A presentation by Tracey Kajumba, a climate change principal researcher for the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), on gender equality and social protection. The presentation was given at a webinar on 'Gender inequalities in social protection – people, households and climate adaptation' hosted by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) on 2 April 2020. Kajumba leads the strategic direction and implementation of work addressing gender inequality, social exclusion and climate justice, supporting monitoring, evaluation and learning for adaptation and fostering spaces for learning. More details: https://www.iied.org/webinar-gender-inequalities-social-protection-people-households-climate-adaptation

1. www.iied.org @IIED
Gender Equality and Social
Protection
Tracy C. Kajumba, Principal Researcher, Climate Change Group
Tracy.Kajumba@iied.org

2. Tracy KajumbaGender Equality and Social Protection 2

3. Tracy Kajumba
• Evidence from development contexts suggests that
systematically applying a gender lens to SP enhances
empowerment outcomes for women and men
• Food security
• Productive investments and livelihoods
• Enhancing capacity to manage lifecycle risks
• Smoothing consumption and ultimately contributing to
lifting people out of poverty.
• Programmes that tackle women’s age-related and work-
related vulnerabilities, like childcare, have proven to be
effective
• Cash transfers are better at providing assets to women
than employment schemes and are beneficial for
households
Gender Equality and Social Protection 3
Social protection and gender equality…

4. Tracy Kajumba
• Social protection supports communities, households and
individuals – but may increase inequalities e.g. target the formal
sector where women are under-represented, fail to address
underlying causes of inequality, etc.
• Household income vs intra household relations - men may
withhold ‘their’ income within the household, and resist women’s
control over resources
• Conditional transfers - conditionalities may act to reinforce the
burden of multiple expectations placed on women.
• Women being principal beneficiaries does not necessarily
enhance women’s decision-making power within the household …
unintended consequence of reinforcing gendered divisions of
labour.
• A narrow focus on women, to the exclusion of men, may assist
women within existing frameworks of gender relations without
necessarily transforming their conditions.
Gender Equality and Social Protection 4
Power relations…

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Ensuring SP is gender transformative…
Approaches What needs to happen..
Coherence in policy
and practice
Integrate gender equality in SP policies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation -avoid siloed
approaches and provide complementary gendered approaches across sectors– SP can only be
part of the solution
Targeting Based on gender & vulnerability to ensure that the usually excluded groups thru normal
targeting are meaningfully supported -women, the very poor, migrants, those affected by
disasters etc
Gender analysis Analysis of gender specific vulnerabilities & needs; gender differentiated impact; addressing
underlying causes of vulnerability (governance, policies, risks/shocks etc)
Supporting & valuing
care roles for women
Affirmative action - Childcare facilities in public works programmes, flexible hours, sex quotas in
governance structures etc
Empowerment Economic empowerment, voice, participation and decision-making power for women and other
socially marginalised groups; enhanced accountability & transparency, challenging the status
quo;
Monitoring and
Evaluation
Gender-disaggregated indicators and data; Gender analysis in impact measurement – to
challenge unequal benefits from SP

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Further reading
Luttrell, C. and Moser, C., 2004, ‘Gender and Social Protection’, Overseas Development
Institute (ODI), London
Social protection floors and gender equality : a brief overview / Lou Tessier, Maya Stern
Plaza, Christina Behrendt, Florence Bonnet, Emmanuelle St-Pierre Guibault ; International
Labour Office, Social Protection Department. - Geneva: ILO, 2013.
https://socialprotection-humanrights.org/expertcom/do-social-protection-programmes-that-
impose-conditionalities-on-women-fail-to-confront-patriarchy-as-a-root-cause-of-inequality/
https://pim.cgiar.org/2020/03/18/toward-gender-equality-in-social-protection-evidence-gaps-
and-priority-research-questions/
https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_405766/lang--en/index.htm