The Forgotten Half
ADB Review [ January - February 2004 ]
ADB should assume a higher profile as the regional development bank committed to promoting gender equality, says Geert van der Linden, ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development. He spoke with ADB Review on the issue of gender and development and ADB’s agenda for the future.
Poverty reduction is the Asian Development
Bank (ADB)’s overarching goal. It is well recognized that women
constitute the bulk of the poor in Asia. What is ADB doing to address
women’s poverty in Asia?
ADB recognizes that in the Asia and Pacific region, poverty has a woman’s face. Two thirds of the world’s poor live in this region—the majority of whom are women. In some societies, women are denied access to basic services such as health and education, and to essential assets such as land. They are often excluded from decision making.
ADB’s Poverty Reduction Strategy identifies gender and development as a “crosscutting priority” because we recognize that poverty cannot be reduced without squarely confronting the poverty of women. Through the strategy, gender issues were elevated into the mainstream of ADB’s development agenda—they were defined as being central to the overarching goal of poverty reduction.
Since the adoption of the strategy, ADB has made significant progress in integrating gender concerns in our operations. Loans responding to gender equality concerns represented 31% of all approvals in 2002, compared with 15% in 1998. Interestingly, projects incorporating gender themes spanned virtually all sectors that ADB supports, including agriculture, natural resource management, finance, physical infrastructure development, governance, health, and education.
ADB has also begun to tackle regional problems related to gender, such as the trafficking of women and girls and spread of HIV/AIDS. ADB’s 2003 loan portfolio included three road projects with components directly addressing these issues. This shows ADB’s commitment to reducing the increased risk and spread of sexually transmitted diseases and trafficking of women and girls associated with large infrastructure projects. These promising examples will be replicated in more projects. To promote this initiative, we are developing partnerships with specialized agencies.
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To effectively address the links between
gender inequalities and poverty, what does ADB need to do better?
Although ADB has become better at making the links
between gender inequality and poverty reduction, there is always
scope to improve.
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Both the clients and lenders benefit from
minimal transaction costs. Also, there is no need for the latter
to collect and analyze information on creditworthiness, apart from
appraising the asset reasonably and carefully. Pawnshops’ record
keeping and accounting are also simple and low cost.
“Although pawning has its limitations, pawnshops add to the institutional diversity of the microfinance landscape and provide a useful service as microcredit institutions to poor and low-income households in countries where there are no severe legal restrictions on their operations,” Mr. Fernando concludes.
" In the Aisa and Pacific region, poverty has a woman's face. Two thirds of the world's poor live in this region-the majority of whom are women"
At the institutional level, we should raise staff awareness of the gender-poverty nexus, and strengthen their skills in designing interventions to reduce gender inequality. ADB should also assume a higher profile as the regional development bank committed to promoting gender concerns. To do this, ADB should take the lead in developing and disseminating knowledge on relevant issues. We must more actively engage developing member countries (DMCs) in the process to ensure that knowledge generated is relevant and applicable.
At the operational level, we should pay more attention to country diagnostic analyses on the issues of gender and poverty. This should be the basis for determining how best ADB can assist in removing these issues.
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Women make up more than 50% of the region’s
population, yet they are often marginalized in the economic development
of the country. What should ADB do to harness the contribution of
women to the economic and social development of the region?
The old proverb “women hold up half the sky” sadly cannot be matched with “and they share half the rewards.” Too often women are the “forgotten half” of the development equation. This is most unfortunate. Women’s exclusion is a loss not only for the individual, but also for her community and society as a whole. Another saying “educate a girl and you educate a future generation” is highly accurate.
To harness women’s contributions to development, ADB must focus on empowering women economically and socially, and giving them voice and choice. To ensure greater impact, we should help our DMCs develop and implement the right policy framework for promoting gender equality.
ADB should promote providing women and girls with access to basic services and income-earning opportunities. It is equally important to assist in creating space for women’s voices by actively involving them in participatory processes and establishing a safe and secure environment, free of violence.
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Gender equity and the empowerment of women
is crucial to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Without improvements in the lives of women, the MDGs will not be
met. What can ADB do?
Gender equality and women’s empowerment have a far-reaching impact on achieving the MDGs. For example, how can the goals related to poverty reduction, child mortality, girls’ education, or even preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS be achieved without improvements in the status of women? In March 2003, President Chino and the heads of other multilateral development banks issued a joint statement on the importance of gender issues in addressing all the MDGs. This needs to be reflected in ADB’s country strategies and programs.
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Virtually all ADB DMCs have national gender
policies and action plans to implement the Beijing Platform for
Action. How do you think can ADB best support these policies and
action plans?
"ADB loans responding to gender equality concerns represented 31% of all approvals in 2002, compared with 15% in 1998"
We are already supporting the Beijing Platform implementation in some countries—Fiji Islands, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Viet Nam — by strengthening national focal agencies responsible for overseeing and monitoring the plans. We can expand similar assistance to other countries by partnering with other development agencies. Through policy dialogue with DMC governments, we can help create the right policy conditions for platform implementation. We should also ensure that the goals and targets included in DMC gender action plans are supported by ADB-financed projects.
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As the new Vice-President for Knowledge
Management, how will you personally support and promote gender and
development in ADB operations?
It is crucial that ADB’s Management signals clearly, unambiguously, and continuously that gender and development ranks high on ADB’s list of priorities. Only this will create an environment for our staff to use their skills and creativity to give ADB a meaningful and effective role in moving gender issues forward. I will seek every opportunity to push forward our gender agenda by participating in forums—both internal and external—on gender and development, and communicating to staff the critical role of gender and development in achieving our goal of reducing poverty.
It is also essential that we continue to strengthen ADB’s capacity to address gender issues. What is particularly important is that our operational staff receive the backup from specialists in this area.
I am happy that we have been able to post gender specialists in eight of our resident missions, with the financial support of the Government of Denmark. We are currently reviewing the role of the Regional and Sustainable Development Department, the guardian of sector and thematic policies, including that for gender, to strengthen its support to the operations departments. I am confident that this review will strengthen ADB’s operational capacity and ensure quality work on gender.
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