A development talk on ‘Gender and Human Development in the 21st Century: Dialogue with the Next Generation’ was held on Wednesday, 8th August at the British Council Auditorium, Dhaka. The talk was organized by the Institute of Development Studies Alumni Association, Bangladesh with the support of Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. The speaker of this talk was Dr. Selim Jahan, Director, Human Development Report Office, UNDP, New York.
In his speech, Dr. Jahan provided a detail account on human development and gender in the context of 21st century. He asserted that development policies, strategies and interventions must place human beings at the heart of their efforts. While doing that they must consider the development needs of people based on their gender, ethnic identity, religion and other identities. He added that capacity building of people and creating opportunities for them are the two most needed things that need to be promoted and facilitated to help people grow in an interconnected world. However, there has to be a striking balance between capacity building and creating opportunities. Dr. Jahan referred to the famous notion of Dr. Armartya Sen’s ‘development as freedom’ and opined that freedom from all forms of exploitation and deprivation can help human beings realize their full potential and contribute towards development at multi levels. He underscored the need to emphasis on community or group based approach in development that can help individuals empower themselves and participate in and benefit from development interventions.
Dr. Jahan strongly reckoned that gender is an integral part of development. Gender consideration must be inherent in development planning. He added that we must consider the differences between men and women and their differential capabilities to participate in development initiatives. He asserted that it is hard to come up with a quantitative measure of all development interventions. For example, it might be possible to measure gender parity in the enrollment of boys and girls in primary or high school education against some predetermined set targets; however it is a daunting task to quantify to what extent the achieved gender parity contributes to alter household power dynamics. Therefore, to understand women empowerment at the household level we need a full account of the contextual analysis of the social, political, economic, and cultural settings in which a household operates. At the end of his speech, Dr Jahan affirmed that achieving women empowerment requires the change of narrow mindset, values and perspectives of societies which are highly influenced by patriarchal norms.
The talk was attended by academics, journalists, development professionals, researchers, students from different public and private universities and alumni members. IDS Alumni Ambassador in Bangladesh Motasim Billah provided the welcome speech; Mahmuda Rahman Khan, Senior Alumni Member moderated the discussion session and Bushra Hasina Chowdhury, alumni member, rendered the concluding remarks.
