People Centred Development Theorists favour small-scale ‘ground up’ projects which focus on improving aspects of the day to day lives of women. They point out that women in developing countries are more than capable of promoting gender equality themselves, from the ground up, and don’t necessarily need the help of the World Bank or the United Nations.
There are thousands of small-scale and localised initiatives to promote gender equality worldwide as the BBC’s 100 women 2020 conference demonstrates.
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To my mind the BBC 100 women project is a prefect example of a gender focused People Centred approach to development – it champions women who are tackling gender related issues unique to their own localities and/ or interests, and in some very different ways.
These are very varied but here are just a few examples….
- Salons to help acid attack survivors deal with their injuries in Pakistan
- A female run off-grid solar energy plant in Yemen – empowering women through education and employment
- The Solace for Somaliland girls foundation aims to end FGM through education and awareness raising.
The Limitations of People Centred Approaches to tacking gender inequalities
These approaches may be too small scale to have a national and political impact.
It might require some kind of national or international ‘big institution’ co-ordination to get to the ‘root cause’ of something like sex-trafficking.
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