GENDER MAINSTRAIMING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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GENDER MAINSTRAIMING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Deepa GokulsingDepartment of Social Studies, UoM
• and
• Verena Tandrayen-RagooburDepartment of Economics
  Statistics, UoM
• 05 September 2008

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Paper Outline

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality
• Social Dimension of Gender Inequality
• Policy Recommendations
• Conclusion

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Gender Mainstreaming

• Concept introduced in the UN Third World
  Conference on Women in Nairobi, 1985. Further
  developed in the UN Fourth World Conference on
  Women in Beijing,1995.
• Strategy where gender is integrated in all
  government policies, plans, programmes and
  projects.
• Transform the existing development agenda using a
  gender perspective.

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Bangladeshi women take part in a protest
demanding equal rights in Dhaka.
Women police officers in India formed a national
forum to fight sexual harassment and
discrimination from their male colleagues.
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Gender has many dimensions..
EducationalAttainment
Health and Wellbeing
Political Empowerment
Economic Participation
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Sustainable Development

• Emphasis is on environmental sustainability
• But sustainable development is more than that
  it is multidimensional
• Encompass economic, social, political, cultural
  and environmental dimensions.
• Gender issues and gender inequality are important

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Gender mainstreaming for sustainable development

• It is needed to achieve the goal of gender
  equality and to remove the imbalances between men
  and women
• People at the heart of policy-making
• Lead to better government
• Make full use of human resources
• Make gender equality issues visible in the
  mainstream of society
• Consider the diversity among men and women

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Objectives

• Analyse the impact of gender inequality on the
  economic growth of Sub Saharan Africa
• Examine the effect of gender inequality on the
  Mauritian economy
• Investigate the social dimension of gender
  inequality in terms of education, health,
  governance and sustainable production
• Propose some relevant policies in general

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Gender Inequality, Sustainable Development SSA

• Gender inequality is very significant in poor
  countries and among the poor within countries.
• Africa is seen as the poorest continent on the
  globe
• In Africa promoting gender equality and
  empowering women (MDG 3) is one of the most
  important of the eight MDGs.

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Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality

• The target to achieve this MDG is to eliminate
  gender disparity in primary and secondary
  enrolment by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.
• We model gender inequality by using a measure of
  education. This is an initial step. We intend
  to use other measures in terms of life
  expectancy, of women in government at
  ministerial level and ratio of female to male
  earned income.

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Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality

• The Theory

• Direct Effect Lower female education
• means lower human capital and growth.
• Feminisation of Poverty
• Indirect Effects
• On mothers health
• On the childs health and education, and
  fertility rates.
• Better-informed mothers lower child mortality
  rates and malnutrition (Knowles et al. 2002
  Klasen 2003).
• Rise in educated women feminisation of the
  labour force - lowers fertility rates and
  dependency ratios
• Lower dependency ratios imply higher income.

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Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality

• The Evidence
• Several empirical studies have focused
  specifically on the role of gender inequality in
  education as a determinant of income or growth.
• Recent work includes Esteve-Volart (2000), Klasen
  (1999, 2002), Knowles (2002), and Klasen and
  Lamanna (2003).
• Conclusions from these studies support the
  existence of a negative effect from gender
  inequality in education to income or economic
  growth.

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Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality

• Data and Methodology
• Data - World Bank Development Indicators (2007)
• A sample of 47 SSA countries
• Time Frame 1960 2005
• Panel Data Analysis FE estimation
• Mauritius - Time Series Analysis 1960-2005
• Measure of Gender Inequality - the difference
  between absolute equality (ratio of 1) and the
  actual ratio of girls to boys in primary and
  secondary education ().

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Table 1 Preliminary Results SSA
Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality
GDP Growth/ Variables Coefficients Absolute t-stats
Foreign Aid/GDP 0.066 (1.84)
Population 0.984 (3.30)
Exports/ GDP 0.147 (4.10)
Imports/ GDP -0.058 (1.62)
FDI/GDP 0.031 (0.45)
Dom Inv/ GDP 0.136 (2.62)
Gender Inequality -0.070 (1.65)
No of Obs. 282 R20.21
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Table 2 Preliminary Results Mauritius
Economic Dimension of Gender Inequality
GDP Growth/ Variables Coefficients Absolute t-stats
Foreign Aid/GDP 0.145 (2.25)
Population -0.014 (0.07)
Exports/ GDP 0.004 (0.31)
Climate Change -0.134 (1.96)
FDI/GDP 0.067 (1.52)
Dom Inv/ GDP 0.052 (2.13)
Gender Inequality -0.228 (6.05)
No of Obs. 26 R20.94
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Social Dimension of Gender Inequality
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Education

• Enrolments is the lowest in SSA.
• Some 115 million still do not attend primary
  school and 60 of these are girls (Greig et al,
  2007)
• 2 out of every 3 rural Ghanaians can not send
  their children to school (UNDP 2003115).

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Education in Mauritius

• Access to free education in 1977
• Girls perform better than boys
• But men are still qualified overall than women
• Differences remain in the types of subjects
  studied by males and females
• Men are more likely to be in the prestigious
  subjects that offer the best career prospects.
• Women are enrolled in subjects like humanities
  rather than engineering.

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Table 3 Enrolment by faculty, mode of study
gender at the UOM, 2007/2008
Faculty FOA FOA FOE FOE FLM FLM FOS FOS FSSH FSSH
Faculty M F M F M F M F M F
FT 97 199 1167 549 557 1007 323 368 256 839
PT 38 25 215 101 375 354 144 156 195 340
(Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007) (Source TEC, 2008, Participation in Tertiary Education 2007)
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Education

• Bunwaree (1997viii) points out Mauritius has
  an official policy of equality of educational
  opportunity for boys and girls, but this policy
  does not get translated into reality. Equality of
  opportunity does not mean only access to schools.
  Outcomes to schooling too are important in
  measuring equality
• Females should not only be given the opportunity
  to access tertiary education but benefit from
  opportunities for higher education on an
  equitable basis.

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Health

• Women live longer than men due to genetic factors
  but also to different behavioural, lifestyle and
  working patterns.
• Globally, female life expectancy is about 6
  higher than for men.
• Since women tend to be poorer, they are more
  prone than men to self-declared ill-health,
  reduced work capacity due to illness and mental
  disorders related to stress (WHO,2006).

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Health

• Feminist sociologists have analysed the ways in
  which inequalities can seriously affect women
  (Macionis Plummer, 2005 558)
• Employment combined with family care
  responsibilities means that women find themselves
  doing two jobs.
• Evidence also show that women with small children
  experience more stress at work compared to women
  without such responsibilities.

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Health

• Work-related stress is also due to lack of job
  security, family-adverse working conditions, low
  social support, limited possibilities for
  training and career advancement and inadequate
  social security pensions.
• Intensified when women are also exposed to
  physical and mental hazards due to violence and
  abuse at home and psychological and sexual
  harassment at work.

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Health

• Lack of access to medicines and prevention
  measures remain a barrier to improved health
  outcomes.
• Increasing child mortality. No access to water
  and sanitation
• SSA HIV/AIDS taking particularly a heavy toll.
  Women are mostly affected.
• 2007 Estimated 1.9 million people newly infected
  with HIV in SSA.
• Mauritius Women increasingly being affected by
  the problem of HIV/AIDS and drugs.
• Feminisation of HIV/AIDS 522 women reported
  cases and 2547 men out of 3069 in 2007

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Table 4 HIV/AIDS reported cases of men and
women in Mauritius
Year Male Female Total
1987 - 1 1
1992 10 5 15
1997 19 5 24
2002 59 39 98
2004 464 61 525
2005 815 106 921
2006 455 87 542
2007 408 74 482
(Data obtained from AIDS Unit) (Data obtained from AIDS Unit) (Data obtained from AIDS Unit) (Data obtained from AIDS Unit)
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Governance But women in powerfulpositions are
still an exception
Chile M. Bachelet
Finland T. Halonen
Germany A. Merkel
Liberia E. Johnson Sirleaf
Out of 193 heads of state, only 23 are women!
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Governance

• Although women make up half of the worlds
  population, they remain vastly under-represented
  in governance forums.
• Governance gender gap.
• In most countries, there is a clear absence of
  women involved in decision-making processes at
  local, regional and national levels.
• Number of barriers which women confront in
  getting involved in politics.
• When women do participate in governance, there
  is a greater chance that policies will reflect
  more closely the needs of all citizens. (OECD,
  2008)

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Governance

• Sub-Saharan Africa
• 2000 12 women in parliament
• 2004 13 women in parliament
• (Source www.worldbank.org/genderstats)
• Mauritius
• Before 2005 female legislative representation
  been one of the lowest in the African continent
  and SADC.
• Latest election in July 2005 the percentage of
  women MPs reached was 17.1. A sharp increase in
  the number of women from 4 to 12 in the 70-member
  legislature. (Yoon Bunwaree 2008)

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Sustainable Production

• Neo liberalism calls for limited state
  intervention, privatisation, the demise of the
  welfare state has been in the forefront of
  economic polices in many parts of the developing
  world in the guise of IMF/World Bank Structural
  Adjustment Programs (SAPs).
• Feminisation of the labour market v/s
  feminisation of poverty

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Sustainable Production

• SSA informal sector mainly dominated by women
  84 of womens non-agricultural employment is
  informal compared to 63 of mens
• Women tend to dominate in low-skill,
  labour-intensive jobs in textiles, clothing,
  household goods, etc. Exploitation of women.
  Livelihoods being threatened.
• Mauritius Manufacturing Sector (EPZ products)
  employment of 40,737 women compared to 23,625 men
  in March 2006 (CSO, March 2007)

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Recommendations

• Integrate gender issues in designing, planning
  and implementing policies and also legal
  framework
• Economy
• Incentives to increase female presence in the
  labour force.
• Remunerate womens work on an equal basis
• Family-friendly practices, greater access to
  childcare facilities
• Investing in womens education, health care and
  access to jobs are key to poverty reduction

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Recommendations

• Government can increase female access to credit.
  Micro-credit loans as an effective tool to help
  prospective women business owners.
• Education
• Increase in female to male enrolment ratio in all
  levels of education.
• Guidance and counseling services provided to
  girls on job prospects.
• Traditional areas of female work (teaching,
  nursing, etc) be upgraded.

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Recommendations

• Health Care
• Govts need to adopt a gender perspective based on
  the physical differences of men and women.
• Gender-specific diseases and reproduction needs
  are key considerations in health policy.
• Involving men and women in HIV/AIDS
  interventions, polices and programmes.
• Addressing gender issues associated with ageing
  populations and the disabled.
• Occupational and safety practices taking into
  account gender-specific factors

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Recommendations

• Governance
• Governance with gender lenses
• Quota system used in many countries to raise the
  number of women in parliament
• Greater transparency and more open participation
  in political processes key to empower women in
  government.
• Special training and information programmes to
  explain the complex legal processes
• Schemes assisting working parents with time
  constraints as well as mentoring and networks
  help to give new roles in political life.

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Recommendations

• Sustainable Production
• Govts can promote sustainable corporate
  production through support to reporting systems
  and international instruments frameworks that
  cover the environmental, social and corporate
  governance issues.
• Production in line with environmental, safety and
  worker rights dimensions.

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Conclusion

• Gender matters in development.
• Addressing gender inequalities is a real
  challenge.
• Changing the mindset of people.
• Building an inclusive society, geared towards
  social justice and gender equality
• Making womens work more visible.
• Respond to the needs of both men and women in an
  equitable manner.
• Encourage them to participate fully and actively
  in decision making processes.

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Conclusion

• Institutionalised frameworks put in place and
  vision be translated into the reality Mtius
  National Gender Policy Framework-to what extent??
• Kabeer (2003) GMS depends on the partnership
  between government and other key stakeholders
  (civil society and private sector)
• Sustaining gendered, innovative and
  transformative action is essential in development
  process.

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• Women are central to the entire development
  process. They are also at the vanguard of social
  transformation.
• The emancipation of women is an important part
  of building markets at the bottom of the pyramid.
  Empowered, organised, networked and active women
  are changing the social fabric of society.
• (Prahalad, (2005 108, 109) The Fortune at the
  Bottom of the Pyramid)

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Thank You!