P R O M I S I N G A P P R O A C H E S T O EngenderingDevelopment P O V E R T Y R E D U C T I O N T H R O U G H G E N D E R - D I S A G G R E G A T E D A N A L Y S I S O F P U B L I C E X P E N D I T U R E S : T H E C A S E O F C A M B O D I A Why this is a Public expenditure reviews can help spending on education. Public education is Promising Approach: governments target their expenditures to usually a major component of government promote pro-poor growth and assist poor expenditures. However, the subsidies given · The impact of public and vulnerable groups. This targeting will to school places will only benefit those expenditure programs on be most effective when it is informed by children who attend publicly-subsidized poverty reduction can be gender-disaggregated data analysis. Using a schools. If households typically enroll more enhanced by analyzing recent example from Cambodia, this note boys than girls, there will be a gender gender-disaggregated illustrates the advantages of including difference in benefit incidence: although data in public expenditure gender-disaggregated data analysis--espe- not intended as a goal of government policy, reviews, especially by cially benefit-incidence analysis--when more of the government subsidy will go to conducting a gender- conducting a public expenditure review and boys than to girls. If girls continue to enroll disaggregated benefit- designing public expenditure programs. in smaller numbers than boys at the higher incidence analysis. levels of education, then switching the focus Benefit-incidence analysis is a useful of government expenditures from tertiary · In Cambodia, gender- technique for assessing how public spending is towards primary schooling, or providing disaggregated benefit- targeted and who benefits from it. It links scholarships to encourage girls to continue incidence analysis helped information about subsidies and transfers from beyond primary school would ensure girls identify how to cost- the government's fiscal accounts with the gain access to a greater share of the effectively increase female distributional profile of service utilization in a education subsidy in the future. The benefit enrolment rates in lower given sector. This information can be readily incidence of public spending for one group secondary education obtained from household surveys, such as the (such as girls) therefore depends on two through scholarship Living Standards Measurement Survey. factors: the use of publicly-funded services programs, improvements Gender-disaggregated benefit incidence ana- by that group and the distribution of gov- to rural roads, and sanitary lysis can take many forms, from a simple ernment spending. If the goal is universal facilities in schools. comparison of male and female beneficiaries primary education, the relative weight of to a sophisticated econometric analysis. It can the subsidies for girls needs to be increased · Cambodia's Integrated thus be used flexibly, depending on data avail- in order to provide services such as trans- Fiduciary Assessment and ability, which can be a serious problem in portation or toilet facilities, which will Public Expenditure Review countries such as Cambodia. subsequently encourage higher enrolment (IFAPER) recognized that rates among girls. good follow-through is Cambodia's 2003 "Integrated Fiduciary required to ensure that Assessment and Public Expenditure Review" Gender and Education in Cambodia the results of a gender- (IFAPER) included gender-dis-aggregated Household surveys conducted in Cambodia disaggregated benefit- benefit-incidence analysis. The IFAPER's helped to inform the policy conclusions incidence analysis are analysis identified the barriers to public reached in the IFAPER. In Cambodia, girls' used effectively. The service access faced by women and girls, enrolments drop significantly at the end of IFAPER recommended especially in education and agriculture, and primary school, resulting in a large gender that all ministries develop proposed ways of addressing these barriers. gap in lower secondary school. Survey realistic gender-disaggre- results suggested that three factors help gated targets for reaching Gender Impact of Educational Subsidies explain the disproportionate dropout of beneficiaries and systems Although public subsidies are often assumed girls. First, although the direct costs of edu- for reporting success in to be gender neutral, benefit-incidence cation are equal for boys and girls, parents reaching those targets. analysis of education expenditures can generally perceive higher opportunity costs reveal disparities in the extent to which and lower benefits from educating their males and females benefit from public daughters. Poor families who cannot afford to educate all their children therefore allocation and ways to manage The gender-disaggregated bene- prefer to educate their sons. expenditures more effectively. In fit-incidence analysis conducted for Cambodia's education sector, action Cambodia's IFAPER also contributed Second, because rural transport on the findings of the IFAPER was to the creation of better follow-up systems are poor, the longer distances facilitated by the Education Min- information and benchmarks. The from home to secondary than to istry's parallel, program-oriented IFAPER recommended that all min- primary school are a significant budgeting system (which is linked to istries develop realistic gender- constraint to school attendance for the planning process and to the disaggregated targets for reaching girls, who tend to lack access to Medium-term Expenditure Frame- beneficiaries and set up systems for live-in or boarding school facilities work, based on 12 priority programs) reporting success in reaching those and to bicycles. The well-established and their strong database on targets. Implementation of these system in which boys live in religious beneficiaries. recommendations will be an institutions (temples) while attend- important step for optimizing the ing secondary school is not available The positive results of gender- poverty reduction impact of public to girls. disaggregated analysis are not spending in Cambodia. limited to the education sector. The Third, few schools have toilet Cambodia IFAPER was also able to Further reading: facilities and even fewer have separate inform expenditure allocations in the · World Bank/Asian Development facilities for boys and girls. This agriculture and health sectors, where Bank World Bank/Asian Develop- situation creates problems of modesty, benefit-incidence analysis examined ment Bank (2003). "Cambodia- particularly for adolescent girls. alternative financing mechanisms Enhancing Service Delivery through (such as Health Equity Funds), and Improved Resource Allocation and Gender-Disaggregated Benefit- studied the effects of user fees on Institutional Reform. Integrated Incidence Ana-lysis in Cambodia's service utilization. For example, in Fiduciary Assessment and Public Public Expenditure Review agriculture, research showed that Expenditure Review." The IFAPER's benefit-incidence women in Cambodia make up the http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ analysis, together with an analysis of majority of farmers, but are a minority EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EAST gender roles and household choices among beneficiaries of public services, ASIAPACIFICEXT/CAMBODIA based on household surveys, sug- accounting for only 20-30 percent of EXTN/0,,contentMDK:20182403 gested three ways to cost-effectively participants in extension programs. ~pagePK:141137~piPK:217854~ address the constraints identified Agricultural research and extension theSitePK:293856,00.html above: provide scholarships for girls, do not focus on the activities of · Lionel Demery, "Gender and improve rural transport, and build female farmers, even though men and Public Spending: Insights from school toilets. As a result of this women specialize in different tasks. Benefit Incidence" analysis, scholarship schemes are Safety concerns impede women's www.worldbank.org/wbi/ being piloted, a rural roads program is access to extension services, which publicfinance/documents/gender/ underway, efforts are being made to often require traveling to district Demery.pdf provide toilets in existing school centers, and the overwhelmingly facilities, and newly constructed male extension service staff find it schools in Cambodia are now socially difficult to engage in face-to- expected to have toilets. face communication with female Who to contact for more information: farmers. These patterns imply that The use of gender-disaggregated men are benefiting disproportionately Gillian Brown, Senior Gender Specialist, benefit-incidence analysis, together from the government's agricultural EASSD, Gbrown1@worldbank.org with household survey data, allowed subsidies and services. Cambodia's IFAPER to identify Susan Razzaz, Senior Economist, MNSED, appropriate priorities for resource Srazzaz@worldbank.org Promising Approaches to Gender Mainstreaming showcase gender-responsive, innovative approaches to gender and development, applicable across regions and sectors. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org/ gender or e-mail gnetwork@worldbank.org.