Gender

There are several reasons why it may be important to incorporate gender considerations in the design of safety nets programs.   First, men and women may be vulnerable to or exposed to different types of risks.  Second, there is evidence that women are often more disadvantaged than men and therefore should benefit more from assistance programs.  Third, 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.

While it is advisable to conduct a vulnerability analysis and an examination of the potential gender-based incentives and disincentives of the program before taking decisions in special cases, there are several ways to incorporate gender considerations in safety nets strategies.  These include:

• Designing specific projects for women, like microfinance programs and promotion of crèches and day care centers, and so on.
• Enhancing the direct or indirect (e.g. distributing resources in kind) targeting of existing programs towards women.  Evidence indicates 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.

Finally, it is also 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 include laws and regulations that protect women and their assets in case of divorce and abandonment.