Economy

It emerged at a forum by CSOs to herald the UNCTAD conference that Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is experiencing a growing informalization of labour relations with dire consequences for women.

The character of employment in countries in the region is found in the informal economy where majority of women make a living, mostly in self-employment.

This has been described as one of the fallouts from economic globalization and highlights the gross global inequalities in incomes and living conditions, resulting in the exponential growth of the informal economy in many developing countries.

This BRIDGE Cutting Edge Pack on CD provides key materials on gender-sensitive budgets as a tool for advancing gender equality. Sharing accessible explanations of key concepts, geographically and context diverse case studies, practical tools, guidelines, training materials, popular education materials, web resources and networking contacts, supports progress towards achieving the ultimate goal of the formulation of a gender-sensitive budget. If you are too busy implementing, designing and managing to have time to read a book, then this Pack can offer you concise, accessible information. We hope these resources will further encourage collaboration and networking. As this collection shows, there is no one way of "doing" gender budget work. The context for the work is everything. Whilst we have included examples of tools, guidelines, and training materials, we want to stress that there is no magic formula and any materials need to be adapted for the context.

The Action Plan relies on this policy framework; it is not designed to replace the gender mainstreaming strategy, but rather to advance its implementation.  The Plan defines a concrete four-year road map to intensify the implementation of the gender mainstreaming strategy in the economic sectors.  Execution of this roadmap would give gender issues more traction institutionally and would position the Bank to be a global leader on the issue of women's economic empowerment.

The different processes associated with globalisation have led to rising rates of paid work by women often in contexts where male employment is stagnant or declining. This paper explores how women and men are dealing with this feminisation of labour markets in the face of the widespread prevalence of male breadwinner ideologies and the apparent threat to male authority represented by women's earnings. Responses have varied across the world but there appears to be a remarkable resistance to changes in the domestic division of unpaid work within the household and a continuing failure on the part of policymakers to provide support for women's care responsibilities, despite the growing importance of their breadwinning roles. Many of the services previously provided on an unpaid basis are being transferred to the paid economy but most working women continue to bear a disproportionate burden of domestic responsibility. There is evidence that women may be using their newly acquired earning power to challenge the injustice of the double work burden in ways that pose a challenge to long-term processes of social reproduction.

The PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women released a policy document today that examines the issue of women's unpaid work and makes recommendations for change.  The release of this policy document reflects the Advisory Council's concern about the continuing inequities that result from the undervaluing of women's unpaid work.

Women's labour supply is very inelastic, and additional labour burdens on women are likely to be detrimental to the well-being of others in household. Thus increased NTAE production, in the absence of additional inputs, must come from crop switching or an increase in men's labour. The field research found some indication that the gender division of labour is less rigid than is often believed, and that men are prepared to participate more fully in all aspects of agricultural production if the incentives to do so are adequate. But will this imply that men will "take over" women's crops to the detriment of women's position in the household? This remains an open question. Indeed, there is also some indication that women do not welcome the loss of autonomy resulting from more co-operative household production systems.

The purpose of this initiative is to assist with the development of a database, containing ICT SMMEs owned by black or women as well as to recommend Black and Women ICT SMME support programs, which will address skills and enterprise development within SMMEs.  It may be expected that such ICT SMME support programs will ultimately increase employment and competitiveness in South Africa through the provision of more employable ICT workers.

The ICT industry is losing the talent of skilled women who can bring to it a richness and diversity of thought and perspective and can help alleviate the shortage of skills, which is exacerbated by their lack of participation.  Without women as an integral part of the workforce, the ICT industry is bereft of many potential contributors to the formulation of government and research policy and the development of technology that benefits communities as a whole; it is also deprived of a broader set of perspectives in the design of critical information systems.

Out of the 9.5 million people who are currently working in Nepal, only 1.5 million (16 per cent) are paid employment.  Out of this number, 1.2 million are men and less than 400, 00 are women.  Eighty-two per cent of employed women are self-employed vs. 12 per cent of those who are wage-employed.  In some ethnic communities especially in the Newars and Tibeto-Burman highland groups such as the Sherpas, Gurungs or Thakalis, women entrepreneurs have traditionally been present, buy the idea of women in business has only recently spread throughout the whole country.  Women normally work more hours than men and rural women work more hours than women urban areas.