Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative - Africa

African Institute for Economic Development and Planning United Nations Development Programme
UNDP/PNUD Logos Reversed Versions
IDEP
G E N D E R A N D E CO N O M I C P O L I C Y MA NAGEM E NT I N I TI ATIVE AFR IC A
T R A I NIN G O F T R A IN E R S
SHORT COURSE ON
GENDER-RESPONSIVE ECONOMIC POLICY MANAGEMENT
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IDEP
GENDER AND ECONOMICS
INTRODUCTION
To establish a common analytical foundation across the diversity of participant backgrounds, this first module aims to ensure that participants share similar understandings of basic economic and gender-equality concepts, how they interact with each other and how basic economic ideas can be approached through a gender lens. Among the participants in the course will be economic policy makers, planners and practitioners, with varying degrees of exposure to working on gender issues in economics. The course will also include gender specialists with varying degrees of exposure to working on economic issues from a gender perspective. The module does not aim to ensure that everyone operates at the same level of sophistication, though a subsidiary aim is to encourage those with more sophisticated understandings of either economics or gender equality issues to express themselves to others simply and in jargonfree terms, especially when communicating with others less immersed in their knowledge areas. A further subsidiary aim is to encourage all participants to speak and engage with each other.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of the module, participants will share a common understanding of: 1. Basic economic concepts; 2. Why basic economic concepts need to incorporate a gender dimension; 3. Basic gender concepts.
OUTLINE
I. Basic economic concepts II. Why gender matters for economics III. Agreeing on basic gender concepts
DURATION
One-and-a-half days
EXERCISE 1. WHOSE STORY IS IT? ICEBREAKER

Objective: to introduce the group to each other, facilitate the formation of the participants into a group and demonstrate asymmetrical information
The facilitator passes out slips of paper and pens. Everyone very briefly writes down a true story or experience that happened to them on the paper, along with their name. The more bizarre the story, the better it is for the purpose of the exercise. The slips of paper are folded and put into a container, shuffling them and mixing them up. The facilitator picks out four slips of paper and calls out the names of the people written there. These people sit on chairs or a settee apart from the group. The facilitator reads off the stories, then hands the slips of paper back to the four people, but gives only one person their own story. The rest of the group has to try to find out who is telling their own story by asking the four people to tell more fully the story on the slip of paper. The four people try to convince the group that the story they are telling is really theirs; after each of the four has done so, the group votes on who they think is telling their own story. While the main goal of the game is to have participants relax with each other, the game should later be used to illustrate the idea of asymmetrical information in Section II of this module, before Exercise 3, which explores the concept of asymmetrical information in more detail.
I. BASIC ECONOMIC CONCEPTS

Objective: to enable participants to develop a common understanding of basic economic concepts
MARKETS
A market is any context within which the buying and selling of goods and services takes place. The market does not have to be a physical entity, but it could be. Ideally, markets are a coordination mechanism in which the prices and quantities of goods and services balance demand and supply in equilibrium. In neoclassical economicseconomics taught to university undergraduatesa perfect market is one in which there are many producers, each with minimal share of the market; all producers produce a uniformly identical commodity, are free to start and cease production and have complete information about the market for their product. In this type of market, no individual buyer or seller can influence the marketproducers and consumers are price takers. Perfect markets represent not so much a reality as a policy aspiration. If there is no interference in the operation of a perfect market, the forces of demand and supply adjust prices for goods and services to establish equilibrium, or balance, between supply and demand; the invisible handAdam Smiths famous conceptdelivers the goods and services that consumers want because people are free to choose what they want to buy.
DEMAND
Demandwhat people would like to purchaseshows the relationship between the price of a good or service and the quantity that people are willing to buy. Demand depends upon the price of a good or service, prices of other goods or services, income and the more difficult-to-measure variable of taste, which economists call preferences. The law of demand claims that, all else being equal, the quantity demanded of a good falls
when the price of the good rises and the quantity demanded of a good rises when the price of the good falls. For example, as the price of meat rises the quantity demanded may fall: the substitution effect means that consumers substitute a less expensive food for the more expensive meat. Goods and services that demonstrate this quality are called normal goods. Goods that do not demonstrate this quality are called inferior goods. For example, as the price of rice falls it is not necessarily the case that the quantity demanded of rice will rise: the income effect means that the same amount of rice can be bought with less money, and consumers will use the money that they have saved to buy other food as they substitute other foods for cheaper rice. When expressing demand in a graph, it is important to distinguish between factors that result in movements along a demand curve and factors that result in movements of the demand curve itself. So a change in the price of tea results in a movement along the demand curve for tea, but a rise in the price of tea shifts the location of the entire demand curve for sugar, resulting in less sugar being demanded at each and every price, because sugar is complimentary to tea.
PREFERENCES
Consumer choices regarding what people would like to purchase determine what an economy produces; as firms must sell goods and services to stay in business, they must therefore sell what customers want to buy. This means that neoclassical economics is based upon the consumer being sovereign, in that having ultimate authority over their preferences means that they have ultimate authority over markets.
SUPPLY
Supplywhat producers of goods and services offer to sell to consumersis the relationship between the price of a good or service and the quantity of a good or service that producers are selling in the market. It depends upon the prices of inputs needed to make the good or service, technology levels and the prices of other goods or services. The law of supply claims that, all else being equal, the quantity supplied
of a good or service increases as the price of the good increases. When expressing supply in a graph, it is important to distinguish between factors that result in movements along a supply curve and factors that result in movements of the supply curve itself. So a change in computer prices leads to a movement along the supply curve for computers, but an inventiona change in technologythat makes it cheaper to produce computers at each and every price moves the location of the entire supply curve for computers.
EQUILIBRIUM
Equilibrium is a situation in which supply and demand have been brought into balance. The equilibrium price is the price that balances the supply of firms and the demand of consumers. Equilibrium quantity is the quantity supplied and demanded when the price has fully adjusted to balance supply and demand. Equilibrium is established when firms respond precisely to consumer demand; consumer sovereignty holds that if firms charge more than individuals are willing to pay, demand falls, while if firms charge less than individuals are willing to pay, demand increases.
ADDING UP MARKETS
The market demand and supply for goods and services offers a simple but not overly simplisticframework for understanding the buying and selling of goods and services in individual markets by individual consumers and individual firms. This branch of economics is called microeconomics. If all the goods and services produced by all the firms in an economy are added up, this is called aggregate supply, the total output that firms produce and plan to sell at a given price level. If all the goods and services that individuals, firms and governments plan to buy at a given price level are added up, this is called aggregate demand. The branch of economics that examines the behaviour of the economy as a whole is called macroeconomics.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to undertake elementary demand and supply analysis
This small group activity is designed to work through basic demand and supply concepts to establish a common basis of knowledge. At this stage, the facilitator can expect the economists to lead the gender specialists through the exercise. This will also facilitate the participants identifying with each other as a group. Each group should contain an even mix of economists and gender specialists.
GROUP A: APPLYING DEMAND

Instructions Facilitators allocate participants into groups of four. Each group should work their way through the following exercise, for which they will need only a pencil and some paper. 1. Demand data for oral rehydration salts are shown in the table below. Plot the demand curve on a piece of paper.
TABLE 1.1: DEMAND FOR ORT SALTS

Price (cedis) 10 12 14 16 18 20 Quantity demanded (millions) 10 9 8 7 6 5
2. What happens to the demand curve when the government provides a cash transfer to people to buy the ORT salts? Illustrate on the diagram that you have drawn. 3. What happens to the demand curve for ORT salts when the availability of safe drinking water improves? Illustrate on the diagram that you have drawn. 4. Discuss whether you think that there are any goods for which demand falls as incomes rise. 5. Goods that are extremely fashionable, such as the latest Nokia mobile phone, may be demanded even though they are expensive relative to competing goods. Discuss whether you think the demand curve for such goods slopes downward, like an orthodox demand curve. 6. It is very common for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its policy advice to countries, to recommend that exchange rates be devalued, interest rates be increased and tax collection be improved. What effect do you think that this policy advice has on aggregate demandthe plans of all the individuals and firms and the government to buy goods and services at a given price level? Illustrate your thinking using a demand curve. 7. Demand depends upon the price of a good or service, prices of other goods or services, income and preferences. The group should briefly discuss whether it thinks any of these factors might be affected by gender. The economists in the group should address the ideas of gender specialists in economic terms. When groups have completed the questions, signal the facilitator to examine the answers.
GROUP B: APPLYING SUPPLY

Instructions Facilitators allocate participants into groups of four. Each group should work their way through the following exercise, for which they will need only a pencil and some paper. 1. Supply data for oral rehydration salts are shown in the table below. Plot the supply curve on a piece of paper.
TABLE 1.2: SUPPLY OF ORT SALTS

Price (cedis) 10 12 14 16 18 20 Quantity supplied (millions) 3 4 5 6 7 8
2. What happens to the supply curve when the government subsidizes the company making the ORT salts? Illustrate on the diagram that you have drawn. 3. What happens to the supply curve for ORT salts when an improved production process is introduced? Illustrate on the diagram that you have drawn. 4. It is very common for The World Bank, in its policy advice to countries, to recommend that external trade be liberalized, that internal trade be deregulated, that state-owned enterprises be privatized and that the private sector be allowed to offer goods and services that were previously reserved for the public sector, such as
health care and education. What effect do you think that this policy advice has on aggregate supplythe total output that firms produce and plan to sell at a given price level? Illustrate your thinking using a supply curve. 5. Supply depends upon the prices of inputs needed to make a good or service, technology levels and the prices of other goods or services. The group should briefly discuss whether it thinks any of these factors might be affected by gender. The economists in the group should address the ideas of the gender specialists in economic terms. When the group has completed the questions, signal the facilitator to examine the answers. The facilitator should complete the exercise in plenary by asking for volunteers to explain the answers to the following questions: 1. Referring back to the information provided in Tables 1.1 and 1.2, facilitators should ask someone to plot the demand curve and the supply curve for ORT salts together on a new diagram. What is the equilibrium price? 2. The facilitator should have another volunteer show what happens to prices and quantities when a) the demand curve shifts and b) the supply curve shifts. 3. Assume that the government sets a maximum price for ORT salts that is below the equilibrium price. Have a volunteer try to illustrate what happens using the diagram drawn to answer Question 1 in this section.
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II. WHY GENDER MATTERS FOR ECONIMICS

Objective: to facilitate the acquisition of a common understanding of why basic economic concepts need to incorporate a gender dimension
PREFERENCES IN ECONOMICS
Neoclassical economics does not address the question of what determines an individuals preferences to buy a good or a service because the determinants are assumed to originate outside the economy and its operation. Institutional economics disagrees, arguing that the habits, customs, conventions and norms that shape preferences are created within cultures that socialize individuals and, in so doing, affect how individuals acquire and process the information they need to make choices, including economic information. In this approach, consumers are not sovereign. Individual agency in expressing preferences is highly constrained by socially defined conventions and the psychological need of individuals to conform to social expectations. So economic choices are socially molded through the groups within which individuals place themselves, and preferences are therefore embedded within the social aspects of the economys operation.
GENDER AND PREFERENCES

If the neoclassical economic argument is correct, gender relations may affect preferences, but this cannot be known and therefore can be ignored. So the gender identity of a consumer would not be relevant to an economic analysis. If the institutional economic argument is correct, preferences are heavily shaped by prevailing patterns of gender relations as females and males conform to different sets of social conventions and expectations and this molds the goods and services for which they express a preference. For example, women and men may have different
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preferences for the amount of meat that they would like to consume on a daily basis. The evidence strongly supports the proposition that consumer preferences are shaped by gender relations.
PREFERENCES: INCOME AND NEEDS

The social conventions and expectations that shape consumer preferences are affected by income levels. Thus, the social conventions and expectations of the rich differ from those of the poor. But consumer choices must also satisfy a set of human needs, shaped by bio-physical and social relations, including the prevailing pattern of gender relations. If income rises, needs are first met, after which additional income is spent on nonessential consumption goods and services. If income falls, needs must be met before any nonessential spending is made; if it falls far enough, consumers must decide which needs are most important to them. So there is a hierarchy of needs that affects and is affected by consumers income and which will be reflected in consumer preferences. Institutional economics calls this the theory of lexicographic preferences, and it suggests that prices may be less important in determining what consumers demand than are incomes, the hierarchy of needs, and the social relations and structures that shape the hierarchy of needs.
HOUSEHOLDS
Many goods and services supplied by firms and purchased by households for consumption (e.g., food) cannot fulfill any needs unless they are further transformed into an item that can be finally consumed. Such transformation requires labour (e.g., cooking). In addition to food preparation, such labour includes childcare, the maintenance of clothing, the reinforcement of shelter and the provision of hygiene and sanitation. This work takes place within households and is not paid, but does cost time and effort. Thus, in economic terms, households allocate resourcesin this case, labourto produce goods and services. Firms rely on this labour being available so that their goods can be processed after consumers have bought them.
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Women dominate the provision of these bio-physically and socially necessary services. Thus, in households, social and economic institutions combine and reinforce each other: the structure of the household affects and reflects the gender division of labour between household activities geared toward maintaining the family and caring for children (traditionally considered womens domain) and formal labour force participation as household breadwinner, such as in commodity production (traditionally considered mens domain). The performance of unpaid care work in the household is a precondition of supplying labour for commodity production. This means that intrahousehold resource allocationand thus, gender rolesshape the ability of firms to supply and be able to sell goods and services, even though economic analysis typically does not account for the effects of gender roles. The gender division of labour is the result of (patriarchal) gender ideologies that define women and men asymmetrically with regard to the other. These social identities, however, produce both social and material differences between females and males, and thus, gender-based social and material inequality.
EXTERNALITIES
Externalities are the spillover effects of an economic activity onto an individual or a community that is not directly involved in the activity. In such a case, prices in markets do not reflect the full costs or benefits in the production or consumption of a good or service. The social and economic benefit of performing unpaid household care work creates a positive externalitythe availability of labour for commodity productionthat is not reflected in the cost of production of a good or service.
PUBLIC GOODS
Public goods are goods or services that, if supplied to an individual consumer or firm, are available to others at no extra cost. Therefore, there is a strong incentive for firms not to provide public goods because individuals benefit from their provision without having to pay for such
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provision. Markets will therefore not supply public goods because doing so can never be profitable for firms. An everyday example is street lighting; if supplied to an individual, even at a cost, other individuals can use it without paying for it and therefore markets will not provide it. The benefits of unpaid household care work are public goods; in the aggregate, societies benefit from the provision of bio-physically and socially necessary services without having to compensate the providers of such services for their provision.
GENDER EMBEDDED MARKETS

As mentioned above, the markets described in perfect competition are not found in practice. Transactions are not anonymous; the identities of the buyer and seller often affect the terms and conditions of sales, and hence, gender relations can affect market operations. For example, the terms and conditions of a sale need not be the same for a woman farmer as it is for a man farmer. At the same time, prices may not give the same information to the buyer and the seller. Such asymmetrical information may be an outcome of gender relations. For example, a male buyer of a crop may not reveal what he knows about the market conditions for the crop to a female seller of the crop because she is a woman. The bounded rationalitythat is, rationality limited by the information availablethat results from such asymmetrical information may shaped by prevailing gender norms, resulting in nonmarket-based resource allocation and coordination mechanisms and institutions that also reflect a dominant set of gender relations. For example, because the female seller of a crop knows that the male trader will not give her the best possible price because she is a woman, she chooses to distribute her crop to certain members of the community in exchange for a commitment to work in her fields later in the year. Finally, while production is a precondition of market activity, reproduction in a precondition of production, and the social and economic reproduction of individuals, households and communities are the result of a gender division of labour that signals the characteristics of the dominant set of gender relations. So gender relations are embedded within markets, and can result in markets that, far from being perfect, are often incomplete, fragmentary or missing.
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EXERCISE 3
Objective: to demonstrate that markets may have gender relations embedded within their operation
This exercise uses the idea of the prisoners dilemma to show that markets are rarely, if ever, perfect: Asymmetries of information between women and men mean that gender relations are embedded within the operation of markets and, thus, that markets are social institutions subject to the prevailing parameters of a set of gender relations. Instructions for Participants The group is split into two groups, which stand on opposite sides of the room. Each group must nominate one person to act as recorder. A card game is then played, in which each person in one group is matched with someone in the other group. The objective of the game, for each individual, is to earn as much money as they can. To each member of both groups, the facilitator gives a pair of playing cardsone red card (hearts or diamonds) and one black card (clubs or spades). The numbers or faces on the cards do not matteronly the colour. Members of one group are all asked, one at a time, to play one of their cards by holding it face-down to their chest, so that the whole group can see that they have chosen a card to play, yet nobody in the group knows which card it is. The facilitator will then tell them who they are matched with, and each person in the pair can reveal the card that they have played. This constitutes one round; the game lasts five rounds. In the first round, individuals are randomly matched with another participant. In the second round, individuals are randomly matched with a different participant. In the third round, individuals are randomly matched with yet another participant. In the final two rounds, however, individuals are matched with the same participant they were matched with in the third round. This means that, in the first two rounds, the individuals partner is anonymous, but in the final three rounds, the individuals partner is known.
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In the final two rounds, individuals are allowed to communicate with their partners prior to selecting a card to play. Earnings are determined by the card that individuals play in relation to the card played by the person matched with the individual.
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If individuals play a red card, their earnings increase by $2, while the earnings of the person matched with them do not change If individuals play a black card, their earnings do not change and the earnings of the person matched with them increase by $3.
This means
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If both individuals play red cards, they both earn $2. If both individuals plays black cards, they both earn $3. If one individual plays a black card and the other plays a red card, then the first individual earns nothing and the other person earns $5. If one individual plays a red card and the other plays a black card, then the first individual earns $5 and the other person earns nothing.
For the game to work, the facilitator must ensure that the participants clearly understand the choices available to them. The recorder writes down the colour of a card when an individual plays it, the colour of the other participants card, and each individuals earnings in the following table:
TABLE 3: EARNINGS FROM THE GAME

Period 1 2 3 4 5 Your card (R or B) Others card (R or B) Earnings
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Instructions for Participants In economic terms, the game is a prisoners dilemma with low gains from cooperation of the following form:
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Player 1 Black Red (0, 5) (2, 2)
TABLE 4: A PRISONERS DILEMMA WITH LOW GAINS FROM COOPERATION
Player 2
Black Red
(3, 3) (5, 0)
It is to be expected that, in the first three rounds, both players opt for red, because if they opt for black and the other participant opts for red, they get nothing. In the fourth round, the participants are allowed to communicate. This yields the possibility of cooperation or defection (cheating): Cooperation is the best possible outcome, with both players agreeing to opt for black. In the normal sequence of events, cooperation should be established by the fifth round. The key lessons of the prisoners dilemma game are: 1. In the absence of information, there are individual incentives to opt for rational choices that are the worst possible outcome in terms of joint earnings; this is the case when both players opt for red. Therefore, anonymous market exchanges by individuals do not necessarily yield the best result for society as a whole. 2. With information, there is incentive to cooperate; if both players opt for black, they are better off. However, there is also an incentive to defect for private gain at the expense of society as a whole. This is witnessed when two individuals agree to opt for black but then one individual cheats and opts for red. The individual who has not cheated
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and trusts the other loses badly. Even with information available, markets may not necessarily be the best way of making choices. 3. In actual markets, information may not be distributed evenly. This means the benefits from cooperation may not be distributed evenly. 4. In particular, the distribution of information in markets may differ between females and males. This has implications for womens abilities to participate in markets. 5. In addition to the issue of incentives, the prisoners dilemma illustrates the need for the provision of public goods. If all information is freely available and no player is excluded from such information, a better outcome is ensured for all players. Public goods can make markets work better, but because they must be made available to all there is an incentive for firms not to provide them. The facilitator can also link the games illustration of the need for public goods to the provision of unpaid household care workthe provision of such services predominantly by women provides benefits to society as a whole which are not compensated, which means that men have an incentive not to increase their contribution because they benefit from it anyway At the conclusion of the game, the facilitator should review the key message that markets subject to asymmetrical information may not generate the best outcomes, and that the basis of such asymmetrical information may be gender relations. Thus, gender relations, again, strongly affect the operation of markets. The facilitator should encourage the group to discuss this result and its implications, paying particular attention to the implications of the exercise for the economists that are participatingthis exercise substantially undermines a lot of their training.
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III. AGREEING ON BASIC GENDER CONCEPTS

Objective: to enable participants to share a common understanding of basic gender concepts
EXERCISE 4
Objective: to introduce, understand and debate key terms in gender analysis
The facilitator should ask participants to name any terms and concepts that are used in relation to gender that they feel unsure about. Write each of these terms and concepts on the flipchart as well as on a separate piece of paper. Before the Module, the facilitator should also have prepared a set of pieces of paper, each of which contains one of the following: Sex versus gender Gender division of labour Gender equality Formal equality versus substantive equality Feminism versus African feminism Household versus African household Discrimination Facilitators should divide the participants into groups of two or three. Hand out the slips of paper so that each pair or group of three people has one paper to discuss. Give these small groups five to ten minutes in which to agree on how they understand the concept written on their
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piece of paper. The facilitator must explain that some of the terms may be controversial, and there is not always one correct definition of each term, but it is important that the group as a whole has a more or less shared understanding of the concepts in order to have sensible discussions in the rest of the course, rather than all talking different languages by using the same terms with different meanings. The facilitator should then ask one member of each group to tell the full group of participants how they understand the concept. After each explanation, invite other course participants to add, amend, or challenge the definition. Encourage discussion and even some debate. If the discussion goes badly off course, the facilitator should gently steer it back to a better definition of the concept. After discussion of each concept, the facilitator should sum up with how they understand that concept, using the Module guidelines below for assistance. Go around the room until all concepts have been discussed. After the Module, add simple explanations for any extra terms that participants named. Ensure that all participants receive copies for their files.
SEX AND GENDER

Sex refers to the biological differences between female and male people. It is fixed and does not change over time, across countries, or across cultures. Gender refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being female and male and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and girls on one hand and men and boys on the other. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and learned through socialization processes. They are context- and timespecific and changeable. Gender determines what is expected of, allowed for and valued in a woman or girl and a man or boy in a given context. In most societies, there are differencesand inequalitiesbetween women
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and girls on one hand and men and boys on the other, in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, and access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. Gender is part of a broader sociocultural context. Other important criteria for sociocultural analysis include class, poverty level, ethnic group, age and ability.
GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR

The gender division of labour refers to who (women or men, young or old) usually does what in terms of different types of work, such as paid work on the land as well as in factories, mines, building sites, hospitals and offices; unpaid household care work, such as cooking, cleaning and caring for family members; and community activities, such as volunteering to care for community members who are ill and need help at home.
GENDER EQUALITY
Equality between women and men (gender equality) refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men become the same, but that womens and mens rights, responsibilities and opportunities do not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are considered, while recognising the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is often understood as equality of opportunity. This means that women and menor girls and boysare not discriminated against in access to opportunities.
FORMAL EQUALITY AND SUBSTANTIVE EQUALITY

Formal equality is a principle of equal treatment: Individuals who are alike should be treated alike by society, according to their actual characteristics rather than stereotypical assumptions made about them. Formal equality can be equated to equality of opportunity, and the degree to which people have the same freedom to seek education,
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work, and leisure, and to otherwise develop and apply themselves to the best of their ability. It does not account for differences in the characteristics and circumstances of different people and how these might affect their abilities to benefit from opportunity. As a result, formal equality often does not produce equal results because of significant differences in the characteristics and circumstances of women and men. Substantive equality, like formal equality, requires that people be treated in the same way, but goes further in requiring also that the characteristics and circumstances of different people, or groups of people, be accounted for in deciding how they should be treated, to ensure that all are equally able to benefit from opportunities that present themselves. Substantive equality can be equated to equality of outcome.
FEMINISM
Feminism is a social movement that questions gender inequalities and tries to change them. Feminism focuses not only on women, but on the socially determined structure of relationships between women and men that result in women and men having different responsibilities assigned, different activities undertaken, different access to and control of resources, and different decision-making opportunities. Feminism can be thought of as similar to black consciousness, which questions race inequalities and tries to change them.
AFRICAN FEMINISM
African feminism challenges the assumption that gender oppression in Africa is exclusively the result of a patriarchal structure of female-male social relations, arguing also that specific forms of gender oppression arise from the legacy of the colonial experience. Colonialisms impact on Africa was vastly different in different places and spaces. African feminists argue that sexist, racial, class and ethnic oppression are
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inextricably bound together, and together have marginalized women in Africa. Struggles for gender equality must therefore challenge multiple sites of oppression, operating within the unique characteristics of African cultures and societies.
AFRICAN HOUSEHOLD
While the general definitions of gender and the economic characteristics of the household given in Part II of this Module are important, the specific characteristics of African households also must be recognized. Colonialism transformed prior African gender ideologies and drove a material wedge between women and men, evidenced in gender-based social differentiation. Within African households, women and men often have differential access to production resources, such as land, capital, technology, sources of income, credit and education. As a result, women and men within African households implicitly and explicitly negotiate the terms and conditions of their interdependence and relative autonomy. The social and economic content of bargaining processes must be understood if the dynamics of African households are to be appreciated.
DISCRIMINATION
In dictionary terms, discrimination means treating people with different characteristicssuch as women and mendifferently. The Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) goes further in defining discrimination as different treatment that is unfair. Discrimination is sometimes explicit; other times it is implicit because it does not, for example, say females and males will be treated differently, but instead uses characteristics that are more common for females or males to discriminate. For example, job descriptions that specify a height restriction may implicitly discriminate by excluding those that do not meet the height restriction. CEDAW commits signatory states to combat both implicit and explicit discrimination.
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REFERENCES
Alexander, P., with S. Baden. 2000. Glossary on Macroeconomics from a Gender Perspective. Sussex: BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies. Himmelweit, S., R. Simonetti and A. Trigg. 2001. Microeconomics: Neoclassical and Institutionalist Perspectives on Economic Behaviour. London: Thomson Learning.
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CONTACT
IDEP Rue du 18 Juin, behind "Assemble Nationale" PO 3186, CP 18524 DAKAR Tel.: (221) 33 823 10 20 l Fax: (221) 33 822 29 64 E-Mail: unidep@unidep.org
IDEP
GENDER-RESPONSIVE POLICY ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
Module 2 has three broad objectives. The first is to synthesize the separate insights that are acquired during the course, in relation to economics, gender relations, economic development strategies, sectoral issues and the development and implementation of public policies. The second is to review and systematize the insights of genderaware policy analysis developed during the various components of the course. The third is to test participants ability to use their insights into gender-aware policy analysis to structure the development of genderaware policy proposals. Starting from intensive group discussions at the beginning of Week 1, a gender-aware sectoral policy intervention for a particular country is framed and designed and an implementation strategy developed, drafted and documented, in the form of a group paper, during Week 2. The group paper is then refined into a policy brief during Week 3.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of the module, participants will have: 1. Grasped a basic understanding of economic policy analysis. 2. Achieved a common competence in understanding why economic policy analysis must be gender-aware. 3. Undertaken a gender-aware policy analysis.
OUTLINE
I. Economic policy analysis. II. Making economic policy analysis gender-aware. III. Sectoral gender-aware policy analysis.
DURATION
Initially, half a day; thereafter, for the duration of the course.
I. ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS

Objective: to enable participants to understand the fundamentals of economic policy analysis
ECONOMIC POLICY
Economic policy is undertaken to alter the behavior of individual consumers, households, communities and firms and the way in which their behavior is coordinated when they take part in economic activity. This can involve changing the terms and conditions by which markets and non-market social institutions operate, which has consequences for individual, household and community well-being and human security.
ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS

Economic policy analysis examines and assesses the effects of individual, household, community, firm and government behavior on well-being. Economic policy analysis requires:
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Specifying the objectives of the intervention, particularly whether it is equity or efficiency oriented. Examining the methods used to achieve the objectives, within the constraints of available resources or technology. Defining the instruments of policy. Evaluating whether the policy methods or instruments can achieve or have achieved the objectives, usually through an economic costbenefit analysis (defined below). Assessing whether the objectives were appropriate, often using the standard axioms of welfare economics, and particularly asking whether one person can be made better off without making another person worse off.
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Economic policy analysis examines the effects of policy changes on:

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Prices. Supply and demand that bring about changes in prices. State budgets. The trade position. The welfare of producers and consumers, whether they be individuals, households or communities. The institutional setting that affects economic decision making.
EFFICIENCY
A process is efficient when nothing more can be produced with the resources available. Technical efficiency is when production takes place at the lowest possible cost per unit. Allocative efficiency is when output is produced using the best possible combination of inputs. Economic efficiency, also know as Pareto-efficiency, is when no one can be made better off without making someone else worse off.
EQUITY
Horizontal equity is the identical treatment of identical people. Vertical equity is the different treatment of different people to reduce the effects of those differences. Distributional equity occurs when individuals in a given society deem the allocation of goods and services among themselves to be fair. Distributional equity clearly implies a value judgment by individuals or their representatives; as it cannot be objectively defined, it may be subject to disagreement within communities and societies.
METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS OF POLICY

There are two main methods in economic policy: those that try to augment markets and those that try to bypass markets. Taxes and subsidies, direct interventions, trade policy and exchange rate policy are the key instruments of economic policy. In general, policies that operate with or through markets are often, but not always, more likely to achieve their goals than those that seek to control markets. Policies that affect prices have more complex side effects than non-price interventions.
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS

Cost-benefit analysis is a framework for evaluating public- and privatesector actions that affect the conditions under which consumers and firms operate. Cost-benefit analyses can monetarily estimate all the gains and losses from an investment in an economic or social project over the life of the project, to assess whether or not the gains outweigh the losses. In principle, investments should only be made when gains outweigh losses.
II. MAKING ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS GENDER-AWARE

Objective: to enable participants to recognize the need for a genderaware economic policy analysis
GENDER ANALYSIS AND ECONOMIC POLICY

Economic policy is developed by the state, which is a social institution; in turn, it also affects institutions such as households, markets, communities and states. As introduced in Module 1, gender relations are power relations located at different points in different institutions and which reflect visible and invisible values, motivations, practices and products. For example, as demonstrated in Module 1, households as social institutions operate in ways that affect and reflect gender relations; markets as social institutions operate in ways that affect and reflect gender relations; and within government, the ability of women and men to develop and implement policy is affected by their social identities as women and men, and thus, is affected by and reflective of gender relations. It follows that gender identities and relations can be embedded within social institutions, that gender relations can both influence and be influenced by economic policy, and that this may limit the capacity of economic policy methods to achieve their objectives. In considering the objectives of economic policy, gender-based price and institutional distortions in the operation of the economy may need to be addressed. In choosing the methods and instruments of economic policy, there may be gender-based constraints to resource and technology availability; the instruments of economic policy may themselves be gender-biased. Thus, gender relations can strongly affect the capacity of economic policy interventions to achieve either their efficiency or equity objectives.
GENDER BLIND POLICY

Gender-blind economic and social policy ignores the different situations, roles, needs and interests of women, men, girls and boys.
GENDER NEUTRAL POLICY

Gender-neutral economic and social policy is not affected by, and does not affect, the different situations, roles, needs and interests of women, men, girls and boys. In reality, very few policies are gender-neutral. When policy makers claim a policy is gender-neutral, they are usually being gender-blind.
GENDER RESPONSIVE POLICY

A gender-responsive economic and social policy considers and addresses the different situations, roles, needs and interests of women, men, girls and boys. The term gender-sensitive can be used rather than gender-responsive, as they have the same meaning.
GENDER MAINSTREAMING
Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making womens as well as mens concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres, so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. Gender mainstreaming should be applied to economic policy analysis, in which the ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to demonstrate to participants why there is a need to make economic policy analysis gender-aware.
This is a directed reading exercise that should be used to facilitate discussion. Each participant will spend 15 minutes reading the two-page United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) policy brief, Sustaining African Agriculture: Organic Production.1 Each participant should then reflect on the following questions: 1. What are the main policy messages of the brief? 2. Are these policy messages feasible? Why or why not? 3. Is the policy brief gender-blind, gender-neutral or gender-aware? Why? 4. What is the implication of your answer to Question 3 for the brief as a whole? Is the brief stronger, weaker or about the same? 5. What is the implication of your answer to Question 3 for the policy? Is the policy stronger, weaker or about the same? 6. List three ways in which the gender content of the policy, as described in the policy brief, could be strengthened. The facilitator should then introduce a discussion among the participants of the gender-blind characteristics of many economic policies. The facilitator should ask the participants to reflect on their own experiences and consider whether employment policy, macroeconomic policy, trade policy and financial policy in their countries is gender-blind, gender-neutral or gender-aware. To conclude, participants also should consider whether a policy being gender-blind might account for at least some of the policy failures that they have seen.
The brief is available at http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/presspb20091rev1_en.pdf (accessed April 30, 2010).
III. SECTORAL GENDER-AWARE POLICY ANALYSIS

Objective: to facilitate the capacity of participants to undertake a genderaware policy analysis and present the analysis in the form of a policy brief
ONGOING EXERCISE
Objective: to enhance participants gender-aware policy analysis skills
On the second day of the course facilitators ask participants to sort themselves into groups of three for team work that will last for the duration of the course. It is strongly advised that participants from the same country form themselves into a single group, given the nature of the teamwork. If this is not possible, participants should be encouraged to form themselves into groups based upon the extent of their in-depth knowledge of a given country. The teamwork is undertaken in three phases: 1. In week 1 of the course, teams identify the subject of their work: a sectoral or subsectoral policy that they will analyse from a gender perspective. 2. In week 2 of the course, teams complete a group paper that reviews, systematizes and synthesizes the gender-aware sectoral or subsectoral policy analysis that they have undertaken. 3. In week 3 of the course, teams translate their group paper into a policy brief that can be offered to policy makers.
WEEK 1
Facilitators ask self-selected teams of three participants on Day 2 to choose a sectoral or subsectoral policy from the country in which they are interested, on which they are going to conduct a gender-aware policy analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to
I I I
Describe the policy intervention. Evaluate it from a gender perspective. Propose measures to enhance the gender-awareness of the policy measure.
The term sectoral policy should be interpreted broadly for this exercise, and the facilitators should explain this broad interpretation to the participants. Teams can choose to focus on any of a variety of types of sectors: traditional economic sectors (e.g., agriculture, retail and wholesale trade, manufacturing, finance) or social sectors, including public and private components (e.g., education, health). A subsectoral policy is more specific: a particular economic activity (e.g., cut flowers) or a particular social intervention (e.g., access to clean water). The teams can also develop new approaches to sectors, should they so choose. For example, unpaid care work could constitute a care sector. The informal sector could also be used for this exercise, if appropriately defined (e.g., all informal enterprises, or informal enterprises engaged in a specific activity). The sectoral or subsectoral policy should be one that has been developed relatively recently, that is still in operation, and for which participants can obtain policy and budgetary documents if they have not brought such documents with them. During the first week of the course, participants will be asked to ensure that they agree on the sector and policy, compose a gender-aware policy analysis work plan that will allow them to describe and evaluate the policy,
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and obtain any necessary documents. At the end of the first week, each team will present an initial report to the entire group to obtain comments and constructive criticism regarding their proposed group paper.
WEEK 2
During the second week, participants are given time to work on the gender-aware policy analysis to produce a group paper that critically evaluates the policy from a gender perspective. The paper must encompass the spectrum of policy analysis:
I I
Identifying the problem that the intervention seeks to address. Specifying the objectives of the intervention, particularly whether it is equity or efficiency oriented. Examining the methods and instruments used to achieve the objectives. Evaluating the indicative costs and benefits of the intervention. Evaluating whether the intervention is gender-neutral, gender-blind or gender-aware, and why. Proposing alternative or supplementary gender-aware methods and instruments that could achieve the objectives of the intervention while enhancing the gender equality of the expected outcomes of the intervention. Roughly costing out the feasibility of alternative or supplementary gender-aware methods and instruments. Proposing reasons why feasible costs should be borne.
I I
At the conclusion of the second week, teams will be required to submit a group paper of no less than 10 and no more than 15 pages to the facilitators for evaluation before the start of Week 3.
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WEEK 3
The group papers, along with the comments of the evaluators, form the basis of a policy brief that the teams produce during Week 3. These briefs are distributed to the group as a whole and presented to the course at its conclusion. The purpose of the presentation is to convince participants that the policy proposal should be implemented. After all presentations, participants vote for the best policy proposal as described in the policy brief.
GUIDELINES FOR GENDER AWARE POLICY BRIEFS

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Policy makers want policy briefs that justify what they are doing. Depending upon the audience for the brief, this justification may or may not be situated within a larger theoretical or empirical context. Regardless of the audience, however, the policy brief should be written in a nontechnical way, for interested readers (policy makers) with an academic background, but who may not understand all the theoretical and empirical nuances of the policy issue being covered in the brief. When writing the brief, participants should not try to be comprehensive. Rather, they should present only the policy-relevant aspects of the group paper, focusing on those research results arising from the paper and, particularly, the meaning of those results that will be of interest to policy makers. Thus, the main task in presenting the brief is to focus the attention of the reader (policy maker) on the policy relevance of the intervention that is being analysed from a gender perspective.
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BEFORE WRITING THE POLICY BRIEF

Try to summarize the results of the group paper in terms of the policy relevance of:
I
The key question used to address the policy issue evaluated in the group paper. The major quantitative and qualitative descriptive and analytical results obtained in the group paper. The interpretation of these results in relation to the policy issue of interest to policy makers.
Use this summary to write the policy brief.
GENERAL RULES WHEN WRITING THE POLICY BRIEF

1. Focus on one major message per brief. This will improve the clarity of the presentation and, by focusing on a single message, should assist in structuring the brief. 2. Do not try to explain the method of analysis used. Most readers will not be interested in such details. 3. Do not just present results of the analysis, but also try to interpret the factors that caused the results. Such (new) insights may be very interesting for policy makers. 4. Use only one diagram, graph or table per brief, and a diagram or graph is better than a table. Make sure the diagram or graph is well used if it is included. 5. Attractive design is important in getting the attention of the policy maker. 6. Keep the policy brief to two sides of A4 paper.
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COMPONENTS OF THE POLICY BRIEF

This is only an indicative guide. The title should attract the attention of the reader. It should also reflect a policy issue or research result that derives from the policy analysis of the group paper and is found in the policy brief. The first paragraph should provide general background information that defines the problem and, in so doing, justifies further examination of a specific policy intervention. It must be done in non-technical terms. The second paragraph should contain the question that is being investigated in such a way as to throw light on the specific policy intervention identified in the first paragraph. The third paragraph should provide any contextual theoretical or empirical considerations that throw light upon the question. It is at this stage that a specific policy instrument can be introduced, in the context of a wider theoretical or empirical discussion of the need for a genderaware policy appraisal. This paragraph must, very efficiently, link the question of the policy brief back to wider theoretical or empirical issues, in a maximum of six sentences and in a non-technical way. The fourth paragraph should provide the results of the analysis, usually illustrated by a diagram, graph or small table. Provide only the briefest information (one sentence maximum) on the approach used and provide no methodological details. Avoid using jargon at all times to maximize readership. Do not present any results that are not directly relevant to the question. The fifth paragraph should answer the question asked in the second paragraph. It is feasible to try to interpret the factors that caused the results presented in the fourth paragraph.
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The sixth paragraph should describe the policy relevance of the genderaware policy analysis, along with the key policy recommendation that arises from the answer to the question. Reference to the growth, distribution and welfare effects of a policy, in light of government objectives and the scope for first-and second-best policies, can be examined. The sixth paragraph thus concludes the policy brief, but to do this effectively, it should directly link back to the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs, and succinctly give the brief overall coherence. It should also make explicit reference to the limitations of the policy analysis provided in the brief. The last paragraph can be the longest in the brief. Following the sixth paragraph, the brief may provide a short guide to further reading and provide any (minimal) references that have been used.
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CONTACT
IDEP
UNPAID CARE WORK
INTRODUCTION
This module exposes participants to the concept of unpaid care work first introduced in Module 1. It explores how unpaid care work can be measured and valued, and how it might be consideredor ignored in policy making. A subsidiary aim of this module is to highlight common weaknesses and errors in how economic and social statistics are gathered and presented. Finally, the module suggests general guidelines for policy making regarding unpaid care work.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module, participants will: 1. Recognize the importance of unpaid care work. 2. Understand the role that assumptions about care have for economic policy. 3. Be able to voice the general principles that should guide economic policy toward unpaid care work.
OUTLINE
I. Understanding unpaid care work A. Challenging economic assumptions B. Recognizing the existence of unpaid care work C. Why is unpaid care work important? D. Measuring unpaid care work E. Assigning a monetary value to unpaid care work II. Considering unpaid care work in policy A. Community subsidization of government B. International examples of care-sensitive policies C. Policy guidelines toward unpaid care work
DURATION
One day
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I. UNDERSTANDING UNPAID CARE WORK

A. CHALLENGING ECONOMIC ASSUMPTIONS
LABOUR MARKETS
Labour markets are institutions by which firms obtain the labour needed to perform work, households decide how much work they are willing to undertake, and the price of labourthe wageis determined. Labour markets explain the process of wage determination and employment. Freely functioning labour markets operate identically to other markets discussed in Module 1, except that supply and demand move in the opposite direction: Demand for labour is made by firms that need workers to perform tasks for them, while the supply of labour is made available by households requiring income. As with other markets, the demand for and supply of labour in a competitive labour market should interact to produce an equilibrium quantity of labour demanded by firms and supplied by households, at an equilibrium price for labour, the prevailing wage rate.
LABOUR SUPPLY
Labour supply theory assumes that workers are available to be employed. It does not ask how workers come to be available for employment; it does not account for the work that encompasses the preparation of food, child care, the maintenance of clothing, the reinforcement of shelter, the provision of hygiene and sanitation, and other care, all of which must be performed prior to labour being available for employment. As highlighted in Module 1, the structure of
the household affects and reflects the allocation of womens and mens labour time and resources between household activities geared toward the work that is a precondition of labour-force participation in commodity production. What is an assumption to labour supply theorythe provision of a labour forceis in fact a positive externality of the work done in households, as explained in Module 1.
UNPAID CARE WORK

Unpaid care work is a criticalyet largely unseendimension of human well-being that provides essential domestic services within households, for other households and to community members. Unpaid means that the person doing the activity does not receive a wage and that the work, for reasons discussed below, is not counted in gross domestic product (GDP) calculations. Care means that the activity serves people and their well-being; it includes both personal care and care-related activities, such as cooking, cleaning and washing clothes. Work means that the activity entails expenditures of time and energy.
OPPORTUNITY COST
When one action is undertaken, another action cannot be undertaken. Opportunity cost measures the value of an action as being the value of the best possible foregone action. Opportunity costs can be found wherever resources available to meet wants and needs are limited, so that not all wants and needs can be met simultaneously, if at all. For example, the opportunity cost of unpaid care work is foregone paid work or leisure. However, while the opportunity cost of unpaid care work is foregone paid work or leisure, for paid work to be undertaken, biophysically and socially necessary unpaid care work must be performed beforehand. This suggests that there is a household maintenance constraint that limits the capacity to undertake paid work or leisure.
B. RECOGNIZING THE EXISTENCE OF UNPAID CARE WORK
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to reveal the existence of unpaid care work in everyday life
Relate the following story to participants: A man employs a housekeeper who cooks, cleans and shops for him. The man pays this housekeeper a wage. According to the System of National Accounts (SNA) and rules drawn up by bodies such as the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank, statisticians count the wage when calculating the total value of all incomesthe GDPin the country. After a time, the man marries the housekeeper. She continues to cook, clean and shop for him. But the man stops paying her a wage as she is now his wife. The amount of the wage is thus no longer added to GDP, and the GDP of the country falls. Marriage is therefore clearly bad for the growth of income, and hence economic growth. Facilitate a discussion of this story among participants. Ask them whether it makes sense to them. Ask them whether the SNA rules are logical, and ask them to motivate their responses. Encourage different views rather than consensus. Then provide the following input, filling in what has not already been covered by participants in areas where there is confusion or disagreement. a) The SNA rules define production or work in terms of the third-person rule, as anything that one could theoretically pay someone else to do. So cooking, cleaning and caring for children, as well as mining, doing paperwork and nursing, constitute production, while learning, eating, sleeping, watching TV and socializing with friends and family are non-productive activities.
b) The SNA rules define a production boundary that distinguishes between production activities that must be considered when calculating GDP and those that cannot. The production boundary includes all production of goods, even if these are not sold on the market, but instead consumed by the household that produces them. The boundary also includes all production of services produced for the market, but excludes the production of almost all services produced for own consumption. c) The International Labour Organization uses SNA rules in its international definitions of what counts as employment. So any work that produces goods and services that are counted in GDP are classified as employment, but services that are not counted in GDP are excluded. This means that subsistence work, unpaid work in a family business and, rarely, the collection of fuel and water for a household is employment. (Very few countries count the collection of fuel and water, but Tanzania is an exception. However, even Tanzania does not include the collection of fuel and water in its GDP calculations.) Housework as well as caring for children and those who are old or ill is not considered employment. d) Formally, economic activities that are excluded from GDP are defined by UNDP and others as unpaid care work, as elaborated above. Many other terms have been used to approximate what we call unpaid care work, and can be found in the literature, but these terms can be ambiguous and are therefore not satisfactory. Among the unsatisfactory terms that are sometimes used instead of unpaid care work are: Unpaid work, referring to unpaid care work or unpaid work in a family business inside or outside the home. As such work may or may not be counted in GDP, it is not as precise as unpaid care work. Unpaid labour, another term for unpaid work. Domestic work, work that takes place within the household and can involve unpaid care work or the paid labour of domestic workers. As
such work may or may not be counted in GDP, it is not as precise as unpaid care work. Domestic labour, another term for domestic work. Home work, referring to unpaid care work or paid work done in the home or subcontracted from an employer. As such work may or may not be counted in GDP, it is not as precise as unpaid care work. Reproductive work, referring to unpaid care work or paid care work, such as breastfeeding or pregnancy. As such work may or may not be counted in GDP, it is not as precise as unpaid care work. Reproductive labour, another term for reproductive work. For reasons of clarity, in this course we use the term unpaid care work as defined in section A above. e) Reasons given for not counting unpaid care work in GDP include: a lack of data, although time use surveys are possible even in developing countries and data availability is increasing; that unpaid care work does not affect important factors such as employment and poverty, even though, as we will discuss in this module, these arguments are false; and that a change in the GDP accounting method would make it difficult to compare trends over time, though if we followed this reasoning, we would never make any improvements to concepts and measures.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to critically assess estimates of unpaid care work in comparison to work
The facilitator should hand out copies of, or display, the following graph, and make sure that participants understand its different components. Explain that the graph comes from cross-country research on care coordinated by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) covering Argentina, India, the Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, South Africa and Tanzania, and is based on official time use surveys conducted in each of the countries. Ask participants to compare the proportion of time spent by women and men on unpaid care work and SNA work in each country. Ask participants if they can suggest why the patterns differ across countries (but note that some of the differences could come from differences in methodology).
GRAPH 1. DISTRIBUTION OF TIME OF POPULATION AGED 18+ ACROSS SNA WORK, UNPAID CARE WORK AND NON PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES
1400 1205 1010 815 620 425 230 35 -160 Argen India Korea M M M 972 36 432 1035 43 362 Nic M 966 90 384 S Tanz Africa M M 1116 1008 89 76 234 357 Argen India Korea F F F 1019 89 333 972 36 432 1035 43 362 Nic F 966 90 384 S Tanz Africa F F 1116 1008 89 76 234 357
1019 Nonproductive Unpaid care work 89 333 SNA
C. WHY IS UNPAID CARE WORK IMPORTANT?
EXERCISE 3
Objective: to explain why unpaid care work is important
Facilitate a short brainstorming session about why unpaid care work is important especially for policy makers. Then summarize what has been discussed, adding any points that have not been raised, such as the following: a) A substantial amount of the populations time and energy goes into unpaid care work. Women, in particular, spend substantial amounts of time and energy on it. b) If the work is not done, the population suffers in well-being and happiness; the economy suffers because it does not have a healthy, satisfied and capable labour force; and government is burdened with having to provide many services that households, in the aggregate, currently provide for free as a public goodand some of these latter services, the government cannot provide. In sum, a failure to provide unpaid care work produces significant negative externalities. c) That women spend so much time in unpaid care work reduces the time that they have available for income earning, learning and leisure. That unpaid care work, such as child care, needs to be done at specific times, and both child care and housework need to be done in specific locations, restricts womens flexibility in their choices of income-earning activities. So the labour supply decisions of women discussed in Part A may be constrained by having to perform unpaid care work. d) That so much work, such as cleaning, cooking and looking after people, is done for free affects earnings in the paid labour market. Nurses, teachers and domestic workers tend to earn less than other people with similar educational levels and similar levels of exertion.
Because women tend to be clustered in the occupations and sectors that perform similar work to unpaid care work, they tend to earn less than men. This increases womens poverty and lack of economic power relative to men.
D. MEASURING UNPAID CARE WORK
EXERCISE 4
Objective: to enable participants to measure unpaid care work
Hand out blank time use diaries (see below) to each participant. Ask participants to think back to the last Friday before they left their country to come to the course. Ask them to think back to all the activities they did on that day and to fill in the activities on the time use diary. Note that for each one-hour period, they can record up to five activities; participants should count both activities that were done one after the other in that hour as well as activities done simultaneously (e.g., listening to the radio and looking after a child). When most participants have completed their diaries, ask them to sit in pairs. If possible, each pair should be made up of one woman and one man. Ask them to discuss and compare their two diaries. In particular, ask them to compare how much paid work each of them did, and how much unpaid workin particular unpaid care work. After giving some time for the discussion in pairs, ask participants to report back on any interesting observations they made. It is likely that women will report more unpaid care work than men. However, this group might be unusual because they consist of more professional middle-class people, some of whom might be beyond the age of having young children or employ domestic workers and others to do care work for them. If the expected pattern is not found, ask participants if they think there would be a different pattern for poor women and men in their country.
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TABLE 1. TIME USE DIARY

Period
04.00 to 05.00 05.00 to 06.00 06.00 to 07.00 07.00 to 08.00 08.00 to 09.00 09.00 to 10.00 10.00 to 11.00
Description of activity
1 to 5 activities per time period
Code
Same time?
Yes / no 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2
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Period
11.00 to 12.00 12.00 to 13.00 13.00 to 14.00 14.00 to 15.00 15.00 to 16.00 16.00
Code
Same time?
Yes / no 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2
to
17.00 17.00
to
18.00
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Period
17.00 to 18.00 18.00 to 19.00 19.00 to 20.00 20.00 to 21.00 21.00 to 22.00 22.00
Code
Same time?
Yes / no 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2 1 / 2
to
23.00 23.00
to
24.00
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After discussion, cover the following material: a) The diary that participants have just filled in is similar to that used for the time use survey that was done as an add-on module to the Integrated Labour Force Survey of 2006 in Tanzania. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) included the time use module after years of advocacy and awareness-raising by the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, a local non-governmental organization (NGO). b) Similar diaries have been used in other countries. The Tanzania diary is unusual in having one-hour time slots, rather than the half-hour used in South Africa and Mauritius and even shorter periodsas short as 10 minutesused in some Western countries. Tanzania used longer time slots because the NBS felt that most Tanzanians, especially in rural areas, would not know exact times. c) The time use diaries used in Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, and other developing countries are usually administered by a field worker, while in more developed countries, participants are usually expected to fill in the diaries by themselves. Field worker administration is preferred in developing countries because of both low literacy levels and low response rates for self-administered questionnaires, which make the data less reliable. d) Diaries are the most accurate way to get information on time use for large numbers of people. Some surveys try the shortcut of asking people how much time they spend cooking (or doing some other activity). One problem with this approach is less accurate estimates because the person does not need to account for what they did in each part of the day. Another problem is that it is difficult to think of a comprehensive list that covers all possible activities. e) As participants will see, the Tanzania diary has a column in which a code is recorded for each activity. Mauritius, South Africa, and Tanzania used an activity classification system, developed by the United Nations Statistics Division, that follows the SNA in dividing activities into three broad categories: SNA, activities that count as
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employment in a labour force survey; unpaid care work, or expanded SNA, covering activities that involve production but that are not counted as employment; and non-productive activities, such as sleeping, eating, learning, watching TV and socializing. This classification produces data that could be used to make more gender-responsive macroeconomic models, a possibility discussed in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomics. f ) Most other time use surveys and analyses use a classification system that approximates this three-way division, although the detail of old classification systems is usually not as closely tied to the SNA. g) In addition to Mauritius, South Africa and Tanzania, other African countries that have conducted time use surveys with samples of 1,000 or more include Ivory Coast (198588), Ghana (199192 and 199899), Uganda (1993), Benin (1998) and Madagascar (2001). Some of these surveys did not use full diaries. Questionnaires and other material relating to time use studies in different countries can be found on the website of the United Nations Statistics Division at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/tuse/.
EXERCISE 5
Objective: to explain patterns of time use and work with graphical analysis
Hand out copies of the table on gender, work and time allocation in the Human Development Report 2007/08 (page 342). Take participants through the different columns of the table to ensure that they understand what is recorded in each. Then divide participants into groups of three, which must include, minimally, one economist who can explain to the others in the group how to develop the graph. Ask each group to develop a graph and a short narrative that together describe some of the patterns they see. Give groups about 45 minutes to do this and ask them to put their graph and narrative on a flipchart or computer presentation so that it can be shown to all participants.
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Then ask each group to make a presentation. Encourage participants to comment on each others presentations, with suggestions on how they could be improved. Add your own suggestions for improvements. Look out, in particular, for:
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Graphs on which the numbers are not shown, which makes them less useful for policy making. Graphs that do not have zero as the origin, which exaggerates differences. Graphs that use fancy shapes instead of simple bars or columns, thus making the patterns more difficult to see. Graphs that do not have clear labels. Narratives that express percentages incorrectly, for example, X percent of women do Y rather than X percent of people who do Y are female, or X is 5 percent higher than Y rather than X is 5 percentage points higher than Y. Use of percentages with small samples. Results that are presented to too many decimal places (e.g., often two decimal places are used, because this is the default in Excel; this represents spurious accuracy and confronts the reader with unnecessary complications).
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E. ASSIGNING A MONETARY VALUE TO UNPAID CARE WORK

Economists measure things in monetary terms: in dollars, meticais, shillings or pula. However, this still requires that some analytical judgements be made. For example, we will see in Module 6 that there are differences in the way different components of GDP are measured. Government services are valued only regarding their labour costs, but private goods and marketed services are valued at labour costs plus profit, and the value of owner-occupied housing is imputed. We therefore need to make some judgements about how to convert the time measurements obtained through time use surveys or other means into money measures. We do this by assigning an hourly wage to the
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time spent. The levels to be used for these wages are taken from other surveys, such as the labour force survey that most countries conduct at regular intervals. There are many different approaches to finding the correct wage to use in calculations. Which approach is used depends on what question one is asking (e.g., How much would one pay if one had to buy these services?; How much money does the individual lose by doing unpaid care work rather than paid work?) and what wage data are available. The mean wage approach calculates the mean wage in the economy as a whole and assigns this wage to each hour. Usually, the mean is calculated separately for female and male; the male value is assigned if a male performs the unpaid care work, while the female value is assigned if a female does so. This sex-disaggregated approach lowers the overall estimated value of unpaid care work, because women generally perform more unpaid care work than men and the average female wage is usually lower than the average male wage. The opportunity cost approach estimates the value of the earnings that the person would have earned in paid work if they had not done the unpaid care work. We therefore take their normal wage or income from paid work as the value of the opportunity cost. The generalist approach uses the mean wage of workers performing similar work to unpaid care work. For housework, the approach could use the wage of paid domestic workers. For child care work, it could use the wage of workers in crches. The specialist approach focuses on the activity rather than the person who does the activity. For each activity, it uses the wage earned by paid workers whose functions and circumstances match the unpaid care work concerned. For example, time spent on cooking activities could be valued at the wage of a paid chef or cook, while time spent on cleaning activities could be valued at the wage of a paid cleaner.
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As Module 1 pointed out, economists and policy makers should pay attention to unpaid care work because, for society as a whole, it is a form of public good that involves positive externalities. This means that even if unpaid care work is valued at the correct cost in terms of labour input, it is still undervalued because the positive externalities that it generates are not reflected in GDP and similar measures, as mentioned above. Unpaid care work brings positive externalities for employers because the care and preschool education of children and the feeding and care of the workforce improve the quality of the labour force. Woman largely bear the cost of this work in terms of time and effort. The benefit is derived by society more generally. The value of the labour force is partly covered by payment of wages and partly by government when it pays for education and health services. But, by defintion, no payment is made to the people who perform the unpaid care work part of workers production. Because there is no price tag for unpaid care work, and because society does not pay for it, policy makers often assume that there is a limitless supply. But there is a limit to unpaid care work. If the suppliers (mainly women) of unpaid care work are pushed too far, and if the burdens placed on them are too heavy, the quality and amount of care they can provide will deteriorate.
EXERCISE 6
Objective: to demonstrate the economic importance of unpaid care work
Facilitators should hand out copies of the graph. Explain that this graph comes from the same cross-country research on care coordinated by UNRISD covering Argentina, India, Nicaragua, South Africa, the Republic of Korea and Tanzania. Explain in simple language that the graph shows the results of valuation using two versions of the mean wage approach, one using earnings of all employed people and one using earnings (wages) only of employees, and two versions of the generalist approach, one including all workers doing work similar to unpaid care work and
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one including only domestic workers. Explain that the Argentinean time use survey covered only Buenos Aires, which means that the calculation is based on the citys gross geographic product, while for the other countries, the calculation is for the entire country, based on GDP. Ask participants to note the wide variation in value of estimates for a single country, depending on the approach. The variation is especially wide for countries with large disparities in earnings. Low wages for domestic and other care work affect the generalist wage valuations.
GRAPH 2. UNPAID CARE WORK UCW AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP USING DIFFERENT VALUATION APPROACHES
All earners All employees Generalists Domestic workers
70
63 63
60
54
50
% of GDP
40 30 20
12 12
39 35 27 29 29 31 28 30
18 19 15 10 7 11
10 0
UCW Arg
UCW India UCW Korea
UCW Nic
UCW SA
UCW Tanz
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II. CONSIDERING UNPAID CARE WORK IN POLICY

A. COMMUNITY SUBSIDIZATION OF GOVERNMENT
EXERCISE 7
Objective: to critically consider the role of unpaid care work in relation to policy interventions
Hand out copies of the following case studies to participants. Get participants to read the examples aloud, with each paragraph read by a different participant. After both case studies have been read, ask participants to discuss the positive and negative aspects of these schemes. Point out that in both the schemes, poor peopleand women in particularare subsidizing government. Ask participants to consider whether wealthier people, and men, are asked to subsidize government services in the same way. After discussing these questions, ask participants to talk to the person next to them as to whether there are schemes in their own country that use the unpaid care work of poor people in ways similar to what is done in the two examples. After about 10 minutes of talking, ask each pair to describe any examples that they came up with.
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The Unpaid Care Work in a Glass of Milk

An action-research study in the municipality of Villa El Salvador, Peru calculated the value of the unpaid care work done by women in delivering what the municipality calls self-managing services. One example of such a service is the Glass of Milk programme, by which the municipality pays for basic materials and the milk, but women in the community provide the labour involved in organizing the programme and distributing the milk to beneficiaries. The programme accounted for more than one-third of the municipal budget, or US$3 million, at the time of the research. The research team interviewed women beneficiaries to find out how much time they spent working on the programme. They then multiplied the number of hours by Perus minimum wage. When they compared this amount with the total budget for the Glass of Milk programme, they found that if the womens work was paid, it would have added 23 percent to the total budget. This unpaid care work contribution was in addition to community contributions to cover expenses such as fuel, sugar and utensils. In effect, in this programme, the women are subsidizing the government budget. If they were not prepared to offer their services for free, government would need to employ staff to do the work. Similar subsidization happens when women provide health care to other members of their households and the community. If this care was not provided free by women as part of their family and community duties, those who are ill would be more likely to consult government health services for care, and thus increase the burden on the government budget.
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The Costs of Home-Based Care

In 2003, UNIFEM funded and coordinated research in Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe on the time and money coststo government, organizations and caregivers in organizations and householdsof the home-based care (HBC) model of dealing with HIV/AIDS, which heavily relies on unpaid care work. The research was planned and implemented by a combination of government representatives, NGO representatives and academics. The research used a case study approach toward three HBC projects in each of three countries. Each country used similar tools so that the findings could be more easily compared and it would be easier for advocates and their audiences to learn from the different cases. At the end of the project researchers and organization representatives from the three countries came together to share findings and come up with country-based and regional advocacy messages. The group agreed on the following as regional concerns:
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The very limited participation of men in HBC work; The complete lack of incentives for some HBC workers, the low level of incentives where they existed, and disparities between workers in terms of incentives received; A lack of recognition of the work done by HBC workers, particularly by government; Abuse of the HBC worker by some beneficiaries; Unequal access to home-based care for those who needed it; The need for more integrated approaches to HBC, encompassing a range of actors and covering health, nutrition, social and financial factors.
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The researchers calculated the value of the work done by a typical HBC in their country by multiplying the number of hours worked by the average wage paid to nurse aids, domestic or similar workers. The
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monthly value was 270 pula in Botswana, US$ 130 in Mozambique and Z$ 403,550 in Zimbabwe. However, researchers felt that using the wages of nurse aids and domestic workers trivializes the work of the HBC workers, given the range and variability of HBC tasks as well as psychological and other stresses. In addition, they noted that the wages for all these jobs are based on assumptions about womens work, which generally tend to undervalue the work done whether in the market or at home.
B. INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES OF CARE SENSITIVE POLICIES
EXERCISE 8
Objective: to critically consider international exercises of policy interventions with implications for unpaid care work
Divide participants into groups so that no group contains more than eight participants. Before participants go into their groups, give each person a handout containing the following country examples. Ask groups to discuss which of the examples might be relevant for their countries. If they feel a particular example is not relevant, they should explain why, as well as how it might be adapted to be relevant. If they feel a particular example is relevant, they should discuss whether it would need to be adapted in any way for their countries. After allowing about 45 minutes for discussion, ask groups to report back, taking the examples one at a time. If participants do not raise the issue, point out that policies providing benefits through taxes are likely to be biased toward less-poor individuals and families, as the poorest families do not pay direct income tax. Ask participants to brainstorm about other policies that could assist with the burden of unpaid care work in their own countries. Ask them to consider both existing policies and those that do not currently exist.
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Point out that some donors now encourage projects that promote mens involvement in care work. Facilitate discussion on whether this is a viable approach that could effect real change in participants own countries in the short and medium term.
Canada
Canadas national pension plan includes a provision that ensures that the pensions of parents are not reduced as a result of their being out of the paid workforce for a period to care for young children. Further, in 1998, after lobbying on the basis of time use statistics, Canadas federal budget included a tax credit for unpaid work by caregivers.
Israel
Up until 2002, single mothers with children under the age of seven were eligible for income support payments if their monthly income was below a minimum fixed by law. After the child reached age seven, the mother had to pass an employment test, proving that she had worked or tried to find work. The mothers of children under seven years received the payments whether or not they worked, as the payments were intended to give them the choice of taking a fulltime job or taking care of their own young children. In total, about 50,000 single mothers received payments. The Finance Ministry tried to portray the single mothers as freeloaders who refused to work. NGO arguments in favour of retaining the benefit included the following:
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40 percent of single mothers receiving benefits were working outside the home; Their low standard of living should not be cut any lower; Women of young children who stay home full or part time are doing work in caring for their childrenthe next generation. They should be given the option of staying home and doing that work.
I I
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The Israeli budget passed in December 2002 contained a compromise solution that income support would be paid to single mothers until their child was two years old without their having to prove that they had worked or tried to find work. This was worse for women than the previous age threshold of seven years, but better than the three months suggested by the cabinet.
Latin America
In Argentina in the early 2000s, pension fund rules were changed to state that those who had not contributed to social security because of not being formally employed (including housewives) could register and contribute to the pension fund. When these contributors reached retirement age, they could receive a pension equal to 80 percent of the minimum wage with fewer than the standard years of contributions to the fund. In Ecuadors social security system, housewives have been entitled to pensions since 1964. In Venezuela, article 88 of the new Venezuelan constitution establishes that The State shall recognize work in the home as an economic activity that creates value added and produces wealth and social well-being. Housewives are entitled to social security under the law. Housewives pensions are partly financed by contributions to an individual account, but the main funds come from a solidarity fund maintained by private donations and public funding. They are therefore similar to social assistance benefits, replacing dependence on a spouse with reliance on public agencies.
Netherlands
The Working Hours Act of 1996 allowed shops to stay open later in the evening and on Sundays. A 2000 time use survey showed that more Dutch women entered the paid work force than in 1995 and that Dutch men were doing more of the unpaid household labour, though still not as much as women. It is possible that the Working Hours Act contributed to this change.
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Norway
Norway has conducted four time use surveys, the last one in 2000. In 1992, Norway introduced care credits for social security entitlements, intended to compensate for the paid work time lost by individuals who cared for family members. The credits were available for care of children under seven years of age, the elderly and ill persons, if the work prevented the caregiver from doing paid work.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the Womens Budget Group has used arguments about unpaid care work in its interaction with the British Treasury. In March 2002, the chancellor announced that a child tax credit would, from 2003, be paid to the main caregiver, which in practice usually meant a woman. The Treasury was mainly convinced by arguments of efficiency that money paid to a woman was more likely to be used to the benefit of the child than money paid to a man.
C. POLICY GUIDELINES FOR UNPAID CARE WORK

Unpaid care work constitutes a significant share of total economic activity around the world. The provision of unpaid care work is dominated by females, and a significant proportion of female labour time around the world is spent on unpaid care work. While the performance of unpaid care work brings clear positive externalities, the need to perform unpaid care work constrains the economy by limiting female participation outside unpaid care work, which constitutes a negative externality. This suggests three points: 1. Unpaid care work is a significant work load for many. 2. Unpaid care work is unequally distributed between females and males. 3. Unpaid care work has both positive and negative externalities that affect economic performance.
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These three points provide the basis for thinking about the general principles that should guide economic policy toward unpaid care work. To improve individual and community well-being and human security, there is a need to sustain the positive externalities created by unpaid care work while reducing its negative externalities. This suggests that economic policy toward unpaid care work should be guided by two general principles: 1. The need for public policy to reduce unpaid care work. 2. The need for public policy to redistribute unpaid care work.
EXERCISE 9
Objective: to evaluate the extent to which policy interventions that affect unpaid care work facilitate its reduction or redistribution
Have the participants return to the groups used in Exercise 5 and review the handout given for that exercise. Each example in the handout recognizes unpaid care work. Ask the groups to discuss which of the country examples demonstrate attempts to reduce unpaid care work and which of the country examples demonstrate attempts to redistribute unpaid care work. After allowing about 30 minutes for discussion, ask groups to report back, explaining their thinking. All the country examples recognize unpaid care work, but all but one of them neither reduce nor redistribute it. The exception is the Netherlands, where the Working Hours Act may have redistributed some unpaid care work. Conclude the module with a brainstorming session: What kinds of policy interventions are needed to reduce and redistribute unpaid care work? The facilitator can highlight the following points:
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Support toward the purchasing power and employment position of women may recognize unpaid care work but do not necessarily reduce it, as the examples show.
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Physical and social infrastructure, including the public provision of care, are one way to reduce unpaid care work. Rights to paternal leave are one way to redistribute unpaid care work.
Further policy possibilities to reduce and redistribute unpaid care work are addressed in later modules.
READINGS
Budlender, D. 2004. Why Should We Care about Unpaid Care Work? Harare: United Nations Development Fund for Women. Esplen, E. 2009. Gender and Care: Overview Report. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Razavi S. 2007. The Political and Social Economy of Care in a Development Context: Contextual Issues, Research Questions and Policy Options. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Tanzania Gender Networking Programme. 2009. Who Cares For Us? Time Use Study of Unpaid Care Work in Tanzania, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, Dar es Salaam. UNDP. 2009. Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction: Unpaid Care Work. Policy Brief No 1, October. New York: UNDP.
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CONTACT
IDEP
GENDER, DATA AND INDICES
INTRODUCTION
This module introduces participants to the use of data, statistics, indicators and indices in gender-aware economics and economic policy-making, highlighting that standard indices and indicators often fail to reflect gender issues because of the still widely used concept of the household head as a unit of economic analysis. The module also introduces participants to the most well-known international and African gender-related indices, as well as the Human Development Index on which one of them is based.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will be able to: 1. Understand the meaning and sources of data, statistics, indictors and indices. 2. Critically consider the strengths and weaknesses of gender indices.
OUTLINE
I. Data, statistics, indicators and indices. A. What are data? B. Where do data come from? C. Issues in data collection. II. Indices and indicators developed by the United Nations. A. Human Development Index (HDI). B. Gender-related Development Index (GDI). C. Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). D. African Gender and Development Index. E. Millennium Development Goal indicators. F. UN Development Assistance Framework indicators.
DURATION
Three-quarters of a day.
FACILITATOR PREPARATION
Before the module, compile tables listing the HDI, GDI and GEM measures, along with each of their components, for each of the African countries from which there are participants in the course. For example, the table for the HDI should show the HDI rank, the index value, life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate, combined gross enrolment ratio and per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Use the latest version of the Human Development Report to compile the lists, showing clearly on the table the year to which the data (where available) refer. For example, for the 200708 Human Development Report, the data refer to 2005 or the year nearest to that for which data are available. Do not hand these tables out at the beginning of the module; keep them for Exercise 4.
I. DATA, STATISTICS, INDICATORS AND INDICES

Objective: to introduce participants to the meaning and sources of data, statistics and indictors.
A. WHAT ARE DATA?

DATA
Data are a collection of observations that can be used to represent the attributes of something that is witnessed and of interest to the observer: household income and education levels, for example. But collecting data can be difficult. Module 3 introduces the concept of unpaid care work, that is, work that takes place within households and communities that falls outside the definition of production in the system of national accounts (SNA) and, as a result, is not counted in GDP estimates. As a consequence, there is, in general, a shortage of data on unpaid care work compared to other indicators. Yet it is easy to see that unpaid care work takes place. So there is a need to collect data on unpaid care work that allows its attributes to be represented, qualitatively and quantitatively (see Module 3). Data on their own carry no meaning; only when interpreted do they convey information. This suggests four distinct aspects of data:
I
They must address a characteristic of interest, called a variable. A variable that could represent one of the attributes of unpaid care work would be the number of hours spent performing unpaid care work per day. Observations about variables are collected from respondent units of analysis, such as people, households or social groups that have
knowledge regarding the variable. A unit of analysis in collecting observations on unpaid care work could be an individual woman.
I
The observer is interested in the response, called a value, of the respondent in relation to the characteristic of interest. The value of the number of hours that a respondent woman spends per day performing unpaid care work is of interest to the observer. Data can only be interpreted within a wider evaluation that purports to logically explain that which is observed, called theory. The value of the number of hours a respondent woman spends per day performing unpaid care work can only be interpreted when unpaid care work as a concept is related to other concepts within an analytical framework that logically and simply explains the economic characteristics of gender relations.
DATA SET
A data set consists of a number of units of analysis, a number of variables, and the set of values that links the units of analysis to the variables. If the focus is on unpaid care work in the household, this might also be linked to productive work outside the household; if a large number of households provided the values of the time devoted to unpaid care work and productive employment, the result would be a data set. When patterns of consistent observations within data are identified within theoretically informed analytical frameworks, it becomes possible to answer both descriptive questions (who, what, when, where) and explanatory analytical questions (why, how). The information generated by the answers to questions expands knowledge, and in so doing, contributes to the further building of theory.
TYPES OF DATA
Data can take one of two forms:
I
Quantitative data, usually numerical in form, commonly are drawn from a large number of cases of units of analysis to compare and
analyse the widest possible range of values across the cases. In this way, the structure of the data can be inferred, and homogenous generalizations produced that answer descriptive questions.
I
Qualitative data, usually non-numerical in form, consist of words, text, photographs, videos, sound recordings and the like. Commonly they are drawn from a small number of cases, emphasizing the complexity and heterogeneity of the data to produce answers to explanatory analytical questions.
The distinction between quantitative and qualitative data can be arbitrary. Numbers can convey quality as well as quantity; words can convey quantity as well as quality. Moreover, all quantitative data are based upon qualitative judgments, and all qualitative data can be described and manipulated numerically.
STATISTICS
Quantitative data and qualitative data, expressed numerically, often compress evidence into a form that summarizes the evidence so that inferences can be drawn. This is the tool of analysis known as statistics. For example, an average compresses the range of values attached to a variable to produce a summary statistic; the value of the number of hours spent performing unpaid care work per day by all responding women could be summarized as the average number of hours spent by women performing unpaid care work. This is the case for both quantitative data and qualitative data expressed numerically, such as the average number of people that believe that women are capable of leading government.
DATA ANALYSIS
Quantitative evidence and qualitative evidence presented numerically is analysed to understand how a variable varies. Variation can be numerical, but it can also be categorical, as variations across groups of variables are brought together on the basis of qualitative criteria. How
a variable varies can be broken down into two components: the range of numerical values or categories a variable can take, also known as the domain of a variable, and the frequency with which a numerical value or category is observed across its domain, called the pattern of variation. The pattern of variation across a variables domain is called its distribution. When examining the distribution of a variable, attention is paid to three major properties. The first property is the tendency of data to cluster around a certain central point in its pattern of variation, known as the central tendency. The second property is the extent to which it is spread across its domain, which is a measure of data dispersion. The third property is the shape of the data across its domain: data may be symmetrical or skewed. The fundamental objective of the data analysis of quantitative or qualitative information is to use central tendency, spread and shape across the domain of a variable to explain something of interest to the observer.
INDICATORS
Indicators are evidence constructed from a number of data series or statistics that represent that data. They are assembled to monitor selected areas of social and economic life that are deemed to be of importance. For example, employment indicators are assembled from data sets in which the various values of a number of variables related to different forms of productive work, as defined by the SNA discussed in Module 3, are linked to the units of analysis, which are usually individuals.
COMPOSITE INDICES
Composite indices are numbers derived from a combination of various indicators, on the basis of an underlying model of a multi-dimensional concept being measured. An important index, discussed below, is the Human Development Index (HDI). Typically indices make fairly arbitrary decisions about which indicators are deemed to be important; as a result, while indices may be useful for advocacy purposes, their utility for policy-making is far more limited.
B. WHERE DO DATA COME FROM?

PRIMARY DATA
In primary data collection the values of the variables are obtained directly from the unit of analysis. This can be done in one of two ways: 1. Direct observation of the value of the variable associated with the unit of analysis, usually through physical measurement. This is the most reliable but also most expensive technique. 2. Indirect observation of the value of the variable associated with the unit of analysis, using structured or semi-structured interviews, called surveys, that are designed to elicit from the unit of analysis the values that should be attached to a variable. This is the most widely used data acquisition technique in the social sciences. For example, a direct observation of the amount of time devoted to unpaid care work by an individual would involve a researcher physically monitoring the time of a person by accompanying them at all times. An indirect observation of the amount of time devoted to unpaid care work by an individual would involve a researcher asking the individual how much time they had spent in unpaid care work during a stipulated period of time. This can be done in a variety of ways; one way was illustrated in Module 3s individual time use diary.
SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data are the published statistics produced by national and international sources on a regular or irregular basis. They are derived from primary data.
TERTIARY DATA
Tertiary data are primary and secondary evidence gathered by another researcher and published in a book or an article.
TIME USE SURVEYS

In the economic analysis of unpaid care work, time use surveys are an important source of primary evidence that generates data on how people spend their time during the day, to understand how patterns of time use differ between individuals and over time. Time use surveys indirectly observe how people spend their time. Module 3 explains how to cost and quantify unpaid care work.
LABOUR FORCE SURVEYS

In the economic analysis of SNA work, labour force surveys are an important source of primary evidence generating data on how people spend their time in productive work, as defined in Module 3, to understand how patterns of employment that produce earnings differ among individuals and over time. Labour force surveys indirectly observe how people spend their time in productive work. Time use and labour force surveys together can provide important insights into the character of labour in a society and, hence, the structure of gender relations.
C. ISSUES IN DATA COLLECTION

QUANTITY
The availability of data for gender-aware economic analysis and policymaking is highly variable by country. However, as a general rule, there are more secondary data available than is generally recognized. Many African countries have carried out living standards measurement surveys, some of which have a time use component, and most of which have important quantitative and qualitative information about gender relations. Many African countries carry out labour force surveys, which can also convey important information about gender relations.
SOURCES OF ERROR IN DATA

Users of data should always familiarize themselves with the way in which the data have been collected because of possible problems that may emerge. Indirectly collected primary evidence can be subject to three types of error:
I I I
Response errors by the respondent. Recording and transcription errors by the researcher. Processing errors during data entry.
Secondary and tertiary evidence is derived from primary evidence, which means that it is also subject to the three types of error. In addition, secondary and tertiary evidence are the result of primary research designs that are not necessarily appropriate or sufficiently rigorous.
GENDER BIAS IN DATA COLLECTION

Gender biases in data collection methods may be evidence of a lack of scientific rigour in primary research design, especially when the research relies upon the household head as the source of information for primary evidence.
EXERCISE 1
A. HOUSEHOLD HEAD
Objective: to explore the assumptions behind the concept of femaleheaded household.
Hand out copies of the booklet Female-Headed Households in Tanzania: Facts, Figures and Recommendations (see reading list). Explain that this booklet focuses on Tanzania and that the situation in other countries
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might be different, but the booklet can nevertheless be used to explore what we mean by the term household head and the significance (or otherwise) of female-headed households. Explain that this is important because policies often refer to female-headed households as a vulnerable group, yetas the booklet showsfemale-headed households in Tanzania are less likely to be poor than male-headed households. Note that some policies even say that public works or other programmes employ female-headed households. These policies forget that it is individual women and men who are employed, not households. Allow time for participants to read through the booklet. Ask them to write down, as they read, things that surprise or interest them. After the participants have finished reading, ask them what they found surprising or interesting. You can also encourage a short discussion on how they think the situation in their own country might differ from that in Tanzania.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to develop arguments that support or refute the use of the concept of female-headed household.
Divide participants into two groups. Tell one group that they must prepare arguments on why the concept of a female-headed household is useful for policy-making purposes. Tell the other group that they must prepare arguments on why the concept of female-headed household is not useful, or is confusing, for policy-making purposes. Give each group 30 minutes to prepare their arguments and select one person who will present them on the groups behalf in debate with the other group. Tell the groups that they have 10 minutes each in which to present the arguments. For the debate, first allow each of the presenters to speak. Then give each group 15 minutes to prepare counter-arguments to what the other group has said. Tell them that they have only 5 minutes each in which to present these rebuttals. When the 15 minutes are up, ask the representatives of each group to present again.
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Finally, sum up the discussion. During the summing up, ask for suggestions as to how the concept could be refined to be more useful for policy-making purposes, as well as when and how it should not be used.
B. SEX DISAGGREGATED DATA VERSUS GENDER STATISTICS

Sex disaggregated data are evidence regarding the value of variables collected from both women and men as the units of analysis. However, while collecting evidence from both women and men can provide important insights into how they live in their society, sex disaggregated data do not adequately reflect the state of gender relations in any given society because they do not consider the different socio-economic realities women and men face. This means that the concepts and methods used in data collection need to be adequately formulated to ensure that they reflect existing gender concerns and differentials. Additionally, social and cultural factors must be considered, as they can result in gender-based biases in data collection, analysis and presentation. If this is done, gender can be mainstreamed into data collection and analysis, producing gender statistics.
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II. INDICATORS AND INDICES DEVELOPED BY THE UNITED NATIONS

Objective: to have participants reflect on gender inequality in their country of origin.
EXERCISE 3
Objective: to have participants reflect on gender inequality in their country of origin.
Give participants 5 to 10 minutes in which each of them must decide, for themselves, what they think the two most important gender issues are in their country. Ask them to focus on gender issues that government could address. When the 5 to 10 minutes are up, ask each of the participants to name the two problems and list them on the board/flipchart. If a later participant names a problem that has already been named, place a tick next to the previous listing of the problem.
A. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

a) Since 1990 the UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) has contained the Human Development Index (HDI), which is anchored on Amartya Sens capabilities approach to poverty and human development. The HDI focuses on three basic dimensions that are seen as prerequisites for the enlargement of human choiceshealth, education and knowledge, and a decent standard of livingso it is not as narrow an idea as gross domestic product (GDP). b) The HDI is an index, and like other indices it is constructed from indicators. Thus the three dimensions are respectively measured by the following four indicators: life expectancy at birth; the adult (15+
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years) literacy rate, which comprises two-thirds of the HDIs knowledge dimension; the combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary education, which comprises onethird of the HDIs knowledge dimension; and GDP per capita, expressed in purchasing power parity terms with the United States dollar. The dimensions are standardized to values between 0 and 1, and a simple average is taken to arrive at the overall HDI, which also has a value in the range 0 to 1. League tables are published in the annual HDRs of UNDP, and are widely quoted. c) The HDI, like all measures, can be criticised on many grounds; the issues raised below have gender implications in that gender inequalities could be hidden or misrepresented in the data. i. Indices are appealing because there is only one number. But having a single number is not useful for policy-making purposes unless one knows why the number is lower than is desired, and this may have gender implications. For example, South Africas HDI has fallen in recent years. The main reason for this is a significant drop in life expectancy at birth, which is one of the four indicators. The HDI cannot tell you this. It is only by looking into the component indicators that you see it.
ii. UNDP uses international data sets collected by national statistical organizations and then cleaned in the interests of uniformity.
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This results in the use of relatively old data and, thus, outof-date indicators, which can lead to incorrect gender inferences. It also results in individual countries contesting the index on the basis that the indicators are out-of-date. The need to have indicators for as many countries as possible can lead to the use of lowest-common-denominator variables, rather than the variables that would best reflect what the index aims to measure. This can have gender implications. Data are not always available, and sometimes national statistical organizations make heroic assumptions to come up with the index themselves. The reliability of these
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estimates is sometimes questionable. These data issues complicate statistical analysis, particularly regarding gender. iii. The indicators used to construct the HDI are all based on averages, and thus do not capture inequalities.
B. GENDER RELATED DEVELOPMENT INDEX

a) In 1995 UNDP developed two gender-related indices: the GDI and GEM. b) The GDI uses the same variables as the HDI, but each of the components is adjusted for gender inequality using an equality aversion parameter. c) The GDI shares the problems of the HDI as well, and also has some further problems.
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The number that UNDP uses in the GDI as the parameter for the aversion to inequality is 2the penalty for gender gapswhich is entirely subjective. The method used to construct the GDI accounts for the presence of gender gaps facing women and men in the GDI in the same way, without considering whether it is males or females who are doing better. So a country where women outperform men in education is treated the same way as a country where men outperform women by the same amount, even though the gender implications of such a difference in performance would be important. This complicates the interpretation of the GDI when the index combines some components where males are advantaged and others where females are advantaged. The assumptions underlying the estimation of female and male earned income in the GDI are highly problematic. There is an assumption that the ratio of female to male wages in the non-agricultural sector is the same as in the agricultural sector.
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A ratio of 0.75 (75 percent) is assumed for all countries for which there are no data on the ratio of female to male wages. No monetary value is imputed for unpaid care work, which is mostly done by women and also contributes to human development. The earned income component of the GDI does not measure what it is intended to assessthat is, gender gaps in human development achievements that are linked to incomes, such as nutrition, shelter and clothing. Within a household, resources are shared (though not equally), so a low female earned income does not necessarily mean deprivation in human development that is proportionally identical to the distribution of earned income.
C. GENDER EMPOWERMENT MEASURE

a) The GEM focuses on political participation and decision-making power, economic participation and decision-making power, and power over economic resources. The components are measured by womens representation in parliaments and womens share of positions classified as legislators, senior officials and managers; womens share of jobs as professional and technical workers; and womens and mens estimated earned incomes. Not all countries have data on all these elements and, therefore, the GEM is calculated for fewer countries compared to other indices. b) The GEM measures income more or less in the same way as the GDI, and thus shares the same problems. In addition, the earned income component of the GEM uses both income levels as well as female and male income shares. Income levels tend to dominate the index, as countries with low income levels cannot achieve a high score even with perfect gender equality in the
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distribution of earnings and other components of the GEM. The political component is problematic in that a parliamentary quota for women automatically increases the GEM score, but does not necessarily mean that women exercise greater political power in the country.
EXERCISE 4
Objective: to enable participants to reflect on the HDI, GDI and GEM in relation to perceptions of gender inequality.
Write up the names of all the countries that are represented in the course on the board/ flipchart. Ask participants, working in groups of four, to discuss and then write down the order in which they think the countries will be listed for the HDI, GDI and GEM. Ask each group to read out their rankings and write them on the board/flipchart so that they can be easily comparedthat is, all the HDI guesses together, then all the GDI guesses, and then all the GEM guesses. Hand out the pre-prepared lists of the actual HDI, GDI and GEM listings, and also write the rankings on the lists next to the guesses. Most probably, you will find that there are some discrepancies both among the guesses of different groups and between the guesses and the reported measures. Give the four-person groups 30 minutes to examine the lists in more detail, including the components of each indicator, to see if they can understand why their guesses do not match the reported measures. After the 30 minutes, facilitate a plenary discussion to get feedback. Expect some participants to question the validity of the data listed in the HDR. Ask these participants what their alternative data sources would be.
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EXERCISE 5
Objective: to enable participants to review the utility of the HDI, GDI and GEM in relation to identified gender problems.
In plenary, read through the list compiled in Exercise 3 of the most important gender inequalities in the participants countries. Against each problem, check to see whether the HDI, GDI or GEM, or any of the components used to calculate these indices, are relevant to the problem identified. For problems that participants feel the indicators or their components are relevant, encourage discussion on whether these are the best indicators for these problems or whether there are better indicators available. Alternatively, what other indicators might better capture the gender inequalities in participants countries? Encourage participants to focus on indicators for which reliable data are available in their countries.
D. AFRICAN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX

a) In the early 2000s, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) developed the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) and the African Womens Progress Scoreboard (AWPS). The AWPS is based on more qualitative judgments, although they are given numeric scores. The AGDI is similar to the GDI and GEM in being computed from quantitative data, with the major difference that there are far more indicators, 43 in all. b) The indicators are divided into three blocks, meant to reflect social, economic and political power. The indicators all deal with gender issues that relate to relations between women and men. This means that maternal mortality and violence against women are not covered. All indicators are weighted equally. c) The use of 43 indicators has two major drawbacks.
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Most countries are likely to lack data on at least one indicator, or be forced to use unreliable data from small samples. This makes the meaning of the indexand its direct usefulness for policy-making purposeseven more obscure than it is for
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the HDI, GDI or GEM, as it is necessary to examine all the elements in detail to work out why a country is scoring higher or lower. d) UNECA tested the index in twelve countriesBenin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Ugandabut does not seem to have published the results.
TABLE 1: COMPONENTS OF THE AFRICAN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX

Block Social power: capabilities Component Education SubIndicator component Enrollment Primary enrolment rate Secondary enrolment rate Tertiary enrolment rate Dropout Primary dropout ratio Secondary dropout ratio Literacy Ability to read and write Primary school completed Health Child health Stunting under 3 Underweight under 3 Mortality under 5 Life expectancy at birth New HIV infection Time spent out of work Economic power: opportunities Income Wages Wages in agriculture Wages in civil service Wages in formal sector (public and/or private)
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Block Economic power: opportunities
Component Time use or employment
Subcomponent Time use
Indicator Time spent in market economic activities (as paid employee, own-account or employer) Time spent in non-market economic activities or as unpaid family worker in market economic activities Time spent in domestic, care and volunteer non economic activities
Employment Or: Share of paid employment, own-account and employer in total employment Access to resources Means of production Ownership of urban plots/houses or land Access to family labour Access to credit Freedom to dispose of own income Management Employers High civil servants (class A) Members of professional syndicates Administrative, scienti c and technical Political power: Public sector Members of parliament agency Cabinet ministers Higher courts judges Civil society Members of local councils
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EXERCISE 6
Objective: to evaluate the usefulness of the African Gender and Development Index for policy-making purposes.
Hand out copies of the AGDI indicator list. Ask participants to work in groups of about three people. If there is more than one participant from any country, they should be in the same group. Ask participants to go through the list of 43 indicators. For each indicator they should discuss whether reliable data for the indicator are available in their country and whether the indicator is relevant for policy purposes. After the group work, facilitate open discussion on what they learned in the group exercise, but do not take detailed feedback on each indicator. Frame the discussion around the question of how useful the AGDI is for policy-making purposes.
E. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL INDICATORS

a) In 2000, 189 United Nations member states adopted the Millennium Declaration, which distills the key goals and targets agreed to at international conferences and world summits during the 1990s. Drawing on the Declaration, the United Nations system, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development drew up a set of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with associated targets and indicators, to be achieved by 2015. b) MDG3 is to promote gender equality and empower women. Target 4, eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015, was assigned as the measure of achievement for MDG3, and encompasses four indicators: the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education; the ratio of literate females to males of 1524 year olds; the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector; and the proportion of seats women hold in national parliaments.
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c) The third and fourth indicators relate to employment and decisionmaking respectively and were included to emphasise that education is not only an end in itself, but also a means to other ends. However, MDG3 has been criticized for not highlighting the full dimensions of gender equality and womens empowerment, such as violence against women, in its target and indicators. d) In 2002, the United Nations Secretary-General commissioned the Millennium Project to develop a concrete action plan for achieving the MDGs. The Task Force on Education and Gender Equality was among the 10 thematic task forces that carried out the bulk of the projects analytical work. The task force identified seven strategic priorities: strengthening opportunities for post-primary education for girls while simultaneously meeting commitments to universal primary education; guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights; investing in infrastructure to reduce womens and girls time burdens; guaranteeing womens and girls property and inheritance rights; eliminating gender inequality in employment by decreasing womens reliance on informal employment, closing gender gaps in earnings and reducing occupational segregation; increasing womens share of seats in national parliaments and local government bodies; and combating violence against girls and women. e) The MDGs did not incorporate the above priorities explicitly. However, in the 2005 World Summit Outcome, world leaders acknowledged that progress for women is progress for all. The revised MDG Framework now aims to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people (MDG1), universal access to reproductive health (MDG5) and universal access to treatment of HIV/AIDS for all those who need it (MDG6).
F. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE FRAMEWORK INDICATORS

a) In 1999, UN agencies chose a set of 40 indicators for use in their common country assessments. These assessments are commissioned by UN agencies in the countries to which they provide assistance.
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b) Three of the 40 indicators fall under the heading of gender equality and womens empowerment: the ratio of girls to boys in secondary school enrolment; the female percentage of paid employment in non-agricultural activities; and the percentage of seats women hold in national parliaments. These indicators are similar to those used for the GDI and GEM measures as well as for MDG3. c) Some of the indicators under other headings could also be seen as gender-related. Three indicators under reproductive health are: the maternal mortality rate; the percentage of births attended by skilled health personnel; and the contraceptive prevalence rate. d) However, the standard list does not say that all other relevant indicators, such as those related to employment, child health and education, should be sex-disaggregated.
EXERCISE 7
Divide participants into groups of five. Each group should discuss the following questions: 1. In understanding the prevailing pattern of gender relations in a given setting, rank which would be more useful: sex-disaggregated data, gender statistics, gender indicators or gender indices. Explain your reasons. 2. In undertaking gender-aware policy advocacy in a given setting, rank which would be more useful: sex-disaggregated data, gender statistics, gender indicators or gender indices. Explain your reasons. 3. In undertaking gender-aware policy-making in a given setting, rank which would be more useful: sex-disaggregated data, gender statistics, gender indicators or gender indices. Explain your reasons. Conclude by discussing the comparative merits of gender statistics, gender indicators and gender indices. Facilitators should use the discussion to summarize the key points raised during the module.
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READINGS
Bardhan, K. and S. Klasen. 1999. UNDPs Gender-Related Indices: A Critical Review. World Development 27, no. 6: 9851010. Dijkstra, G. 2006. Towards a Fresh Start in Measuring Gender Equality: A Contribution to the Debate. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 7, no. 2 (July): 275283. Dijkstra, G.A. and L. Hanmer. 2000. Measuring Socio-Economic Gender Inequality, Towards an Alternative to the UNDP Gender-Related Development Index. Feminist Economics 6, no. 2: 4175. Grown, K., G.R. Gupta and A. Kes. 2005. Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women. London: Earthscan and UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. Hedman, B., F. Perucci and P. Sundstrm. 1996. Engendering Statistics: A Tool for Change. Stockholm: Statistics Sweden. Sen, A. 2000. Development as Freedom. New York: Random House. Tanzania Gender Networking Programme. 2003. Female-Headed Households in Tanzania: Facts, Figures and Recommendations. Prepared for Gender Macro Group, Dar es Salaam.
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CONTACT
IDEP
EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR MARKETS
INTRODUCTION
Having introduced unpaid care work as a significant component of time and resource allocation in economic activity, this module introduces a gender analysis of employment and labour markets in an African context, including labour supply issues and the segmented structure of employment, to create a fuller picture of time and resource allocation. Definitions of informal employment are stressed, given its importance in most African countries. The module includes an employment mapping exercise and discusses employment policies from a gender perspective.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To consolidate participants understanding of the relation between unpaid care work, labour and employment. 2. To enable participants to recognize the gender aspects of labourforce participation decisions. 3. To facilitate participants ability to evaluate the diversity of Africas employment structure. 4. To impart to participants a fuller understanding of specific policy issues facing womens employment in Africa.
OUTLINE
I. What is employment? What is labour? A. The SNA dividing line revisited. B. Non-employment labour. C. Two crucial institutions: labour markets and households. II. Labour supply A. Labour force participation decisions. B. Education, skills and experience. III. The structure of employment in African countries. A. Agricultural employment. B. Formal and informal employment. C. Employment status. IV. Women and employment in Africa. A. Labour force segmentation. B. Discrimination and earnings inequalities.
DURATION
1 day
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EXERCISE 1
Objective: to enable participants to discuss employment and gender segregation.
Divide the participants into pairs. Write the following headings on flipchart paper: (1) jobs/employmentprimarily women; (2) jobs/ employmentprimarily men; (3) jobs/employmentwomen and men about equal. Tell the participants to focus, for the time being, on paid employment, including both employees who work for a wage and the self-employed. Ask the pairs to come up with as many jobs (or specific types of employment) as they can under each of the three headings, based on the realities in their own countries. After 15 minutes, tell the groups to stop working. Ask for each list and write up the jobs on the flipchart paper under the appropriate heading. If a particular job comes up more than once, place a check mark next to it each time it occurs. After the lists are complete, discuss the results. Are there clear patterns in the paid employment opportunities for females and males? Which jobs are generally considered to be the better jobs? Do these jobs fall predominantly into the employment opportunities for females or males? Can women freely move from a traditionally female job to a typically male job? When discussing these questions, the facilitator should note similarities and differences across countries.
I. WHAT IS EMPLOYMENT? WHAT IS LABOUR?

Objective: to consolidate participants understanding of the relation between unpaid care work, labour and employment.
A. THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS SNA DIVIDING LINE REVISITED

a) Module 3 on unpaid care work introduced the distinction between employment and unpaid care work. Here we examine the definition of employment more closely.
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In common usage a person is said to be employed when they are engaged in some form of paid labour. At times, employment is interpreted more narrowly as only referring to paid employees, excluding the self-employed. As Module 3 demonstrated, both are inexact definitions of employment. The SNA defines individuals as employed whether they are paid or notwhen they supply labour contributing to an economic activity the output of which is counted in the SNA. Thus some unpaid labour can be considered as employment. By this logic, self-employment, paid or unpaid, is employment when it contributes to economic activity that is counted in the SNA. A person working without pay in a family business is considered to be employed. People engaged in subsistence agriculture are also employed because they contribute to economic activity. Unpaid apprentices are still defined as employed. As Module 3 noted, technically speaking the collection of fuel and water should also be regarded as employment, but very few countries do this (e.g., Tanzania).
Unpaid labour in the household or community not counted in the SNA is not considered to be employment. Module 3 defined this as unpaid care work. As stressed in Module 3 the performance of unpaid care work is a precondition of any employment. So the terms and conditions governing the performance of unpaid care work structure an individuals ability to undertake employment as defined in the SNA.
b) Labour force surveys, introduced in Module 4 on gender, data and indices, typicallyand correctly, in International Labour Organization (ILO) termsuse the SNA dividing line to define the economically active and employed populations. c) In many African countries women disproportionately work in unpaid forms of employment as unpaid contributing workers to subsistence agriculture and family businesses. Self-employment is also common among women in many African countries. This represents a form of income-earning employment, and although earnings do not come in the form of wages, this employment is considered paid in the SNA. d) However, as discussed in Module 3, women spend a disproportionate amount of their time in unpaid care work, which in the SNA is defined as being non-employment activities.
B. NON EMPLOYMENT LABOUR

a) There is an important distinction between standard definitions of employment and labour.
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Labour is supplied in all forms of employment. However, labour is also supplied in unpaid care work. Therefore, labour is not the same as employment. Both types of labouremployment and unpaid care workare productive in the sense that, by transforming inputs of goods and services into outputs of goods and services, they add value to goods and services of economic and social use to the individual, household and community. As suggested in Module 3, in
principle it is possible to estimate the monetary equivalent of this value added.
C. TWO CRUCIAL INSTITUTIONS: LABOUR MARKETS AND HOUSEHOLDS

a) As stressed in Module 3, households, as institutions, are by and large not free of gender concerns. The distribution of resources within households, the division of labour in household and non-household activities, decisions concerning individual and household consumption choices, and the use of individual and household assets are all influenced by gender dynamics between females and males in the household, which in turn is a function of unequal power between women and men. b) The labour markets where women and men seek employment are also, as institutions, affected by gender. Labour markets may be segmented between those jobs that are typically womens jobs and those that are typically mens jobs, as discussed in Exercise 1. This means that women and men have unequal access to employment opportunities. Hostile practices in workplaces, including sexual harassment, further disadvantage women relative to men in labour markets. These disadvantages both affect and are affected by inequalities in wages and earnings, of which there is ample evidence. c) Households and labour markets intersect in two ways:
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In terms of resource allocation decisions, the division of nonemployment labour between women and men within the household influences employment opportunities. As mentioned in previous modules, the performance of unpaid care work within the household, predominantly by women, structures both womens and mens abilities to take advantage of employment opportunities. Ingrid Palmer makes the point that, in effect, unpaid care work by women subsidizes mens employment because it provides for the economy as a whole a public good that has positive externalities.
In terms of resource allocation outcomes, individual earnings from employment may or may not be pooled across the individuals within the household. When pooled within the household, even if only to a limited extent, overall earnings are often more important than individual earnings in shaping the allocation of unpaid care work and thus labour market and employment decisions; thus household pooling decisions shape labour market operations. When not pooled, individual earnings still shape the allocation of unpaid care work and labour market and employment decisions, and thus, labour market operations. Household pooling decisions are themselves a function of gender dynamics between females and males in the household, which, in turn, is a function of unequal power between women and men. In both instances, then, the structure of the household and its dynamics shape the operation of labour markets.
d) However, much economic analysis and policy-making considers employment at the individual level, without accounting for household dynamics. This presents a highly misleading picture of labour market dynamics; as suggested in Module 3, it is crucial to account for the structure of the household and its dynamics when devising labour market and employment policies, if the aim is to raise living standards and reduce poverty. e) Labour market and employment policies cannot assume a limitless supply of available labour because of the role of unpaid care work in making labour available. Effective employment policies should arise from analysis of the allocation of unpaid care work and the development of a prior set of economic and social policies that reduce and redistribute unpaid care work. f ) Time use surveys, of the type undertaken by participants in Module 3 and further discussed in Module 4, are an important means of providing the data necessary to inform policies that recognize the allocation of unpaid care work and the need to reallocate such work when formulating effective employment policies.
II. LABOUR SUPPLY

Objective: to enable participants to recognize the gender concerns in labour force participation decisions.
A. LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION DECISIONS

a) The definition of labour force participation:
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Is that the total labour force equals the total employed population plus the unemployed population actively searching for employment (total labour force = total employed population + the unemployed). Typically equates labour supply with labour force participation. Defines it analogously to employment: a willingness and ability to supply labour to SNA-recognized economic activities. Also considers searching for employment to be a valid activity within labour force participation. Those looking for employment are defined as unemployed, and part of the economically active population. Excludes individuals, mostly women, who are only engaged in unpaid care work, as well as full-time students and those considered too old to work.
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EXERCISE 2
Objective: to enable participants to evaluate labour force participation data and better manipulate elementary the quantitative data first discussed in Module 4.
Give the participants the following breakdown of the population, which uses simplified numbers to make calculations easier (alternatively, actual labour force statistics from an African country could be used). Ask the participants to use this information to calculate the total labour force, labour force participation rates, total employment, and unemployment rates. Review the calculations in plenary. Total Population Working age population (15+) School/university attendees (15+) Retirees/pensioners (15+) Only engaged in non-SNA household work (15+) Wage employees (15+) Own-account workers (15+) Employers (15+) Unpaid contributing family workers (15+) Unemployeed CALCULATE Labour force Labour force participation rate Employment Unemployment rate Labour force participation rate = Economically active population/ working age population Unemployment rate = unemployed/labour force 12 million 1 million 500,000 1 million Men 6 million 600,000 300,000 100,000 Women 6 million 400,000 200,000 900,000
20 million 10 million 10 million
1.9 million 1.5 million 400,000 4.9 million 2.5 million 2.4 million 100,000 1.6 million 1 million 100,000 0 400,000 1.2 million 500,000 500,000
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

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What are some of the limitations and problems with the standard labour force indicators? Do these data say anything about the quality of employment? Do they say anything about underemployment, as opposed to unemployment? If women are classified as economically inactive when they lose a job instead of unemployed, how does this affect labour force participation and unemployment rates? How do the data reflect child labour (workers under 15 years old)?
b) Womens labour force participation.

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Typically, women have lower labour force participation rates than men because the burden of unpaid care work falls on women in most countries as a result of gender dynamics and unequal power relations in households. In most (but not all) sub-Saharan African countries, womens labour force participation rates are high compared to other countries in different regions of the world. This means that African women in many countries work in both paid employment and non-employment activities; they typically do not specialize in either unpaid care work or paid SNA work. For years, this has been referred to as the double burden of employment and unpaid care work, borne predominantly by women. However, this is not true throughout the African continent. In North African countries, womens labour force participation rates are low by international standards.
c) Deciding to participate in the labour force.

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Neoclassical economic theory argues that individuals participate in the labour force if they expect to earn a wage greater than a reservation wage, the minimum wage they are
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willing to accept. If wages increase, so should labour force participation, as depicted in Module 3.
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Recent studies of economic crises, such as the 1997 East Asian crisis and the 1998 crisis in Argentina, have shown that womens labour force participation increased as real wagesthe wage adjusted for inflationfell. This is also likely to be the case for the global economic crisis that started in September 2008. Through inflation, lower real wages reduced the purchasing power of household incomes and prompted women to seek employment. Pressures on household income may cause women to increase the amount of time they dedicate to income-earning activities or the number of income-earning activities that they pursue simultaneously. However, in many African countries the response may be different. Women already have high labour force participation rates and bear the aforementioned double burden, and so may not be in a position to increase labour force participation even in the context of declining real wages. The argument that womens labour force participation increases when real wages fall might also have limited salience when most employment is not for wages and much employment does not earn an income. Finally, in South Africa some research has shown that womens labour force participation increases when male unemployment increases at the household level. Contrary to economic theory, the relation between womens labour force participation and real wages is not clear in the African context.
B. EDUCATION, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

a) Labour supply is not only characterized by the number of individuals who are economically active. Education, skills and experience are also important in determining the quality of the labour supply. b) There are gender-based differences in education and skills:
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Gender gaps in the educational opportunities and outcomes available to girls and boys as well as women and men lead to gender-based inequalities in employment opportunities and outcomes. Even when girls and boys as well as women and men have comparable levels of education, across all countries where it has been measured, women still earn significantly less than men. Womens average earnings from paid employment often fall below those of men; that is, there is a gender wage gap. This gap is also apparent between self-employed women and men. The gender wage and earnings gaps can be used as an implicit rationale for not investing in womens education and skills development because the returns from such investments are lower than they are for investments in men. This implicit reasoning limits womens earnings and employment choices, reinforcing existing gender inequalities in the labour market. Also, if women are expected to work primarily in unpaid care work there may be less investment in their education because education is perceived to be unnecessary. Indeed, girls may be pulled out of school to help out in the household. This also limits womens earnings and employment choices, reinforcing existing gender inequalities in the labour market.
c) There are gender-based differences in experience:

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Because of the unequal burden of unpaid care work, women often leave employment temporarily to care for children, particularly when children are very young, reducing their experience. When this is repeated over a number of children, the result can be experiential gender gaps that are a consequence of the distribution of unpaid care work. Because of the duties associated with unpaid care work, women are less able to work in the evenings and over weekends, or to travel far from the home. This further limits their labour market experience, their earnings and their attractiveness to potential employers, reinforcing experiential gender gaps.
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Lower earnings from employment sustain the idea that women should specialize in unpaid care work, deepening gender-based differences in labour market experience and buttressing experiential gender gaps. Cumulatively, womens experience in paid employment is often lower than mens. Depending on the nature of employment, this may lower their earnings from paid employment. It also has important implications for social protection mechanisms (e.g., pension benefits) where such exist, because such mechanisms are often tied to earnings.
EXERCISE 3
Objective: to consider the relation between policies, unpaid care work and employment.
This short in-class debate has the facilitator set up the discussion as follows: Some argue that providing maternity benefits and breastfeeding time off from paid employment each day would help reduce gender inequalities in labour force participation and experience. Others make the case that such benefits would discourage employers from taking on women. Ask the participants what they think. What are the pros and cons? Can an equitable maternity leave (or breastfeeding) policy be designed? What about provisions for paternity leave?
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III. THE STRUCTURE OF EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Objective: to facilitate participants understanding of the diversity of Africas employment structure.
The structure of employment is the distribution of employment across different activities, sectors and arrangements that currently exist in any given country. The structure of employment will be very different for women compared to men because of gender-based biases in the allocation of unpaid care work and the implications that such an allocation has for the taking up of employment opportunities. So knowledge of the existing structure of unpaid care work and its relation to employment is essential when devising any employment policy: For womens employment to rise, unpaid care work has to be reduced or redistributed. Time use surveys, discussed in modules 3 and 4, are an important tool in this regard.
A. AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT
a) In most sub-Saharan African countries, agricultural employment accounts for the majority of all employment. Non-agricultural employment is not as significant, particularly for the poor. b) Womens employment in agriculture varies across countries, but it is common to find that women disproportionately work as unpaid contributing workers on family farms and plots and as own-account small holder producers. It is also common in agriculture, as well is in family businesses, for the woman to be named in surveys as the unpaid family worker, while the husband, doing more or less the same work, is named as the own-account or self-employed worker. c) Earnings tend to be lowest and poverty risks highest in agricultural activities. This is more pronounced for females compared to males working in agriculture.
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d) Employment policy issues:

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If agricultural employment accounts for the majority of all employment, then access to land is a key issue for employment. But land tenure arrangements differ widely across Africa and it is not possible to generalize. Land arrangements are governed by different legal systems, which have been directly influenced by the legal systems of the former colonial powers. As British and French legal systems differ, so the institutional setting for land tenure issues differs between francophone and anglophone Africa. In both instances, though, gender inequalities usually are more pronounced when women have no rights or lesser rights to private, public or customary land, or more insecure tenure arrangements over such types of land compared to men. If women do not have rights over land, they may not be able to determine which crops to grow or receive all the earnings from the crops they do grow. Access to non-land inputs is mediated by gender relations and affects the earnings from agricultural employment by facilitating gender-based agricultural productivity differences on the land that is operated; the same is true of financial services, as discussed in Module 11 on gender and access to finance. The types of crops produced are also important determinants of the earnings from agricultural employment. In many cases women specialize in crops with lower returns in income-earning potential than men, as they are responsible for performing unpaid care work that may use the non-cash crops that they produce as an input in the household consumption for which they are principally responsible. It should not be assumed that earnings from agricultural employment are pooled within households. Ample evidence suggests that when women and men in a household in agricultural employment in sub-Saharan Africa farm different crops, they often have separate earnings that are not fully, and at time not even partially, pooled.
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In some countries labour migration out of the farm economy is an important issue as men leave the rural family home to seek non-agricultural employment elsewhere. In some cases this has resulted in a feminization of agriculture, as the prevalence of female labour in agricultural employment increases. However, in an increasing number of countries, female migration out of the countryside has also increased. Among rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa, households increasingly construct an income from an assortment of employment activities: farming, earned income and petty trading, to name but three. In this regard, the importance of earned income in rural sub-Saharan Africa tends to be underestimated, in large part because it is within the informal economy, which is discussed later, and such waged labour has significant gender dimensions. Gender dynamics have a strong bearing on the employment options and earning opportunities available to individuals in rural households seeking to construct a livelihood from a diversity of rural farming and non-farming activities. As above, womens responsibilities for unpaid care work will limit the employment options available to them.
e) Employment policy priorities:

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Should the goal be to raise earnings and productivity in agriculture, including lowering womens risk, by strengthening womens control over land and tenure rights? Or should the goal be to move peopleincluding womenout of agriculture into employment with better terms and conditions, which in turn requires policies to improve non-agricultural employment opportunities? In either instance, policies that seek to alter the terms and conditions of female agricultural employment must be predicated upon recognizing the linkages that exist between the requirement to undertake unpaid care work and the ability to undertake employment. Public polices that ignore the unpaid care work that women provide are likely to have only a limited
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effect on female earnings. But public policies that reduce unpaid care work, or redistribute it, will increase the ability of women to undertake employment that increases earnings and household livelihood security.
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Public policies that reduce or redistribute unpaid care work can be broadly divided into:

Economic policies: infrastructural investment in particular. Social policies: social and human capital investment in particular.
Public policies that reduce unpaid work and increase female earning opportunities are likely to beneficially affect economic growth, as demonstrated in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomics.
B. FORMAL AND INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT

a) Formal employment is employment that is governed by government regulations, laws, or formal social protection such as paid leave, employment insurance and pensions. It takes place within the framework of corporate private and public sector establishments codified in law. b) Informal employment is employment not governed by government regulations, laws, or formal social protection such as pensions and paid leave. Informal workers are often excluded from participating in a variety of formal economic institutions (e.g., financial institutions) because of the informality of their earnings. Also, the sources of the earnings of informal workers are often not obvious; employers may deliberately hide them to bypass government regulations. c) Domestic workers are often included as informal employees, regardless of any social and legal protection that may exist. Increasingly, countries are developing legislation to cover domestic workers. In some contexts it is possible to speak of formal domestic workers and informal domestic workers.
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d) In principle, informal employment falls within the domain of the SNA, so unpaid care work is not a form of informal employment. But the scale and scope of both informal employment and unpaid care work may not be adequately recognized in economic and social policy-making, in part because of a lack of adequate data. e) The International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) has issued recommendations on the formal statistical definition of informal employment and the informal sector. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same.
I
The informal sector is an enterprise-based concept. An enterprise is considered to be part of the informal sector if that enterprise is not formally incorporated as a legal form of organization, does not maintain separate finances from those of the household and is not registered, or is of small size typically less than five paid employees. In practice, complete information is not available to define informal enterprises. Often the size criterion or registration status is used as a short cut for measurement purposes. Informal employment is a jobs-based concept that uses a different definition for the self-employed and wage employees. Self-emp loyed individuals are considered to be informal if their enterprise is informal using the above definition of the informal sector. Wage employees are considered to be informal if they lack a core set of social or legal protections; the exact types of social and legal protections may vary from country to country. Typical indicators of social protection that are absent in informal employment include employer contributions to social security funds, the existence of a pension linked directly to the job, the existence of an enforceable written contract and access to paid leave. As a consequence, informal employment for waged employees is casual, irregular, unpredictable and unstable. Far fewer countries have statistics on informal employment than on the informal sector.
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f ) With formal employment often constituting less than 15 percent of total employment, informal employment is more common in Africa than formal employment. Exceptions include Namibia and South Africa. The public sector dominates formal employment in Africa. g) Informal employment in Africa varies from country to country. Some broad generalizations in Africa are that:
I
Applying the above definitions, the vast majority of agricultural employment in Africa can be considered to be informal. However, most measures of the informal sector exclude agriculture or even rural areas. Informal non-agricultural employment is often the most important form of private non-agricultural employment in Africa. The relative importance of informal self- and wage employment also varies from country to country. In many cases, employment as an informal non-agricultural own-account worker accounts for a significant share of womens employment, although this is not always the case. In general, earnings are highest in formal employment, but earnings in informal non-agricultural employment tend to be higher than earnings in agriculture. This can justify movement out of agriculture and into informal non-agricultural employment. But exceptions to this general pattern exist. It is not uncommon to find that informal employers who hire others earn more than formal wage employees. However, a still relatively small proportion of men work as informal employers. Very few women work as informal employers; most informally self-employed women work as own-account workers and contributing family workers. Services often account for a large share of informal nonagricultural employment, including work in street trade, other forms of trade, personal services (e.g., hair salons), repair shops, waste collection and informal transportation. Informal
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construction work is also common; this tends to be dominated by men. h) Policy issues with regard to informal employment:
I
Informal employment is often not included systematically in national employment policy formulation, despite accounting for the majority of employment in most African countries. Indeed, sometimes policy is openly hostile to informal workers. For example, efforts to clear cities of informal workers such as street traders explicitly undermine the livelihood of the informal workforce, which may be subject to strong gender dynamics. There is an overarching need to bring informal employment issues into the policy sphere. Women in informal employment continue to undertake this type of work because of its flexibility: It allows combining employment with unpaid care work. However, by definition, labour laws do not cover informal workers or are not enforced. As a result, informal female and male workers often do not have access to employment-related national social protection systems, rendering them more insecure. Policies to bring informal employment into the policy arena and formalize informal employment should seek to reduce or redistribute the amount of unpaid care work that women must carry out, which can push them into informal employment. For women, informal employment policies must be tightly aligned with unpaid care work policies if the former are to be successful. The extent of informal employment may be a function of the extent of formal employment, in the sense that informal employment produces low-cost goods and services that act as inputs for enterprises that generate formal employment. In this sense, the formal-informal division should not be seen as a strict duality. Gender-based earnings differentials could be an
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important factor in sustaining informal employment by providing more cost-competitive goods and services for use by formal employers. In this way, gender dynamics affect the relation between informal employment and formal employment.
C. EMPLOYMENT STATUS
a) Self-employment:
I
In many African countries, forms of self-employment are much more common than wage employment (exceptions exist; e.g., South Africa). Self-employment includes own-account workers, employers and unpaid workers on family enterprises. Informal self-employment is particularly common in Africa. By definition, labour laws often do not cover informal selfemployment, which are restricted to formal wage employment. In many cases, wage employment accounts for a much smaller share of womens employment than self-employment. Selfemployment is more important for women because

Unpaid care work limits access to wage employment. Wage labour markets are strongly affected by gender concerns.
Self-employment often gives women much more scope to combine unpaid care work with paid employment activities. Policy discussions often assume the presence of a wage employment arrangement (e.g., minimum wage policies or calls for labour market flexibility). Such policy discussions exclude self-employment and its gender dynamics.
b) Wage employment:
I
In many African countries, wage employment accounts for a larger share of mens employment than womens. Wage employment may be more accessible to men because they typically spend less time in unpaid care work.
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However, in some African countries womens wage employment in informal activities in the countryside, when combined with other rural earning activities both on and off the farm, is crucial in maintaining the livelihoods of household members. There is typically a strong correlation between short-term, seasonal and casual employment and informal wage employment. If women are employed in wage employment it is more common for that employment to be informal and hence insecure. However, women may be better able to combine informal wage employment with unpaid care work than to combine formal wage employment with unpaid care work. Employment options and choices may reflect the need to perform unpaid care work before wage employment is undertaken. Policy discussions that assume the presence of a wage employment arrangement fail to accommodate the relation between unpaid care work and the gender dynamics of wage employment. This may explain the failure of wage employment policy in parts of Africa, including those places where rural informal wage employment is an important component of household livelihoods.
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IV. WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA

Objective: to enable participants to gain a deeper understanding of specific issues facing womens employment in Africa.
A.
LABOUR FORCE SEGMENTATION
Use Exercise 1 as a reference. a) As mentioned above, women tend to be concentrated in employment with low and volatile earnings, high risks of poverty, and limited social protection. b) Mobility from one type of employment to another is limited for many women because of:
I I I
Discriminatory social norms and institutions. Responsibilities for unpaid care work. Household dynamics and unequal power relationships and restrictions on womens movements. Gender inequalities in terms of education, skills and experience (although in an increasing number of countries women are becoming more formally educated than men when they are able to obtain an education at all). A lack of assets, including limited access to finance. The limited transferability of skills from one sector to another.
I I
c) While improving employment outcomes for women requires policy that removes the barriers to labour mobility, a prerequisite is the
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abovementioned reduction or redistribution of unpaid care work. Policies that reduce or redistribute unpaid care work and increase paid employment can be strongly complementary, in that a reduction of unpaid care work can increase the employment opportunities available to women.
B.
DISCRIMINATION AND EARNINGS INEQUALITIES
a) Segmentation is not the only source of gender inequalities with regard to employment. b) As already noted, within similar kinds of employment women earn less than men. Two factors are important here:
I
Hours of work. Because of the burdens of unpaid care work, women tend to take part-time rather than full-time work, reducing what they are able to earn. Earnings inequalities. Expressed as an hourly rate, which controls for the number of hours worked, women still earn less than men when performing similar jobs. In wage employment, this can be due to employer discrimination. But the same pattern often holds for self-employment, indicating that women face disadvantages in a variety of labour market transactions. One reason internationally is because of occupation and sector clusteringthat is, women and men cluster into particular occupations and specific subsectors of economic activity. Lower earnings in wage employment can give rise to employer preference for women employees; as their labour costs less, with a uniform level of revenues, they can contribute to enhanced profitability. An example is the dominance of women workers in labour-intensive export sectors, and while these patterns are often discussed in the context of Asia and Latin America, African examples exist and may grow in the future.
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EXERCISE 4
Objective: to roughly map the structure of employment and introduce policy possibilities.
Divide the participants into small groups (two to three per group). Giving them sheets of flipchart paper to work with, ask them to develop a rough mapping of the structure of employment for their own countries. In terms of the distinctions discussed in this module (agricultural/non-agricultural, formal/informal, self-employment/wage employment, public/private), participants should map out, either through a diagram or an outline:
I
The major categories of employment in their countries (e.g., public wage employment, agricultural self-employment, non-agricultural informal self-employment). The relative size of the different categories, in terms of the approximate number of people or percentage of the labour force. Categories of employment with a disproportionate number of women or men. A general sense of the quality of employment, as evidenced by earnings.
Give participants about 30 to 45 minutes to complete the mapping, then discuss the mapping in plenary. Once the general structure of employment in African countries has been discussed, ask participants about the appropriateness of different policies to improve employment conditions in Africa. For example:
I I I
Labour market regulations (e.g., minimum wage policies). Export promotion. Improving access to credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (which often does not include own-account workers). Improving certain types of infrastructure (e.g., roads, electrical services to households, water infrastructure in communities).
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Other policies can be added to this list. Participants should explicitly consider the relation between different policies that would improve employment conditions and the need to ensure the provision of unpaid care work. Ask the participants which types of employment would benefit most from these policies. Which individuals would not benefit (e.g., minimum wages typically do not apply to self-employment)? Given the structure of employment and the need to ensure the provision of unpaid care work, will employed men benefit more than employed women? Can we begin to identify the elements of a more gender-equitable employment policy? a) As discussed in Module 3, gender inequality in labour markets and employment opportunities outcomes reinforce and are reinforced by existing gender dynamics and inequalities within households. So the household division of labour, womens economic independence, investment in womens education, reproductive choices and an ability to exit an abusive situation reinforce and are reinforced by labour market employment patterns and outcomes. b) Policy designed to improve womens employment opportunities in labour markets must commence by recognizing how gender relations shape unpaid care work within households and the constraints that these place on female labour force participation. The policies themselves must be predicated on economic and social policies that reduce the unpaid care work performed largely by women.
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READINGS
Anker, R. 1998. Gender and Jobs: Sex Segregation of Occupations in the World. Geneva: International Labour Office. Benera, L. 2001. Shifting the Risk: New Employment Patterns, Informalization and Womens Work. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 15, no. 1: 2753. Chen M., J. Vanek, F. Lund, J. Heintz, R. Jhabvala and C. Bonner. 2005. Progress of the Worlds Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Elson, D. 1999. Labor Markets as Gendered Institutions: Equality, Efficiency and Empowerment Issues. World Development 27, no. 3: 611627. Heintz, J. 2006. Globalization, Economic Policy and Employment: Poverty and Gender Implications. Employment Strategy Paper 2006/3, International Labour Office, Geneva. Palmer, I. 1995. Public Finance from a Gender Perspective. World Development 23, no. 11: 19811986. UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). 2005. Economic Report on Africa 2005: Meeting the Challenge of Unemployment and Poverty. Addis Ababa: UNECA.
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CONTACT
IDEP
GENDER AND POVERTY
INTRODUCTION
This module introduces definitions and measurement of poverty and explores how gender dynamics influence poverty as policy makers typically define it, stressing the importance of the household as a social institution. Participants will examine the gender dimensions of poverty and concepts such as the feminization of poverty. The module concludes with a brief discussion of the links between employment policy, gender relations and poverty.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To enable participants to understand the definition and measurement of income and consumption poverty. 2. To ensure that participants recognize the relation between poverty processes and household structure. 3. To facilitate participants abilities to unravel the gender dimensions of poverty dynamics. 4. To help participants address the policy implications of poverty processes within the context of gender dynamics.
OUTLINE
I. Defining and measuring poverty. A. Poverty: a complex idea. B. Income and consumption poverty. C. Relative poverty.
II. Poverty and the structure of households. III. Gender and poverty. A. The feminization of poverty. B. Intra-household dynamics. IV. Poverty reduction and gender: issues and dynamics. A. Economic growth and poverty reduction. B. Employment and poverty. C. Gender, employment and poverty. D. Poverty reduction policy strategies and gender.
DURATION
1 day
2
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to feed directly into the presentation and discussion of defining and measuring poverty in Part I of this module.
Divide the participants into groups of four to five. Ask them to reflect on their knowledge of their own countries and their own experiences and to discuss what poverty actually means. Mention that poverty is often defined as a lack of income, but there are other dimensions to poverty, such as health status, lack of opportunity, social isolation, and others. Ask each group to come up with their own definition of poverty that includes income and non-income dimensions. Encourage them to think outside the box of typical poverty measures. Give each group of participants about 20 minutes to develop a definition of poverty. Once they have a definition, ask them the following questions:
I I I I
Are there gender dimensions to their definitions of poverty? Would women experience poverty differently than men? Do women respond to poverty in different ways than men? In what ways do women and men within households respond to poverty?
Give participants an additional 20 minutes to discuss the gender dimensions of poverty, using the definitions they have generated. In plenary, have the groups present their definitions of poverty and the gender dimensions of poverty. Allow time for a group discussion of the issues that arise.
I. DEFINING AND MEASURING POVERTY

Objective: to enable participants to understand the definition and measurement of income and consumption poverty.
A. POVERTY: A COMPLEX IDEA

a) Poverty is a multi-dimensional concept that is simultaneously easy and difficult to define. It is commonly characterized as a condition in which individuals, households and communities lack the resources to generate the earnings that can sustain their consumption at levels commensurate with human well-being. In this approach, poverty is a state of material deprivation. b) Material deprivation can also be a function of the areas in which poor people tend to live, which typically might lack access to electricity, safe water or sanitation facilities, among other services. In these areas even a household with the money to buy these services might have difficulty obtaining them. In other words, material deprivation has spatial dimensions. c) That material deprivation has spatial dimensions has been a longstanding refrain in human history. What is different about poverty in the 21st century is that individuals
I I I
Are more aware of their material deprivation. View such material deprivation in a negative way. Feel that they lack the ability to overcome their material deprivation.
This is as true of Africa as it is of the rest of the world. Inability to achieve the basic material necessities of life fosters personal perceptions of
insecurity, vulnerability and powerlessness in relation to others, which are typical markers of ill-being identified by those that experience material deprivation. d) These markers suggest that poverty is an outcome of a set of social, economic, political and cultural processes, rooted within and between the operation of communities and societies and simultaneously generating states of wealth that coexist alongside material deprivation and social exclusion. e) These dynamic poverty-creating processes are expected to be reinforced by the effects of climate change on Africa. f) As poverty and wealth coexist within human societies, the poors personal perceptions are also refracted through the perceptions of othersthat is, the non-poor. People perceive the poverty of others in one of two generic ways: 1. Nothing can or should be done for those that are poor, because their condition is either natural or deserved. Something must be done for those that are poor, for social, cultural or ethical reasons.
2.
B. INCOME AND CONSUMPTION POVERTY

a) Most poverty analyses and interventions do not address the multidimensional character of poverty, focusing instead on material deprivation. So when people speak of poverty reduction, they usually mean a reduction in income or consumption poverty, typically defined at the level of the household. There are a variety of related concepts:
I
Income poverty is when total household income falls below a certain threshold, called the poverty line. The threshold is often adjusted for household size and composition (adult equivalents) and is usually expressed in monetary terms (money metric).
Consumption poverty is when total household expenditures fall below a certain threshold. Again the threshold is often expressed in terms of adult equivalents and in money-metric terms. Headcount poverty is the number of individuals living in households in a country or region whose income or consumption fall below a specified poverty line. Headcount poverty is an absolute measure of the number poor individuals. The poverty rate is headcount poverty expressed a percentage of the total population. Depth of poverty is a measurement of how far below the poverty line individuals living in households in a country or region fall, and is thus a measure of the severity of poverty. Time poverty is when individuals do not have enough discretionary time after performing essential and committed SNA and non-SNA activities to engage in own-care, educational, leisure and other activities that maintain their personal well-being. The concept of time poverty is useful when discussing time use and unpaid care work, and can be measured using time use surveys discussed in Module 4 on gender, data and indices.
b) Sometimes consumption poverty is measured with respect to a particular category of goods to emphasize the notion of a deprivation of an essential need. For example, food poverty may be used because poor households tend to spend a larger proportion of their income on food. Water poverty can also emphasize deprivation from an essential need. c) Poverty status and poverty rates are often estimated using survey data collected in ways described in Module 4, though survey respondents consistently under-report income, yielding higher poverty rates. Moreover, income reporting is especially unreliable when it relates to income that is volatile, as with irregular wages or earnings. For this reason, many researchers prefer carefully constructed measures of consumption poverty, even though consumption is also often not accurately measured and requires extremely careful survey design.
Surveys used to estimate poverty status and poverty rates may also exclude some of the poorest areas (e.g., squatter settlements) because they were not included in poverty mapping, or nomadic and street people because they are not in households. d) Poverty rates can be measured for a population as well as for women and men. If this is done, sex disaggregated data, discussed in Module 4, is collected. For example, womens poverty rates can be calculated as the number of women and girls living in poor households expressed as a percentage of the total female population. Often womens poverty rates are used to describe the risk of poverty women face. However, care must be taken in considering the use of female poverty rates:
I
If poverty is typically defined in terms of the household, then the women, men and children living in a poor household are all considered poor. This does not account for the intra-household distribution of resources and incomes, which is in turn related to control over the stock of wealth the household accrues, as well as the earnings flowing into the household. These issues are discussed further below. Expressing poverty rates in terms of specific groups of individuals, such as women or men, may not tell us much about poverty risks facing individuals if we do not understand the structure of households. a. How big are the households? b. Who controls resources? c. How many are engaged in employment that appears in the system of national accounts (SNA)? d. How many are engaged in unpaid care work? e. Are there children, sick, disabled or very elderly household members that rely more heavily on unpaid care work than do other members of the household?
f.
In some societies women enter into the extended family of a man upon marriage. In other societies, women and men create separate households upon marriage. In yet other societies, women and men enter into the extended family of both upon marriage. Community norms and rituals around household formation and hence household structure can therefore be embedded with gender relations, which have implications for the poverty risks facing women and men, including the possibility of differential poverty risks.
g. As mentioned above, poverty is characterized by both material deprivation and social exclusion, and can have a strong spatial dimension. The Human Development Index created by UNDP is one effort to develop an internationally comparable index of various dimensions of poverty and well-being, discussed in Module 4.
C. RELATIVE POVERTY
a) Although income and consumption poverty measures are most commonly used in poverty analysis, relative poverty is a widely used alternative conceptualization that focuses on inequality. When inequality increases, relative poverty increases. Relative poverty can be measured using income and consumption measures. b) The most common measure of income and consumption inequality is the Gini coefficient, which ranges from a value of zero (perfect equality) to one (perfect inequality). c) Gender dynamics are an important determinant of income and consumption inequality within and among households, as women and men have different access to and control over assets and earnings, as discussed in Module 5 on employment and labour markets.
d) There is no fixed relation between poverty rates and inequality. It is possible for the poverty rate measured relative to a fixed poverty line to fall while relative poverty increases. This has happened, for example, in Tunisia. It is possible for the poverty rate measured relative to a fixed poverty line to rise while relative poverty rises, as has happened in Zimbabwe. It is also possible for the poverty rate to fall while relative poverty falls, although in Africa there are no examples of this.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: for participants to consider the relation between poverty reduction and growth.
Facilitators should lead a discussion in plenary on what constitutes propoor growth by asking:
I I I
What do we mean by poverty reduction? What do we mean by pro-poor growth? What is likely to be the principal effect of climate change on propoor growth?
Allow participants 10 minutes to discuss this and then summarize the following points:
I
One answer: Development that reduces the measured rate of income or consumption poverty defined relative to a fixed threshold could produce poverty reduction. An alternative: Economic growth that disproportionately benefits the poorest by reducing inequalities in income or consumption could be defined as pro-poor growth.
Another alternative: Economic growth that disproportionately benefits the poorest by reducing inequalities in income or consumption while simultaneously reducing the measured rate of income or consumption poverty defined relative to a fixed threshold should be defined as redistributive pro-poor growth. A fourth alternative: Economic growth that reduces carbon emissions, improves life expectancy, infant mortality, education outcomes and choices in terms of livelihoods would address non-material aspects of deprivation and could be defined as pro-poor growth.
The facilitator should stress that while economic growth does not cause poverty reduction, there has been an observed correlation between economic growth and poverty reduction in many instances (discussed below). However, this correlation does not account for the effects of climate change on economic growth.
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II. POVERTY AND THE STRUCTURE OF HOUSEHOLDS

EXERCISE 3
Objective: to ensure that participants recognize the relation between household structure, household dynamics and poverty outcomes.
Divide the participants into pairs and distribute the list of different household scenarios given below. Ask the participants to rank the scenarios from the highest risk of poverty to the lowest. Stress that, for this exercise, the focus is on the concept of income or consumption poverty in terms of the rankings, but participants can bring in the nonincome aspects of poverty as supplementary issues if they would like. As the scenarios do not contain very detailed information, some ambiguity in rankings is possible based upon the assumptions the participants make. Participants should know that there is no single right answer and they should be prepared to discuss why they made the decisions they did. Give participants about 20 minutes to prepare their rankings. Scenarios (facilitators may wish to develop their own scenarios): a) An urban household with two married adults (a woman and a man) and three children (one of whom is under five years old). The man has good, stable wage employment in the public sector. The woman works in unpaid household care work that involves a substantial amount of child care. The mans relatives live in the same city. The womens relatives live in a distant rural community. The woman occasionally takes care of the children of her husbands relatives. b) A rural householda married couple with two children under the age of five and one older adult (the womans mother; her father has died). The husband has migrated into the capital city and works in
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the construction industry. The woman stays in the rural areas and, with her mothers help, cultivates a small plot of land mainly for own consumption. The husband periodically sends some money home. The husbands parents live in the same area, very close by, and there is sharing between the households of goods and labour, including unpaid care work that focuses on helping with the children. c) An urban household consisting of a single mother raising two children, one three years old, the other seven years old. The mother sells fruits and vegetables in a marketplace about one hour from the part of the city where she lives. She does not have family that can assist with child care on a routine basis and therefore must take her younger child to the market with her. Her older child is currently enrolled in school, but the mother has a hard time paying schools fees; though small, they are significant relative to her income, and she has trouble transporting her child to school. d) An urban household consisting of two married adults and four children, two of them aged three and four and twins aged 7. Both adults are HIV positive; the man is quite sick, but the woman is healthier. The man lost his relatively decent job as a production worker in private industry about six months ago when he became too sick to work. Their meagre savings have been exhausted. Because of the womans unpaid care work responsibilities to her husband, as well as ongoing responsibilities to her children, she generates income by working at home, doing tailoring, sewing and stitching for people in her community. Her hours of work, however, are unstable, particularly because of her husbands needs. A nearby clinic provides good basic services, but not prolonged care. Their extended family has cut off contact because of the stigma of having HIV. e) A rural household with an extended family structure, including six adults (three women, one over 60 years old, and three men, one also over 60 years old) and seven children (including four children aged between 10 and 16). All household members are related. The household has a small but significantly larger than subsistence-level plot of land, on which they produce food for the household and tea
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to be marketed. The small farm is part of a tea cooperative. The women and the older female children help cultivate some of the land and weave baskets that the family can sell when they travel to the market several hours from their home. The men also work producing tea as well as fish from a nearby lake. f ) An urban household consisting of a young male university graduate who is engaged to be married, but who lives alone and has no children. He is currently employed in a commercial bank in the capital city. Go through each scenario one by one, having each pair of participants report on how they rate the risk of poverty. Use a whiteboard to compare rankings across participant groups. Note the factors that determine the risk of poverty and discuss each of them briefly with the group as a whole. Facilitate an open discussion on whether their answers would be different in the face of climate change. The facilitator should identify and summarize the range of issues identified to conclude the exercise.
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III. GENDER AND POVERTY

Objective: to facilitate the capacity of participants to unravel the gender dimensions of poverty dynamics.
Gender inequality contributes to a higher risk of poverty for women. As has already been mentioned in previous modules, women own fewer assets than men do to sustain consumption. Womens unpaid care work constrains their earning ability in SNA activities, while segmented labour markets and discrimination reduce earnings from SNA activities that they undertake. In addition, individual earnings streams within households may not be equitably pooled, resulting in significant gender gaps in individual consumption patterns within households. With a higher risk of poverty, women are likely to be disproportionately affected by climate change. So addressing poverty in policy making does not automatically reduce gender inequality: The relation between gender and poverty dynamics is important to consider from a policy perspective.
A. THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY

Gender issues with regard to poverty are often discussed as a feminization of poverty. But the feminization of poverty can mean many different things. a) An early concept of the feminization of poverty held that femaleheaded households have a higher risk of poverty than other households. But in many countries this simply is not true. The category female-headed households is far from homogenous:
I
When female headship is used to mean a household with children maintained by a single mother, poverty risks are indeed often highertypically much higher. But not all female-headed households fall into this category.
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In many African countries widows are a major group that would be classified as female headed households. But the probability that widows are poor depends on household savings, inheritance laws and social practices. Women in rural households where the man has late-stage HIV/AIDS also would be classified as female-headed households. But the poverty status of such a household would depend upon access to and control over land and non-land assets, and the earning streams that such assets generate. Because female-headed households can be internally differentiated, this version of the feminization of poverty is not very useful.
b) A second, later interpretation of the feminization of poverty held that women have higher rates of poverty than the average for the population as a whole. This had its own problems:
I
While poverty rates for groups of individuals can be calculated, the interpretation of such information may be difficult because poverty rates depend on the individuals position within the structure of a household; this cannot be read directly from poverty data. There are also important differences among women in terms of their individual class positions and the class positions of the households in which they live. As women are differentiated along socio-economic lines, such class locations intersect with and influence how gender dynamics translate into differences in poverty risk. This approach can also misconstrue rates of poverty with the risk of poverty. It is easy to think of situations in which women had the same poverty rates as men, or indeed lower poverty rates than men, but faced higher risks of becoming poor if their situation changed. For example, when male partners leave the household and do not accept responsibility for the costs of raising children, the risk of poverty facing the women that remain in the household is significantly increased. Such situations would not be considered in this interpretation of the feminization of poverty.
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So this version of the feminization of poverty is not very useful either.
c) A third interpretation of the feminization of poverty is that women face increased risk of poverty because of ongoing changes in household structures, employment opportunities, the social safety nets that are an important form of social provisioning, and climate change.
I
This approach does not necessarily claim that womens poverty rates in absolute terms need to be higher for women to face growing risks of poverty. So it is perhaps the most useful because it incorporates social processes and economic changes that expose women to greater risks. For example, changes in household structure due to HIV/AIDS or changes in employment opportunities in agriculture arising from trade liberalization can both expose women to greater risk because of, on the one hand, their responsibility for unpaid care work and, on the other hand, their overrepresentation in smallholder agriculture. But even this concept of the feminization of poverty should not be considered to be true in all cases. Some changes in household structures, employment opportunities and social safety nets may reduce the risks for women.
d) Lessons of the feminization of poverty debate focus on the importance of household structure and changes in household structure; socio-economic class; and employment opportunities and social provisioning in understanding the interaction of gender and poverty risk dynamics. It is also important of understand that the interaction of gender and poverty is itself a dynamic process.
B. INTRA HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS

a) The definition of poverty at the level of the household suggests that incomes are pooled and distributed fairly within the household. As has already been stressed in this module and Module 3, on unpaid
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care work, this is often not the case, and most definitions of poverty ignore these intra-household dynamics.
I
Men often fully control or have a greater say in the distribution of income and expenditures within the household. This means that a household classified as not poor may have a very unequal distribution of resources among the members of that household; not-poor households may contain individuals who are poor. This can affect human development within the household, with long-term consequences. For example, if men control spending, expenditures on children may be reduced, and only partially offset by increased amounts of unpaid care work.
b) When women have access to paid employment, it can affect intrahousehold dynamics.
I
Women controlling their own incomes from paid employment can affect expenditure patterns within the household. It is well established that women with their own incomes are more likely to spend earnings on household necessities and children and men who control their incomes are more likely to spend earnings on male-oriented consumption items. A sufficient level of economic independence arising from paid employment can give women greater opportunity to choose to exit an unfavourable household situation. However, in many instances women do not control the income that they earn and this lack of control affects expenditure patterns within the household. It can also result in paid employment reinforcing gender inequalities. It cannot be assumed that access to paid employment transforms gender dynamics, which are a function of household structures and the distributions of power between females and males within households.
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EXERCISE 4
Objective: to encourage participants to reflect on their own experience of the dynamics between gender and poverty.
Ask the class to reflect on their own experience of gender and poverty dynamics using the following questions: 1. Using the third definition elaborated above, to what extent do participants think that there has been a feminization of poverty in their countries or the region in which they work? 2. What factors might contribute to this trend? 3. What evidence is available that there has been feminization of poverty? 4. To what extent do participants think that intra-household dynamics affect the poverty status of individuals in their countries or the region in which they work? 5. Has climate change affected the feminization of poverty? 6. What are the factors within households that might contribute to this trend? 7. Is any evidence available that would substantiate the views of the participants?
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IV. POVERTY REDUCTION AND GENDER: ISSUES AND DYNAMICS

Objective: to help participants address the policy implications of poverty processes within the context of gender dynamics.
A. ECONOMIC GROWTH AND POVERTY REDUCTION

a) While economic growth is not a sufficient condition for poverty reduction, there is strong evidence that economic growth is correlated with poverty reduction; thus, a necessary condition of poverty reduction may well be to facilitate economic growth. Growth dynamics are explored in Module 7, on gender and macroeconomics. b) The principal source of SNA employment in sub-Saharan Africa is in agriculture. The principal location of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa is in the countryside. But agricultural production and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa is, by international standards, suboptimal. c) Evidence suggests that economic growth in poor agricultural countries that originates in agricultural activity has a greater effect on poverty reduction than economic growth that originates in nonagricultural activity. It therefore appears that a necessary condition of poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa would be to facilitate agricultural growth. In this regard, it is very important to integrate the effects of climate change into the consideration of possible strategies to enhance agricultural growth. d) But economic growth cannot be assumed to be gender neutral. The effect of economic and agricultural growth on the poverty dynamics of gender depends on household structures and intra-household
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dynamics, the resulting distribution of assets, unpaid care work, and earnings, and the effects of all of the above on employment opportunities as well as household, community and government mechanisms of social protection. These processes are explored in Module 7. e) However, if economic and agricultural growth is to bolster gender equality, a principal transmission mechanism is through increases in the employment opportunities provided to women, which is predicated on reducing unpaid care work. This has implications for household structures and intra-household dynamics. f ) Therefore policy interventions designed to increase the employment opportunities for women must first seek to reduce or redistribute unpaid care work at the household, community and government levels. g) However, a reduction in unpaid care work will not benefit society if the reduction is predicated on a net cut in the aggregate provision of care in society because of the positive externalities produced by care, discussed in Module 1 on gender and economics. Policy should be designed to ensure that a cut in unpaid care work does not result in a net cut in the provision of care in a society.
B. EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY

a) Labour is the productive factor that most poor households command in relative abundance, unless hit by HIV/AIDS or another disability or medical crisis. Raising the returns to this labour by improving employment opportunities, labour mobility and the terms and conditions of employment will help reduce income and consumption poverty and address the material deprivation that underpins social exclusion and poverty dynamics. There is therefore a close link between employment status and income and consumption poverty. b) However, measures of income and consumption poverty exclude essential services provided through unpaid care work in the household and community. While income and consumption poverty
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measures typically include an allowance for home production of certain goods, especially food, they do not include a valuation of the necessary goods and services provided by unpaid care work in the household and in the community. c) Thus, if policy is designed to increase the amount of time spent in SNA employment and less time in unpaid care work, ideally these shifts in labour allocation should be accounted for when calculating the effect of labour reallocation on poverty if it is being used to measure well-being. This is because reducing unpaid care work may benefit the economy but not necessarily society if the reduction in unpaid care work is predicated upon a net cut in the provision of care in a community. d) Therefore, again, policy should be designed to ensure that a cut in unpaid care work does not result in a net cut in the aggregate provision of care in a community. e) In agriculture, employment is predicated on access to and control over assets that, as Module 5 on employment and labour markets discusses, women often do not securely possess. Therefore, an increase in agricultural SNA employment among women requires that women have increased access to and control over land as well as the non-land assets necessary to work the land with which they have been vested.
C. GENDER, EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY

a) Module 5 demonstrated that women are disadvantaged in terms of employment opportunities. Women are segmented into forms of employment with low and volatile earnings, and even within particular types of employment done by women and men, there is clear evidence of a gender earnings gap. b) As climate change occurs, activities that generate earnings for women, such as agriculture and tourism, are expected to be disproportionately affected, which may have additional negative effects on womens employment.
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c) However, estimates of poverty rates among employed women may be lower than estimates of poverty rates among employed men. This is because, in households where women are not employed in SNA activities, the risk of poverty may be higher for both women and men. So womens SNA employment earnings make a difference as to whether the household is poor or not, in terms of income or consumption poverty. d) These dynamics critically depend on the composition of the household. Households in which there is only one earnerfor example, a single motherface very high risks of poverty. The dynamics also depend on intra-household dynamics, which are a function of household structure. e) Causation between womens employment and poverty can conceivably run in both directions:
I
Poverty may cause women to enter the labour force or work longer hours in SNA employment. The earnings from womens SNA employment may, in turn, reduce the incidence and depth of income or consumption poverty.
f) So the relationship between womens employment and poverty is complex. Household structure and intra-household gender dynamics are important mediating variables in structuring the feminization of poverty.
D. POVERTY REDUCTION POLICY STRATEGIES AND GENDER

a) The principal means by which international development institutions and partner governments seek to reduce poverty is through poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), examined in detail in Module 9 on gender and macroeconomic strategies in Africa part II. b) However, PRSPs address poverty reduction in most sub-Saharan African countries by seeking to use economic policy to create conditions that would lead to an increase in SNA employment, and hence, earnings.
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c) Therefore, the concerns already voiced in this module apply. If PRSPs succeed in increasing the amount of time women spend in SNA employment, less time will be allocated to unpaid care work in the home and community or the total burden of time allocated to work will increase. d) A reduction in unpaid care work, while benefiting the economy, may not necessarily benefit society if the reduction in unpaid care work is not accompanied by mechanisms of social provisioning that sustain an appropriate level of care in the community. e) Typically, PRSPs do not incorporate mechanisms of social provisioning explicitly designed to sustain an appropriate level of care in society, although in some instances the social safety nets financed through PRSPs may facilitate the social provision of some care services for a community. So, current poverty reduction policy strategies, despite rhetorical commitments to gender equality, fail to incorporate the gender dimensions of economic dynamics into their frameworks and approaches. As such, they remain gender blind.
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READINGS
Chant, S. 2003. New Contributions to the Analysis of Poverty: Methodological and Conceptual Challenges to Understanding Poverty from a Gender Perspective. Santiago: Work and Development Unit, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Razavi, S. 1999. Gendered Poverty and Well-Being: Introduction. Development and Change 30, no. 3: 409433. Sen, A. 1992. Inequality Reexamined. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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CONTACT
IDEP
GENDER AND MACROECONOMICS
INTRODUCTION
This module enables participants to establish a foundation in genderaware macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is typically seen to be gender blind: It examines the economic environment in general, but it is rarely, if ever, gender neutral. A gender analysis of macroeconomics underscores both how gender relations permeate macroeconomic concepts and how macroeconomic indicators only measure a portion of total economic activity, with important consequences for unpaid care work, household well-being, and the accurate evaluation of macroeconomic policies. To help participants undertake a gender-aware investigation of macroeconomics, the module introduces and elaborates on some key aspects of macroeconomics, including social accounting frameworks, the circular flow of income and product, domestic absorption, the multiplier, the accelerator and two-gap analysis. At the end of the module, participants should be able to evaluate a series of macroeconomic concepts by their gender content.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will: 1. Have gained an understanding of elementary macroeconomics. 2. Be able to voice a gender critique of contemporary macroeconomics. 3. Have the capacity to explain the key concepts and implications of gender-aware macroeconomics.
OUTLINE
I. Basic macroeconomics. A. Social accounting frameworks and the circular flow model. B. Domestic absorption. C. The multiplier and the accelerator. D. A two-gap model. II. Gender-aware macroeconomics. A. The role of unpaid care work in macroeconomic flows. B. The role of gender in macroeconomic variables. C. A gender-aware circular flow. D. Gender-aware macrodynamics: thinking about policy.
DURATION
day.
I. BASIC MACROECONOMICS
Objective: to enable participants to gain an understanding of elementary macroeconomics.
Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole, focusing on the combined activities of all households, all firms and the government, the cumulative individual decisions of which determine the whole economys total spending, income, and production of goods and services. Macroeconomic theory and analysis divides the economy into two spheres: the productive (real) economy and the financial (money) economy. Macroeconomic policies influence how these two spheres interact. The productive economy combines labour, capital, other productive factors (land, energy, natural resources) and technology to produce the economic output for exchange that comprises gross domestic product (GDP). The productive economy is also called real because the factors of production as well as the output produced in this economy are physical. The public sector operates as part of the real economy and is financed by fiscal policygovernment policy regarding to government spending and taxation. The financial economy consists of the economic activities that involve the issue and exchange of financial assets, such as stocks and bonds. Government affects the financial economy through monetary policy policy regarding the supply of money and the interest rate, which affect the demand for money and other financial assets as well as the performance of the financial economy overall. The relation between the real economy and the financial economy, as well as the role of government in affecting that relation, is a matter of some debate in macroeconomic theory, but linkages do exist: For example, the setting of interest rates within monetary policy has implications for the production of output and employment in the real economy.
A. SOCIAL ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORKS AND THE CIRCULAR FLOW MODEL

SOCIAL ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORKS
Adding up all the transactions of all households and firms as well as the government would be difficult, so it is necessary to sort activities into analytically useful categories and record the pattern of activities done by the various economic unitshouseholds, firms and government. This is what social accounting frameworks do, and in so doing, they detail the flows of goods and services between economic units, often called agents or actors, engaged in the buying and selling of products, including the inputs necessary for firms wanting to transform resources into marketable goods and services that can be bought and sold. Social accounting frameworks can assist in understanding the key relations, if any, among the many transactions taking place between economic units in the economy as a whole.
THE CIRCULAR FLOW MODEL

(The facilitator should draw the model clearly, ensuring that all participants understand.) Begin by initially ignoring government. Households provide inputs primarily labourto firms for wages. Firms use those labour services to produce goods and services, which can be sold to households for cash. Households thus get money from the sale of labour to pay for goods and services that firms produce. There are therefore two sets of flows: 1. The flow of income (Y)payments for labour are turned into payments for goods. 2. The flow of production (C)the flow of labour resources from households are turned into goods and services that households consume.
Ignoring savings for the moment, the idea that the money value of the incomes of households must equal the money value of all the output of firms and the money value of household spending provides the basis for the national income accounting discussed in Module 1 on gender and economics as the system of national accounts (SNA). Some primary categories that are included in the SNA accounts are: a) The private production of goods and services measured at market prices. b) The public sector, often valued in terms of labour costs and not the value of services produced. c) The private production of goods in the household, which a third party could provide. These goods need not be exchanged. As already discussed in Module 3 on unpaid care work, challenges exist in measuring this accurately, and production is often valued using market prices of similar goods. d) Informal activities, where again the challenge is accurate measurement. e) Imputed values of certain private services (e.g., housing). However, households do not spend all their money. Some money is saved (S) by households in the financial economy, to provide consumption in the future. Bringing in government, some money is taxed (T) by the government from the household for its activities. So some of the flow of income leaks out:
I I
Savings (S) flow into financial markets. Taxes (T), also called forced savings by economists, flow to the government.
Government uses taxes to buy goods and services from firms and makes transfer payments to households (G). Firms get investment (I) funds from the savings deposited in financial markets to buy plant and equipment to increase their capacity to produce goods and services in the future. Thus, there are injections into the flow of income as well:
I I
Investment by firms (I) financed from financial markets. Government spending (G) financed from tax receipts.
Firms also pay taxes, included in (T). Finally, some of the goods and services purchased by households, firms and government are made abroad, while some of the goods and services produced by firms are sold abroad. So there is a further leakage of income, exports (X), and a further injection, imports (M). This simplified account provides two circular flows: 1. The flow of goods and services produced on and for the product market for a given period of time by all the people of the country, or gross national product (GNP) 2. The flow of income (Y) received for resources sold in the input market for a given period of time by all the people of the country, or gross national income (GNI) Expressed as variables, GNP and GNI appear as follows: GNP = C + I + G [+ (X M)] GNI = Y + S + T Output flows should equal income flows: C + I + G [+ (X M)] = Y + S + T In other words, total income on the right hand side of the equation should equal all spending on consumption, investment, government spending and net exports on the left hand side of the equation. However, as there is usually a time lag in all this buying and selling, in practice they may not formally add up.
B. DOMESTIC ABSORPTION
(The facilitator should go through the model clearly, ensuring that all participants understand the simple algebra, which many will find
challenging out of a fear of numbers. It is important to take time here, as this significantly demystifies macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy.) As GNP = Y then Government spending is a form of consumption and investment spending, so for simplicity, collapse government spending into those terms, resulting in: Y = C + I + (X M) Rearranging, C + I = Y (X M) This suggests that goods and services absorbed in an economy can either come from domestic production (C + I X) or from abroad (M). Defining domestic absorption as A=C+I substituting A for C + I so that A = Y (X M) and rearranging shows that YA=XM 1. If net exports (X M) are negative, then the public and private sectors are consuming and investing (absorbing) more than the country is producing domestically, which raises the question of how this domestic absorption is being financed. Clearly, the rate of domestic absorptionlevels of consumption and investment beyond what the country can afford to importcan be an important internal source of macroeconomic imbalance.
2. If an external shock cuts exports, this must affect domestic absorption because if (X M) drops, A must fall or Y must rise. The economy must adjust by altering the rate of domestic absorption. A simple rule of thumb is that macroeconomic policy is concerned with maintaining macroeconomic balance by altering the rate of domestic absorption to compensate for internal or external macroeconomic imbalances.
DEMAND SIDE POLICIES

Demand-side policies alter the pattern of spending within an economy. This can take one of two forms:
I
An attempt to increase the rate of domestic absorption by increasing public and/or private spending and thus public and/or private demand. These expenditure-increasing policies therefore raise C, I and/or G, boosting aggregate demand and, as will be seen, economic growth. An attempt to reduce the rate of domestic absorption by cutting public and/or private spending and, hence, public and/or private demand. These policies are often called expenditure-reducing policies, because C, I and G are brought down. Cutting consumption and investment cuts aggregate demand, however, and in so doing, affects economic growth.
FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICY

Fiscal policy is government policy toward its taxation and spending plans. Monetary policy is government policy toward the supply of money and hence interest rates, which are the effective price of money. The government can use fiscal and monetary policies to alter the rate of growth in one of two ways: 1. To increase the rate of growth of demand.
I
When government spending increases, there is an increase in
government demand for goods and services from the private sector.
I
When government taxes fall, there is an increase in household and firm demand, as they are paying less to the government and thus have higher levels of disposable income to spend. When interest rates fall, the level of investment by firms increases, as it becomes less expensive to borrow from the financial economy and the holding of money by households and firms in the financial economy becomes less attractive.
2. To reduce the rate of growth of demand.

I
When government spending falls, there is a reduction in government demand for goods and services from the private sector. When government taxes rise, there is a reduction in household and firm demand, as they are paying more to the government and thus have lower levels of disposable income to spend. When interest rates rise, the level of investment by firms falls, as it becomes more expensive to borrow from the financial economy and holding of money by households and firms in the financial economy becomes more attractive.
Demand management thus alters the rate of domestic absorption. It may increase private or public spending, and hence increase economic growth, to solve the problem of inadequate domestic absorption. Alternatively, it may induce expenditure-reducing cuts in private or public sector spending, and hence reduce economic growth, to solve the problem of excessive domestic absorption.
SUPPLY SIDE POLICIES

Supply-side policies alter the pattern of production of goods and services within an economy to increase the domestic production of goods and services and reduce the demand for foreign goods and services, thus reconfiguring the composition of domestic absorption away from externally produced goods and services and toward
domestically produced goods and services. For this reason, supply-side policies are also called expenditure-switching policies because Y and X are increased and M is decreased.
MARKET DEREGULATION POLICIES

Supply-side policies involve dismantling a range of interventions that affect the operation of markets, to increase either the efficiency of resource utilization within an economy or the productive capacity within an economy, both of which promote an expansion of production and economic growth. Price controls, taxes, subsidies, trade restrictions and the operation of monopolistic state-owned enterprises bypass markets and so reduce the efficiency of markets in allocating resources in the real economy. Supply-side policies remove these distortions and thus deregulate the market to permit market-determined prices to reflect market-determined costs, better allocating the resources of households and firms and enhancing the supply capacities of the economy without cutting consumption.
C. THE MULTIPLIER AND THE ACCELERATOR

Ignoring tax payments to the government, households can consume or save their income, which means C+S=Y This means that consumption is a fraction of total income, C = cY where c is called the marginal propensity to consume out of an additional amount of earned incomehere, the portion of income that goes to consumption expressed as a fraction. This also means that savings is a fraction of total income, S = sY
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where s is called the marginal propensity to save out of an additional amount of earned incomehere, the portion of income that goes to savings expressed as a fraction. It follows then that c+s=1 Recalling Y = C + I + G + (X M) Exports and imports are for consumption, investment or the government, and so can also be collapsed into total consumption, investment and government spending Y=C+I+G But government spending is also on consumption and investment, and so it too can be collapsed into total consumption and investment spending. This simplification results in Y=C+I As C = cY then cY can be substituted for C, resulting in Y = cY + I Rearranging gives us Y cY = I Y(1 c) = I Y = I / (1 c)
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This is the famous multiplier, derived by John Maynard Keynes and Michal Kalecki. Because c is less than 1 and in the denominator, the multiplier demonstrates that in a condition where some resources are not being usedless than full employment, in the terminology investment will generate an increase in total income that is greater than initial investment. So investment drives economic growth. Moreover, the increase in incomes and output brought about by the initial increase in investment should lead to an acceleration of investment because of growth and further increases in income and output, by a principle known as the accelerator. For Keynes and Kalecki, the existence of multiplier-accelerator interactions was a strong argument in favour of government investment in the economy when the economy was at less than full employment, because the increase in output and income generated by the investment would be greater than the initial investment and would increase employment. If the government did not have the money to undertake the investment, Keynes and Kalecki advocated government borrowing, again because of the increase in income brought about by the investment, which could in principle allow the borrowing to be repaid even as employment and output levels increasedthe so-called balanced budget multiplier.
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to review the multiplier process and to enable students to be able to derive the multiplier.
Divide the participants into groups of four or five, with at least two economists per group. 1. Have the participants in the group review and explain to each other the following terms:
I I I I
Income. Consumption. Investment. Marginal propensity to consume.
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2. Assume that all exports, imports and government spending goes into either consumption or investment so that you can work with the simplified national accounting identity: Y=C+I Let investment equal US$19 billion and the marginal propensity to consume equal 0.8. Have the group calculate the equilibrium level of income. 3. Let investment rise by US$1 billion to US$20 billion. Calculate the multiplier. 4. How much does an increase of investment of US$1 billion increase equilibrium income? 5. In light of the multiplier, should the government try to affect the level of economic activity? If so, what sorts of government activity should be used to do so? Give the participants 30 minutes to work through the exercise. At the end of that time, in plenary, ensure that all answers are correct by having groups provide and explain their responses to the questions.
D. A TWO GAP MODEL

As households can consume or save, their savings is equal to income minus consumption: S=YC The national accounting equation is Y = C + I + G + (X M) Collapsing government spending into consumption and investment, the equation can be rearranged so that Y C = I + (X M)
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This means that S = I + (X M) and finally that IS=MX This accounting identity says that a surplus of imports over exports allows a country to invest more than it saves, which through the multiplier-accelerator principle increases output, employment and economic growth in excess of the initial investment. If a country uses imports to invest more than it saves, it can show up in the balance of payments as a trade deficit. This trade deficit will have to be paid for in foreign exchangethat is, by borrowing from other countries. For investment goods to be imported in excess of exports, countries require access to foreign exchange to pay for those goods because the export of goods and services from the country does not provide sufficient resources to pay for the import of sufficient investment goods. Therefore, in a developing country, there exists a minimum foreign exchange requirement that can be financed through foreign borrowing, which can be used as a source of finance for two gaps: 1. The first gap is the gap between investment and savings. Growth can be constrained by insufficient savings to finance the purchase of investment goods. The difference between I and S is termed the investment-savings gap. 2. The second gap is the gap between imports and exports. Growth can be constrained by insufficient foreign exchange to finance the purchase of investment goods from abroad. The difference between M and X is termed the import-export gap, but is more commonly known as the foreign exchange gap. Two-gap analysis emphasizes the roles of imports and foreign exchange in supplementing domestic savings to finance investment and its associated multiplier-accelerator effects, which spur growth. The analysis determines the size of the gap and hence the amount of foreign
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borrowing required to fill the gap, as well as the amount an economy would then have to allocate toward repaying the resulting debt to other countries in the future. To get out of debt, the country must make investments with the foreign borrowing that generate an increase in the rate of savings that can be used to repay the borrowed amount. The increase in the rate of savings will be a function of an increase in the efficiency of production, and hence, an increased rate of growth, as production is increasingly determined in markets. Optimally, the increased efficiency of production should be for export, as an increase in the rate of exports is needed to address the foreign exchange gap. Thus, for developing countries a condition of longterm growth is that the balance of payments deficit does not constrain the economy. A simple rule of thumb to achieve this outcome is that the rate of growth of exports should be greater than the interest rate, which dictates the amount of money that has be directed to paying down debt; when such holds, export receipts will cover interest payments.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to use a two-gap model to better understand macroeconomic imbalance.
Participants should be divided into groups of four or five, with at least two economists per group. Each group should carefully examine Table 1, where absorption is defined as private and public consumption and investment. Gross domestic savings are defined as investment plus net exports. The resource balance is defined as net exports.. Using the data in Table 1, give participants 30 minutes to estimate the size of the investment-savings gap and the foreign exchange gap for the Republic of the Gambia between 1970 and 1992. Ask the students to consider which constraint is more binding and why.
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TABLE 1. GAMBIAN MACROECONOMIC BALANCES, 1970 1992

Domestic absorption 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1991 1992 115,513,600 214,406,000 513,899,808 1,165,900,032 2,917,499,904 3,412,600,064 3,728,999,936 Gross domestic saving 5,850,592 33,675,200 2,870,016 55,399,940 231,000,096 116,400,096 80,399,872 Resource balance 286,496 6,693,696 (104,500,096) (80,699,904) (287,900,192) (464,999,904) (544,300,032)
Note: All figures are in current prices and in local currency. Brackets indicate negative figures.
Source: World Bank World Tables 1994.
At the end of 30 minutes, ask for their answer. The facilitator should review the key points:
I I I
Net exports equal X M, which must equal S I. Therefore, the resource balance multiplied by 1 gives I S = M X Therefore, investment greatly exceeds savings. The critical gap is in foreign exchange: this is the source of imbalance. Generally discuss the relation between the resource balance and domestic absorption; stress that the economy is absorbing more than it can afford to in order to invest and, through multiplieraccelerator effects, foster economic growth. Ideally, if investment is channelled into export production the foreign borrowing needed to pay for the investment will be repaid from increased export earnings.
Ask participants whether this was a good or a bad macroeconomic strategy for a country like The Gambia.
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II. GENDER-AWARE MACROECONOMICS

Objective: to enable participants to explain the key concepts of gender-aware macroeconomics.
EXERCISE 3
Objective: to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of national accounting frameworks.
Divide the participants into groups of four or five. Each group must answer the following questions in 30 minutes: 1. What is the circular flow of income and product? 2. Households are found in the circular flow. However, only SNA activities in households are captured in national accounts. Why is only SNA activity captured in the national accounts? 3. Why are national accounts not constructed to capture unpaid care work? Is the use of the concept of the household in the circular flow useful if unpaid care work is not captured in the circular flow? 4. Do the national accounts capture activities in the informal economy? Is the use of the firm in the circular flow useful if informal economic activities are not captured in the circular flow? 5. Is voluntary community labour significant in rural Africa? Is it captured in the circular flow? Is the use of the circular flow useful if voluntary community labour is not fully captured in the circular flow? 6. Should national accounting frameworks be rethought to include unpaid care work, informal economic activities and voluntary community labour?
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Facilitators should briefly review the results of the group work in plenary. Stress the following points, which review material from Modules 1 and 3:
I
What is excluded in national accounting frameworks? a) Household production of services (unpaid care work and other unpaid household work that does not produce goods). b) Activities for which you cannot theoretically hire someone else to do (e.g., learning, studying, even though such investments add to economic productivity). c) Certain categories of household investments may be excluded (or not valued completely). For example, repairs and improvements made to a house or property that do not involve hiring someone else, but which raise the asset price, may not be properly valued.
There are therefore clear limits to standard macroeconomic indicators. a) They may give misleading assessments of well-being or economic outcomes, as demonstrated in Module 3. b) They may hide and obscure womens contribution to the economy by ignoring or undervaluing their labour and the services they provide. c) They fail to account for certain costs such as the full cost of raising children as well as the cost of care at home and in the community.
A. THE ROLE OF UNPAID CARE WORK IN MACROECONOMIC FLOWS

a) As demonstrated in modules 1 and 3, households are where unpaid care work and other unpaid labour takes placeproductive activities that are excluded from the macroeconomic models discussed above.
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b) Households do not just spend their income on what is produced. Without unpaid care work, many consumption goods (e.g., food) could not be consumed and the production and sale of goods and services by firms could not take place because such production relies upon households using unpaid care work to produce labour capable of working. c) Macroeconomic analysis therefore needs to include labour as a produced factor of production, taking place in households and requiring unpaid care work and the allocation of real resources for investment in the capabilities of labour, otherwise known as human capital. d) Unpaid care work also takes place outside the household, in the community, in the form of voluntary service, which contributes to the maintenance of the rules, norms, and values of civic responsibility and social community, otherwise known as social capital.
B. THE ROLE OF GENDER IN MACROECONOMIC VARIABLES

a) Households are assumed to act in a unified way in macroeconomics, but as demonstrated in Module 3, this assumption cannot be sustained. b) The intra-household division of labour between women and men determines the division of labour between the productive and financial economy and household activities. Gender relations thus segment labour markets; as demonstrated in Module 5 on employment and labour markets, unpaid care work affects and is affected by segmented labour markets, and households are crucial to mediating the relation between the two forms of labour. This affects production, productivity and incomes (Y), which in turn affects consumption (C), investment (I), savings (S) and the distribution of output. c) So aggregate macroeconomic variablesconsumption, investment and savingsmay be systemically gender differentiated. There is ample evidence to support this proposition.
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C. A GENDER AWARE CIRCULAR FLOW

(The facilitator should clearly redraw the gender-aware circular flow, ensuring that all participants understand all the steps involved) a) So gender-aware macroeconomics reconceptualizes the economic production of national output by adding a sectorthe household and community care sectorto the traditional conception of the economy as the interaction of the private (i.e., small and large business) sector and public (i.e., government) sector. Each of these sectors can be considered as economies in their own right. b) The private sector supplies consumption (C) and investment (I) goods and services to the public and household and community care sectors. The private sector is regulated by markets. The informal sector remains undercounted, which has gender implications that must be explored. c) The public sector provides social and physical infrastructural investment (G) used for consumption and investment in both the private and household and community care sectors. The public sector affects the flow of income and product. It is market-regulated, but less so than the private sector. The employment pattern in the public sector may have gender implications that must be explored. d) The household and community care sector produces goods and services for use by individuals, households and communities. It supports the private sector and the public sector by supplying potentially productive human capital as well as social capital. Workers in the household and community care sector are not formally paid, although some aspects may be supported by government transfer payments. The sector is regulated not by markets, but by social norms and conventions that reflect the unequal power relations that exist between women and men. The employment pattern is affected by gender, and must be explored.
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D. GENDER AWARE MACRODYNAMICS: THINKING ABOUT POLICY

a) The gender-aware circular flow is a comparatively recent development in economics and there is no consensus about how to formalize the relations among the private, public, and the household and community care sectors. The integration of gender-aware macroeconomic analysis into an understanding of the financial economy is also contentious. b) It is clear that the unpaid care economy affects the performance of the private sector, in both its real and financial-sector activities, as well as the performance of the public sector. Simply put, if unpaid care work ceased, the private commodity economy and the public service economy could not work. c) It is also clear that changes in the real and the financial economies affect the household and community care economies. In the recent global economic crisis, increased unpaid care work in households has acted as an invisible social safety net for those rendered unemployed. d) As there is no consensus, a starting point by which to consider macroeconomic dynamics from a gender perspective is to review the key insights elaborated earlier in this module.
I
Domestic absorption (C + I) requires the provision of unpaid care work. This suggests that in the short run, the inability to supply an adequate amount of unpaid care work may be a source of macroeconomic imbalance. It also suggests that in the long run, a reduction in the amount of unpaid care work will require a corresponding increase in paid care work if macroeconomic imbalances are to be avoided. Demand- and supply-side policies designed to reconfigure the rate of domestic absorption should be considered from the perspective of their effect on the household and community care economy. Demand-side policies that seek to reduce spending may be predicated upon an unacknowledged increase in unpaid care work, with implications for gender equality. Demand-side
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policies that seek to increase spending can do so in ways that redistribute and ultimately reduce unpaid care work, with implications for gender equality.
I
Supply-side policies that seek to increase productive efficiency as well as multiplier-accelerator interactions are affected by gender relations. The capacity of such policies and investment to bring forth proportionately greater increases in output and income are predicated upon an expansion of paid employment that may require an intensification of unpaid care workor may not be forthcoming because of unpaid care work responsibilities that are allocated on the basis of gender inequality. Alternatively, supply-side policies may be predicated upon investments in infrastructure that reduces unpaid care work and in so doing facilitates an expansion of paid employment, increasing production. The same logic is true of policy approaches to the foreignexchange gap: it should be evaluated from the perspective of the impact that it has on unpaid care work, because unaddressed gender inequalities may prevent this gap from closing, with harmful effects on the national debt. Given the importance of investment to economic growth, it is also necessary to reconsider the meaning of investment. In macro-economics, investment is expenditure in the present that defers current consumption to increase consumption in the future. Spending on education and health are therefore not considered investment because the expenditure in the present increases the consumption of education and health care in the present. Yet it is well-established that spending on social investments in health and education generates a stream of benefits in the future; as human capital is built and productivity enhanced, consumption in the future is increased. There is ample evidence to support this proposition. The multiplieraccelerator interactions emerging out of investment in human capital formation can generate a strong case for social
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investment directed at women to reduce unpaid care work, with implications for gender equality.
I
The two-gap accounting identity (I S = M X) needs to be considered from a gender perspective. Inadequate savings to finance the investment savings gap may emerge from genderdifferentiated savings patterns, as evidence demonstrates that, in the aggregate, women save more than men do. It is also necessary to reconsider the character of investment: Investment in female human capital formation have implications for gender equality and long-run productivity. In other words, in considering the operation of the macroeconomy, it is necessary to consider whether there is a care gap that policy canor mustaddress. An important conclusion is to reinforce that a starting point for a gender-aware macroeconomics is to commence analysis from the perspective that gender relations permeate the major macroeconomic variables. Production (X), incomes (Y), consumption (C), investment (I), savings (S) and the distribution of output must be considered as an outcome of a prevailing structure of gender relationspossibly conceptualized as a third sector in the economythat reflects and is reflected in the distribution of unpaid care work. As noted in Module 3, then, the capacity of an economy to supply adequate amounts of care is an important constraint on economic activity in the real economy, and the supply of care may be predicated upon gender inequality.
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READINGS
Benera, L. 2003. Gender, Development, and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered. London: Routledge. Elson, D. and N. Cagatay. 2000. The Social Content of Macroeconomics. World Development 28, no. 7: 13471364. Gutirrez, M., ed. 2003. Macro-Economics: Make Gender Matter. London: Zed.
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CONTACT
IDEP
8
GENDER AND MACROECONOMIC STRATEGIES IN AFRICA PART I
INTRODUCTION
This module briefly reviews the evolution of development strategies in post-independence Africa using macroeconomic theory and builds an analysis of development strategies from a gender perspective. The module should help participants develop some of the skills needed to evaluate to what extent development strategies incorporate gender perspectives into their policy assessments and proposals. A subsidiary aim is to analyse the history of development strategies and policy through a gender lens.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will be able to: 1. Locate state-led development and structural adjustment within the context of macroeconomic theory. 2. Understand the development of the analysis of gender within development theory. 3. Offer an analysis of state-led development and structural adjustment within the framework of gender-aware macroeconomics.
OUTLINE
I. Overview of development strategies in post-independence Africa. A. Reflections on development experiences in Africa. B. The state-led approach to development. C. The period of structural adjustment. D. Gender and problems with structural adjustment. II. An overview of approaches to gender equality in development strategies. A. The first generation: women in development. B. A broader conceptualization: gender and development. III. Gender-aware macroeconomics and African national development strategies.
DURATION
day
2
I. OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN POST-INDEPENDENCE AFRICA

A. REFLECTIONS ON DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA
EXERCISE 1
Divide the participants into small groups of four or five, ideally with different countries represented in each group. Ask the participants to reflect on their own countries economic performance and the various development strategies pursued in the 30 years after independence. Use the following questions to guide their discussion: 1. What development strategies were pursued in the 30 years after independence? What are the main differences in the approaches associated with each strategy? 2. What were the reasons for a new development strategy to replace an earlier one? What were the roles of external and internal factors? 3. To what extent do you feel gender issues were reflected in these development strategies? Group members should note similarities and differences in their country experiences and be prepared to report back to the class. Participants should also discuss to what extent gender-responsive policies were part of the development strategies. Give each group flipchart paper to prepare a short report. Allow participants to discuss for approximately 30 minutes. Each group can then briefly report back (30 minutes in total). Allow time for general class discussion at the end of the group reports.
Many of the points in Part I of this module will come up during the exercise. The following set of notes is meant to be a guide to key issues for facilitators. Facilitators should use the notes to summarize points discussed during the exercise and fill in gaps, resorting to a formal presentation only if necessary. Facilitators should closely monitor the time.
(I) DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCES:

a) There are many commonalities among post-independence development strategies in sub-Saharan African countries. Virtually all countries experienced some form of colonization followed by political independence. Most countries experienced some form of structural adjustment policy in the 1980s or 1990s. Many countries have more recently adopted national development strategies modelled, to varying degrees, on poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) since the late 1990s. This experience will be discussed in Module 9 on gender and macroeconomic strategies in Africa, Part II. b) However, it is also important to stress areas of difference. c) In sub-Saharan Africa, independence occurred at different points in time and with different consequences. Ghana became independent in 1957; Angola and Mozambique in 1975, nearly 20 years later. Most of the French-speaking countries became independent in the early 1960s (1960 for most former French colonies, 1962 for most former Belgian colonies). In North Africa, some French colonies became independent earlier (e.g., 1956 for Tunisia and Morocco). Liberia was a special case, officially independent in the mid-19th century. d) Independence was followed by white-minority rule in some cases (South Africa, Zimbabwe). e) In some cases, the transition to independence was relatively peaceful. In other cases, it was characterized by prolonged conflict and violence. The concept of a development strategy is not generally applicable to a country experiencing civil war.
(II) WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING THE DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCES, POSTINDEPENDENCE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES CAN BE CLASSIFIED INTO THREE BROAD PERIODS:
a) State-led development, generally in the 1960s and 1970s. b) Structural adjustment, generally in the 1980s and 1990s. c) The postWashington Consensus era of PRSPs (late 1990s to the present, to be covered in Module 9)
B. THE STATE LED APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT

(I) CHARACTERISTICS
a) The legacy of colonialism meant that African states had to catch up to the rest of the world in development, which in the early 1960s was, for various reasons, equated with industrialization. Many leaders of the newly independent states also strongly argued that African countries had to reduce their dependency on the former colonial powers. The newly independent states started at different levels of development. In some cases, the colonial powers left behind economic infrastructure and a basis for industrial production. In other cases, there was little scope for productive investment in industrial production because the economic infrastructure was rudimentary as a direct result of the colonial experience. b) The focus of state-led development was industrialization and selfsufficiency. Numerous policies were pursued, at different times, in different places, and in different spaces:
I I
Public investment (in infrastructure, schools and universities). State-owned enterprises (public ownership and management of productive enterprises was common). State-led finance (government ownership of banks was common, as was the creation of agricultural and development banks).
I I
Government regulation of most spheres of economic activity. Tariffs, quotas and other restrictions on international trade to protect national infant industries from import competition.
c) The mix of policies and the degree of state ownership varied from country to country. d) In line with Module 7 on gender and macroeconomics, the period of state-led development can be characterized as identifying an investment savings gap. This necessitated foreign borrowing to supply the imports needed to invest in building up productive capacity in the real economy. e) Gender equality was largely ignored in the strategy. The focus on industrialization excluded consideration of unpaid care work and its role in producing the (usually male) labour force needed for industrialization; men also usually dominated state-owned enterprises. Further, in many countries womens productive contribution to employment was concentrated in agriculture, which was seen as backward, in that it was subsistence-oriented and lacked modern technology. With their labour mostly in unpaid care work and agriculture, women were often not seen or counted in estimates of the economically active population. Womens political representation was also limited, meaning that their interests were less likely to be reflected in state-led development. f ) In many cases, the multiplier-accelerator effects of the import-led investment discussed in Module 7 meant that growth performance was admirable during the 1960s and 1970s, especially compared to later periods. However, in many countries, the state-led model ran into problems of sustainability.
(II)
GENDER AND PROBLEMS EMERGING FROM STATE-LED DEVELOPMENT
a) The two-gap model discussed in Module 7 highlights the importance of ensuring that import-led investment is used to increase productive capacity in the export sector to preclude balance of payments and foreign exchange problems and, thus, foster sustainable economic growth. At the time, an unstated necessary but not sufficient condition of this strategy was that unpaid care work would supply the productive labour necessary to increase productive capacity. However, this precondition was problematic, as women were already highly economically active in existing unpaid care work, agricultural labour and the informal economy, and thus lacked the time to increase their unpaid care work. b) Import-led investment required foreign borrowing, the bulk of which came from bilateral and multilateral official development assistance. But much of this investment was not channelled into increasing exports; it also was not as efficiently used as it might have been because unpaid care work and agricultural labour constrained women from taking up emerging employment opportunities in the expanding formal economy, which required labour that they could have supplied but for the demands placed upon them by their other largely unrecognized economic activities. c) Without increased exports, foreign borrowing meant that debtservicing costs rose over time, as did external indebtedness; the foreign exchange gap tightened. This problem was exacerbated by global trends that led, in some cases, to declining terms of trade for primary commodity exporters that had failed to diversify their exports, further tightening the foreign exchange gap. Countries responded by continuing to borrow rather than improving their earnings from exports through diversification, which could have been done in ways that enhanced gender equality.
d) As a result, like much of the developing world, African states experienced an emerging debt crisis. Africas debt crisis differed from other parts of the world because money was owed to bilateral and multilateral official development institutions. The crisis had well documented gender-differentiated effects. At the end of the 1970s, oil price shocks not only increased the cost of energy but also massively increased debt-servicing costs as interest rates ratcheted upward. Debt servicing rapidly became unsustainable. e) In some cases, the framework regulating the private and the public sectors in Africa provided those in government and the political elite with opportunities for privately appropriating public funds, which is known as rent seeking. For example, excessive licensing requirements for small businesses allowed those with the power to issue licenses to do so in exchange for a payment. In a number of African countries, the financial resources appropriated by political elites were taken abroad (i.e., capital flight). Although a small share of the population was accounted for by the civil service and the political elite, these were predominantly men, who were thus the principle beneficiaries of rent seeking and capital flight. Meanwhile, the costs of capital flight were borne by the poor, of whom a disproportionate number were women. Capital flight had genderspecific effects as well. For example, women had to increase both unpaid care work and paid employment in the informal economy to partially compensate for the economic imbalances capital flight created. In this way, capital flight was an intensifier of gender inequality. In some African countries the volume of capital flight at times matched official development assistance. f ) Thus, during the period of state-led development, the result of import-led investment was high rates of economic growth accompanied by external borrowing, the building up of debt and capital flight. The inflow of resources failed to expand productive capacity as much as might have been the case if female labour constraints arising from unpaid care work, agricultural labour and work in the informal economy had not limited the ability of women
to take up paid employment in the formal economy. Moreover, resources left the country for which they were intended.
C. THE PERIOD OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT

a) The goal of structural adjustment was to address the macroeconomic imbalances that had emerged in African countries during the period of state-led development: high levels of indebtedness and debt-servicing costs, balances of payments deficits and budgetary deficits.
I
Was it necessary? In many cases, something had to be done. The economic policies of the state-led development period were clearly unsustainable. But the precise mix of economic policies could have been very different.
b) For African countries with large debts and inability to service them, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acted as a lender of last resort in exchange for adopting economic policy conditions designed to alter the way the economy operated. These were reinforced by the World Bank, the major multilateral donor to Africa. c) The typical components of structural adjustment included:
I
Exchange rate devaluation: By making domestic currencies worth less in relation to foreign currencies, imports were discouraged because they became more expensive, exports were encouraged because they became cheaper, global competitiveness was thus enhanced, and a possible way of addressing trade and balance of payments imbalances was introduced. Fiscal austerity: Reducing government budgetary deficits incurred by the promotion of foreign borrowing to foster import-led investment required lowering government spending and increasing government tax collection.
Financial deregulation and monetary reform: The encouragement of borrowing without an accompanying strong increase in production had fostered strong inflationary tendencies, as too much money chased too few goods. The liberalization of financial markets along with the use of high interest rates as the principal tool of monetary policy was designed to control inflation by making it less attractive to hold money as cash, thus withdrawing it from the economy. Deregulation of the economy: To improve economic efficiency and allow markets to allocate resources, there was a concerted effort to loosen government regulations that restricted economic activity. Trade liberalization: While the lowering of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade reduced the cost of imports, including imported inputs, it did so by less than the increases in prices brought about by devaluation. At the same time, trade liberalization made exporting easier, so trade liberalization promoted exports while imports were compressed. Privatization: To make state-owned enterprises more efficient by making them more responsive to the signals produced by a freer, better functioning market, eliminating unnecessary employment and bureaucratic interference and reducing debt.
d) In terms of the macroeconomic theory discussed in Module 7, structural adjustment sought to alter the rate of domestic absorption. It consisted of two overarching sets of policies:
I
Expenditure reduction: The fiscal austerity, monetary reform and devaluation policies compressed the demand of government for goods and services, and through government, the demand of consumers and firms, shifting the aggregate demand curve. The intent was that demand could be compressed and reestablished at a lower, more sustainable level. These policies were largely designed and monitored by the IMF. Expenditure switching: deregulation, trade liberalization and privatization policies were designed to enhance productive
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efficiency, boost the production of goods and services, and shift the aggregate supply curve so that supply could increase. These policies were largely designed and monitored by the World Bank.
I
In sum, IMF policies cut demand while World Bank policies expanded supply. The interaction of both was to be an increase in production and a decrease in the price level, altering the rate of domestic absorption to foster economic growth and development.
e) The gender content of structural adjustment was weak or nonexistent, assuming that macroeconomic policies were gender neutral.
D. GENDER AND PROBLEMS WITH STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT

a) Structural adjustment in Africa did not have the intended consequences. Despite the shift in development strategy, many countries failed to see a significant increase in the growth rate of per capita income. During the 1980s in sub-Saharan Africa, the growth rate of per capita income was, on average, negativecountries became poorer. Moreover, for those countries that experienced economic growth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), such as Ghana, there was not a significant reduction in poverty. So, structural adjustment did not bring about improvements in wellbeing, despite the wide-ranging economic reforms promulgated in its name. b) Some of these failures were undoubtedly the result of the imposition of policies. There was little or no local participation in decision making as structural adjustment programmes adopted a one-size-fits-all approach to development. c) However, the pursuit of liberalization without recognizing existing institutional problems and constraints in Africa produced perverse outcomes. Financial liberalization in Africa often meant more expensive and less readily available credit.
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d) One key failure was an inability to recognize that structural adjustment was mediated by and operated through prevailing sets of gender relations in Africa, which shaped their effects. This insight has emerged from the expansive literature on gender critiques of structural adjustment. Gender-aware macroeconomics argues that structural adjustment policies and programmes did not achieve their intended outcomes in part because they did not consider the differential effects of the policies on women and men or incorporate an analysis of gender equality issues. Women and men occupy different positions in local, national and global economies. The distribution of paid and unpaid work differs between women and men, and the distribution of assets differs between women and men. The effects of any development strategy must therefore be different for women compared to men. e) The rationale for economic liberalization was that markets should be unencumbered by government in order to get the prices right that is, at appropriate market levels. Module 1 on gender and economics and Module 3 on unpaid care work have demonstrated that household dynamicsincluding, critically, the allocation of unpaid care workare not organized on market principles and that, moreover, the allocation of unpaid care work shapes and is shaped by market activity. It cannot be assumed that all individuals are free to reallocate their labour between the household and care economy and the private commodity economy based on changes in market prices. Gender structures limit economic mobility and may make such market-based responses unrealistic. As argued in Module 7, social institutions and processes regarding gender equality amount to a macroeconomic constraint on economic activity. f) Gender-based macroeconomic constraints (in Module 7, care gaps) affected the effectiveness of structural adjustment, for the reasons cited above. Women had unequal access to employment opportunities in labour markets because of their unpaid care work responsibilities; structural adjustment policies interacted with these institutional inequalities to produce an asymmetric and unaccounted-
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for effect on women that damaged the programmes effectiveness. Women also had unequal access to assets, which interacted with structural adjustment policies to produce asymmetrical effects on women and men. g) As a result, in many cases womens labour became a shock absorber under structural adjustment. For example, reducing government budgetary deficits often meant cutbacks to government social services. Women often had to increase their unpaid care work to make up for the resulting social service deficit. In African countries, in which women work long hours in both unpaid care work and other productive activities, these pressures were particularly strong. In many cases, girls and young women extended their hours worked in unpaid care work, at the cost of fewer educational investments. h) Similarly, structural adjustment programmes failed to recognize that human resources are produced factors of production. Increasing demands on womens labour and cutting social services resulted in a loss of social investment in human beings and the workforcea cut in the investment in human capital that takes place in the household and care economy. The failure of structural adjustment programmes to support these kinds of human capital investments had a long-run negative effect on economic performance. i) Government budgetary cuts often affected public capital spending, particularly infrastructure. Certain forms of infrastructure affect the productivity of unpaid care work (e.g., water taps). Lack of investment in these areas meant that women had to spend more time in care activities, and thus, could not respond to any labour market opportunities created under structural adjustment because of the increase in their unpaid care work. Womens productive activities were disproportionately affected by the policies pursued. For example, in many African countries womens work in smallholder agriculture is particularly important. The liberalization components of structural adjustment programmes often negatively affected smallholder agriculture as capital-intensive
j)
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export-oriented agriculture was promoted and smallholder producers could not effectively manage the increased risksa development that disproportionately affected women. Similarly, women prior to structural adjustment relied heavily on informal employment in petty trading and labour services if they had a source of non-agricultural earnings. However, because of privatization and government down-sizing under structural adjustment, males moved into informal employment, often displacing women because of gender norms around income earning activities. So the male intensity of informal work employment patterns increased, disadvantaging women that had relied on informal employment to sustain their livelihood. k) Structural adjustment often required a reduction in government employment. Public employment in African countries often represents an important if by definition very limited source of formal wage employment for women, particularly in government jobs outside of state-owned enterprises. Job cuts arising from fiscal austerity reduced these opportunities, while the privatization of state-owned enterprises often disproportionately affected mens employment opportunities because they were disproportionately represented in the labour force of state-owned enterprises. This affected gender relations within households, as the loss of income and male employment often resulted in women increasing the intensity of their unpaid work to partially offset the loss of earnings. l) By negatively affecting womens limited opportunities for remunerative employment, structural adjustment reinforced existing gender hierarchies in the household: Women become even more economically dependent on mens earnings and assets.
m) Many of the costs associated with the gender implications of structural adjustment policies were not accounted for in the formulation and implementation of such programmes. Therefore, structural adjustment has often been evaluated on a narrow set of indicators and an incomplete accounting of costs. In this light, it is not surprising that the impact of structural adjustment has been far
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less beneficial than the IMF and the World Bank imagined they would be. At a very basic level, sex disaggregated statistics and indicators needed to be developed to begin to properly evaluate the effects of structural adjustment. n) Gender-aware macroeconomics offers not only a powerful critique of the failure of structural adjustment but also a powerful explanation of those failures.
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II. AN OVERVIEW OF APPROACHES TO GENDER EQUALITY IN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

This part of the module assumes that participants have little or no exposure to efforts to incorporate gender perspectives into development strategies over time. If the participants have a strong background, the material may be covered through general discussion. If not, some formal presentation will probably be necessary.
A. THE FIRST GENERATION: WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT

a) Many early efforts in the 1970s to bring gender analysis into the discussion of development strategies focused on making the economic contributions of women more visible. Most scholars refer to this as the women in development approach.
I
In the African context, this often took the form of increased attention to the role of women in small-scale agricultural activities. The approach focused on womens employment and productive activities that are counted in GDP. Much of the emphasis was on showing how gender inequalities in education, employment and other spheres could be costly in terms of the commonly used economic indicators. The main criticism is not that the approach is wrong, but that it is incomplete: Like gender-blind approaches, it fails to consider how the responsibility of unpaid care work constrains labour market participation. It fails to consider how the distribution of assets is gender inequitable. It also fails to understand how gender inequality may facilitate growth through lower wages
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for women and the reliance on unpaid labour. These reduce the costs of development, since governments and businesses do not have to pay for these services. Finally, it fails to acknowledge gender equality and womens empowerment as goals in their own right.
B. A BROADER CONCEPTUALIZATION: GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

a) An expanded approach to gender in the context of development has subsequently emerged. The approach goes beyond economic efficiency and the productive role of women to focus on gender roles and dynamics; social norms; the gender aspects of social and economic institutions, including the structure of households and labour markets; and unpaid care work. This broader approach is sometimes referred to as the gender and development approach.
I
The approach is not narrowly focused on economic outcomes and related criteria, but looks at changing gender relations and norms as part of the overall process of development. The approach goes beyond traditional economic indicators of gender equality and growth, such as wage gaps in formal employment and gaps in educational attainment. The value of unpaid labour, particularly unpaid care work, is more likely to be incorporated into the analysis. Household dynamics and unequal power relations are also included because they shape the performance of unpaid care work and, hence, the availability of labour for the labour market. Economic processes may reinforce or erode existing gender dynamics and structures. For example, policies that reduce womens opportunities for paid employment outside the home may reinforce existing roles and power structures. Policies that improve employment opportunities may have the opposite effects.
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Both the women in development and gender and development approaches initially came out of feminist movements and thinking in the global north. These approaches may not always represent the views and priorities of women from the global south. For example, more equal labour force participation and access to paid employment for women has been a focus of some womens movements in the global north. In many, but not all, sub-Saharan African countries, in which labour force participation among women is already high, this may not be a priority; rather, access to basic infrastructure, such as a water tap, may be more important. Despite the broader conceptualization, too often gender equality is simply used as an instrument to enhance economic efficiency rather than create more equal social relations.
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III. GENDER-AWARE MACROECONOMICS AND AFRICAN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

a) State-led development had little gender equality content; systematic thinking on gender and development strategies was just beginning to take shape at that time. But gender perspectives helps explain the limitations of state-led development, described above. b) Structural adjustment had little gender equality content or assessment of gender equality outcomes. However, this sparked a well-developed gender critique of these policies as part of a growing movement to make development policy more genderaware. Gender and development analysis has been able to explain some of the failures of structural adjustment, in its assumption that all individuals were free to reallocate their labour between the household and formal labour force. That this was not the case affected demand compression, supply expansion, and hence, the expected changes in the rate of domestic absorption that were the principal macroeconomic goals of structural adjustment
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READINGS
Benera, L. 2003. Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics As If All People Mattered. London: Routledge. Benera L. and S. Feldman, eds. 1992. Unequal Burden: Economic Crises, Persistent Poverty and Womens Work. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Elson, D. 1995. Gender Awareness in Modelling Structural Adjustment. World Development 23, no. 11: 18511868. Ndikumana, L. and J. Boyce. 2003. Public Debts and Private Assets: Explaining Capital Flight from Sub-Saharan African Countries. World Development 31, no. 1: 107130. Razavi, S. 1995. From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse. Geneva: UNRISD. UNECA. n.d. African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes for Socio-Economic Recovery and Transformation. Available at www.uneca.org/publications/ESPD/old/aaf_sap.pdf (accessed 20 May 2010).
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CONTACT
IDEP
GENDER AND MACROECONOMIC STRATEGIES IN AFRICA PART II
INTRODUCTION
This module reviews contemporary macroeconomic development strategies in the context of globalization and the economic realities in Africa by critically evaluating poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) from the gender-aware macroeconomics perspective developed in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomics. It uses this same framework to survey some of the key macroeconomic policies that have been established under contemporary African policy regimes. The module does not assess specific sectoral and subsectoral policy areas in detail, but rather introduces a gender approach to contemporary macroeconomic development policy in Africa more broadly.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will be able to: 1. Understand contemporary macroeconomic development strategies in Africa. 2. Evaluate contemporary macroeconomic development strategies from a gender perspective.
OUTLINE
I. Globalization. II. Poverty reduction strategy papers. III. Gender and PRSPs. IV. Fiscal policy. A. Gender relations and fiscal policy. B. General fiscal policy issues: government spending and crowding out. C. General fiscal policy issues: taxation. D. Debt sustainability: external and domestic. V. Monetary policy in Africa: a gender equality approach. A. The conduct of monetary policy in African countries. B. What are the main tools of monetary policy in African countries?
C. Monetary policy in African countries. D. Inflation dynamics and inflation targets: implications from a gender perspective. VI. Exchange rate policies: a few issues. A. Types of exchange rate regimes in Africa. B. Exchange rate issues in Africa. C. The effect of exchange rates from a gender perspective.
DURATION
One day
Before the course, the facilitator should select chapters from one or more PRSPs for African countries from which participants originate, which will be used in Exercise 2. Copies of the chapters should be made to distribute to participants.
I. GLOBALIZATION
Learning objective: to facilitate a common understanding of the gender dimensions of globalization, and thus situate contemporary macroeconomic development strategies in Africa.
a) The current period of intensified globalization can be identified as commencing in the mid-1990s. Globalization is the increasing economic integration of worldwide production, trade and finance as economies become increasingly interdependent and interconnected. Globalization was made possible by changes in transportation, information and communications technologies, which made flexible international sourcing based on comparative unit labour costs possible. b) The key agent of the process of globalization was the transnational corporation: companies that use intra-firm trade to organize flexible global production networks. c) The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995, was designed to regulate the global markets on which globalization depended. d) Structural adjustment made countries ready for globalization by increasingly exposing them to international competition as a consequence of trade liberalization, market deregulation, privatization, financial deregulation and devaluation. In a sense, structural adjustment made countries increasingly market oriented, preparing them for the period of intensified globalization. e) Globalization has affected gender relations: 1. The numbers of women participating in the global labour force has increased, as has the share of women in many formal and informal jobs.
2. But this increase has been accompanied by a deterioration in the terms and conditions of paid employment as employment security diminishes, labour standards are relaxed and relative real wages decline. 3. Thus women have been disproportionately segregated into forms of low-paid and less-skilled employment that are temporary, part-time or home-based, but which significantly contribute to corporate flexibility. 4. Increased labour market participation has not been accompanied by any significant reduction in unpaid care work. Thus, for many women, workloads have intensified under globalization, both in the absolute numbers of hours of labour performed and the number of hours of labour performed relative to men. f) The effects of globalization in Africa have been mixed. Increased demand for Africas resources has fostered significant inflows of foreign direct investment by transnational private corporations from the global north and state-owned enterprises from China, but the employment available to Africans produced by such investment have been limited. The capital-intensive character of resource extraction industries produces relatively few jobs; by contrast, employment has been generated in non-traditional agriculture exports, as large-scale African farms have been integrated into the global value chains of transnational agribusiness. Most of Africa has been bypassed as a site for global manufacturing and service industries. The result is that, beside economic enclaves integrated into the global economy, there are vast hinterlands of subsistence agriculture, small-scale artisanal manufacturing and petty trading, even as an increasing share of the population resides in slums. Meanwhile, inflows of foreign direct investment have been associated with increased rent-seeking by political elites, along with increased resource-based conflicts. Poverty and food insecurity has, in absolute terms, increased in Africa during the period of globalization.
g) The result was that the structural adjustment paradigm examined in Module 8 on gender and macroeconomic development strategies failed to create sustainable economic growth, let alone poverty reduction, during the 1990s and early 2000s in Africa. Criticism of international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, emerged from civil society and government in Africa, as well as among international institutions themselves; a landmark study by the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), Adjustment with a Human Face, along with the World Bank, argued that the policy conditionalities of structural adjustment had failed because of a lack of national ownership of macroeconomic development strategy and an emphasis on short-term measures that sought to reconfigure the rate of domestic absorption discussed in Module 7 by expanding supply and managing demand. As calls for debt relief for the poorest countries in Africa became stronger, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed upon in 2000, aimed to cut poverty rates in half by 2015. By the early 2000s macroeconomic policy objectives in Africa emphasized growth and poverty reduction.
II. POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPERS

Learning objective: to enable participants to understand the content of PRSPs
a) PRSPs are wide-ranging, results-oriented poverty reduction plans that replaced structural adjustment programmes in 1999. Initially, countries had to develop a PRSP to qualify for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. Later, some African countries (e.g., Kenya) that did not qualify for debt relief also developed PRSPs to gain access to donor funds. b) PRSPs are predicated on the proposition that countries, multilateral and bilateral donors, and government and civil society are development partners; the national ownership elements in the design of a PRSP are to overcome the ineffectiveness of structural adjustment. PRSPs also adopt a longer time horizon than structural adjustment. c) The structure of a PRSP typically consists of a: 1. Poverty diagnosis. 2. Macroeconomic framework, which has implications for available resources. 3. Strategic plan with prioritized actions. 4. Set of responsibilities assigned to specific actors. 5. Budget 6. Plan for monitoring and evaluation, including goals and indicators as well as participatory monitoring by civil society.
d) The content of a PRSP assumes that economic growth is a necessary but insufficient condition for development. This leads PRSPs to place a stronger emphasis on public investment, particularly in human capital formation and social protection, than was the case under structural adjustment: Public investment is essential to the development process. Growth must produce increases in employment, as the principal way in which poverty is reduced is through increased earnings from paid employment. PRSPs also stress the quality of governance: Good governance is a central condition of the promotion of growth. e) The MDGs discussed in Module 4 on gender and data provide global targets for internationally agreed benchmarks to measure progress in promoting human development and poverty reduction. As PRSPs establish national development strategies, including numerical and time-bound targets for human development and poverty reduction, they have become the most important instruments for integrating the MDG targets fully within the priorities, policies and resource allocation decisions that African governments make. As a consequence, several African countries have made extensive attempts to develop second-generation MDG-based PRSPs to guide national development strategies. f) However, the macroeconomic policies found in a PRSP are virtually identical to those found under structural adjustment: government fiscal discipline to minimize budgetary deficits, monetary policies to control inflation, freely floating exchange rates, further trade liberalization, deeper market deregulation, and ongoing privatization of both state-owned enterprises and some public services that are deemed to be non-essential. PRSPs thus seek to alter the rate of domestic absorption discussed in Module 7 by continuing to strictly manage domestic demand and expand domestic supply without facilitating the multiplier-accelerator effects of import-led investment. Increased public investment in human capital formation and social protection takes place in the context of fiscal consolidation designed to reallocate government budgetary resources in order to accrue efficiency gains and minimize budgetary deficits. So core macro-
economic issues are left out of the dialogue among partners because of a presumption that market-based resource allocation is always more efficient than government-led resource allocation. Many PRSPs also include sector- and subsector-specific policies to develop particular productive activities (e.g., non-traditional exports). g) A substantial literature has emerged that is critical of PRSPs. Criticism of the process: 1. The links between the description of poverty and the policy diagnosis are weak because the processes that distribute resources, income, human capital and power in societies are inadequately analyzed. 2. The links between agreed policy priorities and stipulated budgetary allocations are weak, in part because donor budget support directs where resources are allocated. 3. There is a lack of technical capacity to track government spending and to link spending to outcomes. 4. Monitoring and evaluation procedures are weak. Criticism of the framework: 1. PRSPs do not incorporate the recommendations of civil society groups and organizations if they do not fit within the macroeconomic parameters that frame the discussion of content; there is formal but not substantive participation. 2. The public revenues needed to realize the ambitious social provisioning plans in a PRSP are often inadequate, especially in the context of stringent government expenditure plans to stimulate efficiency gains. This results in increases in donor aid and thus a deeper dependence on donor funding even as domestic demand is compressed. 3. To secure donor funding, countries must obtain agreement from both the IMF and World Bank about the content of the PRSP;
such cross conditionality was not present in structural adjustment and tightens constraints on policies. 4. The above factors demonstrate that PRSPs remain an IFI-driven process. In this light, it is not surprising that PRSPs have come up with virtually identical prescriptions for very different countries: The macroeconomic development strategies found within PRSPs are fairly uniform across Africa.
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III. GENDER AND PRSPS

Objective: to help participants to articulate a gender critique of the macroeconomics of PRSPs.
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to enable participants to identify how gender analysis is missing from PRSPs and distinguish rhetoric about gender equality from practice in a policy context.
The facilitator should select chapters from actual PRSPs for one or more African countries, including gender chapters, which the facilitators should compile before the course. Divide participants into groups of four, containing both economists and gender specialists. Assign groups a recent PRSP from their home country or another African country to discuss the gender content of the policy issues within one particular chapter of the PRSP. Groups should use the questions below, distributed to each group, as guidelines. Groups should be given ample time to thoroughly read and discuss the chapters and the facilitator should interact with all the groups in the course of the exercise. The questions that each group should address are: 1. In what areas does the chapter of the PRSP incorporate gender issues? In each case, does the chapter of the PRSP include explicit policies to improve gender equality with a clear policy, strategy or action plan? 2. What areas are missing regarding gender issues in the chapter of the PRSP? Is unpaid care work included in the chapter? If so, in what ways? 3. Are sex disaggregated indicators included as part of the monitoring and evaluation process in the chapter? Which ones? As part of the main set of indicators or separately? Which indicators of gender relations within the country could be included that are currently not there?
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In plenary, the facilitators should summarize the discussion, using the following points if necessary: a) PRSPs contain far more mention of women and gender equality outcomes than was the case under structural adjustment. However, often the focus is only on outcomes, not on the gender stereotypes, structures and dynamics that underlie the inequalities between men and women. b) In many PRSPs, gender is not mainstreamed throughout the document, but placed in a stand-alone woman and gender chapter. Even when gender issues are mainstreamed through the PRSP, the issues are usually not taken up in final chapter, which outlines the PRSPs overall strategy and policy recommendations. c) Second-generation MDG-based PRSPs do not adequately incorporate gender perspectives into MDG-based macroeconomic planning exercises in part because of some of the weaknesses of the MDGs regarding gender, discussed in Module 4. d) While PRSPs contain sex disaggregated data, often gender indicators are not mainstreamed into the tools of PRSP monitoring and evaluation. Few PRSPs contain data on the intrahousehold distribution of time, income and resources. e) Developing gender-aware PRSPs has many benefits:
I
Poverty reduction: To reduce poverty, the gender dimensions of poverty must be identified and addressed. Economic growth: Statistical evidence suggests that gender equality correlates with economic growth and poverty reduction. Human rights fulfillment: Gender equality is the foundation of a full set of human rights.
f ) Macroeconomic issues dominate the policy framework of PRSPs, but these are not approached through a gender-aware macroeconomics. Thus, many of the gender critiques of the economics of structural adjustmentparticularly its ignorance of the role of unpaid care work and its relation to rates of domestic absorption,
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made in Module 8 on post-independence macroeconomic development strategies in Africaare relevant to PRSPs, which fail to establish adequately the evident linkages between gender equality, growth and human development indicators. g) The gender-specific implications of the policy analysis are not drawn out. There is almost no coverage of womens time allocation patterns and uneven coverage of womens gender-specific roles in agricultural and non-agricultural employment. All too often there is littleor noanalysis of womens gender-specific roles in the informal sector, and no coverage of gender-specific roles in illegal economic activities, such as trafficking. h) The gender content of social provisioning mechanisms, such as health and education, are somewhat better, as health coverage often focuses on reproductive health. But it remains common in too many PRSPs for issues of HIV/AIDS and access to health services not to be addressed through a gender perspective. i) Reducing male/female disparities in education is very popular in PRSPs, but strategies to reconfigure gender norms regarding teacher recruitment, school curricula and adult education remain very limited. The gender aspects of social protection mechanisms are very weak in PRSPs: for example, the gender implications of pension systems are not considered very often.
j)
k) PRSPs have a mixed gender and governance record: There are often commitments to rewriting laws and increasing participation, but funding is rarely simultaneously committed towards improving the gender and governance record. l) So PRSPs have an approach to gender issues that leans toward the women in development approach, examining only orthodox measures of gender inequality (e.g., labour force participation and educational attainment) and framing the issues narrowly, in terms of economic efficiency rather than the socially-constructed relationships between women and men that result in prevailing unequal gender norms.
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IV. FISCAL POLICY

Objective: to enable participants to unpack the gender dimensions of fiscal policy.
A. GENDER RELATIONS AND FISCAL POLICY

a) Under PRSPs, African governments have to bring their budgets into balance over time. b) Fiscal policy refers to how government spending, taxation and debtthe government budgetinfluence the economy as a whole. c) But it cannot be assumed that government spending patterns have the same effects on women and men. For example, cutbacks to public services may place pressure on unpaid care work. Public employment provides a source of formal employment for women. Finally, infrastructure spending can have both beneficial and differential effects on women and men, depending on the type of public investment (e.g., roads and water taps). d) Similarly, it cannot be assumed that systems of taxation affect women and men in the same way e) So fiscal policy has distinct gender equality outcomes that need to be explored.
B. GENERAL FISCAL POLICY ISSUES: GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND CROWDING OUT

a) Fiscal austerity was one ingredient of many structural adjustment programmes and continues to be part of PRSPs: cuts to government spending to bring spending into line with tax revenues without having to fall back on raising taxes.
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b) One argument for less government spending is called crowding out: Public spending is argued to discourage private investment, and in so doing, reduces the multiplier-accelerator effects discussed in Module 7, because government consumption spending tends to bid up interest rates in an effort to attract money, and higher interest rates discourage the private investment that fuels multiplieraccelerator effects. c) Does crowding out make sense from a gender perspective? Typically public investment is interpreted to mean physical infrastructure. However, investment in human beings, human resources and human capital is critically important (even if it is counted as government consumption in the system of national accounts, or SNA). Education, health care and support for unpaid care work all represent, to some degree, a form of investment that generates multiplier-accelerator effects through improved private sector productivity. So the crowding out argument cannot be assumed to hold. Instead of substituting for private investment, public investment that supports private economic activity may crowd-in private investment, expand domestic demand and supply, and contribute to the multiplieraccelerator effects that foster economic growth. d) This holds for foreign direct investment as well. Strong public investment helps attract productive foreign direct investment, and thus crowds in investment from transnational corporations, which also expands domestic demand and supply and contributes to the multiplier-accelerator effects that foster economic growth.
C. GENERAL FISCAL POLICY ISSUES: TAXATION

a) In developing countries, including African countries, indirect taxes account for the largest source of tax revenues:
I I
Trade taxes (i.e., tariffs). Value-added taxes (VATs).
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Sales taxes and excise taxes.
b) Trade liberalization has meant a decline in revenues from trade taxes. Other indirect taxes have therefore been increased to make up at least part of the lost revenues. The overall drop in revenues often meant cuts in government spending and a reduced capacity to crowd in for the investment that expands domestic demand and supply and fosters the multiplier-accelerator effects that produce economic growth. c) The other indirect taxesVAT and sales taxestend to be regressive, in that the less that is earned, the higher the share of earnings that is taxed. Regressive indirect taxes cannot be assumed to be gender neutral in an African context, as women tend to bear a higher burden from such taxation. For example, when food is subject to VATs, because women are overrepresented among poorer households, they pay a higher share of their earnings as VAT. In such circumstances an expansion of these taxes will disproportionately and negatively affect women, with implications for gender equality. d) On the other hand, policies that reduce the regressive nature of indirect taxes on certain goods have strong implications for gender equality. Placing no taxes on food, childrens goods and household fuels improved retained earnings among women, with implications for gender equality. e) In some countries personal income taxes, which are a form of direct tax, are also important. While women may not, on average, be as directly affected by personal income tax as are men, because of their employment as contributing family workers or employment in informal activities, such taxes affect the amount of resources available to a household, and hence the distribution of resources between women and men. f ) There are examples in which tax systems are explicitly biased against women. In apartheid South Africa, married womens incomes were taxed at a higher marginal rate in households with married couples.
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However, in most cases, gender biases in tax policies tend to be more indirect, not being explicitly stated in the tax code.
D. DEBT SUSTAINABILITY: EXTERNAL AND DOMESTIC

a) In the absence of increased official development assistance, government spending can only increase faster than the growth rate of tax revenues if governments borrow to make up the difference. Sustained deficit financing of the government budget leads to higher debt burdens. Debt servicing repays debt burdens, usually with interest. Fiscal sustainability, in terms of deficit financing and debt servicing, is a real constraint for African governments.
I
External debt is public spending financed through borrowing from abroad from private, public and international financial institutions (including through the IMF) Domestic debt is public spending financed through government issuance of bonds (e.g., treasury bills) to the general public.
b) Many African countries are highly indebted. This generally means that they have a high level of external debt. However, African countries often also have significant levels of domestic debt. How this debt is serviced and managed is a key fiscal policy issue. c) Deficit financing can be made more sustainable by coordinating monetary and fiscal policies. For example, conducting monetary policy to prevent excessively high domestic interest rates, as discussed below, can make debt servicing more manageable. d) As noted in Module 8, high debt burdens provided one of the major justifications for structural adjustment: External and domestic debt levels were perceived to be unsustainable. What contributes to an unsustainable fiscal stance?
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External debt:
I
The dramatic rise in global interest rates in the 1980s massively increased the cost of servicing debts. A rapid devaluation of the national currency can dramatically raise the costs of servicing debts because debt has to be repaid in a foreign currency and devaluation results in foreign currencies becoming more expensive to buy relative to the national currency.
Domestic debt
I
High domestic interest rates make domestic borrowing more expensive and existing debt servicing more costly. Slower rates of growth mean that domestic tax receipts will also grow slowly, making it difficult to repay debts.
e) High levels of debt can crowd out developmental spending because an increasingly large share of the national budget will go toward debt servicing in the form of interest payments, crowding out other areas of government spending. f) The principle gender equality implication is that cutbacks to government spending necessitated by high debt servicing costs can have a disproportionately negative effect on women, in that unpaid care work, informal paid employment, or both, may increase in an attempt to compensate for cuts in social provisioning. In this way, cuts in government spending can act as an intensifier of gender inequality. g) Given the constraints on total public resources, the prioritization of spending within the budget becomes particularly important in ensuring more equitable outcomes, as discussed in Module 12 on public finance and gender-responsive budgeting.
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V. MONETARY POLICY IN AFRICA: A GENDER EQUALITY APPROACH

Objective: to enable participants to unpack the gender implications of monetary policy.
A. THE CONDUCT OF MONETARY POLICY IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

a) Monetary policy influences the money supply, the supply of credit and interest rates through interventions into money and financial markets. b) Monetary policy is conducted by central banks, which are often independent statutory bodies. c) Central banks conduct monetary policy by targeting the growth rate of the money supply to try to reach an inflation target. d) So monetary policy is a demand-management tool, influencing the rate of inflation. Tighter control over the money supply reduces the ability of households and firms to express demand in the economy, leading to cuts in consumption and investment, and thus the rate of domestic absorption, which theoretically should help reduce inflation. e) But as noted in Module 7, monetary policies affect the real economy by influencing interest rates and, through interest rates, the level of consumption and investment demand as well as economic growth and employment. Central banks place little substantive emphasis on the effects of monetary policy on the real economy. f) Countries with a currency union have a unified monetary policy. This is important within the francophone West African
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Communaut Financire Community, or CFA zone.
Africainethe
African
Financial
B. WHAT ARE THE MAIN TOOLS OF MONETARY POLICY IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES?

African countries have a number of monetary tools available to them. a) The money supply and high-powered money:
I
Money is anything that is widely accepted in exchange for goods or settling debts, not because of its intrinsic worth but because it can be passed on. In this sense, then, money is a means of payment that acts as a medium of exchange. Money also acts as a store of value if it is accepted as a means of payment. The money supply is the amount of money in an economy; but there are various definitions of what constitutes a means of payment that acts as a medium of exchange. Money is created by financial institutions in an economy. In most instances in Africa this is overseen by the central bank, which has the exclusive right to print notes and coins, but this is only one component of money. High-powered money, also called M1, is equal to currency in circulation plus reserves held in the banking system. Central banks can directly influence the growth of M1 through their policies. For example, the buying and selling of government bonds changes the level of reserves held in the banking system and thus alters the amount of high-powered money. Theoretically, the growth of high-powered money affects the overall money supply, including any financial assets held in financial institutions that can be used for exchange purposes. However, in reality, the relation between high-powered money and the broader money supply can be weaker.
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b) Targeting interest rates:

I
Some central banks do not target the money supply in their efforts to control monetary policy, but instead target short-term interest rates. Central banks can do this because they act as lenders of last resort for other institutions in the financial system that want to borrow money for short periods. So the interest rates charged by central banks shape interest rates throughout the financial system. For example, the South Africa Reserve Bank targets a short-term interest rate called the repo rate.
c) Other monetary tools:

I
In the past, monetary policy was often conducted using direct controls. For example, through the central banks, governments instituted limits on the interest rates that could be charged or ceilings on the amount of credit that could be extended. Development financial institutions often channelled credit to certain activities (e.g., agriculture). In the past, central banks often directly funded government spending. This often introduced a risk of high rates of inflation and macroeconomic instability.
d) The CFA countries :

I
These countries share a common currencythe CFA francand have a more or less unified approach to monetary policy. Two central banks manage monetary policy in the CFA franc zone: the Banque Centrale des Etats de LAfrique de LOuest (BCEAO) and the Banque des Etats de lAfrique Centrale (BEAC). The CFA franc stands for the franc de la Communaut Financire dAfrique for BCEAO member States and franc de la Coopration Financire en Afrique Centrale for the BEAC area.
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The CFA franc is pegged to the euro, just as it was previously pegged to the euros predecessor, the French franc. As the CFA countries thus have to maintain a fixed exchange rate to the euro, the monetary policy tools at their disposal are limited. For example, CFA countries have less discretion over interest rates, as the level of the interest rate, and thus the price of money, affects the value of the CFA franc relative to the euro. The central banks that manage monetary policy in the CFA zone have periodically adjusted the value of the CFA franc. For example, the CFA franc was devalued in 1994 to address economic imbalances in the region.
C. MONETARY POLICY IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

I
A large number of African countries target the growth rate of the money supply rather than interest rates, due to the stipulations of typical IMF conditions placed on African governments. Monetary policy in Africa can also target limits on the growth rate of domestic credit by the financial system, as well as inflation targets. The CFA countries must use monetary policy to stabilize the exchange rate of the CFA franc, which also helps to control inflation because the price of imported goods is less volatile. However, a fixed CFA franc exchange rate can lower the price of imports and harm domestic production and employment if the CFA franc exchange rate is significantly higher than that which would be achieved in a free market, in which circumstances the currency is overvalued. An overvalued currency also makes the CFA countries less competitive in international trade because the price of exports rise relative to the export prices of competitors with more favourable exchange rates.
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D. INFLATION DYNAMICS AND INFLATION TARGETS: IMPLICATIONS FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to understand inflation dynamics and inflation targets in Africa.
Initiate a discussion on inflation targeting by asking the participants if their country has adopted an inflation target and, if so, what it is. List the range of inflation targets on a flipchart. Ask how many have been successful in meeting the inflation target. Ask why or why not. For participants from CFA countries the discussion can be framed slightly differently. Ask these participants to list the factors influencing inflation in their countries (e.g., food and fuel prices). Has the central bank effectively controlled these pressures through the CFA monetary policy? Why or why not? In plenary, facilitators should raise the following points: a) A universal goal of monetary policy is to control inflation and all PRSPs include a section on macroeconomic policies in which the objective of monetary policy is to control inflation. b) What causes inflation in African countries?
I
A very common cause of inflation is price shocks, in which prices rapidly increaseparticularly in terms of food and fuel. This is supply-side inflation, and it originates in the real economy However, not all inflation is due to supply-side shocks in the real economy. There are clear examples in which inflationary pressures are monetary in origin. The recent hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe is a clear example: Excessive growth of the money supply to finance government spending led to inflation.
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c) To control inflation, PRSPs often propose a specific inflation target. In African countries, a target of 5 percent or lower inflation is common. A few countries, such as Ghana and South Africa, have adopted formal inflation targeting that operates outside the PRSP process. d) Under inflation targeting, the central bank publicly announces a formal target, after which the government is supposed to hold central bankers to account in achieving that target. The argument for inflation targeting is that it provides greater policy transparency and so better informs the inflationary expectations of households and firms. e) However, for CFA countries, an explicit inflation target may not be included in a national PRSP because regional central banks determine monetary policy. f ) There is evidence that very high rates of inflation create macroeconomic instability and slow growth. However, there is no clear evidence that maintaining very low rates of inflation will help growth and employment. This is an area of ongoing debate, as the costs of keeping inflation very low may very well exceed the benefits. Recently, the IMF has accepted that its previous inflation targets may have been too stringent. g) Moreover, using monetary policy tools, which are demand-side policies, to counter supply-side inflation caused by price shocks can worsen the situation. This is because while a supply-side shock negatively affects the real economy, restricting demand through monetary policy can reinforce or exacerbate the negative effect of the supply-side shock. h) For these reasons, African countries may have a pro-cyclical bias to their monetary policy in the face of externally generated supply-side price shocks. This means that when a country under a PRSP policy regime that seeks to target inflation experiences an externally generated supply-side shock, monetary policy is tightened to cut demand, worsening the effect of the shock.
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i)
In the CFA countries, exchange rate policy is used to control inflation. However, this may have limited effect in containing external supplyside price shocks. When exchange rates cannot adjust (because they are fixed) to higher domestic prices, this can encourage more imports and fewer exports, slowing down growth. In this sense, monetary policy in CFA countries may also be pro-cyclical, with monetary policy not responding to counter negative supply-side shocks. A gender analysis of monetary policy:
I
j)
As just noted, the effectiveness of monetary policy in controlling inflation at economically and socially acceptable levels depends on whether inflation is a consequence of supply-side shocks in the real economy or demand-side expansion. If monetary policy compresses domestic demand, a consequence will be a squeeze on household resources that is disproportionately borne by lower-income households. Monetary policy that results in high rates of inflation can have similar effects, as high rates of inflation reduce the real value of household incomes and thus compress demand. The result in either case may be: a) Increased reliance on womens unpaid care work to partially offset cuts in consumption. b) Increased reliance on womens participation in paid labour to partially offset cuts in incomes. c) Increased reliance on both womens unpaid care work and paid labour. Under these circumstances, policies that reduce inflation will be beneficial in reducing womens labour.
Research has suggested that when restrictive monetary policy is used to lower inflation, it has negatively affected paid employment. Womens paid employment tends to fall faster than mens in these conditions because of gender biases in the
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segmented labour markets, which results in women being dismissed from paid employment before men.
I
If monetary policy lowers the rate of growth of domestic demand, it can negatively affect earnings because of the contraction of paid employment. Womens earnings tend to fall faster than mens in these conditions because gender biases in the segmented labour markets discussed in Module 5 result in more rapid employment losses by women. Fewer paid employment opportunities and lower earnings for women reduce womens independence and economic choices. This may reinforce unequal gender dynamics in households and communities in Africa by sustaining the unequal distribution of resources within households between women and men, which can affect and be affected by the unequal distribution of unpaid care work.
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VI. EXCHANGE RATE POLICIES: A FEW ISSUES

Objective: to facilitate the capacity of participants to unpack the gender dimensions of exchange rate policy.
A. TYPES OF EXCHANGE RATE REGIMES IN AFRICA

In introducing the different approaches to monetary policy available to the CFA countries compared to other countries in Africa, it is necessary to discuss the implications of different exchange rate regimes. There are three generic exchange rate regimes available to countries: a) Floating exchange rates are largely market determined because there is no intervention into foreign exchange markets on the part of the central bank. In theory, the exchange rate of a currency is determined through the interaction of supply and demand for that currency, as in any other market. b) Fixed exchange rates see the nominal exchange rate fixed relative to a major international currency, which in turn requires central bank intervention to maintain the fixed rate. In Africa, the largest fixed exchange rate bloc is the CFA zone. c) Managed exchange rates are a combination of market-determined exchange rates along with occasional intervention by the central bank. Managed exchange rates are often pegged to a major international currency, such as the euro or the dollar, which means that the central bank has a target exchange rate for the national currency in terms of a major international currency.
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B. EXCHANGE RATE ISSUES IN AFRICA

a) In recent years in Africa, outside the CFA countries, there has been a strong tendency to move toward more freely floating exchange rate regimes as a consequence of the conditions imposed in structural adjustment. b) Fixed exchange rates bring some stability to the macroeconomy by providing certainty regarding the value of the national currency. However, a fixed regime:
I
Cannot adjust to global changes in supply and demand, which has implications for domestic production and international competitiveness. Can become fixed at the wrong valuethat is, so far removed from a possible market rate and current market conditions as to adversely affect the economy. In particular, overvalued exchange rates encourage high levels of imports, harm exports, and can slow economic growth.
c) Floating exchange rates bring both flexibility and the possibility of volatility.
I
In their flexibility, floating exchange rates confer greater scope for a country to adjust to changing global supply and demand conditions, though overly rapid exchange rate adjustments can be destabilizing. International financial flows of remittances, short-term capital inflows and outflows, and the unrecorded movement of finance across borders influence a floating exchange rate and can make it more volatile, suggesting that market-determined exchange rates may not tend toward an equilibrium value that reflects conditions in the real economy. Moreover, while a high level of inflows may lead to an overvaluation of the exchange rate, a rapid reversal can trigger an economic crisis.
d) Managed exchange rates retain some flexibility, but also leave room for policy interventions when needed. In practice, outside of the CFA
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countries, most countries in Africa practice a form of managed exchange rate because it increases the scope for macroeconomic management.
C. THE EFFECTS OF EXCHANGE RATES FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

a) The effects of exchange rates on the economic positions of women and men depend on the structure of the economy and households.
I
For example, in Mauritius and other countries, women have been employed in low-wage export-oriented manufacturing. An overvalued exchange rate hurts these employment opportunities, while a competitive exchange rate supports womens waged employment. Similar patterns may hold true for a number of African countries with labour-intensive export sectors dominated by women workers (e.g., horticultural exports in Kenya). However, in many countries, womens employment is concentrated in forms of self-employment in which they provide services to the domestic market (e.g., informal non-agricultural service employment, such as street trade). Many of these services can be considered to be non-tradable, in the sense that the services themselves are not traded on global markets. A stronger exchange rate favours non-tradable activities over tradable ones and may support these forms of employment. In addition, for street traders that sell imported goods, a stronger exchange rate lowers the domestic costs of the imported goods that they eventually resell on the local market. The effect of exchange rates on informal employment is an area for future research. Women employed in small-scale agricultural activities can see their livelihood undermined if an overvalued exchange rate results in the import of relatively inexpensive agricultural goods from other countries that competes with local agricultural production. For example, rice production in many West African countries must compete with inexpensive imports from Asia. In these cases a more competitive (i.e., devalued) exchange rate may be more desirable.
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For households, a strong exchange rate makes some imported goods cheaper and can help support living standards. However, if wealthier households consume imported goods disproportionately, these benefits will not be equally distributed. Moreover, the benefit to households of higher living standards arising from a strong exchange rate may be more than offset if a strong exchange rate undermines the domestic production of import-competing goods and services, because a lack of price competitiveness in local production results in an erosion of employment opportunities and earnings. This has genderdifferentiated effects. Nonetheless, the compression of domestic demand squeezes household resources, and households with lower incomes disproportionately so. As above, the result may be: a) Increased reliance on womens unpaid care work to partially offset cuts in consumption. b) Increased reliance on womens participation in low-paid labour to partially offset cuts in incomes. c) Increased reliance on both womens unpaid care work and low-paid labour. b) Clearly the effects of exchange rate policy will vary across countries, economic activities and different groups of working women and men within a particular country. Nevertheless, a gender analysis of the effects of exchange rate policies must inform policy formulation.
EXERCISE 3
Objective: to consider ways to render macroeconomic policies more gender equitable.
Divide the participants into small groups (three to four people per group). It is acceptable for participants from the same country to be in the same group. The groups should be asked to use their existing knowledge of their own countries and the macroeconomic policies
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being pursued to evaluate the gender equality implications of current macroeconomic development policy. Groups can use the chapters from PRSPs used in Exercise 1 if they wish. The groups should: 1. Discuss the different effects current macroeconomic policies have on women and men and identify potential sources of gender bias. To the greatest extent possible, frame the discussion within the context of existing PRSPs. Groups should pay particular attention to:
I I I
Fiscal policy. Monetary policy. Exchange rate policy.
and their effect on:

I I
Unpaid care work. Employment.
2. After discussing current policies, develop five recommendations for making macroeconomic policies more gender responsive. 3. Discuss what changes would be needed in the way in which macroeconomic policies are currently being conducted to introduce the five recommendations. 4. What indicators could be used to judge macroeconomic policies in terms of their effects on gender equality? Allow the groups an hour to develop their recommendations in some detail. Have the groups report back in plenary. The facilitator should list the recommendations on a flipchart. Once the full set of recommendations has been compiled, the participants should respond to the ideas generated. The facilitator should focus discussion on two areas: 1. Which ideas are most promising? 2. Which ideas would be most difficult to implement?
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READINGS
Braunstein, E. and J. Heintz. 2008. Gender Bias and Central Bank Policy: Employment and Inflation Reduction. International Review of Applied Economics 22, no. 2: 173186. Elson, D. 2002. International Financial Architecture: A View From the Kitchen. Femina Politica 11, no. 1: 26-37. Elson, D. and N. Cagatay. 2000. The Social Content of Macroeconomics. World Development 28, no. 7: 13471364. Epstein, G. and E. Yeldan. 2008. Inflation Targeting, Employment Creation and Economic Development: Assessing the Impacts and Policy Alternatives. International Review of Applied Economics 22, no. 2: 131144. Fontana, M. and A. Wood. 2000. Modelling the Effects of Trade on Women, at Work and at Home. World Development 28, no. 7: 11731190. Giovanni, A.C., R. Jolly and F. Stewart, eds. 1987. Adjustment with a Human Face: Protecting the Vulnerable and Promoting Growth. Oxford: Oxford University Press and United Nations Childrens Fund. Grown, C. and I. Valodia. 2009. Taxation and Gender Equity. London: Routledge. Ndikumana, L. and J. Boyce. 2003. Public Debts and Private Assets: Explaining Capital Flight from Sub-Saharan African Countries. World Development 31, no. 1: 107130.
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CONTACT
IDEP
10
GENDER AND TRADE
INTRODUCTION
This module analyzes gender and trade, focusing on linkages with development policies and welfare at the micro, meso, macro and international levels. It first examines some key concepts in trade theory from a gender perspective, demonstrating that trade, like macroeconomic policy, is gender blind, not gender neutral. Second, the module discusses the implications of introducing a gender perspective for understanding processes of trade and economic growth, examining gender value-chain analysis to understand the interaction of gender and trade. Third, the module critiques trade liberalization from a gender perspective, including case studies. This leads into a discussion of the gender dimensions and policy implications of major trade-related policies and agreements in Africa, including those of the World Trade Organization, economic partnership agreements, and bilateral and regional trade agreements.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will be able to understand: 1. The linkages between gender, trade and other macroeconomic policies. 2. The two-way interactive relation between trade and gender relations. 3. How the two-way relation between trade and gender influences gender equality, trade and development outcomes.
OUTLINE
I. The economics of gender equality and trade. A. Comparative advantage. B. Why gender equality matters for trade. II. Gender, trade and growth. III. Gender and value chains. IV. International trade, development and trade liberalization. V. Gender equality effects of trade liberalization. A. Macroeconomic impacts. B. Mesoeconomic impacts. C. Microeconomic impacts.
D. Gender equality and international trade in development policies. VI. The multilateral trading system (MTS). A. Trade liberalization and the institutions of the MTS. B. Gender equality and the MTS. C. Gender effects and implications of regional and bilateral trade agreements.
DURATION
1 days
Since most participants are not likely to have a strong background in trade policy, the presentation and discussion of the material should be emphasized.
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I. THE ECONOMICS OF GENDER EQUALITY AND TRADE

Objective: to equip participants to understand the role of gender equality in trade.
A. COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE
a) Trade is the exchange of goods and services between individuals or groups either directly through barter or indirectly through the medium of money. Without trade, individuals or groups would have to meet all their needs from their own resources. Voluntary trade allows a division of labour among producers undertaking specialized activities. When producers specialize in an activity at which they are particularly efficient, they are more productive, increasing the volume of goods and services that they produce. In the aggregate, this broadens the range of goods and services available for consumption, meaning that all participants in trade benefit by being able to consume a greater amount and variety of goods than would have been the case without trade. As the welfare of individuals or groups is enhanced, trade is socially beneficial. b) When individuals or groups can produce goods and services more cheaply than their potential trading partners, they are said to possess an absolute advantage. c) Module 1, on gender and economics, introduced opportunity cost as the value assigned to an activity based on the most valuable possible action foregone by undertaking the activity. For example, when labour time is used for unpaid care work, the opportunity cost of that unpaid care work is the wages that the worker could have earned in the highest-paying job for which they are qualified.
d) Opportunity costs for activities differ across individuals and groups according to their material and non-material endowments, which are a consequence of individuals and groups historical, social, technological and physical circumstances. e) When individuals or groups can produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than another party, they are said to possess a comparative advantage. Comparative advantage is the reason why specialization and trade is socially beneficial: Individuals and groups can produce a good or service with the highest relative efficiency, and hence, lowest relative costs, given all the other goods and services that could be produced. Such specialization and voluntary trade can generate benefits for both parties even when one can produce all goods with fewer resources than the other. The net benefits of such an outcome are called the gains from trade. f ) In economic theory, comparative advantage is argued to hold from individuals, households and firms to communities and countries, and thus, is the basis of all trade and market operations. g) The orthodox economic explanation of the gender division of labour, as developed by new household economics, is that males have a comparative advantage in paid employment and women have a comparative advantage in unpaid care work. This is because of labour market segmentation and socially constructed and gender-based discrimination. Thus, the opportunity costs of women and men are, in part, historically and socially determined. Such discrimination is economically inefficient and therefore should diminish over time. h) In theory, trade can bring benefits in terms of economic growth; it also affects individuals through its effects on prices, employment, production and expenditure for social protection. The effects on different individuals and groups vary due to their different positions in the economic system, which arise not only from different national contexts, but also from social and cultural factors, such as gender, class, ethnicity or geographical location.
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Household structures are key to mediating the effect of trade on individuals. Intra-household differences in the allocation of assets, incomes and time affect the abilities of individual women and men to engage in trade as well as enjoy the benefits that can arise from it.
B. WHY GENDER EQUALITY MATTERS FOR TRADE

a) Women play many key roles in trade, as producers, paid or unpaid workers, entrepreneurs and consumers. They also reproduce and care for the labour force. Assuming, as conventional economics has, that gender equality does not matter for trade both undervalues womens economic contributions and obscures women as economic actors. b) A gender analysis of trade accounts for differences in the gender roles assigned to women and men in societies. As discussed in previous modules, women and men have different responsibilities for unpaid care work and paid employment, have different access to productive resources, such as land, credit, technology and information, and face different constraints in institutionssuch as households, markets and governmentthat have gender relations embedded within them. So gender equality, or a lack of gender equality, matters for trade. c) In addition, gender analysis of trade stresses the differentiated effects of trade on women and men in part because of the different constraints created by the prevailing structure of gender relations. It seeks to understand the effect of the gender division of labour on the types of work women undertake in the formal and informal sectors, women's incomes, womens empowerment, and their wellbeing. It also looks at the potential effects of trade intensification and expansion on womens unpaid care work. So trade matters for gender equality, or a lack of gender equality. Comparative advantage and the benefits from specialization require, as a precondition, allocations
of unpaid care work to create a productive labour force. The benefits of gains from trade require that unpaid care work transforms some goods and services into items that individuals can actually consume. So at the societal level, unpaid care work is a public good, invisibly subsidizing the building of comparative advantage and the welfare benefits that it conveys. Gender equality more broadly shape the ability of individuals, households, firms, communities and countries to take advantage of the benefits from trade. d) As unpaid care work enables firms and countries to avoid paying for the full costs of reproducing labour, the role of relative costs in determining trade patterns may be less significant than absolute costs: Firms with lower unit costs of production, derived from real wages that reflect the effect of gender on employment and labour markets, as discussed in Module 5, as well as technology that is not gender neutral, can take a greater market share than firms with higher costs of production, within and between communities and countries. This suggests that a significant factor in a competitive absolute cost advantage accruing to firms, communities and countries is the allocation of unpaid care work on the basis of prevailing gender regimes. e) So gender analysis of trade is predicated on the central role of womens unpaid care work in underpinning trade. This, in turn requires an understanding of the pre-existing gender dimensions of household structures and market dynamics, as well as the broader social, cultural and political environments of specific countries. f ) Gender analysis of trade is more likely to rely on competitive absolute advantage than comparative advantage as a concept to understand trade patterns. There is significant empirical support for the proposition that competitive absolute advantage better explains actual trade patterns than does comparative advantage.
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II. GENDER, TRADE AND GROWTH

Objective: to critically evaluate the relation between gender relations, trade and economic growth.
a) Most economists who examine the relation between gender, trade and growth focus on trade outcomes, suggesting, for example, that market deregulation can increase the use of markets, expand trade and generate employment that benefits women. Gender-aware economists examine the relation between gender, trade and growth in a more complex and nuanced way, considering the outcomes of trade as well as the link between production and unpaid care work. As modules 1 and 3 infer, this opens up a range of issues affecting trade outcomes and economic growth because of the positive externalities generated by the provision of unpaid care work. b) A range of studies suggests that gender inequality directly and indirectly limits economic growth and womens participation in trade. The relation between gender equality, trade and economic growth is due largely to three major gender differences:
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Access to assets (e.g., land, finance), which limit womens investment options, restricting trade opportunities and economic growth. Labour remuneration, which affects the allocation of labour inside and outside the household, and hence, trade opportunities and economic growth. Investment in human capital, which reduces productivity, limits economic efficiency and restricts trade and economic growth.
According to some estimates, gender inequality may account for between 15 and 20 percent of the difference in the growth performances of sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia.
c) On the other hand, some studies point out that gender inequality in wages can stimulate growth in semi-industrialized economies (e.g., Mauritius). In these cases, the pressure for flexible prices to foster competitive absolute advantage leads to an increase in employment for women; womens wages are lower than mens because they have less bargaining power and other gender-based disadvantages in the labour market. The empirical evidence indicates similar trends in the export processing zones of African countries.
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III. GENDER AND VALUE CHAINS

Objective: to introduce value chain analysis as a tool in the gender analysis and evaluation of trade policy.
a) Value chain analysis decomposes the chain of activities involved in producing a good or service for final consumption. Products pass through all activities of the chain in a certain order; at each activity the product gains value. So the chain of activities adds value to the product. b) Originally developed in 1985 for business management, value chain analysis was initially confined to the business unit. Since then it has been extended beyond individual firms to examine the dynamics of supply chains and distribution networks, as the delivery of goods and services to the final customer often requires the mobilization and integration of different firms, each producing a particular good or service, which can then be combined with the goods and services that other firms produce to create a final product for consumption. Value chain analysis thus examines the linkages within production that add value to a final product, seeing how each firm in the chain manages its own value added. The industry-wide synchronized interactions of local and individual value chains create an extended value chain, which, since the increase of globalization in the 1990s, has increasingly become global in extent. c) Trade is involved whenever products move through a link in a value chain. In this way, value chain analysis, in part, examines a sequence of trades between users of products seeking to add value to the product. Value chain analysis is now widely used in private and public policy circles to understand how strategic interventions in the chain can boost competitiveness by reducing costs and thereby increasing value added.
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d) Value chain analysis has clear gender dimensions because of the asymmetrical position of women and men in the production of goods and services resulting from the intra-household distribution of assets, income and time. Box 1 gives an example of both the more general issue of value chains in Africa, as well as the more specific issue of the relevance of gender as an analytical category in understanding the implications of the trading that takes place within a value chain.
BOX 1: VALUE CHAINS IN AFRICA

In Mozambique, most cashew nuts, the countrys main export product, are shipped to India for processing by eight or ten traders who control the export market. These traders retain most of the profits even when prices increase in international markets. Owing to the establishment of two factories in Mozambique to process cashew nuts, the marketing chain has been shortened, thereby allowing producers and processing workers to get greater returns (Kanji, Vijfhuizen, Braga and Artur 2004). In West Africa, there is a growing and profitable market for processed shea nut butter in Europe, North America and Japan for use in cosmetics and chocolate manufacture, with a consequent rise in the final price in northern markets. But the women who collect shea nuts are often totally unaware of this trend and continue to sell to middlemen, who then supply the more profitable global markets as well as domestic and regional markets. The women are integrated into global value chains without any knowledge of these chains or their position and rights within them, and without any means of exploiting more profitable markets to their own advantage (Chen, Vanek and Carr 2004). In Ghana UNDP is seeking to address these constraints by developing women's production skills, business management and marketing strategies in the shea nut butter chain (UNDP 2008).
Source: Randriamaro (2006).
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e) As value chain analysis has clear gender dimensions, policy makers can use gender value chain analysis (GVCA) to understand womens and mens economic situation and empowerment needs, tracing financial profits and social benefits throughout the trade relations embedded within a value chain. GVCA can also help in understanding micro-, meso- and macro-level linkages, distinguishing among the constraints, needs and opportunities for independent producers, wage workers in the formal and informal sector, and other economic agents. Thus, GVCA can help to define appropriate strategies to strengthen local economies and maximise forward and backward linkages. Box 2 provides definitions and a description of the GVCA tool.
Box 2: Gender Value Chain Analysis

According to the International Labour Organization, a value chain is a sequence of target-oriented combinations of production factors such as land, capital, raw material, labour force, and information that create a marketable product of which the value is higher than the sum of all input costs (Mayoux and Mackie 2007). In other words, a value chain (VC) is a network that includes several stages at which different actors perform particular processes of production, value addition and marketing, resulting in a finished product that can be sold and bought. For example, a value chain for chocolate (Mayoux and Mackie 2007) involves cocoa and other raw materials; workers; technology (machines); knowledge and information about how to make chocolate and meet quality standards, as well as other market information; and infrastructure, such as trucks and ships. The conceptual framework of value chain analysis (VCA) maps and categorises economic processes, including the different stages and actors in the value chain, the relations between them, how and where value is added, and how the final market price is distributed through the chain. In the example of chocolate, a value chain
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analysis conducted in Madagascar has demonstrated that most of the value is added at levels outside the country, beyond the cocoa farmers and exporters .
WHY A GENDER VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS?

Gender value chain analysis seeks to address the gender dimensions of each stage in the value chain by focusing on how gender relations affect different parts of the chain. It allows mapping out the business procedures and the characteristics of the overall environment in which women and men operate, and hence, the determining factors of their respective positions in the chain. Thus, it helps to understand the nature and causes of variations in the forms of gender-based differences in economic production processes. Subsequently, it allows identifying challenges and opportunities, as well as leverage points for interventions to address gender discrimination and move poor women up in the chain. As such, a gender VCA can be used to understand why the potential benefits of trade fail to reach poor women. It can also help identify the reasons why it is more difficult for particular types of enterprise to enter certain economic sectors.
HOW TO DO A GENDER VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS

Following the definition of a value chain above, the basic step is to cut the chain as much as possible to identify the different stages between the producer and final consumer, that is, drawing a map of the value chain that shows the relations among all the stages and actors involved. Data for all the stages of the value chain should be collected to fill in the map by indicating, for example, where value is added, how many actors are involved in the different stages and how much they earn. A gender VCA asks specific questions about gender relations, gender equality strategies and the position of women and men in each stage
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of the value chain, with the ultimate objective of answering the following central questions in gender analysis:
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What is the burden of productive and unpaid care work for women and men in the value chain? Do women and men have the required resources? What is lacking? Why? What are the material/tangible rewards and costs for women and men in the value chain? What are the intangible rewards and costs for women and men in the value chain? What are the prospects for progressive change for women and men in the value chain? To what extent do women and men define the priorities and rules governing the value chain? How do the positions of women and women in the value chain compare with their positions in other sectors in the country? Or, How do the positions of women and men compare with their positions in the value chain in other countries competing for the same markets?
Adapted from Mayoux and Mackie (2007).
f ) In formulating trade policy around global value chains, it is useful to identify gender-based constraints to trade and the implications of gender-based constraints for the success or failure of policy. g) Gender-based constraints to trade can be:
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Supply side (border-in issues): limits on womens capacity to take advantage of trade opportunities because of their unpaid care work responsibilities, a lack of investment in human capital, or a lack of competitiveness arising out of the character of the specific productive activities that women undertake.
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Operational (border issues): limits on womens capacity to take advantage of trade opportunities because of a lack of adequate infrastructure to get products to markets, a lack of human capital that precludes dealing with trade facilitation issues, as well as a lack of income that prevents the formalization of informal activities. Demand side (border-out issues): limits on womens capacity to take advantage of trade opportunities because of gender bias in market access and market support services offered by the private and public sectors.
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IV. INTERNATIONAL TRADE, DEVELOPMENT AND TRADE LIBERALIZATION

Objective: to discuss the relation between international trade, trade liberalization and development.
a) The trade relations embedded within value chains increasingly take place across national frontiers. b) In theory, international trade can bring benefits in economic growth, through the more economically efficient allocation of resources in the world economy resulting from specialization and comparative advantage, and because of the expansion of domestic production arising from specialization, which should increase employment opportunities and earned income. Moreover, as discussed in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomic theory, the import of investment goods can generate significant multiplier-accelerator effects. International trade can also improve gender equality through the expanded opportunities and welfare gains it can generate for women. c) International trade involves not only nation-states, but also a whole range of actors: from companies, trade negotiators, business owners, importers, exporters and consumers, to institutions and trade promotion organizations, such as chambers of commerce, to producers, who can be self-employed, paid or unpaid workers in the formal and informal sectors. These actors have different roles in international trade relations, different levels and types of power and influence over markets and governments, and consequently different amounts to lose and gain from international trade.
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INFORMAL CROSS BORDER TRADE

a) Extensive informal cross-border trade is commonly used in much of Africa to get around existing formal rules and procedures, even in countries that impose high restrictions on international trade. While informal cross-border trade may deal in basic necessities and everyday goods and services (i.e., staple foods, cigarettes, beer), usually in order to take advantage of price differentials between countries, in some instances informal cross-border trade also involves trading in more expensive consumer durables (i.e., household appliances, household electronics, cars). In these latter instances, informal cross-border trade may involve an element of criminality. b) A study for UNIFEM in southern Africa estimated that informal crossborder trade accounted for between 30 and 40 percent of trade within the Southern African Development Community in 2008 and that 70 percent of the informal cross-border traders were women (UNIFEM 2009). These women and men undertook informal crossborder trade as a survival strategy, and as such, the trade contributed to poverty reduction, employment and wealth creation. c) Informal cross-border trade has been demonstrated to be subject to gender-specific effects. Such trade performed by women can result in womens increased exposure to gender-based harassment and violence from male traders, government officials and male relatives attempting to control the income that flows from the trade.
TRADE LIBERALIZATION
a) International trade liberalization opens an economy and thus promotes the freer movement of goods, services and capital across national borders through reducing both tariffs and non-tariff barriers to international trade. Trade liberalization has been an essential facilitator of the process of globalization discussed in Module 9 on gender and development strategies in Africa. At the same time, where women dominate informal cross-border trade,
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trade liberalization, by promoting the easier movement of goods and services, can contribute to a reduction in the gender-based violence that can surround such trade. b) International trade liberalization was a key element of the macroeconomic reforms promulgated under structural adjustment and continued under poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), including second-generation Millennium Development Goals (MDG)based PRSPs, discussed in Module 9. c) Some African countries have unilaterally liberalized trade by cutting tariffs or eliminating import quotas. As noted in Module 9, these indirect trade taxes provide important fiscal space for national governments, and the resulting financial pressures resulting from unilateral liberalization weakened the autonomous policy space for African debtor countries. d) In the early trade literature, the prevailing view assumed that international trade liberalization was the key to ensuring the economic growth and development of poor countries, as enhanced specialization allowed countries to reap gains from trade based on comparative advantage. However, academic and policy circles now dispute the relation between the openness of an economy and its economic growth. While some research finds a positive relation between openness and economic growth, other findings point to a negative or unclear relation. e) The evidence from almost three decades of international trade liberalization in African countries as a result of structural adjustment and PRSPs shows that trade liberalization fosters economic growth only: (i) To the extent that trade outcomes are influenced by appropriate regulations and policies. (ii) If trade liberalization is well managed and allows sufficient time and policy space for African countries to build up their productive capacities so as to benefit from international trade opportunities. In any event, in most cases in Africa, rapid international trade liberalization has resulted in increased income inequality.
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f) International trade also has strong redistributive effects among economic sectors, leading to the expansion of some economic sectors and the contraction of others. This redistributive effect helps explain the relation between trade liberalization and increased income inequality. In some cases trade liberalization is associated with rising employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for women. More commonly, trade liberalization and trade intensification had exacerbated existing gender inequalities and worsened womens economic and social status. g) International trade is also linked to investment capability, as discussed in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomic theory, to fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies, as discussed in Module 9, and to financial policy, foreign aid and debt. All these policies shape the economic conditions that influence how the opportunities from international trade are transmitted to different groups in the economy. h) Cumulatively, these points strongly suggest the need to ensure that national PRSPs account for the effect of international trade policy.
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to review the interaction of gender relations and international trade.
Facilitate a 20-minute discussion in plenary on gender equality and trade, addressing the following questions: 1. What role does womens labour play in the functioning of the international trade system? 2. Does gender inequality contribute to export-led growth and international trade competitiveness in African countries? If so, how? 3. Does international trade increase or decrease gender inequality? Many of the issues raised in the discussion will be examined in more detail in the following section.
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V. GENDER EQUALITY EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE LIBERALIZATION

Objective: to develop an understanding of the multifaceted effect of international trade liberalization on gender relations.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to review the effect of trade liberalization on different types of economic agents.
Ask participants to form four groups of equal numbers. Each group represents one of the main categories of economic agents involved in trade (e.g., producer, consumer, business owner, small informal trader, artisanal manufacturer, agricultural processor) in a country to be chosen among their own countries by each group. Give the groups about 45 minutes to respond to the following questions:
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What are the main trade liberalization measures in your country? How do these measures affect the economic agent that you are representing? Would these effects be identical for women and men? Explain your answer. What are the gender equality effects that your economic agent is likely to experience through trade liberalization? What are the likely effects of the gender issues that you have identified on trade policy outcomes in your country? What are the possible policy actions to address these? What role do trade support institutions and trade promotion organizations play?
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During the reporting back on the results of the exercise in plenary, facilitators should fill in some of the gaps and address possible misunderstandings of the gender equality effects of trade liberalization. The remainder of this subsection provides the necessary information.
A. MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS
a) International trade liberalization has different outcomes for women and men, across countries and regions and contingent on the type of economic area and specific sector, measures, timing and sequencing of trade policies. They also cut across different sectors and subsectors of trade liberalization, and have distinct macro, meso and micro-level effects. b) At the macroeconomic, national policy level, proponents of international trade liberalization argue mainly that increased international trade and investment liberalization can improve economic growth, which in turn can increase womens participation in formal employment.
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This argument is true in some countries and subsectors (e.g., the textile and clothing industry in Madagascar at the end of the 1990s or the non-traditional agricultural exports subsector, as described in Box 3). However, in many contexts international trade liberalization is coupled with persistent occupational segregation by sex, both vertical and horizontal, as well as no significant reduction in the gender wage gaps discussed in Module 5. This is because womens participation increased in industries that required large numbers of low-cost wage workers to generate competitive absolute cost advantages, which depends on pre-existing inequalities between women and men reflected in the existing gender division of labour (e.g., textiles). Overall, international trade liberalization has resulted in increasing flexibility and deregulation of labour markets and casualization of work across regions as a result of the push for global com-
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petitiveness and technological innovation, as described in Box 4. Among global value chains, a disproportionate share of the value added is captured by firms based in developed countries.
Box 3: Non-Traditional Agricultural Exports in Sub-Saharan Africa

It is often argued that non-traditional agricultural exports (NTAEs) such as horticulture and organic farming, which generate significant revenues, can redress the bias against women in the agricultural sector. For example, while the lack of access to credit remains a major constraint for women who produce 80 percent of NTAEs in Uganda, most women entrepreneurs have been able to access credit and expand their businesses if they own land (Snyder 2003). In contrast to the prevailing view, a recent study underlines that in general, it is the male, better-off farmers with large-scale plantations, equipment and capital who have benefited from NTAEs in subSaharan Africa. The majority of women are involved in NTAEs as waged labour in large-scale enterprises, organized along quasiindustrial lines. Over 65 percent of workers in Kenya and Zambia are women, and women constitute 91 percent of horticultural employees in Zimbabwe. In smallholder farms, contracts often depend on the ability of male household heads to state that they can mobilize the labour of women and children in the family (Kabeer 2003). In reality, the production of NTAEs varies along the lines of many other forms of agricultural production, from small farms to large-scale commercial enterprises. Differences in gender roles and the gender inequalities that exist in production of commodities other than NTAEs also apply here. For example, Ugandan women involved in horticulture can have difficulties meeting EU environmental regulations because they have less access than men to the required information on organic farming, which is a growing segment of NTAEs in northern markets (Sengendo and Tumushabe 2003 cited in Randriamaro 2006).
Source: Randriamaro (2006).
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Box 4: South Africas Informal Sector

The liberalization of tariffs in the South African footwear and leather subsectors, from 41.2 percent in 1995 to 28.9 percent in 1999, has led to retrenchments and dramatic changes in production processes in local factories. In addition, there has been a direct relation between company restructuring in the footwear industry and the growth of the informal sector, which has become the last resort not only for the increasing number of retrenched workers, but also for factories that subcontract to the informal sector to cut labour costs. South Africas informal sector increased from 1,136,000 workers in 1997 to 1,907,000 in 1999. There were about 193,000 African women compared to 28,000 white women working in the informal sector. These figures show that it is the social groups with the least power and resources who are most highly represented in the informal sector.
Source: Pape (2001).
The gender dimensions of the effect of international trade liberalization on production is a consequence of The effects of increased imports on local production. The related effects on local economic sectors where women or men or both are concentrated, including the informal and export promotion sectors. The effects of export promotion on access to and use of land.
As already noted, trade liberalization reduces trade as a critical source of revenue for many African countries, which restricts their freedom to manoeuvre in the pursuit of individual national development strategies and their capacity to undertake public investment. As discussed in Module 9, fiscal issues may generate gender-specific effects through fiscal austerity packages that reduce social spending and increase non-trade indirect and regressive taxes.
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B. MESOECONOMIC IMPACTS
a) At the mesoeconomic level of institutions, international trade liberalization:
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Affects the legal and regulatory frameworks, which can affect gender equality. Affects labour market policy, including training and retraining. Has implications for labour rights and standards, mechanisms of social protection, as well as perceptions, norms and informal rules governing both gender relations and trade, which occurs in gender-embedded markets.
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C. MICROECONOMIC IMPACTS
a) At the microeconomic, community and household level, international trade liberalization affects:
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Gender equality through the price changes induced by trade liberalization and their effects on individual incomes and livelihoods as consumers, producers, workers and traders Womens unpaid care and non-care work resulting from: The additional caring responsibilities arising from a reduction in public social spending along with economic downturns in contracting productive sectors; and Juggling multiple roles and workloads.
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b) Conversely, increased unpaid care work also affects the outcome of international trade liberalization. It is likely to have contributed to the weak supply response of African agriculture to export opportunities in some countries, discussed in Box 5.
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BOX 5: GENDER IMPACTS OF SMALL FARM COMMERCIALIZATION IN NIGER

In 2001, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a project to study the effects of small farm commercialization (SFC) on gender relations at intra- and inter-household levels and how development projects are addressing them in 14 developing countries, including Niger. According to the survey informants, development of small farm commercialization is part of a more comprehensive change in rural livelihoods, which, in the majority of cases, includes off-farm activities and migration. This change affects all types of household capital assetsnatural, physical, financial, social and natural. In most cases, rural households bore significant economic and social costs to attain the benefits of SFC. In particular, the increased income made possible by commercialization required a parallel increase in household workload. This finding suggests that the effect of commercialization on rural household livelihoods is often ambivalent: It entails a gain of financial capital (e.g., income; purchasing power and capacity to pay) but also a loss of human capital (less time available for social activities, childcare, education, leisure and creative expression). There is a need to better understand and, if possible, quantify the economic and social values (costs and benefits) involved in the labour-for-money exchange that takes place in rural livelihood systems as a result of SFC. Although no significant gender difference seemed to exist in carrying the workload of commercialization, evidence suggests that women involved in SFC had a double economic disadvantage as compared to men. First, women continued to be fully responsible for reproductive work (i.e., pregnancies, childcare and
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housekeeping). Second, men controlled the income generated by SFC, even if women had invested an equal or higher amount of labour in its generation.
Adapted from Warren P. Distance Survey on Gender Impacts of Small Farm Commercialization, Final Report, FAOs Farm Management and Production Service (AGSP) and Gender and Development Service (SDWW), 2002, cited in UNCTAD (2004, 108109).
c) International trade liberalization affects intra-household relations in terms of access to and control over productive resources, the division of labour between unpaid care work and non-care work, gender roles and intra-household decision making.
D. GENDER AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

a) As there are clearly significant gender equality issues in international trade liberalization, Box 6 provides a number of generic policy actions that can be taken at the national level to address gender inequality issues in international trade.
BOX 6: GENERIC POLICY ACTIONS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL FOR ADDRESSING GENDER INEQUALITY IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE
The member states of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) convened a round table on trade and gender in June 2004 at the UNCTAD XI meeting in So Paulo. Round table participants recommended that the following types of domestic measures be taken to address gender inequality in the context of international trade:
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Improvements in womens and girls access to education and skills. Measures to reduce discrimination in labour markets. Access to export market information and credit (not just microcredit) for women entrepreneurs. Gender equality in rights to land and other productive resources. Reduction of violence against women, without which they cannot benefit from other rights. Support to women in their reproductive roles, for example in child-feeding programmes and crches. Mainstreaming, consistency and proactive implementation of gender equality policies throughout all government departments.
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Source: Fernandez-Layos and Specht (2004).
b) Civil society organizations can use a number of different tools outlined in UNCTAD (2004, Chapter 12) to forecast the possible differentiated social implications of trade policies and agreements on women and other disadvantaged groups, including potential negative effects. Such ex ante assessments allow time to make the policy adjustments required to address the identified issues. c) These gender equality and trade impact assessments allow a shift in the evaluation of trade policy from a purely efficiency-based technical exercise that focuses on growth, the costs of production and prices to a more qualitative evaluation of the human development, poverty and gender-equality dimensions of trade policy. They therefore can open space for poor women and men to engage in trade policy processes at the national level.
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EXERCISE 3
Objective: to review the integration of gender and international trade in PRSPs.
Ask participants in plenary to recall the PRSPs on which they worked in Module 9. Participants should then discuss, for a maximum of 15 minutes, whether and how gender equality and trade international issues are incorporated into the PRSPs. The key point for facilitators to highlight is that there has been no or very little integration of gender equality and international trade issues in those processes.
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VI. THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM

Objective: to critically understand the role of the multilateral trading system in trade liberalization.
A. TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM

a) International trade policy involves the formal rules and mechanisms that operate to regulate cross-border trade activities.
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At the national level, it is developed by government and intertwined with the domestic macroeconomic policies discussed in Module 7. At the international level, it is developed by multilateral institutions in agreement with the principal stakeholders, namely governments. These rules and mechanisms, multilateral institutions and governments comprise the multilateral trading system (MTS).
b) The modern management of trade through the MTS commenced in 1947 with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). When the GATT was signed in 1948 after a first round of trade negotiations, most African countries were not yet independent and were excluded from the decision-making process, even as they were bound by the commitments that colonizing countries made. Thus, from its inception, asymmetries within the MTS have hindered the effective and beneficial participation of African countries in international trade; as the major trading powers established the system, the application of the rules and principles of the GATTincluding the most favoured nation clause, reciprocity and the national treatment clausehas tended to favour the major trading powers. c) The GATT was an important institution in promoting the trade liberalization agenda, but so too were the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, the policy conditions of which, under structural
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adjustment in particular (discussed in Module 8 on gender and development strategies), provided loans for trade liberalization, export promotion, export-import insurance and credit, investment dispute resolution mechanisms, and research and analysis that supported liberalization. So the international financial institutions facilitated the coherence of trade liberalization policies. They continued to do so after the World Trade Organization (WTO) was founded in 1995. d) That developing countries might not immediately benefit from trade liberalization, and that they had been largely excluded from forming international trade policy in the MTS, was first recognized in 2001 when the Doha Development Round of WTO negotiations commenced. Since then, recognition has increased that international trade is not simply a neutral macroeconomic issue, but involves strategic development areas, such as agriculture, services, intellectual property rights and investment, as well as critical issues of employment, livelihoods, well-being and human rights. e) As a result, the development dimensions of the MTS and global trade rules have been a continuing source of disagreement between developed and developing countries. At the regional level, the development dimensions of the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) between African countries and the European Union highlight the continuing asymmetries in negotiating stances and negotiating leverage in the MTS, discussed later in this module.
B. GENDER EQUALITY AND THE MTS

a) The institutional framework of the MTS assumes that trade policies and agreements do not affect social inequalities. This underlying assumption has led to the neglect of gender as a variable in trade policy-making, while women and other groups affected by trade policies have been excluded from the decision-making processes at the multilateral, regional and national levels. b) Gender analysis of the MTS requires attention to be paid to the effect of trade policy on the distribution of time between women and men in unpaid care work and paid employment. One cannot assume a
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limitless supply of unpaid care work to produce the paid labour force that allows the development of comparative advantage. Nor can one assume that female labour is free to cease performing unpaid care work and take up the paid employment in specialized nonhousehold activities that generate the goods and services from which gains from trade might accrue. c) Gender analysis of the MTS also requires attention to the extent to which gender is integrated into its governance. There is evident gender imbalance between women and men in terms of:
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Agenda setting, concerning who defines the values, goals and objectives of the MTS, along with defining the substantive content and negotiating parameters and frameworks within the MTS. Rule making, concerning the basis and determination of the substantive content of the MTS, along with the formal and informal processes and procedures of participation. Enforcement, concerning the mechanisms and processes for assessing claims and counterclaims, along with arbitration procedures and the enforcement of judgements. Recognition and implementation of mechanisms for assessing and introducing corrective measures to address negative effects, identified deficiencies and structural imbalances in the MTS. Accountability, concerning the processes and mechanisms that are available to monitor and evaluate the effects of the implementation of trade rules on peoples lives and gender equality.
C. GENDER EFFECTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF REGIONAL AND BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS

a) Following the deadlock in WTO trade negotiations since the collapse of the WTO ministerial conference in Cancn in 2003, the big international trading powers (namely the European Union and United States, as well as China and India) have demonstrated an increased interest in negotiating bilateral and regional trade and investment agreements (BTAs and RTAs). In particular, the European Union has
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been intensifying the regionalization process that has culminated in the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries on the basis of reciprocal free trade agreements (FTAs), which strongly contrasts with previous agreements based on trade preferences (such as the Lom Convention). b) There are currently more than 2,500 BTAs and RTAs in force around the world. They are important to the functioning of the MTS and can influence both the nature and direction of the global trade and investment agenda. c) In many cases BTAs and RTAs include WTO-plus provisions that go beyond requirements in WTO agreements and rules. US bilateral FTAs contain trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS)-plus provisions on generic drugs. African countries have found that some issues on which they refused to negotiate in the WTO are now to be found in the EPAs.
EXERCISE 4
Objective: to understand different views within and about the MTS.
Distribute the papers by the International Gender and Trade NetworkAsia (2006) and by Caliari and Williams (2004) in advance of this exercise for all participants to read beforehand. Prepare a short description of a hypothetical (but typical) country for the exercise. Divide the participants into three groups of equal numbers. Explain that two of the groups should pretend they are from the hypothetical country during the exercise. Each group represents one key stakeholder in trade policy formulation and negotiations, and each stakeholder group is comprised of different individual stakeholders with their own specific concerns and interests: (i) The government (for example, the prime minister, the trade minister, the finance minister, and others). (ii) Foreign officials from the big trading powers (such as the United States trade representative and the European Union trade commissioner,
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among others) as well international officials (such as IMF senior economists and World Bank country representatives). (iii) Local producers, consumers and experts (farmers; female small traders; housewives; gender-aware economists; womens rights activist, and others). Give the groups 40 minutes to answer the following questions according to the roles assigned to their respective groups and to the individuals within each stakeholder group:
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What is your position on trade liberalization? What position would you like the government of your country to take in this regard? Why? What arguments can you make to support your position? Are there points of difference among the members of your group? What kind of incentives, threats or bargaining chips do you have at your disposal to convince the government to take this position? What is the most effective way for you to use them? If the government takes your position and acts according to your demands, what is likely to happen concretely? If it does not, what is likely to happen concretely?
Tell each group to prepare for members of their group to report back, which will take the form of a mock negotiation platform between different individual stakeholders given the assignment of convincing their opposite group of the incorrectness of their negotiating position (e.g., a farmer negotiating with a World Bank country representative; a trade minister negotiating with an EU trade representative; a genderaware economist negotiating with the minister of finance). Facilitators should carefully note key negotiating positions and synthesize the comments that participants make in their roles. Participants should fill in the gaps as necessary regarding the linkages between international trade, macroeconomic policies and gender, as well as the coherent trade liberalization agenda of the WTO, IMF and World Bank. Close the exercise with the points related to the asymmetrical negotiating position of debtor countries in the WTO and other trade negotiation arenas, as well as the shrinking policy space in which debtor countries can operate.
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READINGS
Caliari, A. and M. Williams. 2004. Capacity of International Financial Institutions to Supprt Trade Liberalization in Low-Income and Vulnerable Countries. Civil Society Briefing Paper for the 2004 Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting, London, 2629 July. Available at http://www.tradeobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=37027 (accessed 9 June 2010). Chen, M., J. Vanek and M. Carr. 2004. Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: A Handbook for Policymakers and Other Stakeholders. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Available at http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/173-6/#page_111 (accessed 9 June 2010). Elson, D., B. Evers and J. Gideon. 1997. Gender Aware Country Economic Reports: Concepts and Sources. GENECON Unit Working Paper no. 1, University of Manchester, Graduate School of Social Sciences. Fernandez-Layos, A.L. and B. Specht. 2004. UNCTAD XI: A Missed Opportunity? Available at http://www.globalizacija.com/doc_en/e0039raz.htm (accessed 9 June 2010). Gammage, S., H. Jorgensen and E. McGill. 2002. Framework for Gender Assessments of Trade and Investment Agreements. Washington, DC: Womens EDGE. International Gender and Trade Network-Asia. 2006. Trade-Finance Linkages and Gender: Implications to Asian Women. Available at http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0002554/Trade_Finance_Linkage s_Asian_women_2006.pdf (accessed 9 June 2010). Kabeer, N. 2003. Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals: A Handbook for Policymakers and Other Stakeholders. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Available at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28774-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining (accessed 9 June 2010).
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Kanji, N., C. Vijfhuizen, C. Braga and L. Artur. 2001. Cashing in on Cashew Nuts: Women Producers and Factory Workers in Mozambique. In Chains of Fortune: Linking Women Producers and Workers with Global Markets, ed. M. Carr. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Available at http://www.wiego.org/publications/Chains%20of%20Fortune%20Chap ters/Kanji%20Vijfhuizen%20Braga%20Artur%20Cashing%20in%20on% 20Cashew%20Nuts.pdf (accessed 9 June 2010). Khor, M. 2005. Serious Effects of Free Trade Treaties. Third World Network Features. Available at http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3312.html (accessed 9 June 2010). Klasen, S. 1999. Does Gender Inequality Reduce Growth and Development? Evidence from Crosscountry Regressions. Background Paper for Engendering Development, World Bank, Washington, DC. Mayoux, L. and Mackie, G. 2007. Making the Strongest Links: A Practical Guide to Mainstreaming Gender Analysis in Value Chain Development. Geneva: International Labour Organization. Available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/--emp_ent/documents/instructionalmaterial/wcms_106538.pdf (accessed 9 June 2010). Pape, J. 2001. Gender and Globalisation in South Africa: Some Preliminary Reflections on Working Women and Poverty. International Labour Resource and Information Group, Cape Town. Available at http://ilrigsa.org.za/index.php?option=com_rokdownloads&view=folde r&Itemid=71&limitstart=10 (accessed 9 June 2010). Randriamaro, Z. 2006. Gender and Trade, 2006: Overview Report. BRIDGE Cutting Edge Pack, Brighton: BRIDGE/Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and University of Sussex. Available at http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_CEP.html (accessed 9 June 2010). Rodrik, D. 2001. The Global Governance of Trade As If Development Really Mattered. Background Paper, United Nations Development Programme, New York. Available at http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/sites/default/files /529__Rodrik5.pdf (accessed 9 June 2010).
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Seguino, S. 2000. Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A CrossCountry Analysis. World Development 28, no. 7: 12111230. Snyder, M. 2003. Bridging the Research Gap: A Profile of Women Entrepreneurs in Uganda. Available at http://www.tradeforum.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/619 (accessed 9 June 2010). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2003. Making Global Trade Work for People. Available at http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/publications/ poverty-reduction/poverty-website/making-global-trade-work-forpeople.en (accessed 9 June 2010). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2008. Innovative Approaches to Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment. Available at http://www.undp.org/women/publications.shtml (accessed 9 June 2010). United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). 2009. Findings of the Baseline Studies on Women in Informal Cross Border Trade in Africa. Available at http://www.aprodev.net/trade/Files/EPAs/TN%20WICBT.pdf (accessed 9 June 2010). United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 2004. Trade and Gender: Opportunities and Challenges for Developing Countries. Vienna: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Available at http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid= 4822&intItemID=1397&lang=1 (accessed 9 June 2010). Williams, M. 2003. Gender Mainstreaming in the Multilateral Trading System: A Handbook for Policymakers and Other Stakeholders. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.
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CONTACT
IDEP
11
GENDER AND ACCESS TO FINANCE
INTRODUCTION
This module provides a brief overview of the role of finance in development from a gender perspective, laying the conceptual foundations that then permit an examination of microfinance as one of the main strategic tools used in Africa to promote poverty reduction and gender equality. The module introduces the theoretical, institutional and policy frameworks for the financial sector in Africa, and then the idea and practice of microfinance in particular, highlighting the consensus and contestations around its potential to reduce poverty and empower women.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will have: 1. Been enabled to understand the key aspects of the operation of the financial sector in Africa. 2. Developed a critical understanding of the relation between gender and finance. 3. Recognized the strengths and limitations of microfinance as a tool to improve womens access to financial services in Africa.
OUTLINE
I. The financial economy. A. Finance and economics. B. Financial sector institutions and monetary policy. C. Womens access to financial markets and services in Africa. II. Microfinance in the African context. A. Conceptual framework. B. Institutional and policy frameworks. C. Approaches to microfinance. III. Gender, microfinance and economic empowerment. A. Gender issues in microfinance.
B. The debate on microfinance and womens economic empowerment. C. Potential impacts of the financial crisis on microfinance from a gender perspective.
DURATION
1 day.
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I. THE FINANCIAL ECONOMY

Objective: to enable participants to understand the key aspects of the operation of the financial sector in Africa.
A.
FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
a) Finance is the branch of economics that studies the management of money and other financial assets that can be bought, sold, lent or borrowed through financial markets or institutions, called the financial economy in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomics. The definition of money was provided in Module 9 on gender and macroeconomic strategies in Africa, part II. b) The set of institutions that facilitate the buying, selling, lending or borrowing of money and other financial assets is known as the financial system. c) In theory, the buying and selling of financial assets should follow the laws of demand and supply elaborated in Module 1 on gender and economics. In practice, supply and demand explain the buying and selling of financial assets, but the explanation of the supply and demand for financial assets is complicated by the intricacy of the financial assets created in the financial system; also, much of the buying and selling of financial assets in modern financial systems is of assets that have not yet been produced, or which the seller does not yet own, but which another seller lends in exchange for payment. d) In Module 7 it was demonstrated that in the circular flow of income and product, the financial system receives deposits from households, called savings, which it channels to firms seeking to obtain money to invest.
e) More generally, savers are individuals or institutions that supply monies, in the form of deposits, to a financial institution. The saver does this in return for an income flow, in the form of interest payments on the savings, from the financial institution. f ) The financial institution uses the money that savers deposit as the basis for advancing credit, which is the transfer of an amount of money from a lender in the financial system to a borrower inside or outside the financial system. g) Borrowers borrow to pay for current consumption (i.e., food), fund working capital requirements (i.e., fertilizer) or make productive investments (i.e., a tractor). Credit thus allows a borrower to buy today what would otherwise not have been bought until a later date. h) To obtain a loan, the borrower usually must provide collateral, an asset transferred to the lender in the event of default (i.e., a title deed to a piece of land). i) In obtaining the credit the borrower acquires a debt that must be repaid in full. In addition, the lender charges a price for the loan: the rate of interest, an amount of money that the borrower must repay above that which was borrowed. Financial institutions make money by lending money to borrowers at a higher rate of interest than they pay to savers who deposit their savings in the financial institutions. Financial profits thus are a redistribution of resources away from a borrower and toward a lender. Financial institutions also make money by buying and selling financial assets. Modern financial institutions in developed countries make far more money by buying and selling assets that they own or have borrowed than they do from lending money.
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k) So the financial system involves a cycle of saving, depositing, lending, borrowing, buying and selling, with financial institutions acting as intermediaries between those that save and those that borrow.
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B.
FINANCIAL SECTOR INSTITUTIONS AND MONETARY POLICY
a) In Africa the banking sector is the predominant set of financial institutions. Banks are involved in the cycle of saving, depositing, lending, borrowing, and, to a much lesser degree, the buying and selling of financial assets. Stock markets, in which equity in companies is bought and sold, and bond markets, where nonmonetary financial assets of companies and countries are bought, are growing in importance, but banks still dominate. Therefore, this module will not pay attention to stock and bond markets. b) Commercial banking in African countries is generally characterized by, first, limited access to credit (particularly for agricultural producers, small-scale enterprises, and women) and, second, high costs of borrowing. There are several reasons for this, including:
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Banks were not set up originally to administer small-scale loans. Therefore, they lack the capacity to extend credit to small producers and informal workers, preferring to lend to large private and public companies. Information systems are not well developed. The credit-worthiness of borrowers is frequently unknown. Risk assessments are based on impressions of creditworthiness instead of facts. The banking sector tends to be highly concentrated; a few large banks dominate the sectorin economic terms, it is an oligopolygiving the industry significant market power. African banks often prefer to hold low-risk assets with relatively high rates of return, such as government bonds, instead of holding loans that are perceived to be much riskier; in economic terms, they are risk averse.
c) Central banks, discussed in Module 9, commonly set the regulations for other financial institutions (e.g., commercial banking) in the financial economy because they are responsible for monetary policy, which affects the terms and conditions under which the financial
system operates. An accommodative monetary policy can increase the volume of lending delivered through the financial system because it cuts real interest rates and thus the cost of credit. In so doing, domestic demand expands, as discussed in Module 7. A restrictive monetary policy, perhaps arising out of policy conditions, reduces the volume of lending delivered through the financial system because it increases real interest rates and thus raises the cost of credit, making it less accessible and reducing both investment and the multiplier-accelerator effects discussed in Module 7.
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to review common problems in the banking sector in Africa.
Facilitators should divide participants into groups of four or five, with participants in each group from different countries. Ask groups to use a flipchart to list answers for each country in the group to the following questions: 1. Is credit available in the banking sector in their countries? 2. Are interest rates affordable in the banking sector in their countries? 3. What are the three biggest problems of the banking sector in their countries? 4. Do women and men have equal access to financial services? Give groups 20 minutes to answer the questions and then review the answers in plenary by trying to establish the most common problems facing the banking sector in Africa as identified by group members.
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C. WOMENS ACCESS TO FINANCIAL MARKETS AND SERVICES IN AFRICA

a) As discussed in Module 7, women often have higher savings rates than men. However, gender biases in formal financial markets tend to channel these savings away from being deposited in the formal financial system. For example, bankers only allow a male head of household, or require the approval of a male, to open a savings account. This means that women hold their savings as cash or in a non-cash asset, such as livestock, or deposit it in an informal financial sector institution, discussed below, to which they have access. b) Women often do not have access to credit from formal banking institutions, and so are effectively excluded from formal credit markets. This is because they often lack adequate collateral to enter formal credit markets due to gender inequalities in property rights, or financial markets contain gender biases. In households with both adult men and women, often credit is extended only to men, or the approval of a male head of household is required before credit is extended to women. Alternatively, when women are provided credit, the money given as a loan is controlled by the men in the household, if necessary through coercion. c) This means that when accommodative monetary policy results in an increase in formal lending, most women are shut out of the direct benefits of the policyan increase in the volume of credit. In these circumstances, the benefits of accommodative monetary policy to women are indirect, through increased domestic demand and improved employment opportunities. d) However, the ability to take advantage of improved employment opportunities is in part a function of the distribution of unpaid care work and overall asymmetry in the intra-household allocation of resources and responsibilities, as discussed in Module 5 on employment and labour markets. e) For women lacking access to formal credit markets, informal financial institutions offer an alternative.
f ) The most common form of informal financial institution, which is still very widely found in Africa, is the moneylender. However, while moneylenders provide credit in a timely manner, the amount of credit advanced may be too little, while the cost of the credit, in terms of the interest rate, can be very high. Moreover, the borrower and lender may be involved in a range of exchange relationships beyond the financial marketfor example, the market for land or the market for labourresulting in personalized credit transactions that reflect mechanisms of social power. In this regard, gender relations can mediate womens access to moneylenders as well as the terms and conditions under which loans can be secured. g) More structured informal financial institutions, such as rotating collective savings and credit schemes, are another alternative source of financial services. They may have evolved over time to accommodate the specific requirements of women. However, these institutions have fewer resources at their disposal compared to the formal banking system, offer an implicit interest rate on peoples savings that is very low, often operate outside a legal framework and do not deliver financial services in a timely fashion when needed. h) Microfinance institutions, discussed later in this module, represent an important effort to fill the institutional gap between formal and informal financial services that purport to address financial needs from a gender-aware perspective. i) Pervasive gender inequalities in property rights, unpaid care work and the intra-household allocation of resources and responsibilities mean that womens access to formal financial services in Africa is a significant policy challenge. The overriding policy priority is to improve access to formal credit and financial institutions in a way that reduces unpaid care work and enhances womens property rights, and in so doing, shapes circumstances in which women can take advantage of such improved access. One aspect of this effort would be to improve womens financial literacy.
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II. MICROFINANCE IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT

Objective: to enable participants to have a better understanding of microfinance.
A. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
a) Microfinance efforts try to fill the institutional gap left by the formal financial system, in particular its inability to provide savings and credit for many potential customers, of whom a great many are women. Microfinance as a strategy for promoting poor womens and mens access to financial services has existed for centuries in Africa. In Nigeria, Ghana and other countries affected by the slave trade, microfinance goes back to the 15th century and was carried from there to the Caribbean by slaves. The original Yoruba term for the practice, susu, is still used today. b) Microfinance in Africa today provides a variety of financial products for those that the formal financial sector often excludes in its coverage, including savings and insurance products as well as consumption and production loans. c) The recognition and integration of microfinance as part of the formal financial sector began to gain momentum in the late 1990s, parallel to the increase in poverty levels, which has created a large potential demand for microfinance services among the millions of poor women and men in Africa. d) In addition to the large demand, the enormous growth in microfinance products and services is partly a result of restrictive monetary policy and financial liberalization in many African countries, as discussed in modules 8 and 9. In particular, high interest rates have reduced the availability of credit to the poor and
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increased biases against small agricultural producers, small-scale enterprises and informal workers in formal credit markets. e) The mainstream approach to microfinance focuses on the income dimension of poverty, discussed in Module 5 on poverty, and builds on two interdependent assumptions: first, that access to financial services is the key to poverty reduction and economic empowerment, as poor women and men can effectively use microfinance to lift themselves out of poverty, reduce their vulnerability to external shocks and create wealth; and second, that microfinance recipients use it mainly for income-generating and productive purposes.
B. INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS

a) The African microfinance industry is heterogeneous and geographically dispersed. The market structure underpinning the supply of microfinance services in Africa varies significantly depending on the stage of financial sector development and overall policy environment in different countries. b) Microcredit schemes were initiated since the end of the 1970s by nongovernmental organizations, usually with financial support from donors, but governments and commercial banks have become increasingly involved in microfinance since the late 1990s. These microcredit organizations have evolved into microfinance institutions (MFIs) as other financial services, such as savings products and insurance, gradually have supplemented the provision of small loans. c) With the notable increase in lending from MFIs and commercial banks and financial investors growing interest in the microfinance industry, the microfinance regulatory and policy frameworks in several African countries have been strengthened. However, in general, the frameworks are still underdeveloped in much of Africa, leading to marked differences in the levels of interest rates and other modalities of service delivery within and between MFIs and countries. d) Existing regulatory structures tend to focus on MFIs collection of clients deposits as repayments and savings, leaving lending activities
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outside the surveillance of regulatory structures. As a result, some MFIs can push their clients to borrow more than they can afford, hide their balance sheets and venture to invest the borrowed funds into businesses about which they have limited knowledge and expertise. e) MFIs in Africa also face significant capacity gaps, underlined by promoters of microfinance in Africa. In general, these gaps can be divided into those on the supply side and those on the demand side of the financial system. f ) Gaps on the supply side include the failure of existing MFIs to respond to the financing needs of large sections of the population and the lack of adequate information and knowledge on the differentiated needs of potential clients in terms of financial services and products, based on the assumption that potential clients avail themselves of the one-size-fits-all packages that MFIs offer. g) On the demand side, MFI activities in Africa typically target selfemployed workers who can meet their eligibility criteria. These tend to be the not-poor or the near-poor, excluding low-income wage workers or smallholder farmers who are already categorized as nonbankable by the mainstream financial institutions as well as the poorest of the poor women and men who, due to unemployment, fall below the eligibility criteria of most MFIs. h) While both the demand for microfinance and the intersections between microfinance and formal financial markets are on the increase, the level of participation of local investors in the microfinance sector remains very low. This implies that the development of this sector will continue to depend on foreign direct investment for the foreseeable future.
C. APPROACHES TO MICROFINANCE
a) An array of approaches to the development of MFIs has been used in Africa, ranging from traditional group-based systems to specialised lending by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-bank financial institutions, cooperatives, rural banks, and savings and
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postal financial institutions. Recently, an increasing number of commercial banks have begun to provide microfinance services. b) Among these approaches, the community-based approach, which relies on local communities to support MFI development, is the most commonly followed. As MFIs operating outside the formal banking sector had to find their own source of funds, the development of saving vehicles was important. This was supported by involving local communities in the formation of community-based cooperative groups, such as local clubs and village bank associations, which have been central in the savings mobilization effort and expansion of other microfinance services in Africa. c) The various approaches can be clustered into two main types:
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The poverty lending approach involves lending that is generally subsidized by donors targeted at poor women and men, including the extremely poor, as part of a package of other support services. The approach is derived from that of Bangladeshs Grameen Bank and remains the predominant approach in most African countries. Subsidies are meant to minimize the cost of services, but not to reduce interest rates, which are generally much higher than those of formal banks but much lower than interest rates from informal moneylenders. The dependency on donor subsidies is a major issue for the autonomy and long-term financial sustainability of this approach. Although MFIs use a variety of mechanisms to undertaking the poverty-lending approach, in general it involves poor people having to form themselves into small groups that regularly save small amounts, making deposits to MFI administrators who visit the group. Small loans are then made to the group after a period of time, based upon how much has been saved, but passed on by the group to a person in the group, resulting in a collective responsibility to repay. Commonly, the first repayment is factored into the loan, in part because repayment, including interest, is in small, regular instalments made to bank
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administrators that visit the group.

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The financial systems approach is commercially oriented and provides a standard package of financial services targeted to the bankable poor. It rejects subsidies, emphasizes financial sustainability and cost recovery, and seeks to promote small and medium enterprises. The very poor are seen as unbankable and better served by subsidized job creation or social assistance. In Africa, the African Development Bank promotes this approach. MFIs that have adopted this commercially oriented approach pay utmost attention to financial sustainability and risks in particular. Consequently, they must also limit the number of clients they can serve to avoid problems with the repayment of loans and the increase in transaction costs that had been experienced in the past as a result of rapid increases in the number of clients. The financial systems approach typically lends to individuals rather than groups, which has been increasing over time as commercial banks establish MFIs.
d) Both approaches share a common concern about financial sustainability. The major difference between them pertains to the nature of the performance criteria that they use, the way in which these are prioritized in relation to financial sustainability and their effects on poverty and development.
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to reflect on the gender content of approaches to microfinance.
In plenary, facilitators should engage participants in a short group discussion about the following questions: 1. Why did MFIs in Africa initially disproportionately target women? 2. What are the possible gender implications of a move from povertylending to a financial systems approach to microfinance in Africa? Allow 20 minutes for the discussion.
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III. GENDER, MICROFINANCE AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Objective: to enable participants to recognize the strengths and limitations of microfinance as a tool to improve womens access to financial services in Africa.
A. GENDER ISSUES IN MICROFINANCE

a) Women have been disadvantaged in the allocation of formal credit in Africa. They are over-represented within groups that have received disproportionately small shares of allocated formal credit: smallholder agricultural producers and informal workers. In addition, they often face constraints because the prevailing parameters of legal frameworks and gender relations fail to recognize their property rights, meaning that they lack the collateral that guarantees a loan from formal financial institutions. b) As a result, microfinance and MFIs in Africa have targeted women as the intended beneficiaries of their activities, and women predominate in the volume of loans acquired. So microfinance favours women, who also constitute the large majority of their clients. However, this has not precluded the emergence of significant gender issues in the allocation of microfinance in Africa. c) As already noted, MFIs usually fail to obtain adequate information and knowledge on the different needs of potential clients, assuming that the one-size-fits-all type of package that they offer is adequate. The inability of most MFIs to differentiate their potential clients has significant gender implications. d) Studies on microfinance schemes in Africa point to the segmentation of microcredit along gender lines: While women
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predominate in terms of the number of loans, men tend to take fewer, but bigger loans. e) Microfinance targets those defined as poor women and men who are economically active. This can exclude those who need assistance most. It overlooks the basic reality that poor women have heavy workloads, as discussed in Module 5 on employment and labour markets, because they cannot afford not to work, but this work is often not adequately captured in the system of national accounts (SNA) because the women are unpaid family workers. MFIs thus reproduce the institutional discrimination and gender biases that have resulted in womens exclusion from formal financial institutions, by ignoring the value of womens unpaid work and the genderspecific constraints facing them, as well as their specific financing needs, which are not limited to economic activities but are also related to their multiple roles and unpaid work in the care economy. f ) Financial systems-based MFIs target those that are considered bankable. However, many women are not bankable because they lack collateral as a consequence of property rights structures that are mediated by gender relations. In addition, they are not considered bankable because their work is not adequately captured in the SNA. In this way, MFIs can exclude those women most in need of access to their services. g) Poverty lending uses community-based womens groups as the basis of its lending, and seem to be more attuned to their concerns and needs. However, in many instances the effect of group-based lending on womens lives has been constrained by the underlying gender inequalities in resources and power in their communities. The dynamics of local-level microcredit systems are characterised by the predominant role of traditional authorities and chiefs in both formal and informal community-based institutions as well as community gender norms. Women often have little power in the local level decision-making processes, which are shaped by patriarchal values and might not be sensitive to womens concerns and needs. So, for example, women who want a loan to expand their
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earning activities might see it diverted into consumption by male community authorities or by men in their household; there is evidence of men having women take out loans from MFIs because the men can control the loans that women access and for which women have responsibility. In this way, using community-based groups can reinforce community-based gender norms of inequality. h) MFI emphasis on group-based lending also means that they will not reach significant elements of the population that are unable or unwilling to join such groups. In this way, MFIs fail to respond to the financing needs of large sections of the population, of whom a significant portion are women. i) Women have high rates of repayment of their loans, which average 90 percent across the region. These high repayment rates reinforce the gender bias of microfinance in favour of women. However, many MFIs are only interested in the rate of repayment, overlooking how it has been achieved. It is unclear whether or not their analysis includes all the costs and benefits of microcredit. For example, many women in Africa who receive loans from an MFI see their total workload increase, as increased employment is not offset by reductions in unpaid care work. Increased work responsibilities emerging from the provision of microcredit have been documented to result in women having to repay a loan with other loans from other microcredit providers, thus becoming trapped in increased indebtedness that repayment data fail to reveal. On top of these issues, the organizational culture of many MFIs is gender biased: a 2005 survey of MFIs in 65 countries found that the proportion of women in senior governance or management positions varied between 30 and 40 percent in most cases, even as 70 to 90 percent of their clients were women.
j)
k) These issues demonstrate that the inherent gender biases in many of Africas formal financial institutions have been transferred to MFIs, seriously limiting womens abilities to negotiate and voice their differentiated needs to the loan providers.
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l)
In this light, both case studies and quantitative evidence on the outcomes of microfinance suggest that poverty reduction and womens economic empowerment are far from being automatic outcomes of the programmes.
B. THE DEBATE ON MICROFINANCE AND WOMENS ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

a) The debate on the capacity of microfinance to enhance womens economic empowerment has been fuelled by conflicting findings, which might be due in part to differences in contexts and the research methods and indicators used to measure empowerment, as well as to the diversity in the organizational strategies of MFIs. b) Areas of consensus in the debate:
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Positive: For many, microfinance is an effective coping mechanism for poor women and men in times of crisis, helping to smooth fluctuations in incomes and consumption, thereby reducing food insecurity and diversifying livelihood options. Womens access to microfinance positively affects the health, nutritional status and schooling of their children. Microfinance organizations can effectively help to develop new skills and promote new technologies among their members. A case study in Malawi revealed that most of the women involved in the microfinance programme had increased their financial and business skills. In Mali, some projects provide womens groups with an integrated package, whereby access to microcredit is linked to their participation in business management and skills development training in a preliminary phase.
Negative: Notwithstanding the positives, MFIs have failed to reach extremely poor women and men, and tended to concentrate
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on the upper and middle poor as well as the non-poor, near poor in their efforts to achieve financial sustainability. c) Area of contention in the debate:
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There is a lot of evidence that the economic gains from microfinance are limited, and thus, that the household and community effects are similarly limited; upscaling income-generating activities into profitable enterprises requires more substantial amounts of financial capital and support than MFIs provide. While microfinance has helped to address gender-specific constraints that lead to womens exclusion from formal and informal financial services, most microfinance programmes failed to remove the gender-related constraints that confine women entrepreneurs to small-scale and less profitable forms of businesses. This general trend is exemplified by a study of a credit programme in Egypt, which found that of 96 different enterprises reported by clients, women were involved in only 28. This indicates the programmes limited effect on womens business development. The economic empowerment outcomes of microfinance for women are extremely contentious. Some studies found a long list of empowering outcomes in terms of increases in income, asset holdings, social capital, autonomy and decision-making power, alongside a decline in demeaning forms of labour and domestic violence. Other studies underline the lack of control that women have over their loans and the proceeds of their income-generating activities; additional financial burdens due to a reduction in mens contribution to households in light of the receipt of loans by women; an increase in indebtedness; an increase in workloads; an increase in domestic tensions and violence; and the marginalization of men. These differences reflect that microfinance operates through and on household structures, which means that household dynamics have important implications for understanding the effects of microfinance on gender relations.
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C. POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON MICRO FINANCE FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE
a) Regardless of these debates, microfinance will continue to be the main source of financing for poor African women. Therefore, it is important to consider the potential effects of the global financial crisis on the microfinance sector, as these also affect womens access to credit and financial services. In this sense, women are more affected than men, who have better access to formal financial institutions. b) To be economically viable and able to provide financial services and products at affordable costs, MFIs need to get funds at low interest rates and engage in long-term borrowing, while lending in the short term to clients that are poor or near poor. c) The contraction in the global financial system has led to the withdrawal of many commercial banks that used to provide a significant part of the funding to African formal financial institutions and finance ministries, the cancellation of their foreign credit lines and increased costs of raising funds in international capital markets. This situation might lead to a corresponding fall in the lending resources available to MFIs if they rely on obtaining resources from formal financial institutions or finance ministries.
d) The global financial crisis has also reduced the funding for African MFIs that was available from international NGOs, which have seen their budgets cut as governments and the private sector in the developed countries reduced their contributions. e) In West Africa reduced remittances from migrants have led to increasing demands on MFIs. In Senegal for instance, remittances constitute about 80 per cent of household budgets. The total amount of remittances for 2009 is estimated at CFA 400 billion, down from CFA 555 billion in 2008.
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f ) Demand for the services of MFIs has also increased due to the global financial crisis. In some sectors, the economic contraction caused by the crisis has resulted in job loss, which has led some households to turn to MFIs for consumption lending. At the same time, microenterprises that rely on MFI financing for production have seen the markets for their products shrink as a consequence of the crisis, making microenterprise failure a great possibility. g) The possible benefits of MFI lending have also been hampered by the global financial crisis because of the effect of the crisis on unpaid care work, which has intensified as a consequence of the crisis, making it less possible for those women who need access to MFI resources to use those resources to engage in earnings opportunities than was previously the case. h) Clearly, the global financial crisis has affected the microfinance environment and, as a result, womens access to financial services. This suggests the need for urgent and gender-sensitive policy responses.
EXERCISE 3
Divide the participants into groups of four. Each group should contain participants from a number of countries. Each group is to discuss for 20 minutes the potential effects of the global financial crisis on those MFIs of which the members of the group have some knowledge by considering the following questions: 1. Was the MFI within the poverty-lending or financial systems approach to microfinance? 2. Was the MFI engaged in activities that increased gender equality? If so, explain how you know. 3. How has the global financial crisis affected the MFI of which you have knowledge?
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4. Do these effects have implications for gender equality in your country? 5. What kind of policy actions could be devised in response to the gender-equality effects of the global financial crisis on the MFI? Each group should prepare a flipchart that arrays the key answer to each question by the countries examined in the group. In plenary, facilitators should draw out the areas of comparability and contrast across the different experiences described by the participants in their groups.
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READINGS
Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). 2006. Graduating the Poorest into Microfinance: Linking Safety Nets and Financial Services. Focus Note No. 34. Washington, DC: CGAP. Flth, A. and M. Abbadi. 2009. Turning the Global Financial and Economic Crisis into Opportunity for Men and Women. GuidanceNote 1 (December). Hunt, J., 2002. Reflections on Microfinance and Women Empowerment. Development Bulletin 57: 7175. Lafourcade, A., J. Isern, P. Mwangi and M. Brown. 2005. Overview of the Outreach and Financial Performance of Microfinance Institutions in Africa. Washington, DC: The Mix Market. Available at http://www.griequity.com/resources/industryandissues/financeandmicr ofinance/Africa_Data_Study.pdf (accessed 5 June 2010). Mayoux, L. 2006. Womens Empowerment through Sustainable MicroFinance: Rethinking Best Practice. Available at http://www.genfinance.info/Documents/Mayoux_Backgroundpaper.pd f (accessed 5 June 2010). Mosley, P. and J. Rock. 2004. Microfinance, Labour Markets and Poverty in Africa: A Study of Six Institutions. Journal of International Development 16, no. 3: 501518. Mutalima, I. 2006. Microfinance and Gender Equality: Are We Getting There? Available at http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/Workshops/28_Mutalima.pdf (accessed 5 June 2010).
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OECD Gender Tipsheets. Enterprise Development: a) Micro-Credit and Equality between Men and Women.Available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/41/1896456.pdf (accessed 5 June 2010). Vonderlack, R.M. and M. Schreiner. 2001. Women, Microfinance and Savings: Lessons and Proposals Center for Social Development. Available at http://www.microfinance.com/English/Papers/Women_Microfinance_and _Savings.pdf (accessed 5 June 2010). Wright, G.A.N., D. Kasante, G. Ssemogerere and L. Mutesasira. 1999. Vulnerability, Risks, Assets and Empowerment: The Impact of Microfinance on Poverty alleviation. Available at http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document1.9.28435/1730_file_01730.pdf (accessed 5 June 2010).
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CONTACT
IDEP
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PUBLIC FINANCE AND GENDER-RESPONSIVE BUDGETING
INTRODUCTION
This module explains broadly what gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) can entail while also highlighting inadvisable interpretations of the term. It explores how GRB interacts with public finance reforms and, in particular, the introduction of performance-oriented, programmebased budgeting. The module includes practical work developing basic gender budget statements to illustrate that this type of work is relatively simple. It also explores the experiences in gender-responsive budgeting of a number of African countries. In doing so, it gives a sense of the wide scope of work that can be done under the GRB umbrella. Considerable time is given to group work and discussion of what might be done in participants own countries.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this module participants will be able to: 1. Understand the principles and processes of gender-responsive budgeting. 2. Critically evaluate the principles and processes of gender budget statements.
OUTLINE
I. What is gender-responsive budgeting? A. Concepts, principles, purposes and frameworks B. GRB and performance-based budgeting C. Country examples D. Non-governmental issue-focused GRB work II. Gender budget statements A. Call circulars and gender budget statements B. Developing gender budget statements
DURATION
1 days
PREPARATION
Before the course, ask all participants to locate a copy of the national budget documents tabled in their country on the most recent budget day. These publications should be brought with them to the course. It is likely that some participants will not do this; this is not a problem as long as there are four or five country examples that vary in the level of detail provided and the extent to which they reflect old-style line-item budgeting and a more programme- or performance-oriented approach. Ideally, one of the country examples should include performance indicators. If this is not the case, the facilitator should supplement what participants have brought by downloading supplementary information, including performance indicators, from the ministry of finance websites of the appropriate countries.
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I. WHAT IS GENDER-RESPONSIVE BUDGETING?

Objective: to enable participants to comprehensively understand the principles and processes of gender-responsive budgeting.
A. CONCEPTS, PRINCIPLES, PURPOSES AND FRAMEWORKS

a) Module 7 on gender and macroeconomics introduced the concept of fiscal policy, the governments framework regarding its spending and tax collection policies. In most governments, the finance minister establishes this framework in the budget, which details plans for current and capital government expenditure and revenue. b) The focus of attention to the spending and tax collection policies contained in the budget has usually been on three Es: a. The impact on the economy. b. The efficiency of resource utilization. c. The effectiveness of policy. c) The budget cycle is the period between one budget and the next; in most countries, this period is one year. Within the budget cycle a budget is first preparedusually within the ministry of finance, but depending on the country, to a lesser or greater extent in consultation with interested parties in government and, occasionally, civil society, who submit proposals to the ministry. The ministry then submits the budget for approval to the legislature, which reviews and often revises it. Upon approval from the legislature, the budgets provisions become enacted. d) Increasingly, budget cycles are embedded with medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEF). An MTEF seeks to consistently align
the expenditure planning cycles of the government as a whole over a three- to five-year period by estimating the costs of recurrent and capital spending within existing policies over the medium term. An MTEF thus offers an integrated approach to policy, planning and budgeting. e) Conceptually, a budget has three branches: a. Allocation, concerned with influencing the provision of goods and services in an economy. Minimally, this seeks to meet the need to both supply public goods and internalize externalities discussed in Module 1 on gender and economics, in which it was suggested that for society as a whole, unpaid care work is a public good that generates a positive externality. b. Distribution, that is, of income or wealth in a society, which, without government intervention, may be deemed to be inequitable. As discussed in Module 6 on poverty, the distribution of wealth and income within a society is, in part, a consequence of the prevailing parameters of gender relations. In this regard, the distribution function affects and is affected by gender relations. c. Stabilization, concerned with maintaining a high but stable level of economic activity. As discussed in Module 7 on gender and macroeconomic theory, the variables that affect economic growth are mediated by prevailing sets of gender norms. In this regard, the stabilization function affects and is affected by gender relations. Thus, there are gender dimensions to all three branches, and so to budgets generally. f ) Therefore, GRB analyses the government budget for its effects on women, men, girls and boys. Ideally, GRB analysis goes beyond a simple female-male dichotomy to look at spatial location, age, ethnicity, ability and socioeconomic class.
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g) The value added of GRB lies in two areas: a. The budget, in its allocation, distribution and stabilization functions, affects time use, and thus, the amount and distribution of unpaid care work, employment and leisure; GRB highlights this effect. b. Commonly, the budget cycle does not offer adequate scope for broad-ranging consultations on the budget; GRB offers wide scope for consultation. h) So GRB in effect adds a fourth Eequalityto the three traditional Es of budgeting above. i) For GRB analysis the budget is the most important policy document of a government; without money no policy will be implemented, let alone work. Developing good policies that are gender-sensitive has little or no effect without an adequate budget to implement the policy, particularly its gender-sensitive parts. GRB is not about: a. Separate budgets for women and girls, or men and boys. b. Setting aside a certain percentage of the budget for women or gender-aware activities. c. Money for women councillors to control. d. Ensuring that half of all government expenditures are allocated to women and half of all government expenditures are allocated to men. k) GRB is also about new concepts that economists and policy makers generally ignore, such as unpaid care work. If government does not deliver services that reduce unpaid care work, women in households have to do the work instead. This may in turn have implications for the efficiency and effectiveness of any policies adopted. l) The expenditure side of a budget can be conceptualized in terms of three categories that together add up to all budgetary expenditures, namely
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j)
a. Expenditures that target females or gender issues. b. Expenditures that facilitate equal employment for government officials. c. The remaining expenditure, which can be examined for its possible differential effects on females and males. The third category is the most important, as it represents the bulk of government expenditure and is the most challenging. Focusing on the first category means a focus on a small share of government expenditure. Focusing on the second category means focusing on government officialsa relatively privileged group in most societies rather than on ordinary people, particularly poor women and men. m) GRB often requires five steps to be undertaken, although not all GRB initiatives cover all five steps. The five steps are: a. Describing the situation of women and men, girls and boys in the sector with the budget of interest. b. Checking whether sectoral policies, programmes and projects are gender sensitivethat is, whether they address the situation described. c. Checking that adequate budgetary expenditures are allocated to implement gender-responsive policy, programmes and projects. d. Checking at the end of the budget year whether the expenditure was spent as planned and reached those who most needed it. e. Examining the effect of the expenditure, that is, whether it ameliorated the gender gaps identified in the first step. n) GRB can assist in ensuring that government meets its commitments to womens rights as expressed in signing of international and regional instruments and national laws, including constitutions. It can also help to distinguish between policies and budgets that treat women as autonomous citizens and those that treat them as a
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vulnerable group or development instruments. Finally, GRB can increase meaningful participation of different actors in budget and policy making. o) GRB initiatives are very diverse and have different objectives. Different actorsgovernment, parliament, civil society, donors might have different objectives for GRB. Which objectives are achievable depends on the design and activities implemented in a GRB initiative. p) The focus of GRB initiatives also differ, regarding, for example: a. Expenditure versus revenue. b. Particular sectors or geographical areas. c. Particular levels of government. d. The recurrent or the development budget, where these two are differentiated in the budget. e. Own revenue or donor funds. q) A GRB initiative is unlikely to be sustainable unless government is involved; it also requires pressure from civil society or the legislature to undertake it.
EXERCISE 1
Objective: to enable participants to develop a gender-aware critique of existing budgets.
Hand out extracts from the budgets of one agency in two or three countries, located before the start of the course. Choose examples that illustrate the range of budgetary approaches, from line-item to more sophisticated programme- and performance-oriented budgeting. Take participants through the main parts of each of the example documents, explaining the main components of each to ensure that participants can do a basic reading of the documents.
Ask participants to work in groups of three. Ask them to examine the budget and discuss what they can say, based on the document, regarding the gender responsiveness of the budget. Ask them what questions they would need to formulate and have answered to be able to say more. After allowing at least 30 minutes to examine the documents, ask the different groups to report on what they saw in the budgets, as well as what questions they would want answered. Participants likely will report that they could see very little in the budgets. However, they will probably be able to see moreand ask more focused questionsabout the budgets that are in a more performance-oriented and programmebased format.
B. GRB AND PERFORMANCE BASED BUDGETING

a) Most African countries have introduced some form of performanceor programme-budgeting over the last decade, as part of a broader set of public finance reforms designed to develop MTEF. Increasingly, performance or programme budgeting has become embedded within results-based budgeting (RBB). b) RBB sees the formulation of programmes and allocation of resources as a function of a set of predefined evidence-based policy objectives embodied within a logical framework. These frameworks specify expected results from a line-item resource allocation as a function of the outputs that must be delivered to achieve those results. In this way RBB goes considerably beyond line-item budgeting. Actual performance is then evaluated on the basis of a set of predefined performance indicators contained within the logical framework. c) Donors, especially the World Bank, strongly support the shift to RBB within MTEFs, in many countries within the context of poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), discussed in Module 9, the second module on gender and development strategies.
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d) It is much easier to do GRB if a country has performance-oriented and programme-based RBB than if it uses traditional line-item budgeting. This is because the level of detail is suitable for a GRB. Conversely, GRB can reinforce and improve budget reforms by emphasizing, in its focus on equality, the question of who is benefiting from expenditure and how. e) Strong links can be drawn between performance-based budgeting within RBB and the five steps of GRB. The first step represents the situation analysis that should happenbut often does notduring the planning stage on which the budget is based. The second step is equivalent to the activities of performance budgeting, while the third step is equivalent to inputs, the fourth step to outputs, and the fifth step to outcomes. f ) Performance-oriented and programme-based budgeting thus offers good opportunities for GRB, but GRB does not happen automatically. Deliberate action and often some adaptation of formatsis needed for the budget documents to reveal their gender aspects. g) The details of the approaches to actual reforms to the budget process differ across countries, but there are often strong underlying similarities. The GRB approach should be tailored as much as possible to a particular countrys approach so that it is seen as an integral part of budget reform rather than as an optional add-on that requires extra effort. Wherever possible, GRB should use similar concepts, terms and formats to those used in broader budget reforms.
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C. COUNTRY EXAMPLES
EXERCISE 2
Objective: to enable participants to critically evaluate gender-responsive budgets.
Hand out copies of the case studies of GRB in Morocco and Uganda. Explain that the handouts are based on country case studies undertaken as part of the cross-country research on GRB and the aid effectiveness agenda coordinated by the United Nations Development Fund for Women in 2008. Divide participants into four groups. Ask participants first to thoroughly read through the two case studies. While reading, they should try to identify all the different types of activities undertaken, as well as the actors involved. After they have read the documents, ask the groups to discuss each of the case studies in depth. Ask them to think, in particular, about the following three questions:
I I I
What are the strengths of these initiatives? What are the weaknesses of these initiatives? What can we learn from these initiatives for our countries?
Encourage participants, while having these discussions, to bring in any learning they may have from involvement or observation of GRB initiatives in their own countries. After providing at least 45 minutes for reading and 45 minutes for discussion, ask groups to come back into plenary. Then take feedback on one country at a time, first allowing each group to report back on that country and then having general discussion, in which participants can share their own experiences and observations in their home countries.
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MOROCCO
PHASE I: CAPACITY BUILDING AND TOOLS DEVELOPMENT
The first phase of the GRB programme in Morocco (200304), implemented by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) with support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), focused on capacity building and the production of tools and methodologies for GRB. The committee on the women and childrens budget, which had initiated the GRB initiative in Morocco in late 2001, became the steering committee for the programme. An innovative aspect of Moroccos approach was to use a series of capacity building workshops to enable participants to scope out and design the manuals for applying GRB. The participants were those responsible for budget preparation in sectoral ministries, their sectoral counterparts, and those responsible for budgetary reform in the Directorate of Budget. At the end of the first phase in 2004, participants had developed the main elements that they wanted to include in the manual and how the manual could be used for results-based budgeting, which included GRB. The latter was important, as GRB was already being considered the fourth pillar of Moroccos public finance reform. This phase of the manuals production lasted until 2006, partly due to the slow, incremental and experimental nature of public finance reforms. Also, the person holding the position of gender focal point in the Directorate of Budget was promoted to a different directorate, while other staff were not given official time to work on the manual. The delay in production meant that the manual could not be used for an indicator workshop that ran in the interim.
PHASE II OF THE GRB PROGRAMME

Phase II, which ran from 200508, enlarged the engagement of the MEF to include the Directorate of Studies and Financial Forecasting
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(DSFF), the Directorate of Budget and the Directorate of Administrative and General Affairs (DAAG). DAAG is mandated to manage public relations and communications for the MEF, including intranet and website; to manage training of staff members; and to coordinate strategic action plans for all the directorates and the preparation of the MEFs own budget. A steering committee and technical committee were set up composed of these directorates and UNIFEM. There were five main strategic areas to Phase II. The first area was in developing a culture of policy evaluation using a broad GRB approach. The second was in encouraging ministries to produce a gender budget statement and, as part of this, gender-responsive performance indicators and reports. The third area was in addressing the need for widespread communication and sensitization within and outside the administration so as to lay the basis for institutionalization. The fourth was in using a pilot geographic area to explore how deconcentration (decentralization) and partnership with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) could be addressed in a gender-responsive and intersectoral way. The focus was on improving gender analysis and the use of gender-disaggregated data. The fifth area was in raising awareness for NGOs and building their capacity to lobby for gender-responsive budgeting. Each of the five areas was piloted around a concrete product, with a lead directorate responsible for its implementation. The genderresponsive policy evaluation was piloted through annual production by the DSFF of the gender report accompanying the finance bill. The second element was led by the Budget Directorate, while the DAAG managed the GRB portal for communication and documentation on GRB and the development of e-learning. The fourth area involved studies such as an MDG costing exercise, as well as the creation of a community-based monitoring system. The fifth element involved encouraging the development of a collective movement for gender-responsive budgeting.
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THE GENDER REPORT

The first gender report, presented to parliament, was the first achievement of Phase II. The DSFF produces Moroccos annual economic and financial report and initially the gender report was an annex to this budget document. The report for each ministry examined the relevance of policies to the situation of women, men, girls and boys, comparing the policies to gender equality and other development objectives and human rights instruments; it also assessed the alignment of programme budgets to the strategies for implementing the policies and assigning accountability for results. Finally, the report included an analysis of budgets and a gender evaluation of the performance indicators of each ministry for their programme budgets. The number of ministries and departments producing a gender report increased rapidly on a yearly basis, from 4 in 2005 to 21 in 2008. As of 2007, the gender report has been a separate document, formally presented to and debated by the parliament. The production process of the report tries to nurture a different way of working within an administration more used to dividing labour, tasks and responsibilities than to cooperating in teams. In particular, its methodological workshop brings together technical and thematic staff with budget managers and statisticians. The preparatory sessions with each ministry before the workshops, the design and facilitation of the workshop, and the comments on the drafts have been done by the staff of the DSFF, under the leadership of a coordinator and with the support of an international expert. The staff has not had prior gender training. They are mostly engineers by profession, and have learned their sectoral and thematic gender knowledge on the job. They write the gender report over and above their agreed work plan. In the short time available for the workshopsa day per batch of ministriesit is very difficult to reconcile the needs of the gender
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report writing team to learn about the gender analysis of performance indicators with the need to address the overt as well as subtle forms of resistance to gender issues and gender equality objectives in particular, which frequently rear up during the workshops. There are also institutional challenges. Many sectoral ministries had concerns about the ownership of the report, and about the Ministry of Economy and Finance potentially using information that other ministries provided against them. For their part, the gender team of the DSFF reported difficulties in obtaining information from the other ministries. On the basis of this feedback, the steering committee has formalized the collaboration between sectoral ministries and the MEF in the production of the report.
ENGENDERING PROGRAMMES
In 2006 and 2007, the prime ministers finance bill orientation letter mentioned gender in the context of developing performance objectives and indicators in programmes, in so far as it is possible. Real work started on this area in 2007. The delay occurred in part because ministries were expressing fatigue with the reform and the MEF did not want to burden them with what could be perceived as another layer of complication. It was therefore thought prudent to start with sectors more easily amenable to gender analysis and sex disaggregation. The two sectors chosen were the Secretariat for Professional Training and the Department for Literacy and Non Formal Education. In 2008, for the 2009 finance bill, three more departments were added: health, employment and the MEF itself. A template for the presentation of the programme, which can become a resultsresource matrix, was piloted with the support of an international gender expert. Alongside the template is a customized set of guidelines to assist each department in developing the programme. The work to customize these guidelines involved prior research on the databases available, as well as the available studies,
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surveys and work in progress on the methodological and programme front by the ministries. One of the major difficulties is the little time that departments have to commit to the GRB exercises, which are undertaken with the sectoral specialists at the budget directorate. The latter are themselves highly stretched for time, having to work on several fronts, including the development of sectoral strategies and the medium-term expenditure frameworks required for budget support. So far, the GRB exercises are led by the Budget Directorate, which can exert leverage on the sectoral ministries. But the sectoral strategies are supported by sectoral donors and through their own technical assistance. So there are parallel processes under way, about which only the sectoral ministry is aware. Overall, some 87 projects were ongoing in Morocco for the UN system from 2003 to 2007. The GRB initiative therefore faced the danger of being treated as just one project among many.
MANAGING COMMUNICATION
The DAAG developed and manages the GRB portal, which covers the GRB activities undertaken, and articles regularly appear on the other communication tools of the ministry, such as the MEF periodical Al Maliya. E-learning activities continue but suffer from delays. Part of the reason for e-learning is to generalize GRB awareness and training. But the manual that was produced very soon needed to be updated and was never intended to be used without prior training. It is still unclear how much of this training can be done through e-learning.
LOCAL LEVEL GRB WORK

A study to estimate the costs of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was completed in 2005. The study modelled three cost scenarios for: achieving the MDGs with the
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existing sectoral approach, minimal deconcentration and a stateNGO partnership; achieving the MDGs using the localized National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) approach; and the highest-cost scenario, developed in less detail, of bringing in a more refined gender-responsive approach. The INDH aspect was meant as a pilot experiment, using a community-based monitoring system (CBMS) as an information system. The CBMS study was duly completed in two communes and presented to local councillors and authorities.
NGO AWARENESS RAISING

Under this element, 20 development and women human rights NGOs were sensitized on their role as watchdogs of the genderresponsiveness of government policies. The 20 NGOs subsequently constituted a formal group, Collective Movement for GRB.
UGANDA
CIVIL SOCIETY GRB WORK
Though this case study focuses on the five years from 2003 to 2008, GRB was initiated in Uganda as early as 1999 by a coalition of womens rights and advocacy groups and parliamentarians. The key player was the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), a civil society organization founded by women politicians. FOWODE used a combination of research, advocacy and activism to influence fiscal policy. The shift toward performance-based budgeting and the associated monitoring provided a rewarding entry point for demanding GRB. FOWODE capitalized on the opportunity to lobby government to pay attention to the manner in which public expenditure areas are prioritized and resources allocated to competing national interests and sectors.
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FOWODE targets different groups differently depending on their mandate, influence and interests. Members of parliament are specifically targeted, given their key role as policy makers. FOWODE works closely with the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) because it is responsible for analysing macroeconomic issues, including the budget, and advising MPs accordingly. Within sectors, FOWODE targets planners and budget officers who are responsible for preparing their respective sector-wide plans (SWAps), budget framework papers (BFPs) and ministerial policy statements. FOWODE has established a close relation with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED), which is responsible for resource allocation, and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. FOWODE uses researchers with specialized knowledge and skills in gender and budgeting to conduct GRB analysis. Over the years, FOWODE has organized GRB skills building workshops for close to 5,000 legislators and over 2,000 government civil servants at the national and local government levels. This has created awareness and, to some extent, strengthened GRB competence among the different actors. As a result of these workshops, FOWODE has also created allies who are strategically positioned to influence the budget process. FOWODE is among the civil society organizations MoFPED invited to participate in the budget process and occasionally make presentations at important budget events, such as the budget conference and the public expenditure review. Annually, FOWODE conducts gender budget analyses that inform its GRB advocacy. The analysis focuses on the overall shape of the national budget as well as five major sectors: agriculture, health, education, water and sanitation, and justice, law and order. The findings are disseminated through meetings with members of parliament and government officials from the MoFPED and other sectors. The general public is involved through radio and television talk shows, public dialogues, newspaper pull-outs and issue briefs.
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THE GOVERNMENTS GRB WORK

The government adopted the GRB process in the financial year 200304 through the MoFPED, including gender and equity budgeting in the Budget Call Circular (BCC). A guideline to this effect was attached as one of the annexes that went out to sector ministries and local governments. As a result all government accounting officers had to show how government funds would address gender issues in their respective sectors. However, government did not enforce this directive immediately because it acknowledged that sectors lacked the capacities for effective GRB. In 2004, the MoFPED in collaboration with the MoGLSD prepared a gender and equity users manual and implementation strategy guidelines to assist in preparing sector BFPs that address gender and equity issues. The MoFPED also trained a core team of trainers to provide technical support. These were drawn from MoFPED, MoGLSD, Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Ministry of Works and Transport, Department of Water Development and the gender units of Makerere University. They constituted the national gender team and were a subgroup of the poverty working group. In 2005, the MoFPED organized GRB capacity building of gender focal persons, planners and budget officers of the above five sectors, as well as GRB training for some sector working groups (SWGs): agriculture, environment and natural resources. The MoFPED also produced gender disaggregated data for the five sectors. The data were generated from additional analysis of the 2004 National Service Delivery Survey.
GENDERING THE POVERTY ERADICATION ACTION PLAN PEAP

Efforts to strengthen the mainstreaming of gender in the new Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) employed various interventions. These were spearheaded by the MoGLSD in
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collaboration with the MoFPED with financial support from donors such as the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and the World Bank. These included but were not limited to: the creation of a PEAP gender group, responsible for ensuring that the SWG inputs into the PEAP were gender responsive; commissioning a desk review on engendering ugandas poverty eradication initiatives; development of PEAP sector guidelines for gender mainstreaming as part of general PEAP revision guidelines; commissioning a gender review of sector PEAP revision sections; and commissioning a gender analysis of the national household surveys. The government also invited a few civil society organizations to actively participate in the PEAP revision process. To guarantee that the gender commitments did not evaporate during PEAP implementation, the MoGLSD and the MoFPED, in collaboration with the World Bank, ensured the inclusion of gender in the Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) provided under Ugandas poverty reduction strategy. To some extent this promoted the financing of gender equality within direct budget support. A key achievement of gendering the PRSC was the cabinets final approval of the revised national gender policy in 2007. The policy had been in limbo since 2005, placing gender in an indeterminate state on the national development agenda. Meanwhile the gender and equity budgeting initiative contributed to measuring performance monitoring indicators during PEAP implementation.
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D. NON GOVERNMENTAL ISSUE FOCUSED GRB WORK
EXERCISE 3
Objective: to enable participants to critically evaluate non-governmental gender-responsive budgets. Hand out copies of the description of non-governmental GRB work in the Domestic Violence Act in South Africa. Ask different participants to read a paragraph aloud in plenary. When the reading is finished, give participants 5 to 10 minutes to talk with the person sitting next to them, discussing what the differences are between this example of GRB work and those discussed in the previous section about Morocco and Uganda. Then ask participants to discuss in plenary what they find interesting about this example. Some of the issues that might come up are that this GRB initiative: (a) Tackles a gender issue rather than a sector, thus targeting the budgets of several different agencies. (b) Focuses on an issue for which there might not be separate budgetary allocations, in thatfor examplepolice time spent on assisting with implementation of the act is not funded separately from police time spent on other things. (c) Involves costing of what is needed rather than starting with what is allocated. (d) Was spearheaded by an NGO with minimal government involvement. (e) Was a follow-on to the passing of a new law, that is, reasserting the basic GRB statement that a policy without budgethowever good the policyis toothless.
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COSTING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOUTH AFRICAS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACT

In 1999, the South African parliament passed the Domestic Violence Act (DVA), the most important protection of which is the interdict an abused person can get against the abuser. In early 2005, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) undertook research at nine courts and police stations in three provinces to find out how much time (and thus government money) was being spent on issuing interdicts. CSVR interviewed clerks of the court, magistrates, prosecutors and police officers about their activities in implementing the DVA and how long each activity takes. Among the main activities covered:
I
Clerks of the court usually assist applicants to complete the forms. Sometimes police officers also help women with their applications for protection orders. The magistrate decides whether to grant an interim protection order. On the return date, the magistrate holds a hearing if both parties are present and decides whether to grant a final order. A sheriff or the police serve the order on the respondent and applicant. The applicant usually pays the sheriffs fees unless she can prove she is very poor. Police arrest and charge men reported for breaching the protection order. Magistrates and prosecutors play roles when men appear in court for breaching the order.
To calculate what it costs government to implement the DVA, CSVR multiplied the average time taken for each activity by the percentage of cases to which it applied and by the cost of the staff involved. The amount came to R245.03 per case (about US$31/case
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at mid-2009 exchange rates). This only covers staff costs; it does not cover costs such as office expenses and support staff. It also uses the salary of the lowest possible level of staff for each activity. Together courts and police at the nine sites must have spent about R6.4 million processing nearly 26,000 applications for protection orders in 2004. Government records show that 114,142 protection orders were granted in South Africa between March 2004 and February 2005. This must have cost government about R28 million for court and police services. CSVR has taken the results of the research to the different agencies responsible for implementing the DVA and also to Treasury. All have expressed interest in working further with the organization to draw up guidelines to ensure proper implementation of the act and adequate budgets to achieve this.
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II. GENDER BUDGET STATEMENTS

Objective: to enable participants to critically evaluate the principles and processes of gender budget statements.
A. CALL CIRCULARS AND GENDER BUDGET STATEMENTS

a) Call circulars and gender budget statements are tools that can be used in a government-based GRB initiative. b) All countries have call circulars or equivalent documents, although they might use a different term. These are the official instructions issued by the Ministry of Finance early in the budget cycle instructing line agencies (budget users) how they should frame their budget submissions. Some countries have two or three call circulars in every budget cycle. Other countries have separate call circulars issued for the operating and development budgets. c) Examples of call circular extracts from different countries, including some in Africa, can be found in the UNIFEM guidance sheet on call circulars and gender budget statements. d) Call circulars can be made gender responsive by:
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Stating explicitly that gender must be reflected in submissions. Stating that gender will be considered an important criterion in negotiations between the Ministry of Finance and each line agency. Requiring that all relevant indicators be sex disaggregated and that other gender-related indicators be included where relevant.
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e) If special motivation is required for new policies and/or savings, the call circular can state that the motivations should explicitly include consideration of gender implications. f ) Gender budget statements are summaries of the gender implications of particular programmes and their associated budgets for the coming year. In most cases gender budget statements are accountability instruments in that they are prepared after the budget numbers are decided and then tabled in parliament and available to civil society. However, a few countries, such as Rwanda and Indonesia, are now experimenting with including gender budget statements in early budget submissions, thus informing the negotiations between the Ministry of Finance and line agencies. g) Examples of gender budget statement approaches from different countries can be found in UNIFEM guidance sheets. h) There are different ways of choosing which programmes to cover. Ideally, the gender budget statement should include the programmes that are allocated the most money, in line with a gender mainstreaming approach. However, the statements also usually include programmes that directly target gender issues or women. i) Gender-responsive call circulars and gender budget statements will not be effective unless the responsible officials are assisted in developing the knowledge and understanding of gender issues that allows them to draw up gender-aware documents. At the same time, the process of drawing up gender budget statements teaches officials gender analysis skills.
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B. DEVELOPING GENDER BUDGET STATEMENTS
EXERCISE 4
Objective: to enable participants to critically evaluate a gender budget statement.
Hand out copies of the extract from the gender- and youth-responsive budget statement of the Department of Agriculture of the Western Cape government in South Africa. This example has been chosen to illustrate that GRB should not focus only on the social sector agencies. Explain that the Western Cape government decided to focus on both youth and gender because youth issues are considered a major challenge in this province. Each department (equivalent to a ministry) is required to do one statement rgarding the subprogramme allocated the largest amount of money for that year, plus additional statements for any subprogrammes that officials feel contribute to gender equality or youth development, or in some way address the challenges of people with disabilities. The statements follow a set format with pre-specified headings. The collected statements are tabled with other official documents on budget day in the province. The section on the situation to be addressed explains why government has this subprogrammethat is, what problems in the community it is intended to address. One common tendency in drawing up the statements was for government officials to use this paragraph to describe the subprogramme. The subprogramme in the example is about the communitythat is, ordinary people whose needs and interests government should be trying to address. The planned activities section is where government activitiesparticularly those that address gender and youth issuesare described. Budget allocated should give the full amount of the budget for the subprogramme for the coming year, but also the amount for any subcomponents of the budget that specifically address youth and gender issues.
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For indicators, officials were required to come up with about three output (delivery) indicators and provide both performance to date in the current budget year for these indicators and the targets for the coming budget year. Other countries, such as Rwanda, also include input and outcome indicators. Finally, the challenges encountered section provides space for officials to describe difficulties they experience, especially in relation to implementing the gender- and youth-responsive elements of the subprogramme. They are not, however, permitted to complain about budget shortfalls. Ask participants to read through the extract, allowing adequate time. Facilitators should then lead a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the statements in plenary. Draw up a list of strengths and weaknesses that participants suggest. Then encourage suggestions as to how the gender- and youth-responsive budget statement could be improved.
EXTRACT FROM THE GENDER AND YOUTH BUDGET STATEMENT OF THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT, SOUTH AFRICA
Department of Agriculture Subprogramme Allocated Largest Amount of Money for 2009/10 Programme 3: Farmer Support and Development Subprogramme 3.2: Extension and Advisory Services Situation to be Addressed Historically, women and youth have been marginalized as most permanent and better-paid employment opportunities (and especially those in the agricultural sector) were occupied by men. The current economic situation in the country has left many women and youth unable to find or maintain employment. Along with this, the recent high increase in food prices lead to many social evils e.g. increased levels of poverty, hunger and crime.
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PLANNED ACTIVITIES
One of the subprogrammes main focus areas is the implementation of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP). This is funded through a conditional grant received from the National Department of Agriculture. Although the funds are located under subprogramme 3.2 (Farmer Support), the distribution of the funds is done across the other sub-programmes and the Province as it includes land reform and food security projects as well. In order to improve equity in the agricultural sector and to ensure that women and youth, defined as 1835 years, are incorporated in the projects, a percentage in scoring the selection criteria is allocated to each project related to the total number of women and youth involved. Therefore, the higher the number of women and youth involved, the higher the project will score and the better the chances of obtaining funding. As a result, approximately 47 percent of the CASP beneficiaries in 200809 are women. The percentage for youth is a little bit lower and this can be attributed to the image and perception of agriculture amongst the youth and the hard work involved in primary agriculture. There is a serious drive within the Province to increase the number of household and community/school food gardens, with the aim of decreasing the hunger and food insecurity caused by high food prices. These food security projects receive a high priority in terms of CASP funding allocation and more so if the number of women and youth involved are high. Women are thus able to establish household food gardens which do not take them far away from their homes while with community/school food gardens the youth are educated regarding agricultural practices and the importance of agriculture in view of ensuring a food secure future. Eight percent of the total CASP budget for 2009/2010 has been set aside specifically for food security projects.
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BUDGET ALLOCATED
R46,895,000 Amount for CASP in Programme 3 Farmer support and Development: R63,640,000 Of which: 8 percent has been allocated for food security projects
INDICATORS
Indicator Total number of people involved in CASP Number of youth involved in CASP Number of women involved in CASP Number of disabled involved in CASP Target Performance 2009-10 2008-09 6,616 2,838 2,363 133 5,301 2,492 6,616 6,616
CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED
Women and youth get involved with project implementation, but due to economic pressures will leave the project, sometimes temporarily and other times permanently, when they obtain jobs in order to receive an income to feed their families. Women are also regarded as the main care givers for the family and often cannot work on the projects continuously due to having to care for sick children, extended family members and the like. The continuation of the project is then negatively affected. In many cases the agricultural sector is perceived by youth as not being attractive. This is possibly due to the physically hard work involved in primary agriculture. It can also be attributed to the fact that agriculture as a subject is offered at only a few schools across the country.
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EXERCISE 5
Objective: to enable participants to develop a gender budget statement.
Divide participants into groups of four to five people. Ensure that each group has a copy of a budget document from a home country of one of the participants that provides some level of detail about the programmes or subprogrammes; that is, it should not be an old-style line-item budget. Ask participants to choose a programme or subprogramme and develop a gender budget statement for it using the headings used in Western Cape in South Africa. Acknowledge that participants will not know all the details of the programme and will therefore need to use their information, but encourage them, in particular, to think what the situation to be addressed section might say and what the indicators might be. Allow 45 minutes to 1 hour for this activity. Ask participants to write up their budget statements on flipchart paper or as a computer presentation. Ask each group to present their budget statement in plenary and encourage other participants to offer comments, corrections and constructive criticisms where appropriate, to improve the budget statement. Add your own suggestions for improvements, acknowledging the difficulties that participants may have encountered because of not having all the background information.
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READINGS
Budlender, D. 2007. Gender-Responsive Call Circulars and Gender Budget Statements. Guidance Sheet no. 1, United Nations Development Fund for Women, New York. Budlender, D. and G. Hewitt. 2003. Engendering Budgets: A Practitioners Guide to Understanding and Implementing Gender-Responsive Budgets. London: Commonwealth Secretariat. Elson, D. 2006. Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women. Sharp, R. 2003. Budgeting for Equity: Gender Budget Initiatives within a Framework of Performance Oriented Budgeting. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women.
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African Institute for Economic Development and Planning United Nations Development Programme

UNDP/PNUD Logos Reversed Versions

G E N D E R A N D E CO N O M I C P O L I C Y MA NAGEM E NT I N I TI ATIVE AFR IC A

GENDER-RESPONSIVE ECONOMIC POLICY MANAGEMENT

G E N D E R A N D E CO N O M I C P O L I C Y MA NAGEM E NT I N I TI ATIVE AFR IC A

GENDER AND ECONOMICS

EXERCISE 1. WHOSE STORY IS IT? ICEBREAKER

I. BASIC ECONOMIC CONCEPTS

GROUP A: APPLYING DEMAND

TABLE 1.1: DEMAND FOR ORT SALTS

GROUP B: APPLYING SUPPLY

TABLE 1.2: SUPPLY OF ORT SALTS

II. WHY GENDER MATTERS FOR ECONIMICS

GENDER AND PREFERENCES

PREFERENCES: INCOME AND NEEDS

GENDER EMBEDDED MARKETS

TABLE 3: EARNINGS FROM THE GAME

TABLE 4: A PRISONERS DILEMMA WITH LOW GAINS FROM COOPERATION

III. AGREEING ON BASIC GENDER CONCEPTS

SEX AND GENDER

GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR

FORMAL EQUALITY AND SUBSTANTIVE EQUALITY

G E N D E R A N D E CO N O M I C P O L I C Y MA NAGEM E NT I N I TI ATIVE AFR IC A

GENDER-RESPONSIVE POLICY ANALYSIS

I. ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS

ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS

Economic policy analysis examines the effects of policy changes on:

METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS OF POLICY

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS

II. MAKING ECONOMIC POLICY ANALYSIS GENDER-AWARE

GENDER ANALYSIS AND ECONOMIC POLICY

GENDER BLIND POLICY

GENDER NEUTRAL POLICY

GENDER RESPONSIVE POLICY

The brief is available at http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/presspb20091rev1_en.pdf (accessed April 30, 2010).

III. SECTORAL GENDER-AWARE POLICY ANALYSIS

GUIDELINES FOR GENDER AWARE POLICY BRIEFS

BEFORE WRITING THE POLICY BRIEF

Use this summary to write the policy brief.

GENERAL RULES WHEN WRITING THE POLICY BRIEF

COMPONENTS OF THE POLICY BRIEF

G E N D E R A N D E CO N O M I C P O L I C Y MA NAGEM E NT I N I TI ATIVE AFR IC A

UNPAID CARE WORK

I. UNDERSTANDING UNPAID CARE WORK

UNPAID CARE WORK

B. RECOGNIZING THE EXISTENCE OF UNPAID CARE WORK

1019 Nonproductive Unpaid care work 89 333 SNA

C. WHY IS UNPAID CARE WORK IMPORTANT?

D. MEASURING UNPAID CARE WORK

TABLE 1. TIME USE DIARY

E. ASSIGNING A MONETARY VALUE TO UNPAID CARE WORK

UCW India UCW Korea

II. CONSIDERING UNPAID CARE WORK IN POLICY

The Unpaid Care Work in a Glass of Milk

The Costs of Home-Based Care

B. INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLES OF CARE SENSITIVE POLICIES

C. POLICY GUIDELINES FOR UNPAID CARE WORK

G E N D E R A N D E CO N O M I C P O L I C Y MA NAGEM E NT I N I TI ATIVE AFR IC A

GENDER, DATA AND INDICES

I. DATA, STATISTICS, INDICATORS AND INDICES

A. WHAT ARE DATA?

B. WHERE DO DATA COME FROM?

TIME USE SURVEYS

LABOUR FORCE SURVEYS