FINANCING GENDER EQUALITY: A CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE

By Ines Alberdi Reprint | | Print |

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NEW YORK, Nov 13 2008 (IPS) - Today’s multiple global crises–of food, fuel and finance– make clear that the conventional development paradigm is no longer viable. The promotion of market liberalisation and fiscal austerity as the instruments for stimulating economic growth and with it, sustainable development must be revisited, writes Ines Alberdi, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). International agreements, starting with the 2000 Millennium Declaration, and including the outcome of the 2008 High Level Event on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), have endorsed economic policies that move beyond economic growth to embrace more equitable and sustainable development. The Monterrey Consensus referred to financing gender-sensitive, people-centred development as essential for responding to challenges of globalisation. In addition, a growing body of evidence shows that investing in gender equality has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth and that increasing women’s economic options is central to achieving the MDGs. As world leaders meet in Doha -from November 29 to December 2- it is urgent that they find ways to advance the Monterrey agenda. It is now widely recognised that women’s empowerment and gender equality are key drivers of policies to build food security, reduce poverty, safeguard the environment and enhance development effectiveness. Women are also important agents of economic development and we need policies that both recognise this and actively support ­and finance–gender equality.

International agreements, starting with the 2000 Millennium Declaration, and including the outcome of the 2008 High Level Event on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), have endorsed economic policies that move beyond economic growth to embrace more equitable and sustainable development. The Monterrey Consensus referred to financing gender-sensitive, people-centred development as essential for responding to challenges of globalisation. In addition, a growing body of evidence shows that investing in gender equality has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth and that increasing women’s economic options is central to achieving the MDGs.

Over the past year, during the review of implementation of the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, UN member states have underlined the need to address the quality of development and importance of tackling inequalities, including gender inequality. The Secretary-General’s Report states that “there is a widespread view that there needs to be a better understanding of the role of women in development, moving beyond their roles as caregivers and labourers. Macroeconomic policies should be more coherent with other policies to achieve gender equality; for example, policies should take into account gender dimensions of tax issues, business cycles, employment and the unpaid ‘care economy’.”

The initial draft outcome document for the Financing for Development conference in Doha, which starts at the end of the month, recognised these links, identifying gender equality as a key development challenge, along with climate change and the food and energy crises. It also included specific references to the importance of gender-responsive public financial management, the consideration of gender issues in economic policies, and the need to remove gender biases in labour and financial markets as well as in the ownership of assets and property rights.

It is critical that the final outcome document retains these references, which highlight the structural links between macroeconomic policies and gender equality. Links between gender equality and development should also be made within the specific sections of the financing for development agenda, including domestic resource mobilisation, trade and investment, and official development assistance (ODA). Finally, it is important to promote the tools to make these links, including gender-responsive budgeting and gender specific indicators to monitor and assess the mobilisation and allocation of domestic and external resources and their impact on gender equality.

Mobilizing domestic resources is essential for sustaining productive investment and increasing human capacities. Policies to achieve this include targeted public investments, fiscal and monetary instruments to moderate economic downturns, and policies to promote decent work. All of these serve to expand opportunities for women, and reduce the risks to which they are often subject, including job and income loss and limited access to public goods and services.

Among the trade-offs of tight fiscal policy are stagnant employment opportunities and reduced spending on public services and social protection. These measures serve to oblige women to take on additional care-giving responsibilities, limiting their options for paid employment and entrepreneurial activities. Economic policies need to expand women’s options across the labour market, and improve their access to finance and productive assets. Particular efforts are needed to reach the large numbers of women in informal work, including cross-border trade, and improve options for small farmers, the majority of whom in many countries are women.

Tax policies also need to be revisited. Corporate taxes are widely underutilised in many countries, owing to the adoption of tax holidays to attract foreign investment, although these have proven irrelevant to investment decisions in many cases, especially in Africa. Instead, many poor countries have sought to broaden their tax base through indirect taxes, such as sales tax and user fees, which fall heavily on the poor and women as consumers of basic goods and services.

In terms of external resources, it is no longer possible to assume as the Monterrey Consensus does, that trade and investment liberalisation will increase foreign direct investment, leading to economic growth and social development. In practice, foreign investment has been concentrated in a relatively small number of countries. Trade liberalisation has resulted in few gains, and has seriously jeopardised food security in many developing countries, especially in Africa, where women are the primary producers as well as providers of food security.

At the close of the 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2008, governments agreed that achieving gender equality goals requires a reallocation of existing resources and a huge injection of additional and predictable funding, from both internal and external sources. In September, at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, development partners agreed that “gender equality, respect for human rights and environmental sustainability are cornerstones for achieving enduring impact on the lives of poor women, men and children” and the need to increase the capacity of national development actors “to take an active role in dialogue on development’. Work that the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has done on the implementation of the aid effectiveness agenda has shown the need to increase both financial and technical resources for gender equality advocates within government and civil society so that they effectively engage in and monitor national development planning and budgeting processes.

As world leaders meet in Doha, it is urgent that they find ways to advance this agenda. It is now widely recognised that women’s empowerment and gender equality are key drivers of policies to build food security, reduce poverty, safeguard the environment and enhance development effectiveness. Women are also important agents of economic development and we need policies that both recognise this and actively support ­and finance–gender equality. ‘Investing in gender equality has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth … Increasing women’s economic options is central to achieving the MDGs’

There is a ‘need to increase financial and technical resources for gender equality advocates within government and civil society so that they effectively engage in and monitor national development planning and budgeting processes’ (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)