Women’s economic
empowerment: the role of
social protection
Dr. Nicola Jones
Research Fellow
Overseas Development Institute
November 8 2012
Houses of Parliament, London
Presentation overview
1.
Linking economic empowerment and social protection
2.
Gendered poverty and vulnerability – a brief overview
3.
Conceptualising gender-sensitive social protection
4.
Key findings from ODI’s global study on gender-sensitive social protection
5.
Examples of international good practice:
•
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme
•
Mexico’s Estancias subsidised creche scheme
•
Peru’s Juntos conditional cash transfer programme
6.
Policy and practice implications
7.
Useful sources, including other relevant ODI work
1. Linking
economic
empowerment
and social
protection
Social protection and
economic empowerment
Social protection contributes to:
• Growth with resilience: as recognised by the 2010 G20 Seoul
Development Consensus and the 2011 Busan Aid Forum
• More equitable growth: as highlighted by growing evidence base on
poverty impacts of CTs from Latin American (e.g. World Bank, 2010) and
elsewhere (DFID Cash Transfer Evidence Paper, 2011)
• MDG achievement: by reducing gendered poverty and inequality
(Goals 1,7); strengthening access to quality basic services (Goals 2-7);
facilitating better balance between care-giving and productive work
responsibilities (Goals 4-6); & promoting women’s role as agents of change
(Goals 3, 8).
• Realisation of Human rights to basic social security:
“The duty to implement social protection policies to expand the protection
available to persons living in extreme poverty flows directly from a number of
human rights… Ensuring access to social protection is therefore not a policy
option, but a State obligation” (UN Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty, 2010: para 10).
2. Gendered
poverty and
vulnerability
Gendered vulnerabilities:
cross-country differences
It is often argued women constitute “70% of the world’s poor” but a
closer look at individual countries suggests a more complex picture:
Ethiopia: early 2000s data suggests that while male hhs have greater consumption expenditure
capacity, in terms of per capita food energy consumption, female hhs score more highly
Ghana: female hhs (30% of population) have significantly lower poverty levels (19.2% vs 31.4%)
Cambodia: on average, men’s wages in 2004 were 3% higher than women’s; but 53% of
economically-active women work in unpaid family labour, compared to 32% of men.
China: while wages rose significantly between 1990-2000 , gender income gap increased 7.4%
India: the proportion of women living below the poverty line is 60% compared to 40% for men
(trend data from 1970s to 2000s)
Latin America: more women live below the poverty line with an increase in women’s poverty
from 108 to 112 vs every 100 men over last 15 years
Gendered economic and
social risks
Gendered economic risks
Macro-level
shocks
Economic crisis – exacerbates women’s time
poverty + vulnerability to risky employment
Macro level
stresses
Meso-level
shocks
Meso-level
stresses
Displacement, harvest failures or business failures
affect men and women differently. E.g. higher male
suicide rates during 2007-9 Asian economic crisis
Gender segmented labour markets; Institutional
discrimination (e.g. absence of affirmative action
policies);
Lack of tailored service delivery to poor women
(e.g. extension services, credit, fertiliser)
Micro-level
shocks
Micro-level
stresses
Gendered social risks
Environmental disasters – women more vulnerable due
to care-giving role; socio-cultural mobility constraints;
reliance on subsistence food production
Social exclusion and discrimination informed by formal
policies, legislation (e.g. lack of gender equality
legislation) and institutions (e.g. low representation of
women in senior positions)
Limited opportunities for women to participate and
articulate views in community dialogues;
More limited social capital opportunities due to time
poverty, mobility constraints.
Sudden expenditure on health emergencies or
funerals: women’s assets are often the first to be
sold and last to be replaced in distress asset sales
Dearth of intra-household decision-making and
bargaining power for women – due to socio-cultural
norms, time poverty, lack of economic empowerment
3. Conceptualising
gender-sensitive
social protection
Defining social protection
A useful working definition of social protection is:
‘All interventions from public, private and voluntary
organisations and informal networks to support communities,
households and individuals in their efforts to prevent, manage
and overcome risks and vulnerabilities’
(Shepherd et al., 2004).
“An expanded view of social protection must incorporate responses to
both chronic and structural vulnerability’
(Sabates-Wheeler and Devereux 2008: 67).
Care
economy
Government
capacity
Sociocultural
norms
Regulatory
policy and
legislative
frameworks
Gender-sensitive social protection:
conceptualising impact pathways on women’s empowerment
Outcomes: wellbeing,
resilience, social justice
Productive
economy
Intra-household
dynamics
Policy choices,
including social
protection
instruments
and links to
gender
equality
initiatives
Individual capacities and
agency
Social risks and
vulnerabilities
Budgetary
considerations
Community
relations
Economic risks
and
vulnerabilities
4. Key findings
from ODI global
study
Gender-sensitive programming
strengths
Strengths are largely at programme design level
with gender-sensitive vulnerability assessments
underpinning social protection strategy choices:






Women’s unequal wages recognised by guaranteeing equal wages within public
works schemes
Women’s care work burden recognised through provisions in public works for work
dispensation during maternity/post-partum and flexible work-time; as well as
subsidised creche schmes
Women’s and girls’ time poverty recognised through investments in time-saving
community assets
Women recognised as key facilitators of children’s human capital development by
targeting social transfers to them
Safe motherhood practices promoted through cash transfer conditionalities
Gender-specific health vulnerabilities addressed through social health insurance
programmes which include provisions for reproductive and sexual health
Gender-sensitive programming
challenges
Challenges are especially pressing at the implementation and M&E stages:
Frequent disconnect from design; programme implementers’
gender awareness and capacities are weak/ under-invested in
x
× Inadequate leadership support and incentive structures for integration of
gender dimensions
× Too often gender is equated with female headed hhs; vulnerabilities of
women and girls within male headed hhs overlooked
× Insufficient attention to institutionalized linkages with complementary
programmes and weak inter-sectoral coordination
× Limited investment in mechanisms, e.g. mentoring, required for women’s
meaningful participation in programme decision-making bodies
× Gender-sensitive M&E systems universally weak, and very few
examples of participatory approaches, e.g. social audits
5. Examples of
international
good practice
Estancias Infantiles:
subsidised childcare for Mexican mothers
•
Estancias provides subsidised childcare to low-income working
mothers of children aged 1-4 years.
•
Reached 1 million children in its first four years.
•
Care is available to women who are working, looking for work or
studying. Single fathers are also eligible.
•
Enabled 5000 women to become micro-entrepreneurs by opening
their own childcare centres.
•
Been rated satisfactory, safe by 99% of beneficiaries,
and enabled 95% of women to raise their incomes.
•
Limited impacts on child development outcomes,
although that is not its primary aim.
•
Service users are eligible for additional support,
including Mexico’s renowned Progresa CCT programme
Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net
Programme
•
PSNP is a public works scheme reaching 7.5 million chronically poor people in
rural Ethiopia
•
Programme design is gender-sensitive in a number of ways:
•
•
Guarantees equal participation of men and women; and provides cash transfers for
pregnant and lactating mothers
•
Allows for flexible working hours for mothers, and in principle for free childcare for
programme participants during working hours
•
Invests in gender-sensitive community assets such as water and fuelwood collection
points closer to the village to reduce girls’/ women’s time burden; allows for public
works labour to support agricultural labour demands of female-headed households
Programme implementation has been weaker to date:
•
Limited investment in gender awareness strengthening for
programme implementers as well as the broader community
•
Uneven implementation of gender-sensitive
provisions across work sites
•
Relatively weak gender-sensitive M&E
Peru’s Juntos conditional cash
transfer programme
•
CCT programme reaching 500,000 extremely poor households by 2011
•
Programme design is gender-sensitive in a number of ways:
•
•
Recognises women’s “practical gender needs” by paying the transfer to women to support
children’s education, health and nutrition-related costs
•
Facilitates an uptake in pre-/ post-natal services by inclusion in programme conditions
•
Encourages transformation of intra-household gender relations through behavioural change
initiatives with both men and women
•
Strengthens women’s interactions with authorities by mandating all programme participants
have a birth registration certificate and a bank account
•
Increases women’s community leadership through dedicated programme faciltiator (all
women) to liaise with programme members and service providers
•
In some localities linkages have been forged with complementary programmes, e.g. gender
violence prevention initiatives undertaken by NGOs
Challenges persist however:
•
Programme conditions can exacerbate women’s time poverty
•
Limited linkages to alterative income-generating opportunities
to promote a sustainable exit from poverty
•
Limited impacts on intra-household inequalities
6. Policy &
practice
implications
Policy and practice implications
5. Strengthen
gender-sensitive
information
management,
M&E systems
4. Support
development of
clear gendersensitive
programme
implementation
guidelines
1. Promote
leadership and
coordination
mechanisms for
social protection,
including gender
integration
Promoting
gendersensitive
social
protection
2.Foster
decentralised social
protection
programming and
budgeting to better
address contextspecific gendered
vulnerabilities
3. Invest in
tailored capacity
building –
general and
gender-specific
Further reading on women’s economic
empowerment by ODI
Espey, J. (2011). “Women exiting chronic poverty: empowerment through equitable control of
households’ natural resources “. Chronic Poverty Research Centre Working Paper. No. 184. May.
Holmes, R. and Jones, N. (2009) “Putting the social back into social protection: a framework for
understanding the linkages between economic and social risks for poverty reduction‟. ODI
Background Note, ODI London.
Holmes, R. and N. Jones (2010). “How to design and implement gender-sensitive
social protection programmes: A Toolkit for Designers and Practitioners”. ODI: London.
Holmes, R. and N. Jones (2010). “Rethinking Social Protection Using a Gender Lens”.
ODI Working Paper 320. ODI: London.
Jones, N. and R. Holmes (2011). “If gender ‘makes development and economic sense’,
why is social protection gender-blind? The politics of gender and social protection”.
IDS Bulletin. ”Social Protection for Social Justice”. November. .
Holmes, R. and N. Jones (2013 forthcoming). Gender and Social Protection in the Developing World:
Beyond Mothers and Safety Nets. Zed Books: London.
See also: http://www.odi.org.uk/work/projects/details.asp?id=1020&title=gendervulnerability-social-protection
Holmes, R. and N. Jones (2010). “How to design and implement gender-sensitive
social protection programmes: A Toolkit for Designers and Practitioners”. ODI: London
Programme Implementation
Data: Good practice examples;
evaluation evidence
1. Analyse key economic
vulnerabilities from a gender
and generational lens
2. Analyse key social vulnerabilities
from a gender and generational
lens
1. Objective to address gender
inequalities
2. Gender-sensitive benefit type ,
delivery approach and
conditionalities
3. Linkages to complementary
services
4. Gender equitable decision-making
5. Gender-sensitive M and E
1. Awareness raising on gender
programme provisions for
beneficiaries + implementers
2. Equal participation in decisionmaking encouraged
3. Gender-sensitive M&E
4. Clear coordination mechanisms
Learning
from
good
practice
?
Are M&E
indicator
s gendersensitive
?
Uptake
in
national
social
protectio
n
strategie
s?
Balanced
approach
between
economic
and social
risks?
Examples of gender-specific
vulnerabilities...
Optimal gender-sensitive vulnerability
assessment
BEAR IN
MIND:
Policy and Programme Design
Data: household surveys, qualitative
research, UN indices
Uptake
in
national
development
strategie
s?
EXAMPLES
QUESTIONS
STEPS
Vulnerability/ Capability
Assessment
1. Innovate
Sufficient
pilot
evidence?
Role of
ideas?
Gender-sensitive design features
include...
Optimal gender-sensitive programme
design
2. Complexity Vs.
Simplicity
3. No perfect solutions
Data: Programme M and E data
Role of
formal and
informal
institution
s?
Role of
actor
interests
?
Gender-sensitive implementation
entails...
Optimal gender-sensitive programme
implementation
4. The importance of context
Thank you
“If an activity is attended by either men or women, it is decided by
just a half of world….” (Commune Poverty Reduction Officer, Lao Va
Chai, Ha Giang, Viet Nam).