north-south co-operation || women linking for change: oxfam's women's linking project

Oxfam GB

Women Linking for Change: Oxfam's Women's Linking ProjectAuthor(s): Oxfam's Gender TeamSource: Focus on Gender, Vol. 2, No. 3, North-South Co-operation (Oct., 1994), pp. 29-33Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Oxfam GBStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030241 .

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29

Women linking for change Oxfam's Women's Linking Project

Oxfam's Gender Team

T -he Women's Linking Project (WLP), a three-year project coordinated by GADU and Oxfam UKI, was

launched as part of Oxfam's fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1992. The project was co-ordinated from Oxford, but drew on the guidance of an advisory group of Southern women, and the experience of Oxfam's field offices.

The WLP broke new ground for Oxfam: it was the largest and most public communications and networking activity on gender and development ever undertaken by Oxfam. The aims were to develop alternative strategies and North- South co-operation and dialogue, to make Southern gender perspectives central to development approaches, and to help Oxfam and other like-minded agencies to improve their understanding of gender issues and respond with gender-fair policies and programmes. The project was intended to create solidarity, and set up iniormation-sharing exchanges and informal networks for Southern NGOs, Oxfam staff, and like-minded NGOs, in order for them to learn cross-regionally, and break through the isolation that many feel.

Oxfam works through a large number of field offices, some of which are fairly distant from the women's movement, while others exemplify best or near-best practice. The WLP was designed to

promote and explore examples of best practice and to increase Oxfam's contact with Southern organisations working on gender issues, and also to promote gender as a development issue to the British and Irish public.

Stages of the project South-North Linking In March 1992, eight women from Southern countries came to the UK and Ireland, and met with a range of organisations and groups. The rationale behind the visit was, firstly, to identify commonalities and differences as the basis for forging alliances; secondly, to promote Southern women's perspectives on aid and other macro-issues, such as violence, health and reproductive rights, poverty, and sustainable development; and, lastly, to increase people's awareness of women's existing and potential roles as agents for change.

The South-North visit provided a platform for Southern women to speak, and valuable opportunities for dialogue, leading to a better understanding of each other's situation, both among the visitors themselves and the people they met. It also succeeded in raising interest about Southern concerns in development in the British and Irish women's organisations and community groups visited; and helped

Focus on Gender Vol 2, No. 3, October 1994

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30 Focus on Gender

to emphasise the importance of gender issues within Oxfam itself. The visit provided opportunities for Oxfam outreach workers to strengthen, and in many cases initiate, contacts with community-based organisations and groups that had not previously regarded working with Oxfam as a prime concern. Community-based organisations began to see Oxfam as credible and relevant, and an agency which had something important to say about gender issues.

Considerable spontaneous follow-up has taken place between the participating groups and the Southern women, including the development of joint initiatives and solidarity actions. But follow-up would undoubtedly have been greater if there had been a more coherent strategy for this.

Regional and global meetings Another part of the project involved national and regional consultations, taking two forms: firstly, consultation by Oxfam field officers, in-country, to produce case studies and an internal review of Oxfam's work; and secondly, regional meetings of women from Southern NGOs to identify their priority issues and strategies, and the role of funding agencies.

The conclusions of the regional meetings were brought together in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 1994, when delegates from the regions met to consolidate their findings.

International conference From 26 February to 2 March 1994, 105 participants attended the Women's Linking Project (WLP) International Conference in Bangkok. Participants comprised field office staff, staff and senior managers from Oxfam House, and delegates from Southern organisations, some of whom had been involved in the regional meetings.

Participants at the Conference made many recommendations, some of which

raised questions about Oxfam's role as a Northern funding agency which has a commitment to field-driven programme work and an ethos of multiculturalism. The implementation of the gender policy in the overseas programme, and the organisational culture of Oxfam, in relation to partnership with Southern organisations and the employment of Southern staff, were some of the topics discussed.

A single powerful and overwhelming conclusion can be distilled from the many messages from the meetings in Thailand: a concern for gender equity leads to doing things differently. Participants stressed that taking on a gender perspective implies a profound and radical transformation of many aspects of Oxfam's work: the relationship with partners, inter- relationships between colleagues, development priorities and approaches, the organisations with which Oxfam works, how decisions are made, and the gender balance of Oxfam's staff.

Current priorities

The Thailand meetings called for Oxfam to expand and revise its analysis of development. Poverty is experienced differently by different sectors of the community, depending upon relative power and status. Economic disadvantage is inextricably linked with factors which prevent disadvantaged groups - including women, children, older people, and disabled people - from securing the benefits of development.

Participants discussed the worsening conditions for women throughout the world, working towards a global analysis of women's situation which emphasised the interconnectedness of people's lives in the South and the North. As a result of decisions taken in the North, and Northern over-consumption of resources, environmental degradation is occurring in the South, depleting natural resources and

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Women linking for change 31

affecting women in particular, in their role as primary carers for their families. Growing migration to urban areas breaks down traditional support systems, while urban livelihoods depend precariously on insecure and unregulated work available to women in the informal sector and in industry, now dominated by international trade agreements such as NAFTA and GATT.

The Conference also related women's worsening situation to the crisis caused by the imposition of IMF Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) on Southern governments. Women are being called on to augment the decreasing services available to their families by taking responsibility for many activities best provided by professionals, including those of health carer and teacher. The escalating problem of AIDS was highlighted by participants as affecting women differently from men, since they are not only sufferers but are also carers for affected family members.

Conference participants asserted that it is the appreciation of the overlapping of the personal and public spheres which characterises a gender-sensitive approach to development. Women at the Conference emphasised, time after time, that physical violence, or the threat of it, impedes many women from sharing in the benefits of development projects. This and other forms of social control within the personal sphere, such as mental cruelty, sexual abuse, and control of women's bodies through the denial of reproductive rights, must be accepted as legitimate issues to be tackled by development agencies.

What is 'partnership'? From its inception, the WLP set out to be an innovative exercise to explore the nature of partnership: South-South, North-South, practitioner-activist, women-women, women-men. Such a discussion is a

difficult process, to which different constituencies bring their own agenda. What are the lessons from the mainly face- to-face networking of the WLP, and what is the impact on our gender work?

First, linking between gender workers from different regions and constituencies is a high-risk, high-reward process, fraught with contradictions and sometimes conflict. At the same time, it can be empowering, fostering the forming of alliances and allowing information to be shared in a powerful and energising way.

Oxfam, as a funder, is aware of the contradiction between its commitment to partnership and its ultimate power as the financial decision-maker. Women at the Conference said that they are concerned about the nature of partnership; within Oxfam, between the Southern offices, Northern fund-raisers and senior decision- makers, as well as between Oxfam and Southern partner organisations. Hitherto, there has been a lack of discussion on what partnership means in the context of Oxfam's gender policy. The gender policy, which promotes gender equity, should affect the choice of project partners and activities to be funded. Discussion of these issues at the Conference exposed tensions about Oxfam's choice of partners, and how this strengthens or weakens its commitment to gender issues.

A central recommendation to emerge from the Conference was that, in order for Oxfam and other funding agencies to recognise the link between gender issues and development, they must work with organisations who have, as an explicit goal, the empowerment of women. There was a strong request from Conference participants that Oxfam should cease funding gender-blind organisations. This rule is already being applied in some Oxfam offices, for example, in South Africa, and there is thus institutional experience to draw on.

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32 Focus on Gender

Representation and multiculturalism

Whose voice? What legitimacy? Should gender and development workers be consulting NGOs or grassroots activists? Feminists or 'womanists'? It was made clear that there is no unified Southern voice; but that is not a reason for denying all Southern voices. The women's movement, too, is highly complex; while women may have a similar agenda, they often have very different ways of addressing the issues and face different constraints.

It is dangerous to assume a common agenda or to underestimate the barriers to be overcome. These include: * cultural barriers, different styles of

communication; * differing priorities; * hidden agendas, or the suspicion of

them; * the whole history of relationships

between the South and the North; * the use of power and influence.

At times these barriers can block common purposes such as North-South cooperation. A particularly high hurdle appears to be the South-North divide: the degree of mistrust of and antagonism towards Northern funding agencies that can exist in the South should not be underestimated. In trying to build South- North cooperation, both sides need to recognise their limitations and the different constituencies to whom they are accountable.

Oxfam's working culture Implementing the gender policy requires Oxfam to take stock of its organisational ethos and management style. Requiring that Southern counterpart organisations embrace the principles of the gender policy in their project work has deep implications for Oxfam itself, if it is not to be an

example of 'do as I say, not as I do'. The Conference called on Oxfam to set its own house in order, by a critical examination of the working culture and recruitment policy.

In Thailand, Oxfam field staff, frustrated at the lack of progress on multiculturalism within Oxfam, reported that Southern views, particularly those of women, are ignored by management in head office. Women programme officers reported feeling isolated, marginalised, and unheard. Field officers working on gender issues expressed their profound sense of disempowerment; gender issues are still not regarded as important, in overseas offices and within Oxfam UK/I.

Any policy which transcends particular cultural, social, and economic contexts must be capable of being applied, as an organisation-wide set of principles and strategies, to the particular circumstances faced by women in each constituency. Delegates at the Conference asked for time to consider the gender policy in relation to their own constituency and culture, and said they would like to report back on the efficacy of the policy at a later stage.

Participants emphasised the importance of all staff receiving gender training, and new programme staff being required to have a proven commitment to gender equity. Oxfam should make every effort to achieve a representative balance of race, sex and nationality within the organisation, especially at management level. Measures to ensure this include staff development and training to allow women to gain management experience, head-hunting, and support systems for family carers. Pressure to work long hours means that family carers, overwhelmingly women, are effectively prevented from rising in Oxfam beyond a certain point, unless they are prepared to neglect the needs of their families; but it was recognised that this culture of long working hours is also damaging to men.

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Women tinking for change 33

Aiming to be truly multicultural, the Thailand meetings presented a challenge which was only partially met. Different constituencies had very diverse expectations of Thailand; on the theoretical level, some participants expected concrete outputs, and there were different views on the conference methodology. A multicultural conference demands immense resources, particularly in translation and interpretation, including the translation of ideas and concepts from one culture to another. The existence of different, and equally valid, ways of speech, thought processes, and preoccupations must be acknowledged.

Participants requested more resources to guide, support, and inform staff working on gender issues, and for materials to be published in vernacular languages where possible, and at least in the European languages used in specific countries.

Valuing long-term processes

The project put equal emphasis on outcomes and process, recognising that working on the promotion of gender equity in societies across the world involves changing attitudes and beliefs which are deeply entrenched. Real, lasting change will come slowly.

Participants at the Conference asserted that Oxfam's culture centres on a tendency to favour efficiency and the achievement of concrete objectives, often without consid- ering the means used to reach the end. Participants pointed out that slower, more thorough processes often achieve more sustainable results. Oxfam must move from an approach which emphasises projects to one which recognises the value of long-term processes. Oxfam's mandate indudes public education, and this is an important function in terms of gender relations, which are perceived by the majority in all societies as natural and unchanging.

Conclusion

Feedback received so far has shown how enthusiastic Southern women's groups and local organisations are about being involved in these areas of Oxfam's work, and about networking and working with each other. At present, the Thailand recommendations, and distilled wisdom from the whole WLP process, are being used in communication and follow-up work, including networking, advocacy, and preparation for Beijing.

The WLP has important lessons for all involved, in terms of: * partnership between North and South; * giving a platform to the South; * networking as a legitimate tool of

development and a powerful tool for the marginalised;

* institutional learning; * challenging Oxfam to become a truly

multicultural, and gender-equal, organisation;

* altering Oxfam's working culture to take note of the multiple demands on its staff;

* building up recommendations for Northern agencies based on Southern experience. The challenge is now to Oxfam's

decision-makers and managers, to respond in a way which strengthens Oxfam's commitments to multiculturalism and gender equity, both within the organisation and in work with partners and supporters. For a continuing process of linking to take place, fora are needed in which gender and development workers can forge links and organise to take forward issues of mutual concern. Oxfam needs to build on the foundations and lessons of the WLP, and promote the linking of diverse constituencies in order to create a powerful synthesis of views from the South.

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