Progress in Development Studies

Questioning diffusion and translation as central concepts describing how norms influence policies, the article analyses the drafting process of a recent gender equality policy in Danish development cooperation. Three global norms (gender mainstreaming, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and women’s empowerment) and their influence on the policy are examined, and it is argued that the contingency of policymaking circumscribes the role of global norms. A variety of intra- and extra-organizational factors affect the drafting of the policy, and it is the interaction between these factors and the norms, rather than diffusion or translation of global norms, that best describes the normative influence on Danish gender equality policy.

In the mid-2000s, the gender work of the World Bank took a different turn with a new Gender Action Plan. Up until then, gender equality had been on the margins of the World Bank, concentrated around a small number of advocates. This particular articulation of gender took as its tagline ‘gender equality as smart economics’. The Plan attracted three times the original budget of US$24.5 million, and moved gender analysis into new fields of work: labour, work, land and agriculture rather than the more usual areas of health and education. It emerged at a time when gender work was becoming more legitimate in the field of development economics; where World Bank economists were ‘a more receptive crowd than before’. The mid-2000s was also a time when the World Bank was becoming more conscious of its use of media technologies. The article draws on these two elements—economics and the use of media—to suggest the broader environment against which gender agendas take on meaning. Structural shifts in the field of development economics—the dominant discipline at the World Bank—made work on gender more legitimate and credible, and made World Bank staff ‘a more receptive crowd than before’, while the increasing use of media technologies meant the World Bank was conscious of how its work looked to outside audiences. These elements, only loosely related to what we might think of ‘gender’ as a normative agenda, nonetheless, changed what gender meant to many people working within the World Bank.

Based on a case study of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), this article analyses organizational processes of norm translation, asking how IRW understands and employs global norms of gender equality. Approaching IRW as an organization positioned in between two different normative environments, the analysis explores the ways in which it seeks to align different sets of norms, balance between different kinds of expectations and create resonance with different audiences. In these processes, actors make use of a range of different strategies, including bridging, thinning and parallel co-existence, testifying to the complexities involved in translating organizational norms.

The contributions raise several important issues regarding the norm of gender equality in development organizations, and I want to raise the following points for further consideration. Does it matter if we treat gender equality as a norm or practice? The articles suggest that there is general movement toward the norm, but what it means to do gender equality is quite fractured. Who decides what gender equality means? Why do organizations feel the need to adopt this norm? Organizations have different motives, and these motives are probably important for understanding whether these norms have any impact. Impact refers to effects, and there are various kinds of effects raised by the articles, though focused mainly on the norm’s institutionalization rather than its impact.

McGovern, M. 2017: A Socialist Peace? Explaining the Absence of War in an African Country. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 249 pp. $30.00 (Paperback). ISBN: 9780226453606.

Coles, A., Gray, L. and Momsen, J., editors, 2015: The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Development. London/New York, NY: Routledge. 594 pp. £190. ISBN: 9780415829083 (Hardcover).

Gieseking, J.J., Mangold, W., Kats, C., Low, S. and Saegert, S., editors, 2014: The People, Place and Space Reader. New York, NY and Oxon: Routledge. xxxiv + 446 pp. £46.99 (Paperback). ISBN: 9780415664974.

Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, E. and Mashiri, M., editors, 2017: Young People’s Daily Mobilities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Moving Young Lives. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. XVII + 250 pp. £92.00 (Hardcover). ISBN: 9781137454317.

Bernardi, F. and Ballarino, G., editors, 2016: Education, Occupation and Social Origin. A Comparative Analysis of the Transmission of Socio-Economic Inequalities. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. 304 pp. £85.00 (Paperback), £76.50 (eBook). ISBN: 9781785360442 (Paperback), 9781785360459 (eBook).