Women's Economic Empowerment, Gender Equality, Women in Politics, Indigenous Women and Children

Firstly, I got to know the difference between development politics and political development. Development politics refers to the local, national or international political approach to development, what governments and agencies, at national and international level, have set as “the correct politics” in line with the development approach to be followed by developing countries to reach a more developed state. By political development, it is understood the process in which politics have evolved in terms of time. For the case of this module, the focus will be development politics (showing a good relation to the name of the module itself), but as learnt in this first module, the political development has a strong impact as it sets the political systems within countries.

But, why is politics so important for development?

In summarised words, politics are the “rules of the game” and the “game within the rules” in a country. Before starting this module, I would have thought: because politics is the way in which a systems and relations in a country relate and interact, and development is much influenced by interactions between actors: agencies, governments, financial institutions, donors, et cetera. After the first week, my initial assumptions were indeed widened, as politics additionally shape socio-economic relationships at the local, regional and international level. Going even a bit further, and as suggested by Leftwich (2005), it is in politics where some of the answers regarding developmental successes or failures may be found – why are some countries more developed than others and moreover, why development has been successfully implemented in some countries (i.e. some south eastern countries), whilst they have failed in others (i.e. some African countries).

The Council adopted the following conclusions:

Recalling its Conclusions on "Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development Cooperation 1," the Council reaffirms its strong commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women as a fundamental human right and as a core value of the EU and a basic principle of its development policy. It underlines that the promotion of gender equality, women's empowerment and the enjoyment of human rights by women and girls are instrumental to achieving internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and key to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the Cairo Programme of Action, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In addition, the Council emphasises the need to adopt an ambitious approach to gender equality, women's empowerment and the enjoyment of human rights by women and girls in the post-2015 framework. The Council also reiterates the importance of full implementation of the EU guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them. 2....

Nearly 20 years ago, the world came together in Beijing for the Fourth World Conference on Women. There, 189 governments adopted a visionary roadmap for gender equality: the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. More than 17,000 delegates and 30,000 activists pictured a world where women and girls had equal rights, freedom and opportunity in every sphere of life.

While much progress has been made in the past two decades, no country can claim to have achieved equality between men and women. It is time for the world to come together again for women and girls and complete this journey.

UN Women is launching a year-long campaign to re-energize the vision laid out at the Beijing Women’s Conference. Our goal is straightforward: renewed commitment, strengthened action and increased resources to realize gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights. We call it: Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture It! 

The Beijing Declaration laid out actions to address 12 critical areas of concern for women and girls across the globe. Governments, the private sector and other partners were urged to reduce women and girls’ poverty, ensure their right to access education and training, safeguard their health – including their sexual and reproductive health, protect women and girls from violence and discrimination, to ensure that technological advances benefit all, and to promote their full and equal participation in society, politics, and the economy.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action remains the most comprehensive global agreement on women’s empowerment and gender equality. If only it had been implemented!

Notwithstanding, today we can celebrate progress. More girls are going to school. More women are working, getting elected, and assuming leadership positions. But in all regions of the world, and in all countries, women continue to face discrimination because they are female.

We see it every day. In pay inequity and unequal opportunities at work… in stubbornly low representation of women leaders in the public and private sectors… in the continuing scourge of child marriage, and in the pandemic of violence experienced by one in three women globally – a number greater than the population of Europe.

Perhaps even more startling is the fact that if the Beijing negotiations occurred today, they would likely result in a weaker agreement. We all have a responsibility to keep pushing ahead for full implementation, because every time a woman or girl is held back by discrimination or violence, humanity loses.

Since the Beijing Conference, irrefutable evidence has accumulated showing that empowering women empowers humanity.

Picture it!...

The World Economic Forum and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development have announced the launch of an initiative to help developing countries accelerate their economic growth and progress.

The Redesigning Development Finance Initiative will bring together governments, development finance institutions, development assistance providers, and private-sector investors to expand the pool of capital available for economic development in key sectors, including infrastructure, agriculture, and energy. With an initial focus on investment in Africa, the partnership will work to boost cooperation among stakeholders and enhance the delivery of development finance through the deployment of risk mitigation and concessional finance tools; increase understanding of the existing landscape of blended finance models; build consensus around the value and opportunities that different actors bring to the table; determine which models have the highest potential to unlock other forms of capital; and define capabilities and partnerships that can mobilize and scale high-value development models.

However, despite recent rapid technological advances, some important ideas have yet to be disseminated in many parts of the world. This is especially true when it comes to the notion of human rights.

During her days as first lady, Hillary Clinton represented the United States at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women hosted by Beijing. In a stirring speech to international delegates from 189 countries, she declared to thunderous applause, “Women’s rights are human rights!”

“I ended the speech with a call to action to return to our countries and renew our efforts to improve educational, health, legal and political opportunities for women,” Clinton writes in her 2003 book, Living History. To her credit, Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state and the undeclared frontrunner for the presidency in 2016, forced women’s rights onto the international agenda.

Unfortunately, Clinton’s ideas have yet to take root in many places. According to the International Labour Organization, approximately 865 million women around the globe endure sexist discrimination at school and in the workplace.

Similarly, the World Bank contends that sexism remains a significant problem. “Trends suggest that gains in women’s labour force participation worldwide over the last three decades have been small and slow, hovering around 51% globally, but as low as 21% in the Middle East and North Africa,” states a World Bank primer entitled, Gender at Work: A companion report to the World Development Report on Jobs.

The World Bank reports that women commonly face legal barriers in the work world. Of the 143 economies studied, the Bretton Woods institution found that “128 had at least one legal sex differentiation in 2013.” Legal barriers to women included restricted access to identity cards, prohibitions on property ownership or the borrowing of money. And incredibly, in no less than 15 countries, women must get their husbands’ permission to enter the labour force.

Inclusive growth

Thanks to the work of the Bretton Woods institutions — the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — the international system has benefited from “unprecedented economic and financial stability over the past seven decades,” Christine Lagarde stated last month in London, England, where she delivered the Richard Dimbleby Lecture. Lagarde is the managing director of the IMF, the first woman to hold that exalted job.

However, she believes that policymakers and economists need to change their way of thinking about economics. The IMF boss contends that they should “make sure that inclusion is given as much weight as growth in the design of policies.” In short, the world economy needs “inclusive growth.”

“If we talk about inclusion in economic life, we must surely talk about gender,” Lagarde declared. “As we know too well, girls and women are still not allowed to fulfil their potential — not just in the developing world, but in rich countries, too.”

When world leaders came together at the UN in 1999 to establish the Millennium Development Goals, a clear set of international development benchmarks to be achieved by 2015, they understood that development and gender equality are inextricably linked. That’s why they made the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women one of the top MDGs.

According to Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada’s website, the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is “essential to the achievement of all the other Millennium Development Goals.” Consequently, the promotion of gender equality is integral to Canada’s international development programs....

VENDORS at two key marketplaces in Solomon Islands are set to benefit from a new UN Women project that will inject more than SBD$20 million into making markets safe working environments that promote women’s empowerment through improved market governance, physical infrastructure, and onsite services.

Between 75 and 90 per cent of vendors working at Pacific markets are women and their earnings are often significant to the incomes of poor households. Markets may seem small-scale, but they are significant contributors to the national economy.

However, vendors, especially women, face numerous day-to-day challenges – the hours are long, the profits are low and violence against women is widely reported.

And despite the high number of women working in marketplaces, it is often men who run marketplaces and control decision-making.

This makes markets a particularly effective place to help improve women’s economic position and reduce national poverty.

Ce document présente la vision des ONG membres de Coordination SUD, coordonnées par sa commission « genre ».

En préambule, Coordination SUD rappelle qu’il est crucial que la société civile continue d’être consultée jusqu’à la fin du processus. Ayant conscience des impératifs de calendrier, nous soulignons néanmoins l’importance de prendre en compte les contributions issues de la société civile afin d’obtenir un Document d’Orientation Stratégique plus performant, dans la pratique, que son prédécesseur de 2007.

Economic empowerment is the capacity of women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in ways that recognise the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth. Economic empowerment increases women’s access to economic resources and opportunities including jobs, financial services, property and other productive assets, skills development and market information.

Women's economic empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development and for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. And economic empowerment is also a right. There is no quick fix: women's economic empowerment  takes sound public policies, a holistic approach and long-term commitment from all development actors. Donors can also increase their investment.

The ordination of women bishops has moved a step closer as all the Church of England’s 44 dioceses voted to allow the change.

It leaves only one hurdle left to change centuries of church practice – a final vote at the General Synod in July.

The body previously approved welcoming women bishops by a huge 378 to eight majority last year, starting the process.

It would allow women to become bishops and archbishops and create a “declaration” by the Church of England setting out guidance for parishes which reject female ministry on traditionalist, ideological grounds.

James Langstaff, the Bishop of Rochester and chairman of the committee on women bishops, said the dioceses expressed their approval "very clearly".

He added: "I pray that the Synod will continue to approach this decision in a prayerful and generous way as we move towards voting on the proposal that women may be bishops in the Church of England.”

In 2011 both London and Chichester diocesan synods voted against the legislation.

The latest seal of approval will be welcome to campaigners, who were devastated in 2012 when legislation for women bishops was rejected at the final hurdle by just six votes in the House of Laity.

That decision was described by the Women and the Church campaign group as “a devastating blow for the Church of England and the people of this country”.

While those proposals included a strict and complex “code of practice” for dissenting parishes, the new package lays out plans for an ombudsman, or independent reviewer, that would rule on disputes at a local level.

Anglican churches in Australia, New Zealand and the United States already have women serving as bishops.

New York—At the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women today announced a new partnership which will see the collaboration between UN Women’s Knowledge Gateway for Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Cherie Blair Foundation’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme.

Over the next 12 months, UN Women and the Cherie Blair Foundation will work together to support women’s economic empowerment through a range of projects — including by linking women entrepreneurs from the Foundation’s mentoring programme with the Knowledge Gateway and offering the mentoring opportunity to members of the Knowledge Gateway community.

“This kind of collaboration is vital, and is a testimony to the engagement of all sectors of society to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment,” said Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women. “The Knowledge Gateway offers an opportunity to reach millions of women and girls worldwide and at all levels of society. Mentoring and support is the catalyst that many women need to truly unlock their potential and achieve the goals they have set for themselves, whether it is to improve their businesses, get a bank loan, bring new tools to their farms, use a computer or to make their dream of an income and independence, a reality.”

The Knowledge Gateway for Women’s Economic Empowerment, launched in September 2013, is a global community established to share resources and tools for women’s economic empowerment, crowdsource feedback on innovative ideas and to connect women entrepreneurs and workers with experts, peers and networks, as well as Knowledge Gateway partners for concrete learning and growth opportunities. In its first six months alone empowerwomen.org has attracted more than 40,000 visitors from over 180 countries and has garnered more than 1,700 registered members, and 15 global partners to support women entrepreneurs, workers, farmers as well as policymakers. The Gateway also supports grass-roots women and men through a revolving group of ‘Global Community Champions’ from diverse countries and backgrounds with a focus on exchange of experiences, learning and advocacy for women’s economic empowerment.

The Cherie Blair Foundation’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme combines mentoring with technology to offer cross-border support to women entrepreneurs. This innovative programme matches women entrepreneurs in developing and emerging markets with male and female mentors around the world. Using the Cherie Blair Foundation’s online platform, the mentees and their mentors spend 12 months working one-on-one to achieve key business goals. Participants build their business skills and digital literacy through the Foundation’s trainings and become part of a global community of committed, ambitious entrepreneurs who are invested in each other’s success.

About UN Women
UN Women is the global champion for women and girls, dedicated to upholding the rights of half the world’s people. Established in 2010, UN Women acts on the fundamental premise that every woman has the right to live a life free from violence, poverty and discrimination, and that gender equality is central to achieving development. UN Women stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, but pursues a handful of elements proven to unlock rapid transformation, including ending violence against women, increasing women’s participation and leadership, and enhancing women’s economic empowerment.

Moderator:  Ms. Martine Dennis, Presenter, Al Jazeera Television   

Opening Remarks:   Dr. Donald Kaberuka, President, African Development Bank

Panelists:

Rapporteur:   Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Special Envoy on Gender, AfDB

Description:

There is strong business case for gender equality: Societies lag behind when half of their citizens cannot live to their full potential. Development and economic growth is slower when half of the continent’s citizens do not have access to productive resources and capabilities. Leadership is not complete when half of those who would-be leaders lack a voice. In a nutshell, gender equality generates stronger business and development results. Indeed, harnessing the full potential of women in business is a key driver of growth. This is what we need today for the Africa we want in 50 years. This side event will provide an opportunity to discuss and propose innovative and practical solutions to unlocking the productive resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment and provide a forum for sharing best practices and innovative solutions in ensuring women’s access to the productive resources that lead to gender equality and women’s empowerment, namely land and financing in Africa.