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The Impact Of Monetary Crisis And Natural Disasters On Women's Health And Nutrition, Meiwita B. Iskandar Jan 1998

The Impact Of Monetary Crisis And Natural Disasters On Women's Health And Nutrition, Meiwita B. Iskandar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This paper analyzes the short-term effects of the monetary crisis and natural disasters in Indonesia on women's health and nutritional status, and activities to monitor and address these problems. The monetary crisis which was announced in January 1998 hit the highest monthly inflation rate of 13 percent in February. Natural disasters that have plagued Indonesia since early 1997, including droughts and forest fires, have been projected to cause famines and an increased likelihood of infant and adult mortality. The economic crisis also directly impacts millions of workforce members threatened by the downsizing of thousands of businesses and factories, in the …


The Impact Of An Integrated Micro-Credit Programme On Women's Empowerment And Fertility Behavior In Rural Bangladesh, Fiona Steele, Sajeda Amin, Ruchira Tabassum Naved Jan 1998

The Impact Of An Integrated Micro-Credit Programme On Women's Empowerment And Fertility Behavior In Rural Bangladesh, Fiona Steele, Sajeda Amin, Ruchira Tabassum Naved

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This paper examines the impact of participation in women’s savings and credit groups organized by Save the Children USA on women’s empowerment, contraceptive use, and fertility in a rural area of Bangladesh. The data are drawn from a panel survey conducted in 1993, shortly before the groups were formed, and in 1995 after interventions began. This quasi-experimental design enables us to identify the characteristics of women who chose to join savings groups. The findings show that those who joined tend to more educated and more socially independent than are women who did not. Thus, to control for selection bias, preintervention …


Women's Perceptions Of Sexuality In Rural Giza, Hind Khattab Jan 1996

Women's Perceptions Of Sexuality In Rural Giza, Hind Khattab

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study on sexuality among women in rural Giza, Egypt, is part of a broader project on women's health and reproductive morbidity conducted by the Population Council’s Reproductive Health Working Group. Reproductive tract infections (RTIs) and other ailments associated with reproduction among women in the rural community surveyed suggest that a heavy burden of disease is being borne by women living in underprivileged areas in this region. This research on sexuality has been conducted within a conceptual framework that uses a socio-cultural approach to health and illness. The investigation is an assessment of women's perception of and knowledge about sexuality …


Out Of The Shadows: Homebased Workers Organize For International Recognition, Renana Jhabvala, Jane Tate Jan 1996

Out Of The Shadows: Homebased Workers Organize For International Recognition, Renana Jhabvala, Jane Tate

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Home-based work is a vital and growing part of economic modernization, exponentially linked to the globalization of industry and the never-ending search for less costly sources of labor and more efficient means of production. As governments seek to attract industrial development, the availability of low-cost labor and labor stability is a valuable bargaining commodity. Furthermore, the income it produces is not supplementary but rather increasingly vital to families and nations alike. The women who embroider on the island of Madeira, Portugal, the home-based workers assembling electronic devices in Brazil, the Chinese women machine stitching garments at home in major cities …


Living On A Fault Line: Political Violence Against Women In Algeria, Leila Hessini Jan 1996

Living On A Fault Line: Political Violence Against Women In Algeria, Leila Hessini

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study raises three questions to better comprehend the crisis women face in Algeria today: how are the state and the opposition groups addressing and defining women’s contemporary status, what is the link between women’s status and violence against them, and what are the tactics both of resistance and accommodation that Algerian women are using to survive in such a context? Throughout this study, the term “Islamic Fundamentalists” refers to movements and people in Algeria who use the “recovery” of early principles of the Ideal Muslim Community to develop their idea of a future Islamic “social order,” with the ultimate …


Supporting Women Farmers In The Green Zones Of Mozambique, Ruth Ansah Ayisi Jan 1995

Supporting Women Farmers In The Green Zones Of Mozambique, Ruth Ansah Ayisi

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Women throughout much of the developing world are farmers, not only producing the food crops needed to feed their families, but seeking to generate the cash income necessary to gain access to education, health care, and a better way of life. However, in many countries—particularly in sub-Saharan Africa—women farmers must deal not only with the inherent difficulties of gender inequities, poverty, and the vagaries of nature, but with the consequences of war and civil strife as well. This issue of SEEDS reports on a case study of the efforts underway to help women farmers survive and prosper in the Green …


Arab Women: A Profile Of Diversity And Change, Nahid Toubia, Amira Bahyeldin, Nadia Hijab, Heba Abdel Latif Jan 1994

Arab Women: A Profile Of Diversity And Change, Nahid Toubia, Amira Bahyeldin, Nadia Hijab, Heba Abdel Latif

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The status of Arab women is the subject of much speculation, generalization, and stereotyping by those inside and outside the region. The paucity of objective, accessible information makes Arab women one of the least understood social groups. The aim of this book is to help correct misconceptions about Arab women by introducing systematic information for 21 Arab countries. Widely published international statistical data, mostly from the United Nations and the World Bank, were used for the comparisons. These datasets are compiled from country reports, national surveys, and aggregated smaller studies. They are by no means comprehensive or devoid of inaccuracies, …


Gender Inequalities And Demographic Behavior: Ghana/Kenya, Anastasia J. Gage, Wamucii Njogu Jan 1994

Gender Inequalities And Demographic Behavior: Ghana/Kenya, Anastasia J. Gage, Wamucii Njogu

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ghana and Kenya were the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa whose governments recognized the potentially detrimental effects of rapid population growth on economic development and, as a result, adopted and implemented national population policies. This is one of three reports on the relationship between gender equity, family structure and dynamics, and the achievement of reproductive choice that was prepared by the Population Council for the 1994 International Year of the Family and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. These reports provide critical reviews of the relationship between gender inequality and demographic behavior in three demographically significant, culturally distinct …


Gender Inequalities And Demographic Behavior: Egypt, Nora Guhl Naguib, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara L. Ibrahim Jan 1994

Gender Inequalities And Demographic Behavior: Egypt, Nora Guhl Naguib, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara L. Ibrahim

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This is one of three reports on the relationship between gender equity, family structure and dynamics, and the achievement of reproductive choice prepared by the Population Council for the 1994 International Year of the Family and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. These reports provide critical reviews of the relationship between gender inequality and demographic behavior in three demographically significant, culturally distinct parts of the developing world: Egypt, India, and Ghana and Kenya. Their purpose is to help governments and international agencies design and implement policies that are affirmative of women, sensitive to the family's central role in …


Arab Women: A Profile Of Diversity And Change [Arabic], Nahid Toubia, Amira Bahyeldin, Nadia Hijab, Heba Abdel Latif Jan 1994

Arab Women: A Profile Of Diversity And Change [Arabic], Nahid Toubia, Amira Bahyeldin, Nadia Hijab, Heba Abdel Latif

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The status of Arab women is the subject of much speculation, generalization, and stereotyping by those inside and outside the region. The paucity of objective, accessible information makes Arab women one of the least understood social groups. The aim of this book is to help correct misconceptions about Arab women by introducing systematic information for 21 Arab countries. Widely published international statistical data, mostly from the United Nations and the World Bank, were used for the comparisons. These datasets are compiled from country reports, national surveys, and aggregated smaller studies. They are by no means comprehensive or devoid of inaccuracies, …


Gender Inequalities And Demographic Behavior: India, Sonalde Desai Jan 1994

Gender Inequalities And Demographic Behavior: India, Sonalde Desai

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

As India prepares for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), it is clear that the country’s population policy faces a number of serious challenges. Although India was the first country to announce an official family planning program in 1952, its population has grown from 361 million in 1951 to 844 million in 1991. This is one of three reports on the relationship between gender equity, family structure and dynamics, and the achievement of reproductive choice prepared by the Population Council for the 1994 International Year of the Family and the 1994 ICPD. These reports provide critical reviews …


Wasteland Development And The Empowerment Of Women: The Sarthi Experience, Madhu Sarin Jan 1993

Wasteland Development And The Empowerment Of Women: The Sarthi Experience, Madhu Sarin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS describes an innovative approach to rehabilitation of wastelands developed by Social Action for Rural and Tribal Inhabitants of India (SARTHI), a nongovernmental organization based in the Panchmahals District of Gujarat State in Western India. By assisting rural women to organize themselves around the rehabilitation of patches of degraded common land, SARTHI has been able to help them not only meet their needs for biomass in a more efficient and ecologically sound manner, but also to empower them to start asserting themselves in dealing with a broader range of problems. As primary gatherers and users of biomass, …


Self-Employment As A Means To Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency: Women Venture's Business Development Program, Katharine Mckee, Sara Gould, Ann Leonard Jan 1993

Self-Employment As A Means To Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency: Women Venture's Business Development Program, Katharine Mckee, Sara Gould, Ann Leonard

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

While the "feminization of poverty" has been widely recognized as a global phenomenon in recent years, the term originated in the United States where the number of women and women-headed households living in poverty is growing. This is especially true in the inner cities where fewer unskilled jobs remain; likewise, in rural communities, many factories have closed, family farming is declining, and few other nonfarm options are available. Today these American women face many of the same obstacles that limit women's economic participation in all parts of the world. This issue of SEEDS focuses on the evolution of WomenVenture's business …


Aménagement Des Terres Incultes Et Émancipation Des Femmes L'Expérience De Sarthi, Madhu Sarin Jan 1993

Aménagement Des Terres Incultes Et Émancipation Des Femmes L'Expérience De Sarthi, Madhu Sarin

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce numéro de SEEDS est consacré a une approche innovative ayant pour but d’aménager des terres incultes, développée par Action Sociale en faveur des population rurales et autochtones d’lnde (SARTHI), une organisation non gouvernementale basée dans le district de Panchmahals dans l’État de Gujarat en Inde occidentale. En aidant les femmes rurales à s’organiser pour mettre en valeur des lopins de terres communaux, SARTHI a permis à ces femmes de satisfaire leurs besoins en biomasse de façon plus efficace et saine d’'un point de vue écologique et d’améliorer d’autres aspects de leur vie. Étant donné que ce sont essentiellement les …


Faire Oeuvre De Pionnier: Atteindre Les Femmes Agriculteurs En Zambie Occidentale, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona Jan 1992

Faire Oeuvre De Pionnier: Atteindre Les Femmes Agriculteurs En Zambie Occidentale, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Au cours des dernières décennies, des projets à petite-échelle furent mis en place sur I'ensemble du continent africain pour tenter d'incorporer les femmes aux politiques de développement agricole. Dans ce numéro de SEEDS, on présente un exemple particulièrement éloquent qui vient de la Province Occidentale de la Zambie—le Programme de Vulgarisation à I'intention des Femmes à partir des locaux de la division "Économie ménagère" du Département de I'Agriculture. Le projet en question vise à operer un changement radical de la manière dont fonctionne une bureaucratie agricole en redéfinissant les mandates, en encourageant un changement d'attitude par le biais de programmes …


Breaking New Ground: Reaching Out To Women Farmers In Western Zambia, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona Jan 1992

Breaking New Ground: Reaching Out To Women Farmers In Western Zambia, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Over the last few decades, small-scale projects have been developed throughout Africa to help incorporate women farmers into the mainstream of agricultural extension services. This edition of SEEDS presents an interesting example from Zambia's Western Province—the Women's Extension Program, located within the Home Economics Section of the Department of Agriculture. This program is working to change a government agricultural bureaucracy from within by redefining mandates, encouraging attitude change through staff training, broadening village-level opportunities and perceptions, and widening technical and economic research agendas. The program’s experience emphasizes the importance of using a variety of approaches in order to effectively reach …


Abriendo Nuevos Zurcos: Apoyando A Las Agricultoras En El Oeste De Zambia, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona Jan 1992

Abriendo Nuevos Zurcos: Apoyando A Las Agricultoras En El Oeste De Zambia, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

En años recientes se han llevado a cabo varios proyectos de pequeña escala en todo el continente africano con el fin de incorporar a las agricultoras en los servicios oficiales de apoyo a la agricultura. Esta edición de SEEDS presenta un interesante ejemplo de este tipo de iniciativa realizado en la Provincia Occidental de la República de Zambia—el Programa de Extensión para Mujeres de la División de Economía Doméstica del Departamento de Agricultura. El objetivo del proyecto es hacer un cambio radical en la manera en que funciona una burocracia agrícola al redefinir los mandatos, fomentar un cambio de actitud …


El Cuidado Infantil: Respuestas A Las Necesidades De Madres Que Trabajan Y Sus Hijos, Caroline Arnold, Jorge Mejia, Aster Haregot, Ann Leonard, Cassie Landers Jan 1992

El Cuidado Infantil: Respuestas A Las Necesidades De Madres Que Trabajan Y Sus Hijos, Caroline Arnold, Jorge Mejia, Aster Haregot, Ann Leonard, Cassie Landers

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Este número de SEEDS, desarrollada en cooperación con el Grupo Asesor sobre Cuidado y Desarrollo Infantil, y apoyada por UNICEF, busca reunir los elementos críticos del trabajo de la mujer y el cuidado infantil, estudiando el tema desde tres perspectivas: el cuidado infantil como servicio que permite que la mujer pueda trabajar, como fuente de empleo para la mujer, y como respuesta a los requerimientos del desarrollo infantil. Examina tres distintos tipos de cuidado infantil apoyados por UNICEF en tres continentes—Asia (Nepal), Africa (Etiopia), y América Latina (Ecuador). Los tres proyectos fueron desarrollados específicamente para madres que trabajan, y dos …


Child Care: Meeting The Needs Of Working Mothers And Their Children, Caroline Arnold, Jorge Mejia, Aster Haregot, Ann Leonard, Cassie Landers Jan 1991

Child Care: Meeting The Needs Of Working Mothers And Their Children, Caroline Arnold, Jorge Mejia, Aster Haregot, Ann Leonard, Cassie Landers

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS, developed in cooperation with the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, with support from UNICEF, seeks to bring together the critical elements of women's work and child care, reviewing the issues from three different perspectives: child care as a means of enabling women to work, as a source of employment for women, and as a way of meeting the developmental needs of young children. The report examines three different UNICEF-supported approaches to child care on three different continents—Asia (Nepal), Africa (Ethiopia), and South America (Ecuador)—that have been developed with the needs of working women …


El Papel De Las Mujeres En La Conservación De Los Bosques Del Nepal, Augusta Molnar Jan 1991

El Papel De Las Mujeres En La Conservación De Los Bosques Del Nepal, Augusta Molnar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Este número de SEEDS pone de relieve las formas en que se ha hecho participar a las mujeres en un programa gubernamental de conservación y restauración de bosques en Nepal. Como en muchos proyectos de gran escala e impacto generalizado, las mujeres no tenían un papel específico en el diseño original del proyecto. Pero una vez que comenzaron las actividades, tanto el personal nepales como sus colegas extranjeros tuvieron que reconocer que para que la estrategía participative pudiera funcionar, era esencial contar con las mujeres. De ahí que durante los primeros cinco anos del proyecto (1980–85) se probaron varias maneras …


La Conservation Des Forêts Au Népal: Encourager La Participation Des Femmes, Augusta Molnar Jan 1990

La Conservation Des Forêts Au Népal: Encourager La Participation Des Femmes, Augusta Molnar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce numéro de SEEDS porte sur les moyens mis en oeuvre pour faire participer les femmes à un programme gouvernemental visant à preserver et à restituer la forêt au Népal. Comme il arrive fréquemment lors de la mise en place de projets aussi vastes ayant une portée generale, les femmes n'étaient pas un centre d'intérêt spécifique au moment de la conception du projet. Cependant, lorsque les activités ont demarré, les responsables népalais du projet et leurs collègues de l'étranger se sont tres vite rendus compte que le succès du programme dépendait de la participation directe des femmes aux activités du …


The Muek-Lek Women's Dairy Project In Thailand, Aruna Rao Jan 1990

The Muek-Lek Women's Dairy Project In Thailand, Aruna Rao

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS describes a project that was started in 1985 to encourage the growth of a new agricultural sector, dairy farming, in Thailand. While the major aim of the project was to increase incomes of rural families in the Muek-Lek Land Reform Area in Saraburi Province, Central Thailand, it also sought to integrate women into dairying activities, and offer these women, whether married or single, access to credit. The Muek-Lek Dairy Project is unique in that it channeled government resources and secured commercial bank financing to make women the key participants in a relatively new and growing agricultural …


La Construcción Colectiva Para Las Mujeres (The Women's Construction Collective): Edificando Para El Futuro, Ruth Mcleod Jan 1990

La Construcción Colectiva Para Las Mujeres (The Women's Construction Collective): Edificando Para El Futuro, Ruth Mcleod

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Este número de SEEDS se enfoca en un programa creado para integrar a la mujer de ingresos bajos a la industría de la construcción en Jamaica. En dos años, hubo 34 mujeres que recibieron cursos básicos del programa y de capacitación más avanzados. Más del 90 por ciento de estas mujeres fueron empleadas; la mayoría son carpinteras y albaniles. La historia de cómo se identificó este campo como fuente potencial de ingresos para la mujer, y cómo se desarrolló el proyecto respondiendo a las circunstancias siempre cambiantes, presenta muchas lecciones útiles. Este proyecto será de especial interés para aquellos que …


The Port Sudan Small Scale Enterprise Program, Eve Hall Jan 1988

The Port Sudan Small Scale Enterprise Program, Eve Hall

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Euro-Action ACORD (EAA) is a consortium of 20 European and Canadian aid agencies working in refugee farming settlements in Central and Southern Sudan, and with various rural development projects in other parts of Africa, which responded to a request from the Sudanese Commissioner of Refugees to work in Port Sudan. This was the first time the agency considered working with poor urban people, and staff were determined to understand the economic and social forces which governed life in the slums. The program noted a number of findings that will help determine its future: reaching out to women where they live …


Forest Conservation In Nepal: Encouraging Women's Participation, Augusta Molnar Jan 1987

Forest Conservation In Nepal: Encouraging Women's Participation, Augusta Molnar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS focuses on ways in which women have been involved in a government forest conservation and restoration program in Nepal. As is common with many large-scale projects with a general impact, women were not a direct focus of the project's original design. As activities got underway, however, both the Nepali staff and their expatriate colleagues quickly realized that the direct involvement of women was crucial to the success of the project's participatory strategy. Over the initial five years, 1980 to 1985, a number of approaches to addressing women's needs and generating their active participation were tried. The …


Learning About Women And Urban Services In Latin America And The Caribbean, Marianne Schmink, Judith Bruce, Marilyn Kohn Jan 1986

Learning About Women And Urban Services In Latin America And The Caribbean, Marianne Schmink, Judith Bruce, Marilyn Kohn

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In 1978 when the Population Council formulated a program to learn more about low-income urban women’s access to services, the dearth of information was striking, particularly in contrast to the emerging body of information delineating access to credit, extension, membership in rural institutions, and representation in local governments. Access to services was much less well-defined owing to the diverse cultures that meet in the urban environment, the mobility of city life, and the fluidity of households. Urban development planners, researchers, and those involved in community action projects in a number of South American cities were approached to find out what …


Socioeconomic Indicators Of Women's Status In Developing Countries, 1970–1980, Constantina Safilios-Rothschild Jan 1986

Socioeconomic Indicators Of Women's Status In Developing Countries, 1970–1980, Constantina Safilios-Rothschild

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

From 1970–1980, several conferences were held and publications produced regarding the need to improve data collection on indicators of women’s status, as well as a number of publications offering concrete proposals for such improvements. During this period, the disaggregation of statistics by sex has expanded in many countries and indicators, and such disaggregated statistics are presented with increased frequency in international data compiled by United Nations specialized organizations. In addition, two major sets of statistics on the status of women have appeared. These statistics on socioeconomic indicators of the status of women in developing countries include statistics on men as …


The Women's Construction Collective: Building For The Future, Ruth Mcleod Jan 1986

The Women's Construction Collective: Building For The Future, Ruth Mcleod

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS focuses on a project developed to integrate low-income women into Jamaica's construction industry. In two years, 34 women passed through the project's basic training and skills upgrading courses. More than 90 percent of these women became employed, the majority as masons and carpenters. The story of how this field was identified as a potential source of income for women, and how the project developed and evolved in response to changing circumstances, presents many useful lessons. These should be of particular interest to those seeking to identify employment areas where women's participation is feasible and in helping …


Developing Non-Craft Employment For Women In Bangladesh, Marty Chen Jan 1984

Developing Non-Craft Employment For Women In Bangladesh, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Too often when development planners or practitioners plan income-generating schemes for women they consider only handicrafts. While in some situations craft production may provide a secure source of income for women, in many cases it results in poor returns and proves more complicated an undertaking than expected. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is one agency that has developed a successful program of non-craft employment opportunities for women. Some 10,000 poor women have been engaged by BRAC in viable economic schemes: 9,000 in non-craft production. This issue of SEEDS reviews BRAC's experience in developing non-craft employment opportunities and participatory associations …


Community Management Of Waste Recycling: The Sirdo, Marianne Schmink Jan 1984

Community Management Of Waste Recycling: The Sirdo, Marianne Schmink

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

At the beginning of 1978, a group of families were awaiting access to low-cost housing in Mérida, a city on Mexico's southeastern coast. Some units were equipped with a new drainage system called SIRDO (Integrated System for Recycling Organic Wastes), and families interested in living in the experimental block where the SIRDO was to be installed could be given housing right away. Three years later, families in another community located in the crowded Valley of Mexico decided to try the system in their own neighborhood. Women have played a crucial role in learning to manage the technical, economic, and social …