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Book Details
Abstract
Millions of pounds of international development funds are invested annually in social protection programmes to tackle poverty. Poverty is perpetuated by risk and vulnerability, much of which is gendered. Despite this, little attention has been paid to gender-sensitive policy and programme design and implementation.
Gender and Social Protection in the Developing World introduces a much-needed gender lens to these debates. Drawing on empirical evidence from poor households and communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the book provides rich insight into the effects of a range of social protection instruments. It concludes that with relatively simple changes to design and with investment in implementation capacity, social protection can contribute to transforming gender relations at the individual, intrahousehold and community levels.
With a foreword by Stephen Devereux.
Rebecca Holmes is a Research Fellow in the Social Protection Programme at the Overseas Development Institute. Her research and policy work focuses on the linkages between social protection and social policy, and she has particular expertise in gender analysis. With a geographical focus on South and South-East Asia, her research includes studies on gender and social protection effectiveness, social protection and social inclusion, and social protection in fragile and post-conflict states. She has published widely for a range of governmental, nongovernmental and donor audiences on social protection, and has spoken at a variety of public events and conferences on social protection.
Nicola Jones has a PhD in political science and is a Research Fellow in the Social Development Programme at the Overseas Development Institute. Her research, advice and public affairs work focuses on gender analysis, social protection and poverty reduction policies, child well-being, and the linkages between knowledge, policy and power. Since 2007 she has led a number of multi-country studies on the intersection between social justice and social protection in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. She is currently a lead researcher in a cross-country study on citizen perceptions of cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and is managing a regional review of gender-responsive social protection in Southeast Asia for UN Women. Nicola has published widely for a range of academic, policy and practitioner audiences, including six co-authored books. The most recent are: Knowledge Policy and Power in International Development: A Practical Guide (2012) and Children in Crisis: Seeking Child-sensitive Policy Responses (2012).
'Holmes and Jones should be congratulated for making this compelling case for gender-sensitive social protection programming. Their considerable experience and expertise ensures this book will be an essential read for hardened "social protectionistas", students, researchers and practitioners.'
Professor Armando Barrientos, Senior Research Fellow, World Brooks Poverty Institute, University of Manchester
'This publication highlights a key gap in the current design of social protection programs and policies. Taking into account the barriers that women face in accessing resources, mainstreaming gender equality in social protection interventions is critical. This publication contributes to a rethinking of current interventions on social protection.'
Lilian Keene-Mugerwa, Platform For Labour Action
'A timely and critical addition to the literature on this subject - the authors guide the reader to an approach to social protection that leads towards real transformation. Comprehensive yet context specific, this book provides an excellent balance of theory with practical guidance. A must-read for governments, donors, NGOs, consultants, students and academics.'
Suzette Mitchell, UN Women (Vietnam)
'Examining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to social protection in reducing extreme poverty, Rebecca Holmes and Nicola Jones argue that their effectiveness would be greatly increased if they took proper account of gender relations. Unless gender inequality is understood to be playing a major role in perpetuating poverty, current programmes will fail to achieve their potential. Analytically strong with richly illustrated examples based on research carried out in five continents, this book makes an important and welcome contribution to the ongoing debate over how to tackle poverty.'
Professor Maxine Molyneux, Director of the Institute of the Americas, University College London
'Holmes and Jones convincingly demonstrate that only social protection policies developed with a gender lens can alter the causes of poverty and vulnerability. Their prescriptions for programme change have the potential to transform lives on the ground. This book should be required reading for academics and practitioners alike.'
Liesl Haas, Department of Political Science, California State University
'Providing a rich evidence base on gendered risk and vulnerabilities, this is a valuable analysis of social protection programmes through a gender lens. The authors document the potential and limits of social protection tools in transforming women's lives, providing valuable lessons to policy makers and practitioners that can improve the gender sensitivity and transformative potential of their programmes.'
Sarah Cook, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| More praise | i | ||
| About the authors | iii | ||
| Title page | v | ||
| Copyright | vi | ||
| Table of contents | vii | ||
| Illustrations | ix | ||
| Foreword by Stephen Devereux | x | ||
| Preface | xiv | ||
| Acknowledgements | xvi | ||
| List of abbreviations | xviii | ||
| Introduction: why social protection needs a gender lens | 1 | ||
| Beyond mothers and safety nets: the argument for a gender-sensitive approach to social protection | 2 | ||
| Methodology | 7 | ||
| Figure 0.1 Life story of Tamenu | 9 | ||
| Figure 0.2 Life story of Faisal | 9 | ||
| Figure 0.3 Life story of Mayimbu | 10 | ||
| Figure 0.4 Life story of MiLenh | 10 | ||
| Structure of the book | 11 | ||
| 1 Key concepts in gender and social protection | 14 | ||
| Introduction | 14 | ||
| Concepts of poverty and vulnerability | 15 | ||
| Concepts of gender in development | 17 | ||
| Box 1.1 Addressing gender inequality leads to poverty reduction, economic growth and enhanced household resilience | 18 | ||
| Conceptualising social protection | 22 | ||
| Box 1.2 Approaches to social protection | 23 | ||
| Table 1.1 Social protection categories and instruments | 26 | ||
| Integrating a gender lens into the transformative social protection framework | 27 | ||
| Table 1.2 Examples of gendered economic and social risks and vulnerabilities | 28 | ||
| Figure 1.1 Pathways mediating the effects of economic and social risks on gendered well-being | 32 | ||
| Box 1.3 Gender-related policy and legislation implications for social protection | 33 | ||
| 2 The gendered patterning of vulnerability, risk and resilience | 35 | ||
| Introduction | 35 | ||
| Economic vulnerabilities and risks | 35 | ||
| Box 2.1 Poverty and vulnerability as a gendered experience | 36 | ||
| Personal Narrative 2.1: Tamenu’s experience of multilayered shocks in southern Ethiopia | 37 | ||
| Figure 2.1 Asset distribution among women’s marital and natal families | 41 | ||
| Social vulnerabilities and risks | 45 | ||
| Table 2.1 Worsening sex ratios at birth over time | 47 | ||
| Box 2.2 Life-course and intergenerational consequences of reproductive health vulnerabilities in Latin America | 50 | ||
| Resilience: gendered patterning of coping strategies and resources | 53 | ||
| Conclusions | 60 | ||
| 3 Transferring income and assets: assessing the contribution to gender-sensitive poverty reduction | 62 | ||
| Introduction | 62 | ||
| Cash and asset transfers: an overview | 63 | ||
| Table 3.1 Typology of cash and asset transfer approaches | 64 | ||
| Applying a gender lens to transfer programmes | 67 | ||
| Case studies: cash and asset transfers in Ghana, Peru and Bangladesh | 73 | ||
| Table 3.2 Cash and asset case study programme details | 75 | ||
| Personal Narrative 3.1: Cash transfers can provide relief for the poorest – Bange’s experience of living with illness in Ghana | 79 | ||
| Personal Narrative 3.2: Asma’s experience of integrated social protection in Bangladesh | 89 | ||
| Conclusions | 93 | ||
| 4 Working one’s way out of poverty: public works through a gender lens | 96 | ||
| Introduction | 96 | ||
| Table 4.1 Gender differences in labour force participation | 96 | ||
| Personal Narrative 4.1: PWPs as a lifeline for the extreme poor – Tamenu in Ethiopia | 97 | ||
| Applying a gender lens to public works programmes | 98 | ||
| Box 4.1 Using public works labour in social sector activities | 103 | ||
| Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP): an antidote to emergency-focused development | 105 | ||
| Box 4.2 Rural poverty and gender in Ethiopia | 105 | ||
| Personal Narrative 4.2: Family headship norms may disproportionately affect young men – Haile in Ethiopia | 107 | ||
| India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS): a transformative approach to tackling poverty | 111 | ||
| Box 4.3 Agriculture, poverty reduction and gender in India | 112 | ||
| Box 4.4 Accounting for variation in women’s participation by state | 115 | ||
| Table 4.2 Unpaid work and its implications for community asset generation through PWPs | 119 | ||
| Conclusions | 122 | ||
| 5 Insuring against shocks: the gendered dimensions of insurance | 124 | ||
| Introduction | 124 | ||
| Personal Narrative 5.1: The ripple effects of health vulnerabilities – Pho Ly in Vietnam | 125 | ||
| Integrating a gender lens into insurance | 127 | ||
| Informal insurance mechanisms | 131 | ||
| Formal insurance | 135 | ||
| Box 5.1 Domestic workers and social insurance access | 137 | ||
| Box 5.2 Gender-sensitive pension reforms in Latin America | 138 | ||
| Table 5.1 Social health insurance examples from developing countries | 142 | ||
| Personal Narrative 5.2: Without life insurance, surviving family members often face long-term vulnerabilities – Osman Mohammed in Ghana | 149 | ||
| Box 5.3 Self-Employed Women’s Association(SEWA) – micro-insurance good practice | 151 | ||
| Conclusions | 157 | ||
| 6 Ensuring access to state provision: towards more gender-sensitive subsidy schemes | 159 | ||
| Introduction | 159 | ||
| Subsidy programmes: an overview | 159 | ||
| Gender dimensions of subsidy design, implementation and impact | 161 | ||
| Personal Narrative 6.1: Boys are also vulnerable to being taken out of school – Faisal’s experience, Indonesia | 162 | ||
| Food subsidies | 163 | ||
| Agricultural input subsidies | 166 | ||
| Education and health subsidies | 168 | ||
| Subsidised childcare services | 172 | ||
| Box 6.1 Estancias and intra-household dynamics | 175 | ||
| Integrated subsidies | 176 | ||
| Box 6.2 Social protection in Vietnam | 177 | ||
| Personal Narrative 6.2: Integrated subsidy programmes help serve basic needs – Mi Lenh in Vietnam | 179 | ||
| Conclusion | 180 | ||
| 7 Why politics matters: a genderedpolitical economy approach to social protection | 182 | ||
| Introduction | 182 | ||
| Defining political economy | 183 | ||
| Conceptualising gendered political economy | 184 | ||
| Political economy opportunities and challenges for gender-sensitive social protection | 186 | ||
| Box 7.1 The gendered political economy of cash transfers in Pakistan | 188 | ||
| Box 7.2 MGNREGS’s social audit approach | 196 | ||
| Box 7.3 A mismatch between government commitment to women’s economic empowerment and resourcing | 199 | ||
| Box 7.4 The pivotal role of women’s voluntary organisations in constructing early-twentieth-century social welfare policy in the USA | 202 | ||
| Box 7.5 Transformative opportunities only partially realised | 205 | ||
| Conclusions | 207 | ||
| 8 Conclusions and recommendations: advancing gender-sensitive social protection | 209 | ||
| Introduction | 209 | ||
| Policy and programme design | 210 | ||
| Table 8.1 Examples of good practice in policy and programme design | 211 | ||
| Implementation capacity and fiscal space | 213 | ||
| Table 8.2 Examples of good practice in terms of implementation capacity | 213 | ||
| Institutional coordination and linkages | 215 | ||
| Table 8.3 Examples of good practice in institutional coordination and linkages | 216 | ||
| Community–programme interface | 217 | ||
| Table 8.4 Examples of good practice at the community–programme interface | 218 | ||
| Monitoring, evaluation and lesson learning | 220 | ||
| Table 8.5 Examples of good practice in terms of monitoring, evaluation and lesson learning | 221 | ||
| Box 8.1 Monitoring and evaluation indicators for gender-sensitive social protection | 222 | ||
| Political economy dynamics | 224 | ||
| Moving forward | 226 | ||
| Annex 1 Public works programmes and their gender dimensions | 228 | ||
| Annex 2 Examples of gendered impacts of key social protection instruments at individual, intra-household and community levels | 241 | ||
| Glossary | 256 | ||
| Notes | 259 | ||
| References | 271 | ||
| Index | 307 |