Afghanistan gozargah: Discourses on gender-focused aid in the aftermath of conflict.

This research addresses gender-focused international aid in Afghanistan in the aftermath of conflict, focusing on the period of the Bonn Agreement (December 2001 - September 2005). The investigation begins with a contextualized understanding of women in Afghanistan to better understand their role in social transformations throughout history. This history is in some measure incompatible with the discourse on Afghan women that was created by aid institutions to justify aid interventions. Such a discourse denied Afghan women's agency, abstracting them from their historical and social contexts. In so doing, space was created for the proposed intervention using a discourse of transformation. This discourse sought to 'empower' and 'liberate' Afghan women, yet implementation of interventions did not reflect such goals, nor the reality of the Gozargah (transition, juncture). This research illuminates the discourses animating gender-focused international aid in the aftermath of conflict in Afghanistan and the effects of these discourses on the gender order. This political and institutional ethnography was conducted first through an examination of policy texts and media discourses, then through an investigation of program practice through the perspectives of policy-makers and policy implementers. The findings were then weighed against the perspectives and experiences of women and men in Afghanistan. This research employs a gender analysis to illustrate the story of an aid intervention, starting with how it was represented at the highest levels to how it was understood at the lowest levels. This story reveals that first, Afghan women have been neither 'empowered' nor 'liberated' because the discourse on Afghan women was not historically and socially contextualized. This is further compounded by aid interventions that addressed political - and highly politicized - gender concerns with technical aid responses. The result is that promises of strategic transformations fell short of their goal, resulting in unintended effects in the form of continued insecurities for Afghan women

El fortalecimiento de las capacidades en Sierra Leona

“Fortalecimiento de las capacidades” es una expresión de moda que evoca un ideal de propiedad nacional e instituciones locales reforzadas. Pero, ¿cómo podemos evitar que se limite a una transferencia de conocimientos paternalista y unidireccional dirigida por el Norte?

Dubai: a City of Hope?

The City of Hope is an organisation offering refuge for abused women in Dubai, the largest city of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai has started to acknowledge the social problems accompanying its phenomenal economic growth but is it doing enough to tackle the scourge of human trafficking

Dubai: ¿ciudad de esperanza?

La Ciudad de la Esperanza es una organización que ofrece refugio a mujeres que han sufrido abusos en Dubai, la ciudad más grande de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos. Dubai ha empezado a reconocer los problemas sociales que acompañan a su extraordinario crecimiento económico, ¿pero hace lo suficiente para afrontar la terrible incidencia de la trata de personas?

Activism to Counter Gender-based Violence and HIV and AIDS: Overcoming obstacles to movement building in Papua New Guinea

Based on the experiences shared by the Papua New Guinean delegation at the AWID Forum, on the HIV and gender-based violence (GBV) landscape in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Lina Abirafeh discusses how the progress towards gender equality is impeded by the increased spread of HIV and AIDS and GBV in PNG. A PNG delegation of six women representing various sectors – donor, government, civil society, community – journeyed to AWID to present their experiences in exercising agency to build movements that counter these twin pandemics. These women are working together to build a strong and coordinated movement to counter HIV and GBV and demonstrating women's agency in movement building and making change. Development (2009) 52, 233–238. doi:10.1057/dev.2009.11

Some Impressions from the AWID Forum

The AWID Forum held as many experiences as participants. Here, four feminists from different parts of the world, of different generations, with different experiences, and who came to Bangkok with their hopes and to play diverse roles, reflect on what impressed them, analytically, personally and politically. Development (2006) 49, 12–15. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100240