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Pathways News

Newsletter

October 2007 No. 2


1. Reclaiming Feminisms: Gender and Neo-Liberalism Conference
From 9 to 10 July, the Pathways RPC and Birkbeck College co-hosted a conference on Reclaiming Feminisms: Gender and Neo-Liberalism at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton. The conference was attended by RPC partners and advisory group members together with around 30 other feminist activists and academics. Some lively discussions took place around the relationship between feminism and neo-liberalism in the context of international development and the plan is to coordinate with Birkbeck College and BRIDGE to capture these debates in publications to be produced early next year.

Link: http://www.pathways-of-empowerment.org/events_pathways_femconf.html

2. openDemocracy Communications Link Launch
Pathways RPC have linked up with openDemocracy for work on communications. openDemocracy will be hosting monthly articles by RPC members and networks on issues related to our projects and themes. The link up was launched on 27 July with articles by Andrea Cornwall giving an overview of the programme and Srilatha Batliwala on ‘Putting the Power Back into Empowerment’. openDemocracy also provided blog coverage from the Reclaiming Feminisms conference held at the beginning of July. For August, Mulki Sharmani has provided an article on her work on Egyptian Family Courts.
In a further strengthening of the RPC’s communication work, we are pleased to announce that Tessa Lewin has joined us from the beginning of July as Communications and Learning Officer. Tessa has already been proactive in looking for connections to enliven the RPC’s communication work.

Link: http://opendemocracy.net/blog/pathways_to_womens_empowerment
Andrea Cornwall, ‘Pathways of Women’s Empowerment’, http://opendemocracy.net/article/pathways_of_womens_empowerment
Srilatha Batliwala, ‘Putting Power Back into Empowerment’, http://opendemocracy.net/article/putting_power_back_into_empowerment_0

3. Maria da Penha Law Project
Earlier this year, NEIM were invited to be part of a consortium monitoring the implementation of the Maria da Penha Law on Domestic Violence in Brazil passed in October 2006. This perfectly complemented their planned research on investigating the struggles and pathways for the implementation and monitoring of public policies to address violence against women. In early August they attended meetings supporting this implementation including at the Women’s Rights Commission of the State Parliament where members confirmed their backing for the Law and at a public meeting about creating specialized courts in Bahia. They also took part in a demonstration, which was held within the entrance to the Bahia State Parliament building, to make the public aware of the Maria da Penha Law. These events gained both local and regional media coverage. The monitoring consortium also launched a website on 6 August to assist with the mobilization and publicity around this campaign.

This work offers a potential cross-hub link to West Africa. Our last e-bulletin provided a commentary from Takyiwaa Manuh on the progression of the Domestic Violence Bill in Ghana and women’s movements there are now planning a similar monitoring exercise on the newly passed Bill.

Links: http://www.neim.ufba.br/site/
http://www.pathways-of-empowerment.org/research_building_projects.html#Maria

4. Realizing Rights RPC: Changing Narratives of Sexuality Link
Members of the BRAC Pathways Team working on changing narratives of sexuality attended a conference on 'Gender and Sexuality' organised by the BRAC Realising Rights RPC team. The two projects plan to regularly attend each other's events and collaborate on work under this theme. Susie Jolly from the Global Hub also attended the conference held in July.

The BRAC Pathways Team are also now sharing an office with the BRAC Citizenship DRC team so will be in regular contact with them about their work.
Pilot tests of the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews for the BRAC Changing Narratives of Sexuality theme were completed in May. So far their research has been conducted in the peri-urban areas of Kamrangichor, Bhasantek and at Dhaka University. The team have attended taleem classes (lectures on the mores of Islam) in Laxmibazar, Old Dhaka as part of their participant observatory research.

BRAC have also signed a contract with Neelam Hossain of Simorgh, Lahore who will conduct an action research project titled ‘Changing Narratives of Empowerment: Trajectories of Desire and Mediation of Socio-Culture Spaces’. The study will examine discursive changes that are taking place in areas related to media and religion.

Links: http://www.pathways-of-empowerment.org/; http://www.realising-rights.org/

5. Recent RPC Activities

6. Forthcoming Events

7. Forthcoming and Recent Publications by Partners


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