3500 evaluation reports for everyone - really everyone?

It is delightful to see that more and more agencies are publishing more and more evaluation reports on-line. Now, UNDP has announced, in a pretty infographic, its revamped Evaluation Resource Centre (ERC), which gives access to more than 3500 reports. A bounty for meta-evaluators!

But one thing that puzzles me: The video spot that explains the ERC, with its suave male speaker and friendly ambient music in the background, suggests that only men - or, say, short-haired trouser-wearing necktie-bearers - make decisions. Look at the visuals near minute 0.57 and 2.18. Little skirt-bearers are only acknowledged as members of "the public". What time and place do we live in? Dear UNDP! We know you can do much better on promoting gender equality, so why not flaunt it and show at least equal numbers of male and female decision-makers in your PR materials?

Nice movies on coffee and gender in Uganda

I have promised posts about the recent European Evaluation Society conference in Dublin. Apologies that'll have to wait for a few weeks! I have been too busy preparing for my next assignment: a multi-country evaluation of a project that promotes gender equity and value chain development. A couple of beautiful short videos illustrate the approach, in two parts: Coffee Value Chain Uganda, Part 1, and part 2. Very commendable! Versions in French and Portuguese are available as well.

Gender and Religion - Böll documentation ready

The Heinrich Böll Foundation has completed the documentation for an exciting conference which took place in June this year, Religion Revisited. You'll find also a link to the broader multi-year project Religion, Politics and Gender Equality. My personal impressions of the conference are recorded among my June postings (3 posts, starting from Feminism and Religion), which you'll find by clicking on "June" in the BLOG ARCHIVE at the left side of this page. It includes a reflection on the workshop Feminism and Religion, facilitated by Homa Hoodfar from Canada and Iran. And here's a video trailer for the conference: click here!

Perceived Equality

German is great for big words. Even simple things grow to importance: for example, the post office used to call phone books Fernsprechteilnehmerverzeichnis, i.e. "speaking-at-distance-participants'-directory". Clumsy but accurate.

Thanks to a grammar permitting near-boundless word fudging we can get amazingly precise and poetic. Today, reading up on a 2008 conference on 21st century feminisms, I have come across a beautiful term: Gleichheitswahrnehmung - "perception of equality", or "perceived equality". For those who don't read German, I'll call it GHW. In her summary of the conference, Katrin Bremer raises the issue of GHW among young women in Germany.

We Can end All Violence against Women – Kenya

We Can was launched in Kenya on 27 November at the KICC, site of the 1985 World Women's Conference. The We Can Kenya alliance had arranged 1.500 chairs in a spacious tent, hoping for at least 1.000 visitors. But soon after the opening, another 500 chairs had to be brought in! Women and men of all ages and walks of life, from all over the country, came together to show their determination to end violence against women (VAW). We Can makes it clear that everybody, women and men, can and must take responsibility to stop violence in their own lives, in their own communities. The inclusive character of the campaign was underlined by the presence of two interpreters, who translated speeches and performances into sign language for a group of people with hearing impairments, seated near the front. It is a little-known fact that women with disabilities are at greater risk of VAW than able-bodied women. Overall, some 50% of Kenyan women have experienced VAW: one in two.

Measuring progress in gender equality

Within the framework of its Global Project on Measuring the Progress of Societies ("of" societies, not "in" societies!!), the OECD has initated, since March 2008, www.wikigender.org - a platform for exchange on gathering empirical evidence and measuring change in gender equality. The site is managed by a team within OECD in Paris, with the support of an intriguing mix of partners, including UNFPA, the Norwegian and Swedish Ministries of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Indian Centre for Economic and Social Studies, as well as the World Bank group, among others.

7th International Dialogue on Population and Sustainable Development - Cultural Diversity and Gender Equality

Today I attended a highly stimulating conference in Berlin: "Exploring Cultural Diversity and Gender Equality: towards universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights".It started with a panel discussion featuring illustruous speakers including Gita Sen, a pioneer in gender & development research and activism. She shared key findings from her (et al.) report on Gender Inequity in Health. The full report Unequal, Unfair, Ineffective and Inefficient - Gender Inequity in Health: Why it exists and how we can change it is available on the net (see link list at the bottom of my blog).