Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

Abstract:

About this paper, Irene Guijt has written the following: Many development-focused organisations profess to upholding a wide range of values such as gender equity, participation, power-sensitivity, poverty-focused, and so forth. Yet in practice, these organisations are often inconsistent in what they say and what they enable and do. It is very much harder to truly 'institutionalise' values than simply to stating their importance. Dr. C. Levy noticed many disappointing results in the context of her work on mainstreaming gender equity in organisations. There was very little evidence of sustained change that related to a gender perspective in the practices of the organisations (NGO, government, bilateral and multilateral) that she encountered. To encourage a more systemic and systematic analysis of what is needed to embed a value in an organisation, Levy developed the idea of a 'web' of elements that all need to be in place for coherence and consistency. The web identifies 13 essential areas that need to be synchronised for institutionalising a normative shift, such as gender awareness, stakeholder participation, or power analysis.

Notes:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/DPU/publications/working%20papers%20pdf/wp74.pdf