Global Hub - Research

The Global Hub seeks to address the guiding question of how global policy and international practice can better respond to the challenge of securing and sustaining tangible improvements in women’s lives. It arises from the contention that the process of global policy-making merits study in its own right, rather than just being treated as a ‘black box’ that has an impact, for good or for ill, on people’s lives in specific localities. The global programme of the RPC is concerned with the actors, norms, beliefs, ideas, networks and institutions associated with global policy processes that impact on women’s empowerment. Its aim is to work with and support those feminists active in global arenas – in civil society networks, inside governments, in international development agencies, academia or in the media – with new ideas and knowledge for making more informed decisions as to where and how to invest their energies and thus through their actions be more fruitful in supporting the construction of pathways of women’s empowerment.

Research Proposals

Feminist Activists in Global Policy Organisations (Rosalind Eyben)
This project focuses on those feminist activists working from inside international development organisations (bilateral, multilateral and INGO) that are shaping discourse and supporting or blocking policy action in relation to women’s empowerment. This action research project seeks to explore the strategies, tactics and room for manoeuvre of feminists in global policy spaces, and seeks to strengthen their capacity to bring about change in these arenas. Full Proposal (pdf file 145KB)

Project Update:

See Rosalind Eyben's report to the Global Hub Advisory Group on this project - Feb 07-Jan 08 (pdf file 223 KB)

Conceptualising Empowerment  in Global Spaces and the Shaping of International Policies and Practice about Women (Rosalind Eyben with Andrea Cornwall)
This project consists of a critical review of conceptual assumptions about women’s empowerment that are being globally developed and communicated and the relation between these assumptions and evolving international policy and practice in relation to alternative pathways of empowerment. The rationale for this project is to explore the meanings and debates  within and among sets of actors with a global reach that are shaping values, ideas and policy actions (or absence of actions) on women’s empowerment.  Full Proposal (pdf file 116KB)

Project Update:

A workshop was held at Dunford House, Midhurst from 11-12 February 2008 to discuss the findings from this workshop. See Rosalind Eyben's report from the meeting at the IDS Website.

Rosalind Eyben, 2008, 'Making Women Work for Development - Again' (pdf file 157KB)

Women's Voice in Policy Spaces Shaping the Global Economy (Stephanie Barrientos with colleagues in SRC, CGSA, BRAC and NEIM)
Globalisation is having a profound effect on women’s lives, in ways we have hardly begun to understand. A challenge is how to maximise the gains and minimise the constraints in order that women can access markets as a pathway to their empowerment. The research will link up with regional hubs to support research into how women’s economic empowerment is being played out in different regional and local contexts. It will examine contrasting cases where women’s voice has been enhanced through global and local initiatives, and how positive examples could provide learning for women in other locations.  Full Proposal (pdf file 37KB)

Project Update:

'Women Treading the Corridors of Corporate Power', Stephanie Barrientos, April 2008 (pdf file 32KB).

Exploring Positive Approaches to Sexuality (Susie Jolly)
This research project will look at a small number of cases of local, national or regional initiatives on sexual rights and women’s empowerment that have succeeded in creating spaces for challenging repressive social norms concerning female sexuality. It will examine how women’s struggles to reclaim their bodies and define their own sexualities interact with international influences such as conservative religious revivals, international sexual rights mobilisation and the global development industry. How do global forces impact on these initiatives? How do these initiatives try, succeed, or fail to use the global forces to their advantage, and to influence the course of international events? What can be learned from the strategies deployed that is relevant to other organisations, both global and local? Full Proposal (pdf file 146KB)

Project Update:

The Global Hub 'Exploring Positive Approaches to Sexuality' project co-organised a workshop on 'Sexuality and the Development Industry' together with the IDS Sexuality and Development Programme at IDS from 3-5 April 2008. You can download papers and listen to presentations from the workshop at the IDS Website.

Communication

The global hub aims to use communication to work with and support feminists active in global arenas – in civil society networks, inside governments, in international development agencies, academia or in the media – with new ideas and knowledge for making more informed decisions as to where and how to invest their energies and thus through their actions be more successful in supporting the construction of pathways of women’s empowerment.  We want them to think more discursively, to act more politically and to influence others to design and implement policies that respond to the findings from the global hub research programme. See the Communications Strategy (pdf file 213KB)