- 11 (Registered)
Access to and Control over Resources and Benefits
Because of women’s often subordinate position, their access to and control of resources and benefits may be restricted. In some circumstances they may have access to resources (opportunity to use them), but have no control over them (no opportunity to make decisions about their use and destination.).
The Framework for Access to and Control over Resources and Benefits explicitly maps the real access that men and women have to the resources and benefits
How do we create a Framework for Access to and Control Over Resources and Benefits
Resources refer to a variety of assets required to cover needs, while benefits are the product of such resources.
Resources can include
- Economic: these encompass both productive resources, such as land, equipment, capital and other assets, cash, work and financing;
- Social: include mutual aid social networks, kinship networks, networks for organizing reproductive work, etc.
- Political: resources here include political power, representative organisations and associations, local leadership, opportunities for communication, negotiation and consensus, assessments regarding social standing, status and credibility.
- Time: the availability and control over one’s own time, whether hours of the day or periods of the year available for discretional use (leisure, learning, time for oneself, etc.), is a key resource for development.
- Mobility: mobility, as a resource, requires us to weigh up the extent to which physical movement is restricted by norms and customs, as well as the constraints on accessing certain forms of transport or locations.
- Information/education: these include resources and benefits such as education, or the opportunity to exchange opinions and information.
- Personal: these include, but are not limited to, self-esteem, self-confidence and the capacity to express one’s own interests and opinions in private and in public.
Benefits can include:
Satisfaction of basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter; cash and financial income; the possibility of owning property and of receiving an education and training; political power, prestige, and status; and opportunities for pursuing new interests.
This list is non-exhaustive and can be expanded with other kinds of resources relevant to each specific case. Likewise, there is no need to make express reference to each type of resource or benefit if it is deemed irrelevant.
Some of the questions guiding this exercise are as follows:
- Who is able to use the resource?
- Who is able to make decisions regarding the use thereof?
- Who is entitled to sell or freely dispose of it?
Note:
The resources to be identified are not limited to what men or women have access to. Rather, those resources which are found in their community.
Below is an example of the Access to and Control of Resources and Benefits tool showing the findings from the fishing community of Chumpu Khmao (Cambodia).
Note:
By using different sizes of the cross for ticking the boxes on the chart, it can be indicated who has better access or control; women or men.
The framework enables us to:
- identify and become familiar with gender-based differences in accessing and controlling a set of resources within the household or the community in general;
- plan and gauge the impact that an intervention could have on access to, and control over, specific resources and benefits and, therefore, the potential empowering effect this could lead to;
- move away from the idea that certain projects empower women within a society based simply on the fact that they are the beneficiaries of the project or take part in the planning thereof.
Lack of information about possibilities for access to and control over resources and benefits has led to erroneous notions about what women can achieve and how they can benefit from development initiatives.
The way resources are perceived and used has a great deal to do with age, social class and culture. Efforts are therefore needed to ensure these interrelations are taken into account with regards to a given society and context.