Overcoming poverty through work Gender, Poverty and Employment Programme

Overcoming poverty through workGender, Poverty and Employment Programme María Elena Valenzuela SRO/ILO Santiago Second meeting of working groups, within the framework of the XIII Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour of the OAS Buenos Aires, April 11 to 13, 2005

Introduction • Background of poverty in the region, from a gender dimension • Gender, Poverty and Employment Programme: activities and results • Challenges for overcoming poverty sustainably: the central role of work

Persistence of poverty and social exclusion processes in Latin America • 44% of the population (220 million people) live below the poverty line, and 19% (97 million people) are indigent in Latin America • 11% (55 million people) suffer some degree of malnutrition, including a large percentage of children • Regional poverty levels have been steady since 1997, with significant increases in some countries

Poverty and social inequality • Latin America is not the poorest region of the world. But it is the most unequal • Poverty in LA – more than in any other region of the world – is strongly associated with social inequality • Gender, race and ethnic inequalities are structural underpinnings of patterns of social inequality in LA and are at the root of processes of exclusion that give rise to and perpetuate poverty

Poverty and low employment-generation capacity • Predominant styles of growth in the region: low capacity for generating employment, especially good-quality employment, has a direct effect on poverty • Great deficit of decent work: • Productive occupation that is adequately remunerated and carried out under conditions of freedom, security, equality and human dignity

Overcoming povertythrough work • For the ILO, work is the fundamental way of overcoming poverty and social exclusion • Not just any work, but decent work

Gender factors in women’s poverty • 1. Inequalities in access to remunerated work • The rate of female participation increased significantly in the 1990s in Latin America (from 34% to 45%) • Nevertheless, it is still well below the rate for men (75%) • “Invisible” poor: in urban areas, 43% of women do not have their own income (22% of men)

Inequalities in access to remunerated work Women have a lower rate of labour participation because of: • Barriers posed by domestic tasks and family responsibilities • Cultural patterns that discourage women from working • Lack of information and training • Insufficient employment opportunities

Less formal education More children Fewer possibilities of services to help with domestic work Values environment less conducive to remunerated work for women Few employment alternatives and precarious working conditions Poor women have lower rates of labour participation: lower stratum 36.2% and upper stratum 55.4%

Gender factors in women’s poverty 2.Unequal economic and social value placed on tasks performed by women • In LA, women receive, on average 74% of a man’s income, even though they have 1 more year of studies • The income gap is greater in the informal economy • Nevertheless, women’s contribution is key to overcoming poverty, not only because of the magnitude of the problem, but also because of how their income is used within the family

Unequal economic and social value placed on tasks performed by women • Women are over-represented in the informal economy (50% women and 44% men), especially in the most precarious and unprotected groups (domestic service, unremunerated family workers, home workers, etc.) • Unemployment and underemployment affect women, especially poor women, more

Gender factors in women’s poverty 3. Inequality in access to resources for production • Women have less access to land ownership, business ownership, capital for production and credit, creating a vicious circle that distances them from wealth

Gender factors in women’s poverty 4. Inequality in opportunities for participating in decision-making • Lack of women’s presence is a factor in the failure to include their specific interests on national and constituent agendas • Gender-“neutral” policies for combating poverty and creating jobs tend to reproduce inequalities between men and women

Gender, Poverty and Employment Programme • Objective: To promote and strengthen policies for generating quality employment with a gender dimension (decent work) to combat poverty • Work areas: • Develop a base of new knowledge that contributes to the design of employment policies for combating poverty • Strengthening of institutional capacities of public policy designers and managers, employers and workers • Preparation of proposals for making gender a cross-cutting issue in employment policies and programmes and strategies for combating poverty at the national and local levels

Honduras Nicaragua Ecuador Brazil Peru Bolivia Paraguay Chile Uruguay Argentina

1. New knowledge at the disposal of constituents • Development of conceptual and methodological tools for identifying gender factors that determine poverty • National studies of relationships among poverty, employment patterns, gender inequalities and the influence of other sources of discrimination, such as race or ethnic origin

New knowledge at the disposal of constituents • In-depth analysis of behaviour of the informal economy and its effects on the reproduction of poverty and gender inequalities • Identification of good labour practices with a labour dimension for combating poverty

2. Institution-building • National workshops for training trainers: multiplier agents able to carry out awareness-raising activities (e.g., workshops organised by constituents in locations in the interior of Paraguay) • Training for public sector decision-makers and managers to make gender a cross-cutting issue in labour policies and combating poverty (e.g., in Brazil, the government has supplemented ILO resources to expand the training plan for managers of the National Qualification Plan (PNQ) and members of the Units for Combating Discrimination and Promoting Equal Opportunity in Employment and Occupation)

Institution-building • Training for employers and workers to help them make gender a cross-cutting issue on their agendas and in their participation in social dialogue (e.g., constituents in Honduras have included this approach in the Economic-Social Council) • Strengthening of social dialogue: Support for Tripartite Commissions on Equal Opportunity (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), formation of Commissions (Brazil and Ecuador) and creation of conditions for promoting the establishment of Commissions in the other countries

3. Preparation of proposals • Analysis of national strategies for combating poverty and formulation of proposals to strengthen employment components from a gender dimension (e.g., consultation of constituents to gather proposals for DELP in Nicaragua) • Innovative national policies for combating poverty through work (e.g., identification of opportunities for leaving the informal sector offered by the tourism sector in Ecuador)

Preparation of proposals • The importance of the local level: • Analysis and formulation of recommendations for better consensus among stakeholders and implementation of programmes at the municipal level (e.g., proposals for strengthening the gender dimension and labour components of the Chile in Solidarity Programme) • Technical assistance and formulation of an employment-generation model within the framework of a policy for local development in poor communities (e.g., Sojalin Cooperative in the Chaco Province in Argentina)

Challenges • Recognise the central role of work in sustainably overcoming poverty and social exclusion • Make gender a cross-cutting issue in policies for employment and combating poverty, along with other dimensions (such as race and ethnic origin) that are factors in the reproduction of poverty and social exclusion • Build the capacities of governments, employers and workers for incorporating this approach into policies

ILO SUB-REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE SOUTHERN CONE OF LATIN AMERICA Luis Carrera 1131 – Vitacura Telephone (56-2) 756-5300 – Fax (56-2) 756-5353 e-mail: santiago@oitchile.cl www.oitchile.cl Santiago-Chile

Overcoming poverty through work Gender, Poverty and Employment Programme