Connecting Unpaid and Paid Care Work to Progress Gender Equality

Globally, paid care work, such as care for children or the elderly is a fast-growing sector of the market economy. Yet, it remains undervalued by governments and citizens in both monetary and societal terms which has damaging implications for women’s economic empowerment and gender relations more broadly. In order to shape new political responses to the Sustainable Development Goal 5’s targets on unpaid care and domestic work, it is critical to make the connections between paid and unpaid care work and its impact on gender equality and women’s rights. Without reinforcing care work as ‘women’s work’, such responses should promote decent work for women and men in the care sector, invest in care workers, and acknowledge the global dimension of care work.UK Department for International Developmen

Building Alliances to Address Sexual and Gender-based Violence

It is now widely accepted that effective strategies to end sexual and gender-based violence must engage with men and boys. In practice, however, the relationship between traditional women’s rights movements and organisations working on engaging men and boys is an uneasy one. There is a necessity to understand these tensions between women’s movements and work with men. We must address feminist concerns about the exclusion of women’s rights, moving away from the ‘men as protectors’ approach and take seriously concerns of lack of funding in specific areas. Alongside this, exploring opportunities for learning across movements will be integral to building better alliances in the future.UK Department for International Developmen

‘Who Cares’: Reflections on the International-level Advocacy Work of the Unpaid Care Work Programme (2012–2015)

At the end of September 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be launched. Building on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were officially established in 2000, the SDGs will potentially have 17 goals – one of which was explicitly absent from the MDGs: the unpaid care work of women and girls. The inclusion of unpaid care work in the final outcome document of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, which was made possible through the collective efforts of researchers, women’s rights organisations, activists and supportive policymakers, reveals just one of the ways in which unpaid care work is increasingly, albeit slowly, being recognised in development discourse, programmes and policies (United Nations General Assembly 2014b). In this Evidence Report we outline the global-level advocacy work undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and our partner, ActionAid International, over the course of a four-year programme to make care visible.UK Department for International Developmen

Engaging Men and Boys to End Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Sierra Leone: A Stakeholder Mapping Report, June 2014

Increasingly, engaging with men and boys has emerged as a vital strategy adopted by non-governmental organisations, national governments, women’s organisations, and international agencies for ending sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and achieving gender equality, including in refugee and post-conflict settings (Barker and Ricardo 2005; Dworkin, Colvin, Hatcher and Peacock 2012). While SGBV is a global problem, recent research in West Africa suggests that this problem becomes particularly acute in post-conflict countries. In Sierra Leone, the focus of this report, it is widely estimated that during its civil war from 1991–2002, up to 250,000 women and girls were subjected to some form of SGBV (Amnesty International 2007: 4). Rape, largely but not solely by men against women, was used systematically by all factions and, although peace was declared in 2002, the trauma of war and its violent tactics has left scars that run through the fabric of households, families and communities. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the role of men and boys in addressing SGBV, in June 2014 IDS and MAGE–SL held two stakeholder workshops and a series of interviews in Sierra Leone. This report begins with a brief overview of the workshops, which form part of a larger research study on collective action and the role of men and boys in addressing SGBV in Sierra Leone. Section 4 details five of the key themes drawn from the workshops. These are: (1) the civil war as catalyst for critical awareness; (2) the economic basis of inequality in households; (3) law and policy reform; (4) inadequate support for those engaged in work to address SGBV; and (5) knowledge sharing. Section 5 maps the various stakeholders in Sierra Leone whose interests either overlap with, intersect with, or impede the work of those engaging with men and boys against SGBV; it also highlights the opportunities and challenges. Drawing from the workshop findings, Section 6 suggests why it is important to engage with men and boys to address SGBV, and Section 7 provides a concluding summary.UK Department for International Developmen

Unpaid Care Work Programme: Uganda Country Progress Report (2012–2014)

Uganda is one of three focus countries within the Unpaid Care Work (UCW) programme of the Accountable Grant. The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is partnering with ActionAid International (AAI) to help each of the three country programmes involved to develop and implement an advocacy strategy to make unpaid care work more visible in public policy, as well as to integrate unpaid care issues into each country’s programming. IDS’s UCW programme uses an action learning methodology to look at what works and does not work in making the care economy more visible. Further, it aims to track and capture changes in policy and practice in order to improve understanding around the uptake of evidence (i.e. how evidence is being used or ignored, by whom, and with what effects). This report covers the progress of the programme in Uganda over the first two and a half years of the four-year programme. For a programme aimed at influencing national policy, it is critical to understand the political economy context of Uganda.UK Department for International Developmen

The Shifting Roles of Men in Collective Action on SGBV in Kenya: Report of a Movement and Influence Mapping Workshop, Nairobi, 3–5 July 2013

Over a decade and a half on from the landmark declarations of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (UN 1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (UN 1995), there is now a growing consensus on the importance of engaging men and boys in efforts to stop violence against women and girls. Kenya’s 2008/09 Demographic and Health Survey indicated that 45 per cent of women aged 15–49 had experienced either physical or sexual violence — mostly committed by their husbands or partners. Some of the causes behind the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Kenya include traditional gender norms that support male superiority and entitlement, social norms that tolerate or justify violence against women, and weak community sanctions against perpetrators. While SGBV has been a feature of all societies throughout history, in Kenya women and girls suffered increased incidences of sexual violence in 2007-08 following accusations that the government manipulated the election process. This plunged the country into turmoil, with Kenya spiralling into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis that resulted in the death of 1,300 people and the displacement of around 300,000 people (Muhula 2009). In order to improve our understanding and knowledge of shifting roles of men in movements to address SGBV through collective action in Kenya, Men for Gender Equality Now (MEGEN), the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) joined together to engage with multiple actors in Kenya for collective learning through this workshop.UK Department for International Developmen

Men in Collective Action on SGBV in Kenya: A Case Study

This case study examines the ways in which collective action and the involvement of men may influence the prospects of effectively changing community perceptions and values regarding sexual and gender-based violence, and how it may strengthen the overall response to the problem in Kenya. The broader aim is to help improve information access and to inform the strategies of relevant actors (including activists and policymakers) addressing this issue, with meaningful male engagement, and to facilitate the forging and strengthening of strategic alliances for gender justice and ending SGBV in Kenya. The report seeks to contribute to the burgeoning literature on the role of men and collective action in addressing SGBV (Barker et al. 2011; Esplen 2006; Ricardo, Eads and Barker 2011). Efforts to involve men and boys are thought to stand a greater chance of succeeding if different stakeholders can build partnerships with other organisations and across social movements (Cornwall, Edström and Greig 2011). Yet the body of knowledge about the effectiveness and success of initiatives that engage men in the prevention of and response to SGBV remains relatively limited (Barker et al. 2011).UK Department for International Developmen

Inclusive Urbanisation and Cities in the Twenty-First Century

In academic and policy discourse, urbanisation and cities are currently receiving a great deal of attention, and rightly so. Both have been central to the enormous transformation the world has been going through during the past few centuries. Many parts of the world have experienced and are experiencing an urban transformation. While these processes have taken distinct regional forms across Latin America, East and South Asia, and Africa, it is clear that, globally, the urban transformation has coincided with major societal and ecological changes. Some of these developments have been heralded as progress – notably millions of people being lifted out of poverty – while others, such as entrenching inequalities and accelerating climate change, are alarming. In recent years the pro-urban voices have been louder, but accounts of the wonders of cities need to be balanced with a recognition of the violence, inequity and environmentally destructive forces that cities can embody and reproduce. Equally important is to explore how cities and urbanisation can be made to contribute more to human wellbeing and to international and local development goals. This report is particularly concerned with whether and under what conditions more inclusive urbanisation and cities can support these development goals.UK Department for International Developmen

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700