Publication: Effects of Free Trade on Women and Immigrants CAFTA and the Rural Dominican Republic

Publication year: 2011 Source: World Development, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 6 May 2011 Mateusz, Filipski , J., Edward Taylor , Siwa, Msangi We construct a disaggregated rural economywide model with a focus on gender and immigration as well as on the allocation of time to wage work, household production activities, and housework (reproduction). We use this model to simulate the impacts of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) on rural incomes and welfare in the Dominican Republic. We find that elimination of agricultural import tariffs hurts both agricultural and non-agricultural households, via adverse factor-market effects, but impacts vary substantially by workers’ gender and country of origin. Females and Haitian immigrants tend to fare better than Dominican males, and there are

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Publication: Can conditional cash transfers improve maternal health and birth outcomes?

Evidence from El Salvador’s Comunidades Solidarias Rurales

Although conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are traditionally evaluated in relation to child schooling and nutrition outcomes, there is growing interest in specifically examining maternal and reproductive health impacts. However, since data collection is not typically designed to evaluate these outcomes and sample sizes are often limited, there is a lack of rigorous evidence as to whether and through which pathways these effects may be realized. This paper uses regression discontinuity design and a unique implicit threshold to evaluate the impact of El Salvador’s CCT program Comunidades Solidarias Rurales on a range of maternal and reproductive health outcomes: (1) prenatal care, (2) skilled attendance at birth, (3) birth in a health facility, and (4) postnatal care, using data collected by the International Food Policy Research Institute and its collaborators from women who entered the program in 2006 and 2007. Results indicate that robust impacts are found on outcomes at time of birth (skilled attendance and birth in facility), while no impacts are found on healthseeking behavior pre- and postbirth (prenatal and postnatal care). Potential impact pathways as well as the implications of these findings for program design are discussed in the conclusion.

Author:  de Brauw, Alan Peterman, Amber

Publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Access it here

Event & Webcast: Renewing IDB’s commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment

Date: 07 Apr 2011

Time: 9:30 AM

Location: Washington DC, United States

Venue: IDB Auditorium/EVICC, 1330 New York Avenue, N.W.

Time: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.*

Keynote Speaker: Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director for UN Women

Guest Speaker: Vanda Pignato, Secretary of Social Inclusion and First Lady of El Salvador

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will hold a launch event for the IDB’s Policy on Gender Equality and Gender Action Plan 2011-2012 with keynote speaker Michelle Bachelet, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director for UN Women, and guest speaker, Vanda Pignato, Secretary of Social Inclusion and First Lady of El Salvador. IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno will deliver the opening remarks. The event will also feature a panel with IDB management on promising IDB initiatives to foster gender equality.

For a detailed agenda, please click on the documents link.

The event is open to the public. Interpretation services in Spanish and English will be provided.

CLICK HERE FOR THE SPANISH LANGUAGE WEBCAST

If you are interested in attending the event, please click on the “register” link and fill out the registration form for the event.

Publication: Gender and sustainable forest management in East Africa and Latin America

Mwangi, E., R. Meinzen-Dick, and Y. Sun. 2011. Gender and sustainable forest management in East Africa and Latin America. Ecology and Society 16(1): 17.
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art17

Publication: Does it Matter Whether Public Cash Transfers are Given to Women or Men? Evidence from the PROGRESA and PROCAMPO Programs in Rural Mexico

This paper aims at evaluating the impact of two different cash transfer programs in rural Mexico – Procampo and Progresa – on total consumption, food consumption and other outcomes like investment, schooling and health care. Progresa is targeted to women, while Procampo goes to farmers, mostly men and many of which are poor. We show that both programs boost consumption. However, they obtain this effect through different channels. Progresa is destined to consumption expenditure directly, while Procampo, which is paid to landholders, boosts investments and needs time to produce its benefits. Furthermore, we separate program from gender effects and show that cash transfer programs targeted to men are beneficial only when the recipients own means of production. This suggest that policy makers should take into account the relationship between gender and ownership of assets when designing poverty reduction programs.

Interesting blog and link to Ben Davis’ paper, The Lure of Tequila or Motherly Love: Does It Matter Whether Public Cash Transfers Are Given to Women or Men?.

Event (DC): “Women in Agriculture– The Contribution of Women to Agriculture and Food Security in the Americas.”

The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and The Organization of American States (OAS) invites you to join us for the 5th Annual ‘IICA DAY ‘2010 Thursday November, 18th 2010 9:30 a.m.

Publications: Guatemala’s Indigenous Women in Resistance: On the frontline of the communities struggle to defend mother earth and her natural resources

Guatemala’s Indigenous Women in Resistance: On the frontline of the communities struggle to defend mother earth and her natural resources,

Peace Brigades International (PBI), May 2010, by María Giovanna Teijido and Wiebke Schramm

This report examines in details the roots of indigenous communities’ opposition to the installation of large cement plants, mines or hydroelectric projects on their lands. Particular focus on the role played by women.

News: Giving Women Farmers a Boost in Nicaragua

By José Adán Silva Source: IPS Genderwire

MANAGUA, Jun 1, 2010 (IPS) – Josefina Rodríguez very nearly lost her life trying to protect the small plot of farmland in rural Nicaragua that allows her to support her family. Twelve years ago her husband wanted to sell the land, and when she stood up to him, he attacked her with a machete, almost killing her.

“It was the only thing of value we had, and I knew that if we sold it, he would just drink the money away,” Rodríguez told IPS in Terrabona, a rural municipality 116 kilometres from Managua.

Her husband was a former “Contra”, a member of the counterrevolutionary armed group financed by the United States to overthrow the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s. He was given the plot of land under a government programme that distributed land to demobilised combatants at the end of the civil war.

“I escaped from being hacked to death with a machete because the neighbours came to my rescue,” Rodríguez, now 41, recalled in an interview outside the modest house where she lives with her three daughters, two sons and a new partner.

In the end, her act of bravery and defiance was worth the risk. The land is now in her name, and she has received government assistance to raise food for her family, as well as surplus crops that she is able to sell “so I have a bit of money to support my kids.”

On her three hectares of land, in addition to a vegetable garden and banana trees, she has two cows, a calf, several dozen chickens and a pregnant sow, she proudly reports.

Rodríguez and 45 other poor women farmers in Terrabona, situated almost 2,000 metres above sea level in the central Nicaraguan province of Matagalpa, are among the 46,248 women who have benefited from the Nicaraguan government’s Zero Hunger programme, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The four-year programme, launched in 2007, is meant to benefit a total of 80,000 poor rural families. It is aimed at promoting food sovereignty through the distribution to each family of up to 2,000 dollars worth of seeds, livestock, farming implements and assistance.

Each family is provided with a pregnant cow, an inseminated sow, several chickens, materials for building a pigpen, fruit tree saplings, vegetable seeds and technical assistance.

Publication: Closing the gender land gap The effects of land-titling for women in Peru

Authors: Daniela Orge Fuentes and Henrik Wiig

ABSTRACT: Land formalization reforms in developing countries are often criticized for cementing historically unequal property rights between the sexes. The Peruvian formalization law is gender neutral and was only supposed to formalize existing informal property rights. However, protests from the feminist movement led the implementing agency to favour joint ownership between spouses. Our analysis of the 2004 data in the GRADE survey shows that 43 per cent of all formally titled plots are jointly owned compared to 39 per cent in the control group of untitled plots.

However, the level is more than three times larger than 13 per cent joint ownership in the Peruvian LSMS 2000 as calculated by Deere & León (2003). Gender equality might be even more pronounced as joint ownership increases to 56 percent for the subsample of titled male-headed couple households. The result is superior to formalization programmes in many other countries with compulsive joint ownership. The econometric analysis shows that joint ownership is more common in the more traditional highlands with smaller plots than in the more commercial agricultural areas on the coast; educated and married women have higher probabilities of obtaining joint titles

To read the working paper

Employment: Poverty, Gender, and Youth (PGY) Program Coordinator, Population Council (Guatemala-based)

Through the Poverty, Gender, and Youth (PGY) program , Population Council staff members seek to understand the social dimensions of poverty, the determinants and consequences of gender inequality, the disparities that arise during adolescence, and the critical elements of a successful transition to adulthood in developing countries. Program activities include developing and evaluating innovative programs—especially those related to empowerment, health, education, and livelihoods—to address the needs of the poor, women and adolescents in particular.

For more information