Culturally sensitive approaches to development are critical if countries intend to advance human rights, particularly those of women who continue to suffer gender inequality owing to deep-rooted cultural beliefs, a report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said.
Development practitioners ignore culture at their peril, the State of the World Population 2008 report from UNFPA said, underscoring a strong link between cultural fluency, cultural politics and tackling the root causes of distress and denial of human rights.
A local panel discussion on the issues raised in the report was held yesterday to coincide with its launch. Panelists pointed to the multicultural make-up of the country, the struggles many local women still face within some cultures and the power relations between men and women as regards sexual reproductive health.
Panelists included University of Guyana (UG) lecturers Al Creighton and Andrew Hicks and gender consultant Vanda Radzik. They addressed the issue of culture and how it impacts on development in Guyana.
It was posited that Guyana is multicultural and does not necessarily have a particular culture that is a fusion of its ethnic composition.
Radzik, who focused specifically on women, spoke of how studies have shown a marked improvement in the lives of the local Mascushi women who are “challenging the negatives in their culture and imbalances in their lives”. She said that changes are taking place in communities in North Rupununi because the women are re-negotiating their cultural roles and re-affirming what their roles are.
According to Radzik, Macushi women are now leaving their homes and going after food; providing for their families and working equally as hard as the men. In some instances, she said, the women are getting the men involved in what they are doing.
“It is really amazing what is happening in those areas and to see women operating with fluency and re-negotiating their roles,” she added.
In the State of the World Population report, it was noted that culturally sensitive approaches, as the means through which culture is successfully negotiated, are about integrating economic, political, social and other dimensions to develop a comprehensive picture of how people function within their social contexts, and why they make the choices they do.
“Cultural fluency is an integral part of a multidimensional approach to development, rather than a distinct and superior method of analysis. Culturally sensitive approaches encourage humility among those who work with communities for the well-being of all their members, without discrimination. They are concerned with building the relationships of recognition, respect and trust which are fundamental for human development,” the report said.
The report, however, focuses on putting culturally sensitive approaches into practice; addressing some of the everyday circumstances in which culture affects not only social relationships, but development issues such as gender inequalities, maternal health, fertility, ageing and poverty.
Cultural development is as much a right as economic or social development says the report, and as it relates to women, it pointed out that that gender inequality remains widespread and deeply rooted in many cultures despite international agreements, including most recently the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Statistics provided noted that women and girls account for three-fifths of the world’s one billion poorest people; women make up two-thirds of the 960 million adults in the world who cannot read, and of the 130 million children who are out of school, 70 per cent are girls.
It added that advances in gender equality have never come without cultural struggle.
Further, the report pointed out that the UNFPA approach integrates work towards human rights and gender equality with cultural sensitivity. The approach encourages change from within, while respecting both national sovereignty and cultural integrity.
