The economic empowerment of women and development'

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The economic empowerment of women and development.

• By Katleen Van den Broeck
• Danida Development Days
• June 12, 2007

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Overview

• Gender empowerment situation
• Constraints faced by women
• Development effects of empowerment of women
• Some initiatives to soften womens constraints

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1. Gender empowerment situation

• Statistics from Human Development Report 2006
• - produced in November 2006
• - most numbers based on 2004 data
• Since 1990 Human Development Index (HDI)
• - extension to GDP as a measure of wealth
• - based on 3 pillars to capture human
  development
• living a long and healthy life (life expectancy)
• knowledge (literacy and gross enrolment in prim,
  sec, ter)
• having a decent standard of living
  (GDP/capita-PPP US)

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• In 1995 introduction of Gender-related
  Development Index (GDI) and Gender Empowerment
  Measure (GEM).
• GDI (should be used together with HDI!)
• - adjustment of HDI to penalise for gender
  differences in the 3 areas
• GEM
• - captures gender differences in 3 dimensions
  political participation, decision making power,
  command over economic resources ( seats in
  parliament, of legislators, senior officials,
  managers are female, technical and professional
  workers are female, estimated female/male income)
• gt used as monitoring tools for gender-related
  developments

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GDI examples

• Note interpretation of GDI! A 0 in column 3 does
  not mean no gender inequalities but only no
  change of HDI rank when taking into account
  gender inequalities
• Penalisation of HDI for gender differences occurs
  in all groups of HDI!

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Gender Empowerment Measure examples

• Highest ratio of estimated female to male earned
  income 0.83 in Kenya, followed by 0.81 in Sweden
  and in Mozambique
• Lowest ratio 0.15 (Saudi Arabia)
• gt Income earning/activity constraints for women?

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• Smith et al (2003) constructed an index of
  womens intra-household relative decision-making
  and societal inequality using data from 40
  countries (data from DHS Surveys). IFPRI Study.
• Their results show that women have lowest status
  in South Asia, then Sub-Saharan Africa, then
  Latin-America and the Caribbean
• The 10 lowest ranking in their study (in terms of
  low relative decision-making power of women) 1.
  Bangladesh, 2. Nepal, 3. India, 4. Chad, 5.
  Mozambique, 6. Mali, 7. Niger, 8. Pakistan, 9.
  Malawi, 10. Côte dIvoire

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2. Constraints faced by women

• Human capital
• Lower level of education
• Health risks
• Time use
• Lower amount of time available for income
  earning reproductive tasks and traditional role
  models
• Resource use
• access to land
• access to credit

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Human capital

• Lower level of education (but closing gap)

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Human capital

• 2. Health risks
• Maternal health In developing countries only
  59 of births attended by skilled health
  personnel, in least developed countries 36
• Life expectancy decreases due to HIV/AIDS
  especially for women (feminisation of HIV/AIDS in
  SSA) reverse life expectancy gap expected in SA
  from 2008 onwards
• Domestic violence
• Distribution of scarce family resources women
  and children suffer most from micronutrient
  deficiencies (although they have higher needs-for
  reproduction, growth) gender differences in
  health expenditures, hospital admissions,
• gt lower levels of human capital may prevent
  women to enter certain activities or to be as
  productive as men in the activities

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Time use

• Availability of time for economic activity and
  income earning
• Women are mostly responsible for reproductive
  tasks such as childcare, cleaning, cooking,
  collecting firewood/water, taking care of ill and
  elderly
• Traditional role models indicate that women
  should provide food for the household (so they
  cultivate food crops rather than cash crops) or
  the type of work they should do (or not do).

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Time use

• gt Women are working more hours but have much
  lower shares of their working time available for
  market activities

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Resource use

• Access to land
• Inheritance laws and customary laws often
  disfavour women.
• Property rights are important for widowed or
  divorced women but also for intra-household
  bargaining power of married women.
• gtproperty rights for women necessary but not
  sufficient!
• Even though statutory laws may not be
  discriminatory, implementation or interpretation
  at local level may be different. Especially in
  rural areas the relative importance of customary
  laws may be high.
• Women who live in remote areas and/or are
  uneducated may not be aware of their rights.
• Joint property rights may still be de facto
  husband property.
• Ownership does not always mean effective control.

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Resource use

• 2. Access to credit
• Importance of credit in agricultural environment
  to bridge time between input use and harvest, for
  investment e.g. in small business, for
  consumption smoothing,
• Women often face more difficulties in accessing
  credit.
• For example due to their lack of command over
  property when there are collateral requirements.
• Or, they may be dependent on their husbands
  consent.
• Or, their lack of education or knowledge may
  prevent them from applying for a loan.

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3. Development effects of empowerment of women

• Besides a mere equality and empowerment issue,
  there are positive development externalities of
  empowering women.
• For example, why can the provision of credit
  directly to women be more effective in welfare
  enhancement than providing credit to the
  household?
• Assumptions on household behaviour
• Unitary HH model all HH members pool resources
  gt impact of policies involving HH transfers are
  unaffected by identity of recipient
• Collective HH model HH members have different
  preferences and do not necessarily pool resources
  gt welfare effects of transfers depend on
  identity of recipient (man/woman)

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• Intra-household research has shown the beneficial
  effects of increasing resources/human capital for
  women
• control over resources increases womens
  bargaining power in the HH
• Effects
• Increased welfare of current and future
  generations
• Differences between distribution of benefits from
  resources under womens control versus mens
  control Women spend more on the familys needs
  while men tend to fulfil personal needs

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• Examples
• -increased household food security when women
  hold control over land/Different cropping
  preferences (Dey, 1995 von Braun and Webb, 1989
  But increased work burdens for women, see Rao,
  2006)
• -social expenditure such as education, health and
  food expenditures positively linked to womens
  income or resources (Kennedy, 1994 Quisumbing
  and Maluccio, 2000 Deininger, 2003)
• -childrens health and nutritional status more
  positively linked to mothers control over
  resources/educational status than fathers
  (Hallman, 2000 Smith et al, 2003)
• gt improving womens status has long-term effects
  for health, capacity and productivity of next
  generation

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• Effects on agriculture
• -reducing gender inequalities in human and
  physical capital and current inputs could
  increase agricultural productivity in SSA by
  10-20 percent (Alderman et al, 1996 Quisumbing,
  1996 Smith and Haddad, 2000).
• For example, simulations from a set of women
  farmers in Kenya show that if all women attended
  primary school yields could be increased by 25

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4. Some initiatives to soften womens constraints

• 1. Improving access to credit for women
  Microfinance/group-based lending.
• For example, Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
• Group-based lending schemes targeted towards the
  poor and often towards women.
• Does programme participation change HH behaviour
  and does gender of participant matter?
• (Measures used women and men labour supply, boy
  and girl schooling, expenditure and assets).
• gt credit has significant effect on well-being of
  poor HHs and effect is larger when participants
  are women (Bangladesh, Pitt and Khandker, 1997)

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• Effects of micro-finance at participant and
  community level in Bangladesh
• gt Access to microfinance contributes to poverty
  reduction, especially for female participants,
  and to poverty reduction at village level
  (Khandker, 2005)

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• 2. Direct cash transfer programmes targeted to
  women
• Example PROGRESA in Mexico (Programa de
  Educacion, Salud y Alimentacion).
• Targeted to mothers PROGRESA used the results
  from empirical research and recognising mothers
  potential to use resources effectively to respond
  to family (rather than personal) needs, gives
  exclusively to mothers.
• Cash transfers and nutritional supplements are
  conditioned on childrens regular school
  attendance and visits to health care centres.

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• Results of PROGRESA evaluation programme
  (Skoufias, 2005)
• school enrolment of boys and girls increased
  significantly, especially for girls and at
  secondary school level gt this is estimated to
  lead to an 8 percent higher lifetime level of
  income for the children involved
• better health status for children and adults
  involved children with mothers who are
  beneficiaries of PROGRESA have 12 lower
  incidence of illness, adults 19 decrease in
  sick/disability days
• reduced probability of stunting (low
  height-for-age, chronic malnutrition measure) for
  children between 12 and 36 months of age
• improved food consumption higher caloric
  consumptionmore diverse diet

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• PROGRESA is example of the public provision of
  resources to a specific household member (which
  will increase that persons bargaining power)
• The programmes effectiveness shows that cash
  transfers targeted to women can change her
  bargaining power in household decision-making
  processes and allow her to reveal her preferences
  towards family needs
• Mexicos effective poverty alleviating programme
  has served as a model in other Latin-American
  countries
• (In Mexico it is now called Oportunidades)

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• 3. Women groups
• Social networks, membership in institutionalised
  groups, or community based organisations can help
  to protect individuals from the effects of shocks
  (limit negative/downward mobility) or to improve
  income earning situation (positive/upward
  mobility).
• Typical groups ROSCAs, funeral groups, women
  groups,
• Women are often found to be more likely to be
  members of any group than men, especially of
  financial groups
• For example, South Africa (Kwazulu-Natal) 14 of
  women in study involved in financial group vs. 7
  of men (Maluccio, 2001)

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• Effects of social capital on bargaining power
  (increased fall-back option)/income generation.
• For example, using the South Africa data, the
  effect of participation in groups has positive
  effects on HH welfare (measured by expenditures)
  and the elasticity is greater for women, i.e. HH
  welfare responds more to increased womens
  participation. (In Quisumbing and McClafferty,
  2006)
• Collective activities/meetings provide an
  opportunity for women to leave the house without
  spouse, to discuss problems, to exchange
  information,
• For example, organised meetings in relation to
  PROGRESA programme-main purpose of which was to
  convey information about programme related issues
  but had positive side effects for empowerment of
  beneficiaries.

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• 4. Saving time?
• Finding a solution to soften the reproductive
  tasks of women and traditional role models is not
  easy.
• For example, Hogares Comunitarios (community
  daycare centres) in Guatemala City gt providing
  low-cost but quality childcare in the community
  as a strategy to alleviate poverty gt by
  softening womens time constraints it allows them
  to enter into off-farm employment

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• Evaluation of the programme (Ruel et al, 2006)
• programme supports poor families with working
  parents and especially single mothers through
  engagement in more formal and more stable
  employment, resulting in higher wages and larger
  number of social and medical benefits
• programme has positive impact on childrens
  nutrient intake and dietary diversity (on avg.
  children in the programme consume 20 more
  energy, protein and iron, and 50 more vitamin A)

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• Note For all types of women targeted programmes
• they can not be designed in isolation from the
  society where they will be implemented. They need
  to be considered taking into account the local
  environment where women operate and the level to
  which it is characterised by traditional norms
  and culture.
• For example, it can be good to include men in the
  initial meetings to increase their understanding,
  acceptance or consent to women participating in
  these programmes.
• Women beneficiaries of PROGRESA suggested that
  the programme should also offer education for
  adult men, e.g. on how to treat women/children,
  domestic violence, family planning,

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Conclusion

• Attention to gender issues and possibilities to
  monitor evolution of gender situation, both in
  society and within households, have increased.
• Although improvements have been made, especially
  with respect to human capital, still a lot of
  gender inequalities in access to resources such
  as land, credit and own labour time.
• Development effects of reducing gender
  inequalities and increased access to resources
  for women are potentially very big.