The work of all agencies is similar in objectives and priorities when tackling the gender issue. However, international agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Community, based in the developed world, have superior financial and technical resources to Non-Governmental Organizations such as Oxfam, the Aga Khan Foundation and Action Aid. These different agencies, although they all have similar aims, tackle issues in varying ways. Governmental and official organizations will tend to negotiate with corresponding governments in their plans and global international relations are important and often channelling aid through governments and other established structures will involve loans and return favours. For example, Britain's current involvement and controversy with Malaysia in an 'aid-arms swap'. In contrast, NGO's and community organizations generally work as charities and infuse their aid into the heart of where it is needed.
British aid, controlled by the ODA, is mostly given bilaterally (55%), that is directly to the individual countries concerned, and of this, 77% goes to the poorest of them, (ODA annual review 1993). Aid is given to help these countries make the transition to democratic government and market economies and is concentrated on areas central to the process of reform. In addition to its direct, bilateral aid, Britain contributes to the work of international as well as local agencies and organizations. Approximately 45% of Britain's overall aid is multilateral - that is channelled through international bodies. These inject financial aid into developing countries into specific areas, for example into economic reform. Through its Joint Funding Scheme (worth £28 million in 1992/93), the ODA supports over 100 voluntary agencies or NGO's. In this way, grassroots projects are concentrated in local communities that help the neediest people quickly and often inspire essential community action.
The processes involved in improving women's status are congruous to all development agencies but the ODA sees the challenge as only being solved within the developing countries themselves and overseas aid as being a trigger for development. In 1992/93, the ODA's programme involved giving more attention to the role of women in direct, country-to-country programmes; helping countries develop policies in areas which specifically affect women, such as, health, education and the development of small-scale enterprises; strengthening relationships with NGO's and ensuring the involvement of women at all stages of development; and enhancing women's involvement in public policy- making and politics. Essentially, British aid helps women play their full part in development.
In its aid programme, the ODA addresses poverty and promotes sustainable development by improving primary socio-economic services for the benefit of the poor. It also supports community based projects aimed specifically at poverty-related problems. In all of its policies, it is a requirement of the ODA that women's interests are always taken into account. All members of staff involved undergo Women in Development and Gender Planning Training and every year they produce a monitoring report which studies what the aid programme has achieved and highlights areas where more could be done to improve women's share of aid. The ODA also works closely with the National Alliance of Women's Organizations (NAWO) in instructing NGO's in their design of projects ensuring the involvement of women at all stages. In 1990/91, 142 women's projects were initiated, to encourage the role of women in a range of specialist areas including the environment, poverty, population, health and agriculture.
Most development agencies concentrate their aid in rural areas of developing countries as this method is seen as being the way forward. One strategy of development planning that encourages the rapid growth of agricultural production and rural incomes in developing countries is that the most able of the young villagers, especially those that are literate, must be prevented from migrating to towns and instead must be encouraged to become the pioneers of progress in the village. In this way, the idea of restricting the urban employment of women in order to make room for the rural elite in the towns is outdated for the present strategy of development planning. The new and more dynamic approach is, through a policy of rural modernization, to attach young literate villagers to their home villages instead of drawing them to the towns by urban employment creating policies. The majority of the ODA's projects stress the importance of promoting economic and social development in rural areas, by means of bottom-up approaches.
Education and training play very important roles in improving conditions for women in the Third World. They are an integral part of promoting women's paths to better employment in the modern sector. In November 1992, the ODA published a review of training called The Power of Change. This identified training needs and criteria and examined different ways of supporting training for people who work in both the public and the private sectors. It specifically looked at how to increase the number of women in training. The study concluded that training is most likely to succeed when it forms part of a larger development project. For example, training appears to be more effective when it is part of a long term working relationship between British institutions and institutions in a developing country. A good basic education also equips women for further training and fulfilling work, and enables them to play a more constructive role in the community. As well as giving considerable support to higher education in developing countries, the ODA concentrates on aid for teaching basic reading and writing skills. Lack of education impoverishes the lives of everyone in the Third World, so the ODA help goes to both adults and children, particularly where it improves prospects for women. The British Council, Britain's main agency for cultural relations overseas, works on a contract basis for the ODA. This work includes managing and running training and human resource development projects in a wide range of fields including health care, environmental control, basic education, technical education and training, accountancy and English as a second language - all essential sectors to be addressed when improving the status of women. Currently the ODA is launching an English Language training project in Tanzania, whose aim is to improve the standards of English in secondary education. An important part of this project is giving special attention to improving classroom teaching technique to ensure the avoidance of gender bias.
Health care and population are intrinsically linked to the gender issue in the Third World, as women are seen as the "principal nurturers of all the coming generations."( P. Harrison, 1987). In the poorest countries, poverty creates a cycle of misery which is difficult to break as a country's population grows rapidly. Existing health systems will be unable to cope with the sheer quantities of people, so the cycle must be broken by applying the right types of assistance. Over approximately the last decade, developing countries have seen vast improvements in peoples health. The ODA is currently investing over £100 million annually on health care, water and sanitation and population programmes in developing countries. The ODA works in partnership with international organizations and international or local NGO's in this area. This investment concentrates on the increase and input of finance into local health services and the use of modern technology is encouraged to promote the development of more efficient management of health problems, such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV. However, the main way in which the ODA, and in deed all development agencies, concerned with the gender issue, is the increase in availability of contraceptives and family planning advice for women mainly, in an attempt to reduce families in size, alleviating population pressure, in effect giving women the chance to choose.
As an integral part of improving women's status in the third world, promoting small businesses for women is very important. This is essential in creating self-sufficiency for women and they achieve a wider role in public life. This aspect of promoting women is very closely linked to their training and education as this is necessary in helping local communities manage their economies and stimulate trade and most importantly, improve women's status. The Underprivileged Children's Education Programme in Bangladesh (set up by the ODA) focuses on girls from slum areas who are being taught vocational skills to enable them to compete on an equal basis with men in the job market and possibly develop small-scale business initiatives. Linked to the creating of new jobs for women is the necessity to improve access to productive assets, for example, rights to agricultural land and to bank accounts, to improve participation in decision-making, for example, committee membership, participation in elections, managerial positions and establishing and supporting women's groups. All of these activities, that address the strategic needs of women, create more equal opportunities and enhance women's role in public life.
The ODA has been currently carrying out a project in Indore, India aimed at improving slums and teaching women to learn income generating skills and gain access to credit through a loan fund. This development project has also set up a day care centre to enable women to be active mothers and workers. In Ghana, the Women in Public Life project is helping women play a greater role in managing public services. For two years women in central and local government and the civil service have received special training to prepare them to take on senior management positions. In Vanuatu, a Women's Business Unit has been set up as part of a business training and advice service. The Unit helps women entrepreneurs and groups learn and develop business skills.
In three drought-prone districts in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Britain is supporting a project run by one of India's leading fertiliser manufacturing and marketing organisations. The project, as well as introducing new systems of farming to increase yields for poor farming communities, recognizes the vital role of women in these communities and they are encouraged to get involved in the running of the project. In the community, over half the organisers are women and they are responsible for promoting women's leadership and establishing women's groups in the villages, helping gain access to the education and training programmes that are needed.
There is no one development model that states how all development agencies should tackle the issue of gender but they all generally amount to the same thing - putting women first and improving their status. Most of the agencies work together on projects, pooling their resources, financial and otherwise. It is evident that the way in which the ODA tackles the issue is to enter at a community level and work to the top, ie. the bottom-up approach. It is through these schemes stressing health and population, training and education and the development of small businesses that women's role in the Third World will improve in the future. It is essential when tackling the complex issue of gender in developing countries that it be considered within a wider context of overall economic and social development. The ODA and other development agencies concerned with gender will keep coming up with fresh and new alternatives to improve the role of women in the Third World. Programmes will continue to attempt to relieve family poverty, to improve the quality of human resources and reduce population growth rates. The way in which this is done is by targeting the woman as she is the key link in vicious circles that make poverty hereditary.
REFERENCES
i)Harrison, P. (1987), p448.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
i)Clark, J. (1986) - For Richer For Poorer, Belmont Press, Northampton.
ii)Harrison, P. (1987) - Inside the Third World, Penguin, London.
iii)Jackson, B. (1990) - Poverty and the Planet, A Question of Survival, Penguin, London.
iv)Action on Health and Population (1992) ODA.
v)British Overseas Aid, Annual Review (1993) ODA.
vi)Checklist for the Participation of Women in Development Projects (1993) ODA.
vii)Report on Women and Population, A Consultation with NGO's for International Conference on Population and Development (1993).
viii)Women in Development (1992) ODA.
