PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT: MY ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

MAYOUX, L. (1995).
“ Beyond Naivety: Women, Gender Inequality and Participatory Development: Some Thorny Issues.” Development and Change 26: 235-258.

gender/ participation/ participatory development/

In recent years, participatory development has become an established orthodoxy among development agencies across the political spectrum: at the same time, the importance of consulting with and recruiting women has been highlighted in most discussions of participatory strategies. Based on the author's own research and a range of secondary sources, this article focuses on gender aspects of participatory projects.

This evidence suggests that gender inequalities in resources, time availability and power, influence the activities, priorities and framework of participatory projects just as much as 'top-down 'development' and market activities. Contrary to the views of a number of writers and activists on participatory development, increasing the numbers of women involved in participatory projects cannot, therefore, be seen as a soft alternative to specific attention to change in gender inequality. Meeting the demands of poor women in the South will require not only local participatory projects, but a linking with wider movements for change in the national and international development agenda.


MAYOUX, L. (1998).
Gender, Accountability and Ngos: Avoiding the Black Hole.
Missionaries and Mandarins: Feminist Engagement with Development Institutions. C. Miller and S. Razavi. London, ITDG/UNRISD: 172-193.

gender mainstreaming/ NGOs/ gender policy

In the 1990s NGOs were seen as a driving force for change, mobilising women's constituencies to challenge gender subordination at the local, national and international levels. This optimism was partly a result of the large and growing numbers of women involved in the NGO sector and the increasing influence of many women's NGOs in national and international policy debates. Equally importantly, NGO organisational mandates generally focused on poverty alleviation and empowerment rather than just economic growth. This enabled gender lobbies within a number of prominent southern and Northern NGOs to formulate a common agenda for women's empowerment and for increasing gender accountability within their own organisations. These internal pressures were paralleled by the introduction of gender policies within many donor agencies leading to increase support for gender initiatives of NGOs.

At the same time there had been a rapid increase in the number and size of NGOs, their political visibility and the resources at their disposal. Underlying this promotion of NGOs there was a general consensus on a number of mutually reinforcing comparative advantages of NGOs compared with other development agencies. These are firstly, their participatory nature, and/or ability to reach the poor and socially marginalised and represent their interests. Secondly, their independence, innovativeness, and efficiency to maximise (particularly for those on the left) impact on the wider development process and/or (particularly for those on the right) use of donor resources. This paper discusses the implications of the competing aims and objectives of NGOs. It is based on interview material, unpublished internal documents, and secondary literature. It concentrates on nine NGOs with an explicit commitment to women's empowerment: SEWA and Working Women's Forum in India, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and six UK NGOs (Oxfam, ActionAid, Womankind, ACORD, Christian Aid And OneWorld Action).

It is argued that the potential advantages identified for NGOs also have potentially positive gender implications, making NGOs potentially more responsive to women's needs, more likely to challenge underlying gender inequalities, and/or more flexible and efficient in achieving these aims than other development agencies. At the same time, where an explicit commitment to gender equity and women's empowerment does not exist, it is argued that gender policy risks falling into a 'black hole ' between competing accountabilities and imperatives of efficiency, participation and ‘scaling up’. All of these also have potentially negative gender implications. The paper concludes by proposing a threefold strategy for improving gender accountability of the development process through support for NGOs. Firstly far greater support for organisations and programmes specifically addressing gender inequities through grass-roots mobilisation, advocacy, and lobbying. Secondly a much firmer commitment to the inclusion of gender criteria for the funding of all programmes, with impact assessments beyond mere numerical statements of women's participation. Thirdly parallel changes in the structure of donor agencies and dominant neoliberal development agenda. Support for NGOs cannot be seen as a 'soft alternative' to macrolevel change.


MAYOUX, L. (1992).
“From Idealism to Realism: Women, Feminism and Empowerment in Nicaraguan Tailoring Cooperatives.” Development and Change 23(2): 91-114.
Latin America/ Nicaragua/

cooperatives/ gender/ micro-enterprise/ tailoring/

Co-operatives have been widely promoted as the ideal type of project for women. Because of the focus on income earning, they have been seen as less threatening that more explicit attempts to organise feminist consciousness-raising groups. Based on field research conducted in 1988, this article discusses the experience of women in Nicaraguan tailoring cooperatives. After the 1979 revolution, these were set up on a large-scale as part of a wider economic policy and grass-roots political mobilisation. After an initial period of expansion in which many women benefited both in the improved income and access to training and management experience, the cooperatives found themselves in serious difficulty in 1988. It is argued that even without the wider economic crisis in Nicaragua, they would have faced serious problems without extensive and probably unsustainable state support. Although cooperative employment has considerable potential, the Nicaraguan case highlights the need for new thinking on ways to resolve basic tensions between economic efficiency and worker participation. It also cast doubt on their viability as a development alternative for women, without specific attention to basic gender inequalities.


MAYOUX, L. (1993).
“Integration Is Not Enough: Gender Inequality and Empowerment in Nicaraguan Agricultural Cooperatives.” Development Policy Review 11(1): 67-90.
Nicaragua/ Latin America/

cooperatives/ gender/ empowerment/

Despite a very mixed record, cooperatives or cooperative-style organisations have continued to be seen as an important means whereby the poor can increase their productivity and incomes, and achieve more political strength. Cooperatives have often been promoted as the ideal type of project for women, combining possibilities for both income earning and consciousness-raising. More recently, in addition to women only cooperative projects there have been attempts to integrate women into wider cooperative movements, particularly in rural areas. Such integration has often been seen as a more radical solution, avoiding economic and political marginalisation. At the same time, it has often been supported by those opposed to the formation of separate 'feminist ' women's organisations.

This article discusses the experience of women in agricultural cooperatives in Nicaragua under the Sandinistas. It is based on research at the end of 1988, supplemented by information from the number of other sources. After the 1979 Sandinista revolution, considerable encouragement was given both to women's issues and co-operative development. Concurrently, there was widespread grass-roots mobilisation of women in support of the Revolution. In agricultural cooperatives a range of measures, including legislation, were taken to increase women's participation. Gender issues were ignored in wider co-operative policy, however, and the emphasis was on mobilising women for production rather than around broader 'feminists ' issues.

The Nicaraguan case suggests that women and men have different needs and priorities in cooperative development because of the division of labour and power structures in both the family and the wider society along gender lines. It is doubtful whether a focus on 'integrate' women into production within the established organisational framework could ever succeed in reaching all eligible women. Even for many of those who did become involved, the degree to which their integration constituted 'empowerment ' is a moot point. It is argued that co-operative structures and priorities need to change if they are to truly address women's needs and provide the necessary framework for their 'empowerment '. In particular, there is a need to address reproduction issues as an integral part of the organisation of cooperative work, and also to build structures to deal with inequalities within as well as between families. Importantly, these issues need to be taken into account in the formulation of overall cooperative policy, and not simply in the context of separate policies for women.

JOHNSON, H. and L. MAYOUX (1998).
Investigation as Empowerment: Using Participatory Methods.
Finding out Fast: Investigative Skills for Policy and Development. A. Thomas, J. Chataway and M. Wuyts. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, Sage, Open University: 147-172.

PLA/ empowerment/ research methods/ participatory methods/

Participatory methods of investigation and policy development are increasingly promoted by development agencies of varying perspectives and influence, including World Bank and NGOs. In many Northern aid agencies, participatory approaches are a required component for funding development programmes. Given the explicit link often made between participatory investigation, participatory development and empowerment is important to know whether and how participatory methods can have an empowering effect, as well as understanding their limitations and pitfalls.

This paper suggests some areas of investigation where participatory methods of investigation can be potentially empowering, and discusses some of the limitations of trying to use participatory approaches as an empowering process. The first section examines the concept of empowerment and its presumed relationship to participatory approaches to investigation and action. The second section reviews some of the empowering experiences of using participatory methods while section three looks at some of the pitfalls. The final section summarises some of the critical issues which need to be addressed in using participatory approaches.


MAYOUX, L. (2001).
“Tackling the Down Side : Social Capital, Women's Empowerment and Micro-Finance, in Cameroon.” Development and Change 32(3): 435-464.
Cameroon/

micro-finance/ empowerment/social capital/ gender/ ROSCAs/

Micro-finance programmes are currently promoted by multilateral and bilateral donor agencies as a means of inserting poverty alleviation and empowerment objectives into the dominant development objective of market-led growth. Current policy in many donor agencies, particularly members of CGAP, and much of the official literature from the Micro-credit Summit is dominated by the 'financial self-sustainability paradigm'. Within this paradigm women's participation in groups is promoted as a key means of increasing financial sustainability and poverty targeting through drawing on 'social capital', while at the same time being assumed to empower women through automatically strengthening this social capital. However, the primary rationale of financial sustainability means there is little support for actively developing 'social capital', either in terms of collective economic activity to increase incomes or organization to enable women to challenge gender subordination.

This optimism about the intrinsic simultaneous benefits of social capital to both microfinance programmes and women themselves ignores questions raised about networks and collective action in current critical literature on social capital as well as earlier critiques of participatory development. Recent research has questioned the degree to which reliance on social capital necessarily enhances financial sustainability and poverty targeting. Importantly, there are gender dimensions to the debate which need further clarification. Recent research in Bangladesh and elsewhere has questioned any automatic benefits of micro-finance for women and also pointed to the potentially negative impact of the ways in which current policies for financial sustainability are being implemented.

It is clear that the interrelationships between social capital, empowerment and sustainability are extremely complex. As a preliminary to more comprehensive comparative discussion, this article examines the experience of seven micro-finance programmes in Cameroon. These programmes all place considerable reliance on client networks and voluntary input for loan disbursal and recovery, but follow different models of micro-finance and have different approaches to gender policy. The evidence indicates that microfinance programmes which build social capital can indeed make a significant contribution to women's empowerment. However, serious questions need to be asked about what sorts of norms, networks and associations are to be promoted, in whose interests, and how they can best contribute to empowerment, particularly for the poorest women.