VOICES RISING
YEAR III - VOL 3. NΊ130
March 10, 2005
CONTENT
1.- SIXTH REPORT FROM NEW YORK
2.- "DOSE OF REALITY BY COLLEEN LOWE MORNA
3.- JOIN US TODAY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CONSULTATION!
1.- SIXTH REPORT FROM NEW YORK
March 7th, 2005.
By Fanny Gσmez and Alejandra Scampini
REPEM
TRANSLATED BY BEATRIZ SIMONETTI (REPEM) AND MARCELA HERNANDEZ (ICAE)
Saturday: Reflection Day on POVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT WITH EQUITY
In the morning of last Saturday, one day after the approval of the final declaration of the CSW, some of us woke up very early to attend public classes. Beijing +10 Follow up Committee of Latin America and the Caribbean convened a public class on poverty and development with equity. The aim of the group was to debate about the new agenda on poverty reduction as one of the Millennium Development Goals that the UN, other international organizations, cooperation agencies and the states currently have.
Guacira Oliveira, from the Articulatin of Brazilian Women, raised the following issues:
In the beginning of the 90s the Washington Consensus emerged as a promise for development that was not fulfilled; this idea of development as technological growth and financial capital did not generate any equity, quite on the contrary, the indicators on poverty and inequality worsened.
Wealth increased, but inequality also increased in the same proportion. Guacira went on reflecting on the democratization processes in Latin America, which, despite giving us much hope in many aspects, show us clearly that they have only few conditions to change the situation of inequality from a peripherical position, from a weak position. Therefore we understood that the democratization processes are still marginal when faced to the power of the political classes that accumulate wealth and power.
Guacira poses this question: what concept of development would help to reduce this inequality gap?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
Based on Guaciras reflection, we ask ourselves:
Is there any political will in this regard? Which movements promote these changes? Which are the clues that indicate that this will happen and impact on womens empowerment? How do these reflections link with the MDG process?
Guacira affirms that firstly the development model should be changed and that the MDGs are not the starting points for this change.
Now, the question we make ourselves is: what do we do while that debate on development grows and takes place with or without us?
Norma Sanchis, from the International Gender and Trade Network and the Feminist Initiative of Cartagena, made the second presentation and she made the following affirmations:
a) it is the exaggerated level of wealth concentration, not the lack of it.
b) the peculiarity of poverty in
c) the promotion of macroeconomic decisions that can have undesired effects on compensatory social policies aimed at the most vulnerable sectors.
d) the impacts of asymmetries between social sectors generated by the international trade (for example, the private sector against small and medium enterprises).
Norma proposes to debate taking into account certain conceptual contents that generate fallacies. Poor and vulnerable sectors are referred to instead of impoverished and vulnerablized sectors. Latin America is an impoverished region, not a poor region.
Social policies are proposed not like a benefit of the State, but as peoples rights, and not like palliatives but as universal policies. There are excluded, included, and confined sectors (those that must accept any kind of job in order to survive).
Social and economic policies are not separate. Economic policies have social contents with political effects.
We must fight for re-distribution policies to transfer resources from the richest to the poorest. The challenge is to see how to approach the right to property, which seems untouchable, above all other rights. As a strategy she poses that integration is key; to propose macroeconomic policies by consensus, not only among governments, but in confluence with the technologic, health, education, and private sectors. Finally, she called on the womens movement to tackle these issues and begin to influence on the decision-making processes, instead of thinking in unique recipes, and analyze the gender impacts, for example on fiscal policies, agrarian reform, labour reform, etc.
We think that Noras call is important, as well as that done by FIC, the IGTN, DAWN, and other networks since long ago. It is key for women to get involved in hard economy, where we can conduct analysis on macroeconomics from an intersectionality perspective through our field of work, for example, education.
Patricia Morey, from CICSA and Red Mujer Habitat, posed an interesting concept on poverty that goes beyond the access to goods and services. In the new aspects, she poses three variables to be taken into consideration:
Poverty of time
Poverty of space
Poverty of participation
Why poverty of time?
Because women carry the burden of sexual division of work and the privatization of services; this results in women having to assume their tasks in harder conditions and they have no time for themselves.
Why poverty of space?
The access to space is much more limited for women than for men. Women live in much more confined spaces, where there are problems with lighting, violence and lack of safety. There are women who have been displaced because of armed conflicts or because of soy planting.
Why poverty of participation?
Only 5% of the municipalities have women local authorities, and this happens generally in small towns where budgets are not significant.
Morey affirms that in this sense, to consider poverty through Goals and Indicators such as those posed by the MDGs would not be enough. She calls on analyzing the causes from a macro structural instead of a reductionist perspective. If we look at it in this way, we see that womens situation has not changed substantially.
In terms of proposals there are two ways: to make weak or strong proposals. Weak proposals are guided by actions such as to develop, improve, promote, ensure, alleviate. These are ideological ways that do not touch structure.
Strong proposals refer to eliminating the prevailing model, searching for a strong transformation, changing values, proposing a new education, different forms of production and poverty eradication. According to Morey, these ways lead to real changes.
Based on Morey's reflections, is real change possible?
Another question: is gender perspective always guaranteed in the exercise of power, through the participation of women in public positions?
In terms of the use of time: if household chores are not shared, we will never be able to face the problem of women's poverty of time.
Maria Ortiz, from Puerto Rico deals with these reflections on poverty reduction, through a comparative analysis of two programmers developed in her country, one, basically with assistentialist characteristics and the newest one, 60 years after the first one that aims at improving the conditions of some vulnerable communities through the participation of community members who have to identify their needs and make community develop by itself. Besides, she underlines that avoiding the displacement of groups, was a good outcome in her country.
Among the inputs received by the participants, we highlight Ana Vasquez (from CESIP-Peru) input on the role that education can play as a mechanism for redistribution and reduction of the inequality gap. Through people's rich and enthusiastic participation and their questions, we realized that there is interest on this issue, not only from a Latin American perspective.
It is sad to admit that in a significant space such as the CSW and the BPFA reaffirmation, the issue of women's poverty and development has not been discussed with the words and numbers used by panelists. Therefore, it is good to think that this space has given the opportunity to reflect, to hold substantial debates and to strategize for the future. Therefore, the challenge is to look at the FFD, the Millennium Development Goals using the same reflections.
SUNDAY: CELEBRATION AND REFLECTION TIME
Our workshop on Saturday provided important inputs for the debate that took place within the framework of the GCAP launch, in the afternoon of Sunday 6th. It was a crowded meeting where several women's and feminist organizations gathered to know more about the GCAP, its creation process, its launch at WSF, its proposals and, above all, to know about the relationship between this call and the MDG process.
It was a rich debate where REPEM was in charge of providing information about the background of the call, together with a critical analysis of REPEM's view about this call. REPEM considers that it is an opportunity and it is worth joining it. The following are some of the questions asked by the groups:
Which is the place of women's agenda within the poverty reduction agenda?
How could we turn this call into an opportunity to open the debate on poverty at national, regional and global level?
How can this call be shaped in a creative way, according to the different contexts?
Who are the key actors with whom we have to relate?
Which is the GCAP's resource proposal?
A Global Call to Action against Poverty
A Global Call to Action for Womens Rights
2005 presents women with unique opportunities to demand accountability from our governments and to unite our calls for change with those of other social movements and civil society organizations around the world, by sending a strong message that our leaders simply cannot ignore.
The eradication of poverty cannot succeed without equality and justice for women.
What is the Global Call to Action against Poverty?
The Global Call to Action against Poverty is a call for women, men and youth to mobilize against poverty and to unite their actions and messages in order to bring about real and urgent change. It is a call for people all over the world to demand that their leaders fulfill their promises.
The Global Call is also a worldwide alliance. It is not a formal institution but the coming together of hundreds of organizations from all over the world including womens groups, trade unions, faith-based organizations, human rights organizations, grassroots CSOs and development NGOs to transform national and international policies in order to eliminate poverty and exceed the UN Millennium Development Goals.
With this call we strengthen our worldwide efforts to demand accountability.
How Can I Respond to this Global Call to Action?
Become Involved in your National Campaign: The Global Call to Action against Poverty is made up of national campaigns that are being built by existing networks. To find out more about what is happening in your country or other regions of the world complete the information request form at www.whiteband.org/actnow/wborgjoin.
Wear a White Band: Wear a white band on the international white band days, on national days of action and in conjunction with other protests and events being planned by groups around the world. The white band has been chosen as the international symbol that it is time for our governments to end poverty. On three important dates this year, people around the world will act together and wear white bands while taking part in events and protests:
Incorporate the White Band symbolism into the anti-poverty, womens rights and social justice events you are planning.
Add your organizations name to the Global Call: To join, write to info@whiteband.org.
What do the Global Call for Action against Povertys Policy Demands Mean from a Womens Rights Perspective?
The Global Call demands systemic changes to end poverty. These include critical demands for fair trade, debt cancellation, increased aid to poor nations, and accountable and transparent policy processes. These are womens human rights and gender equality issues, as current international policies rob women of livelihoods, healthcare and other economic rights, while feeding fundamentalist backlash and militarism that deprive women of personal autonomy and choices.
Trade Justice: Trade expansion both within and across borders has been dependent on poor womens labour. Trade justice therefore implies not only more equitable terms of trade and national economic sovereignty, but also guaranteeing womens labour rights and decent jobs, protecting womens agricultural activities, maintaining food security, livelihoods and traditional knowledge, ensuring essential public services for all, and developing policies so that the benefits of trade will advance development objectives and reach the most marginalized members of society, including poor women.
Debt Cancellation: Much of the debt of developing countries is being paid for by poor women. Currently women are providing healthcare, education, child and elder care, and other services which support families, societies and economies as part of their unpaid labour. In order to eradicate poverty and advance human rights therefore, debt must be cancelled, resources shared equitably to meet the needs of the poor, including poor women, and essential services must be provided by the state.
Better and More Aid: The volume of development assistance given by rich countries must be increased to the 0.7% of GNP goal in order to help poor countries lift themselves out of poverty. This aid should prioritize empowering women and achieving gender equality in order to eradicate poverty.
National Policy Processes are Democratic, Transparent, Participatory and Accountable to Citizens: National strategies to eliminate poverty need to empower women through education, health care and HIV/AIDS treatments, reproductive rights, strategies to end violence against women, full political participation, equal citizenship, inheritance and property rights, and access to essential services including affordable housing. Moreover, processes must be developed that facilitate the participation of all especially women, youth, migrants and indigenous peoples in policy development, implementation and monitoring, with mechanisms for information sharing, input, and redress.
Why are so many women demanding justice?
This year, heads of state from around the world will convene to assess their progress towards gender equality in March, and towards eliminating global poverty in September. They will debate and discuss international and national policies to change the lives of the more than a billion people living in abject poverty. The fact that poverty, privilege and discrimination are interrelated, however, is not yet receiving sufficient attention in these negotiations.
Gender inequality makes women in most societies poorer. Women face more obstacles than men in labour markets, receive lower wages for the same work, dominate in the informal economy and have less access to credit, land, time, education, and other productive resources. In most parts of the world poor women do the caring, feeding and cleaning for the family, treating for the sick and dying, as well as earning small amounts of cash through labour-intensive activities. As farmers, workers, heads of households and community leaders they make productive and essential contributions to their community and country. As such, poverty eradication strategies must see women as active agents and not intrinsically vulnerable. For if women are vulnerable it is only because they have been made vulnerable legally, economically, culturally, sexually, structurally for centuries.
The fight against poverty therefore requires equality and justice for women. Sufficient income is necessary to lowering poverty, but getting communities out of poverty will depend on womens leadership, access to education, time, land, healthcare and credit, as well as women enjoying their reproductive and sexual rights, freedom from violence, and equal rights in the family and in society.
Similarly, the fight against poverty is also a fight against the unequal distribution of wealth. It is a fight against the neoliberal economic framework which favours corporations and powerful domestic lobbies in North America and Europe and a system that does not contribute to the eradication of poverty or the achievement of human rights and development goals. It is a fight for a system of global governance that supports equality and social justice.
Just keep the promises
Governments of the world committed themselves to advance gender equality and womens rights, to seek peace and development, and to eradicate poverty in a series of UN conferences in the 1990s. Womens rights have also been guaranteed in a number of regional and international human rights treaties. Furthermore, many elements of these commitments were incorporated into the Millennium Declaration adopted by United Nations Member States in 2000. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which emerged from that Declaration, identified gender equality and womens empowerment as a goal in its own right and as essential to achieving all of the other goals. Let us hold all our governments to account for their commitments.
Is this a Campaign about the Millennium Development Goals?
It is much more than that. It is the largest ever mobilization in the fight against poverty. It will use key international and national political events and policy processes in 2005 to unite our collective voices and demand justice, equality, an end to poverty and accountability for promises unfulfilled.
Many feminists and womens rights advocates are critical of the omission of gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive rights from among the indicators for the MDGs (www.un.org/millenniumgoals). Moreover, the MDGs tend to consider women in relation to education, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS, but not poverty eradication. Achievement of the MDGs therefore would represent only a partial improvement for women. Organizations responding to the Global Call demand that governments meet and far exceed the MDGs and fulfill the other promises that they have made through the UN Conferences of the 1990s and in regional and international human rights treaties.
www.beijingandbeyond.org
.
Monday, March 7th.
By Fanny Gσmez and Alejandra Scampini
REPEM
TRANSLATED BY BEATRIZ SIMONETTI (REPEM) AND MARCELA HERNANDEZ (ICAE)
A STOP IN THE WAY
Today, we had moments of reflection and evaluation in the different groups, such as the meeting with global networks, the caucus of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the evaluation of the Follow-up Committee of the BPFA for Latin America and the Caribbean.
After a week of work, the groups have taken their time to see the official agenda and the women's agenda, to give a critical look to the capacity to respond that the movement had throughout this process. We also had to reflect on the US agenda.
We are doubtful about whether the BPFA creates new International Rights or not. We have to be prepared to listen to this in other spaces.
.women's human rights in the CSW context, and, in particular, of the approved declaration, is weak, it does not support, by any means, neither the achievements of the declarations of the 90s nor the progress attained in the regional documents. It only talks about reaffirming and the groups from Latin America and the Caribbean have already publicly expressed that it is not enough to reaffirm.
But, in view of the present context, of neoliberalism, fundamentalism and militarism, the fact that we have been able to prevent the
Gina Vargas said that we have the challenge to prevent from leaving the BPFA as a freezed agenda. It has to move, so Gina further asked: what are we doing here? We have to run the risk and search for other groups that are in the same position as ours, ready to show annoy and criticism.
The women's and feminist movement in Latin America has rejuvenated and has been strong in this process but not that strong in terms of relationship with networks from other regions and global networks. This week work will focus on reinforcing this articulation that cannot be just a meeting or information exchanges. We believe, that it is vital that we, as a region, take a look at the agenda we have ahead, the challenges and see how we promote or strengthen these articulations that will be key if we want to have impact on 2005 events.
A very positive evaluation of the internal process of the Follow-up Committee has been made and of the impact of the work as a team in the consolidation as region, from
The panels organized by the Follow-up Committee today, about the UN Reform and diversities, give clear guidelines that show the direction given to the agenda, upon the arrival to our countries. It is vital to deal with the debate on security, the official agenda is not our agenda but there there are problematic issues and they have to be analized to see: what security and the security of whom are we referring to ? Where are women in this debate?
From the Millennium Development Goals: how do we extend the debate towards social justice? How do we make sure that, when decisions are taken, gender equality is incorporated?
How do we use what we have achieved so far so as to face these challenges?
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2.- "DOSE OF REALITY BY COLLEEN LOWE MORNA
femLINKpacific: Media Initiatives for Women
femlinkpac@connect.com.fjη
Dose of reality By Colleen Lowe Morna
Women joining the conference through a video link on International Women's Day brought the war of words over abortion here last week down to earth with the reminder that whatever the victory on paper, nothing has changed in reality.
"Each year, the equivalent of six jumbo jets full of women die in Africa as a result of unsafe abortions," a participant from
Briefing women from various countries on the 10 year review of the Beijing conference, Director for Women, Gender and Development at the African Union Winnie Byanyima said the victory over the
back. Africa stood together firmly on this issue".
FEMNET Executive Director Lynn Muthoni Wanyeki added that while civil society had been disappointed that "all we managed to do was to maintain the old ground", the fact that Africa had taken "a strong position on sexual and reproductive rights" had been heartening. UNIFEM Deputy Director Joanne Sandler added that the united stand taken against the
In a stark reminder of just how little has really changed, the Kenyan participant noted that only two African countries,
In most African countries, the archaic laws governing abortion were inherited from colonial regimes with the result that "the bodies of African women are still colonised. In
unsafe abortions) against enormous opposition. The Kenyan Medical Association is split on the issue. Basically, there has been no movement," the video conference participant charged.
Asked how the African Union intended to take up the right of women to make choices about their bodies and specifically to access safe abortions, Byanyima noted that women are up against the forces of "culture and religion. There are no shortcuts. All of us as feminists must organise and
mobilise to change mindsets and social norms, and swell the ranks of those who promote equality."
Sylvia Chirau of Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) said "the core issue is autonomy. Until governments can accept that women have the right to make decisions about their own lives, equality cannot be achieved."
"In Muslim society women are regarded as housewives. What is this conference doing about religious oppression?" a participant from
Muthoni Wanyeki pointed out that religion had featured strongly in side events. Byanyima urged the feminist movement "not to lose the political edge."
Braving the cold to take on Bush By Juliana Omale Women activists scuffled yesterday with UN security personnel and police officers from the New York Police Department when they demanded to get in out of the cold following a protest march against the US government's attempt to derail the final document of the Beijing+10 review.
Some 200 women participated in the march held on International Women's Day. Braving the relentless snow and rain, the women moved from the Public Library on Times Square via the US Embassy and finally to the United Nations where security barred their way. Demonstrations and protests are not allowed on the UN premises. The list of 'don'ts" also includes the holding of protest signs and wearing pins with protest messages.
Global poverty affecting women and children, dwindling state resources for health, education and social security, as well as all forms of violence against women brought the determined protesters into the streets.
Citlalic Jeffers of Code Pink Women for Peace, one of the five organisations that sponsored the march, also said this was an opportunity to take a stand against the
1960s, women earned 67 cents on the dollar, but today it is only nine points higher at 76 cents on the dollar."Code Pink is a
services and economic programmes that touch on women, children, the poor and unemployed,
the elderly and the disabled.
MDGs cause concern
By Arthur Okwemba and Colleen Lowe Morna
The move to make the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the omnibus for all development initiatives is creating apprehension and frustration at the ten year review of the Beijing conference.
The biggest fear is that the attention being given to the MDGs is going to dilute the gains made so far in coming up with targets and indicators on gender equality as provided for in the Beijing Platform of Action (BPFA).
"The danger is that we are being told to operate within the MDGs, when the same goals are lacking in many things. What needs to happen is for the MDGs to fit into the BPFA and not vice versa,"says Kenyan MP Ruth Oniang'o.
"The whole thing with MDGs is that they are not as ambitious as the Beijing declaration," added Shahra Razavi, Research Coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. "They are just soft goals that lack targets and indicators on important issues affecting
women such as violence, employment and political participation."Razavi cites lack of indicators on women's political representation, gender violence and conflicts as some of the major failings of the goals. The only specific gender indicators included in the MDGs are on issues such as education and maternal mortality, she says.
Yet, argues Yassin Fall, Senior Economic Adviser at United Nation's Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), in Africa gender issues go far beyond education.
Fall, who is also senior adviser on the MDGs, notes that "educated women lack access to employment, political participation, and suffer gender violence. So we cannot limit gender indicators to education alone."A member of the MDG Task Force Three that dealt with gender equality says
one of the biggest blows is the lack of any targets on gender violence, "one of the main agenda items to come out of all the organising of the nineties."The group failed to agree on a target because of inadequate data on gender violence and on how this is collected. Some argued that having a target would end up penalising those countries that make the effort to record the
data.
UNIFEM has, in the past, mooted the possibility of an index on gender violence which would effectively be a basket of indicators. "Without targets, there are no plans, and without plans there are no resources,"one frustrated member of the team said.
In the end the group could only agree on a vague indicator - "reducing the prevalence of violence". Some in the group feel at the very least that they should have gone for a more specific indicator like having in place a national action plan and budget for addressing gender violence.
Oniang'o argued the Beijing process is receiving lukewarm support from men because they are always fearful of specific, women-driven agendas. Still, Oniang'o says that strategically women have to work within the MDG framework because it is now effectively the only show in town.
Fall agrees that while women should question new instruments like the MDGs, they should not reject them. "It's about learning to use the MDGs as a platform," adds UNIFEM deputy director Joanne Sandler. "In the end, it's about what we make of the MDGs."
Call to walk the talk of gender budgets By Sarah Muwanga
Governments should not only talk the talk of gender budgets, they should also walk the talk, a member of the Senegalese parliament said when speaking on her country's experience.
"Apparently, many governments are talking loudly and proudly about lots of finances they injected in promoting women's issues, but we need to trace the reality on the ground from the paper and verbal statements," Mame Bousso Diack Samb said at a presentation on Government Accountability of
Gender Equity through Budgets.
Government budgets reflect their seriousness in responding to development challenges like poverty, gender inequality, exclusion and economic injustice, said Diane Elson of Essex University in the
Elson explained the various tools that had been developed and introduced by feminist economists to analyse budgets include, among others: the gender-aware policy appraisal, which looks at the implicit and explicit gender issues involved in policies of different portfolios and programmes;
and the gender-disaggregate beneficiary assessment, which involves asking the actual or potential beneficiaries the extent to which government policies and programmes match the needs and priorities. The other important approach, the gender-disaggregated tax incidence analysis, examines how much taxation is paid by different individuals or households.
Speakers in the meeting shared a general belief that a shift in priorities is beginning to emerge at the national and local budgeting levels with attention moving to health, education and agriculture, where women are the primary beneficiaries.
However, it was noted that there are many challenges in making budgets gender responsive, one of which is the lack of a link between local, national and regional budgets.
One speaker raised the issue of legislators who become very enthusiastic in promoting gender budgeting as a means to quickly attain positions of power. "While campaigning for positions of power, they promise to promote the women folk and to put in place programmes to lift their status. But, the moment they are elected, they pursue personal interests," a participant from
Another challenge is the privatisation and liberalisation policies sweeping across many countries which make the gender budgeting exercise complex , since the private sector has little or no consideration for women's poverty and the impact it has on their purchasing power. There are
increasing moves, for example, to privatize water which would impact negatively on the lives of women and girls.
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3.- JOIN US TODAY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CONSULTATION!
f.jouot-belhami@unesco.org
Education For All Global Monitoring Report Online Consultation
The Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) is organising an online consultation based on the outline (in English, French and Spanish) of the 2006 report on literacy.
The consultation begins today 10 March for a two-week period. It will be moderated by Dr Agneta Lind literacy expert and special adviser to 2006 report.
Join us today to participate in the consultation!
www.efareport.unesco.org/consultation/welcome
The GMR Team
The International Gender and Education Office (GEO) of ICAE creates
VOICES RISING
Email: voicesrising@icae.org.uy
Web: www.icae.org.uy
Tel/fax: 00 5982 401 00 06
Address: Acevedo Diaz 1600 / 1002.
11200 Montevideo, Uruguay