How far is complex gender and development (GAD) analysis reflected in policy? A review, by the University of Bradford, of policy on community-based water resource management highlights the need for more complex approaches to gender. Are gender roles fixed and stable as is often assumed or are they flexible, open to negotiation and changeable over time, as the research suggests? A better understanding of local decision-making can perhaps be achieved by recognising the negotiation implicit in relations between men and women, changing gender positions over a lifetime, and the complexity of individual identities. A more explicit focus on men as well as women, the research suggests, may well be justified.