A CONCEPTUAL AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR GENDER MAINSTREAMING
IN NATIONAL ACCOUNTS AND NATIONAL BUDGET
Third
Meeting of the Committee on Women and Development
9-11 October 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa
I. Introduction
1.1 Unpaid Work and Time Use
1.2 What is Unpaid Work?
1.3 Why Measure Unpaid Work ?
1.4 Scope, Goal and Objectives Budget
1.4.1 Scope
1.4.2 Goal
1.4.3 Specific Objectives
2. Conceptual and Analytical Framework
2.1 Conceptual Framework
2.1.1 Basic Concepts of Household Production
2.1.2 Market and Non-Market Output
2.2 ACGD's Analytical Framework for Unpaid Work
2.2.1 Classification of unpaid work
2.2.2 Options for Analysing Unpaid Work
3. ACGD's Framework for Integrating Unpaid Work
into National Accounts and National Budget
3.1 Development of a Conceptual and Analytical
Framework
3.2 Establishment of a Quality Control and Self-monitoring
System
3.3 Gender-aware Modelling Work
3.4 Mobilization of Public Action: Communication
and Advocacy Strategy
Conclusion
Figures
Figure 1: A Framework for Analysing Unpaid
Work
Figure 2: A Framework for Integrating Unpaid
Work into National Accounts and National Budget (2001 - 2005)
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I. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Unpaid Work and Macroeconomic Policies
1. Unpaid work has been identified as a key area of policy
intervention by the United Nations through its Beijing Platform
for Action and the Millennium Declaration Goal to improve the
situation of those in the unpaid sector, especially women. These
international commitments now need to be translated into national
policies for implementation. Policies are a mechanism that will
allow the state to introduce change by first integrating the
statistically invisible unremunerated work into the System of
National Accounts (SNA) and national budget.
2. Macroeconomic policy omits unpaid work from its scope of
inquiry. This is not an omission simply due to complexities
of measurement, but reflects assumptions built in the macroeconomic
model. Work by Elson (1996), observes that ignoring unpaid work
may affect macro-economic policy through, for example, constraining
labour mobility and supply responses. Thus, macro-economic policies
may not be as effective and efficient when drafting national
economic strategies through such tools as the national accounts
and national budget.
3. Policies on unpaid work traditionally focus on how more
equitable distribution between women and men can be achieved
or how unpaid work can be recognised through social and economic
instruments. The focus of the programme of the African Centre
for Gender and Development (ACGD) of the Economic Commission
for Africa (ECA) is on a third, underdeveloped, but very promising
approach that, examines the links between unpaid work and the
macroeconomy, and what the consequences of these links are for
policy makers. This new approach of ACGD is part of a recent
effort by feminist economists to develop new tools for policy
makers and gender equity advocates, and to improve their skills
to use these tools. It will develop analytical supports to shed
light on a major outstanding issue in terms of a better-informed
policy framework: how to use macroeconomic policy tools, especially,
national accounts and national budget to mitigate the effects
of unpaid work on women's welfare, long-term growth and poverty
reduction.
4. Macroeconomics deals with aggregates such as Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), savings and investments, exports and imports,
and public expenditures and revenue. The three types of macro-economic
policies that affect and are affected by unpaid workers are:
fiscal policy, monetary policy and exchange rate policy. A more
dynamic assessment between the unpaid activities of households
and communities, and especially, the economic framework of fiscal
and monetary policies would simultaneously enhance policy efficiency
and government commitments to greater equity.
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1.2 What is Unpaid Work?
5. Unpaid work is "non-market" work or the "care
economy" that includes domestic work, care of children,
the sick and elderly, voluntary community work, participating
in a family business, building family house, or maintenance
work. Work is often classified as productive or reproductive.
Productive work includes activities that produce goods and services
for the market exchange. These may be carried out at work place,
at home and in the formal or informal sectors. Reproductive
work refers to activities like child bearing and other activities
carried out in caring for the household members and the community.
6. Following pressure from the women's movement, the UN Statistical
Commission recommended that national statistics offices prepare
accounts for unpaid work - economic activities that are outside
the current production boundary inform of satellite accounts
(Ironmonger, 1996:38) based on time-use surveys. They should
be separate from, but consistent with, the 1993 SNA, and could
be used with the SNA as a basis for public policy. Although
time-use surveys are now carried out on a regular basis in many
developed countries, they have recently been tested with support
of the UNDP in a number of developing countries: Benin and Morocco
in 1998, Nigeria, India, Nepal and Philippines in 1999, and
South Africa in 2000. It is expected that more countries in
Africa will soon be embarking on time-use studies to obtain
better measures of women's unpaid work, and help implementation
of the 1993 SNA. However, the imperative is to interpret time-use
data and derive its policy implications.
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1.3 Why Measure Unpaid Work?
7. The rationale for integrating unpaid work in these national
planning instruments is considered in relation to potential
feedbacks that might occur between unpaid work and the macroeconomy
based on empirical research which is indirectly related to this
problem. What follows are six specific macroeconomic concerns
and an outline of how a more exhaustive measurement of economic
activity using national accounts and national budget might serve
to improve macroeconomic policy.
8. Exhaustive estimates of GDP are the most relevant elements
of the 1993 SNA. Exclusion of unpaid work in the SNA perpetuates
the incomplete and inaccurate picture of national income, especially,
in Africa where unpaid work contributes significantly to the
economy. It causes levels of GDP and other data to be downward-biased,
thus giving an inaccurate impression of the economy and impending
international or regional comparability. This is important where,
for example, monetary contributions made or received by a country
depend on its GDP, or when poverty is measured by GDP per head.
Also, productivity gains may lead to increased output or leisure,
but GDP measures the first, thereby masking women's longer work
hours. Both omissions have implications for women who enter
the paid workforce without a corresponding decline in their
hours of unpaid work. A more exhaustive GDP would incorporate
inputs from the formal sector (production activity, market transactions);
the informal sector (volunteer activity, the underground economy);
the household sector (household production, caring, leisure)
and reproductive activity (conception and birth, education and
value imprinting).
9. Unpaid work affects and is affected by macroeconomic policies.
Data series on unpaid economy would allow us to measure the
existing links between unpaid and paid economy. The exclusion
of unpaid women's work in the SNA assumes that it has little
or no effect on most micro and macroeconomic activity. But this
is not so. For example, during periods of economic recession
and crisis, declining incomes and rising unemployment, the increases
in the women's unpaid work intensifies gender inequalities,
restricting women's access to economic opportunities and the
benefits of development relative to men. These are hidden episodes
in stabilization and structural adjustment.
10. Recent research showed that cutbacks in national budget
through cutbacks in social services may increase time spent
on care work; reductions in subsidies for foodstuffs may result
in women, (who usually provide food) spend more time looking
for cheaper substitutes. Research in developing countries under
structural adjustment programmes also showed that cuts in health,
family planning and other social services increases the burden
of unpaid home care and services on women. Thus what may be
seen as an increase in productivity or efficiency in the market
economy is actually a shift of costs from the paid to the unpaid
work sector. These include the cost to those who provide the
unpaid work, in terms of loss of education, health and well-being.
11. Unpaid work may compete with paid work: meeting greater
demands for unpaid work may jeopardise ability to supply more
paid work. This may be one explanation for poor supply response
to some adjustment programmes. Unpaid labour may assist in absorbing
the shocks of adjustment: for example, unpaid labour may be
substituted for paid labour in the production of food and clothing,
which are produced in the home instead of purchased from the
market. Voluntary labour may be mobilized in community self-help
schemes when public expenditures are cut.
12. Discrepancy exists between women's economic contribution
and their control over economic resources. Unpaid work has remained
invisible, but when valued, it can reflect more realistic estimates
of total economic production by taking into account all household
activities. This would enhance women's economic status in a
positive direction and would contribute to long-term endogenous
growth strategies by opening up capacity/capabilities in areas
such as health and education. Emerging research shows that unpaid
work underpins the economy with a significant contribution to
income generation, long-term growth and poverty reduction by
supplying human and social capital labour to the private sector
and the public service sector economy. And, women's domestic
chores and child-care prepare children to become future workers
as part of building human capital. However, women still have
less access to income and assets, less wealth and less control
over the economic processes they contribute to, hence, the need
to measure unpaid work.
13. Programmes and services for unpaid work are good investments.
New evidence suggests that distribution of human capital influences
growth (e.g. the case for East Asian 'miracle" economies).
And that income and wealth inequalities are linked to lower
growth because they reflect the inability to invest in, or to
borrow to finance education. If structural investments (education,
health, infrastructure, market access) are weak, economies will
grow more slowly leading to greater political instability, which
also acts as a drag on growth. Feminist economists contend that
Africa is losing out on the hidden growth reserves in its people,
especially women, who now provide more than 50% of the region's
labour, but lack equal access to education and factors of production.
Public policy has a key role to play in promoting gender-inclusive
growth and poverty reduction through Africa's enormous unexploited
resources - the women. While the SNA will reflect the value
of the unpaid work as investment in nurturing human capital
and social capital, the national budgetary process will target
equitable allocation of resources to the unpaid work. Thus,
counting unpaid work is crucial.
14. Unpaid work affects women "employment" and income,
social benefits and well-being Women's employment is generally
low because unpaid work tends to constrain women's participation
in the formal, paid labor market. However, poverty and the financial
crisis compel women to engage in economic activities and earn
income in the informal economy. Thus women perform subsistence
and livelihood activities or engage in micro-enterprises and
generate income for the household. But their informal activities
do not reduce their unpaid work; in fact, they continue to perform
both the unpaid and paid work. Time use data can help policy
makers to identify the location of surplus labour per class,
area, gender, age group, etc. and, together with measurement
of returns on these activities, enable the measurement of the
average productivity of unpaid work. This will facilitate appropriate
policy formulation on unemployment and poverty.
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1.4 Scope, Goal and Objectives
1.4.1 Scope
15. The conceptual framework of ACGD's programme is provided
by relevant international standards, especially, the 1993 SNA.
Thus, the scope of the programme is economic production as defined
by the 1993 SNA, which provides a solid basis but also implies
a restriction on the range of issues that it considers within
the care economy.
16. The main focus of the programme is to provide guidance
to national accountants and enumerators on how to produce gender-inclusive
exhaustive GDP and people-centred national budget. This will
mean that as many productive activities as possible within the
care economy are accounted for (indirectly) during compilation
of national accounts and formulation of national budget. Given
that over 50% of Africa's population are women and about two-thirds
of their labour is spent on unpaid work with a significant role
in employment creation, income generation and poverty reduction,
data on the size and characteristics of the unpaid economy are
also crucial for research and policy-making.
17. The programme will use communication and advocacy strategies
based on analysis of information and data on the linkages between
national poverty reduction strategies and women's unpaid work
to promote integration of unpaid work in national accounts and
national budget. The policy impact of valuing unpaid work is
the provision of better information to policy makers, which
is expected to lead to better understanding and appreciation
of women's contribution to the economy. Accordingly, policy
makers will have adequate grounds to initiate and advocate for
policies that will give women a better share of gains from development.
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1.4.2 Goal
18. To strengthen the capacity of national accountants (economists
and statisticians) and enumerators in selected African countries
to use concepts, tools and methodologies for mainstreaming gender
into national accounts and national budget to enhance policy
choices and investment priorities in poverty reduction strategies.
The ultimate goal is to convince the African governments to
value and integrate unpaid work in their national accounts and
national budget.
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1.4.3 Specific Objectives
19. The specific objectives are to:
i) develop a conceptual and analytical framework to guide gender
mainstreaming in national accounts and budget;
ii) establish a quality control and self-monitoring system for
the ACGD programme;
iii) develop gender-aware economic models to test different
policy packages to facilitate dialogue on choice of policy options
and investment priorities for poverty reduction;
iv) develop communication and advocacy strategies to deepen
understanding of policy makers on the links between unpaid work
and market economy, and the contribution of unpaid work to the
national economy;
v) develop an Easy Reference Guide for valuation and integration
of women's unpaid work in national accounts and national budget
in 6 countries and strengthen the capacity of economists and
statisticians in these activities; and
vi) initiate in one country a pilot project on valuation and
integration of women's unpaid work in national accounts and
national budget.
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2. A CONCEPTUAL AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Conceptual Framework
2.1.1 Basic Concept on Household Production
20. The conceptual framework provides the basic knowledge for
ACGD's strategy to support valuation and integration of women's
unpaid work in national accounts and national budget. It describes
the concept on household production, definitions and accounting
rules of the 1993 SNA that enable unpaid work to be systematically
defined and analysed as outlined below in section 2.2. One of
the key concepts in the national accounts is that of production.
The framework is thus an attempt to further clarify the concept
of household production and the valuation of unpaid work of
household members who provide labour input into the production
of goods and services.
21. In the context of unpaid work, the most relevant elements
of the 1993 SNA concern the exhaustive measurement of GDP. The
rules that have been developed to determine what is to be included
as production and what is to be excluded in the estimation of
GDP is the production boundary. First of all, the production
boundary determines what is to be included in the accounts as
output. Secondly, because the 1993 SNA recognises only uses
of produced goods and services, the boundary also determines
the scope of intermediate consumption - goods and services consumed
as inputs in the process of production excluding fixed assets,
and thus it also determines value added. Value added is the
value of output less the value of intermediate consumption -
it is a measure of the contribution to GDP by an individual
producer, industry or sector.
22. To achieve exhaustive measurement of GDP, the first step
is to delineate what should and should not be included in the
accounts as production in economic sense and those, which are
not. The second step is to define the boundary around the economic
production that needs to be included in the national accounts.
Regarding productive activities, the 1993 SNA introduce two
fundamental boundaries: the general production boundary and
the SNA production boundary. The general production boundary
includes any human controlled activity resulting in outputs
capable of being exchanged. And the SNA production boundary
describes the range of productive economic activities that should
be included in GDP estimates and is thus the relevant boundary
for this purpose.
23. While production of goods by households for their own final
use, either as consumption or capital formation, is included
in national accounts, own-account production of domestic and
personal services by members of the households for their own
final consumption, is excluded. The excluded activities include:
cleaning, preparation of meals, care, training and instruction
of children, care of sick, infirm or old people; and transportation
of members of the household or their goods, including community
voluntary services. This unpaid work or the care economy is
not included in the national accounts. The SNA 1993 has however
recommended compilation of satellite accounts with the SNA as
the central framework for various types of analysis related
to assets and resources. A satellite account provides a framework
linked to the central accounts that enable attention to be focussed
on an aspect of economic or social life (e.g. unpaid work) in
the context of national accounts.
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2.1.2 Market and Non-Market Output
24. The 1993 SNA identifies institutional units that are market
producers and non-market producers. Market producers are financial
and non-financial corporations, quasi corporations, and unincorporated
household enterprises that are economically significant. Non-market
producers also produce goods and services but the products are
not valued at prices that are economically significant - prices
with little or no influence on the quantities demanded. Non-market
producers are general government, private non-profit institutions
and household subsistence producers.
25. The value of output of market goods consists of the cost
of the value of goods and services used for production and value
added of the different factors of production. These include:
· the cost of goods and services used in the process
of production (intermediate input);
· cost of labour (compensation);
· consumption of fixed capital (use of fixed assets);
· taxes net of subsidies on production; and
· operating surplus (returns to natural and financial
assets used in production) or mixed income for household operated
activities (returns to natural and financial assets used for
production and imputed compensation of operator and unpaid household
worker).
26. Non-market output is valued at prices that are not economically
significant and excludes operating surplus. However, in the
case of goods produced by subsistence production, the value
might still include some elements of operating surplus especially
if output is measured by multiplying volume of harvest by farm
gate prices.
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2.2 ACGD's Analytical Framework for Unpaid Work
27. The analytical framework supports establishment of the
programme's conceptual framework. It deals with the definition
of unpaid work and the development of a framework for different
options for its analysis. As discussed in section 2.1, the 1993
SNA offers a coherent, internationally accepted conceptual framework
for economic statistics, which is the starting point for identifying
and analysing the unpaid work problem areas. The essence of
the analytical framework is the division of unpaid activities
into groups that help their identification and proper measurement.
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2.2.1 Classification of Unpaid Work
28. Though under review, the United Nations' proposed International
Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS)
will be a basis for ACGD's classification of unpaid activities
within its analytical framework. On this basis three types of
activities are defined:
· Activities that fall within the SNA production boundary
(SNA work activities).
· Activities that fall within the general production
boundary, but outside the SNA production boundary (or "non-SNA
work" activities).
· Activities that are not considered as production activities
or are personal activities.
29. The focus of ACGD's analytical framework is on the second
category: the non-SNA activities that need to be valued and
integrated in the SNA and national budget (Figure 1).
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2.2.2 Options for Analysing Unpaid Work
30. Figure 1 and subsequent discussion on non-SNA activities
identify three types of unpaid work of household members based
on the general definition of work, namely:
· Work providing unpaid domestic services for own final
use within household;
· Work providing un-paid care-giving services to household
members; and
· Work providing community services and help to other
households.
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Figure 1: A Framework for Analysing Unpaid Work
| Types
of time |
Type
of activity |
Main
Categories |
Examples
of Activities |
|
Committed
time
|
Non-SNA
work
|
Providing unpaid services for own final use
· Providing unpaid
domestic services for own final use within household
· Unpaid care-giving
services to household members |
F. Work providing unpaid domestic services
for own final use within household
· cleaning, decoration maintenance of dwelling occupied by the household;
· preparation and serving of meals;
· transportation of members of the household or their goods.
G. Work providing un-paid care-giving services to household members
· Care, training and instruction of children;
· care of sick, infirm or old
|
| |
Non-SNA
work
|
Providing unpaid domestic services,
care giving services and volunteer
services to other households,
community, non-profit institutions
serving households (NPISH).
|
H. Work providing community services and help to other households
· informal help to neighbours and relatives;
· "informal/unorganised" volunteer and community work through neighbourhood
and informal community associations;
· "formal/organised" volunteer and community work through the Red Cross, welfare
organisations, professional organisations, churches, clubs
and other (NPISH).
|
31. Pricing of output for the market is determined by price
during the transaction. For non-market goods and services, sale
price is generally lower than the cost of production of similar
market services. Hence pricing of the output is based on the
cost incurred in production, excluding imputed operating surplus.
To value non-SNA activities, the common approaches are: opportunity
cost, replacement cost (specialist), and replacement cost (generalist).
32. Opportunity cost: The cost of wages forgone as a result
of opting to offer services in the market. The valuation will
change depending upon who is engaged in the unpaid work. The
approach values the time spent for the unpaid work based on
the forgone income of the unpaid household member had this member
opted to provide labour services in the market. For example,
if a mother with a post-graduate degree, opted to stay at home
to take care of her children and manage the household, her unpaid
work would be priced according to her compensation in paid employment.
This method requires data on the occupation of the worker that
will match with the occupation in the market and the compensation
rate. Moreover, the method also implies that there are always
opportunities in the labour market for the person. In countries
where there is excess supply of labour, this method would tend
to overestimate the price for unpaid labor.
33. Replacement cost (specialist): This approach uses the wage
paid to a person who produces similar services in the market
(i.e. wage = wage rate * time spent). It is applied to specific
household own-account services. For example, cooking would be
valued at wage rate of employed cooks, laundry of paid laundry
workers, caring of children to paid nanny, etc. This method
assumes that the quality of the same services would be the same
and these occupations are found in the market.
34. Replacement cost (generalist): This method values the unpaid
work by the equivalent wages of paid domestic help (i.e. wage
= wage rate * time spent). The wage depends mostly on the labour
market situation in the countries. In some countries, where
wages of domestic help is legislated, the price would be available;
in others pricing would require additional statistics from labour
and employment or household income and expenditure surveys.
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3. ACGD's FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATING UNPAID WORK INTO NATIONAL
ACCOUNTS AND NATIONAL BUDGET
35. This programme proposes a framework for integrating unpaid
work into national accounts and national budget (Figure 2).
The framework consists of four strategic inter-related processes
designed to lead to informed decision-making. The activities
are not sequential in time.
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3.1 Development of a Conceptual and Analytical Framework
(2001 - 2002)
36. This activity involves establishing appropriate conceptual
framework to provide the basic knowledge to support the strategy
for accounting for unpaid work; and establishing an analytical
framework to analyse this work and time use. The specific activities
include:
· Description of the concepts, definitions, classifications,
and accounting rules of the 1993 SNA that enable unpaid work
to be systematically analysed; and grouping of unpaid activities
to help the identification of the causes for unpaid work and
options for its measurement.
· Before implementing the programme activities, the framework
and the implementation process was presented to an Ad Hoc Expert
Group in May 2002 for review, enrichment and validation.
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3.2 Establishment of a Quality Control and Self-monitoring
System (2002 - 2003)
37. To ensure quality outcome from the activities of the programme,
ACGD will establish a quality control and self-monitoring system
by constituting:
· Internal Working Group, which will serve as an internal
peer review team comprising experts from ACGD and other substantive
divisions of ECA to critically appraise the programme.
· National Learning Group on mainstreaming gender into
national accounts and national budget made up of senior economists,
statisticians, sociologists and gender experts from African
countries. It will review, refine and validate the tools and
methodologies of the programme.
· Advisory Panel on Gender-aware Modeling to consider
methodologies and standards in modeling, as well as identify,
evaluate and disseminate good practices, and identify gaps and
recommend approaches to fill these gaps.
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3.3 Gender-aware Modelling Work (2002 - 2004)
38. The conceptual and analytical work makes it possible to
build for the first time in Africa models that would be capable
of testing different policy packages and facilitating dialogue
about which set of policies to choose for poverty reduction.
Operationalisable models are lacking to evaluate impacts of
policy responses that effectively reflect economic reality of
a country, hence the need for this activity. The specific activities
include:
· Develop in initially one country an appropriate model
such as computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and/or a
regression-based micro-simulation model as an alternative to
CGE model.
· To carry out controlled tests to evaluate how gender
differences in national accounts and budget impact on women;
and short and long-term growth, poverty reduction).
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3.4 Mobilization of Public Action: Communication and Advocacy
Strategy (2002 - 2005)
39. The "strategy-mix" for mobilizing action will
include the following specific activities:
· Situation analysis is the starting point for mobilizing
action. It will define specific facts about unpaid work and
what the statistics tell about unpaid work policy makers can
relate to.
· Advocacy is a strategy for communicating to and mobilizing
political and social leaders, and will involve formulating existing
information into arguments to convince policy makers to accept
and show commitment for integrating unpaid work in national
accounts and budget.
· Communication will involve identifying the users who
need to be mobilized; analysing their information needs and
expected behavioural outcomes; designing messages; selecting
the right communication channels; producing information materials;
and monitoring and evaluation.
· Media outreach as a powerful tool, will be used to
reach the greatest number of stakeholders to
generate public support and in agenda setting, especially for
advocacy purposes.
· Capacity building aims to sharpen skills of national
accountants and enumerators in collecting, analysis, and integrating
gender-disaggregated data from large-sample survey in national
accounts and national budget. It will elaborate an "Easy
Reference Guide" on data collection tools and methods for
integrating unpaid work into national accounts and national
budget with a view of establishing norms and standards for the
region. It will train national accountants in the use of the
Guide. It will also support initially one country to conduct
a time-use survey for valuing and integrating unpaid work in
national accounts and budget as a best practice example.
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Figure 2: A Framework for Integrating Unpaid Work into National
Accounts and National Budget (2001 - 2005)
[Figure 2 is available
is gif format]
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CONCLUSION
40. This document tried to highlight a framework for ACGD's
programme (2001 -2005) to engender national accounts and national
budget through an underdeveloped approach to unpaid work. It
examines where potential feedbacks might occur between unpaid
work and the macroeconomy, and what the consequences might be
of these links to policy makers. However, much of what we know
is based on "stylised" facts or empirical information,
which is indirectly related to the problem of unpaid work as
little empirical work exists in Africa in this area. The main
conclusion is that the skills of national accountants and enumerators
should be sharpened to collect, analyse and use sex-disaggregated
data on both paid and unpaid work through time-use surveys.
Here, the aim is to value the unpaid work so that policy makers
will have adequate grounds to initiate and advocate for policies
that will have potential benefits to improve women's welfare,
and enhance long-term growth and poverty reduction. The major
outstanding issue in terms of better-informed policy framework
will be to develop empirical research supports on how to use
national planning tools to mitigate the effects of unpaid work
on women and macroeconomic outcomes.
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