Sciences Po students write a policy brief for the G20

Together with professor and researcher Maxime Forest, PSIA students Mathea Bernhardt and Laura Dugardin will co-author a policy brief for the G20 Task Force on multilateralism and global governance ahead of the 2021 G20 meeting taking place in Rome, Italy. They tell us about this collaboration that emerged in the classroom.

How did you, two Master’s students, end up writing a policy brief for the official engagement group of the G20?

During our first year at PSIA, we both chose the course “Gender and Development in Theory and Practice” in the fall semester of 2020, for which we had to write a policy paper as part of the final assessment. We both decided to debunk the myth between gender and corruption and to fight corruption through a transformative approach with a regional focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. Our professor, Mr Forest, noticed the potential relevance of our work to the G20 2021 agenda on fighting corruption. Thus, he decided to submit an abstract for a jointly authored policy brief on this topic. We were all very pleased and honoured to learn that our abstract had been chosen! It retained the attention of the Think20, a group associated with the G20, and has been selected from a pool of more than 600 submissions. Now we have the chance to present our proposal at the T20 Italy Summit in Milan and work jointly with our task force on finding transformative solutions.

Can you tell us more about this course on Gender and Development?

The class on Gender and Development taught by Mr Forest has been very rich in terms of theory as well as opportunities for interactions with gender professionals and fellow students. It provided a comprehensive introduction to the gender dimension of development introducing its key concepts, historical background, and current challenges such as the Beijing World Conference on Women in 1995, or the concepts of intersectionality and gender mainstreaming. Through zoom breakout sessions we had the opportunity to exchange views with our classmates and critically debate the course content. The discussed topics included, for example, gender-based violence or the institutionalisation of gender practices. Moreover, Mr Forest invited actors involved in promoting and implementing a gender and development agenda such as representatives of the French Development Agency, AFD. This direct engagement allowed us to gain a practical perspective on the theoretical foundations previously discussed in class. Finally, our creativity was demanded in a hands-on assignment where we had to present a roadmap for the implementation of diverse projects, such as an innovative gender and literacy prize.

What is your policy brief about?

Our policy brief aims to reframe the gender-corruption nexus which, for over two decades, has been largely addressed based on the gender-biased premise that women would be less tolerant towards and less prone to corruption. Consequently, significant resources were poured into feminizing decision-making, the judiciary, and law enforcement as a quick fix to corruption practices and in investigating the social and ethical grounds for such an articulation. With our brief, we thus try to recast global anti-discrimination efforts from an evidence-based, transformative approach thereby acknowledging the complexity of gender as a concept and including an intersectional focus. With five actionable policy recommendations, we tackle gendered forms and impacts of corruption and support both bottom-up and top-down approaches with varying levels of institutionalisation. They range from redefining corruption from a gender perspective and collecting gender-sensitive data, over strengthening cooperation with civil society organisations and revising the right-to-information laws to increasing women’s participation in public life and anti-corruption decision-making.

What will you take away from this experience?

We are both extremely grateful that we were given this incredible opportunity to share our thoughts and ideas through our policy brief and become part of the T20. We are very excited to listen and learn from our fellow task force members on various topics concerning global governance and multilateralism at the summit next month. The experience has shown us that our learning and engagement can and should go beyond the lecture and courses. We have realised that although we are still students, we can create concrete outputs and make an impact with our proposals. Moreover, the process of writing the brief and being part of the task force allowed us to really engage with the topic in-depth over the course of several months, meet interesting and knowledgeable people and broaden our understanding of multilateral cooperation through a format such as the G20. We are now very much looking forward to the summit and are convinced that this will be a valuable experience for our personal, academic and professional future.

More

• Read Mathea Bernhardt, Laura Dugardin and Maxime Forest’s brief on a transformative gender approach to fighting corruption in low- and middle-income countries
• Mathea Bernhardt and Laura Dugardin are Master’s Students in the International Development Master’s programme at the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs
• Professor Maxime Forest (FR) teaches Gender and Development at Sciences Po
• Sciences Po’s Gender Studies Programme - PRESAGE