A/HRC/22/50
women are paid the same wages as men. During a second phase, in order to reduce the risk
that such an approach might reinforce gender stereotypes, women could gradually be
encouraged to learn how to perform tasks traditionally assigned to men, so that in time
"role-shifting" will occur.38
(c)
The assets created by the programme could serve to ease the situation of rural
women in the areas concerned, consistent with the aim of reducing the burden that they
shoulder.39 For instance, digging boreholes or planting trees can reduce the time women
spend fetching water or fuelwood in the community where such work is performed. As
illustrated by Ethiopia's cash-for-work Productive Safety Net Programme, public works
programmes could serve to support agricultural work on the private land of female-headed
households which generally suffer from chronic labour shortage. Public works could serve
to improve physical infrastructure in rural areas and establish food-processing technologies,
in order to reduce the drudgery of cooking and laundry. 40 Public works programmes also
could include health extension work, adult literacy or HIV/AIDS prevention, all of which
could be immediately attractive for women.
(d)
Women should be involved in the design and evaluation of public works
programmes. This could ensure that the right balance is struck between the need for a
gender-sensitive approach and the risk of reinforcement of gender stereotyping. It could
also help determine the modes of payment, in particular whether payment should be in the
form of food or cash. While cash payments leave the beneficiaries greater choice, it may
also facilitate the appropriation by men of women's wages, especially if the payment is not
deposited electronically into a bank account in the woman‟s name. Also, cash payment may
not be the preferred solution if purchasing food is time-consuming or if markets are
unreliable due, for instance, to the lack of stability of supply of certain staple foods41 or the
high volatility of prices in the market. Indeed, women may express a preference for
payment in the form of food rations or payment on a daily basis, rather than on a monthly
basis, especially if their priority concern is the daily subsistence of their families. Such
issues can only be addressed through effective participation of women in the shaping of
programmes intended to benefit them. Participation is thus both an end in itself – a source
of empowerment – and a means – as it can significantly increase the effectiveness of the
programmes and their ability to make a difference to women.
C.
Asset transfer schemes
28.
Under asset transfer schemes, productive assets, such as small livestock, are
provided to poor households to support their income generation activities. Bangladesh's
Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction - Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR)
programme, launched in 2002 by the non-governmental organization Building Resources
Across Communities (BRAC), demonstrates the benefits of adopting a gender-sensitive
approach. For instance, it takes into account the fact that female-headed households are
often more labour-constrained (both due to "care" responsibilities of women and the lower
ratio of income earners to dependents in those households) and provides assets, such as
38
39
40
41
S. Devereux and C. Solomon, “Employment creation programmes”(see footnote 36), p. 40.
R. Antonopoulos, "The right to a job, the right types of projects: Employment guarantee policies from
a gender perspective", Working Paper 516. (New York, The Levy Economics Institute of Bard
College, 2007).
FAO-IFAD-ILO, Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural employment: Differentiated pathways
out of poverty (Rome, 2010), p. 35.
A. K. Dejardin, “Public Works Programmes: A Strategy for Poverty Alleviation: The Gender
Dimension”, Issues in Development, Discussion Paper 10 (Geneva, ILO, 1996), p. 14.
13
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