In the 1990s, governments were making political statements about the
importance of reducing poverty and promoting gender equality. A social cost–
benefit analysis could support this strategy by applying weights to costs and
benefits accruing to women and people judged to be in poverty. It is now much
more acceptable not to have technical closure in project decision-making, but
rather to present decision-makers with a range of choices, including differing
distributional weightings for groups of people with differing socioeconomic
characteristics.