The University of Guyana’s (UG) Institute for Gender Studies (IGS) was yesterday launched with the hope that it could help to influence policy.
The IGS was inaugurated by UG in partnership with the University of West Indies’s (UWI) Institute of Gender and Developmental Studies Jamaica. The event was held at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre, Liliendaal.
The institute, which was launched in the middle of a two-day National Conference on Gender and Development policy, is expected to build on the existing strengths of the university and its partners and serve as a hub for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching, research, dialogue and action on local and transnational issues on women and gender.
Speaking at the launching, Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence said she believes there is a role for academia in national development efforts. She said the launch of the institute during consultations for the formulation of Guyana’s first gender policy offers an opportunity for the IGS to “question the concept of development with regard to the socially constructed basis of differences between men and women.”
“Here is the chance of the UG gender studies to point planners in the direction of incorporating new gender policy approaches…to make significant contributions to the formulation and implementation of a national gender and development policy ” she added.
UG Vice-Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi also lauded the new institute. Opadayi, in his remarks, noted that the difference in our genders should be used and celebrated, he committed to having the institute of gender studies housed in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and expressed the hope that students, no matter their major will be expected to complete courses in gender studies.
“I hope in the next one year or two it will be compulsory for our students to at least have a one-credit course in gender studies,” he said.
Head of the Department of Sociology Dionne Frank explained that yesterday’s launch was the advancement of a process which began four years ago. This process is intended to transform the gender landscape within the university and nation.
The institution, she said, “validates the functional commitment of the university to take steps to meet obligations to address social problems faced by members of society and continues efforts to solidify itself as medium for the creation of knowledge and as a key stakeholder in the participatory process of building a national policy agenda to tackle issues affecting citizens.”
She explained that the institute will be engaged in “advancing gender justice, facilitating debates on gender concerns, contributing to research and documentation, conducting gender analysis, identifying gender gaps and advocating for the incorporation of principles of international treaties in various pieces of domestic legislation.”
She stressed that while the institute comes 35 years after the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), nothing happens before its time and the IGS comes into being just in time to work towards the fifth goal of the United Nations post 2015 agenda, which is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
The launch also saw presentations being made by the chair of the Women and Gender Commission Indra Chanderpal and visiting professors, Kamala Kempadoo of York University and Verene Shepherd of the UWI- Institute of Gender and Developmental Studies Jamaica. The two universities worked with UG over a four year period to see the realisation of the institute.
