If development really did justice to the diversity of people’s social and sexual identities, livelihoods and living arrangements, how would it be different to the approaches we see today? What would be done differently? How can practitioners, activists, academics and policy actors concerned with challenging oppressive gender and sexuality norms work together to loosen development’s "straightjacket"?
This booklet offers insights on these questions with a range of quotes from activists, theorists, and international organisations. These include analyses of existing sex and gender norms, how the development industry colludes with these, and alternative ways of thinking and acting on these issues. This publication was inspired by the symposium ‘Untying Development’s Straightjacket: Masculinities, Sexualities and Social Change’, held in Cape Town, 18-22 September, 2009, coconvened by the Institute of Development Studies, the Dissident Men Programme, UNDP and UNAIDS, with funding from DFID, SDC, Sida, UNDP, and UNAIDS.