Gender and the MDGs

The authors of this 4-page Overseas Development Institute (ODI) briefing paper argue that gender inequality causes and perpetuates poverty, hampering progress towards all 8 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Observing that gender is only explicit in 2 of them (MDG #3, which measures gender parity in education, and MDG #5, which focuses on maternal mortality), the authors call for heightened attention to the ways in which blindness to gender cripples development efforts. Thus, the core thesis is that "[t]he achievement of the MDGs requires a coordinated policy approach that is sensitive to gender-specific discrimination and risks."

Specifically, they explore the centrality of gender relations to 4 clusters of Goals:

1. Poverty and sustainable development - "When women have ownership and control of resources and have higher education levels, it leads to greater productivity (World Bank 2001, 2007). Yet many face barriers to ownership and education as a result of prevailing attitudes and discriminatory laws and institutions. While globalisation has meant new labour opportunities for women, they continue to earn less than men, even in similar jobs (ibid). Moreover, their employment is often informal, with no access to social security or predictable income."
2. Service access - The authors explore the service-related goals (2, 3, 6, and 7), arguing that viewing them through a gender lens highlights the importance of understanding the very different challenges that face men and women, girls and boys, in accessing quality services." One such factor the authors focus on is "time poverty", which reflects the disproportionate amount of time women tend to spend doing unpaid domestic chores. "This highlights the socially ascribed burdens on women and the ways in which socio-cultural dynamics limit female education and opportunities." For example, time poverty can prevent women from accessing health care if clinics are far away and affordable childcare is unavailable.
3. Care and care-giving - "Taking a gender and care perspective...moves us beyond a sole reliance on technology (such as vaccines) and infrastructure (such as new health clinics) to policies and programmes that are informed by a clear analysis of underlying social determinants, including gender." For example, in the case of MDG #5 (reducing maternal mortality), "[a] comprehensive approach is required, including strategies to address: the lack of decision-making power for adolescent girls and women on healthcare expenditures (e.g. through health fee waivers for pregnant and lactating women); restrictions on female mobility (e.g. through mobile clinics with female personnel); and cultural attitudes that reinforce power relations and perpetuate harmful traditional practices (e.g. through campaigns to discredit nutritional taboos during pregnancy and promote women's right to quality reproductive health services)."
4. Voice and agency - According to the authors, "[p]romoting the ability of women to articulate their views in a meaningful way (voice) and to become the agents of their own empowerment (agency) is vital to overcome engrained socio-cultural conditioning and the gendered division of labour." They explore several examples to illustrate this claim, one of them focusing on MDG #3 (promote gender equality), which deals with 2 aspects of empowerment – education and national political representation. "However, as experience in Latin America shows, with widespread quotas for women in legislatures and rates of higher education for women often outstripping those for men, empowerment requires a more comprehensive approach. This includes efforts to improve women’s access to resources (e.g. credit, training, inheritance and land rights) and their capacity to use them (e.g. through anti-discrimination and gender-based violence legislation, gender-aware justice systems, and government mechanisms to improve gender inequality)."
   

Next, the authors look at ways to promote an interlinked gender-sensitive approach to MDG achievement. They contend that "transformative" social protection policies - those that address gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities - could maximise synergies across the MDGs, but only if implemented as part of an institutional (rather than piecemeal) approach. The authors offer a number of concrete policy and programme measures; amongst the communication-centric suggestions are:

• awareness-raising programmes about gender-based violence, and other preventive and protective measures, including financial support for women and children escaping abusive environments;
• opportunities for programme participants (women and men) to design and evaluate social protection programmes;
• gender-awareness and analysis training for programme staff to help them identify the gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities to be tackled by their programme;
• a centralised database that facilitates coordinated care and service access for programme participants and provides links to complementary services (e.g., micro-entrepreneurial training for women); and
• a rigorous monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system, underpinned by a baseline with sex-disaggregated data.