Development

Citation:

Valodia, Imraan and Caren Grown. 2010. Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries. New York: Routledge; Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.

Authors: Imraan Valodia, Caren Grown

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Topics: Development, Economies, Public Finance, Poverty, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, MENA, East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Americas, North America, South America, Asia, South Asia Countries: Argentina, Ghana, India, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Uganda, United States of America

Year: 2010

Citation:

Rocheleau, Dianne, and Padini Nirmal. 2015. “Feminist Political Ecologies: Grounded, Networked and Rooted on Earth.” In The Oxford Handbook on Transnational Feminist Movements, edited by Rawwida Baksh and Wendy Harcourt, 793–814. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Authors: Dianne Rocheleau, Padini Nirmal

Abstract:

This chapter examines how feminist political ecology (FPE) emerged as a feminist critique of sustainable development and a poststructural feminist critique and expansion of political ecology. It looks at how FPE brought together intellectual and political conversations among feminist scholars/practitioners working in geography, anthropology, women’s/gender studies, critical development studies, environmental science/studies, environmental justice, and agrarian studies. The chapter traces early work that looked at the gendered nature of environmental knowledges, access to/control over resources, spaces/places, organizations, and social movements and gendered authority in all of them. It shows how in the 1990s FPE engaged in poststructural/postcolonial/decolonial turns in theory, politics, and social movements. The chapter discusses how FPE scholars have enriched analyses of the material world and everyday life through place-based thinking/research/writing and practice.

Keywords: decolonial, feminist, political ecology, sustainable development, social movements

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Development, Environment, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology

Year: 2015

Citation:

Ressureción, Bernadette P. 2017. “Gender and Environment from ‘Women, Environment, and Development’ to Feminist Political Ecology.” In Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment, 71-84. Oxon: Routledge.

Author: Bernadette P. Ressureción

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Summary:
“This chapter provides an overview of gender, environment, and development scholarship that explains how early ideas and debates that have shaped subsequent work. My aim is to demonstrate how this field has evolved over time and how it has now come to understand two of the most pressing challenges of this century: climate change and disaster risk. While there remains a number of different approaches to studying gender-environment connections, in the discussion that follows I focus on feminist political ecology (FPE). FPE has evolved as a loose platform of ideas that seeks to theorize differentiated forms of power and resource access primarily but not exclusively in developing county contexts. FPE grew out of a desire to foreground the political aspects of earlier frameworks, as well as to analyze the growing neoliberalization of nature in capitalist development processes. It draws on feminist poststructuralist theory in order to criticize the domination of techno-scientific solutions to environmental change that sidestep more holistic and grounded approaches. I argue that at a time when there is a dire need to address the exigent features of climate change and disaster policy discourses, FPE offers valuable insights into human-nature relations that can contribute to more grounded analyses and better solutions. Understanding how women and men, as embodied and emotional beings, have complex and shifting relationships to the natural world that are embedded in place and shaped by intersections of gender, race, class, caste, culture, age (and so on) is central to the search for environmental and social justice. An FPE lens provides tools for envisioning transformative changes that are much needed in these troubling times” (Resurrección 2017, 71).

Topics: Development, Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender, Gender Roles

Year: 2017

Citation:

Parikh, GenJyoti K. 1996. “Gender Issues in Energy Policy and Pricing.” Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 16 (3): 116–21.

Author: GenJyoti K. Parikh

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Summary:
"The energy sector requires a large share of the national investment in developing countries (DC). People’s needs for energy are not yet met, even for basic needs and amenities, therefore, levels of national investment in this sector will be high for many decades to come. For example, in India, the energy sector has accounted for 25% to 30% allocations for every five-year plan in the last 3 decades. In addition to this capital investment, annual import requirements for the energy sector are of major concern. Oil imports require 30% to as much as 90% of the export earnings of many developing countries depending on their levels of energy utilization, resource-mix, indigenous availability of energy sources, world prices and so on. Elsewhere, (1994) I have shown that oil-imports do not provide the full picture of energy related imports because capital goods for energy such as power plants, mining equipment for fossil fuels are accounted for elsewhere. Total annual imports for the energy sector for all countries increase by substantial margins when energy is related to capital goods and included along with oil imports. Therefore, the scale of investments and imports for the energy sector is large enough to have macro-economic ramifications. Some developing countries do not have enough energy to provide every home with clean cooking fuel and light bulbs. Thus, the policies for investment, and for imports in the energy sector are two cornerstones for a country’s economic structure. The well-being of society depends heavily on decisions involving energy and finances” (Parikh 1996, 116).

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 1996

Citation:

Parikh, Jyoti K. 1995. “Gender Issues in Energy Policy.” Energy Policy 23 (9): 745–54.

Author: Jyoti K. Parikh

Abstract:

Gender issues have received attention at micro level in terms of technological intervention such as cookstoves, biogas, solar cookers, and wood plantations. They have yet to be addressed in macro level policies. Women’s needs for energy vary depending on whether they are in urban or rural areas, their stage of economic development, and whether they are economically active. This article emphasizes the need for better understanding of these issues for women engaged in different sectors, whether agriculture, transport, industries, household, and the energy sector itself (ie charcoal making, fuel gathering and fuel marketing). Deeper enquiries, analysis, and action for gender issues are needed through surveys, laboratory experiments, macro policy modeling and analysis, and technology development and production. This article makes a plea to include gender issues in macro level energy policies such as energy investment, imports, and pricing. The latter are discussed in detail. A lot more work lies ahead.

Keywords: gender issues, macro policies, cooking fuels

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Gender, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Transportation

Year: 1995

Citation:

Nelson, Valerie, and Yianna Lambrou. 2011. “Scoping the Gender Issues in Liquid Biofuel Value Chains.” NRI Working Paper Series: Climate Change, Agriculture and Natural Resources No. 3, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, London.

Authors: Valerie Nelson, Yianna Lambrou

Annotation:

Summary:
“The gender dimensions of biofuel development have been relatively neglected. Yet to achieve equitable and socially sustainable development requires an understanding of how women, men and social groups may be affected differently by biofuel innovations. Whole communities will be affected by biofuel developments, but the opportunities available and the significant risks and impacts involved are not experienced equally by women and men. This is because of the gender inequalities that prevail throughout the world. In fact, women and female-headed households will be disproportionately affected, because they usually have less decision-making power, and lack control over key livelihood resources and their situations could be made worse by gender-blind biofuel developments.

“Field-based evidence is scarce for identifying best practice in biofuel gender mainstreaming, and this is perhaps unsurprising given the recent nature of the commercial biofuels boom and the catch-up that is required of development practitioners and policy-makers to understand and respond to the risks, impacts and opportunities involved. More in-depth field studies in Asia, Latin America and Africa are needed to provide evidence that will enable the formulation of detailed guidance on specific feedstocks in different contexts.

“A huge range of journal articles and grey literature has been reviewed to produce this study and in the search for information on the gender dimensions of biofuels. This scoping study seeks to inform policy-makers and practitioners about the key issues of gender in biofuels schemes and value chains and to provide recommendations about what can be done by building on women’s capabilities, to support their agency and collective action and thus to promote their empowerment for more equitable rural pathways” (Nelson and Lambrou 2011, 1).

Topics: Development, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods

Year: 2011

Citation:

Nathan, Dev, and Govind Kelkar. 1997. “Wood Energy: The Role of Women’s Unvalued Labor.” Gender, Technology and Development 1 (2): 205–24.

Authors: Dev Nathan, Govind Kelkar

Abstract:

This paper argues that in a farm, family-specific aspects of gender relations—that women’s labor is unvalued as ’domestic service,’ or that it has a lower value and lower opportunity cost than men’s labor—lead to the overuse of women’s labor in activities like wood fuel collection. This inhibits farm families from investing in labor-saving and fuel-saving devices, like improved stoves. It also has an adverse impact on farm women’s leisure time and their health. The paper argues that the primary emphasis in policy to bring about an increase in fuel efficiency or fuel switching should be on increasing the possibility of women’s income-earning opportunities, mainly outside the homestead, as in rural industry.

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Gender, Health, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods

Year: 1997

Citation:

Mininni, Giulia M. 2015. “Gender and Energy Issues in the Global South: Implications for the Post-Millennium Development Goals Agenda after 2015.” The Luminary (5): 43–62.

Author: Giulia M. Mininni

Abstract:

Due to the conditions of gender inequality that limit women’s access to and control over environmental resources in remote rural areas, unfavourable environmental conditions tend to have more negative effects on women than on men. The same considerations can be applied to the lack of access to energy services, especially given women’s traditional roles and responsibilities as housekeepers. This happens more consistently in areas where people are directly dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. This paper will explore how access to energy services is essential to improving the living conditions of women in off-grid rural areas of the global south, and, in the end, to contribute to global poverty reduction. It will highlight how for a long time energy projects have been treated as “gender neutral”, founded on the belief that energy issues and solutions were the same for men and women. However, the reality is different in most countries in the global south. The paper will outline how gender sensitive policies and programmes are necessary to address women’s specific needs. Finally, the paper will focus on the post- Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda and underline how the new framework has the potential to offer opportunities to integrate energy access as a priority goal. Small-scale decentralised energy options could also ensure better participation at local level of under-represented groups such as women and push for better gender equality.

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Environment, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Infrastructure, Energy, Livelihoods

Year: 2015

Citation:

Mehretu, Assefa, and Chris Mutambirwa. 1992. “Gender Differences in Time and Energy Costs of Distance for Regular Domestic Chores in Rural Zimbabwe: A Case Study in the Chiduku Communal Area.” World Development 20 (11): 1675–83.

Authors: Assefa Mehretu, Chris Mutambirwa

Abstract:

Rural women spend excessive time and energy costs of distance to carry out routine domestic chores. The drain these chores have caused on daily time and energy budgets has adversely affected nutritional needs and health maintenance in most rural settings of sub-Saharan Africa. Survey results in a rural study site in Zimbabwe based on selecting and quantifying routine trip generating chores indicate that such trips, often with head or back loads, make heavy demands on time and energy particularly of female members of the household. As women’s labor is critical in agriculture in Zimbabwe, the opportunity cost of time and energy used up in trips has significant implications not only for household food production but also for overall welfare of the household.

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Health, Households, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 1992

Citation:

Mathur, Jaskiran Kaur, and Dhiraj Mathur. 2005. “Dark Homes and Smoky Hearths: Rural Electrification and Women.” Economic and Political Weekly 40 (7): 638–43.

Authors: Jaskiran Kaur Mathur, Dhiraj Mathur

Abstract:

It is commonly argued by power utilities that rural electrification is commercially unviable and is responsible for the financial mess state electricity boards are in. This paper examines rural electrification from a socio-developmental perspective and argues that the direct and indirect benefits of rural electrification in reducing the burden on women, its positive impact on health, education and farm income, justifies the expense of network expansion for universal access. It also advocates multiple uses of electricity as this would enhance these benefits, have a beneficial effect on the environment, increase the viability of rural electrification and result in savings on household (total) energy expenditure.

Topics: Development, Economies, Education, Environment, Gender, Women, Health, Infrastructure, Energy

Year: 2005