African Center for Gender and Development





14 September 2004 AN AD HOC EXPERT GROUP MEETING TO REVIEW A GENDER-AWARE MACROECONOMIC MODEL FOR EVALUATING IMPACTS OF POLICIES ON POVERTY REDUCTION IN AFRICA 14-15 SEPTEMBER 2004, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA DRAFT PROGRAMME OF WORK Day One: Tuesday 14 September 2004 08:00-08:45 Registration 08:45-09:00 Agenda Item 1: Welcoming Remarks (Ms. Josephine Ouedraogo, Director African Centre for Gender and Development (ACGD) 09:00-09:30 Agenda Item 2: Objectives, Expected Outcome of the Meeting and Organization of Work (A. Latigo, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, ACGD) 09:30-10:30 Agenda Item 3: Presentation of Officers and Adoption of the Agenda and Programme of Work (A. Latigo) 10:30-10:45 Tea/Coffee Break PLENARY 1: PRESENTATION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GENDER-AWARE MACROECONOMIC MODEL Facilitator: Dr. Anushree Sinha, Chief Economist, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Dehli, India. 10:45-11:15 Agenda Item 4: Background to the Development of the South African Gender-aware Model (A. Latigo) ACGD’s focus is on mainstreaming gender perspectives in poverty reduction strategies using national accounts, budgets and policies as an entry point. What is the goal and objectives of the programme? What are the components of the programme relevant to this meeting? Where are we in the programme? How important is the modeling work to fulfilling the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? 11:15-12:15 Agenda Item 5: Is a standard Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model important for integrating household economy and gender perspectives into macroeconomic frameworks Prof. Bernard Decaluwe, Consultant Research Economist – gender-aware modeling, University of Laval, Quebec, Canada) The general equilibrium models are macroeconomy wide models and are multi-agent, multi-commodity models. General equilibrium analysis has a strong theoretical grounding. With improvement in data collection and advances in computer technology and software, this has been increasingly used as an advanced methodology of applied policy work. What is a CGE model? What is the process in constructing a CGE model in terms of: o relevance for the analysis of questions of inequality and poverty; o key assumptions to be used in building the proposed model; o how the policies to be analyzed are presented in the model o In what circumstance do we need a CGE model? o Why should we look at gender perspectives and household economy in a macro context?; Discussion and Recommendations 12:15-13:00 Agenda Item 6: Presentation of Data Collected and Satellite Accounts of Household Production for Constructing the South African Gender-aware Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) (Mr. Ismael Fofana and Prof. B. Decaluwe: Consultants Research Economist – gender-aware modeling, University of Laval, Quebec, Canada) As a first step in the building of a credible gender-aware macroeconomic model rrequires essential data including a standard Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for preparing a National Time Accounts (NTA), an Input-Output Table (National Satellite Accounts of Household Production (NSAHP); an extended gender-aware SAM, which is the data base for a gender-aware model. What are the different types, sources and uses of these data? What are the challenges in obtaining these data? Discussion and Recommendations 13:00-14:30 Lunch 14:30-15:30 Agenda Item 7: Presentation of production and use of gender disaggregated data from time use surveys for preparing National Time Accounts (NTA) and National Satellite Accounts of Household Production (NSAHP) (A. Latigo and Prof. Duncan Ironmonger, Professor of Household Economics, and Director of Household Economics Unit, University of Melbourne, Australia National Time Accounts (NTA) are a set of estimates of our total income and expenditure of time, similar to the estimates of national income and expenditure, which account for our market transactions in monetary units, and NSAHP is a set of accounts developed as an expanded version of the Household Sector of the 1993 System of National Accounts ( SNA). It follows the general structure of the SNA but includes other transactions that are outside the SNA but still connected with the household economic activities. The SNA generally recognizes that household production is a part of economic activity. How are NTA and NSAHP derived? How can a policy analyst use NTA and NSAHP for policy intervention? 15:30- 16:30 Agenda Item 8: Presentation of the South African gender-aware SAM: Specifications and Process for Revising the South African Standard SAM (Ismael Fofana and Prof. B. Decaluwe) A SAM is considered as a database for constructing a macroeconomic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model and an extended gender-aware SAM including the NTA and NSAHP are considered a very important tool for bringing together for the first time in Africa market economy and household economy in a common framework to measure the contribution of women dominated household production to the national economy. What is a SAM and what are the distinctive differences in structure of a standard SAM as compared to a gender-aware SAM and an extended gender-aware SAM? How can a policy analyst use an extended gender-aware SAM for policy intervention? Discussion and Recommendations 16:30-16:45 Tea/Coffee Break 16:45-18:00 Agenda Item 9: Presentation of the South African Gender-aware Model: Process of Construction from SAM and Model Specifications (Prof. Bernard Decaluwe and Mr. Ismael Fofana) A gender-aware CGE model is considered as one of the most appropriate tools for analyzing impacts of policies on household economy and market economy, in particular on poverty reduction. After building an extended a gender-aware SAM, the next important step is to review and select stylized macroeconomic policies, which are relevant to a given national economy to be tested in the model. On this basis, the model is constructed followed by conducting policy simulations for a given national economy. What are the key features of the South African economy relevant to the modeling work? What are the fiscal policy variables selected for the South African economy and why they were selected? What other policy variables could have been included and why they were not included? What is the approach used in constructing the gender-aware ECA model? What are the features of the gender-aware ECA model? Discussion and Recommendations Day Two: Wednesday 15 September 2004 PLENARY 2: PRESENTATION OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GENDER-AWARE MACROECONOMIC MODEL [– Cont’d] Facilitator: Prof. Duncan Ironmonger 08:30- 09:30 Agenda Item 10: Presentation of the Different Policy Simulations with the Model and their results (Prof. Bernard Decaluwe and Mr. Ismael Fofana) After building the gender-aware model experiments (simulations) were conducted with the model using selected fiscal policy variables to determine the changes in macro-economic outcomes (women and men’s time use, wage rates, income and poverty reduction). What is the approach used for evaluating results from the model? What and how are the policy simulations carried out? What are the key results, a non-gender-aware model would not elucidate? How would these results inform policy? What are the deficiencies in these simulations and how can they be overcome? What is the potential of this approach of gender-aware modeling? Discussion and Recommendations 09:30 – 10:00 Agenda Item 11: An observation on the gender-aware model and further suggestions for its modification (Dr. Anushree Sinha) 10:00 – 10:15 Tea/Coffee Break 10:15 – 13:00 Agenda Item 12: Round Table Discussions on Future Modeling Work in 5 other African Countries The discussion will recap earlier discussions and recommendations on the development and testing of the gender-aware ECA model in the light of how this initiative would need to be replicated in other African countrie. Each of the representatives of the African countries will present an overview of on-going work and future activities relating to generation of gender-disaggregated data using time use and other household surveys as well as gender-aware modeling work in their countries. What are the challenges in moving to Phase 2 of introducing gender-aware modeling in African countries? How can these challenges be addressed? 13:00-14:30 Lunch 14:30-15:30 Agenda Item 13: Round Table Discussions on Future Modeling Work in 6 African Countries 15:30-17:15 Agenda Item 14: Presentation of Agreed Recommendations and Way Forward (Rapporteur) 17:15-17:30 Agenda Item 15: Closing Remarks (ECA)