WUNRN
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.
___________________________________________________________________
Report
on Doha Conference on Financing for Development
Doha
Conference on Financing for Development: Women´s Rights Advocates´ Action
Produced Minimal Outcomes for Gender Equality
By Juana Bengoa, Luisa Antolin and Janice G.
Foerde
The
work WIDE has been doing together with other networks and women´s
organisations, such as AWID, DAWN, IGTN, FEMNET and NETRIGHT, has made an
important difference in the outcomes of the process related to the new aid
architecture (Accra High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and Doha
International Conference for the Follow-up of the Monterrey Consensus). The joint
action and advocacy of women´s rights networks and organisations achieved some
concrete commitments related to the promotion of gender equality in the Accra
Agenda for Action. The Doha outcome document approved two weeks ago in Qatar
goes beyond the Monterrey Consensus in terms of measures and commitments on
gender equality, and that has been the result of the great advocacy and lobby
work by women´s organisations. In the coming year we will continue working on
the follow-up.
The
year 2008 has been crucial for women´s activism regarding the importance of
introducing gender perspectives and the recognition of women´s rights into the
development policy debate. The last of our meetings took place in Doha, and we
think that WIDE´s work at all these international events that have been
reviewed under the so-called ´new
aid architecture´ has been significant, regarding the
structural problems that have shown their real face in 2008, through the
financial, food, energy and climate change crisis that we are experiencing. Our
alternatives, our vision, our gender and women´s right concerns, the reality of
global discrimination and the feminisation of poverty are clearly linked to the
need for changing power relations and a better redistribution of global
resources, within a more inclusive and democratic political space for women,
Southern actors, citizens and social organisations in the global system.
In
Doha, we had to network strongly against efforts by certain governments, mainly
the USA, to reduce the scope of the review and to further erode the
significance of the Financing for Development (FfD) process and the United
Nations´ role in global economic governance.
During
recent months, WIDE has been actively working with AWID, DAWN and G-CAP
Feminist Task Force, among others, under the umbrella of the Women´s Working
Group on Financing for Development (WG on FfD), part of the Doha NGO Group, on
the follow-up and negotiations of the draft outcome document that was going to
be agreed in Doha. The main aim was to move the commitment with gender equality
and the empowerment of women in the FfD agenda from a mere declaration of
principles and/or intentions to policy action.
At
the European level WIDE also developed an advocacy and lobby strategy towards
the European Commission and some of the member states´ governments. To do so,
the WIDE Working Group on Financing for Gender Equality devised a position
paper entitled ´Gender equality at the centre of Financing for Development´
with the main claims and proposals. WIDE was able to have three representatives
present at the conference: one from the Spanish Platform, one from the Danish
Platform and one from the Secretariat. Both national representatives were part
of the official delegations, which assured better access to last-minute
information and documents and a direct advocacy channel.
Once
in Doha, the Women´s WG on FfD organised a workshop at the civil society
organisation (CSO) forum before the official conference, under the title
´Women´s Human Rights, Right to Development and FfD´ as a kind of women´s
caucus. The workshop was jointly facilitated by WIDE and IGTN and featured the
participation of around 30 representatives from women´s organisations and
networks. As a result of this workshop we approved a collective statement as a
women´s rights movement to be promoted during the conference (link to the
document). We also agreed on the inputs and proposals we want to be introduced
in the ´CSO Declaration´ that was going to be agreed by all NGOs present at the
CSO forum.
It
was clear for us, women´s rights activists networking together in Doha, that
the FfD review process taking place was facing a scandalous lack of policy
coherence, in which neither the same misguided polices of market
liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation nor the same economic and
financial institutions could be promoted any longer as the solution. We clearly
stated in our women´s caucus that "...Women
constitute the majority of people working in flexible and informal sectors with
often precarious working conditions. Thus, in times of crisis they struggle
harder to maintain their jobs and income levels. At the same time, cuts in
public service provision, including education and health, increase the burden
of unpaid and invisible work done mainly by women."
However,
the exclusionary process exemplified by the G20 Summit in Washington, DC,
pre-empted the FfD Review Conference. It is in this specific context that we
must stress why it is so valuable for the women´s movement for the outcome of
Doha´s commitment to call a UN conference at the highest level in 2009, to
review the responses and reforms of global economic governance, including the
current financial and economic system.
We must also welcome the fact that the
outcome document of the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for
Development in Doha goes far beyond the 2002 Monterrey Consensus with regard to
gender equality. Paragraph 4 of this final document has recognised gender
equality as a fundamental human right and an issue of social justice "...essential for economic
growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and development
effectiveness" into the formulation and implementation of
policies and the need for "dedicated
resources". But our objective was not only a ´good
preamble´, and the Final Declaration has also committed in its paragraph 19 to
eliminate gender-based discrimination in all its forms, including labour and
financial markets, acknowledging women´s full and equal access to economic
resources and the importance of gender-responsive public management.
Yes, we demanded stronger gender equality
policy commitments and actions on development, trade, finance, debt, aid and
systemic issues. As we stated "...Decision makers must acknowledge that macroeconomic, systemic, and
financial issues are not gender-neutral and demand gender-aware policies."
And we have also been conscious again that it is not easy to lobby when gender
issues are so often taken as a ´tradeoff´ regarding other policy concerns
between negotiators. That is why we always remind all stakeholders that
commitments to gender equality and women´s human rights are based on the
principle of mutual responsibility and the obligations of governments all
Northern and Southern governments to fulfil internationally agreed
development goals, targets and actions, which have been identified primarily in
the Beijing Platform for Action, the CEDAW Convention and the International
Labour Organization Conventions.
´Good but not enough´ was the title of the
press release the Women´s WG on FfD issued in Doha as an assessment of the
outcomes. There we stated that we "will
persist in strengthening the linkages between gender equality, women´s rights,
and women´s empowerment and the various issues, responses and reforms that may
be agreed upon as the global community reviews the financial and monetary
systems toward a comprehensive reform of global economic governance".
WIDE will continue to be involved in the
follow-up to the Doha conference, monitoring the implementation of commitments
and assuring that gender equality is present as a systemic issue; as the WIDE
position paper states: "Persistent
gender inequalities reflect and are related to all of these structural
imbalances in the global economic system. Thus it is urgent to include a gender
perspective in all policies, and at all levels and sectors."
--------------------------------
Juana Bengoa is one of
WIDE´s Spanish Platform representatives and chair of the CONGDE Gender and
Development Working Group.
Luisa Antolin is WIDE
Advocacy Officer on development and gender.
Janice G Foerde is chair of
K.U.L.U. - Women and Development, WIDE Danish Platform.
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