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
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Report on Jobs Back
176
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Bargaining, Towards Policy Coherence. Geneva: ILO Back
177
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BRAC Back
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Deepta Chopra, Balancing Paid work and Unpaid Care Work Back
184
ECLAC, Women's contribution to equality in Latin America and Caribbean,
2007 Back
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Back
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Deepta Chopra, Balancing Paid work and Unpaid Care Work Back
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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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