I. Introduction
For the past ten years, CARE has made significant investments of human and financial resources to implement its commitments to Gender Equity and Diversity (hereinafter referred to as GED). Recognizing the progress that has been achieved in our GED work and the learning to-date as well as the potential of this commitment as a dynamic force for change at an opportune time as CARE USA defines a new strategic plan, a conference for the CARE family “GED Journey Beyond 2007, Defining New Meanings and Pathways”, was held in Bangkok on May 7-10, 2007. The purpose of the conference was to consolidate progress, celebrate key achievements, explore challenges and advocacy approaches through sharing, and learning and to define ways forward to promote GED. It was considered the right moment to strategize far beyond 2007 and embrace the next stage of the GED journey with renewed commitment and energy.
The key questions that guided the planning and design of the conference were:
o How successful is CARE’s GED work? What have been our key successes?
o What have been our challenges and frustrations? How can we confront and overcome them?
o What have we learnt in the last ten years?
o What should we stop, continue or do differently?
o Where are we going? What is the underlying purpose and goal of our journey?
o What are the new meanings, energy and pathways for CARE? Who should we partner with to promote GED beyond 2007?
The conference had a total of forty-two (42) participants from the CARE family from all regions, some country offices and departments and also invited external resource persons from NGOs.
The opening Remarks for the conference were delivered by two Senior Vice Presidents (SVP), Susan Farnsworth, SVP – Program, and Patrick Solomon, SVP – Human Resources. According to Farnsworth, the GED conference was taking place at a strategic junction to define new meanings and pathways for GED. It was an opportunity to consider the key elements of CARE’s theory of change which encourages use to take a closer look at addressing the power imbalances that result with poor governance, gender inequities, discrimination and social exclusion; working across all three areas of the unifying framework, and with a focus on poor and marginalized women and girls. Farnsworth challenged the participants, she reminded them that achieving gender equality requires not only shifts in attitudes, but a radical transformation in power relations between and among men and women; she stated that one channel for this is women’s empowerment.
Farnsworth ended her remarks with some key questions for the conference:
1. How can our interventions influence development policies and programs to stimulate or build positive attitudes and behaviours to achieve gender equality?
2. Why, if gender equality is essential for sustainable development, are so few men in CARE working or interested in gender issues?
3. How can we engage male staff more actively in gender equity work?
4. Given our new Strategic Plan, what is the role of CARE as an organization in promoting personal commitment to gender equality among staff?
Patrick Solomon, SVP – HR, said “We do great work in communities that we serve. I contend that as an organization if we’re not solid internally then we can’t be as good as we want to be. Patrick shared a story of a Giraffe (symbolizing CARE) and an elephant. The giraffe invites the elephant to work for him, but his house is constructed in a way that is designed for a giraffe with narrow doors, seating etc. Is CARE like the giraffe? Are we inclusive enough to practice diversity, not in just representation but in our work culture and processes? CARE is beginning to look at external experiences and diversity models. An important fact stood out - the private sector will invest in diversity as it has an impact on the bottom line. At CARE we look at diversity as the right thing to do and as a way to increase the impact that we have on the communities we serve. There is a need for us to do better with inclusion.”
II. The GED Journey
Through an appreciation of the historical journey of CARE’s organizational and programmatic work on GED, the stage was set for the conference. It was acknowledged that whilst progress has been made, much remains to be done. In the past years, experiences have varied and some of the repeatedly lessons learnt and challenges discussed included:
o GED cannot be treated as a separate initiative and must be integrated in all aspects of work
o GED often leads staff and the work to zones of discomfort and staff are faced with challenges for learning and motivation and they need tremendous support
o CARE’s operating model, systems and structures limit staff and the organization’s ability to advance GED in a meaningful way
o The assumption that all leaders and managers in CARE understand and support GED work is not necessarily the case
o Is CARE serious about increasing diversity in organizational governance at all management levels?
o Is CARE willing to invest in building new relationships with social movements and partners?
o The usefulness of the gap analysis and how such analysis has shown that there are systematic organizational changes required to meet CARE’s GED agenda
o The SII on women’s empowerment has provided the data and evidence, now people want to move forward
o The absence of an accountability system that clearly hold ourselves, our managers in headquarters and in the field accountable to our six programming principles
o The need to critically examine and make changes to the power dynamics in the organization
The journey developed trust amongst staff and tremendous efforts were taken to integrate, blend and to fit gender into everything. Allocation of unrestricted resources increased, training curricula were developed, sector strategies were redrafted to include gender, to mention a few. But there were also gaps in the efforts, for example setting and making public our measurable goals for impact; promoting experimentation and holding people accountable for it, the message was “Take risks but don’t fail; learn and share but don’t expect to build on it; and let us be partners but we will take the credit.”
The challenge that remains is: “the courage to learn; the courage to make the changes that are needed”.
The country presentations demonstrated the richness of innovative experiences in promoting GED in the varied contexts in which CARE works, and the enormous potential for CARE to contribute much more significantly to the multiple struggles for social justice and poverty reduction across the world. There was also a sense of deep satisfaction around the fact that at the centre of CARE USA’s new Strategic Plan is a commitment to addressing power imbalances that result from underlying causes of poverty such as gender inequities, discrimination and social injustice, and moreover a recognition that ultimate success will be achieved through improvements to the social position and conditions of poor and marginalized women and girls.
III. The Gains – Learning and Re-learning
(a) CARE, as an organization needs to live up to its vision and explicitly explain its focus on women on girls in its new Strategic Plan
A strong message that emerged from all discussions was that tackling inequality, including gender inequity, is primarily an end and not a means, and so CARE, as an organization with a vision dedicated to promoting social justice, needs to live up to that language and make that CARE’s explicit goal. CARE’s work to empower women and girls may enable them to drive change in their families and communities, and can be justified because they are the most vulnerable in nearly every society, but its fundamental value is as a central strategy for promoting social justice. The conference recommended that this is how CARE USA’s strategic plan should explain its explicit focus on women and girls.
But this is about more than just language: because promoting gender equity is key to our goal of social justice, we will need to develop some very different strategies than we would if our goal was limited to poverty reduction. These could include supporting the efforts of middle-class women in India, say, to change the dowry system, rather than solely focusing on working with the poorest and most marginalized women and girls. These operational strategies will need to take into account the different levels of risk we face in the diverse contexts in which we work, but we need to hold leadership throughout CARE accountable for the active promotion of strategies for gender equity. We also need to ensure effective learning and knowledge management systems to support these efforts.
(b) CARE needs to make GED explicit in its Strategic Plan. A commitment to women and girls is critical but may not amount to promoting gender equity.
Another important message from the group was the need to ensure that GED is much more explicitly included throughout the CARE USA Strategic, implementation and business plans, rather than assuming it is reflected in the commitment to women and girls and expecting it to be applied as a cross-cutting issue. Experiences so far, both inside and outside of CARE, show that unless gender equity and diversity are highlighted as CARE’s core area of work and that the organization will continue to build its competence, GED risks being left out in practice from CARE’s work. Working with women and girls does not automatically mean that programs will address gender inequities, and too often programs can end up reinforcing stereotypes, solely treating women as mothers and caretakers of families.
More importantly, tackling social injustice and gender inequity requires internal consistency with the external work. Institutional and personal changes are crucial to steer changes in programming in CARE.
(c) CARE should establish its niche as a global force that will work along with social movements and multiple partners to significantly impact social injustice
CARE’s Strategic Plan introduces the concept of “signature programs” around prioritized underlying causes of poverty and social injustice. The conference perceived this as a critical opportunity for CARE to be much more explicit on how it will act and work with social movements and multiple partners and allies, as a true global force to generate significant impact on social injustice. It was felt that such programs would allow CARE to promote systemic change at multiple levels, through work with communities and local structures and institutions, through advocacy at national and regional levels, and through influencing policy and greater solidarity at a global level, in the United States and other countries – because unless the whole system changes, any local or national level changes are likely to be ultimately unsustainable or limited.
CARE’s presence in multiple countries in both the South and the North, and its direct relations with poor women and girls, families and communities, institutions and policy-makers, gives CARE a comparative advantage and places it in a highly strategic position to be able to work as a truly global organization. This obliges CARE to live up to its vision of being a global force and a partner of choice within a worldwide movement dedicated to eradicating poverty and promoting human dignity.
(d) Include staff with experience and passion on issues of GED and social justice in SP implementation and Task Forces
The conference strongly recommended that staff with specific experience and passion to promote GED and social justice need to be included in the various Task Forces and implementation teams of the Strategic Plan. An important opportunity may be missed and perhaps may even result in negligence and lesser attention accorded to GED in the SP. It is important that GED champions are involved throughout the process of the finalization, roll-out, implementation and even the communication of the SP.
IV. The “Must” Conversation - Walking the talk ‘differently’
Communicate consistently and repeatedly for greater ownership and commitment to GED
While CARE has been taking important strides in furthering its commitment to GED, there has been inconsistency in the response amongst regions, programs and people; some have done more than others. Communication takes the form of ‘ALMIS’ or reports, tools and toolkits, which may or may not reach all and may not necessarily be universally and commonly understood. A critical pathway therefore is to focus much more on communication and thinking of creative ways of communicating to ensure that GED is not an option, but rather a key commitment for leaders and staff everywhere.
Understand that power is at play. Find ways to increase and share power
GED is about correcting the uneven playing field of power relations, whether it is in the organization (CARE family), or the communities where CARE works. In both there may be different and more often conflicting priorities. People with passion about GED may not always be in positions of power or have decision-making roles. CARE’s commitment to GED, as also reflected in the Strategic Plan, therefore needs to be backed up by a comprehensive review of its current structures: of leadership, of decision-making processes and management. If GED is a priority, then the people appointed to work on it must be in priority positions! The Country Directors and Assistant Country Directors are seen as critical power holders who need to more actively and consistently demonstrate their commitment and support for GED work. Also, there is power at play between CARE and its partners and communities, which can seriously undermine CARE’s commitment to joining hands with others to ending social injustice and poverty. More dialogues and “fierce, honest, real” conversations are needed if CARE is serious about its GED agenda.
Explore non-hierarchical and non-patriarchal ways of working internally and with partners and communities
The imbalances of power are more pronounced when systems are hierarchical and patriarchal. A major learning from the experiences shared by external resource people was the need to work in collaborative ways that promote true participation and ownership. The current hierarchies at CARE place the decision-making in the hands of few individuals. As CARE seeks to implement its Strategic Plan, it should review its current structural arrangements at Headquarters, Regional Management Units and Country Offices and look at other peer organizations to find less hierarchical and inclusive management structures and processes.