Gender Implications of Social Protection Interventions: recent literature, concepts, methods, analytics, and survey tools, Socioeconomics Discussion Paper Series 31
Abstract
The social protection programmes range from various forms of cash transfers—unconditional, conditional and cash-for-work schemes, employment guarantee, public works schemes, nutrition schemes, and so on. There are many instant where social protection programmes have reached a substantial proportion of the poor, leading to improvement in social and welfare outcomes of the poor and vulnerable communities. While targeting core development and livelihood improvement, these social protection programs increasingly also play a determining role in outcomes related to women’s empowerment, altering role and relationship of men and women in the society, and development pathway of men and women and other vulnerable groups, in general. The main purpose of this paper to review and synthesis on concept, methodology, and analytical tools and techniques on assessment of gender implications of large scale social protection programs. In particular, we discuss these issues in context of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MGNREGS), which is one of the largest social Protection program in providing in the developing. In particular, here we summarize findings of recent studies on gender implication of MGNREGA; describe and illustrate a generic methodological and analytical tool (targeted to MGNREGA study) that any practitioner in the field can use in the future for assessing and quantifying gender dimensions of Social; Protection program such as MGNREGS and other program world wide. By using the example of MGNREGA, and using specific component of the tools and techniques, we have tried to show also the interlinkage between social protection and wider dimensions of development (such as economic, environmental, social, institutional and health / nutrition linkages), with a view towards providing a gender assessment tool which can be adapted for different programs across regions. These tools and instruments have already used by the authors in field survey and quantifying the gender impacts of the MGNREGS in selected case study communities in rural India in 2013 and 2014. The lesions learnt while implementing these instruments have been also incorporated in the discussions. This document with synthesis of the recent literature on gender analyses, and methodological guidelines and survey checklist and instruments is expected to be very useful to the practitioners and applied scholars in rural development and gender analysis