INCLUDING HERSTORY IN HISTORY -A gender-based policy analysis of Participatory Rangeland Management in relation to Participation, Influence and Empowerment

Abstract: This thesis examines how preparatory, policy and review documents of the Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) in East Africa, problematize and represent the ‘problems’ which resulted in the design of the development program. The focus is on how these problematizations can hinder or facilitate participation, influence and empowerment of women and marginalized groups in decision-making processes. The findings are based on a gender-based policy analysis undertaken of five documents written by the NGOs involved in the planning and implementation of PRM in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. A conceptual framework measuring the level of participation, empowerment and influence was constructed to assess the policies and their possible outcomes. The document analysis showed that the implicit ‘problem’ themes identified appeared to be that communities were unmodern, undeveloped, and had under-representation of women and pastoralists in rangeland management. These problematizations seem to originate from a development discourse characterized by solutions focussing on ‘modernization’ and ‘technical fixes’. These pre-conceived ideas of the ’problems’ call for more communication and inclusion of community groups in problem formulation and program design. The analysis further revealed that expert-assisted and gender-mainstreaming initiatives such as the PRM could have a positive impact on the level of participation, influence, and empowerment of women. When training was carried out for both women and men by the PRM to raise awareness of women’s rights, it resulted in an increased number of women participating in activities. However, gender-mainstreaming should not stop with participation, it should be further developed towards influence and empowerment. The PRM could consider promoting a change of power relations by combining efforts to demonstrate the benefits of meaningful consultations to decision-makers and efforts to enhance the knowledge and skills of marginalized groups so that they can better engage with these decision-makers. Furthermore, there is a need to expand the discussion on how to design gender-mainstreaming policies and practices, without labelling women as one.