IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v96y2017icp390-407.html

Can Gender-Targeted Employment Interventions Help Enhance Community Participation? Evidence from Urban Togo

Author

Listed:
  • Breuer, Anita
  • Asiedu, Edward

Abstract

The Participatory Development (PD) approach aims at improving the quality of governance by empowering local populations. Particularly for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), PD is regarded an opportunity to help shift from unjustified centralization to more decentralized forms of governance. Yet, PD projects are frequently fraught with undesired effects of elite capture which critics ascribe to insufficient appreciation of local context. Our study adopts a sequential quantitative–qualitative mixed method approach to broaden the empirical foundation needed for context sensitive project design. By exploring the effects of gender and employment on community participation we contribute to narrowing two research gaps: First, political science research on female participation in SSA has mostly focused on participation in national-level processes. Second, while development economics literature has devoted much attention on effects of female employment on intra-household bargaining, it has so far omitted the question what this means for the empowerment of women beyond the household, that is in the public life of their communities. Analyzing original survey data of over 1,300 respondents, collected across four urban municipalities in Togo, we find that unemployment negatively impacts community participation. Specifically, we show that this effect is mainly driven by female unemployment and establish self-efficacy driven by norm perception as the causal link between female employment and participation. Complementing our quantitative findings with data from 98 qualitative interviews, we show that employment constitutes an important psychological resource that enables women to overcome multiple discrimination barriers to community participation. However, this effect is stronger for women in a formal employment situation than for those working in less formalized settings. We conclude that gender-targeted employment interventions can help to increase community participation. We recommend that such efforts should not fixate on the creation of female job opportunities but also seek to strengthen the role of female informal workers in local political processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Breuer, Anita & Asiedu, Edward, 2017. "Can Gender-Targeted Employment Interventions Help Enhance Community Participation? Evidence from Urban Togo," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 390-407.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:96:y:2017:i:c:p:390-407
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.03.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X17300840
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.03.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghazala Mansuri, 2004. "Community-Based and -Driven Development: A Critical Review," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 1-39.
    2. Domelen, Julie van, 2012. "Togo : towards a national social protection policy and strategy," The Social Policy and Labor Discussion Paper Series 89000, The World Bank.
    3. repec:wbk:wbpubs:11859 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ann-Sofie Isaksson & Andreas Kotsadam & M�ns Nerman, 2014. "The Gender Gap in African Political Participation: Testing Theories of Individual and Contextual Determinants," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 302-318, February.
    5. Anderson, Siwan & Eswaran, Mukesh, 2009. "What determines female autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 179-191, November.
    6. Resnick, Danielle, 2011. "The Political Participation of Africa.s Youth," WIDER Working Paper Series 056, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Alice Evans, 2016. "The Decline of the Male Breadwinner and Persistence of the Female Carer: Exposure, Interests, and Micro–Macro Interactions," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(5), pages 1135-1151, September.
    8. Danielle Resnick & Daniela Casale, 2011. "The Political Participation of Africa's Youth: Turnout, Partisanship, and Protest," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2011-056, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Niemi, Richard G. & Craig, Stephen C. & Mattei, Franco, 1991. "Measuring Internal Political Efficacy in the 1988 National Election Study," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(4), pages 1407-1413, December.
    10. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.
    11. Agarwal, Bina, 2001. "Participatory Exclusions, Community Forestry, and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1623-1648, October.
    12. Cornwall, Andrea, 2003. "Whose Voices? Whose Choices? Reflections on Gender and Participatory Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 1325-1342, August.
    13. Amemiya, Takeshi, 1978. "The Estimation of a Simultaneous Equation Generalized Probit Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 1193-1205, September.
    14. repec:wbk:wbpubs:16608 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Carla M. Schmidt & Ivanete D. Cielo & Keila R. Wenningkamp & Marialva Tomio, 2016. "Collective Actions in Sustainable Rural Tourism: A Case Study of the Western Region of Paraná," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 249-258, March.
    16. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Income distribution, political instability, and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1203-1228, June.
    17. Alice Evans, 2016. "‘For the Elections, We Want Women!’: Closing the Gender Gap in Zambian Politics," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 388-411, March.
    18. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, September.
    19. Francisca M. Antman, 2014. "Spousal employment and intra-household bargaining power," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(8), pages 560-563, May.
    20. Hilde Coffe & Catherine Bolzendahl, 2011. "Gender Gaps in Political Participation Across Sub-Saharan African Nations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 245-264, June.
    21. Elena Stanghellini & Eduwin Pakpahan, 2015. "Identification of causal effects in linear models: beyond instrumental variables," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 24(3), pages 489-509, September.
    22. Seema & Darshan Kumar, 2014. "An analytical approach to supplier selection problem," International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 164-180.
    23. Majlesi, Kaveh, 2016. "Labor market opportunities and women's decision making power within households," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 34-47.
    24. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1978. "Unionism and Wage Rates: A Simultaneous Equations Model with Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variables," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 19(2), pages 415-433, June.
    25. repec:gig:afjour:v:46:y:2012:i:1:p:51-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Peter Lorentzen & John McMillan & Romain Wacziarg, 2008. "Death and development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 81-124, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eger, Claudia & Fetzer, Thiemo & Peck, Jennifer & Alodayni, Saleh, 2022. "Organizational, economic or cultural? Firm-side barriers to employing women in Saudi Arabia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Tushar Bharati & Yiwei Qian & Jeonghwan Yun, 2020. "Fueling the Engines of Liberation with Cleaner Cooking Fuel," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 20-03, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    3. Dereje Fedasa Hordofa & Melekamu Ayele Badore, 2024. "Assessing the impact of social, demographic, and economic factors on the economic empowerment of rural women in agricultural activities: a partial proportional odds model analysis in Dire Dawa Administration, Ethiopia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 17205-17235, July.
    4. Kuhnt, Jana & Kaplan, Lennart & Garcia-Hernandez, Ana & Leininger, Julia & Steinert, Janina I., 2025. "Ethics and Equity: Addressing Violations of the Belmont Report principles for research staff," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    5. Yselle Malah Kuete, 2023. "Framing the change: analysing employment change, (in)adequacy, and (de)feminization in Cameroon's tertiary firms," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2023-108, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Laszlo, Sonia & Grantham, Kate & Oskay, Ecem & Zhang, Tingting, 2020. "Grappling with the challenges of measuring women's economic empowerment in intrahousehold settings," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. García-Peñalosa, Cecilia & Konte, Maty, 2014. "Why Are Women Less Democratic Than Men? Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 104-119.
    2. Arohi Anand & Animesh Karn & Avirup Mukherjee & Naboshree Bhattacharya, 2025. "Does earning money empower women? Evidence from India," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Bleck, Jaimie & Michelitch, Kristin, 2018. "Is women’s empowerment associated with political knowledge and opinions? Evidence from rural Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 299-323.
    4. Maty Konte & Stephan Klasen, 2016. "Gender difference in support for Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do social institutions matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 55-86, April.
    5. VAN DEN BROECK, Goedele & MAERTENS, Miet, 2015. "Does Off-farm Employment Make Women in Rural Senegal Happy?," Working Papers 232593, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    6. Djemaï, Elodie & Kevane, Michael, 2023. "Effects of education on political engagement in rural Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    7. Conroy-Krutz, Jeffrey, 2018. "Media exposure and political participation in a transitional African context," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 224-242.
    8. Gottlieb, Jessica, 2016. "Why Might Information Exacerbate the Gender Gap in Civic Participation? Evidence from Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 95-110.
    9. repec:wbk:wbpubs:20203 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Clerici, Cristina & Tripodi, Stefano, 2021. "Unemployment and Intra-Household Dynamics: the Effect of Male Job Loss on Intimate Partner Violence in Uganda," HoSS Working Paper Series 2021-4, Stockholm School of Economics, House of Sustainable Society (HoSS).
    11. Trottmann, Maria & Zweifel, Peter & Beck, Konstantin, 2012. "Supply-side and demand-side cost sharing in deregulated social health insurance: Which is more effective?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 231-242.
    12. Konte, Maty, 2016. "The effects of remittances on support for democracy in Africa: Are remittances a curse or a blessing?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 1002-1022.
    13. Aidan Craney, 2020. "Local Participation or Elite Capture in Sheep’s Clothing? A Conundrum of Locally Led Development," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 191-200.
    14. Nandigama, Sailaja, 2020. "Performance of success and failure in grassroots conservation and development interventions: Gender dynamics in participatory forest management in India," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    15. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Public Work Programs and Gender-based Violence: The Case of NREGA in India," Discussion Papers 15-09, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    16. Catherine Ragasa & Cristina Alvarez-Mingote & Paul McNamara, 2024. "Bottom-Up Approaches and Decentralized Extension Structures for Improving Access to and Quality of Extension Services and Technology Adoption: Multi-level Analysis from Malawi," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(5), pages 1093-1146, October.
    17. Manuel Denzer, 2019. "Estimating Causal Effects in Binary Response Models with Binary Endogenous Explanatory Variables - A Comparison of Possible Estimators," Working Papers 1916, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    18. Sarah Xue Dong, 2021. "The effect of labour demand on women s intra-household decision power: Evidence from Indonesia," Departmental Working Papers 2021-01, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    19. Padilla-Romo, María & Peluffo, Cecilia & Viollaz, Mariana, 2025. "Parents’ effective time endowment and divorce: Evidence from extended school days," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    20. Patricia Justino & Ivan Cardona & Rebecca Mitchell & Catherine M�ller, 2012. "Quantifying the Impact of Women�s Participation in Post-Conflict Economic Recovery," HiCN Working Papers 131, Households in Conflict Network.
    21. Ezgi Canpolat & Meerim Shakirova & Vince McElhinny & Kame Westerman & Alli Cruz & Theresa Buppert, 2022. "Fostering Gender-Transformative Change in Sustainable Forest Management," World Bank Publications - Reports 37127, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:96:y:2017:i:c:p:390-407. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.