WIDE is a European feminist network of women´s organisations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women´s rights activists. WIDE monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective.
WIDE - PRESS RELEASE
New Aid, Expanding Trade - What Do Feminists
Have To Say?
Brussels, 22.06.2007: The WIDE 2007 Annual Conference took stock of
the
changes in international trade policies, regulation of financial flows
and
investment together with international development policies and their
impact
on women's realities, rights and gender equality. The discussions
also
focused on strategies on how to tackle the new aid and trade
architecture
from feminist perspectives. Entitled "New aid, expanding trade -
what do
women have to say?" the conference, hosted by the Spanish WIDE
national
platform CONGDE (Gender and Development Working Group of the
Spanish
Platform of Development NGOs) in Madrid, brought together more than
150
women activists from over 40 countries.
"The WIDE AC is a great
opportunity for activists to exchange views and a
good space for feminist
exchange on trade and development issues.
Globalisation and development
issues are themes that need to be analysed
within a feminist framework. The
Capacity -Building day helps to build more
public-awareness raising and
sharper policy analysis. Presentations from
trade experts such as Mariama
Williams and Zo Randriamaro provide us with
tools that can inspire future
debates." commented Mabel Au from Hong Kong.
In lively debates and
interactive panels participants confirmed even so new
international
development architecture has developed on the basis of shared
commitments of
the international donor community in the areas of trade,
debt, investment and
financing for development, the structural causes of
gender inequality persist
all over the world. Various speakers highlighted
that the current mainstream
development agenda is embedded in an ideological
framework that promotes
trade liberalisation and economic growth at the
expenses of women and men's
rights and livelihoods. Indeed, the feminisation
of poverty is a global
problem. Participants engaged in analyses of the
causes of these structural
problems and discussed the implications these
developments for women in the
South, the East and also in the West.
"The conference was a success in
bringing together so many women from such
different places and it was a great
opportunity to meet activists who agreed
on the same ideal of social justice,
even if their own conditions varied
from one locality to another." remarked
Venna Dholah from Mauritius.
In various workshops and presentations,
participants further developed
feminist proposals and alternative visions to
the policy mainstream in the
area of trade and development and discussed
concrete strategies for change
at different levels. Women activists not only
identified opportunities for
ensuring the implementation of political
commitments and legal obligations
regarding gender equality, democracy and
human rights, the quality of aid,
and policy coherence. They also highlighted
the importance of building up a
common alternative strategy to "attack
patriarchal structures on a global
scale, as women's emancipation can not be
achieved in isolation" as Rosa
Cobo Bedia from Spain explained.
The
three-day conference also provided an important space for joint
learning,
sharing experiences and building alliances among women's
organisations from
all over the world to find feminist alternatives. As Pam
Rajput from India
commented "I like the policy from WIDE to invite women
from the south
and provide a platform for sharing and learning and working
out global
strategies for issues of common concerns."
All contributions and
presentations of the conference will soon be available
on WIDE's web-site: http://www.wide-network.org/
For
more information, please contact
Barbara Specht, WIDE Information and
Advocacy Officer:barbara@wide-network.org
+32-479-55.94.15