2.1.4 Feminism and Foreign Aid
Unlike interactionism, Feminism offers an explanation of how
economic models, policies and budget frameworks and processes have not adopted
a gender perspective, and how this has caused women to bear the brunt of
poverty. The theory deplores that economic models, policies and budgetary
frameworks that are adopted by different African governments and institutions
often ignore the lived realities of women; but that men largely dominate and
control not only the means of production but also economic decision-making.
Most nations in Sub-Saharan Africa have dual economies that consist of both
formal and informal sectors. Men are dominant in the formal sector, while women
dominate the informal and communal sectors. There is a discernible trend in
Sub-Saharan Africa that economic and development policies target the formal
sector, marginalising the informal and communal sector where women mostly
participate.
The Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000 at the
United Nations? Millennium Summit, commits the member countries «to
promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, as effective ways to
combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly
sustainable. (UN, 2000). Accordingly, the greater part of women?s contribution
to the economy is not counted and not truly reflected in national accounts.
Similarly, women?s role in influencing and participating in economic policy
formulation is side lined, leaving them to deal with the impacts of poverty and
marginalisation. (Lucy Makaza-Mazingi, 2009).
The feminisation of poverty is a phenomenon where poverty is
viewed as disproportionately
affecting and impacting on women more than it does on men. The
phenomenon has been linked, firstly, to a perceived increase in the proportion
of female-headed households (FHHs) and, secondly, to a rise of female
participation in low returns urban informal sector activities, particularly in
the context of the 1980s? economic crises and adjustments in sub-Saharan Africa
and some Asian countries. The feminisation of poverty can be viewed from three
distinct standpoints namely (ibid):
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That women have a higher incidence of poverty than men;
That their poverty is more severe than that of men;
That there is a trend of greater poverty among women particularly
associated with rising
rates of life.
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This raises questions as to whether Southern Africa can meet
the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number one: of reducing poverty by half
by 2015. In Zimbabwe, the Poverty Assessment Study Survey-PASS II (2003),
revealed that poverty remains higher among female-headed households than male
headed households. The Botswana women?s NGO forum notes that 55
percent of the population in rural areas in the country earns
income below the poverty line and female-headed households make up 41 percent
of those living in poverty as opposed to 34 percent for male-headed households.
A survey carried out in Zambia revealed that 50 percent of female-headed
households were classified as very poor compared to only 27 percent of the
male-headed households (ANSA, 2006).
A noticeable trend in Southern Africa is the dominance of men
in most of the occupations associated with high responsibility, job security,
dignity, high earning and social status, while women are relegated to the
low-paying jobs thus increasing inequality between women and men. In addition,
the African Development Bank?s (ADB) (2008) Gender Policy notes that
feminisation of poverty is directly related to the absence of economic
opportunities, the lack of access to economic resources (including credit, land
ownership and inheritance), and the lack of access to education and support
services.
Despite the signing of the 1995 Beijing Declaration, the
action plan on women?s empowerment, and the many declarations and debates on
gender equity in Africa, the women in Southern Africa still reflect the ugly
face of poverty statistics. The recently adopted SADC gender protocol
recognises the feminisation of poverty as one of the threats to the fragile
gains made towards gender equality over the past decade in the areas of law
reform, representation in politics and decision-making, and some strides in
education, with certain African countries reportedly achieving some of the MDGs
on gender- related issues. The traditional discipline of economics, which still
to a large extent implicitly informs the current economic modelling and
discourse in Southern Africa, has relied on a number of critical assumptions
about women and their roles (ibid).
There is now a shared understanding within the development
community that development policies and actions that fail to take gender
inequality into account and fail to address disparities between males and
females will have limited effectiveness and serious cost implications. For
example, a recent study estimates that a country failing to meet the gender
educational target would suffer a deficit in per capita income of 0.1-0.3
percentage points. (Dina Abu-Ghaida and Stephan Klasen, 2002). One may observe
that, by the same token the distribution of foreign aid has been heavily skewed
in favour of men over the years mainly because most donor organisations are
controlled by men who happen to occupy higher positions within these
organizations.
One may argue that to date, women are not considered a human
factor in decisions on aid for economic and social development; hence women and
children remain victims of the poverty trap. Todaro, (1993) is of the view that
development is a multi-dimensional concept which can be realized through
promoting gender equity. Burvic and Gupta, (1994) note that «where women
are targeted with resources it is often assumed that benefits accrue directly
to them and also to their children, to a greater extent than resources targeted
at men.
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