Pathways of Women's Empowerment: Stories of Influence

This report explores the strand of work developed by the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme under the IDS Gender, Power and Sexuality Programme supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). It demonstrates how Pathways' existing work related to the overarching programme's emphasis on linking local voices to global arenas to influence policy discourses on gender justice. Through the case studies of the Real World project on 30%: Women and Politics in Sierra Leone, the Pathways book series, and the Pathways Learning Platform, the report emphasises how building relationships and networks, and the success of working with people beyond the development sphere, have been key to the programme's influencing work. The report also underlines the importance of women's organising in exposing and promoting policy lessons for positive change in women's lives, and Pathways' aim to continue to support this work.Swedish International Development Agency (Sida

A response to Hackethal and Schmidt (2003) "Financing patterns: measurement concepts and empirical results"

Hackethal and Schmidt (2003) criticize a large body of literature on the financing of corporate sectors in different countries that questions some of the distinctions conventionally drawn between financial systems. Their criticism is directed against the use of net flows of finance and they propose alternative measures based on gross flows which they claim re-establish conventional distinctions. This paper argues that their criticism is invalid and that their alternative measures are misleading. There are real issues raised by the use of aggregate data but they are not the ones discussed in Hackethal and Schmidt’s paper. JEL Classification: G3

Lessons from a survey of British dialect grammar

This article is intended for non-specialists interested in linguistic and educational issues associated with regional variation in grammar. It is based on the work of the Survey of British Dialect Grammar which entailed an unusual collaboration between linguists and school children. The findings of the survey have made it possible to provide a fuller picture of the national distribution of nonstandard grammatical features and to generate hypotheses about dialect levelling in urban centres. They also provide interesting challenges to educational policy and practice

Introduction: Negotiating Empowerment

This introductory article draws out some of the dimensions and dilemmas around women’s empowerment that are highlighted in the articles in this IDS Bulletin: the choices, the negotiations, the narratives and above all, the context of women’s lived experience. In doing so, we show that empowerment is a complex process that requires more than the quick and easy solutions often offered by development agencies. Much of the significant change happening in women’s lives takes place outside of the range of these conventional interventions. In conclusion, we suggest that for development agencies to really support women’s empowerment requires greater engagement with changing structures rather than accommodating women within the inequitable existing order, and a much deeper understanding of what makes change happen in their lives

Gender, Sexuality and Development: Revisiting and Reflecting

This article looks at how the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has participated in, contributed to, and been shaped by debates around gender and sexuality. Through interviews with key participants in the gender and sexuality research story of IDS, we explore certain periods and themes over the last four decades. These are the introduction of gender research at IDS in the 1970s, the development of the MA Gender and Development (GAD) in partnership with the University of Sussex in the late 1980s; the co-construction of knowledge with the development of BRIDGE in the 1990s; and the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment programme, gender myths and sexuality, and the emergence of work on men and masculinity from 2000. These selected stories highlight the particular strength of IDS’ convening role in creating the spaces for academics, activists and others to come together to politicise the dialogues by revealing normative assumptions often taken for granted in gender and sexuality

Beneficial effects of childhood selective dorsal rhizotomy in adulthood

Background: Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) has been used to treat children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) for over three decades. However, little is known about the outcomes of childhood SDR in adults.  Objectives: 1) To study the effects of childhood SDR on the quality of life and ambulatory function in adult life. 2) To determine late side effects of SDR in adults.   Methods: Adults (> 17.9 years) who underwent SDR in childhood (2 - 17.9 years) between 1987 and 2013 were surveyed in 2015. Patients completed a survey, including questions on demographic information, quality of life, health, surgical outcomes, motor function, manual ability, pain, braces/orthotics, post-SDR treatment, living situation, education level, work status, and side effects of SDR.  Results: In our study population of 294 patients (18.0 - 37.4 years), patients received SDR during the ages of 2.0 - 17.9 years and were followed up 2.2 to 28.3 years after surgery. Eighty-four percent had spastic diplegia, 12% had spastic quadriplegia, and 4% had spastic triplegia. The majority (88%) of patients reported improved post-SDR quality of life and 1% considered the surgery detrimental. Most (83%) would recommend the procedure to others and 3% would not. However, patients who would not recommend SDR to others ambulated with a walker or were not ambulatory at all prior to SDR. The majority (83%) of patients improved (30%) or remained stable (53%) in ambulation. Twenty-nine percent of patients reported pain, mostly in the back and lower limbs, with a mean pain level of 4.4 ± 2.4 on the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). Decreased sensation in small areas of the lower limbs was reported by 8% of patients, though this did not affect daily life. Scoliosis was diagnosed in 28%, with 40% of these patients pursuing treatment. Whether scoliosis was related to SDR is not clear, though scoliosis is known to occur in patients with CP and also in the general population. Only 4% of patients underwent spinal fusion.  Orthopedic surgeries were pursued by 59% of patients. The most common orthopedic surgeries were hamstring lengthenings (31%), Achilles tendon lengthenings (18%), adductor lengthenings (16%), and derotational osteotomies (16%). Twenty-four percent of all patients later underwent hip surgery and 8% had surgeries on their knees.  Conclusion: Results of this study indicate that the beneficial effects of childhood SDR extend to adulthood quality of life and ambulatory function without late side effects of surgery

Food for Thought: An Exercise in Third Culture Building

Food is an emblem of culture. What, where, when, how, and why we eat are all intimately connected to our cultural community. From garbage plates in ROC to plate lunches in Hawai’i, from the meat and potato diet of agrarian cultures to the brunch culture of urban areas, food communicates who we are. But can food and food-related practices also bring diverse others together? This workshop examines the use of shared food experience as a method of intercultural communication, drawing from Casrnir’s (1978) model of third culture building. GOAL/OUTCOME #1 Participants consider the role of food in their cultural identities and be willing to try new foods. GOAL/OUTCOME #2 Participants will recognize that sharing food can create cooperative, interactive intercultural conversations. GOAL/OUTCOME #3 The workshop should become a meta-exercise in third culture building