1. THE RIGHT TO A JOB, THE RIGHT TYPES OF PROJECTS Employment Guarantee Policies and Gender Equality Rania Antonopoulos IDRC International Conference on Decentralization, Local Power and Women’s Rights, Mexico City, November 18-21, 2008

2. The role of the Markets revisited Challenge: Sub-prime mortgage crisis leads to global turmoil in financial markets… Challenge: International market dynamics lead to the crisis of rising food prices…. Challenge: demand is insufficient to provide jobs and hire those who need and wish to work; poverty reduction, polarization

3. The role of Government revisited Economic and Social outcomes of Laissez faire, and small government prove disappointing. What can government policy accomplish? In financial markets it can ameliorate instability and fragility stronger rules and regulation are needed In production markets it can increase food security price subsidies of staple foods, stockpiling, Malawi’s subsidies of fertilizers,South Africa rethinking land policy To address unemployment it can introduce an active labor market policy: ELR

5. Unemployment Rates (%) Argentina7.8 Belgium 11.2 Brazil 8.0 Canada 6.1 China(2007) 9.5 Colombia 11.1 Euro Area 7.5 France 8.0 Germany 7.6 Greece (Dec’) 8.9 India (2007) 7.2 Indonesia 9.8 Poland (Jan’) 11.7 South Africa (Mar’ ) 23.1 Spain(Aug’) 11.3 Sweden 6.1 Turkey (2007) 10.1 United States (Sep’) 6.5 11.5

8. What Is Unpaid Work? Family work and subsistence production Collecting basic inputs for cooking, cleaning, sanitation, food processing etc: collecting water, wood etc Providing Care work: children, elderly, chronically ill etc Volunteer work;Subsistence Production, family businesses Where? at home and in the public domain

9. Time Spent on Unpaid Work -SA

10. Total Hours Spent on Unpaid Work per Year by Household Type and Gender

11. Unequal distribution of income and lack of government services result in asymmetries of unpaid time-burdens among households and between men and women

12. Time spent on unpaid work SA by status of Employment

13. Unpaid work in South Africa by Poverty Status

14. Why an EGS,ELR,EPWP? Change our mentality about growth as the single developmental objective and replace it with pro- poor growth, employment creation and improvement in standard of living of people (jobless growth?) The right to a job Dignity – social inclusion Direct and indirect income creation Direct and indirect job creation Physical and social infrastructure creation

15. Framework to assess the impact of EGS, EPWP,ELR Poverty and standard of living: per capita GDP? the yardstick used in current official measures, reflects the income/expenditure command of households.Yet, the ACCESS individuals have over the necessaries of life is mediated by three key institutions: STATE, MARKET, HOUSEHOLDS (LIMEW- developed by Ajit Zacharias) STATE: EGS, EPWP can create physical and social infrastructure; enhance service delivery and contribute to environmental improvements (Community participation and rights! Design, implementation, evaluation: Politics of inclusion?) MARKET: EGS can contribute to economic inclusion of marginalized people (as producers and consumers) and to income-poverty reduction HOUSEHOLDS: improve livelihoods and REDUCE drudgery of unpaid work (women and children)

16. In gaining access to basic necessities overhead unpaid work time that fills in infrastructural gaps is biased against poor people and women (and children) Health Education Energy Water Sanitation Childcare and Eldercare Transportation, etc

17. Employment Guarantee Programs India, Bangladesh, Argentina, Chile, Morocco, Ethiopia, South Africa, Korea, USA, New Zealand, Australia etc What kinds of jobs? What types of “shelf- projects”? What is the “cost” of such projects and what is the “benefit”?

18. Costs and Benefits Social inclusion Income-Poverty reduction? It depends on the length of employment, on wages and benefits Public and private asset poverty reduction!!! Service delivery!!! Gender equality in unpaid (and paid ?) work Pro-poor development? Monetary cost: 1% of GDP ….?3% of GDP? Benefits: ….

19. Employment Guarantee Programs Expanded Public Works Programmes (Employment Intensive Infrastructure Programmes) SOUTH AFRICA National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Right to Information Act- Ongoing Social Audits ) INDIA

20. NREGA (India) Types of Community Projects Rural roads and access roads Rural land development Flood control works Water conservation and water harvesting Irrigation facilities to land owned by poor people and to beneficiaries of land reforms Reactivation of traditional water harvesting and distribution systems

21. EPWP(South Africa) Types of Community Projects Road construction and maintenance Water delivery Ecological latrines Early childhood development Home and community based care Environmental water conservation Prevention of fires

22. Jefes (Argentina) Types of Community Projects

23. Decentralization? Political, Fiscal, administrative Funding, Design, implementation, monitoring Federal, National level funding is a must Design of projects with livelihoods and community development focus (bottom up-top down) foster the localization (decentralization)of of income-expenditure loop The right to information act

24. Women and Employment Guarantee Programs Observation: High female participation rates across countries (inactivity????) Issue#1: Supply of labor issues (unpaid work) Issue#2: types of projects women want – (a) reduce unpaid work (water, sanitation, etc) (b) promote productivity (c) set up women’s cooperatives Participation in project design!!! www.solutionexchange.org www.solutionexchange.org Issue#3: evaluation criteria? include impact on unpaid work

25. Current Focus of EPWP Physical Infrastructure Environmental Projects Social Sector Programs (great potential here, but has not come far enough) Needed: Mechanisms to foster sustainability through community development linkages and evaluation criteria to include “time-use”

26. EPWP: Social Sector Matching Gender Decomposition

27. The SAM for South Africa Based on PROVIDE, Dept. of Agriculture Factors disaggregated by skill and gender 26 sectors 20 types of hhs 7 exogenous sectors

28. Types of Households

29. Simulation Results Direct job creation (700.000 jobs) Indirect job creation 3/1 ratio GDP, pro-poor growth, tax-base expansion extreme poverty elimination poverty reduction Poverty elimination

30. “There is plenty of evidence that unemployment has many far-reaching effects other than loss of income, including psychological harm, loss of work motivation, skill and self-confidence, increase in ailments and morbidity (and even mortality rates), disruption of family relations and social life, hardening of social exclusion and accentuation of racial tensions and gender asymmetries.” Amartya Sen (2000)

31. member institutions... we are... a group of economists working towards building a global informal network of academics, policy advisors, institutions, advocates and members of government, committed to the realization of the right to work… www.economistsforfullemployment.org we are committed to... joining forces with all who foster public dialogue and seek to promote employment guarantee around the world. Together, we can provide coherent, viable policy alternatives that lead to inclusive and just outcomes for all…

33. Thank you