Woman, training and work

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

 

Social funds
Sidestepping the bureaucracy

A "social fund" is an organization which channels resources into mostly small-scale projects for eligible poor and vulnerable groups. It covers various programmes designed to play both adistributive role - to reduce the impact of poverty - and a risk reduction role - to protect individuals, households and communities against unexpected and uninsured income and consumption risks.

A brief overview

Since the first social fund was set up in Bolivia in 1987, they have become a popular and high-profile instrument of social policy. They are introduced into a variety of situations and in countries with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Originally designed and implemented as a short-term emergency response to alleviate the negative social consequences of economic reform and structural adjustment policies - particularly in Latin America and Africa - over time their focus has shifted towards achieving the longer-term objectives of poverty reduction and the delivery of social services on a permanent basis. 

Critical policy issues

The evolution from palliative short-term programmes to mainstream and permanent instruments raises a number of important and multi-faceted policy issues relating, inter alia, to national poverty-reduction strategies, effectiveness in reaching the poor, social participation and partnerships, and sustainable approaches to the delivery of services. Paradoxically, while it is recognized that women bear the brunt of economic reform and globalization, the gender dimensions of social funds have received scant attention.

Unique and flexible

Although different and changing terminology is often used to describe social funds, the ILO has identified a number of common characteristics and features associated with them, including their reliance on external funding (see Table below), their unique ability to be multi-sectoral but have one funding agency, and their demand-driven approach, high profile and visibility. In addition, social funds usually have an exceptional institutional setup, since they are located outside of government bureaucracy, and thereby enjoy a substantial degree of autonomy. Notwithstanding these common features, their objectives, target groups, scope of operations and programme components are subject to wide variations.

Social Funds - By Per Cent of External Funding

Category	No. of Countries	%
I (>80% external funding)	18	51
II (50%-80% external funding)	16	46
III (<50% external funding)	1	3

Source: Awad, Azita Berar: Social Funds Revisited. An overview with a particular focus on employment and gender dimensions (ILO, 1997).

The gender dimensions of social funds: An international response

Despite the wide recognition of the social costs of structural adjustment and the trend towards the feminization of poverty, there still remains little awareness of the different ways in which economic reform and structural adjustment programmes affect men and women. Little attention has been paid to the gender dimension of social funds. In response to this, the ILO undertook an action programme to respond to twoimportant issues raised during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing: combating the feminization of poverty, and integrating a gender perspective into the debate and action on macroeconomic reforms. The ILO commissioned case studies to initiate national dialogue and raise awareness of the need to improve the performance of existing social funds in terms of their gender dimension.

Major hurdles

• While women, especially those living in poverty, are considered a priority target for the social fund programmes, systematic measures to translate this priority into action have not been taken, and achievements are seriously lagging behind stated objectives
• Systematic and regular collection of gender-disaggregated data (i.e., data broken down by gender) is not common, demonstrating the lack of importance attached to the gender perspective
• Women represent a higher percentage of "beneficiaries" falling into social welfare sector activities, while men are viewed as primary targets for employment promotion programmes
• The participation of women in the demand-making process, and their decision making ability at community levels, is seriously limited
• The infrastructure development programmes which do include women, apply a different recruitment pattern and a different wage structure for men and women
• Programmes largely perpetuate and reproduce gender-based unequal and discriminatory patters of employment and social participation. social funds have not attempted to promote social reform in this area

The ILO is currently preparing guidelines on gender issues in social funds, and in the year 2000 will support national activities to strengthen the gender and employment dimensions of selected funds.

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