Refer to the list of commonly used terms below as you navigate the GenderUp process.
Scaling and Innovation
Innovation: Novel practices, products, services, models, and institutional arrangements that have a social and/or economic use in society.
Scaling: The process of increasing and/or expanding the use of a specific innovation, and often decreasing and/or reducing the use of pre-existing practices.
Scaling strategy: A set of coherent activities, stakeholders, and stakeholder engagement models to overcome one or more scaling bottlenecks.
Intended innovation user: A group or segment of people that is supposed to use and benefit from an innovation.
Non-user: A group or segment of people that does not use an innovation, or is not able to use an innovation, but who may still be impacted by others using the innovation.
Unintended impacts: Effects of an innovation that were not anticipated or intended.
Mitigating activities: Actions taken to reduce negative impacts or enhance positive outcomes of an intervention.
Complementary innovations: Additional changes that are necessary to scale core innovations. They often relate to the broader environment and are geared towards making this environment more enabling, thereby allowing the core innovation to have impact at scale.
Gender and Inclusivity
Gender: The social and cultural differences a society assigns to people based on their biological sex, encompassing roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Gender may influence a person’s power and autonomy (ability to make their own decisions).
Social inclusivity: Improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of people that are disadvantaged on the basis of their social characteristics to take part in society.
Social dimension: An aspect or attribute along which people differ (e.g., wealth or age) and can be categorized into groups (e.g., rich or poor, young or old). People can be categorized along multiple dimensions, but not all dimensions are relevant to a particular scaling ambition.
Relevant social dimension: The identified social dimensions and corresponding distinctions between groups that need to be taken into account to ensure that scaling activities are equitable and inclusive.
Intersectionality: The interplay of multiple social dimensions that increases vulnerability and inequality in privilege and power, and further entrenches inequalities and injustice. These characteristics are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another.
Intersectional group: A group of people who are categorized by multiple social dimensions, such as gender and wealth.
Social Dimensions used in GenderUp
- Wealth Status: Economic standing. Descriptors: Low, medium, high income.
- Other Job: Employment status regarding the number of jobs held which may impact time resources or provide other sources of income. Descriptors: One other job, more than one job.
- Education: Level and type of formal or informal learning received. Descriptors: Informal, formal; primary, secondary.
- Age: Length of time lived, categorized into life stages. Descriptors: Child, adolescent/youth, adults, senior/elderly.
- Land Ownership: Legal right to possess, use, and control land. Descriptors: Owner, renter, landless; smallholder, large scale owner.
- Mobility: Ability to move freely. Descriptors: High (e.g., access to transport), low (e.g., no access to transport); nomadic, sedentary.
- Ethnicity: Shared cultural, linguistic, or ancestral traits. Descriptors: Based on your context, may include caste.
- Migrant Status: Condition of having moved from one place to another. Descriptors: Migrant, non-migrant, spouse of migrated partner.
- Marital Status: Legal standing in relation to marriage. Descriptors: Married, divorced, widowed, polygamist.
- Location: Geographical area of residence. Descriptors: Rural, peri-urban, urban; highlands, lowlands; remote, central.
- Household Structure: Composition of a household. Descriptors: Size, number of children.
- Disability: Condition limiting movements, senses, or activities. Descriptors: Vision, hearing, or mobility impaired; cognitive disabilities.
- Religion: System of faith and worship. Descriptors: Christian, Muslim, Hindu.
- Gender: Social and cultural differences assigned based on biological sex. Descriptors: Male, female, third gender.