Executive Summary of Evaluation Gender Impact of Public-Private Partnerships – Literature Review Name of Evaluation Synthesis Report Date of Final Report of Evaluation Oct 26, 2012 Kerry Schofield, Mott Macdonald +44(0) 121-234-1600 Author of Final Report of Evaluation www.mottmac.com Date of this Executive Summary 06/30/2014 Kerry Schofield, Mott Macdonald +44(0) 121-234-1600 Author of this Executive Summary www.mottmac.com;Dilyan Donchev, IFC-C3P, DDonchev@ifc.org Number of pages of this Executive Summary 6 Modifications from original Executive Summary Without Modification Executive Summary Approved for public disclosure Anna Hidalgo, IFC, AHidalgo@worldbankgroup.org by (name) on (date) Background In February 2012 Mott MacDonald was commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to undertake an assessment of the current and potential gender impacts of public private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects. Objectives The IFC’s overall objective for this study was to enable its Public Private Partnership Business Line (PPP BL) to measure and articulate the impact on women and girls of the PPP projects in which it is involved. The brief required an analysis of six infrastructure sectors: agri-infrastructure; health; energy, industrial, transport and water/waste. The key questions for the research, as defined by the IFC, were:  What are the potential impacts on women and girls of infrastructure projects?  What are the differences, if any, in terms of gender impact, between PPP projects and traditional public works projects?  What are the conditions/project design features which could enable PPP/privately funded infrastructure projects to have a positive gender impact without compromising on the overall economic rate of return of the project?1 Analysis The report is based upon a wide ranging literature review and subsequent development and testing of a means to both forecast access by women and girls to different types of infrastructure projects in different countries; and highlight mechanisms where PPP especially (and traditionally funded projects) has had or could have an opportunity within project specific circumstances to maximize the benefits for women and girls. The documentary evidence and testing has drawn upon the multi-disciplinary resources of Mott MacDonald. We 1 IFC (2011): IFC Terms of Reference: ‘Gender Impact of Public Private Financing and Private Financing of Infrastructure’ Page 1 of 5 have benefited from inputs from specialists from; equalities, international finance, sector specific infrastructure, international development and economics. The first key deliverable of the project was the production of six sector-based literature review reports. The conclusions from the sector based literature reviews, and the more general review of infrastructure and gender, were that there is very little empirical evidence available on mainstreaming gender considerations into project design, especially in the case of PPP projects. Evidence is similarly scarce on actual demonstrable impacts on women and girls. Where documents do link gender to infrastructure design and delivery to gender, in the main they talk about potential impacts only. Forecasting Tool This initial conclusion led to the development of a forecasting tool that would allow IFC and wider stakeholders to estimate the in country/region number of women and girls to benefit from a proposed infrastructure project. The ‘Female Beneficiary Estimation Tool’ proposed within this report demonstrates that forecasting can be undertaken to provide an indication of the number and proportion of female beneficiaries from a project by using available datasets coupled with forecasting multipliers. It sets out a proposed methodology which takes into account gender inequality, the sector type of the infrastructure in question and also the extent to which the project has integrated gender considerations into planning and delivery. In addition, to this central tool, the report provides an additional two variants of the tool for IFC and stakeholders to consider – ranging from more to less sophisticated. Essentially, in the absence of project specific information, the tool can act as a substitute where necessary, drawing on the best available data through its default parameters - World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Gender Inequality Index. At its most sophisticated level the tool comprises the following four variables: Variable Use Population  Total number of projected beneficiaries OR local population numbers of the project area  The proportion of women in the national population (take from World Bank data) is then used as a multiplier to estimate the total number of women in the beneficiary. Note this number provides an estimate of the population of women not the estimate of women who will benefit; this is subject to the additional multipliers below. Gender inequality adjustment  This is based on the literature-supported assumption that the greater the level of inequality within a country, the less likely women are to benefit from infrastructure projects.  A gender inequality adjustment figure of 1 plus one-tenth of the GI Index is applied as a divisor to the number of female beneficiaries, reducing the number of female beneficiaries by approximately one-tenth of the amount of the GI Index expressed as a percentage. Sector type adjustment  This based on the evidence in the literature that some infrastructure sectors are more likely to be accessed by women than others; as such, the six different infrastructure sectors are assigned different multipliers. Gender mainstreaming  This last criterion reflects the level to which gender mainstreaming adjustment activities actually form part of the project plan as a percentage Page 2 of 5 This tool is, in its nature, high level and is compromised by the lack of existing quantified data on which it can draw for inputs. It is necessary to stress that it should not be used where hard evidence is available and should only be seen as an estimation of access benefits. Ways in which to mainstream gender considerations into projects The review set out in this report provides some thoughts on a number of gender mainstreaming mechanisms which might be incorporated within the project process should local circumstances support such an approach: Mainstreaming mechanism Gender outcomes Action planning  Well-designed Gender Action Plans (GAPs) are instrumental in ensuring gender considerations are planned for 2  GAPs help to reduce women’s vulnerability to poverty Gender analysis and impact  Easier identification of gender-specific priorities assessment  Use of social and demographic profiling (using sex disaggregated data) will help to ensure delivery of the most appropriate services Gender involvement and  Women’s and girls’ benefits are enhanced consultations  Increased independence and community voice amongst women  Sensitivity is key due to socio-cultural constraints which may inhibit women’s participation Capacity building and gender  Increased gender awareness amongst project staff by appointment mainstreaming skills of gender specialists or integration of gender programmes for managers  Actively employing women in senior decision making roles Supporting wider activity and  Encouraging wider participation of women across project lifecycle participation Supporting women into  Targets for female employment at various project stages will help employment and other to increase economic independence of women income generating  Employment incorporating training and development will enhance opportunities women’s skill set  Providing more female only facilities will encourage women to remain in work  Removing barriers preventing women taking up senior positions could have significant gender impacts beyond the workplace.3 Contractual mechanisms  Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) for benefits to females as part of contracts to ensure compliance with requirements Allocate funding to support  Specifically allocate resources to achieving gender goals to ensure gender mainstreaming women’s benefits are delivered and measured activities Delivering accessible services  Setting usage costs at a rate affordable by women and supporting appropriate use of credit can help maximize benefits to women  Provision of female specific public facilities  Maximized marketing and infrastructure information can ensure that women’s needs as customers are met Monitor and evaluate against  Including gender up front in social and environmental impact 2 See the ADB Website for guidance on their approach to GAPs in projects. See: http://www.adb.org/themes/gender/project-action-plans 3 World Bank and OECD (2004): ‘Why gender matters in infrastructure’ Page 3 of 5 Mainstreaming mechanism Gender outcomes gender impacts assessments as a priority  Use of gender disaggregated data and analysis and appropriate key gender sensitive indicators Conclusions and Recommendations The key conclusions that have been drawn from this study are:  Gender equality and its importance for access to good quality infrastructure are firmly on the international policy agenda as testified by the range of guidance documents that have emerged in the last decade. At a policy level, gender mainstreaming is regarded as a priority and there is demonstrable commitment to promoting gender equality and taking action to address it through infrastructure development.  At a policy level, it is also recognized that infrastructure development needs to be gender aware in order to realize gender benefits. Women’s interests need to be understood and their views taken on board through active involvement and consultation. Infrastructure projects cannot be assumed to deliver benefits to women and men equally; proceeding with project development with this assumption is likely to lead to the aggravation rather than reduction of gender inequalities.  This study has considered gender implications at a project rather than policy level by identifying evidence of benefits for women and girls and of mainstreaming gender into both PPP and traditionally financed infrastructure development. The research has shown that, despite the policy level commitment there is very little evidence of infrastructure projects taking conscious action on gender. As such impacts on women are often unplanned and unintended and there may be no gender perspective when targets are set or outcomes are monitored. This provides little emphasis on opportunity for infrastructure to be a positive enabler of gender outcomes.  Significant guidance exists about potential impacts of infrastructure project, how to mainstream gender and indicators which could be used. This report has synthesized the existing guidance material to list potential tools for PPP projects to employ, starting with project level gender action planning.  There are some examples of good practice in terms of gender mainstreaming in infrastructure development. However, there is a scarcity of information about actual impacts, the benefits of mainstreaming approaches and how successful they are in different sectors for PPP projects.  Amongst guidance that presently exists, without exception, emphasis is placed on the vitality of monitoring and evaluation to ensure that gender outputs and outcomes can be measured. However, examples of evaluations being applied systematically within different sectors are often hit and miss. Within the current literature, a raft of potential indicators exist for each sector but these are not prioritized and there is little evidence of them being used in live projects to either set targets or monitor results.  The main stumbling block with regard to assessing and evaluating gender impacts is the lack of sex- disaggregated data. This renders almost impossible proper monitoring of gender benefits and impacts. Existing guidance tends not to detail how data can be collected in the level of detail required or how data collection could be financed as part of the project delivery process. This is understandable given the sometimes very difficult conditions in which PPP infrastructure projects are seeking to attract donors and the variety of stakeholder interests. It also occurs because infrastructure projects tend to rely on data gathering Page 4 of 5 about beneficiaries from other government or private sector entities that may lack resources or time to acquire the level of detail that would be useful.  The lack of reliable empirical data has created challenges in term of capturing and estimating gender benefits at project and spatial levels. There is no quantitative means to promote or measure benefits for women and girls in different sectors where PPP might be applied. This means that there is a conspicuous lack of forecasting tools making it difficult to pre-assess impacts of projects. The ‘Female Beneficiary Estimation Tool’ proposed within this report is a means to help fill this void.  The Tool provides an indication of the number and proportion of female beneficiaries and sets out a proposed methodology which takes into account gender inequality and also the sector type of the infrastructure. This is, in its nature, high level and can be used when there is a lack of existing quantified data. It should not be used where hard evidence is available and should only be seen as an estimation of benefits.  The literature provides little or no evidence of where and how the benefits to women and girls from PPP and traditionally funded infrastructure have been included in the business case for projects. IFIs do have internal systems that include appraising gender in relation to their own policies, for instance ADB’s Initial Poverty and Social Analysis. However, outside such templates, project appraisals covered in literature on PPP projects relate to more general environmental and social impacts. Whilst gender mainstreaming activities are likely to come with a commercial cost for infrastructure projects, there are also some commercial gains which are not presently articulated. Further identification of the benefits to women and girls and relating these to the business case for infrastructure PPPs is worthy of further consideration.  It is important that the type of impacts delivered to women by infrastructure projects are not lost in the discourse on the number of women who will benefit. This report has uncovered four main impact channels, in addition to access. These are: time; economic activity and resources; health and safety; and planning, policy and decision-making. Their importance varies from sector to sector. These impacts are not currently part of the estimation tool but this should downgrade their significance.  There is presently only limited discourse and evidence on the overall gender impacts of PPP projects and even less about the comparative benefits of PPP versus traditionally funded infrastructure. From the evidence reviewed as part of this study, there seem to be few significant differences between PPP gender impacts and traditionally financed projects. However, PPPs do offer scope for pro-gender activity if backed by a solid government policy and conditionality in the procurement process. Copyright and Legal Disclaimer The material in this publication is copyrighted. IFC encourages the dissemination of the content for educational purposes. Content from this publication may be used freely without prior permission, provided that clear attribution is given to IFC and that content is not used for commercial purposes The findings, interpretations, views, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the International Finance Corporation or of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The views expressed in this publication are those of its authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the wider institution. Some of the information used in this document may come from publicly available sources such as company websites and publications. The Lessons of Experience series does not represent a commitment by IFC to require projects it finances to take certain or all of the actions specified in this publication. Instead, any issues arising in an IFC-financed project will be evaluated and addressed in the context of the particular circumstances of the project. Page 5 of 5