The Gender and Development (GAD) approach is a way of determining how best to structure development projects and programs based on analysis of gender relationships. It was developed in the 1980s as an alternative to the Women in Development

Women in Development

Women in Development is an approach to development projects that emerged in the 1970s, calling for treatment of women's issues in development projects...

 (WID) approach that was in common use until then.

Theory

Unlike WID, the GAD approach is not concerned specifically with women, but with the way in which a society assigns roles, responsibilities and expectations to both women and men. GAD applies gender analysis

Gender analysis

Gender analysis is a type of socio-economic analysis that uncovers how gender relations affect a development problem. The aim may just be to show that gender relations will probably affect the solution, or to show how they will affect the solution and what could be done...

 to uncover the ways in which men and women work together, presenting results in neutral terms of economics and efficiency.

Caroline Moser

Caroline Moser

Caroline Moser is an academic specialising in social policy and urban social anthropology. She is primarily famous for her field-based approach to research on the informal sector generally - but particularly aspects such as poverty, violence, asset vulnerability and strategies for accumulation in...

 developed the Moser Gender Planning Framework

Moser Gender Planning Framework

The Moser Gender Planning Framework is a tool for gender analysis in development planning that was developed by Caroline Moser. The goal is to free women from subordination and allow them to achieve equality, equity and empowerment.-Origin:...

 for GAD-oriented development planning in the 1980s while working at the Development Planning Unit of the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

. Working with Caren Levy, she expanded it into a methodology for gender policy and planning.
The Moser framework follows the Gender and Development approach in emphasizing the importance of gender relations.
As with the WID-based Harvard Analytical Framework

Harvard Analytical Framework

The Harvard Analytical Framework, also called the Gender Roles Framework, is one of the earliest frameworks for understanding differences between men and women in their participation in the economy...

, it includes collection of quantitative empirical facts. Going further, it investigates the reasons and processes that lead to conventions of access and control.
The Moser Framework includes gender roles identification, gender needs assessment, disaggregating control of resources and decision making withn the household, planning for balancing the triple role, distinguishing between different aims in interventions and involving women and gender-aware organizations in planning.

Usage

The World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

was one of the first international organizations to recognise the need for Women in Development, appointing a WID Adviser in 1977. In 1984 the bank mandated that its programs consider women's issues. In 1994 the bank issued a policy paper on Gender and Development, reflecting current thinking on the subject. This policy aims to address policy and institutional contraints that maintain disparities between the genders and thus limit the effectiveness of development programs.

Criticism

GAD has been criticized for emphasizing the social differences between men and women while neglecting the bonds between them and also the potential for changes in roles. Another criticism is that GAD does not dig deep enough into social relations and so may not explain how these relations can undermine programs directed at women. It also does not uncover the types of trade-off that women are prepared to make for the sake of achieving their ideals of marriage or motherhood.