Gender: Cutting Edge Packs

Written and produced in collaboration with partners, Cutting Edge Packs provide overviews of the latest thinking on a "cutting-edge" gender theme in development research, policy, and practice. Each pack includes:

• Overview Report, which outlines the main issues, examples of innovative practice, and recommendations;
• Supporting Resources Collection, which includes summaries of case studies, tools, online resources, and contact details for relevant organisations; and
• Gender and Development In Brief, which comprises a short overview of the theme and two case studies written by Southern-focused practitioners.

Cutting Edge Packs include:

• Gender and Social Movements (see also: Related Summaries, below) - One element of the overview report is "[s]ome practical routes for nurturing social justice movements that challenge unjust gender power relations in all domains." [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Climate Change - "This cutting edge pack advocates for a transformative approach in which: women and men have an equal voice in decision-making on climate change and broader governance processes; are given equal access to the resources necessary to respond to the negative effects of climate change; both women's and men's needs and knowledge are taken into account and climate change policymaking institutions and processes at all levels are not biased towards men or women; the broad social constraints that limit women's access to strategic and practical resources no longer exist. This Cutting Edge Pack hopes to inspire thinking and action." [in English and French]
• Gender and Governance - "[W]omen are often excluded from decision-making, from the household to the highest levels of government and beyond to the global level. Governance processes - emphasising accountability, transparency, responsiveness and inclusiveness - should be a means to social transformation. But they often fail to deliver. How to ensure that the principles of inclusive, accountable governance go beyond rhetoric?" [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Care - "How can we move towards a world in which individuals and society recognise and value the importance of different forms of care, but without reinforcing care work as something that only women can or should do?" [in English]
• Gender and Indicators - "Gender-sensitive indicators and other measurements of change are critical - for building the case for taking gender (in)equality seriously, for enabling better planning and actions, and for holding institutions accountable for their commitments on gender. [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Sexuality - "Sexuality can bring misery through sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, female genital mutilation, or marginalisation of those who break the rules....How can we make possible more joy and less misery? [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Migration - "How does migration advance or impede gender equality? How can policy-makers and practitioners promote gender equality in work on migration?" [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and ICTs - "Who benefits from information and communication technology (ICTs)? ....Their use continues to be governed by existing power relations where women frequently experience relative disadvantage. Amidst this inequality are individuals and organisations that are working to use these technologies to further gender equality." [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Citizenship - "[M]any development workers have argued that using the language and the arguments of citizenship is a powerful way of working in development programmes that seek to bring about gender equality through focusing on people and how they interact with institutions." [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Armed Conflict - "This pack explores the impact of armed conflict on gender relations, analysing the distinct ways in which women and men are affected. The overview report demonstrates that interventions must respond to the diverse needs of women and men who may simultaneously play the roles of activists and parents, soldiers and victims. The supporting resources collection features summaries of key materials, case studies, tools, web resources and networking contacts." [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Budgets - "Everyone who has struggled to mainstream gender into public policy recognises that programmed action without money attached amounts to inaction....This pack shows how in recent years gender budget initiatives (GBI), both inside and outside government, have risen to this challenge." [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and HIV/AIDS - "HIV/AIDS is not only driven by gender inequality - it makes gender inequality worse, putting women, men and children further at risk. What can be done to address a problem entrenched in this inequality, denial and stigma?" [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Cultural Change - "[T]he argument that gender is a northern imposition is often used to obstruct constructive action for gender equality, even when this is led by local priorities." [in English, French, and Spanish]
• Gender and Participation - "Combining gender with participatory approaches can strengthen both gender and participation, grounding gender in the realities of people's lives, and making participation a more effective channel for the expression of marginalised people’s demands." [in English, French, and Spanish]

These resources were created by the BRIDGE team at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). BRIDGE has undertaken a collaborative approach, driven by an expert advisory group and actively involving communities of practice made up of over 100 activists and scholars from a range of global regions and social movements. The purpose of the BRIDGE Cutting Edge resources is to inspire and help build more effective, gender-just social movements, better able to create positive transformation and equality for all.