Combining Growth and Gender Diagnostics for the Benefit of Both

Abstract

Women’s economic empowerment is not a new issue; nevertheless, it continues to challenge governments and development assistance agencies. One of the reasons for this hurdle may well be that gender advocates and growth devotees are speaking different languages when there is a huge space for them to collaborate effectively and pursue both agendas simultaneously. This paper outlines a framework for gender-enhanced growth diagnostics that can be used to identify win-win solutions based on policies that target jointly the binding constraints to economic growth and those limiting female economic participation. The welfare gain from such a reform surpasses the gain from a pro-growth reform addressing only the binding constraint to growth or that from a pro-gender reform aimed at closing gender gaps. Using Turkey’s country growth diagnostics and data on gender gaps, the paper uses the approach to identify those constraints to women’s economic empowerment that align with national growth priorities and may therefore gain greater traction with policy makers.