WUNRN
The March 2012 issue of the
international journal Gender & Development, (published for
Oxfam GB by Routledge/Taylor and Francis) will look at Business and
Development and feminist policymakers and practitioners, and
researchers, including private sector workers themselves, are all invited to
share insights in this Business and
A key focus in this issue will be the
impact on development, gender equality and women’s rights of progressive
businesses, which are integrating social and environmental responsibilities
into their core business operations and decision-making processes, for example
through Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Trading Initiatives.
Article ideas might include:
·
Examples
of companies and jobs offering women ‘decent work’, discussing the reasons for
these initiatives/charting their impact on livelihoods, working conditions,
rights, equality.
·
Have new business
strategies such as Corporate Social Responsibility, etc, actually improved
conditions for female workers? Have
multi stakeholder initiatives such as the
·
Home-based workers – case studies of
initiatives which focus on the particular challenges of decent work for women
homeworkers
·
What
are the effects of efforts to make goods and services affordable to poor women
and men and their dependents in developing countries, on the target markets,
and on local economies?
Another focus in this issue will be the
scope offered by small and medium enterprise to provide decent work for women
in developing countries, and the barriers to entry and growth of women-owned
businesses. We will focus on ways in which NGOs and businesses can support
women to scale-up their operations, increase their bargaining power in markets,
diversify the goods and services they offer, and gain access to the resources
they need to turn their activities into successful enterprises. Ideas:
·
Examples
of development/business initiatives promoting female entrepreneurs in the small
and medium-sized enterprise sector – particularly focusing on the following:
o
Constraints
and opportunities for women starting and growing SMEs
o
Do
women-owned SMEs perform differently from men-owned businesses, in terms of
wages/working conditions for their employees, product lines, ways of doing
business?
All articles need to be based on first-hand experience, or
research on-the-ground in particular country contexts. We
particularly welcome contributions from development practitioners with
first-hand experience to share. Don’t worry if you think you are not a writer
for a journal – we will help you with style and language! For full guidelines
and more information on the journal visit www.genderanddevelopment.org
Please send a paragraph
outlining your proposed idea for an article for this issue to csweetman@oxfam.org.uk, , as soon
as possible, and before the commissioning deadline: 8 August 2011. If we are
able to offer space for your contribution, we will write to you by 15 August to
say so. Commissioned articles will need to be completed for a deadline of 15 October 2011.