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On 15 November the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development released its report on the Department for International Development (DFID) Annual Report 2007. One of the key issues the Committee takes up is the inadequate implementation of DFID’s Gender Equality Action Plan, launched in February this year. …

Twenty five years ago progressive staff in international development institutions argued that women as well as men should be beneficiaries of development. Hard-nosed neo-liberal male economists interpreted this argument as women as consumers rather than as producers of wealth. When thought about at all, they were seen as a category of the population that had specific needs, such as water and firewood (men apparently never going thirsty or needing to eat). Women had babies. …

A joint meeting was held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London on 19 February 2007 hosted by the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment RPC, Gender and Development Network and Women’s Study Group of the Development Studies Association to examine the potential for external pressure and lobbying on gender equality and women’s empowerment. …