Gender Dynamics of the Grenada Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) 1998

The impetus towards accumulating and analyzing data disaggregated by sex has acquired a steady momentum as governments become more apprised of gender related issues. Indeed, there are several reasons as to why gender issues must be incorporated with the design of safety nets. According to the World Bank’s website, some of these reasons are as follows: • Men and women may be vulnerable to or exposed to different types of risks. •There is evidence that women are often more disadvantaged than men and therefore should benefit more from assistance programs. •Programs that take into account the gender dimension of transfer programs may be desirable because of added benefits to other members in the household. •Finally, this approach might help to increase the impact of safety nets programs on poverty and human development outcomes. It is, however, important to note that an examination of vulnerability and potential gender-based incentives and disincentives of such programs should be undergone before taking major decisions to implement them. Nonetheless, there exists several ways in which to combine gender considerations with safety nets. These include: •Designing specific projects for women, like microfinance programs and promotion of day care centers. •Enhancing the direct or indirect (e.g. distributing resources in kind) targeting of existing programs towards women. Evidence indicate that putting more resources under women’s control has a positive impact on in household and child welfare, since women invest more in children, particularly for nutrition and health. For this reason all of the Latin American conditional cash transfer programs pay benefits in the name of the mother in the household, even though targeting is done on overall family welfare levels. •Ensuring that projects accommodate the needs of participating women for example by ensuring that transactions for eligibility and receipt of benefit in food or cash transfer programs takes place at convenient hours and in culturally acceptable conditions. It has been shown that provision of crèches can enhance women's participation in public works programs. Collectively, it is of utmost important to realize that safety nets alone cannot adequately improve the life of poor women and that other policies are also important for reducing their vulnerability. These can include laws and regulations that protect women and their assets in case of divorce and abandonment