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Aid for Gender Equality

Key points from the UNU-WIDER/ReCom conference, Copenhagen, Denmark 16 December 2013

Programme: http://www1.wider.unu.edu/recomgender/content/programme

Leaders of gender equality efforts in Asia, from left: Dr. Khieu Serey Vuthea, Director General of Social Development,

Ministry of Women's Affairs, Cambodia; Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, Former Minister for Women's Development, Population

Planning, Social Welfare and Special Education, Member of the Parliament of Pakistan; and Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury,

Speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh. Photo: Gry Tina Tinde

Morning session:

Photo: Alexander Zach

The conference was introduced by

Charlotte Slente, State Secretary for

Development Policy at Danida.

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Next was a talk via video by Amartya Sen, Professor at Harvard University. Dr. Sen said achieving

gender equality is about 1. Enlightenment; and 2. Agency. On enlightenment - Women's education is

key regarding fertility and reducing the number of child births. On agency: A study in India showed

that when women have a stronger role in their family and society it's also positive for reproductive

health issues.

Why should one think of men and women differently? This is about human beings. On feminism: It's

an issue of humanity.

Photo: Alexander Zach

Dr. Caren Grown @CarenGrown Economist in Residence at American University welcomed

participants. She quoted a 8 March 2008 statement by Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon:

“...in women the world has at its disposal the most significant and yet largely untapped potential for

development and peace.”

Two reports are key, said Dr. Grown: 1. A report by FAO from 2010-11 “The State of Food and

Agriculture” and a report by the World Bank in 2012 “Gender Equality and Development”.

Dr. Caren Grown, Economist in

Residence, American University,

Washington. D.C.

Dr. Amartya Sen, Professor of

Economics and Philosophy, Harvard

University

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Dr. Grown said gender equality is multi-dimensional. Much literature states that there is a strong

impact of women's education on economic growth. However gender gaps in e.g. pay levels may also

enhance economic growth, although research findings are less robust on this topic.

Since 1975 when the UN declared the first decade on women we have seen a lot of progress: More

girls in school, labor force and reduced female mortality. Secondary education is an area that needs

focus. Labor market issues are important - it's about the conditions of work. Gender gaps have not

been closed in the labor marked. Women lack property rights in agriculture. In Ecuador more women

than men own land; however the value of what women own is always less. On time use: Across the

world, women globally carry out two hours more than men on unpaid work. Even in Sweden women

do more house work than men. Regarding seats in parliament: Women are largely underrepresented

in parliaments, making up approximately 20 per cent globally.

What are donors' responses? A twin-track approach: 1. Women focus and 2. Gender mainstreaming.

No. 2 got donors into trouble. Donor commitment has been reduced recently – there has been a big

drop in funding between 2011 and 2012. In 2011 it was around 18 per cent of all aid, and it is not

enough. If it were mainstreamed it would be 80 per cent. What works: on education: conditional

cash transfers; Scholarships. Health: maternal mortality: Skilled attendants; emergency obstetric care,

functional referral system; reproductive health, contraceptives, sexuality education, safe abortion

services.

What we don't always know is how these interventions stack up against each other and what are the

entry points?

What works and could work? Economic: poor women need more bundled services. Responding to

gender-based violence is essential, via e.g. community-based interventions.

Challenges: Stand-alone projects vs. scale up. Mainstreaming vs. "Away" streaming. Which means

that mainstreaming may make gender disappear. The lack of data hampers us in this conversation.

Data are necessary to make the issues visible.

Conclusions: Strategic entry points for interventions that "move the needle" and are oriented to

outcomes. Results on the ground – success "begets" success. Invest in monitoring and evaluation,

especially impact evaluation; invest in data collection. We need to ensure the political will. It is much

the same situation as 20 years ago. We need to move beyond rhetoric.

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Photo: Alexander Zach

The next speaker was @LEONCENDIKUMANA, Professor of Economics at the University of

Massachusetts Amherst.

According to Dr. Ndikumana:

1. There is a quantity and quality problem: there are inadequate volumes of aid; on quality: there is

allocational ineffectiveness; predictability is lacking. To reduce poverty you need results, and much is

needed in the agricultural sector.

2. There is weak additionality, such as spillover effects, technology and knowledge transfer.

3. Failure to influence policy and institutions.

4. Poor alignment of incentives and interests.

5. Lack of learning from mistakes

Empirical question: Does increasing volume of aid help ameliorate aggregate human development?

Results and implications: The overall impact of aid on human development depends significantly on

initial conditions. The finding suggests that aid evaluation that does not take into account initial

conditions is likely to underestimate the impact of aid on development outcomes. The focus should

be on relative progress rather than absolute progress.

Dr. Léonce

Ndikumana,

Professor of

Economics,

University of

Massachusetts

Amherst

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Photo: Alexander Zach

Kai Gehring @HeidelbergU speaks on Gender inequality and the allocation of aid. In outlining a study,

Mr. Gehring said there is little evidence of a merit-based allocation of aid. Improvements in

education and female literacy are followed by reductions of aid. An exception is in increased

numbers of women in parliaments, where increases are awarded by more aid.

Donors with high shares of women in parliament are more likely to reward higher female

parliamentary representation in recipient countries.

Left-wing governments react stronger to need in terms of unbalanced in education and women's

rights. Male ministers commit more aid in developing countries w well-established women's rights.

Female ministers react to imbalances in tertiary education with higher aid commitment. It is a multi-

faceted challenge. Donors respond only partially to need in terms of gender inequality. Donors do

not reward recipients for improvements.

Photo: Alexander Zach

Kai Gehring, Research

Associate, University

of Heidelberg

Dr. Mina Baliamoune-

Lutz, Professor of

Economics, University of

North Florida and

Director of Research,

African Center for

Economic

Transformation, Accra,

Ghana

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Talk by @Mina_Lutz and question-answer session.

Mina Baliamoune-Lutz says the MENA region has seen major advances for women in the past

decades, however much remains. There are disparities among the countries in terms of female

members of parliament. Results suggest that aid to equality organizations and institutions is in

general effective. A critical mass of women in parliament can create more push for gender equality.

Foreign aid could have a catalytic role in this process. There is documented evidence on

ineffectiveness of aid to family planning in terms having a positive (side)effect on women’s

empowerment in MENA. This argues for more support for women's reproductive health via

organizations that work for women’s political representation. More women in political leadership

gives results, as they adopt different policies than men, namely policies that support women’s rights.

The active participation of women in the Arab Spring has differed among countries - Tunisia for

example vs. Libya or Yemen.

Question from Dr. Liv Tønnessen: Please help explain the reason for the higher participation of

women in parliament in countries emerging from conflict.

Question from Roger Williamson - I'm worried about a personalization of the issues with the

appointment of female ministers.

Question from a member of the audience: Is there a certain kind of aid that works better than others?

Reply from Mina Baliamoune-Lutz: On countries emerging from conflict and female representation in

parliament: I did look at these countries, e.g. Lebanon. My understanding is that when you come out

of conflict you reconstruct, and women and men are needed. Aid donors may insist that women are

involved. Differences in female political representation in countries rebuilding after war and

countries in peace is an important issue that needs further study. Arab countries mostly have

Dr. Liv Tønnessen

Senior Researcher

and Coordinator of

Gender Politics at

Christian Michelsen

Institute in Bergen,

Norway

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autocratic governments, she added. There are various obstacles for women to access government

positions.

On female state leaders I hope to see a female president in Egypt. Advancement of women is not

happening fast enough in MENA.

Kai: should we focus on sex of minister or the composition of the bureaucracy? Whether a minister is

female or male is relevant. However for development ministers it doesn't seem to have a big impact.

Female ministers may care a little more about gender equality.

General comment: it makes sense to allocate aid to where the needs are highest. One should

consider incentives.

Léonce Ndikumana: I think it's OK if donors reduce aid when education improves to move aid to

countries that need it more. Donors are conflicted as to whether to interfere in domestic processes

via institutional support. However good institutions make better policy, and could use aid to improve

their work. Donors may prefer to fund institutions that operate well already, but when will

institutions be good enough to merit aid? It could be a long wait. When donors have worked with

countries to reform tax system as in Uganda in 1991 - tax collection improved. There are positive

results. An OECD project helps with tax audits, as another example. If we want to see gains from aid,

institution strengthening is the way to go. For instance on transport: To improve use of infrastructure

- donors should not only build and improve roads but help to manage transport & infrastructure. So

we cannot go around institutions. Yet donors want immediate results and reporting even after a few

months. Donors need more patience when investing in institutions.

Photo: Gry Tina Tinde

Dr. Roger Willamson, Senior

Research Associate of the

Institute of Development

Studies, moderated a session

on “Actors of Foreign Aid”.

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Photo: Alexander Zach

Eugenia McGill outlined gender mainstreaming experience of major Asian donors; identified trends,

variations, lessons; and described a Philippine study. She said “femocrats” from Australia, New

Zealand and others piloted gender mainstreaming in 1970s-80s. It was endorsed at the Beijing

women's conference in 1995 and UN-ECOSOC in 1997. It's a means to an end. Key ingredients are:

strong leadership, expertise and accountability, effective procedures and practices, capacity-building

measures for staff and development partners, adequate financial resources, and evaluations.

Major Asian donors: Asian Development Bank, AusAID, JICA (Japan), KOICA (South Korea), New

Zealand Aid Programme. All have gender equality policy documents except New Zealand. High-level

political leadership on gender equality is generally weak or sporadic. Notable variations: Global

ambassador on Women's Issues of AUSAid, Senior Gender Advisor at ADB.

The number of in-house gender experts is generally insufficient, but improving. Institutional

mechanisms: senior gender advisors (ADB, AusAID, JICA). Expert teams are centrally located. Internal

accountability mechanisms: All but New Zealand have this. ADB has gender mainstreaming targets.

These donors have country and project level reporting to a varying degree. All but New Zealand have

an external gender advisory forum. Japan has a parliamentary caucus.

Process: Country strategies: ADB requires a country gender strategy. AusAID has a quality-at-entry

reporting and project gender action plans. All org acknowledge that implementation was not good

enough. ADB adopted achievement of intended gender results, which drives how ADB conducts

reviews. Training and capacity development: Internal: induction and sector-specific training,

guidelines, checklists, newsletters, direct support (all were subject to gender staffing constraints). E-

learning tools: AusAID - under development. Gender career streams AusAID - under development.

External training/coaching of government counterpart staff is taking place.

Evaluations, research and learning: Formal evaluations are receiving increasing attention (several

under way). Also gender program stock-takes (AusAID) and rapid gender assessments (ADB). Gender-

related research: Little is initiated by research departments or affiliated research institutes. Info on

Eugenia McGill, Lecturer at

the School of international

and Public Affairs (SIPA) at

Columbia University, New

York

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country case may be found in study: Philippine Harmonized GAD Guidelines: Collaboration by the

Philippine Commission on Women and other partners.

Reflections: Challenges include political changes and organizational restructuring; economic

development projects; weak or uneven implementation of gender policy commitments. The use of

gender-related research is promising.

Photo: Alexander Zach

Dr. Nanivazo outlined results of a UNU-WIDER study of gender mainstreaming by development

agencies in Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

Key findings: The three Nordic development agencies Danida (Denmark) Sida (Sweden), and the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (FMFA ) all recognise gender mainstreaming as an important

part of the policy-making process. Gender equality is a well-funded objective in all three agencies,

but Danida and FMFA lack a separate budget for mainstreaming activities. While all three agencies

include gender analysis as part of their programme development process, this commitment often

evaporates when it comes to implementation. The aid effectiveness agenda and changing aid

modalities represent challenges to the future of gender mainstreaming.

Budgets and financial resources

The levels of funding for gender equality programmes and mainstreaming activities means that, at

least on the face of it, gender equality is a well-funded objective.

• In 2011 Danida devoted 18 per cent of its total development budget to gender mainstreaming and

special interventions.

• During 2008-10 6 per cent of Sida-funded development interventions had gender equality as their

primary objective, and 71 per cent of development interventions had gender equality as a significant

objective.

• FMFA currently targets 54 per cent of its total aid budget towards gender issues.

However these figures may lead to an overestimation of the financial resources available for gender.

There is a need to distinguish between budgets for special interventions for gender, and integrating

Dr. Malokele Nanivazo,

Research Fellow, UNU-

WIDER

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gender into existing programmes (the latter specifically referred to as mainstreaming in FMFA and

Danida). Danida disburses most of its resources on special interventions and has no specified budget

for mainstreaming activities. Similarly, FMFA does not have a separate budget for mainstreaming

activities — instead it advises that each project should assign a proportion of its budget to

mainstreaming, which does not always happen in practice. Sida recognises that gender budgeting is

an area where increasing attention is needed.

Photo: Alexander Zach

Dr. Gulrajani @NilimaGulrajani said private donors give considerable sums of money to development,

by some estimates over USD 55 billion in 2012 (OECD 2012). Nilima Gulrajani gave an overview of

historical evolutions of private actors:

The role of private actors has developed from business as a tool for growth to:

corporate social responsibility

inclusive business

social business

She outlined challenge fund characteristics:

Partnership - between donors and businesses mainly, often via third party contractors 2. Innovation -

incentive to think outside the box 3. Leverage - encourages additional investment 4. Competitive -

select the "best" opportunities Intersection with gender policy: "It is challenging to harmonize and

promote gender-sensitive dialogue on new aid modalities." Policy recommendations for donors

engaging with the private sector:

1. Carefully consider donor and corporate comparative advantages 2. Be clear and ambitious

with gender objectives in project selection phase (baseline indicators etc.) 3. Partner with

committed social businesses 4. Integrate and ensure consistency between gender strategies

and markets-for-poverty strategies

2. Engage corporate actors more pro-actively on gender 6. Ensure greater oversight over third

party engagement

Dr. Nilima Gulrajani,

Senior Researcher,

University College,

Oxford University

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Photo: Alexander Zach

Photo: Alexander Zach

From left: Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh; Dr. Finn Tarp,

Director, UNU-WIDER; Dr. Khieu Serey Vuthea, Director General of Social Development, Ministry of

Women's Affairs, Cambodia; and Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, Former Minister for Women's Development,

Population Planning, Social Welfare and Special Education, Member of the Parliament of Pakistan.

Päivi Kannisto,

Adviser for Gender

Issues, Ministry for

Foreign Affairs of

Finland

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Afternoon session:

The first presenter was the Speaker of Bangladesh Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury. Dr.

Chaudhury said that a majority of those living on 1 USD a day are women. Gender equality must be

looked at in a more comprehensive context, including the millennium development goals and Post

MDGs, security and food security. gender equality must be brought to the center of the development

agenda. Aid effectiveness should be seen in a broader context, including gender-based-violence,

education and political participation.

Aid to developing countries - how does it address these concerns? Economic growth doesn't

necessarily enhance inclusiveness. To achieve transformative change we need gender equality at the

forefront.

Dr. Khieu Serey Vuthea, Director General of Social Development, Ministry of Women's Affairs,

Cambodia: When she was 5-6 years old she discovered girls were appreciated very much and seen as

a flower or white cloth. In 1993 we wanted to be not just a perishable flower but a precious gem.

Men and women should work together for a country's progress, not just for the family. At the

Ministry of Women's Affairs we launched gender mainstreaming, and we have a National Council for

Women to help implement and respond to CEDAW. There is a working group on women. The

Ministry of Women's Affairs has a strategic plan for issues such as pension equality, economic

empowerment and access to justice and leadership positions. Cambodia has a mechanism and

platform on how to achieve gender equality. There is a gender mainstreaming action group and plan

in each ministry. To be more effective Cambodia also has a program-based approach focusing on

transparency vis-a-vis donors. Civil society is a key partner. Cambodia is learning about how to move

out of gender norms, and research is currently being done on this topic.

Photo: Alexander Zach

Dr. Attiya

Inayatullah,

Member of the

Parliament of

Pakistan (on left)

and Dr. Khieu Serey

Vuthea, Director

General of Social

Development,

Ministry of

Women's Affairs,

Cambodia.

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Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, Former Minister for Women's Development, Population Planning, Social

Welfare and Special Education, Member of the Parliament of Pakistan: Where are we today? We no

longer talk about just women in development or women and development, but women's

empowerment. What do we want with women's empowerment? We mean entitlement, women's

agency, and with that also the human rights agenda. Women are victims still, all over the world. They

are also agents of change. In creating the post 2015 goals women are very underrepresented. One of

the most important matters for Post 2015 is the development framework. There should be

consensus on the centrality of gender in the development framework.

The framework must include transformative goals, and seek depth in these matters. This morning we

heard about religious orthodoxy and that is a great concern to us women. I appeal to the donor

community to keep gender issues on that radar screen. When partners speak for us on gender

equality it strengthens our voice. In an appendix to the study on aid and gender of three Nordic

countries I noticed a big gap: Family planning. I urge donors and particularly Nordic countries to

consider bringing family planning back where it belongs.

QA session:

Comment by Dr. Vuthea: Regarding the CEDAW committee response from Cambodia, it was difficult

to obtain all necessary data from ministries. But mini data made by donors helped us report to

CEDAW. Donors who support gender please also include gender analysis for all sectors.

Dr. Inayatullah: Pakistan is in a state of democratic transition. Women must be integral to this

process. An example: achieving a critical mass. We have 20per cent women in the Pakistan and

Bangladesh parliaments and this has made a big difference. We need to reach the critical mass of

33per cent women in parliament.

Women need not just to be there but to exert influence, too. We have a women's parliamentary

caucus in Pakistan. A woman's role is to strengthen all democratic institutions. We have registered

the forum for women in Pakistan politics. We need a foothold in parliament as it approves budgets.

The oversight functions of parliament are also crucial. There must be coherence between the

country's plans and international partners' plans and commitments. Donors cannot move until they

see such coherence. Gaps between national and international action plans must be addressed from

the beginning. The question of accountability is key. Gender issues tend to be isolated from

"important people" who decide on budgets. Dr. Chaudhury: It is important for countries and donors

to have a good cooperation and set a time frame. Simplified procedures are necessary. Everyone

implementing gender policy must be sensitized, such as staff in the ministries. The Ministry of

Women's Affairs is sometimes not included in aid planning.

Questions from the audience: Patti O'Neill from OECD-DAC: Do donors adhere to the principles in

the Paris, Accra and Busan declarations?

From Prof. Ndikumana: Are aid principles institutionalized and operationalized by donors?

From Prof. Grown: Funding for women's organizations is relatively low. How to increase it?

Parliaments are becoming less powerful as power is being centralized. How can donors help?

Prof. Baliamoune-Lutz: What's the most effective way for aid money to empower Pakistani women?

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Photo: Alexander Zach

Answers:

Dr. Choudhury: It would be interesting to study to what degree the declarations of Paris, Accra and

Busan address gender equality and if this is being implemented. The declarations are not enough but

they need to be institutionalized. Much is happening on this in Bangladesh including training. A

monitoring mechanism similar to CEDAW's is necessary. A 2007 development forum mechanism was

established and something like this could be useful. We need to strengthen advocacy and linkages to

donors to increase funding for NGOs. Women in parliament are key and we support quotas. Not

enough women are coming through via elections so quotas help. Political parties need to engage

more women and nominate them. Some parties seem to believe that they will not win the election if

they increase the number of female candidates. This must be addressed, because with this situation

more nominations may not be enough.

Dr. Inayatullah: 45 per cent of people in Pakistan live below the poverty line. Participatory

development is a must due to the vast diversity of the country. That's where donor money will be

most effective to advance women's rights and participation. We cannot have donor-driven assistance.

Donors must be transparent and work with governments. Being an NGO is almost a bad word, but

the civil society sector has a huge role to play watching the parliament and government and must

play this role. NGOs should not aim to work at a macro level. They can affect behavioral change and

should do interventions that are scalable and replicable. We have a national commission on the

status of women. It's completely independent from government. The corporate sector should be

brought into the donor world. The Buffett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are

good examples.

Moderator Dr. Finn Tarp of UNU WIDER summed up some key issues from the session:

Empowerment, civil society and private sector role, and need for data.

Gro Lindstad,

Director of

FOKUS,

Norway

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Session on Aid and sectoral issues: See webcast video of the session here:

http://www1.wider.unu.edu/recomgender/article/video-aid-gender-equality-webcasts

Moderator: Tony Addison, Chief Economist and Deputy Director, UNU-WIDER

Speakers: Jasmine Gideon, Lecturer, University of London - Aid in the health sector

Nathalie Holvoet, Lecturer, University of Antwerp - Aid in the education sector

Sirkku K. Hellsten, Professor, University of Dar es Salaam - Aid in Support of UN resolution 1325

Helle Munk Ravnborg, Senior Researcher, DIIS - Land administration, gender equality and

development assistance: Lessons learned and challenges ahead

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Panel discussion on the future of aid and gender equality

Video http://www1.wider.unu.edu/recomgender/article/video-aid-gender-equality-webcasts

Moderator: Caren Grown, Economist in Residence, American University

Speakers:

Cindy Clark, Co-Executive Director, Association for Women's Rights in Development

Lucia Hanmer, Lead Economist, Gender and Development, World Bank

Patti O’Neill, Co-ordinator, OECD

Carolina Wennerholm, Senior Policy Specialist on Gender Equality, Sida

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Photo: Alexander Zach

Gry Tina Tinde 16 December 2013

Speakers, organisers and UNU-WIDER partners