Background: Investing in maternity protection for working women is an important social equity mechanism. Addressing the maternity leave needs of women employed in the informal sector economy should be a priority as more than half of women in Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa are employed in this sector. Objective: To develop a costing methodology framework to assess the financial feasibility, at the national level, of implementing a maternity cash transfer for informally employed women. Methods: A World Bank costing methodology was adapted for estimating the financial need to establish a maternity cash transfer benefit. The methodology estimates the cash transfer’s unitary cost, the incremental coverage of the policy in terms of time, the weighted population to be covered, and the administrative costs. The 6-step methodology uses employment and sociodemographic data that are available in many countries through employment and demographic surveys and the population census. The methodology was tested with data for Mexico assuming different cash transfer unitary costs and the benefit’s time coverage. Results: The methodological framework estimated that the annual financial needs of setting up a maternity cash transfer for informally working women in Mexico ranges between US$87 million and US$280 million. Conclusions: A pragmatic methodology for assessing the costs of maternity cash transfer for informally employed women was developed. In the case of Mexico, the maternity cash transfer for women in the informal sector is financially feasible.

中文翻译：

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花费产假现金转移来支持非正规就业墨西哥妇女的母乳喂养

背景：投资于职业女性生育保护是一项重要的社会公平机制。解决在非正规部门经济中就业的妇女的产假需求应成为优先事项，因为拉丁美洲、南亚和撒哈拉以南非洲地区有一半以上的妇女受雇于该部门。目标：制定成本计算方法框架，以评估在国家层面为非正规就业妇女实施生育现金转移支付的财务可行性。方法：采用世界银行的成本计算方法来估计建立产妇现金转移福利的财务需求。该方法估计现金转移的单一成本、保单在时间方面的增量覆盖、覆盖的加权人口以及管理成本。六步法使用就业和社会人口统计数据，这些数据在许多国家通过就业和人口调查以及人口普查获得。假设不同的现金转移单一成本和福利的时间范围，用墨西哥的数据测试了该方法。结果：方法框架估计，为墨西哥非正规职业女性设立产妇现金转移支付的年度财务需求介于 8,700 万美元至 2.8 亿美元之间。结论：开发了一种评估非正规就业妇女生育现金转移成本的实用方法。在墨西哥，非正规部门妇女的生育现金转移在财务上是可行的。