Policy and Practice

 

Gender

“Women and men should have the means and freedoms to achieve their rights, including being able to choose and use technologies that assist them in leading the kind of life they value.”

 

Practical Action's participation at CSW62

From 10 to 23 March 2018 we are attending the UN's 62nd Commission on the Status of Women, to explore the challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality for rural women around the world. We'll be presenting our work on the use of ICTs to break down taboos around menstrual hygiene, as well as the role of technology and knowledge in empowering female entrepreneurs in Latin America to access market opportunities. For updates, follow @PracticalAction and #CSW62

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10 things to know: Gender equality and achieving climate goals

This report draws out the headline messages of a research project by Practical Action Consulting (PAC) with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), commissioned by CDKN, to investigate...

 
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A Theory of Change on Gender Equality & Women's and Girls' Empowerment

This theory of change articulates a vision for gender equality and explains the relationship between gender equality, achieving empowerment and securing women's and girls' rights. It...

 
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Gender Policy

Practical Action believes that everyone, irrespective of gender, age, ethnicity or ability, has basic human rights, including access to an adequate standard of living, health and...

 

Agenda for Change

Women and girls do not enjoy the same status, power or access to and control over resources as men and boys and the benefits and costs of science and technology are not equally shared by women and men. Practical Action is working to improve women and girls’ voice, choice and control in all of the work we deliver.

Woman selling goods on the street
A woman prepares food for sale at the
market in Bangladesh

Practical Action is committed to:

  • ensuring equitable access to technology for all women and men,
  • advancing gender equality
  • improving monitoring and evaluation to better understand and target gender issues in our work

We will deliver this through our programmes, knowledge sharing, advocacy and communications. We partner with other organisations, institutions and civil society to collaboratively share learning, knowledge, best practice and deliver inclusive projects.

We are working to ensure that all our project and programme monitoring and evaluations disaggregate indicators by gender and evaluate gender issues in all of our work. And we are working to greater understanding of the different technological needs of women and men through implementation of special projects and activities.

 

Goals for Policy and Practice

  • challenging the existing situation, where appropriate, by promoting policies and institutions that recognise the differing practical and strategic needs
  • supporting approaches to ensure the voices of marginalised groups, including women, are heard in policy and regulatory or institutional debates
  • Informing the practice of others in our key goal areas to promote the inclusion and empowerment of women, men, girls and boys and addressing the differentiated needs of each

Flagship Projects

hibiscus farming in Sudan

Hibiscus farming and participatory markets

 
adaptation

Gender Equality and Climate Compatible Development

woman cooking with clean cookstove

Gender and Livelihoods Impacts of Clean Cookstoves

South Asia
 

Gender blog posts

  • Women as a force to build resilience
    Many risk drivers are created by development choices at global or national levels, but all are manifested at the local level, so local people must be central to risk reduction practice. But it is important to recognise that in these communities it is the disabled, elderly, women and girls who are the most at risk. For example, women accounted for 61% of fatalities caused by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, 70-80% in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 91% […]
  • Inspired by the Commission on the Status of Women
    Women are agents of development. Realising gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not only a goal in itself but can lead to progress across all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. This year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60) stressed this and welcomed commitments to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls as per the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. More than 8,100 individuals represented over 180 countries at the event, which took place at the United Nations […]

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