88179 V2 E X E C U T I V E S U M M A RY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Voice Agency and Empowering women and girls for shared prosperity This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank Group with external contributions. The findings, interpre- tations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank Group, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank Group does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank Group concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a limitation upon or waiver of the privileges and immuni- ties of The World Bank, all of which are specifically reserved. This work is subject to copyright. Because the World Bank Group encourages dissemination of its knowledge products, this work may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial purposes so long as full attribution to this work is given. Copyright 2014 by the World Bank Group Cover: A woman raises her hand to speak at a community meeting in Aurangabad, India. Photo: Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank Group. Design: Miki Fernández / ULTRAdesigns, Inc. | 1 Executive Summary Why voice and agency? on others. For me, this is a source of pride, B my husband asking [my advice]. Now there y ratifying the Convention on the isn’t this machismo. There is mutual respect. Elimination of All Forms of Discrimi- Together we decide.” Similarly, one man in nation against Women (CEDAW), 188 Vietnam commented that “happiness and states have committed to advancing gender equality are related. If the husband under- equality by confronting “any distinction, stands that and is supporting and helping exclusion, or restriction made on the basis his wife … the happiness of the family will be of sex which [impairs] the enjoyment or reinforced.” Full and equal participation also exercise by women … of human rights and requires that all people have voice—mean- fundamental freedoms.” Alongside CEDAW, ing the capacity to speak up and be heard, which came into force in 1979, the 1995 Bei- from homes to houses of parliament, and to jing Platform of Action and various United shape and share in discussions, discourse, Nations Security Council resolutions provide and decisions that affect them. universally accepted benchmarks. These benchmarks include recognition of wom- Increasing women’s voice and agency are en’s right to sexual and reproductive health, valuable ends in themselves. And both voice the right to be free from gender-based vio- and agency have instrumental, practical lence, and equal rights for women and men value too. Amplifying the voices of women to access and control land—rights that and increasing their agency can yield broad establish a clear framework for our global development dividends for them and for report on voice and agency. At the same their families, communities, and societies. time, accumulating evidence and experience Conversely, constraining women’s agency have made clear that tackling poverty and by limiting what jobs women can perform boosting shared prosperity demand that all or subjecting them to violence, for example, people have the opportunity to realize their can create huge losses to productivity and potential and participate fully in all aspects income with broader adverse repercussions of life. for development. We argue that overcoming these deprivations and constraints is central At the individual level, this requires to efforts to end extreme poverty and boost agency—meaning the capacity to make deci- shared prosperity. sions about one’s own life and act on them to achieve a desired outcome, free of vio- Nor is this a zero-sum game. Increasing lence, retribution, or fear. Agency is some- women’s agency need not curtail men’s times defined as “empowerment.” As an agency, and men and boys stand to gain Ecuadorean woman said, “I have free space, from gender equality that improves the to decide for myself, no longer dependent economic and psychological well-being of 2 | Voice and Agency empowering women and girls for shared prosperity all household members, as many men have societies more resilient and more prosper- come to recognize. “The woman helps the ous. For example: man manage the household,” one urban man ■■ Delays in marriage are associated with in Niger said during discussions undertaken greater educational achievement and to inform this report. “It’s a partnership. We lower fertility. And lower fertility can want it that way. Here, in town, a man does increase women’s life expectancy and better when his wife contributes.” has benefits for children’s health and education. Context ■■ When more women are elected to office, There has been unprecedented progress policy-making increasingly reflects the in important aspects of the lives of girls priorities of families and women. and women over recent decades. Yet even where gender gaps are narrowed, system- ■■ Property ownership can enhance wom- atic differences in outcomes often persist, en’s agency by increasing the social including widespread gender-based-vio- status of women, amplifying their voice, lence and lack of voice. These deprivations and increasing their bargaining power and constraints sometimes reflect per- within the household. sistent violations of the most basic human Recognizing agency constraints in devel- rights. And in many instances, constraints opment project design can also improve are magnified and multiplied by poverty effectiveness. Use of reproductive health and lack of education. services by adolescents, for example, is bet- ter where projects address mobility con- Voice and Agency: Empowering women straints and train providers to address pos- and girls for shared prosperity is a major new report by the World Bank that shines a spot- sible issues of stigma. This fact underlines light on the value of voice and agency, the the broader significance of understanding patterns of constraints that limit their reali- how agency constraints operate and how zation, and the associated costs, not only to policies and public action can lift those con- individual women but to their families, com- straints and enhance agency. munities, and societies. It highlights prom- The good news is that promising direc- ising policies and interventions, and it iden- tions for enhancing agency are emerging. tifies priority areas where further research Moreover, the global momentum to tackle and more and better data and evidence are this agenda is growing. This trend is perhaps needed. Underlining that agency has both most vivid in the case of ending gender-based intrinsic and instrumental, concrete value, violence, a major focus of this report. The this report puts advancing women’s voice number of countries recognizing domes- and agency squarely on the international tic violence as a crime has risen from close development agenda. to zero to 76 in just 37 years. In countries Removing constraints and unleashing with legislation against domestic violence, women’s full productive potential can yield women’s acceptance of wife beating is lower. enormous dividends that help make whole This finding suggests the value of enacting Executive Summary | 3 legislation that criminalizes violence. At world, no place is less safe for a woman the same time, laws are not a panacea, and than her own home, with more than 700 awareness of the law and effective implemen- million women globally subject to phys- tation and enforcement are critical. ical or sexual violence at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends, or partners. Where do we stand? As shown in the map in figure 1, regional rates of such violence range from 21 Expanding agency is a universal challenge. percent in North America to 43 percent Agency constraints and deprivations affect in South Asia. Across 33 low- and mid- women and girls in all countries, what- dle-income countries, almost one-third ever their income level. The basic facts are of women say that they cannot refuse sex sobering: with their partners. ■■ Gender-based violence is a global ■■ Many girls have limited control over epidemic, affecting women across their sexual and reproductive rights. all regions of the world. In most of the On present trends, more than 142 million FIGURE 1 Share of women who have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence during their lifetime Europe and Central Asia 29% North America 21% Middle East and North Africa 40% East Asia and the Pacific 30% South Asia 43% Sub-Saharan Africa 40% Latin America and the Caribbean Australia and 33% New Zealand 28% Source: Preliminary analysis of WHO (World Health Organization), global prevalence database (2013) using World Bank regions. Note: Areas shaded in grey are not calculated or do not have relevant data. 4 | Voice and Agency empowering women and girls for shared prosperity girls will be married before the age of 18 women’s lives that are important for promot- in the next decade. And each year, almost ing women’s agency and gender equality. one in five girls in developing countries becomes pregnant before her 18th birth- Determinants and drivers day. The lifetime opportunity costs of This report focuses on key drivers and deter- teen pregnancy have been estimated to minants of voice and agency. What we see range from 1 percent of annual gross in practice is a series of compounding con- domestic product in China to as much as straints. Some arise from women’s and girl’s 30 percent in Uganda, measured solely limited endowments (health, education, and by lost income. In developing countries, assets) and economic opportunities. Even pregnancy-related causes are the largest where endowments and economic opportu- contributor to the mortality of girls ages nities are better, social norms about gender 15–19—nearly 70,000 deaths annually. roles are limiting. This problem is evident, ■■ Fewer women than men own land and for example, in gender roles surround- housing. In some cases, this differential ing child care and housework. Even when is wide. In Burkina Faso, for example, women are taking on more work outside more than twice as many men as women of the home, they typically remain largely (65 percent and 31 percent, respec- responsible for housework and child care. tively) report owning a house. In many Social norms can limit women’s mobil- countries, women can access land only ity and ability to network, restrict women’s through male relatives. representation in politics and government, ■■ In too much of the world, women are and be enshrined in discriminatory laws grossly underrepresented in formal and practices. Unequal power relationships politics and positions of power. World- within households and in society as a whole wide, women account for less than 22 have broad-based effects. Gender-based percent of parliamentarians and fewer violence, for example, is associated with than 5 percent of mayors. Rates vary social norms and expectations that reinforce across countries and regions. In Nordic inequality and place the choices of women countries, for example, women hold 42 and girls outside their realm of control. percent of parliamentary seats, and in Legal discrimination is pervasive. In Rwanda, the share is close to two-thirds. 2013, 128 countries had at least one legal Agency has multiple dimensions and is difference between men and women, rang- inevitably context specific. To enable global ing from barriers to women obtaining official coverage and add value, this report limits identification cards to restrictions on owning its focus to four central domains of women’s or using property, establishing their credit- agency: freedom from violence, control over worthiness, and getting a job. Twenty-eight sexual and reproductive health, ownership countries—mainly in the Middle East and and control of land and housing, and voice North Africa and South Asia—had 10 or more and collective action. At the same time, it differences. In 26 countries, statutory inheri- recognizes that these are just a few areas of tance laws differentiate between women and Executive Summary | 5 men. In 15 countries, women still require From other studies, we know that inti- their husbands’ consent to work. Other laws mate partner violence is more frequent limit women’s agency in marriages and fam- and severe in poorer groups across such ily life. Laws and legal institutions also play a diverse settings as India, Nicaragua, and central role in prohibiting gender-based vio- the United States. lence and in enabling women to realize their ■■ Ethnic minority status can further mag- reproductive health rights. nify disadvantage. Nearly three-quarters Laws and social norms interact. Women’s of girls out of school globally belong to land ownership, for example, is determined ethnic minorities in their countries. by a complex interaction between some- New analysis of Demographic and Health times contradictory sets of statutory laws, Survey data from 54 countries reveals that customs, and norms. Social norms, custom- women often experience deprivations ary practices, the inaccessibility and weak and constraints across multiple domains capacity of institutions, and, in many cases, of agency at the same time. We find most women’s lack of awareness pose important women (four in five) lack control over barriers to the full realization of women’s household resources, believe gender-based land rights. violence is justified under certain circum- stances, or were married before they turned Overlapping disadvantage 18. Just as striking, almost half of all women and agency deprivations report being deprived in more than one of Constraints on agency do not occur in these areas, and almost one in eight expe- a vacuum and differ in nature across and riences all three (figure 2). However these within countries. A banker in Beijing may be averages mask vast differences across struggling to balance elder care with work countries. In Niger, for example, almost all while also facing glass ceilings in her career. women experience at least one constraint These challenges clearly differ in nature and (figure 3). scope from those faced by adolescent girls Agency deprivations and constraints are hoping to attend school in a low-income linked to other disadvantages—particularly developing country. Here we explore over- access to education. Figure 4 shows that lapping disadvantages—that is, the system- about 90 percent of women with a primary atic exclusion that many people experience education or less experience at least one as a result of multiple inequalities that limit of the deprivations shown in figure 2, and their life chances. For example: almost two-thirds experience all three. This ■■ Poverty increases the likelihood of agency finding contrasts with about 1 in 5 and 1 in deprivations. Girls living in poor house- 20, respectively, of women with a second- holds are almost twice as likely to marry ary education or higher. Almost 1 in 5 rural before the age of 18 as girls in higher-in- women with a primary education experience come households, as are girls from rural all three deprivations compared with 1 in areas versus their urban counterparts. 100 urban women with a higher education. FIGURE 2 Share of women experiencing overlapping agency deprivations in three domains Lack of control over household resources Absence of deprivations 42 21 10 8 11 13 Condones Child marriage wife beating 12 43 10 15 51 Source: Voice and Agency 2014 team estimates based on Demographic and Health Survey data for 54 countries using latest data available from 2001-2012. FIGURE 3 Share of women experiencing overlapping agency deprivations in three domains in Niger Lack of control over household resources Absence of deprivations 85 1 6 15 19 45 Condones wife beating Child marriage 8 71 3 3 75 Source: Voice and Agency 2014 team estimates based on Demographic and Health Surveys for Niger using data from 2006. FIGURE 4 Correlation between education levels and deprivations in control over resources, child marriage and condoning wife beating 90% 65% 18% 5% Suffer at least Suffer three Suffer at least Suffer three one deprivation deprivations one deprivation deprivations Women with primary Women with secondary education or less education and higher Source: Voice and Agency 2014 team estimates based on Demographic and Health Survey data for 54 countries using latest data available from 2001-2012. Executive Summary | 7 Overarching policies and more likely to prevent a stranger’s act of measuring progress violence. The report identifies promising entry points Progressive constitutions and legal for public actions to promote women’s reforms can support the transformation of agency. These entry points include poli- social norms surrounding agency. We focus cies that change social norms and the law, on three core areas: ensuring that all sources alongside programs to promote economic of law adhere to principles of gender equal- opportunities, social protection, and edu- ity; supporting effective implementation cation, where well-designed interventions and enforcement of laws; and expanding and new approaches to implementation are access to justice for all women, including demonstrating significant benefits for wom- through customary processes. en’s agency. The evidence on effectiveness of Expanding women’s economic oppor- interventions designed to combat violence tunities can have wide-ranging benefits, against women and other agency depriva- including benefits for women’s agency. tions is also investigated in depth. Research on norms and agency drawing on Addressing social norms is critical data from women and men in 20 countries because adverse norms underpin and rein- in all regions, for example, concluded that “women’s ability to work for pay… may be force the multiple deprivations that many one of the most visible and game-changing women and girls experience. Although events in the life of modern households and there is no silver bullet for promoting all communities.” But not all work is equally changes in norms, evidence suggests a empowering—working conditions matter, need for public actions that both enhance as does the type of work that women do. women’s and girls’ aspirations and change Among the promising new approaches are behaviors of women and men, boys and programs that tackle norms and provide girls, so that social norms become gen- young women and girls with new infor- der-equal. Promising ways to promote such mation and opportunities, as in Uganda’s changes include working with men, boys, Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adoles- households, and communities, as in Austra- cent program, which provides girls with life- lia, where the Male Champions of Change skills training and local market-informed initiative works with male chief executive vocational training. In addition to the eco- officers and leaders throughout business nomic benefits, participating girls have and the federal government to push for demonstrated much greater control over significant and sustainable increases in the sexual and reproductive health. representation of women in leadership. Similarly, promoting awareness of progres- Social protection can be transformative. sive laws can help stimulate changes in Programs that go beyond protection per se norms and behavior. Evidence across eight and include elements to tackle regressive countries, for example, found that men who gender norms have had promising results. were aware of laws addressing violence Such elements have included addressing against women were nearly 50 percent child care responsibilities; increasing access 8 | Voice and Agency empowering women and girls for shared prosperity to finance and assets; increasing skills, of gender norms. Effectively engaging men, self-confidence, and aspirations; incentiviz- boys, communities, and traditional authori- ing girls’ schooling; and providing informa- ties to change norms around violence, mar- tion and building awareness about gender riage, reproduction, household gender roles, issues and rights. and the roles of women and men in public life have helped to promote women’s agency Education has major significance in this in countries as diverse as Australia and story, with a focus beyond achieving basic Senegal. levels to quality and content. Around the world, we see that better educated women Several types of interventions have been are often better able to make and imple- shown to expand women’s and girls’ sex- ment decisions and choices, even where ual autonomy and control over reproduc- gender norms are restrictive. In South tive decisions. They include programs that Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, promote more gender-equitable communi- women with more education are less likely cation and decision-making and improve- to have to ask their husband’s or family’s ments in access to and quality of informa- permission to seek medical care. In all tion and health services. Interventions to regions, women with more education also expand life opportunities for women and tend to marry later and have fewer chil- girls offer promise when they include provi- dren. Enhanced agency is a key reason why sion for safe spaces, life skills, and job skills. children of better educated women are Women’s sexual and reproductive agency less likely to be stunted: educated mothers can also be supported through more equi- have greater autonomy in making decisions table laws related to marriage and property, and more power to act for their children’s among others, provided such legislation is benefit. coupled with strong implementation and enforcement. Promising interventions Reform of discriminatory laws, particu- targeting agency deprivations larly in the realm of family, inheritance, and property law, is an important first step for Promising interventions to tackle violence, advancing women’s access to land and hous- enhance sexual and reproductive health, ing. But legal reform must be coupled with increase access to assets, and enable voice actions to improve implementation and typically have multiple components and enforcement, gender-sensitive land admin- engage at different levels. They address istration, collection of richer sex-disaggre- norms and involve the wider community— gated data, and monitoring of results. engaging men, boys, women, and girls. And they reflect commitment over time—one-off Women’s collective action and autono- or short-term interventions are less likely mous women’s movements play a pivotal to be effective. As already indicated, a com- role in building the momentum for progres- mon factor of successful approaches across sive policy and legal reform. Development all of the domains explored in the report is agencies and partners can help to enable an acknowledgment of the powerful role change, including through knowledge Executive Summary | 9 exchange, support for innovative and locally Data gaps and the way ahead driven pilot programs to shift behaviors, and help in capturing and sharing good prac- The data challenges are large. We can estab- tices. Such support should embody large ele- lish profiles of women’s voice and agency by ments of local problem solving and learning using proxies to measures specific aspects, by doing. such as exposure to violence, levels of unmet need for contraception, prevalence of At the same time, new information and female land ownership, and representation communication technologies (ICTs) are of women in politics. But to better capture opening up new spaces for collective action progress toward gender equality, greater and women’s participation in public life. investments are needed. We need to develop Along with the media, ICTs are shaping the new measures and invest in higher-quality aspirations and hopes of the next generation data that more accurately reflect constraints of women and girls. These wider horizons on and expressions of agency, hold gov- can be especially valuable for women and ernments and development agencies such girls whose mobility and opportunities are as the World Bank Group to account, and most restricted. incorporate these findings into our everyday work and decisions. *** This report distills an array of data, studies and evidence to shine a spotlight on the pervasive deprivations and constraints that face women and girls worldwide—from epidemic gender-based violence to laws and norms that prevent women from own- ing property, working, making decisions about their own lives and having influence in society. It identifie some promising programs and interventions to address these deprivations and constraints. Policymakers and stakeholders need to tackle this agenda, drawing on evidence about what works and systematically tracking progress on the ground. This must start with reforming discriminatory laws and follow through with concerted policies and public actions, including multi-sectoral approaches that engage with men and boys and challenge adverse social norms. There is much to gain. Increasing wom- en’s voice and agency is a valuable end in its own right. And it underpins achieve- ment of the World Bank Group’s twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity for girls and boys, women and men, around the world. Voice Agency and “The World Bank Group’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity demand no less than the full and equal participation of women and men, girls and boys, around the world.” —World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim “The world is changing beneath our feet and it is past time to embrace a 21st Century approach to advancing the rights and opportunities of women and girls at home and across the globe.” —Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, remarks at 2013 Women in the World Summit www.worldbank.org/gender/agency