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Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have not been very successful in gender mainstreaming. This article will show, with examples from the PRSPs of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, how gender issues have been largely ignored in the design, poverty analysis, and policy actions of PRSPs. It will be argued that the reason for this failure is only partially a lack of political will and gender expertise on the side of the governments and PRS teams. Rather, the main reason for the failure of integrating gender in PRSPs is the overall framework of PRSPs, which does not allow for gender mainstreaming in macroeconomic policies. The core of the framework consists of narrowly defined macroeconomic targets and policies, while giving less importance to broader socio-economic objectives and policies. This, in turn, tends to shift gender entirely to a secondary, social concern, rather than being part and parcel of the core of the poverty reduction framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grandparents play a critical role in the reorganisation of care brought about by the increasing migration of women. Yet, they are conspicuously absent from the migration literature. This article looks at the role of grandparents, particularly grandmothers, in caring for migrants' children. It draws on a case study of a rapidly urbanising neighbourhood in Bolivia, and identifies grandmothers as both givers and receivers of care. Through a typology of different types of living arrangements, the article seeks to identify the processes that lead to greater vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Law of Popular Participation (LPP) in Bolivia can be seen as the first significant attempt by policy makers in the region to mainstream gender into a national development initiative. The LPP seeks to devolve power and resources from the national to the local level. It is the first Bolivian law to be explicitly couched in gendered terms, and aims to increase the prominence of women in local political and development spheres. However, as I suggest in this article, in some respects the LPP has actually had the effect of displacing women from the very site of their traditional forms of political activism, at community level. As greater status, power, and resources have been devolved to politics at this level, men have become more prominent in this previously neglected, 'feminised' sphere. The article argues that, to some extent, the goal of mainstreaming gender into national development via the LPP was missed. Reasons include a lack of effective and systematic gendered analysis of the structural barriers to women's participation, and the failure to support gender mainstreaming, and women's participation, through capacity building at all levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]