Jobs and Livelihoods - International Development Contents


7  Marginalised groups

104. The fifth pillar of DFID's Economic Development Strategic Framework is:

v)  Ensuring growth is inclusive, and benefits girls and women.[172]

DFID's Economic Development Strategic Framework (EDSF) states:

    Marginalised groups face specific structural barriers and are often over-represented among the extreme poor. They can include girls and women, ethnic and religious minorities, young and elderly people, conflict-affected populations, people with disabilities and geographically disadvantaged groups. Policies are needed that share the benefits of growth and directly target extreme poverty and discrimination, to ensure that these specific groups are not left behind. We will focus on the following specific actions, and also ensure that this approach is integrated across the other four pillars….[173]

DFID examples of its work on pillar 5 of the EDSF
  The Business Innovation Facility (BIF) supports companies as they develop and implement inclusive businesses. For example BIF supported the CARE Bangladesh initiative, Jita that created a rural sales-force comprising of destitute women. It employed 4,700 women in 2013, and has helped participants grow their income from less than $12 per month to an average of $20 per month.

  The Rural and Agricultural Markets Development Programme for Northern Nigeria (PropCom Mai-Karifi) has improved access to inputs and services (e.g. seeds, fertiliser, agricultural advice services and low-cost soaps) for over 400,000 poor farmers and rural entrepreneurs, reaching at least 76,000 women to date.

  Gaining access to decent employment and gainful income for youths could potentially mitigate the risk of them becoming potential source of unrest, especially in post-conflict contexts. The Northern Uganda Youth Entrepreneurship Project aims to improve the livelihoods of 5,000 young people and their households through entrepreneurship in conflict-prone regions.

  DFID Nepal's Employment Fund Programme has provided vocational and business skills training to 55,000 youths of which 80% belonged to the disadvantaged community and over 50% were women. The programme also helps place people in domestic employment, with more than 75% of trainees earning at least the minimum wage six months after the training.

  The West Africa Food Markets Pilot Programme aims to contribute to better functioning regional agricultural markets through increase in food traded and an increase in people benefiting from cross border trade. The key achievement of the programme will be over 130,000 farmers directly benefitting from support for agricultural production or marketing, supporting over 700,000 rural poor in targeted regions.

Source: Department for International Development Supplementary Submission

Women and girls

105. DFID said that globally 72% of men are likely to be in paid employment compared to only 47% of women and that women who do work are paid less (on average 10-30% less) and are often in vulnerable or dangerous work.[174] Only 16% of women in developing countries are employed by an employer, compared with 30% of men, and they are more than twice as likely to be out of the workforce (49% versus 21% for men).[175] ILO analysis of 83 countries shows that women in paid work earn on average 10 to 30 percent less than men.[176] For example in Bangladesh, women's earned income is estimated to be around 52% of that of men.[177]

106. Christian Aid outlined the main obstacles for women's economic empowerment:

a)  Despite the huge amount of work contributed by women to agriculture, they on average own less than 20% of smallholder plots;

b)  Women and girls carry a greater burden of unpaid domestic and care work compared with men, limiting educational and employment opportunities; and

c)  Poor energy access also has a disproportionate impact on women's time and contributes to perpetuating gender inequalities.[178]

107. BOND said:

    79% of economically-active women in developing countries cite agriculture as their main source of income. Therefore supporting smallholder agricultural systems and ensuring female farmers are prioritised in interventions can ensure the redistributive impact of investment.[179]

WIEGO agreed:

    It is crucial to target women farmers and support them in overcoming discrimination on property, labour and access to credit and services.[180]

BRAC's experience has shown that targeting women as the focus for investments in smallholder agriculture gets the best return on investment and development results for both the family and community.[181]

108. Deepta Chopra of IDS said that over the past 30 years, there had been a significant increase in women's participation in the informal economy, leading to what has been called the 'feminisation of informal labour'.[182] Of the informal labour women were concentrated in much of it was home-based (for example working with livestock or handicrafts production). WIEGO said that those who worked from home were less likely than those who worked outside the home to know their rights or to have access to markets, opportunities for skills training, or collective bargaining mechanisms. WIEGO said this meant that compared to men, women were less likely to be organized, or have a voice in policy-making or rule-setting institutions. IDS have found a number of reasons for the over representation of women in the informal home-based sector:

·  many formal sector jobs are found in large cities or places that are usually away from residences, thereby creating a barrier to women's participation in the labour market because of high costs and time for transport that is usually inadequate and unreliable;

·  with no help from the men in their families, or from the state in terms of public provision of services, women faced the prospect of increasing levels of time poverty, making it difficult for them to consider looking for better paid jobs;

·  low wages and high costs of childcare, which can leave women with no other choice than to stay at home;

·  when their children no longer require childcare, women then have obligations to care for elderly or sick relatives at home; and

·  women usually depend on their informal information networks to find employment.

IDS also said that research had found that working at home while performing household chores including care work negatively affects productivity. Women working at home were able to do less work than women working in formal paid jobs (as export garment workers, teachers, NGO staff, nurses and health workers) or informal paid jobs outside of home (domestic work, agricultural and non-agricultural work, petty trade and services). In addition, women working at home were even less likely to get assistance for their unpaid care work from other members of their family, as they were perceived to be at home.[183]

109. ActionAid defines women's unpaid care work as cooking, cleaning, caring for children and elders and collecting fuel and water. It said that the burden of unpaid care acts as a constraint on women and girls' time and a barrier to their equal participation in education and the labour market. It highlighted a study in Latin America and the Caribbean which showed that over half of women aged 20-24 did not seek work outside the home due to their unpaid care burdens;[184] and recent Indian census data showed that 45% of women of working age did not work outside the home for the same reason.[185] Deepta Chopra said:

    It is critical to arrest the push into informal, unsafe and unregulated work, and eradicating gender wage gaps and gender based discrimination in the type of work that women and men are engaged in. A balance between paid work and unpaid care work would enable women to have the time, opportunity and choice to participate equally in society and the economy, thereby leading to empowerment.[186]

110. The Secretary of State in her speech to the London Stock Exchange in January 2014 said:

    we are determined to remove these barriers because no country can develop fully if it leaves half of its population behind.[187]

We asked the Secretary of State about the gender balance of DFID's programmes on economic development and she said that about half of programming already, either directly or indirectly, supported women and girls[188] and that DFID was building up the evidence base of what worked:

    What we do know is that work investing in improving women's access to capital, and improving their employment and their education, can all lead to improved overall prospects. [189]

111. The Secretary of State recognised that trying to break down social barriers and cultural norms which prevented women from working was far harder:

    It is limited in the short term. In the longer term, we can have a steady impact on social norms, but it is a complex area and it sits alongside a much broader challenge on social norms that we run up against in programmes, for example, on FGM or on tackling child marriage.[190]

However Deepta Chopra of IDS said that:

    Whatever DFID does, wherever it creates its investment opportunities, if it does not take into account unpaid care work of women, women will not have the time to participate. They will not have the choice to participate in the sector they want to participate in, in the location they want to participate in. They will be constrained.[191]

The Secretary of State said that one way DFID could address this was:

    through some of the education programmes we are doing and, changing the parameters of how women are fundamentally valued, so that they have a value that gives them options that go beyond purely being a person who just stays at home providing care.[192]

112. We have come across many impressive programmes on our visits that help women with training and employment but often they are too small to access DFID funding. One such example we visited in Tanzania, a sewing workshop for local women in the Mufindi area-providing them with training and employment.[193] This is exactly the type of project we would like to see DFID involved in but we have heard that it is increasingly difficult to get funding for useful and effective small programmes. We recommend that DFID think more creatively how it can support small organisations and charities doing exceptional work especially with marginalised groups such as women and girls in Lower Income Countries.

MICRO-FINANCE

113. Micro-finance is often put forward as a way to help women in developing countries to improve their livelihoods. Some micro-finance programmes are particularly targeted at women. As part of this inquiry we heard about crowd funded peer-to peer lending through Lendwithcare, CARE International UK's online network. Approximately 70% of the loans go to women, who are frequently bringing up their families on less than $2 a day. The initiative provides a solution to the challenges faced by MSMEs in accessing credit to grow their businesses by supporting micro-finance institutions to expand their lending. It currently has 19,000 lenders who have on average loaned £35 each. It has raised almost £6 million in the last four and a half years.[194]

114. However as part of our Beyond Aid inquiry, Owen Barder said:

    I am uncomfortable about the way that not just the UK but donors generally have invested heavily in the micro-credit industry. Micro-credit for very poor people I think is of questionable value. The empirical evidence of impact evaluations suggests it has not been a great success, but we are now in a situation where we have a number of incumbent organisations in receipt of development funds that are politically well connected and have powerful and credible voices. It is becoming difficult then for policymakers to say, "On reflection, having seen the evidence, we think that we should largely get out of the business of supporting micro-credit for very poor people."[195]

115. BRAC told us about its programme targeting the 'Ultra Poor'. It said that after many years implementing micro-finance and business development work it became acutely aware that the very poorest 10% were generally not able to benefit from access to micro-finance because of lack of skills, assets, land due to their extreme vulnerability. It therefore developed a programme in 2002 focused on attempting to lift destitute women in Bangladesh out of extreme poverty. The Targeting the Ultra Poor approach combined the provision of productive assets (usually livestock), a weekly stipend, a soft loan and a two year process of guidance and training from BRAC. The programme was found to result in an average 38% increase in incomes and this was sustained and enhanced after the intervention had finished meaning the women graduated from 'ultra poverty'.[196] We visited a BRAC programme in Babati, Tanzania which successfully combined micro-credit with livelihoods programmes-it focused on small scale poultry farmers, providing them with basic training on vaccination, chicken housing, feeding and disease management as well as providing micro-finance agricultural loans and linking the farmers to hatcheries, vet service providers and traders. BRAC's micro-finance bank is the largest micro-finance institution in Tanzania.

116. We asked the Secretary of State about how successful she saw micro-credit in light of Owen Barder's evidence. She told us:

    As ever, the devil is in the detail. In our experience, micro-finance has provided huge opportunities to millions of people, including women around the world, to be able to set up their own businesses and improve their own livelihoods. At the same time, it is not a panacea.[197]

FAMILY PLANNING

117. According to the Population Reference Bureau, in developing countries about half of sexually active women of reproductive age, or 818 million women, want to avoid pregnancy, meaning that they do not want to become pregnant for at least two years or want to stop childbearing altogether. Because of limited reproductive health choices, about 17% of those women, or 140 million, are not using any method of family planning, while 9% or 75 million, are using less-effective traditional methods. Together, these 215 million women are said to have an unmet need for modern contraception. The UN concluded in 2014 that

    while the world has made significant gains in health and longevity, large and persistent gaps remain between the most advantaged and least advantaged populations, especially regarding access to sexual and reproductive health services.[198]

118. In 2012 the UN revised its population estimates upwards, stating

    Compared with the results from the previous revision, the projected global population total in this revision is higher, particularly after 2075, for several reasons. First, fertility levels have been adjusted upward in a number of countries on the basis of recently available information. In the new revision, the estimated total fertility rate (TFR) for 2005-2010 has increased in several countries, including by more than 5% in 15 high-fertility countries from sub Saharan Africa. In some cases, the actual level of fertility appears to have risen in recent years; in other cases, the previous estimate was too low.[199]

119. The Secretary of State told us she was:

    proud of the ambition that we have set ourselves as a country, in terms of increasing our investment in family planning, enabling more women to have access. Stefan can correct me if I am wrong, but the evidence is that, when women have more choice and when they have a greater confidence that their children will get the vaccinations that they need to be able to survive those early years, they tend to have smaller families. In many respects, these sorts of programmes that we are doing and the work that we are doing will mean that countries have a much better control over population and that families end up being smaller, and resources within families can therefore be more focused and hopefully go further, in terms of bringing children up.[200]

120. However Marie Stopes in evidence to our Departmental Annual Report inquiry said it was concerned by the reduction in spending on population/reproductive health, which decreased from £ 424.5 million in 2012 to £373 million in 2013. It argued:

    This is particularly concerning given the lack of global progress towards meeting MDG 5 (To improve maternal health). Both indicators under this goal are off track (Achieving universal access to reproductive health and reducing maternal mortality by three quarters).[201]

It highlighted that under the Strategic Vision for Girls and Women and its Results Framework, DFID had committed to 'help to save the lives of at least 50,000 women during pregnancy and childbirth, enable 10 million more women to access family planning (of which 1 million will be girls aged 15-19) and support 2 million births with skilled attendants.'[202] And concluded that "there is a considerable way to go in reaching the goal of 10,000,000 more women accessing family planning by 2015, with 4,966,000 reached to date." Marie Stopes was also concerned that the trend appears to be continuing, with early indications of health sector spend decreasing from 2013/14 to 2014/15 and the amount spent on population/ reproductive health also continuing to fall. It encouraged DFID to meet its commitments through further investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes.[203]

Disabled persons

121. People with disabilities face much greater barriers in employment than others. In Burma studies showed that 85% of people with disabilities were unemployed, compared with the national average of 3.5%. In Uganda only 0.2% of disabled people were employed in the government, private sector, or even NGOs.[204] The World Bank has estimated that excluding people with disabilities from the economy translates into a loss of 5-7% of GDP, whilst an International Labour Organisation study found that ten low and middle-income countries were losing between 3-7% of GDP by excluding people with disabilities from the labour market.[205] Mosharaff Hossain of ADD International told us:

    We need to change the perception of the stigma in society and create opportunities so that disabled people can gain equal opportunities like other people. Then… their livelihood can increase.[206]

Sightsavers highlighted the prevalence of discrimination:

    People with disabilities are often not able to access training programmes as they are not considered eligible. […] Even where candidates with disabilities have the appropriate qualifications and experience, or out-perform others, they may be rejected or not considered for roles because of discriminatory attitudes.[207]

Mosharraf explained that he had been turned down for a job as an economist in the Bangladesh Civil Service because he was a wheelchair user:

    A wheelchair is not a barrier to be an economist. To be an economist, intelligence is the main issue. I do have problems in my legs, but my hands work and my brain is working.[208]

In a similar way due to stigma a deaf boy who was rearing cows was getting less payment than other herders. He said "They think that a disabled person cannot work like others, so he was paid less."[209]

122. In 2014 we undertook an inquiry on disability and in our report we made clear recommendations to government.[210] As a result DFID published a Disability Framework. The Framework said:

    Economic growth is a key priority for DFID. We will explore how to strengthen our work on inclusive economic growth, jobs and livelihoods for people with disabilities. This is key for bringing people out of poverty, and also helping to reduce stigma.[211]

123. We wanted to know if disabled people were benefiting from DFID's general jobs and livelihoods work. Mosharaff Hossain told us that "many disabled people, or disabled girls or women, can work in the mainstream programmes."[212] However he also said:

    Nearly 15% of disabled women or men have severe disabilities. For them, some sort of targeted programme is required to supplement or complement those sorts of limitations.[213]

Sightsavers said that the physical inaccessibility of work places was a significant barrier for people with disabilities, as well as accessible transportation and communication materials. It said that the high levels of inaccessibility often resulted from a lack of awareness of disability issues or an unwillingness to make reasonable accommodations.[214] Mosharraf Hossain recommended that DFID needed to explore "an inclusive work environment" and that factories should follow universal design, so that everybody, especially the disabled people, could work in them.[215] He said:

    it is very important to change the attitudes so that it will enable disabled people to have formal employment[216]

124. We also asked about micro-credit programmes for disabled people to be self-employed. Mosharraf Hossain told us that many micro-credit programmes were not suitable for very poor disabled people because of the high interest rates as well as the short repayment time. However the Bangladesh Ministry of Social Welfare was operating a much more flexible programme suitable for disabled people with a six month repayment period and a 5% interest rate. A programme he was working on called From Margin to Mainstream was for extremely poor disabled people without access to micro-credit. Firstly it brought them under social protection programmes; then within three years when they had graduated from extreme poverty, and they needed money to extend their business, they could approach micro-credit organisations such BRAC[217]. He believed that for extremely poor and disabled people, social protection was the most appropriate programme:

    For the people who earn below $1, micro-credit is not effective. However, for those who earn more than $2, the people who need more money, micro-credit is suitable.[218]

Older people

125. Agriculture is the main economic activity for older people in developing countries. In Asia 75% of people over 60 reported agriculture as their main income-generating activity. In sub Saharan Africa 73% reported it as a source of income. Ken Bluestone of Age International told us:

    There is no system in place of social security or social protection of benefits that allows these people to take a step back and have security of income later in life. They are relying on agriculture to supplement themselves and, in many cases, to actually provide basic nutrition.[219]

126. The proportion of older people as agricultural holders, the people that make the major decisions such as resource management, is increasing in many countries. For example, in Nepal the number of agricultural holders aged above 55 has increased by more than 3% between 1992 and 2002, making up nearly 35% of the country's total. Age International are concerned that although the average age of farmers is increasing development agencies are not taking this into consideration "this is just not being recognised by development actors, stakeholders such as DFID and other programmes."[220] It said:

    To exclude older people from policies and programmes designed to boost jobs and maintain livelihoods is to deny demographic realities and to miss a crucial opportunity to harness older people's valuable knowledge, experience and skills.[221]

127. Only 25% of older people in low and middle income countries currently receive a pension. Age International said that pensions helped people to protect and invest in their livelihoods, diversify their income-generating activities, save money and make them more resilient to shocks. Ken Bluestone said there was a need for older people in developing countries to receive non-contributory social pensions, financed by tax, with the example of Mauritius where he said pensions had been very successful at reducing poverty and giving more economic security. [222] In Bolivia social pensions have been shown to reduce child labour and improve school enrolment in households receiving the pension.[223]

128. DFID needs specific interventions for marginalised groups if these groups are to benefit from wider economic growth. We welcome DFID's positive response to our report on disability. We recommend that DFID should help raise awareness of disability issues and the rights of people with disabilities within work as well as broader society. It should also work with national partners to share learning and expertise on creating inclusive work environments; accessible training and working facilities.

129. Older people are increasingly the agricultural workers and decision makers in smallholder farming. DFID must ensure that its agricultural livelihoods programmes properly engage with all age groups and does not exclude older farmers.

130. Women and girls carry a greater burden of unpaid domestic and care work than men, limiting their education and employment opportunities. We recommend that DFID take further steps to help lift this barrier. We recommend that DFID stress the importance of supporting women in business and giving them the same access to land and business rights as men. Women are very reliable with money and returning money they have borrowed through micro-finance. We believe the key to micro-credit is to provide it alongside livelihood programmes as BRAC does.

131. Fertility rates remain high in many parts of Africa, exacerbating the problem on un- and under-employment. We are, therefore, surprised that DFID has reduced its spending on reproductive health. We recommend that work and expenditure in this area be significantly increased and that DFID assess whether the main problem is access to or attitudes towards contraception.


172   DFID's Economic Development Strategic Framework Back

173   DFID's Economic Development Strategic Framework Back

174   Department for International Development Back

175   World Bank. 2014. Gender at Work: A Companion to the World Development Report on Jobs Back

176   ILO. 2008. Global Wage Report 2008-09: Minimum Wages and Collective Bargaining, Towards Policy Coherence. Geneva: ILO Back

177   World Economic Forum. 2014. The Global Gender Gap Index 2014 Back

178   Christian Aid Back

179   BOND Private Sector Working Group Back

180   WIEGO's Approach to Economic Empowerment  Back

181   BRAC Back

182   Deepta Chopra, Balancing Paid work and Unpaid Care Work Back

183   Deepta Chopra, Balancing Paid work and Unpaid Care Work Back

184   ECLAC, Women's contribution to equality in Latin America and Caribbean, 2007  Back

185   Times of India: Jobless women form India's 'Great Invisible Force'  Back

186   Deepta Chopra, Balancing Paid work and Unpaid Care Work Back

187   Rt Hon Justine Greening MP at the London Stock Exchange January 2014 "Smart aid: Why it's all about jobs." Back

188   Q213 Back

189   Q216 Back

190   Q216 Back

191   Q119 Back

192   Q217 Back

193   Foxes Community and Wildlife Trust Back

194   CARE International Lendwithcare Back

195   International Development Committee Tenth Report of Session 2014-14 The Future of UK Development Co-operation: Phase 2: Beyond Aid HC 663 Back

196   BRAC Back

197   Q220 Back

198   United Nations General Assembly Report from the Secretary-General: Recurrent themes and key elements identified during the sessions of the Commission on Population and Development, July 2014 Back

199   Economic and Social Affairs, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision Key Findings and Advance Tables Back

200   Q219 Back

201   Marie Stopes submission for Department for International Development Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14 Inquiry Session 2014-15 HC 750 Back

202   Department for International Development, A New Strategic Vision for Girls and Women 2011 Back

203   Marie Stopes submission for Department for International Development Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14 Inquiry Session 2014-15 HC 750 Back

204   Q110 Back

205   Sightsavers  Back

206   Q111 Back

207   Sightsavers Back

208   Q111 Back

209   Q111 Back

210   International Development Committee Eleventh Report of Session 2013-14 Disability and development HC 947 Back

211   Department for International Development, Disability Framework: Leaving No One Behind, December 2014 Back

212   Q113 Back

213   Q113 Back

214   Sightsavers Back

215   Q130 Back

216   Q116 Back

217   BRAC is a development NGO based in Bangladesh Back

218   Q131 Back

219   Q171 Back

220   Q171 Back

221   Age International and HelpAge Back

222   Q180 Back

223   Age International and HelpAge Back


 
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Prepared 24 March 2015