[APWW-Meet] Women Leaders Ask, "Where Is Our Money?"

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News
Women Leaders Ask, "Where Is Our Money?"
<http://www.truthout.org/article/women-leaders-ask-where-is-our-money>=20
Sunday 22 June 2008  > <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=3D42914>=20

by: Joyce Mulama, Inter Press Service

   Glasgow - Even though seven out of eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) impact on women, both donors and governments receiving aid
overlook the need to make resources available for gender empowerment.=20

   At the 8th Civicus World Assembly, which concluded in the Scottish
capital on Saturday, civil society leaders asked serious questions about
the lack of gender budgeting. The annual Civicus meeting brings together
a global network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
foundations whose aim is to strengthen civil society.=20

   The four-day event in Glasgow focused on participatory governance in
the run-up to a high-level meeting in Accra, Ghana, in September to
discuss aid effectiveness. More than a 100 ministers, heads of
multilateral organisations and civil society representatives present
there will review the Paris Declaration and the performance of both
donors and recipient countries.=20

   Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, executive director of African Women's
Development Fund told IPS in an interview that far too little money is
made available for gender empowerment.=20

   "How you allocate your resources tells much about where your
priorities are. Women are 50 percent of the world's population. They
should be a priority," she argues.=20

   She fears that the paucity of funds almost guarantees the failure of
the MDGs, particularly goal 3 - promote gender equality and empower
women. The world's governments are committed to meeting the eight MDGs
by 2015.=20

   "Many guarantees have been made, including the Beijing Plan of
Action. But this has not been matched with adequate finances to ensure
empowerment of women at all levels," she points out.=20

   The Beijing Plan of Action was adopted at the Fourth World Conference
on Women in 1995. Bilateral and multilateral aid organisations had
pledged to release adequate resources to bankroll the commitments made.=20

   Neither the promises made in Beijing nor in Monterray, Mexico, in
2002 at the International Conference on Financing for Development have
been honoured, raising questions about the lack of political will. In
the Monterray Consensus, governments agreed to incorporate gender in all
development policies.=20

   In addition, the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness
acknowledged the importance of financing gender development.=20

   Yet, funds for gender remain "insignificant and untraceable in many
places," according to Adeleye-Fayemi who heads Africa's first
continent-wide fund to finance programmes that develop and promote
women's leadership and issues like economic empowerment.=20

   A 2007 report by the Association for Women's Rights in Development
analysing present trends of aid showed that women's organisations are
grossly under-resourced.=20

   The report, Where is the money for women's rights, concludes that
women's NGOs are in a state of "survival and resistance". This,
according to the report, is substantiated by the fact that all together,
729 organisations raised a total annual budget of just 77.5 million
dollars, which is nothing at all considering the mammoth task of gender
equality.=20

   "Unless leaders both at the international and national level ensure
that money reaches women, no real development will take place," Elisa
Peter, deputy coordinator of the United Nations Non-governmental Liaison
Service, asserts in an interview with IPS on Jun. 21.=20

   "Women are at the centre of development. If goal 3 is not reached, I
do not think we can achieve any other MDGs. We have to address seriously
the issue of resources to build capacity of women in all sectors," she
says.=20

   The U.N. has calculated that realising MDG 3 would require "dedicated
external resources" amounting to between 25 and 28 billion dollars in
the low-income countries.=20

   This, analysts say, requires renewed political will at the
international and national levels - which the organisers of both the
meetings in Accra and in Doha, at the end of the year, are hoping. The
Doha conference will review the Monterray Consensus.=20


   The presence of a wide network of women's organisations is expected
at the September Accra meeting, where leaders will be asked to honour
the pledges made.=20

   "Civil society can only advocate and propose. It is up to the
governments to implement. They will then be held accountable,"
Adeleye-Fayemi said. Nevertheless, as donors and governments dillydally
over crucial finances, women continue to make progress at snail-pace,
particularly on the political front.=20

   "The lack of finances has resulted in poor representation of women at
the decision-making level. They lack capacity to compete on an equal
footing with their male counterparts," points out Jennifer Chiwela of
the African Network Campaign on Education for All.=20

   As a result, her country, Zambia has 23 women in the 158-member
parliament. This is just 14.6 percent of the parliamentary
representation - way below the 30 percent target set by the Southern
African Development Community, an inter-governmental organisation of 15
southern African states.=20

   The situation is not very different in other African countries, which
have continued to witness minimal numbers of women in parliament, and
other decision-making spheres.=20

   "How can we expect gender-friendly laws to be passed if the majority
of members of parliament are men?" Chiwela asks. "We need resources to
help women campaign and participate in politics on an equal playing
field with men. That is the beginning of development," she asserts.=20

   At CIVICUS and other national and international for a, women civil
society leaders are demanding change and equal participation for men and
women in politics and finance for development.
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