Promoting Gender Equality by Facilitating Women's Collective Problem-Solving Capacity Development : Japanese Experience with the Post-War Life Improvement Program and its Application to Contemporary Developing Countries

One of the most important qualities for human beings to have is agency: a core capacity/competence for making decisions, entering into agreements, and acting by and for themselves. Agency is a crucial dimension also in the promotion of gender equality. In practice, women in developing countries often are not allowed to make independent decisions or take independent actions. This is the case even in their biological roles, such as with respect to the home life issues which are within their gender norms and thus closely associated with practical gender needs (PGNs). We must ask, then, what pragmatic (effective and culturally sensitive) strategies, if taken by policy makers and program managers, might help empower women and promote gender equality over the long run? This paper presents experience with the Life Improvement Program (LIP),1 implemented in Japan after World War II and since the mid-2000s applied to JICA development projects/programs in developing countries, It also evaluates LIP contributions in post-war and contemporary contexts.