WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND FINANCE

Economic empowerment is a process that increases people’s access to and control over
economic resources and opportunities including jobs, financial services, property
and other productive assets (from which one can generate an income), skills
development and market information.
WHY ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT?
Economic empowerment matters for women and girls – contributing to
their broader empowerment, agency and voice, and to better welfare
outcomes for them, their households and their wider communities.

It also matters for economic growth – for example, through its impacts
on firm performance, agricultural productivity and generation of tax
revenues.

There are multiple barriers to accessing resources and opportunities -

discriminatory cultural and social norms, de facto implementation of
formal or customary laws and regulations, unequal access to
resources, knowledge, information, networks and markets,
informality and workplace discrimination and exploitation.
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND
GIRLS
DFID Business Plan 2011-15: “Recognise the role of women in development and
promote gender equality”
 One of 6 Ministerial priorities, critical to MDGs

DFID Strategic Vision for Women and Girls

1. Delay first pregnancy and support safe childbirth;
2. Get economic assets directly to girls and women;
3. Get girls through secondary school; and
4. Prevent violence against girls and women.

‘Women account for 50% of informal employment globally’ World Development Rep
2012
GET ECONOMIC ASSETS DIRECTLY TO GIRLS
AND WOMEN
Access to and control of:
Financial assets (cash, savings, insurance, remittances etc)
Physical assets (land, property, livestock, productive technologies
etc)

Human, social & natural capital critical & complementary

Targets:
Improved access to finance for 18 million women
Secure access to land for 4.5 million
 EXAMPLE INTERVENTIONS:

Policy area Examples

Jobs & livelihoods Women Economic Empowerment for Equitable growth, DFID Tanzania
Making markets work for the poor (M4P), various countries
Training & skills Punjab job and skills training programme, DFID Pakistan
Property rights National Land Tenure Regularisation Roll-Out, DFID Rwanda
Financial inclusion Enhancing Financial Innovation for Access, DFID Nigeria
Social protection Targeted cash transfers program, DFID Nigeria
Enabling Expanding rural access to Water and Sanitation including schools and
infrastructure clinics, DFID Sierra Leone
Investment climate Afghan Climate Investment Fund, DFID Afghanistan
(legal & regulatory
context e.g.
business
registration)
 EXAMPLES OF POLICY-RELEVANT EVIDENCE
Systematic reviews of the evidence base e.g. providing girls and young women
access to economic assets, in low, middle income and fragile states.
Independent evaluations of DFID and other programs e.g. the impact of
improved access to water on women’s welfare – how do they spend the time
saved?

Challenge funds e.g. Responsible and Accountable Garments (RAGS)

 Market-tested evidence

Case study reviews of M4P programmes without a gender lens

Evidence-based toolkits e.g. DFID’s Financial Inclusion toolkit and the World
Bank’s Gender Dimensions of Investment Climate Reform

Business Diagnostics and Dynamics (BUDDY): World Bank tool which identifies
the sources of growth and job creation (data reliant)
WOMEN AND WORK: SOME REACTIONS
Need to focus on demand for, more than supply of, labour.
Reality around informed choice – what should the timeframe be for this aspiration?
Pace of change given social norms? How can we bring about quick but sustainable
change?
How can we address the care economy? Is measurement and awareness raising
enough to bring about change?
Is growth of the informal sector an inevitable and permanent trend?
 SOME POLICY CHALLENGES: PROCESS
How can researchers engage policy-makers from the outset?

How can research findings be best packaged and communicated for

policy-makers?
 Graded by quality
 Policy briefs
 Relative value for money of potential interventions (cost versus outcome)

What types of evidence (including data) are most accessible and

useful?
 sex and age-disaggregated data
 ownership versus use of productive assets

Women account for 60% of the world’s working poor but own less than 10% of the world’s property.
ILO and Commission for Legal Empowerment of the Poor
SOME POLICY CHALLENGES: CONTENT
Can we take a life-cycle/age-segmented approach to research on
women’s economic empowerment?
 WDR: “Investing in girls is smart. It is central to boosting development, breaking the
cycle of inter-generational poverty, and allowing girls, and then women – 50% of the world’s
population – to lead better, fairer and more productive lives.”
Which sectors should we target? Where can we have the most impact
and engage women in higher value activity?
How can we ensure that getting economic assets to women and girls
does no harm?
What time and labour saving technologies could most benefit women
and girls?
How can we most effectively engage men and boys in this agenda?
Reference Books
1. Brigham Ehrhadt. Financial management theory and practice. 13th
Ed
2. Khanna & Jain. Financial management.
3. Financial management. Pandey Anthony G. Puxty, J. Colin,
Richard M.S. Wilson; Financial Management: Method and meaning.
4. Block & Hurt, 1989.Foundation of Financial Management. 5th ed.
5. Bodil Dickerson, 1998. Introduction to Financial Management. 4th
ed. USA: McGraw hill Co.
6. Dayananda, Ridard Irons, steve Harrison, John Herb Ohan, and
Patrick Rowland, Capital Budgeting.
7. Eugene F. Brigham, Louis C.Gapenski, 1993. Intermediate
Financial Management. 4th Edition. Dryden press.
8. Gallagher H. and Andrew M., Fincial Management; Principles and
Practice; 4th edition.
Thank you!