Globalizing the Postcolony: Contesting Discourses of Gender and
Development in Francophone Africa is a study of development in the
former French colonies of West Africa. It takes as its starting point
the international community's reporting on human and social development
and gender in the developing areas which began systematically in 1990
and which has provided a framework for policy-making in this field.
International reports suggest that the francophone African countries
have been experiencing low levels of social development throughout the
past two decades. These levels fall dramatically when the factor of
gender is introduced to the point where statistically-speaking
francophone African women have had less access to social development
than any other population in the world. This study analyzes current
thinking on the challenges facing gender and development in Africa,
before moving on to examine the historical factors marking the gender
and development profile of the francophone West African region. Through
an analysis of gender politics in the region from pre-colonial to
postcolonial times, the book examines the gradual incursion of exogenous
gender policies into the region throughout the 20th century. The
discussion concludes by arguing that despite the tendency of the
international community, and their colonial administrative forebears, to
pursue 'one-size-fits-all' solutions to what they identified as the main
development challenges of the day, the impact of standardized solutions
remains subject to the unique historical and cultural context in which
they are implemented. Adapting formula-driven policies to unique
cultural contexts constitutes a major challenge for gender and
development politics in the second decade of the new century. Meanwhile,
the book coincides with the introduction of a new international
development agenda in Africa articulated around issues of security and
globalization. While civil unrest continues to destabilize vast regions
of the continent making the prospe
