Gender, Development and Poverty Reduction in Africa: Lessons Learnt from Three Decades of Action

Transcription

1 Gender, Development and Poverty Reduction in Africa: Lessons Learnt from Three Decades of Action 1

2 I am glad to see that gender features prominently, though not mainstreamed in all thematic sessions, in the conference ; Mainstreaming of gender in all thematic sessions, obliges all academies to interrogate the intersection of gender in their topic to show how the construction of gender influence food security, social determinants of health, agricultural innovation and sustainable agriculture, and water and energy and in turn poverty in Africa. 2

3 Nonetheless, this time around, I applaud the organizers for upholding and implementing the truism that gender matters in development and social and scientific fields (including technology), and by implication demonstrate that the field of science and technology is not gender neutral; a misleadingly but widely held supposition. Gender, development and Poverty - is loaded and brings to bear the many cross-cutting issues of diversity and difference in how we assimilate the construction of women, men and gender relations in our societies; 3

4 Lesson learnt from 3 decades of Action : Requires mapping - extremely important but a tall order; hopefully, ASSAF can set the pace; Gender, development and poverty : a) are nebulous, complex and hard to capture; b) have a history (pre-colonial, colonial, postcolonial to date ); c) are discourses that continue to shape development in Africa; 5

5 d) the definition & measurement of all 3 concepts remains problematic and challenging; e) need to use triangulation techniques to understand the dynamics and capture the effect/outcomes in a holistic manner; According to Robert Chambers Whose reality counts? A question valid in the late 80s and today and future. Fundamental questions include: a) how has development action embrace gender, especially actions against poverty or extreme poverty? b) Are there lessons? c) What are the lessons 6

6 a) Because the structure of the household is gendered, poverty is often gendered; a) Household structure & intra-household dynamics ( the size, structure, resources, rural/urban; & intrahousehold dynamics in terms of gender by decisionmaking in terms of control/distribution of assets, consumption & expenditures, access to paid employment & income, etc ) affect how women and men are affected and situated in poverty 8

7 There is feminization of poverty - women more than men face increase risk of poverty because changes in the household structures, employment opportunities, social safety nets, climate change, etc ; calls for the understanding of gender, changes in the household structures/dynamics and poverty risk dynamics Development actions, especially prior to 1975 have had negative effects on women than men not due to exclusion but how women were constructed in development; 9

8 Unlevelled playing field, Females, especially women are more vulnerable to poverty and extreme poverty than male gender. Feminisation of poverty is a fact - women face the brunt of unpaid work combined with the fact that they have fewer assets and productive resources than men and are exposed to gender-based violence (GBV) and tend to be forced into early marriages. Different categories of female gender suffer more from income, material, consumption and time poverty than their male counterparts. 10

9 These situations of inequalities affect women s effective participation in all spheres of development; and ability to exploit available opportunities and benefits for their personal welfare, and that of families and communities. Research fact: Missing out on women is not just costly to development but we cannot claim to be developing/developed; also women s constitutional right as stakeholders in their countries development; Post 1975/structural adjustment witnessed deconstruction and reconstruction of development to embrace WID, & GAD development approaches Demand that development policy, programme, projects and actions are monitor using a gender/women s lens, equality in the participation of women and men, inclusiveness active participation of women, call for gender-sensitivity, genderresponsive and gender mainstreaming 11

10 1. Some Development Approaches in the last 3 decades: Improve Economic growth rate & Productivity; Pro-poor development strategy - welfare, efficiency, empowerment, anti-poverty, equity policy approaches; WID & GAD approach to development Post- SAP effort: National Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs); 12

11 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Legal Instruments CEDAW/other international conventions; Domestication of international/regional instruments legal instruments/conventions; Some Strategies Gender Mainstreaming strategy to development (include gender-aware policy, programmes projects, activities; gender budgeting, affirmative actions, gender quota ; etc) Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative Africa (GEPMI) by IDEP - UNDP/UN Women 13

12 Current Approaches: Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030; African Union Agenda 2063 have as a vision and goal - all aim to eradicate extreme poverty and reduction of poverty in general Agendas SDGs 2030 and AU have explicit goals and aspirations to enable nations address extreme poverty and the interrelation with gender inequality 14

13 Agenda 2030: Goal 1 End Poverty in all its forms everywhere Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls AU Agenda 2063 Aspiration1: A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development (where nations are determined to eradicate poverty in one generation and build shared prosperity through social and economic transformation of the continent); 15

14 Aspiration 6: An Africa where development is peopledriven, unleashing the potential of its women and youth (aimed at the eradication of poverty, and promotion of gender equality and women s empowerment in all spheres of life in all countries in Africa) respectively (AU, 2014). GEPMI- Module 6: Gender and Poverty (deals concept of poverty, its measurement, relationship between gender dimensions, poverty dynamics and household structures, and policy implications 16

15 Integrating Gender Into Poverty Reduction Strategies: From The Declaration Of Intent To Development Policy In Practice? (2002:1). The study examines the extent to which National PRSPs ---integrate gender perspective. Findings: Worldwide, 1.3 billion people are living in extreme poverty. Most of them are women....in rural areas the percentage of women living in absolute poverty has risen to over 50%....political, economic, and cultural discrimination against women constitutes a central obstacle to social development. 17

16 that poverty reduction programmes can succeed only if they take into consideration the existing social inequality between men and women. for most part no systematic inclusion of women s positions. obstacles to development of long-term strategies to reduce women s poverty is a lack of data broken down and analysed in gender-specific terms. Poverty profile indicators are generally limited to the access rate of girls and women to basic education 18

17 Thus far no success has been met with integrating a gender-specific perspective into the poverty strategy s macroeconomic framework. PRSP process takes no consideration of the social impacts on women of conventional stabilization and privatization measures. Measured aimed at improving the economic situation of women are largely limited to the provision of microcredit. bilateral donors sought to devote more effort to integrating crosssectional issues like promotion of gender equity rather than link gender issues with macroeconomics, promotion of democracy (participation), and the coherence of sectoral policies As conclusion, the 2 major highlighted concerns include: to ensure that women have access to resources and rights and to initiate measures aimed at overcoming structural discrimination 19

18 Since 1990, over 900 million people have seen their consumption rise above $1.25 per day. If this trend continues, extreme poverty could be eradicated within the next two decades. --- this projection depends on ensuring inclusive economic growth that reaches typically excluded populations, and women in particular (USAID, 2015:1). 1. Study examined some factors that makes women venerable to extreme poverty and illustrate how through the use of gendersensitive programming in agriculture, education and reproductive health one can negate extreme poverty greater burdens of unpaid work - fewer assets and productive resources than men, exposure to GBV, forced & early marriages (These gender indicators affect women s participation in the economy and benefits as well as their predisposition to extreme poverty); 20

19 Some important findings (USAID, 2015: 10-11). 1. Integrated innovative approaches are needed to address the social and economic barriers that prevent women from achieving equality and empowerment needed to stall extreme poverty reduction; 2. There is dire need in understanding what works best for women and girls in bringing them out of poverty; 3. There is need to design poverty programme that consider the gender specific link to poverty; 4. Carry out rigorous/robust data collection and evaluation; 5. Ensure data collection is relevant to the gendered aspect of poverty, using gender indicators; 21

20 Reveal differences between men and women beneficiaries in terms of their perception of poverty, what constitute poverty reduction project, benefits from PRP, and effect? Concerns and Issues In Using Gender Sensitive Programming Several gender analysis frameworks exist to guide gender and poverty research and actions; General lack of will power, mindset and capacity to do gender related research and analysis Lack of robust study associating gender awareness strategies to poverty reduction; Bureaucratic resistance & lukewarm/shelving attitude in embracing gender analysis needed for mainstreaming gender in poverty reduction programmes, Etc, 22

21 Attempts so far (little to moderate/haphazard ): development policy, programmes & projects interventions and institutions, particularly those that have been mandated to end poverty are gender-aware and gender-responsive; Generate and use gender disaggregated data ; Build the capacity of all stakeholders - policy makers, technocrats, development practitioners, researchers, drawing up of the budget, community at large to be genderaware, gender-sensitive and responsive to address gender issues in poverty; 23

22 Gains from the use of MDGS, CEDAW, National women s machinery, affirmative actions, quota, etc Gender awareness and sensitivity have generated several gains for women e.g. increase political participation, consumption of education, etc 24