Gender-sensitiveness of Belgian aid discourse and practice at the turn of the century

This paper assesses the gender sensitiveness of Belgian aid at the turn of the century by looking at gender policy discourse and practice. It is shown that declarations regarding the integration of gender issues into development interventions largely live up to standards set at the Beijing conference. However, confronting the policy discourse with effective changes in procedures and resource allocation nuances the positive verdict. While promising changes are discernible there remains much room for improvement in policy implementation. The article argues that unequal results are due to the fact that on the one hand the gender equality ideal has been espoused enthusiastically as it fitted the evolving discourse of the Belgian donor well, whereas on the other hand the policy evaporation that often surrounds crosscutting issues such as gender was not effectively addressed. The inherent difficulty of managing gender issues has in the Belgian case further been aggravated by serious organisational problems that have weakened Belgian development co-operation over the last decade.