Gender and economy in Melanesian communities: A manual of indicators and tools to track change

This manual, developed by Michelle Carnegie, Claire Rowland, Katherine Gibson, Katharine McKinnon, Jo Crawford and Claire Slatter, provides a range of tools that can be used to collect information about gender equality and economy in Melanesia. The indicators used were developed by the authors in order to track changes in gender relations and economic activity in a culturally sensitive way.

Excerpt

"To understand how economic change is influencing relationships between women and men in their local economy, the same data must be collected at different points in time and then compared. The manual outlines a range of simple data collection tools that can be used at yearly or two- to three-yearly intervals.

The data generated can be helpful for planning and monitoring programs that aim to increase economic opportunities for women and men and foster more equal relationships between them in target communities. It can also be used to track changes in gender relations and the economy that are unrelated to particular programs or interventions." (Carnegie et al. 2012)

Contents

• What do Melanesian economies look like? 8
• What is gender equality? 11
• Foundations of gender equality in Melanesian economies: grassroots perspectives 12
• Collecting community-based indicators of gender equality and economy 17
• Localising the data collection tools 23
• Engaging communities in the process 25
• Data collection 27
• Data analysis 31
• Preparation checklist 32
• Tools and forms 33
• Table of indicators and how they are collected 33
• Survey questionnaire 35
• Participatory activity 1: Participation levels of women and men in community-level discussions 44
• Participatory activity 2: Women’s control over their personal income 49
• Participatory activity 3: Different approaches to managing household finances 55
• Participatory activity 4: Young men’s perceptions of what it is to be a 'man' and the influence of male role models. 60
• Participatory Activity 5: Mapping community groups involving women 65
• Participatory activity 6: Forms of cooperation and conflict between women, and conflict resolution approaches 70
• Feedback form 75