Policy statement on population and the environment
Focus on Gender 1(1): 22-23
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0968-2864 PMID: 12287130 DOI: 10.2307/4030263Document Number: 319542
This paper recognizes that the nature of growth is more important than growth itself. It challenges the basis of anti-poverty programmes (APPs) which fail to acknowledge the gender dimensions of poverty, especially as women are often the poor, particularly in Asia. Trickle-down theories are now recognized as not reaching large sections of society. The point that meeting women's needs and interests is closely linked to overall poverty alleviation is highlighted. The paper examines some of the more commonly followed anti-poverty programmes and derives some of their shortcomings. Women's lives are governed by more complex social constraints and responsibilities than men's, thus APP need to be sensitive to gender issues within and among households and must take into account intra-household dynamics which affect the use of income and decisions over resource allocation along gender lines.