Promoting Volunteerism for Peace and Development

DURING YOUR ASSIGNMENT . 15that your initiative will benefit from bothperspectives. Yet simply inviting bothwomen and men might not be enough;sometimes women and men have differentpriorities and responsibilities, so schedulemeetings at a time that is suitable to both.Also be aware of and sensitive to contextspecifichierarchies or imbalances amongwomen and men that might make onegroup less likely to voice their needs andconcerns.But gender equality means more thansimply involving equal numbers of womenand men in development initiatives, orserving equal numbers of female and malebeneficiaries. Instead, the goal is to enableboth women and men “to influence theentire agenda and basic priorities“ 4 ofdevelopment.This requires that you work with bothwomen and men to identify the long-termstrategic and short-term practical needs ofboth groups and the communities in whichthey live, and if necessary, address themseparately. It might also require you toproactively challenge existing conditions ofinequality – but in doing so, work closelywith both women and men to understandthe context that gave rise to inequalitiesand to the extent possible, to jointly identifysolutions.6. Rounaq Jahan, The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Womenin Development (London: Zed Books, 1995), as quoted inUNDP Gender in Development Programme, GenderMainstreaming (September 2000).K Women learn of their rights in the upcomingelections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.