a quarterly update from BRIDGE, raising gender awareness among policy-makers and practitioners

• Beyond the feminisation of poverty: gender-aware poverty reduction
• Targeting poor women with credit: lessons from Bangladesh
• Players or spectators? Women, poverty and structural adjustment
• Public works, private exploitation: women in employment schemes
• Gender and poverty reduction: key references
• Currents in development and gender

In this issue of development and gender in brief, we unravel the relationship between poverty and gender disadvantage and review current poverty reduction strategies from a gender perspective. Recent studies suggest that targeting resources to poor women through credit and employment schemes is not sufficient, in itself, to bring lasting benefits and may reinforce existing gender inequalities. Institutional change is also required. A guest columnist gives new evidence of the impact of adjustment on poverty and suggests that women are more often spectators than players in the adjustment process. Our regular currents box airs a different issue: the pressing need to consider gender issues in emergency and conflict situations, as relief work takes on more prominence.

The importance of poverty reduction as a goal of development policy raises questions about the relationship between poverty and gender disadvantage. Some approaches to poverty reduction are 'gender blind'; others confuse gender and poverty concerns. What is needed is gender awareness and institutional change in projects and programmes addressing poverty.

The World Bank's New Poverty Agenda, presented in the 1990 World Development Report has come under considerable criticism, in part because of its gender-blindness. The promotion of labour-intensive employment ignores the fact that women already have too much work and often do not receive direct benefits from their long hours of labour. Public expenditure reviews tend to assume that, by redirecting spending towards basic services for the poor - e.g. primary education or reformed agricultural extension - men and women will benefit equally. This overlooks gender biases in the delivery of services. Where labour intensive growth has occurred, as in East and Southeast Asia, there have been significant reductions in poverty but the impact on gender equity is less clear. Labour markets remain highly discriminatory and women often get trapped in low-wage forms of work (Heyzer and Sen, 1994).

In contrast to this gender-neutral approach, is the widely held view that a 'feminisation of poverty' is underway, linked to a perceived rise in the incidence of female household headship (Buvinic, 1993). On this basis, it has been argued that:'Governments that wish to implement anti-poverty programs with constrained budgets should seriously consider targeting female-maintained families' (Buvinic and Gupta, 1994). Proposed measures includc social assistance and child-centred interventions, as well as public works programmes which target women, such as the PAIT programme in Peru and the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme in India. To date, few development programmes exclusively target female- headed households. One exception is a new scheme in Chile, providing urban female heads of household with employment training, housing, health care, childcare and legal aid services (Ibid).

While there does appear to be a rise in female headship in some countries, systematic data to verify this trend are not yet available and evidence of its association with poverty is inconsistent. Causes of female headship are political, economic, social and demographic - including conflict, migration, divorce, teenage pregnancy and widowhood - and the relative importance of different factors varies with the context. This shows that female-headed households are a very mixed category and underlines the danger of making a simple association between female headship and poverty. In most countries, specific sub-groups of female-headed households do tend to be concentrated among the very poor, but the character of these groups differs. In Latin America, female-headed households with dependent children are among the poorest while in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, widows appear particularly vulnerable.

"'Talking up' the feminisation of poverty has limitations as a strategy for addressing gender inequality"

'Talking up' the feminisation of poverty may be an effective way to attract more resources for women but has limitations as a strategy for addressing gender inequality (Jackson, 1995). In some instances, resources targeted at women are 'hijacked' by men, as in credit schemes in Ghana and Bangladesh. Targeting resources at poor women may help project beneficiaries but the underlying causes of female poverty - deep-rooted inequalities in control over assets, pervasive gender discrimination in labour markets, and lack of voice in the power structures controlling. resource allocation - remain unaddressed.

More fundamentally, if only poor women are 'deserving', then gender discrimination in non-poor households may be overlooked.

Discrimination against women and girls in India is often most extreme in wealthy households. This does not imply that poor women are 'better off'. It does, however, caution against viewing gender issues solely through the lens of poverty.

An alternative view is that poverty means different things for men and women, i.e., that poverty is gendered. For example, land ownership is often taken as a measure of wealth, but in North India, where women move to their husband's village on marriage, mobile property such as gold or enamel bowls is a more relevant measure of wealth for women (Jackson, 1995). Women and men also become impoverished through different routes. Divorce presents particular problems for women, even when it is sought as an escape from cruelty, since, unlike men, women gain access to many resources through marriage. Escaping poverty is also harder for women, due to gender inequalities from the household to the market, which reduce their range of income-earning options and the returns to their labour and education (Kabeer, 1995).

"Poverty reduction initiatives provide an opportunity to push back the boundaries of what is permissible for women to do"

The implication of this approach is that anti-poverty interventions should be gender-aware, both in needs identification and project design. Beyond the basic needs which form the focus of many anti-poverty interventions are a further set of 'needs' which arise from gender-specific constraints and which require innovative institutional practices to bridge the gap (Kabeer, 1995). For example, credit schemes which fail to recognise barriers to women's participation, such as lack of collateral, inflexible procedures, and physical and social distance, usually fail to reach poor women. Improved outreach, the replacement of physical with social collateral through group formation and simplified procedures are examples of mechanisms to overcome these barriers (Ibid).

As Kabeer (1995) points out, simply providing resources is not enough. Poverty reduction initiatives provide an opportunity to push back the boundaries of what is permissible for women to do and for the transfer and acquisition of skills, such as literacy or financial management. There is also scope for building collective relationships which strengthen women's bargaining power and for support to community action such as challenging corrupt local officials, or protesting against alcoholism and domestic violence (Ibid).

Institutional reforms to enable women's participation and gender-aware planning are also needed at higher levels, where key economic policy decisions are made. Until policy-makers become accountable to poor women, gender equity in poverty rcduction will remain elusive.

Matthew Lockwood, University of Sussex
Sally Baden, Institute of Development Studies

Over recent years, special credit programmes have managed to provide subsidised credit to low-income groups, including an increasing proportion of poor women, by adopting some of the more flexible features of informal credit systems.

Bangladesh's Grameen Bank is the best known example of a credit institution targeting the poor, and has influenced the development of numerous similar programmes elsewhere. Key features of the Grameen approach are group formation and training and the replacement of physical with social collateral. The rising proportion of women loanees - from 39 pcrccnt in 1980-3 to 93 percent in 1992 - attests to their high repayment rates compared to men. Average loan size for women is now roughly equal to that for men.

Closer examination of the impact of credit programmes in Bangladesh raises questions about whether women are able to fully utilise the credit disbursed. Women's control over loans was negligible in a significant number of cases, and only partial in others, while they remained responsible for loan repayment. This tendency seems to increase with the size of loan, due to women's limited absorptive capacity. Women may still benefit from the returns to investment from loans appropriated by family members, but they miss out on the opportunity to acquire financial management and related skills. Also, tensions within the household may heighten when women are obliged to ask husbands for repayments.

"Improving women's market access could prove a powerful way of enhancing loan use as well as women's public presence"

As donor agencies become more concerned with credit performance and sustainability - and some special credit programmes make the transition into commercial banking - social development goals, training and institution building are being played down. In the race to expand credit operations, targeting is being relaxed and there are indications in Bangladesh that better-off women form a growing proportion of loanees. There is increasing concern with rates of retum, less willingness to take risks and thus a reduced likelihood of support for poor women to diversify into non-traditional activities.

Persistent constraints on women's productivity - particularly their lack of access to markets - mean that the profitability of women's investments is still lower on average than that of men's.

More concerted investment is required in credit programmes into raising the productivity of women's work. This requires the provision of new skills and technology but also close monitoring of loan use and support for women's control over loans, e.g. through ensuring women's ownership of assets purchased and supporting their involvement in financial management. Improving women's market access, an area neglected in most existing programmes, could also prove a powerful way of enhancing loan use as well as women's public presence and self-confidence.

From BRIDGE Report No. 26: Background to Gender Issues in Bangladesh, by S. Baden, A.M. Goetz, C. Green and M. Guhathakurta, commissioned by· ODA, 1994. based on research by Anne Marie Goetz.

The process of structural adjustment relies on the reallocation of resources between sectors. Women are less likely than men to own, or have access to, productive resources and are often less able to reallocate the few resources they do have. Thus, women are more likely than men to be spectators, rather than players, in the adjustment process.

Where women do gain, it is often as spectators, by virtue of the sector or household they are in, rather than through active participation. In Ghana, rural poverty fell between 1987 and 1992 and female-headed households gained more than their male counterparts. Women already involved in rural trading benefited from structural adjustment policies favouring that sector. Other gains to female-headed households came through increased reliance on remittances.

"Male farmers benefit from policies favouring cash crops but women may suffer as demand for their unpaid labour intensifies"

While adjustment is often seen as addressing urban bias, from a gender perspective, there may be contrary processes at work. In rural areas, male farmers benefit directly from policies which favour cash crop production but, indirectly, women may suffer as demand for their unpaid labour intensifies. Although overall household income may increase, women's control over that income and their influence over decision-making in the household may be reduced. In urban areas, men are more likely than women to lose jobs in public sector retrenchments, given their higher representation in the formal labour force. The fall in household income when men lose jobs may compel women to increase their market work. The household income-generating base shifts, possibly leading to an increase in women's influence in decision-making.

In some cases, women are players in the adjustment process. In the Dominican Republic, poverty levels fell from 23 percent to 16 percent for female-headed households between 1986 and 1992, while they increased from 15 percent to 17 percent for male-headed households. This is partly explained by women taking up new opportunities in labour intensive industries in export processing zones, where 84 percent of jobs were held by women in 1988. But the promotion of export industries under adjustment does not always benefit women. In Nicaragua, economic reform led to a relocation of export industries and older female workers were replaced by younger male workers.

Adjustment policies will not succeed without the participation of women. If women are to be full players, adjustment policies themselves need to address the inequalities in resource acccss and mobility which limit women's participation.

Lynn Brown, Interntational Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Washington.

Based on: Haddad, L., L.R. Brown, A. Richrer and L. Smith, 1995, 'The gender dimensions of economic adjustment policies: potential interactions and evidence to date, ' World Development, vol. 23, no. 6.

IFPRI, in collaborarion with the North-South Institute, Canada, and CIDA, is involved in ongoing work for the Structural Adjusmtent and Gender in Africa project.

Public works programmes have a mixed record of involving women and, even where female participation is high, have a tendency to reinforce gender inequalities.

A much-cited success story is the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in India, which provides unskilled employment opportunities for the rural poor during periods of slack agricultural labour demand. Unlike other public works schemes, EGS has had a high level of female participation, rising from 41 percent in 1979 to 53 percent in 1987 and including female heads of household with dependent children. The localised nature of employment offered and the systematic provision of childcare reduce the costs of women's participation and there is no overt gender discrimination in wages. Women's earnings from participation in EGS can form as much as 30 percent of household income (Engkvist, 1995).

However, there are drawbacks. In practice, women earn less than men, partly by being excluded from more highly-valued, physically arduous tasks such as stone-breaking. Women are more susceptible to cheating and exploitation by leaders of work gangs. Village studies show higher rates of female participation than official registers, suggesting that women work as unpaid labour on behalf of men (Ibid).

Other public works schemes have a varied record on female participation. Phase one of the Rural Employment Sector Programme (RESP-I) in Bangladesh achieved over 40 percent participation of women. Women attended meetings and saved more regularly than men, but were allocated less days of work at lower daily rates. Few women's groups participated in project planning, compared to men's groups.

There was little attempt to draw women into longer-term development activities, e.g. through savings schemes. In Chile, the PEM (Programa de Empleo Minimo) was set up in 1975, and by 1987, 73 percent of participants were women. To counter the 'feminisation' of PEM, the government set up a new programme (POJH), paying the minimum wage to heads of household, twice the rate under PEM. POJH attracted mainly men and discouraged wives of poor men from working outside the home.

"Provision of childcare and local labour opportunities should be standard features of employment schemes"

There is much to be learned about strategies for encouraging female participation in employment schemes, from the more successful schemes such as EGS. Provision of childcare and local, or even home- based, labour opportunities should be standard features of such schemes (Buvinic and Rao Gupta, 1994). However, it is important to look at the conditions as well as the level of women's involvement.

High female participation may reflect stigma attached to particular schemes, very low wages, or male control over female family labour. Higher paying, parallel programmes for men should be avoided. Attention is also needed to gender gaps in earnings and to forms of asset creation which would benefit poor women.

BRIDGE Reports

Background Report on Gender Issues in India, by· Mary John with K Lalita, commissioned by ODA, 1994.
Background to Gender Issues in Bangladesh, by· S. Baden, A.M. Goetz, C. Green and M. Guhathakurta, commissioned by· ODA, 1994.
Gender Profile of Chile, by· Veronica Campanile, cormmissioned by DGI, European Commission, 1995.

Additional references:
Buvinic, M. and G.. Rao Gupta, 1994.
Engkvist, R. 1995, "poverty alleviation and rural development through public works: the case of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in Maharashtra," University of Lund, Department of Exonomics, Minor Field

Baden, S. with K. Milward, 1995, Gender and Poverty, commissioned by SIDA, BRIDGE Report No. 30.

Buvinic, M., 1993, 'The feminisation of poverty: research and policy needs,' International Center for Research on Women, Washington.

Buvinic, M. and Geeta Rao Gupta, 1994, 'Targering poor woman-headed households and women-maintained families in developing countries: views on a policy dilemma,' Internarional Center for Research on Women and The Population Council, Washington.

Heyzer, N. and G. Sen, (Eds.), 1994, Gender, Eeonomic Growth and Poverty: Market Growth and State Planning in Asia and the Pacific, Kali for Women, New Delhi, with Asian and Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur .

Jackson, C., 1995. 'Rescuing gender from the poverty trap,' Gender Analysis in Development Series, no 10, University of East Anglia School of Development Studies, Norwich.

Kabeer, N., 1995, 'Targeting women or transforming institutions? Policy lessons from NGO anti-poverty efforts,' Development in Practice, vol. 5, no. 2, Oxfam, Oxford.

Is gender awareness a luxury in emergencies?

lncreasing political instability in many parts of the world - former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Angola - has resulted in a shift in global aid expenditure, with an estimated seven percent of overseas development assistance in 1991 spent on relief, compared to under one percent in 1980, and escalating military costs for the United Nations. War and civil conflict are resulting in a situation of 'permanent emergencies,' where long-term development aims and ideal practices can seem little more than luxuries. The gains from efforts to integrate gender issues into development policy and practice risk being undermined in the urgency of coping with massive flows of refugees and ensuring emergency aid deliveries. Nevertheless, awareness is growing that both the consequences of conflict and the resulting need for assistance are gender-specific. In conflict situations, women are often left to support families alone, while facing restrictions on their mobility and threats to their health and personal safety. Some agencies involved in humanitarian assistance are now in the process of developing guidelines for gender-sensitive planning in emergencies.

Future BRlDGE reports will examine gender aspects of conflict, emergencies and humanitarian assistance and review efforts to integrate gender concerns in this area. Anyone interested in sharing their experiences on this issue is invited to contact Bridget Byrne at the address below.

BRlDGE (briefings on development and gender) is an information analysis service specialising in gender and development issues. BRIDGE's aim is to assist development professionals in government and non- government organisations to integrate gender concerns into their work. Based at the lnstitute of Development Studies, in the UK, BRIDGE was set up with financial assistance from OECD-DAC agencies. SlDA funded this issue of development and gender in brief.

© Copyright: Institute of Development Studies 1995 ISSN 1358-0612
Editor: Sally Baden, with assistance from Bridget Byme.Thanks to Anne Marie Goetz and Susan Joekes (IDS Fellows), and Professor Michael Lipton, University of Sussex, for their advice.

(C) Copyright IDS