Can gender transformative evaluation frameworks be used for monitoring SDG 5?

Authors: Ranjani K. Murthy, April 24 2018 - This article examines the extent to which five dominant gender transformative evaluation frameworks can contribute to assessment of progress on SDG 5, and offers suggestions for greater convergence.  Gender transformative evaluation frameworks seek to assess changes in gender and intersecting power relations at the household, community, market and policy level as well as at development organizational level.    Sustainable Development Goal 5 seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.  The SDG 5 targets include: eliminating discrimination, violence and harmful practices (against women and girls), promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, recognizing unpaid work and promoting its sharing, ensuring access, ownership and control of women over resources, ensuring decision making of women in economic, political and public realms, ensuring equal access of women to information communication and technology and promoting gender responsive policies, legislation and budgets. 

Gender transformative evaluation frameworks and potential for monitoring SDG 5

Change Matrix

The Change Matrix was originally developed by Aruna Rao and David Kelleher of Gender at Work in 2002 and adapted further by Srilatha Batliwala in 2008. It is now used by the Global Fund for Women for its reviews. The adapted version identifies four domains in which gendered power structures operate. These are individual, systemic, formal and informal. Changes are mapped under four quadrants individual-formal, individual-informal, systemic- formal and systemic-informal (Rao, Keleher and Batliwala, 2008).  Access to and control over resources falls in the quadrant of ‘individual-formal’, laws/ policies and resource allocation in the ‘formal-individual’ quadrant, cultural norms and practices in the ‘systemic and informal’ quadrant and beliefs, attitudes and values in the ‘’informal-individual’ quadrant.                            

When the Change Matrix is used for evaluating work of a grassroots organization, changes in gender norms, attitudes and resources may be visible, but not in laws; policies and allocations. Advocacy groups, on the other hand, may have more impact on laws, policies, and state allocations than on the other quadrants.  Depending on who they fund, funding agencies may influence all four quadrants from a gender-transformative lens.  The Change Matrix is very useful to assess progress on the SDG 5 process (e.g., gender equity, conducive legislation and policies) and outcome indicators (e.g., absence of discrimination, women’s rights to property and resources). Nevertheless, the individual-formal has to expand to include SRH services, decision making at various levels and access to information technology. That is, there is a need for greater convergence between SDG 5 indicators and indicators used in the framework. 

Women’s Poverty Reduction and Empowerment Framework

 The framework, developed by Krishnamurthy (2004), on assessing gender, empowerment, and poverty reduction builds on Rowlands’ (1997) concept on empowerment and Sen’s (1981) concept of entitlements. Women’s poverty is discussed at two levels: dimensions and causes. To capture the impact on gender-specific dimensions of poverty, intra-household distribution of basic needs is analyzed using participatory methods of gender-based division of resources. Aspects like access to rest which are often denied to marginalized women are taken into consideration in definition of basic needs. Further, as women are a diverse group, issues of access to basic needs of Dalits, ethnic and religious minorities, refugees, young women, women with disability, and sexual and gender minorities (as relevant) are explored through focus group discussions. The effect of a policy or program on gender-specific causes of poverty are analyzed through examining impact on women’s ownership of assets, access to common property resources and bargaining power in markets and vis-a-vis government officials. Deterioration, if any, is recorded along with reasons like giving of dowry, alcoholism, etc. The impact on gender-adverse coping strategies when faced with poverty is another aspect looked into, like lesser consumption of food, trafficking of girls, etc. Thus, the gender and poverty of this framework can be used to assess progress in women’s access and control over resources, and issues of discrimination, but not other SDG 5 targets.  

With regard to empowerment, Rowlands’ (1997) framework of three levels of empowerment - power to (individual), power with (collective) and power within (deep rooted values) - is used to assess gender- and diversity-related impact. Body mapping and mobility mapping are some of the methods used. Changes in power to exercise control over mobility, labor, resources, body and political spaces are ascertained; power with others to influence markets, community structures and local governments is explored and lastly, changes in gender and social norms and individual attitudes are examined. Changes in norms on interlocking identities are examined, like gender and caste, and whether restrictive norms ‘opposition to inter-caste marriage’ are receding.   Comparisons of the situation ‘before and after’ and ‘for members and non-members’ are made (Krishnamurthy, 2004).  The Rowlands framework is indeed relevant to assessment of progress towards SDG 5, and looks at outcomes and processes in terms of resources, attitude, rights, resources and agency. However, it does not assess adequacy of policies, legislations and budgets from a gender and equity lens. New indicators on access to information technology could be added. 

Social Relations Framework

Evaluations using the Social Relations Framework build upon Kabeer’s (1994) analysis that institutions of household, community, market and state shape gender and social relations, and that gender-ameliorative and transformative polices are essential to challenge them. Institutions are shaped by norms, people, structures and power, many of which disadvantage women and other marginalized groups. Murthy (2016) added supra state institutions to this framework (e.g. the World Bank and the World Trade Organization). Evaluations using this framework firstly assess what identities have a bearing on women in the area, what are the institutions shaping them, like households, religious institutions, traditional tribal councils, local governments, markets, media, government policies and laws, policies of supra-state organizations. An assessment is then made of what adversarial institutional norm, structure, people and power did the policy or/ and program being assessed affect, in what direction and what it did not change. This framework can be used to assess progress on SDG 5, by firstly mapping which SDG 5 indicators need to be assessed at which institutional level (household, community, etc.), examining gaps in data and suggesting to the government adaptations that are required with respect to existing surveys. 

Women’s Empowerment Assessment Tool

The Women’s Empowerment Assessment tool was developed by Oxfam in 2011 and dimensions added subsequently. The menu of women’s empowerment dimensions and characteristics as of 2014 is given in Table 1. As per the evaluation framework, the characteristics relevant to a program/ project context can be chosen (Bishop and Bowman, 2014).

Table 1: List of economic empowerment dimensions and characteristics

Bowman, K & C Sweetman (2014) Introduction to Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Gender & Development, 22:2, 201-212

Several of the dimensions and characteristics in the Women’s Empowerment Assessment Tool are relevant for assessing progress on SDG 5 targets and indicators. The characteristics listed cover outcome and some processes.  However, a few (mainly non-economic) indicators could be added, like on sexual and reproductive health access, sexual and reproductive decision making, access to information technology and policy advocacy. 

Gender Scorecard

The Gender Scorecard developed by the UN Development Group for assessing UN Country Team’s performance on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) focuses on eight dimensions: Planning, Programming, Partnerships, Country Team, Capacities, Decision Making, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Quality Control and Accountability. Each dimension normally has sub-dimensions. Using criteria developed by the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality, the integration of GEWE into each of the eights dimension is rated by an Independent consultant on a scale of 0 to 5 (the higher the better). The scoring gives an idea of which dimension is the UN Country Team meeting or exceeding requirements on (and lessons that can be learnt) and on which it is not meeting requirements (and the actions required for the future). Areas for strengthening, recommendations, accountability and required budget are then identified.  The Gender Score Card, when used with the national government, is good for assessing institutional capacity to meet SDG 5, in-particular, the indicators on adequacy of legislation, policies and programs and budgets to promote gender equity. However, it does not capture progress on non-institutional outcomes, like women’s ownership of assets. One of the sub-dimensions under ‘Partnership’ in the Gender Score is that women from excluded groups be included as program partners and beneficiaries. 

Conclusion

To conclude, the review of gender-transformative frameworks from the perception of their relevance to monitoring progress towards SDG 5 suggests that some of the frameworks map progress on “processes” towards reaching SDG 5 like the Gender Scorecard and the Social Relations Framework, while some the “outcomes’ themselves like the Women’s Empowerment Assessment Tool. Both are important, and the challenge is to combine both approaches.  Further, there is a need to widen the gender transformative evaluation frameworks to capture progress on all the targets.   

Source: 

Bowman, K & C Sweetman (2014) Introduction to Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Gender & Development, 22:2, 201-212

Kabeer, 1999, Resources, Agency and Achievements:  Reflections on the Measures of Women’s Empowerment, Development and Change, Vol. 30 1999 , 435-464

Krishnamurthy, R, 2004, Gender And Poverty Impact Of Social Mobilization, Sustainable Agriculture And Micro Credit Interventions: Lessons from Gorakhpur Environment Action Group, Gorakhpur, UP  Last accessed 6th August, 2015

Rao,  Kelleher and, Batliwala (2008) The Change Matrix,  Last Accessed 26th August, 2015

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