This book provides a timely contribution to the field of gender and development in the face of the looming failure of international development targets, the deepening HIV/AIDS pandemic and the increased incidence of civil conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The overall ambition of the collection is to question assumptions behind much development policy and practice and to push out conceptual boundaries by providing critical insights from local empirical studies that bring new theoretical configurations to specific policy and practice contexts. The chapter contributions are from African and ‘Northern’ writers who have critically engaged with the ways that gendered and sexual identities are produced in particular educational and social settings in this diverse continent. After providing a consolidation of the field, the book highlights its departures from earlier work on gender, education, society and development to open spaces that provide a springboard for further research and critique around persistent and enduring development issues.
Following two introductory chapters, the text is organised in four main sections concerning gendered institutions, sexual identities, HIV/AIDS and conflict. In addressing such critical issues, this edited collection is essential reading for professionals, policy-makers, practitioners and students from a wide range of institutions including government departments, international agencies, NGOs and universities in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as in other low and high income countries worldwide.