Individual Assignment 2: Critical Reflection 2

Power of Gender Equality on Sustainable Poverty Alleviation

The most important thing raises my awareness from the lecturer’s lesson and group work on poverty in Gender and Development Economics Course is the strong linkage between gender equality and poverty reduction. It does not mean that high economic growth will create gender equality as a certain consequence in every country. However, there is reliable evidence to convey that it is gender inequality which delays societal achievements to end of poverty. It makes social injustice is long lasting. This problem is popular in developing countries in Pacific – Asia and Africa in which Gender Inequality Index is direct proportional to low GNI per capital.

A possible implication of the reciprocal relationship between gender equality and poverty is that both of these factors have a same vulnerable group is women. Firstly and foremost, that gender inequality in public sphere limits chances of women - a main group of low income can overcome their poverty status. For instance, because of unequal access in asset ownership, higher education and recruitment process, women cannot get much paid salary to fulfill their personal demand and their children expenditure themselves (Roy and Tisdell, 1993). Secondly, there is a paradox in private sphere that husband is always a decision maker and wife has no rights to decide the way they would like to do for household income increasing, though the poverty management normally put on women’s shoulders. The inequality in decision making process minimizes effectiveness of poverty solutions by women. Women are not only economic providers but they also are economic actors. The more dependence on men women have, the poorer situation they are in. Therefore, it can be said that “gender equality is also desirable from an efficiency perspective” of poverty reduction and economic growth (Andrew M., and et al. 2007, p1).

This new understanding leads me into in-depth thoughts on effectiveness of national strategies on poverty alleviation in developing countries. It is strongly believed that strong institutions are able to make a remarkable innovation in each nation (Olivia B., 2013). After three decades of war destruction, Vietnam of today has grabbed its chance tightly to build a bright future and becomes a typical example of economic development. It was a low income country, with 2.6% of GDP growth (1985), however, after policy reforming in 1986, Vietnam continuously maintains this indicator around 6% (WB, 2015). In 2010, Vietnam reached the standard of a middle income country. The importantly, Vietnam is significantly improving their position in Gender Inequality Index of UNDP, in 2013, this indicator of this country is 0.322, it also was ranked at 121/ 187 countries in Gender – Related Development Index (GDI) table. Another case study in Kenya also pointed the theory on poverty and gender inequality. According to Tabitha K, and Clem T., 2003, in 1970, female occupied 74% of the adult illiterate, compared with 44% of male adult in Kenya. By 1999, this number was 24% for women and 11% for men. The World Bank (1999) also recorded that, Kenya was negative real GDP growth rates in 1999. The author group expressed that during 90s, over 50% of Kenyan population just had USD 1/ day, implying that they were living in absolute poverty. This research paper also illustrated the serious problem that the number of women in parliamentary was very low and there was no policy improvement to shift women empowerment in decision making of governmental level. Until now Kenya still is in Low human development group of UNDP ranking (UNDP, 2015).

This insight is really useful for my work in the field of gender and advocacy in a local Vietnamese NGO. It can be seen clearly that there is a strong, reciprocal linkage between gender inequality and poverty, and the institution as a facilitating factor to increase or to decrease gender development and economic growth. By setting up good institutions, governments can create sustainable economic development for their own country. Based on this argument and our organization functions to work with the Vietnamese government as the role of interest groups participation in public policy, we will continue to give our feedbacks on gender aspects of economic-related programs in Vietnam. In short term plans, my colleagues and still keep our passion on gender equality and poverty reduction in Central Vietnam.

References

1. Andrew M., and et al. 2007. Gender Equality, Poverty and Economic Growth, Policy Research Working Paper, No. 4349.
2. Olivia B., 2013. Poverty and Gender Inequality in Post-War El Salvador, Global Majority E-Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1 (June 2013), pp. 27-39.
3. Roy, K. C. and Tisdell, C. A. 1993. Technological Change, Environment and Poor Women, Especially Tribal Women in India, Savings and Development, Quarterly Review, Vol. 17 (4): 423-439.
4. Tabitha K, Clem T., 2003. Gender Inequality, Poverty and Human Development in Kenya: Main Indicators, Trends and Limitations, Working Paper on Social Economics, Policy and Development, No. 35.
5. UNDP, 2015. Data, Retrieved on 20^th June, 2015, from the United Nations Development Program Website  http://hdr.undp.org/en/data.
6. WB, 2015. Data,  Retrieved on 20^th June, 2015, from the World Bank Website: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator

A video is to see the linkage between gender inequality and poverty