Jesus said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" Mark 4:21-22

In 1994, MCC's Peace Office initiated a project to explore the importance and relevance of gender issues in MCC's overseas work and to consider how MCC can sensitively and systematically incorporate an awareness of gender in program planning and implementation. To do this we traveled to El Salvador, Zambia and India where we worked closely with MCC staff and local advisors to gather and process a diversity of perspectives on gender issues. We met with NGOs working in a variety of fields including gender, health, human rights, education, income generation, economic, and labor issues. We met with MCC's church partners. And we met with women's groups, couples' groups, youth and women leaders. As people shared their stories, they shed much light on the way gender relationships profoundly influence the life experiences of men and women.

At the end of one of our meetings in El Salvador with a Baptist Seminary, we asked what we could do to assist the process of bringing about a new world yet to be, in which women and men, girls and boys are equally valued and loved. What they asked us to do was to tell their story--to tell people in North America what we heard, what we observed, and what we learned in the three countries we visited, for it is the responsibility of all of us to participate in the birthing of this new world. That is the purpose of this report.

The report is divided into two parts. The first part explores what we mean by the term "gender," provides a brief history of MCC's response to the call to address gender issues in its work and organizational structure, describes the mandate and process of the Gender and Development Project, and concludes with our observations about this process. The second part of the report is an account of the many stories we heard in El Salvador, Zambia and India, retold by way of common themes that emerged out of the three country contexts. In keeping with MCC's tradition of seeking out and honoring the views and advice of friends and partners all over the world, we hope the many voices of women, men, girls and boys represented in these observations and learnings will find concrete expression in our future program planning and implementation.

At one point during our travels in Zambia, the MCC country representative expressed disappointment because we did not get an opportunity to ask a question about a relevant issue. The response then and a response now to questions that come up in the course of reading this report is that the conversations we did have and the issues we did discuss provide a benchmark, a starting point from which to proceed. The conversations we had were not exhaustive. They require further clarification and cross-checking. For every perspective represented here there may be numerous others we did not hear. It is the work of each MCC country program and worker to seek out further perspectives in all our contexts. In this way, we together explore and integrate awareness of gender dynamics in our work.