WOMEN'S INCOME GENERATION AND INFORMAL LEARNING IN LESOTHO: A POLICY-RELATED ETHNOGRAPHY

This study presents a policy-related ethnography of women's income generation in Lesotho. The study begins with the proposition that current Women in Development (WID) policy has been shaped, at the international and local level, by over-generalized and, therefore, decontextualized concepts derived from recent WID literature. While a number of these WID concepts, i.e. women's "marginalization," may be generally valid, they tend to narrow our understanding and predefine our interpretation of women's development needs in specific situations. As a result, a "standardized" approach to WID programming has emerged. The study addresses the need to "break-away" from the standardized concepts underlying conventional WID policy in order to learn about how the proposed beneficiaries of WID policy, the women themselves, interpret and respond to the needs and conditions to their particular environment.