GEO/ICAE


VOICES RISING
YEAR VI - Nº 256 SPECIAL ISSUE / CSW - NY                        
February 27, 2008

 


 Content
1.- Dialogues are on and many ministers are here for the discussions and much expectation we have on what they are here to say.

 

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1.- Dialogues are on and many ministers are here for the discussions and much expectation we have on what they are here to say.

 

Prepared by Alejandra Scampini, ActionAid.

 

Today, 26th    Feb, room 2 was fully packed for the Interactive expert panel on key policy initiatives on financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

 

For some of us that have been supporting processes of budget tracking and asking for accountability on how money is spent at national and international level these discussions are key.

 

AAI has specially invested in work around Violence against women, HIV AIDS and women and rights to land and livelihoods, so special interest is in trying to listen how much are these on the agenda. Unfortunately there is a lot of silence on the demand for more funds for this specific work other than violence.

 

Some highlights

 

It was an interesting panel exposing visions from WB, national level, women’s rights organizations and academia.

 

The panel opened with a speech that referred to the kind of macroeconomic framework that could be conducive to women’s’ empowerment; the progress and the challenges to be addressed. “A key shortfall of Monterey consensus relates to the lack of coherence between economic policies / liberalization of economic market and socio economic commitments to eradication of poverty”.

 

In terms of documenting progress there was an appeal to look at how financing for gender equality appears in development policies but also look at eh absence of it and how and what financing for gender equality is. Look closer at employment and micro credit issues. The speaker ask to make more advances for gender equality in the other aspects of Financing for development not only domestic resources but trade; debt, oda and aid.

For this she said we need to call for more quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure progress. There is a need to develop series of gender sensitive indicators to build in areas such as trade, what percentage of trade were free up for financing gender equality? She asked.

 

For changes to happen she concluded “we require profound adjustments in the macroeconomic framework.”- She said.

 

Mirel Brunistor from Suriname, referred to a more national concrete too. Gender responsive budgeting. She claimed that the best of success has been the close consultation with women organizations and other gender sensitive ngos. It was also key the participation of EC, UNIFEM and ILO. She also called for local budgets tracking in a decentralized process.

 

Key recommendations came from the experience in Suriname: the need of sex data base; donor coordination mechanisms; key indicators to new aid modalities in advancing gender equality and women empowerment.

 

The woman representative of WB from the social development division congratulated CSW for taking the issue of financing gender equality. She shared WB exercise and commitment towards improving financing for gender equality. Even if they evaluate that they have achieved some progress the WB also recognizes that they have done much better in social sectors than in economic. “This fail of WB mirrors the situation of women in developing countries. The story of women has been expanding but restrictive opportunities Women still fall behind men in labor force and control over productive resources,

 

WB representative highlighted that they are rolling out since 2006 an action plan in WB on gender equality - smarts economics to address this. The plan is aimed at empowering women economically and raises the comparative advantage to expand economic opportunities in developing countries. “The plan is based on incentives. If you want to integrate gender issues in your programme we give you money”. She said.

 

OECD and WB also announced the volume “equality for women, where do we stand” it is a publication that looks at the requirements needed to fast track MDG3.

“Implementation needs changes in law, institutions and policies. But most of these changes come with a prices attach they all cost money. Resources are critical for the implementation of MDGs 3 needs to come from domestic and donor resources.

We do hope that gender action plan is a smart and good thing to do and interventions need more resources.”

 

After listening to quite a bit of technical language, the work of WB, the inspiration and potential from gender budgets it came as a breeze of air to listen to Lydia Alpizar from AWID. She was very good at speaking to the audience, meaning to the ministers on the floor and raising her voice for a stronger gender architecture at UN, stronger political, well resourced national machineries, commitment to UNIFEM and participation of women as key actors in decision making processes.

 

She was invited as a President of the Group of experts on financing for gender equality but also as recognition of the work done by AWID tracking where the money for women’s rights work is.

 

She used her time to report on the meeting of the expert group highlighting the following:

  • There are advances but many needs to be done as trade liberalization, raising migration, rise in the presence and importance of security agenda, religious fundamentalisms, flows of private capital are really affecting the way we look at financing for development.
  • The relationship between different international cooperation reform, aid, trade, public finance and financing for gender quality spheres. When we talk of financing for gender quality we have to measure the impact of these reforms.
  • The group looked at Monterrey consensus and how the monitoring is performed regarding gender equality. An it was noticed there is a lack of coherence between economic policies and social commitments.
  • The report includes a note on microfinance and although it has been a significant strategy to women’s empowering, though not enough, other strategies to fight poverty have to be created.
  • Governments should incorporate gender and social development perspectives to WTO mechanisms.
  • Governments should include gender in FFD conference.
  • Decision makers must include gender within productive and full employment dimensions. ILO’s perspective of decent work must inform this question.
  • A whole budget must be analyzed if it responds to a macroeconomic framework. It must be carefully examined that national budgets are moved by countries’ macroeconomic decisions.
  • A methodology that registers and monitors national finances and development cooperation is needed.
  • Data separated by sex are needed; if we don’t have this it is impossible.

 

Alter pointing out the most relevant aspects, Lydia reminded the importance of strengthening national and international mechanisms for gender equality. She reminded what many groups are claiming: mechanisms with local institutionality.

 

In her presentation, she called people’s attention on the fact that development cooperation and reform of international aid have planned an increase in next years. But resources from cooperation for gender matters are very poor.

 

“We believe the declaration of aid effectiveness and cooperation architecture have to take as core theme the one on financing for gender equality.  There has to be a strong call for more resources.”

 

And she ended “The lack of progress in the reform process of gender architecture worries us. And it’s also worrying that there is no answer regarding the appointment of UNIFEM Executive Director!