5. Tools for Mainstreaming Gender in Transport -- Gender and Transport Resource Guide

5.7. Policy-Level Points of Intervention: National Policy Enabling Environment

Macro/National Level Check List

Does the Constitution include gender equity provisions?
Does the PRSP address gender issues, gender dimensions of transport and actions required?
Does the national budget include resources for addressing gender issues in all key sectors including transport (collection and analysis of gender disaggregated data, capacity building)?
Does the regulatory environment support women's participation in transport initiatives?
- Do they have rights to access/control of land
- Is there a labor code
- Do women have the right to establish bank account
Is there a government advocate for inclusion of gender in transport and other sector programs (e.g., Ministry of Women's Affairs)?
Are national data sources (e.g., census, surveys, etc.) disaggregated by gender, age, ethnic or other social categories?
Is there a system for monitoring the implementation of gender components of policies and regulations?

If such elements are lacking, awareness raising and advocacy are needed to establish them and ensure that they are implemented.

Mainstreaming Gender in Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) Transport Components

Build alliances

Conduct gender and social analysis

Identify potential gender interventions

Promote gender responsive budgets

National Level Strategies for Mainstreaming Gender

1. Build Alliances

2. Conduct Gender and Social Analysis

3. Identify Potential Gender Interventions

4. Promote Gender Responsive Budgets

A gender-responsive budget ensures that the needs and interests of individuals from different social groups are covered in the government budget for the transport sector.
Looking at budgets through a gender lens shows clearly where the collection and distribution of public money is unequal and inefficient.
It also shows how discrimination in transportation and other sectors affects national development.
Budget analysis and advocacy by citizens brings together technical knowledge for effective and equitable policy-making with political and organizing tools for engaging with powerful interests and institutions such as the Ministry of Transport.
Gender-responsive citizen budget initiatives complement anticorruption strategies to ensure that transport funding benefits communities, not rent seekers.
Gender-disaggregated data are needed to demystify the apparent gender neutrality of the budget and expose how tariffs, industrial relations, taxation, education, employment, transport or industrial policy impact women in different ways than men due to their different roles, opportunities and constraints in the family and the economy.
Gender disaggregated data can show:
- Who gets the transport sector jobs and what is the nature of the jobs that are created?
- Who gets the transport subsidies?
- Who has reliable, affordable access to social services?
- What are the traditional policy assumptions in the budgets, for example, are women considered as dependents and men as breadwinners?

Adapted From: Engendering Budgets. Commonwealth Secretariat. 2003.

Gender Policy

GRTI Malawi Forum: High-Level Officials Address Gender Imbalances in Rural Travel and Transport (RTT)

The Principal Secretaries in Malawi have significant impact on policy formation. An enabling environment for addressing gender already existed to some extent before the workshop; on 8th April, 1999, the Principal Secretaries signed "The Makokola Declaration on Gender" which supported the need to integrate gender issues into all areas of development concern. While officially all sectors of government were represented in this Declaration, the application to non traditional areas such as transportation were not explicitly mentioned. The GRTI workshop created a forum for high level officials to formulate strategies and an action plan for addressing gender imbalances in the RTT sub-sector in Malawi within the overall framework of poverty reduction. In this way, they became sensitized to the issues and supportive of needed changes.

They developed the following action plan during the workshop:

Ensure that the Transport Policy adequately addresses gender issues in the transport sector and RTT sub-sector.
Build the capacity for gender analysis of Gender Focal Points in all ministries.
Involve Gender Focal Points in decision making.
Formulate an effective coordinating committee among ministries to ensure progress in gender mainstreaming.
Develop a project to facilitate rural women's access to IMTs through, among others, the provision of credit facilities.

Adapted from GRTI Malawi Country Report.

Gender Budgeting

The following example of a gender budget analysis could also be adapted for an HIV Awareness and treatment element of a road construction project. The Asian Development Bank Loan to Lao PDR for the North-Central Corridor Road Project required a budget set aside for HIV/AIDS prevention.

From Engendering Budgets. Commonwealth Secretariat 2003.pg. 91

Macro Level Policy Resources

See Module 6 for a complete listing of gender and transport resources organized by type of resource and issues. The list below includes resources on topics presented in this section of Module 5.