Working Meeting Report | Curriculum Strengthening Working Group

Report of the Second Curriculum Working Group Meeting
Focus on Law, Politics and Policy

Click here for the overview of the Project Context, Methodology of the Curriculum Working Meetings and the Objectives of the Working Group Meetings

The second meeting of the Curriculum Working Group was held in Cape Town from 7 - 12 September 2003, and hosted by the African Gender Institute (AGI). It was attended by 14 CWG members (see Appendix 1). The meeting was co-facilitated by Amina Mama, Takyiwaa Manuh and Shereen Essof, with support from Sylvia Tamale and Charmaine Perreira.

Sunday 7 September 2003

Objectives For The Day

· To re-connect and bridge the two working meetings
· To re-cap the goals and achievements of the first working meeting
· To deal with any outstanding business
· To begin to deepen understandings of current debates and theorisation on political, legal and policy activism.

5.1 Welcome
Participants were welcomed by Amina Mama of the AGI. The programme for the working group meeting was shared (see Appendix 3).

5.2 Exercise: Review
Each person was asked to introduce themselves, to say which institution they belonged to, and to share something that had happened in their lives since the first meeting. This exercise allowed participants to reconnect both intellectually and personally. It affirmed that participants played multiple roles and carried heavy work loads. Participants were reminded of the need to make time for themselves in increasingly demanding and stressful environments.

This was followed by an update of progress made on the GWS website by Amina and Takiywaa. The first day concluded with participants describing project-related work that had been carried out.

Monday 8 September 2003

Objective for the day:

· To deepen understanding of current debates and theorisation on political, legal and policy activism.

5.3 Exercise: Mapping Our Trajectories

This exercise, facilitated by Shereen, charted participants' development and participation in GWS through the plotting of defining life moments on a time line. Using a GWS 'engine', participants' personal and professional trajectories were plotted along the time line of the train tracks. The exercise illustrated the different trajectories and supporting factors that brought each participant to the present meeting. Most importantly, the exercise highlighted the breadth and depth of resources and collective experience that the group could draw upon. The timeline illustrated the organic interweaving of elements that individuals drew upon, and showed that most GWS work had been concentrated in the last decade. The colourful and positive illustration of participants' trajectories remained on the wall throughout the working meeting, and members were encouraged to take time to consider each others' contributions or to add to the chart.

5.4 Contemporary African Women's Movements: Strategies and Analysis
Presentation By Shereen Essof

Shereen located herself as a student and reflected on some experiences of the Zimbabwean Women's Movement. She provided snapshots of the movement in relation to the state and civil society. She showed that the women's movement in Zimbabwe had been far from silent within a hostile patriarchal context. During the recent period of social, political and economic upheaval, the movement had predominantly manifested through a form of coalition politics linking different groups across spheres. Coalitions that were opportune, but which have also presented challenges; both practical and analytical challenges. The case showed that women's mobilisations have always expressed demands for full citizenship and rights and it highlighted the tenacity with which women have pursued their interests in the public sphere. The analysis suggested that the formulation of women's interests are intrinsically linked to the formation of women's political identities. Zimbabwean gender politics were revealed as dynamic, contested and were continuously improvised in response to changing national political conditions.

Through her positioning of herself as a graduate student and an activist, the importance of the link between activism and the academy was stressed. She suggested that this link was one of the markers of transformatory teaching.

Discussion

Student engagement
Students have different needs and are taking courses for different purposes. Most are interested in securing employment and are not necessarily interested in a transformatory agenda. Activist students are in the minority, and this impacts on the understanding of transformation and what can be taught within the classroom space. It was felt that encouraging critical thinking was essential but difficult, and the best way to connect with students was to understand what attracts, repels or engages them through timeous course evaluations. The aim of GWS teaching is after all, not to guide students to a pre-determined conclusion, but rather to inform and inspire them to search for their own answers.

Resources
Participants felt it was necessary to go beyond published material, as much African feminist writing that deals with relevant issues and most current activism is neither documented nor theorised. "Grey literature", unpublished material, current events and NGOs were all seen as valuable resources that could be drawn upon to inform teaching.

Methodology
The limits of concepts need to be understood, both generally and within specific contexts. African experiences need to be incorporated and used to test borrowed paradigms. With regard to women's movements in particular, diversity and difference involve issues of dominance and exploitation. Thus, questions concerning how power is used within women's organisations and movements need to be asked. The gap between the academy and the broader community needs to be bridged to highlight the links between theories and students' daily lives. Furthermore, students should be included in building African feminist theory. Common understandings need to be deconstructed, and in order to engage with transformatory methodologies, teachers require more preparation at the levels of politics, pedagogy and methodology.

The State
Participants expressed discomfort with the fixation on the state as the source of solutions to the woes of African feminist movements. However, a variety of strategies for approaching the state are needed. The ambivalence of legal activism in connection with states that are complicit or perpetrate violence against women should be made explicit. It was asked whether the demands placed on the state were always reasonable and how else issues might be solved.

5.5 Policy Activism: The Women's Budget
Presentation By Debbie Budlender

Since 1995, Debbie has worked on gender budgets in more than 20 countries. Her presentation defined gender budgets, identified categories for assessing the gender-sensitivity of budgets, outlined steps to implement gender budgets and performance indicators, gave examples of government strategies, and concluded with an assessment of skills required to promote gender budgeting.

Gender budgets are not simply about allocating more money for women. They involve a change in paradigm that uncovers issues not seen in general economic analysis. By noting the different axes of disadvantage in a society, a government must focus on those groups who are least able to cater for themselves. This does not (usually) mean making line allocations for particular groups. Instead, it is achieved by focusing on the services that best serve the needs and interests of the disadvantaged. She showed, using sex and gender, how government policy must cater for both, but in different ways.

Three categories for undertaking a gendered analysis of budgets were devised in Australia. These categories were gender-targeted expenditure, equal employment expenditure and mainstream expenditure. This division helps to highlight that if analysis focuses only on the first two, the bulk of the (mainstream) expenditure will continue to happen according to old patterns. Gender budgeting reflects certain assumptions that are made about the shape of society. Equity rather than formal equality should be the objective, as the former is more gender-sensitive.

Debbie outlined five steps in gender budgeting. The first is to describe the situation regarding men and women, and boys and girls in a particular sector. This should assist in identifying gender gaps. In the next steps, policy and programmes are considered in terms of their likely effect on the gender gaps. In the third step one must assess whether the budget allocations for the gender-respponsive policies and programmes are adequate. The fourth step considers how money was actually spent, whether expenditures were made as allocated, what was delivered, and who the goods and services reached. The fifth step considers what the impacts of policies and related expenditures were. It was noted that measuring the outcomes of programmes could be difficult as (a) impacts happen only after relatively long period - not a year, and (b) outcomes are usually the result of a range of programmes and policies, rather than a single one.

Traditional budget theory considers the 'three Es' - economy, efficiency and effects. Equity is not considered. Including consideration of equity is a means of adding value to the process.

Strategies used in Rwanda, South Africa and Malaysia illustrate how gender could be explicitly built into existing budget formats. It was noted that few governments could produce an ongoing, discursive description of programmes from a gender perspective. Set formats are, however, usually feasible. In-depth input from people outside government, with access to relevant information, is essential to the process of more qualitative in-depth analysis.

Gender budget analysis by NGOs and individuals who have not been co-opted is required to promote an ideal society. These groups should ideally equip themselves with the skills to promote gender budgets instead of relying on outside economists or statisticians, who might not be sufficiently gender-sensitive.

Interdisciplinary skills and multi-sectoral persons are needed for gender budgeting. Extraordinary mathematical skills are not required. It should be acknowledged that many steps will need to be taken to achieve a certain goal, and proponents of gender budgeting need to learn how to negotiate. Protest alone closes doors to opportunities for change that could be achieved through negotiation. It is unrealistic to expect impeccable gender sensitivity from governments, nor is it appropriate to tell them that they are "wrong". Thus, the ability to negotiate and to find alternative options and solutions is essential.

Where governments supply limited information, this must be utilised to the best of researchers' ability, and they should be honest about the limited results of such work. Finally, it is essential that deadlines are met. Gender budget initiatives must deliver in time, as Ministers of Finance will not delay the national budget for them.

Discussion

Gender budgeting processes should be shaped and sustained by people in a particular country; the sustainability of gender budgeting depends on dynamics in each context. These include issues of partnerships between government and other bodies, funding, and the political context. The difficulties involved in obtaining budgetary and other relevant information from governments were emphasised. The lack of transparency and accountability affects not only gender budgets, but also speaks to larger issues of transparency and accountability.

The country-specific context, together with existing policies, were seen to be the starting point and not the budget itself. As governments prefer to tinker with existing programmes, the focus should be what is being asked of the government rather than a critique of existing programmes. A specific example should be considered in terms of its causes, consequences and possible solutions. It may sometimes be necessary to remedy ill-effects of causes of a situation. Proposed solutions should be tested against existing government policy.

Success stories include South Africa, Tanzania, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Most governments speak of and try to achieve equitable results. Where governments feel they need gender budgets, it is possible to begin working from what the governments are already doing, rather than requiring substantial policy and paradigm changes.

The disadvantages of decentralisation include the increased functions that local governments are expected to perform, with inadequate funding for their implementation. Household or care sectors that produce person-power at no cost to the state were problematised.

Referring back to the timeline, Takiywaa Manuh noted that gender budgets were one aspect of policy activism. Using this as a starting point, participants considered policy activism and its link to GWS teaching and research.

Problems arise where concepts such as policy and gender are undefined, or where there is no national or local government consensus on their meanings or on related policies. Difficulties in obtaining government-held information have fuelled movements to promote transparency. This has led to efforts to find out whether policies are actually applied and to what effect.

Any framework (the five steps in gender budgeting, for example) is based on certain assumptions. The practical issues that influence the character and processes of a state are often not taken into consideration. For example, where state structures are in flux or seriously eroded and sites for growth, duplication or siphoning of resources exist, these would seriously affect the implementation of any framework. Participants stressed that the approach needs to be shaped by the context in which it is applied, and different strategies are needed to link policies, such as gender budgets, to practical reality.

It was felt that GWS teachers and scholars need to move beyond co-opting government, or having government co-opt them into programmes. Other strategies need to be developed in order to move feminists into positions where they can influence decisions. The state has long been a stumbling block and the results of engaging with it have been limited. Students need to problematise this.

The potential problems arising from the co-option of gender activists into state structures were discussed, and a call was made for more emphasis to be placed on the development of alternative strategies, pedagogies and policies.

Students must be encouraged to engage with and critique policies. A broad critical lens should be used to develop their critical thinking and policy analysis skills. Strong and active engagement with policy and critiques of those who create policy should also be encouraged. Government officials who make or influence policy could be asked to speak to classes. Some may refuse to attend in order to avoid questions and accountability, but some might agree to speak to students.

GWS teachers need to understand and to be able to present and demonstrate the limits and contradictions embedded in activism, how it relates to the state and the different strategies used to move between them. It should not be forgotten that some GWS students may become bureaucrats and could one day further the implementation of gendered policies.

Tuesday 9 September 2003

Objectives for the day:

· To deepen understanding of current debates and theorisation on political, legal and policy activism
· To begin to identify challenges in teaching GWS

Review Of Day One

The group discussed challenges to feminist power and the use of government materials or data as sources in GWS teaching. The need to find different ways to challenge the status quo was emphasized, as was the need to use multiple primary sources in GWS teaching on policy. Statistics need to be assessed and quantitative methods should also be incorporated into GWS research and teaching.

5.6 Political Activism
Presentation by Winnie Byanyima

This presentation considered the limits of political activism, and was based on Winnie's observations as a gender activist, politician and self-identified feminist. She spent several years promoting women's political participation and is presently studying the impact of this on political processes. More than ten years ago, Winnie founded a NGO aimed at increasing women's political participation and impact on the political agenda. The NGO focused on training women political candidates in the hopes that this would increase their effectiveness in parliament and local government. Her presentation considered women's movements, civil society and their involvement in government in the Ugandan context. The focus of the presentation was the Ugandan experiment with special seats for women in Parliament.

Winnie sketched the context of the Ugandan women's movement. A strong gender constituency still needs to be developed, and a number of constraints affect the credibility of the women's movement in acting as a voice for women's interests. These include organisational weaknesses, leadership primarily by middle-class urban women, and the need to cross class and ethnicities between the leadership and members of the women's movement.

She described the unrealistic expectation that feminist politicians should organise the feminist voice. New processes of re-organising civil society are disturbing because they do not enable the growth of a strong constituency representing women's issues. She felt that the price of engagement with international NGOs has been the loss of civil society's critical edge, and that collaboration with government has narrowed the spaces in which gender battles can be fought.

She considers the women's movement to be a part of civil society, noting that the Ugandan women's movement has been a weak component within civil society. Their capacity to rally around and sustain particular agendas has been limited by differences in culture, history, different responses to the state and weak leadership. Questions about who belongs to the women's movement and for whom the women's movement attempts to speak were raised, and the economic and class differences between members of the women's movement and the poor highlighted.

Winnie suspected that women's organisations had previously shied away from engagement with the state because of the politics of militarization. The special results seats were recently created to ensure the presence of women in parliament. Training of women candidates was undertaken in an effort to develop a feminist agenda and to encourage them to incorporate feminist issues into their campaigns. This training achieved very little, because campaigns degenerated into the women candidates' submission to patriarchal notions. Not only did many of them defend polygamy, they wore traditional garb, bowed to voters and generally promoted the most oppressive aspects of Ugandan culture.

Once women were elected to the special results seats, it became obvious that certain structural limitations applied. For example, irrespective of Constitutional provisions, the system lacked internal democracy, making it difficult to advance any issue in a democratic manner. This has meant that if issues related to women were not promoted by persons who had an interest in them, or who had been privately petitioned, there would be little opportunity for these issues to reach parliament. Where certain gains had been made, such as the introduction of quotas for women, these were achieved by pleading with the government and riding on the back of other reforms being passed by parliament.

Struggles to democratise state processes and efforts to oppose corruption are not recognised as feminist struggles by the women's movement. It is necessary to define and understand the feminist political agenda. Democracy and accountability are steps towards equality, and achieving these is a success for the feminist movement too.

Winnie went on to consider the struggles of five women to illustrate the contexts within which they operated, their challenges, and the way these were dealt with.

In the final section of her presentation, she considered the roles of women in government. It was noted that male leaders used elected women to strengthen their own positions. This was done in a variety of ways. For example, if a leader was threatened by men from particular ethnic districts, a woman would be made a minister in that area to heighten internal divisions, as the men would then oppose the appointed woman. Another example is the use of women to oppose other women in parliament. To this end, women's lobbies shout each other down, achieving nothing for either group other than the portrayal of women as divided and incompetent.

Another illustration of the way government strategies use and weaken the women's movement is found in the President's appointment of women to positions of influence. In doing so, he has created his strongest constituency. Sometimes women are appointed because the President is under pressure to democratise governance. But although these women are placed in powerful positions, they remain traditional and support the President, as they feel grateful for the favour he showed them by appointing them.

Nevertheless, Winnie was optimistic about the potential for women who have entered mainstream politics to influence political processes. Women are generally better qualified in such roles, even though they are less exposed to politics. They may have limited influence in parliament's plenary sessions, but they have a powerful influence in parliamentary committees. Examples of women who lead influential committees were given.

Discussion

Similarities between women's movements and political processes in different countries were noted. In the light of difficulties in advancing feminist agendas through power structures, choices about which agendas would be most effective must be made. Few women are aware of the boundaries that class places on their legitimacy with regard to the constituencies they claim to represent. The politics of identity have not yet been transcended, and this limits the effectiveness of women's movements in politics.

Women in politics and women in civil society distrust each other, yet need to work together and be aware of the forces against them. The co-ownership of the feminist agenda needs to be considered and modes of participation in civil society must not be imposed. Men are adept at manipulating women in power and utilising the fractures between women, so if women are to succeed in politics, they must be opportunistic. Thus, different strategies are needed to play the political game and, as traditional culture limits the space for women in politics, new strategies need to be developed. A mediated route between the aims of the women's movement, political expediency and contextual limitations needs to be found. Accountability applies to both the government and the women's movement itself. Promoting accountability would also strengthen the women's movement.

In teaching politics and GWS, the diverse variants of gender politics need to be addressed. Teachers need to develop students' strategic acumen, their ability to identify key players, and their capacity to improvise strategies. This requires the development of a framework within which GWS and politics can be taught. Future research should trace what women are doing in parliamentary committees, note how the committees are arranged, and the work they do.

5.7 GWS and ICTs
Presentation by Joanne Henry

In her presentation, Joanne outlined and assessed the major ICT tools utilised in the GWS project.

The GWS website www.gwsafrica.org is the project website. Since its launch, it has showed consistent growth. The AGI also hosts the Feminist Studies network listserve and the electronic journal Feminist Africa (www.feministafrica.org).

The target constituency for these resources is a stable core of users based on the continent. This has been growing, even though the community is finite and much smaller than the international community. One of the reasons for the growth of the African core constituency is that the website and listserve operate in synergy with each other, and networking is constant. Intermittent access, costs of use, limited facilities at universities and time and workload constraints all circumscribe the effectiveness of the website and listserve.

Individuals should feel free to monitor and follow up on discussions and to deepen conversations that are taking place on the listserve. Participants noted that the listserve discussion could be tracked by using a threaded index which allows for tracking by date, author and subject. Personal options relating to how often individuals would like to receive messages, and to whom messages should be sent, should be exercised, and all new members should be introduced to existing listserve members. Participants felt that moderation of the listserve would encourage a more co-ordinated, relevant and mutually enriching approach to discussions; however this needed to be balanced against organic growth. The role of the moderator would be to point out different facets of issues under discussion; provide commentaries on abstract debates; prevent one perception or group of voices from becoming dominant; streamline discussions by limiting contributions on particular issues; keep reminding participants of the aims of the listserve; encourage the sharing of intellectual work and networking. When certain parties do not respond to discussions, the moderator should assume they do not have the means to do so - in other words, problems with connectivity must not be overlooked.

Options concerning the medium for collaboration and distribution of the curriculum resources were discussed, and a special CWG listserve, as well as resources generated in both electronic form and hard copy, were mooted.

5.8 Legal Activism
Presentation by Sylvia Tamale

Sylvia gave an overview of African legal feminism, outlining ways in which women have analysed and used the law to pursue struggles for gender equality. She went on to link African legal feminism to the aims of the present working meeting. She focused on the need for theorisation and the links between transformation and theorisation.

Law has been perceived as a tool for transformation and women who use law are usually at the forefront of women's movements. Nevertheless, it is important to realise that the law applied is often derived from other contexts, and the challenges of colonial histories need to be considered.

Examples of positive interventions of the legal feminist movement were discussed. In brief, these have included: lobbying for gender-responsive legislation; gender-based affirmative action; legal aid and legal literacy; women's rights advocacy; constitutional equality and class action test cases; research by African legal feminists.

Five significant cases from Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Nigeria, as well as the Akayesu decision of the Rwandan International Criminal Tribunal, illustrated challenges to and progress made by African legal feminists.

Despite these and other successes, African legal feminism is plagued by certain limitations in achieving transformation. Its legalistic stance is derived from the type of legal education received. In general, legal education emphasises liberal legal reform and this limits transformatory goals. Gaps between theory and practice, and between the academy and practitioners, result in the truncation of the legal feminist movement and this means that social transformation is stymied again. Cultural relativism and the tendency to adopt an ethos of sentimentalism and victimisation (even though these may reflect reality) often entrench the subordination of women. These concerns apply to both African legal feminism and to the feminist movement generally. African legal feminism, in particular, is limited by a reactionary backlash against legal reforms. Recent developments relating to Ugandan affirmative action policies illustrate this.

The effect of these limitations is both to curtail the transformatory potential of African legal feminism, and to highlight the need for theorisation. Sylvia proposed that theorising is necessary to assist in understanding systems of oppression, and that this understanding would sustain the movement. Thus, if teaching is recognised as bringing about change and transformation for women, then theorisation is required to enable this effect. For example, the reactions of those Ugandan women who have benefited from affirmative action has been to perpetually thank the administration for the opportunities they have been granted. This demonstrates that strategies cannot be implemented without understanding through theorisation.

In conclusion, it was noted that legal feminist causes are often narrowly constructed and a great deal of bridging between legal theory and legal feminism is still required. As most gender oppression is subtle, understanding it requires theorisation. Feminist theorising should provide different choices to widen understandings of contexts. It should also encourage an evaluation of law as an efficient, but neither neutral nor value-free tool for the feminist movement. Sylvia also noted that there are very few law faculties that offer courses in gender studies. Where these are offered, they are often under-represented.

Discussion

Issues discussed included the kinds of legal theories used, and how legal feminists have challenged or used these concepts. The aim was to draw the need for theory into the building of curricula, in both the present discussion and during the working meeting. Sylvia noted that legal feminists in the Third World have challenged the individualism of liberal democratic theories. She pointed out further challenges, such as the need to build African legal jurisprudence. Further challenges relate to the centrality of group rights. These are often recognised by male leaders who do not see women as a group deserving of group rights. Therefore, with regard to affirmative action for women, individuals rather than groups are considered. Also, the myth that the law is a neutral objective tool that applies to everyone persists. This perspective ignores the origins of laws, the history of colonisation and the ways, both blatant and subtle, that it affects the positions of women in society. Differences between formal and substantive equality tend to be glossed over as a result.

Sylvia's example of how women are excluded from group rights points to the important of confronting oppression, especially when developing curricula. Feminism is about the cross-fertilisation between theory and practice, so the law is needed to highlight, strengthen and bridge the gaps between theory and practice. The challenges to legal feminism have come more from politics than from legal theory. An understanding of how the law fits into society seems to be missing from legal academia, lawyers and law students. This understanding is essential to develop the law as a tool for transformation. It is ironic that African feminists have used the law to achieve change even though the law itself was circumscribed in ways that did not allow the status quo to be challenged effectively.

The question of how to teach theory in classes was raised. Reading and talking about experiences does not illustrate how participants actually teach theory to their students. One method was to develop students' consciousness of theory by asking them to identify theorists. However, the existence of vacuums or gaps in theory makes it difficult to address these concerns. One of the challenges in teaching legal feminism is resistance to dealing with gender within the legal discipline. It is often felt that justice is not about gender or plurality. African legal feminism is meanwhile under-theorised and has limited itself to certain subjects. Violence, property rights and constitutional rights have been concentrated on, to the cost of land reform and labour rights. Sylvia's presentation gave a certain sense of homogeneity within African legal feminism, and it was asked whether different attitudes and different ways to theorise existed.

Wednesday 10 September 2003

Objectives for the day:

· Consensus building about teaching and political, legal and policy activism
· Experiment with the demands of curriculum development

Exercise: What Do We Teach The President?
Facilitated by Shereen Essof

It was reported on the morning news that the president of an African country had decided to return to the academy in order to take an eight-week course on gender, policy and legal activism. Participants separated into pairs to consider which themes they would want included in such a course. The following issues and themes were suggested.

The course should be a general introduction to GWS, and the teaching methods should include regular assessment. Furthermore, the course should be rooted in the social context, and the teacher's philosophical position needs to be defined. Expectations, both of the President and of what the course could achieve, should be realistic. The course should have a vision of society or a paradigm that could be worked through and towards and the President should, as far as possible, be actively engaged in the learning processes. Its content should be determined by what the President does and what his needs are. This involves acknowledging the power he wields and the knowledge he already has. The teacher should assume that the President has come to the class willing to learn new things but with a knowledge of gender that is limited to policy pronouncements. The course should cover the following themes (among others): patriarchy; masculinity; sexuality in organisations; introduction to women's civil society movements and processes; systems of oppression, their links, effects and the way these lead to the politicisation of issues; the way gender processes affect and are affected by privatisation, economic empowerment of women and structural adjustment programmes; and ethical issues, including transparency and accountability.

5.9 Designing Curricula: Group Work

Four groups were formed, each tasked with designing a curricula as follows:
· Core Course on Gender, Politics and the Law
Group Members: Sylvia Tamale, Mansah Prah, Takiywaa Manuh

· Core Course on Gender Politics and Policy
Group Members: Dzodzi Tsikata, Lebohang Letsie, Charmaine Pereira, Shereen Essof

· Ideal Course on Feminist Strategies and Activism
Group Members: Josephine Ahikire, Emebet Mulugetta, Priya Narismulu

· Culture and Gender in African Societies: Course on Men and Masculinity
Group Members: Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Abiola Odejide, Amina Mama

Thursday 11 September 2003

Objectives for the day:

· To critique and review curricula developed during the previous day
· To consolidate future tasks in preparation for production of curriculum resource packs

Comments on Group Work
Great energy and positive attitudes characterised the group work, which was a creative means of developing new ideas and approaches to teaching. During group work, cross-cultural issues were revealed and inter-disciplinary enrichment of resulting curricula was promoted. Participants were thus challenged to think in new ways.

Participants expressed their appreciation of jointly developing curricula, which is generally a solitary exercise. It was suggested that discussions about curricula should be continued on the limited list serve. As the group work was characterised by high levels of productivity and quality, it was suggested that that similar meetings to continue such work should be developed. Each course was presented, after which participants' comments and suggestions were welcomed.

5.10 Future Directions: Reflections On Learnings (and Unlearnings), Needs And Wants
This was the last formal meeting of the curriculum strengthening working group. It aimed to establish future directions and commitments as the GWS project neared the end of the project cycle. Decisions were taken on the processes of curricula and allied resources to be developed.

5.11 Curricula: Elements For Consideration
With regard to the curricula, the group opted to develop a number of curricula rather than a single curriculum with detachable modules. Participants reflected on the process and the range of draft curricula produced during the course of the working group meetings. They identified the following as model curricula to be developed into a core as part of the GWS project:

1. Framing module on Feminist Theory and Activism
2. Sexuality, Identity and Culture
3. Gender Policy and Politics
4. Gender, Policy and Law

Certain issues and ideas recurred throughout the working meetings. This exercise was intended to establish a framework that would guide participants' development of curricula. Participants agreed upon core guiding elements.

Objectives
· Feminist theories
· Theory building
· Increasing gendered African knowledge
· Assessment of existing reformist or transformative strategies and their variations
· Giving students tools to develop critical analytical skills, thinking and theories

Pedagogies
· Participatory
· Experiential
· Take diversities into consideration
· Politically transformative
· Grounded

Participants also noted that approaches should be contextual, historicised, deconstructive and empowering.

Content
· Deconstruct patriarchy
· Gendered understandings of health, work, economy, globalisation, privatisation, politics, land, rights, militarism / security, education, culture, sexuality, law, policy
· Take students' backgrounds and positionings into account
· Self-evaluative
· Content should have a thematic core and detachable foci. For example, law could be either the focus or the starting point of a course
· Activist case studies need to be written up and their use encouraged. There is no formal formula for the documentation of case studies.

Concepts
· Gender relations
- Not gender roles
- Unequal
- Ideological
- Material
- Micro / macro
- Historicised
- Dynamic and interchangeable

· Feminism
- African
- Multiple variations
- Theory / practice
- Strategy / epistemology
- Dynamic / evolving
- Transformative and reformative
- Resortationist
- Affirmative / positive

· Sexuality
- Can be positive, empowering and affirmative
- Major site of women's oppression and regulation
- Multiple
- Contextual
- Regulated in gendered ways
- Institutionalised

· Identity, subjectivity and postionality
- Multiplicity, intersectionality and interconnectedness
- Dynamic
- Located
- Historical and socially constructed
- Differently powered

· Post-colonial state
- Historical
- Non-monolithic
- Contested
- Patriarchal / oppressive to women
- Accountable

· Patriarchy - Yet to be expanded on
· Power - Yet to be expanded on
· Rights - Yet to be expanded on
· Globalisation - Yet to be expanded on
· Women / men - Yet to be expanded on

5.12 Bibliographies/Allied Resources: Elements For Consideration
Members of the working meetings also made a commitment to developing bibliographical resources to support the curricula. These would take into consideration the African theorists noted, and materials would be drawn from a wide variety of sources, noting what is taught and how it is taught. These would focus on the areas of:

1. Feminist Theory, Strategy and Activism
2. Sexuality, Identity and Culture
3. Politics, Law and Policy

· Resources date, so it was suggested that a short list of the most useful texts should be compiled and published on the limited list serve.
· Lists of further resources, such as websites, journals and videos would be welcomed.
· Another shortlist of the top ten GWS books could be compiled, and a continent-wide competition could be held. Prizes of book tokens could be offered.
· The processes of drawing up short-lists would highlight gaps in GWS literature and so assist in determining where further research is required.

Completion of Resources
Participants suggested the establishment of a CWG listserve to facilitate the discussion and completion of the curriculum resources. Commitments to the development of particular curricula and bibliographical resources were crystallised and confirmed. The deadline for the revised curricula was to be the end of October 2003, and March 2004 for the bibliographies.

Distribution
Once materials have been produced, they will be disseminated to the broader GWS list serve and GWS Africa website for use within varied contexts. As on-line access may be limited, alternative means of dissemination need to be found. Placing material on CD-ROM was considered as an option. Possibilities for future meetings based on continental, regional or thematic attendance were discussed. It was felt that it was necessary to network and include younger members in projects to encourage their long-term sustainability.

Friday 12 September 2003

Objectives for the day:

· To consolidate future tasks
· To evaluate and review the present working meeting and process

Exercise: How do we feel?
A number of objects were placed on a small table. Participants were asked to choose an object that connected to their feelings or reflections about the present working meeting. Each participant then shared these with the group. The exercise encouraged participants to crystallise and verbalise their responses to the various processes and dynamics of the working group. It highlighted challenges, perceptions and the general sense of enthusiasm and hope that was felt for this GWS project.

5.13 Evaluation of CWG Meeting
Participants were asked to complete evaluation forms for this working meeting. Pieces of paper were stuck onto participants' backs. Each person wrote a comment, note of appreciation, or farewell on the pieces of paper. This fun exercise meant that each person was affirmed by the group, and the meeting ended with strong feelings of cohesion and commitment.

5.14 Thanks And Closure
The group collected their thoughts through a moment of silence and appreciation. Deep feelings of affirmation and energy ran through the working meeting. Gifts of framed photographs of the CWG were distributed, and the AGI staff were thanked for their support and contribution to the smooth running of this working meeting.