Gender and social protection

This paper aims to inform policy-makers on methods for incorporating gender issues in the development of social protection policies, strategies and programmes.

Because women are more likely to be excluded from various social protection interventions, the interests of poor women can be served by improving access to social protection in the labour market and extending social insurance to informal workers. Furthermore, reaching those in the informal sector requires an understanding of women’s vulnerabilities and learning from on-the-ground innovative schemes, through which social protection programmes might be made more responseive to gendered needs and relevant to their capabilities.

This paper explores the following interrelated issues:

• the gender dimensions of risk, vulnerability and shocks
• the gender-differentiated impact of social protection programmes;
• how gender can better be taken into account in the design of social protection programmes

The authors draw several conclusions and make recommendations including the following:

• there are various mechanisms that can be employed to reduce the vulnerability of poor women by improving access to social protection in the labour market and extending social insurance to informal workers, including the following:
• tax-based contributions and transfers
• individual or shared contributions by employers
• market provisions

• furthermore, in order to implement these, policy change in women’s employment and labour market participation is necessary. For instance:

• equalising rights within formal labour legislation
• investing in human capital to increase access to formal employment
• facilitating bargaining power
• improving access to assets such as credit
• recognition of the informal economy in formal economic analysis economic and social policy debates
• strengthening of informal household and community-level social protection mechanisms
• ensuring that this strengthening maintains or increases the gender sensitivity of existing informal mechanisms

[Adapted from authors]