The central objective of this research is to assess the value of resource based transfers in addressing unequal gender relations and power asymmetries within social protection programmes, with wider benefits for increased female empowerment and gender equity. The tendency to generalise assumptions of women and female-headed households as the poorest and most vulnerable has been to the detriment of a contextual analysis of the ways in which poverty has been shaped by gender. A case-by-case study of Nicaragua’s Conditional Cash Transfer, Ethiopia’s Public Works Programme and Malawi’s Food and Cash Transfer concludes that food and cash transfers targeted at women ease gender conflicts over scarce resources and augment household welfare. However it contends safety net programmes must directly integrate men to promote gender equity and enhance women’s agency, power and choice. Putting forward the notion that the objectives of poverty reduction and human capital are not in harmony, the inattention to gender relations has undervalued social protection schemes as a means for reducing poverty. This research is of significance to wider efforts to promote poverty reduction through women.
Author: Shefali Shah
Cash or Food Aid? Assessing the role of resource-based transfers in achieving female empowerment and gender equity in social protection programmes (70)
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Cash or Food Aid? Assessing the role of resource-based transfers in achieving female empowerment and gender equity in social protection programmes
Change or Continuity? Female Sex Workers’ Lives in the Dominican Republic
As a response to many studies in which the exploitative nature of sex tourism was pronounced, the work in review about the Dominican Republic emphasises that female sex workers are local agents who take advantage of their clients, transforming their bodies into resources for economic independence, while challenging structures of patriarchy and inverting gender relations. Neo-liberal economic reforms led to a change in the household’s income distribution and gave female sex workers, on a practical level, the possibility to increase their economic independence and status. However, as this paper argues, sex workers’ agency is very limited within well-defined structures and gender roles are not transformed on an ideological level. This paper puts into perspective sex worker’s lives and shows the importance of not loosing sight of structural forces such as economic constraints and familial obligations, and alerts researchers not to apply Western concepts of emancipation.
Author:David Parduhn
Change or Continuity? Female Sex Workers’ Lives in the Dominican Republic (134)
‘Money does not always talk’ – Reassessing the Empowerment Potential of Women’s Employment
It has often been assumed that, as a result of access to financial resources, women’s employment would lead to their empowerment. However, this link is not as straightforward as examples from Kenya and Bangladesh show: Firstly, intra-household dynamics shape women’s control over income and secondly, even when they have control, it does not necessarily lead to a transformation of their subordinate status. This paper examines fundamental problems in defining and measuring empowerment and in this context depicts underlying normative Western ideas about agency, emancipation and modernity. The paper argues for the inclusion of the women concerned in policy-making in order to construct locally relevant indicators for empowerment.
Author:David Parduhn
‘Money does not always talk’ - Reassessing the Empowerment Potential of Women’s Employment (223)
Featured Projects
The Learn Africa Project: Public Health, Applied Learning and Research Internship
Trevor Mattos is a Pike Scholar at Gordon College, Massachusetts. Earlier this year he and a colleague Miranda MacKinnon travelled to Togo, West Africa to direct a Development and Public Health project that had been planned since the previous year.
This project report details the establishment of the ‘The Learn Africa Project’ and highlights some of the challenges and planning required in establishing a community development and public health project from the base up in a Developing Country. It also highlights the principle research undertaken in preparation for the estabishment of the project.
Report Author: Trevor Mattos
Demographic Dimensions and their Implications on the Incidence of Street Begging in Urban Areas of Central Tanzania: The Case of Dodoma and Singida Municipalities
This study explores the implications of demographic dimensions on the incidence of street begging in urban areas of central Tanzania with Dodoma and Singida Municipalities as case studies. This study was conducted on different days at different streets and public spaces in Dodoma and Singida Municipalities to obtain data on incidence of street begging. A cross-sectional survey was employed and involved 130 street beggars. Structured questionnaires were administered on randomly selected beggars to obtain data on their demographic dimensions. Group discussions, key informant interview, and observations were also used to collect data relevant for the study.
Authors:Baltazar M.L. Namwata, Maseke R. Mgabo and Provident Dimoso
Demographic Dimensions and their Implications on the Incidence of Street Begging in Urban Areas of Central Tanzania (545)
Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya
With conflict and continuing uncertainty affecting the future of Somalia following the US backed Ethiopian invasion it is little wonder Somalis continue to flee their disintegrating country. Since the early 1990’s when large scale civil war broke out the Somali Diaspora has spread far and wide. Nearly a million have fled to already poor neighbouring countries and 400,000 of those headed south to Kenya. Though many have managed to return since there remains over 100,000 mostly Somali refugees in Northern and Eastern Kenya.
Featured Articles & Papers
Focus on Corruption: How to secure the aims of decentralization in Peru by improving good governance at the regional level
Decentralization holds out the promise of improving democratic participation and public service delivery, but this can be undermined where week institutions allow corruption to flourish. In this joint policy analysis paper, the authors create an econometric model of corruption at the regional level in Peru to inform policy recommendations aimed at the Peruvian National Council of Decentralization and the Office of the Public Defender. The paper was awarded Most Outstanding Policy Analysis in 2005 at the MPA/ID program at Harvard Kennedy School.
Authors: Aaron Ausland and Alfonso Tolmos
Focus on Corruption: How to secure the aims of decentralization in Peru by improving good governance at the regional level
‘Money does not always talk’ – Reassessing the Empowerment Potential of Women’s Employment
It has often been assumed that, as a result of access to financial resources, women’s employment would lead to their empowerment. However, this link is not as straightforward as examples from Kenya and Bangladesh show: Firstly, intra-household dynamics shape women’s control over income and secondly, even when they have control, it does not necessarily lead to a transformation of their subordinate status. This paper examines fundamental problems in defining and measuring empowerment and in this context depicts underlying normative Western ideas about agency, emancipation and modernity. The paper argues for the inclusion of the women concerned in policy-making in order to construct locally relevant indicators for empowerment.
Author:David Parduhn
‘Money does not always talk’ - Reassessing the Empowerment Potential of Women’s Employment (223)
Allah and Micro-Finance? Investigating Islamic Banking Principles in Indonesia’s Microfinance Sector, and its Potential for Economic Empowerment
Poverty is widely conceived to be the largest moral and economic challenge of this century, and thus it comes as no surprise that the first Millennium Development Goal attempts to tackle the issue of poverty eradication. One increasingly significant instrument of poverty alleviation and community development is that of microcredit and microsavings, popularized by Professor Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank.
However in Indonesia alone over half of the national population live on -or under- a mere US 2% daily.The successful establishment of microfinance institutions in the Muslim world could prove to be a valuable asset in the fight against poverty. However, an additional obstacle is posed by Islamic shariah which challenges conventional banking principles, mandating and promoting its own Islamic banking principles instead.
In this paper, the main question that will be addressed is whether the application of Islamic banking principles to microfinance in Indonesia has been more beneficial in promoting economic growth among the Muslim poor than conventional microfinance practices. And further, what this application can imply for the rest of the Muslim world.
Author:Amina Samy
Allah and Micro-Finance? Investigating Islamic Banking Principles in Indonesia's Microfinance Sector, and its Potential for Economic Empowerment (420)
