Women s economic empowerment: Approaches, strategies and alliances

Transcription

1 Women s economic empowerment: Approaches, strategies and alliances Lilli Loveday, Mokoro Pursuing women s empowerment Emerging from grass-roots efforts at mobilisation and raising the voices of the marginalised, empowerment specifically women s empowerment has long been pursued by NGOs and CSOs as a process linked to organising for social justice, emancipation and rights (Baden, 2014). Women s empowerment is linked to improved development outcomes and is seen as a driver for change. In more recent years, and particularly since the 1990s, the economic dimension of women s empowerment has become increasingly visible, with an observable presence in international policy discourses such as the Beijing Platform for Action (which emphasises the promotion of women s economic independence), the Millennium Development Goals (which use women s share of non-agricultural employment as an indicator of empowerment) and the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (which advocates for equal access to opportunities through employment or self-employment ). In 2006 the World Bank was among the first to offer a more specific and explicit elucidation of the economic element of empowerment, stating: Economic empowerment is about making markets work for women and empowering women to compete in markets (World Bank, 2006). Not only is the economic empowerment of women about achieving gender equality and recognition of human rights, but it is also a driver of broader economic (and pro-poor) growth (Golla et al., 2011). Research indicates that when the number of women in paid employment increases, economies grow; that companies with the greatest female representation in management deliver a return to shareholders that is 34 per cent higher than companies with the lowest representation; and that when the share of household income controlled by women is increased, the amount of spending beneficial to children increases (UN Women, 2012). One fact makes evident women s potential to contribute in positive ways: Women do 66 per cent of the world s work but earn only ten per cent of the world s income, yet they reinvest 90 per cent of their income into family and community (Coca-Cola, 2013). Furthermore, as an economy grows, poverty decreases and there is an inherently propoor bias, which, given that women often occupy the most disadvantaged and vulnerable positions across communities, drives women s empowerment (Golla et al., 2011). Schemes and interventions Donors and multilaterals have tended towards interventions that support women s economic empowerment through micro-finance schemes and support for female entrepreneurs. More recently, private sector actors have launched global efforts to support women s economic empowerment, albeit with arguably different motivations arising from the perceived value of women being an untapped market of consumers. The Third Billion Campaign highlights this, indicating the potential impact on the global economy of women s inclusion in the economic mainstream as Figure 1: Women s economic empowerment Resources Project example: Literacy training provides a personal resource that boosts women s agency Project example: Micro-credit removes constraints to the financial resources that may allow women to advance economically Economic advancement Women s economic empowerment Power and agency Norms and institutions Project example: Community campaigns change social institutions (norms) that present barriers to women s agency Project example: Market-based approaches change how market actors and institutions treat women, and allow for their economic advancement Source: Golla et al.,

2 G o v e r n a n c e f o r i n c l u s i o n : P a r t i c i p a t i o n a n d d i a l o g u e employees, producers and entrepreneurs (Strategy&, 2012). Private sector initiatives often operated alongside INGO interventions such as Walmart s Women s Economic Empowerment Project 1 and Coca-Cola s 5by20 plan 2, include commitments to empowering women by sourcing from women-owned businesses and providing access to markets and training (Dolan, 2014). Financial schemes have been credited with increasing women s access to resources, which can in turn lead to stabilised livelihoods Overview Sally Baden, Social Development Direct Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society have long pursued women s empowerment, both as a goal in itself and as a process of enhancing the voice of marginalised people. This has included collective organising for social justice, rights and emancipation, sometimes linked to wider processes of movement building, including that of the women s movement. The economic empowerment specifically of women became a major focus of debate in the 1990s. This sometimes controversial debate was linked to the so-called micro-finance revolution, where development actors saw their interventions as putting cash in women s hands for the first time and to varying degrees equated this with economic empowerment (Goetz, 1996; Kabeer, 2001). More recently, bilateral and multilateral agencies, as well as some feminists and economists, have focused on women s economic empowerment in terms of its relationship with broader economic development and growth (Duflo, 2012; Kabeer, 2012). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also taken an interest in the contribution of women to economic growth. In 2014 Christine Lagarde of the IMF was in Japan speaking about unleashing the economic power and potential of women as a means of solving the economic crisis and stalled growth. Increasingly and necessarily the private sector is engaged with women s economic empowerment, working with international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and donors, and in its own right. For the last few years the British Department for International Development (DFID) has been working with the Nike Foundation on a strategic collaboration, Girl Hub i, which empowers girls through providing economic assets. Global corporations, such as Walmart and Coca-Cola, have targets for economically empowering women, and employ women s economic empowerment advisers. Of course, businesses have a different perspective on women s economic empowerment, including seeing women as a large untapped market of consumers referred to in a new global campaign as the third billion ii. We seem some distance from the perspectives of civil society and international NGOs on power and process, and yet these earlier discourses continue to inform some of our thinking and practice. Given the profile of women s economic empowerment among international agencies, practitioners and researchers are required to design programmes to deliver women s economic empowerment or to devise ways to measure this as an outcome. and, arguably, broadened choices through increased bargaining power (OECD DAC, 2012). And, indeed, research indicates that formal or semi-formal paid work offers the most promising pathway to women s economic empowerment (Kabeer, 2012). Yet, while involving women in the formal/paid economy has evident benefits, whether participation in the market by itself translates to empowerment more broadly is questionable and there is a need to challenge the assumption that access to resources determines power over resources (a paid woman does not necessarily have any more decision-making capacity than an unpaid woman). So-called magic bullet interventions, such as micro-finance schemes, have come under scrutiny given their failure to address the underlying factors of disempowerment. Indeed, as Kabeer (2012) asserts: Merely increasing access to markets does not necessarily address the terms on which poor women and men enter different market arenas or their ability to negotiate a fairer deal for themselves. There are other considerations to keep in mind when advocating for women s economic participation including evidence from practitioner studies that time poverty is increasingly rife, with women experiencing the double burden of formal and informal employment (Dolan, 2014). Rather than paid work replacing women s unpaid work, it is often done as well as. Additionally, a woman s economic advances may, in fact, trigger greater power struggles at household level given perceptions of their intent and/or ability to exercise greater autonomy. A study in South Asia highlights that women s paid employment is unrelated to having a Empowerment of women There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, or to reduce infant and maternal mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation. Kofi A. Annan UN Commission on the Status of Women Mokoro seminar While economic empowerment of women has gained considerable traction in the development arena, the corporate world and beyond, it has also been the subject of significant debate. In September 2014 Mokoro hosted a seminar, chaired by Sally Baden (independent consultant), that brought together Dr Elizabeth Daley (Mokoro principal consultant), Dr Catherine Dolan (reader in anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and associate fellow at the Said Business School, Oxford University) and Christine Svarer (head of women s economic empowerment and private sector engagement at CARE International) to discuss understandings of women s economic empowerment and explore approaches, strategies and alliances for success. Outputs from the seminar are available at: 90

3 W o m e n s e c o n o m i c e m p o w e r m e n t ylvie Bouchard / Shutterstock.com Land and property are the foundation of economic empowerment for women say in decisions about family size, to enjoying freedom of movement, and to being unafraid to disagree with the husband (Oppenheim Mason, 2005). Acknowledgment of the potential for micro-finance (and similar) schemes to contribute to empowerment by providing increased access to financial resources (and increasing income), and recognising their limitations for driving transformational change, leads to an important consideration of how economic empowerment and, indeed, empowerment more broadly is conceptualised and should, therefore, be achieved. Empowerment is a relative concept (defined against what existed previously) and transformative by nature; in its broadest sense, it is an expansion of freedom of choice and action (Malhotra and Schuler, 2005). While the economic aspect of empowerment is the most studied, empowerment is a multidimensional concept encompassing social, psychological and political components (Narayan, 2005). It is also contextual and operates at different levels and across different spheres (individual, household, community and national) with potential for variation in terms both of progress and the definition of what it means to be empowered within and across these levels and spheres. Empowerment in one sphere does not necessarily translate to empowerment in another. In conceptions of empowerment, resources (such as education and employment) are considered to be enabling factors for, rather than indicators of, empowerment. And, as a process, empowerment must engage women (rather than be done to them): women must be agents of the change and have agency, in other words they must be able to formulate strategic choices, and control resources and decisions (Malhotra and Schuler, 2005). Understanding empowerment as multi-dimensional, transformative, relative and concerned with access to and power over resources influences both the types and the targets of interventions. One definition of women s economic empowerment emphasises its two components, namely resources (access to) and agency (control over): A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and the power to make and act on economic decisions (Golla et al., 2011). Resources include human capital (knowledge, skills) as well as financial capital and other resources, including land and property. But the critical next step of economic empowerment is determining how these resources are distributed and used, which is a political process embedded in the deeper norms and institutions that govern the rules of the game. Thus, it is more useful to consider micro-finance schemes and support to entrepreneurs as ways to encourage, or pre-requisites for, empowerment, contributing to overcoming the constraints that limit women s agency on a practical, everyday basis rather than necessarily transforming the deeper systems that support these constraints (Kabeer, 2005). Figure 1 demonstrates the interaction between projects/programmes that provide access to resources alongside those that aim to redefine the norms and institutions that determine how resources are distributed. Combined, these efforts contribute to securing empowerment through increased power/agency and economic advancement. 91

4 G o v e r n a n c e f o r i n c l u s i o n : P a r t i c i p a t i o n a n d d i a l o g u e Golla et al. (2011) suggest that programmes should choose their slice of the complex pie that constitutes economic empowerment while framing it in the broader context. A recent study found evidence that combined interventions that are holistic and provide economic skills and services, as well as life skills and other training, deliver the best results. As single interventions, micro-credit schemes were found to have no impact on female bargaining power, but when implemented with business development approaches were seen to contribute to increasing women s confidence and knowledge (Taylor and Pereznieto, 2014). Indeed, programmes that approach empowerment in a comprehensive way have recorded impressive results. The USAIDfunded SHOUHARDO programme 3, implemented by CARE in Bangladesh, covers health, sanitation, food production, village savings and loans, institutional strengthening and climate change adaptation with various empowerment elements, including promotion of female entrepreneurship and self-help groups where taboo subjects can be discussed. Results indicate that involvement in the programme has increased women s freedom and raised their decision-making power over the use of loans and the buying and selling of household assets (Svarer, 2014; CARE, 2012). The different components of the programme are credited with bringing about this transformation. Further considerations There is also a need to consider natural resources, such as land, as well as other property and assets. Land and other property (such as cattle, machinery, etc) can be used for farming and production, but are also the basis for wider political empowerment. Having access to secure land and property tenure can provide a home and enable women to engage in political struggles over resources; land is an asset to bring to marriage and can be used as collateral for loans. As such, land and property are the foundation of economic empowerment, giving women the confidence to take risks and to negotiate rights to resources, but also providing them with peace of mind (See Women s land and property rights: A necessary foundation for economic empowerment, page 94). Ultimately, inequalities persist between women and men because of underlying norms and institutions that determine how resources are controlled. No single programme can address all the factors that contribute to women s economic empowerment, and it is evident that it can only be meaningfully and sustainably achieved if its various components are taken into consideration. To free women from control and coercion, and to empower them expanding their freedom and choices involves changing the social structures that shape their lives, that is, ultimately, a political process involving negotiation. Endnotes i See ii The term the third billion is used to define the estimated one billion women in both developing and industrialised nations whose economic lives have been previously inhibited or suppressed, and who, over the next decade, could begin taking their places in the global economy as consumers, producers, employees and entrepreneurs. 1 See 2 See 3 See References Baden, S., Introduction. Mapping the Debate on Women s Economic Empowerment, Oxford, 19 September Oxford: Mokoro. CARE, Reaching New Heights: The Case for Measuring Women s Empowerment [pdf] CARE. Available at: [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Coca-Cola, Empowering Millions, One Woman at a Time [pdf] Coca-Cola. Available at: colacompany.com/ff/21/7f e98fde21f59597d55f/5by20- infographic-pdf [Accessed 18 December 2014]. Daley, E., Women s land and property rights: a necessary foundation for economic empowerment. Mapping the Debate on Women s Economic Empowerment, Oxford, 19 September Oxford: Mokoro. Dolan, C., Corporate engagement in women s economic empowerment. Mapping the Debate on Women s Economic Empowerment, Oxford, 19 September Oxford: Mokoro. Duflo, E., Women empowerment and economic development. Journal of Economic Literature, 50 (4), pp Goetz, A. M. and Sen Gupta, R.,1996. Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh. World Development, 24 (1), pp Golla, A., Malhotra, A., Nanda, P. and Mehra, R., Understanding and Measuring Women s Economic Empowerment [pdf] ICRW (International Centre for Research on Women). Available at: [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Kabeer, N., Is Microfinance a Magic Bullet for Women s Empowerment? Analysis of Findings from South Asia [pdf] London School of Economics. Available at: rnomagicbullets.pdf [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Kabeer, N., Women s Economic Empowerment and Inclusive Growth: Labour Markets and Enterprise Development [pdf] International Development Research Centre. Available at: [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Lagarde, C., Keynote speech. Women s Power as the Source of Growth, Tokyo, 5 September Tokyo: World Assembly for Women. Malhotra, A. and Schuler, S. R., Women s empowerment as a variable in international development. In: D. Narayan, ed Measuring Empowerment: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Washington: World Bank, pp Narayan, D., Conceptual framework and methodological challenges. In: D. Narayan, ed Measuring Empowerment: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Washington: World Bank, pp OECD DAC (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Development Assistance Committee), Women s Economic Empowerment: The OECD DAC Network on Gender Equality [pdf] OECD. Available at: [Accessed 15 January 2015]. Oppenheim Mason, K., Measuring women s empowerment: Learning from cross-national research. In: D. 92

5 W o m e n s e c o n o m i c e m p o w e r m e n t Narayan, ed Measuring Empowerment: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Washington: World Bank, pp Strategy&, The Third Billion [webpage] Strategy&. Available at: [Accessed on 18 December 2014]. Svarer, C., CARE s experience to date. Mapping the Debate on Women s Economic Empowerment, Oxford, 19 September Oxford: Mokoro. Taylor, G. and Pereznieto, P., Review of Evaluation Approaches and Methods Used by Interventions on Women and Girls Economic Empowerment [webpage] Overseas Development Institute. Available at: [Accessed 15 January 2015]. UN Women, Facts and Figures: Economic Empowerment [webpage] UN Women. Available at: [Accessed 18 December 2014]. World Bank, Gender Equality as Smart Economics: A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan [pdf] World Bank. Available at: 2.pdf [Accessed 15 January 2015]. SALLY BADEN is lead consultant for women s economic empowerment, at Social Development Direct. She previously worked as an independent researcher and policy analyst, specialising in gender equality and economic development issues. In Baden worked for Oxfam in a range of advisory, programme management and policy advocacy roles. From she was based in Senegal and Mali in West Africa, where she co-ordinated the regional Oxfam International Make Trade Fair campaign and subsequently led the development of a five-year programme of support to strengthen producer organisations in southern Mali. Prior to this, Baden worked at the Institute of Development Studies as manager of the Briefings on Development and Gender project. LILLI LOVEDAY is a programme co-ordinator at Mokoro. She has an academic background in international development and experience working in programmes, research and advisory roles with a focus on gender and gender equality, women s health and understanding processes of change. Prior to joining Mokoro, Loveday worked with Tostan International in The Gambia, supporting delivery of a non-formal education programme aimed at bringing about positive social change by increasing awareness of human rights with a particular focus on women s health and women s rights. 93