‘This book provides exciting new ways of thinking about how women’s rights policy change occurs in the Global South. Drawing on meso-level analysis of how six countries passed legislation to combat domestic violence, the book shows, for example, the importance of forming strategic alliances around the interests and ideas of dominant actors; the role of elite cohesion; and the politics of ideas and discursive framing of gender equity. It is certain to influence contemporary think- ing about gender-related policy reform and, as such, it is a must read for interna- tional and domestic policy makers, women’s rights activists, donors, scholars of gender and politics, and many others.’ —Aili Mari Tripp, Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science & Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA ‘Understanding the political processes that lead to greater gender equity in the Global South is a first step in tackling problems such as domestic violence in a transformative way. This book makes an important contribution both conceptu- ally and empirically in this highly policy-relevant field—a must read for scholars, activists, and policy-makers committed to promote gender equality and social justice.’ —Katja Hujo, Senior Research Coordinator, Social Policy and Development Programme, UNRISD, Switzerland ‘This book is a great addition to the literature on gender equality policies, focusing particularly on domestic violence in the Global South. It carefully demonstrates the strategies for confronting deeply entrenched power inequalities across institutions of the state and society. A must read for activists and research- ers alike.’ —Nitya Rao, Professor of Gender and Development, University of East Anglia, UK ‘This is an excellent collection of articles. Not only does it deal with a topic that has been prioritized by the international women’s movement, but it does so in an intellectually coherent way by locating empirical analysis from different parts of the world within a shared theoretical framework and a common research methodology.’ —Naila Kabeer, Professor of Gender and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK ‘Bringing together leading experts on gender and politics, this book demonstrates how states come to introduce and implement GBV laws. Diverse case studies draw attention to broad, inclusive feminist coalitions: cultivating both high-level and grassroots support. Enforcement and normative change then emerge as con- ditional upon three key dynamics: state commitment, state capacity, and state collaboration with civil society.’ —Alice Evans, Lecturer in the Social Science of Development, King’s College London, UK The fact that women have achieved higher levels of political inclusion within low- and middle-income countries has generated much speculation about whether this is reaping broader benefits in tackling gender-based inequalities. This book uncovers the multiple political dynamics that influence governments to adopt and implement gender equity policies, pushing the debate beyond simply the role of women’s inclu- sion in influencing policy. Bringing the politics of development into discussion with feminist literature on women’s empowerment, the book proposes the new concept of ‘power domains’ as a way to capture how inter-elite bargaining, coalitional politics, and social movement activism combine to shape policies that promote gender equity. In particular, the book investigates the conditions under which countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have adopted legislation against domestic vio- lence, which remains widespread in many developing countries. The book demon- strates that women’s presence in formal politics and policy spaces does not fully explain the pace in adopting and implementing domestic violence law. Underlying drivers of change within broader domains of power also include the role of clien- telistic politics and informal processes of bargaining, coalition-building, and per- suasion; the discursive framing of gender-equitable ideas; and how transnational norms influence women’s political inclusion and gender-inclusive policy outcomes. The comparative approach across Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, India, and Bangladesh demonstrates how advancing gender equality varies by political context and according to the interests surrounding a particular issue. Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South will be of interest to students and scholars of gender and development, as well as to activists within governments, political parties, nongovernmental organizations, women’s movements, and donor agencies, at national and international levels, who are looking to develop effective strategies for advancing gender equality. Sohela Nazneen , Research Fellow, Gender and Sexuality, Institute of Develop- ment Studies, University of Sussex, UK. Sam Hickey , Professor of Politics and Development and Research Director, Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (ESID), The Uni- versity of Manchester, UK. Eleni Sifaki , Research Associate, Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (ESID), The University of Manchester, UK. Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South The Routledge ISS Gender, Sexuality and Development Studies series explores the diverse ways in which topics of gender and sexuality relate to international devel- opment, both in theory and in practice. The book series aims to publish ‘classical’ gender, sexuality and development themes – such as the sexual and reproductive rights policy debates on population and sustainable development, adolescence and sex education, and policy on abortion – together with cutting edge work on embodiment, queer theory and innovative strategies of resistance to hegemonic discourses of sexuality and gender. The book series will pay special attention to the role of intergenerational power relations and how they interact with different gendered understandings of sexuality at diverse stages in the life cycle. Wendy Harcourt leads the international editorial board with her colleagues from the renowned International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University, The Netherlands. The Board welcomes book proposals from researchers working in all geographic areas with special interest in research undertaken from feminist grounded theory and with marginalized groups in the global South and North. To find out more about how to submit a book proposal, please contact the Development Studies Editor, Helena Hurd (Helena.Hurd@tandf.co.uk) or Wendy Harcourt (harcourt@iss.nl). Gender Responsive Budgeting in Fragile States The Case of Timor-Leste Monica Costa Gender Justice and Human Rights in International Development Assistance Transcending Universal Divisions Sarah Forti Masculinity and Modern Slavery in Nepal Transitions into Freedom Matthew Maycock Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South The Politics of Domestic Violence Policy Edited by Sohela Nazneen, Sam Hickey, and Eleni Sifaki Routledge ISS Gender, Sexuality and Development Studies Edited by Sohela Nazneen, Sam Hickey, and Eleni Sifaki Negotiating Gender Equity in the Global South The Politics of Domestic Violence Policy First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 selection and editorial matter, Sohela Nazneen, Sam Hickey, and Eleni Sifaki; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Sohela Nazneen, Sam Hickey, and Eleni Sifaki to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Nazneen, Sohela, editor. | Hickey, Samuel, 1972- editor. | Sifaki, Eleni, editor. Title: Negotiating gender equity in the global South : the politics of domestic violence policy / edited by Sohela Nazneen, Sam Hickey, and Eleni Sifaki. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business, 2019. | Series: Routledge ISS gender, sexuality and development studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018045624 (print) | LCCN 2018060415 (ebook) | ISBN 9781351245623 (eBook) | ISBN 9780815372356 (hbk) | ISBN 9781351245623 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Women in development—Developing countries. | Family violence—Developing countries. Classification: LCC HQ1240.5.D44 (ebook) | LCC HQ1240.5.D44 N44 2019 (print) | DDC 305.42—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018045624 ISBN: 978-0-8153-7235-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-24562-3 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy Oldstyle Std by Cenveo ® Publisher Services This book is dedicated to Roushan, Fiona, and Sayan for their love, patience, and support, and to the memory of our esteemed colleague Simeen Mahmud, whose dedication to women’s empowerment helped inspire our work on this project. List of figures xi List of tables xii List of appendixes xiii List of abbreviations xiv List of contributors xvii Preface and acknowledgements xx PART I The politics of gender equity: setting the scene 1 Beyond the inclusion-to-influence debate: the politics of negotiating gender equity 3 SOHELA NAZNEEN AND SAM HICKEY 2 Investigating the politics of gender equity through a power domains approach 21 SAM HICKEY AND SOHELA NAZNEEN 3 Ending domestic violence: the politics of global norm diffusion 44 SOPHIE KING AND ELENI SIFAKI PART II The power of strongmen and ruling coalitions: promoting gender equity in dominant settlements 4 Contesting ideas, aligning incentives: the politics of Uganda’s Domestic Violence Act (2010) 67 JOSEPHINE AHIKIRE AND AMON MWIINE Contents x Contents 5 Establishing a strong political commitment to gender equity: the politics of Rwanda’s law on the Prevention and Punishment of Gender-Based Violence (2008) 88 JENNIE E. BURNET 6 Achieving a broad-based coalition: the politics of South Africa’s Domestic Violence Act (1998) 108 LILLIAN ARTZ AND VALÉRIE GRAND’MAISON PART III The significance of informal networks: promoting gender equity in competitive settlements 7 Building strategic relationships with the political elites: the politics of Bangladesh’s Domestic Violence Act 2010 129 SOHELA NAZNEEN 8 Between democratization and patronage: the politics of Ghana’s Domestic Violence Act (2007) 152 BEATRIX ALLAH-MENSAH AND RHODA OSEI-AFFUL 9 Building strong alliances: the politics of the Protection of Domestic Violence Act in India (2006) 171 ASMITA BASU PART IV Concluding thoughts and ways forward 10 How does politics shape the negotiation of gender equity in the Global South? A comparative analysis 191 SOHELA NAZNEEN AND SAM HICKEY 11 Researching the politics of gender equity: next steps 214 GEORGINA WAYLEN 12 From transformative policy to transforming political settlements 221 ANNE MARIE GOETZ Index 231 2.1 The ‘power domains’ framework 30 2.2 A political settlements typology 32 2.3 Political settlement type by case-study country 37 3.1 The ‘lifecycle of norms’ framework 46 3.2 The politics of global norm diffusion on VAW 48 4.1 Trends of reporting domestic violence in Uganda 82 10.1 Political settlement type by case-study country 194 Figures Tables 1.1 Prevalence rates of intimate partner violence by region 10 2.1 The politics of ideas about women’s empowerment 28 3.1 Norm emergence and institutionalization 49 3.2 International conferences/agreements that address domestic violence 54 3.3 IAC ratification and domestic violence legislation in Latin America and the Caribbean 57 3.4 Ratification and domestic violence legislation in sub-Saharan Africa 57 4.1 Trends in women’s numbers in Uganda’s National Assembly 71 5.1 Women in Rwanda’s national parliament (1961–1994) 92 5.2 Women in Rwanda’s national parliament after gender quota (2003–2013) 92 5.3 Women’s representation in state apparatus in Rwanda (September 2013 and 2015) 93 7.1 Steps undertaken to implement the Domestic Violence Act in Bangladesh 144 8.1 Women in Ghana’s national parliament 156 8.2 Women in Ghana’s district assemblies 156 8.3 Chronology of events and critical moments for the Domestic Violence Law in Ghana 159 8.4 Budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (in Ghanaian cedis) 164 10.1 Comparative findings on the passage and implementation of anti-domestic violence legislation 195 10.2 A power domains comparison: the political settlement and domain of women’s interests 197 Appendix 1 List of participants in the Uganda study 86 Appendix 2 List of participants in the Rwanda study 107 Appendix 3 List of participants in the South Africa study 125 Appendix 4 List of participants in the Bangladesh study 151 Appendix 5 List of participants in the Ghana study 170 Appendix 6 List of participants in the India study 188 Appendixes Abbreviations ACFODE Action for Development ACHPR African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights AFRC Armed Forces Revolutionary Council AG Attorney General AL Awami League AMwA Akina Mama Wa Africa ANC African National Congress ANCWL African National Congress Women’s League ASK Ain o Salish Kendra BJP Bharatiya Janata Party BLAST Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust BMP Bangladesh Mohila Parishad BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party BNWLA Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association CA Consultative Assembly CDD Centre for Democratic Development CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDOVIP Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention CEEWA Council for Economic Empowerment for Women in Africa CGE Commission of Gender Equality CiDV Citizen’s Initiative Against Domestic Violence CPP Convention People’s Party CSO Civil society organization CSW Committee on the Status of Women CTG Caretaker government CWGL Centre for Women’s Global Leadership DEWA Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women DOVVSU Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit DRB Domestic Relations Bill DV Domestic violence DVA Domestic Violence Act DV Coalition National Coalition on Domestic Violence Legislation Abbreviations xv DWCD Department of Women and Child Development DWM 31st December Women’s Movement EDPRS Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy FEDSAW Federation of South African Women FGD Focus group discussion FIDA International Federation of Women Lawyers FWP Forum of Women Parliamentarians GBV Gender-based violence GIZ German Corporation for International Cooperation GOI Government of India GWL Ghana Women’s League HRD (Ministry of) Human Resource Development IAC Inter-American Convention ICGLR-SGBV International Conference of the Great Lakes Region on Sexual Gender Based Violence IO International organization INGO International nongovernmental organization JC Joint Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and the Status of Women LAWA Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa LI Legislative instrument MAJ Maisons d’accès à la justice MDGs Millennium Development Goals MDR Mouvement Démocratique Républicain MGLSD Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development MIGEFASO Ministry of Gender, Family, and Social Affairs MIGEPROF Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion MINEDUC Ministry of Education MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly MOGCSP Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection MOWCA Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs MP Member of Parliament MSVAW Multi-Sectoral Project on Violence Against Women NAC National Advisory Council NCT National Capital Territory NCW National Council for Women (Uganda) NCW National Commission of Women (India) NCWD National Council for Women and Development NDA National Democratic Alliance NGM National Gender Machinery NGO Nongovernmental organization NJAC National Judicial Appointments Commission NNVAW National Network on Violence Against Women NRM National Resistance Movement NPP New Patriotic Party xvi Abbreviations NWC National Women’s Commission NWDP National Women’s Development Policy OSW Office on the Status of Women PFA Beijing Platform for Action PFVA Prevention of Family Violence Act PMO Prime Minister’s Office PNDC Provisional National Defence Council POS Political opportunity structure PPCJ Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice PS Political settlement PWD People with disabilities PWDVA Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act RPF Rwandan Patriotic Front RPO Representation of People’s Ordinance RWAMREC Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre SALC South African Law Commission SAHRC South African Human Rights Commission SAPS South Africa Police Service UCW Uganda Council of Women ULRC Uganda Law Reform Commission UMWADD Uganda Muslim Women Association for Daawa and Development UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UPA United Progressive Alliance UPC Uganda People’s Congress UWONET Uganda Women’s Network UWOPA Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association VAW Violence against women WAJU Women and Juvenile Unit WHO World Health Organization WIB Women in Broadcasting WID Women in Development WiLDAF Women in Law and Development in Africa WISE Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment WNC Women’s National Coalition WRB Women’s Reservation Bill YWCA Young Women’s Christian Association Contributors Josephine Ahikire is Associate Professor in the School of Women and Gender Studies and Deputy Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Makerere University in Uganda. She has led a variety of research projects on gender and land, elections, women and parliamentary performance, and gender and the politics of access. Recent publications include Localised or Localising Democracy: Gender and the Politics of Decentralisation in Contemporary Uganda (Fountain Publishers, 2007) and two co-edited books: Controlling Consent: Uganda’s 2017 elections , with J. Oloka-Onyango (Africa World Press, 2017), and Gender Poverty and Social Transformation: Reflections on Fractures and Continuities in Contemporary Uganda , with G. Bantebya et al. (Fountain Publishers, 2014). Beatrix Allah-Mensah is Senior Country Operations Officer of the World Bank Ghana office. She completed her PhD at the University of Ghana on ‘The Politics of Implementing Environmental Policy for Sustainable Development in Ghana’. Her research interests also include women in politics and public life in Ghana. Other research interests and areas of publication include NGOs, democracy and elections, and women’s advocacy and development issues. She is author of the book Women in Politics and Public Life in Ghana (Friedrich- Ebert-Foundation, 2005). Lillian Artz is Professor and Director of the Gender Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She has published widely on sexual and gender-based violence, incarcerated women, and women’s rights to freedom and security in Africa. Her current work includes female and other key populations in prisons and psychiatric settings, torture prevention, and the epidemiology and prevalence of child sexual abuse, the latter of which was recently published in Lancet Global Health . She is the Editor-in-Chief of Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of Criminology Asmita Basu is a lawyer with more than 15 years of experience working on women’s rights and human rights law and policy as a researcher, consultant, and senior manager in the nongovernmental organization (NGO)/development sector. She served as Coordinator of the Lawyers Collective, a national-level Indian NGO, ‘from 2002–2009’. She has significant experience in monitoring xviii Contributors and reviewing the implementation of laws and has been called upon as a policy expert to review legislative approaches in dealing with violence against women in Bangladesh, Laos, Myanmar, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. Jennie E. Burnet is an Associate Professor in the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University in the United States. She led the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (ESID) research project in Rwanda on Gender and Political Settlements. Her research on the social, cultural, and psychological aspects of war, genocide, and mass violence has appeared in Politics & Gender , African Affairs , and African Studies Review . Her book, Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory & Silence in Rwanda (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012) won the 2013 Elliot Skinner Award from the Association for Africanist Anthropology. Anne Marie Goetz has been Clinical Professor at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University since January 2014. She served at the United Nations since 2005 as a Policy Director of Governance, Peace and Security, first at UNIFEM and since 2011 at UN Women. She is a political scientist studying how development policies in fragile states promote the interests of marginalized social groups, particularly poor women. She is the author of seven books on the subjects of gender, politics, and policy in developing countries, including the edited volume: Governing Women: Women in Politics and Governance in Developing Countries (Routledge, 2009). Valérie Grand’Maison is a Research Assistant and PhD student at the Centre for the Study of Legal and Social Responses to Violence at the University of Guelph, Canada. She is involved in research on femicide and is specifically interested in the response of the healthcare system in preventing violence against women. Prior to this she was a Researcher in the Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, working on gender-based violence and, in particular, training of healthcare providers and evidence-based advocacy. Sam Hickey is Professor of Politics and Development in the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, UK, and Research Director of the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (ESID). His recent work on the politics of development has been published in African Affairs, Journal of Development Studies , and World Development . He has edited or co-edited six collections, the most recent being The Politics of Inclusive Development: Interrogating the Evidence (Oxford University Press, 2015, with Kunal Sen and Badru Bukenya). Sophie King is Research Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, UK. She has previously worked at The University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute, UK, and the School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, UK. Her research and practice has focused on community organizing and inclusive local governance in the UK and the Global South. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Development Studies , The European Journal of Development Research , and Third World Quarterly Contributors xix Amon Mwiine is an Assistant Lecturer, School of Gender and Women Studies, Makerere University, Uganda, and a PhD (sociology) candidate at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He has experience in teaching and research in participatory forms of qualitative research, gender mainstreaming, sexuality, and critical masculinity studies. His current PhD project is exploring the phenomenon of ‘male champions’—men who speak to issues of gender on behalf of women—in legislative processes in Uganda. He is also a United Nations Development Programme-accredited Gender Auditor and a Research Associate at the Centre for Basic Research, Kampala, Uganda. Sohela Nazneen is Research Fellow in Gender and Sexuality at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and formerly Professor of International Relations at University of Dhaka and a Lead Researcher at the Centre for Gender and Social Transformation (CGST), BRAC University, Bangladesh. Her research mainly focuses on institutional analysis of gender, particularly in the areas of governance and feminist movements. She is the project leader of the Gender and Political Settlements research project for ESID at The University of Manchester, UK. She is the co-editor of Voicing Demands: Feminist Activism in Transitional Contexts (Zed Books, 2014). Rhoda Osei-Afful is a Research Officer with the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), a leading research and advocacy think tank based in Ghana. She holds an MPhil in International Affairs and a BA in Sociology with Political Science from the University of Ghana. She has contributed to a number of publications on elections, gender, and political processes, including youth participation in contemporary Ghanaian politics and electoral violence, the increasing role of technology in elections in Africa, and women’s inclusion in political processes in Africa. Eleni Sifaki is Research Associate at the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, UK. She has previously worked at the Gender Institute–LSE and The University of Manchester. Her research focuses on the politics of gender equity, gender and labour in global production networks, and the gendered dimensions and implications of economic crisis and austerity. She was a commissioned author for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, investigating the effects of women’s unpaid care and productive work on their access to rural labour markets in developing countries. Among her publications is a forthcoming article in Feminist Economics Georgina Waylen is Professor of Politics at The University of Manchester, UK. Prior to this she was a Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and she previously taught at the Universities of Salford and East Anglia, UK. Her main research interests lie in the fields of comparative politics/political economy with a focus on gender and politics, international political economy, transitions to democracy, and governance and institutions. She has published widely in these areas, including her latest edited volume Gender and Informal Institutions (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). Preface and acknowledgements In recent years, we have witnessed a counter-movement against feminism and the promotion of women’s rights around the world. The global gag rule ushered in by the Trump administration, movements against sexual harassment such as Me Too, targeted trolling of feminist writers in the media, and the persistently high levels of violence against women around the world, all remind us that the gains made towards gender equity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries cannot be taken for granted. In particular, it seems clear that simply ensuring that women have a place at the table, in terms of political inclusion, is not enough to ensure that policies aimed at promoting gender equity are adopted and implemented. In 2011, the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (ESID), 1 based at the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, commissioned a systematic review of the gendered nature of the politics of inclusive development, focusing mainly on studies conducted on coun- tries in the Global South. The review revealed that while women had entered politics and policy spaces in the Global South in ever-greater numbers, their ability to influence the adoption and implementation of gender equity policies remained limited. This in turn raised questions about the political conditions under which ruling elites and governments gained the commitment and capacity to promote gender equity and what might be done to support this, including (but not only) by female parliamentarians. We realized that there is an urgent need for mid-range theories that could explain the politics of gender equity in the Global South, not least because much of the contemporary literature on gender and politics did not seem to be well-grounded in the political realities of develop- ing countries. This led to the development of a comparative research framework, integrating elements borrowed from the politics and development literature along with recent advances within the gender and politics literature. The project, titled ‘Gender and Political Settlements’, was undertaken in six countries between 2013 and 2016, with a particular focus on the case of efforts to promote policy reforms against domestic violence. This book brings together the findings and analysis from this project. We have been fortunate to work with excellent research partners in the six case-study countries, all of whom were involved in co-constructing the intellectual agenda with us and have been very patient as we put the collection together. As editors,