Gender in Dutch international capacity development programmes: projects

A learning organisation

Many of the capacity development programmes managed by Nuffic have explicit gender-related specifications and targets (defined by the sponsors) to ensure that women and men benefit equally from the interventions. In this two-part blog Nuffic looks back on the lessons it has learned with regard to mainstreaming gender in international capacity-building programmes in higher education. 

In both blogs we discuss the following:

• what the gender equality objectives and requirements are for the three programmes;
• how Nuffic has interpreted and translated these objectives and requirements in the programmes;
• the challenges that Nuffic has experienced in mainstreaming gender in the three programmes;
• how Nuffic has dealt with these challenges; and
• where there is room for improvement.

For each of these programmes, an analysis has been made from the perspective of the most important stakeholders in the programmes (Nuffic as programme manager; the Ministry as programme owner; Northern and Southern project implementers; and in the case of NFP, the fellows). 

All these experiences have been documented in the publication "Complexities of gender mainstreaming in higher education capacity development programmes".

Download the publication(6.8 MB)

Successes achieved and factors hampering or facilitating gender mainstreaming in NPT and NICHE

Explicit articulation of gender objectives by programme owner

It is important that programme owners explicitly articulate gender equality requirements for their programmes so that the programme manager can design accountability mechanisms and hold all stakeholders responsible for realising this objective. In NPT (i.e. predecessor of NICHE), the Ministry did not explicitly set requirements for gender mainstreaming in the programme. Consequently, Nuffic did not take special measures to mainstream gender in the projects. After all, programme management requires efficiency and so whatever is not explicitly requested in the terms of reference is generally not carried out. As a result, many NPT projects were ‘gender-blind’.

In NICHE, the intention to promote gender equality was explicitly expressed as an objective. Nuffic responded by establishing a fully resourced internal taskforce to design approaches, mechanisms and tools for mainstreaming gender in the programme. The taskforce organises and actively participates in national and international fora for gender mainstreaming in order to gain exposure to best practices. Furthermore, programme administrators are held accountable internally for ensuring and monitoring gender mainstreaming in their individual projects. All these actions have helped Nuffic to mainstream gender in NICHE in a professional manner.

Current political commitment to gender equality is strong and reflected in the recent Dutch international gender policy issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, articulating national intention (on paper) does not guarantee implementation of actions that support gender mainstreaming in relevant government programmes if explicit instructions are not given by the commissioner to do so. In the Netherlands, despite the intention at the national level, we have seen that gender equality objectives are not included in 99% of the 23 programmes for international cooperation recently jointly initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All these programmes have substantial funding and cover a wide range of economic sectors and countries. This omission of gender objectives in the programme requirements will most likely lead to weak if not non-existent gender mainstreaming in the programmes and ultimately failure to realise the national ambition in this regard. This issue was further discussed in a past blog.
 

Gender mainstreaming during the needs identification phase

Each phase of the NICHE programme cycle presents unique challenges to mainstreaming gender. The NICHE process commences with a needs identification exercise. This requires Nuffic programme administrators to travel to the relevant countries and conduct capacity-building needs identification. This occurs in collaboration with the local Dutch embassy, the national sector authorities, and stakeholders in the local higher education sector. The Nuffic approach to gender mainstreaming during this phase involves ensuring the incorporation of national level, sector level and organisational level gender policies of local context in the programme outline (i.e. the document specifies what NICHE will focus on in a specific country with regard to sectors and issues) and the Plans of Implementation (i.e. sector-specific documents detailing the choices that have been made and selected for NICHE intervention in a given country and specifying the relevant organisations that should be involved). Challenges in effectively doing this include a lack of (coherent) gender policies at these levels. Sometimes serious negotiation with the local authorities is also required in order to involve institutions that have gender expertise and can support NICHE interventions.
 

Gender mainstreaming during the articulation phase

The identification phase is followed by the articulation phase. In this phase, organisations that have been selected by the Nuffic, the embassies and the other local stakeholders, as mentioned in the Plan of Implementation, are invited to formulate project outlines. Project outlines include the problem definition (i.e. capacity-building needs to be tackled), the project objectives and expected outcomes. There is also freedom to specify wishes with regard to project implementation (e.g. specific partner institutions in the Netherlands which could provide the expertise or where the capacity-building interventions should take place: in-country or in-region). Since Southern ownership is important in NICHE, this project outline should ideally be written entirely by the organisations in the South. Consultants may be employed to assist with project formulation.

The main challenge faced during this phase is translating the gender objectives articulated in the Programme Outline and Plans of Implementation into the project outline. It is important that the ambitions at all these levels are kept in mind when designing the project outline to maintain the gender focus in a relevant and structured manner. Problems are also faced when the gender policies at the national and sector levels are not consistent with each other or complementary to each other. In some cases, the quality and completeness of the gender-specific information in the project outlines is weak, with little linkage to the overall project budget. Although Nuffic can allocate a gender expert to assist in rectifying this situation, the organisation involved should be committed to seeking and listening to the advice of the expert. This is not always the case. Yet another difficulty faced involves the scarcity of gender experts who also have sector expertise. This would aid better visualisation of the gender issues in the sector in question.
 

Gender mainstreaming when matching demand and supply

Once a project has been formulated by the South, it is put up for tender in the Netherlands. Dutch capacity-building organisations submit their bids (project proposals), which are evaluated by a Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC). The proposals include how the organisation intends to implement the project in order to achieve the objectives of the requesting organisation. While the adopted methodology may somewhat vary from the implementation approach proposed by the requesting organisation, the Dutch organisation may not adjust the planned results and outcomes as perceived by the requesting organisation. Evaluation of gender mainstreaming in the bids is conducted on the basis of four criteria:

• whether or not gender equality issues relevant to the project are further identified and elaborated in the proposal (i.e. beyond the outline);
• whether or not gender equality issues are systematically integrated in the log frame and indicators;
• whether or not the proposal is clear on how gender issues and objectives will be anchored in the management, implementation and monitoring of the project; and
• whether or not gender experts involved in the project.

Although Dutch organisations are now keen to employ gender experts to increase their chances of winning the tender, these experts are often not involved right from the start of proposal formulation. If the project design has flaws it becomes difficult to retrospectively mainstream gender in an integral manner throughout the project. The suggested gender interventions end up being stand-alone activities which take place in isolation to the technical work in the project. Examples of stand-alone activities include holding a gender-sensitive workshop or a workshop on gender issues, in the assumption that this is sufficient focus on gender in the project.
 

Gender mainstreaming during the implementation phase

When a proposal is granted an award after the TEC sitting, the accompanying grant letter may contain gender-specific conditions or recommendations if gender is inadequately addressed in the bid. The Dutch organisation has the opportunity to effect the changes during the inception phase of the project. In the inception phase (three months long), the Dutch organisation and the organisation in the South make acquaintance and work together on a revised project plan (i.e. the inception document). Again the challenge here for Nuffic is to ensure that gender experts are involved in the revision process. Another challenge faced during the implementation phase of the NICHE project is the lack of follow-up. Often even when gender objectives were mentioned in the bid, project implementers do not follow up on these during implementation.

In addition, project management positions on both the Northern and Southern sides are almost exclusively occupied by men. The argument that is often given is that there are no qualified women available in these organisations. The question arises on the extent to which a male-dominated project management team is able to incorporate gender dimensions in their projects, given that the world view and experience of men and women differs. In future, a proactive approach is needed to select female project managers or directors both in the North and South. Tender evaluation guidelines could, for example, be revised to include criteria on the gender balance in project management teams. Currently, in cases where few women are available in the pool of eligible candidates, project teams are already advised to design activities that enhance gender balance in the pool for the future.
 

Gender mainstreaming during the monitoring and evaluation phase

Once implementation is underway the project monitoring phase commences. The annual reporting form which Nuffic designed allows progress to be monitored in gender mainstreaming. On this form, gender mainstreaming is a result area with a number of progress indicators. These indicators make the gender mainstreaming results more visible.
 

Continuous tuning of programmes

This year marks Nuffic’s 60th anniversary. The organisation has vast experience in programme management, yet we keep learning as the environment around us changes. Obstacles faced or lessons learned during the execution of the individual programmes are continuously communicated to the relevant programmes owners. Where possible, adjustments are effected during the course of programme implementation. Where more serious policy-related changes are involved, such information is used by the programme sponsor to fine-tune planning for future versions of the programmes.

The lessons learned from NPT and NICHE are also relevant and applicable to other scholarship and cooperation programmes outside the education sector. At least where they have the intention of promoting gender equality.