The UN Commission on the Status of Women and the challenge of ‘Financing for Gender Equality and Empowerment’
By Charlotte Sutherland(1)
This month’s newsletter focuses on the 52nd Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which forms part of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The CSW defines itself as the principal global policy-making body, exclusively dedicated to gender equality and the advancement of women. The Commission was established in 1946 and serves the Council through its focus on all issues that affect women’s lives and promoting their rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. It has 45 Member States, each represented by one elected person. 13 members represent Africa.
This year the Commission held its annual meeting from 25 February to 7 March, and focused on “Financing for gender equality and empowerment of women”. The meeting aimed to develop recommendations to accelerate action in this regard at regional, national and global levels. Several other themes were addressed around the centrality of this theme, such as “Indicators to measure violence against women”. The theme recognises that despite advances in gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment, more funds are imperative in the process of attaining gender equity, notably in countries that struggle with issues such as war and poverty.
During the ‘High Level Round Table on Financing for Gender Equity and the Empowerment of Women’ session, participants emphasised that financing for gender equality needs to be accessible at all levels, especially the local level. It was noted that such financing needs to be accompanied by appropriate legislation and policy networks geared towards reaching gender equity and empowering women. This is important because every national and local context poses unique challenges to the goal of gender equity and a direct relationship exists between national economic performance and the extent of female participation in the economy. In this regard, participants said that investment in gender equality is essential and has been shown to impact on poverty, productivity and economic growth in positive, sustainable and empowering ways.
GENDER-RESPONSIVE BUDGETING PROCESSES
Budget processes should be responsive to the gender issues that characterise the context. Participants discussed an analysis process of the impact of budget allocations and expenditures on men and women respectively, and highlighted that such analysis should consider several factors, such as the differences and related inequalities between the sexes in relation to incomes, assets, service needs and social responsibilities for care, and decision-making power. It was agreed that gender-responsive budgets focus on delivering results and distributing resources and developmental benefits equally to men and women. While some countries approach this goal as a routine matter included in every budget, others allocate a specific percentage of the national budget to women’s development. Participants argued that the latter strategy is more suitable to contexts characterised by poverty and illiteracy.
All over the world, women’s movements commemorated International Women’s Day and emphasised issues that were addressed by the Commission. The topic of violence against women entertained copious amounts of debate during the Session, notably during the “Joint Dialogue on Indicators to Measure Violence Against Women”. A UN interagency campaign was launched to eradicate the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by 2015 in many Asian, Middle Eastern and African countries. The agencies pledged to support governments and communities in their work to ban FGM and stressed the need for strong leadership and greater resources to protect the health and lives of millions of women and girls. "We recognise that traditions are often stronger than law, and legal action by itself is not enough", they said. "Change must also come from within. This is why it is critical for us to join hands and work closely with communities and their leaders so that they can bring about sustainable social change". Of course, funding is integral to the successful combating of violence against women. Some of the bodies that pledged their commitment include the Joint UN Programme on HIV & AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
According to African Development Bank Gender Specialist, Laeticia Mukurasi, Southern Africa has invested most and is faring best in reaching the Third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), namely that of promoting gender equality and empowering women. The new European Parliament recently criticised the EU for neglecting sub-Saharan Africa in its plans. Ultimately, meeting the MDG that concern women and children depend on gender-responsive funding and co-operation between national and international bodies.
The MDG Steering Group met this month under the leadership of United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, on the issue of African Millennium Development Goals (MDG), to be met by 2015. Africa is the only continent not on track to meet the Goals. "We see important reasons to be optimistic. No new promises are needed to make 2008 the year of opportunity for the Bottom Billion" he said, referring to the one billion people living on less than US$ 1 per day. Mr. Ban cited positive developments such as Malawi’s decrease in child mortality rates, Senegal’s enhancement of water and sanitation facilities and Tanzania’s improvements in primary education. The Steering Group was formed last year in an effort to increase international contributions to Africa’s meeting of the MDG. Other participants included representatives of the African Development Bank, the African Union (AU), the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Islamic Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
EMPOWERING THE CONTINENT
In conclusion, much is being done to empower women around the African continent, and in fact globally, and this year’s CSW meeting focused on central concerns in this regard. A lack of funding is often cited as a key cause for the limited functioning of development and empowerment initiatives. It is time for gender-responsive national budgeting and international funding to work together towards the goal of empowering Africa’s women in order to empower the continent as a whole.
NOTES:
(1) Charlotte Sutherland is Gender Specialist: Gender Issues in Africa, at Consultancy Africa Intelligence (officesa@consultancyafrica.com)
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