Section 4 - Research and knowledge-production
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⧫ Beginner: Entry-level tools and step-by-step guides for investors and financial institutions to get started on their gender mainstreaming journeys.
⧫⧫ Intermediate: Intermediate-level tools, strategies, guidelines, and manuals for investors and financial institutions already working with impact-investing frameworks and with a solid understanding of the concepts of gender, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
⧫⧫⧫ Advanced: Advanced-level intersectional frameworks and analytical gender lenses for investors and financial institutions with established GDE&I practices and a strong conceptual understanding of applying a gender lens across institutional activities.
☆Must read
*** Key resource for diversifying the gender perspective
Do the publications, articles, case studies and the content the institution produces include a diverse gender perspective?
Choose your answer
Integrating a gender perspective into any research is an important way to contribute to gender equality and create more robust results. Research does not only happen inside academia, but includes all scientific analysis, ideas, designs, proposals, dissemination of results, surveys, and data collection done both in private, public and civil society sectors.
Including a gender lens in product or market research can contribute to the wellbeing and customer satisfaction of a much larger population than originally thought of.
This Section 4 can help investors, financial institutes, intermediaries and other private sector actors to understand gender as an intersectional category of analysis and to include other characteristics, for example, age, income, education, location or ethnicity across all data collection, knowledge-production, infographics and reports the institution produces and publishes.
Select the challenges you identify with and explore the resources
Challenge:
Are you interested in designing a new product or a financial instrument? Try design thinking with a gender perspective. The Tool 1 in the Ilu Toolbox (lens 3) can guide you through the creation and development of products with a gender lens and get you started in the process of becoming more creative in gender equality. Or perhaps you’re already ready to move onto interviews, surveys and focus groups with your clients? Check the Tool 2 in the Ilu Toolbox (lens 3) to get started and Section 4.2 for ethics and interviews.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English, Spanish
Are you a program implementer or someone who designs operative plans or policies? The EIGE guide on Gender Planning is a quick and easy-to read resource on why planning any program, policy or process needs a gender perspective.
⧫ Beginner, English
Many organizations who publish large data-sets in recent years have come under scrutiny for the irregularities and biases in their data collection methods. These can be as simple as not analyzing men and women’s needs comparatively or Global North institutions producing knowledge on Global South lived realities without consulting on the target populations about the research and its methodologies.
There are two sections that can guide you further: Section 5 in this toolkit can help with understanding why collecting data with a gender perspective is important and Section 10 helps guide you through an ethics process that can contribute to more transparent and comprehensive datasets and Section 3 can help you disseminate your results in a more intentional and diverse way.
Challenge:
Interested in learning more about the gender gap in internet access, digital skills, and online right? One of the most exhaustive collections of materials can be found at the World Wide Web Foundation’s resource bank here.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English
Did you know that various barriers prevent women and girls from accessing the internet and participating online? These can include unaffordable devices and data tariffs, inequalities in education and digital skills, social norms that discourage women and girls from being online, and fears around privacy, safety, and security. Read more here.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English
The Ilu Toolbox Lens 3 Tool 10 can guide you through on how to create an environment where you can test your product or a service. Check out Step 6 on how to execute the research.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English, Spanish
Understanding the institution’s responsibility in creating a space where all people can participate meaningfully is an important part of gender mainstreaming. Read through the Pro Mujer and Acrux Partners case study on how we formalized guidance around safe participation with an intermediary in Central America.
When visiting conferences or traveling for work, whether as an employee or employer, it is important to consider safety for all. This guide can help you toward an organizational approach to LGBT+ mobility and navigate through what needs to be considered in terms of international mobility and risk assessment.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English, *** Key resource for diversifying the gender perspective
Ever wonder what an anti-racist institutional strategy looks like? This guide outlines six principles to help organizations develop an action strategy to help end systemic racism and address racial inequalities at work – one being about connecting people by creating safe spaces, systems and times to talk, share experiences and learn from each other.
⧫⧫ Intermediate, English, ☆Must read
Challenge:
Scroll down to How does gender stakeholder consultation work? of this EIGE toolkit. Do not be alarmed that the focus is on public policy, the methodologies are the same and can be easily implemented for private sector actors interested in understanding why everyone’s opinions, needs and concerns should be considered.
⧫ Beginner, English
Need to become more participatory in your processes? Check out Section 9.3 in this toolkit and learn how including different voices in decision-making can transform your institution.
Know what gender bias is in research? Want to write a proposal for a potential funder? Watch this short video from the EU Science & Innovation to understand why gender-blind research is no longer an option.
⧫ Beginner, English
Sometimes bias-checks can be outsourced and tackled with a simple tool. However, it is sometimes difficult to determine at a glance whether a feminist or LGB(T) page is trans-friendly or transphobic. You can add this simple plug-in to your browser to highlight pages that do not fit your values.
⧫ Beginner, ***Key resource for diversifying the gender perspective
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