Gender Aware Beneficiary Assessment (GABA) of Public Assistance Programmes in Four Eastern Caribbean Countries – Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women Multi-Country Office – Caribbean (UN Women MCO - Caribbean) initiated a project supporting a gender-responsive analysis and research on institutional, policy and service delivery frameworks for social protection in four Eastern Caribbean countries – Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

A cornerstone of this analysis was the Gender Aware Beneficiary Assessment (GABA), a tool that scrutinizes the effectiveness of development programmes and focuses on the accessibility of and benefits received by intended beneficiaries in each of the four Eastern Caribbean countries. The GABA delves into the delivery mechanisms of public assistance programmes (PAPs) and dissects existing guidelines and procedures.

Through a gender lens, the GABA examines the entire beneficiary journey with PAP and assesses how gender impacts beneficiaries’ access to PAP services, identifies current and potential barriers faced by women and men when interacting with PAP, and provides actionable recommendations for improvement.