

5. Asked how program staff, village cadres and officials motivated women, responses were as follows:



Method Used to Encourage Women Number Always invite/involve/encourage (more) women to join program activities 51 Encourage women to speak/participate actively (provide time/opportunity/space) in every meeting and listen to them 23 Provide information on women's benefits and rights through participating in program/importance of meetings/importance of SPP 16 Approach women through PKK/existing groups/local leaders 3 Improve women's confidence and motivate them 3 Explain how important women's involvement in program is 2 Get village head/local government to invite and encourage women 2 Involve women in local institutions such as PKK 2 Give advice, assistance and examples 2 Understand women's time constraints 1 Approach women through activities which allow women to expand businesses 1 Give women space to provide food 1 6. Interviewees at village level were asked to provide examples of when they had listened to women about

their concerns and made changes as a result. The statement presented below are the few responses given:

Example of Men Making changes after Listening to Women Encourage women to be active in SPP Explain the rules of PNPM/SPP Help women write proposals for SPP Invite them to a meeting Provide sewing training Women's have ideas for community issues Women should be involved Women's problems and ideas are important

7. Women’s involvement with other programs and institutions

Institution or activity Number Majlis talim 17

PKK 16 Cooperative group 7

Posyandu 4 Church group 3 Farming group 3

OXFAM 3 Youth activities 2

Other 2 8. Women describe the benefits they have received from involvement with PNPM

Benefit Number



Loan for business or other purpose 18 I have more information 13 I can generate a (better) income for the family 11 I can develop my business 10 I have skills 5 I have gained experience 4 I learnt how to manage the program 2 I met other women 2 I can understand the program 1 I know how to cook 1 There are regular meetings 1

9. Female interviewees at village level were asked to provide examples of when men had listened to them

about their concerns and made changes as a result. The statement presented below are the few responses given:

Example Given by Women of Men Making changes after Listening to Women During family decision making During meetings In meetings, on timings preferred by women for next meetings/activities Men agreed with women's proposal During ranking proposals in a meeting Since PNPM started Since PNPM started and my business got better The men planned to build a posyandu but we preferred a kindergarten

Appendix 5 – Resources • Akatiga Center For Social Analysis, June 2010, Marginalized Groups in PNPM-‐Rural • Increasing Women’s Participation in PNPM RURAL Powerpoint Presentation • Joint Donor and Government Mission, 2009 Gender in Community Driven Development

Project: Implications for PNPM Strategy Working Paper on the Findings of Joint Donor and Government Mission

• McGlynn Scanlon, Megan et al. (2012) PNPM Gender Study 2012: Increasing the Quality of Women’s Participation Final Report PNPM Support Facility, The World Bank Jakarta

• Ministry Of Home Affairs, Republic Of Indonesia P T O (Technical Operational Guidelines) National Community Empowerment Program Directorate General Of Community And Village Empowerment, Jakarta, 5 November 2008

• Panda, Pradeep and Bina Agarwal, 2005 Marital violence, human development and women’s property status in India World Development 33(5): 823-‐850.

• PNPM Rural Implementation Support Mission, 12-‐15 February 2014: Kabupaten Sumenep, Java Timur

• PTO -‐ PNPM Support Facility Operations Manual National Program For Community Empowerment

• Shatifan, July 2011, Gender equality as a key dimension for improved maternal and child nutrition to reduce stunting

• UN Millennium Project 2005 Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women Task Force on Education and Gender Equality

• World Bank, 2000 Engendering Development



• World Bank, 2007 Global Monitoring Report 2007: Confronting Challenges of Gender • World Bank, November 8, 2012, The World Bank Report No: 71180-‐ID Project Appraisal

Document On A Proposed Loan In The Amount Of Us$650 Million To The Republic Of Indonesia For The National Program For Community Empowerment In Rural Areas 2012-‐2015

Appendix 6 – Terms of Reference for Gender Mission

On gender inclusion strategies in PNPM Rural January 2014

Background

Indonesia’s National Program for Community Empowerment, known by its Indonesian acronym “PNPM” is the world’s largest community development program. PNPM’s long term goals are to reduce poverty by making development planning more inclusive, accountable, and reflective of local needs. PNPM currently covers about 70,000 rural and urban communities across all of Indonesia. PNPM works by giving communities block grants that they can spend to carry out plans that they have developed through a participatory, bottom-‐up planning process that is facilitated by social and technical specialists who provide advice to communities but do not control the funds. PNPM is supported by a multi-‐donor trust fund called the PNPM Support Facility (“PSF”), which helps the government oversee PNPM, improve its policies, and experiment with improvements that will make PNPM more inclusive, participatory, and transparent. Increasing women’s voice in community planning and decision-‐making has been an explicit goal of PNPM since its founding, and since 2007 PNPM Rural has had an overarching gender action plan to guide actions to involve women throughout PNPM’s procedures. Maximum 25 per cent of all PNPM funds are reserved to support proposals from village women’s groups for RLF groups, and women play increasingly central roles in PNPM’s kecamatan and village administration. However, there are still in many places, where gender inclusion is not entirely the case with such good women’s participation in PNPM Rural. Technical advice, technical assistance, and a control system to track whether gender sensitive approaches are actually assisting women and men, are needed to be revisited, through monitoring and supervision in many levels and in a level of communities and activities where the programs operating. It is a part of the role of PSF to provide more effective strategic support to the government’s objectives, especially by improving the effectiveness of PNPM’s own gender action plan and assisting the PSF to provide more strategic gender assistance. The mission will be engaged a lead gender expert, to review the system and provide a short critical report and practical recommendation on gender sensitive approaches in the overall implementation of PNPM Rural. Objectives are following:

Rural in CDD design and implementation:

1. Review the gender affirmative actions in the program (in the document/PTO) to assess whether the design of the approaches is actually assisting women and men equitably. Identify where and how such measures work best; focusing on understanding on several levels why gender is/not practically being mainstreamed into programming.

2. Review the quality of gender technical advice availability at different levels 3. Review the monitoring/supervision/oversight system on gender, whether program has a

system to track gender sensitive approaches and impact? 4. Quick review related to gender issues of the RLF/SPP sub project/activity for women



Outputs:

1. Identification on where and how affirmative gender actions are currently implemented; analysis on the understanding of consultants/facilitators and local government on gender sensitive approaches; analysis on why this approach can or cannot be practically mainstreamed in the program. Collection of cultural attitudes, local initiatives, and/or good practice stories which highlight issues related to gender sensitive approaches.

2. Identification on the availability of gender technical advice -‐ internal (from the program) or external (e.g. from interactions with other programs). Collection of good practice stories.

3. Identification on the availability and method of monitoring and supervising gender sensitive approaches (how it is being discussed, monitored, supervised, and reported as well as the connection with the MIS)

4. Review on gender issues in SPP/RLF activities as the main project on women. Identify possibilities for cooperation between RLF/SPP sub project and other programs working with women (Pekka, Peduli, other initiatives/interventions).

Deliverables

The report will be based on qualitative research, providing gender analysis on the PNPM Rural implementation covering the four areas mentioned in the objectives and outputs. The document should include recommendations on improving gender inclusion through practical recommendations on the implementation of gender affirmative action already existing within the project procedures/guidelines; improvement of the monitoring and supervision system to track gender sensitive approaches that can be used by PNPM Rural, as well as PSF tracking and supporting technical advice on gender issues. The report should be completed with a set of good practices on gender mainstreaming including local initiatives and cultural activities contributing to improved gender mainstreaming during the implementation.

Timeframe and Operationalization

This work is planned for 30 working days. It will engage a gender specialist and one operation analyst: Sepideh Azarbaijani Moghaddam and Ani Himawati

1. Starting with 2 – 3 days series of meetings to discuss the TOR and to translate into the instrument: interview guidance. Discussion with PMD & NMC is planned on the 10th January 2014

2. Field mission will be conducted within 15 -‐ 20 days in three provinces/kabupaten/kecamatan: Sumatera Barat (Agam/IV Koto), Sulawesi Selatan (Wajo/Tana Sitolo), and Nusa Tenggara Timur (Sumba Timur/Karera), on the 13rd – 28th Jebruary 2014

3. Discussion on findings and preliminary analysis with teams, Gov, partners 4. Draft report will be done within the working days, and finalization will be done remotely. 5. Finalization on 20 Feb 6. Presentation of the final report



Appendix 7 – Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation Non-‐Participation

Manipulation Women are gathered by male leaders whenever staff arrive. If challenged they claim that women are not aware or educated enough to actually make an input into decision making. For the purposes of the program women have ‘participated’. Women are not allowed to control funds or even select their own interventions. Such an approach would be common in conservative communities.

Therapy Women are gathered as above but instead of being allowed to voice and deal with important issues such as violence against women, women may be given courses to build capacity rather than their life quality e.g. hygiene or bead weaving course. Those who gather women together focus on the therapeutic benefits of gathering in a group rather than what the group actually achieves. Such an approach would be taken by staff with weak understanding of and commitment to gender mainstreaming. Such groups will exist in conservative areas where women are held in low esteem.

Tokenism Informing Women are informed of their responsibility to form a group and are informed of their rights to choose their development priorities but men still dominate project selection and control project funding partly because women fail to understand their role.

Consultation Women are informed of their responsibility to form a group and are consulted about their choice of development priorities but men still dominate project selection and control project funding. Women’s participation is window dressing – they are “participating in participation”. This is one of the most common approaches seen during the research.

Placation Selected women from the group are allowed on a face to face regular basis with men leaders but mostly to receive instructions and to report whether the women’s group has done what they were previously told. The women selected do not feel accountable to the group of women but to the men who have allowed them to emerge as leaders. Men still have the final word on projects and activities. This is another common approach seen during the research.

Empowerment Partnership Men and women’s groups negotiate and share planning and decision-‐making responsibilities through such structures as joint policy boards, planning committees and mechanisms for resolving impasses. After the ground rules have been established through some form of give-‐and-‐take, they are not subject to unilateral change. There has to be an organized powerbase which council leaders have to be accountable to.

Delegated Power

Negotiations between women and public officials can also result in them achieving dominant decision-‐making authority over a particular plan or program. Women hold enough power to ensure programme accountability to them. To resolve difference, men need to start a bargaining process.



Citizen Control

Here rhetoric should not be confused with intent. Women should be allowed to demand the degree of power (or control) which guarantees that participants can govern a programme or local resource, being fully in charge of policy and managerial aspects. They should be in a position to choose, implement and manage a project with full control of decision-‐making and funds.

Documents

World Bank Gender Inclusion SAMVersionMay 2014(Final) fileGenderInclusion&Strategies&in&PNPM! SippiAzarbaijani,Moghaddam$ Consultancy!conductedfor!WorldBank!Programme!support!Facility!