Pergamon

World Development, Vol. 23, No. 11, 1995-1999, 1995 pp. Copyright 0 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd

Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0305-750x/95 $9.50 + 0.00

Bringing It All Back Home: Integrating Training for

Gender Specialists and Economic Planners

RUTH PEARSON School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.

Summary. - This paper reflects on the absence of macroeconomic training for gender specialists and the corresponding absence of knowledge of gender analysis on the part of economists responsible for macroeconomic planning. The paper reports on a recent training course held in the Caribbean and designed to integrate gender analysis and macroeconomics for both groups of professionals and notes further initiatives being taken on this issue.

1. INTRODUCTION

Gender analysis has begun in the last few years to make some impact on a range of academic and policy debates about economies and economic policy. These include, among others, analysis of intrahousehold resource distribution (which has proved useful in understanding how to target poverty alleviation poli- cies and how households respond to new production and employment incentives); the gendered nature of industrial skills and hierarchy (which has provided a important way of understanding changing labor demand and supply as well as the structure of the workforce in manufacturing enterprises); and the links between inheritance, ownership, use rights, and con- trol over final production (which has proved vital for understanding gender differences in environmental conservation and utilization of natural resources).

Nevertheless most development economists, whether radical or mainstream, in universities, research institutes, aid agencies, or government departments in North and South have little familiarity with gender analysis. Similarly, most gender special- ists in those organizations are unfamiliar with the kind of analysis economists do because they have been trained in other disciplines - anthropology, sociol- ogy, environmental sciences, natural resources, inter- national relations and geography. Moreover, given the ways in which economist planners view gender mat- ters, most “women in development” (WID) and gen- der professionals will have had little opportunity to participate in the process of macroeconomic policy formation and implementation (an example of the marginalization of the Women’s Bureaux noted by Gordon, 1985).

In both North and South, the economic policy ana- lysts and planners need to learn about the relevance of gender analysis; and the WID and gender profession- als increasingly feel a need to gain competence and confidence in both understanding and questioning economic analysis and policy, and are demanding training to empower them to do this. The case dis- cussed here arose from a request which I received from the Women’s Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat to provide a week’s train- ing program in Gender and Macroeconomics for a group of high-level professionals from the Economic Planning Ministries and the Women’s Bureaux of about up to a dozen Caribbean countries. This fol- lowed the important initiative taken by the Commonwealth Secretariat in setting up an Expert Group on gender and structural adjustment, whose report was a key factor in moving the analysis of gen- der and macroeconomics to a more central position within development discourse (Commonwealth Expert Group, 1989).

It is an example of an innovatory trend in the realm of gender and development training, which hitherto had been mainly focused on trying to incorporate a gender perspective into the project cycle (see Moser, 1993, and Overholt et al., 1985) but which now includes several initiatives in both North and South to develop strategies for integrating gender analysis and macroeconomics in the policy process (See Elson, 1994 and Palmer, 1994).

2. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

My brief was to design and deliver a five-day train-

1995

1996 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

ing workshop which would at one and the same time enable the economic planners to gain an understand- ing of the range and relevance of gender analysis to their work, and to enable the gender specialists, prin- cipally directors and officers from Women’s Bureaux and Ministries Responsible for Women’s Affairs’, to gain a critical understanding of the principles and pro- cedures governing the planning and execution of eco- nomic policy. This, it was hoped, would empower the gender specialists to play a role, from which they had hitherto been excluded, in economic policy processes affecting the lives of all women in their countries.

Needless to say the context of gendering macro- economic planning in small Caribbean islands in the mid-1990s is “structural adjustment.” About seven of the islands represented were already undergoing adjustment and stabilization programs agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, a couple of the remaining states were negotiat- ing agreements and the rest (even the Bahamas) were contemplating such action. It was therefore decided that the workshop should be organized around the pol- icy debates and procedures carried out in the context of adjustment.

Women’s organizations in the Caribbean in the 1980s were quick to document and protest falling lev- els of real wages, declining provision of social ser- vices, increase of user charges, rationalisation and retrenchment in public sector employment, price hikes as the result of the abolition of subsidies on basic foods and transport, etc. (Safa and Antrobus, 1992; McAfee, 1991). WID professionals in government, however, have not yet gained a voice in the economic policy process. There are indeed some women work- ing as professional economists in the Caribbean, such

as Janine Iqbal, who suggests that

a structural adjustment program is only a formal reflection of an unsustainable resource, and specifically a foreign exchange, constraint an economy with chronic balance of payments problems and low foreign exchange reserves which does not adjust voluntarily will face impoverishment through an import shortage, infla- tion and devaluation spiral. The multilateral financial institutions offer a certain reprieve by providing resources to tide over the period during which adjustment measures are being implemented. The concern therefore is not over the policy of adjustment but its pace and dis- tribution of burden (Iqbal, 1993, p. 48).

But this kind of nuanced discussion of structural adjustment is sometimes rejected by noneconomists who see economic policy reform as externally imposed and unnecessary.

A further barrier is the gender blindness of many economic planning professionals who may admit some relevance of gender analysis at the micro level, but have a deep conviction that gender cannot possi- bly be relevant at the macro and meso level. If this conviction can be shaken, then gender analysts are

more likely to be able to raise women’s concerns about structural adjustment policies within economic policy processes.

3. WORKSHOP ORGANIZATION

The participants were specifically selected by the Commonwealth Secretariat to comprise a participant from an Economic Planning Ministry and a Women’s Ministry/Bureau from each participatory country. This added up to some 25 people from the 11 partici- pating countries (including additional participants from Antigua where the training was located); and additional participants from CARICOM, the University of the West Indies and UNIFEM. Of the government participants, 12 were gender specialists from Women’s Ministries, and 12 were from Ministries and Units responsible for Finance, Economic Planning and Development. All the gender specialists were women; in the economists’ group there were three men and nine women. All were from a high level of seniority.

The ways in which the participants had been selected made it imperative to use an approach which would validate the skills and expertise of both the gen- der and the economic planning groups and enable them to interact and to learn from each other. The pro- gram offered a mixture of formal lectures, and group discussions, followed by a day-long participatory exercise in which both sets of professionals worked together in order to apply a gender perspective to a Public Expenditure Review exercise. Following a pre- liminary overview of gender and economic policy, an economist from Trinidad, Mrs Joacim St. Cyr, pre- sented a summary of the history of economic develop- ment and structural adjustment policies in various Caribbean islands.

Not altogether unexpectedly, at the outset some of the economic planners, and not only the men, expressed considerable skepticism about the rele- vance of gender to their professional responsibilities in designing and implementing economic policy. The presentation of the Caribbean experiences of adjust- ment programs however, led to an animated discus- sion, not only about the effect on women, but also about the extent to which adjustment programs had been successful in achieving their stated objectives in terms of restoration of international credit worthiness, reduction of public sector deficits, stimulation of pri- vate investment, and improved efficiency and produc- tivity of the economy. This paved the way for a subse- quent consideration of how gender relations might affect adjustment, a far less familiar viewpoint than the impact of adjustment on women.

This was approached via a deconstruction of adjustment into macro, meso and micro levels (based on Elson, 1994 and World Bank, 1990) to illustrate the

TRAINING FOR GENDER SPECIALISTS AND ECONOMIC PLANNERS 1997

linkages between macroeconomic policies and the actions and responses of people. Bringing people into the picture made it easier to see how gender might be relevant to macroeconomic analysis. Particular atten- tion was paid to the impact of changes in public expenditure in hindering or facilitating the ability of men and women to respond to new opportunities and cope with new costs. The role of different kinds of markets (labor, product and credit) was critically examined to show how changes in macro policy work through these markets, with differential implications for men and women’s responses to changing prices and changing forms of market organization.

This was followed by a discussion of the social dimensions of adjustment programs and a critical examination of various programs supported by multi- lateral agencies which were supposed to offset the adverse impact of adjustment programs in the Caribbean and elsewhere. This provided an opportu- nity to emphasize the importance of links between social reproduction and production within the econ- omy, drawing on Folbre (1994) as well as the useful- ness of gender analysis in understanding how these links affect and are affected by the ways in which pol- icy is implemented.

The animated discussion which followed featured much less skepticism from the economic planners about the relevance of gender to economic planning since they began to see how gender relations affected peoples’ responses to macroeconomic policies; and much more involvement of the gender specialists in the discussion of economic policy and processes, since they began to see how women’s time spent in childcare and housework could be thought of as part of the economy.

In the final lecture, (drawing on Palmer, 1991) gender biases at each level of the economy were examined. At the macro level the ways in which eco- nomic activities are valued and recorded was consid- ered, together with the failure to consider the unpaid economy of social reproduction. The ways in which unpaid reproductive work can be seen as a “reproduc- tive tax” paid by women which supports all other agents and activities in the economy was discussed. Gender bias at the meso level was identified as includ- ing gender-based distortions in credit, product and labour markets; and in access to social and physical infrastructure.

At the micro level gender bias was located in asymmetry within the household, in terms of gender differences in control over income and expenditure and responsibility for survival and welfare of house- hold members. Sen’s concept of cooperative conflict was explored as a way of understanding the intricacies of intrahousehold relations and decision making (Sen, 1990). The implications of these biases for the prospects of adjustment policies achieving macroeco- nomic and human development targets was then con-

sidered, together with their impact on the equity of adjustment, looking at empirical evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean.

4. A PARTICIPATORY TRAINING EXERCISE: ADJUSTMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN

An exercise based on a review of public expendi- ture and revenue was included to encourage partici- pants to think about ways of applying some of the ideas discussed. The participants were told that they were to imagine themselves members of a task force set up in the imaginary island of Caribbeana to review public expenditure and revenue from a gender per- spective, with the twin objectives of evaluating and responding to the policies and targets recommended by the World Bank and the IMF, and also of improv- ing the situation of women in the light of the expecta- tions created by the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The participants were given a set of statistics which included macroeconomic data, a sum- mary of Central Government Finances, a breakdown of Current Expenditure (by type of by sector) and a breakdown of Development Expenditure (by sector).?

They were asked to carry out a gender audit of the likely benefits from the pattern of public expenditure and revenue shown in the statistics. That is, they were asked to consider who had access to public sector employment; how the provision of public services such as education, health, transport and sanitation and water were utilized differently by men and women; and which public sector activities complemented, or competed with different kinds of paid and unpaid work in the economy; and which kinds of expenditure were important for supporting a positive response from women to new economic opportunities. On the rev- enue side, they were asked to examine how different modes of taxation and cost recovery were likely to have different impacts on the economic and other opportunities and responsibilities of men and women. They were then asked to make recommendations for intersectoral and intrasectoral restructuring of public expenditure, bearing in mind the twin objectives of reducing the budget deficit and improving the situation of women. Obviously, financial statistics are unable to answer all the relevant questions so participants wee also asked to identify the gender disaggregated data which would be a necessary input for incorporating such reviews into the regular public expenditure and revenue planning process of their countries.

The experience of the exercise was encouraging on a number of counts. First, the teams were informed and confident enough to engage fully in the tasks, to argue out differences of opinion and to produce a coherent and well-illustrated review to present to a “team of visiting economists from the World Bank and the IMF” (simulated by the Course Director and

1998 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

others). Secondly-and most important-during the discussions and preparations there was a lot of peer teaching and Ieaming going on as both the gender spe- cialists and the economic planners were able to explain their perspective and knowledge to their col- leagues. Finally, as the evaluations at the end of the course demonstrated - at least some of the trainees had changed their perceptions reporting that “for the fit time I can see that gender analysis is at all rele- vant to the work of economist” and “I now feel confi- dent to take up gender issues with economic planners without feeling that I don’t understand what they are talking about or that they will not take me seriously.”

Public expenditure and revenue are issues which provide a good opening to discuss, in a relatively non- technical but economically informed way, the strengths and weaknesses of the analysis and policies promoted by the IMF and the World Bank, and to pro- mote an understanding of how greater gender equality might increase rather than decrease the room for maneuver in dealing with budgetary constraints.

Workshop was held in Kingston, Jamaica, as part of an international project (supported by UNDP and UNRISD) on “Integrating Gender into Development Policy”.3 The focus was on industrialization and adjustment, and the Minister of Finance and Planning was a participant. In response to a request from the economists present to “systematize” and “measure” the implications of integrating gender into the plan- ning process, a participatory macroeconomic plan- ning exercise along the lines of the Antigua workshop has been proposed, using Jamaican macroeconomic data. It is intended that this will be a multistage exer- cise which will involve ongoing working groups which will report back at different stages, and will involve key people in the appropriate government agencies and ministries, as well as gender profession- als in the national women’s machinery and in the non- government organizations, coordinated by AWOJA (the Association of Jamaican Women’s Organisa- tions) and the Women’s Bureau of Jamaica which plays a leading role in lobbying for policy changes.

5. CONCLUSION

A one-week workshop for gender planners and macroeconomists will not instantly give the Ministry for Women’s Affairs a key role in the design and implementation of macroeconomic policy. But it is a significant fist step toward breaking down some of the professional barriers to such an integration and to rethinking the institutional as well as the analytical processes which have hitherto ensured the separation of gender analysis and macroeconomics.

Various initiatives are underway to push the process further. In April 1995 a Consultative

There are other initiatives which are contributing to this process. For example a cohort of women econ- omists from developing countries are being trained in gender analysis and development economics through a doctoral program at the University of Manchester, supported by the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). Training in gender analysis and macroeconomics is also being conducted with econo- mists and gender specialists within some bilateral aid agencies such as SIDA, DANIDA, and CIDA. The dialogue which has been initiated between economists and gender specialists can be seen as the first step in incorporating a gender perspective into economic pol- icy making in ways that will transform both economic policy making and gender advocacy.

NOTES

1. The participants from Women’s Bureaus and Ministries at the Caribbean training workshop discussed in this article were located in the Ministry of Justice and Immigration (Bahamas); Ministry of Community Development and Culture (Barbados); Ministry of Youth Development, Human Resources and Women’s Affairs (Belize); Ministry of Works, Communications, Public Utilities and Women’s Affairs (Grenada); Ministry of Labour, Welfare and Sports (Jamaica); Ministry of Legal and Women’s Affairs (&Lucia); Ministry of Education, Youth, Culture and Women’s Affairs (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). Exceptionally, the Women’s Bureau in Dominica is located within the Economic Development Unit of the Oftice of the Prime Minister, and Antigua’s Directorate of Women’s Affairs is also located with the Prime Minister’s off%ze; the relevant Ministries in St. Vincent and the Grenadines had independent addresses.

2. These tables were prepared by Dr Uma Kambhampati of the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, who adapted published statistics to the requirements of this exercise.

3. This project, to which I am a contributor, is financed by UNDP, coordinated by UNRISD and is entitled “Technical Cooperation and Women’s Lives: Integrating Gender into Development Policy.” It involves case studies in Uganda, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Morocco and Mali as well as Jamaica. Although not confined to the sphere of macroeconomic pol- icy this is a major element in the dialogue and analysis for each country.

TRAINING FOR GENDER SPECIALISTS AND ECONOMIC PLANNERS

REFERENCES

1999

Commonwealth Expert Group on Women and Structural Adjustment, Engendering Adjustment for the 1990’s: Report of a Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Group on Women and Structural Adjustment (London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 1989).

Elson, Diane, ‘The gendered economy: Adjustment and poverty - a training workshop,” Mimeo (Manchester: School of Economic Studies, 1994).

Folbre, Nancy, Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (London: Routledge, 1994).

Gordon, Shirley (Ed.), Ladies in Limbo: the Pate of Women’s Bureaux: Six Case Studiesfrom the Caribbean (London: Commonwealth Secretariat Human Resources Group, Women and Development Programme, 1985).

Iqbal, Janine, “Adjustment policies in practice: Case study of Jamaica 1977-9 1,” in Stanley Lalta and Marie Freckleton (Eds.), Caribbean Economic Development: The First Generation (Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, 1993) pp. 47-67.

McAfee, Kathy, Storm Signals: Structural Adjustment and Development Alternatives in the Caribbean (London: Zed Books, 1991).

Moser, C. 0. N., Gender Planning and Development:

Theory. Practice and Training (London: Routledge, 1993).

Overholt, C., M. Anderson, K. Cloud and J. Austin, Gender Roles in Development Projects: A Case Book (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1985).

Palmer, Ingrid, “Social and gender issues in macro-economic policy advice,” Mimeo (Frankfurt: Deutche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit, GTZ, 1994).

Palmer, Ingrid, Gender and Population in the Adjustment of African Economies: Planning for Change (Geneva: ILO, 1991).

Safa, Helen and Peggy Antrobus, “Women and the economic crisis in the Caribbean,” in Lourdes Beneria and Shelly Feldman (Ms.), Unequal Burden: Economic Crises, Persistent Poverty and Women’s Work (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), pp. 49-82.

Sen, Amartya, “Gender and cooperative conflicts,” in Irene Tinker (Ed.), Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 123-149.

World Bank, Making Adjustment Work for the Poor: A Framework for Policy Reform in Africa (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990).