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.
Direct Link to Full 35-Page
Publication:
WIDE Website Link: http://www.wide-network.org/index.jsp?id=454
WIDE Publication ‘Financing for Development and
Women's Rights: A Critical Review’ |
Author: Carmen
de la Cruz, published by WIDE, June 2009
In the last decade, the way in which development is conceptualised and implemented has
changed significantly, and so have the political contexts in which this
implementation takes place. This has had implications on how gender equality
and women’s empowerment is being achieved. Currently,
in most official development circles, gender equality, as a development
objective, is currently considered as a cross-cutting issue which lacks
conceptual clarity and clear, measurable objectives. This situation further
increases the persistent breach between official rhetoric and action. At the
same time national, international and systemic challenges of gender equality
call for taking action in an adverse context made worse by the current
international financial, food and environmental crises, all of which arise from
an unstable background marked by obscure competitive market processes.
The vision of justice underpinning development disappeared sometime at the
beginning of this new century, giving way to a focus on growth, in which gender
equality lost strength both in discussions and in policy implementation. There
has been a significant decrease in the international aid commitments to support
women’s rights, and grassroots organisations could barely find financial
support.
This new publication aims to help to analyse the meaning of the new
proposals for development aid and its effectiveness, and examines the reforms
of financing for development from a gender perspective. It looks at the
implementation of the UN Monterrey agenda that was set in 2002. And in this
framework, it focuses on the agreement and implementation of the OECD-DAC Paris
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005). The Paris Declaration
is an important part of the process that is referred to as the development of
so-called ‘new architecture’ in aid or ‘new aid modalities’. In 2008 the improvements in the implementation of the
Consensus of Monterrey (
The publication reviews the current debates about development, as well
as the background for this new aid architecture, and analyses the international
frameworks for financing for development and women rights, as well as
governments’ commitments for resources. It also summarises and analyses all the
contributions to the aid effectiveness agenda from a gender perspective.
The publication concludes that a dual track could be followed in the
immediate future. On the one hand, it is necessary to expand on the existing
demand for gender equality as laid out in current agendas and fulfil the agreed
international commitments on aid reform. On the other hand, it is important to
review the feminist agenda and its link to development from a wider angle. The
possible key aspects to make progress in the current debates are: the
re-politicisation of the feminist project and its responsibility towards
development, providing answers in a currently intricate international arena;
the re-vitalisation of the rights discourse and practice based on the ethics of
economic justice, and not on an instrumental reading where women are regarded
as useful to development policies; and the encouragement of a true gender
architecture within the global development system.
The publication was written by Carmen de la Cruz and has been translated
from Spanish into English.
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