Gender Policy Case Study in the Gambia: Women in Development Policy and Donor Influence

Kate Bedford (2007) article provides a useful framework to understand intervention outcomes pertaining women and gender in Development that are dictated by donors or funders. This framework will be used to assess the Gambia’s government and the United Nations Development Programme efforts at closing gender gap in the Gambia. The author discusses the influence of donors in gender policy on the basis that it increases productivity and efficiency. Also, she explains the emphasis on gender parity or 50: 50 ratios between men and women in development that represents complementary efforts champion by funders. Finally, the author argues that ignoring men in gender planning represents a failure, because men will be poor and regarded as irresponsible partners.

Bedford posits that the World Bank official proposition that placing gender in development enhances productivity and growth is problematic, because it represents a Neo-Liberal idea of restructuring with emphasis on economic efficiency. This focus ignores other important components such as empowerment, rights, and promotion of reforms of women (p.292).  Similarly, the author questions the rationale behind 50:50 complementary between men and women as most development programs focus on women empowerment, thus neglecting men. As a result, she suggested the inclusion of men to yield equitable division of labor and avoid the adverse effects as stated earlier on men.

The collaboration between the Gambia government and the United Nations Development Programme on closing gender gap seeks to promote equity, which is also goal number three of the Millennium Development Program and is part of the government Vision 2020 and the Program for Accelerated Growth and Employment. One the proposition of this collaboration is that women are more vulnerable to poverty, because they continue to have lower social status in the Gambian society. The UNDP report (2014) states that women have no right to own assets including land, particularly in rural communities, and they are forced out of family properties in times of death of their spouses or divorce.  The report also states that about 78% of women are economically engaged in agriculture production empowerment programs and microfinance compared to 57% for men.  The UNDP report (2014) also mentions that women are mainly engaged in subsistence farming, such as rice and vegetable gardening.  As a consequence, factors such as vulnerability to unstable compensation and insufficient access to decent employment are still high on gender advocacy and platform. 

This demonstrates that women are the winners in this joint intervention, because women constraints on land and access to microfinance for gardening and agricultural productivity are addressed. This also signifies women efficiency propaganda, because they make a huge difference in their livelihood and families, for example, “a woman who’s making a difference for women and for Gambia” under the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) project. Access https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Gambia+women

Relating this development approach by The Gambia government and the UNDP to the framework by Bedford (2007) raises numerous questions regarding understandings of the real issues. For instance, lack of men’s inclusion in gender and development policy in the Gambia. As a Gambian to add a voice to this analysis, it is profoundly noticeable how men are not excluded in microfinance programs and scholarship programs for girls. The girl child enjoys free primary and secondary education in the Gambia while their male counterpart pay for secondary education.