Economic empowerment aims to raise the capacity of women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in ways which recognise the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth.
The economic empowerment of women increases their access to economic resources and opportunities. This access is often hindered by discrimination and persistent gender inequalities. Women’s economic participation and empowerment bring direct benefits to women but also have a strong impact on poverty and growth, and are essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The study utilised data on DAC members’ aid targeting gender equality and women’s empowerment, which are compiled with the help of the gender equality policy marker in the Creditor Reporting System (CRS). DAC members should screen and mark every aid activity they report to the CRS as either (i) targeting gender equality as a “principal objective” or a “significant objective”, or (ii) not targeting the objective.
Key findings:
- Aid committed by DAC members to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the economic and productive sectors amounted to USD 4.6 billion on average per year in 2007-08. This represents one-fifth of total aid in these sectors.
- A small share of these USD 4.6 billion targeted gender equality or women’s empowerment as the main (“principal”) objective (2%).
- Lower priority was given to gender equality in the economic and productive sectors than in all sectors combined.
- Much of the aid targeting gender equality in the economic and productive sectors was allocated to agriculture/rural development (42%).
- There is scope for increasing investments in women’s economic empowerment, in particular in the sectors of transport, energy, trade and employment.
Recommendations:
- Access to infrastructure such as roads, telecommunications and energy should be an integral part of programmes designed to empower poor women and men. Important too are initiatives that help women to carry out their everyday chores more efficiently, thus allowing more time to be spent on productive work and participation in community life and decisionmaking. There is scope to increase investments in gender equality and women’s empowerment in the transport/storage and energy generation/supply sectors.
- Donors could also increase investments in gender equality in their support for trade policy and regulations. Research findings suggest that trade liberalisation and associated changes of economic activities have created benefits for women to a lesser degree than for men. Linking rural producers to urban markets is one way donors and governments can expand women’s business opportunities.
- In addition, donors could scale up their support for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the employment sector. In 2007-08, on average one-quarter of total aid for employment policy – including labour laws, employment creation and occupational safety – targeted gender equality and women’s empowerment. This is not enough, considering the importance of decent work for economic empowerment. It is, however, encouraging that some donors focused very large shares of their aid for employment policy on gender equality: Belgium 83%, Germany 98%, Greece 100% and Sweden 100%.
