Shaping Gender in Contexts of Intervention: The Interlinked Dynamics of Politicisation, Depoliticisation and Technicalisation

Focussing on the cases of Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), our paper analyses how donor-funded approaches to fighting sexual and gender-based violence have been shaped by interlinked dynamics of politicisation, depoliticisation and technicalization: by efforts at rendering gender and especially sexual violence political, that is, not ‘natural’ and instead changeable (politicisation); by circumventing specific ‘gender issues’ because they seem ‘too political’, usually meaning that they are too culturally sensitive for outside intervention (depoliticisation); and by rendering gender and sexual violence technical, that is, to define doable activities and outputs that enable specific programmes and projects (technicalisation). We analyse these dynamics to better understand and make sense of the specific topics and approaches that have dominated donor-funded efforts at fighting sexual violence and refashioning gender relations in Sierra Leone and DRC since the early 2000s. So-called ‘global’ politicising discourses on gender as a social construct and sexual violence as a ‘weapon of war’ have provided justifications and drives for donors’ engagement with issues of sexual violence and gender relations. ‘Depoliticisation’ (avoiding issues that are ‘too political’) has helped to secure domestic compliance with or at least non-resistance against donor-funded projects. And ‘technicalisation’ has led donors to invest in topics and measures that are judged doable and promise demonstrable project successes. We find that considering all three dynamics leads to interpretations of the emergence (and disappearance) of specific topics and approaches that are more meaningful and empirically plausible than a focus on only one of these dynamics.