#theme:gen_poverty

International Financial Institutions (IFIs) that primarily loan funds to least developed countries have also committed to fight poverty through providing resources, knowledge and capacity building to achieve sustainable development results. Although IFIs are public taxpayer-funded institutions, they frequently fail to disclose project methods, content and other information that impact loan “beneficiaries”. Due to international and civil society pressure, IFIs have gradually adopted disclosure policies that aim to increase transparency and accountability of their operations; yet significant shortcomings remain, particularly in regards to gender.

Market-based development programmes can help people living in poverty benefit from markets and lift themselves out of poverty. However, many such approaches do not pay attention to power imbalances that perpetuate marginalisation and poverty. To reach their fullest potential, market-based programmes should actively strengthen the power of marginalised smallholders and women. Major events in the market system, induced by changes in policy, regulation, social movements or business models can provide opportunities to intervene and rebalance power. Market-based programmes should also be complemented by non-market interventions that address poverty and sustainability issues in household and environmental systems.

Over the past 30 years, hundreds of thousands of young women have spent their lives working day and night in the garment factories of Honduras. While jobs in the production plants of export processing zones, or maquila, have offered women the opportunity of work and economic independence, this has often come at a terrible cost. Low wages, forced overtime and inadequate health and safety provisions have taken their toll on the health of thousands of women, many of whom are now unable to work as a result.

The Beijing Platform for Action – the preeminent international guideline for improving the status of women – lists, among others, specific activities related to increased availability of sex-disaggregated data. It was expected that these activities would start showing results with the passage of time. Indeed, in some areas of statistics, we are witnessing an increased stock of available statistics, such as on work and education. However, the availability of gender statistics is still sporadic and weak in many countries and areas of the world, thus limiting the comprehensive statistical analysis of social phenomena and the status of women and men.

Hundreds of thousands of women die every year in childbirth or from pregnancy-related causes. Virtually all of these maternal deaths occur in poor countries. In order to reduce maternal deaths and improve the overall life chances of poor mothers, policy and programs must address poverty and gender inequality, two inter-related, root causes of maternal death. This paper, prepared for Women Deliver 2010, examines the ways in which poverty and gender inequality impact maternal mortality by creating barriers to maternal healthcare access and utilization. It also analyzes strategies designed to increase utilization to identify best practices.

This publication is the report of a desk study that takes stock of Plan’s efforts to promote gender equality. Fifteen years ago Plan formally adopted the achievement of gender equality as a critical component in its strategy for the elimination of child poverty and the realisation of children’s rights. Many initiatives were undertaken in the first years, including the development and implementation of gender equality strategies and audits by Regional and Country Offices. The desk study examined how this development of policies and concepts found its reflection in programme practice.

This paper examines the links between gender equality and rural employment for poverty reduction by constructing a gender analytical framework to interpret differentiated patterns and conditions of work across regions, socio-economic contexts and policy environments. The main objective of the study is to identify adequate policy responses to key gender-based constraints to the achievement of decent work for all. Decent work, as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), is employment that takes place under conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity, in which rights are protected and adequate remuneration and social coverage are provided (ILO, 2000).

This study examined the gendered dimensions of poverty in South Africa and their implicationsfor poverty reduction interventions in South Africa. The study identifies and analyses national approaches to understanding and addressing poverty and their integration of gender. It also identifies and analyses approaches to understanding and addressing poverty and their integration of gender in three countries: Chile, Brazil and India. From these understandings, the study develops recommendations for developing integrated approaches to understanding poverty and its links to gender inequality and for developing and implementing ameliorative strategies.