ABSTRACT
GDKS is an information intermediary committed to information production and dissemination that promotes more gender-equal outcomes in development. The information GDKS produces and disseminates is targeted towards policymakers, practitioners, researchers and activists with the aim of ‘mainstreaming’ gender into policies and decision-making processes at all levels. There is an extensive literature, introduced briefly in Chapter 2, on the opportunities and challenges of knowledge translation and/or research utilisation to inform policy and practice that provides insights into the production, monitoring and evaluation of information (for development) initiatives and the difficulty of measuring impact. Whilst that research is undoubtedly valuable, this study is not an evaluation of one particular service or set of knowledge transmission processes, nor is it an attempt to assess impact. What is under examination here are GDKS’ knowledge practices and how, if at all, they embody broader critical responses to the challenges of creating a more inclusive knowledge society. To address this question, the chapter offers an in-depth analysis of the assumptions underpinning perceptions of good practice in K4D in relation to the imagined capacities of Southern women and NGOs. The chapter begins by outlining GDKS’ knowledge practices and then proceeds to locate these practices within wider perceptions of good knowledge practice in development as represented by the views of donors, other NGOs and other women’s information intermediaries located in both the North and the South. This is followed by an overview and some brief reflections on GDKS’ monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mechanisms as a way of locating broader M&E practices in this sector.
