Shirin Rai

"Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State" reflects the commitment of the United Nations to promote mechanisms that aim to achieve equality between women and men. It identifies institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women including national machineries as one of twelve critical areas of concern. National machineries are the primary institutional mechanism entrusted with the implementation of the strategic objectives contained in the goals for equity set by the United Nations. The mandate of these national institutions has evolved from promoting women-specific projects to ensuring that equality concerns are integrated into all government legislation, policy, programs, and budgetary processes. National machineries face serious constraints in fulfilling their mandate including; inadequate financial and human resources, relatively powerless locations within government structures, and insufficient linkage with civil societies. This volume illustrates that the ability of UN-member states to subscribe to the agenda of equality between women and men has been significantly enhanced by the creation of these national-level institutions. National machineries for the advancement of women were initially conceived at the World Conference on the International Women's Year held in Mexico City in 1975 and since then have been considered systematically by world conferences on women in Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995), as well as the sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women. The twenty-third special session of the General Assembly in Beijing reiterated the significant role that national machineries play in promoting equality between women and men, gender mainstreaming, and monitoring of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action as well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. There has been a long-standing need for a volume to bring together discussions on theory and practice as well as comparative analysis and in-depth case studies of national machineries; this book responds to that need.

"Mainstreaming Gender, Democratizing the State" reflects the commitment of the United Nations to promote mechanisms that aim to achieve equality between women and men. It identifies institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women including national machineries as one of twelve critical areas of concern. National machineries are the primary institutional mechanism entrusted with the implementation of the strategic objectives contained in the goals for equity set by the United Nations. The mandate of these national institutions has evolved from promoting women-specific projects to ensuring that equality concerns are integrated into all government legislation, policy, programs, and budgetary processes. National machineries face serious constraints in fulfilling their mandate including; inadequate financial and human resources, relatively powerless locations within government structures, and insufficient linkage with civil societies. This volume illustrates that the ability of UN-member states to subscribe to the agenda of equality between women and men has been significantly enhanced by the creation of these national-level institutions. National machineries for the advancement of women were initially conceived at the World Conference on the International Women's Year held in Mexico City in 1975 and since then have been considered systematically by world conferences on women in Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995), as well as the sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women. The twenty-third special session of the General Assembly in Beijing reiterated the significant role that national machineries play in promoting equality between women and men, gender mainstreaming, and monitoring of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action as well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. There has been a long-standing need for a volume to bring together discussions on theory and practice as well as comparative analysis and in-depth case studies of national machineries; this book responds to that need.

Understanding globalization is key for the future of development. Increasingly globalized patterns of economic exchange and political interaction shape the possibility of reforms to benefit the poor. There is an urgent need to assess what challenges this new context poses for development. In particular, what are the challenges to the objective of poverty reduction implied by globalization? The aim of this book is to take a critical look at the trends associated with globalization and assess what they mean for traditional practices of development. Going beyond attempts to quantify the pros and cons of globalization and the ideological tenor of much of the polemical debate, the approach is to focus on the actors, institutions and processes by which the relationship between globalization and poverty is mediated. This is important for understanding who the winners and losers from globalization are likely to be, given the current political and economic constraints under which practitioners operate. Such an approach helps to clarify the sense of the obstacles and opportunities that will shape any attempt to promote poverty elimination in a context of globalization. The book explores how the relationship between globalization and poverty is handled by institutions and actors that govern social and economic interactions at every level of society. The focus is on the consequences of globalization, the actors, institutions and movements that are operating in the new global political space, and on the strategies that are being developed to contest the impact of globalization on people's lives. The chapters examine three broad areas: production and exchange in the context of small scale producers; changing gender relations and feminist movements; and the environmental consequences of globalization and the movements that have emerged to challenge these. This reflects the editors' concern with the consequences of globalization as well as the politics of resistance to its negative outcomes.