Strengthening Development Policy through Gender Research

1
Strengthening Development Policy through Gender
Research

• Recent Findings from IFPRIs Gender and
  Intrahousehold Research Program

Agnes R. Quisumbing International Food Policy Res
earch Institute
2
Many decisions that affect the welfare of
individuals are made within families and
households
3
Development policy aims to improve the welfare of
individuals.

• Do we understand how families and households make
  decisions?
  
• How does the distribution of welfare between
  individuals in householdsmen and womenaffect
  policy outcomes?
  

4
Purpose of IFPRIs gender and intrahousehold
research program

• To understand how individuals and households make
  decisions, so that development policies can be
  more effective
  
• Gender is only one aspect which differentiates
  individuals within households
  
• What is the most important aspect will differ
  across countries and cultures

5
Country coverage of the research program,
1994-2002

• Four high-concentration countries (Bangladesh,
  Guatemala, Ethiopia, South Africa)
  
• Eight supplemental studies countries

6
Qualitative and quantitative methods

• Combination of qualitative methods with
  quantitative household surveys
  
• Surveys covered 1000-1500 hhs in each country
• Different policy focus in each, but comparable
  modules across countries
  

7
Analytical methods

• Qualitative methods
• Statistical tools
• Econometric analysis

8
General Research Findings
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Households do not act as one when making decisions

• Men and women do not always have the same
  preferences nor pool their resources
  
• Mens and womens resources have different
  effects on household decisionmaking
  
• Who is targeted affects the outcome of policy

Source Quisumbing and Maluccio 2000
10
Households may not pool resources nor share the
same preferences

• Example from Burkina Faso (Alderman et al. 1996
  Udry 1996Smith and Chavas 1996)
  
• Plots managed by women have significantly lower
  yields than plots controlled by men
  
• Mens plots have higher labor inputs by both men
  and children
  
• Fertilizer is more intensively applied on mens
  plots
  
• In Burkina Faso, output of households, where men
  and women did not share the same preferences, was
  25 less responsive to maize prices than in
  households where preferences were the same

11
Share of resources depends on bargaining power,
but women control fewer resources than men
Source Quisumbing and Maluccio 2000
12
Outcomes differ between men and women

• Gender differences in poverty measures
• Women tend to be overrepresented among poor
• There are many more women living in poverty in
  male-headed hhs, than those in female-headed hhs
  
• Source Quisumbing et al.2001

• Cross-country differences in womens status
• Big differences between South Asia and Latin
  America
  
• In SA, women tend to be less educated than their
  husbands
  
• Women marry younger in SA compared to LAC
• Son preference greater in countries where women
  have lower status
  
• Source Smith et al. 2002

13
Females in South Asia do worse than males in
terms of nutritional outcomes

• Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious problem
  in developing countries
  
• Micronutrient requirements are greater for women
  and children, but they suffer most from
  micronutrient deficiencies
  

14
The example of the intrahousehold distribution of
iron-rich foods in Bangladesh
Intrahousehold distribution of animal and fish
products, Bangladesh
Source Bouis et al. 1998
15
Local norms, not statutory laws, affect womens
rights and resources
16
Why pay attention to social and legal
institutions?

• Formal and informal social and legal institutions
  are where development interventions take place
  
• These institutions provide the basis for women to
  legitimately make claim to resources

17

• Despite legal reform, customary laws matter more
  in actual practice
  
• In rural Ethiopia, local norms important in the
  distribution of assets upon death or divorce
  
• Assets brought into marriage affect divorce
  distribution
  
• However, control of assets has an even stronger
  effect on disposition
  
• Source Fafchamps and Quisumbing 2002

18
Customary law is dynamic

• Customary law in parts of Ghana does not usually
  favor women
  
• Inheritance by members of matriclan
• Wives and children do not inherit from husbands
• Husbands now giving wives gifts of cocoa land
  in return for helping establish cocoa
  
• Gifts have strong individual rights, benefiting
  women
  

19
Legal reform is strengthening womens rights

• In Ghana, the Intestate Succession Law (ISL)
  (1985) provides for wife and children if the man
  dies without a will.
  
• Distribution according to ISL 3/16 to spouse,
  9/16 to children, 1/8 to parent, 1/8 to
  matriclan
  
• Common interpretation of ISL 1/3 each to
  surviving spouse, children, and matrilineal
  familyeven more favorable towards women than the
  law!
• but note that legal reform came after changes in
  local practice
  

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• Policies and external forces can challenge
  traditional norms
  
• In Ethiopia, local administrations have granted
  user rights to women due to the land to the
  tiller policy
  
• However, this is usually if a suitable male head
  of household is absent (Fafchamps and Quisumbing
  2002)

21

• Technologies that increase returns to womens
  labor may increase bargaining power and rights to
  land
  
• In Ghana, cocoa increased demand for womens
  labor so much that husbands gave gifts of land
  in return for labor
  
• Agricultural research should develop technologies
  to increase returns to womens labor

22

• Strengthening womens land rights is not enough
  to raise yieldsother constraints also need to be
  addressed
  
• While male and female cocoa farmers in Ghana are
  equally likely to plant cocoa, women obtain lower
  yields on their plots
  
• This may indicate greater credit and labor
  constraints faced by female farmers, but also
  suggests inefficiency in the allocation of
  resources between mens and womens plots.
• Women may also concentrate more on food crops
  than on cocoa (Quisumbing et al. 2001)

23
If legal rights limit asset ownership, women may
accumulate social capital instead

• Social capital refers to features of social
  organization such as networks, norms and social
  trust that facilitate coordination and
  cooperation for mutual benefit. Putnam (1995)
• Microfinance initiatives working through womens
  groups illustrate ways of using social capital
  for womens benefit
  

24
However

• Criteria for group membership and operational
  procedures limit womens participation
  
• In South Asia, members must have legal right to
  land or be formal head of household to join
  formal water users groups
  
• Stereotyped perceptions of womens roles also
  limit participation
  
• Illiteracy and lack of experience in groups are
  barriers for women
  
• Source Meinzen-Dick and Zwarteveen 1998

25
Implications for operational procedures

• Allow both male and female members of hhs to be
  eligible for membership
  
• Timing, location, and structure of formal
  meetings should allow for womens participation
  
• Conduct functional literacy training
• Expand opportunities for women to participate in
  other types of meetings

26
Relative to men, increasing womens resources
benefits families

• Equalizing resources held by women and men can
  increase agricultural yields by up to 20
  (Alderman et al. 1996)
  
• Increases in womens resources have the strongest
  effects on education, health, and nutrition
  (Hallman 2000 Smith et al. 2001)
  
• Womens social networks help families cope with
  income shocks (Maluccio et al. 2001)
  

27
Increasing womens resources improves
agricultural productivity

• Burkina Faso Output of womens plots, and total
  household output could be increased by 10-20 by
  reallocating resources from mens plots to
  womens plots (Alderman et al. 1996)
• Ghana strengthening womens property rights
  increases incentives to adopt agroforestry and is
  good for environmental management
  

28
Improving womens status and resources improves
child health and nutrition
Contributions to reductions in child
malnutrition, 1970-95
Source Smith and Haddad 2000
29
Household welfare responds more to womens social
capital, if women participate more in groups

• Women more likely to be a group member
• Membership increasing from 1993 to 1998
• In 1993, household welfare did not respond to
  mens nor womens social capital.
  
• In 1998, both womens and mens membership in
  groups increase household welfare, but welfare
  responds more to womens social capital owing
  to their higher participation in groups.

Kwazulu-Natal Household Panel Survey 1993 and
1998
Source Maluccio et al. 2002
30
Innovative ways to increase womens resources
have made projects successful

• Examples include
• Credit and technologies targeted to women (Sharma
  2001 Bouis et al. 1998)
  
• Income transfers targeted to women (Skoufias and
  Mclafferty 2001 Adato et al. 2000)
  
• Community day care programs (Ruel et al. 2001)

31
Gains from agricultural and credit projects often
depend on the targeting mechanism

• Example Different dissemination methods of
  agricultural technology in Bangladesh
  
• Small-holder vegetable production, targeted to
  women
  
• Household-owned fishponds, targeted to both men
  and women
  
• Group-owned fishponds targeted to women
• Outcomes from these projects differed depending
  on how successful they were in reaching women
  

32
Project modalities and cultural constraints
affected project outcomes.

• Limited benefits from vegetable production
  project because
  
• Land tenure system not in womens favor
• Purdah meant women could not cultivate land,
  negotiate in market, sell produce
  
• Women could not expand production to familys
  agricultural land

• In contrast, the group fishpond project
• Encouraged groups of poor women to participate in
  production, enabled women to negotiate with men
  
• Challenged gender division of labor and
  workplace
  
• Enabled women to save the income from fish
  production

Income gains were small, but bigger effects came
from credit given to women and opportunity to
join credit programs
Source Naved 2000
33
Providing additional resources to families can
increase school enrollments, particularly for
girls.

• Under the Food for Education program in
  Bangladesh, a monthly ration of cereals is
  converted into an income supplement which permits
  a child from a poor family to attend school.
• The family can consume the food, or sell it and
  use the money to cover its expenses.

34

• In 2000, around 2 million families benefited from
  FFE
  
• Each eligible household obtained 15-20 kilos of
  cereals each month, depending on the the number
  of children in primary school.
  
• Children in primary school were eligible to
  receive FFE rations if they complied with at
  least one of the following criteria landless
  household or those with less than 0.25 hectares
  hh head is a daily wage worker female-headed
  household low-income earners

35
School enrollment rates (percent change in
schools with FFE)

• According to an IFPRI evaluation, enrollment
  rates in FFE schools increased by 35
  
• Girls enrollments increased by 44
• Boys enrollments increased by only 29
• Enrollment rates in schools without FFE increased
  only by 2.5 over the same period
  
• Source Ahmed and del Ninno 2001

36
Providing conditional cash transfers to women can
improve childrens human capital outcomes

• The example of PROGRESA (Programa Nacional de
  Educación, Salud, y Alimentación) in México
  
• The anti-poverty program began in August 1997
• The program included various components cash
  transfers conditional on school attendance,
  regular attendance at clinics, improvement in
  health services, and nutritional supplements
• Giving cash transfers directly to women as an
  innovation in the design of social programs in
  México.

37
Results in education

• PROGRESA increased enrollment rates of boys and
  girls, particularly in secondary school
  
• Enrollment rates for girls increased by 11-14
  (of boys, 5-8)
  
• The additional 0.7 years of schooling due to
  PROGRESA is projected to increase lifetime
  incomes by 8
  

Source Schultz 2000
38
Results in health

• Morbidity of children in PROGRESA decreased by
  12
  
• Illness days of adults decreased by 19
• PROGRESA had a significant effect on reducing the
  probability of low height for age, an indicator
  of long-term malnutrition (Z height for age standard deviations from the international growth
  standard)

Foto(c) Patricia Poppe,JHU/CCP
Source Gertler 2000 Behrman and Hoddinott 2000
39
Cash transfers directed to women can empower
women and increase their role in household
decisionmaking
40
Findings from the quantitative study

• Cash transfers to women can empower women by
  increasing their control over resources, thus
  increasing their bargaining power within the
  household
• Cash transfers decreased the probability that
  husbands were the sole decisionmakers in 5 out of
  8 outcomes (seeking medical care for children,
  telling the child to go to school, expenditures
  on child clothing, food expenditures, and house
  repairs)
• Cash transfers had a negative and significant
  effect on the probability that the woman let her
  husband decide how to spend her additional income
  
• Source de la Briere and Quisumbing 2000

41
Findings from the qualitative study (Adato and
Mindek 2000)

• PROGRESA contributed to womens empowerment in
  four ways
  
• 1. She did not need to ask money from her
  husband if she needed to buy something, she
  could buy it herself with the money from
  PROGRESA
• 2. She had more confidence in her ability to
  determine if she had enough money to buy the
  things she needs
  
• 3. If there is more money available for the
  family to spend on food, which is part of the
  womans domain, women expand the scope of their
  decisionmaking, even if the types of decisions do
  not change
• 4. Cash transfers from PROGRESA have the
  potential to increase womens decisionmaking
  domain

42
Providing low-cost quality child care helps
remove constraints to womens employment outside
the home

• Characteristics of life in urban areas
• Individuals and households depend on their
  incomes for food and other necessities
  
• Women participate more in the labor force
• Higher proportion of single mothers
• Different family structure (nuclear rather than
  extended)

43
Community Day Care Program (Programa de Hogares
Comunitarios)

• The day care program is part of an anti-poverty
  strategy
  
• Program began in 1991 as a pilot project in
  Guatemala City to help working mothers
  
• Program is based on community participation and
  promotes the holistic development of children and
  the community

44

Household
45
Impact evaluation results

• The program permits mothers to work in the formal
  sector, to have higher salaries and to receive
  employment benefits
  
• The program had a significant impact on the diet
  of children, especially micronutrient intakes
  
• However, the program covered only 3 of the
  population of working mothers in Mixco and demand
  exceeded supply
  
• Source Ruel et al. 2000

46
Programs which involve women in group and
communal activities can provide opportunities for
increased autonomy and womens empowerment

• PROGRESA included activities such as group
  meetings where women could communicate with each
  other
  
• Monthly meetings with promotoras
• Health meetings
• Community work related to the school

47
The promotoras and beneficiaries described
personal changes which were forms of empowerment

• Women
• Left the house more frequently
• Had the opportunity to talk with each other about
  problems and solutions
  
• Became more comfortable speaking in groups
• Learned much in health meetings
• But
• Changes in intrahousehold relations were modest
• Source Adato and Mindek 2000

48
Including men in initial project meetings
increases their acceptance of programs with high
involvement of women (Adato and Mindek 2000)

• Most men accept the participation of women in the
  program because its benefits help him and the
  family
  
• Some men are not pleased with the amount of time
  women spend outside the home due to program
  responsibilities
  
• Including men in initial meetings where
  responsibilities of beneficiaries and program
  activities are explained has increased their
  acceptance of the program

49
Build gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation
into project design

• Gender considerations in staffing can be critical
  for project acceptability.
  
• Women were uncomfortable when male doctors gave
  talks about Pap smears or family planning.
  
• Participants and service providers may not
  understand program objectives, especially those
  related to intrahousehold objectives
  
• Infants and children to whom nutritional
  supplements were directed often received only a
  fraction of the nutrients which the program
  stipulated.
• The supplement was often shared with other family
  members, even if sharing was a clear violation of
  the program rules.
  

Source Adato, Coady, and Ruel 2000
50
Paying attention to gender issues in operations
evaluations can improve monitoring and evaluation

• Objective of operations evaluations (OE) to
  identify the elements of the program which
  experience operational problems, the sources of
  these problems, and to propose solutions
• It is necessary to include all actorsmen and
  womenwho can influence or be affected by
  operational performance
  
• The operations evaluation of PROGRESA included
  beneficiaries, promotoras, school directors, and
  personnel of health clinics
  
• The operations evaluation of the PHC included
  parent beneficiaries, madres cuidadoras, and
  social workers

51
The request of parents to have more flexible
hours of care in Guatemala, according to focus
groups

• The PHC is well designed and implemented, and
  highly appreciated by its implementors and users
  
• Focus groups yielded many suggestions relataed to
  the multiple roles of beneficiaries
  
• Care of children under 1 year
• Day care on Saturdays
• Inclusion of aspects related to health

52
Why pay attention to gender in development policy
and projects?

• Because it makes sense.