Gender Exploitation: From Structural Adjustment Policies to Poverty Reduction Strategies (Report‪)‬

This paper presents a comparison of Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) and Poverty Reduction Strategies, particularly with reference to gender issues. To strengthen the case for engendering, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), this paper provides empirical evidence of the effects of SAPs on the lives of women in many developing countries. A rich body of literature has been used to analyse how different policy measures imposed by the World Bank and the IMF have affected women, particularly the poor women. Most of the studies, regarding this aspect of adjustment policies, have found women in a deteriorated condition in every field of life. Women, whether they are producers, consumers, household managers, or community organisers, have been affected more adversely than their male counterparts, mostly because of the gender-blindness of these policies. But while adopting alternative strategies meant for poverty reduction, no lesson has been learnt from past experiences. Only very few countries so far have engendered their PRSPs in an appropriate way. Others have given very little importance or no importance at all to this issue. It is therefore, suggested that Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers must be engendered, if the objective is to tackle the problem of poverty, and gender issues must be mainstreamed in the PRSPs.