Project description

Title: Gender-Oriented Labour Market Policy
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Latin America and the Caribbean
Lead executing agency: United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Women and Development Unit
Overall term: October 2002 to August 2006

Context

In Latin America, employment of women receives little attention as a result of traditional attitudes. Labour market institutions have hardly taken up this issue at all so far. There are no special units within Latin American organisations to deal with the issue, and there is little readiness to address it. Opportunities for better integration of women into the labour market and the related potential for the economy and social development are not being exploited.

Objective

Selected Latin American governments now have national labour market strategies that promote equal opportunity for women and men and put this principle into practice. Business associations and civil society organisations are also involved.

Approach

In order to promote gender equality on the job market, the project supports Latin American governments as they develop the necessary labour market strategies and implement them.

Cooperation with women’s centres and sector ministries is promoted as is, in particular, inter-institutional coordination.

At the start of the project, Argentina’s health sector, Ecuador’s tourism sector and the impacts of remittances in El Salvador were studied. Then the focus shifted to the financial sectors of Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

Right from the start, attention was given to involving the most important stakeholders and the affected institutions in preparing case studies. Thus the project had some influence on the shaping of political will early on, so that it enabled the outcomes listed below.

Project results and experience have been disseminated via a special Internet page that is constantly updated. Standardised advisory modules and other project documents have been distributed in printed or digital form at important conferences and seminars in the partner countries. Project studies have also been published on the Internet and in the newsletters of other institutions and organisations.

Results achieved so far

The project has succeeded in convincing government authorities (women’s centres, sector ministries, local authorities) and stakeholders to commit themselves to policy changes and joint action:

• In Argentina, a department has been set up at the Ministry of Health to deal with gender issues.
• In Chile, the supervisory authority for pension insurance is for the first time recording employment data on a gender-specific basis – a small change with far-ranging impacts on the formulation of gender-specific measures in this area. 
• In Costa Rica, following an agreement with the Ministry of Labour, a women’s office is taking part in meetings of a commission set up to discuss national employment policy. In the financial sector, work is being done on introducing a “seal of approval” to promote gender equality. Two banks are already taking part in this initiative and cooperation with a third has been agreed as well.
• In Ecuador, round tables have been established in three parts of the country to discuss locally relevant aspects of gender-specific employment policy, a procedure that has meanwhile been adopted by ILO as well.
• Project approaches and findings have been distributed at regional conferences: 
  
• In the final declaration of the XXXVIII meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, project results were accorded explicit recognition.
• At the XXV Congress of the Latin American Sociological Association (LASA) in Porto Alegre (August 2005), the project prepared and was responsible for a specific issue of its own.

Further information

• Local project Internet pages
  Proyecto Institucionalizacion del enfoque de genero
  www.eclac.cl/mujer/proyectos/gtz
• Joint Internet page of ECLAC and GTZ in Chile
  www.gtz-cepal.cl
• United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
  www.eclac.cl