Publications

	Table of Contents
p. 3 of 20 BACK | NEXT Executive summary Introduction Gender and development issues in the Asian and Pacific region Overview of Bank policy and operations on WID (1985-1996) The need for a revised policy on gender and development The Bank’s revised policy on gender and development

Policy on Gender and Development

---

II. Gender and development issues in the Asia and Pacific region

2. Recognition of the need to improve the status of women and to promote their potential roles in development is no longer seen only as an issue of human rights or social justice. While the pursuit of gender equity remains strongly embedded within the framework of fundamental human rights and gender justice, investments in women now also are recognized as crucial to achieving sustainable development. Economic analyses recognize that low levels of education and training, poor health and nutritional status, and limited access to resources not only depress women’s quality of life, but also limit productivity and hinder economic efficiency and growth. Hence, promoting and improving the status of women need to be pursued, for reasons of equity and social justice and also because it makes economic sense and is good development practice.

3. ADB’s strategic development objectives (SDOs) such as economic growth, poverty reduction, human development including population planning, and sound management of natural resources and the environment cannot be fully achieved without increased investments in women and greater attention to their needs, concerns, and contributions. Public policies and investments that promote the development of women have economic payoffs in terms of higher economic growth rates; improved productivity; reduced health and welfare costs; low fertility, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality rates; and increased life expectancy. Increased investment in women produces a healthier, better educated, and literate workforce, and provides a sound human resource foundation on which to build the economy.

4. Investing in women’s health has positive impacts on reducing the country’s population growth rates, improving the health and welfare of children and families, reducing health costs, and contributing to poverty reduction. Throughout the world, it has been shown that improving health care for women aged 15–44 years offers the biggest returns on health care spending for any group of adults.

5. Investing in the education of girls not only results in positive returns to the girls themselves, but the returns to society are even larger and last for generations. For the girls, education means enhanced future earning capacity, increased access and opportunities in the labor market, reduced health risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth, and often greater control over their personal lives. For the society at large, investments in the education of girls will likely result in slower population growth rates, and better health and education of future generations.

6. Likewise, improving women’s access to financial services contributes to poverty reduction as it enables women to contribute to household income and family welfare, thereby making the transition out of poverty easier for their families. Extending such services to women also makes good economic sense for financial intermediaries, as women have shown themselves to be better savers, leading to greater savings mobilization, and better repayers, resulting in fewer bad debts.

7. Most of the countries in the region are undergoing rapid social and economic change. The obstacles to women’s participation in and benefits from these changes mean that the potential contribution of half of the population of these countries is either unutilized or underutilized, signifying an economic loss to the country. The direct links of expanded opportunities for women, especially in education and income-generating activities, with reduction in population growth, improved health and education of children, easing of environmental pressure, improved nutrition, poverty reduction, and sustainable development, indicate that underinvestment in women is an uneconomic proposition¹. Keeping women at the margins of development could prove detrimental to the overall development efforts and goals of the country.

8. Overall, development programs that include measures to expand women’s economic opportunities and increase their incomes, or promote improvements in women’s health and education, result in greater economic efficiency and decreased levels of poverty². Public policies to reduce gender inequalities are essential for counteracting market failure and improving the well-being of all members of society³. Discrimination against women in both the private realm of the household and the public realm of the market carries not only private costs for the individual, but social and economic costs for the overall society. Hence, it is in the interest of the country to promote, support, enhance, and ensure women’s participation in and more equitable sharing of the rewards of development.

9. Undoubtedly, some progress has been achieved worldwide in reducing gender disparities. Many women in developing countries have benefited positively from increased access to education, employment, safe drinking water, modern health care, higher standard of living, and greater social mobility. According to the World Bank⁴ (WB) figures for all developing countries

• in 1990, 86 girls were enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys, compared with 67 girls for every 100 boys in 1960; 75 females per 100 males were enrolled in secondary schools in 1990 compared with 53 in 1960

• the average 6-year-old girl now goes to school for 8.4 years, compared with 7.3 years in 1980 and

• since the 1950s the official female labor force rate has grown at twice the rate of the male labor force, so that today 30% of women over 15 years are in the formal labor force in developing countries, albeit in relatively low-paying, low-quality, and low-status occupations.

10. At the same time, in many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, women still lack access to education, decent health care, safe drinking water, family planning services, decision making in both the household and the community, employment and income-generating opportunities, information, and resources (Table 1). Women continue to suffer from inferior legal, economic, and social status; poor health; illiteracy; long hours of arduous work; and the burden of multiple roles. According to the 1995 Human Development Report⁵:

• Of the world’s 900 million illiterate people, women outnumber men two to one.

• Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty, 70% are women.

• At least half a million women die each year from complications due to pregnancy.

• Adult women suffer more than men from malnutrition. Iron deficiency is suffered by 458 million women compared with 238 million men.

• While women represent 41% of all workers in developing countries, women’s wages are 30–40% less than those of men for comparable work.

11. In the region, rapid economic growth has generated corresponding improvements in the condition of women. Progress toward gender equity is clearly evident. Between 1970 and 1993, adult female literacy rates rose from 17% to 35% in South Asia, and from 55% to 72% in Southeast Asia; female primary school enrollments rose between 1960 and 1992⁶ from 39% to 80% in South Asia; and tertiary enrollment ratios in Southeast Asia and the Pacific quadrupled from 4% to 16.1% between 1960 and 1991⁷. Throughout the region, between 1970 and 1995, women’s participation in the labor force increased dramatically, especially in Bangladesh, Republic of Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, and Singapore⁸ (Table 2).

12. In spite of these achievements, much remains to be done to reduce the gender gap and achieve greater improvements in women’s social, economic, and political status. In many parts of the Asia and Pacific region, women are still isolated, unorganized, and constrained by sociocultural and legal structures that restrict their access to resources and their control over their own lives. Gender disparities continue to persist, with some countries in the region having the worst health and education indicators for women in the world.

13. In some ADB DMCs, deaths of women associated with childbirth are among the highest in the world (e.g., Bangladesh, 850; Cambodia, 900; Indonesia, 650; Nepal, 1,500; and Papua New Guinea, 930 per 100,000 live births) (Figure 1). The number of girls enrolled in primary school relative to boys is lower, with boys spending more years at school. Literacy rates for females remain as low as 16% in some of the DMCs (Figure 2), with women’s literacy, relative to men’s, being significantly lower in almost all of the DMCs (see Appendix for selected gender statistics).

14. Contrary to demographic norms, more girls than boys die at a young age in some ADB DMCs. Although women outlive men almost everywhere, there are slightly fewer women than men in the world—98.6 for every 100 men. Of the 21 countries with fewer than 95 women per 100 men, all but two are in the Asia and Pacific region (Table 3). There is some evidence from a few Asian countries that the sex ratio deviates from the norm in favor of male children, reflecting strong traditional preferences for sons and perhaps discrimination against daughters at birth. India has had a ratio below the norm for more than a decade, while People’s Republic of China (PRC), Republic of Korea, and Pakistan show ratios falling rapidly since 1982 (Table 4). Female infanticide, underreporting of female births, and sexselective abortion appear to be the major explanation for the imbalances reported in the sex ratio at birth. International comparisons of female-male mortality rates indicate that in some Asian countries, along with sub-Saharan Africa, more than 100 million women are missing from official statistics.

15. Increased participation of women in the labor force, while providing women with much-needed access to income, has in some instances generated new concerns for working women. Issues such as poor working conditions, exposure to health risks, higher incidence of industrial diseases, worker health and safety, and new forms and patterns of exploitation such as sexual harassment in the workplace are receiving attention. The increase in women’s labor force participation rates, especially in Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia and the Pacific, is due largely to the mobilization and integration of young women into formal wage employment in the laborintensive export-oriented manufacturing industries, particularly the electronics, garment, and footwear industries. Admittedly, these industries have generated extensive employment opportunities for women, with accompanying benefits. At the same time, many of these jobs have tended to be unreliable, short term, in unskilled or semiskilled categories with little scope for skills acquisition, with generally substandard working conditions and low wages. In such instances, the positive benefits to women are neutralized by the adverse impacts of poor working conditions, especially in the area of worker health and safety. With increasing numbers of women entering wage employment, women and labor issues are emerging in the region as new areas of concern.

16. Along with the traditional challenges of achieving greater improvements in women’s health, education, access to financial services, and income-generating opportunities, there are new challenges emerging in the region that need to be addressed. The challenges of dealing with the increasing feminization of poverty, increasing spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) among women, the trafficking in women and girls, migrant women workers, violence against women, and female infanticide were brought to the forefront by the women of the region at both the Jakarta Regional Meeting (1994) and the Beijing World Conference on Women (1995). Many of these new challenges and emerging areas of concern are conspicuously manifested in the region.

• Feminization of poverty is a serious concern in Asia, where two thirds of the world’s poor reside, of whom two thirds are women. In poor households, women are more disadvantaged than men in terms of their workloads and access to resources and remunerative activity.

• The phenomenon of migrant women workers, who are recognized as a vulnerable group in the Beijing Platform for Action, is increasing in the Asian and Pacific region. Migrant women workers contribute substantially to the national economies of several DMCs and are the mainstay of the remittance economy relied upon by many poor urban and rural families. In spite of the valued contribution of migrant women workers not only to their families but also to the economy, there is an absence of protective legislation and regulatory mechanisms to prevent their exploitation and ensure their protection. Households headed by women are particularly vulnerable. Disproportionate numbers of women among the poor pose serious constraints to human development because children raised in poor households are more likely to repeat cycles of poverty and disadvantage.

• The phenomenon of migrant women workers, who are recognized as a vulnerable group in the Beijing Platform for Action, is increasing in the Asia and Pacific region. Migrant women workers contribute substantially to the national economies of several ADB DMCs and are the mainstay of the remittance economy relied upon by many poor urban and rural families. In spite of the valued contribution of migrant women workers not only to their families but also to the economy, there is an absence of protective legislation and regulatory mechanisms to prevent their exploitation and ensure their protection.

• Disproportionate burdens of structural adjustment and economic transition are borne by women. For example, in the Central Asian DMCs, the social and economic advancement of women fostered by public policies and expenditure in the past is being slowed or reversed as a result of restructuring. Likewise, some of the austerity measures being pursued by many of the DMCs under adjustment programs impact more negatively on women than men.

• Asia has the second highest prevalence of HIV infection among women. On a world scale, South Asia is the highest after sub-Saharan Africa in the degree of prevalence of HIV infection among women. In Asia, almost half of all adults newly infected with the virus are women compared with less than 25% just 6 years ago. In the year to mid-1994, Asia’s share of global AIDS cases rose eightfold. Using Cambodia as an example, a 1994 World Health Organization (WHO) study indicated that nearly 40% of sex workers surveyed in Sihanoukville were infected with HIV. There were concerns that the virus had already gone beyond this risk group into the general population. The nexus between the spread of HIV, and the low status and powerlessness of women, is seen as one of the major contributors to the spread of HIV/AIDS among women in the region.

• Gender-selective abortion, female infanticide, trafficking in women, abuse, and malnutrition among girls seriously compromise the rights of the girl child in some ADB DMCs.

• Violence (homicides, domestic violence, rape) against women, although widespread in all cultures, ages, and income groups, has ill effects particularly on the well-being and productivity of women in some ADB DMCs.

17. The new and emerging areas of concern for women described and internationally endorsed in the Beijing Platform for Action are acknowledged as important development issues. Aside from questions of equity and rights, these problems are recognized as infringing on women’s ability to participate and contribute to development; as a drain on community and societal resources; as entailing economic costs to the country; and as posing serious obstacles to human resource development, economic efficiency, and growth. Many studies also indicate that development programs with insufficient gender sensitivity can actually increase the magnitude of some of these problems.

18. For example, attention is now focused on the social, political, and economic costs of all forms of violence against women. Female-focused violence interferes with and reduces women’s capacity to participate fully and equally in the country’s development. It is not only an issue of fundamental justice, equality, and human rights, but also an important public health and development issue for communities and governments. The relationship between female-focused violence and maternal mortality, health care utilization, child survival, AIDS prevention, costs to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, other economic costs, and socioeconomic development are receiving increasing attention. A recent WB study on Violence Against Women strongly argues that female-focused violence represents a hidden obstacle to economic and social development, and makes a case for interventions in primary prevention, reform of the justice system, and health care response⁹.

19. Even domestic violence is now seen as entailing not only private costs to the individual but also wider social and economic costs. At the Beijing World Conference on Women, domestic violence was endorsed as a public issue and taken out of being relegated solely to the private realm of the household. Domestic violence constrains human development, economic growth, and productivity; operates as a drain on financial resources; and undermines the viability of the family/household as a key unit of production. For both urban and rural women, domestic violence can mean loss of work days and consequent loss of income, and reduction in their efficiency and level of productivity. The costs to the country’s health care and legal systems, loss in production, and emotional stress and other social costs all have a direct impact on economic growth. If the level of violence against women could be sharply reduced, the social and economic advantages to the country would be significant.

20. Women in the region are pointing to these emerging and growing problems, previously ignored as development issues. These are the new challenges for the development of the region, alongside the traditional challenges in agriculture, health, education, and employment.

____________________

Back Introduction	Next Overview of Bank policy and operations on WID (1985-1996)