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Integrating gender equality objectives was one of the development objectives, along with economic development, food security and poverty/hardship alleviation of the featured rural community-based development project. In this case study, the rural development project was structured around women and men who were community leaders; those elected as town and village officers and those who held high positions in schools or within the government. In the first stage of the project, local committees were initiated by these leaders, which comprised equal numbers of women and men, to manage the project and facilitate training and skill development. Although there was much focus on creating the opportunity for women and men to equally contribute to leading and benefitting from the project, what was not considered was the gendered nature of the implementing partner institutions and the impact that would have on the project. By using gendered stakeholder analysis at two points in the project lifecycle, we take a closer look at the implementing organisations and view the turning over of power between actors on the project through a gender lens.

Progressing gender equality objectives in development and research for development activities can be an uneven process, and this is certainly the case in the South Pacific. In this chapter, we deconstruct the six case studies featured in this book to discuss the common stumbling points, obstructions and pathways to gender equality and equity observed across the case study projects, but additionally through our collective experiences of living and/or working extensively in the South Pacific. This chapter serves to synthesise these findings. The authors propose that situating gender equality into a broader framing of social equality, by drawing on the concept of intersectionality, provides a necessary context for the design and implementation of development projects – particularly where project participants are from communities with strong customary orientation. We additionally outline the fluid nature of changing gender roles and stereotypes as project teams and project participants simultaneously negotiate the tension created by modernity and tradition.