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

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

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

Changes in employment to output growth ratio

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

Middle East and

North Africa

Sub-Saharan

Africa

Latin America

and the

Caribbean

South Asia Dev eloped

Countries and

EU

Central and

Eastern Europe

(non-EU) & CIS

East Asia

1995-1999

1999-2003

Source: Key Indicators of the Labour Market, 5th edition, Chapter 8, KILM 19. 2007.

Unemployment Rates (%)

Argentina 7.8

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

Unemployment Rate - African, poor/ultra-poor (strict definition)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Urban formal Ultra-poor

Urban formal Poor

Urban informal Ultra-poor

Urban informal Poor

Rural com Ultra-poor

Rural com Poor

Ex-homeland Ultra-poor

Ex-homeland Poor

Female

Male

Time Spent on Nonmarket Activities (Selected Developing Economies)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

India Mauritius South Africa Benin Mongolia Madagascar

Female Male

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

Time Spent on Unpaid Work -SA

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

0

1,00

0,00

0,00

0

2,00

0,00

0,00

0

3,00

0,00

0,00

0

4,00

0,00

0,00

0

5,00

0,00

0,00

0

6,00

0,00

0,00

0

7,00

0,00

0,00

0

8,00

0,00

0,00

0

Urban Formal African

Urban Formal Coloured/Asian

Urban Formal White

Urban Informal African

Rural Commercial African

Rural Commercial Coloured/Asian

Rural Commercial White

Ex-homeland African

Hou

seh

old

Gro

up

Total Hours Per Year

Female

Male

Unequal distribution of income and lack of government services

result in asymmetries ofunpaid time-burdens

among households and between men and women

Time spent on unpaid work SAby status of Employment

1 hr. 25 min.

3 hrs. 43 min.

2 hrs. 1 min.

6 hrs. 7 min.

1 hr. 47 min.

4 hrs. 41 min.

02

46

Male Female Male Female Male Female

Employed Unemployed Not Econ. Active

Water & Fuel Collection Social Care Home Maintenance

Unpaid work in South Africaby Poverty Status

1 hr. 36 min.

5 hrs. 6 min.

1 hr. 48 min.

4 hrs. 40 min.

1 hr. 30 min.

3 hrs. 34 min.

01

23

45

6

Male Female Male Female Male Female

Ultra poor Poor Non-Poor

Water & Fuel Collection Social Care Home Maintenance

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

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)

In gaining access to basic necessities overhead unpaid work time that fills in

infrastructural gaps is biased against poor people and women (and children)

HealthEducation

EnergyWater

SanitationChildcare and Eldercare

Transportation, etc

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”?

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: ….

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

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

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

Jefes (Argentina) Types of Community Projects

Micro enterprises (mainly in agriculture) 26Social and community services 17Maintenance and cleaning of public spaces 14Public lunchrooms 11Educational activities 10Construction and repair of homes and social infrastructure 8Healthcare and sanitation 5Administrative support 4Child care 2Elderly care 1Other 2Total 100%

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

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

Issue#3: evaluation criteria?include impact on unpaid work

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”

EPWP: Social SectorMatching Gender Decomposition

Titles Matching activity Male Female Male FemaleSchool nutrition workers Domestic services 0.17 0.83 0.22 0.78Sports coaching facilitators Education 0.51 0.49 0.39 0.61School caretakers Building 0.96 0.04 0.90 0.10Adult education workers Education 0.51 0.49 0.39 0.61Special school teaching aide EducationSchool clerical workers Government services 0.77 0.23 0.61 0.39Peer educators EducationSocial security workers Social care 0.52 0.48 0.20 0.80Food security workers Government servicesVCT counselors Health care 0.26 0.74 0.34 0.66Community health facilitators Health careCommunity health workers Health careCommunity caregivers Health careTB & DOTS supporters Health careTreatment supporters Health careMalaria workers Health care

Unskilled SkilledMatching into SAM activities

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

1 FGOS2 FMaleUS3 FMaleSk4 FFemUS5 FFemSk

E 53 1 SALTAXX 54 2 INDTAXO 55 3 DIRTAXG 56 4 GOVT

57 5 KAP58 6 DSTOC59 7 ROW

A 27 1 CagricC 28 2 CminingT 29 3 CfoodI 30 4 CtextV 31 5 CpaperI 32 6 CpetroT 33 7 CnonmetI 34 8 CmetalsE 35 9 CmachinS 36 10 Ccomeq

37 11 Ctrnseq38 12 Comanuf39 13 Celec40 14 Cwater41 15 Cbuild42 16 Cconstr43 17 Ctradacc44 18 Ctrnscom45 19 Cfinserv46 20 Cbusserv47 21 Ceduc48 22 Cogovserv49 23 Chealth50 24 Csocial51 25 Coserv52 26 Cdomserv

1 HUF_Af1_32 HUF_Af43 HUF_Af54 HUF_Co1_35 HUF_Co46 HUF_Co57 HUF_Wh8 HUI_Af1_39 HUI_Af4

10 HUI_Af511 HRF_Af1_312 HRF_Af413 HRF_Af514 HRF_Co1_315 HRF_Co416 HRF_Co517 HRF_Wh18 HRI_Af1_319 HRI_Af420 HRI_Af5

Types of Households

1 HUF_Af1_32 HUF_Af43 HUF_Af54 HUF_Co1_35 HUF_Co46 HUF_Co57 HUF_Wh8 HUI_Af1_39 HUI_Af4

10 HUI_Af511 HRF_Af1_312 HRF_Af413 HRF_Af514 HRF_Co1_315 HRF_Co416 HRF_Co517 HRF_Wh18 HRI_Af1_319 HRI_Af420 HRI_Af5

Urban Formal African Non-PoorUrban Formal African PoorUrban Formal African Ultra PoorUrban Formal Colored Non-PoorUrban Formal Colored PoorUrban Formal Colored Ultra PoorUrban Formal White Non-PoorUrban Informal African Non-PoorUrban Informal African PoorUrban Informal African Ultra PoorRural Commercial African Non-PoorRural Commercial African PoorRural Commercial African Ultra PoorRural Commercial Colored Non-PoorRural Commercial Colored PoorRural Commercial Colored Ultra PoorRural Commercial White Non-PoorEx-homeland African Non-PoorEx-homeland African PoorEx-homeland African Ultra Poor

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

“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)

member institutions...

 

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…

COUNTRIES REPRESENTED

Morocco South AfricaIndia

Costa Rica

ArgentinaColumbia

Bulgaria

United StatesTunisia

Ghana

MexicoAustralia

Canada

Djibouti

Belgium

Turkey

Georgia

Luxembourg

Switzerland

Iran

Brazil

Thank you