Mediating development? Exchanges on gender policies and development practices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Periodical article

Title:	Mediating development? Exchanges on gender policies and development practices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Authors:	Blystad, Astrid Haukanes, Haldis Zenebe, Mulumebet
Year:	2013
Periodical:	Africa Today (ISSN 1527-1978)
Volume:	60
Issue:	4
Pages:	25-45
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ethiopia
Subjects:	gender development attitudes
External link:	https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v060/60.4.blystad.pdf
Abstract:	This article examines the ways that gender experts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, relate to global gender policies and to current approaches to problems of gender in their country. Interviews were conducted in March 2011 and January 2012 with twenty individuals working in different institutional contexts (ministries, international NGOs, donors, and national NGOs). Drawing upon critical, feminist, and actor-oriented approaches in development studies, the authors reflect on the high level of convergence between the global policy aims and interlocutors' opinions about appropriate target areas and approaches to gender in development. They discuss the noteworthy reflexive and critical shift emerging when moving the discussion from policy to practice, in particular when gender experts are problematizing the scope, relevance, and outcomes of multiple gender initiatives. Throughout the article, the authors seek to reflect upon their own roles in the construction of knowledge during the research encounters. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]