Shadow Report

ICAE Confintea Seminar

Dear all,

With this message we close the exchange planned for Theme 3: Poverty, Education and Work. As well as with the two previous themes, there is still a lot to be said, to be heard, to be though about and above all, to propose alternatives. We hope the synthesis of this exchange will serve as a new step towards an agenda of influence/advocacy to Confintea VI, as well as to elaborate proposals of action that transform our realities that do not admit further delay.

In this opportunity we share an experience from Fernanda Ramos d'Almeida in which she links migrants’ situation and poverty, Subhalakshmi Nandi thought from NIRANTAR who, from India, shares a thought based on a practical experience on strengthening gender and equity issues in microcredit and JACK SHAKA from NAIROBI KENYA. Given that this contribution has just arrived, I add it to the seminar in English, and it will soon be available on the Web in Spanish and in French for it to be read by all of us.

Due to the great number of contributions received and the active participation of everyone, theme 4 – Financing – will start today and so the Virtual Seminar will last until next week.
Thank you all!

Cecilia Fernández

“Strengthening Policy and Programmes for Self-Help Groups (SHGs): Commitment to Gender and Equity”

Subhalakshmi Nandi - NIRANTAR - India

"Gender, Education and Poverty"

Discourse, policy and programme around gender and development in South Asia is charatcterised by the widespread phenomenon of microcredit based women's groups that are called 'Self Help Groups' (SHG). It is not only the mostwidespread strategy in poverty alleviation programmes, in many cases it is also the only intervention with women's groups.In such a situation, it is of concern that we often overlook the impact this phenomenon has on the lives of women who are a part ofthese groups. We also do not examine spaces andlearning opportunities available to these women, or the extent and nature of capacity building and educational inputs. At thelevel of discourse, the SHG phenomenon has greatly impacted and changed the way that development and empowerment is envisaged.

The Concerns
In the recent past, there has been considerable debate and discussion around the impact that Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have had on the lives of women, and its implications for empowerment and poverty alleviation. Many of us have collectively and individually engaged with questions like the following:

- In the context of the claims of empowerment and poverty alleviation through micro-credit based Self Help Groups (SHGs), what are the ground realities for women who are a part of SHGs?
- What are sponsoring agencies like the state and NGOs investing back into women’s groups for capacity building and education?
- What impact does the SHG phenomenon have on the discourse of empowerment, poverty and development?

Aspects that have concerned researchers, civil society groups and the State are as follows:

- Exclusion of Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims

43% of SHGs comprise of Backward Caste women as a majority of their members. On the other hand the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) population which has largest population living under poverty line, had majority membership in only 27% and 16% groups respectively.

- Priority to Financial Efficiency Reduced Focus on Solidarity, Equity and Justice

Women in SHGs claim that the groups that they are a part of lead a savings-driven mechanical existence, where little discussion actually happened around decisions or around working together on a collective agenda. Data also shows that there was very limited opportunity to take up social issues within the groups. 64% of the groups formed under government programmes had not taken up any social issue for the last two years¹.

Moreover, even senior functionaries in a programme like Velugu are aware that an economic definition, and the adoption of mere economic indicators, is unrealistic but necessary given the scope and limited time frame of the programme: “Others can follow up on those social aspects. We must not lose focus; else we will not have results to show at the end of such a tight programme².”

- Extent and Nature of Capacity Building Highly Limited

47% groups formed under government programmes had not received any kind of capacity building input for the last two years. Even when groups received capacity building inputs, the overwhelming focus was on group and finances related management. Only 6% groups formed under government programmes had received inputs on gender issues and only 19% had received inputs on income generation and livelihoods¹.

- Literacy a Key Determinant of Access to Leadership, Credit and Capacity Building

61% of SHG members were non literate. (The 39% literacy rate of women in SHGs is even lower than the 47% National Literacy Rate for rural women.) However, there were very limited efforts on the part of sponsoring agencies to provide literacy opportunities to SHG members. Out of 45 NGOs who participated in the study only 3 had undertaken concrete efforts to provide literacy skills to SHG members.

- Creation of the ‘Good Woman’ within the Neo-liberal Paradigm one who saves and repays regularly, pressurizes others to repay, for the welfare of family and community

The SHG discourse is constructing new dimensions of the ‘good woman’. Paradoxically, the ‘good woman’ also bears a greater burden of work through her involvement in SHGs, with all the symbols of outward and upward mobility as well as the responsibility to keep those symbols intact. Further, this image privileges the income provision tasks, as credit inflow is viewed as a tangible inflow over the reproductive and care economy that is the traditional domain of women.

- Establishment of a False Dichotomy between ‘Social’ and ‘Economic’ Empowerment

Within the shifting paradigm, ‘empowerment’ has begun to be viewed in a polarized and fragmented manner. This fails to address the myriad processes that lie between this access and processes that will enable women to recognise and negotiate with power dynamics towards greater equity and justice. Another view that this presents is that once ‘economic empowerment’ occurs, ‘social empowerment’ will happen automatically. Therefore the assumption is that proponents of microcredit need not invest in the agenda for social change since that will follow as a spontaneous outcome. Research shows that this is clearly not the case.

The Shared Vision

Some of these aspects are now widely acknowledged by government and non-government agencies and are reflected in academic work as well as in policy documents. India’s XI Five Year Plan process, through the Reports of the Steering Committee on Women’s Empowerment, as well as the Working Group Report, highlights some of the concerns that have been reflected by civil society, as mentioned in the previous section.

Increasingly, it is being felt that within the neo-liberal paradigm the SHG phenomenon has played a significant role in the shifting discourse on ‘empowerment’ and ‘development’. At the same time several institutional players like micro finance institutions (MFIs), banks, corporate bodies, donor agencies, have ‘instrumentally’ used the savings and labour of women and SHGs, and pushed forward the agenda of ‘self-sustainability’ and ‘financial sustainability’ at their cost. In short, the agenda for justice and equity is considerably marginalised.

In the current situation, the phenomenon of SHGs is not only widespread, but also a popular strategy for empowerment and poverty alleviation. Given this, it is important for us to collectively chart out the path for using existing experiences, research and insights into framing policy and designing programmes that are conducive to incorporating and strengthening the agenda of justice and equity into SHG policies and programmes.

Keeping this in mind, many civil society groups in India have tried to raise the alternative discourse on SHGs at various forums and created spaces within which critical reflection can take place, like at the World Social Forum (in Mumbai, in January 2004), and at many other forums. In government forums, these issues were also raised at the Planning Commission through the Civil Society Window in November 2006, where women’s groups presented their concerns vis-à-vis SHGs in order to impact and influence the XI Five Year Plan.

Through workshops, meetings, consultations, we have also tried to work towards formulating a Charter of what ideal SHGs should be like. Several meetings and discussions have been held about the possibilities and opportunities for using the Charter. In the process we have finalised the Charter and we have all committed to taking the alternative discourse to various stakeholders NGOs, SHG leaders and members, the State, donor agencies, banks, promoting agencies, micro finance institutions (MFIs), etc. Besides we have also begun working on a framework and list of ‘indicators’ that can be used within SHG programmes to strengthen the element of ‘equity and justice’ within SHGs.

The Charter for SHGs

1. Micro credit can only constitute one small input towards women’s empowerment and poverty alleviation. The State remains accountable to ensuring basic entitlements such as social security, health, education, employment and food security to all citizens.

2. Promoting agencies will provide sufficient time and resources to SHGs in order to enable them to emerge, in solidarity, as strong women’s collectives striving for justice, equity and empowerment.

This would also require adequate investment in capacity-building, human resources development and infrastructure, along with clear institutional frameworks for implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

3. The agenda of women’s rights will include intra-household equity issues such as those related to control over resources and the burden of savings and repayment.

4. Adequate investment will be made in education in order that long-term and substantive inputs are provided to SHG members. Women will be enabled to build capabilities such as literacy, understanding structural inequities and negotiating entitlements vis-à-vis the family, community, State and other institutional players.

5. Livelihoods interventions through SHGs will be designed based on a comprehensive mapping of local needs, resources and viability. Other than the production and marketing of products, options related to service delivery and natural resources must be explored.

In this process, institutional and State support must be available to women in SHGs whether it is with regard to production and marketing of products, provisioning of services, natural resource development or employment generation.

6. The State must make available data related to investment and impact of SHG programmes.

7. The State must not instrumentally use the labour and time of SHG members to meet its programme targets. SHGs must not be used as vote banks by politicians.

8. Promoting agencies will ensure that poor women are not cutting down on their basic needs in order to save or repay.

9. There will be a cap on interest rates. The burden of high interest rates, which benefit sponsoring agencies, banks and MFIs, should not be transferred onto poor women.

Other Advocacy Efforts

In India, another related development that took place was the tabling of the Micro Finance Sector (Development and Regulation) Bill in the Indian Parliament on 20^th March 2007. A collective network of women’s groups led the process of disseminating information regarding the bill in a context in which very few NGOs were aware of the existence of such a bill. As part of the lobbying efforts we met with the Minister, Women and Child Development and the Minister, Rural Development. Since then the process has gathered considerable momentum.

A delegation of representatives from autonomous women’s groups that deposed and presented a critique of the bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. We have also led the process of redrafting and submitting an alternative bill, incorporating the aspects that were absent in the original draft of the bill. The key changes articulated in the bill are listed below.

1.      Inclusion of banks, both public sector and private banks, as well as micro finance institutions (MFIs) registered as non-banking finance corporations (NBFCs) and section 25 companies in the financial institutions to be covered by the bill
2.      A cap on interest rates
3.      Punitive measures for coercive means of recovery
4.      Disallowing collection of thrift
5.      Replacing the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) with a representative Micro Finance Development and Regulation Council, at the national, state and district levels
6.      Reviving and monitoring implementation of existing schemes to ensure reach of subsidized credit to the poor through public sector banks
7.      Contribution of substantial resources by Government of India (GOI) and banks to a National Fund which will be used for capacity building and emergency needs
8.      Standard setting towards a greater focus on empowerment and equity

Ongoing advocacy related work has involved continued engagement with the Planning Commission, networking through sharing information and updating other groups and individuals on recent developments. Efforts were made to include key concerns related to SHGs in the CEDAW Shadow Report. These concerns were raised by Nirantar as part of the delegation of women’s groups from India with the CEDAW committee, in New York in 2007. Based on this report, the government was asked to respond to certain questions at the CEDAW meeting and also found place in the concluding comments at the meeting.

- Nirantar (2007) “Examining Literacy and Power within Self Help Groups (SHGs): A Quantitative Study” done across 2750 SHGs in 16 states of India
- Nirantar (2007) “Examining Empowerment, Poverty Alleviation, Education within Self Help Groups (SHGs): A Qualitative Study” studied 4 government programmes SGSY, DWCRA, Swashakti and Velugu; and 2 NGO programmes Peace (Andhra Pradesh) and Anandi (Gujarat).
- At the time of the Nirantar study the programme was called Velugu. It has now been renamed ‘Indira Kranti Patham’.
http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/strgrp11/str11_wcd.pdf
http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp11/wg11_rpwoman.pdf
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/40399_file_The_Micro_Financial_Sector_Development_and_Regulation_Bill_2007.doc
http://www.nirantar.net/rat/mf%20bill.pdf
http://www.nawoindia.org/Pdf/CEDAW_Shadow_report_2006.pdf
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N07/243/98/PDF/N0724398.pdf?OpenElement

Maria Fernanda RAMOS d'ALMEIDA - PAALAE

Good morning to all,

Thanks Cecilia for everything. I wanted to share with you an experience I had with Marcelino Santos, an Argentinean friend. During 4 years we traveled across Cape with a traveling radio that contacted Cape Verde with the Cape Verdean emigrants around the world. The goals of this radio which was listened from distant places like Boston, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Senegal and Argentina, were the following:
- to link Cape Verdeans around the world with their homeland:

- to make Cape Verde religious culture, roots, and positive aspects of its history and customs to young Cape Verdeans around the world.;

-to inform young Cape Verdeans around the world about their citizenship;

- to encourage them to invest in Cape Verde to help develop the economy of their homeland;

- to act as representative to those interested in investing on attractive sectors of Cape Verde;

- to help their country in case of crisis (volcanic eruptions, droughts, etc.)
- to increase the popularity of the country's great artists;

- to create a positive and constructive return movement;

- to change things around so all sectors, women, young people (in Cape Verde and the rest of the world) feel involved in the development of their country, no matter they are inside or outside Cape Verde;

- to promote better agreements between Cape Verde government and the governments of countries that receive Cape Verdeans;

In 2000 the UN contacted me to develop a cooperation work. Our broadcasts had such penetration in the Cape Verdean community inside and outside the country, which resulted in a growth of migrants return from 17% to 27% in 4 years, which was very healthy for a poor country. Cape Verdean migrants alsohelped sending money to the communities in the country. This is an example, among others, of what we can do. Unfortunately, I could not keep up because we run out of funds, but I would like to try it again.
Carrying on with our thoughts on strategic programs and particularly actions that take into account the migration in the broader context of poverty, since it is one of the most important factors of migration, since large sections of the population are in developing countries and in migrant communities.
This is the transition I consider necessary to enter the topic of poverty.

Fernanda

THE STATUS-Poverty, Work, Education and Gender-

According to UNITUS-an organisation that empowers women in the context of finding innovative solutions to end global poverty-Women work 67% of the world's working hours, and produce 50% of the world's food, yet they earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. This is a source of concern. In many developing countries women doing the same job as men are paid a lower income due to their gender. The status of women world over is not well placed.

Worldwide It is believed that Poverty has a woman's face. Which in context is true-All the images that have been seen from drought stricken areas-to war ravaged landscapes-to fallen states-all we have seen are the images of women-with children on their backs-From Sudan-to Afghanistan- to –Haiti-to Somalia,- to Myanmar-to Iraq-to North Korea and many others-mostly from failed states.

According to Wikipedia-most countries in Africa are poor states with low income-and hence referred to as 'Least Developed Countries'. Most developing countries are associated with poverty.Wikipedia goes on to define a developing country as,

'A developing country is that country which has a relatively low standard of living, an undeveloped industrial base, and a moderate to low Human Development Index (HDI) score and per capita income, but is in a phase of economic development. Usually all countries which are neither a developed country nor a failed state are classified as developing countries.'

I wonder what is stopping the coinage of a name like , ' Least developed Citizens.' since they come from 'Least Developed Countries'-the poor states with low income. Since they don't have access to education-the ones we refer to as illiterates. And in the 'Least Developed Countries,' the illiteracy levels are high. But time will tell. Hopefully by then the Millennium goals would have been realized.

Peace-tranquility and development can only be gotten if all the world's people are empowered to take charge of their own lives .It is in that context that they shall be able to provide for their families.

More than 60% of Kenyan people live on less than $1 a day. As it is now-nearly half the world's population; 70% of the world's poorest are women and children. These are the astonishing statistics we are faced with at the moment and unless something is done and first-then it shall become worse.

Realisation of the Millennium Goals can not be achieved in backgrounds like this- Lack of access to schools and amenities like health care are some of the issues that continue to dog women.
In some developed countries where women are more equal, they stand a much greater chance of making a difference.

According to Oxfam's rationale for work on gender equality- 'However poverty is defined, there is one common feature: women are disproportionately affected… Whichever approach to poverty Oxfam takes, therefore, it must pay particular attention to gender inequity.'

The rationale also goes on highlight the plight of women in the domestic level where it says,

'However, there is a universal factor weakening women's position vis-à-vis men in all major social institutions, namely, women's responsibility for reproductive work. By reproductive work is meant activities such as childcare, housework and cooking. Such work tends to be taken for granted and undervalued in all societies and economic systems. Both women's reproductive work burden itself, and the low value societies set on it, militates against gender equity.

The free education initiative here in Kenya-led to massive enrolments in the primary schools as never seen before.A good response since in enrolling it showed the willingness to get education.

In the campaign promise made last year-Free secondary education was also introduced but only catering for tuition only .This has also led to massive increase in the student population at the high school level. Leading further, to large crowds in classrooms overwhelming the teachers and also weighing down on the insufficient infrastructure.

The worst stereo type affecting most women -is that a woman's place is in the kitchen or at home. This is something that we must fight in order to give the girl child a chance so that she can also realize her dreams. In the Northern part of Kenya-the Maasai community is known for circumcising their girls at puberty and after that they marry them off for a few goats and cattle. Most of them are married off to old men thrice or four times their age as third or fourth wives. And sometimes the men are sick with HIV/AIDS. This is what the government and the Non Governmental organizations are fighting now.

The outdated cultural practices that should be wiped out-and necessary laws enacted to punish those who violate them. This is practised in several countries still. Why should men be given priviledges just because of their gender? What is so special about them? What makes the women inferior to men that men are accorded more previledges?These are questions that need to be examined carefully.

Another major hurdle to access to education is the displacement by natural disasters or wars that go on for so long leaving the nation unstable and unsafe.. For example the case of Indonesia during the hurricane and now Myanmar are very good examples-It shall take Myanmar a very long time to recover and put up the necessary structures just as we saw in Indonesia. The same with Somalia-Sudan-Iraq-and Afghanistan among others.

JACK SHAKA
NAIROBI KENYA

Programme