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42. Building Resilience through Iterative Processes: Mainstreaming Ancestral Knowledge, Social Movements, and the Making of Sustainable Programming in Bolivia
- Author:
- Riccardo Vitale
- Publication Date:
- 08-2017
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This case study takes a retrospective look at the 2010-11 Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG-ECHO) Small-Scale Disaster Project in La Paz and the context within which it took place. Our research found that absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities can be fostered by iterative development processes. It also demonstrated that disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation are strongly tied to resilient, sustainable, long-term development. Resilience, however, is not an a priori conceptual framework of development programming; rather it is a life process engendered within specific communities. Consequently, development practitioners must construct programs based on rigorous, ethical, and sound research integrating scientific with local and ancestral knowledge. This is the only approach that can generate environmentally healthy and productive, sustainable, and equitable life systems. This report is part of a series that seeks to draw lessons from resilience projects in Latin America and the Pacific.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Disaster Relief, Gender Issues, Social Movement, Urban, and Sustainability
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, North America, and Asia-Pacific
43. Macroeconomic Policy and Women’s Economic Empowerment
- Author:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- At its core, the economic empowerment of women – to succeed and advance economically and to make and act on economic decisions – depends on the quantity and quality of paid employment, the provision or absence of public services, the amount of unpaid care work borne by women, as well as coverage or lack thereof under core social and labour protections. This paper discusses how macroeconomic policies are crucial enablers of gender equality, as they shape the overall economic environment for advancing women’s economic empowerment. It focuses on how macroeconomic policies support employment creation, the level of unpaid care required of women and the size of fiscal space, which determines the resources available for governments to promote gender equality.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Income Inequality, Macroeconomics, and Empowerment
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
44. Using Internal Evaluations to Measure Organizational Impact: A Meta-Analysis of Oxfam’s Women’s Empowerment Projects
- Author:
- Simone Lombardini and Kristen McCollum
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis examining the overall impact of women’s empowerment projects evaluated as part of Oxfam GB’s Effectiveness Reviews. Results show a positive and significant impact on the Women’s Empowerment Index and mixed results with its individual indicators. We found a statistically significant effect on opinions on women’s economic role and their ability to participate and have influence in the community. We did not find evidence of overall changes in power within the household nor with the share of household income. The meta-analysis also found statistically significant overall effects where the individual studies were too under-powered to detect impact. This paper provides an example of how using meta-analysis in the presence of a robust organizational global evaluation framework can enable evidence-based learning, organizational accountability and better programme implementation.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Women, Economic Inequality, Content Analysis, and Empowerment
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
45. Financing Women Farmers: The need to Increase and Redirect Agriculture and Climate Adaptation Resources
- Author:
- Rebecca Pearl-Martinez
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Oxfam analysis finds that governments and donors are failing to provide women farmers with relevant and adequate support for farming and adapting to climate change. Oxfam conducted research on government and donor investments in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania. It found that funding in these countries is significantly lower than commitments that have been made, and there is little evidence of resources and technical assistance reaching women farmers. Resources are being diverted to priorities other than smallholder farmers, and for the most part governments lack the capacity to deliver funding to them. This paper presents the findings along with recommendations for governments.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Gender Issues, Women, and Farming
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Africa, Middle East, Philippines, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Ghana
46. Tourism’s Dirty Secret: The exploitation of hotel housekeepers
- Author:
- Diana Sarosi
- Publication Date:
- 10-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Tourism is booming and generates millions of jobs for women around the world. Yet the hotel industry exemplifies the vast inequality of today’s world. The women who make hotel beds and clean hotel toilets labour long hours for meagre pay, face sexual harassment and intimidation, are exposed daily to toxic chemicals and live in fear of arbitrary dismissal. Meanwhile, the top-earning hotel CEOs can earn more in an hour than some housekeepers do in a year. Such systematic exploitation is not inevitable. The hotel industry, consumers and governments must all be part of the solution to end the economic exploitation of women. This report examines the working lives of housekeepers in Toronto, Canada, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Phuket, Thailand. In dozens of interviews with hotel housekeepers, representatives of workers’ organizations and hotel managers, Oxfam found five overarching trends common to the three locations: in non-unionized hotels, extremely low wages that are not sufficient to live on; serious health risks and high rates of injury; high rates of sexual harassment; difficulty organizing due to employer resistance and bad management practices; and a lack of adequate child care.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Governance, Tourism, Sexual Violence, and Exploitation
- Political Geography:
- Canada, Asia, Caribbean, Dominican Republic, North America, and Thailand
47. Empowering Grassroots Women Through Transformational Partnerships in Agricultural Value Chains
- Author:
- Mark Vincent Aranas
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The Gender Transformative and Responsible Agribusiness Investments in South East Asia (GRAISEA) programme works to promote women’s economic empowerment in agricultural value chains. The agricultural sector is heavily reliant on women workers, but these women do not have equal access to resources – only 12 percent of the three million landowners in Asia are women, for example. Together with the Institute for Social Enterprise for Asia and its partners, GRAISEA documented the stories of women who have been empowered by partnerships in the Philippines and Thailand. This case study tells their stories and presents a set of benchmarks for how transformational partnerships can be implemented in agricultural value chains.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Gender Issues, Economic Inequality, Fishing, and Empowerment
- Political Geography:
- Asia and South East Asia
48. Measuring Impact: A Meta-Analysis of Oxfam’s Livelihoods Effectiveness Reviews
- Author:
- Rob Fuller
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis examining the overall impact of 23 livelihoods projects evaluated as part of Oxfam GB’s Effectiveness Reviews between 2011 and 2016. Results show a statistically significant, positive impact on the welfare of participants, measured by household consumption and wealth. Analysis indicates an increase in household consumption of approximately 6.6% (95% confidence interval from 1.6% to 11.9%). While some projects had more positive results than others, these differences are not explained by regions, whether the country has lower-income or middle-income status, whether households were initially poorer than average, nor by project scale, budget or duration. However, there is some evidence that female-headed households have tended to benefit less from the projects than male-headed households. Projects that targeted a specific agricultural product or products (such as vegetables, coffee or dairy production) were generally found to be successful in promoting production and sales.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Gender Issues, Food, Economic Growth, Farming, and Empowerment
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
49. Why is Women’s Work Low-Paid? Establishing a framework for understanding the causes of low pay among professions traditionally dominated by women
- Author:
- Jill Rubery
- Publication Date:
- 11-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This discussion paper was commissioned by Oxfam’s UK Programme to understand why certain occupations in the UK labour market, traditionally dominated by women, are low-paid. The paper argues that jobs associated with traditional and outdated notions of ‘women’s role in the home’ extends into the jobs market. This affects attitudes towards remuneration in professions such as cleaning and caring. The paper sets out a framework for understanding the risks of low pay and to explore the issue of the undervaluing of low-paid jobs with respect primarily to women. The author calls these the five ‘V’s: visibility, valuation, vocation, value-added and variance, and sets out a possible series of policy responses.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Poverty, Labor Issues, Inequality, Income Inequality, and Labor Rights
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
50. Cash Cropping and Care: How Cash Crop Development is Changing Gender Relations and Unpaid Care Work in Oromia, Ethiopia
- Author:
- Franziska Mager, Martin Walsh, and Fiona Remnant
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world and prone to both natural and man-made disasters. More than three-quarters of the population live in rural areas and depend on agriculture. Women are particularly vulnerable, lacking access to and control over land and other resources, and facing harmful social norms. Oxfam has worked in Ethiopia for many years, including on interventions to support smallholder production and marketing and to promote women’s economic empowerment. One of these was the Coffee Value Chain project, in Oromia regional state, and the subject of this report. The report examines quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the project, and its findings underline the importance of understanding the wider context in which gender and care relations are both reproduced and negotiated.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Poverty, Economic Inequality, and Empowerment
- Political Geography:
- Kenya and Africa