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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:

http://62.149.193.10/wide/download/financingfordevelopment2009translationcarmendelacruz.pdf?id=995

 

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 (Doha, November 2008) and the Paris Declaration (Accra, September 2008) were evaluated, generating significant debates and propositions from the various stakeholders. Women’s organisations and networks across the world have instigated an important advocacy process in these spaces and, together with other actors from civil society, have developed several proposals.

 

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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