Exploring measures for gender-transformative design and implementation - A Presentation by Maja Gavrilovic of UNICEF Innocenti and Juan Gonzalo Jaramillo Mejia of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) at the International Conference on Universal Child Grants 6-8 February 2019 | Geneva

1. International Conference on Universal Child Grants
6-8 February 2019 | Geneva
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Can Universal Child Grants Lead to a
More Gender-Equal Society?
Maja Gavrilovic
UNICEF Innocenti
@UNICEFInnocenti
Juan Gonzalo Jaramillo Mejia
Consultative Group for International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
@juangogogo
Exploring measures for gender-
transformative design and
implementation

2. Presentation structure
1. What is our starting point?
2. Why does gender matter for social protection?
3. Is a Basic Income policy truly revolutionary?
4. Are there any discussions looking at the gender
elements of a UBI and its spin-offs?
5. How can we evaluate UBI and UCG proposals
from a gender perspective? Three analytical
frameworks and preliminary findings
6. Conclusions and policy implications

3. Despite the positive gender effects, there is a general lack of
gender-sensitivity across the SP policy cycle:
What is our starting point?
1. Programs mainly explore and respond to the material causes of poverty
2. There is a limited understanding of the role played by gender inequalities either
as root causes or exacerbating factors of poverty and vulnerability
3. There is resistance, limited willingness and insufficient functional and technical
capacities to promote change and foresee programmatic options
4. Due to their nature, social (gender) norms are harder to capture and modify:
requires time, sustained and complementary measures.
International Conference on Universal Child Grants
FAO (2018). Promoting Gender-sensitive Social Protection
Programs to Combat Rural Poverty and Hunger. Rome, Italy.

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Why does gender matter for social protection?
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Gender Social Norms:
PERMEATE, MEDIATE and SHAPE
the in/visible social structures in which interventions operate;
either facilitating or hindering the achievement of objectives
Linkages between gender inequalities & poverty
Two interlinked drivers of gender discrimination influence outcomes for women and men in terms of
income insecurity, limited access to social security, material dependency and limited agency:
a) Women's relative structural disadvantage in the labor market and occupational segregation and
men’s role as main providers
b) Women’s disproportionate responsibility for care work and resultant risk of 'double burdens,‘
while men are deprived of caregiving.

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UBI is a result of a growing set of commitments to expand ‘social
protection for all’ and address (multidimensional) poverty
But existing UBI debates do not pay enough attention to gender or
may retain old framings (“old wine in new bottles” syndrome)
So what to do? Learn from experience and available evidence from
cash transfers to integrate gender into all stages of policy-making to
ensure the revolutionary promise of UBI is fulfilled, harnessing the
potential to maximize positive effects on gender equality and avoid
harm
Is UBI a truly REVOLUTIONARY proposal?

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A gender perspective for UBI?
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Academic debates on UBI are rich…however, they are:
• Theoretical rather than empirical and policy-based
• Focused mainly on 'developed' country contexts
• Not applying a relational lens mainly focusing on women
• Missing spin-offs such as Universal Child Grants (UCG)
Our purpose: to address some of these gaps, looking at 'How
can UCG promote or hinder gender equality outcomes, and
through what pathways?'

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Key areas of our gender analysis
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OUTCOME AREAS INTERMEDIARY
OUTCOMES
STRUCTURAL
CHANGES
• Access to social
protection
• Gender division of labor
in care work
• Participation in paid
work
• Income security,
material
independence
• Access to, and control
over resources
• Agency & bargaining
power
• Psychosocial welfare
• Gender norms
• Gender roles &
relations
• Gender identities
(feminine/masculine)

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Analytical frameworks to analyze UBI & UCG
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Basic elements of UBI
Gender equity principles
Triple R framework

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Looking at five principles for Gender Equity
Gender
Equity
Anti-
poverty
Anti-
exploitation
Equality of
income, leisure
time, respect
Anti-
marginalization
Anti-
androcentrism
1. Anti-poverty: SP goal is to prevent and reduce (multi-
dimensional) poverty
2. Anti-exploitation: reduces the risk of abuse of
vulnerable people and ‘exploitative dependency’
3. Equality principles:
• Income: Reducing vast discrepancy between
men's and women's income
• Leisure time: Crucial to women who suffer time
poverty and are overburdened by domestic
labor
• Respect: Recognition of women's personhood
and status
4. Anti-marginalization principle: promote women's
participation in all areas of social and political life
5. Anti-androcentrism principle: requires re-shaping
masculine norms embedded in welfare arrangements
Fraser, 1994

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Potential effects on access & gender dynamics
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Universal UnconditionalIndividualistic
No strings attached
• Avoids paternalism and
coerciveness, risk of
exacerbating time poverty,
deepening inequality
• No ‘triple’ burden
• Still some 'targeting' based on
age – stage in the lifecycle
• Mixed effects: children’s
guardians treated as 'means to
an end' & may cause friction
Non-targeted
• Benefits are not tied to social or
employment status
• Avoids exclusion, inclusion errors,
stigma, stereotyping & costs
• If women are kept as
primary recipients, there is
risk of perpetuating the
traditional division of labor
and gender stereotypes
Independent entitlement
• Provides access to independent
income
• Potential positive spillover
effects on wo/men’s agency
and position
• Primary caregiver (mainly
women) typically remains the
recipient of benefits
• Potential backlash in
patriarchal contexts
UBI
UCG
**CT evidence: Outcomes depend on regularity, size of transfers, delivery
mechanisms & intra-hh dynamics regarding allocation, use patterns and control
over cash

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RedistributeRecognise Reduce
• Implicit recognition and
value of unpaid care work
• Risk reinforcing gender roles
and perpetuating ‘free
riding’ among men because
norms and roles may remain
intact
• Provides choice to change
work-related time allocations
• Men and women can shift time
to leisure
• Invest in labor-saving
technologies and outsource
care work
• Potential change in the HH distribution of labor
mainly through women's agency pathway
• ↓ Expectations on men as main breadwinners,
freeing their time to adopt caregiving roles
• From family to state as a merit good; From family to
market, yet, leading to the ‘commodification‘ of care
and transmission along class lines
CTs evidence: changes in agency/bargaining power are not automatic & depend
on many moderating factors: i.e. context, design, hh composition & dynamics
Potential effects on gender ÷ of labor
SDG 5.4 “recognize & value unpaid care & domestic work through the provision of public services,
infrastructure & SP & the promotion of shared responsibility within the hh & family”

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Potential effects on employment status
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CLAIM: UBI will have potentially negative effects on work incentives & regressive outcomes for women in terms
of employment participation, gender equality and stereotypes.
Is this concern warranted?
First, predicting gender-specific employment and time allocation outcomes is complex
• Evidence from CTs generally show increase in paid work and income generation activities
• Significance of work goes beyond income (equal respect principle)
• Leaving 'lousy' jobs due to income security is a positive outcome (anti-exploitation principle)
• Working less and re-allocating time to leisure is positive, especially for ‘overburdened’ women (equal
leisure principle)
• UBI policies should not be evaluated strictly in relation to paid-unpaid work (anti-androcentric principle)
• UBI affords freedom to choose 'meaningful' work based on individual preferences: different paths of
fulfillment

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In summary…
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UBI has potential to improve women & men’s welfare and tackle unequal gender dynamics by:
• In the short term: Meeting practical needs and reducing gaps in coverage: addressing income poverty
and basic consumption requirements
• In the medium and long term: Addressing strategic interests: greater agency and control over resources,
status within HH and community, improved gender relations
There is potential to reduce & distribute care work more equitably in the HH & address men’s deprived
roles in caregiving. However, UBI cannot radically destabilize the gender division of labor.
UBI does not directly and explicitly address distribution of paid work, but has potential for gender de-coding
of roles, provided that other measures are implemented alongside UBI.
Outcomes are moderated by programmatic & contextual factors; there is a need for explicit framing,
additional features & complementary measures to maximize positive and transformative effects

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Final Remarks and Policy Implications
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Gender transformative narratives and framing are key to promote right-based entitlements.
• Focus on care-receivers as much as in care-givers and emphasize the importance of fatherhood as much as
motherhood in UBI and UCG
• Need to question or at least nuance the assumption that women should be sole recipients: HH cooperative
models
Universal transfers are no panacea – well-designed ‘cash+’ approaches are required to tackle structural causes of
poverty and gender inequality.
• Policies must incorporate gender explicitly into objectives and design provisions
• Policies must be complemented by social services and embedded in anti-discrimination legislation
Incentivizing men to support and contribute to gender equality (caregiving) through:
• Complementary parental policies
• Messaging and awareness-raising: promote positive parenthood role models, engage men as allies
• Provision of public caregiving services
Long-term and sustained investments are needed in capacity building, women-friendly institutional arrangements,
and M&E and learning systems.

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Bibliography
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Bastagli, F., Hagen-Zanker, J., Harman, L., Sturge, G., Schmidt, T. & Pellerano, L. 2016. Cash transfers: what does the evidence say? A
rigorous review of impacts and the role of design and implementation features. London, ODI.
Bergmann, B.R. (2008) “Basic Income Grants or the ’Swedish Model‘: Which Better Promotes Gender Equality?” Basic Income Studies 3
(3), pp. 1–7.
Enríquez, C. (2016). Basic Income and Time Use Democratization. Basic Income Studies, 11(1), pp. 39-48. Retrieved 4 January 2019, from
doi:10.1515/bis-2016-0012
Fraser, N. (1996) “Gender Equity and the Welfare State: A Postindustrial Thought Experiment,” in Seyla Benhabib (ed.) Democracy and
Difference. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Fraser N. (1994) ‘After the Family Wage: Gender Equity and the Welfare State’, Political Theory 22(4): 591–618.
FAO (2018). FAO Technical Guide 1 Introduction to gender-sensitive social protection programming to combat rural poverty: Why is it
important and what does it mean? Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Gheaus, A. (2008) “Basic Income, Gender Justice, and the Costs of Gender- Symmetrical Lifestyles” Basic Income Studies 3 (3), pp. 1–8.
Holmes, R. and Jones, N. (2010) Rethinking social protection using a gender lens ODI Working Paper No. 320 Overseas Development
Institute, London.
McKay, A. (2007). Why a citizens' basic income? A question of gender equality or gender bias. Journals.sagepub.com. Retrieved 2 January
2019, from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0950017007076643
O’Reilly, J. (2008) “Can a Basic Income Lead to a More Gender Equal Society?” Basic Income Studies 3 (3), pp. 1–7.
Robeyns, I. (2008) ‘Introduction: revisiting feminism and the basic income debate’ Basic Income Studies Vol. 3 (3): 1- 6

16. Thank
You
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mgavrilovic@unicef.org
j.jaramillo@cgiar.org
@juangogogo