Exacerbating existing inequalities or supporting empowerment? The role of international aid to women’s organisations

The Swedish Development Research Network (SweDev) and SEI’s Development Policy and Finance Team are happy to present Dr. Elisabeth Olivius as the keynote speaker for the next Dialogue on Development Research on 10 December, 13.30-15.00 CET. To join the dialogue, please register here.

Topic

Join Dr. Elisabeth Olivius as she shares her research on how standard practices and funding patterns of development actors can not only create obstacles and costs for women’s organisations but also reinforce existing societal inequalities between women. Drawing on research on and with women’s organizations in Myanmar, this dialogue will discuss how and why international donors, despite their good intentions, often struggle to provide support to women’s organizations in context-sensitive and sustainable ways, and how they could do better. 

Women’s organizations are often represented as important partners by development donors. However, accessing and managing international aid is demanding and difficult, and may even prevent women’s organizations from strategically pursuing their own agendas and priorities. Established aid practices further tend to privilege formal NGOs representing urban, middle-class women and disadvantage already marginalized groups, thereby reinforcing existing societal inequalities. This is aggravated in conflict-affected or authoritarian contexts, where divisions such as ethnicity, religion, and regional location are often politicized and map onto historic and current patterns of discrimination and exclusion.

About the speakers

Elisabeth Olivius is an Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Umeå University, Sweden. Her current research explores the role of women’s organizations in peacebuilding and resistance, and the politics of women’s rights in authoritarian and hybrid conflict-affected regimes. With Jenny Hedström, she is the editor of Waves of Upheaval in Myanmar: Gendered Transformations and Political Transitions, published by NIAS Press.   

Madhurima Sanyal will be the discussant for this dialogue. She is the project coordinator for the ‘Access to Justice’ programme at Sanjog, a social impact organization based in India working to combat violence against children and women. Madhurima is an intersectional feminist and a development sector professional with 4 years of experience working in the anti-human trafficking ecosystem at the intersection of gender and human rights as a budding researcher and a trained Social Worker.

The dialogue will be moderated by Annika Hilgert, Research Associate at SEI.  

Agenda

• Opening remarks
• Keynote presentation
• Discussion
• Q&A session with the audience
• Concluding remarks

Participation

The dialogue will take place online via Zoom. Please register here to join the dialogue.