改善刚果民主共和国妇女的成果：证据告诉我们什么？

ABOUT THEAFRICA GENDERINNOVATION LAB KEY MESSAGES TheWorldBank’sAfricaGenderInnovation Lab(GIL)conductsimpact evaluationsofdevelopment interventionsin Sub-Saharan Africa, seekingtogenerateevidenceonhow to close gender gaps inearnings,productivity,assets,and agency. The GIL team iscurrentlyworking on over 90impactevaluations in nearly30countries with the aim ofbuilding an evidence base forthe region. •IntheDemocraticRepublicofCongo(DRC),womenoftenfacemultiplemutuallyreinforcingbarrierstorealizingeconomicopportunities,rangingfrom their disproportionate unpaid care and domestic responsibilities relative tomen, to their lower levels of savings and financing, their more limited access toeducation and training and the prevalence of violence against women and girls.Targeted, evidence-based interventions designed to address the most acuteobstacles can help increase women’s economic participation, even amidstinstability and insecurity.Public Disclosure Authorized •Thisbriefhighlightsfourevidence-basedpolicypriorities,informed byrigorous impact evaluations, that could help lift the most pressing constraintsholding back women in the DRC: •Expanding care services to alleviate women’s time constraints andboost their productivity;Public Disclosure Authorized The impact objective of GIL isto increase take-up of effectivepoliciesbygovernments,development organizations, andthe private sector to addressthe underlying causes of genderinequality in Africa, particularlyin terms of women’s economicand social empowerment. GILaims to do this by producingand delivering a new body ofevidenceand developing acompellingnarrative,gearedtowards policymakers, on whatworks and what does not workin promoting gender equality. •Enhancing livelihoods via public works and social protection,including cash-for-work programs, cash transfers, and community-driveninfrastructure projects; •Scaling proven GBV prevention and response models, includingintegratedmental health and psychosocial support,holistic survivorservices, and community-led norm and behavior-change initiatives; •Investinginadolescentgirlsthrough cash transfers to incentivize schoolretention, reproductive health education to reduce teenage pregnancy,vocational and life-skills training to support economic empowerment, andcommunity-level engagement—including with parents and boys—to shiftgender norms, delay early marriage, and build human capital. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab FOUR POLICY PRIORITIES: Buildingontheresultsfromthestudy,GILdesignedanintervention4thatwouldbesuitedtotheneedsofwomenandtheirfamilies,tostartbridgingtheknowledgegaponusingchildcaretoalleviatetimeconstraintsfaced by women farmers.Childcarecenter managers were selected by community membersandthen trained in best practices related to earlychildhooddevelopment.Centers operated in existingcommunity infrastructure with basic equipment providedby the project. The study examined how the provisionof community-based childcare centers for children aged2 to 6 in rural areas of the DRC affects outcomes forwomen, their husbands, and children. 1Investingincaretoimprovewomen’stimeallocationandproductivity Womenhave lower labor force participation andearningsthanmen.Women’s labor force participationin the DRC (62 percent) lags men’s (70 percent) andisheavily skewed toward low‐productivity,vulnerableroles.Most women (69.7 percent) work in agriculturalproduction, with the next-highest category of employmentbeing entrepreneurship (20.5 percent). An even smallershare of women are wage or salaried workers, in starkcontrast with men: 23.9 percent of working men are inwage and salaried employment, against only 6.4 percentof women. Usinga randomized controlled trial,the studyfindsthat73percentofhouseholdsprovidedwithaccessto the centers use them,and those whousethe centers not only experience a reductionintime women spend on childcare,but alsosizableeconomic and welfare gains.The centerslead to significant increases in women’s engagement incommercial agriculture, household plot productivity, andmonthly income. Additionally, women report an increasein their concentration and sense of control. There arealso changes in men’s economic activities: they are morelikely to be engaged in non-agricultural self-employmentand experience an increase in income in this sector.Finally, children benefit from attending childcare centers;there are improvements in early childhood developmentindicators. These results underscore the broad welfarebenefits of increasing childcare access in low-incomeruralsettings and contribute to the growing regionaland global literature on effective and low-cost childcaresolutions.5 Themost recent and comprehensive analysis ofgendergaps in the DRC identifies a household’sdependencyratio—the number of dependentsrelativetoworkingage-adultsinahousehold—astheprimary factor behind women’s lower laborforceparticipation,capturing women’s highershareofcarework.2For example, in the W