Sagot :
Gender, poverty and the delivery of basic services, such as healthcare, education and social protection, are closely interwoven. The delivery of public services is essential for helping women and men to reach their full potential and realise their human rights. Recent investments in human capital endowments have led to significant progress in improving health and education for both women and men. Although gender differences are gradually narrowing, much remains to be done to reduce inequalities in women and men’s well-being. Many of the gaps in progress towards achieving poverty- and service-related MDGs are gender gaps, with women and girls missing out on vital services.
Women are often more dependent on basic services, such as healthcare, education, water and sanitation, because of their domestic roles. However, gender-specific biases in the way services are designed and delivered are failing women in many countries. For example, a lack of separate toilets (or any toilet facilities) in schools can deter adolescent girls from attending school.
Corruption in the provision of basic services such as health and education also has disproportionate negative consequences for women and girls. This is because women are usually the primary users of public services and may also have less access to financial resources to pay necessary bribes.
What role can foreign aid play in improving access to basic services, and in improving gender equality? The paper combines OECD-DAC spending allocations with country-level data. It finds that human development outcomes are largely dependent on pre-existing levels. In gender equality, aid appears to be effective in reducing maternal mortality as well as the gender gap in youth literacy, but its effects are at best mixed for other indicators. The results suggest that more funding to health and education has generally positive effects but specifically helps reduce gender inequality.