A/Prof. Susan Engel1
1University of Wollongong, Australia
Biography:
Susan Engel, Associate Professor, Politics and International Studies, Co-Director Future of Rights Centre, University of Wollongong, email sengel@uow.edu.au
Abstract:
Most development banks claim to promote gender equality often through gender mainstreaming policies. This paper compares the approach of a multilateral development bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to gender in India with that of the country’s National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), a public bank that is said to adopt a somewhat de-financialized approach to development. The paper explores the extent to which gender mainstreaming has affected the internal and external operations of the banks; identifies promising and poor practices; and identifies challenges and opportunities for implementing rights-based approaches to gender and development. It identifies if there are similarities and differences with the World Bank’s ‘smart economics’ (2012) approach, which centres on the idea that investing in women’s economic participation is ‘smart’ because it also boosts the economy. The paper concludes with some speculations on whether the NABARD’s domestic agenda versus ADB’s multinational structure may be responsible for differences in approach.