This document was prepared by Ms. Marsha Caddle. The views expressed in this
document, which has been reproduced without formal editing, are those of the
author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Organization.
Financing for gender equity: Where are the real
advantages and opportunities
for Caribbean economies1?
Marsha Caddle
Lecture presented at
The Distinguished Lecture Series 2007-2008
of the
Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs
in collaboration with
The United Nations Development Programme
Trinidad and Tobago
March 5 2008
1
Based on the paper The Relevance of Gender-aware Economics to Caribbean Economies by Marsha
Caddle, presented at the UNIFEM/ UWI SALISES Roundtable on Gender and Macroeconomics, Central
Bank of Barbados, December, 2004.
Introduction
Prevailing economic wisdom has traditionally dismissed gender roles and relationships as
belonging strictly within the realm of sociological study, and assumes that such roles do
not merit specific attention in the study of macroeconomics. A divergent position
maintains that gender is an analytical category that is central to our understanding of the
economy, not only in specialized microeconomic study such as labour markets, but in
considering all aspects of economic theory. Analyzing the extent to which countries’
processes and uses of financing affect women and girls, as compared to men and boys, is
fast becoming a global movement not only to build accountability for national policy
commitments, but to ensure that economic and other policies have the desired impact on
all people for whom they were intended. The Caribbean region, though well on its way to
reaching key development targets, has arguably not covered sufficient ground in
advancing discourse and action around the achievement of gender equity through
macroeconomic processes. This morning’s talk, therefore, will begin to orient us towards
•
•
•
•
Gender as an analytical category of economics, which leads us to reformulate
A gender-aware vision of an economy that previously did not count the household
and the work taking place therein as productive, but merely as consumptive
Once we understand where and how women are placed in the economy, we see
opportunities for the integration of gender into policy. The section on gender and
fiscal policy, including budget analysis, begins to discuss concrete ways in which
fiscal policy might be formulated in this gender-aware economy
We then discuss some of the issues that arise in the Caribbean context, and
explore the oft-posed question of whether Caribbean women really are
“vulnerable”, and where men fit in this revised schema and in this call for gender
equality in economic management and financing. This then allows us to explore
the following with reference to the Caribbean:
• Regional country experiences in gender budget analysis
• Opportunities for incorporating gender analysis into current economic
processes and
• Some of the difficulties and challenges that might arise
Financing for Gender Equity: What does this mean?
Our territories, like most others in the world, make use of two basic sources of financing:
domestic and international, which are managed by individual governments and by the
international community as a collective through macroeconomic and trade policies, and
international agreements. Within countries, these macroeconomic policies determine how
domestic resources are mobilized, how public expenditures are allocated, and the nature
of financial flows. International financing, in the form of foreign direct investment and
private capital flows, international trade, and official development assistance (ODA),
must also be managed in the context not only of economic targets, but of larger
development goals.
In seeking to manage these sources of funds, and in considering what we mean by
financing for gender equity, we must consider to what extent the allocation of
expenditures and the revenue structure and system of administration:
 Adequately reach and impact men and women
 Help to advance the international commitments to gender equity and development
which governments in the region have made
 And beyond these international commitments, how do economic policies address
the internal realities/status of gender equity in the country, and seek to advance
these?
Gender as an Analytical Category
Gender relations – relations of power between men and women – may be seen as largely
socially constructed, rather than biologically determined. They vary considerably
according to time and place, but regardless of how they are specifically manifested, are
all determined by the prevailing norms and institutions of the day. These norms and
institutions ascribe to men and women not only certain productive and reproductive roles
(a gender-based division of labour, both within and outside the home; a certain pattern of
political rights and obligations; access and claims to resources), but also different
abilities, goals, patterns of behaviour and personal attributes. This socialization process
also influences our own expectations, and what we perceive as the range of alternatives
available to us. It therefore affects our ability to make choices.
The possession of particular sex characteristics implies biological differences and
possibly dissimilar strengths, but such differences do not in themselves translate into the
respective roles that society assigns to men and women, nor into the choices which they
make. They also cannot account for the variable “acceptable” gender roles and
relationships found across periods and cultures. For example, in building homes,
bricklaying is carried out almost exclusively by women in parts of Africa but is thought
of as a masculine occupation in other regions of the world. This has led to the idea that at
birth people are differentiated by sex but gender identity is socially constructed.2
Conceptual basis of integrating gender into macroeconomic policy
Gary Becker’s (1965, 1981) unitary model of the family presents the household as a
single decision-maker with respect to both consumption and production, and assumes that
the household seeks to maximize utility on the basis of a set of common preferences.
Resources are allocated by an altruistic head of household who alone represents common
preferences, and is alone responsible for bringing about utility maximization.
Alternatively, other models have, in their criticism of Becker’s model, sought to
incorporate to varying degrees the social realities of family dynamics within a framework
of ‘bargaining’.
2
See Conway, Jill, Susan C. Bourque and Joan Scott, "Introduction: The Concept of Gender" in Deadalus,
Fall 1987, Special Issue on "Learning About Women: Gender, Politics and Power" and Keller, Evelyn Fox
and Helen Longino(eds.), Feminism and Science, Oxford University Press, 1995
2
In the bargaining approach, household members – men and women – cooperate to the
extent that this makes each person better off than non-cooperation. Cooperative outcomes
determine what each person receives (goods and services), what each person does, and
how each person is treated. The eventual outcome depends on the relative bargaining
power of household members. This bargaining framework has not merely academic and
theoretical but also economic policy implications. Many policy-makers, taking a unitary
model as their point of departure, have tended to direct resources to male heads of
households under the assumption of equitable resource allocation within households.
Based on a bargaining model, policies and resources would be directed differently
according to gender differentials in welfare, efficiency and equity outcomes.
Bargaining power is also inextricably linked to the alternative market wage. Economic
policies and economic reform programmes may affect the bargaining power of men or
women by providing or withholding earning opportunities, or by altering access to the
primary and secondary claims of one sex relative to the other. While decision-making
theory has tended to be restricted to the realm of microeconomics, differential bargaining
power and access to resources within the household have important implications for the
macroeconomics of development, as it can provide insights into the differential impacts
of economic adjustment policies, and gender-differentiated responses to price incentives.
Household imbalances in decision-making power lead to different expenditure patterns
and welfare outcomes between income controlled by women and that controlled by men.
Some data suggest that extra income going to mothers has a more positive impact on
household investment in nutrition, health and education of children than extra income
going to fathers, which tends to be skewed towards leisure commodities (particularly
alcohol and tobacco) and goods that are status symbols.
Mencher3 showed that the ratio of women’s contribution to household maintenance
compared to their earnings ranged from 85 to 100 percent, while for men the range was
from 43 to 91 percent. Senauer also reported a positive correlation in the Philippines
between women’s wages and the nutritional status of pre-school children, while increases
in the male wage had a negative effect on long-run nutritional status. In Sri Lanka, the
allocation of calories to women and children rose with an increase in wages, while the
share to the husband declined.4
Such data concerning expenditure outcomes of household are so compelling across
countries and sectors that standard development practice now examines the share of
programme benefits that accrues to women, as one part of planning and evaluation. Based
on gender bias in socialization processes, however, resources, even in women’s hands,
may be allocated in biased ways to children, under conditions of strong son preference.
Boys may receive greater portions of food than girls, for example, based on the societal
Mencher, J. Women’s Work and Poverty: Women’s Contribution to Household Maintenance in South
India, in Bruce and Dwyer, eds., pp.99-119.
4
Haddad et al. 1997, p.14
3
3
priority placed on men’s health and well-being. Simple targeting to women, therefore,
cannot on its own ensure equitable outcomes.5
A Gender-Aware Vision of the Economy
The revelation of the gendered dimensions of certain micro foundations of
macroeconomics leads to the question: what would a gender-aware representation of the
economy look like? Elson (2000) provides such a representation whose conceptual bases
are (i) the consideration of households not only as the site of consumption but also as one
of the productive sectors in the economy; and (ii) the redefinition of economics as
concerned with the provisioning of material needs required to support life, rather than a
study of individual choice which sometimes leads to exchange. 6 Under this former
definition, the goods and services made available through unpaid work within the
household are as important as those produced by paid labour and acquired through the
market. Yet, household production activities have been rendered "invisible" by the
exclusive focus of mainstream economics on the market process.
The unpaid domestic (or reproductive) work of managing a household, cooking, cleaning,
maintaining the good condition of home, clothing and domestic equipment, and caring for
family members (particularly children and the sick, elderly or disabled) is carried out
mostly by women. Such work augments a family’s cash income, and reproduces and
maintains the labour force. It increases the productivity of formal market workers,
enhances the value and effectiveness of community services, and generally helps to raise
societal well-being.7 Domestic activities are considered labour in economic terms
because not only do they produce the important economic outputs described above, but
they also require the standard inputs of formal market labour, such as time and effort.8
However, this contribution of women to the macro economy is underestimated or
unaccounted for because of missing and biased markets and incomplete statistics: a
higher proportion of women’s work than of men’s work is not counted by national
economic statistics because a great deal of women’s work takes place in the home and
community environment, rather than in the large market-oriented formal sector
establishments on which the variables of savings and investment, aggregate production,
and imports and exports are based. Apart from reproductive work and voluntary
community work, women are also valid but unrecognized economic actors in subsistence
production and informal sector employment.
The informal sector is said to include unregistered enterprises below a certain size; paid
and unpaid workers in informal enterprises (i.e., family farms and businesses); and casual
workers without fixed employment. This category includes many wage-earners, including
sweatshop workers and domestic servants; all those who work on an unpaid basis for
family farms and businesses producing for their own subsistence consumption and for the
5
Haddad and Hoddinott (1994), p. 550
Nelson, Julie (1993) "The study of Choice or the Study of Provisioning? Gender and the Definition of
Economics", in M. Ferber and J. Nelson, Beyond Economic Man, University of Chicago Press, 1993
7
Mackintosh 1989, Palmer 1995
8
Himmelweit 1995; Folbre 1995
6
4
market (labelled in labour force surveys as “unpaid family workers”); and many “ownaccount” workers, the name given in labour force surveys to those who are self-employed
or employers.
Informal work lacks the social protection afforded to formal paid work, such as job
security or health insurance, and is often irregular and casual. Much of informal work is
subcontracted from the formal sector and its low costs contribute to the profits of larger
businesses. In principle, informal work as well as formal work in the private sector
should be included in the GNP. But informal work is often under-counted, especially
when it is unpaid.9
Voluntary and community work represents another category of unpaid activity, and
incorporates civic associations, from self-help groups to support work for large
international charities. These are also excluded from the GNP – and often are regarded as
leisure activities. But for many poor people, especially poor women, such activities are
vital to obtain access to needed resources and to provide home security.
This exclusion of women’s time in unpaid work as an economic resource has serious
implications for how macroeconomic policies are formulated. For example, financial
cutbacks in hospital medical services, in reducing resources for convalescent care, may
result in earlier discharge of patients to household care, and therefore to the women in the
home. This transfer of the burden of labour from the formal market to the household,
while appearing to be an increase in efficiency for the whole economy, also represents a
transfer of costs to the unpaid economy. It has implications for women’s time use and
their contribution to the labour supply in the formal market, often resulting in their
absence from paid employment or a decrease in their productivity.10 Similar effects may
be seen in policy regarding education or other public goods, such as lack of access to
day-care or early childhood education. They reflect assumptions about an inherent
elasticity of supply in non-market labour, which will cause it to respond to changed
market incentives without additional policy impetus (Elson 1992).11
The traditional framework of economic dynamics does not reveal the central contribution
and interrelation of unpaid care work to the market and the State.12 It depicts an economy
driven by market flows between households and enterprises, and in which households
supply labour, but are principally consumers of the goods and services produced by
enterprises with that labour. The public sector appears as an employer of labour and
provider of services and social security payments, financed by levying taxes and charges
for some services. Labour is treated solely as a factor, not an outcome, of production.
9
Elson, 2000.
Ibid.
11
“For example, women with childcare responsibilities are supposed to shift their labour into the market to
improve their standard of living without additional publicly provided daycare and in spite of the fact that
they [may] face [considerably lower] wages [or the effects of decreased household generated well-being]”
Neitzert, 1997.
12
Folbre 1994.
10
5
In Elson’s schema below, we see how revisioning the economy from the perspective of
women creates a different framework. This new representation is centred on production
by a domestic sector (unpaid care work in households and communities) and an NGO
sector, as well as a public and private sector. In principle, one could determine the size of
each sector based on the monetary value of the services produced by them or by the total
amount of time spent on the activities which they undertake. National time use estimates
can be analysed to compare the unpaid time spent in the domestic sector and the
voluntary part of the NGO sector with the paid time spent in the NGO, public and private
sectors. Currently, there is much ongoing research dedicated to the valuation not only of
informal sector labour, but also of Gross Household Product, the economic value added
by the unpaid work and own capital of households outside the boundary of the System of
National accounts (SNA). Ironmonger (1996) illustrates the establishment of household
input-output satellite accounts which count household outputs, value them at market
prices, and include an allowance for capital as a factor of production. Similar recent
efforts, though small, have been made in Trinidad and Tobago.
Both government and non-government budget work is often dominated by economists.
And in virtually all schools and all countries, economists are trained to analyse markets
6
and production that goes through the market. In developing countries they may also be
trained to analyse subsistence production, although this is often difficult to analyse with
the standard tools. Feminist economists have taken the lead in pointing out the blindness
of an approach which ignores the non-market production which occurs in all economies
and societies, and which is necessary to ensure the “production” and “maintenance” of
the people who do the monetary production. This unpaid labour is now granted partial
recognition by the institutions responsible for formulating the rules for the System of
National Accounts (SNA) by providing for the compilation of parallel accounts.
However, unpaid labour is still not included in the calculation of gross domestic product.
And it is seldom considered by budget officers and ministries of finance.
The inclusion of unpaid work is in many ways revolutionary, and though clear in its
importance to macro-economic and other models, has not been vigorously pursued by
proponents of the method as a policymaking tool. One obstacle is the lack of available
data. Relatively few countries have undertaken the time use studies that provide estimates
which can be converted into monetary equivalents. But another considerable obstacle is
the conversion of findings into policy direction. The Trinidad and Tobago satellite
account, which saw certain domestic activities accounted for in terms of time spent per
day and then valued at the minimum market wage, was not incorporated into
policymaking processes. Arguably, what is needed to inform policy is not necessarily a
precise algorithm for its use, but simply the acknowledgement that women bear the main
burden of most types of unpaid labour.
Gender and Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policy, consisting of expenditure and revenue policies, may be examined at three
levels: the macro level, which takes account for example of aggregate levels of revenue
and expenditure in relation to GDP, cyclical fiscal trends and inflation avoidance; the
meso level, which includes the composition of revenue and expenditure, the delivery of
services and income transfers and the link between policy development and resource
allocation; and the micro level, revenue and expenditure impact in terms of tax incidence
and burden, and income distribution. Policies at all these levels carry gender implications.
The structural adjustment policies of the 1980s and 90s demonstrated the economic value
of reproductive and voluntary work, and its link to productive sectors. The primary
objective of these programmes was to increase the capability of the market system to
respond to signals by eliminating structural and institutional rigidities that inhibit market
adjustment. Such rigidities included government intervention through subsidies and
protectionist trade policies which it was thought maintained balance of payment crises by
distorting relative prices and thus inhibiting the allocative function of the market. With
the subsequent decreases in public investment in health, education and other social
services, costs, (in the form in increased women’s labour and time use), for provision of
discontinued government services were shifted to the (invisible) reproductive sector.
Therefore, as Elson (1995) observes, forced savings at the macroeconomic level assumes
‘forced-labour’ in the reproductive sector, with repercussions manifested in the
7
disintegration of the health and social cohesion of the population. This in turn may
require the restoration of government intervention through public expenditure on social
services, returning the economy to the very situation in which contractionary policies
were thought to have been necessary.
Box 1.1: The good economic sense of gender-aware planning
There is growing research indicating that gender biases and inequalities in income and
asset distribution, the labour market, in access to credit and in decision making can
hamper the effective and productive use of human resources in meeting human needs.
Research on economic growth and education shows that failing to invest in education
lowers gross national product (GNP): everything else being equal, countries in which the
ratio of male to female enrolment in primary or secondary education is less than 0.75 can
expect levels of GNP that are roughly 25% lower than countries in which there is less
gender disparity in education.13
Research on gender inequality in the labour market shows that eliminating gender
discrimination in occupation and pay could increase not only women’s income, but
national income. For instance, if gender inequality in the labour markets in Latin America
were to be eliminated, not only could women’s wages rise by about 50%, but national
output could rise by 5%.14 Gender inequality also reduces the productivity of the next
generation. The World Bank reports mounting evidence that increases in women’s wellbeing yield productivity gains in the future15. The probability of children being enrolled
in school increases with their mother’s educational level.
In terms of agricultural production, research shows that reducing gender inequality could
significantly increase agricultural yields: Santos (1996) found that giving women farmers
in Cuba the same level of agricultural inputs and education as men farmers could increase
yields obtained by women farmers by more than 20%.
While it is true that policy interventions which promote equal access of men and women
to resources often need to be made at the micro and meso levels – e.g. education and job
training; and legal and institutional reform of policies which prevent or disadvantage
women’s participation in economic activity – such interventions must be reinforced by
gender-aware macroeconomic planning, for which fiscal policy provides a sound entry
point. The search for a post Washington Consensus linking of the social and economic
dimensions of development has led to a policy coordination framework 16 which features
the macroeconomic aspects of development on one side, and the social and human
aspects on the other. Although it is acknowledged that both sides must be considered
together, there still appears to persist the tendency to consider the social impact of
macroeconomic policies, rather than their social content.17 This translates to the design of
13
Hill and King, 1995
Tzannatos, 1997
15
World Bank, 1997
16
Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) approach, introduced by the World Bank in 1999.
17
Cagatay and Elson (2000)
14
8
“sound” macroeconomic policies which focus on price stabilization and reducing the role
of the state, and which are “supplemented” by social policies aimed at offsetting the
negative impacts of economic policies. Cagatay and Elson’s (2000) alternative
transformatory approach would involve the acknowledgement of the distributive
relations of macroeconomic policies, and their consideration based not solely on marketbased criteria, but also on the extent to which they achieve the goals of distributive
equity, provisioning of needs and the development of human capability. Such an
approach may be integrated into macroeconomic models, medium term planning
processes or in the budget process itself.
Budget analysis
Gender analysis of government expenditures may seek to answer such questions as:
How is spending prioritized: how much is to be spent, on what and why?
How will the work of the household economy be supported/hampered through this form
of expenditure?
Who will benefit in terms of (i) access (ii) employment?
Similar questions may be asked with regard to the revenue side of the budget, such as
taxes and user fees:
To what extent will these measures discourage/encourage women’s participation in the
labour force?
How will these measures affect access to services (e.g. through user fees)?
What will be resulting effects on patterns of income, consumption, and unpaid labour
time use?
Policy options for integrating gender into the national budget exist at several levels. One
may consider the aggregate macroeconomic strategy, i.e. the appropriateness of the
overall deficit or surplus, or the sustainability of the medium-term framework; the
composition of revenues and expenditure; and the effectiveness of public sector service
delivery to firms, families and communities. A variety of theoretical approaches and
practical tools exist for analysis at these three levels, but some approaches have been
more common than others. The section that follows discusses the usefulness of these
approaches in the Caribbean region.
Issues in the Caribbean context: Are Caribbean women “vulnerable”?
In the emerging Caribbean discussion on the appropriateness of gender budget work of
this region, some contention has been lodged concerning the apparent focus on women
rather than gender, and representation of women as a vulnerable group. Gender analysis
is not simply (or, some may argue, not at all) a “vulnerable group” approach but an equity
approach. The “vulnerable group” tag often applied to gender budget work may be seen
as inaccurate and misleading if we consider the following: even if the discussion does
focus on women rather than gender, certainly women and girls are more than a vulnerable
or “special interest” group when they constitute more than half of the population. Further,
if any proposed initiative does focus on gender, it concerns every individual. Given that
gender relations are unequal in all societies, the process of seeking to bring about equality
9
– to level the playing field – may appear to benefit some individuals more than others.
However, every individual, as part of his/her gendered society stands to gain from gender
equality. Such an initiative, therefore, advocates not for ‘more’ or ‘separate’, but for
“more equitable” programmes and allocations that address the different needs and
interests of individuals from different and overlapping social groups.
Unpaid labour
Given our discussion of the gendered division of labour, what remains to be considered in
assessing whether women in the Caribbean require particular attention (as a group that
has previously been missing from economic management programmes) is whether
Caribbean women do, like most of the world’s women, bear greater responsibility for the
care and maintenance of the household than do men. Most would agree that this does
apply, and that an effort to include this contribution as productive and demanding of
specific policies and investments is indicated.
Agriculture
The particular reality of women’s unremunerated and under remunerated work in the
Caribbean does not end there. It extends to industries such as agricultural production,
where women often work on family-owned farms for little to no pay, or engage in
subsistence production that requires inputs of labour, and produce food for the family and
community, but is not sufficiently acknowledged when determining agricultural policy
responses. Even within the formal market, for example within the Windward Island’s
banana industry, women are often not owners of land, but workers. Policy responses
which saw subsidies directed to farmers tended to target the (predominantly male) owners
of large, highly productive farms, whereas the workers on these farms, who tended to be
women, did not benefit as much. And those female farmers who were involved in
production on a smaller scale also often failed to benefit.
Furthermore, much of the arable land in the region is farmed but not owned by women,
and in some cases where women do own land, it is often rocky and hilly and therefore
does not produce yields as high as that owned by men. Such differences in access highly
favour the application of gender analysis to economic and other policy formulation.
What about men?
It cannot be denied that boys’ underperformance and low attendance in schools represents
a glaring development gap in our region. The issue extends beyond educational
attainment to the increased participation of young men in organized, violent criminal
activity that results in death and incarceration. A thorough analysis of this situation, one
which considers gender among other variables, acknowledges the following, and
therefore asks the indicated questions.
Young men’s’ educational attendance and attainment at all levels appears to undercut that
of girls and women. Yet is this mirrored in the income earning power of men and women
in both the formal and informal market? Several data suggest that in the Caribbean,
10
although boys seem to be outperformed by girls, wage and overall income levels continue
to favour men.
And with respect to increased criminal activity, the direct effect on the men concerned is
clear and must be addressed, but there is also a clear and sustained impact on the women,
girls and boys whose care and time use burdens are increased when a productive factor is
removed from the household. This removal represents not only a gap in financial inputs
that must be compensated for by the increased economic activity of female partners and
offspring (or result in lowered well-being), but also a gap in social and emotional support
to the family and community. The analysis considers to what extent the men potentially
affected can be reached through policies/programmes, but it also considers what
necessary inputs would support the household economy in the situation described above.
A thorough analysis also realizes that the emergence of new problems or an increase in
their severity do not justify the abandonment of chronic issues, which perhaps only
appear muted or resolved because we have become used to living with them. In this way,
several of the problems faced by women, and categorized by the different ways in which
they interact with the State and the economy, have not simply disappeared because men
and boys also have unique difficulties. Indeed, as shown above, women and children are
also acutely affected by these difficulties. The word “gender” does not indicate a
competition, nor does it indicate an either/or approach. It serves to highlight the concrete
differences in how men and women are positioned in the economy and in how they
experience access to resources because of this positioning. A move towards financing for
gender equity recognizes and revalues the contributions that women make in the market
economy, and in the previously invisible and undervalued reproductive or domestic
spheres of the care economy, the latter absorbing the impact not only of macroeconomic
choices leading to cuts in social expenditures, but of several social and economic crises
which our Caribbean societies experience.
It furthermore affords us with the opportunity to identify the unequal access of men and
boys to certain economic goods. In Belize, which was beginning to implement social
security reform at the time of the first gender budget initiative (GBI) in the region, it was
discovered that men’s tendency towards serial relationships often meant that they were
not attached to any one family unit. Thus, while women of retirement age who had been
excluded from the strictly contributory pension system were cared for by younger family
members, men of the same age received no care. This highlighted an increased care
burden within the household, particularly for women, but also uncovered a vulnerable
generation of men whose situation required policy intervention.
Opportunities
Performance budgeting
Theoretically at least, some of the financial reforms – and performance budgeting in
particular – currently occurring in many countries in the region seem to provide
opportunities. Performance budgeting is a form of budget formulation in which
governments are required not only to report on monetary numbers, but also to include
11
“outputs” and “outcomes” to measure performance and set targets. This approach
encourages a stronger link between policy and budgets, and thus also between budgets
and what the policies aim to achieve. Both output and outcome measures help us see what
budgets are achieving, or aiming to achieve, in more concrete terms than the financial
resource allotted. On one hand, outputs are defined in budget terms as the concrete
deliverables of a budget allocation, so that an allocation for primary health care might
produce x children vaccinated or z clinics constructed. On the other hand, outcomes
measure impact, which is the degree of larger change in the situation that a particular
programme is designed to address. So that the health clinic mentioned above might be
intended to contribute to the outcome of increased health of the population in a particular
community. Performance budgeting, then, with its outputs and outcomes that may be
disaggregated by sex, and that may potentially measure how the lives of men and women
are differentially impacted by financing decisions, is an initiative which readily and
easily incorporates gender analysis.
Performance/Value for money (VFM) audits
Performance audits would then expand the current scope of offices of the Auditors’
General which have traditionally been concerned with regularity of expenditure and
compliance with laws, rules and regulations; and on any deficiencies in revenue
collections and wastage of public funds. By extending the audit function to include
information on the efficacy and the effectiveness of public expenditure, VFM auditing is
able to assess the extent to which the desired results or benefits established are being
achieved, it allows for the assessment of gender equality outcomes, as well as sexdisaggregated assessment of the effectiveness of programmes.
Tax incidence analysis of VATs (GSTs)
As countries move towards possible reductions in border taxes in the light of emerging
trade agreements, and potentially seek to reclaim those revenues elsewhere, analysis of
the overall tax structure, particularly VATs, becomes important. Given that women’s
income is usually spent predominantly on food and other goods which maintain the
household, who, then, is bearing the greater burden of VATs and GSTs, and what would
be the comparative cost/benefit of restructuring other potentially underperforming
sources of income, such as taxes from foreign investors?
Government facilitation of non-State transfers among families
It is important to acknowledge that the issue of inefficient child support transfers among
families is not simply a legislative or family welfare issue, but also represents a
significant gap in the economic resources accessible by women and children, and is part
of the foundation of the experience of poverty in the Caribbean. Framed in this context, it
requires consideration in economic policy-making, and represents an immediate
opportunity for government to better facilitate financial flows.
Governance for gender equity
In order to reinforce any advances towards financing for gender equality, an expanded,
participatory governance structure is essential. This structure would create the policy
space for National Women’s Machineries (NWMs), civil society groups and gender
12
equality advocates and experts to highlight from their vantage points the issues that need
to be addressed, and to suggest policy approaches. This kind of structure also requires
that information flow more freely among economic agencies and institutions such as the
Ministry of Finance, Central Bank, statistical offices, other government agencies, and
other stakeholders.
Regional country experiences: some examples
Within the past decade, the Caribbean has had some experience with seeking to integrate
gender into economic policy and management. In 2002, UNIFEM supported a GBI in
Belize that undertook a gender-aware institutional framework analysis of economic and
governance institutions and processes. This was supplemented in 2005 when UNECLAC
published its needs assessment of economic planning units in gender analysis in selected
Caribbean countries, as a means of assessing what steps might need to be taken if gender
were to be integrated in economic planning and analysis.
UNIFEM has also joined with the UWI Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and
Economic Studies (SALISES) to develop a Special Project on Gender and Economics.
Under this initiative, regional economists have undertaken research specifically
incorporating gender analysis. The Project has also examined the Country Poverty
Assessment/Poverty Reduction Strategy (CPA/PRSP) process in Antigua and St. Lucia,
developing an algorithmic tool for a gender-sensitive CPA or PRSP that may be applied
in any territory. Another initiative in St. Vincent and the Grenadines saw the creation of a
gender statistics database, development of a gender-aware budget process and a sectoral
GBI of Education, Agriculture and Social Development.
Difficulties and challenges
Statistical requirements: one of the chief obstacles highlighted by those who seek to discourage
the GBI process is the scarcity of data necessary for such research. Certainly better data are
required, and statistical strengthening must be a priority action for all our countries, but
there are small steps that can initially be taken towards disaggregation by sex and more
thorough analysis of already existing information. Where new sources of information are
required, they must be sought. We should no longer treat the gathering of economic
information as primary at the expense of other types of indicators that are just as crucial
in developing economic policy.
Institutional capacity of national women’s machineries: another longstanding complaint
has been the restricted capacity of departments of gender affairs, which need not only to
be properly staffed and trained, but also afforded the space in which to participate in
economic policy decisions.
Institutional capacity of Ministries of Finance: similarly, increased capacity in Ministries
of Finance to incorporate clearly defined and accessible tools of gender analysis in
macroeconomic processes is key to sound financing for social and gender equity.
Conclusion
13
The steps that may be taken towards ensuring an adequate framework for gender analysis
are arguably the steps that would be taken as governments in the region move towards
programme budgeting, performance audits and many other economic management
initiatives in which we are already engaged. These steps include:
Analyzing the real impacts of restructured tax systems in response to trade liberalization
measures
Increasing country-initiated donor coordination in order to maximize the efficiency of
resources in promoting about gender equity
Strengthening the process of data collection and analysis through the development and
monitoring of gender-disaggregated indicators, and increasing the capacity of CSOs to
collect and analyze relevant data
Strengthening the capacity of NWMs in the area of gender and economics
Building the relationships among the actors within the policymaking environment,
including NWMs and Ministries of Finance
There are myriad opportunities for financing in the Caribbean region to increase the
economic well-being of men and women, and with these initial steps, we can be well on
our way. I thank you for your attention.
14
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