This briefing note address Gender and poverty. Other themes in series include the following:

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2 In Preparation for the ILO s submission to the Poverty Alleviation Committee in Indonesia, a series of 12 (twelve) Technical Briefing Notes (TBNs) have been prepared which serve two purposes; first, as background documents, on issues and policy choices critical to poverty reduction and secondly, as building blocks towards a comprehensive report: Working Out of Poverty: an ILO submission for the Indonesia PRSP. This briefing note address Gender and poverty. Other themes in series include the following: Employment dimensions of macro and sectoral policies; Decentralization and decent work: making the connection to the MDGs; Job creation and enterprise development (SMEs and local economic development); Youth employment: pathways from school to work; Rural development: access, employment and income opportunities; Skills development for economic growth and sustainable livelihoods; Promoting the declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work; Eliminating the worst forms of child labour; Social protection for all; Promoting good governance in the labour market by strengthening tripartism and social dialogue; Migration: opportunities and challenges for poverty reduction;

3 Labour Organisation 2004 First published 2004 Publications of the International Labour Office enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to the Publications Bureau (Rights and Permissions), International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland. The International Labour Office welcomes such applications. Libraries, institutions and other users registered in the United Kingdom with the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP [Fax: (+44) (0) ; cla@cla.co.uk], in the United States with the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA [Fax: (+1) (978) ; info@copyright.com] or in other countries with associated Reproduction Rights Organizations, may make photocopies in accordance with the licences issued to them for this purpose. ILO A Series of Policy Recommendations Decent Work and Poverty Reduction in Indonesia, 2004 ISBN The designations employed in ILO publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and the presentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Labour Office concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Office of the opinions expressed in them. Reference to names of firms and commercial products and processes does not imply their endorsement by the International Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or process is not a sign of disapproval. ILO publications can be obtained through major booksellers or ILO local offices in many countries, or direct from ILO Publications, International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland or from the ILO Office in Jakarta, Menara Thamrin, Level 22, Jl. MH Thamrin Kav. 3, Jakarta Catalogues or lists of new publications are available free of charge from the above address, or by pubvente@ilo.org ; jakarta@ilo.org. Visit our website: ; Printed in Jakarta, Indonesia

4 GENDER AND POVERTY The poor in Indonesia are disproportionately women. The concept of feminization of poverty alludes precisely to the disproportionate representation of women among the poor, as compared to men. In addition, poor women suffer more because in most societies women are also subject to socially imposed values that constrain them from improving their economic conditions or enjoying equal access to public services. In Indonesia, socially imposed values could be in the form of early marriage, immediate childbearing, repeated pregnancy to get sons, and long hours of work in the household. Some social values could directly affect the nutrition intake of women, for example traditional food distribution in the family prioritized men and sons. In term of access to education, sons got the priority when resources are limited. Introduction 1 It is important to break the relation between poverty and gender since some researches have shown that the poverty of women affects children health and development more than the poverty of men. When the income of women increases, and the number of poor women declines, the children also benefit from the improvement since, compared to men, women spend more of their income on their family in general and on their children in particular. To put it in a different way, reducing the number of poor women would have a much bigger multiplier effect to the increasing welfare of children, which are the future generation. Several macro-economic studies confirm that better-educated women contribute to the welfare of the next generation

5 Gender and poverty by reducing infant and child mortality, lowering fertility, and improving the nutritional status of children. At the macro-economic level, one study shows that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of women in secondary school education is associated with a 0.3 percentage point increase in per capita income (Dollar and Gatti, 1999; in Michael Bamberger et al, p. 341). The welfare of women is a key determinant in realizing a positive correlation between growth and poverty reduction. It is impossible to talk about poverty in general and poverty reduction strategies in particular without addressing gender relations. Gender and poverty in Indonesia Statistical data show that poverty in Indonesia definitely has a gender dimension. Table 1 shows incidences of poverty that have become both the sources and consequences of poverty, creating a vicious circle for poor women in Indonesia. Data on schooling, type of work, employment, wages, and political representation in Table 1 show that women experience more severe degree of poverty compared to men. Therefore, in addition to analysing the conditions and causes of poverty in general, PRSP should also map out and analyse unequal gender relations that have made more women poor, and poor women suffer more from poverty. 2 Table 1 also shows that regional dynamics has apparently gone hand in hand with gender inequality, making the conditions of poor women living in rural areas and areas outside of Java more severe. The data on education also indicates that (poor) women living in the rural areas also suffer the same fate. It is very difficult for women in the regions to influence public decision making in general and budget allocation in particular in order to improve their income, education, and health conditions since they were hardly represented in the regional legislative body. Table 2 shows that while numbering almost 52% of the whole population, the number of women representatives in the regional executive and legislative bodies only came to a low 8%. At the village level, there were only a few numbers of women holding the position of village heads or become state apparatuses, as shown in Table 1. Therefore, unless gender is integrated fully into the PRSP, piecemeal solutions will not be able to successfully reduce the number of poor women.

6 Table 1. Some incidence of poverty for women in Indonesia No Incidence of Women Men Source and poverty for women (girls) (boys) Year Schooling 1. (not completed) primary 11.9%, 5.34% Susenas 2002 school 2. Llliteracy rate 12.69%, 5.85% Susenas 2002 Types of work 3. % of unpaid workers 35.6%, 10.8% Workers in the 68.3%, 59.9% 1999 informal sector Wages 5. Wages for workers that Rp. 124,232, Rp. 231, did not complete primary school 6. Wages for workers that Rp. 161,112, Rp. 277, completed primary school 7. Wages for workers that Rp. 214,100, Rp. 334, completed junior high school 8. Wages for workers that Rp. 367,900, Rp. 468, completed senior high school 9. Wages for workers that Rp. 559,000, Rp. 695, completed academy level 10. Wages for workers with Rp. 573,200, Rp. 769, university degree Employment 11. Unemployment rate 7.5% 5.8% Underemployment rate 24.9% 12.5% 1999 Politics 13. Women representation at 5% 1999 the regional house of representatives (DPRD I and II) 14. Women as village heads < 5% 1999 and apparatus 3 Regional disparity 15. Mean years of schooling Papua: 4.8%; 1999 for girls Yogyakarta: 9.3% 16. Women illiteracy North Sumatera: %; Papua: 32.75% 17. Women illiteracy Urban: 9.21%; 1999 rural: 17.72% Source: Indonesia Country Gender Profile 2003 (draft, April )

7 Gender and poverty Table 2. Women representation in the regional executive and legislative offices Position Women Men Percentage Head of DPRD I Deputy DPRD I Head of DPRD II Deputy DRPD II Governor Regent Echelon I Echelon II Echelon III Total Source: Mayling Oei Gardiner, in Kathryn Robinson & Sharon Bessell (eds.), Women in Indonesia, Gender, Equity and Development, Benefits of engendering PRSP processes What needs to be understood is that reducing the degree of poverty and the number of poor women cannot be accomplished through anti poverty programmes alone. This is because there are social values that, for example, allocate women s time to the type of non-wage work within the household, such as child care, house work and food preparation. In the rural areas, the non-wage work include subsistence farming and the collection of fuelwood and water. Therefore, in order to successfully reduce the poverty of women, antipoverty programs need to be accompanied by programs intended to eradicate the socially-imposed social values that put women in disadvantaged positions. In order to develop and carry out both programs simultaneously, women must participate fully and equally in the formulation of macroeconomic and social policies and strategies for poverty reduction. At the general level, the Indonesian government has issued various policies regarding the empowerment of women and gender mainstreaming, such as the Guideline for State Policy (GBHN), the National Development Plan (Propenas), Government Regulation 25/2000 on the role of provincial governments under regional

8 autonomy, Ministerial Decree 50/2000 on regional organization and working procedures, and INPRES 9/2000 on gender mainstreaming at the level of government agencies and programs. Specifically in poverty reduction strategy, the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, 2003, published by Komite Penanggulangan Kemiskinan (Poverty Reduction Committee, which is headed by the Coordinating Minister of People s Welfare) has acknowledged the relation between gender and poverty (p. 6). The document also argues that women empowerment policies should be directed at reducing the quality of life gap between men and women (p. 28). However, since government offices in Indonesia have inadequate knowledge and commitment to gender equality, there is a big danger that PRSP in Indonesia would end up developing some women empowerment programs and hoping they would automatically solve the poverty of women. PRSP would be able to help reduce poverty among women only if gender perspective is fully integrated into PRSP, making PRSP develop specific strategies to reduce the number of poor women, and not just simply developing some women empowerment programs. There are at least two benefits that come with mainstreaming gender into the PRSP. First, laying out the steps and strategies of reducing the number of poor women, PRSP would become more effective in realizing its target. Integration of gender into PRSP should be done both at the analytical and methodological level. At the analytical level, gender analysis will generate information needed to direct PRSP to reach the target of reducing the number of poor women, such as: 5 the different nature, causes, and impacts of poverty on men and women; specification of gender-based inequality in access to and control of economic, human, and social assets; the integration of tradeoffs between women s work in and outside the household. At the level of method, the integration of gender perspective would make PRSP adopt certain methods to implement the program, such as:

9 Gender and poverty developing gender balance in the team preparing the PRSP; conducting gender-inclusive mapping of stakeholders; conducting gender-inclusive consultations with the poor; developing data and indicators that are aggregated by sex; developing gender empowerment and gender related development indicators. The use of gender analysis in the PRSP has allowed the identification of gender inequality as an important cause of poverty. By mapping the relation between gender inequality and the poverty of women, PRSP could then pinpoint integrated solution to reduce the number of poor women. Learning from other country case we can see that in Indonesia gender inequality that causes poverty to women include: women are often engaged in low-productivity agricultural tasks; women lack access to training; women suffer from unfair payment for the same job; women-owned enterprises are often undercapitalized; women do not have secure land rights to the land that they tilt; women have lower education; more girls than boys are not attending schools; women have lower access to health care; women are subjected to unsafe sex; women lack of decision making in the family; women have heavy burden of family work. 6 Therefore, reducing women poverty and the number of poor women in Indonesia is not just a matter of providing economic resources to women. Without changing the unequal gender relations in the society, women are not likely to efficiently use the resources. The second benefit is in term of image and support. The integration of gender in PRSP would make PRSP itself become more inclusive and more democratic, hence enabling PRSP to mobilize broader support and gain more commitment and credibility. The improved image and broader support would in

10 turn help PRSP s effectiveness in reaching its target to reduce the number of poor women. Integrating gender into PRSP should be done in steps. But before discussing about concrete steps of integrating gender into PRSP, in Indonesia the intervention should be done first at the level of the design of PRSP itself. What should be done then is to identify fields of gender mainstreaming in the design of PRSP, and conduct a conceptual engendering process in those fields at once. Without engendering the design of PRSP itself, gender issues would just become an accessory to the PRSP. There are at least five conceptual fields in the PRSP that should become targets of gender mainstreaming: organizational structure, method or process, substance, monitoring and evaluation, and empowerment. How to engender PRSPs The issue here is how to put gender experts into the organizational structure of the PRSP. Organizational infrastructure: 7 Include gender experts as permanent members on all PRSP high level bodies and committees at local levels as well as central levels; Request significant representation of gender experts in PRSP advisory boards, taskforces, and committees; Request specialized, ad-hoc, gender expert team to advise/consult at critical stages of PRSP decision making and planning; Ensure PRSP implementers can demonstrate or will acquire capacity to mainstream gender in all their work, in accordance with international (CEDAW, Beijing, ILS) and national (INPRES 9/ 2000) commitments. The issue here is how to make sure that the method and processes to carry out PRSP are well informed regarding gender inequality. Designing PRSP assessments, consultations, mappings, meetings, focus group discussions, and workshops to be gender inclusive in method, substance, and participants; Inviting organizations, agencies, focal points with responsibility for gender to consultations, to submit materials, analyses, concerns as inputs, to review and feedback on drafts of PRSP, to sit Method or process

11 Gender and poverty on PRSP bodies and to attend meetings, workshops, seminars, and plenaries. Implementation/ substance The issue here is how to make sure that gender mainstreaming becomes a PRSP goal and that the implementation of PRSP is based on gender informed data. Use of gender sensitive information and sex disaggregated data in all poverty and PRSP analyses. No analyses should be conducted based on aggregated data. Pressure the National Statistics Body to release their sex disaggregated data; Apply gender analyses of the differential participation, needs, benefits of/for women and men in all PRSP areas, including education, health, and economy; Include promotion of gender equality as a standing item on all agendas; Make PRSP have gender explicit objectives, indicators, and targets. Monitoring and evaluation The issue here is how to make PRSP accountable to gender mainstreaming objectives. Develop gender indicators for monitoring and evaluation; Require reporting of achievements and shortcomings (lessons learned) in addressing gender inequality in monitoring and evaluation reports. Empowerment The issue here is how to identify women institutions that need to be empowered to be able to participate in the activities to mainstream gender into PRSP. 8 Identify women institutions that should participate in PRSP gender mainstreaming activities; Conduct training, workshop, and popular education on women s rights as human rights to the women institutions; Conduct specific campaign and training on gender budgeting (allocating budget to serve women interests), both at the national and local level.

12 Only after PRSP has been engendered at the design level, we could then plan the step by step practical implementation of gender mainstreaming in the PRSP. If the five fields of PRSP failed to be engendered, then it is unlikely that gender mainstreaming of PRSP could be successfully carried out at the practical level. In carrying out the step by step implementation of engendering PRSP, we should use the above five conceptual fields in the PRSP that are targets of gender mainstreaming (organizational structure, method or process, substance, monitoring and evaluation, and empowerment) in every step of the practical implementation in engendering PRSP. Step 1: ensuring that gender is addressed in all analysis of causes of poverty; Step 2: documenting the experience of poverty for both women and men; Step 3: conducting gender analysis of the data gathered and integrating findings into poverty diagnosis. Integrating gender into poverty diagnosis Step 4: identifying public policies that need to be introduced or changed in order to engender poverty reduction; Step 5: developing priorities of policy changes for the PRSP; Step 6: formulating recommendation for policy changes along the gender line. Using a genderinformed poverty analysis in defining policy changes 9 Step 7: integrating a gender dimension into outcome monitoring; Step 8: integrating gender into the PRSP evaluation strategy; Step 9: building institutional capacity for gendersensitive M&E. Integrating gender into monitoring and evaluation