Brighton and Sussex Sexualities Network

Sexuality and development workshop

3rd-5th April 2008

Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK

Theme: Sexuality and the Development Industry

Sexuality has always been an issue for development aid, although usually in unrecognised and heteronormative ways – for example in population control, and in assumptions made in household models. Work on gender and HIV/AIDS have created new openings for more explicit work on sexuality. However, sexuality generally remains framed as a problem, and the positive, pleasurable and life enhancing potential remains ignored. Currently controversies around sexuality in development are becoming more open and intense. US HIV/AIDS funding imposes conditionalities around abortion, sex work and abstinence, moves which have been contested within and outside the US, as with Brazil’s refusal of US funding in 2005. At the same time many exciting sexual rights activists and organisations gain funding and support from development agencies. A small number of foundations, such as Ford, have been leading such support. Some government donors have also made some commitments to support sexual rights, such as Sida’s promise to mainstream support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT). But shifts in funding trends, and funding mechanisms such as direct budget support, affect possibilities for supporting sexual rights agendas.

The goal of this workshop is to examine international aid’s connections with sexuality, and look for more creative and constructive means of engagement. Three broad themes will be discussed:

• Heteronormativity in development industry policies, programmes and practices. How is this expressed, with what effects, and how can it be challenged?
• How does development aid influence agendas and identifications? For example, how does the HIV/AIDS industry presume and create identities around men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, promiscuous husbands and innocent wives, and with what effects? How can pitfalls be avoided and what could work better?
• Trends in funding patterns. Where is the money going? What are the effects of conditionalities, and changing priorities and mechanisms?  What strategies can we adopt to move forward within and beyond this terrain?

Workshop format

The workshop will be lively and interactive, including structured discussion and games. It will NOT consist of paper presentations, although a number of keynote speeches will frame the three main themes. We invite participants to submit academic papers or other pieces of writing, posters or other forms of display/presentation which we will incorporate into the content of the workshop and subsequent publications and outputs.

Funding

We will be able to offer scholarships for a limited number of participants, but many participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation.

If you would like to participate…

If you would like to participate please fill in the attached application form (pdf format), and include a one paragraph description of a paper/writing/poster/display which you would like to share at the workshop. Please send these to Jeanne Grant by end January 2008 on j.grant@ids.ac.uk  For more information please contact Jeanne Grant.

IDS Sexuality and Development Programme

For more information on the IDS Sexuality and Development programme see http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/part/proj/sexrights.html