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VOICES RISING
YEAR III - VOL 3. Nº143.1
June 16, 2005
CONTENT
SPECIAL ISSUE: JUNE 16th. DAY OF THE AFRICAN
CHILD - AFRICAN WHITE BAND DAY
On June 16, GCAP coalitions across Africa organised joint actions to
mark the Day of the African Child. The Day of the African child is an annual
event to mark the 1976 massacre of Soweto children by the apartheid regime.
GCAP coalitions have chosen this date to have an African White Band Day and
to make a regional plea for leaders to take immediate action to end the
extreme poverty that leads to a child dying every three seconds
1.- Africa launches first global anti-poverty "White
Band Day’ on June 16
2.- Over 3.5 million friends already made and are on their way to the G8…
3.- Gender and GCAP Africa - Statement
4.-NAIROBI STATEMENT: Eradicating poverty through fulfilling commitments and
upholding Women’s Rights
5.- NAIROBI STATEMENT: Women’s Rights, Aid, Trade and Debt
***********************************************
1.- Africa launches first global anti-poverty "White
Band Day’ on June 16
On June 16, the day of the African Child, civil
society and the public around Africa will join hands with the rest of the
continent and the world to give a “Thumbs Down to Poverty” as part of a
global anti-poverty campaign.
The various African events are being held two weeks
prior to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, and
will signal the launch of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP)
campaign in Africa. This will be Africa’s first ‘White Band Day’, in which
everyone is asked to where a simple white band to show their solidarity with
the campaign. The aim is to send a clear message to G8 leadership that
Africa will no longer silently wait for others to fight for it.
The GCAP or ‘White Band’ campaign is an international
network of civil society organisations and citizens that is campaigning to
end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Rich
country campaigns are focusing on quality of aid, debt cancellation and
trade justice, while national campaigns in poor countries are focusing on
eliminating poverty and achieving the MDGs in a way that is sustainable and
implemented in a way that is democratic, transparent, and accountable to
citizens.
The South African events will include a full-day of soccer matches,
music, dance poetry and presentations on education, aid, trade and debt, in
Chiawelo, Soweto. They will be hosted by Soweto Mountain of Hope (SOMOHO),
South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC), South African Non-Governmental
Organisation Coalition (SANGOCO), Oxfam SA and the Environmental Justice
Networking Forum (EGNF)
“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world,
none of us can truly rest,” said Nelson R. Mandela, a patron of the GCAP
campaign at the campaign launch in London in February 2005.
The Soweto event be followed by a media cocktail party to officially launch
the ‘Click ads’ of African celebrities showing their support for GCAP.
ENDS
For more information please contact:
· Soweto Mountain
of Hope
· South African NGO
Coalition
www.sangco.org.za
· CIVICUS:
World Alliance for Citizen Participation
www.civicus.org
· Global
Call to Action Against Poverty website
www.whiteband.org
· Environmental
Justice Networking Forum
George Monyeke
Media & Communications Unit
Tel: 011 - 403 8978, Fax: 011 - 339 3859 Cel: 072 789 7461
Email: george@ejnf.org.za
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is hosting the global
secretariat of the ‘Global Call to Action against Poverty’ campaign
*************************************************
2.- Over 3.5 million friends already made and are
on their way to the G8…
From today, 16th June, the Day of the
African Child and the GCAP Africa’s White Band Day, 18 countries around the
world will hold high-profile ‘send-off’ events to launch the ‘friends’ on
their journey to take young people’s demands to Scotland or combine their
GCAP plans with messages from the Send My Friend to School campaign... 3.5
million ‘friends’ have already been made
Campaigners hope the events around the world will attract further media
attention and mobilise public opinion in favour of increased G8 aid
commitments and debt cancellation, with a particular emphasis on our
collective responsibility to make sure every girl and boy in the world can
go to school.
Currently only 1 in 2 African children gets even a primary school education
and there are 22 million African girls who don’t attend school at all.
Please log onto
www.sendmyfriend.info or
www.sendmyfriend.org before the end of the month, and make an on-line friend to help us reach our
target of 1 million friends for the G8. This is a great activity to do with
your own children or your child’s class at school to help introduce them to
the fight against global poverty and exclusion.
Highlights of national plans for June 16 ‘send-off’ events, which are being
supported by UNAIDS among others, include …
Senegal…
Around an international ‘Dakar +5’conference organised by UNESCO, the
national education coalition is holding a huge lobby meeting with the
President of Senegal on 16 June. At this event all the messages and
'friends' cut outs made during the GCE GAW will be handed over. They plan to
involve 500 children and well-known Senegalese celebrities such as and
musicians Youssou Ndour and Baaba Maal as well as the media.
Contact: Souleye Gorbal Sy
Coalept@yahoo.fr
Brazil…
The National Campaign for the Right to Education, an alliance of
teachers’ unions, NGOs and social movements, will hand over 15 “mamulengo”
puppets ( giant show puppets used at Carnival time in Brazil) to the
Finance Minister and the British Embassy on the 30th June before
the G8 meeting. The puppets will also take part in the ‘big hug’ that GCAP
is planning around the Treasury building on July 1.The puppets will
represent segments of Brazilian fundamental education in a situation of
vulnerability: children’s education, rural education, education of the
Afro-descendant population, education of bearers of special needs.
In Brasilia (capital city of Brazil) the puppets will be paraded in a
colored car (bearing the sign “Towards Scotland”). Young campaigners will
depart from a community with serious educational problems in the outskirts
of the city and will take a small courier bag to the G8 British Embassy.
Afterwards the puppets will deliver a message from the National Campaign to
the Minister for the Treasury and will proceed to the Airport. From there
will depart to Scotland.
Contact:
fernanda.pereira@acaoeducativa.org
South Africa…
Two linked events are being organised by GCAP and GCE members, including
SANGOCO, SACC, EJNF, SAMOHO and Oxfam, to commemorate the June 16
schoolchildren’s uprising and mobilise the youth for the ongoing struggle
against poverty and injustice. The 1976 youth uprising that is commemorated
on
June 16 was sparked by the fight for equal chances at quality education..
At the Soweto museum dedicated to the memory of Hector Pieterson (the boy
who was killed by police in the 1976 riots), 200 students from 14 local
schools will participate in a morning seminar in dialogue with activists
from the 1976 generation. In the afternoon, 50 of these young people will
travel along with the cut-out ‘Friends’ they have made, to join a massive
rally at the Soweto ‘Mound of Hope’ featuring cultural events and a march.
Mr Boateng, High Commissioner to South Africa will also take part in the
African launch of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP),
www.whiteband.org).
At 3 pm some schoolchildren from nearby Soweto schools will be taking the
stage to talk about the giant cut-out 'friends' they have made to represent
their call to action on behalf of Africa's 40 million out of school
children. They are part of the 'Send My Friend to School' campaign (www.sendmyfriend.info)
which already mobilised millions of children and teachers in more than 100
countries. At the G8 summit next month, Make Poverty History is presenting
over 2 million cut-out 'Friends' from all over the world to the G8 leaders.
The Soweto schoolkids would like to hand over their Friends to Mr Boateng
and get his assurance that he will take their messages to Tony Blair and
make sure they are heard at Gleneagles. Mr Boateng is invited to give a
short response and to explain why free education is an integral part of the
Africa Commission's vision.
It is expected that there will be a good turnout on the 16th from
international as well as local media.
UK…
A huge event on the South Bank in London will take place on 16th. This
will be an opening/private view of the Send My Friend to School
exhibition created by famous Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. They will be
inviting children from various schools who have been involved in the Send My
Friend to School campaign, coalition members, celebrities involved in the
campaign and a select group of media. VIP guest is Gordon Brown (TBC).
The event will be led by the children as Send My Friend to School is seen as
the children's strand of Make Poverty History. Children will show guests
round the exhibition.
US…
The Centre for Universal Education, teachers’ unions and the Basic
Education coalition are hosting an event on Capitol Hill bringing students
who have been involved in ‘friend making’ in the US to meet with
Congress-people and people from State Department or Education Department on
16th June.
On the afternoon of the 16th, media representatives will be invited to
either a formal event or public display of friends mounted by artists. The
possibility of inviting either Laura Bush or Hilary Clinton is being
explored. Buddies from all over North America will be sent to the G8 summit.
Gene Sperling gsperling@csr.org
France…
The coalition is trying for a formal meeting with Chirac in
collaboration with French GCAP coalition and UNESCO. They plan to organise
an event on the 21st June on the day of the Summer festival when
all the streets in France are filled with bands and music, involving a band
and the children with the ‘friends’ hand over to either other G8 embassies
or another political figures i.e. ministry of foreign affairs
Contact:Carole
ccoupez@solidarite-laique.asso.fr
Germany…
They are planning a meeting on 14th June with their
Commissioner for Africa who is coming to G8. The Under-Secretary of State of
Chancellor Schroder, Mrs Uschi Eid. She has asked NGOs to meet with her
before she comes over. The German GCE group will hand over the cut-outs and
take photos of the event for the media. They will also write a letter to
Schroder with the outcomes of the activities and publicise their activities
to the delegates.
Tanzania…
TEN/MET, a very large national education network, and its members
including Oxfam, Fawe and Haki Elimu, are planning events in two rural
districts on the 16th. Members of Parliament, TV and radio journalists, and
representatives of G8 embassies will carry out simultaneous visits to
schools that participated in the ‘Send My Friend to School’ activities in
April.
Contact:
rosaline.castillo@gmail.com
ANCEFA:
gorgui@ancefa.org
Ethiopia…
In coordination with the GCAP coalition, the GCE and ANCEFA member
coalition BEN is planning a day long programme with G8 embassy
officials, Ethiopian radio and TV, government officials and children from
the schools who took part in the GCE’s send my friend campaigns global week
of action. The compere will be Ato Tesfaye Sahillu, a well-known children’s
TV presenter.
Contact: ben@ethionet.et
Ireland…
The Irish Coalition are organising a media/public awareness raising
event on the 15th June to post the Irish Friends to the G8 with
the theme; "Educ8 to End Global Poverty". Children representing each G8
country will be present. The Minister for Education and Science,
Ms.M.Hanafin has been invited to officiate. Eight boxes containing Friends
will be prepared addressed to each G8 leader. Particularly good-looking
lifesize Friends, wearing white bands, will be displayed by each child.
Contact:
Caroline.Maxwell@actionaidireland.org or
lizzy.noone@concern.net
Singapore…
The GCE members led by World Vision are doing a 30 hour famine camp and
making cut-out friends as one of the workshop activities during the camp.
These 'friends' will be 'launched' over to G8 with media coverage.
Contact: Ranjini Mei Hua Sri
run_genie@hotmail.com
EU…
Special hearing on EU aid to education will take place in the European
Parliament on 22 June with Louis Michel (development commissioner), Amina
Ibrahim (Nigerian MOE and member of the Sachs commission education task
force) and Assibi Napoe (coordinator, African teachers' union federation).
India
GCE member coalition, NCE, is planning a send off of ‘friends’ at the
end of June and targeting cricketers and Bollywood stars.
Contact: sumansaccs@yahoo.com
Uruguay
As follow up to the Global Week of Action the
International Council for Adult Education along with the Popular Education
Network of Women from Latin America and the Caribbean (REPEM) have organised
an exhibition of the cut-out ‘friends’ called "Voices Urging for Action".
In "Voices Urging for Action’ is made of a selection of the life-size
cut-out friends elaborated by boys, girls, young and adult women and men, in
most of the provinces of the country urban and rural.
The exhibit "Voices Urging for Action" is the first exhibition of the Open
Space to the Organized Society hosted by The President of the Chamber of
Representatives,Ms Nora Castro
Contact: Marcela Hernandez - International Council for Adult Education
secretariat@icae.org.uy
Rwanda
VSO as part of the GCE Rwandan coalition is inviting the Minister of
Education and State Minister and a number of G8 embassies to receive the ‘friends’ cut-outs and pledge to take the messages from the children of
Rwanda to the G8
The children will read messages and hand the friends to VIPs, do a role play
signifying children missing out of education.
Ruth.Mbabazi@vsoint.org
Ivory Coast
The GCE coalition made an incredible 2 million cut-out ‘friends’
during the Global Week of Action. As part of the Send My Friend final launch
to the G8, the plans are to do handovers in 3 main places:
· the
international airport HOUPHOUET Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire in Abidjan
· the embassies of
the USA and France
· the large Bus
station
Two giants plane will be made and deposited in front of each embassy.
The Prime Minister and the national advisor of the President Gbagbo, Mr
Anougble are expected to attend. Other local celebrities and footballers are
also expected to take part.
There are also plans for a concert in July.
kmalanhoua@yahoo.fr
Sierra Leone
As part of the GCAP plans on June 16th, there will be a
public rally through the streets accompanied by school bands. Schools will
be selected to organise others on the rally to make ‘friends’ cut-outs to
represent the 375,000 children not in school in Sierra Leone. These will be
sent to the Education Minister. At the end of the rally, students will make
presentations about the need for better quality education for all and the
need for 100 debt cancellation.
Contact:
Kenya
As one part of the GCAP campaign, and partnering with Actionaid there
will be a major road show and children’s ‘fun day’ on the 18th June. The road show will have a truck with ‘;send my friend to school’
messages and this will drive through Nairobi and ending at a popular
children’s sports area and will fininsh with competitions and games.
Children will make their cut out ‘friends. It is expected that a further
10, 000 ‘friends’ with messages for the G8 leaders will be made on the day.
Contact:
Elimuyetu.Kenya@actionaid.org
*************************************************
3.- Gender and GCAP Africa - Statement
Women’s organisations from different parts of
Africa will gather on 21 and 22 June 2005 in Johannesburg to add their
voices to the Global Call Against Poverty. They will be joining thousands of
people around the world in solidarity against poverty in order to put
pressure on governments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to
demand trade justice, debt cancellation and a major increase in the quantity
and quality of aid.
But they also want to say to their governments, to the international
organisations, to their societies at large and to their brothers and sisters
in the GCAP campaign, that overcoming poverty and ensuring the fulfilment of
women’s human rights, goes beyond achieving the minimal targets set in the
MDG.
Women from all over the continent will therefore come together to demand:
1. Keep and fulfil the old promises, those set up in
Beijing, Vienna, Cairo, Durban and Johannesburg. Reaffirm that gender
equality, women’s empowerment and the enjoyment by women of all human rights
and fundamental freedoms are essential to create a world in which all can
live free from want, free from fear, and free to live in dignity.
2. Reaffirm education as a fundamental right, not just
for primary education but for life, enabling women and girls to become full
citizens as a result of their education in environments that are free of
gender biases and stereotypes, safe and without violence.
3. African women are disproportionately affected by
HIV/AIDS. Governments must urgently commit themselves to a radical agenda
that will transform power relations and all other factors that are driving
the epidemic.
4. Promote and protect women’s rights in conflict, and
from the threat of all forms of fundamentalisms, be it religious, or
economic.
5. Adopt laws, policies, and promote practices that
protect the rights of women and promote gender equality.
With respect to trade, debt and aid, African women will demand in
Johannesburg and throughout the campaign that all decisions taken at the G8
Meeting, the Millennium + 5 and the WTO prioritise empowering women through
achieving gender equality goals as contained in the Beijing Platform for
Action and the International Conference on Population and Development
Programme of Action.
KEEP THE PROMISES. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
*********************************************************************
4.-NAIROBI STATEMENT: Eradicating poverty
through fulfilling commitments and upholding Women’s Rights
Preamble-
From a women’s human rights perspective, poverty
is not merely a state of low income but a human condition characterised by
the sustained deprivation of the capabilities, choices and power necessary
for the enjoyment of fundamental rights. Poverty is created, sustained and
reinforced by systemic imbalances in wealth and power which in turn
perpetuate human rights violations, gender inequalities and economic
injustice.
Sufficient income is necessary to lowering poverty, but getting communities
out of poverty will depend on women’s 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.
African women are disproportionately affected by poverty in the most extreme
ways. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest HIV infection rate with women
accounting for more than half of the people living with HIV. As well as
being the majority who are infected by HIV, women also have serious
constraints in accessing health care and essential services and at the same
time, they have the greatest burden in providing care and support to
families and community members.
We are deeply concerned that there does not appear to be concerted effort
continue to uphold and fulfil previous international commitments among
them the Beijing Platform for Action, the International Conference on
Population and Development-ICPD/Cairo commitments and other regional
agreements. These now appear to have been completely over-taken and
over-shadowed by the very narrow agenda set out in the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Thus for example the Beijing 12 critical areas of
concern have been “reduced” to one MDG (#3).
We urge the international community to reaffirm the critical importance of
gender equality, women’s empowerment and the promotion and protection of
human rights of women. African women demand that the old promises as laid
out in all the international conferences of the 1990s including: Vienna,
Cairo, and Beijing be kept and fulfilled; and that these are included in any
frameworks- old or new- addressing development and poverty.
We are therefore, making the following specific demands:
1. Keep and fulfil the old promises
Governments must reaffirm that gender equality, women’s empowerment
and the promotion and protection of the full enjoyment by women of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms are essential to create a world in which all
are free from want, free from fear and free to live in dignity. The
international community must re-affirm and include all the 12 critical areas
of concern in the Beijing Platform For Action: poverty, education and
training, health, violence, armed conflict, economy, decision-making,
institutional mechanisms, human rights, media, environment and the
girl-child. Governments must fulfil the promises as contained in the
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women,
(CEDAW), Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies, (‘85), Vienna Declaration on
Human Rights (’93), ICPD- Cairo (’94), as well as the 7 strategic priority
areas recommended by the Gender Equality and Education Taskforce of the
Millennium Project for the realization of MDG #3.
1.1 Reaffirm education as a fundamental right in
itself and as an enabling right. In addition we urge governments to:
· Go beyond
primary education and provide post-primary opportunities for girls
· Eliminate all
user fees
· Provide
opportunities for non-formal education for women and girls
· Enhance the
quality of education and provide infrastructure such as separate toilets
· Enhance the
content of education and eliminate gender biases and stereotypes
· Ensure safe
schooling environments and eliminate violence as a structural barrier to
access and retention of girls in schools.
1.2 Refine the monitoring frameworks for measuring gender
equality
The UN Secretary General must further refine the monitoring framework to
accelerate progress toward the implementation of the MDGs, in particular
there is need to refine the indicators for measuring Goal number 3.
2. Focus on emerging urgent agendas
In addition to fulfilling the long standing agenda, we urge governments and
the United Nations to focus on the emerging and urgent issues currently
affecting women on the African continent. These include in order of
priority:
2.1 The scourge of HIV & AIDS
African women are disproportionately affected by HIV/ & AIDS. We call
upon governments to urgently commit themselves to a radical agenda that will
transform power relations as well as all other factors that are driving the
epidemic. In particular this must address:
· Access to
treatment and care for women and girls in their own right as citizens
· Appropriate
prevention messages and programmes for women and girls
· Relieving and/or
compensating women and girls of the burden of home based care
· Eliminating
violence against women, in particular sexual violence
· Women and girls
rights to inheritance and property ownership
· Provision of
meaningful livelihood and economic empowerment interventions
2.2 Promote and protect women’s rights in conflict
African women are disproportionately affected by conflict and are
primary targets for violence. Conflict is a key driver of poverty and
HIV/AIDS, as women get subjected to displacement, material loss, identity
loss and the breakdown of basic social services and networks. We are
demanding that this is included as a key concern in addressing development
in Africa and new commitments are made to ensure women’s rights are upheld
in areas that are affected and prone to conflict, war and violence.
Governments must:
· Continue
to condemn all violations of the human rights of women and girls in
situations of armed conflict and the use of sexual exploitation, violence
and abuse,
· Commit to
establishing and implementing strategies and programmes to prevent and
report on gender-based violence.
· Commit to
implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 by taking further steps to
ensure the integration of gender perspectives and the full and equal
participation of women at all levels of decision-making on peace and
security
· Adopt laws,
where necessary, and reinforce existing laws that punish police, security
forces or any other agents of the State who engage in acts of violence
against women in the course of the performance of their duties; review
existing legislation and take effective measures against the perpetrators of
such violence
2.3 Promote and protect women’s rights from the threat of
fundamentalisms
The so-called ‘War on Terror’, has fuelled a rise in fundamentalisms of
various kinds. Coupled with the rise in poverty and HIV & AIDS, African
women are experiencing increasing persecution, violence and constraints on
their basic freedoms. More worrisome is the increase in militarization and a
culture of militarization which poses major threats to women’s security.
Within this context, women’s bodies, women’s movements, and women’s personal
freedoms have become severely circumscribed. We therefore demand that;
· Women’s rights
not be co-opted through agendas put forth by fundamentalist groups using
religious and/or economic messages.
· Governments must
continue to uphold and promote women’s sexual and reproductive health and
rights as contained in agreed upon international commitments
· No international
donor government must impose its religious agenda as a condition for
funding, particularly for HIV & AIDS work.
2.4 Adopt laws, policies, and promote practices that protect the rights
of women and promote gender equality
African women are disadvantaged by laws and policies that either
discriminate against them blatantly, or are silent about the particular
circumstances of women. Unless African governments repeal these laws, enact
new ones or take steps to transform gender relations women and girls will
continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty, violence, and HIV & AIDS among other key problems. We therefore call on African governments to
prioritize:
· Passing laws and
policies protecting women’s rights to access and control land as a
productive resource.
· Adopting laws and
promote policies that will protect women and girls’ inheritance rights.
· Support democracy
in their own countries, their regions and the world, by guaranteeing the
political rights of women and gender balance in political representation at
all levels.
*****************************************************************
5.- NAIROBI STATEMENT: Women’s Rights, Aid, Trade
and Debt
Preamble:
Africa’s current debt stock stands at more than
USD 300 billion and the continent spends more than USD 15 billion every year
in debt servicing. This translates to about 30-40% of most African
governments’ annual budgets, crippling their abilities to provide basic
social services such as education, health, water and sanitation. The debt
burden coupled with the decreasing and poor quality of aid (with
conditionalities) and worsening terms of trade has had adverse effects on
the lives of African women.
African women bear the brunt of ensuring food security, producing for
international and domestic markets, as well as supplementing health care
systems by providing their unpaid and underpaid labour. This has led to the
increased feminisation of poverty, thereby compromising all poverty
eradication efforts.
Most international policy making processes and agreements on trade, aid, and
debt have largely ignored the specific problems, needs and rights of women.
This is accentuated by the lack of critical analysis and gender perspectives
on each of these issues and their implications on women. It is our view that
all issues are “gendered”. It is therefore imperative that gender analysis
pervades both discourse and policy.
African women call upon governments and the international community to
commit themselves to the following:
1. Aid
1.1 International community
· Eliminate
all aid conditionalities, in particular those that would require further
economic restructuring, or denial of public goods or of reproductive and
sexual health services to women and girls
· Aid should
however, prioritize empowering women through achieving gender equality goals
as contained in the Beijing platform for Action and the ICPD programme of
action.
· Aid should be in
the form of grants not loans (as loans increase the debt burden of
poor countries).
· Governments
should meet their commitments to development assistance meeting the target
of minimum 0.7% of GNP.
·
1.2 National governments
· Gender sensitive
analysis and budgeting that prioritises women’s needs
· Prudent use of
aid resources to ensure that women benefit
· Ensuring that
women access basic social services like health, reproductive health, and
education by directing more aid to these sectors.
· Governments must
consult all key stakeholders, especially women, prior to contracting new aid
(especially loans).
· Actively involve
women in all stages of policymaking i.e. conceptualization, planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development processes.
We are therefore calling on women to continue to put pressure on national
governments and donors to demand gender sensitive policies and budgets, as
well as holding governments accountable.
2. Debt
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
and essential services must be provided by the state.
2.1 International community
· 100%
unconditional cancellation of debts of the most highly indebted and poorest
countries (HIPC)
· Agree to
unconditional debt cancellation of all illegitimate debts, such as those
that cannot be serviced without causing significant harm to women, those
incurred by corruption and fraud and those with exorbitant interest rates,
taking into account that any ‘debt sustainability’ analysis must include an
audit of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of all previous debts
· Establish
an independent, transparent arbitration process for debt cancellation and an
ethical lending and borrowing mechanism to prevent further recurrence of the
debt crisis
2.2 National governments
· Ensure prudent
use of debt cancellation resources to ensure they benefit women and promote
gender equality, as well as provide the necessary essential services.
· Put mechanisms
for overseeing gender-sensitive loan contraction mechanisms to ensure that
the debt crisis does not recur.
· To practise
responsible borrowing and ensuring that civil society, including women’s
organizations are consulted in any agreements that national governments take
on regarding lending or borrowing.
3. Trade
Trade expansion both within and across borders has been dependent on
poor women’s labour. Trade justice therefore implies not only more
equitable terms of trade and national economic sovereignty, but also
guaranteeing women’s rights.
3.1 International community
· UN - ECOSOC
must commission a comprehensive social and gender sensitive review of the
current process of trade liberalization, trade expansion and intensification
and their utility and efficacy for just, equitable and sustainable
development, paying particular attention to the concerns of women, and to
the impact of the privatization of services under GATS on women
· A stop to
trade liberalization, as it leads to undesirable consequences such as
dumping of cheap products which adversely affects national food sovereignty,
pushing women out of the formal sector and contributing to increased
exploitation and loss of livelihoods.
· A stop to
export-driven economies, as they put increasing burdens on women who are
often the providers of cheap labour without reaping the benefits of profits.
· Trade agreements
must stop pushing national governments into a privatisation agenda, which
puts basic social services in the hands of the private sector making them
inaccessible to poor African women.
· Remove subsidies,
tariffs and non tariff barriers in international markets, which negatively
impact on women’s earning capacity.
· To find a
solution to urgently deal with the continued falling commodity prices as
they reduce the women’s incomes.
· Ensure women’s
land rights, labour rights and decent jobs, as well as protecting women’s
agricultural activities, maintaining food security, livelihoods and
traditional knowledge.
· Develop policies
so that the benefits of trade will advance development objectives, including
international commitments to women’s rights.
3.2 National governments
· Regulate
operations of Transnational National Corporations (TNCs) to protect the
rights of women.
· Put in place
policies that will promote, guarantee and support women‘s entrepreneurship,
land rights, labour rights and decent livelihoods.
· Protect women’s
agricultural rights.
· Protect women’s
traditional/indigenous knowledge from bio-piracy by TNCs.
· Develop policies
so that the benefit of trade will advance development objectives and reach
the most marginalized especially poor women.
· Conduct public
consultations and policy reviewswith relevant sectors, including women’s
organizations and networks, aimed at anticipatingthe impact on women
of bilateral, regional and international trade agreements, in order to
identify potential negative impact on women with respect to earning levels,
job security, labor standards, unpaid work burdens and access to productive
and natural resources.
· Resist
International Financial Institutions’ (IFIs) privatization and
liberalization agendas which have adverse effects on women.
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