ABSTRACT
When a new issue, such as gender, appears on the planning agenda, the first question raised is who will deal with it? Is it necessary to create an entirely new institutional structure or is it more appropriate to institutionalize it within existing mainstream organizations? Or is the best strategy simultaneously to do both? Underlying these different alternatives is the fundamental issue whether gender can be ‘grafted’ successfully onto existing structures, or whether it requires other structures to be effectively integrated into planning. What is clear, however, is that recognition of gender as a policy concern has not resulted in its automatic institutionalization into the wide range of agencies implementing policies for low-income communities in the Third World. Therefore, in the implementation of gender planning practice the first constraint for consideration is that of institutional factors.
