Public Work Programs and Gender-Based Violence : Evidence from Lao PDR
Public workfare programs targeted at women have the potential to empower them economically by providing jobs. However, the impact of public workfare programs on gender-based violence is theoretically ambiguous. They may contribute to its reduction...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/543961623172043096/Public-Work-Programs-and-Gender-Based-Violence-Evidence-from-Lao-PDR http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35728 |
| Summary: | Public workfare programs targeted at
women have the potential to empower them economically by
providing jobs. However, the impact of public workfare
programs on gender-based violence is theoretically
ambiguous. They may contribute to its reduction through
lowering financial stress or improving a woman’s bargaining
position due to independent income. Yet, a woman’s higher
income may also create incentives to use violence for
extractive purposes; putting women in a position of provider
at home and in male dominated sectors outside the home may
create a backlash because these positions violate gender
norms. Working outside the home could reduce exposure to an
abusive spouse, but it may increase harassment or assault
outside the household. This paper analyzes the impacts of a
public workfare program in the Lao People’s Democratic
Republic, a lower-middle-income Asian country, where the
government randomized implementation of a public workfare
program targeted at rural women who received an average
payment of US$550 over 18 months. The findings show that the
program was successful in increasing female income, but it
did not change women’s experience of gender-based violence:
comparing program participants and control group women,
there is no differences in self-reports of intimate partner
violence (controlling behavior, emotional violence, or
physical violence), violence from other members of the
household, or violence from perpetrators outside the
household. Some design aspects of this particular program
may have resulted in the lack of impacts on gender-based
violence. Changes in the design and implementation of public
workfare programs are needed for them to work as a mechanism
to reduce gender-based violence. |
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