Bipasha Baruah
Biographic Data
| ID | 1399248 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bipasha Baruah |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bipasha |
| FAMILY NAME | Baruah |
| SIGNATURE | BARUAH B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 65 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The status of gender and development programming in Jordan
In this article, we evaluate the contemporary status of gender anddeveloping programming in Jordan by analyzing data collectedfrom interviews with 23 organizations. Gender programming isoften fragmented and ad hoc in nature taking a “gender equalswomen” with a focus on anti-poverty and efficiency-basedapproaches, rather than considering gender as a relational socialconstruct. The blurred line between the state and NGOs alsoundermines the potentia…
Harnessing women's traditional ecological knowledge through photovoice to address shea tree caterpillar (Cirina butyrospermi) infestation in semi-arid Ghana
“Even the goats feel the heat
Women's contributions to rangeland cultivation in Tunisia and the effects of climate change upon their livelihoods are both policy blind spots. To make women's contributions to rangeland cultivation visible and to provide policy inputs based on women's needs and priorities into the reforms currently being made in the pastoral code in Tunisia, we conducted fieldwork in three governorates. We conducted focus groups and interviews with 289 individua…
Beer, barley, livestock, milk
Research conducted in developing countries in the past 50 years generally suggests that most agricultural innovations (whether technological, social, or financial in nature) end up reinforcing existing socio-economic hierarchies based on gender and class. Most of these findings are drawn from the Green Revolution, which focused overwhelmingly on high-yielding varieties of rice, maize, and wheat, along with the introduction or expansion of irrigat…
Limit(ation)s, sustainability, and the future of climate migration
Climate change and human migration are two of the world's most pressing issues, as many populations rely on migration as an adaptation strategy to climatic stressors. Human experiences of, and responses to, climate stress are uneven and mediated by resource privilege. In many communities in the Global South, climate vulnerabilities are exacerbated by fragile ecological conditions due to geographical positioning, and many already marginalised grou…
Gender and appropriation of public space in Harare’s contested central city area
Street trading is a highly gendered form of economic activity practiced by the urban poor in most global south cities. Drawing from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, this paper examines the everyday struggles facing female street traders with children as they negotiate access to contested urban spaces to make a living in Harare’s Central Business District (CBD). The paper argues that public spaces in Harare’s CBD act as both ‘livel…
Indigenous women's employment in natural resource industries in Canada
Is a Mile for One a Mile for All?
The broad objectives of this study were to identify the following: (1) mobility differences globally between women and men (and by non-binary individuals, more broadly, where possible). This objective includes identifying and explaining heterogeneity in mobility needs and patterns in developed and developing countries (and intersectionality across gender, age, geographic location, ethnicity, disability, class and income, sexual identity, where po…
Creating and Optimizing Employment Opportunities for Women in the Clean Energy Sector in Canada
Women are a minority in the energy sector everywhere in the world—and Canada is no exception. Concerns about climate change and fossil fuel insecurity have ensured significant interest in Canada in the technologies and financing for transitioning to clean energy, but far too little attention is being paid to the employment equity implications of such a transition. Despite growing awareness that renewables like wind, solar, and bioenergy generate …
Next Generation of knowledge partnerships for global development. Introduction / Prochaine génération de partenariat de savoir pour le développement global. Introduction
Despite the rich potential benefits to be had from collaborations amongst practitioners and academic communities in the Canadian global development field, there is a general sense that such exchanges happen much less frequently than they could. The Next Generation programme, which underpins this special issue, presented an opportunity to address knowledge gaps in the current ecosystem of academic-civil society organization (CSO) collaborations, p…
Looming crisis - changing climatic conditions in Ghana's breadbasket
Climate change disproportionately affects livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people. The Upper West Region of Ghana is a climate-affected area where agrarian livelihoods have become unsustainable, with migration to the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR) becoming a key adaptation strategy. There is little research on postmigration experiences in BAR. Using qualitative methods, this article explores migrant farmers’ premigration expectations and postmigratio…
Gender and Asset Ownership in the Old and New Lands of Egypt
The Middle East and North Africa region has the lowest level of women’s land ownership in the world, yet little research has explored the barriers and opportunities women face in land ownership in the region. This paper identifies patterns, opportunities, and constraints of ownership of land and other assets (houses, livestock, poultry, and gold) by women and men in the Old and New Lands of Egypt. Based on a survey complemented with qualitative i…
Can Understanding Phenomenology and Human Capabilities Help Us Address Acid Violence
We draw on scholarly literature on the phenomenology of power and disability to understand both the impact of acid violence upon survivors’ lives and the motivations of perpetrators. We employ a human capabilities approach, espoused by prominent development theorists such as Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to propose policy responses and support systems based not solely on the provision of financial and material resources, but also on improving …
Women, work, and wage equity in agricultural labour in Saiss, Morocco
This article documents wages and working conditions for landless female and male agricultural labourers in Morocco. We found that higher-paid, equipment-intensive tasks were predominantly assigned to men, whereas women often performed lower-paid, time-intensive tasks. Women were systematically paid less than men even when they performed the same tasks. Enforcing existing legislation in Morocco to ensure equal pay for women is an essential first s…
Women on Wheels
Significant victories have been won due to the development sector’s engagement with gender inequality as a political project, but regressive shifts have also led to development being conceptualised as a managerial issue rather than as a process of social change. This article uses empirical research conducted in New Delhi, India with an organisation that trains and employs poor urban women as commercial drivers to discuss how an obsession with “co…
Women's NGOs as intermediaries in development cooperation
This article employs research conducted with the Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization in Tanzania to discuss opportunities, constraints, and broader lessons about the role of women’s NGOs as intermediaries in development projects. Findings reveal that women’s NGOs often have insecure positions in development projects and are undervalued by executing agencies because advocating for gender equality is perceived as a “natural” extension of women’s r…
NGOs as Intermediaries for Pro-Poor Electrification in India
Neoliberalism is generally associated with certain paradigmatic regulatory experiments, such as privatisation, deregulation, trade liberalisation, financialisation, structural adjustment, welfare cutbacks and monetarist shock therapy. Prominent observers of the global economy swiftly proclaimed the “end of neoliberalism” after the global economic crisis of 2008. This paper shares the experiences of two Indian NGO s participating in a multiple-sta…
Creating Opportunities for Women in the Renewable Energy Sector
This paper identifies opportunities and constraints that low-income women face in accessing livelihoods in the renewable-energy sector in India through qualitative and quantitative research conducted in collaboration with The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in 2012–13. Whereas previous research has focused on women mostly as end users of solar and biomass technologies, this research attempts also…
NGOs as intermediaries in post-disaster rural reconstruction
Drawing upon research conducted in Gujarat, India, this article identifies the potential and limitations for NGOs to serve as intermediaries (between beneficiaries, governments, and international relief/development organisations) on post-disaster rural reconstruction projects. Findings reveal that NGOs can play important roles in facilitating the design and construction of high-quality, culturally appropriate housing; revitalising and diversifyin…
Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean
This paper shares the findings of an assessment carried out in 2007 of a national adult literacy programme introduced in 2005 in the Eastern Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The paper discusses some social and spatial factors that may impede or facilitate men's and women's ability and desire to participate in adult literacy programmes. Surveys administered to programme participants, as well as interviews conducted with partic…
Monitoring gendered outcomes of environmental and development policies
Environmental and development policies used to be considered gender-neutral. Women's needs and interests were perceived to be identical to those of men. Empirical research has more recently asserted that policies that were thought to be gender-neutral were actually gender-blind and, therefore, either inadequate or inappropriate to capture the impacts upon women of environmental and development policies. This article presents a range of practical …
Gender and Globalization
This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India through empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) conducted two surveys in 1998 and 2003 to understand the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalization. A third survey was conducted in 2007 to assess the impacts of construction training prog…
NGOs in Microfinance
Over the past three decades, microfinance has become an extremely popular and populist development intervention. The Grameen Bank and its founder, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, were awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and the Global Microcredit Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia set itself the goal of lending to 175 million people around the world by 2015. Despite such global enthusiasm, the limitations of microfinance are gradually being acknowledged even by i…
Women and globalisation
This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India, citing empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) conducted three surveys in 1998, 2003, and 2007 to learn more about the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalisation. While enthusiastically endorsing the role that training and certification…
Monitoring progress towards gender-equitable poverty alleviation
This article contributes towards unpacking the relationships between gender, poverty and inequality at several interrelated levels. It explores the concept of poverty as a useful starting point not only for understanding how gender fits into it, but also for understanding why gender is not reducible to poverty. It provides a brief history of how poverty came to be analysed from a gender perspective, and how such a perspective advances our underst…
Earning Their Keep and Keeping What They Earn
It is now widely understood that the needs of women workers in the informal sector are not met by the conservative practices of labour organizations and trade unions. While the contribution of women to the economies of developing countries is critical, women rarely find employment in the regulated unionized sectors of these countries, and are found instead in overwhelming numbers in the sector that is variously termed ‘unorganized’, ‘unprotected’…
Gendered Realities
Gender and appropriation of public space in Harare’s contested central city area
Street trading is a highly gendered form of economic activity practiced by the urban poor in most global south cities. Drawing from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, this paper examines the everyday struggles facing female street traders with children as they negotiate access to contested urban spaces to make a living in Harare’s Central Business District (CBD). The paper argues that public spaces in Harare’s CBD act as both ‘livel…
Creating Opportunities for Women in the Renewable Energy Sector
This paper identifies opportunities and constraints that low-income women face in accessing livelihoods in the renewable-energy sector in India through qualitative and quantitative research conducted in collaboration with The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in 2012–13. Whereas previous research has focused on women mostly as end users of solar and biomass technologies, this research attempts also…
Gender and Asset Ownership in the Old and New Lands of Egypt
The Middle East and North Africa region has the lowest level of women’s land ownership in the world, yet little research has explored the barriers and opportunities women face in land ownership in the region. This paper identifies patterns, opportunities, and constraints of ownership of land and other assets (houses, livestock, poultry, and gold) by women and men in the Old and New Lands of Egypt. Based on a survey complemented with qualitative i…
Women and globalisation
This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India, citing empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) conducted three surveys in 1998, 2003, and 2007 to learn more about the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalisation. While enthusiastically endorsing the role that training and certification…
NGOs in Microfinance
Over the past three decades, microfinance has become an extremely popular and populist development intervention. The Grameen Bank and its founder, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, were awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and the Global Microcredit Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia set itself the goal of lending to 175 million people around the world by 2015. Despite such global enthusiasm, the limitations of microfinance are gradually being acknowledged even by i…
Gender and Globalization
This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India through empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) conducted two surveys in 1998 and 2003 to understand the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalization. A third survey was conducted in 2007 to assess the impacts of construction training prog…
Gender and Development in South Asia
This paper documents how institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, have responded to South Asian women’s economic needs over the past three decades. It analyses how these interventions have evolved with regard to the different theoretical approaches to gender and development, ranging from the welfare, efficiency, and anti-poverty approaches of the 1970s and 1980s to the more recent empowerment, rights-, and capabilities-based approach…
Next Generation of knowledge partnerships for global development. Introduction / Prochaine génération de partenariat de savoir pour le développement global. Introduction
Despite the rich potential benefits to be had from collaborations amongst practitioners and academic communities in the Canadian global development field, there is a general sense that such exchanges happen much less frequently than they could. The Next Generation programme, which underpins this special issue, presented an opportunity to address knowledge gaps in the current ecosystem of academic-civil society organization (CSO) collaborations, p…
Women, work, and wage equity in agricultural labour in Saiss, Morocco
This article documents wages and working conditions for landless female and male agricultural labourers in Morocco. We found that higher-paid, equipment-intensive tasks were predominantly assigned to men, whereas women often performed lower-paid, time-intensive tasks. Women were systematically paid less than men even when they performed the same tasks. Enforcing existing legislation in Morocco to ensure equal pay for women is an essential first s…
NGOs as intermediaries in post-disaster rural reconstruction
Drawing upon research conducted in Gujarat, India, this article identifies the potential and limitations for NGOs to serve as intermediaries (between beneficiaries, governments, and international relief/development organisations) on post-disaster rural reconstruction projects. Findings reveal that NGOs can play important roles in facilitating the design and construction of high-quality, culturally appropriate housing; revitalising and diversifyin…
Monitoring progress towards gender-equitable poverty alleviation
This article contributes towards unpacking the relationships between gender, poverty and inequality at several interrelated levels. It explores the concept of poverty as a useful starting point not only for understanding how gender fits into it, but also for understanding why gender is not reducible to poverty. It provides a brief history of how poverty came to be analysed from a gender perspective, and how such a perspective advances our underst…
Looming crisis - changing climatic conditions in Ghana's breadbasket
Climate change disproportionately affects livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people. The Upper West Region of Ghana is a climate-affected area where agrarian livelihoods have become unsustainable, with migration to the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR) becoming a key adaptation strategy. There is little research on postmigration experiences in BAR. Using qualitative methods, this article explores migrant farmers’ premigration expectations and postmigratio…
Can Understanding Phenomenology and Human Capabilities Help Us Address Acid Violence
We draw on scholarly literature on the phenomenology of power and disability to understand both the impact of acid violence upon survivors’ lives and the motivations of perpetrators. We employ a human capabilities approach, espoused by prominent development theorists such as Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to propose policy responses and support systems based not solely on the provision of financial and material resources, but also on improving …
Women on Wheels
Significant victories have been won due to the development sector’s engagement with gender inequality as a political project, but regressive shifts have also led to development being conceptualised as a managerial issue rather than as a process of social change. This article uses empirical research conducted in New Delhi, India with an organisation that trains and employs poor urban women as commercial drivers to discuss how an obsession with “co…
Earning Their Keep and Keeping What They Earn
It is now widely understood that the needs of women workers in the informal sector are not met by the conservative practices of labour organizations and trade unions. While the contribution of women to the economies of developing countries is critical, women rarely find employment in the regulated unionized sectors of these countries, and are found instead in overwhelming numbers in the sector that is variously termed ‘unorganized’, ‘unprotected’…
Gender and Development in South Asia
This paper documents how institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, have responded to South Asian women’s economic needs over the past three decades. It analyses how these interventions have evolved with regard to the different theoretical approaches to gender and development, ranging from the welfare, efficiency, and anti-poverty approaches of the 1970s and 1980s to the more recent empowerment, rights-, and capabilities-based approach…
Gendered Realities
Monitoring progress towards gender-equitable poverty alleviation
This article contributes towards unpacking the relationships between gender, poverty and inequality at several interrelated levels. It explores the concept of poverty as a useful starting point not only for understanding how gender fits into it, but also for understanding why gender is not reducible to poverty. It provides a brief history of how poverty came to be analysed from a gender perspective, and how such a perspective advances our underst…
Gender and Globalization
This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India through empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) conducted two surveys in 1998 and 2003 to understand the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalization. A third survey was conducted in 2007 to assess the impacts of construction training prog…
NGOs in Microfinance
Over the past three decades, microfinance has become an extremely popular and populist development intervention. The Grameen Bank and its founder, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, were awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and the Global Microcredit Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia set itself the goal of lending to 175 million people around the world by 2015. Despite such global enthusiasm, the limitations of microfinance are gradually being acknowledged even by i…
Women and globalisation
This article identifies the opportunities and constraints faced by female construction workers in urban India, citing empirical research conducted in the city of Ahmedabad. The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) conducted three surveys in 1998, 2003, and 2007 to learn more about the needs and priorities of construction workers in the context of economic globalisation. While enthusiastically endorsing the role that training and certification…
Monitoring gendered outcomes of environmental and development policies
Environmental and development policies used to be considered gender-neutral. Women's needs and interests were perceived to be identical to those of men. Empirical research has more recently asserted that policies that were thought to be gender-neutral were actually gender-blind and, therefore, either inadequate or inappropriate to capture the impacts upon women of environmental and development policies. This article presents a range of practical …
Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean
This paper shares the findings of an assessment carried out in 2007 of a national adult literacy programme introduced in 2005 in the Eastern Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The paper discusses some social and spatial factors that may impede or facilitate men's and women's ability and desire to participate in adult literacy programmes. Surveys administered to programme participants, as well as interviews conducted with partic…
NGOs as Intermediaries for Pro-Poor Electrification in India
Neoliberalism is generally associated with certain paradigmatic regulatory experiments, such as privatisation, deregulation, trade liberalisation, financialisation, structural adjustment, welfare cutbacks and monetarist shock therapy. Prominent observers of the global economy swiftly proclaimed the “end of neoliberalism” after the global economic crisis of 2008. This paper shares the experiences of two Indian NGO s participating in a multiple-sta…
Creating Opportunities for Women in the Renewable Energy Sector
This paper identifies opportunities and constraints that low-income women face in accessing livelihoods in the renewable-energy sector in India through qualitative and quantitative research conducted in collaboration with The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in 2012–13. Whereas previous research has focused on women mostly as end users of solar and biomass technologies, this research attempts also…
NGOs as intermediaries in post-disaster rural reconstruction
Drawing upon research conducted in Gujarat, India, this article identifies the potential and limitations for NGOs to serve as intermediaries (between beneficiaries, governments, and international relief/development organisations) on post-disaster rural reconstruction projects. Findings reveal that NGOs can play important roles in facilitating the design and construction of high-quality, culturally appropriate housing; revitalising and diversifyin…
Women on Wheels
Significant victories have been won due to the development sector’s engagement with gender inequality as a political project, but regressive shifts have also led to development being conceptualised as a managerial issue rather than as a process of social change. This article uses empirical research conducted in New Delhi, India with an organisation that trains and employs poor urban women as commercial drivers to discuss how an obsession with “co…
Women's NGOs as intermediaries in development cooperation
This article employs research conducted with the Kivulini Women’s Rights Organization in Tanzania to discuss opportunities, constraints, and broader lessons about the role of women’s NGOs as intermediaries in development projects. Findings reveal that women’s NGOs often have insecure positions in development projects and are undervalued by executing agencies because advocating for gender equality is perceived as a “natural” extension of women’s r…
Can Understanding Phenomenology and Human Capabilities Help Us Address Acid Violence
We draw on scholarly literature on the phenomenology of power and disability to understand both the impact of acid violence upon survivors’ lives and the motivations of perpetrators. We employ a human capabilities approach, espoused by prominent development theorists such as Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to propose policy responses and support systems based not solely on the provision of financial and material resources, but also on improving …
Women, work, and wage equity in agricultural labour in Saiss, Morocco
This article documents wages and working conditions for landless female and male agricultural labourers in Morocco. We found that higher-paid, equipment-intensive tasks were predominantly assigned to men, whereas women often performed lower-paid, time-intensive tasks. Women were systematically paid less than men even when they performed the same tasks. Enforcing existing legislation in Morocco to ensure equal pay for women is an essential first s…
Gender and Asset Ownership in the Old and New Lands of Egypt
The Middle East and North Africa region has the lowest level of women’s land ownership in the world, yet little research has explored the barriers and opportunities women face in land ownership in the region. This paper identifies patterns, opportunities, and constraints of ownership of land and other assets (houses, livestock, poultry, and gold) by women and men in the Old and New Lands of Egypt. Based on a survey complemented with qualitative i…
Next Generation of knowledge partnerships for global development. Introduction / Prochaine génération de partenariat de savoir pour le développement global. Introduction
Despite the rich potential benefits to be had from collaborations amongst practitioners and academic communities in the Canadian global development field, there is a general sense that such exchanges happen much less frequently than they could. The Next Generation programme, which underpins this special issue, presented an opportunity to address knowledge gaps in the current ecosystem of academic-civil society organization (CSO) collaborations, p…
Looming crisis - changing climatic conditions in Ghana's breadbasket
Climate change disproportionately affects livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people. The Upper West Region of Ghana is a climate-affected area where agrarian livelihoods have become unsustainable, with migration to the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR) becoming a key adaptation strategy. There is little research on postmigration experiences in BAR. Using qualitative methods, this article explores migrant farmers’ premigration expectations and postmigratio…
Is a Mile for One a Mile for All?
The broad objectives of this study were to identify the following: (1) mobility differences globally between women and men (and by non-binary individuals, more broadly, where possible). This objective includes identifying and explaining heterogeneity in mobility needs and patterns in developed and developing countries (and intersectionality across gender, age, geographic location, ethnicity, disability, class and income, sexual identity, where po…
Creating and Optimizing Employment Opportunities for Women in the Clean Energy Sector in Canada
Women are a minority in the energy sector everywhere in the world—and Canada is no exception. Concerns about climate change and fossil fuel insecurity have ensured significant interest in Canada in the technologies and financing for transitioning to clean energy, but far too little attention is being paid to the employment equity implications of such a transition. Despite growing awareness that renewables like wind, solar, and bioenergy generate …
Limit(ation)s, sustainability, and the future of climate migration
Climate change and human migration are two of the world's most pressing issues, as many populations rely on migration as an adaptation strategy to climatic stressors. Human experiences of, and responses to, climate stress are uneven and mediated by resource privilege. In many communities in the Global South, climate vulnerabilities are exacerbated by fragile ecological conditions due to geographical positioning, and many already marginalised grou…
Gender and appropriation of public space in Harare’s contested central city area
Street trading is a highly gendered form of economic activity practiced by the urban poor in most global south cities. Drawing from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, this paper examines the everyday struggles facing female street traders with children as they negotiate access to contested urban spaces to make a living in Harare’s Central Business District (CBD). The paper argues that public spaces in Harare’s CBD act as both ‘livel…
Indigenous women's employment in natural resource industries in Canada
“Even the goats feel the heat
Women's contributions to rangeland cultivation in Tunisia and the effects of climate change upon their livelihoods are both policy blind spots. To make women's contributions to rangeland cultivation visible and to provide policy inputs based on women's needs and priorities into the reforms currently being made in the pastoral code in Tunisia, we conducted fieldwork in three governorates. We conducted focus groups and interviews with 289 individua…
Economics (22 works) · Political science (22 works) · Economic growth (19 works) · Geography (16 works) · Business (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Agriculture (8 works) · Development economics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Ecology (5 works)