Media Release
July 30 2008
Economic empowerment for women in the Asia-Pacific
Is
the budget approach of governments in the Asia-Pacific region helping
women gain any economic power, and what benefits can be delivered to
society as a whole through increasing women’s economic empowerment?
These challenging questions will be investigated through a three year UniSA research project analysing gender responsive budgeting in the Asia-Pacific region, funded by AusAID’s Australian Development Research Awards.
Professor of Economics at the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies, Rhonda Sharp, says that gender responsive budgeting involves assessing the different impacts of government revenues and expenditures on women and men.
“Gender responsive budgeting helps to ensure that policies, programs and budgets address the different needs of the genders, particularly in striving for equality,” Prof Sharp said.
“It has previously been shown that programs and policies designed to improve women’s economic opportunities also lead to higher rates of economic growth in a society.”
Prof Sharp says that gender responsive budgeting can have several benefits across a society, not only economically, but also in health, education and employment.
“For example, women in the Asia-Pacific region are usually burdened with the tasks associated with carrying water and sanitation so government investment in water infrastructure is likely to have the greatest impact on several areas of women’s lives,” Prof Sharp said.
“Women would not only be released from their unpaid physical labour of these tasks, providing an opportunity to take up paid employment, but there would also be additional health benefits in being released from this physical burden.
“Delivering health improvements for women will also often result in better health outcomes for their children, consequently benefiting the next generation,” she said.
A key task of the research project will be reviewing the success of budget initiatives introduced in the Asia-Pacific region aimed at helping women. Indonesia and East Timor will be closely analysed as case studies for the project.
“East Timor is currently restructuring its public sector, and we will be looking at how accessible public sector positions are to women. Currently, only approximately 20 per cent of the East Timorese public sector is female,” Prof Sharp said.
“The way the public sector is being set up in East Timor will directly impact women’s employment access to it. As a consequence several gender issues need to be considered, particularly access to maternity leave with the average East Timorese woman bearing seven children.
“In contrast to East Timor, Indonesia has been more active in delivering gender focused services at the district level, and the effectiveness of these now needs analysis. We will also consider how these localised district initiatives could be adopted at the national levels of government in Indonesia.”
Prof Sharp says the project’s research findings will be used to develop a resource pack focused on the design and implementation of a gender budget approach for countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“With the development of the resource pack, governments, researchers, NGO’s and donors will be able to assess previous approaches in a variety of Asia-Pacific countries,” Prof Sharp said.
“The tool will acknowledge the very diverse situations of different Asia Pacific countries, recognising that no one gender budget approach can be effective for all, but that it can deliver very definite improvements for a society overall.”
Contacts for interview
- Prof Rhonda Sharp mobile 0433 765 577 email rhonda.sharp@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
-
Lisa McDonald office (08) 8302 4063 mobile 0434 367 876
email mcdonald.lisa@unisa.edu.au