WUNRN
Reports - The Gender
Lens
We receive many REPORTS, often by
the UN and its agencies, large NGO programs, governments, academia, and more.
WUNRN tries to "pull out the
specific gender dimensions," but often they are more integrated or even
elusive in voluminous reports that are a challenge to read, to print.
But, we need to "look into the
figures" and WHERE THEY COME FROM, and see if they are truly
representative of women and girls who can be more remotely accessible as in
remote rural areas and slums, and refugee camps, and fragmented in location
during war and conflict.
Beyond the charts, the analysis,
there are many women struggling with basic needs and rights of life, who are not
covered in data and text, nor speak on Panels or attend more formal
"consultations."
The vital importance of gender
disaggregation, data and statistics, thematic focus for women and girls, for
policy development, are so vitally important, and we keep pressing for this.
Though an "official"
designation of the poverty line may be less than $1.25 a day, how can a woman,
a family, survive on this? Where is the dignity needed to move beyond extreme
poverty?
Do aid funds and development
programs really reach village, rural women, single women households; or is the
distribution politically and male controlled, frequently skewed by corruption
potentially at multiple levels, and not monitored carefully, and thus never
reach those for whom it is designated and need the most, often women and
children?
If women are illiterate, and their
daughters as well, how can they read about health, economic opportunities,
technology? There are continuing efforts to increase gender literacy, but in
the meantime, in many areas, the cycle of illiteracy and poverty continues.
MONEY is a huge issue on right to
food, water, education, social services, including throughout the life cycle.
Most reports don't show how foreign private companies come into a developing
country, say they want to buy "land," or set up a research facility,
offering attractive incentives to governments, and then poor people are
evicted, forced to give up their livelihood, or sometimes adjust to the
devastating changes as oil spills, loss of clean water, no land to cultivate
even small gardens - and thus they must buy from products dumped from abroad at
higher prices, maybe less chemical free and less nutritious. Who has the chalk
at the blackboard here?
Who controls money in most families
in developing countries? We know that if women have some control over household
finances, they spend more for food, education, health, basic needs.
Women in many reports are seen as
victims. Examples in violence against women and trafficking reports, those on
hunger and malnutrition. Given gender equity and more equality, women are very
capable agents of change for their lives and for their children, and can
positively impact their empowerment.
How many reports reflect
persons/women and girls of unregistered births, unregistered marriages,
statelessness, undocumented migration, displacement without registration as
refugees?
Women often get lumped into
categories as The Most Vulnerable.
Reports can be written to fit
specified outcomes and results.This is very much controlled by the donors, the
report authors and editors. When reports are prepared, there can be pressure to
"hide" negative information, to not reveal for documentation, to
enable reports to present a more "positive" view to readers. It has
been said many time, you get what you pay for!
We learn over time which reports are
more trustworthy, more useful; but for political or vested interest purposes,
some reports are written to fit a desired outcome which may not at all be objective
and reflective of women's and girls' realities. We are well aware of the
benefits, as an example, of CEDAW Shadow Reports by civil
society/women's programs and collaborations
Another important issue with reports
is language translations. If a government is reviewed by a UN Treaty Body
Committee as CEDAW & ESCR, or the Universal Periodic Reivew, and this
country has a different primary language than one of the 6 official UN
translations, a government may not choose to have the report translated and
broadly disseminated into the language of the citizens, and thus keep any
critical components hidden.
Those women who have worked hard to
follow the process of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and communicate to
others, and attend sessions when possible for selected civil society
representatives, know well how the Post-2015 government-controlled Open Working
Group on Sustainable Development Goals has a specific official protocol. http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/owg.html
Reports often encourage women
to take more power, to be in decision-making capacities, to be at the peace
table, to lead and impact social policy, to engage in their own economic
progress. But, in truth, many women are shouldered not with just work, but also
maintaining the household, providing for family needs. Additionally, women are
usually the caregivers for the young, the sick, the elderly. In a time of
economic crisis, women may be the first unemployed, and assume even more
caregiving due to austerity measures and cutbacks in social services in so many
countries.
Then, there is the huge volume of
"informal work" of women, usually underpaid and without benefits,
insecure, often highly speculative with complex social conditions and even
with climate change and natural disasters. These women may well not be included
in economic and productivity data and reports. As Marilyn Waring said many
years ago, Who's Counting?
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