Transformative Policy for Poor Women

Bina Fernandez, Lecturer in Development Studies, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia

• Contents: Introduction; Constructing a new feminist framework for policy analysis; Constitutive contexts of SGSY; Policy representations in SGSY; Policy practices in SGSY; Policy consequences; Analysing policy in Peru, Brazil and Malawi; Transformative policy: a new feminist analytical framework; Bibliography; Index.

'In the development policy literature, this arresting book will rank alongside Ferguson's classic The Anti-Politics Machine. At the empirical level, Transformative Policy for Poor Women explains the routine paradox of policy that fails to benefit its beneficiaries. At the theoretical level, Bina Fernandez has combined critical public administration with a feminist anti-reductionism in a novel and fertile approach. This well-written book is sure to inspire applications worldwide - and the world will be the better for them.' Barbara Harriss-White, Oxford University, UK 'Why and how do anti-poverty policies so often fail to benefit poor women? Fernandez interrogates these persistent failures with an engaging combination of scholarly precision and feminist focus. She provides a lucid explanation of her innovative framework for policy investigation: the relationship between constitutive contexts, policy representations, policy practices and consequences. Going beyond the original context prompting this analysis - policy for poor women in India - she applies her framework across several developing countries to demonstrate its relevance as an alternative policy approach for analyzing intersecting inequalities. An insightful book that clearly moves debates forward.' Caroline Dyer, University of Leeds, UK 'At a time when "poor women" have become a primary target of anti-poverty policies, this book provides a much-needed analytical framework for understanding why policy objectives are not often achieved and why there may be persistent policy failures. Moving beyond the "thin" prescription/evaluation mind-set that characterises the study of policy in developing countries, it provides us with a "thick" description of policy as simultaneously about the discursive production of meaning and as a regime of practices.' Shahra Razavi, UNRISD, Geneva, Switzerland 'Transformative Policy for Poor Women provides an insightful and practical framework for feminist policy analysis, filling an absolutely crucial gap in feminist development literature... Fernandez's framework is a useful tool and her findings confirm some long-held beliefs of feminist critics, grounding them in a rigorous study that includes policy recommendations for transforming anti-poverty policy. The book is noteworthy for its development of a far-reaching and theoretically considered framework for policy analysis: by rejecting a reductive policy design/implementation binary, Fernandez provides insights into the flaws written into policy and reproduced through informal policy practices... It will prove a useful text for specialists although it requires a large amount of background knowledge and so may be less appropriate for students. Nonetheless, Bina Fernandez's contribution to feminist development literature is a significant step forward in addressing the gap between feminist hopes for transformative policy and the reality of development policy today.' Political Studies Review