Family Juvenile and gender and development

Gender and development

Gender, and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to international development issues.[citation needed] This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectation of the genders within the community.[citation needed]

The Overseas Development Institute has highlighted that policy dialogue on the Millennium Development Goals needs to recognise that the gender dynamics of power, poverty, vulnerability and care link all the goals.[79]

As well as directly addressing inequality, attention to gender issues is regarded as important to the success of development programs, for all participants.[citation needed] For example, in microfinance it is common to target women, as besides the fact that women tend to be over-represented in the poorest segments of the population, they are also regarded as more reliable at repaying the loans.[citation needed]

Some organizations working in developing countries and in the development field have incorporated advocacy and empowerment for women into their work. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization adopted in November 2009 a 10-year strategic framework that includes the strategic objective of gender equity in access to resources, goods, services and decision-making in rural areas, and mainstreams gender equity in all FAO's programmes for agriculture and rural development.[80] The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has developed a Gender Evaluation Methodology for planning and evaluating development projects to ensure they benefit all sectors of society including women.[81]

The Gender-related Development Index (GDI), developed by the United Nations (UN), aims to show the inequalities between men and women in the following areas: long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.

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Juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency refers to children who act against the law. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the causes of youth crime. Youth crime is a major issue and is an aspect of crime which receives great attention from the news media and politicians. Crime committed by young people has risen since the mid-twentieth century, as have most types of crime[citation needed]. The level and types of youth crime can be used by commentators as an indicator of the general state of morality  and law and order in a country, and consequently youth crime can be the source of ‘moral panics’ [1]  Theories on the causes of youth crime can be viewed as particularly important within criminology. This is firstly because crime is committed disproportionately by those aged between fifteen and twenty-five.[2]  Secondly, by definition any theories on the causes of crime will focus on youth crime, as adult criminals will have likely started offending when they were young. Usually,a delinquent will do to someone else what has been done to them. A Juvenile Delinquent is one who repeatedly commits crime. These juvenile delinquents sometimes have mental disorders/behavioral issues such as post traumatic stress disorder or bipolar disorder, and are sometimes diagnosed with conduct disorder[3]  partially as a result of their delinquent behaviors.


Family environment

Family factors which may have an influence on offending include; the level of parental supervision, the way parents discipline a child, parental conflict or separation, criminal parents or siblings, parental abuse or neglect, and the quality of the parent-child relationship (Graham & Bowling: 1995 p. 33) Children brought up by lone parents are more likely to start offending than those who live with two natural parents, however once the attachment a child feels towards their parent(s) and the level of parental supervision are taken into account, children in single parent families are no more likely to offend than others. (Graham & Bowling: 1995 p. 35) Conflict between a child's parents is also much more closely linked to offending than being raised by a lone parent. (Walklate: 2003 p. 106) If a child has low parental supervision they are much more likely to offend. (Graham & Bowling: 1995) Many studies have found a strong correlation between a lack of supervision and offending, and it appears to be the most important family influence on offending. (Farrington: 2002 p. 610) (Graham & Bowling: 1995 p. 38) When parents commonly do not know where their children are, what their activities are, or who their friends are, children are more likely to truant from school and have delinquent friends, each of which are linked to offending. (Graham & Bowling: 1995 p. 45,46) A lack of supervision is connected to poor relationships between children and parents, as children who are often in conflict with their parents may be less willing to discuss their activities with them. (Graham & Bowling: 1995 p. 37) Children with a weak attachment to their parents are more likely to offend. (Graham & Bowling: 1995 p. 37)
[edit] Delinquency prevention

Delinquency Prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal, or other antisocial, activity. Increasingly, governments are recognizing the importance of allocating resources for the prevention of delinquency. Because it is often difficult for states to provide the fiscal resources necessary for good prevention, organizations, communities, and governments are working more in collaboration with each other to prevent juvenile delinquency.

With the development of delinquency in youth being influenced by numerous factors, prevention efforts are comprehensive in scope. Prevention services include activities such as substance abuse education and treatment, family counseling, youth mentoring, parenting education, educational support, and youth sheltering.


Gender and Development

A Philippine law, Republic Act (RA) 7192, otherwise known as the Women in Development and Nation-Building Act provides that "a substantial portion of official development assistance (ODA) funds shall be set aside and utilized by the agencies concerned to support programs and activities for women."

The Philippine government and the various bilateral and multilateral ODA donors have committed themselves to improving women’s participation in development and promoting gender equality, and adopting gender mainstreaming as a strategy for achieving these goals .

The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) is the national machinery for women directed to undertake policy advocacy and coordinate national efforts to bring about women’s empowerment and gender equality. The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), under RA 7192 and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) is tasked to 1) ensure the participation of women as recipients in foreign aid, grants and loans; 2) provide regular update on ODA resources actually committed for gender concerns; and 3) provide guidelines for the monitoring and evaluation of projects to determine the extent to which gender concerns have been addressed and mainstreamed.

A number of initial steps have been taken on the field of gender mainstreaming in ODA in the Philippines for the past two years. The UN in the Philippines (particularly UNIFEM-Philippines) has initially assisted the NCRFW and NEDA in classifying ODA funded projects using the RA 7192 categories and the Harmonised GAD Guidelines as reference points. The ADB has provided assistance to NCRFW and NEDA in the initial publication of and the orientation on the Harmonised GAD Guidelines.However, in the preparatory meetings of the 2007 Philippine Development Forum or PDF (annual meeting of donors with the Government of the Philippines and select civil society groups), it has become clear that NCRFW and NEDA need to update the ODA database and report to provide a complete picture of ODA compliance to RA 7192 and the MDG commitments.

To help the government and donors keep track of its commitments related to gender equality, women’s empowerment and Millennium development goals (MDGs), the development of a common reporting tool and online database on gender mainstreaming compliance of Philippine ODAs are much needed.