Making social protection work for gender equality: What does it look like and how do we get there?

This event will introduce the working paper, Making social protection work for gender equality: What does it look like? How do we get there?, published by the ILO in December 2024.

Background

Well designed and implemented social protection systems can play a crucial role in promoting and enhancing gender equality for all throughout the life course but not adopting gender-lens when designing social protection systems risks reproducing or exacerbating current gender inequalities and stereotypes. There has been a growing interest in this regard from feminists, policymakers and civil society; seeking to improve and build upon existing social protection programmes and systems to make them more gender-responsive. Especially in current times of multiple crises and transformations, it is crucial to focus on the key role that robust, gender-responsive social protection systems could play in protecting women and girls against poverty during times of crisis as well as in normal times, and in strengthening their ability to cope with critical life course events.

ILO’s working paper on “Making social protection work for gender equality: What does it look like? How do we get there” provides for the first time, a consolidated message on the ILO’s approach to leverage social protection systems for improving gender equality. This paper will be taken as a departure point for the discussants to bring their own perspectives and insights into the role that policy coherence, sustainable financing, and robust legal frameworks for social protection systems can play for gender equality at large.

The objective of this webinar is to not only to introduce the audience to ILO’s working paper; but to also situate the discussion on gender and social protection within the broader, current context of development and aid crisis.

Read the working paper

Speakers

Moderator and Presenter - Shahra Razavi, Department Director, Universal Social Protection Department, ILO

Presenter - Christina Behrendt, Head of the Social Policy Unit of the Universal Social Protection Department, ILO

Discussants

James Heintz, Andrew Glyn Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Laura Alfers, International Coordinator, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

Deepta Chopra, Professorial Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex