Gender Mainstreaming in Practice: Development Practitioners’ Strategies for Addressing Gendered Barriers in a Natural Resource Governance Intervention

Gender mainstreaming is often treated as a matter of policy and project design, yet it takes practical form through the everyday work of development practitioners. This article examines how development practitioners translate gender mainstreaming into action in a natural resource governance intervention in Kenya. In a Participatory Rangeland Management project, gender mainstreaming was present in policy expectations and project guidelines, although the project was not primarily designed as a gender intervention. Gender emerged as an implementation issue as practitioners encountered barriers to women’s participation, representation, and recognition in resource governance. Drawing on key informant interviews and field observations, the article shows that gender mainstreaming was shaped less by project prescriptions than by practitioners’ situated judgements and strategies. These included making gendered patterns of resource use visible, supporting women’s participation in governance spaces, and adapting engagement strategies to local conditions. These practices were partial and uneven, shaped by project constraints, institutions, and wider social structures. Development practitioners created practical spaces for negotiating and challenging dominant gender roles. The findings suggest that gender commitments remain important but are insufficient without contextual judgement and adaptation. Gender-mainstreaming design should combine clear expectations with organisational support and accountability for the situated discretion of implementation practitioners.