Improving Gender and Development Outcomes through Agency : Policy Lessons from Three Peruvian Experiences
Peruvian public policy is currently focused on economic growth with social inclusion. The Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS)-created in October 2011-leads the sector and promotes evidence-based public policy using three strategic...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Publications & Research |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Lima: World Bank
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/18028850/improving-gender-development-outcomes-through-agency-policy-lessons-three-peruvian-experiences http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16259 |
| Summary: | Peruvian public policy is currently
focused on economic growth with social inclusion. The
Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS)-created
in October 2011-leads the sector and promotes evidence-based
public policy using three strategic guidelines: 1) matching
criteria and mechanisms for the selection of areas and
target population, 2) generation of instruments for
inter-sectorial and inter-governmental result-based
coordination, and 3) activation of monitoring and evaluation
procedures to measure interventions' progress and
results. This study is about the incredible and frequently
underestimated role of agency-the ability to make choices to
achieve desired outcomes-in economic development. The
authors share the view that agency has inherent value for
development: it is an attribute and manifestation of
development, or using Sen's words, it is constituent to
development. This study however, focuses on the instrumental
role of agency for more tangible manifestations of
development, such as, poverty reduction and economic growth.
It attempts to show that expanding individual agency is a
powerful catalyst for improving welfare, as measured by
these concrete and widely used metrics of policy success.
Moreover, it argues that in many cases, improving
development outcomes through agency is highly
cost-effective. This study centers on several policy
initiatives in Peru, which as will be subsequently shown,
have improved the agency of their beneficiaries. The purpose
of this study is twofold. First, it aims at bridging this
information gap, providing a review of evidence that shows
how the psychological components of agency, such as
aspirations and self-esteem, can effectively contribute to
more traditional development objectives-ranging from higher
investments in human capital to increased income. Second,
the study reviews and synthesizes research on several policy
interventions in Peru, which have empowered their
beneficiaries. In this way, the study aims to derive
practical recommendations on how to incorporate
psychological elements of agency into policy interventions
in order to achieve better development outcomes. The study
is structured as follows: the next section discusses the
concept of agency, providing examples of its broad role in
achieving development objectives. The following section
reviews the quantitative and qualitative research that
served as the basis for this study and elaborates on the
methodologies used to derive the conclusions presented in
the ensuing section. The last section synthesizes the
conclusions of the review of different interventions in Peru
into six practical 'policy lessons'. |
|---|