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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security: The Linkages of
Gender Inequality and Agricultural Growth in Africa:
Conceptual and Empirical Issues
By Bola O Akanji
This paper draws on the extensive but mixed discussions
around the concepts of globalization and liberalization with a
view to exploring their linkages with gender inequality and
economic growth in the specific context of developing countries
of Africa.
The G8 Summit 2006 and global economic justice
By Kathambi Kinoti
The richest countries set the economic policies that govern the
world. Can women look to this year's pledges by the Group of
Eight to facilitate economic justice?
World Health Assembly Adopts Resolution Tying Public
Health To Trade Policy
The World Health Assembly on 27 May 2006 adopted a
resolution that urges member states to improve coordination at
the national level between international trade and public health,
requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) to help its
member states to do this. It also calls on countries to consider
new laws and policies to address negative impacts on public
health from trade policies, as well as potential opportunities.
The Western Balkans – from “the leopard skin” to
European Union
By Ilija J. Jombic
The situation in the Western Balkans is the result of the socalled
“leopard skin” politics of the international community.
The consequences of this politics are a great number of small
states with significant national identity, among those there are
still problems due to undefined mutual borders, and all of them
lagg behind the realization of the market and democratic
reforms. (IN SERBIAN)
DECLARATION
Made at the WOMEN ASSEMBLY
of the 4 th European Social Forum, Athens, 6 May 2006
While we are facing increasing political intervention by churches
and religious fundamentalisms are on the rise in Europe,
leading to a dramatic undermining of women's rights and, in
spite of the warnings from feminist organizations, such as the
World March of Women, towards the organizing committee of
the European Social Forum, some of the workshops gave the
CONFERENCES & EVENTS
Association «Technology and Society” is
organizing its
13. Scientific Meeting
«Serbia and Montenegro on Their
Way to European Union»
Theme:
Key factors and quality of the
organization of the society and the
economy in Serbia and
Montenegro: situation,
perspectives and development
strategy
September 4-7, 2006
Pali•, Subotica, Serbia
Contact: cirnt@labtel.imp.bg.ac.yu
http://www.eccf.suac.yu/tid
The Sixth European Gender
Research Conference
"Gender and Citizenship in a
Multicultural Context"
In Lodz, Poland,
August 31-September 3, 2006
www.gender2006.pl
European Conference
“EU-Enlargement And The New EU
Policies For The Period 2007 –
2013: Opportunities To Strengthen
Civil Society And Gender Equality?”
7-8 September 2006
Bonn, Germany
For further informations please contact:
Dr. Ros Sachsse-Schadt
Media-Advisor
ros.sachsse@womnet.de
or visit: www.womnet.de
29th Round Table: Justice and
Reconciliation: An Integrated
Approach
7-9 September 2006,
Sanremo, Italy
For more information please visit
http://web.iihl.org
ASN 2006 European Conference
on Globalization, Nationalism
and Ethnic Conflicts in the
Balkans and its Regional
Context
will be organized by the Forum for
Ethnic Relations
in Belgrade, Serbia
on September 28 - 30, 2006
Women PeaceMakers Program at
the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace
& Justice
September 18 - November 11, 2006
University of San Diego,
California, USA
http://peace.sandiego.edu
AWID: Young Women's Institute on
Money and Movements
5-7 November, 2006
Oaxaca, Mexico
Contact Rushana Du Toit, rdutoit@awid.
org
Fax in South Africa: 27 21 447 9617
Website: www.awid.org

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floor to organizations or speakers who support values contrary
to the Porto Alegre Charter and to women's rights.
Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria:
Experiences and Challenges
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Mirjana Dokmanovic and
Genoveva Tisheva
Gender budgeting includes range of strategies examining
whether gender rhetoric are reflected in government spending
and taxation policy. It links gender equality with budget and
promotes more equitable and transparent budgetary process
and more efficient use of public resources. Thus, gender
budgeting is very successful both in economic and gender
sense.
The Worldwide Resistance of Women to Neoliberalism
By Joelle Palmieri
Neoliberal globalization is based on patriarchy and therefore on
the widespread oppression of women. Confronted by
accelerating impoverishment and by more and more
sophisticated forms of exclusion, numbers of women are aware
that the diversity of their demands and their experience of
economic pluralism form a counter-current to the dominant
economic theory - neoliberal and patricidal - and represent
serious forms of resistance.
DG Trade civil society dialogue meeting: The EC is a soft
power?
By Amandine Bach & Katariina Lensu
WIDE
According to the European Commission (EC), Hong Kong was a
“relative success”. It was important after the failure of Cancun
for the WTO membership to take the necessary steps to make
Hong Kong succeed. However, the DG Trade representative
stated that the EC did not get as much out of Hong Kong as it
had wanted.
WIDE Statement to the 50 th CSW session
27 February – 10 March 2006, New York
WIDE views the 50 th Session of the Commission on the Status
of Women as an important opportunity to voice our ideas and
concerns regarding the issues of gender mainstreaming and
enhanced participation of women in development.
Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
By Danica Drakuli•, Ph.D., and Drago Pupavac, M.Sc.
Globalization of the world is inaugurating a new economy.
Compared to the traditional economy, where the scope of
competition was mostly determined by the boundaries of the
national market, the global market environment in the new
economy imposes the need for a permanent increase in
efficiency on regional and/or global levels. A decreasing number
of products bear national characteristics. Likewise, human
potential is becoming a global factor despite the fact that the
workforce is the least mobile production factor.
Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by
peacekeepers:
Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Democratic Republic
of Congo
By Olivera Simic
After the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina was over,
Memory, narrative, and
forgiveness: Reflecting on Ten
years of South Africa’s Truth and
Reconciliation Commission
November 22-25, 2006
University of Cape Town, South Africa
More information: jsirmong@curie.uct.ac.
za
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
in 2006
will be realised in a spread out manner
in different places in the world.
www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
Missing links in sustainable
development: South Asian
perspectives
13-15 December 2006
Islamabad, Pakistan
Further information:
http://www.sdpi.org
World Social Forum 2007
Nairobi, Kenya
January 20 to 25, 2007
www.socialforum.or.ke
International Dialogue on Science
and Practice in Sustainable
Development: Linking Knowledge
with Action
23-27 January 2007
Chiang Mai, Thailand
http://www.sustdialogue.org/
International Social Security Association
(ISSA) is announcing a conference
'Social security and the labour
market: A mismatch?'
Warsaw, 5-7 March 2007
Call for papers and registration forms
are to be found at:
http://www.issa.int
Inclusive Security,
Sustainable Peace: A Toolkit
for Advocacy and Action
Authors: Women Waging
Peace; International Alert
Produced by: Women Waging
Peace, Cambridge
Available online at:
www.eldis.org

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peacekeepers changed locations and countries, in following a
war torn societies in need of peace. Still, the crimes
perpetuated by peacekeepers against those in need, particularly
women and children, did not change. Moreover, it looks like
they exacerbated.
WTO Meeting in Hong Kong: What's in it for Women?
By Women’s Edge Coalition
Last month, the countries of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) met in Hong Kong from December 13-18, 2005 to
revitalize and push forward the ‘Doha round’ of trade talks.
Their challenge was to ensure that the needs of developing
countries were kept at the core of the negotiating agenda, as
was promised at the beginning of the round in 2001. After
Hong Kong, most issues remain unresolved, and negotiations
will continue through 2006.

Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
Globalization, Poverty and Food Security: The Linkages of Gender Inequality and Agricultural Growth
in Africa: Conceptual and Empirical Issues
By Bola O Akanji, Ph.D., Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
This paper draws on the extensive but mixed discussions around the concepts of globalization and liberalization
with a view to exploring their linkages with gender inequality and economic growth in the specific context of
developing countries of Africa. The equity considerations of globalization allow us to link the touted macro
impacts with micro impacts with respect to employment, income, food production and food security. These are
expressed via household level responses in the process of agricultural commercialization and export led
industrialization. Putting the expectations from liberalization and structural adjustment policies through the gender
lens allows us to deconstruct stylized facts about globalization impacts on developing countries’ human
development indicators especially poverty, food security and gender relations of production as well as on
macroeconomic indicators such as income, employment, wages and so on. Empirical evidences that either
support or deconstruct these stylized facts are presented to show the many facets of globalization on the lives of
women and men in agrarian and semi-industrialized countries. The conclusion is that understanding and
eradication of feminized poverty in sub-Sahara Africa must be based on a heterodox feminist, rather than a neoclassical
analysis of not only the macro but also the micro dynamics of responses to globalization and liberalization
policies.
1. Dimensions of Globalization
According to UN-DAW (1999), “Globalization has become the catch-all term used to refer to those various
phenomena and processes that are brought about by changes towards world economic integration. It therefore
lacks a neat definition”. Its economic dimensions, however, cover the closely related but distinct concepts of
openness or liberalization, integration and interdependence of nations.
From this statement, many faces of globalization are widely recognized with varied expectations. These include
capital expansion, trade expansion or trade liberalization, cultural integration, financial liberalization, increased
information and technology flows, increased labour mobility, changing consumption patterns and so on. Central to
all these is increased exchanges or trade. Thus trade liberalization is one of the most touted features of
globalization.
In the agricultural sector or in other primary production or craft economies, trade liberalization was jumpstarted
by structural adjustment policies (SAPs). To these economies, SAPs continue to be the major face of globalization
and has been analyzed more than other facets. In this regard, it is always difficult to disentangle trade effects
from other globalization effects. In these discussions of the micro level analysis of globalization, we shall also
focus on the liberalization policies that have shaped agricultural growth process in Africa.
Central to this is the theory of inequality as it affects unequal partners. Globalization effects are expected to be
positive for all trade participants, and although there will be net gains and net losses; it is propounded that the
net gain will outweigh the net loss (World Bank, 2001). But in recognizing the inherent equity considerations in
the response to the same set of opportunities by different (unequal) actors, it remains doubtful that the net gain
will augur well for long term human development especially in poorer countries or between different groups within
the same country. According to Elson (1989), adjustment means change and change means costs as well as
benefits, losers as well as winners. Change must therefore be managed so as not to leave inequities in is
distribution of costs and benefits. And according to ADB (1992), all must be carried along into the income-growth
process that liberalization offers, if Africa is to achieve the self-sustaining growth that has always eluded it. As
stated by Elson and quoted in Gladwin (1991)
“And if greater reliance is to be placed on private enterprise, we need to ask, whose enterprise? The enterprise of
the woman farmer (on whom household subsistence is hinged) or the enterprise of (male-managed, household,
market-bound) agribusiness and merchant with monopoly power? The enterprise of women cooperatives or that of
a multinational corporation?”
These diametric concerns symbolize the lack of synergies between the macro and micro impacts of liberalization
and central to this is the creation rather than the eradication of (feminized) poverty and food insecurity in Africa.
2. Poverty and Food Insecurity in Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, a large and increasing proportion of the population subsist on per capita income of less
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
than one dollar a day. The share of the population falling below the poverty line is as high as 50 per cent.
Although all indices of poverty are well manifested in sub-Saharan Africa’s Human Development Indices (World
Bank 1999), the heart of the problem is food insecurity. From statistical projections (Badiane and Delgado,
1995), aggregate cereals demand and supply balances for African countries indicate a likely increase in imports
from 9 million metric tons in 1990 to 27 million metric tonnes by 2020. And given the obvious difficulties in
mobilizing resources to finance imports and the implications on local food availability (IITA, 1993), deterioration in
the food security will result, unless revolutionary departures are made from current production patterns.
Agriculture is not only the primary source of food in Africa; it is the principal means of livelihood in its
predominant rural settlements. The challenges then are, not only to drastically reduce net import demands and
make agriculture a major source of export earning, but more critically, to achieve agriculture-led industrialization
towards the attainment of structural reforms as are called for by increasing world integration. Although the
problems are both policy-induced and structural in nature, our concern is on the structural challenges that tend to
constrain the desired social and economic transformation of agriculture and that reinforce poverty and food
insecurity.
3. Food Security and Poverty: A look at Measurement Issues
The evidences of poverty and food insecurity have never been so clear and alarming in their proliferation as in the
last decade. But more worrisome is the conflict in the manifestations. The World Food summit secured
international commitment, in 1990, to reduce the number of undernourished people by half by the year 2015. Five
years on, statistics show that an increasing number of people remain food insecure (800 million by 2000) (World
Development Report, 2000). Yet this contracts with the supposed progress being made to reduce by half the
world’s population living in absolute poverty over the same period, which indicates that the international
development community is on track (Meyers, 2001). This implies that different indices are being measured or
equally likely that progress in one area is negatively affecting the other. So, is hunger or food insecurity a
symptom of poverty and in what ways are they linked?
The above paradox makes a clear distinction between food production and food access. Here is where poverty
comes into the equation of food security. A poor nation may increase its food production, national food selfsufficiency
and economic growth to lift itself upward in the poverty statistics, but sections of its people may
remain food insecure because of other factors that affect their access to the food. Suffice it, then, to say that
development indices that focus on increased production of food alone are inadequate to capture the pattern of its
distribution between populations and within populations (Akanji, 2002)
Poverty characteristics are important in the construction of poverty indicators. Therefore, the relevance of human
development indicators (HDI) rather than money-metric or income measures, GDP measures or other
macroeconomic structure have been seen to be more appropriate (Human Development reports). The
characteristics of the poor are also contextual and so are the manifestations of poverty in different populations.
The need for the voice of the people in poverty assessment and the design of poverty reduction measures
therefore remain very valid. The PRSP strategy is aimed at streamlining the objectives of macroeconomic growth
with those of human development. It also emphasizes the contextual sing poverty knowledge and reduction
strategies.
The gender dimension of poverty is particularly reinforced in agrarian economies where the poor are characterized
by landlessness, invariable (inelastic) supply of labour, likely to live in female-headed households, likely to be
farm labourers rather than farm owners, remote form development assistance due to time constraints, hunger as
well as literacy and health constraints and so on (Akanji, 1998). As a result, the consonance of gender
development indicators with other human development measures is a necessary condition in poverty assessment.
The relationship of growth with poverty has been shown not to be a foregone conclusion, as nations, which
recorded high economic growth especially during structural adjustment, also recorded high levels of poverty
incidence and high-income concentration. The distributional aspects of growth are therefore more relevant to the
measurement of poverty. This view is reinforced by the fact that there is considerable correlation between the
trends in Human Development Indicators, Gender Development Indicators and Human Poverty Indices (Table 1).
Table 1: Poverty Indicators for Selected Countries (1998)
Human
Development
Indicator
Gender
Development
Indicator
Human
Poverty Index
$/year
Norway 0.934 0.932 3.9 36806
Thailand 0.745 0.766 18.7 2593
Ghana 0.556 0.552 35.4 399
Nigeria 0.439 0.421 37.6 256
Source: Human Development Report, 2000
Macroeconomic
Growth (GDP per
capita)
The Table above shows dimensions of the linkages of gender development with growth and poverty reduction. It
shows synergy, not only between growth and poverty reduction, but also between the human development indices
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
and gender development indices. This implies that growth is a necessary but insufficient condition for poverty
reduction. Sub-Saharan Africa has lagged behind both in its macroeconomic structure, human development and
gender development indicators, compared with other developing and developed areas. It would then be tempting
to say that the problem of poverty in SSA is induced both by slow growth and social inequalities and that progrowth
policies like liberalization are insufficient to achieve balanced and sustainable growth with equity.
Liberalization policies, in their standard prescription will need to be looked at through a different kind of lens.
4. Expectations from Liberalization for African Agriculture: how shall it address poverty and food
security (ST Theory)
The perspective goal of market liberalization worldwide and especially in Africa, as embodied by different forms of
economic (structural) adjustment, is structural transformation (ST) (Killick 1990). This is hinged on marketled
growth strategies rather than protectionist ‘soft’ government for Africa’s predominant agricultural sector.
ST entails the development of manufacturing and service sectors, such that the relative importance of agriculture
declines (over time). That is, the percent of labour-force in agriculture and the percent of GNP from the sector
decline as labour specialization proceeds (O’Brien, 1991). An interrelated set of changes in economic structure,
including internal consumption, production mechanism, external trade and capital flows, domestic savings and
investment behaviour are necessary mechanisms that must catapult the primary production system into a higher
technological realm which is required to sustain industrial development (Chenery 1979, Bates 1983, Seikler 1992,
Eicher 1986). In short, globalization as epitomized by liberalization policies is expected to be the cure-all for
Africa’s poverty and food insecurity, if and only if Africa’s economic structure can be modified towards more
efficient production system, systemic industrialization, modernization of agriculture via increased
commercialization, specialization, based on comparative advantage and a gradual shift from agricultural-led to
industrial-led macroeconomic development.
In assessing the linkages, Kanji (2002) identifies two main approaches, which may yield different results.
Mainstream economic approach and Socio-economic approach. The former takes the neoclassical view of
liberalization whereby potential effects of SAPs for instance are beneficial:
· Free movement of goods and services
· Increased specialization based on comparative advantage
· Increased allocative efficiency in resource use
· Increased technical efficiency by using more capital and technology rather than inefficient labour
· Enhanced production towards export-led growth
· Appropriate pricing leading to positive supply response
· Increased aggregate production leading to increased food security
· Increased farm income leading to poverty reduction (at least in money-metric terms).
However, these standard response parameters do not consider the way that policies are specified and their
differential outcomes, if all cannot respond according to these standards. As a result, the poor and other
vulnerable groups may not benefit. Also the perspective of food security is over-generalized. Food security is not
about the food or the commodity but about people and hunger (IFPRI, 1991). Nominal production of food does not
guarantee affordability to the poor or accessibility to non-producers. In the last two decades, world output of food
has doubled but the world’s population of the hungry has also doubled. As empirical proof, SSA’s dependence on
trade, as measured by share of GDP from trade increased from 38% to 43% between 1988 and 2000. At the
same time, her share of world trade had declined in real terms. Its dependence on primary goods still remained
above 80% from oil and non-oil, mainly agriculture. Price volatility of primary commodities led to declining terms
of trade which was 21% below its 1970 level. Over the same period, the percentage of poor people remained the
same in 1998 as it was in 1987, in spite of increased trade volume. Social indicators also showed a decline, going
by HDI estimates. The conclusion is that growth effects need to consider other related social variables, mainly
distribution effect of increased income. Growth in the poor’s income need to be decomposed into growth and
distribution effect.
The socio-economic approach introduces the realities of capabilities, vulnerabilities and sustainability of
livelihoods. Desirable outcomes, therefore, go beyond income gains to welfare gains, reduced vulnerability,
improved food security and sustainable use of natural resources, which have strong equity considerations and
therefore work up from micro to macro.
5. Inequality Concerns in the analysis of globalization
Divergence is a feature of current globalization. The inherent equity consideration in the implementation of
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
globalization policies lies in:
(i) use of rules that benefit the powerful countries at the expense of he weaker nations or regions, leading to
unequal rate of economic and social development which shows as deepening poverty of developing countries
compared to developed ones (Human Development Reports)
(ii) its human expression which hinges on the extent to which all groups within a nation can participate in its
income–growth process. Unequal participation of people and groups in the new trade opportunities created by
globalization bring about the paradox of income growth and increasing poverty, of segments of the same
population.
In many instances especially in agrarian economies of SSA, equality of participation, equality of response to
opportunities is something that cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, while many of the earlier analysis of
liberalization effects have been positive on growth, more recent studies have shown that these benefits of
globalization are not automatic and are contingent on the management of other evolving phenomena, the two
principal concerns being inequalities and market volatility. Thus a people-centred analysis of globalization effects
cannot take a purely neoclassic view of economic growth but rather, a human development approach.
Neoclassical economic analysis assesses outcomes of policy in a gender neutral or household or per capita
unit of analysis. Distributional effects are considered or emphasized. Resultant inequalities are seen as incidental
rather that the cause and effect of mainstream policies. Emphasizes aggregates of growth, efficiency, income and
consumption.
Heterodox (feminist) economic analysis goes beyond the unitary analysis to a disaggregated view of society
to answer the question: are these outcomes equal for all groups or socio-economic groups. If not, growth and
efficiency have been attained at the expense of social justice and equity or at the price of inequity. That is why
the theory of inequality is central to the analysis of poverty effects of macro policies such as liberalization.
6. Some Perspectives on The Nature and Measurement of Gender Inequality
First let us look at the dimensions of inequality with a view to situating gender inequality. Inequality exists in a
development system which concentrates opportunities. It results in distributional imbalances in development
outcomes such as economic well being, paucity of it or simply lack of it. Its measurement is usually a measure of
concentration, which is estimated as the Gini Coefficient – a measure of the level of evenness of distribution.
Amartya Sen identifies several faces of inequality, with gender inequality being the most profound, being that it
crosscuts other forms of inequality. At the micro level therefore, gender inequality has been seen as that which
mostly undermines human development. At the macro level, such inequalities transmit their effects either to
enhance or to constrain growth. In the latter, where inequality enhances growth, this has been termed the
capitalist accumulation effect, while in the former, it has been termed the underdevelopment effect. Either way,
inequality manifests as varying levels of lack or poverty, food insecurity (hunger) being a major manifestation.
Gender inequality reinforces the structural dimension of poverty which has also been a concern in the
measurement of poverty.
The major types of Gender Inequality that are mostly related to economic production are:
● Employment Inequality reflected often as increased labour feminization without increased gender
development or economic empowerment of women;
● Persistent wage gaps between men and women in employment;
● Ownership Inequality reflected often as resource constraints for women in the same production system;
● Household Inequality reflected as unequal power relations and underlies other derivatives such as
employment inequality and political inequality.
Causes of Gender Inequality
❍ Gender role differentiation imposed by the traditional society on time, ability, availability of men and
women to respond to changing opportunities;
❍ Gendered entitlement systems imposing disparities on access of men and women to common property
resources, especially productive assets;
❍ Gendered nature of production which imposes differential outcomes not only on productivity of men and
women but also on returns to production due to valuation bias on outputs of production (productive and
reproductive work outputs).
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
How large is gender inequality
Some schools of thought maintain that gender inequality is not as much of a problem as it is made out to be. So
how large is gender inequality? Ravi Kanbur’s analysis of the size of gender inequality is very explicit. It posits
that there is sub-distribution of gender categories since gender crosscuts all other dichotomies. Total size of
inequality is therefore the overall distribution of inequality (V) within each sub group.
Eboh (2003) recognizes the presence of multiple gender categories, each one exerting a gendered impact on the
development process. An estimation of the size and effect of inequality must decompose along these structural
lines. First to effectively capture all facets and two to assess differences in the impact on sub-categories – a
distinction or decomposition of the within and the between effects. To this extent, intra-gender power structures
have been found to be significant in the analysis of gender relations in primary production systems (Akanji, 1994)
7. Gender Analysis of Liberalization Policies
Inequality becomes a relevant force in globalization because it sets the initial position of men and women at the
onset of changing policies of liberalization. This initial position of advantage or disadvantage determines the
responsiveness to the opportunities that liberalization present. On the aggregate, the outcome of liberalization in
a production system depends on the gender structure of the actors (producers) and their aggregate supply
response. In the next section, we carry out a gender analysis of liberalization impacts in cross-country studies.
Going by its own doctrines of survival of the fittest and capitalist accumulation, liberalization itself initially
reinforces inequalities although it is also believed to potentially have the ability to close gender gaps and other
forms of inequalities over time. Another possible outcome of liberalization is to move an economy or nation from
one kind of inequality to another. Thus different forms of inequality would impose adversities or negative impacts
on lives of both men and women. Inequalities of different forms that become self-reinforcing culminate in poverty
of those affected and underdevelopment in spite of broadening opportunities for growth.
7.1 Gender analysis of liberalization policies is a gendered deconstruction of Stylized Facts around its
doctrines as it affects women and men and as it affects macroeconomic growth indicators.
Impact of Gender Inequality on Economic Growth, Poverty and Food Security: Stylized Facts and Empirical
Evidences around the developing world
7.1.1 Impact of gender inequality on efficiency and output of agriculture
The broad macroeconomic outcomes of liberalization are as follows:
Increased commercialization, increased specialization and concentration, expanded market for output export
promotion via the availability of farm surplus, industrial linkages are promoted. The effects on macroeconomic
variables are enhanced price of commodities, increased farm income, increased flow of private investment,
increased savings and increased paid employment.
However, feminist analysis has brought out other unintended likely and documented outcomes, which are the
effects of gender inequalities in the agricultural work force:
Increased feminization of the labour force, increased wage inequality, pressure on women’s time budget, pressure
on household subsistence, negative impact on health and nutrition, negative environmental consequences as
women and the poor exploit natural resources, net shortfalls in consumption.
Several Micro studies in agriculture largely support these outcomes. Quinsumbing et al (1995) tested the
assumption of pareto efficient household allocation of production resources in Burkina Faso. They found that farm
level output was shortchanged by up to 10% due to allocative inefficiency in household productive resources – a
result of differential gender entitlement, even in households where farm plots were evenly distributed between
male and female farmers. The assumption of pareto efficiency in outcome was debunked. Thus inequality impedes
agricultural growth and household food security.
In Cameroun, gender inequality in technological capability and access as shown by unequal power relations in the
control of yield-enhancing technology, led to substantial income loss to poor households. Women farmers
persisted in growing sorghum in spite of higher returns on rice and household poverty profiles worsened (Jones
1986).
In Zambia, women farmers refused to intercrop female crop (beans) with male crop (maize) despite potential
savings of 50% on weeding labour and cost. This was related to land (Poat, 1991).
Macro studies often give contradictory evidence. Kanbur, 2002 argues that findings are mixed and “the jury is
out”. In spite of some empirical evidences to the effect of positive benefits of gender equality for growth, the
groundswell of opinion is not strong enough. He concedes that inequality impedes growth and redistribution
releases constraint on growth and production, leading to welfare gains, although more from he economic and
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
social dimension and less on the power dimension. Nonetheless, it is shown that pro-growth policy choices are
promoted when endowments and capabilities are more equally distributed between women and men. The
evidence against the relative importance of power inequalities needs to be reassessed against the above
evidences from Zambia and Cameroun!!
Biliamoune (2002) on the other hand, supports the hypotheses that increased inequality between countries of
north and the south are stronger for African women than they are for African men. While globalization has
favoured certain nations at the expense of others, many African countries have lost potential markets, potential
foreign capital flows and globalization has forced non-competitive producers out of the market . The results show
that globalization has an ambiguous effect on gender inequality in a mixed sample of developing countries, but
does have a negative effect on gender inequality in Africa. This implies that gender inequality in Africa is rising as
globalization proceeds.
7.1.2 Impact of Liberalization on Employment
The normal stylized argument is that as liberalization progresses, income growth in the productive sector leads to
massive entry of women into the labour force (Feminization of the labour force). However as income growth
progresses, the rate of feminization changes depending on the stage of development. This is the theory of the
Feminization U’. Many empirical studies support this theory but the study by Darity and Ertuk clarifies the
segmented effect in different countries at different stages of economic growth
Changes in feminization ratio can apply through two different effects:
Buffer hypothesis: women’s labour is secondary due to lower labour value and so as industrialization proceeds,
female labour declines
Substitution hypothesis: SAP induced substitution of female labour for male labour as a cost reducing strategy.
Feminization enhances economic growth.
In the craft economy (agrarian), at the initial stage of market expansion, there is massive feminization (Darity
and Ertuk, 2000). Feminization rate however falls with rising income due to greater competition with (male)
skilled labour. Job losses result for women.
In middle income (semi-industrialized) countries, feminization rate proceeds at the same rate as income growth
because net job loss tends to equate net job gains as women’s education and skill increases.
In high income countries, feminization rate increases with increasing income (economic growth) because the
opportunity cost of women’s time is now higher than its subsistence value. You may find the phenomenon of “sitat-home-husbands”.
Recent efforts towards conceptualizing gendered impacts of openness (liberalization) through price, income and
employment have verified this U-shaped feminization effect in many newly industrializing nations. Export
promotion and trade liberalization have led to massive movement of women into the labour force (Wood 1991,
Cagatay and Osler, 1995, Floro 1992). Whether this is good for women or good for growth has also been a subject
of further analysis. Ertuk and Darity (2000) showed that the new global division of labour between the North and
the South could thwart economic benefits normally associated with trade liberalization.
In one likely effect, female unpaid labour in the household subsidizes the reproduction of labour. This is a cost on
women, which diminishes and passes to the market as higher cost of household welfare and food security as
labour force feminization proceeds. On the other hand, wage discrimination against women in the paid
employment is a net gain on growth.
Floro examines the same effect in agricultural households in the Philippines and notes substantial substitution of
labour between men and women as agricultural export increases, putting pressure on subsistence and welfare. In
Nigeria, the substitution effect on household welfare and nutrition was evident during the structural adjustment
programme (NISER/CBN, 1991).
7.1.3 Impact of liberalization policies on value of labour
The reproduction of labour is normally subsidized by women via domestic roles of nurturing, welfare provisioning
etc. As income growth proceeds and labour force is feminized, cost of reproducing labour becomes positive as
industrialization proceeds. In a craft economy, the burden of care falls on the market and because of
infrastructural deficiencies and underdeveloped goods and services markets, the value of labour increases as
labour quality is compromised leading to inefficiency in production, declining output, declining income, high food
prices and food insecurity (Floro (1992) in the Philippines, Dolan and Sutherland (2002) in Kenya).
In an industrialized economy, the cost of labour is minimized due to efficient goods and services market. Thus
liberalization may leave the value of labour unchanged.
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
7.1.4 Effect on composition of output
With industrialization, composition of output changes from primary products to industrial goods and export-led
industrialization. Female labour has been seen to subsidized production of industrial goods as unionization breaks
down (sweatshop effects) (Ozcan and Ozcan, 1999). Economies change production to industrial goods at the
expense of women’s sweat. The phenomenon has been noted in Export Processing Zones (EPZ) and in Commodity
Value Chains (Kenya), although they have been shown to provide great opportunities for women to benefit from
globalization, with short-term benefits for income and household poverty.
7.1.5 Impact on Investment and Savings
Where the substitution effect is higher, labour force feminization is efficient. Investment increases due to the
minimal cost incentive. In a cross country analysis (Sequino, 2000), empirical data not only shows that GDP
growth is positively related to gender wage inequality but that part of the impact is transmitted through its
positive effect on investment.
During liberalization such as SAP, women’s work burden increases due to cut down in governments social
spending. The share of household goods that substitutes for market defeminization, leading to desaving. But the
higher the household provisioning, the higher the savings. Poverty management and food security occurs at the
expense of women.
Higher subsistence leads to higher savings and declining poverty. On the other hand, higher market income leads
to increasing opportunity cost of female labour, decreasing subsistence and decreasing savings. Liberalization may
affect savings negatively.
7.1.6 Increased Paid work leads to economic empowerment for women
Again, findings are highly mixed and contextual. While in agrarian economies, the economic opportunities are
enlarged for women, in other subsistence and newly industrializing economies, there are often less clement effects
on women’s position in the workforce.
Changes in the conditions of (paid) work due to more informalisation of work, less unionization have led to
depressed wages and the sweatshop syndrome. Wage differentials are reinforced. In developed countries, there
is evidence of drop in gender wage gaps, given enhanced competition between men and women skilled workers in
the work place. In developing countries, wage gaps are exacerbated due to low skill of new female market
entrants, high supply of labour and low bargaining power of the unskilled vis a vis the skilled. Work normalization
and feminization of work rather is the norm to the advantage (capitalist accumulation) of the market economy.
Occupational segregation also persists due to skill differentiation and because skill upgrading is costly for women.
Net job creation effects may be unclear. Net job creation increases for women irrespective of skill category. But
net job destruction is also rising in high technology-intensive environment. Volatility of employment and income
is therefore on the rise for female labour.
For large industrial firms, the above picture is clearer. Extensive studies in South East Asia and Latin America
have been more amenable to the analysis (Ozler, Seguino, Ozan and Ozcan etc). For agriculture, the informal
nature of employment, smaller firms, and high-unpaid work burden makes t more difficult to show the effects
from cross-sectional data because of preponderance of unskilled workers. Net job creation may appear to be
higher. However income effect is usually negative while wage gap effects are reinforced.
Trend analysis of agricultural data shows the structural effect more clearly as the sector is being transformed in
size and technology and income. Income effect becomes lower and wage gap between skilled and unskilled jobs
increases. In developed economies, the reverse is usually the case. So in agrarian economies, the stylized
feminization ‘U’ shows up only at the later stages of structural transformation.
7.1.7 Impact on Agricultural Growth via Small Farmer Commercialization (SFC)
Increased commercialization of agricultural production is seen as a positive response to adjustment policies. The
optimal response is expected to ‘hasten’ the process of structural transformation. Therefore, any constraints to
supply-response would naturally show down the rate of commercialization. Conversely, optimal trends in the
factors that are critical determinants of supply-response should be positively related to the pace of
commercialization. In the sense that such factors or the availability of factors of production vary by gender, it is
expected that rate of commercialization will vary by gender.
An identification of the critical determinants of supply response and differentials in these parameter estimates for
male and female farmers (degree and dimensions of gender inequality in assets ownership, capabilities and
accessibility) will lead to different set of outcomes than projected by policies. Priorities for bridging gender gaps
are called for in hastening the process of agricultural commercialization and growth.
Some of the determinants of commercialization have been analyzed conceptually and empirically and gender
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Globalization, Poverty and Food Security
differentials are estimated (Akanji, 2003). The critical determinants are largely related to the macroeconomic
growth variables, albeit at the micro level.
Level of investment which may derive from capital accumulation from women in terms of inelastic labour demand
is shown to be important. Gender inequality in labour utilization may enhance commercialization for men. On the
aggregate, the gross investment is likely to be shortchanged. Credit (Leff and Sato, 1988) becomes crucial in an
analysis of investment behaviour of commercial farmers. Therefore, what credit volume is available to male and
female farmers is a determinant of commercialization.
Land Asset is another critical factor, and consistent with the ‘financial hierarchy hypothesis’, bigger financial
(asset) base predisposes to higher access to credit and better supply-response or rate of commercialization, inter
alia. Land is the most important asset base in small-scale agriculture. To the extent that access of farmers to
land vary significantly by gender (Akanji, 1991, 2002) this variable is crucial to the analysis of commercialization.
Cropping pattern as a derivative of land size is also important. Land, on its own, may be insufficient, rather the
optimal land use within the framework, of commercialization is more important. In this sense are the allocation of
land to commercial and non-commercial production and the ratio of traded to non-traded crops on male and
female farms become critical.
Inequalities in these initial positions during Small Farmer Commercialization (SFC) have been seen to negate the
expected aggregate outcomes from SFC. Food security objectives are still paramount with small farmers (Kunze,
2003). In a study of several African countries, the following patterns were observed:
Box 2: Impacts of Small farmer Commercialization in Africa
SFC is part of a more comprehensive change in rural livelihoods which include off-farm activities especially wage
labour for women. Evidence is also given that it is part of a long-term transition from traditional peasant life to
new rural lifestyles (globalization effect).
A major finding in the process of SFC is short-term food shortages at the household level due to spontaneous
development of a market economy. Intensification of staple crop production does not translate into food
availability, rather, enhanced income from a variety of livelihood options buttress food security in the medium
term. Food price hikes are common in a SFC environment.
Diversification, rather than specialization was therefore observed. More plot fragmentation took place rather
than land amalgamation. Therefore, the food security objective is stronger in Africa’s SFC than themercerization
objective.
7.1.8 Impact of Socio-cultural variables
(FAO Workshop on Gender and Agricultural Commercialization in Africa, IITA, 2003)
In the sense that the socio-cultural variables exert particular power structures between men and women in rural
communities (Bari, 2001), they are all expected to produce differential gender effects on investment behaviour
and level of farm commercialization. Variables like literacy will enhance participation in the market economy via
greater access to information and higher technological learning (Koffi-Tesso, 2001). The age and gender of the
farmer are important power variables in a rural community. Even among women, age crosscuts with gender to
exert particular influences. An older woman in a farm household has the status of a man among other women
while her position among the wives may confer her privileges such as greater access to land and other communal
property resources. The nature of employment is also important. Being primarily engaged in a particular crop
production confers social capital, which is found in commodity-based social institutions, like farmers associations
or cooperatives. Other (part-time) growers may lack such influence while on the other hand, having another
source of income apart from rice farming could be a boost to investment capacity. These are contentious issues
and contextual in manifestation and therefore need to be empirically validated.
Conclusion
The foregoing has shown the extent that liberalization policies impact of different people in different sectors of an
economy. While liberalization policies will be gender-neutral in their indication, they are hardly gender-neutral in
their outcomes. It takes an analysis of such outcomes by gender categories to see the differential impact. It has
also been shown that such outcomes of gender inequality do impact on the overall economy, mostly in negative
ways. One, disincentives are set up, productivity is shortchanged, discrimination in wages either fuel growth of
profit-oriented firms but against unethical operating standards and/or creates disenfranchised population of
workers. Inequalities in liberalization effects affect productivity and output especially in agricultural systems,
thereby worsening food security. It takes a gender analysis framework to unpack these effects. Gender analysis
instruments are an important tool for interrogating reform policies in order to provide a framework to mainstream
gender in the workings of policies themselves.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Akanji. Bola 2002. “Globalization, Poverty and Food Security: Some Conceptual Linkages. “Paper Presented at the
International Conference of Poverty and Food Security ECOWAS Secretariat, Abuja.
Akanji, Bola O. 2003. “Determinants and Indicators of Commercialization on Male-managed and Female-managed
Rice Farm in Nigeria “Paper Presented at International Conference on Gender and Agricultural Commercialization
IITA.
Ahmed Ismail and Michael Lipton. “Impact of Structural Adjustment on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A review of
the literature.
Amartya Sen. 2001. “Many Faces of Gender Inequality”. The frontline, India November 9, 2001.
Baden Sally 1997. “Economics Reform and Poverty: A Gender Analysis”. Report Prepared for the Gender Equality
Unit, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
Baliamoune Mina 2002. Globalisation, Economic Growth and Gender Inequality” What Fate awaits African Women?
Conference on Globalization Economic Liberalization and the Role of Women in Economic Growth and Development
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Cagatay Nilufer and Sule Ozler, 1995. “Feminization of the Labour Force: The Effects of Long –Term Development
and Structural Adjustment” World Development Vol.23, No.11 pp. 1883-1894.
Chinkin, Christine. 2001. “Gender and Globalization”. http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequa/0221.htm
Dorlan, Christine S and Kirsty Sutherland. Gender and Employment in the Kenya Horticulture Value Chain
“Globalization and Poverty”.
Elson Diane 1989 The Impacts of Structural Adjustment on women: Concepts and Issues The IMF, World Bank
and the African Debt, Vol 2 Bade Onimode ed London/New Jersey Zed Books
Erturk K. and William Darity Jr. 2000. “Secular Changes in the Gender Composition of Employment and Growth
Dynamics in the North and South”. World Development Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 1231 – 1238.
Floro, Maria S .2002 “Women, Work and Agricultural Commercialization in the Philippines”.
Fontana Marzia, Susan Joekes and Rachel Masika. 1998. “Global Trade Expansion and Liberalization: Gender
Issues and Impacts”. Department of International Development (DFID) UK.
Gladwin Christina H 1991 Structural Adjustment and African Women Farmers. University of Florida Press. Center
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Ozler, Sule 2000. “Export Orientation and Female Share of Empowerment:
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Seguino, S. 2000. “The Effects of Structural Change and Economic Liberalization on Gender Wage Differentials in
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Productivity: “Implications for Household Efficiency and Agricultural Policy” Food Policy vol. 20, No.5, 1995.
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UN. DAW. 1999. “World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, Globalization, Gender and Work”. United
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The G8 Summit 2006 and global economic justice
The G8 Summit 2006 and global economic justice
By Kathambi Kinoti, Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
As this year's G8 Summit came to a close on July 17, economic justice advocates were not impressed by the
grouping's progress report on last year's pledges, although they acknowledge that there was some progress. The
2005 Summit focused on measures to reduce poverty and support sustainable development in the world's poorest
continent. This year the agenda was global energy security, the fight against infectious diseases and education. All
these focus areas have implications for the realization of women's rights, although the G8's primary objectives
may not have much to do with the universal realization of human rights.
Oxfam International had this to say about the communiqué from St. Petersburg:
"There has been progress on Africa in the last year but it is far from substantial, despite what the G8 leaders said
today. We're pleased that they've agreed to regular performance reviews on Africa and we hope they can give the
world a performance to be proud of in Germany next year." [1] Although last year's Summit paid special attention
to Africa, it is not only the poor in Africa who are adversely affected by many of the economic policies shaped by
the world's richest group of nations and enforced by the international finance institutions. The economic gap
between rich and poor nations continues to grow and the feminization of poverty continues to be evident.
G8 pledges for 2006
In St. Petersburg this year, the G8 made several pledges [2] , among them to:
- enhance global energy security by making efforts to 'increase transparency, predictability and stability of the
global energy markets, improve the investment climate in the energy sector, promote energy efficiency and
energy saving, diversify energy mix, ensure physical safety of critical energy infrastructure, reduce energy
poverty and address climate change and sustainable development;
- co-operate with development partners and stakeholders to achieve high quality basic education, literacy and
gender equality in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals and to facilitate the wider use of ICTs;
- seek to enhance international capacities to monitor and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases;
- work further with other donors to mobilize resources for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
and to continuing to pursue as closely as possible to universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment for those who need it
by 2010' and to further develop the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise; and
- improve the effectiveness of international response to emergencies and of action to mitigate health
consequences of natural and man-made disasters, including through effective use of rapid response teams.
What about debt cancellation, fair trade and aid?
Although the statements and pledges made by the G8 leaders seem to attempt to portray the Group's policies as
being aimed at fostering balanced global economic growth and prosperity, economic justice advocates think
otherwise.
They call for total cancellation of debt for poor countries and for the G8 to stop counting debt-cancellation as aid.
[3] They say that aid should be viewed as justice, not charity, and call for a qualitative and quantitative increase
in aid. The repayment by poor countries of their debts owed to G8 countries, the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank force these countries to cut down on public spending on healthcare, education, water and other
basic services. Women end up having to take on the burden that their governments should be bearing, as they fill
the gaps and provide basic services to their families and the society by extension. [4] Without providing total debt
cancellation, G8 pledges on infectious diseases, education and energy security will not amount to much. The way
that aid is currently disbursed to poor countries fails to make significant differences in the lives of poor people and
also tends to perpetuate gender inequalities.
The current international trade regime is another area that is considered to further impoverish the poor. While the
St. Petersburg Summit was pushing for a conclusion to the Doha round of the World Trade Organization
negotiations, many welcomed its collapse as they considered that the talks were likely to push poor nations into
accepting adverse trade conditions, with women inevitably bearing the brunt. In many countries, hunger and
poverty are being perpetuated by the insistence that cash crops are grown instead of the crucial food crops
needed for daily sustenance and food security. For instance, as MADRE reports, increasingly, G8 corporations,
rather than African women, control Africa's food supply. US-based Monsanto, for example, controls 52 percent of
South Africa's maize seed, the country's staple food. [5]
Last year in Gleneagles, the G8 set itself some concrete goals aimed at reducing poverty in Africa, a continent
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The G8 Summit 2006 and global economic justice
where women form the majority of the poorest of the poor. Although some pledges were fulfilled to an extent,
overall there were many promises broken. This year in St. Petersburg, the G8 set fewer concrete goals for itself
and focused less on poverty alleviation. In doing so, however, for women's rights advocates, the group of wealthy
nations has shattered no illusions.
Source:
Resource Net Friday File
Issue 285
Friday, July 28, 2006
The Association for Women's Rights in Development ©
Web: www.awid.org
[1] http://www.oxfam.org/en/news/pressreleases2006/pr060717_g8_africa.
[2] See official website of the G8 presidency of the Russian Federation in 2006. http://en.g8russia.ru
[3] Ibid. 1.
[4] See Susskind, Yifat. 'Make G8 Policy History,' MADRE, 2005. http://www.madre.org/index.html
[5] Ibid.
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World Health Assembly Adopts Resolution Tying Public Health To Trade Policy
World Health Assembly Adopts Resolution Tying Public Health To Trade Policy
The World Health Assembly on 27 May 2006 adopted a resolution that urges member states to improve
coordination at the national level between international trade and public health, requesting the World Health
Organization (WHO) to help its member states to do this. The resolution calls for governments to promote a better
dialogue on trade and health, and gives health ministries a place at the table with other government agencies
involved in trade issues, establishing mechanisms to enable this. It also calls on countries to consider new laws
and policies to address negative impacts on public health from trade policies, as well as potential opportunities.
The agreement was reached on the final day of the 22-27 May assembly of the 192 member states of the World
Health Organization. The agreement came after several developing countries agreed to rework or drop their
proposed changes to the draft resolution in order to comply with concerns, including from Australia and the United
States.
India modified its proposal for more explicit reference to flexibilities for developing countries from international
trade rules on intellectual property rights, Turkey dropped an effort to add text on transition countries, and
Venezuela abandoned the prospect of creating an intergovernmental working group on trade and health.
The new resolution – International Trade and Health (EB117 R5) - was unanimously agreed to at the January
WHO Executive Board meeting, and it came as a surprise to many delegates that three countries suggested
amendments to the draft resolution when the item was discussed on 26 May.
India suggested adding a new paragraph urging member states, “to reflect all the flexibilities permitted under
international trade agreements in national laws to address public health concerns.” It also suggested adding
“multi-stakeholder” in to make the resolution read: “to promote multi-stakeholder dialogue” on trade and health.
The United States said the issue of flexibilities in the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was already “more than adequately covered” in other resolutions,
including the research and development resolution that also was adopted today (see related story). It proposed
deleting the Indian paragraph.
Australia also said that India’s proposal was already dealt with other places in the resolution. Moreover, it said
that the TRIPS Agreement offered the member countries the opportunity “to take up flexibilities but does not
require them to do so.”
As a compromise, India proposed adding its point, in a somewhat watered-down version, to another paragraph
referring to trade agreements, then reading: “using the flexibilities inherent in them.” The US suggested adding,
“considering where appropriate” to be added before this. This was agreed and the resolution was adopted.
The final version (not yet available) urges WHO member states “to adopt, where necessary, policies, laws and
regulations that deal with issues identified in that dialogue and take advantage of the potential opportunities, and
address the potential challenges that trade and trade agreements may have for health, considering where
appropriate using the flexibilities inherent in them.”
Venezuela agreed before the final day’s debate to drop its suggestion to set up an intergovernmental working
group on the issue, sources said. On 27 May, the WHO secretariat distributed a new draft including the changes
but in the meantime Venezuela had withdrawn its proposal. Therefore, there was no discussion of the Venezuelan
proposal on 27 May.
Turkey also agreed to drop a suggestion to add to a paragraph on the challenges and opportunities of trade, “also
taking into account the special problems of countries through which health goods and services transit.” After some
debate involving the United States seeking clarification, Turkey withdrew its proposal “for the sake of consensus,”
it said.
Two WHO sources told Intellectual Property Watch that the 26 May discussion of the draft resolution showed that
there was “very good support across the board,” and many countries were already doing what the resolution
suggested. The member countries are now looking to the WHO to help increase their capacity in this area, they
said. The comments also showed that this is a new issue for the World Health Assembly but not for the individual
countries making up the assembly, they said.
The idea for the resolution came from Thailand at the May 2005 Executive Board meeting. Some members had
argued that trade issues should remain primarily with the World Trade Organization, but acknowledged that
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governments want advice from the WHO as well, the WHO officials said.
Source:
Intellectual Property Watch ©
Update on Trade and Health WHA resolution, from
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=319&res=1024_ff&print=0
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Zapadni Balkan – od "leopardove kože" do Evropske unije
Zapadni Balkan – od "leopardove kože" do Evropske unije
mr Ilija J. Džombiæ, viši asistent, koordinator nastave na Fakultetu za poslovni inženjering i menadžment, Banja
Luka, Bosna i Hercegovina
Podruèje Balkana se èesto definiše kao "bure baruta" i predstavlja podruèje koje je èesto bilo u ratnom požaru, a
koje je svakodnevno optereæeno svaðama i prošlošæu. O karakteristikama ovog podruèja najslikovitije govori
Èerèilova izreka:"Ako zapoènemo svaðu izmeðu prošlosti i sadašnjosti, uvidjeæemo da smo izgubili buduænost".
Situacija na Balkanu je posledica tzv. politike "leopardove kože" od strane meðunarodne zajednice. Posledice
takve politike su veliki broj malih država u kojima je u velikoj mjeri izražen nacionalni identitet, izmeðu kojih još
uvijek postoje problemi nedefinisanosti meðusobnih granica, a koje se suoèavaju sa zaostajanjem u realizaciji
tržišnih i demokratskih reformi. Cilj ovakve politike je politièka i ekonomska destabilizacija regiona i stvaranje
nacionalne zavisnosti. Cilj stvaranja politièke i ekonomske destabilizacije ovog podruèja za rezultat ima
moguænosti uslovljavanja i vršenja pritisaka pojedinaèno na svaku od država regiona i projekciju politike koja je
u interesu svjetskih moænika.
Zemlje bivše Jugoslavije evropski su opredeljenje. Svaka od njih uspostavila je Sporazum o stabilizaciji i
pridruživanju Evropskoj uniji, a neke od njih nadaju se skorom pozivu za pristupanje Evropskoj uniji. Meðutim,
sve zemlje još uvek su optereæene prošlošæu i dogaðajima koji su se desili u vremenu koje je iza nas. Meðu
zemljama vlada politièko nepovjerenje i još uvijek politièki interesi pojedinaca stavljaju se iznad interesa društva
kao cjeline, a sve to doprinosi da se razvija i vlada veliko nepovjerenje izmeðu država koje su nekoliko decenija
èinile jednu državnu cjelinu.
Stoga, možemo reæi da Evropska unija sa dozom rezerve i velikim oprezom realizuje svoju politiku prikljuèenja
zemalja Zapadnog Balkana Evropskoj uniji. Takoðe, odgovor na pitanje zašto se proces pridruživanja zemalja
Zapadnog Balkana Evropskoj uniji odvija sporo, možemo potražiti u èinjenici da je na podruèju Balkana uveliko
prisutna politika i interesi SAD-a, koji su zainteresovani za ovaj prostor. Da je ova èinjenica taèna govori i podatak
da su svi ratovi i krize sa kraja XX vijeka, koji su se odvijali na Balkanu - riješeni ukljuèivanjem i angažovanjem
SAD-a. Stoga, zemlje Zapadnog Balkana same moraju uvjeriti Evropsku uniju da su zaista evropski opredijeljene i
da je vrijeme ratova i kriza prošlost za region.
Da bi uvjerili Evropsku uniju da smo evropski opredijeljeni, da je vrijeme ratova, kriza i nestabilnosti iza nas i da
ovo podruèje može biti region stabilnosti i prosperiteta -neophodno je da zemlje regiona same iniciraju i kreiraju
svoj put ka Evropskoj uniji, ali i svoj put ekonomskog oporavka i razvoja. U stvaranju evropskog puta moraju
zajednièki nastupati. Danas je jedini put razvoja ovih zemalja bez alternative - èvrsta ekonomska saradnja izmeðu
država i stvaranje jedinstvenog ekonomskog prostora.
Opredeljenost za èvrstom ekonomskom saradnjom izmeðu zemalja Zapadnog Balkana je stvaranje Zone
slobodne trgovine i jedinstvenog tržišta (Hrvatska, Srbija i Crna Gora, Bosna i Hercegovina, Makedonija i
Albanija). Sve ove zemlje suoèavaju se sa velikim ekonomskim problemima. Neki od tih problema su hronièna
nezaposlenost koja se danas kreæe u rasponu od 20% u Hrvatskoj do 43% u Bosni i Hercegovini, veliki
spoljnotrgovinski deficiti, nedostatak investicionog kapitala, tehnološka neopremljenost, slaba infrastruktura,
nedostatak obrazovnog kadra, pravno-ekonomska neureðenost itd. Svi ovi nedostaci rezultat su nestabilnosti koja
vlada u regionu, a koja je posljedica nedostatka politièkog konsenzusa izmeðu ovih država.
Da je ekonomska saradnja jedini put razvoja ovih država, pokazuje èinjenica da je juna 2001. godine u okviru
Pakta za stabilnost Jugoistoène Evrope potpisan sporazum o razumijevanju izmeðu ovih država, kao i Rumunije,
Bugarske i Moldavije. Od tada, do danas potpisan je 31. bilateralni trgovinski sporazum u regionu Zapadnog
Balkana.
Meðutim, bilateralna saradnja, kao i mnogi bilateralni ugovori ne zaživljavaju u potpunosti, te je neophodno da
prerastu u multilateralnu trgovinsku saradnju koja bi stvorila jedinstveno tržište Zapadnog Balkana. Da je ovo
podruèje talac nepromišljene politike pojedinih politièara koji sebe smatraju liderima i spasiocima svog naroda i da
nepromišljene odluke donose u izbornoj godini - u prilog govori ponovno uvoðenje carinske stope za proizvode iz
Srbije, Crne Gore i Hrvatske, a koji se uvoze u Bosnu i Hercegovinu.
Ako bi zaista ove države bile iskrene u opredijeljenosti za Evropski put, jedinstven tržišni prostor okupio bi oko
25 miliona potrošaèa sa prosjeènom stopom rasta BDP od oko 4,5%. Prostor je ogromna razvojna potreba sa
trgovinskim deficitom od oko 22 milijarde dolara. Stvaranje jedinstvenog tržišnog prostora zahtijeva mnogo
uloženog napora i vremena koje mora biti rezultat mukotrpnih i dugotrajnih multilateralnih pregovora izmeðu
država Zapadnog Balkana. Ako su najviša rukovodstva ovih država zaista evropski opredeljena i zaista žele
ekonomski razvoj svoje države, rezultat takvih pregovora neæe izostati.
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Zapadni Balkan – od "leopardove kože" do Evropske unije
Stvaranje jedinstvenog tržišnog prostora doprinijelo bi bržem i lakšem pristupanju ovih država Evropskoj uniji, u
odnosu na današnju individualnu praksu pristupanja Evropskoj uniji s jednu stranu, a istovremeno doprinijelo
poboljšanju položaja i uloge ovih država na polju meðunarodnih ekonomskih odnosa s drugu stranu. Stvaranjem
Zone slobodne trgovine regulisalo bi se kretanje radne snage, kapitala, roba i usluga unutar regije. Takoðe,
regulisali bi se mnogobrojni i usložnjeni trgovinski propisi, carinska i poreska politika, itd. Takoðe, to bi
doprinijelo stvaranju zajednièke ekonomske politike u nastupu prema treæim državama i još više bi naglasilo
evropsku opredeljenost ovog regiona i želju za pridruživanjem Evropskoj uniji. Danas svijet misli na krupni
kapital. Ukrupnjavanjem kapitala i liberalizacijom trgovine ukloniæe se sve ono što ne valja, a stvoriæe se
povoljniji preduslovi za neophodna finansijska ulaganja.
Meðutim, ekonomski interesi koji govore u prilog stvaranju Zone slobodne trgovine su suprotni politièkim
interesima pojedinih država regiona, ali i dijela meðunarodne zajednice koji su referendumom i izglasavanjem
nezavisnosti Crne Gore nastavili realizaciju politike "Leopardove kože" zapoèete u poslednjoj dekadi XX vijeka.
Želja za ekonomskim prosperitetom i boljim životom može da zaustavi proces dezintegracije ovog podruèja, ali
samo postojanjem èvrste volje i opredijeljenosti za uspjehom od strane politièkog vrha svake od malih država
regiona.
Iskustvo zemalja Evropske unije koje su najpre stvorile Evropsku ekonomsku zajednicu je više nego dovoljan
pokazatelj da ekonomski interesi mogu pobijediti politièke interese. Takoðe, èinjenica je da su Francuska i
Njemaèka bile osnivaèi Evropske ekonomske zajednice, a da su pre toga bile sukobljene strane u oba svjetska
rata. Stoga, ne treba da postoji nikakav strah u Hrvatskoj ili Srbiji ili Bosni i Hercegovini ili Makedoniji od
stvaranja zajednièke ekonomske organizacije ako su zaista opredeljene za ekonomski i privredni razvoj. Potrebno
je samo sjesti za pregovaraèki sto, razgovarati i kreirati najefikasnije modele razvoja ovog regiona, jer narod koji
živi na ovim prostorima zaslužuje bolji i kvalitetniji život.
Takoðe, stvaranje jedinstvenog tržišta Zapadnog Balkana je test za ovaj region o moguænostima usaglašavanja i
harmonizacije tržišnih i ekonomskih propisa i meðusobne saradnje, jer ako zemlje regiona nisu u moguænosti da
se meðusobno dogovore oko zajednièkih interesa - zašto bi ih Evropska unija prihvatila kao ravnopravnog
partnera? Nemoguænost dogovora ili izbjegavanje stvaranja ovakve organizacije je pokazatelj da zemlja ili zemlje
nisu spremne za širu multilateralnu saradnju i kao takve mogu biti samo izvor nestabilnosti i kriza unutar
odreðene organizacije.
Buduæi odnosi moraju se graditi na povjerenju. Ne smemo dozvoliti da živimo u prošlosti. Naravno, prošlost ne
smemo zaboraviti, ali ne smemo je ni unositi u buduænost. Moramo imati na umu da se Zapadni Balkan smatra
podruèjem nestabilnosti i izvora kriza. Tu sliku koja vlada u svijetu moramo promijeniti. Kako æe mo je
promijeniti zavisi od nas. Ako smo opredijeljeni za ekonomski i privredni razvoj, ako želimo privuæi strane
investitore i inostrani kapital ili tehnologiju moramo sami sjesti za pregovaraèki sto i sami kreirati politiku
ekonomskog razvoja ovog regiona. Moramo pokazati svijetu da smo zaista prevazišli prošlost i da smo èvrsto
opredeljeni za buduænost u kojoj nema mejsta za ratove, podjele, krize i meðusobne optužbe. Takoðe, moramo
stvoriti sliku da smo zaista sposobni preuzeti odgovornost i obaveze za izgradnju buduænosti regiona.
Meðusobna optuživanja, politièke igre, stavljanje minornih politièkih interesa iznad ekonomskih interesa i interesa
društva, opstruisanje bilateralnih dogovora, meðusobna udaljavanja i cijepanja ne samo da æe usporiti naš put ka
Evropskoj uniji što nam je zajednièki cilje, nego æe nas ostaviti po strani u siromaštvu i bijedi.
Meðusobna saradnja za rezultat æe imati brži razvoj cjelokupnog regiona. Naime, ne smijemo zaboraviti èinjenicu
da su sve zemlje ovog regiona osim Albanije èinile jednu državnu cjelinu nekoliko decenija. U takvoj državnoj
cjelini privreda je bila meðusobo zavisna izmeðu tadašnjih republika. Na primjer, Zastava iz Kragujevca je imala
èvrstu saradnju sa Jugoplastikom iz Splita, koja je proizvodila visokokvalitetneinstrumental table za putnièka
vozila koja su se proizvodila u Zastavi, koèioni sistemi u Varteksu, elektronika u Iskri iz Kranja itd. Raspadom
Jugoslavije partneri Zastave postali su drugi proizvoðaèi iz Srbije, ali više nije bilo onog kvaliteta kakav je bio do
poèetka rata.
Jedinstveno tržište æe uništiti sve ono što ne valja. Stvoriæe prostor za nove ideje, nova kapitalna ulaganja,
stvaranje novih zajednièkih projekata koji æe u odreðenom vremenskom periodu popraviti kvalitet života svih
stanovnika regije. Liberalizacijom se otvara prostor za projekte koji æe biti vrijedni pažnje, koji æe smanjiti
nezaposlenost, spoljnotrgovinski deficit, doprinijeti tehnološkom razvoju.
Konaèni cilj stvaranja jedinstvenog tržišta je ulazak u Evropsku uniju, a što æe se sigurno ubrzati stvaranjem
ovakvog tržišnog prostora. Zona slobodne trgovine bi pokazala i uvjerila èelnike Evreopske unije u iskrenoj
opredijeljenosti ovih zemalja za èlanstvom u Evropskoj uniji. Stvaranje Zone slobodne trgovine Zapadbog
Balkana neæe stvoriti novu Jugoslaviju, nego æe stvoriti ekonomski prostor od oko 25 miliona stanovnika koji æe
lakše ostvariti svoje ekonomske interese u današnje doba ekonomske i politièke globalizacije. Na primjer, Èeška,
Poljska i Maðarska su zemlje potpisnice Višegradskog sporazuma (Višegradska trilaterala) i kao takve nisu stvorile
nikakvu novu državu, ali su zato prve ušle u NATO od svih bivših socijalistièkih zemalja kao suverene i samostalne
države. Takoðe, ostvarile su najbrži i najbolji postsocijalistièki oporavak i kao takve ušle u Evropsku uniju.
Takoðe, slièan program saradnje imale su Litva, Latvija i Estonija koje nisu stvorile novu Baltièku državu nego su
ostale samostalne i suverene.
S obzirom da su sve zemlje regiona evropski opredeljene sa ciljem èlanstva u Evropsku uniju, svima mora biti
jasno da je danas nemoguæe graditi i uèvršæivati nacionalne granice i zatvarati svoju državu. Naprotiv, potrebna
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Zapadni Balkan – od "leopardove kože" do Evropske unije
je liberalizacija koja je preduslov bržeg ekonomskog razvoja. Cilj udruženja je vlastiti privredni interes. Kroz
istoriju, Evropska unija se nije širila tako što je odmah primala nove zemlje u punopravno èlanstvo. Najpre,
uspostavljani su odreðeni funkcionalni regionalni programi, kroz koje su se kandidati nastojali približiti
standardima Evropske unije, a zatim su postajali punopravni èlanovi. Geografsko ureðenje Zapadnog Balkana,
kakvo je danas, tržišno nije nikom zanimljivo. Ovo je prostor zavaðenih etnièkih grupa koji prijeti destabilizacijom
cijele Evrope. Ovo je prostor koji pripada istoj cjelini i potrebno ga je na što bolji naèin iskoristiti.
O autoru:
Mr Ilija J. Džombiæ, viši asistent
Fakultet za poslovni inženjering i menadžment Banja Luka
Jovana Duèiæa br.25
78 000 Banja Luka
Tel/fah: + 387 51 – 214 – 805, 214 – 807
Mob.tel: + 387 65 560 824
E-mail:
ilija.dzombic@fakultetpim.com
idzombic@yahoo.com
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DECLARATION
DECLARATION
Made at the WOMEN ASSEMBLY
of the 4 th European Social Forum, Athens, 6 May 2006
While we are facing increasing political intervention by churches and religious fundamentalisms are on the rise in
Europe, leading to a dramatic undermining of women's rights and, in spite of the warnings from feminist
organizations, such as the World March of Women, towards the organizing committee of the European Social
Forum, some of the workshops gave the floor to organizations or speakers who support values contrary to the
Porto Alegre Charter and to women's rights. The Women's Assembly of the 4 th ESF which met in Athens protests
vividly against this situation.
We are participating since the beginning in the construction process of all Social Forums and we are present at the
ESF of Athens to build democratic, hence lay alternatives for a different Europe.
Considering the present challenges facing the Social Forums, the Women's Assembly wishes to stress once again
that women should not serve as an alibi for any kind of manipulations. We reject political alliances that are
concluded to the detriment of women and which establish priorities for our struggles, putting feminist demands
behind anti-racist and anti-war demands. Such processes divide the anti-liberal forces and undermine the strength
of the Social Forums. Because women's rights are universal, feminists are equally involved in the fight against
racism and against war/
We call upon men and women who are in agreement with these positions to join forces with us to construct a
Europe without discriminations, a Europe of peace, a feminist, lay and hence egalitarian Europe.
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, PhD (Serbia and Montenegro), Mirjana Dokmanovic, MA (Serbia and Montenegro),
and Genoveva Tisheva (Bulgaria)
Introduction – Why gender budgeting
Gender budgeting includes range of strategies examining whether gender rhetoric are reflected in government
spending and taxation policy. It links gender equality with budget and promotes more equitable and transparent
budgetary process and more efficient use of public resources. Thus, gender budgeting is very successful both in
economic and gender sense. Besides, gender budgeting is not by itself pro state nor contra state. Sometimes,
market could be better for women than paternalistic state.
Government budget’s functions are allocation of resources, distribution of income and wealth and stabilization of
the economy. Government budget reflects the values of the country. In broadest sense, it shows total public
expenditures (consumption, maintenance, investment) and revenues (tax money). Also, government different
sectoral budgets show public expenditures and revenues for particular sectors (education, health, transport,
agriculture, finance, defence, etc.). Budget is often done in gender blind economic framework with lack of socioeconomic
statistics, transparency and participation.
Whole economics is study of how limited resources are distributed, allocated and used by people within the
economy at the levels of global (world), macro (states), mezzo (sectors, communities), micro (households, firms,
individuals). Any analysis of economy in feminist sense is grounded in an understanding of unequal power
relations between women and men and about need to transform those power relations towards gender equality.
Gender analysis in economics provides tools that can identify gender inequalities within economy; define gender
objectives for economic policies; and develop gender indicators to monitor how gender objectives are met.
Liberal feminist critiques focuses on the conditions of women within structures and institution and highlights ways
in which women’s need and priorities are absent from descriptions of economy. Radical feminist critiques
examines social structures and institutions and hierarchical gender relations; seeks to reduce existing disparities
between women and men in income, resources and opportunities and challenges existing systems and institutions
and underlying power relations.
In both senses gender budgeting is only one strategy towards gender equality and should be a part of a broader
strategy to address unequal power relations. Gender budget analysis is financial connection between economic
development (economic growth, poverty reduction, investments and savings) and gender equity (female poverty
and accesses to resources).
Gender budget initiatives (GBI), or women’s budgets are gender aware analyses of government budgets and how
it allocates resources for women and children. Gender budget is not separate budget for women (and children),
but it is attempt to disaggregate expenditure and revenue according to their different impact on women and men.
GBI contributes to greater gender equity, accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness by
mainstreaming gender into the budget process. Gender budget means looking at the government budget through
a gender lens to see where is collection and distribution of public money unequal and inefficient. Thus,
government should be concerned about gender issues both because of economic efficiency and gender equity.
There are some very useful tools for a gender budget analysis (Lecture I. van Staveren, FDE 300 (9) 2004: 3):
1. Gender aware policy appraisal should analyze the policy objectives and shows are policies and their
associated resources likely to reduce or increase gender inequalities. It is looking at the policy in relation with care
economy and opportunity costs and follows its impact on gender lines.
2. Gender disaggregated beneficiary assessments assume to find and to do the survey on the data in different
studies to find out what are needs of women and children, their particular problems and gendered structure at the
sectoral level (overview of sectoral inputs, outcomes and impact disaggregated to gender) always taking care
economy and gender- differentiated cross-sectoral linkages into account.
3. Gender-disaggregated public expenditure incidence analysis about budget itself to compare public
expenditure for some programme with the distribution of expenditure between women and men, boys and girls to
show who benefits (for example, percent of public spending for education for boys and girls).
4. Gender disaggregated tax incidence analysis to examine both direct and indirect taxes paid by individuals
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
and households, measuring gender difference in tax burden.
5. Gender-disaggregated analysis of the impact of the budget on time use to examine the relation between the
way time is used in the national budget and the households, taking into account care economy, time use studies,
rural and urban differences and male and female children.
6. Gender-aware medium term policy framework to incorporate gender into economic models and sectoral
budgets
7. Gender aware budget statement to ensure coordination through ministries of government, parliament and
non-government organizations.
Budget is the most important government political decision, because it assumes allocation and reallocation of the
resources. Budgets are instruments for allocation of resources according to social priorities. Therefore budgets
should follow the principles of efficiency and equity. Budget policy could follow patriarchal values of the society or
it could make attempts to transform them towards the gender equality.
Gender budgeting initiatives in Serbia – critical reflections
The first step in formulating the national budget planing is defining the problems which are main in Serbia, causes
and consequences. This is a phase of identification of social responsible development strategy which should be
adopted by the Parliament. Afterwards sugestions of additional stimulative legislatives, economical, and political
measures, programmes and activities should be established through additional acts. Serbia still doesnot have
suitable strategy of social development and new Constitution is in process of checking and changing. In the
condition of political instability in the country and frequent changes of government this process is slow and
inconsistent. Existing budget in Serbia is invisible. In the proces of establishing budget the problem of women
unequality must be recognised. Thus, the aim of budget in Serbia is to be settled at diverse programmes which
will include situations which should be solved, aims, activities, means, indicators and gender problems.
The next step is incorporating items which would be assigned to wome, or to dispose means regarding
proportional gender representation budget holder. It assumes developed gender statistic, which Serbia also
doesnot have with exceptions of (un)employment statistic. In any case, Serbia lacks gender strategy budgeting
and other mechanisms, which will not make un-equality deeper but correct existing injustice.
In 2002 gender policy promoting group «The Voices of Differences»in cooperation with Institute G17 and Center
for Human Rights, Women in Action, PAZ, STAR Network of Women Learning took out campaign for economical
equality and growing power of women and from the economical unequity of women in Serbia, during which it
commented existing and announced acts from the gender perspective points. At the beggining of 2003, United
Nations Developing Programm, Belgrade office, organised ephemeral workshop for civil society members, in the
gender equity area, especially from the preparing National Budget according to gender equity.
However, no government in Serbia since democratic changes in 2000 till now hasn't accepted gender budgeting as
strategy. Obstacles are manysided, as a most important regarded those coming from political unpreparedness to
accept such proposals. The gender equity questions are disregarded and dealed with as unimportant, and it seems
that only pressure and EU conditioning can contributed gender problematic. Serbia is still at the beggining of
forming institutional councils at local, regional and Republic levels. For example, Republic Council for Gender
Equality, announced in 2000, never has started working because it has never be constituted as Government
council. The third government did it, in October 2004. In the process of establishing are also gender equality
councels at local levels in province of Vojvodina.
Gender budgeting in Serbia – Launching the initiative
In spite of the fact that in 2000 Serbia started a complex process of the transition to the market economy,
fostering political, social and economic changes, based on harmonization of domestic legislative with the EU
standards, gender equality has still not been recognized as an important political and economic issue. Accordingly
to the former practice, the budgeting process is still gender blind, although not gender neutral by its effects. The
particularities of and differences between women and men go unrecognized under the assumption that policy
objectives and instruments are broadly applicable, and hence seen as gender-neutral. Hence, the gender sensitive
budgeting is not implemented at all, while gender disaggregated statistics exists in a few policy fields, e.g. on
structure of unemployed, the population, or life expectancy.
The key driver of formulating the national budget planning and its executing, monitoring and evaluation is the
Government, which passes formulated and defined Budget Proposals to the Parliament that approves them. The
Executive Council of the Province of Vojvodina and the Parliament of Vojvodina are the key players in the Province
of Vojvodina in budget planning and executing, while local municipalities are authorized for formulating and
executing budget programs at the local level. The analysis of the legislative shows that it adopts the assumption
that the equality between women and men is achieved during the former socialist period, and that the
discrimination based on sex is a solitary and not a mass occurrence. Therefore, the state, when determining a
policy, does not recognize a need to develop any program or policy aimed at elimination of discrimination based
on gender. Hence, there is no developed strategy, measures or mechanisms built to measure any effect of
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
adopted and implemented policies regarding women and girls, men and boys. As a result, the real economic and
social position of women is not visible in the public, but only in a few estimations of feminist researchers, women’s
groups or international organizations as the UNIFEM, and UNECE.
Having in the mind that the way in which the national, regional and local budgets are usually formulated ignores
the different, socially determined roles and responsibilities of women and men, and that there is a need to have a
state liability towards implementation of the adopted human rights legislative through the budgetary
commitments, the Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights (WCDHR), Serbia, and the Bulgarian Gender
Research Foundation (BGRF), Bulgaria, have implemented in 2003 as partners a joint project “Budgetary
Implications of Domestic Violence in Bulgaria and Serbia”. The project was supported by the Association of
Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Innovative Grant in 2003.
The goal of the project was to initiate a system for estimating and monitoring budgetary implications of domestic
violence in Bulgaria and Serbia, which would represent the first attempt for methodology of gender budgeting in
these countries, contributing to the establishing of consistent gender equality policies. Domestic violence was
identified as one of the major women’s issues in the both countries that have, amongst other, implication on
economic and social position of women. The challenges of changing legislation regarding domestic violence in both
countries under the pressure of women’s groups were considered as a fertile soil to initiate studies on budgetary
implications of domestic violence and thus introduce gender budgeting as a strategy for gender equality policy.
In spite of the outspread of the phenomena of domestic violence, Serbia lacks adequate social and legal treatment
of domestic violence and an efficient and consistent mechanism of protection. In 1998 the Victimology Society of
Serbia presented the New Model of Laws on Domestic Violence [1] , based on the research findings and reports on
trial monitoring, as well as on research on international and domestic law. The New Model presented harmonized
changes of five relevant laws: the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, family law, civil procedure law and
the law on weapons and munitions. As a result of a number of awareness raising and advocacy campaigns in the
next several years, the first changes in the law regarding domestic violence in Serbia happened and in March
2002, a new criminal offence called domestic violence, which is prosecuted ex officio, was introduced into the
Criminal Code [2] .
However, budgetary implications have not been explored so far. They are crucial for estimating the costs of the
response by the state and NGOs in relation to the future implementation of the legislation. That would ensure
both the adoption and the implementation of the law and would create a realistic picture of the effectiveness of
the existing strategies and of the needs in the future.
The project was implemented by sending out calls to NGOs, women’s groups and individuals for initial papers on
this issue in both countries. As the final outcomes of the project, initial papers were reviewed by experts and
adopted as a basis for a methodology for an extensive research budgetary implications of domestic violence.
Along with the direct effect on the response to domestic violence, this initiative had established a good and very
concrete base for starting gender budgeting in Bulgaria and Serbia in other fields, too, and the co-operation
between civil society and the state in this specific area. The aim of the project was to bring the attention of the
society and specialized institutions and agencies at gender responsive budgeting as a key strategy to be adopted
by the government.
In Serbia, the outcome of the project was an initial study on budgetary implications on domestic violence. The
subject of the study of budget implications of domestic violence in Serbia encompasses budget allocations for
implementation of activities in the field of prevention and elimination of domestic violence, especially the
resources necessary for prevention and elimination of domestic violence.
The accepted methodology, developed by the Novi Sad Women’s Center and WCDHR, refers to the way we learn
of the phenomenon of violence; therefore we suggest that the way we learn of this phenomenon and its budget
implications should be by follows phases:
- Analysis of the problem of domestic violence (frequency, victims, reaction of government institutions,
measures of prevention, sanctioning) which would include gathering data and reports on existing research and
data by women’s groups, Victimology Society of Serbia, hot lines, shelters, Council for gender equality of the
Government of Serbia and various institutions and organizations (e.g. with certain donors, international
organizations, etc.), and by interviewing subjects whose work is related to the issue of domestic violence (officials
of the Treasury Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of
Social Protection, Ministry of Justice, members of the Council for Gender Equality within the Government of
Serbia, members of the Council for Gender Equality within the Provincial Executive Council of Vojvodina,
Provincial Secretariat for Labour, Employment, and Gender Equality within the Provincial Executive Council of
Vojvodina
- Designing a case study aimed to identify and analyze costs of domestic violence from the moment it
occurs until its resolution
- Designing a standard questionnaire that could be applicable in all cases of domestic violence identify all
situations that require expenses, that is, imply various costs for both private entities and government institutions
that came into existence because of violence, that is, which are direct or indirect result of violence, and it should
include the category of lost profit.
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- Defining the context – policy of elimination and prevention of domestic violence and budget policy in
Serbia. Understanding international standards in the field of human rights and eliminating domestic violence,
comparison against the regulation of Serbian legislature, as well as establishing responsibility and role of the
country in eliminating and preventing domestic violence on the basis of international legal instruments and
international standards of exercising and protecting human rights
- Overview of acts and procedures of government institutions which should be applied in cases of domestic
violence on the basis of international regulations which are, however, not being applied
- Estimate of expenses of those procedures and interventions that are not being applied and they should be.
Sum of expenses of interventions which are applied with those that are not being applied, and they should be,
gives the most accurate picture of the expenses of domestic violence in one case. Following further analysis of
occurrence and frequency of violence would give a close picture of the cost of domestic violence
- Estimate of direct and indirect users of budget funds (who the indirect and direct users of budget funds
are and how their work is related to the phenomenon of domestic violence) for implementation of the Criminal
Law and the Law of Torts, Law on Marriage and Family Relations
- Estimate of time and budget dimensions of the expenses of domestic violence for the entire society on the
basis of gathered data, that is, the amount of money spent over a certain period of time (e.g. one year) on
fighting domestic violence, as well as budget expenses on the basis of analysis of the gathered data
- Estimate of the relation between the needs of budget support for the programmes of prevention and
elimination of domestic violence and current budget allocations on the basis of the analysis of the gathered data,
that is, the amount of money needed for elimination of domestic violence on the basis of the prevention
programme
- Defining obstacles for estimating and calculating budgetary implications of domestic violence, making
proposals and recommendations.
As guiding principles for the budget analysis from the gender perspective we have defined:
- Establishing statistics on victims of domestic violence,
- Sensitivity for gender based segregation, cultural standards and practice, and gender norms, and the way
policies support them and encourage their reproduction,
- Interdepartmental cooperation of government agencies and policies
- Awareness of the existence of gender issues and ability to discover and analyze hidden aspects of gender
inequality
- Methods and means for setting goals and priorities in policies
- Awareness of complexity of gender inequality in the process of setting goals
- Ability to define policies in conformity with certain social phenomena.
As main obstacles in estimating and calculating budgetary implications concerning this field we have identified:
- Lack of a National plan and strategy for eliminating and preventing domestic violence
- Lack of statistics on victims of domestic violence
- The problem of approach to information about budget and government administration /budget
transparency/
- Lack of records on cases of domestic violence in health institutions, police, investigation authorities, public
prosecution, courts, and misdemeanor bodies, and poorly trained personnel in this field within these institutions
- The problem of calculating the expenses
- Lack of systematic research in this field, except individual researches and surveys by women groups,
Victimology Society of Serbia, and women experts in this field
The main achievement of the project was that it was the first introduction of the gender budgeting in Serbia, as
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
an innovative strategy for prevention and elimination of domestic violence, and protection of its victims. In the
same time, these were the same reasons that have created difficulties during the implementation of our project.
There are a very few experts in Serbia who are familiar with the issue of gender budgeting, so they were few
adequate reactions to our call on proposals. Majority of women’s groups have not had nor experience neither
expertise in gender budgeting. We estimate that this initiative will establish good base for starting gender
budgeting in Serbia, and that it will enhance cooperation between civil society and policy makers.
These activities are developed within the framework of the Gender Budgeting Initiative, a regional cooperation in
CEE/NIS aimed at fostering gender budgeting launched at the 2003 NEWW-Polska [3] and NEWW Gender Policy
Conference “Women and Economy” which took place in Gdansk, Poland.
Our follow-up plans include: finalizing the detailed Study on Budgetary Implication of Domestic Violence, as the
initial Study Proposal was the first step in this direction; introducing the Study to the public, the government and
other stakeholders; translating to Serbian tools on gender budgeting; training on gender budgeting for women’s
groups, women in politics and women in media; advocating and lobbying for implementation of gender sensitive
budgets.
Gender budgeting initiative in Bulgaria - Proposal on financing initiatives aimed at the protection of
women who have suffered violence
In principle, when a concept is being developed the objective is to find a medium-term and/or long-term
perspective to major problems within a system threatening either its existence or development. Currently, such a
problem can be seen in finding adequate prerequisites to a steady development of specialized services targeting
the protection of women who have suffered violence. In this country, the above-mentioned services are the
prerogative of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The state represented by its national and regional (local)
authorities gives some support as well, but not beyond the scope of its general policies and activities directed at
decreasing all varieties of violence in society. The problem of domestic violence has not been so far well identified
by the government(s) as a separate problem demanding the corresponding specific measures to be taken.
Accordingly, even the funds provided for small-scale and less significant initiatives “melt” into the implementation
of general strategies that promote women and ban violence, or otherwise, these funds are simply cut down or
reallocated.
NGOs combating family violence are, for the time being, mainly financed by foreign donor organizations and
programmes. Complying with universally accepted rules and with standards established in international practice,
foreign fiscal and technical support is offered at the early stages of structuring the respective organizations and
for the start of their activities. It is presumed that, further on, representatives of the state, municipalities, and
businesses will properly assess the importance of the respective activities and will foster their steady
development. Considering the fact that the initial stage of these activities has almost expired, it is crucially
important to acknowledge the necessity to regulate survival techniques after the donors have “turned the tap
off”.
The proposal on financing initiatives for the protection of women who have suffered violence involves
methodological, organizational, legal and socially acceptable alternatives of sources and ways of financing the
initiatives for the protection of women suffering domestic violence. The leading principle when outlining those
alternatives is to guarantee a steady development of the organizations assisting the victims.
1. NGOs expenditures targeted at women's protection
NGOs combating violence within the family require serious financial subsistence. It has so far (as already
mentioned) come mainly from foreign sponsors. Experts claim that in 2002 the budget is over one million BGN.
Small-scale organizations (employing 1-3 people administrative staff) and a limited range of activities existed on
25-30 thousand levs in 2002. Larger organizations with a wider scope of initiatives (excluding shelter and/or crisis
centre) required between 70 and 90 thousand levs. A major share in the expenditure structure is taken by
psychological and legal counselling of the victims. Individual psychological consultations cost 10-15 levs each and
the same applies to the average cost of the consultation within a group. A legal consultation costs 18-20 levs per
person daily. With social rehabilitation and re-integration sessions the calculation is 10 levs to a participant and
per session.
It is expected that the sector's financial needs will increase in the future. The grounds for this are the well-built
large-scale NGO sector structure, as well as the accumulated positive inertia in its development. The services the
sector offers answer the combined needs for violence prevention, stabilizing and rehabilitating the victims. These
are psychological consultations (individual, familial and group ones); psychological services and legal actions
(primary consultations, initiating divorce proceedings; minor and average physical injury suits; filing complaints to
the respective authority); services towards social rehabilitation and reintegration (advocacy in governmental and
other institutions; assistance with finding employment, etc). Alongside the services women and their children are
guaranteed a temporary stay in shelters (temporary accommodation). Three branches of this kind were
functioning in early 2003. These are the two shelters at Nadya Centre (Sofia) and at "Ekaterina Karavelova"
Women' s Association (Silistra) and the Crisis Centre at Animus Foundation. Each of them provides facilities for
sheltering women and their children over certain periods of time and the stay combines with treatment,
psychological support, psychiatric counselling, placement of children into children's homes, advising women on
finding job and other types of help if necessary. There is a high demand for a temporary stay in these centres.
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The range of these services is being constantly renewed and supplemented. Efforts made to help out victims of
domestic violence have their real social projections, and the services themselves - established social impacts. The
services, which the NGO network offers, are popular among and sought by those who need them. Maintaining
these positions of the sector will also call for an increase of its expenditures. NGO possess a substantial potential
encompassing well equipped offices (judging by our national standards), highly qualified specialists ready to deal
with sensitive issues, successfully developed and applied methods of psychological and other help, as well as
procedures and ways of organizing it. Maintaining the facilities now available, keeping and renewing the staff of
experts, will also impose the necessity to improve the sector's budgeting. In the opinion of specialists working in
the sector for protection of women who have suffered violence the ever-expanding range of services offered by
the NGO sector may, in itself, be a catalyst for a higher demand. This will also require an increase in the costs
incurred by the functioning of these organizations.
Reporting the results of a special survey [4] of the NGO sector for protection of women who have suffered violence
and the additional above-mentioned grounds, we have every right to conclude that the NGO require a regular and
serious financing corresponding to their developmental demands. Remaining in "survival regime" will deprive
victims of actual protection of their basic rights as citizens.
This group of NGO has very limited abilities to self-finance itself via paid activities and services, which was
objectively proved by repeated studies. The grounds for this are the following ones: a very low paying capacity
characteristic for these victimized women who most often come from humble origins and belong to ethnic
minorities; the low general activity of the private business and its limited abilities to finance such initiatives; the
feeble financial stimuli which are supposed to encourage sponsorship. The necessity of state financial back-up for
NGO against violence in the family becomes obvious. Furthermore, it is worth noting that NGO can be a reliable
partner of the state in combining efforts to protect women.
In the draft for The Law for protection against domestic violence (Art.6) the role of the state is strictly and
correctly specified. What is expected is that the state should create conditions for implementation of programmes
to prevent domestic violence and assist its victims. Executive authorities are expected to carry out selection and
training of persons responsible for the protection. They will work together with physical persons and juridical
entities registered under the Social Assistance Act, Art.18, para 2 and 3 to protect the rights of individuals who
have suffered domestic violence. State institutions retain the opportunity to play a leading role in designing and
carrying out the strategies during the protective activities.
2.Guidelines on financing the protection of women who have suffered violence
A standing problem in any type of financing is whether there are tangible legal grounds for it take place. Those
grounds, which exist in Bulgaria for the time being, are neither complete, nor conclusive. Such an 'a priori' state
of affairs hinders a lot the overall activities of the sector active in the field of violence.
2.1. Financing at the national level
2.1.1. Financing based on special funds
Creating a specialized fund can prove to be a basic instrument when financing women protection activities.
Distribution of fund resources is, in essence, a granting scheme that exists as long as it can rely on donor funds
and own revenue. To start functioning the fund needs at least one million levs at its disposal. Provisions for
creating a fund should be made in The Law for protection against domestic violence. We shall assume from now
on that The Law has already been enforced and that The Rules on its application are unambiguous as to the
existence of such a fund. What are the key features of its design?
The Fund will be managed by its Board of directors including representatives of the interested parties and of
governmental institutions. Simultaneously, a Supervisory Committee will be established, which is a traditional part
of such enterprises. In their procedures these bodies will be led by the letter of the law and by the good practice
of more experienced similar funds. A major prerequisite to fund structure implementation is the availability of a
given juridical organization supporting its existence. This should be some kind of an anti-violence NGO alliance
that will be financed by the fund. Setting up such a fund is a completely achievable task, considering the widely
spread national network of NGOs.
A successfully functioning kind of organization at this stage of our country's development is the 'foundation'. A
possible working name for this foundation is "NGOs - against violence". After establishing such a structure (or a
similar one) there will also be an organizational prerequisite (alongside the above mentioned Board and Council)
for the Fund to operate normally.
In view of the above mentioned arguments regarding the necessary interference of the state, and most
importantly, because the activities have a social profile and the people seeking protection have a very low paying
capacity, it is advisable to plan an annual subsidy from the Government Budget (GB) in the fund's revenue part.
The amount of the subsidy will be negotiated between representatives of the Fund and GB and justified through
the corresponding expenditure plans.
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A second possible source is along the line of other (including own) revenues. This is support from foreign and local
donors, proceeds from the fines paid by violence perpetrators, endowments made by individuals or government
entities, membership dues and the like.
Fund resources may be targeted to the following directions:
* Financing of projects in specialized areas of anti-violence activities; carried out complying with competition
principle;
* Paying for specific protective measures, such as formal council for the defence of women in law suits;
expenditures intended to meet psychological counselling and therapy, expenditures on preventive work, on
guardianship, as well as similar expenditure embracing major services and care-giving activities that NGO provide
for women;
* Social benefits (both money and goods) as one-time aid towards family maintenance; and also, for medicines
and dressing materials; for textbooks and notebooks for use by the violence victims' children, for transport, and
the lot;
* Other expenses which are likely to be imposed by needs of the public and the NGO sector (maintaining the
facilities at crisis centres and shelters; printed materials; correspondence costs, etc.)
The structure of expenditures proposed above will cover the support of basic NGO activities.
2.1.2.( Micro-credit) co-operative societies
Another possible way to organize the NGO sector financing is through the micro-credit co-operative societies that
have recently become popular. This is a mechanism of non-gratuitous funds distribution. It is based on
competition principles and ensures the organizations their economic stability. The most attractive side of this
mechanism is that (effective management provided) it presupposes a steady process of functioning. This results
from the opportunity to accrue own income from the rates of interest coming from credit granted for various
projects. At the same time, there is no need to issue bank license. Obtaining one is a heavy and time-consuming
procedure; moreover, it requires a substantial initial capital. With micro-credit societies, members of NGOs
against violence are expected to join the society (the law on co-operative societies imposes that their members
should only be individuals). On applying for credits to use by their organization, those individuals respectively
form a group and apply as a group of persons including all engaged with NGO work (or that specific part of them
who are going to use the credit) thus identifying themselves with this organization. Paying the commensurate
interest should be envisaged when giving credits, and the debtor together with the loan capital pays this back.
It is only when a micro-credit society starts operating that it needs help on the part of GB. Subsequently, the
society is expected to reproduce its initial capital and keep on working. Besides, it can additionally attract donor
support. Membership dues paid by the society's members constitute another serious source of means.
The mechanism of micro-credit societies can only be used to finance paid NGO activities. At present, these include
some legal services. It is possible to look for opportunities to hold paid consultations with a psychologist, to
organize specialized training, to pay for publishing printed materials, etc. As far as these NGOs only have limited
opportunities to raise money from paid services, financing through micro-credit society can have an additional
importance for NGO activities.
The mechanism of micro-credit societies may be useful in assisting victimized persons to set up a business of their
own. The can become members of the society, too, and apply with it for credits. Their membership fees may be
deducted in advance from the loan they get or from salaries. However, it is necessary in cases like these to plan a
comprehensive training course, to find reliable guarantees for paying the loan back, and to provide a strict
supervision over funds spending.
2.1.3. Financing services for persons who have suffered violence through budgeting by the
corresponding ministries related to the problem
Further on in this report what is meant by the group of ministries is: the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (with
the Employment Agency), the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of
Home Affairs (with the National police). The list is by no way a conclusive one, it is a subject of constant
perfection through identifying the interested entities, persons and their specific interests.
There are two possible premises when outlining the financing procedure. The first one obtains on condition that on
a national level there is no fund to finance the protective initiatives and, eventually - the possibilities for credit.
State institutions are expected to envisage expenditures for a full range of general and specific services
(measures) and other activities aimed at the victims of violence as well as designing a policy for the relevant
sector. This will enable the structures of state institutions: to provide services to the victims, to pay for the
lawyers who provide legal assistance, for the professionals who ensure treatment and rehabilitation of the victims,
for prevention campaigns, support for children's education and possibly getting them into boarding school,
subsidizing new employment for such victims and preferences on their enrolment on training courses. All these
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
initiatives should be incorporated in the plans for future work of the above-mentioned institutions.
The budgets of institutions may also include means to distribute on a competition principle between NGOs
applying on projects. These NGOs will also be given the chance to apply for additional funding on projects with
outside financing. They will act as auxiliaries to state administration and will fulfil strictly specific functions in their
work with the victims of domestic violence.
The second option presumes the availability of a state-subsidized fund. Only initiatives with crucial importance
and impact nationally and proposing the policies for this sector will then be eligible and financed through the
budgets of ministries and institutions. This can happen both through purposeful directing of these means to the
relevant governmental structures and through implementing the above-mentioned schemes which NGOs will use
to apply for financing of projects.
A critical reading of current legislation shows that neither the first, nor the second alternative is accepted.
Besides, there is no all-embracing framework as to what parameters the state employs in its policy to stimulate
the development of these activities. For instance, Art.1, para 2 of the Social Assistance Act (SAA) reads that it
settles 'consolidation and development of public solidarity in hard life situations', which also implies those
associated with women who have suffered violence in the family. According to Art.16, social services are based on
social work and aim to support the assisted persons in their efforts to cope with everyday activities and social
integration. This is a part of the care necessary for women who, having left their families, seek help
accommodation, facilities for bringing up children and providing for them, finding job (or starting work after long
unemployment).
According to Art.6, items 3, 4 and 5 of SAA, the Social Assistance Agency at the Ministry of Labour and Social
Policy will inspect the observance of established criteria and standards to follow when providing social services;
will authorize setting up and closing of specialized institutions for social services; will register physical persons
with registration under the Trade Law and juridical persons providing social services. The Rules on the Act
application have yet to clarify this registration procedure, the criteria content, and the possibility to register NGO
protecting women who have suffered violence.
According to Art.18 of the SAA, social services are carried out by the state, the municipalities, by physical persons
registered under the Trade Law and by juridical persons. However, the two latter groups can provide social
services only following their inclusion into the register of the Social Assistance Agency. Since no constraints exist
as to the range of these services, NGO working with women who have experienced violence in the family could
also be entered into this register after the respective clarifying of the rules for participation in it. In actual fact,
however, NGO also work with victims' children (below 18 years of age), which requires their registration under the
Law for Child protection. It is obvious that Art.18 needs an amendment making special provisions for an
opportunity to register organizations under the Law on protection against domestic violence (after its adoption) on
condition that they also provide services to the women's children. This is one of the arguments necessitating the
speedy enforcement of this law.
According to Art.18. par 5 social services can be provided with joint participation of the state, municipalities,
physical persons registered under the Trade Law, and juridical persons on a contract basis. This implies a
possibility to combine the potential of NGOs against violence with the one of other interested organizations in the
public sector. The rules for this joint work have not been specified yet; neither have the responsibilities of the
parties involved.
According to par 7 of this Article, NGO can apply for funds to the Social Assistance Fund if they have an approved
project. In most cases, this option of financing on competition principles could be utilized with wavering success.
To ensure a better financial security it is possible to introduce the "limit" practice popular in other countries
whereby the municipality is obliged to spend defined budget limits on the purchase of social services, including
those on protection of women who have suffered violence.
If there were doctors engaged by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) who works for the NGOs, it will not
present a problem to arrange that the NHIF cover part of the expenditure on psychological recovery of the
victimized women. Another option is to draw additional agreements between the NHIF and NGOs ensuring referral
of women entitled to special recommendation notes for preferential payment treatment or free treatment which is
covered by the National Health Insurance Fund.
To sum up, at the national level, it is necessary for the state to actively participate in assisting the victims of
domestic violence alongside assisting the NGOs protective activities for them through: organizing therapy for
victims of domestic violence; employment commencement and the very process of finding job for the women;
therapy for women and sending their children to children's homes or to school; disseminating information on
domestic violence with preventive purpose and, also, to facilitate the access of the interested individuals to help;
the state should contribute to enable any changes required in the legislation and their co-ordination; it should
envisage adequate forms to subsidize and credit these activities. Irrespective of the specific mechanism of the
funds transfer to be agreed upon in future, there is no alternative to the participation of the state. The studied
expert opinion of those engaged in the NGO sector is in favour of founding a specialized fund with state
participation for the support of these activities.
Municipal level
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
At this level, the financial support for NGOs working against domestic violence can be achieved by contributing
money and goods. It has, so far, been expressed mostly in goods by supplying aid for crisis centres and shelters.
Municipalities provide them with premises and equipment. On the model of child protection desks operating at
municipal level, centres tackling psychosocial issues may open to cater for women who have experienced violence
within the family. Putting this proposal into practice demands a thorough assessment of activities, which are not
effective enough to be undertaken by NGOs, and which can, therefore, be assigned to municipalities (the
governmental sector), but without suppressing the functions of the NGO sector by the government.
Another proposal is to find full-time employment positions at municipalities for social workers, psychologists and
pedagogues who work with NGOs. Implementing such a proposal would facilitate care for victimized women,
provided NGO activists are given the opportunity to choose their co-workers on competition principle. What seems
a feasible proposal considering municipal financial deficits is to recruit full-time employees only for NGO
administrative staff. An even more economical option, which may be considered at the beginning, is to appoint
one single person on administrative full-time position.
NGO self-financing initiatives
Limited as they may be, there still exist possibilities for NGOs to offer paid services, technical assistance and
materials. To identify and use them effectively NGOs should be prepared to show a higher initiative and
commitment. Funding projects by home and foreign donors will remain a basic form of financing in the future.
Conclusion
There are ways enabling the organization of functioning and socially effective mechanisms of financing NGOs in
their work against family violence. The choice should be based on well-studied needs in order to find the relevant
justified solutions. In the expert opinion of the authors, currently the most suitable one is applying a fund
structure. It will allow for the state to retain its position as a policy designer within the field, acting simultaneously
as a main guarantor for its successful functioning. Ministries and institutions will be in charge for (among other
things) the support of large-scale national activities and campaigns combating violence within the family. At the
same time, this mechanism will make possible the decentralization process in funds utilization and the
employment of democratic principles of distribution and supervision, a relatively autonomous development of NGO
sector dealing with domestic violence and its structural stability and financial sustainability.
NOTE:
Paper presented at the IAFFE Conference "Central and Eastern Europe: A Feminist Economic Dialogue on
Transition and EU Enlargement", January 21 - 22, 2005, Budapest, Hungary
References:
1. The Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives (GRBI), http://www.gender-budgets.org/ (10.04.2003)
2. Debbie Budlender, Rhonda Sharp & Kerry Allen: Commonwealth Secretariat: Budlender, Debbie and Rhonda
Sharp with Kerri Allen, 1998. How to do a gender-sensitive budget analysis: Contemporary research and practice.
3. Sweetman, C., ed., 2002, "Gender Budgets: What's in it for NGOs?", Gender and Development 10 (3): 82-87,
Oxford: Oxfam
4. Simel Esim UNIFEM, Gender-Sensitive Budget Initiatives for Latin American and the Caribbean: A Tool For
Improving Accountability and Achieving Effective Policy Implementation http://www.genie.ids.ac.uk/static/
esim_budgets.htm
5. Gender Analysis of Budgets, 2002, ICRW/UNIFEM Background Brief January, http://www.unifem.undp.org/ee/
Gender_Budgets/Conference
6. Noeleen Heyzer, 2001, Gender Responsive Budgets. What is Gender Responsive Budget Analysis? UNIFEM-
OECD-Nordic Council-Government of Belgium
7. Gender Advocacy Programme, South Africa, Making the Act Work, A Research Study into Budget Allocations for
the Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, December 1999
8. ICWR, How to Make the Law Work?, Budgetary Implications of Domestic Violence Policies in Latin America,
Synthesis Paper, July 2003
9. Nikolic-Ristanovic, V. (ed.) (2002) Domestic Violence in Serbia, Belgrade, Victimology Society of Serbia
About the authors:
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Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, PhD, assistant professor of European Economics and Gender and Economics at the
Advanced School of Business, and at Postgraduate Gender Studies at the University of Novi Sad in Novi Sad,
Serbia. She has published several books and a dozen articles addressing gender in transitioning economies.
Contact: tanjadjk@eunet.yu
Mirjana Dokmanovic, international lawyer, consultant on human rights and gender issues, coordinator or the
Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Subotica. She has coordinated numerous projects aimed at
fostering human rights and women’s rights. She has published several books and a number of articles addressing
gender and human rights.
Contact: mirad@eunet.yu
Genoveva Tisheva, Executive Director, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation.
Contact: bgrf@fastbg.net
[1] Nikolic-Ristanovic, V. (ed.) (2002) Domestic Violence in Serbia, Belgrade, Victimology Society of Serbia
[2] Article 118a of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia
[3] Network East-West Women (NEWW) is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social
Council of the United Nations. With members in more than 30 countries NEWW is among the largest and most
respected networks in CEE/NIS, and is a trusted source of expertise, resources and information about gender in
democratizing societies. The international secretariat is run by the NEWW-Polska in Gdansk. More information on
NEWW Gender Budgeting Initiative at http://www.neww.org.pl/en.php/achivements/budzet/0.html
[4] The survey was conducted by the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation in the beginning of 2003
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The Worldwide Resistance of Women to Neoliberalism
The Worldwide Resistance of Women to Neoliberalism
By Joelle Palmieri, Co-founder of Les Pénélopes and the Association for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity
Economy (APRESS), Paris
Neoliberal globalization is based on patriarchy and therefore on the widespread oppression of women. Confronted
by accelerating impoverishment and by more and more sophisticated forms of exclusion, numbers of women are
aware that the diversity of their demands and their experience of economic pluralism form a counter-current to
the dominant economic theory - neoliberal and patricidal - and represent serious forms of resistance.
For example, the women's organization of Papua New Guinea is at the front line of the battle against the "agrarian
reform" and the "reform of education" imposed by the World Bank and the IMF. The same is true in Kenya, where
there are women who, since 1980, are on the front line of the battle against global enterprises. When the price of
coffee fell, they abandoned that crop, and sowed vegetables, which they sold at market or used for their families.
The Freedom Corner Mothers demonstrated against the arrest of their children who were opposed to companies'
neoliberal programs since 1990. Their opposition has unleashed a wave of land appropriation by landless peasants
in Kenya and in the rest of Africa.
In another arena, the international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and for the former Yugoslavia were mainly
initiated by women protesting genocide, rapes, and ethic cleansing. In the Philippines, women have caused the
closure of American military bases, releasing huge sums of money for their country. This battle for peace truly
represents an arsenal of actions tied to education and health and aimed at true social justice. In Argentina, during
the military dictatorship, the Mothers of May Square played a role of the first importance. They were the first to
denounce the atrocities and to reclaim their imprisoned or "disappeared" children. Today in each neighborhood,
there are women who convene popular assemblies, a new form of direct democracy. They are at the forefront of
the creation of alternatives, such as the system of barter.
The solidarity or popular economy
The solidarity or popular economy is not merely a sector reserved for the poor, an offshoot that has adapted to
the neoliberal system. According to Heloisa Primavera, an Argentinean economist, "the solidarity economy is not a
system for suffering a little less, but for changing the system." She adds that women make up 70% of barter
clubs throughout the world and these almost exclusively run by women. According to Cécile Sabourin, a Quebecois
economist, the patriarchal vision of social, political, and economic systems renders invisible the contribution of
women to the economy. It is necessary to place more value on the expression of their creativity in all its potential
for social transformation. "The solidarity economy has economic and social repercussions and allows for family
balance," confirms Aminata Diongue Ndiaye, regional coordinator for Dakar's women's actions. Loans granted to
women contribute to a great deal more than just economic activity. They allow access to care, to education, even
to marriage. While mostly occupying the informal sector, Africans invent or experiment with initiatives in the
solidarity economy. Their activities pursue, above all, an added social value, by jointly developing connected
services, such as the rebuilding of schools, the renovation of hospitals, including maternity hospitals, even the
repair of roads. It's a "life economy."
Measure the damage as well
A priority: to reconsider wealth. If everything has a cost, it is not necessarily monetary. Is it right that a school or
a maternity hospital should be financially profitable? The production of wealth can be measured alternatively:
pleasure, social bonds, health, education, respect for life - and the costs as well. The thousands of deaths on the
roads or the heart attacks and cancers of the North contribute more to the pharmaceutical multinationals than to
the sale of papers. On the other hand, they cost in humanity, in quality of life, in environmental protection, in the
preservation of nature. It is a matter therefore of also measuring, thanks to new ways of monitoring destruction,
the damage produced by industry, intensive agriculture, wars, violence, exclusion, unemployment, and the onedimensional
thinking channeled through the major communication monopolies.
To ignore the evidence while reconsidering wealth leads to an inversion of logic. When an NGO receives a public
subsidy, it is not a debtor. It produces wealth that is social, relational, environmental. It becomes an operative on
behalf of an absent state that, in a manner of speaking, subcontracts the production of services for the general
good. If a NGO bends to the discipline of the market and adopts its criteria for profitability, it then makes up one
of the pieces of the gigantic jigsaw put in place by the neoliberal system. It is necessary to learn how to recognize
our own abilities and knowledge, which can never be measured as the profit from invested capital. It is a matter
of urgency to build and to value different economic models that are based on another definition of wealth, one
that identifies levels of damage and supports an economy with strong added social value. Such models are mostly
supported by women throughout the world.
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The Worldwide Resistance of Women to Neoliberalism
NOTE:
This text is freely excerpted from an analysis by Joëlle Palmieri, which can be found in its full version online here.
It forms part of the dossier Féministes pour une autre mondialisation that Pénélopes put on line in June 2002.
Related links:
Si les femmes comptaient, Philippe Merlant, Transversales Science Culture, 2 February 2002 http://www.
cybersolidaires.org/eve/pa0202.html
Une alternative féministe pour un autre monde, Dominique Foufelle, Les Pénélopes, 2 February 200
http://www.cybersolidaires.org/eve/pa0202.html
Comment remplir les casseroles?, Ana Maria Seghezzo and Rubén D'Urbano, 27 May 2002
http://www.cybersolidaires.org/actus/argentine.html
Dossier Femmes et économie solidaire, Les Pénélopes, April 2002
http://www.penelopes.org/xdossier.php3?id_rubrique=8
Globalisation de la solidarité : L'économie solidaire Nord-Sud, Cybersolidaires, October 2001
http://www.cybersolidaires.org/eve/sol.html
Source :
Women’s Human Rigths Net ©
http://www.whrnet.org
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DG Trade civil society dialogue meeting: The EC is a soft power?
Evaluation
DG Trade civil society dialogue meeting: The EC is a soft power?
By Amandine Bach & Katariina Lensu, WIDE
According to the European Commission (EC), Hong Kong was a “relative success”. It was important after the
failure of Cancun for the WTO membership to take the necessary steps to make Hong Kong succeed. However, the
DG Trade representative stated that the EC did not get as much out of Hong Kong as it had wanted. When asked
during the round of questions on the reasons why the EC was not able to sell its position better in the run up and
at Hong Kong, the DG Trade representative fully agreed that the EC had sold its offer badly and as such was
wrongly portrayed as holding up the negotiations in the run up to Hong Kong (“The US is better at selling its
offers. The EC has something to learn in this regard, and has a long way to go in terms of its public image”.)
One of the most striking outcomes of the ministerial from the perspective of the DG Trade representative was the
‘aid for trade’ package proposed by the EC, with which the EC ‘offered’ one billion euros for projects related to aid
for trade, to be matched by the same amount from the Member States. The EC perceived, however, that in the
core negotiating issues the results had been modest. During a brief ‘development-friendly’ evaluation of Hong
Kong, the EC representative outlined the EU’s position:
In agriculture, ‘the most controversial and difficult issue’, the EU is still waiting for further steps from major
partners, like the United States. As the US is on the offensive on food aid, Peter Bálas wanted to highlight the EU’s
different position on this issue: rather than giving aid ‘in-kind’ as promoted by the US (“providing US products
shipped on US ships”), the EU prefers to provide food aid ‘in cash’ to food aid programmes or NGOs, except in
emergency situations where other types of help may be necessary. On market access, the EC does not agree with
its trading partners’ evaluation that the EC’s offer has not changed anything; “there is a far-reaching offer from
the EU”.
On NAMA, the EU promises to cut all industrial tariffs[1], and claims to expect proportionally less contributions
from quite advanced and competitive countries, along with no market opening from the least developed countries.
On services, the DG Trade representative stated that the EU does not target public services but wants better
access to services on the whole.
The road ahead
The WTO negotiations have restarted. The final deadline is to finish the round of negotiations by the end of this
year or latest by early 2007. This deadline refers to an agreement on all details. The first services deadline has
been set for the end of February, and the end of April sees the deadline for agriculture and the industrial sector.
The DG Trade representative emphasized that the negotiations are to move ahead together, as part of a single
undertaking. He noted that what remains to be seen now is the extent of the trading partners’ political will to
move the negotiations forward. The EC is more optimistic since Davos, as it appears that there is agreement on a
far reaching round. In a series of ministerial meetings held at Davos – bilateral and meetings held in smaller and
larger groups – there was recognition for the need for parallel progress. While the DG Trade representative
acknowledged that the WTO has a poor record with meeting deadlines, he stated that in this case the EC will not
be at fault: any extension of the deadlines will depend on the countries who want a round for free. The EC
representative noted that by this he was not referring to LDCs.
On negotiating flexibilities, DG Trade representative stated that if there are relevant offers in other areas, the EC
has of course to show also limited flexibilities; this is important in terms of the EC’s negotiating position.
Who exactly is included on the list of emerging economies?
Like civil society, the EC would also like to see objective criteria applied on emerging economies and have a
clearer idea of which countries this refers to, but according to the DG Trade representative, developing countries
have not expressed political readiness to come to an agreement on such criteria. There is an overall idea of what
countries are included, but there are also points of divergence. The EC thinks that too many countries, like India
and China, are asking for protectionist measures, despite having the capacity to engage in trade. To roughly
illustrate his point, the EC representative ran through a list of numbers: the gross domestic product (GDP) of a
number of countries which the EC says are considered to be developing countries, is close or above that of the
EU25. These include such countries as the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Bahrain.
However, as a civil society representative later pointed out, the countries on the list include oil producing
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DG Trade civil society dialogue meeting: The EC is a soft power?
countries, and two city states, as well as Taiwan, which notably developed its competitive economy within
protectionist measures. If engaging in a debate on emerging economies, the EC must think its position through
more carefully. Also, it was commented that countries like India and China include regions and people who are
incredibly poor and not able to reap any benefits from increased trade. It is not up to the US and EU to tell
countries such as India what timeline to adopt to open their markets, even if opening their markets further may in
the long term perhaps be in the countries’ own favour.
Social and environmental questions at the WTO
In response to a question about why social and environmental questions are not in the forefront of the
negotiations, given that they are what people care about, the DG Trade representative commented that the EC is
positive on these issues, but there is stubborn resistance at the WTO and given the WTO rules, unless there is
consensus, there is no agenda. Challenged on this by Friends of the Earth Europe – the EC is a strong power and
shouldn’t be stopped by resistance! – Mr Bálas responded by saying that the EC is a soft power and doesn’t
believe in imposing raw pressure on other countries…
For more information on the EU position at the WTO, see Peter Mandelson’s latest speeches at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/mandelson/speeches_wto_en.cfm
Source:
WIDE News no. 2, February 2006 ©
http://www.wide-network.org
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WIDE Statement to the 50th CSW session
WIDE Statement to the 50 th CSW session
27 February – 10 March 2006, New York
WIDE views the 50 th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women as an important opportunity to voice our
ideas and concerns regarding the issues of gender mainstreaming and enhanced participation of women in
development.
Gender Mainstreaming:
In the framework of the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special
session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twentyfirst
century’ a review of gender mainstreaming in organisations of the UN system will take place.
WIDE welcomes the report of the Secretary-general (E/CN.6/2006/2) that reviews the progress made in
mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development, implementation and evaluation of national policies and
programmes. We acknowledge that since 1995 many countries have developed policies and action plans on
gender mainstreaming, however, gender mainstreaming has become a buzzword and WIDE is concerned that it is
understood as only introducing gender into existing policies. This approach will not ensure that the transformative
potential of gender mainstreaming is achieved.
WIDE wants to remind governments that gender mainstreaming must be understood in the agreed terms of
CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action as a strategy towards transformation of unfair gender relations and
gender stereotypes, and the empowerment of women. This includes challenging existing policy paradigms and
asks for a fundamental re-thinking of the process of policy-making and its goals.
Enhanced participation of women in development:
A second issue of interest to WIDE is the evaluation of the implementation of strategic objectives and actions in
the critical area of enhanced participation of women in development: an enabling environment for achieving
gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of education, health and
work.
WIDE welcomes the report of the Secretary-General (E/CN.6/2006/12) that highlights that the elements and
dynamics of an enabling environment are context-specific and influenced by factors such as, inter alia, the
international political situation, including peace and security issues; the global and regional economic
environment, (…). We also acknowledge that it is noted that globalisation had presented a significant challenge to
the creation of an enabling environment for gender equality and the advancement of women. Economic
liberalisation has had uneven impacts on women’s participation in development processes. WIDE’s particular
concern is about the many ways in which neo-liberalism, including the promotion of a ‘free’ trade regime,
economic globalisation and market liberalisation is actually counteracting an enabling environment: it has led to
the feminisation of employment, intensified exploitation of women's unpaid work in the caring economy and has
undermined the livelihood strategies of poor rural and urban women, including migrant women, disabled and
displaced women in all areas of the world. The increasing impact of such policies on the lives and livelihoods of
women is compounded in countries of the South by the structural inequalities between North and South.
Therefore such policies play a central role in creating an enabling environment and have to be taken into account
otherwise they can reproduce or even worsen inequality.
WIDE, in alliance with other women’s groups working on trade, macro economic, gender and globalisation, calls
on Governments to recognise that gender aware macro economic policy, including the application of a gender
analysis of trade and its impact on women globally, are essential if economic development partnerships are to be
made real and effective. WIDE asks for far greater economic coherence among states, non-state actors and
multilateral institutions in relation to development cooperation and financial, monetary and trade policies, so that
the systemic inequities and power imbalances within the global economic system are addressed.
Multi-year programme of work:
At the CSW meeting a new multi-year programme of work, setting out the overall themes for the next five years
(2007-2009) of the Commission on the Status of Women will be discussed.
WIDE is very pleased that in developing the proposals for a multi-year program of work that the Commission
called on a number of regional networks, including WIDE, to identify priorities in the follow-up to the 10-year
review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. However, WIDE is concerned that the final
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WIDE Statement to the 50th CSW session
report of this consultation is not publicly available and that the Commission have not taken up a single priority
issue identified during the Expert Consultation [1] . WIDE believes that the voices of women’s organisations from
around the world need to be heard and that the Commission should not make ‘token’ their contribution to such
debates.
WIDE believes that women’s economic justice should be a priority for the CSW’s programme of work in the next
three years as it impacts on every aspect of a woman’s life. The Commission recognises that improving women’s
economic status improves the economic status of their families and their communities and that women should
have equal opportunities to achieve economic independence. However, WIDE is concerned that neo-liberalism,
including the promotion of a ‘free’ trade regime, economic globalisation and market liberalisation, will not lead to
economic justice for women.
Contact at WIDE Secretariat in Brussels:
Barbara Specht, Information Officer, barbara@wide-network.org
Meagen Baldwin, Executive Director, Meagen@wide-network.org
Visit the WIDE website: www.wide-network.org
WIDE is a European women’s network whose main activities are lobbying, advocacy and awareness raising;
networking and capacity building on global trade agenda, macro-economic policy, gender and development policy
and women’s human rights.
Source:
Women in Develpment Europe ©
http://www.eurosur.org/wide/home.htm
[1] WIDE was a member of the Expert Consultation alongside the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and
Action (CAFRA), the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), the Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW), the Africa
Women’s Development and communication Network (FEMNET), the Latin America and the Caribbean Committee
for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), Isis- Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE);
and the Asia-Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW). The Expert Consultation identified economic justice, women in
armed conflict, women’s human rights and access to information as priorities. Migrant women was
raised by a number of participants as a priority during the interactive panel which followed the consultation.
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Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
Abstract
Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
By Danica Drakuli•, Ph.D., Faculty of Economics, Subotica, Serbia and Montenegro, and
Drago Pupavac, M.Sc., Polytechnic, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Globalization is an attempt at general restructuring of the world and, consequently, the labor market as well. The
basic demand of globalization on the labor market is the demand for its flexibility, i.e. lowering labor costs.
Therefore, this study will pay special attention to domination in the global world as the prevailing type of
relationship between the countries of the global core, the leaders of the globalization process, and the countries of
the global semi-periphery, which are the object of globalization. The scope of research for this study includes the
implications of globalization for the European labor market, and the transfer of jobs from the countries of the
global core to the countries of global semi-periphery and periphery. The results of research are based on the
methods of analysis and synthesis as well as the factor assessment method, representing qualitative starting
points for enhancing the quality of workforce and improving the global competitive position of the global semiperiphery
and periphery.
Key words: globalization, flexibilisation, labor market, labor costs
1. Introduction
Globalization of the world is inaugurating a new economy. Compared to the traditional economy, where the scope
of competition was mostly determined by the boundaries of the national market, the global market environment in
the new economy imposes the need for a permanent increase in efficiency on regional and/or global levels. A
decreasing number of products bear national characteristics. Likewise, human potential is becoming a global
factor despite the fact that the workforce is the least mobile production factor.
The task of this study is to research the interrelationship between globalization and labor market flexibilisation, i.
e. to confirm the hypothesis that labor market flexibilisation occurs as a demand of globalization and is aimed at
reducing labor costs.
The objective of research is closely connected with the research task and the hypothesis: to determine the
interrelationship of globalization and labor market flexibilisation; to research the implications of the globalization
of labor market on the European labor market, and to point to the need to raise workforce quality in integrating
the countries of the global semi-periphery and periphery into the globalization processes.
2. Interrelation of globalization and labor market flexibilisation
Stiglitz [5,29] defines globalization as increasing interconnectedness of the world’s countries and nations, which
has brought about a huge reduction in transport and communication costs and removal of artificial barriers to the
flow of goods, services, capital, knowledge and (to a lesser extent) people across borders. It has the power to
produce many benefits, provided that it is adopted under the conditions and at the pace that suits a certain
country. Countries caught in the vortex of the globalization process should expand their development potential
and take into account the comparative advantages.
The last decades of the last century in the world’s economy are characterized by an increasingly apparent
polycentric development model, with the domination by a few most developed countries of the world. Domination
in the global world, i.e. mutual trade relations, among certain countries is the prevailing model of interrelation.
Dominant countries are those that are considered to need little or nothing from other countries in international
exchange. They can also exert significant pressure on the countries they dominate, aimed at promoting certain
political, economic or other interests. Each of these countries is involved in this interdependence matrix, either as
dominant in mutual relationships or dominated in these relations.
The role of the US as the moderator of the global economy and the force of global competition requires a
liberalization of the labor market. The need for labor market liberalization is the consequence of two phenomena
of the new economy: (1) the transfer of the majority of the workforce from blue to white collar and (2) transfer of
jobs from developed to developing economies. These phenomena of the new economy are characterized by
opposed action. Thus, from the point of view of the countries of the global core, labor market liberalization is the
response to the needs of the new national economic structure (high participation of the service sector) and the
desire to use low labor costs in the countries where jobs are being transferred. From the point of view of the
countries of the global semi-periphery and periphery, labor market flexibilisation occurs not only as an imperative
demand of developed countries, but also of their own desire to secure the arrival of foreign producers, and thus a
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Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
more favorable position in the global market, through cheap labor.
3. The implications of globalization on the European work market
In order to consider the reflections of globalization on the European work market, it is crucial to bear in mind that,
unlike North America or Asia, Europe is a unionized continent, and most of the countries of the European Union
are defined as welfare states, which includes extensive economic and social rights of the employees protected by
the state. The first reflection of globalization on the European market is the reinstatement of a 40-hour workweek
in developed European countries comprising the global core. An average workweek shorter than 40 man-hours
has been shown as an impediment to faster economic development, increased work productivity, reduced labor
costs, competitiveness of domestic producers, foreign investment entry, and, above all, solving the problem of
unemployment.
Due to the above reasons, an increasing number of companies, in cooperation with workers and trade unions, are
preparing to extend the workweek from 35 to 40 man-hours without wage increases. This was one of the main
conditions set by the management of Siemens in negotiations with the IG Metall trade union (comprising 2.7
million members) lest they transfer the production of mobile phones to Hungary. The same model was used by
Daimler Chrysler and Robert Bosch, the French car spare parts producer, to solve the problem of high wage costs.
In the 1980s, the average workweek in the South Korean production sector was 53.4 man-hours and 48.4
working hours in Taiwan. Only 1% of South Korean and 29% of Japanese workers work the normal five-day week
[3,13]. It is therefore not surprising that the number of fatal industrial accidents in these countries is nine times
higher than in the US or Sweden. The average annual number of man-hours is 2,590 in South Korea, 2,124 in
Japan, 2,522 in Singapore and 2,433 in Taiwan. In France, the annual average is 1,683; in Germany it is 1,598
and 1,948 in the US. The Europeans, to put it simply, enjoy more free time. According to estimates, the American
worker works 40% more hours than his or her counterpart in Germany, France or Italy.
Reinstating the 40-hour workweek in developed European counties and retaining current wage levels will result in
lower labor costs in these countries, which will result in further pressure to lower wages in the countries of
Central and Southeast Europe. This will endanger the competitiveness of less developed European countries,
which necessarily means that they will seek their chance in a fast flexibilisation of the labor market and lowering
taxes and dues on wages and from wages, or be exposed to a capital strike. Consequences will include
unemployment, economic stagnation and decline in the quality of life. Professors Sunda• and Rupnik [5,54-55]
point out that, when a country with lower intellectual capital value emerges in the globalization process, (1) the
prevalence of the dominant country’s intellectual capital is passivised and perhaps even diminished by the
domestic intellectual capital, and (2) capital invested in human potential up to that moment is not returned to the
country which is in the globalization process, but is wasted.
To ensure a unique labor market not only on the legislative level, but in reality as well, the free labor movement is
one of the basic premises of the EU. The free movement of workers within the European Union enables the
following: (1) adapting labor supply to a variety of enterprises’ needs; (2) a coherent and more efficient
conjuncture policy; and (3) improved individual living standards (4) improved living conditions for people
remaining in their regions and underdeveloped countries. To enable a higher extent of free labor movement and
increase the transparency of the European labor market, the European Employment Service (EURES) was
developed, comprising more than 500 counselors, national employment services, employment organizations or
trade unions, and regional administration bodies or instructional organizations, which were established specifically
for those seeking employment and work. On August 12, 2004, the EURES site registered 79,520 job seekers, as
well as 2,495 companies offering 2,990 jobs. On July 19, 2005, the EURES site registered 89,793 job seekers and
4,069 companies offering 4,615 jobs. Tables 1 and 2 show the state of European labor market through EURES.
Table 1
Table 2
Job seekers looking for employment through EURES
(per home country)
Companies seeking workers (per domicile country)
Number of job seekers Rank Country
Number of enterprises
seeking workers
Country
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Aug. 12, 2004 July 19, 2005. 04 05 Aug. 12,
2004
July 19,
2005.

Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
1. Poland
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Germany
5. France
Hungary
Czech Rep.
Slovakia
13,050
11,807
9,947
4,955
4,039
2,039
1,733
1,497
18,394
10,945
11,571
4,704
4,444
2,423
1,961
1,422
Slovenia
25
469
Slovenia
1
9
Source:http://eurescv-search.com/ECV/WebApplMisc.asp?iFromID=118&iToID=219; edited by the authors
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.
2.
3.
8.
4.
GB
Spain
Germany
Sweden
Netherlands
Czech Rep.
Hungary
Slovakia
The most requested occupations on the European labor market in 2004 and 2005 through EURES are listed in
Table 3:
Most requested occupations
Occupation
Companies
Aug. 12, 2004 July 19, 2005.
1. Cooks 150 224
2. Head waiters, waiters and bartenders 132 193
3. Systems engineers and programmers 104 180
4. Physicians 77 94
5. Computer engineers 72 114
6. Computer operators 55 69
7. Salespersons 53 73
8. Kitchen and restaurant helpers 50 79
9. Receptionists 45
10. Other computer specialists 42 81
11. Sales and marketing managers 72
Source: http://eurescv-search.com/ECV/WebApplMisc.asp?WCI=WebApplMisc_Statistik_Kompetens_AG
edited by the authors [1]
Despite all of this, migration flows inside the European Union are very slow. Labor mobility is very low despite
pronounced wage disparities and unemployment rates. The unemployed are even less mobile employed workers
as they are unable to afford the costs of moving, changing environments, learning languages, etc. The
enlargement of the European Union will increase migration flows on the labor market, primarily from the new
member countries to more developed European countries. To prevent this, some European countries have
imposed a moratorium on migration and the influx of foreign workers. Cyprus, which, unlike larger and wealthier
European Union members (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, etc.), did not impose the moratorium on
migration and influx of foreign workers, records a high influx of workers from new EU members, especially Poland
and Slovakia. As a result, employees in the Cypriot hotel industry have found themselves under strong pressure
from employers to reduce basic wages.
4. Enhancing the workforce quality in including the countries of global semi-periphery and
periphery into the globalization process.
Labor costs in the countries of the global periphery have reached the level of one-third of labor costs in the
countries of global core. For the countries of the global core to opt for transferring jobs into the countries of the
global semi-periphery and/or periphery, the share of labor costs in the total production cost must be higher than
15%. If not, there will be no economic effect of job migration.
Labor is one of production costs, but this does not mean that countries with the cheapest labor will attract the
most investment. For a country to attract foreign producers, it must necessarily have an available trained
workforce capable of attaining the appropriate level of work productivity. Increasing work productivity also
increases a country's competitive position in the global market. In many cases, it is cheaper to produce footwear
or clothing in the countries of the global semi-periphery such as Taiwan and South Korea and transport it to the
markets of the global core countries than produce them there. The three key variables in increasing productivity
are: (1) labor, (2) capital, and (3) management.
Low productivity levels in the countries of the global semi-periphery and/or periphery can significantly increase
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567
248
228
161
160
11
6
2
904
446
302
212
249
38
19
8

Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
total production costs and thereby seriously impair the advantage achieved by low labor costs. This assertion is
best confirmed by the following example. The management of a company in a global core country is considering
the option of relocating production to a country of the global periphery. The wage of a worker in a global core
country who produces 60 pieces of a product each day is 70 euro. A worker in a global periphery country has a
wage of only 25 euro, but only produces 20 pieces each day. The unit cost for the product can be calculated with
the following formula:
T = cost per product unit
L = worker’s daily wage
P = work productivity
Case 1: Production costs per product unit in a global core country
euro
Case 2: Production costs per product unit in a global periphery country
Poor workforce training, low work education levels, poor work ethics, absenteeism, etc. in the global periphery
countries often annul the advantages achieved by low wages. Thus, apart from labor costs and work productivity,
it seems appropriate to conduct scientifically based research of other factors of workforce quality.
The remainder of this study discusses the decision of the management of a company in a global core country on
possible relocation of production to a country of the global semi-periphery or periphery, from the point of view of
workforce quality. Assessing workforce quality in individual countries is based on the factor assessment method.
The method comprises six steps: (1) determining key workforce quality factors relevant to relocating the
production; (2) determining relevance weights for each of the key factors; (3) determining scales for each factor
(i.e. 1 to 10 or 1 to 100); (4) determining the score for each country and each factor based on step 3; (5)
determining the product of multiplying the relevance weight factor and the score assigned to each factor, and then
establishing the total score; and (6) making a decision on relocating the production based on conducted
quantitative analysis, i.e. the highest total score.
The result of the assessment is given in Table 4:
Key factor
Wages
Productivity
Work ethics
Education level
Relevance
weight
0.35
0.20
0.12
0.15
euro
Possible score
(out of 100)
Score achieved
GCC GSPC GPC GCC GSPC GPC
60 70 90 21 24,5 31,5
80
75
70
Workforce availability
0.18 70 75 65 12.6 13,5 11,7
Total 1.00 69.1 71.5 72.6
Table 4: Assessing the decision to relocate production, from the point of view of workforce quality
Legend: GCC – global core country
GSPC – global semi-periphery country
GPC – global periphery country
It is evident from the data in Table 4 that the management of the enterprise must make a decision to relocate
production to a global periphery country. Savings achieved in wage costs outweigh the somewhat lower workforce
quality from the point of view of work productivity, work ethics, lower workforce education levels, and the
somewhat poorer quality of workforce supply. Furthermore, changing relevance weights of individual factors
enables a new analysis of the options of relocating production from the workforce point of view. So, for example,
direct foreign investment in the countries of East Asia was the result of creating a “good business climate” (low
wages – below the possible labor market price, repressive employment policy, long working week) by their
governments, but after the workers' movement had strengthened and wages increased, both foreign and
domestic capital started relocating to Southeast Asian countries, notably Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the
Philippines and Vietnam. Total South Korean investment in East Asian countries increased 109 times, from 10.3
million USD in 1984 to 1,092 million in 1994. Taiwanese investment in Southeast Asian countries in the period
from 1987 to 1994 reached almost 15 billion USD.
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70
75
70
60
70
60
16
9
10.5
14
9
10,5
12
8,4
9

Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
5. Conclusion
Globalization processes are conducted through market, economic, financial, technological and information flows,
unstoppably accelerating capital movement. Other production factors, especially country and labor, are being
neglected. The force of global competition outweighs the significance of labor as a production factor and demands
lowering labor costs. Flexibilisation of labor market is a global step forward in this direction. Labor mobility as a
production factor is very poor; thus, two contemporary phenomena are apparent on the market: (1) the transfer
of the majority of the workforce from blue to white collar, and (2) the transfer of jobs from global core countries
to the countries of the global semi-periphery and periphery. The implications of globalization on the European
labor market are observable in the extended workweek in developed countries, retaining the current wage levels,
lower job security of the employed and unemployed, pressures to lower the wages in the countries of Central and
Southeast Europe, and attempts to establish a unified labor market.
Labor is one of the production costs, but this does not mean that countries with the cheapest labor attract the
most investment. For a country to attract foreign producers, it must necessarily have an available trained
workforce capable of attaining the appropriate level of work productivity. Apart from labor costs and work
productivity, there are other important factors determining workforce quality and thus the potential producers’
decision to relocate production and jobs. The most significant of these factors are workforce education levels,
work ethics levels, and workforce availability.
About the authors:
Professor Danica Drakulic, Ph.D., (Serbia and Montenegro). She obtained her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University
of Belgrade, Serbia, in the field of the General Economic Theory. She is a Professor of the Macroeconomics at the
Faculty of Economics in Subotica, Serbia. Her main fields of expertise are economic theory, macroeconomics,
microeconomics, globalization in the world economy, social impacts of technological changes, and university
education issues. She is an author of several determinants in the Encyclopedia of Economy and Business, and of
the books Macroeconomics and Technological Changes, and Globalization in the World Economy, as well as a
number of articles published in scientific journals. She works on the project, “Technology, Culture and
Development” and is active in the Scientific Association Technology and Society.
Contact: danad@eccf.su.ac.yu
Drago Pupavac (Croatia) is a senior lecturer at the Polytechnic of Rijeka. He earned M.Sc. in economics from the
University of Zagreb, Croatia in 1998. He is a member of Croatian Scientific Society for Traffic and is now a
researcher on the Ministry project, “Include Croatia in the European logistics system.” His major research interests
lie in the areas of transport economy, human potential and logistics. He has published one hundred scientific
papers and three books.
Contact: drago.pupavac@ri.htnet.hr
Translated from Serbian: Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights
Sources:
Books:
1. Drakuli•, D. (2003) Makroekonomija i tehnološke promene [Macroeconomics and Technological Changes]:
Subotica, the Faculty of Economics Subotica.
2. Heizer, J., Render, B. (2004.) Operations Management: seventh edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
3. Kwang Yeong Shin (1998.) The Political Economy of Economic Growth in East Asia: South Korea and
Taiwan, in The four Asian Tigers (Eun Mee Kim, ed.): San Diego, California, USA, Academic Press.
4. Stiglitz, J. (2004.) Globalization and its Discontents: Zagreb, Algoritam.
5. Sunda•, D., Rupnik, V. (2005.) Dominacija kapitala = klopka •ovje•anstvu [The Domination of Capital = a
Trap to Humanity]: Rijeka, I.B.C.C.
6. Drakuli•, D. (2003.): „Tržište rada i zaposlenost u globalnim reformskim procesima“ [Labor Market and
Employment in Global Reform processes], in Institucionalne promene kao determinanta privrednog razvoja Srbije
[Institutional Changes as a Determinant of Economic Development in Serbia]: the Faculty of Economics in
Kragujevac
Articles in collections of papers:
7. Drakuli•, D. (2004.) Doba znanja – otvaranje ili prevazilaženje kontraverzi razvoja [The Age of Knowledge –
Opening or Overcoming the Controversies of Development], in the collection of papers of the Second Conference
on the Route to the Age of Knowledge September 16-19, 2004., Valdanos; the Management College in Novi Sad
http://www.globalizacija.com/doc_en/e0069glo.htm (5 van 6)12-9-2006 10:20:28

Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
8. Pupavac, D. (2004.) „Fleksibilizacija tržišta rada – preduvjet konkurentnosti u novoj ekonomiji” [Workforce
Flexibility – a Prerequisite to Competitiveness in the New Economy], in the Collection of Papers of the Ninth
conference on Technology, Culture and Development, Pali•, September 6-10, 2004, pp. 251-261.
9. Pupavac, D. (2005.) Labor market flexibility as a function of entrepreneurship development, International
Conference Entrepreneurship and Macroeconomic Management, April 28 – 30, 2005. Pula, Conference proceedings
Vol, 2, p. 626 – 635.
Other:
10. Piana, V.: Hierarchy Structures in World Trade: Economics Web Institute, 2004.
11. The Economist July 31 2004.
12. http://eurescvsearch.com/ECV/WebApplMisc.asp?WCI=WebApplMisc_Statistik_Kompetens_AG, August 20,
2004. and July 19, 2005
[1] Re-edited by the translator
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
1. Introduction
Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers:
Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Democratic Republic of Congo
By Olivera Simic, LL.M., M.A., gender consultant, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (hereinafter MONUC) is on going
mission while the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter UNMIBH) is terminated almost
three years ago. [1] Although scandalized with involvement of peacekeepers in trafficking in women and wide
sexual abuse, the UNMIBH is graded by international community with a top mark: successful. [2] After the mission
was over, peacekeepers changed locations and countries, in following a war torn societies in need of peace. Still,
the crimes perpetuated by peacekeepers against those in need, particularly women and children, did not change.
Moreover, it looks like they exacerbated.
No doubt, the topic of sexual exploitation has always been “sexy” topic which attracts journalists but also readers
around the globe. [3] Moreover, if sexual abuse could be related in any way with the United Nations (hereinafter
the UN) and its personnel, that is even more “interesting”. However, media seems to be not very interested in, for
example, economic opportunities mission could bring for local people such as possibility of their employment
within the UN system. Indeed, curiosity to highlight positive outcomes that mission might bring to the host
country rather then only failures is rarely of any one interest, except of the UN.
In addition, the more shocking a title and story the greater is a sense of outrage and disappointment in overall UN
system by a common public. People are always disturbed when someone is sexually abused but why particularly
when it comes to peacekeepers? Is it about the prefix UN in front of them? Is it because they should be “saviors”
of the “vulnerable” population not their abusers? Or we like to confirm what we know well: not everything nor
everyone is “perfect” as the UN always likes to leave impression on the worldwide population.
In the following essay I will try to explore what has been done so far in the UN system, in particular UNMIBH and
MONUC, to address the alarming and growing problem of sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by
peacekeepers while on their missions. I attempt to observe if there were any improvements since 1995 when the
UN peacekeeping mission came to Bosnia and Herzegovina and allegations on their involvement in sexual abuse
and trafficking in women began to surface. How did UNMIBH respond to these allegations? What mechanisms for
protection and prosecution were then and are now in place, if any? Has MONUC learnt a lesson from UNMIBH? Or
Boys will be Boys no matter what steps are taken to prevent such occurrences.
2. UNMIBH and MONUC: past and current mission
DRC and five regional states signed the Lusaka Ceasefire agreement in July 1999. To maintain liaison with the
parties and carry out other tasks, the Security Council (hereinafter SC) set up MONUC on 30 November 1999,
incorporating personnel authorized in its earlier resolutions. On 24 February 2000, the SC expended its size and
mandate. [4] After that time the SC extended its mandate several times. The current mandate is mostly provided
by Resolution 1493, dated 28 July 2003, whereby the SC, acting under the Chapter VII of the UN Charter,
authorized the increase of MONUCs military strength to 10,800. [5] However, although war was declared over,
hostilities persist to this day.
Set up in 1995, UNMIBH exercised wide range of functions particularly regarded police reform and law
enforcement activities. Both of the missions, UNMIBH and MONUC have had quite similar mandates:
disarmaments, demining, human rights, elections, reform of security forces and reestablishing the rule of law.
After seven years, following the successful conclusion of its mandate, [6] UNMIBH was terminated on 31 December
2002. Although they might be regarded as successful for some activities in their missions they both failed in the
same: maintaining discipline and conduct of peacekeepers. And misconduct primarily affects (affected in the case
of UNMIBH) women population as well as children in both countries.
DRC is country of almost 55 million of people while Bosnia and Herzegovina is 13 times smaller with around 4
million of inhabitants. However, in terms of casualties they both lost almost equal percentage of their population
due to war. [7] We do not have gender-segregated data so we do not know how many women lost their lives in
those conflicts. What we do know is that almost 75% of Congolese refugees and international displaced persons
(IDPs) comprise women and children. [8] Almost the same percentage of women refugees and IDPs was in Bosnia
and Herzegovina which confirms world statistical data which says that almost 80% of all refugees and IDPs
embrace children and women. [9] Still, this statistic does not say anything about percentage of women as it
assumes that “women and children” are one homogeneous group of people. But, we know they are not.
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
3. Peacekeeping missions: fertile soil for sexual abuse?
What could be regard as a common feature to both missions is that they have triggered shocking reports on
sexual abuse and rape. Although cases of sexual abuse and violence, which has become almost universal
characteristic in peacekeeping context [10] , were present (and in case of MONUC are still on going) in both
missions, the nature of abuse between these two missions is different. For example, while trafficking in women
boomed with shipping ten of thousands predominantly male peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995
[11] , in DRC there are no cases (at least not transparent and publicly known) of involvement of peacekeepers in
transnational crime of trafficking in women. DRC is rather source country for women and children trafficked for
sexual exploitation, forced labor and soldiering. [12] However, “lack of information does not mean absence of
trafficking in women and children in Congo.” [13] Hence, even if transnational crime of trafficking might not exist
currently it could become problem and DRC should be prepared to punish those who might be involved in future
trafficking networks. Since Penal Code in DRC “does not have specific provision against Trafficking in Women and
Children”, [14] it should not wait to criminalize trafficking in humans after it becomes overloaded with cases or
when it lose such necessity what exactly happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina. [15]
In both missions peacekeepers use imbalance of power and have had sex with minors or adults for bizarre amount
of money or in exchange for food or other goods. Cases of rape by peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina were
not transparent and particularly known while in DRC they are wide spread. Sharp distinction in welfare between
host population and peacekeepers drives opportunity to exercise power and authority over vulnerable population.
However, in Bosnia and Herzegovina despite few cases where peacekeepers were sexually abused local minors,
the main target were foreign women, victims of trafficking. This is another distinction between MONUC where
sexual abuse involves peacekeepers and local girls/women/children while UNMBIH peacekeepers were mainly
involved in sexual abuse of alien women. Brothels in Bosnia and Herzegovina were established close to military
bases with predominantly women from Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. Having had limited freedom of movement
and lots of spare time might be a reason for turning to the nearest brothels and night bars crowded with foreign
women. Nonetheless, even the cases, which were actually rumors of a sexual abuse of Bosnia and Herzegovina
minors, had as a spot places those just outside the fence of military bases. The stories that had been circling
among local population were about local girls mainly from high schools performing oral sex for 5-10 euros in the
front of military bases even (some said) through a fence wire. [16]
It is difficult to confirm that girls had performed sex for survival in Bosnia and Herzegovina or some other reasons
were behind it. However, it is well known that women who were performing sex activities with peacekeepers, with
exception of trafficked women [17] , were driven by poverty and lack of alternative ways to secure basic human
needs for them and their family.
Although there are no existing cases of transnational trafficking in DRC, some cases of internal trafficking have
been recognized as such. Young local boys act as pimps for MONUC personnel, procurring girls for prostitution.
Congo boys earn on average 1US$ for each girl or they end up not being paid at all. These young boys are
predominantly minors age 8-18, former child soldiers from whom very few attend the school. [18] The majority of
identified female victims were poor village children between 12 and 16 years of age. [19]
Finally, I have noticed that Pakistani peacekeepers are one of the nationalities involved in serious allegations in
Bosnia and Herzegovina in trafficking (purchasing) of women, in DRC in obstructing efforts to investigate sexual
abuse but also in other recent peacekeeping operations (hereinafter PKOs). It would be valuable to do more
serious research on possible assumption that some nationalities tend to be more involved in sexual abuse of
women than others. That could be valuable in terms of “keeping an eye” on potential “trouble makers” but also to
work with them more regarding preventive measures.
4. Women status in Bosnia and Herzegovina and DRC
Status of women before PKO arrive in a host country should be analyzed and taken into account. Paul Higate as
one of explanations for bad attitude towards Congolese women by peacekeepers see in already established
imbalance and inequality of gender in DRC itself. In other words, if women are not respected by their “own men”
how and why would you expect them to be respected by male foreign peacekeepers? Also, Higate is addressing
the issue of racism by saying that “male peacekeepers find Congolese women different from white, educated
women back to their home countries”. [20]
While Bosnia and Herzegovina and Congolese women both live in patriarchal society situation with Congolese
women is much different. Bosnia and Herzegovina women before war enjoyed relatively good status and were
able to exercise their social and economic rights. Also, women had a high level of literacy, were well educated and
employed before war. On the contrary, Congolese women were treated as a “second class citizens” [21] even
before war. Moreover, “the law as well social norms defined the role of women and girls as subordinated to
men.” [22] The Family Code in DRC requires women to obey their husbands who are recognized as heads of
households. This is not to say that this is the reason for women to prostitute themselves but I think that previous
social status and role of women might be important. Low self esteem of women, high levels of sexual violence
during the conflict coupled with a widespread domestic violence and social and law norm that subordinate women
to men could lead to “a degree of local acceptance of violent and/or exploitative behavior against women and
girls”. [23] Also, we must keep in mind that DRC was a colony of “white men” for more that 60 years [24] and
therefore “white men” could be still seen as a “superior” race that should be obeyed.
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
Furthermore, particularly after the war, the burden of survival and securing the survival of the family fall
profoundly on Congolese women. Hence, survival sex might create “a context in which abusive sexual
relationships are more accepted, and in which many men-whether civilian or combatant-regard sex as a
“service” [on which he has “natural” right that comes from his “natural” needs for performing sex whenever he
feels need to do so] easy to get with the use of pressure.” [25]
This could explain the attitude of victims who “were on the whole not aware of having been exploited or
victimized, unless the act involved violence such as rape.” [26] Yet, even in the cases of rape by accepting the
money from the perpetrator, many women “settled” cases in this way and may even think that they cooperated
with abuser by the fact they accepted the money. After this act women might feel guilty and find they do not have
any reason to report case of abuse. By giving money or goods in exchange peacekeepers cover up exploitation
and rape. It is being done on purpose to show “mutual consent” and willingness of both sides in the case women
speak up and try to prove case of unconsentual sex.
Along with stigma, and fear a major factor is also high illiteracy rate among girls which does not make them
capable of reading name tags on uniforms of peacekeepers. In this regard, it will be very difficult to expect
women to report incidents of sexual abuse and particularly to identify perpetrators. A combination of fear and
stigma from her immediate community as well as illiteracy and absence of awareness that she is a victim of
serious crime makes the situation very complex. Therefore, the civil society must play an important role as it did
in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They should make raising awareness campaigns, open SOS hotlines and
try to provide alternatives for women. For Bosnia and Herzegovina women non governmental organizations
(NGOs) played enormous role and helped hundreds of women who were trapped in brothels around the country by
constant public campaigns, public discussions and statements and as a result of their open attempts to help
women very often exposed themselves to life threatening situations.
However, I would say that peacekeepers have looked upon women as inferior race in any case. Although it might
be true that they are particularly violent towards black women, in Bosnia and Herzegovina they were involved in
sexual abuse and trafficking of women from the former Soviet Union who are all white. In Bosnia and Herzegovina
we did not have black victims of trafficking. Therefore, I believe that real source of violence is masculinity, in
particular military ones, and the attitude it brings toward women in general. As one senior male peacekeeper
suggested “subordinate status [of women] was linked to their gender and…following from this, men could exercise
certain sexual rights over them, particularly when they had to share the same accommodation.” [27] Truly,
Congolese women share “the same accommodation” since they share the same country as a common place for
living with peacekeepers. If peacekeepers share opinion of their senior staff then their level of hostility towards
women should not surprise us.
In addition, since peacekeepers are military men they are trained to dehumanize the “other” in order to be able to
go into battle without emotional involvement. In the case of rape and sexual exploitation, foreign women are
treated by peacekeepers as “others”. They are not looked upon as human beings with equal values and needs who
deserve absolute respect of universal human rights. Prejudices and stereotypes about women of different color,
race, social and educational status might be something to consider of importance to be addresses with
peacekeepers before their arrival in a host country. How else is it possible to explain that a man who does not
have a record of rape or any other crime in his country of origin and maybe never even thought of raping “his
woman” will do all kinds of sexual abuse and exploitation (hereinafter SEA) and humiliate women in “other”
countries? In addition, according to the study done by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) it
has been found that “the incidents of rape…fall significantly with just a token female presence…men behave better
when in the presence of women from their own culture.” [28] This might explain difference in a treatment and
respect of men towards their “own” and “other” women.
As Jack Paul Clain [29] said in the documentary “Boys will be boys” “those people [referring to women victims of
trafficking by peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina] will tell you anything” accusing them of lying and making
false statements. The attitude of devaluation and disrespect some peacekeepers have towards foreign females
when they arrive on a mission might be a cause for future potential abuses.
5. What has been done so far to address the issues of SEA in peacekeeping missions?
It seems that West Africa “had to happen” to move things on in terms of bringing new policies. Bosnia and
Herzegovina scandals of involvement of peacekeepers in sexual abuse were not “good enough” to put the policies
on SEA in their much needed place. Only after the disgrace which came with UNHCR/SC UK report [30] , the UN
decided it was a time to do something. Although, sexual exploitation and abuse were always prohibited by the UN
Staff Rules and Regulations it seems that very few of the UN staff have been taken this prohibition seriously. Also,
the Policy Planning Unit of Department of Peacekeeping Operations (hereinafter DPKO) has issued the Ten Rules-
Code of Conduct for Blue Helmets which promulgate expected behavior of every military person taking part in a
peacekeeping mission in its paragraph 4 prohibits “immoral acts of sexual, physical or psychological abuse or
exploitation of the local population or United Nations staff, especially women and children.” [31] Beside these
general rules which apply to all military peacekeepers wherever they are on the mission, there are also countryspecific
codes of conduct developed if a mission has some specific concerns to address. In-country codes of
conduct are designed to draw attention to particular problems which have been acknowledged during the mission
and are perceived by the mission as highly important to be addressed. MONUCs Code of Conduct has being
developed and pronounced in April 2003 and it “strictly prohibits…any act of sexual abuse and/or exploitation of
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
members of local community, including children.” [32] Still, these rules had to be reinforced and repeated once
more by administrative instructions of Secretary General in bulletin on “Special measures for protection from
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” [33] released in October 2003, almost a year after the Bosnia and
Herzegovina mission was over.
Also DPKO issued the Compilation of Guidance and Directives on Disciplinary Issues of Personnel Serving in United
Nations Peacekeeping and Other Field Missions [34] in 2002 with an aim to reinforce disciplinary procedures. In
2004 the Office of Internal Oversight Services launched an investigation into allegations and published a report on
7 January 2005 which identified 72 allegations of SEA by MONUC peacekeepers. [35] Other measures have also
been undertaken to eliminate SEA such as the establishment of non-fraternization policy, comprehensive training
and awareness-raising and the installation of a curfew for military contingents. [36]
Only 3 years after MONUC had been established, gender issues started to receive attention and action has been
taken. Peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina might have had an “excuse” since SC Resolution 1325 on Women,
Peace and Security (hereinafter SC Resolution 1325) had passed in October 2000, however the precedent for
mainstreaming gender into peacekeeping operations had already been established in 1995 in The Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action. Also, throughout 1990s, the language of the UN began to include promoting
gender balance in all professional posts and adoption of a strategy called “gender mainstreaming”. However,
UNMIBH beside attempts to work on gender balance did not really work on gender mainstreaming nor did it have
a Gender Unit within its mission. We can say that formal inclusion of gender perspectives into peacekeeping
operations is therefore an emerging phenomenon. In this regard, prior to adoption of SC Resolution 1325, gender
units were established only in two peacekeeping missions. [37]
Although MONUC was deployed in 1999, it was only in 2002 that the Gender Unit was set up. In addition, the
Code of Conduct Officer was established as a new mechanism for fighting cases on SEA. What certainly did not
happen in UNMIBH and was in MONUC is training on gender issues. In MONUC training is done in cooperation with
civil society, using both men and women in its delivering. So far, this training has had successful results. [38]
One of the UNMIBH tasks was also to closely monitor allegations of local police involvement, and to ensure that
the local police internal investigations have been properly conducted. But one might ask who had “closely
monitored allegations” of international police and UN personnel involved in sex abuse and trafficking? Local police
were monitored by international police and international police monitored themselves? Moreover those
international police officers who were brave enough to speak up about crimes of their fellow officers have been
removed from their jobs. [39] Therefore, if allegations or evidence existed about UNMIBH civilian or civilian police
involvement, the mission would conduct its own internal investigation and, “if necessary, take appropriate
measures”. [40] Yet, appropriate measures are not defined.
The case is the same with MONUC. If a MONUC staff member violates the Code of Conduct the sanction violating
these rules would include: “summary dismissal and repatriation if applicable.” [41] The language of sanctions is too
weak and too loose and it seems too much freedom has been allowed to contributing countries for undertaking
disciplinary action if necessary. Victims are sure that action is necessary but does anyone ask them? In addition,
the member states enjoy absolute autonomy in responding in the ways they consider appropriate. [42] What if a
member state’s notion of “appropriate” does not overlap with the wider idea of prosecution and justice but rather
with narrow political interests? In majority of cases, “appropriate” means absolute impunity. Power dynamics and
lack of political will by contributing member states to prosecute its citizens do not allow impartiality and justice to
take place.
Only between 1999 and 2001, UNMIBH took action to protect the human rights of trafficked persons, particularly
through the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) program of victim protection [43] and
creation of anti-trafficking law enforcement units. Six UN policemen in Bosnia and Herzegovina were sent home in
2000 for involvement in prostitution and trafficking of women and therefore “exceeding the mandate” of IPTF. [44]
In July 2001, UNMIBH spokesman said that twenty-four officers had been fired for offenses ranging from bribery
to sexual impropriety. [45] In November 2002, UNIMBH gave a statement on the involvement of eleven police
officers who were found to have violated codes of professional conduct when frequenting night clubs, and for
using sexual services in these establishments. These eleven cases of removal of provisional authorization are the
result of the relentless efforts of the IPTF STOP teams in their fight against human trafficking in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. [46] However, none of the repatriated police officers have been prosecuted by their country of origin
after repatriation from mission. Their immunity was interpreted as absolute impunity for the crimes they
committed in the country where the mission was taking place. Fortunately, the situation is progressing, and in the
case of DRC member states, more action is taking place with regard to prosecution of their nationals. However,
this is not enough, and we have to make sure that “the protection of some member states reputation [does not]
take precedence over issues such as gender”. [47]
6. What else could be done?
I would say that we are just at the beginning of the “gender road” and there is still a lot to be done on the path to
achieving gender equality. Although gender units have started to be set up in the last few years they still lack
support from the UN in both budget and human resources. There is also a lack of political will within the UN
system to fully support work and activities of gender units. In addition, problem of SEA is complex and we should
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
look at its root causes when trying to develop and implement new strategies. Also, I do believe that our attention
should be equally divided between perpetrator and victim as without simultaneously working with both of them I
am afraid the problem will not be solved. Therefore, I would suggest following to be done in the future:
1. Develop programs which will target peacekeepers, but which will also address women victims of sexual abuse
as well as children. Civil society organisations of the host country should be given the task to raise awareness
before peacekeepers come to the country, and to continue the campaigns after their arrival. They should inform
the population, in particular women, what might happen with their arrival, especially with regard to SEA. The UN
should cooperate closely with civil society and work together to combat SEA. They have to build up confidence
within the host country’s population and develop cooperation to combat SEA.
2. Since it is much easier to control the UN military personnel (as they live in military bases) than civilian
personnel, the UN should develop controlling mechanisms which will be able to follow more closely the UN
civilian’s life. Civilians live in apartments in cities, they have more freedom of movement and as such it is easier
from them to get involved in criminal activities without fear of discovery. Some of them have even had sex slaves
living with them in their residences without being discovered for a long time, and some of these cases will never
be discovered.
3. Local NGOs as well as UN missions should open SOS hotlines where they will be able to receive anonymous
telephone calls, both from victims but also from peacekeepers who know that their colleagues are involved in SEA.
People who work in SOS hotlines should be trained and gender-sensitive. SOS hotlines should be confidential and
anonymous so there is no fear that someone will be removed from their position as a result of blowing the whistle.
4.An ombudsman position or body should be established outside the UN machinery, which then could receive
complaints from civilian population as well as peacekeepers. Such body should (hopefully) also be impartial and
composed of people with strong human rights backgrounds.
5. The immunity of peacekeepers should be narrowed and not cover serious violations of human rights, regardless
of whether they happen during the mandate of peacekeeping or not. No one should be immune from murder, rape
or sexual abuse. These activities (!) are certainly not “necessary for the independent exercise of their
functions.” [48]
6. Member states must, both more states and in more individual cases, start waiving the immunity of their
citizens if they commit serious crimes while taking part in a peacekeeping mission. Their political interests and
reputation must be “sacrificed” in the name of accountability and justice. The Secretary General also has to start
waiving the immunity of peacekeepers in order to enable local courts to exercise their jurisdiction. I am convinced
that if we start waiving immunity in each case that has legal grounds for immunity to be waived, we would have
fewer cases of crimes taking place by peacekeepers during peacekeeping missions.
7. Transparency must exist in all cases. More specifically, peacekeepers should be named, and the cases
themselves should receive high publicity and coverage. Follow-up on proceedings in peacekeepers’ home
countries, and subsequent reporting back to the local population on what actions have been taken to address the
crimes committed are crucial.
8. Reparation to victims of SEA must involve individual peacekeepers (!) and a high financial compensation
benchmark should be established. Since money is their main motivator (if not the only one) to join peacekeeping
missions we should seriously consider establishing financial punishment. The amount should be significant and be
paid directly from the individual peacekeeper’s account. This should take place in addition to the peacekeeper’s
dismissal from the operation, his repatriation, and subsequent appearance before a court in his home country, or
alternatively in the mission country’s local court in the cases where immunity is waived by the Secretary General.
Money paid as a punitive measure by the peacekeeper should go directly to the victim.
9. Trainings on gender and SEA undertaken by civil society organizations, with trainers of both sexes, should
utilise lessons learnt from UMNIC in developing training for all subsequent missions, and these changes in training
should be implemented as soon as possible.
10. We need to put more emphasis the on the cultural context of host country in relation to the peacekeeper’s
country of origin. Peacekeepers should be trained not to be only gender-sensitive but also culturally-sensitive.
They should also receive training on prejudices, racism and stereotypes.
11. I do agree that peacekeepers should have some short courses (maybe on culture of host country) or sport
activities. Their cultural life must be enriched while on mission and not become a case of wasting time.
12. More women should be present in investigation teams in cases of SEA.
13. Civil society and government with support of UN mission should provide alternatives to vulnerable women and
develop vocational trainings in their combating prostitution and sexual abuse.
14. Gender training should be broken down into several separate issues which will deal specifically with, for
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
example, children’s rights and abuse of children, women’s rights and abuse of women while also highlighting
sanctions that will take place in cases of violation. Workshops and discussion groups with small number of men
should be developed. Men might be more open and honest in smaller groups. I do not believe that in one training
session you can cover all issues. Also, some issues do not necessarily need (maybe it is not possible due to time
restriction) to be covered during an induction course, but such issues can be addressed later during the mission.
This can be done by using audio-visual materials (e.g. movies). This can ensure as much as possible that an
interactive discussion takes place.
15. Identify future trainers since we do not have enough staff to deliver the gender training required. The trainers
must also include men who are more gender sensitive and understand the issues involved. They might at the
beginning, for example, be modestly financially awarded for their willingness to be involved in training for trainers.
This is particularly important because of language barriers. Therefore, until we convince member states to provide
pre-deployment gender training, peacekeepers from different nationalities involved in the training can be of help.
16. Push for pre-deployment gender training. Since language is barrier and not everyone can be trained in the
country of mission, it should be considered an obligation by the member states to organise pre-deployment
gender training.
17. Bring in local civil society organisations to run training sessions, or bring in experts working outside of the UN
to run the sessions who have experience in gender issues.
18. Decrease the age of experience for employment with UN civilian police for women. Women who have 8 years
or more of experience have much more difficulty in leaving their families to go and work abroad. It is crucial to
give opportunities to younger women, eager to learn and prove themselves. They are more willing to travel and
do not usually have as many family obligations.
19. Training sessions should be culturally adjusted, both pre-deployment or in-mission. It is not the same to talk
about gender to a guy from Norway and from Pakistan. Training should be designed from the prospective of their
home country as well as their host country. Peacekeepers should know what they should expect to see in the
mission country before they depart.
20. Distribution of condoms during the mission and at the same time prohibiting sexual intercourse sends a
confusing message. Under this confused state of affairs, it is impossible to address the issue of safe sex, or to
analyse to what extent peacekeepers use condoms for sexual activities, or to even inform them why is may be
important to use them in a particular country.
21. The UN must take responsibility for children who were sexually abused, as well as for women. They must take
part in the rehabilitation process of the victim and particularly for “peace babies” who are a result of
peacekeepers’ sexual abuse.
22. More financial and human resources must be dedicated to activities related to mainstreaming gender.
23. Decreasing the number of military personnel in peacekeeping operations and increasing the number of civilian
personnel and other staff. Having ‘military boys’ maintaining peace has not proved successful so far, so it is time
to start considering changing the strategy for the effective keeping of peace in a country.
24. If there are more cases of SEA committed by some nationalities, more work should be done with those
particular groups of peacekeepers in identifying why this might be the case. This would help for designing better
strategy in combating and prevention of SEA in overall peacekeeping missions.
7. Concluding remarks
Too much attention has recently been focused on SEA cases in DRC, and the danger is that this exclusive focus
results in potential cases of SEA in other missions being ignored. Spotlight on MONUC could be misused for better
cover up of the same abuses which as a result could be going unnoticed. Also, if we already know that it is almost
inevitable that with the arrival of thousands of predominantly male peacekeepers into a country, the sex industry
will boom, it is high time to put all our efforts on prevention measures which will target both: local women and
peacekeepers. However, it is a positive development that for the first time more emphasis is being placed on
sanctions that will follow misconduct of peacekeepers. In addition, there is now much more publicity on sanctions
imposed by member states on their citizens who were repatriated to their home countries for misbehavior.
Despite all obstacles on the way to justice, it seems that things are moving in the right direction and that slowly,
hopefully, impunity will be translated into accountability and prosecution. This is certainly a big positive step
forward in comparison with the UNMIBH.
About the author:
Olivera Simic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, LLM and MA, holds LLM degree in International Human Rights Law (Essex
University, UK, 2003) and MA in Gender and Peacebuilding (University for Peace, Costa Rica, 2005). Currently,
she works as Gender Expert and Consultant for different agencies. For almost decade she has been working on
women and children human rights as related to these topics. She worked as legal fellow in Human Rights Watch,
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
one of the biggest NGOs in the USA as well as in UNICEF office in Bosnia and Herzegovina where she was leading
projects related to trafficking in children and gender based violence. Contact: oljasimic@yubc.net
[1] UNMIBH was terminated on 31 December 2002.
[2] See: < http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmibh>, accessed 28 August 2005
[3] The author used secondary sources, primarely articles, news and very few scholar papers that was possible to
find on Internet in order to made this research. Other written materials, such as hard copy journals or articles that
might consider this topic were not accessible to the author at the time this article was made.
[4] MONUC For more see:< http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/monuc>, accessed 9 March 2005
[5] MONUC’s Mandate & Resolutions. For more see:< http://www.monuc.org/MandateEn.aspx>, accessed 11
March 2005
[6] UNMIBH, Supra, no. 1
[7] DRC has lost 7, 3% and Bosnia and Herzegovina 7,5% of population. In DRC, about 3.8 million people have
died in the conflict, according to the International Rescue Committee, making it the most deadly since World War
II. For more see: CNN “UN accuses force of sex abuse”,
< http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/01/08/congo.peacekeepers.sex/>, accessed 12 March 2005
[8] P Higate, “Gender and Peacekeeping, case studies: The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone”
Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Monograph Series, no. 91, March 2004 p. 10
[9] UNHCR: The world of Refugee Women. For more see:
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/newspol/camp/refuge/articles/0,10233,186771_186926,00.html, accesses 10 March
2005
[10] Ibid. p. 6
[11] M Rees, “Market, Migration and Forced Prostitution” Humanitarian Practice Newsletter 14 June 1999 in P
Higate, Supra, n. 8 p. 21
[12] Country Narrative DRC (Tier2 Watch List) For more see:< http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Congo-2.htm>,
accessed 11 March 2005
[13] N Masamba Sita, “Trafficking in women and children: Situation and some trends in African countries”
See:< http://www.unicri.it/UNAFRI%20(Workshop).doc>, accessed 11 March 2005
[14] Ibid. p. 4
[15] Only in 2002 we adopted specific provision in our Criminal Code which deals with the crime of transnational
trafficking although problem has existed in the country since 1995.
[16] These were rummors among local population which the author belongs to. It is very hard, almost impossible
to find any written prove of such behavior since authorities in peackeeping missions did not want this information
to go out in public. Therefore, author received lot of data through informal conversation with local people as well
as with some of peacekeepers who were on the mission at the time being.
[17] Victims of trafficking are forced by their pimps on sex slavering. They do not earn money, are life threatened
and tortured all the time.
[18] UN General Assembly, Fifty–ninth session “Investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services into
allegations of sexual exploitations and abuse in the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo” (5 January 2005) p. 8 para 26 For more
see:< http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/discipline/OIOSreportMONUCSEA05.pdf>, accessed 13 March
2005
[19] Ibid para 25
[20] P Higate, Supra, no. 8. p. 14
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
[21] Human Rights Watch (HRW) “The war within the war. Sexual Violence against Women and Girls in Eastern
Congo” (New York, Washington, London, Brussels, HRW, 2002) p. 20 For more see:
< http://www.peacewomen.org/resources/DRC/HRWCongo.pdf >, accessed 11 March 2005
[22] Ibid.
[23] Statement of women organizations in DRC. Internal document “Report on mission to the DRC and Austria 24
October - 3 November 2004” p. 3
[24] DRC, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2004
[25] HRW, Supra, n. 21. p. 21
[26] Ibid p. 4
[27] P Higate, Supra, n. 8 p. 14
[28] G J DeGroot, “A Few Good Women: Gender Stereotypes, the Military and Peacekeeping”, in Louise Olsson and
Torrun Tryggestad, Women and International Peacekeeping (London, Frank Cass, 2001) p. 37
[29] Jack Paul Clain was the Head of the UNMIBH.
[30] Sexual violence and exploitation: the experience of refugee children in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea
(UNHCR/SC UK, 2002) For full report see:
, accessed 11 March 2005
[31] S A Corcoran, “Women and Peacekeeping “ The UN Women’s Newsletter Vol. 4 No. 2 Jun-July 2000. For more
see:< http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/network/jul2000.htm#06 >, accessed 10 March 2005
[32] P Higate, Supra, n. 8 p. 25
[33] ST/SGB/2003/13 See:< http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/discipline/SGBonSEA.pdf >, accessed 9
March 2005
[34] For more see:< http://www.peacewomen.org/un/pkwatch/discipline/DPKODirectivescompilation.html >,
accessed 13 March 2005
[35] Letter from the Secretary General to the Security Council introducing new measures for UN peacekeepers in
DRC to address the allegations of widespread sexual exploitation and abuse (9 February 2005) For more see:
, accessed 7 March 2005
[36] Ibid.
[37] S Whitworth, Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping. A Gender Analysis (London, Lynne Reinner Publishers,
2004) p. 130
[38] P Higate, Supra, n. 8 p. 29
[39] Kathryn Bolkovac, a former IPTF gender officer from the U.S. served in UNMIBH.
[40] UNMIBH launches STOP (Special Trafficking Operation Programme),
For mote see:< http://www.unmibh.org/stories/view.asp?StoryID=2 >, accessed 8 March 2005
[41] P Higate, Supra, n. 8 p. 25
[42] Ibid p. 24
[43] IOM provides for the safe return home of trafficked girls and women entrapped in the sex industry in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. IOM offers shelter, counseling, medical care, and transportation home for these women. To
implement this project, IOM co-operates with IPTF, the OHCHR, local NGOs and many governments.
See: < http://www.iom.ba/Programs/OnGoing/trafficking.htm ,>, accessed 25 February 2003
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Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers
[44] HRW interview with deputy commissioner, IPTF, Sarajevo, 9 April 2001. HRW, supra, n. 12, at. 49 in Human
Rights Watch (HRW), “Hopes Betrayed: Trafficking of Women and Girls to Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina
for Forced Prostitution,” November 2002, Vol. 14, No. 9 (D).
[45] William Kole and Aida Cerkez-Robinson, “U.N. Police Accused of Involvement in Prostitution in Bosnia,”
Associated Press, 26 July 2001.
[46] K Haupt, UNMIBH, Transcript-Press Conference, 17 October 2002,
see:< http://www.nato.int/sfor/trans/2002/t021017a.htm ,>, accessed 11 March 2005
[47] S Whitworth, Supra, n. 37 p. 120
[48] 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ( 7310 U.N.T.S. 96)
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WTO Meeting in Hong Kong: What's in it for Women?
WTO Meeting in Hong Kong: What's in it for Women?
By Women’s Edge Coalition
Last month, the countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) met in Hong Kong from December 13-18 2005
to revitalize and push forward the ‘Doha round’ of trade talks. Their challenge was to ensure that the needs of
developing countries were kept at the core of the negotiating agenda, as was promised at the beginning of the
round in 2001. After Hong Kong, most issues remain unresolved, and negotiations will continue through 2006.
WTO member countries however did come to agreement on certain issues that will have implications for poor
women around the world. For example, developed country governments agreed to eliminate farm export
subsidies by 2013 and cotton export subsidies by the end of 2006. Export subsidies are specifically designed to
encourage the export of certain goods. Many governments, however, also subsidize farmers directly in the form
of payments, and the reduction of these direct payments has not yet been addressed by WTO members.
Agricultural subsidies have been widely criticized internationally because they artificially lower the prices of farm
exports from rich nations, making it difficult for farmers from developing nations to compete. Ending subsidies
could affect women’s lives both as producers and as consumers of food. Women, in fact, produce 60 to 80
percent of the food grown in poor nations, but tend to be small or subsistence farmers who usually do not export
their goods.
The United States and other developed country governments also agreed to improve duty- and quota-free access
for exports from least developed countries (LDCs). By 2008, they will grant such access for 97 percent of
products, or tariff lines. As a result, women exporters in LDCs will be better able to compete in the U.S. market,
because the majority of their goods will not face the discrimination of tariffs or quota limitations. Many LDCs
already have duty-free access to the U.S. market under other programs, and while the new proposal will increase
market access opportunities for LDCs, certain products, such as textiles and apparel, will likely remain subject to
customs duties.
Developed countries also committed to higher amounts of ‘aid for trade’ in Hong Kong, with the United States
committing to increase its annual trade capacity building assistance (TCBA) from $1.3 billion in 2005 to $2.7
billion by 2010. TCBA is international assistance given to poor or transitional countries to help them participate in
global trade and can include the training of trade negotiators and help to small businesses on how to export their
goods. The international community has come to realize that without such assistance, trade liberalization alone
will not necessarily bring about economic development. In the future, more of this assistance could go directly to
helping poor women in developing countries take advantage of the opportunities that trade has to offer.
Looking ahead, the current Doha round is expected to conclude at the end of the year. Yet there is much more to
be done in order to make this round a true ‘development round,’ as it was initially billed. WTO member countries
could go much further this year in creating real economic opportunities for women, who are the majority of the
world’s poor. For example, greater reform of international agricultural markets and increased market access for
textiles and apparel could improve women’s livelihoods. Apart from being the majority of the world’s agricultural
labor force, women account for the majority of textile and apparel workers in many developing countries. The
latter is especially true in Asia, where, according to the International Labor Organization, women account for 89
percent of the textile and apparel sector in Cambodia, 80 percent in Bangladesh, and 82 percent in Sri Lanka. If
the promise of the Doha round is to be fulfilled, it is important that women like them see more of the benefits of
trade.
Source:
Women’s Edge Coalition ©
Available at:
http://www.womensedge.org/pages/newsandevents/news.jsp?id=459
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Human Rights
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HUMAN RIGHTS
World Health Assembly Adopts Resolution Tying Public Health To Trade Policy
The World Health Assembly on 27 May 2006 adopted a resolution that urges member
states to improve coordination at the national level between international trade and
public health, requesting the World Health Organization (WHO) to help its member states
to do this. It also calls on countries to consider new laws and policies to address negative
impacts on public health from trade policies, as well as potential opportunities.
Are Human Rights Any Business of Business? Corporate Behaviour from a
Human Rights Perspective
By Karin Lukas
In the last few decades, we have witnessed a shift in economic and political power from
states to corporate institutions. One indicator of this trend is the sheer amount of capital
that corporations generate: Microsoft makes more money than the 31 Least Developed
Countries together. A study by Anderson/Cavanagh found that 51 corporations are
“among the top 100 largest economies in the world, while only 49 are countries.”
The Made-Up Crisis:
Medical Malpractice Insurance Costs in New Jersey
Increase Health Disparities Within Health Care Delivery Systems.
A Need for New Allocations of Liability for the New Health Care Paradigm.
By Prof. Ilise L. Feitshans
Protests in the streets and chanting with posters on the steps of the statehouses of New
Jersey and Pennsylvania in 2003 had one remarkable shared feature: their constituents.
These protests came not from the vast unemployed masses demanding jobs, fair wages,
or educational opportunities for the underemployed, underinsured, homeless or poor. Nor
were these protests staged by pacifist citizens, crying out in opposition to some war in a
place far away. These protests came from a most unexpected quarter: private sector
physicians.
Towards an International Human Rights Framework for Corporate
Accountability: The United Nations Human Rights Norms for Business
By Kathambi Kinoti
AWID
The process of globalization has resulted in the acquisition of immense power by MNCs,
particularly in developing countries where they are able to shape policy and influence
governments. In LDCs they often cause human rights abuses with impunity and exhibit a
lack of transparency, behaving in ways that they would not be able to in their home
countries in the global North. MNCs operate across national borders and individual
governments cannot effectively regulate their activities. They sometimes avoid
accountability by taking advantage of laws that allow them to transfer their business or
operate under different corporations.
Economic Development as the Basis for Fulfilling Economic and Social Rights
By Mirjana Dokmanovic
The rights based approach to development is the conceptual framework of human
development normatively based on human rights standards. The development concept
based on human rights establishes the achievement of basic human rights and freedoms
as a development objective. In this approach, human rights are the starting points and
the basic aims in defining and designing development policy. Therefore, a complete
development framework must reflect international guaranteed human rights and must
cover all sectors such as education, health care, housing, access to judicial protection,
personal security, and voting rights. Such an approach is not compatible with
development policies, development plans, or programs that produce violations of human
rights, allow “trade” in rights, or that set “development” as a “priority objective” over
human rights
Globalisation and Economic and Social Rights of Women

Human Rights
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By Mirjana Dokmanovic
The current model of economic globalisation deepens present inequalities on ethnic,
gender, and economic bases within and among nations, aggravating the possibility of
establishing sustainable and equal development for all. Multilateral institutions, including
World Bank, IMF, and WTO, promote globalisation of the type dominated by trade
liberalism and privatisation. Such a model of globalisation and economic growth
stimulation has aggravated economic, social, and culture conditions in which the most
affected groups live; and it has contributed to the growth of poverty and social exclusion.

Are Human Rights Any Business of Business?
Are Human Rights Any Business of Business? Corporate Behaviour from a Human Rights Perspective
By Karin Lukas, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Austria
Introduction
In the last few decades, we have witnessed a shift in economic and political power from states to corporate
institutions. One indicator of this trend is the sheer amount of capital that corporations generate: Microsoft
makes more money than the 31 Least Developed Countries together [1] . A study by Anderson/Cavanagh [2]
found that 51 corporations are “among the top 100 largest economies in the world, while only 49 are
countries.” [3]
Before “Corporate Social Responsibility” became corporate jargon, the opinion on the relationship between human
rights and business activities was that human rights are no business of business. What were the arguments for
this position? Muchlinski names two:
● Corporations are only obliged to their shareholders and to the legal environment where they operate.
● The “Free Rider” problem: the more ethical corporations invest time and money to observe human rights,
the more they will be at a competitive disadvantage with corporations that do not care about human rights.
[4] (Muchlinski 2001, 35)
Meanwhile, the attitude that human rights are no business of business has changed due to the growing pressure
by NGOs and the consumer public following human rights violations by corporations. Several corporations see
themselves as responsible members of society and have started to meet the demands of “corporate social
responsibility”(CSR). In the following chapters, I will outline the most recent developments in this regard, which
will also give answers to the arguments made by Muchlinski.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
From a business perspective, corporate social responsibility can be understood as a “strategic and long-term
management concept that should meet actual problems in society by advancing new solutions.” [5] There is no
generally accepted definition of CSR, but there is agreement that the overall objective [word missing here --
objective/goal?] of CSR is its contribution to ”sustainable development.” [6] According to this concept, economic
and social goals are seen as complementary and not as antagonistic.
Two recent reports by SustAinability [7] and the World Bank Group [8] assess the status quo of CSR, and both
reach similar results:
A growing number of enterprises are heading in the right direction, acknowledging external stakeholders and
launching more CSR activities in important areas of business activity. First, “good practice” examples, including
cooperation with NGOs and trade unions, have emerged. There is also growing public awareness and importance
placed on CSR activities. On the other hand, most CSR measures remain isolated activities that do not influence
the core business of the corporation and are not part of a long-term strategy. Thus, even leading CSR
corporations tend to show conflicting behaviour, for example by establishing CSR activities in the area of
employee non-discrimination while at the same time lobbying for lower social and environmental standards. In
addition, most initiatives are not linked with each other or with global initiatives, which prevents them from
having a substantial impact. Another problem with the CSR concept is its implementation: very few corporations
allow independent verification of their CSR activities and attempts to create uniform reporting standards on these
activities are only beginning to emerge.
CSR Reporting and Verification of CSR activities
First, it must be noted that there are no generally accepted standards for voluntary social and human rights
reporting. Without standards that oblige corporations to address human rights issues, it is up to the corporations
themselves to decide how they will address these issues-- a slightly unsystematic method. This impression is
confirmed by an analysis of reports of Talisman, Premier Oil and BP and their activities in Sudan that reveals a
tendency to palliate these activities. [9] Furthermore, the reports could not be objectively verified. It is not
sufficient to be able to verify the accuracy of facts and data; the methods and tools used to gain these facts and
data must be verifiable as well.
Corporations seem, prima facie, not very well qualified to spell out their human rights obligations, especially when
those obligations are in contradiction with the incentive to make profits, as was the case with Talisman, Premier
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Are Human Rights Any Business of Business?
Oil and BP in Sudan.
Thus, CSR seems to reach its limits [what does this mean?]. So far, only very few corporations have been able to
combine CSR with market gains, and there is still little exchange between national policy and CSR activities.
Connected with these limitations is a growing scepticism of the truthfulness of CSR activities. Corporations have
to increase their efforts for transparency and independent verification of their activities by involving external
stakeholders. Increasing influence of CSR national and international policies and standards seems necessary and
inevitable, especially in the area of human rights.
Human Rights and Corporate Behaviour
When looking at this question, there are two distinct approaches: First, is there an indirect human rights
responsibility of corporations that arises from the human rights obligations of their home states? And second, is
there a human rights responsibility of corporations themselves, thus a direct human rights responsibility of
corporations regardless of the international commitments of their home states?
1. The indirect human rights responsibility of corporations arising from the human rights obligations
of the home states
All UN member states have made legally binding commitments to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. This
includes the protection of human rights from potential (violations that may happen) or factual violations (that
have already taken place) by private actors. [10] This duty to protect vis-à-vis private actors is stipulated explicitly
in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, in the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, and in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. [11] A state that
has legally bound itself to uphold human rights is also obliged to hold corporations in violation of human rights
accountable for their behaviour.
However, some states where companies operate (so-called host states) are not able [12] or willing to hold
corporations accountable. [13] Examples of this unwillingness have attracted considerable public attention, such
as the human rights violations of the government of Nigeria and the Shell corporation in the Niger delta, [14] or
those of Myanmar and Unocal in the course of natural gas extraction. [15]
In situations where host states are unable or unwilling to uphold human rights, there is a so-called “accountability
gap” which has to be met with implementable standards of either direct or indirect corporate human rights
responsibility. Due to this accountability gap, courts in the home states of corporations have started to accept
claims of human rights violations committed by corporations. Most of these cases are pending in US and UK
courts.
In addition, in a few countries such as the US, Australia and the UK, bills have been drafted to outline corporate
responsibility through legislation. In the UK, a “Corporate Responsibility Bill” was drafted in 2003. This bill
stipulates that business activities must be in accordance with international human rights standards and
responsibilities; this must be verifiable in annual reports. The bill furthermore foresees a liability of the directors if
the business operations have “any significant adverse social, environmental and economic impacts” which arise
from:
● negligence by it;
● any wilful misconduct by directors/managers of business operations in relation to specific business duties
that are outlined in the bill;
● any wilful misconduct relating to the disclosure of information required by the bill.
The bill’s scope extends to all businesses that generate profits above an annual turnover of 5 million pounds that
operate or are registered in the UK. Thus, very importantly, the bill applies also to business operations abroad if
the company is registered in the UK.
Similar bills have been drafted in the US and Australia. Even though it is unlikely that any of these bills will
become binding legislation in the near future, these documents express a growing willingness[ to hold businesses
accountable and are an important precedent in that regard.
2. Is there a direct human rights responsibility of corporations in international law that makes private
businesses accountable for human rights violations?
Currently, such a direct responsibility only exists as ”soft law,” which is not legally binding upon corporations and
thus, corporations cannot be sanctioned if they violate these norms. Examples include the OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises [16] and the ILO Tripartite Declaration on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy. [17]
The OECD Guidelines primarily regulate commercial matters but also include provisions on workers rights and
environmental issues. To observe compliance with the Guidelines, “National Contact Points” (NCP) have been set
up to facilitate, and if possible, provide solutions in response to complaints. However the NCP can only make nonbinding
recommendations to the parties.
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Are Human Rights Any Business of Business?
The ILO Tripartite Declaration is, not surprisingly, much more detailed on workers rights issues and contains
provisions on the right to organize and form trade unions, on the principle of non-discrimination in the workplace,
etc. The Declaration has an observatory body as well: the Committee on Multinational Enterprises. This
Committee receives state reports and may also make recommendations on disputes arising from the differing
interpretations of the Declaration.
Although the impact of both instruments is limited due to the lack of sanction mechanisms, their potential to
change the business environment towards more ethical conduct would be enhanced if these instruments were
more widely known and if these guidelines were used by the OECD states as preconditions for certain activities,
such as procurement and credit acquisition.
A third possibility exists: the possibility to make voluntary provisions of corporate responsibility (similar to “human
rights clauses”) binding by integrating them into civil contracts or international conventions. This has already been
realised in international environmental law. The Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage provides that
the owner of a ship (natural or legal person) may be liable for environmental damage caused by the ship’s
operations . [18] There are similar provisions in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. [19] During the
drafting process of these Conventions, interestingly, no state or business argued for “privatization of
responsibility”or that state responsibility is weakened . [20]
A growing number of voices in international political and legal discourse see a shift of power in the international
arena from states to corporations, a change in power relations that the law must acknowledge. The state, they
argue, has lost its monopoly of power, and thus it can and must share some of its human rights responsibility with
private actors. [21] This discussion is reflected by recent developments in international law to establish the
human rights responsibility of non-state actors. One of the most important examples is the International Criminal
Court (ICC): the Rome Statute recognizes the human rights responsibility of non-state actors for grave human
rights violations. [22]
Another milestone in developing the direct human rights responsibility of corporations was the creation of the
“Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to
Human Rights” [23] by the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. [24]
According to this instrument, the primary human rights responsibility rests with states; but there are specific
areas in which a complementary human rights responsibility exists for businesses. These areas are:
● Non-discrimination issues;
● Right to personal security (no engagement in or benefit from war crimes, crimes against humanity,
genocide, torture, forced labour, etc.);
● Workers’ rights;
● Respect for national sovereignty and human rights (including issues of transparency, the rule of law, anticorruption,
etc.);
● Respect for and contribution to economic, social and cultural rights.
Regarding the general complementary human rights responsibility of businesses, the commentary [25] of the UN
Sub-Commission to the Norms clearly states that business have a responsibility to:
● Use due diligence in ensuring that their activities do not contribute directly or indirectly to human rights
abuses;
● Ensure that they do not benefit from such abuses;
● Refrain from activities that undermine the promotion and protection of human rights;
● Use their influence to promote and ensure respect for human rights;
● Inform the staff/management of the businesses of the human rights impact of their principal activities.
Regarding the implementation of the Norms, the document remains a bit vague, stating that: the Norms should
be integrated in internal business operations; [26] internal evaluations on the impact of the Norms on those
internal business operations should be made; external monitoring (by the UN or other institutions) should take
place, and reparations via national and international courts are envisaged. This section of the Draft Norms leaves
some open questions that require further in-depth discussion, such as of the issue of “complicity” (of businesses
operating in states in human rights violations) and the “sphere of influence” of company activities that might
establish their human rights responsibility. In answering these questions, reference can be made, for example, to
international comparative criminal law [27] and jurisprudence relating to the US Alien Tort Claims Act.
Concerning the monitoring and implementation of the Norms, the international discussion will surely take some
time. However, networks like the International Business Leaders Forum noted that the draft Norms are a
meaningful basis for further dialogue and development of “good practice” and “benchmarking” activities on human
rights practices by businesses.
Despite the criticism that the Norms received, especially in the business community, they can be viewed as an
”authoritative guide ” [28] to corporate social responsibility and are an important step to clarify the human rights
responsibilities of businesses. In a very clear and precise manner, the Norms summarize key human rights areas
of business responsibility (non-discrimination, the right to security, and the promotion of economic, social and
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Are Human Rights Any Business of Business?
cultural Rights) in a field that where there are many standards, interpretations and perspectives.
The written statements to the Norms by relevant actors such as the European Union, the International Labour
Organization, the US government, and other states, point demonstrate that the furtherance of ”corporate
accountability” through direct state responsibility is widely supported; however, the question of direct corporate
human rights responsibility (as the draft Norms stipulate, for example) is largely contested and leaves many open
questions. However, the work of the UN Sub-Commission should be used and developed further to address these
questions.
Against the background of these developments, the heated debate on voluntary versus binding CSR norms goes
on. As obvious as the lines of division seem to be (businesses pro voluntary, NGOs pro binding) there are good
reasons for businesses to argue for binding regulations as well, for the following reasons: [29]
● Binding regulations prevent unethical business competitors from gaining competitive advantage by not
engaging in human rights activities. Uniform standards would create a “level-playing field” for all
businesses;
● Legal provisions provide clarity when the human rights responsibility of businesses is unclear. Because
there is no applicable law that gives guidance on the scope of this responsibility, businesses have more
difficulties demonstrating that they comply with their responsibilities.
These development show that today, corporations are not only obliged to their shareholders. A direct
responsibility of businesses for human rights violations can no longer be excluded categorically. [30] As this
paper demonstrates, there are already areas of international law where the legal liability of legal persons and
private entities exist.
Conclusion
On the international level, human rights are gradually being integrated into existing CSR concepts and initiatives.
There is a growing conviction that human rights must be an integral part of socially responsible corporate
behaviour.
This paper has attempted to provide some initial insight into the very dynamic and complex balancing act
businesses in the area of human rights in the context of corporate social responsibility. As of today, there are
only “patchwork” mechanisms to hold businesses accountable for human rights. However, the international trend
is moving towards standardisation and clarification of the human rights responsibility of businesses. This
responsibility can be seen from three different perspectives: (1) from the point of view of a direct state
responsibility for human rights conformity of businesses; (2) from the point of view of a direct human rights
responsibility of the businesses themselves; and (3) from the perspective of voluntary business activities (CSR in
the “classical sense”) to respect and promote human rights.
All three approaches are being developed on the national and international level. The development of a direct
business responsibility is the most contested but also the most encompassing approach. It is important to keep in
mind that provisions of a general nature such as the UN Norms have to be applied flexibly on a case by case
basis. For example, corporations that exploit natural resources have different human rights responsibilities than
corporations that hire – through subcontractors - women workers to produce textiles in a working environment
where trade unions are forbidden and the salaries are below ILO standards.
However, one fact should be kept in mind: states still account for the majority of human rights violations; even in
cases of human rights violations of corporations (such as Shell in Nigeria and BP in Colombia), states have been
heavily involved in violations. Here, it must be stressed that the establishment of human rights responsibilities of
businesses does not mean that states may in turn dispense with their responsibilities. A “trade-off” of
responsibilities is unacceptable. But more urgently then ever, answers must be found to meet the challenges of a
globalization process where non-state actors have gained economic and political power and have caused and
contributed to human rights violations.
The analyses of the World Bank Group and SustAinability show that it is necessary to link CSR with policy
guidelines to enhance their impact, coherence and conformity with human rights standards. States and politicians,
as well as NGOs and consumers, have an important task to fulfil.
About the author:
Karin Lukas holds an E.MA (Human Rights), LL.M (Gender & the Law). She has been a legal reseacher at the
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights since 2001. She is also an activist of feministAttac Vienna and
member of the Gender Mainstreaming Gremium of Attac Austria.
References:
Anderson/Cavanagh, The Top 200: The Rise of Global Corporate Power (2000).
Carolin F. Hillemans (2003), UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business
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Are Human Rights Any Business of Business?
Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, German Law Journal, Vol. 04, No. 10, S. 1065.
Green Paper of the European Commission, 2002
International Council on Human Rights, Beyond Voluntarism. Human Rights and the Developing International
Legal Obligations of Companies (2002)
Menno Kamminga, Corporate Obligations under International Law (2004
Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human
Rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (2003).
Peter Muchlinski (2001), Human rights and multinationals: is there a problem?
Sarah Joseph, Taming the Leviathans: Multinational Enterprises and Human Rights (1999)
Siehe Gagnon/Macklin/Simons (2003), Deconstructing Engagement
SustAinability, Gearing Up (2004), an Assessment mandated by the UN Global Compact
Walter Saurer, CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility, in: Global View, Heft II/2004
Weissbrodt/Kruger; Businesses as Non-State Actors (in Alston (ed.) Non-State Actors and Human Rights, p.318,
fn 15, Oxford 2005
World Bank, Company Codes of Conduct and International Standards: An Analytical Comparison, Part I and II
(2003).
[1] Financial Times, 2001
[2] Anderson/Cavanagh, The Top 200: The Rise of Global Corporate Power (2000)
[3] Cited from: Weissbrodt/Kruger; Businesses as Non-State Actors (in Alston (ed.) Non-State Actors and Hman
Rights, p.318, fn 15, Oxford 2005).
[4] Peter Muchlinski (2001), Human rights and multinationals: is there a problem?
[5] Walter Saurer, CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility, in: Global View, Heft II/2004, S. 7.
[6] See Green Paper of the European Commission, 2002.
[7] SustAinability, Gearing Up (2004), an Assessment mandated by the UN Global Compact.
[8] World Bank, Company Codes of Conduct and International Standards: An Analytical Comparison, Part I and II
(2003).
[9] Siehe Gagnon/Macklin/Simons (2003), Deconstructing Engagement, p. 100.
[10] See, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14 , para. 42: ”While only
States are parties to the Covenant and thus ultimately accountable for compliance with it, all members of society -
individuals, including health professionals, families, local communities, intergovernmental and non-governmental
organizations, civil society organizations, as well as the private business sector - have responsibilities regarding
the realization of the right to health. State parties should therefore provide an environment which facilitates the
discharge of these responsibilities.”
[11] See Sarah Joseph, Taming the Leviathans: Multinational Enterprises and Human Rights (1999), p. 175. All
above mentionned conventions available at: http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/
[12] “Some states lack effective control over all or certain parts of the country, or are unable to regulate
companies effectively because of other legal or political obstacles. In these situations international standards have
started to, and must further develop, criteria that define the direct responsibility of companies under human rights
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Are Human Rights Any Business of Business?
law.” See International Commission of Jurists, Response to the UN Draft Norms, p. 43.
[13] Sara Joseph, p. 176f., Menno Kamminga, Corporate Obligations under International Law (2004), p. 3.
International Commission of Jurists, Response to the UN Draft Norms, p. 43.
[14] Wiwa versus Royal Duth Petroleum Company.
[15] Doe versus Unocal.
[16] The Guidelines can be downloaded from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/56/36/1922428.pdf.
[17] The Declaration can be downloaded from http://www.logos-
net.net/ilo/150_base/en/instr/tri_dec.htm.
[18] Art III of the Convention.
[19] Art 137(1) of the Convention.
[20] See Menno Kamminga, Corporate Obligations under International Law (2004), p. 3.
[21] Joseph, p. 186, Kamminga, p. 3, Muchlinski, p. 40, International Commission of Jurists, supra.
[22] During the drafting process of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, discussions arose regarding the
extension of human rights responsibilities not only to natural but also to legal persons; however, this proposal did
not gain majority support and was not included in the statute.
[23] Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to
Human Rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/12/Rev.2 (2003).
[24] The Sub-Commission is a sub-body of the UN Human Rights Commission.
[25] Commentary on the Norms, UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/38/Rev.2 (2003)
[26] Draft Norms, paras 15-18.
[27] See Gagnon/Macklin/Simons, p. 126f.
[28] Carolin F. Hillemans (2003), UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other
Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, German Law Journal, Vol. 04, No. 10, S. 1065.
[29] See International Council on Human Rights, Beyond Voluntarism. Human Rights and the Developing
International Legal Obligations of Companies (2002), p.20. The paper can be downloaded at
http://www.ichrp.org/index.html?project=107]
[30] In the same vein, the Statement of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) to the Draft Norms states:
“It is sometimes contended that human rights only bind states and not non-state actors and can therefore not be
imposed on private companies. There are, however, no legal or conceptual arguments that prevent companies
[from] having direct responsibilities for human rights violations. It is clear that states may decide at an
international level to recognise rights and duties of non-state actors. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
itself affirms the duty of everyone, not only states, to uphold human rights; international humanitarian law binds
armed opposition groups; non-state actors can commit crimes under international law, such as slavery, crimes
against humanity, genocide or war crimes – to name but the most obvious examples…” (Excerpt of ICJ’s opinion
to the Draft Norms, p. 43).
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The Made-Up Crisis:
The Made-Up Crisis:
Medical Malpractice Insurance Costs in New Jersey
Increase Health Disparities Within Health Care Delivery Systems.
A Need For New Allocations of Liability for the New Health Care Paradigm
By Prof. Ilise L. Feitshans, George Washington University, USA
I. Introduction: Medical Malpractice Insurance Costs in New Jersey and Increased Health Disparities
Within Health Care Delivery Systems.
A. Summary of Events in Winter, 2003
Protests in the streets and chanting with posters on the steps of the statehouses of New Jersey [1] and
Pennsylvania [2] in 2003 had one remarkable shared feature: their constituents. These protests came not from the
vast unemployed masses demanding jobs, fair wages, or educational opportunities for the underemployed,
underinsured, homeless or poor. Nor were these protests staged by pacifist citizens, crying out in opposition to
some war in a place far away. These protests came from a most unexpected quarter: private sector physicians.
Physicians who, according to popular culture at least, enjoy a reasonably nice lifestyle, good wages and are well
educated. The front line workers in a different type of war: the war for health, protecting thousands, if not millions
of people against the pain and suffering caused by illness and disease. The net effect of their inability to work
without fear of malpractice claims whose insurance drives them into bankruptcy, they argue, causes them to limit
the scope of their practice or enter research and refrain from using their clinical knowledge to earn their income,
thus reducing the pool of available medical care for everyone.
B. Impact on Patients In Underserved Populations:
The ultimate effect of reducing the supply of an already expensive and preciously limited resource is to increase
the disparities in the access and quality of care to poor, uninsured or underinsured patients. Such patients are
harder to help in the first place, for reasons of less income to afford care, and a spiraling downward pattern of less
care leading to more severe illness when seeking care, with fewer options left to them and fewer opportunities to
try experimental but expensive treatments that may prolong life, enhance the quality of life or avoid mortality
temporarily.
II. Three Sides of the Malpractice Insurance Coin
A. Overview of the Problem: The Physicians’ View
Medical doctors’ protests on the state capitals’ steps drew enormous media attention. It was curious, perhaps
even surprising, to find so many well-dressed, highly paid people with professional prestige taking to public fora to
demand legislative change. What is the problem? Why is there a sudden malpractice insurance crisis in these
states, so severe that it causes physicians to take to the streets in protest?
Medical doctors, licensed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, who protested complained about: overly-burdensome
high costs of medical malpractice insurance; costs so high that the premiums alone could provide several middle
or lower income families with all of the products of a descent job at better than minimum wage. And yet, what did
they get for these premiums? Higher indirect costs such as overhead, higher levels of scrutiny from insurers and
regulators and yet, they did not enjoy complete freedom from unwarranted or overzealous litigation by attorneys
hoping for high stake malpractice claims. In such an unfair situation, they righteously demanded that legislatures
of their respective states intervene to limit malpractice liability by capping the size of awards in malpractice
claims.
The problem is not that striking physicians, no matter how improbable, might create a crisis in the delivery of
medical care. Nor is the underlying problem the high cost of jury awards to patients who have been found by
courts of law to be victims of medical malpractice. The root cause of the problem is that doctors are no longer
fully in charge of their patients’ medical care in a number of regards that are presumed by law under the older
doctrines that govern physician - patient relations. Having lost their previous independence and attendant power
through the change in the structure and financing of the delivery of 21 st century medical care compared to
centuries before, it is unfair to hold medical doctors to the same standard of responsibility as in the past when
allocating liability.
Therefore the solutions to these complex issues require a detailed scrutiny of the interrelation between
mechanisms for accountability in health care systems, and then, rewriting the law of health care delivery
accountability. Medical doctors should be a part of, but not solely or directly liable for mistakes in the delivery of
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health care under the new model. A new model would allocate responsibility where it appropriately belongs, within
the infrastructures of programs and systems that control access and availability of care through cost controls and
other efficiency criteria. Such an approach, making responsible the organizational systems and not the medical
doctors alone, is sorely needed in order to provide health care equitably to all patients across society.
B. Overview of the Problem: The Public Health Systems’ View
From a public health perspective, the medical doctors’ protests were not really very surprising. So-called
skyrocketing health care costs have been a major public health concern for at least the last four decades [3] .
Health care costs consume a large percentage of the GNP, and have increased exponentially every few years.
There are several reasons for this increased expense. In 1983, it was believed that “rapid escalation of health care
costs has resulted, at least in part, from lack of competition in the health care sector, brought about by the
present third-party payment system and the conduct of providers” [4]
These words proved prescient, because the costs for health care in relation to the US GNP have continued to
hemorrhage despite a major overhaul throughout the 1980’s in the structure of health care financing. According to
Rosenbaum et al., “as recently as 1980, virtually all insured Americans, whether publicly or privately insured, had
coverage that existed independent of the practice of medicine itself. ” [5] and few insured individuals were enrolled
in prepaid health-care plans, leaving much of their care at the discretion of individual medical doctors and
affiliated laboratories and hospitals. At that time, medical doctors had great discretion to order as many tests as
they chose for any patient and great leeway to determine which affiliated health service providers they might
choose to best meet the needs and budget for their patient. These were individual choices, and not automatic
choices made systemically by the health care delivery infrastructure.
By the mid 1980’s this situation became galvanized towards a startling change. A series of new laws at the state
and federal level, combined with aggressively antitrust enforcement challenged, and ultimately reshaped the
structure of the delivery of health care in the US, without creating a universal basis for a nationalized health care
delivery program [6] . According to Rosenbaum, “Twenty years later, the landscape has been completely altered.
In a single generation, the American health system was transformed into a "stunning array of new health care
financing and delivery entities" that "took responsibility for managing resources," and for channeling "enrollees to
providers with whom preferential contracts had been renegotiated." [7]
In addition to a systemic restructuring, there has been a response by health care providers to the increased
population, increased graying population in need of long-term health care; inadequacies in access and continuity
of care for low-income populations, which skews the services provided to them in favor of more expensive urgent
care rather than low-cost preventive care and screenings; and new glitzy technologies and experimental
techniques for major illnesses and elective treatments,. that although expensive, also enhance quality of life.
From the standpoint of overall utilization and access to new or elective techniques for treatment, this expansion
cannot come without making mistakes, whose costs are reflected in litigation surrounding malpractice.
Gatekeepers in HMO’s or managed care programs; peer reviews for cost-savings, capitation on procedures, access
to referrals and prescriptions; quotas for certain types of procedures; lack of coverage for certain other
procedures, all erode the medical doctors’ independence in decision making and thus translate into potential
malpractice litigation for the medical doctored who cannot guarantee delivery of all the necessary facets of quality
care. Rosenbaum et al describe how insurability parameters may limit access to care by excluding specific types of
treatment, offering incentives to certain preferred providers' who choose not to offer a full range of services or by
requiring a second opinion for "elective" procedures (and routinely denying coverage for them) [8] . Policies may
also limit the amount of services a particular provider can render in a time period using highly criticized practices
such as "capitation." [9] "Under capitation physicians assume the risk that the cost of services provided may
exceed the fixed per-member payment" thus creating a "reverse incentive" for providing care. This pattern of
practice indirectly creates holes in the blanket of coverage, especially if certain illnesses give rise to high
utilization for treatment or corrective procedures that are not projected but become necessary.
According to the Women’s Health Research Committee (WHRC) medical errors although documented by the
Institute of Medicine have not decreased since 1999 [10] . The WHRC cites recent articles stating that three years
after a report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) illuminated the risks to patients posed by widespread medical
errors, a recent article in the Washington Post indicates that little real progress has been made to improve patient
safety. The IOM report, released in 1999, asserted that 98,000 hospitalized Americans die each year and an
additional 1 million are hospitalized because of medical mistakes, costing the country an estimated $29 billion. In
the aftermath of this landmark study, a flurry of activity focused on attempts to curb medical errors, including the
introduction of several bills in Congress. Despite these efforts to address the problem, the Washington Pos [11] t
reported on December 3 2002 that few hospitals have made significant improvements in patient safety. Most
hospitals still use paper charts rather than computerized records; medication errors remain common; and,
according to the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), operations
performed on the wrong patient or wrong part of the body have actually increased in recent years. Meanwhile,
the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is creating the first online journal focusing on medical
errors. The site, www.WebMM.ahrq.gov, formally launched in February 2003, is currently open for the submission
of medical error cases. The site uses examples of actual errors in patient treatment to educate health care
providers on the subject. Any individual who submits a case that is selected for posting will remain anonymous
and receive an honorarium [12]
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None of these structural changes, however, are accurately reflected in the system of malpractice litigation, which
has not been restructured to meet the new conditions and changes over time. The underlying root causes of the
problem to which the medical doctors draw attention therefore raises deeper questions about who holds the true
decisional authority in medical care decision making.
It is the result of a power struggle is within the health care system, locked within the infrastructure of the newly
emerged health care delivery systems, who have not sorted out the role of capitation, limits on procedures for
cost-savings and requirements for salaried physicians to meet a minimum number of patients in a given hour or
week of work. The medical doctors’ new role within complex infrastructures lacks independence, however, that is
assumed by the present malpractice principles. In the alternative, their work could better be characterized as that
of any employee or agent of a major employer, with little or no control over working conditions, hours of work, or
the demands that can be met to ensure care for patients. It is therefore a superficial, but incorrect notion to state
that the current malpractice insurance struggle before several legislatures is a powerplay between good doctors
and mythological powerful lawyers championing the cause of broken patients and their families. Indeed, the more
appropriate paradigm to apply would be that of doctors in the role of factory workers taking on the powerful
decision making capabilities of their corporate employers, over a century ago.
C. Overview of the Problem: The Litigants’ View
From a lawyers’ point of view the doctors’ complaints, as reported in the media are not strange at all. But, it
would be a gross oversimplification to think that simply defending their jobs as litigators explains why few lawyers
share the view that limiting liability is a correct approach to the problem of increased costs for malpractice
insurance among doctors. Lawyers understand that litigation is a symptom, not a cure, to larger social problems.
This is true because litigation is retrospective, correcting past wrongs, and not preventive, like future-directed
legislation. Although malpractice insurance has been at the heart of calls for litigation, such analysis is superficial
because it looks only at the results of jury awards and ignores a long chain of changes in the standard of care,
quality of care, and empowerment of physicians to control patient care, that are now deeply embedded in
managed care and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs).
III. Legal Background: Malpractice Claims Rooted in a Standard of Care
A. Rationale for Malpractice Claims
The question whether doctors can be held personally liable for mistakes when so much of medical care is a matter
of the natural history of disease, (or in the opinion of some people, divine intervention) has plagued the legal
literature in the USA for over a century.
In the past, individual medical doctors practicing alone or in small clusters had permission to control the course of
treatment. By contrast the average medical doctors is now one small cog in a much greater wheel, without control
over patient treatment, billing or continuity of care. Tests that are not acceptable to the provider system will not
be easily ordered and will be treated as a deviation from a newly-formed standard of care, while tests that the
system requires will always be conducted, regardless whether the physician believes they are useful, necessary,
reliable or appropriate.
This is a distinct departure from centuries of precedent in the past, wherein the law considered the doctor’s role as
parallel to the “captain of the ship”. In seafaring days, captains held the greatest power of anyone on their ship.
They could determine punishment, life or death, allocation of rations, course of action during storm, destination of
the ship, marriage for passengers, and even how to apply the law of their flag. No one was more powerful at sea
than the “captain of the ship”, who enjoyed the most privilege but also bore full responsibility for any outcomes,
good or bad, that occurred under his command. The so-called “captain of the ship doctrine” was consistently
applied to doctors in cases of malpractice. This concept still exists, but is no longer appropriate, because the
nature of the organizational structure of medical care delivery systems has dramatically changed since the
doctrine was first articulated, centuries ago.
This shift in the chain of command, but not the ultimate responsibility of physicians for medical care has important
ramifications for every patient. There is evidence that suggests too, that because of the change in the structure of
the delivery of health care, the “captain of the ship” model, that holds doctors alone as ultimately responsible for
“bad medicine” or other unpleasant outcomes should be replaced by a new model for responsibility and allocation
of liability for medical care. Such a model can take into account the medical doctor’s comparative
disempowerment by the change in health care financing that has been the hallmark of HMOs and managed care.
B. Historical Antecedents of Malpractice Principles Under US Law
Since 1914, if not earlier, there have been US legal cases establishing the requirement that a patient consent
before being administered any medical treatment, every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right
to determine what shall be done with his own body, and a surgeon who performs an operation without his
patient's consent commits an assault for which he is liable in damages. [13]
Conversely, unwarranted medical invasions of the person’s bodily integrity by a doctor that are unconsented and
giving rise to harm are the gravamen of malpractice claims. As stated by the courts, the rationale for malpractice
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infrastructure requirements as proper equipment and adequate trained staff should not be laid at the feet of the
medical doctors, however, because they do not control the supply and demand for these subsystems as they did
in generations before. Yet, the failure to provide such components of the infrastructure can result in failures of
quality care.
Thus, malpractice by the system is a foreseeable consequence of such failures. Issues such as these should be
resolved through legislatures, not malpractice and tort reform. These issues concern changing the standard of
care and raising the mantra about human concerns, some of which cost very little to implement although they
may require changing embedded attitudes in the manner in which care is provided by standard medical practice.
One example is the draft bill that was before the NJ legislature recently, the “Physical Access to Health Care Act.",
through the Department of Consumer Affairs, which would require health care facilities to maintain at least one
height-adjustable patient examination table that can be lowered to facilitate the transfer of a patient with a
mobility impairment to and from its surface [20] .
VI. Conclusions: New Allocations of Liability for the New Health Care Paradigm
The malpractice tort liability struggle that has attained so much publicity has been mischaracterized as a crisis; it
is a symptom of a chronic problem in the delivery of health care and related systems. There is also misplaced
urgency in the popular outcry for tort liability limitations. This struggle incorrectly ignores the underlying problem:
doctors in the 21 st century no longer control their agenda, their patient load or their own discretionary expertise
regarding sound methods for patient care. The solution to this problem, is not, however, capitation of tort liability.
Such a simplistic approach unrealistically limits the cost of life-long injury, which can consume hundreds of
thousands of dollars in medical care in just a year or two after injury. Such an approach may also have
constitutional ramifications, if it conflicts with inherent rights to have matters judged by peers and the 7 th
Amendment right to trial by jury.
Although medical doctors are nominally in charge of patient care, these new structures may allow that to be so in
name only. In light of the fact that costs are a driver, along with other administrative concerns, physicians may
have little or no power inside the new structures. These structures are not necessarily designed with access to
care or high quality of care as their central goal. In this sense, patient care is frequently compromised and the
gold standard of patient care, against which any individual physician’s actions are measured, is necessarily
changed to reflect the goals of these organizations. Consequently, there have been increased mistakes resulting
in litigation, and resulting in awards by angry juries who are frustrated at their own powerlessness to attain good
quality medical care under an inconsistent patchwork of health plans.
Therefore, malpractice insurance costs are merely a deeply embedded hidden cost of a broken, and often unfair
health care delivery program, where the accessibility of care and the quality of care often resembles more of a
lottery than an organized health care delivery system. Under this view, many people, such as health professionals,
consumers and lawyers, the rise in malpractice insurance costs is a sorely needed check on an expensive, lifethreatening,
chaotic situation. Reducing access to this venue will not solve the problem. Health disparities will
increase: as the scope of care narrows, the difference between the available care to people at the margins or with
special needs widens. Creating a legislated system of liability that takes into account the primacy of health care
delivery structures, not doctors, is therefore the best solution to this perennial problem.
Prepared April 2003 at the Request of:
Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of
Public Health
About the author:
Ilise L Feitshans, United States of America, JD and ScM, is an attorney with a Masters of Science. She is a former
Member of the Faculty from Columbia University School of Law, and the author of five books and over 100
articles. Feitshans is the author of “Designing an Effective Osha Compliance Program”, a treatise for lawyers on
Westlaw.com that she updates annually, and the occupational health manual for non-lawyers entitled “Bringing
Health to Work”. She is Adjunct Associate Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health at GWU SPHHS. In
addition to seasonal Guest Lectures at Yale University School of Medicine and many colleges and universities, she
has organized three different conferences about inclusion and special education, most recently the "Right to
Learn" conference in Haddonfield, presented seminars at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,
China (1995). She is a Member of the Women’s Committee of the State of NJ Council on Developmental
Disabilities.
Contact: ilise@prodigy.net
[1] “NJ Doctors stage walkout” Metro newspaper, Tuesday Feb 5 2003 p 5; “Issue of Limiting jury awards
dominates malpractice debate” Trenton Star-Ledger, Feb 23, 2003, p. 20
[2] Radio reports Thursday May 1, 2003 and response by Gov. Rend ell of Pennsylvania
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The Made-Up Crisis:
[3] H Robert Helper and John J. Miles, “Antitrust Guide for Health Care Coalitions”, National Health Policy Forum
1983 states in its Preface: “The Cost of health care has skyrocketed in the last two decades. In 1981, it
constituted approximately 9.8 per cent of the United States’ gross national product, and experts expect the
percentage to increase during the next few years, (Unpublished figures for 1982 place health care expenditures at
10.5 per cent of the gross national product).
[4] H Robert Halper and John J. Miles, “AntiTrust Guide for Health Care Coalitions”, National Health Policy Forum
1983 states in its Preface.
[5] Sara Rosenbaum and Brian Kamoie, ‘Managed Care and Public Health: Conflict and Collaboration’, Journal of
Law, Medicine and Ethics Summer, 2002 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics; p. 191 Citing: R. Rosenblatt,
S. Law, and S. Rosenbaum, Law and the American Health Care System (New York: Foundation Press, 1997): at
543-73.
[6] H Robert Halper and John J. Miles, “AntiTrust Guide for Health Care Coalitions”, National Health Policy Forum
1983.
[7] Sara Rosenbaum and Brian Kamoie, ‘Managed Care and Public Health: Conflict and Collaboration’, Journal of
Law, Medicine and Ethics Summer, 2002 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics; p191 Citing J. Weiner and
G. de Lissovoy, "Razing a Tower of Babel: A Taxonomy for Managed Care and Health Insurance Plans," Journal of
Health Politics, Policy and Law, 18 (1993): 75-103, at 73-77.
[8] Sara Rosenbaum and Brian Kamoie, ‘Managed Care and Public Health: Conflict and Collaboration’, Journal of
Law, Medicine and Ethics Summer, 2002 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
[9] Tracy Griff, "Comment: Capitation Shifts Financial Risk From HMOs to Providers" 15 Preventive Law Reporter
No 2 1996 at 26.
[10] THE WHRC HOTLINE An Information Service of the Women's Health Research Coalition December 2002,
Medical Errors Have Not Decreased Since 1999 IOM Report, on-line subscriptions services of WHRC.
[11] Washington Post article, visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58443-2002Nov30.html
[12] THE WHRC HOTLINE An Information Service of the Women's Health Research Coalition December 2002
MEDICAL ERRORS HAVE NOT DECREASED SINCE 1999 IOM REPORT, on-line subscriptions services of WHRC.
[13] Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital, 1914, Cardozo, J. Majority, quoted in Holtzman N Proceed With
Caution p.186
[14] Canterbury v. Spence 464 F.2d 772; 790-91 150 Us App. D.C. 263 (1972) at 780
[15] Chouinard v. Marjani, 575 A.2d 238 (Conn. App. Ct. 1990).
[16] Sara Rosenbaum and Brian Kamoie, ‘Managed Care and Public Health: Conflict and Collaboration’, Journal of
Law, Medicine and Ethics Summer, 2002 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics; p. 191
[17] Sara Rosenbaum, Anne Markus, Colleen Son sky and Lee Repasch, “Policy Brief No 2: State Benefit Design
Choices under SCHIP—Implications for Pediatric Health Care Center for Health Services Research and Policy,
School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University may 2001, citing David Eddy,
“Rationing Resources While Improving Quality: How to Get more for Less” 272 JAMA 817-24 (1994)
[18] Sara Rosenbaum and Brian Kamoie, ‘Managed Care and Public Health: Conflict and Collaboration’, Journal of
Law, Medicine and Ethics Summer, 2002 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics; p191
[19] NEW JERSEY BILL TRACKING McKeon Jury Awards for Medical Malpractice. Establishes standard of review for
excessiveness of jury awards in medical malpractice.10/10/2002 Introduced. 10/10/2002 To Assembly 2002 NJ A.
B. 2873 (SN); Joint Resolution No. 33 State Of New Jersey 210th Legislature, Introduced March 18, 2002.
Sponsored by: Francis L. Bodine, and Eric Munoz
[20] An Act concerning physical access to health care and supplementing Titles 45 and 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Prompted by the finding that “Every day, in this State and across this country, men and women, children and
adults, who are challenged by various forms of physical disability, must confront the additional challenge of
overcoming physical barriers to their accessing the health care services that they need; These barriers include a
widespread lack of physical accommodations and medical equipment in the offices maintained by health care
professionals, such as examination tables, dental chairs and scanning devices, that ARE designed to be "userfriendly"
to health care consumers with physical disabilities extent that these are available under State law or
regulations, including, but not limited to, the barrier free subcode adopted by the Commissioner of Community
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The Made-Up Crisis:
Affairs as part of the State Uniform Construction Code.
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The United Nations Human Rights Norms for Business
Towards an International Human Rights Framework for Corporate Accountability: The United Nations
Human Rights Norms for Business
By Kathambi Kinoti
AWID
In December 2003, the community of Rupokwu in Nigeria suffered a devastating oil spill after part of an oil
pipeline that runs through the area burst. As a result, water wells were contaminated, depriving the community of
drinking water. Farmlands and fishponds were also destroyed and most families in this farming community lost
their source of income. The oil pipeline is operated by the multinational corporation (MNC) Shell Petroleum
Development Corporation in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Neither entity has
cleaned up after the oil spill. The incident and consequent inaction by Shell and the Nigerian government have
caused human rights violations to the people of Rupokwu. Their right to a clean and healthy environment and an
adequate standard of living have clearly been violated.
In 1984, a toxic gas leak in the Indian city of Bhopal caused enormous damage to the lives and livelihoods of the
community. The leak occurred at a plant of another MNC, the Union Carbide Corporation. Within three days, more
than 7000 people had died and thousands more were injured. Today, more than 20 years later, over 100 000
people suffer chronic and debilitating illnesses and babies are born with birth defects. Many women have been
unable to have children and suffer social stigma and discrimination. Union Carbide, which denied responsibility for
the leak, has transferred its assets and operations to another corporation that denies it has inherited its
predecessor’s liabilities. Union Carbide has refused to submit to the jurisdiction of the court in Bhopal where
community members have sought justice. The people of Bhopal have suffered numerous rights violations, such as
their right to life, health, an effective remedy before the courts, an adequate standard of living and a safe
environment.
Women in the least developed countries (LDCs) form the majority of people most vulnerable to human rights
violations by MNCs. They bear the brunt of the destruction of environments and livelihoods. They also form the
majority of low-wage workers. The Bhopal case illustrates the discrimination that women can be subjected to.
However, it is not only in the LDCs that women suffer corporate abuses. Wal-Mart, an American corporation
currently faces a lawsuit from present and former female employees, who accuse it of sex discrimination in
promotion and healthcare provision.
Why should MNCs be subjected to international regulation?
The process of globalization has resulted in the acquisition of immense power by MNCs, particularly in developing
countries where they are able to shape policy and influence governments. In LDCs they often cause human rights
abuses with impunity and exhibit a lack of transparency, behaving in ways that they would not be able to in their
home countries in the global North. MNCs operate across national borders and individual governments cannot
effectively regulate their activities. They sometimes avoid accountability by taking advantage of laws that allow
them to transfer their business or operate under different corporations, as illustrated by the Union Carbide
Corporation and the Placer Dome Corporation, which has caused human rights violations in the mines of the
Philippines.
Even when countries have national laws governing the activities of corporations, these laws are often inadequate
or not applied to MNCs, particularly in developing countries. The corporations often work in areas that are rich in
natural resources but are not developed, where they exploit the environment and local populations, even causing
their displacement and threatening their cultural heritage. In Kenya for instance, a Canadian mining MNC, Tiomin
Inc. recently came into conflict with a local community when its activities infringed upon the forests that the
community has held sacred for centuries. Since MNCs have so much power, previously wielded only by
governments, there is a need for an international regulatory framework within which they can operate. It is
impossible to achieve sustainable development and alleviate poverty without protecting the human rights and
dignity of all people.
The UN norms for business
The United Nations Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises
with Regard to Human Rights were adopted in August 2003 by the UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and
Promotion of Human Rights. The Norms were drafted with the assistance of business, unions and NGO’s despite
significant opposition from some governments and MNCs.
The Norms address the obligations that corporations have in their areas of activity and influence. They impose
obligations on States to ensure that MNCs and other business corporations respect human rights, and enumerate
and elaborate the obligations of businesses. Some of these obligations are as follows:
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The United Nations Human Rights Norms for Business
● To ensure equal opportunity and non-discriminatory treatment of all persons regardless of sex, nationality,
age, religion, social and other status.
● To respect national sovereignty.
● To respect human rights including the rights to development, adequate food and drinking water, the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, adequate housing, privacy, education, freedom
from forced labour and the exploitation of children.
● To protect the environment.
● To avoid corruption and maintain transparency.
● To ensure consumer protection and public safety.
● To observe the precautionary principle, which means avoiding or reducing the risk of accidents or harm to
the environment or people.
● To provide reparation to persons or communities who have been adversely affected by the failure of MNCs
to comply with the Norms.
The Norms do not completely cover all aspects of MNC dealings. For instance the issue of mergers and
acquisitions such as the Union Carbide – Dow one are not adequately addressed. Again, the issue of privatization
of previously public-owned entities is neglected. Where governments previously provided public services,
corporations are likely to take short-cuts and overlook the greater public good, limiting for instance, access to
water for all.
The Norms are not an international treaty and are therefore not legally binding on states or corporations. This,
perhaps, raises the greatest concern as implementation cannot ensured. However, they can be used by
governments to enact legislation and shape policy. They can also be used by corporations to design their business
policy. Human rights advocates can use the Norms in their advocacy work, and national and international tribunals
can refer to them.
Are the norms adequately engendered?
According to the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), though the Norms do reflect
some concern for gender issues they do not adequately integrate all issues. They observe the principle of equality
of opportunity and treatment. However they should do the following:
1. Identify women being among the vulnerable groups.
2. Recognize gender-based violence as violating the right to security of the person.
3. Address sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence in the workplace.
4. Require gender-equitable policies in lay-offs, contract work and temporary work.
5. Address gender inequities in hiring, training, promotion and retention policies.
6. Address the inclusion of women in corporate decision-making.
What can women's rights advocates do in support of the norms?
1. Use the Norms in education, advocacy and lobbying efforts to influence legislative and policy changes and to
participate in solidarity actions with affected communities.
2. Use the Norms to monitor, document and challenge corporate violations.
3. Make use of the Briefing Kit prepared by the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ECSR-Net). The Kit contains background information on the Norms, case studies, analysis and recommended
actions. It can be downloaded at http://www.escr-net.org/EngGeneral/unnorms1.asp
4. Support development and implementation of the Norms by joining lobbying efforts such as those by ECSR-
Net before the next Commission on Human Rights, which will take place from March 14 to April 22, 2005. For
more information, visit ECSR-Net’s website at http://www.escr-net.org.
Notes:
The UN Human Rights Norms for Business can be downloaded at:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G03/160/08/PDF/GO316008.pdf?OpenElement.
Published in:
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) ©
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The United Nations Human Rights Norms for Business
Resource Net, Friday File
Issue 213
Friday, February 11, 2005
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Economic Development As The Basis For Achieving Economic and Social Rights
Economic Development as the Basis for Fulfilling Economic and Social Rights
Mirjana Dokmanovic
Women’s Centre for Democracy and Human Rights,
Subotica, Serbia and Montenegro
The Concept of Development Based on Human Rights
The rights based approach to development is the conceptual framework of human development normatively based
on human rights standards. The development concept based on human rights establishes the achievement of
basic human rights and freedoms as a development objective. In this approach, human rights are the starting
points and the basic aims in defining and designing development policy. [1] The starting point is the attitude that
the implementation and protection of international human rights may not be achieved without adequate
development activities and development plans. In this sense, human rights focused on development cover series
of human rights, both civil and political, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. All these rights,
regardless of their contents, are based on two principles: the principle of equality between women and men and
the principle of prohibiting discrimination on any basis, such as the colour of skin, gender, language, religion,
nationality, ethnicity, social origin, or political affiliation.
The concept of development based on human rights [2] integrates norms, standards, and principles of the
international human rights system into development plans, policies, and processes. Norms and standards are set
in the following international documents:
1945 Charter of the United Nations
1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights
1948 American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man
1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention
on Human Rights)
1961 European Social Charter
1965 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
1966 Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1968 Proclamation of Teheran
1969 American Convention on Human Rights
1979 Convention on Elimination of All Types of Discrimination Against Women
1981 African Charter on Human and People’s Rights
1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
1986 Declaration on the Right to Development
1989 Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
1993 Vienna Declaration and Program for Action
1994 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
1996 European Social Charter (revised)
2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on Elimination of All Types of Discrimination Against Women
There are several hundred other human rights instruments with general and specific contents. Most of them have
been adopted under the auspices of the United Nations, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the
United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO).
Such a development approach includes the following elements:
● Linkages with human rights standards;
● Accountability;
● Empowerment;
● Participation;
● Non-discrimination and equality, and
● Attention to vulnerable groups.
Defining development objectives in terms of their relationship with achievement and protection of particular rights
directly aligns development policy with international, regional, and national instruments in the field of human
rights. Human rights are indivisible and interdependent; therefore, a complete development framework must
cover all sectors such as education, health care, housing, access to judicial protection, personal security, and right
to vote. Therefore, this approach is not compatible with development policies, development plans, or programs
that produce violations of rights, that allow “trade” in rights, or that set “development” as “priority objective” over
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Economic Development As The Basis For Achieving Economic and Social Rights
human rights.
Development based on human rights requires determining responsibility for the process of development by
identifying right-holders and duty-bearers. In this respect, both positive obligations (to protect, provide, and
promote) and negative obligations (to refrain from violation) are equally taken into account. Duty-bearers, at this
level, are individuals, states, local authorities, private companies, donors, and international institutions.
The responsibility at this level also refers to the translation of universal standards into national standards, policies,
and measures on the basis of which the progress in achieving human rights and the responsibility for their
implementation and protection could be measured. Such a development approach requires relevant legislation,
administrative procedures and practices, institutions and mechanisms that act with the aim of human rights
provision and protection, i.e. that react in cases of their violation. In this domain, the role of the state is specific;
both through political willingness and through relevant mechanisms, it must provide necessary legislation and
administrative and institutional mechanisms for implementation and protection of rights. [3] Primary responsibility
for the establishment and implementation of human rights is left to states, but the international community is also
obliged to provide international co-operation in this field and the development of human rights systems in the
developing countries that lack necessary resources and capacities.
Instead of providing aid, the human rights approach to development prefers empowerment strategies based on
rights of implementers who direct development. Therefore, the emphasis is on human beings in the focus of the
development. The aim is to empower people to create their own life and the life of their community. Thus, this
development concept requires a high level of participation of local and regional communities, civil society,
minorities, women, and other actors. [4] This anticipates the access to information, institutions, decision-making,
and policy shaping. Such a development approach includes specifics of the particular environment (local, regional,
national, etc.) in formulating development policy, i.e. the creation of development policy based on the specifics,
interests, and needs of the people living in a given community, instead of accepting side models, quick
“solutions”, and recipes that do not take specifics of a community into account.
Setting human rights in the centre of development means observing the principles of equality and nondiscrimination,
covering both active measures to eliminate discrimination and affirmative actions and practices for
the members of discriminated groups. Affirmative measures may refer to women, members of a certain race,
nationality, ethnic group, age, religion, etc. To protect against discrimination as a part of human rights approach
to development requires identification of vulnerable groups and groups whose rights are systematically violated or
who do not have access to effective protection of their rights, at local, regional, and national levels. This is the
basis for determining such a development that will take into account the position and needs of discriminated
groups and provide conditions for the identification of discrimination bases for the purpose of its elimination and
enjoyment of same rights as of members of majority groups. This requires data and statistics, which
governmental bodies must record and use according to categories of characteristics, such as gender, age, national
and ethnic origin, religion, disability, rural population, urban population, etc. Only on the basis of such classified
data, the existence of discriminated groups may be discovered, and their members may be provided human rights
protection and enjoyment in everyday life and in development planning. In addition, development policy needs to
include measures to eliminate power imbalances as, for example, between women and men, or between
employees and employers.
Since the Amsterdam Agreement signed in 1997, the European Union has added society and environment to the
economic issues in defining development. In June 2001, the European Council adopted in Gothenburg the first
European Sustainable Development Strategy, the Sixth Action Program on Environmental Protection, and the
White Book on Public Administration. According to these documents, reasonable economic policy may neutralise
pressure to exhaust the environmental and natural resources, which are complementary phenomena of using
energy and material inputs for economic development. By stimulating innovations, productivity, and efficiency,
pressure to harm the environment and deplete resources may be decreased, and at the same time, employment
and competitiveness throughout Europe may be increased. [5] Sustainable development strategies should be
based on continuous analysis of the effects of increasing pressures on environment resulting from economic
development. Based on this principle, initiatives for relevant integration of policies (for markets, trade, regions,
etc.) should be stimulated. The objective should be a new development model, where social and ecological
objectives and initiatives are supported by the process of creating economic wealth. The European Sustainable
Development Strategy stimulates the determination of national and sectoral objectives, which will contribute to
the process of policy integration. The objectives and indicators should be developed within the economic sphere (e.
g. the criteria of convergence of economic and monetary unions) as well as within the field of social cohesion (e.g.
gross domestic product/unemployment rate).
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
The human rights approach to development implies, while creating the economic development, to start from
creating opportunities for enjoyment and protection of economic, social, and cultural rights [6] , including civil and
political rights. This group of rights include:
●
●
Right to work, employment, and just remuneration;
Right to just and favourable labour conditions;
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Economic Development As The Basis For Achieving Economic and Social Rights
●
●
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Right to occupational safety, including the right to association and to strike, right to associate in trade
unions;
Right to social justice and social protection, including special protection of mothers and children, health and
social security, pension insurance, welfare, etc.;
Right to access to resources: land, capital, credit, infrastructure, technology, and equipment;
Right to a decent living standard and quality of life including nutrition, access to drinking water, and
satisfactory housing conditions;
Right to health: basic health care and prerequisites to living a healthy life, including reproductive and
sexual rights;
Right to satisfy special needs for people with disabilities;
Right to education;
Right to participate in and gain benefits from science and research;
Right to take part in cultural and artistic life.
It is a fact that implementation of economic, social, and cultural rights do not depend solely on a will of a
government, but also on a level of economic development and available resources. In this sense, those rights are
“long-term” rights and may not be achieved at once or in a short period. This, however, does not release a state
of the responsibility to take actions and make efforts. On the contrary, a state is obliged to take steps “to
gradually achieve full accomplishment of the rights recognised in this Covenant though all available
resources…” [7] . Although the level of implementing these rights depends on the level of economic development
of a state, all states, regardless their economic strength, must provide at least the minimum rights guaranteed by
the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Nowadays, the United Nations has unambiguously accepted the indivisibility of human rights that was confirmed
with the slogan “All Human Rights for All” that marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights in 1998.
Responsibilities of States to Respect, Protect and Fulfil Economic and Social Rights
The acceptance of the principle of the indivisibility of human rights means that states are equally responsible for
the violation and lack of achievement of economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as for the violation of civil
and political rights. Significant development of international human rights instruments in the field of economic,
social, and cultural rights happened during the last fifteen years, such as the revised European Social Charter [8] ,
Additional Protocol on the European Social Charter Providing for a System of Collective Complaints [9] , and the
“Protocol of San Salvador”, Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Areas of
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights [10] . The initiative to adopt the Optional Protocol on the International
Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and adoption of the Optional Protocol on the Convention on
Elimination of all Types of Discrimination Against Women [11] are focused on strengthening state obligations to
protect these rights.
Unless a state fulfils its obligations from the ratified international conventions, in this case for economic, social,
and economic rights, it violates the relevant provisions. According to international law, states have three types of
obligations: to respect, protect, and fulfil. Any neglect in relation to these obligations is deemed violation of rights.
Every such obligation has two elements: the obligation to conduct and the obligation to achieve concrete results.
The obligation to conduct means the adoption of particular measures, policies, or action plans, and the obligation
to achieve a particular effect requires a state to meet a certain objective to satisfy standards in a certain area.
States have the discretionary right to select measures to meet their obligations under international legal
instruments in the field of human rights. The practices of states and the application of legal norms by national
courts and international supervising bodies regarding implementation of international instruments have provided
significant contributions to the development of universal human rights standards. This has contributed to better
understanding of the nature and the limitations of economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as of the range of
relations covered.
According to the International Covenant in this field, a state, regardless of its economic possibilities, is obliged to
take the required steps to provide the basic level of each of these rights. In this sense, where high number of the
population is starving, lacks basic housing conditions, or lacks access to basic education – a state violates the
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Despite the fact that this may not be expressed
in a quantitative manner, this minimum level of obligations is not dependent upon the existence of the particular
resources necessary for to fulfil the obligations, nor may the requirements be eliminated due to economic
difficulties or other reasons. The starting point is that a state’s function and role is to provide particular services,
protection, and security to all community members, and many of these rights may not be ensured unless
significant financial and material resources are previously provided. On the other hand, the achievement of many
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Economic Development As The Basis For Achieving Economic and Social Rights
rights may depend on the availability of particular material and financial resources.
Economic, social, and cultural rights are violated when a state, by acting or by non acting, uses a policy or a
practice contrary to its obligations from the International Covenant, ignores such obligations, or fails to achieve a
minimum standard or a result. The violation of these rights also refers to discrimination in implementing or
protecting on the basis of gender, language, religion, nationality, ethnicity, social origin, political beliefs or other
attitudes. Examples of direct violations of rights are:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
The adoption of legislation or a policy programme which is obviously not in accordance with valid
obligations in this field, unless this is done to achieve equality and to improve the economic, social, and
cultural rights of marginalized or vulnerable groups;
The adoption of any retrograde measures that decrease the achievement of these rights;
Formal abolishment or suspension of the laws necessary for continuing achievement of these rights;
Active negation of such rights for particular individuals or groups through legislation or discriminatory
practice;
Active support to the measures adopted by the third parties that are not in accordance with or that hinder
the enjoyment of human rights;
The obstruction of achieving these rights above allowed limits anticipated by the Covenant, such as vis
maior or the lack of necessary resources;
The decrease or reallocation of particular public expenses and public consumption, when this results in the
abolishment of enjoying such rights, or when it is not followed by relevant measures necessary for the
provision of minimum rights for the compensation of all who need it.
Examples of violations of economic, social, and cultural rights by a state’s inactivity or non-performance of
particular actions are neglecting the duty to:
●
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●
●
●
●
●
Take relevant measures as required by the Covenant;
Reform or renew legislation which is obviously out of conformance with or opposite to Covenant obligations;
Remove the obstacles that incapacitate or hinder the application of Covenant obligations;
Supervise and control the implementation of economic, social, and cultural rights;
Use maximum available resources for full realisation of the obligations from the Covenant;
Implement without delay the rights that are required to be urgently implemented by the Covenant;
Satisfy internationally determined or accepted minimum standards in this field;
Take into account international legal obligations in the field of economic, social, and cultural rights when
concluding bilateral or multilateral agreements with other states, international organisations, or
multinational corporations.
The whole set of responsibilities and obligations of states in terms of implementing, observing, and protecting
economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as the wide range of activity instruments available to states to create
conditions for the enjoyment and protection of the minimum level of these rights, points out that states do not
have much room to justify the poor economic and social positions suffered by the majority of their population.
Taking into account the legitimacy given to it by citizens, a state’s obligation is to approach to and ratify universal
international legal instruments in the field of human rights, i.e., if they have already ratified them, to integrate
accepted international legal norms into their national legislation and to undertake all available measures to
implement, protect, and respect them. This obligation must not be neglected when negotiating or concluding
bilateral or multilateral economic, trade, and other agreements and arrangements, both with other state(s) and
with multinational corporations. States are obliged to modify agreements with the aim of fulfilling international
obligations in the field of human rights, through membership in relevant institutions or managing bodies. Since in
this field force (and power) dominates the law, it is necessary to establish the mechanism of control and
compulsion that will efficiently correct and supervise the policy of multinational financial and economic
corporations aimed at providing economic and social rights to individuals.
The Problems of Establishing a Heliocentric [12] Economic Development Concept
While creating a national strategy of economic development based on human rights, problems posed to the state
may include the problems of:
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●
●
●
Creating the possibility of fulfilling economic and social rights under the conditions of neo-liberal
macroeconomics and trade liberalisation where exclusively rich and developed markets generate most of
the profit, unlike small, restricted, and poor markets;
Decreasing sovereignty (i.e. the independence of national states, especially over-indebted states and
developing countries) in formulating and implementing national economic, social, educational, health care,
and other policies under the conditions of accepting and implementing the programmes of economic
structural adjustment and the values of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank;
Setting responsibility for the violation (i.e. not achieving economic and social rights during economic and
political transition and economic restructuring resulting in growing unemployment and redundancy and
decreasing national funds for welfare, health care, education, etc.);
Different interpretations of economic and social rights (for example, the right to labour may be interpreted
as the right (1) to look for job, (2) to remuneration in case of unemployment, (3) to be employed, or (4) to
be employed in accordance with one’s degree and qualifications.
In the series of reports [13] , Danilo Turk, Special Rapporteur on the Realisation of Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights of the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, has analysed
basic factors that affect and prevent the achievement of these rights. The Reports called on a need for a
comprehensive approach towards human rights and for strengthening economic, social and cultural rights. In his
Final Report, Turk summarised basic conclusions and recommendations [14] and identified ongoing barriers for the
realisation of human rights. Those are the programmes of structural adjustment, high external debts, unequal
income allocation, privatising human rights, misconceptions of a state, misguided visions of development,
deficient political will, environmental devastation, armed conflicts, economic growth as a panacea and dualistic
views of human rights.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment on International Technical
Assistance [15] warned that the inclusion of human rights in development plans and strategies often remained at
the level of generalisation, as well as that economic development itself did not mean the development and the
achievement of economic, social, and cultural rights. The Committee admitted that international development cooperation
and development policies at a national level automatically contributed to human rights protection only
through the inclusion of thematic concerns such as health care, education, or political participation. It was noticed
that many activities undertaken in the name of “development” did not contribute to improving the situation in the
field of human rights or were even counterproductive. The Committee recommended that development strategies
by UN members should recognise “close connection” between development activities and efforts to observe
human rights and that co-operation in the field of development should be based on an estimate of the effects on
human rights. In this sense, obligations to achieve and protect human rights should be taken into account at each
stage of applying development projects, from estimate to supervision and evaluation.
Conclusion
The implementation of human rights based approach to development requires the creation of prerequisites at the
international level in the sense of redistributing responsibilities for the respect, protection, and provision of
internationally guaranteed human rights to new international actors who have more and more significance at this
level: international financial organisations and transnational corporations. This means the creation of efficient
mechanisms for the protection and fulfilment of human rights, both at national and international level, and the
elimination of ambiguities in interpreting international conventions in this field. Besides the provision of better
normative clarity, relevant international instruments and international authorities should be provided for the
interpretation of particular provisions of international conventions and content regarding rights. Such a
development will be focused on the improvement of position of individuals and vulnerable groups, as well as on
decreasing poverty, achieving gender equality, creating conditions for full employment, and regenerating a safe
and healthy environment. Under such conditions, the efficiency of economic policy will be measured only by the
quality of livelihoods and lives of individuals, and by the level of meeting their basic needs and rights.
Translation from Serbian: Women's Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Serbia
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AWID, 2002, A Rights Based Approach to Development, (Primer), Women’s Rights and Economic Change, No. 1,
AWID, Toronto
Bennholdt-Tomsen, Faraclas, Werlhof (eds.), 2001, There is an Alternative – Subsistence and Worldwide
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Brysk, Alison (ed.), 2002, Globalization and Human Rights, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles,
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and Sustainable Development, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001
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(2), pp. 377-383.
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Mittelman, J.H., 2000, The Globalization Syndrome: Transformation and Resistance. Princeton University Press,
Princeton
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Overseas Development Institute, What Can We Do With a Rights-Based Approach to Development, Briefing Paper,
1999(3), September
Realising Human Rights for Poor People – Strategies for Achieving International Development Targets, Department
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United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), 1995, Social progress through industrial
development, World Summit for Social Development Briefing, UN
WIDE, 1998, Women’s Economic and Social Rights – Protect, Promote, Fulfill, WIDE, Brussels
[1] Further in: Overseas Development Institute, 1993, Briefing Paper, (3), Overseas Development Institute,
London.
[2] This is not a new concept. International Labour Organisation (ILO) forces it in its programmes from the
beginning of organisation establishment, and UNIFEM and UNDP develop their programmes based on this very
concept.
[3] The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966) obligates states to take urgent and
prompt measures for progressive realisation of these rights, and the neglect to do this is the violation of states’
duties. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) obligates states to observe these rights, to
provide measures for their observation and enjoyment, as well as legal protection.
[4] According to UN Declaration on Right to Development, the participation must be “active, free, and significant”.
[5] EU Sustainable Development Strategy, Position Paper on the European Consultative Forum on the
Environmental and Sustainable Development, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European
Communities, 2001, p. 15.
[6] This group of rights is included in the second generation of human rights, originated during the XIX and XX
centuries, with the aim of protecting the economic and social positions of individuals. Thus it completed the first
generation set of human rights, referring to the relationship between individuals and the state, and so comprised
of civil and political rights. While the first generation of human rights is primarily based on the principle of
freedom, the second generation is based on the principles of equality and solidarity. They are based on the idea
that people should share the similar social position of enjoying their civil and political rights. Economic, social, and
cultural rights supplement rights from the third generation, originated after World War II, such as the rights to
development, justice and equality in activities related to the use of agricultural land, mining, industry, and trade;
the right to independence in the fields of information and communication; the right to control transnational
corporations; the right to a healthy environment, intellectual property rights in the fields of traditional medicine
and agriculture; minority rights; and the right to the protection of cultural heritage. Further: V. Dimitrijeviæ, M.
Paunoviæ, Ljudska prava, Belgrade: Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, 1997: 174-175.
[7] International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, (U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966) 993 UNTS 3) Art.
2. Para. 1. Adopted by Resolution 2200A (XXI) of UN General Assembly as of 16 th December 1966, and came into
force on 3 rd January 1976. As of 7 th July 2003, the Covenant was ratified by 147 states.
[8] European Social Charter (revised, ETS No. 163) was adopted on 3rd May 1996, came into force on 1st July
1999.
[9] Adopted on 9 November 1995
[10] Adopted on 17 November 1988
[11] Entered to force in 10 December, 2000
[12] ‘Having or representing the sun as a centre’ – used as a metaphor: ‘having the human rights standards as a
centre’
[13] E/CN.4/Sub.2/1989/19, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1990/19, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1991/17.
[14] E/CN.4/Sub.2/1992/16, 3 July 1992
[15] International technical assistance measures (Art. 22) 02/02/90. CESCR General comment 2. (General
Comments) E/1990/23.
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On Globalisation...
Globalisation and Economic and Social Rights of Women *
By Mirjana Dokmanovic
Women’s Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, Serbia
In parallel with integration processes the blurring of firm borders among nations, the building of Western-type
democracy and capitalist relations based on market liberalisation and unhampered movement of capital, goods,
investment, and labour is extended. Late in the twentieth century, the world experienced some great changes,
which, among all, opened the space for promotion of human rights and building international relations and
international policy. In the globalising world, human rights are becoming more and more significant, in
international and internal policy and in international law, thus developing a new branch of law – the international
human rights law.
The humanities contain various globalisation concepts depending on discipline. In economics, globalisation refers
to economic internationalisation and extension of capitalist market relations. In international relations, the focus
refers to the development of global policy and increased intensity of relations among nations. In sociology,
attention is paid to the increase of social relations throughout the world and the occurrence of a “global society”.
In cultural studies, central research refers to global communications, post-colonial cultures. The cultural diversity
of approaches indicates that globalisation is a multi-dimensional process that may not be categorised as a onedimensional
reality or interpreted unilaterally.
It is certain that globalisation is a complex social, economic, cultural, technological, and political process in which
the mobility of capital, ideas, technology, organisations, and people has acquired a growing global and
transnational form. In this paper, globalisation means the processes intensifying for the past two decades,
including the movement of short-term foreign investment based on speculative exchange rates, long-term direct
foreign investment, trade at the world level with the policy of diminishing obstacles that would hamper the
growing share of transnational corporations in world production and trade, interdependence of world production,
people’s movement motivated by trade or job search, and the development of new forms of communication.
These processes have also resulted in the development of global civil society and its new participants, such as
international non-governmental organisations dealing with human rights promotion and observation, which gain a
higher role within this sphere, from the international level and at the UN system level to the national and the local
levels. This impacts the extension of human rights observation of culture, their integration into local legislation,
and the development of international, regional, and national mechanisms for human rights observation.
In the last decade, there has been growing influence from another group of actors on the global scene, which
have shaped global processes, to a significant extent. Those are multinational corporations dominating world
production; the World Trade Organisation, as the first multilateral organisation that has power to subordinate the
will of national governments to its rules; the Permanent International Criminal Court; regional blocks such as
European Union, ASEAN, NAFTA; and groups for political coordination at the global level (G7, G8, G10, G22, G77,
OECD). These actors create new rules in international relations, economics, trade, and international law.
Awareness of human rights is rising – the number of conventions and documents regulating human rights and the
number of their signatories are rising. Awareness is rising regarding the common destiny of all nations and their
relationship with the planet’s destiny, resulting in the increase in the number of international agreements on
environmental protection at the global level (the ozone layer preservation, sea and ocean preservation,
desertification, climate changes, etc.). Also, some new multilateral agreements have been made on trade,
intellectual property, communications, etc. At the international level, new global (UN Millennium Goals) goals for
regional development have received agreement.
A new stage of globalisation based on new financial markets and growing global service markets is being created
by strong development of new types of communication and the development of faster and cheaper transportation
(rail, road, and air traffic). The removal of barriers to economics, trade, and transportation has resulted in byproducts
of this development – global relationships of socially undesirable and harmful activities, such as
international crime, international terrorism, trafficking of women, trade in weapons and drugs. This has increased
the significance of international acts of compliance among nations, the number of international agreements and
conventions in this field, and the development of international law and human rights.
Economic Globalisation and Poverty Increase
Economic globalisation, the globalisation of finance, trade, investment, and technology since the 1980s, has
resulted in a technological boost and faster flow of capital than was the case in all previous periods. It has also
resulted in unimagined economic and technological opportunities for individuals. At the same time, it has resulted
in a decrease in the number of those who may enjoy the benefits of economic globalisation. Economic
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liberalisation results in a series of adverse consequences [1] such as:
● The increase of inequalities among regions, among nations and within nations, among individuals;
● Continual poverty growth;
● The increase of people’s vulnerability due to social risks such as unemployment and crime;
● The decrease in opportunities for regions, nations, communities, and individuals to enjoy the benefits and
advantages provided by globalisation.
Globalisation improves the life of many, but it provides more power to those who have already been powerful; it
results in the marginalisation of whole areas of the world and social groups (women, the disabled, the elderly,
migrants, etc.) [2]
The neoliberal type of globalisation deepens inequalities, poverty, and conflicts, and thus hampers sustainable
development and the achievement of economic and social rights for the vast majority of people. Most people are
deprived of the opportunity to take part in decision making and to control their own environment and resources,
thereby jeopardising basic principles and human rights as follows:
1. The principle of giving priority to human rights – must be a basic framework and objective for everyone, for
multilateral and bilateral investments, trade, and financial arrangements;
2. The principle of non-retrogression – nations may not be derogated or restricted by international obligations
in terms of achieving economic, social, and cultural rights;
3. The right to effective protection in front of an appropriate forum; and
4. The right of individuals or groups, especially of women and other affected and marginalised groups, in
decision making.
From trade liberalisation through growing power of multilateral corporations to progress in information and
communications technology, all modern globalisation processes affect the enjoyment of human rights.
According to UNDP data [3] , the ratio of income between the top 20% of the population ranked according to their
income and the bottom 20% has rapidly grown: in 1997, this ratio amounted to 74:1, and in 1990 it was as high
as 60:1, which was double the 1960 ratio. Consolidation and merge among the largest firms result in the creation
of mega-corporations, hampering the competitiveness in the world market. In 1999, the ten largest companies in
the field of telecommunications control 86% of world market with the value of USD 262 billion, and the ten largest
companies in the field of pesticide production control 85% of the market with the value of over USD 30 billion. On
the other hand, around 80 countries have lower income per capita than was the case a decade ago, including the
countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Around 1.2
billion people live in extreme poverty, with an income of less than one dollar per day. Around 1.5 billion people do
not have access to basic health care and drinking water; a billion people are illiterate; and 180 million children are
underfed. All these data and warnings of the UNDP [4] indicate that these figures will grow in the future, instead of
decreasing, despite the fact that the majority of UN member states ratified the International Covenant on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. [5]
An additional phenomenon of economic globalisation and poverty expansion is the increase of the insecurity of
individuals, groups, and nations in various domains – economic, financial, culture, employment, legal, social,
health care, ecological, political, and personal. Under such conditions, the number of people who may not satisfy
their basic livelihood, and thus realise their basic human rights, is increasing.
The Effects of Poverty Growth
The main promoters of neoliberalism are the main winners of the ruling concept of economic globalisation:
international financial institutions, mega-corporations, transnational companies, and multinational corporations.
Growing poverty in the world and the deepening gap between the rich and the poor is the direct effect of
neoliberal macro-economic policy. The main characteristics of this concept include:
1. Market rule – the free movement of capital, goods, and services; the release of private enterprises from
governmental restraints and control, regardless of the possibility of disadvantages for society; more openness to
international trade and investment; the decrease of employees’ salaries and the elimination of their rights; the
weakening of trade unions; and the lack of price controls. The phrase used for convincing of the masses says: “A
deregulated market is the best way to achieve economic growth which will ultimately benefit everyone.”
2. The shortage of public expenditures for social services (including health care and education); the
decrease of the network of institutions for the care of the poor; lower state’s expenditures for the maintenance of
roads, bridges, water system etc.
3. Deregulation – the increase of national regulations in any field that may contribute to the decrease of
profit, including employment safety, environmental protection, and job security.
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4. Privatisation – the sale of public enterprises, goods, and services to private investors, including banks, key
industrial branches, railways, motorways, power distribution, hospitals, higher education and tertiary education
institutions, and water systems.
5. The minimisation of the concept of “public goods” or “communal ownership” existing during the
socialist period in the transition countries, and its replacement with the concept of “individual responsibility”. The
poor are pressured to find solutions on their own regarding education, health care, and social security; unless they
manage this, they are accused of “not managing” and “not wanting to work”, etc.
These are basics and concepts of the programme of “economic structural adjustment” imposed on developing
countries as the only solution to solve economic crisis and to increase production. Neoliberalism is imposed by
powerful international financial institutions such as International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Inter-American
Development Bank.
Gender Dimensions of Poverty
Nowadays, around 1.2 billion people in the world live in unacceptable conditions and poverty, and 70% of them
are women [6] . In the 1990s, their percentage increased, especially in developing countries. Poverty feminisation
has become a significant problem in countries in transition, as a short-term effect of political, economic, and social
transformation. Women, especially elderly ones, are more and more exposed to the risk of poverty.
Besides the fact that poverty affects the family as a whole it affects women more, due to work distribution and
responsibility. Poverty especially exists with women living in rural areas. It is directly related to the lack of
economic opportunities and independence, the difficult approach to education, and minimum participation in
decision making. Poverty is effected by the insecurity of employment; restricted access of women to government,
higher paid jobs, education, qualifications, production resources, new technology, financial credit; and strictly
socially regulated roles.
Gender Dimensions of International Trade
Studies point out various effects of trade liberalisation that reflect on women depending on many factors and
previous social conditions, for example, within the economic sphere, the division of labour by gender. Positive
effects of trade liberalisation in developed countries open up new opportunities for employment especially for
young and highly educated women in the jobs that were previously inaccessible to them. Another positive fact in
developing countries is that trade expansion has facilitated and accelerated the absorption of the women’s labour
force into modern industrial branches, and stable income sources, although lower in relation to men’s income, has
provided women more economic independence.
An increased share of women is especially visible in export-oriented branches such as: textiles, footwear, leather,
and electronics, especially in free trade zones and in services. Gender-based labour segregation is visible in new
jobs in the export sector, often to a higher degree than in traditional employment, and work in the informal sector
also has increased. On the other hand, women’s unemployment remains higher than men’s unemployment, for
there is a higher inflow of women searching for jobs in the labour market. This results in the decrease of salary
levels and increases in the gaps between men’s and women’s average pay rates, thus discouraged employers to
improve working conditions in primarily “women’s” sectors.
The process of economic globalisation, characterising the weakening of the state and the lack of control under
capital flow, mainly affects the most vulnerable social groups. The critics of this process often raise the question of
the resulting types and quality of jobs. For women, those are jobs are often temporary, part-time, seasonal,
employment at will, and/or contracted at the minimum salary, without any trade union protection.
The privatisation process and trade liberalisation result in adverse effects, mostly regarding women, children, and
households [7] . For example, water resource privatisation results in the fact that women in poor households
cannot pay a charge for using it, leading to either lower consumption in the household or to the use of unsanitary
water [8] . This is the result of the recent privatisation by IMF of the water system in Cochabamba, Bolivia [9] .
Under the auspices of IMF and World Bank, the social service privatisation processes have been implemented in
many indebted countries. This has had a drastic effect on women’s positions. Within the privatisation process,
women have been the first to be dismissed, and salaries, benefits, and job security have been seriously reduced
within the health care and educational sectors. [10]
Effects of Economic Globalisation on Women
Globalisation’s effects on women are both positive and negative. it is positive that economic globalisation enables
additional and various opportunities for them. On the other hand, due to gender discriminatory forces within the
labour market and women’s care responsibilities, women tend to earn lower wages and work fewer years than
men. [11] The models of women’s direction into lower paid professions and jobs, historically evident in local and
national economies, are reproduced in global economic sectors, too. Employers within global, export-oriented
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sectors employ women, and thus provide women opportunities to acquire new skills and knowledge, which would
have been unavailable until that time within those industrial branches. Thus, women improve their position in the
labour market in relation to their traditional economic and social roles in society.
Another aspect of globalisation, which also has positive and negative effects on women, is the extension of new
values into local cultures and customs. This is partly the result of local economic efforts to adjust to global
economic trends and partly of people’s exposure to other cultures. The export of American (Spanish, French, etc.)
TV and film literally provides a world stage for American (Spanish, French, etc.) culture. Cultural globalisation also
means the extension and acceptance of individual foreign cultural norms, accepted by local cultures. These norms
also include social relations between genders. Roles such as the woman in the family as mother and housewife,
obedience to men, and men’s direction toward particular professions and skills, are stereotypes that decrease
women’s competitiveness in the labour market and provide a new basis for discrimination against women. To the
extent that cultural globalisation manages to weaken these cultural norms, it will provide better opportunities to
women and improve their positions in the labour market in relation to men’s.
However, the prevailing dichotomy between private and public in a society still pushes woman out of political and
public spheres towards the family domain and the private sphere. The sustainability and intensification of this
trend also is magnified by the division between economically productive and unproductive work (care economy),
where the latter one, predominantly “women’s”, has no economic value from the classic economics point of view,
thus disabling women to achieve their economic independence and political being equally.
The underestimation of women’s contributions to their economies hampers their social promotion within many
fields and spheres of life and work. New spaces are opened through the weakening of national states and through
the creation of the possibilities of undermining the gender hierarchy and the creation of new bases for gender
relations. Dispersion of states’ power is also magnified by non-democratic power centres and globalisation
promoters "from above” [12] – corporations, capital, and market. “Globalisation-from-above” weakens the political
power and autonomy of a state, decision making power, and independent policy creation, especially within the
spheres of economics and gender equality. A state may not be willing to provide for employee rights if this will
discourage investments and jeopardise its competitiveness in the global labour market. The effects are social
exclusion, unemployment, low wages, and weakening of trade unions, and all this has a gender dimension.
Economic systems based on profit often gain it at the expense of women’s work. Women are treated as a passive,
suitable, and temporary labour force, which will accept low wages without demanding their human and labour
rights. In the traditional division of labour by gender, women are automatically deemed to be more suitable for
work within the textile industry and welfare services. This division is additionally stimulated through new forms
and locations of work (service industries, tourism, employment within export free zones). A constant value within
all this is the low economic value of women’s work. Economic globalisation has also encouraged transnational
crime based on gender discrimination and exploitation (women’s trafficking, prostitution, sex tourism).
Globalisation has effects on human rights achievement in general, as well as on women’s rights in particular, in
terms of eroding civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights in the name of development, economic
growth, and macroeconomic restructuring.
Feminisation of Labour Force
In the early 1980s, it became clear that the industrialisation of the “Third World” was predominantly based on
women’s labour. Many studies emphasise the role of relatively cheap women’s labour in this process [13] . In
South East Asian economies, significant contribution to production growth has been provided by young women
employees willing to work hard for a lower salary than a man would accept, even under the conditions that trade
unions do not allow. The result of this has been high inflow of women’s labour into unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.
In Latin America, this inflow was especially high during the period of decreasing average wages. In the whole
world, among the total number of industrial workers, women are 30-40%, while, on the other hand, within exportoriented
branches, especially in the production of textiles, electronic components, and leather products, this
percentage is often much higher, in particular cases, even as high as 90%. One study has concluded that a major
part of the production by developing countries that is aimed at exporting has been made by women, thus the
industrialisation of economies after World War II was guided both by export and feminisation. [14]
The process of labour force feminisation in the developing countries was continued in the 1980s, not only in
manufacturing, but also within service sectors, where the percentage of women’s employment increased to 30-
50% [15] , in the same decade that was marked by falling wages and salaries. Women’s shares also increased
within the jobs that require higher qualification and professionalism, such as legal services, banking, accounting,
architecture, tourism, and auxiliary services, information services, etc. Worldwide exchange of services also has
stimulated women’s labour force migration.
At the same time, through the increase of women’s share in the labour market, their share in the informal sector
also has increased, including their work within unregistered jobs, micro firms, housework, and self-employment.
In urban areas of developing countries, many formal jobs have become “informal”, since employers aimed at
increasing “flexibility” and decreasing production and labour costs by concluding subcontracts with workers. The
growth of the informal sector also has been noticeable in developed countries. Women’s work at home is
emphasised, starting from gender stereotypes of woman’s dedication to their family roles, as well as their less
valuable work. Many women have accepted such jobs, with insecurity, low salary, and the lack of benefits, as a
conventional form of gaining additional income, which, at the same time, enables them to take care of their
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households and children. Analyses show that employers, while requiring higher efficiency, do not only use cheap
labour, which is both men and women’s, but also the possibility of contracting informal work, where women are
used more.
One of the reasons for women’s higher share in the labour market is the substitution of women’s for men’s labour,
due to lower wages and less paid women’s work. Increasing globalisation and international competition have
made salaries and labour costs a significant factor in determining the geographic location for investment and
production, including the decision making on certain groups’ employment.
Another aspect of labour market flexibilisation is the public sector decrease, mostly as a part of structural
adjustment programmes and privatisation initiatives. In many countries, the public sector was main source of
employment growth in the 1960s. These changes in the labour market also point out the necessity of welfare
system reform. It is necessary to find alternative forms of protection and the improvement of the position of the
most vulnerable groups in the labour market and to add flexibility through economic security improvement.
Position of Women in the Transition Countries
The adverse effects of economic transition in the post-socialist countries have affected mainly women, as the
largest marginal social group. Case studies and the first ten-years of experience of transition countries indicate
that, in terms of achieving economic and social rights, and within the social sphere, women in all post-socialist
countries share the same consequences of transit from socialist to market economies [16] .
1. The aggravation of women’s positions in the labour market:
● The trend of women’s labour force and employment decrease in all countries where data are available. For
1985-1997, women in the labour force decreased by 1/3 in Hungary and by 1/4 in Latvia.
● The decrease of women’s share in well-paid sectors (i.e. financial – in Latvia by 24%, in Hungary, Russia,
and Lithuania by 10-14%), and the increase of their share in low paid activities (health care, education).
● The decrease of wages and the increase of the gap between women’s salaries and men’s. (Women earn 70-
90% of men’s salaries.) ;
2. The increase of unemployment;
3. The increase of women’s share within flexible types of work (contracted, part-time, temporary, and
seasonal jobs), in the simplest jobs, in unregistered work, and in the grey economy;
4. The decrease (from 1.5% to 15%) of women’s share in politics and in decision making, head, and
managerial positions;
5. The lower access to capital, resources, credit possibilities, new knowledge, and professional training
(prerequisites for better paid positions and entrepreneurial development);
6. The decrease of states’ social roles – increased engagement of women working at home and in family and
child care;
7. The growth of women’s poverty, especially among those belonging to “invisible” social groups (urban,
older, Roma, disabled, as well as single mothers, housewives, etc.);
8. The intensification of family violence, where women are victims most frequently;
9. The increase in discrimination against women within all types of public and working life;
The socio-economic positions of women and the trends shaping them are the best reflection of the position of
families in society, including rights and freedoms enjoyed by an individual.
Mechanisms and Actions for Achieving Women’s Economic and Social Rights
The economic and social rights of women are guaranteed by the following international legal documents, ratified
by the majority of UN member states:
● The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the Declaration on Social Progress and
Development, ILO and UNESCO Conventions, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, the European Social Charter, the American Declaration of the Rights and
Duties of Man, Convention on Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Cairo
Declaration on Human Rights, and the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights;
● The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Optional
Protocol to CEDAW;
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● The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the documents of the 4 th World Conference on Women in
Beijing in 1995. (12 critical fields were defined, including women’s poverty and measures for the
improvement of women’s position and rights; developed countries were invited to direct 0.7% of their GDP
to poor countries.);
● Beijing +5 (Special Session of the UN General Assembly in June 2000 “Women 2000 – Peace and
Development for 21 st Century”).
Women’s International Coalition for Economic Justice (WICEJ) adopted in 1995 the Declaration on Economic
Justice, through which it criticised the holders of neoliberal policy where the welfare of economic growth is
achieved to the detriment of human rights and welfare. Starting from the statement that words are not enough
any more, the signatories of the Declaration stress that the achievement of Platform objectives is impossible
within current microeconomic environment, and that it needs to be changed, requiring the achievement of rights
and participation in management and economies. Rights and participation in management mean:
1. Linkage of economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights;
2. Democratisation, transparency, and responsibility in decision making processes at all levels and in all
institutions, including not only national states and local communities, but also corporations, non-governmental
organisations, international financial institutions, religious organisations, and other international organisations;
3. The inclusion of the diversity of women’s perspectives in the processes of policy formulation and decision
making at all levels;
4. The obedience to international instruments by all governments and multilateral institutions. Taking into
account the power of international financial institutions in relation to individual nations, the UN system must take
special measures to make those institutions responsible for the obedience of international agreements and the
principles of justice and equality;
5. The affirmation of each nation’s responsibility to the population within its borders and the implementation of
international mechanisms to establish the responsibility of transnational corporations and international financial
and economic institutions;
6. The consistency of macroeconomic policies with social development and distributive justice. This means that
macroeconomic policies are created in such a way to protect the rights of women, the poor, and healthy
environment, instead of only expanding economic growth, trade, and corporate profit;
7. Reformation of the public sector, not through privatisation but through its effectiveness, justice, and
adjustment to people’s needs;
8. Redefinition of the criteria of cost-effectiveness to take into account environmental degradation, social
resources, and human resources (such as increased violence and health hazards);
9. Market regulation in the public interest to decrease inequality, prevent instability, increase employment,
improve work place security, and determine a socially acceptable minimum wage at the national level;
10. The creation of new financial resources through new forms of taxation to stimulate sustainable social and
economic development, such as toxic product production, international financial speculative profit, and
international financial transactions;
11. The application of debt release rather than debt rescheduling, the creation of alternatives with focus on
removing the effects of the imbalance of trade and new resources directed toward the South.
Conclusions:
Current economic globalisation based on neoliberalism stimulates and provides for the increase of the gap
between the rich and the poor. The call for free markets and free movement of capital, investment, and goods has
created “market fundamentalism” jeopardising the sovereignty of national states and has created an appropriate
environment for conflicts. The advantages and benefits of economic globalisation are unequally distributed, and a
disproportionately high portion of the costs are born by the poor, marginalised, and victims of discrimination
according to ethnicity in the North and South. The current model of economic globalisation deepens historical and
present inequalities on racial, ethnic, gender, and economic bases within and among nations, aggravating the
possibility of establishing sustainable and equal development for all.
Multilateral institutions, including World Bank, IMF, and WTO, promote globalisation of the type dominated by
trade liberalism and privatisation. Such a model of globalisation and economic growth stimulation has aggravated
economic, social, and culture conditions in which the most affected groups live; and it has contributed to the
growth of poverty and social exclusion.
Poverty has a gender dimension, for women are more exposed to the risk of poverty. The gender dimension also
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refers to unemployment, international trade, foreign debt issues, international resources, global management, and
the programmes of economic structural adjustment. All these phenomena produce various effects on men and
women.
The analysis of women’s economic and social positions is the best indicator of the essence of neoliberal
macroeconomic policy, which focuses on the goal of achieving profit. The women’s economic agenda (calling for
improvement of women’s positions and the achievement of gender, economic, and social justice) may be the
universal agenda for considering social development, redefining development objectives, and searching for
alternatives: to redirect economic globalisation to the benefit of people rather than corporations; to result in
improvement and welfare for the majority of the population rather than for individuals; and to focus economic
policies to protection and enjoyment of human rights of all.
References:
1. Falk, R. 2002, ‘Interpreting the Interaction of Global Markets and Human Rights’ in Globalization and Human
Rights. A. Brysk, ed. University of California Press: Berkley
2. Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of all human rights, Preliminary report of the Secretary-
General, General Assembly 55 th Session, (A/55/342), 31 August 2000.
3. Joekes, S. P. (Ed.) 1987, Women in the World Economcy: an INSTRAW Study, Oxford University Press: New
York
4. Joekes, S.P, 1995. ‘Trade-related Employment for Women in Industry and Services in Developing
Countries’, in United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Occasional Paper No. 5, UNRISD: Geneva.
5. Razavi, Sh. 2001, ‘Globalization, Employment and Women’s Empowerment’, Division for the Advancement
of Women (DAW), Expert Group Meeting, 26-29 November 2001, New Delhi, India
6. Ruminska-Zimny, E. 2002, ‘Gender, Privatisation and Structural Adjustment in the Transition Countries:
Trends and Issues in the UNECE Region’ in Transition, Privatisation and Women, ed. M. Dokmanovic, Women’s
Centre for Democracy and Human Rights: Subotica
7. The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Final report submitted by Mr. Danilo Türk, Special
Rapporteur, (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1992/16) 3 July 1992
8. The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment
of human rights, Preliminary report submitted by J. Oloka-Onyango and Deepika Udagama, (E/CN.4/
Sub.2/2000/13) 15 June 2000
9. UNECE, 1999, Economic Survey for Europe 1999, UNECE: Geneva
10. UNPP. 1999. Human Development Report 1999, Oxford University Press: New York
11. Watson, C. 2003, ‘Sell the rain – How the privatization of water caused riots in Cochahamba, Bolivia’, CBS
News (Online), Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/bolivia.html
*
Lecture presented to the participants of the Women’s Studies School in February, 2003, organized by the
women’s NGO “Anima”, Kotor, Montenegro.
[1]
See: Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of all human rights, Preliminary report of the Secretary-
General, General Assembly 55th Session, (A/55/342), 31 August 2000.
[2] See: The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment
of human rights, Preliminary report submitted by J. Oloka-Onyango and Deepika Udagama, (E/CN.4/
Sub.2/2000/13) 15 June 2000
[3] Source: UNPP. 1999. Human Development Report, Oxford University Press: New York, pp. 25-39.
[4] “Public health problems, immigration and refugees, environmental degradation and broader social and political
breakdown are the new security challenges that breed in a context of unattended global inequality. For all our
sakes we need to work together to build the framework of a new global society and economy that respect
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differences, protect the weak and regulate the strong.” Ibidem, p. v-vi.
[5] “Despite the ratification by 106 countries of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the
discouraging fact remains that over 1 billion people live in absolute poverty, some 180 million children suffer from
serious malnutrition, 1.5 billion persons are deprived of primary health care and a safe water supply, 2 billion
individuals lack safe sanitation and over 1 billion adults cannot read or write. While these dismaying statistics can
in no way reveal fully the personal, family and community tragedies each represents, the clear global tendency
shows these numbers escalating, not decreasing.” UN, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on
Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, The Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Final report submitted by Mr. Danilo Türk, Special Rapporteur, (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1992/16) 3 July 1992
[6]
See: UNDP. 1999. Human Development Report 1999, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999; A/55/342,
para. 46.
[7] E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/13, para. 30-40; A/55/342. para 46-47.
[8] E/CN.4/Sub.2/1992/16, para. 103.
[9] Watson, C. 2003, ‘Sell the rain – How the privatization of water caused riots in Cochahamba, Bolivia’, CBS
News (Online), Available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/bolivia.html
[10] See: E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/13
[11] Razavi, Sh. 2001, ‘Globalization, Employment and Women’s Empowerment’, Division for the Advancement of
Women (DAW), Expert Group Meeting, 26-29 November 2001, New Delhi, India, p. 40.
[12] Richard Falk associates, although overly simple, the WTO hierarchy and its ideological and political support
with “globalisation-from-above”, and the protesters in the streets of Seattle during the meeting of the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) in 1999 and their governmental allies with “globalisation-from-bellow”. He argues that
globalization "from above" is eroding worker rights and social protections, but globalization "from below" is
creating an emergent global civil society. Falk, R. 2002, ‘Interpreting the Interaction of Global Markets and Human
Rights’ in Globalization and Human Rights. A. Brysk, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press
[13] Joekes, S.P, 1995. ‘Trade-related Employment for Women in Industry and Services in Developing Countries’,
in United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Occasional Paper No. 5, Geneva: UNRISD.
[14]
See: Joekes, S. P. (Ed.) 1987, Women in the World Economy: an INSTRAW Study, Oxford University Press:
New York
[15] Ibidem.
[16] Source of data: UNECE, 1999, Economic Survey for Europe 1999, UNECE: Geneva; Ruminska-Zimny, E. 2002,
‘Gender, Privatisation and Structural Adjustment in the Transition Countries: Trends and Issues in the UNECE
Region’ in Transition, Privatisation and Women, ed. M. Dokmanovic, Women’s Centre for Democracy and Human
Rights: Subotica
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Development
http://www.globalizacija.com/english/e_raz.htm12-9-2006 10:22:01
DEVELOPMENT
Globalization failing to create new, quality jobs or reduce poverty
ILO News
Global economic growth is increasingly failing to translate into new and better jobs that
lead to a reduction in poverty, according to a new report issued by the International
Labour Office (ILO). In the report, the ILO points out that within this global trend,
different regions show mixed results in terms of job creation, productivity results, wage
improvements and poverty reduction.
UNCTAD XI – A Missed Opportunity?
By Ana Lydia Fernandez-Layos and Barbara Specht
WIDE
UNCTAD XI has shown that developing countries continue to stand together and demand
fair trade policies from developed countries. However, it has to be seen whether the
agreed language (e.g. on ‘policy space’) will also find its way in the ongoing WTO
negotiations. In that sense and taking into account that - especially Northern
governments and civil society actors - did not have high expectations towards this
conference, UNCTAD XI can not be seen as a missed opportunity. Still, UNCTAD was not
able to claim a strong leadership role in ensuring that international trade structures are
supportive to developing countries in achieving poverty eradication, sustainable
development, gender and social justice. UNCTAD XI stays – to say it with other words – a
toothless tiger.
Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability From a Gender Perspective:
14 Issues to Tackle
By NGO Women’s Forum, Germany &
Working Group Women in the Forum Environment & Development
At the major UN conferences of the nineties, the governments committed themselves to
sustainable development, to combating poverty and environmental degradation and to
respecting human rights and women’s rights. In 1992, the central message of the Rio de
Janeiro Agenda 21 was the concept of sustainability. Development can only be 'future
compatible' if it embraces ecological, social and economic issues. But the message from
Rio has also been that sustainability without a qualified participation of women, i.e.
participation also in decision making, will not work.

Globalization failing to create new, quality jobs or reduce poverty
Friday 9 December 2005 (ILO/05/48)
Globalization failing to create new, quality jobs or reduce poverty
ILO report sees wide gaps in wages, productivity gains
ILO News
Geneva (ILO News) - Global economic growth is increasingly failing to translate into new and better jobs that lead
to a reduction in poverty, according to a new report issued by the International Labour Office (ILO) here today. In
the report, the ILO points out that within this global trend, different regions show mixed results in terms of job
creation, productivity results, wage improvements and poverty reduction.
Taking a global view, the 4th Edition of Key Indicators of the Labour Market * says that currently, half the world's
workers still do not earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the US $2 a day poverty line.
"The key message is that up to now better jobs and income for the world's workers has not been a priority in
policy-making", said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "Globalization has so far not led to the creation of
sufficient and sustainable decent work opportunities around the world. That has to change, and as many leaders
have already said we must make decent work a central objective of all economic and social policies. This report
can be a useful tool for promoting that objective."
The study finds that while in some areas of Asia economic expansion is fostering solid growth in jobs and
improvements in living conditions, other areas such as Africa and parts of Latin America are seeing increasing
numbers of people working in less favorable conditions, especially in the agricultural sector. The KILM also says
that for millions of workers, new jobs often provide barely enough income to lift them above the poverty line, or
are far below any adequate measure of satisfying and productive work. The total number of working women and
men living on less than $2 a day has not fallen over the past decade although at 1.38 billion it is a smaller share
of global employment at just below 50 per cent, a decline from 57 per cent in 1994.
The report emphasizes that in many developing economies the problem is mainly a lack of decent and productive
work opportunities rather than outright unemployment. Women and men are working long and hard for very little
because their only alternative is to have no income at all.
The new KILM paints an in-depth picture of both the quantity and quality of jobs around the world by examining
20 key indicators of the labour market. The KILM covers quantitative topics such as labour force participation,
employment, inactivity, employment elasticities, sectoral employment, labour productivity and unemployment,
and qualitative issues such as hours worked, wages, employment status, unemployment duration and others.
Economic growth is not leading to job creation
In recent years there has been a weakening relationship between economic growth and employment growth,
meaning that growth is not automatically translating into new jobs. The report's "employment elasticities"
indicator allows one to look at the relationship between economic growth - measured in GDP - and two of growth's
contributory variables, the positive or negative change in employment and productivity. The biennial study found
that for every 1 percentage point of additional GDP growth, total global employment grew by only 0.30
percentage points between 1999 and 2003, a drop from 0.38 percentage points between 1995 and 1999.
With employment growing between 0.5 and 0.9 percentage points for each additional percentage point of GDP
growth, the most employment-intensive growth has taken place in the Middle East and in Northern and sub-
Saharan Africa. A review of other indicators, however, shows that much of the employment growth in these
regions is in the category of "self-employment" which includes most women and men in the informal economy
where working conditions are often poor. While more jobs are being created in economies where agriculture
dominates employment such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, many of the jobs are in the informal economy, at
low-levels of productivity, and fail to provide workers enough income to pull themselves or their families out of
poverty. For example, the number of workers living on less than US$1 per day increased by 28 million in sub-
Saharan Africa between 1994 and 2004.
By contrast, economic expansion in East Asia was sufficient to generate employment growth, productivity growth
and a reduction in the high incidence of poverty in the region. Latin America, however, experienced a decline in
the employment intensity of growth between 1999 and 2003. At the same time, the number of working poor in
the region at the US$1 a day level increased by 4.4 million. In recent years, economic growth in Latin America has
been relatively more employment intensive for females than for males, which reflects a substantial narrowing of
the labour force participation gap between men and women in the region.
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Globalization failing to create new, quality jobs or reduce poverty
In both Western Europe and North America, the services sector has experienced the most robust growth - both in
terms of value added and employment growth. Between 1991 and 2003, for every 1 percentage point of growth in
the services sector, employment increased by 0.57 per cent in North America and by 0.62 per cent in Western
Europe. However, the report finds evidence of a divergence in employment performance between North America
and Western Europe between 1991 and 2003, with the employment intensity of growth decreasing in the former
and increasing in the latter between 1991 and 1999, with a further significant reduction in North America and a
mild reduction in Western Europe between 1999 and 2003.
Global wage inequality on the rise
The 4th Edition KILM shows that between 1990 and 2000, wages increased faster in high-skilled occupations than
in low-skilled occupations globally. Although these findings do not show a general deterioration of the wage
position for low-skilled workers, they do suggest widening wage inequality between high- and low-skilled workers
during the 1990s.
Rising wage inequality in the developed economies has been mainly attributed to greater demand for higherskilled
labour, which is in short supply and to lesser demand for workers with lower-level education. Other
explanatory factors, although of less impact, include increased trade with developing countries and increased
immigration of low-skilled workers. In developing countries, factors impacting on rising wage inequality include
industry wage premiums resulting from changes in trade policy that favour workers in specific industries, the
increasing size of the informal economy, which generally has lower wages and less favorable working conditions,
and a shortage of high-skilled workers.
Labour costs and labour productivity bring unequal results in terms of global competitiveness
The report concludes that the competitiveness of a high-wage economy is not immediately threatened by lower
labour costs elsewhere, as countries with low labour costs are usually also characterized by lower productivity
levels. The report demonstrates how competitiveness is determined by the combined outcomes of elements of the
productive process - the cost of utilizing labour (labour compensation) and labour productivity (output per person
employed) - and by exchange rate fluctuations. The report's analysis of competitiveness in the "unit labour costs"
indicator shows the following:
● In the European Union-15, it is not so much high labour costs but lower productivity in the manufacturing
sector and appreciation in the Euro that has threatened the competitive position of the region vis-à-vis the
United States.
● The manufacturing unit labour cost level in Japan has not only been high relative to the United States, but
also in comparison with that of the EU-15. However, since the mid-1990s, the gap has decreased due to a
moderation in wage growth in Japan, a weakening of the yen-US$ exchange rate in 2005 and an
improvement in the comparative productivity performance of Japanese manufacturing.
● The Republic of Korea has shown rapid improvement in labour productivity relative to the United States,
but unit labour costs in the country have increased due to rapid wage increases during the early 1990s.
● Productivity has weakened in Mexico, but because labour compensation levels are lower, unit labour costs
have also remained lower than in the United States.
The United States continues to show the highest labour productivity levels measured as value added per person
employed. Despite faster productivity growth rates in some European Union countries, especially the new EU
Member States, the productivity gap, measured in value-added per person employed, between the United States
and most developed economies continues to widen. One exception is Ireland where this measure of the
productivity gap with the US has been steadily narrowing since1980. A slightly different picture emerges if
productivity is measured by value-added per hour. This shows that some European countries are more productive
than the US and for others the gap is less wide. However, most Europeans work shorter hours and have longer
holidays than their US counterparts.
In Central and Eastern Europe, the transition to a market economy led to an increase in productivity but a fall in
employment. The new EU Member States show a significant advantage in terms of international competitiveness
with unit labour cost levels at approximately 70 per cent of the US level. Increased competitiveness, however, is
not benefiting the population in terms of job creation and wages. The region shows some of the world's highest
unemployment rates and many of those not working have simply given up the job search, as reflected in the
region's high inactivity rates.
In other key findings, the KILM shows that:
● Women are continuing to catch up to men in terms of participation in labour markets throughout the world.
Nevertheless, women continue to be disproportionately engaged in low-wage, low-productivity and parttime
jobs, and in many regions such as the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, women's participation
in the labour market still lags far behind.
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Globalization failing to create new, quality jobs or reduce poverty
● While the most severe working poverty is growing in Africa, it is declining in Asia and Central and Eastern
Europe.
● Youth unemployment rates are typically at least twice as high as adult rates and are sometimes much
higher. However, in most countries, the illiteracy rates of adults are higher than those of youth, suggesting
that young people are increasingly better prepared for the labour market.
● Developed economies and the European Union are faced with a growing number of "underutilized" labour
resources, including the unemployed and involuntary part-time workers looking for a full-time job. In both
France and Italy, the rate of "underutilized" labour reached 21 per cent in 2004, up from 17 per cent in
1994 in France and 12 per cent in Italy.
Source:
ILO©
Available at:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2005/48.htm
* Key Indicators of the Labour Market, 4th Edition, ILO, Geneva, 2005, CD-ROM version; ISBN: 92-2-017568-1.
The print version will be available in April 2006. For additional information visit http://kilm.ilo.org/2205/press.
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UNCTAD XI – A missed opportunity?
1. Introduction
UNCTAD XI: A missed opportunity?
By Ana Lydia Fernandez-Layos and Barbara Specht
WIDE
From 13-18 June 2004, representatives of 192 UNCTAD Member States met in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the eleventh
session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI). The conference was organised
around the theme 'Enhancing the coherence between national development strategies and global
economic processes towards economic growth and development, particularly of developing countries';
it ended for most parties involved on a satisfactory note. After nine months of preparations and negotiations,
UNCTAD Member States adopted the "Spirit of Sao Paolo-Declaration" and the "Sao Paulo Consensus" [1] as its
main outcome documents. In addition to the Bangkok Plan of Action (2000), these documents form the basis of
UNCTAD's policy guidelines and work priorities for upcoming years. The "Sao Paulo Consensus" contains analyses
and proposes responses in relation to the four main themes of the conference:
- Development strategies in a globalising world;
- Building productive capacities and international competitiveness;
- Assuring development gains from the international trading system and trade negotiations;
- Partnership for development.
The document affirms the role of UNCTAD as a designated focal point for the integrated treatment of trade and
development. In this function, UNCTAD has a special responsibility to contribute to the achievement of the
international development goals. A further significant accomplishment is the inclusion of a section on the need for
developing countries to have 'policy space'; the recognition of right of developing countries to balance out national
development priorities and policies with obligations deriving from international agreements. [2]
An important issue at UNCTAD XI was the call on developing countries to strengthen economic cooperation among
themselves through increased South-South trade. [3] Within this context, the launch of a third round of
negotiations on Global System of Trade Preferences among developing countries (GSTP) has to be highlighted.
Likewise, the establishment of an International Task Force on Commodities [4] 4 is rated as a positive outcome
and a first step in the right direction.
In general, UNCTAD XI has shown that developing countries continue to stand together and demand fair trade
policies from developed countries. However, it has to be seen whether the agreed language (e.g. on 'policy
space') will also find its way in the ongoing WTO negotiations. In that sense and taking into account that -
especially Northern governments and civil society actors - did not have high expectations towards this conference,
UNCTAD XI can not be seen as a missed opportunity. Still, UNCTAD was not able to claim a strong leadership role
in ensuring that international trade structures are supportive to developing countries in achieving poverty
eradication, sustainable development, gender and social justice. UNCTAD XI stays - to say it with other words - a
toothless tiger.
2. Enhancing the coherence between national development strategies and global economic processes
towards economic growth and development, particularly of developing countries
Since its 40 years of UNCTAD's existence, the international environment has drastically changed, and the
problems experienced by developing countries today require urgently new and pioneering approaches. Today,
most trade negotiations are taking place under the auspices of the World Trade organization (WTO) and UNCTAD's
role as a leading body on development and trade issues has severely been reduced.
UNCTAD XI was an opportunity to reinforce and strengthen UNCTAD's mandate, to address these problems and to
discuss appropriate solutions, as increased trade liberalisation does not automatically lead to poverty eradication
and sustainable development. Besides the launch of the third round of negotiations on Global System of Trade
Preferences among developing countries (GSTP) [5] , the setting up of an International Task Force on
Commodities, the call on intensified South-South cooperation [6] , the creation of a 'new geography of world trade'
based on cooperation and solidarity [7] , discussions on the role and mandate of UNCTAD and themes such as
local/national policy space versus international trade agreements, attention was also given following issues:
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- Creative industries and private sector engagement in developing countries, including the question of corporate
responsibility and accountability.
- Trade and poverty;
- Trade and gender;
- The role of ICTs and information and knowledge for development.
- The role/importance of non state actors [8] .
The need to strengthen the coherence between national development strategies and global economic processes,
so as to ensure development gains from trade, was recognised. However, in the final Sao Paulo consensus the
definition of coherence remains unclear; it can be interpreted in such a way to create more coherence between
the trade and financial system instead of between trade and development policy.
During the conference numerous side events and meetings took place, for example the Group of 77 (G77)
celebrated its 40th anniversary with a Ministerial Meeting on 12 June, one day prior to the opening of the UNCTAD
XI session. Exactly during the first UNCTAD conference, in June 1964, 77 developing countries formed the G77 in
order to speak with one strong voice. Today the G77 consist of 132 members, representing various interests.
Other side events as well as informal and non-public meetings focused on WTO or bilateral trade negotiations. The
EU, for example, used the occasion of UNCTAD XI to continue ongoing discussions with Mercosur countries
(Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). Another objective of the EU was to re-install and strengthen
confidence in the multilateral trading system and to give further momentum to the successful conclusion of the
Doha Development Agenda. Together with Australia (representing the Cairns Group), Brazil (initiator), India and
the United States, they formed a group known as Five Interested Parties (P5) to kick-start the blocked WTO
agriculture negotiations. Finally, they could find an agreement stating that ''export subsidies need to be removed
gradually, domestic farm aid needs to be reduced substantially, and market access needs to be increased
substantially.'' [9]
The Group of 20 developing countries (G20) [10] was also engaged in discussions on the issue of agriculture
negotiations. The G20 met on Ministerial level to discuss alternatives to the EU and US proposals on agriculture,
to demand an end to export subsidies and to domestic supports that distort the market. Another of their demands
aimed at improved market access.
Representatives of the WTO used UNCTAD XI trying to get the WTO talks back on track - as WTO Director-General
Supachai Panitchpakdi stressed "if we want trade to work as an engine for growth and development, it is
indispensable that we succeed in the Doha Round" [11] . He added that the negotiations are at "a crossroads, and
common ground must be found quickly". In the end, after these preparations in Brazil and further intensive two
week long day and night debates in Geneva, the WTO members reached an agreement on a framework that will
guide future WTO negotiations on a number of areas, including agriculture, Non-Agricultural Market Access
(NAMA), services and trade facilitation - the so-called "July-package" [12] .
3. "Let's move forward and make a change" - Civil Society Forum
The civil society forum (CSF) organised by initiation of UNCTAD by the Brazilian Association of Governmental
Organisations (Abong) and the Brazilian Network for the integration of the peoples (Rebrip), took place
simultaneously to UNCTAD XI. Around 200 representatives of women's, farmers, development and environmental
organisations, trade unions and fair trade initiatives were present. Various events in relation to following themes
were organised:
- Alternative to free trade & reorganising the international system;
- Social and work rights in trade agreements;
- Widening economic policies horizons: Human rights and groups concerning ethnics, gender, generation, sexual
orientation, traditional people, etc.
- Challenging liberalisation in agriculture: promoting sustainable agricultural models based on food sovereignty;
- Symposium on faire trade: sustainable development in practice;
- Development, global governance and strategies for globalisation.
One of the highlights of the CSF was certainly the encounter with UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and Sectary
General of UNCTAD, Rubens Ricupero. Iara Pietricovsky, general coordinator of Rebrip and Jose Bové,
representative of Via Campesina, were handing over the civil society declaration, which comments and criticises
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on matters reported in UNCTAD XI Statement (see annex 2). Kofi Annan stressed in his speech the importance of
civil society actors: The working area of NGOs is the intersection of trade and development and the purpose of
civil society is to ensure that trade and development are helping the poor and are supporting the fight against
poverty. NGOs are needed to keep on pressuring the governments. The UN is indeed aware of numerous issues,
but it needs the pressure of NGOs on governments to be able to achieve more.
In the meeting with Kofi Annan, CS representatives also stressed the importance of selecting the most qualified
and competent individual who shows a high standard of leadership and commitment, for the post of Secretary
General of UNCTAD, as Rubens Ricupero is leaving. As a follow up to emphasis this concern, a Memorandum from
the CS to the Secretary-General of the UN on the subject of the new leadership of UNCTAD was prepared (see
annex 3).
Among the gender activities of the CSF was the session on 14 June "Widening economic policies horizons: Human
rights and groups concerning ethnics, gender generation, sexual orientation, traditional people, etc.", organised
by the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN). Graciela Rodriguez (LAGTN) moderated a panel entitled
"International trade in line with the affirmation of human rights within a development perspective". Speakers
include Alma Espino (LAGTN Uruguay) and Marina Durano (AGTN Philippines). Norma Sanchis (LAGTN Argentina)
moderated the panel "Risk of Violating human rights" which presented some case studies of how trade policies
violate women's rights. In order to ensure a good flow of information and to coordinate different activities during
the CSF, NGOs representatives met on a daily basis. In these daily meetings, different CS statements were
discussed; a civil society dialogue meeting with representatives of the European Union [13] was prepared, etc.
4. UNCTAD XI & Gender
Since 2000, UNCTAD has been committed to looking at the question of gender and trade in its meetings. Of
special interest for WIDE was therefore the issue how will UNCTAD XI deal with the promotion of gender equality
in international trade relations? WIDE welcomed the initiative of UNCTAD to consider gender and trade one of the
three cross-cutting issues during the conference [14] . WIDE furthermore welcomed the considerable support that
Mr. Ricupero had given to gender concerns and perspectives in UNCTAD and UNCTAD's programme.
4.1. High-level Round Table on Gender and Trade
One of the events to highlight the importance gender and trade was a High-level Round Table on Gender and
Trade. Mr Ricupero and Mrs Eveline Herfens, UN Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Campaign, opened the
session by stressing that trade as an important aspect of globalisation and a major source for growth and
development can have strong positive and negative effects for gender equality.
Mrs. Herfkens emphasised the importance of the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs and the relevance of the
agreements and promises made by the governments: "If women are not empowered, no goals are achieved; men
and women in poor countries should benefit from globalisation and trade". She underlined that governments
should be "gender responsive" to the different issues that affect women: different access and control to resources,
unequal roles, unequal ownership of land and access to property titles and to credit. Rich countries should support
developing countries specially regarding policies and agreements on agricultural issues since agriculture subsidies
destroy local markets in less developed countries and of these women as producers and exporteurs of agricultural
goods are particularly affected.
The succeeding debate focussed on:
- Government policies to reduce the gender gap and enhance gender equality in the context of trade liberalisation;
lead speakers: Ms. Freire (Secretary of State on Women's Policies, Brazil); Ms. Benitez-Reyes (Chair, National
Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, Philippines); Ms Lawson (Chair, Gender expert trade group, DTI, UK).
- Multilateral trade commitments and the development objective of gender equality; lead speakers: Ms Didiza
(Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, South Africa); Ms Pacheco (Head of Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign
Trade, Costa Rica).
- The contribution of international trade to poverty alleviation and gender equality; lead speakers: Ms Kebe
(Minister of Trade, Senegal); Ms Herfken (UN).
- Capacity building for trade and enterprise development; lead speaker: Mr Belisle (ITC); commentator: Ms Cano
(Oxfam Honduras).
Several speakers considered the issue of gender and trade from the perspective of 'efficiency' and focussed on the
direct relation between gender equality and poverty alleviation. Questions such as how women can be generators
of growth, how can low skilled workers benefit from increased employment opportunities or how does trade
liberalisation impact on women as consumers, were of high interest. According to the speakers the improvement
of women's living and working conditions will result in reducing poverty; countries see the greatest developmental
and poverty reduction benefits from trade when gender equality policies are in force [15] .
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However, structural inequalities caused by the current macroeconomic and trade policies and contradicting and
undermining women's rights, as well as unjust power relations were not mentioned and analysed. In addition no
speaker referred to the commitments of governments to gender equality given through the ratification of the
Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women or the Beijing Platform for Action.
Mr. Tom Kitt, the Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights of Ireland, advocated for
greater coherence of the national trade policies to address gender issues. He highlighted the potential impact of
trade policies to eradicate gender inequality. Moreover, he mentioned the need for a specifically designed reform
based on gender analysis and assessments to promote women's participation at all levels of decision making as
well as women's empowerment.
Even so the issue of policy coherence was approached, this did not happen from a social justice perspective where
"guaranteeing the harmonisation of economic policies with commitments to international human rights
conventions, the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, as well as the
Beijing Platform for Action [16] would be a priority.
In order for national trade policies to become more effective in promoting gender equality objectives following
strategy was proposed by the participants: developing countries could draw up a common list of gender-sensitive
products; on the basis of this list, a reduction of developed country subsidies (especially in the area of agriculture)
as well as market access restrictions for developing countries (especially in the area of non agricultural market
access) should be demanded. Moreover, a reduction of barriers to trade in services and a cutback of tariffs is
needed.
Conclusions were drawn around the role and responsibility of the different actors at the international trade arena:
governments (developed and developing countries), international agencies such as the UNCTAD and Civil Society
Organisations.
Regarding governments, following recommendations were given:
- Domestic measures need to be taken to reduce gender inequalities in the context of international trade.
Governments should therefore enforce gender-oriented policies and carry out ex-ante gender impact assessments
as a matter of course. Other recommendations included:
- Improvements in women's and girls access to education and skills;
- Measures to reduce discrimination in labour markets;
- Access to export market information and credit (not just micro credit) for women entrepreneurs;
- Improvements in land rights, access to land as well as to other productive resources;
- Reduction of violence against women, without which women cannot enjoy other rights;
- Support to women in their reproductive roles, for example through child-caring programmes;
- Mainstreaming, consistency and proactive implementation of gender equality policies throughout all government
departments.
Stressing the important role of international agencies such as UNCTAD in promoting gender equality objectives,
the following recommendations were given [17] :
- The UN Interagency Task Force on Gender and Trade [18] , established in 2003, should continue with its
diagnostic and analytical work and thereby continue to raise policy makers' awareness of the gender impacts of
trade expansion and the gender effects of prospective changes in trade policies;
- A methodology for the ex-ante gender impact of trade policies needs to be developed;
- Trade-capacity-building efforts need to be continued and improved, including by taking into account the
constraints that reproductive tasks impose on women entrepreneur's participation;
- Partnerships need to be fostered between poor women producers in developing countries and commercial buyers
in the North with a view to increasing their ability to access developed countries markets.
The main role of Civil Society Organisations was seen as in raising awareness, advocating and lobby national
governments. It was emphasised that people do not benefit from international meetings unless the CSO holds
national governments accountable for the promises made.
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4.2. Gender and trade: opportunities and challenges for developing countries
In conjunction with the High Level Round Table on Gender and Trade, the UN Interagency Task Force on Gender
and Trade launched "Gender and trade: Opportunities and challenges for developing countries" [19] . The
publication is intended to "sensitise policy makers on the gender implications of trade, to foster discussion among
experts and providing a good basis for consensus-building." [20]
The book tries to analyse the complexities of the gender and trade nexus and explores policy measures which
could promote gender equality in international trade. Numerous members of the UN task force contributed to the
publication with analyses from economic, social and legal points of view. The authors review the impact of trade
liberalisation on gender equality, looking at the experiences of developing countries with specific reference to the
agricultural, textile and clothing and service sectors. Moreover, they examine the impact of existing multilateral
trade rules on gender equality with a special focus on the interface between human rights obligations and trade
rules as well as the linkages between TRIPS and gender issues. Different approaches to improve the gender
sensitivity of international trade activities and policy making are presented. Capacity-building for policy makers
and the use of specific analytical tools designed to assess the impacts of trade on gender equality appear to be
essential in this respect. However, given the complexity of the gender and trade issue and the variety of views
contained in this book, no straightforward conclusions were set up.
To sum up, WIDE welcomed the initiative of UNCTAD to promote gender equality in the international trade arena
and to chair the UN Interagency Task Force on Gender and Trade. However, as mentioned earlier, the UNCTAD's
approach and analyses stayed to some extent limited. In addition, the inclusion of gender equality in the UNCTAD
agenda has been more formal than substantive.
Considering that current macroeconomic and trade policies are contradicting and undermining human rights, we
demand that the international economic order should be radically changed and existing trade and development
policies should be challenged and transformed to address and serve peoples' - and more specifically women's -
rights and needs. UNCTAD should further elaborate and develop existing methodologies like gender and trade
indicators and conduct gender impact assessments to forestall possible negative impacts of trade agreement.
Moreover, UNCTAD should be involved in a dialogue with national governments and international institutions such
as the WTO to address the importance of the gender and trade nexus for advancing gender equality.
WIDE agrees with the recommendation of the UNCTAD secretariat to the governments "to ensure that national
policies related to international and regional trade agreements do not have an adverse impact on women's new
and traditional economic activities [21]" , but we would like to see this initiative embedded in a more holistic
understanding and would therefore add "on women's opportunities and rights as well as on women's livelihoods".
We do not only believe in the promotion of "gender equality and the empowerment or women as effective ways to
combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate a development that is truly sustainable [22]" , but we see it
as essential in order to achieve sustainable development and social justice. Therefore, UNCTAD should focus with
its gender analysis not simply on improving the condition of women in their current roles, nor should UNCTAD just
pay attention to women as potential generators of economic growth, but UNCTAD should ensure the
empowerment of women and the transformation of gender roles and responsibilities as agreed in CEDAW and the
BPFA. [23]
5. WIDE's activities
WIDE was represented by Barbara Specht (WIDE Secretariat) and Ana Lydia Fernandez-Layos (WIDE NP Spain) at
UNCTAD XI. Maeve Taylor (Banúlacht Ireland - WIDE NP Ireland) and Janice Godson Foerde (KULU Denmark -
WIDE NP Denmark) participated as NGO representatives of the Irish respectively Danish government delegation.
The four representatives joint efforts to lobby representatives of the European Commission and EU Member States
to integrate gender equality in international trade policies and take into consideration the interests of those
women who are most directly affected by the negative impacts of international trade agreements. In order to
support their lobby activities, WIDE representatives elaborated a Statement to the European Union on gender and
trade (see annex 1) on 15 June (signed by WIDE, Banulacht Ireland, IGTN Europe, CONGDE-WIDE Spain, Danish
92 Group, European Women's Lobby, CAFRA, International Coalition of Development Action, KULU-WIDE Denmark
and Trade Matters Ireland). The statement was distributed to the European Union delegates and at the Civil
Society Forum.
In relation to the position of the EU, WIDE was pleased with the strong focus on gender and trade in the speeches
made by Minister Tom Kitt on behalf of the EU. Two speeches made reference to the need to ensure that trade
policy does not impact negatively on women's empowerment, and on women's capacity to be both the
beneficiaries of and actors in economic growth. However, it needs to be ensured that gender mainstreaming is
understood in the agreed terms of CEDAW and the BPFA as being a strategy towards transformation of gender
relations and gender stereotypes and the empowerment of women. Another problem is that up to now, the
inclusion of gender equality in the UNCTAD agenda seems to be more formal than proactive and real action
remains yet to be seen.
Through their active participation in meetings at the Civil Society Forum and the articulation of gender concerns,
WIDE representatives ensured the integration of a gender perspective in various civil society activities: for
example, WIDE representatives 'engendered' the different CSO declarations. WIDE representatives made also
sure that women's concerns were articulated at the civil society dialogue meeting with representatives of the EU
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[24] .
On the last day of UNCTAD XI, CSO organised a press conference and it was obvious that one panel speaker
would speak on behalf of the women's organisations. Representatives of different women's organisations (DAWN,
WIDE) brainstormed together on the outcome of UNCTAD XI and Magaly Pazello (DAWN) summarised it in her
press statement as follows:
- UNCTAD does not question the neoliberal model but tries to adjust development to this model;
- Women are not presented as agents of change but as vulnerable group and seen as potential generators of
growth, they are not linked to power, decision or policy making;
- Gender issues are approached from the 'efficiency' perspective;
- Power relations are not questioned, social change is not sought;
- Structural causes of gender or economic inequalities are not addressed.
WIDE representatives networked successfully with other women's organisations (IGTN, DAWN) as well as with
mixed coalitions, strengthened old contacts and established new ones and promoted WIDE's work and expertise
on gender and macro-economic issues.
What is UNCTAD?
Established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body, UNCTAD is the principal organ of the United Nations
General Assembly in the field of development and trade. UNCTAD is the focal point within the UN for the
integrated treatment of development and interrelated issues in the areas of trade, finance and, technology,
investment and sustainable development. Its main goals are to maximise the trade investment and development
opportunities of developing countries, and to help them face challenges arising from globalisation as well as to
integrate into the world economy, on an equitable basis. UNCTAD pursues its goal through research and policy
analysis, intergovernmental deliberations, technical co-operation and interaction with civil society and the
business sector.
UNCTAD's programmatic focus lies on:
- Globalisation and development strategies;
- Investment, technology and enterprise development;
- Service infrastructure for development and trade efficiency;
- Least developed, land-locked and island developing countries;
- Cross-sectoral issues (including: sustainable development, poverty alleviation, empowerment of women,
economic co-operation among developing countries).
UNCTAD has currently 192 Member States. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The 400 staff form part
of the UN Secretariat. The annual operational budget is approximately $ 45 million, drawn from the UN regular
budget. Additionally technical cooperation activities costing approximately $ 24 million per year are financed from
extra-budgetary resources provided by donor and beneficiary countries, as well as by organisations. UNCTAD's
highest policy making body is the Conference, which meets every four years at ministerial level to formulate policy
guidelines and set work priorities.
[UNCTAD's 40 years 1964-2004: Trade, developing and investment promotion, Geneva, 2004].
Annex 1:
STATEMENT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ON GENDER AND TRADE FOR UNCTAD XI
June 15th 2004
The UN has recognised that gender equality is both a core value for sustainable development and a prerequisite
for poverty elimination. With the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and
the Beijing Platform for Action, the UN has developed an internationally accepted analytical framework and action
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plan for gender equality. We welcome the creation of the UNCTAD-led Task Force on Gender and Trade set up by
the UN Inter-Agency Working Group in February 2003 and the UNCTAD XI initiative to highlight gender and trade
as a cross-cutting issue.
As a UN body, UNCTAD has both the responsibility and the competence to take a leadership role in ensuring that
gender concerns are incorporated in a meaningful way in macro-economic policy. Trade policies impact on gender
relations and human development by rearranging relations of power and access to resources between women and
men. If trade policies are assumed to be gender neutral, they may reproduce or even worsen current forms of
inequality and discrimination against women in all countries.
We also welcome the statement of the European Union that 'UNCTAD should mainstream gender equality in its
work. UNCTAD's support to developing countries should enable their economic and trade policies to empower
women as both actors in, and beneficiaries of, economic growth.' Gender mainstreaming must be understood in
the agreed terms of CEDAW and the BPFA as being strategy towards transformation of gender relations and
gender stereotypes, and the empowerment of women.
The impact of trade policy on the lives and livelihoods of women is compounded in countries of the South by the
structural inequalities between North and South. The international economic order through UNCTAD, therefore
must proactively promote the interests of those women who are most vulnerable to the negative impacts of
international trade agreements. UNCTAD should also assist developed countries in gender mainstreaming and
engendering their national and regional trade and other economic policies to ensure gender equity and women's
empowerment.
UNCTAD must take a leadership role by
Promoting the implementation of UN gender equality and women's empowerment agreements within trade
agreements.
Devoting increased emphasis in its work to the social implications of trade and other economic policies, including
their gender impact.
Developing systems of gender and trade indicators and gender impact assessment mechanisms in both
monitoring trade agreements and in ex ante assessment to forestall negative impacts of trade agreements on
vulnerable women and men.
Including in its independent research and analysis the evaluation of the impact of trade on women. Such
research should focus not only on criticising the current neo-liberal framework, but on developing alternatives,
drawing, for example, on the established body of feminist economics, and on the range of existing local level
alternatives.
Focusing its gender analysis not only on improving the condition of women in their current roles (e.g. better
access to credit and micro-finance etc) and seeing them as potential actors in economic growth, but should draw
on the transformative analysis of CEDAW to ensure that women are not confined in discriminatory positions by
gender stereotyping.
UNCTAD must ensure that every country has the competence and freedom to design development measures
aimed at achieving gender equality and social justice. Donor countries should ensure that appropriate resources
are directed to UNCTAD's work on gender equality.
WIDE (Network Women In Development Europe)
Banúlacht - Women in Ireland for Development, WIDE Ireland
CONDGE (Coordinadora de ONGs), WIDE Spain
KULU - Women in Development, Denmark, WIDE Denmark
Danish 92 Group
ICDA (International Coalition of Development Action)
Cafra (Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action)
EWL (European Women's Lobby)
IGTN-E - International Gender and Trade Network (Europe)
Trade Matters Ireland
Annex 2:
UNCTAD XI - ADDING SOUL TO "THE SPIRIT OF SAO PAULO"
Amendments to the official UNCTAD XI - The Spirit of São Paulo Declaration
by the Civil Society Forum at UNCTAD XI
17 June 2004
We, the member States of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, gathered at São Paulo,
Brazil, between 13 and 18 June 2004, for the eleventh session of the Conference, agree on the following
Declaration:
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1. UNCTAD was created in 1964 as an expression of the belief that a cooperative effort of the international
community was required to integrate developing countries successfully into the world economy. Since then,
UNCTAD has made a substantial contribution to the efforts of developing countries to participate more fully and to
adapt to changes in the world economy through the development of a number of instruments, agreements and
programmes – to stabilize commodity prices, for example – aimed at achieving this objective. UNCTAD has also
provided an invaluable forum for advancing the relationship between trade and development, both from a national
and an international perspective, across the three pillars of its mandate. Reinforcing the traditional UNCTAD
mandate is more crucial than ever.
2. The UN Conferences of the 1990s, (and outcomes such as the Beijing Platform for Action), the
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, other international Conventions, the
Millennium Declaration, the Monterrey Consensus, the Programme of Action for the LDCs, the Almaty Programme
of Action, the Barbados Programme of Action, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the
Plan of Implementation agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Declaration of Principles
and the Plane of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society, as well as initiatives for UN reform,
strengthen multilateralism and establish a roadmap to guide international actions in the process of mobilising
resources for development and of providing an international environment supportive of development, although
these have been criticised by some who see them as insufficient. We are committed to joining all our
efforts and in creasing the resources from the developed countries in the achievement of the goals
established in those texts in the agreed timeframes. The United Nations system should actively pursue agreed
development goals between now and 2015, as identified in the Millennium Declaration, and a reinvigorated
UNCTAD has an important role to play in efforts towards the accomplishment of these common objectives.
3. In spite of all the efforts at the national and international level to promote growth, development and
intensifying equity at both these levels remain the central issues in the global agenda. The contrasts between
developed and developing countries and within both kinds of societies that marked the world in the early 1960s
have intensified. While globalisation has posed important challenges and opened up new opportunities for many
countries, its consequences have been highly unequal between countries and within countries. Some have
reaped the benefits from trade, investment and technology flows and seem to be winning the struggle for
development and for poverty alleviation: sometimes by following independent policies.
4. Most developing countries, however, especially African countries and LDCs, have remained neglected and
sometimes have suffered as a result of the globalisation process. They still face major challenges for the
realisation of their economic potential and the incorporation of large masses of the unemployed, informal male
and female workers and the working poor into the productive sectors. There is a need to rethink the linkage
between international trade and poverty elimination. There is a need to address the instability in world
commodity prices.
5. For all countries, it is important that, at the international level, efforts will be deployed and policies
implemented in order to facilitate reforms and to remove external constraints to put the developing world on a
firm and sustainable development path. We can rightly say that, 40 years after the foundation of UNCTAD, the
relationship between trade and development, which is the cornerstone of its mandate, has become even more
important to analyse critically and to act on.
6. We are committed to the struggle for the eradication of poverty and hunger. Policy instruments and measures,
such as the Global Fund Against Hunger, at the national and international levels, should be adopted, in
particular by practising policies in the areas of trade, investment and finance (including through new
financial initiatives), to encourage the creation of opportunities for the poor women and men of the world to have
access to decent, stable jobs and adequate negotiated wages. This is the sustainable road to democracy,
reforms, stability and growth. The Millennium Development Goals are an important but insufficient
milestone. Special attention should be paid to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in
order that gender power relations are rearranged, so that women are empowered to participate
equally with men in sustainable development.
7. The plight of the least developed countries should receive the utmost attention from the international
community. We are committed to generating and better utilizing additional international resources, market access
and development assistance for the LDCs in order to enable them to establish, in the context of effective
domestically-owned national policies, a solid political, social and economic base for their development
processes.
8. Multilateral trade negotiations, under the Doha Work Programme, should be conducted with a view to
addressing developmental concerns of countries, with a special focus on LDCs, in a manner that fully
reflects the level of ambition agreed to at Doha. The Doha Work Programme should place development at the
centre of the multilateral trade negotiations and then should reinforce the mandate of UNCTAD. UNCTAD can
play a useful role in safeguarding the development dimensions of the Doha Work Programme and
contributing to assessing and evaluating the balances and outcomes of negotiations and promoting
mechanisms, including regulatory measures, to establish more balanced and equitable trade relations.
We also positively consider the facilitation of accession of developing countries, especially LDC´s, to the WTO.
UNCTAD should also assist developed countries in gender mainstreaming and engendering their
national and regional economic and trade policies to ensure gender equity and women's
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empowerment.
9. We recognise that improved coherence between national and international policies and practices and
between the international monetary, financial and trading systems and the Norms of the UN system is
fundamental for democratic and participatory sound global economic governance. We are committed to
reforming in a comprehensive manner the existing inadequacies and insufficiencies of those systems in order to
enhance their capacities to better respond to the needs of development, especially in the case of LDCs. The
institutional dimension in terms of improved global governance is central here. We should also continue working
on the creation of positive and development-centred synergies amongst trade, finance and investment and on
how to link these efforts to development and eliminating inequities at the national and international levels.
As recommended by the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalisation, an inter-agency
Globalisation Forum should be established. UNCTAD should play a key role in this Forum. In particular,
attention should be devoted to improving international non-speculative capital flows for development, through
the provision of automatic, assured and predictable sources of development finance, as well as dealing
with the volatility of international capital markets. Measures to ensure long-term debt eradication of developing
countries and countries in transition should be implemented. As a first step in this direction, we commit
to unconditional cancellation of LDC debt.
10. We should also focus on future challenge and opportunities. In addition to national resources, capital
accumulation and availability of labour, new factors such as information, innovation, creativity and diversity
constitute the dynamic forces of today's world economy. We are committed to bridging the digital divide and
ensuring harmonious, fair, equitable and sustainable development for all women and men and to building an
inclusive information society, which will require genuine equal partnership and cooperation among Governments
and other stakeholders, i.e. the private sector, civil society and international organisations, in which rights and
responsibilities of all parties are reciprocal.
11. A more positive integration of developing countries and those developing countries with economies in
transition into the international economy and the multilateral trading system depends also on the adoption of
internal policies to move up the ladder towards sectors that incorporate innovation and that expand more
dynamically. To achieve these results, countries must have the policy space to pursue diverse policy options
in order to arrive at the best possible balance between different approaches in their national development
strategies.
12. The process of sustainable development requires increased and equitable participation of all social and
political forces in the creation of consensus for the adoption of effective national policies, which, in turn,
requires democratic policies and institutions. We acknowledge the importance of all stakeholders, i.e.
governments, the private sector, civil society and international organisations and the contribution all can make, in
every country, to good governance. While development is the primary responsibility of each country, domestic
efforts should be facilitated and complemented by an enabling international environment. Development policies
should take cognisance of market forces in the promotion of growth, through trade, investment and innovation.
They should also acknowledge the central role of the State in conferring political and economic stability,
developing the required regulatory frameworks, channelling the resources for infrastructure and social projects,
promoting social inclusion and reducing inequalities. We are committed to supporting national efforts dedicated to
institutionbuilding in developing countries and countries in transition.
13. Although still limited to a small number of countries, there are encouraging signs that a significant source of
global growth is being generated in the South. This new development could contribute to creating to a new
geography of world trade. We underscore the importance of initiatives to facilitate the emergence of new dynamic
centres of growth in the South through additional steps for the integration of these emerging economies with
other developing ones. This can be achieved, inter alia, by means of amore comprehensive Global System of
Trade Preferences among Developing Countries, which should also address the problems of the LDCs and
economies in transition.
14. Given the growing importance of regional and interregional initiatives, we encourage UNCTAD to further
develop capabilities designed to assist countries to participate effectively in these initiatives, while ensuring
functional and coherent linkages with the multilateral system.
15. The decisions we have adopted at this UNCTAD XI, in addition to the Bangkok Plan of Action form a solid basis
and are essential instruments in our continued commitment to support UNCTAD in fulfilling and strengthening
its mandate as the focal point internationally for the integrated treatment of trade and development, on the
road to its Twelfth Session in 2008.
Annex 3:
MEMORANDUM FROM THE CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM AT UNCTAD XI TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE
UNITED NATIONS
On the subject of the new leadership of UNCTAD
At the meeting of the civil society held with the Secretary General of the United Nations on the occasion of
UNCTAD XI, civil society drew attention of the Secretary-General to the importance of selecting the most qualified
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and competent individual to the post of the Secretary General of UNCTAD.
The Civil Society statement states that ´safeguarding and strengthening UNCTAD´s mandate to deal with the
interdependent issues of trade, money, finance, technology transfer and development, in an integrated manner, is
critically dependent on the quality and management of its leadership. In light of the impending changes in the
leadership of UNCTAD this civil society forum urges the Secretary General of the UN and member states to
exercise the greatest care and transparency in the selection of UNCTAD´s new management. As a key stakeholder
concerned with UNCTAD´s future, civil society expects to be closely involved with a consulted in decisions
concerning the institution's future management. ´
The Secretary General expressed his appreciation to the Forum of the civil society in highlighting this important
issue. He assured the civil society of his commitment to recommend, to the General Assembly of the UN for the
post of Secretary General of UNCTAD, an individual, who would carry out a high standard of leadership and
commitment. In this connection he invited non-governmental organizations to make recommendations for a
suitable candidate.
The civil society appreciates the gestures to the Secretary-General of the UN in his encouragement of civil society
to make recommendations in the process leading to the selection of the Head of an important UN agency. Civil
society values this initiative that would clearly enhance the credibility of the process. Accordingly, we are of the
view that the next Secretary General of UNCTAD should have as his essential objective the political and
substantive revitalization to the institution. We wish to recommend in the selection of the Secretary General, that
he or she must posses the following qualities:
- Highest ethical and moral standards and who would uphold the ideals of the UN;
- Outstanding international reputation exhibited by political commitment to the promotion of international peace
and development cooperation;
- Deeply familiar with multilateral trade and economic negotiations;
- Knowledgeable and experienced in addressing development challenges in the context of poor countries;
- Understanding the gender dimension of social and economic issues
- Capable of taking concrete policy positions, deepening inclusiveness and greater participation of developing
countries on international platforms;
- Independence;
- Proven track record of negotiating experience;
- Impeccable management and administrative skills that would contribute to a reinvigoration of the institution.
The new Secretary General should be committed to:
- Recovering lost space and to break new ground by reaffirming UNCTAD´s original mandate;
- Rearticulating priorities in the apparent awakening of the South-South emphasis;
- Incorporating and promoting gender and development considerations as a core value in UNCTAD's core work
program and its interventions in other international platforms
- Coordinating with ILO, DESA and other UN agencies;
- Setting up a research department, that can competently compete with research departments of OECD, World
Bank, IMF and WTO;
- Supporting ´Brain Gain´ in the south by decentralizing via regional cooperation with Mercosur, Caricom, African
Union, ASEAN and other similar regional organizations;
- Putting goals and targets to UNCTAD work programme, similar to the MDGs, but in specific relation to job
creation.
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
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[1] The official outcome documents are available at www.unctad.org/
[2] For a more detailed analysis of the outcome document, please see
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/2008.html or http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/twninfo129.htm
[3] E.g. by UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, Sectary General of UNCTAD, Rubens Ricupero and prominent
leaders like the President of Brazil, Luiz Lula da Silva, or the Thai Premier Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
[4] The commodity crisis and the dependence on commodity trade as a common feature of many developing
countries was one of the main themes at UNCTAD XI.
[5] Established in 1989, GSTP is seen as a major instrument for the promotion of South-South trade and the
increase of production and employment in these countries. China and the Group of 77 (G77) are invited to join the
current 43 members and to participate in the negotiations, which will possibly start in November 2004 and are
expected to be concluded in two years. It was estimated that the trade of the 43 GSTP members amounted US $
2 trillion in 2000 or about 55% of all developing country trade (UNCTAD press releaseUNCTAD/press/pr/
spa/2004/010**/ 17 June 2004). The GSTP serves as a framework for the exchange of trade preferences among
developing countries. It must be based and applied on the principal of mutuality of advantages in such a way as to
benefit equitably all participants.
[6] New partnerships need to be explored and the potential of developing countries need to be further developed.
Today, the share of South-South trade has reached 30 percent of global trade. Manufactured goods had even
gone to 70 percent of that trade in 2002. (Press release UNCTAD/XI/2 14 June 2004).
[7] Lula da Silva in his opening remark on 14.06.
[8] The Sao Paulo Consensus states that civil society needs to become more engaged, but no concrete proposals/
mechanisms how this objective could be met are proposed.
[9] EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy after the P5 meeting in Sao Paulo.
[10] The G-20 is an alliances of Southern countries formed at the Cancún ministerial meeting and lead by Brazil to
propose a WTO reform agenda in the area of agricultural trade policy (mainly through the abolishment of
subsidies and a reduction in farm trade barriers).
[11] In his speech at UNCTAD on 14 June 2004.
[12] See WIDE-News 7/8-July/August 2004 for more information on the “July package” (http://www.eurosur.org/
wide/Newsletter/2004_News_7+8.pdf).
[13] The meeting took place in the morning of 15.06.
[14] The other two crosscutting issues were: trade and poverty and trade and creative industries.
[15] Round table on Trade and Gender. 15 June 2004, Summary prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat.
[16] Statement of Participants Event on Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Traditional Peoples and
Generations, Civil Society Forum, UNCTAD XI, 14 June 2004.
[17] Round table on Trade and Gender. 15 June 2004, Summary prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat.
[18] UNCTAD is chairing the task force that includes all UN agencies as well as the World Bank, the WTO, the
OECD, and the Commonwealth to name a few.
[19] www.unctadxi.org/templates/webflier.aspx?id=7&doc=4822&selected=download
[20] UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/SPA/2004/005, 15 June 2004.
[21] Trade and Gender: Opportunities, Challenges and the Policy Dimension, Note buy the UNCTAD secretariat, 5
April 2004, p.3.
[22] Opening Statement by Mr. Rubens Ricupero, UNCTAD XI, Round Table on “Trade and Gender”, Sao Paulo,
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Brazil, 15 June 2004.
[23] Statement to the European Union on Gender and Trade for UNCTAD XI, June 15th 2004.
[24] The speaker of CSOs referred to the main points from WIDE's statement to the EU on gender and trade.
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Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability From a Gender Perspective: 14 Issues to Tackle
By
NGO Women’s Forum, Germany &
Working Group “Women” in the Forum Environment & Development
1. Globalisation and sustainability
2. Peace, non-violence, human and women’s rights
3. Concepts of economy, care work and gender relations
4. Securing survival without social exclusion and poverty
5. Securing livelihoods and biodiversity by resource and gender justice
6. Food sovereignty and health
7. Sustainability in urban, regional and traffic planning
8. Gender mainstreaming in climate protection
9. The Local Agenda 21 and gender issues
10. Redistribution of social and environmental responsibility
11. Sustainability policy as structural policy
12. Concepts of nature and gender relations
13. Gender impact assessment and gender budgets as precautionary instrument
14. Women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming
At the major UN conferences of the nineties, the governments committed themselves to sustainable development,
to combating poverty and environmental degradation and to respecting human rights and women’s rights. In
1992, the central message of the Rio de Janeiro Agenda 21 was the concept of sustainability. Development can
only be 'future compatible' if it embraces ecological, social and economic issues. But the message from Rio has
also been that sustainability without a qualified participation of women, i.e. participation also in decision making,
will not work. The 4 th World Conference on Women in Beijing identified a dual track strategy to this end:
empowerment on the one hand and gender mainstreaming, the systematic integration of a gender perspective in
all institutions and policy areas, on the other.
In 1991, women from all over the world drew up their own agenda for the 21 st century at the “World Women’s
Congress for a Healthy Planet” in Miami. The cornerstones of this agenda - a new code of environmental ethics,
preserving biological and cultural diversity, justice between the North and the South, gender equity and justice,
demilitarisation - have remained highly topical. In fact, if anything, globalisation over the past decade made them
even more relevant. In spite of a number of successes scored on individual issues, the necessary process of
reorienting and restructuring in terms of ecology and economics in the wake of the Rio Conference has yet to
commence. Conventions that are binding in accordance with international law ranging from the conservation of
biodiversity to the protection of social and ecological labour standards have still not been implemented.
In Johannesburg in August 2002, a new “World Summit for Sustainable Development” is to pinpoint the
sustainability strategies for the future. On the way to Johannesburg, civil society groups world-wide will be
appraising progress made in terms of sustainability and the credibility of governments and other players in
society. The agenda for Johannesburg is still negotiable. With the issues mentioned in the following, we want to
outline topics that are central to the Johannesburg Conference from a gender perspective. We wish to position
ourselves and to identify the need and scope for action at various political levels.
One of our central concerns is to integrate social, economic and ecological issues and to bridge the existing
fragmentation in sectors and political competencies. In the same way as the local, national and global level for
action, the political micro, mezzo and macro level should be linked. The general framework for discourse is the
economic globalisation, i.e. liberalization, privatization, commercialization and patenting of resources. The unpaid
care work of women and the precautionary principle are systematically taken as points of reference in the
argumentative discourse. Our demands are based on the understanding that the social and ecological crisis which
will be debated in Johannesburg represents a problem of society which needs to be dealt with by societal
changes.
1) Globalisation and sustainability
With economic liberalisation, the globalisation process has increased the predominance of economics since the Rio
Conference. Growth, efficiency and profit-maximizing have been turned into guiding principles of development and
elevated the market and commodity logic to the supreme rationality. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is
creating a regime of order and rules for neo-liberal globalisation that gives priority to free trade rather than social
rights and ecological rules. This is why WTO agreements are threatening environmental protection rules and
ecological alternatives. They are counteracting social security and redistribution mechanisms. In this way,
globalisation has increased social disparities and created new antagonisms between countries and within societies,
between the rich and the poor, between a wealth of commodities and the destruction of nature.
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Sustainability requires that the dogmas of commodification and marketing be scaled down and that the overexploitation
of natural and human resources as well as over-production and over-consumption be reduced.
Economic growth and profit maximization have to be subordinated to sustainability, environmental protection and
social justice. Liberalisation is not a suitable tool to this end. A re-regulation of the financial markets and trade (e.
g. taxation on currency transactions to limit speculation and on kerosene), of labour and resource markets
according to social and ecological standards is called for. Prices have to reflect the truth by integrating ecological
and social costs. The convention proposed by NGOs on the accountability of transnational corporations has to be
forwarded. Fair trade, “ethical” investments, socially and ecologically “clean” or resource-saving production
patterns and companies oriented on equity ought to enjoy support e.g. through fiscal policies.
2) Peace, non-violence, human and women’s rights
Peace is the most fundamental prerequisite for sustainability. The globalisation process over the last few years has
been accompanied by an increasing degree of militarisation, a growth in legal and illegal arms trade and the
internal and external rearmament of state enforcement systems. Armed conflicts and wars about power and
resources destroy futures, human lives and the environment. Military force is not an appropriate means of
combating terrorism and leaves its causes untouched.
However, peace also means freedom from violence against women, from violations of human rights and racism.
Peace means respecting local and national sovereignty and respecting cultural and biological diversity. The future
can only be based upon a culture of peace in all relations in society and vis-à-vis nature that all societal actors,
above all including children and youths, have to learn, as well as a democratisation from below.
Sustainability requires addressing the social, economic and power-political causes of conflicts, violence and terror.
Getting rid of inequalities and promoting democracy among countries, social classes, ethnic groups and gender is
conflict prevention and the structural securing of peace. War must not be a means of politics. Instead, military
expenditure has to be cut back, with funds emerging from this process being reallocated to non-violent forms of
conflict resolution. Women are to participate democratically in negotiations and decision on peace, livelihood, and
resources. Concepts of feminist research on peace and conflict as well as those from anti-violence programmes
are to be integrated, while gender-specific causes of flight and migration are to be recognised, and support of
female refugees and asylum seekers has to be increased.
3) Concepts of economy, care work and gender relations
Women are the Sisyphean workers for the future. Their looking after children, sick and elderly people, maintaining
social relations, their work in food and health provision, cleaning and waste management secures the viability of
societies and generates social capital. This care work represents an interface between social, economic and
ecological aspects.
However, the present neo-classical concept of the economy focuses on the market and paid work. The work in the
care economy is kept invisible, regarded as not productive and only paid for poorly or not at all. Since increases in
productivity are hardly possible in this area, care and services at a personal level are slipping into a crisis. The
double burden women have to endure by paid work and care work remains their private problem, confronting
many of them with a double scarcity: a lack of income and a lack of time.
Economic statistics have to adequately account for unpaid and paid labour, as has already been called for at the
World Conference on Women in Beijing. Women need an infrastructure oriented by its social use and by care work
as well as public institutions making provisions to secure livelihoods. Moreover, the fiscal and social systems have
to treat women as independent economic subjects who have a right of their own to claim social support rather
than as dependants of a man.
4) Securing survival without social exclusion and poverty
Globalisation is resulting in a growing integration of women into the market for paid work, but it is also creating
new forms of economic and social exclusion. While skilled women find employment at middle levels, the majority
of women in the global markets only get insecure, low-paid, flexible jobs. More women are migrating to the
towns, export production zones or abroad to seek employment, or they are even trafficked into low-paid jobs or
prostitution. Women and children are the jokers in the global underbidding competition. As prototypes of parttime
and supply-workers, homeworkers and tele-workers, women provide the flexibilisation pool for the labour
markets and above all work in precarious and insecure employment markets devoid of rights and social and
ecological minimum standards. They are precisely the ones who have to bear the brunt of deregulation, and they
are the majority of the working poor.
Women in the so-called informal sector need legal recognition and social security as well as opportunities to gain
qualifications and to get organised. The feminisation of poverty has to be countered by checking in advance what
the gender-relevant effects of austerity measures and structural adjustment programmes will be as well as a
gender compatibility assessment of employment, flexibilisation and liberalisation measures. The ILO conventions
on industrial health and safety standards, social security and ecological safety, on equal status of men and women
and of migrant workers are to be boosted. Private companies, and above all transnational corporations, are to be
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made socially and ecologically responsible via re-regulation and codes of conduct. Self-determined, ecologically
and socially integrative forms of economy at regional and local level that are beyond the capitalist world market
economy have to supported.
5) Securing livelihoods and biodiversity by resource and gender justice
Sustainable and careful use is a method of preserving natural resources. Access to land, water, forests and
biodiversity and control of these resources are the most important preconditions for securing the livelihoods of the
majority of the population in the countries of the South. Most women in the South regard securing their social,
natural and cultural livelihood as the central aspect to survival. While women hold considerable responsibility for
the use of resources, they enjoy only little control of them. Privatisation of commons and public goods as well as
patenting seeds and intellectual property deprives women of their resources, the cycles of local economies are
disrupted and women’s indigenous knowledge is devalued.
The privatisation of public utilities and infrastructure as well as basic public services, from garbage collection to
water supply, creates new social disparities in access to resources and leads to more work in the care economy.
Resource and gender justice have to be linked with poverty eradication and environmental protection. Women
need land rights, rights of access to forests and biodiversity, recognition of their indigenous knowledge and a right
to information and further education. Conserving biodiversity and protection against bio-piracy by agro- and
pharmaceutical corporations are pro-active ways of securing livelihoods. Access to clean water is a human right,
and water has to remain a public good. No privatisation of public utilities!
6) Food sovereignty and health
Health provides the foundations for sustainability, and it depends to the utmost degree on the environment and
social conditions. Just like food, it is one of the core responsibilities of women.
BSE has highlighted the life-threatening cul-de-sac of industrialised agriculture. Agro-poisons, the application of
hormones and genetic engineering pose unacceptable health and environmental hazards. The pollution and overfishing
of the seas, rivers and lakes as well as aquacultures maintained with high levels of chemicals lead to
further food insecurity. At the same time, highly subsidised imports from the industrialised countries are
torpedoing smallholder agriculture and their markets in Southern countries.
A new direction in agriculture oriented on food and ecological security as well as regional cycles is in the interest
of women as those who are responsible for food and health. Both the majority of women consumers and women
smallholders reject green genetic engineering. In the countries of the South, the right to one’s own seed and the
use of indigenous know-how is of utmost importance to the women farmers and their role in the local economies.
However, the WTO agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) promotes the
patenting of indigenous knowledge, seeds and genetically modified organisms by transnational corporations in the
agro- and pharmaceutical industries. People in the South are to pay for their medicinal plants, which they
themselves have bred as cultivated plants, after the pharmaceutical corporations from the North have had their
use patented or have genetically modified them. The issue of patents for drugs as final products is resulting in
expensive monopolies and is excluding more and more people from the basic right to health.
The export subsidies of the industrialised countries for agricultural products are to be cancelled, and their markets
are to be opened to products from countries in the South. Non-tariff trade obstacles must not undermine
initiatives to open the markets of the industrialised countries. Exceptions from free trade and TRIPS rules are to
be introduced in the WTO that guarantee food sovereignty in the countries of the South. The precautionary
principle, e.g. protection from health hazards, has to be established in WTO agreements. The supply of affordable
drugs to the poorer countries has to be ensured with licences. Ecological farming is to be promoted by a change in
the agricultural policies. Forests, bodies of water and soils are to be protected against commercial overexploitation.
No to patenting of living organisms! No to genetically modified food!
7) Sustainability in urban, regional and traffic planning
Urban, regional and traffic planning treats care work as if it were an unlimited resource. It is not aimed at
accessibility of locations which are, at the same time, compatible with environmental and social needs, the
qualities of public areas, freedom to move in spite of structural male violence or meeting housing requirements
and the provision of decentralised infrastructure for everyday life. Instead, they create the compulsion to
motorise, subject public areas to car traffic, necessitate an additional labour and back-up transport and hamper
quality standards in supplies. The requirements of women resulting from their needs of coping with day-to-day life
and their work in two economic areas are ignored just as much as rural areas and the urban periphery.
Urban, regional and traffic planning which aims at avoiding traffic, as well as infrastructure and transport policies
oriented on everyday life in society are a public responsibility. Binding minimum standards are required to prevent
the privatisation of public transport from putting a strain on social conditions and the environment in the long run.
Generating traffic at the expense of private households, e.g. through problematic entrepreneurial locational
policies, has to be reduced by using regulatory policy instruments along the lines of the preventive and polluter
principle. The myths about transport technology and high-speed transport are to be exposed. Impact and
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compatibility studies aimed at reducing gender discrimination as well as gender budgets are to be introduced for
all means of transport.
8) Gender mainstreaming in climate protection
Since Rio, climate protection has been right at the top of the international agenda for the environment. However,
in the industrialised countries, it is turning into a plaything for power interests, serving above all as an instrument
to identify loopholes in the agreements. Instead of haggling for percentages in CO2 reduction and instead of a
mere sectoral perspective, more fundamental changes to existing economic structures and patterns of
consumption are required. Accordingly, primary entry point in the industrialised countries would be the reduction
of energy consumption in various fields of application (mobility, housing, production).
North-South equity has been receiving more and more attention in the international debate on climate protection,
while inequalities at national level, including gender discrimination, have so far remained ignored. One reason for
this is that, throughout the world, women are extremely under-represented in the field of energy and climate
protection. Like in all technology-oriented areas, there is a lack of gender-related data, analyses and research.
However, what has been clearly established is the lower level of acceptance among women of high-risk
technologies such as the use of nuclear power in comparison to men. In addition, the energy sector is
characterised by a strong segregation. On the one side, there is the highly-valued (male-dominated) area of
technical potentials to economise, and on the other, there is economising by behavioural patterns which tends to
be valued less, but often results in an increasing workload for women.
A gender-disaggregated data basis in the area of climate change has to be compiled regarding causes and
responsibilities on the one hand, and the consequences and solution strategies on the other. Gender research in
the area of climate protection, especially energy, is to be promoted, and insights already available on the genderspecific
impact of, and preferences in, climate protection and energy concepts are to be systematically integrated
into the international negotiations. However, much more fundamentally, a restructuring of production, consumer
patterns and lifestyles among the consume oriented middle classes world-wide, but above all in the countries of
the North, has finally to be initiated: nothing more and nothing less than what the industrialised countries already
committed themselves to in Rio.
9) The Local Agenda 21 and gender issues
Over the past few years, the participation of women in the Local Agenda processes has been growing. Today,
there are hardly any communities that can afford to neglect the “women’s issue”. However, women are
subordinated to the category of “social issues”, and this is also the category they assign themselves to, which
leaves the “hard” issues to men. Instead, the Local Agenda should really be a prime example of gender
mainstreaming, of integrating a gender perspective into all political measures, processes and decisions. But this is
not what is happening. On the contrary, it is (almost) exclusively women who are dealing with gender issues,
while everyone else is carrying on with business as usual.
The integration of gender issues into all thematic areas of the Local Agenda 21 must not depend solely on the
goodwill of individuals but has to be specifically targeted. A political signal is needed. At the same time,
networking and the exchange of experience among women active in the Agenda processes need to be promoted.
Regional and national centres have to be created at which contents and structures can be discussed.
10) Redistribution of social and environmental responsibility
As a consequence of the restructuring processes taking place in the context of neo-liberal globalisation
governments are increasingly withdrawing from their genuine social responsibilities. Public services are being
privatised and either handed over to the market, or responsibility for them is passed on to the private households,
which above all means to the women. There is a trend towards feminising social responsibility – ranging from
bringing up of children to the care of Aids patients and looking after the elderly – as well as environmental
responsibility – from sorting of waste (e.g. in Germany) to planting tree saplings in the countries of the South.
Women function as airbags for the world-wide cutback in government social services. At the same time, the
gender-specific division of labour among men and women is hardly changing.
Concrete political measures have to be taken to counter the feminisation of social and ecological responsibility.
Along the lines of social and environmental justice as well as the polluter principle, a compensation for costs and
efforts has to be made among the various players in society, but also among nations at international policy level.
There must be no separation of “efficiency for the men” from “sufficiency for the women”.
11) Sustainability policy as structural policy
So far, environmental, development and gender policy goals have not been integrated institutionally. The
responsibility for environmental projects run by women is usually referred to the Equal Rights Offices. In sectoral
development programmes in the South women have been mobilised as a cheap protection and cleaning gang
without sectoral development being redesigned to meet environmental and gender requirements. Environmental
protection is reduced to technological and eco-efficiency approaches, and end-of-pipe strategies. So far, social
security concepts and women’s programmes have mainly been annexed to macro-economic programmes to
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cushion the impact of economic crises and impoverishment.
Policies for social and ecological sustainability have to be structural policies at all political levels and need to be
established as cross-sectoral tasks. Sustainability strategies have to be integrated into macro-economic
structures, international political programmes and concepts to eradicate poverty right from the start.
Environmental protection, social justice and the dismantling of gender hierarchies have to be linked up already at
the macro-level in terms of systematic institutional and content wise integration. Instead of imposing a universal
concept of economic stabilisation and growth, country and region specific requirements and diverse contexts
ought to be decisive for development and sustainability strategies.
12) Concepts of nature and gender relations
Feminist scientists criticise the relation between humankind and nature being based on a logic of domination and
exploitation that shapes both the understanding of nature and the relation between society and nature as well as
the natural and engineering sciences. This is precisely the causal element of today’s global environmental crisis.
In the concepts of sustainability developed so far, these relationships with nature are hardly addressed, insights
from a gender perspective are ignored, and, by and large, a blockade prevents the adoption of feminist
approaches.
Knowledge based on experience and research about the links between the concept of nature, the social and
economic order and gender relations have to be integrated both into science and at political level. This is a
precondition for sustainability policy to achieve a breakthrough with regard to social and gender discrimination
and the destructive way in which nature and the environment are treated.
13) Gender impact assessment and gender budgets as precautionary instruments
Agenda 21 of Rio and the Platform for Action of the 4 th World Conference on Women demand that the impact of
environment and development policy measures on women and men be assessed. The Gender Impact Assessment
instrument was developed to identify potential effects of political decisions and strategies on gender relations.
However, with regard to environmental policy and sustainability research, methods of establishing their impact on
women and assessing gender-relevant effects have so far hardly been tested or applied. This also applies to the
Gender Budget instrument, which is aimed at breaking down revenue and expenditure of government, local
authority and institutional budgets in terms of how they relate to gender and analysing their potential to boost or
weaken gender hierarchies.
Gender Impact Assessment has to be applied with binding effect both in the development of sets of legal and
political guidelines and in environmental and development research. Gender Budgeting should also be introduced
at various levels as an instrument to establish transparency and support analysis and planning. Both instruments
can operate preventively and contribute to restructuring politics and research on the environment, development
and sustainability with a view to deconstructing gender hierarchies.
14) Women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming
Sustainable development cannot be achieved without the empowerment of women, in particular their participation
in planning and decision making. This insight was gained at the UN Conferences in Rio de Janeiro and Beijing.
There is still a “glass ceiling” for women in all environment and development related sectors. While they are active
on a day-to-day basis at grassroots level, the more the level of action includes technical, scientific or political
elements, the more it is dominated by men.
Empowerment of women implies two aspects: on the one hand, participating in decision-making and planning
processes and getting a share of the power to make decisions within political, economic and scientific institutions.
On the other, scope for networking and co-operation enabling a gender-sensitive discourse on sustainability and
the adoption of an autonomous position.
Gender mainstreaming has to be established everywhere, both in terms of institutions and contents. The
independent quest of women for gender equitable strategies for sustainability has to be reliably secured by
financial and institutional resources. Networking of civil society at national and international level is indispensable
in this context. This is why network projects on “global structural policy from a gender perspective” and “gender
equity and environmental sustainability” have to be set up and financed at federal level.
Source:
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
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April 2002

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ICT
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ICT
Free Software for Free Women
Christina Haralanova
New technologies are challenging the way we live, the way we conduct business, the way
we educate ourselves and our children. Women from solidarity economy groups recognise
the need to learn to use them as a tool in their work. But what about free software? Is
there any relationship between solidarity economy and free software?
The Free Concept: the Gender Law
Joelle Palmieri
We live in an age which is submitted to the impressive development of communication
techniques and technologies, which effects spread out to the social, economic, political
and cultural fields, and have serious implications on the very future of our democratic
life. We observe an over-concentration of resources that reinforce the setting up of
monopolies and private oligopolies in the sector of communication. This statement is very
close to the fact that technological development is essentially developed like a full part of
the globalization process. Information and communication represent an economic sector
as such, with high benefit rates, which products must be given a price like goods.
Statement on Communication Rights
Vision and Context
By World Forum on Communication Rights
Communication plays a central role in politics, economics, and culture in societies across
the globe. Information and communication technologies, together with the political will to
implement communication rights, can provide vital new opportunities for political
interaction, social and economic development, and cultural sustainability. The means to
achieve these ends include universal access of all to the means of communication and
information and to a diversity of media throughout the world.
Gender and ICTs: Overview Report
By Anita Gurumurthy
BRIDGE
New technologies in the information and communications arena, especially the Internet,
have been seen as ushering in a new age. There is a mainstream view that such
technologies have only technical rather than social implications. The dramatic positive
changes brought in by these information and communication technologies (ICTs),
however, have not touched all of humanity. Existing power relations in society determine
the enjoyment of benefits from ICTs; hence these technologies are not gender neutral.
The important questions are: who benefits from ICTs? Who is dictating the course of
ICTs? Is it possible to harness ICTs to serve larger goals of equality and justice?

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Free Software for Free Women
Christina Haralanova, Social Rights Bulgaria
New technologies are challenging the way we live, the way we conduct business, the way we educate ourselves
and our children. Women from solidarity economy groups recognise the need to learn to use them as a tool in
their work. But what about free software? Is there any relationship between solidarity economy and free software?
"Free Software is a means to stimulate local development; you can make it serve your own needs in your native
language. It unites small communities with similar problems around the world, and Free Software helps them to
work together, exchange contacts and experience, and build networks", explained Michele Dessenne, co-founder
of Les Penelopes and general secretary of ATTACK-France, during the New Communication Technologies and
Solidarity Economy Workshop at the WSF 2005.
New technologies, and Free Software in particular, are new challenges to confront, but in the long run, these are
useful in obtaining more knowledge, visibility, contacts, and connections. These were the conclusions from this
workshop.
"Free Software, and programs like SPIP (Software for Publishing and Sharing information online), are useful
because they are simple, free of charge and they are a direct response to our needs", said Maria Angelina, a staffmember
of CEDAC in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "We have been active since 1985, but just recently we realised how
powerful the new technologies can be."
While in Brazil, where children were dying of hunger and where there are more than 20 million people who cannot
buy shoes in their lifetime, women involved in solidarity economy from all over the country formed cooperatives to
alleviate the increasing poverty. 21 groups of local producers joined these cooperatives. Iara da Rosa manages
the Casa de Convivencia in Porto Alegre. In this shelter for street people, she organises computer training. She
attests that it helps them to discover the power of communication and information technologies, and that such
discovery became the turning point in their fight against poverty. They documented their efforts through a film
and they provided copies to solidarity economy groups around the country. This was their way of sharing this
"methodology" that is aimed at a more beneficial solidarity economy. Be the media, become the media!
New technologies are not just computers - they also include radio, television and telephones. The purpose of using
the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) implemented in the solidarity economy organisation is to
help women to better sell their products, to organise themselves into movements, to exchange ideas and to learn
new ideas. With this aim, Les Penelopes (France) set up six websites and produced four films about women
involved in solidarity economy. These materials created a great impact when shown as examples to local
communities.
According to Maria Angelina who took part in the training organised by Les Penelopes in Porto Alegre in November
2004, the strongest impact for them was to see the direct links on how ICTs are used in practice. "The result was
obvious: women without any knowledge in computers still succeeded to make it with technologies, only after a
couple of days of training."
Les Penelopes use the Internet to exchange information among the different social movements. They use various
forms of ICTs: one of the most powerful is the Women's voices - audio project for feminist internet radio
(accessible on their website). Without Internet used as media, it was impossible for women from Africa, Latin
America, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia to get together and exchange ideas. Les Penelopes are building
networks which they coordinate through the Internet. "Our weapon is the Free Software, and SPIP in particular.
SPIP serves our needs because it is very simple to use, and it is translated in local languages and adapted to our
work", stated Perline, the technical assistant and ICT trainer of Les Penelopes.
Social inclusion and digital access for all
"Women in the past did not have access to technologies by cultural barriers. Now things have changed, but still,
there are very few girls in the IT departments of the university", Iara da Rosa described the situation in Brazil.
"Today, there are many women who manage very well with Free Software: it is not true that women cannot make
it as well as men in the ICT field".
"Solidarity economy provides social inclusion, while Free Software encourages digital and social inclusion. Free
Software is offering us a new way of doing our work, where women, involved in solidarity economy network
online, while in past they could network only locally, within the community" , said Loimar Vianna, the leader of the
Free Software Women Project in Brazil. The project started in 2002, with an online discussion list on women and
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Free Software. The breakthrough happened when together with Luna Nova, a Brazilian NGO, working with women
on solidarity economy issues, they organised an ICT workshop.
"The trainers and all the staff were all volunteers. All we wanted was to promote the inclusion of these women
into the Free Software Movement and to help them exchange information", said Vianna. With a group of about
100 women from the solidarity economy in Porto Alegre, they established a Free Software centre for women with
free internet access.
The solidarity economy groups are constrained by their physical distance and the different field of their work.
Some women are working in regions, far from commercial centres, and the Internet is their only way to
connecting to other groups, to sell their goods and to keep themselves updated with the latest news. This
opportunity to empower networks should be taken advantage of!
This article was initially published in the printed version of the Digit@all Future International Feminist Magazine
(issue 2), during the media coverage of the World Social Forum (WSF) 2005, Porto Alegre. Author: Christina
Haralanova, January 2005
Source:
http://www.socialrights.org/spip/article1233.html
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The Free Concept: the Gender Law
The Free Concept: the Gender Law
Joelle Palmieri,
Les Penelopes
In the context of liberal communications, how is it possible to provide the means to groups of women who are
carrying economic, social, cultural and political alternatives to make visible their practices, their experiences and
their know-how? How is it possible to break men and women inequalities? In what way can the ICts arm our
resistance? How is it possible to articulate gender concepts and philosophies with free software? How does the
“free” concept respond to gender needs? How does gender respond to the needs of the free concept? It is very
simple…
We live in an age which is submitted to the impressive development of communication techniques and
technologies, which effects spread out to the social, economic, political and cultural fields, and have serious
implications on the very future of our democratic life. We observe an over-concentration of resources that
reinforce the setting up of monopolies and private oligopolies in the sector of communication. This statement is
very close to the fact that technological development is essentially developed like a full part of the globalization
process. In addition, information and communication represent an economic sector as such, with high benefit
rates, which products must be given a price like goods, and tend to cancel any notion of public services with which
communication has always been associated.
The role of media
In a time of huge concentrations, channels of weak contents and under-information, it is appropriate to stress that
the media are rather in the stage of testing, attempt, unachieved concept and beginning. In order to look at it
more clearly, let’s start with the word "media" in the singular form. A "media" is supposed to be in between, a
means of communication, a link between transmitting and receiving information. It seems today that it is a
vertical and tense line, with a single direction, from the top downwards and has a privatized shape... And these
lines, or pipes, are to be filled as quickly as possible! For God sake, where is the "space-time", which gives the
opportunity to elaborate one’s thoughts, refine one’s ideas, and express oneself freely... Where does the law of
the market give place to the reader, the listener, the audience, named as such, i.e. in the masculine form (in
French) by the holders of the informational power? There is henceforth no more space for imagination, innovation,
expression and exchange. Anything that needs time. In such a situation, it is difficult to consider a press system in
which the "consumer" should not be passive. We are thus in presence of tailor-made information; at some
broadcasters’, the programs are set up from the initial "outlay", i.e. if Reebok invests, then a basketball program
will be set up. In Southern countries, the situation is much more serious. In Africa or in the emerging countries
like Brazil, the worst of television is poured in public or private channels: Northern models and references that
have nearly nothing in common with the lives of women and men have increased. Much worse regarding
newspapers, one is confronted to news that are not, because they have been truncated, chosen and chopped up.
For new models
It is mainly men who make choices, or rather impose them to their target groups, i.e individuals (females and
males) who are considered as consumers and "non-thinkers". The numbers can testify. In her report on the
question of women and media, as published in 1995 for the UNESCO, Margaret Gallaguer is formal: women are
"visible, but vulnerable". As actors (or journalists), or as subjects, women are nearly non-existent. It is necessary
to say that the selection among the editorial staff is stern. Men decide on issues, women make the reports but not
on any issue. They are nearly excluded from the domains that concern economy, sport and politics. Many studies
on this topic, including the studies of the Association of female journalists on general press, know that. From the
beginning until they were given the right to exercise on the labour market, female journalists have been
confronted to effective work and editorial barriers, decided by their editorial staff. As an unknown phenomenon, it
is essentially women who become war reporters or are in the field, and this very precarious situation makes it
extremely difficult for an "internal" promotion. Furthermore, the proposed issues, whatever they are, should not
present a gender dimension. On the other hand, any issues on women, as victims or sport or show business stars
are most welcome. Besides, "the female magazines remain a fief of depreciating pictures".
Any attempts of news handling with a new gender perspective is often doubtful, and submitted to universalistic
pressures, when it is not simply rejected to the rank of specialized press. For example, it is now common that
even the very issue of feminism is the full subject of a magazine or a TV show. However, it is most often to mock
this "rearguard" movement". Or, it is the basis for a discussion with a "feminist-alibi" on topics like cosmetics,
love… while looking for a "counterpoint" as if, it was a contradiction from the start. And the same happens in TV
shows or in "serious" documentaries on war, in which the geopolitical aspects of such or such part of the world,
are full of males signatures and even though there was one female signature, she would have to use the males
dialogue codes, i.e. universalistic and not the least sexually differentiated codes. The logics of exclusion is
therefore double; at the level of women’s place within the profession as such and at the level of the news
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The Free Concept: the Gender Law
handling, in which the "male" vision is predominant.
However, the proliferation and the diversity of sources, including Internet networks and not only agencies that
prepare and sort out the information sources (like AFP, Reuters, BBC…), should allow the setting up of new
models of news handling. The widening of the investigation field, the setting up of a medium that is finally
streamlined and interactive, in which the "push", or what is known today, should leave room to the "pull", i.e. the
endogenous contents carried out by the civil society. A new way to make new contents possible which take into
consideration the social relations of sex and the global context of male domination.
For a right to communicate
It has been established like a universal statement that the vitality of democracy depends on the level of citizens’
involvement; this means that the different groups which compose society should be duly informed and able to
express their particular points of view in order to contribute to the constitution of social consensus. This aspiration
has been often denied notably because of the absence of democracy within the systems of communication. For
example, many studies showed that the presence of the audience on TV sets is not an opportunity to give them
the floor, but rather gives them the role of the accomplice of what is happening before their eyes without their
approval. Another example is the creation of the cell phones’ "Sms"; they are obviously used to communicate little
messages between friends, but in fact they have two other goals; spread out advertisement without the receiver’s
consent and finance the pipes (10 times more expensive than the normal price), by moving between 0 and 1,
which makes them profitable not only financially but also in terms of market, thanks to the collection of personal
data for further marketing use.
This situation requires that civil society includes in its agenda the Right to Communication and, at the same time,
decides to promote initiatives, which goal is to control the communication tools and to develop responsible, free
and complimentary media. Particularly, women and/or mixed organizations that approach gender, must take the
opportunity provided for by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to bring to light particular
analyses and practices.
Information in a different way
From the analysis of the above mentioned tendencies of "dominant" communication, and while paying particular
attention to the women’s place and role? As victims of a double marginalization; as actors and as subjects of
social, economic, cultural and political life and to the role of alternative initiatives. Nearly totally invisible. It seems
appropriate to set up totally independent media tools in which information should be, not only to the service of
citizens, but especially emerging from them. A type of information that claims diversity, solidarity, equality,
horizontality and streamlining.
It is today necessary to think information differently while stressing endogenous contents (or information) in
particular. This means concretely that all the civil society actors, women and men, must not only have the
opportunity to deliver their own contents. The shape that they use to communicate should also be considered as a
full model that is complementary of the more classical professional (journalistic) news handlings. This strategy
gives then the opportunity to approach the issues that are undeveloped in traditional media, and provide an open
dimension to the circulation of information, and present specific contents according to the regions of the world, to
create an exchange and know-how network. It gives mainly the opportunity to focus on gender, and notably the
social relations between women and men, the barriers that gender inequalities represent for the development of
peoples and societies, the alternatives carried out by women… As many prisms that give the opportunity to cancel
sensationalism or news in brief. In order to give back an effective space to a real social, political and economic
analysis of issues such as violence, nationalism, fundamentalism, militarism, peace…
Contents of General Utility
Furthermore, in the context of promotion of the contents that are at the public disposal, it is necessary to remain
alert on matters of broadcasting control. This is possible if we create or maintain our own broadcasting networks
and if we invest the decision-making centres where broadcasting is controlled, be it TV, radio or written press.
This is a question of thinking information differently, according to the following principles:
● the access to information is a fundamental right,
● information is not a good, it must be free,
● the reader, the listener, the viewer is not a consumer,
● the contents must be endogenous. In this context, it seems justified to pay attention to a new way of
editorial treatment that is organized in four directions:
● to approach issues that are not developed in traditional media,
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● to propose a multimedia, streamlined and horizontal treatment of information (radio, written press,
electronic press, TV)
● to conceive nomadic, boundless, mobile media tools,
● to put these tools in the hands of the contents’ "bearers", while breaking with professional corporatism
● to set up relays, in different kinds of tools. These new ways of handling information give us the opportunity
to consider a "star-shaped" information, in which each civil society actor/actress is in direct connection with
the others. Thus, each interlocutor can bring his/her contents, and echo to the others’ while completing
them and enhancing them. This structure helps to bring to light a collective richness at the international
level. And the exchange of know-hows and experiences, the gathering of the means around a common
content, the confrontation of individual, collective or regional situations, and especially their publication and
their broadcasting, make disappear the geographical, economic and political barriers.
In order to concretely implement these media tools, it is important to create a network of models and build up
these tools on a different economic model, which will guarantee its continuity, by:
● leaning on the concepts of solidarity economy (previously co-financed by the state and the civil society
actresses/actors),
● involving the territories (local elected people, regional administrators...),
● keeping control on broadcasting,
● using the ICTs, like a cheap technology,
● giving impulse to the policies of access to the internet network,
● using the philosophy of free software.
Gender: a catalyst
These public service tools must correspond, and not only respond, to the common interest. They must come from
the people’s needs, otherwise they would be meaningless, and create public spaces of discussion in which the
receivers, the emitters, the prescribers meet or come together in order to bring to light those needs. In this
context, gender recovers all its relevance since women and men, according to their social, religious, ethnical,
generational, sexually-oriented, etc. origins, will finally have the opportunity to express different needs and
interests. First of all, it should reveal practical needs for women and for men, while keeping the statu quo of
sexual division in work. Then, it should achieve transformation by initiating strategic needs/interests that are
going to completely transform this gender relation into a more equal status.
The free concept: future of gender
Women represent around 80% of the poor and 67% of the illiterate. Most of them are also victims of a triple
discrimination; they are women, the majority works in economic sectors that are not valued at the national level,
social or informal, and most of them are marginalized in their social, geographical or political environment. Very
often, they also carry economic, social and political models that are totally different from the most visible system;
an unequal, discriminatory, with high financial benefit system. And yet, this paradox remains invisible. How come?
For migrant women living in poor suburbs in France, black women whose degree is not recognized in Quebec or
Senegalese female fishers coming from the surroundings of Dakar, with no literacy level, publicizing their
practices and their analysis of the disparities and inequalities between men and women, corrupts the universalistic
uses. It also reconsiders gender social relations such as the domination relations as inherited from patriarchy,
colonialism and imperialism. And it defies a major taboo, women’s access to the public space, and becomes thus a
major stake. Therefore, the use of free software becomes self-evident. Indeed, the word "free" refers here to
freedom/liberty, and not to the price; this is a confusing language concept for Anglo-Saxons. More than twenty
years ago, Richard M. Stallman, known as the "father" of this concept, set up the Free Software Foundation in
order to launch the famous "GNU Project". His ambition was to give everybody the opportunity to use any
software that was socially useful, and to facilitate its copying and modification, as easily as possible. He precisely
defines four types of freedom/liberty for software users:
● "be free to execute the software, for any uses (liberty 0).
● be free to study the execution of the software, and to adapt it to your needs (liberty 1). To do that, the
access to the open code is required.
● be free to share copies, and help therefore your neighbour, (liberty 2).
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● be free to improve the software and publish your improvements, in order to provide the whole community
with benefit (liberty 3). To do that, the access to the open code is required."
Obviously, these notions sound mainly computing concepts, but they have been transformed since then in tools
that are used by the majority to break up with all kinds of fractures (social, ethnical, sexual...). Furthermore, the
GNU has become a legal basis entitled GNU/GPL (General Public License) which permits appropriation without any
obstacles (for more information, see the GNU site).
A common interest
Besides, this philosophy gives the opportunity to develop transcontinental projects of new endogenous media,
based on Icts, in order to give value to economic, social, political and cultural alternatives as carried by women in
the world and to analyze gender disparities on a global scale. Indeed, free software are, most of the time, free. No
need to spend money, no more "robbery" is possible, no more violations of the intellectual property law, because
there is no patentability system. Their setting up is a common interest. They allow local adaptations, particularly
in the language field. If only one individual shows a need, that is supported financially or not by a specific body,
and immediately the software are translated into a language, a dialect. The opportunity that is given to very
restricted, retired or isolated groups, and particularly women, to have access to information and publication is
therefore unique. Furthermore, this brings up a new way to look at the relations among the developers of free
software. Some are therefore collaborative, participative, simple, in constant evolution in order to satisfy these
criteria and demand which are in increase. No other software owner is able to perform this work, because of the
underlying philosophy of benefit that governs them. There are free software which give the opportunity to
publicize any contents without any computer knowledge, ability or technique. Therefore, there are word
processing or computer-assisted software, tabloids, image processing, sound… and Web publication software, as
well as read/write mails, or Web surfing software. These software don’t require any financial investment. To use
them, it is enough to possess or download an operating system on your computer, which will carry them; it is the
case of Linux free as well and many others. Then, it is enough to download them from the W eb to use them out
line.
The technical dependence on Microsoft is then reduced to a few weak elements; the corporate sector, NGOs, or
any body of the civil society which "subcontracts" its computing works and… the internet servers. The latter often
don’t authorize the download for instance of free Web publication software. However, a few "non-ownership"
solutions already exist for the civil society actors or internet servers, and are made available for the whole public.
Then, like the four Stallman rules, the access to the users’ guides of these software are a full part of the freedom/
liberty that these software authorize. Like documentation, training can be permanent. There are electronic users
or developers lists according to the level that give not only the opportunity to get new information of major
improvements but also to get involved in them! And even though the internet connexion is not necessary, there
are bridges between users and all those who have no access to the network. Concretely, if anybody downloads a
word processing via the Web, he/she can copy it on an electronic support and send it to a neighbour, who will use
it to publish a document, that he/she will print or orally re-transcript... So everything is planned within this
"community" to go along with change.
Multiply the related effects towards equality
Therefore, these free software present the double advantage of demystifying the tools and developing the free
access, included the multiplication of contents, without any restriction or obstacle, for a very low cost, and safely,
in any language. This is very useful to break up the geographical, cultural, social and educational barriers.
Bringing together knowledge, innovation, invention, success, good practices, becomes hence a commitment; it is
a way to "understand each other" without imposing any model. The contents on gender reports and issues find
particularly their meaning in this process. This participative philosophy gives the concerned people the opportunity
to exchange experiences and know-how, as well as the existing obstacles and "structural brakes" in order to
elaborate solutions and common strategies. As a collaborative philosophy, it multiplies the "leverage" effects, it
sets up new dynamics, it encourages multiplication, diversity, as well as complementarity. As an interactive
philosophy, it permits unlimited reactivity and accelerates the process of development and changes. Conceived in
total complementarity with the Net, it ensures international visibility. Since less than five years, we have observed
the development of websites, the setting up of oral ways of communicating for example, for diasporas and
particularly women Iranians. It looks like a kind of virtual "room" in which internet users converge regularly at
fixed hours to chat, and exchange their points of view thanks to operations of "sharing" contents - i.e. link up
through automated ways, the multiplication of know hows such as research and iconographic expression, and
broadcasting interviews in an audio shape…
Besides, all the contents that are set up and put together can be "reconditioned" or "re-packaged" under more
classical forms; paper, radio, television, or even plays. In this way, it multiplies the means of dissemination and
opens new strategies that can go faster than traditional medias. So why do we still hide? What are all the groups
of women waiting for to appropriate these new tools, especially those who are working on gender and feminists
issues? The convergence of intentions and strategies of expression between the "free" concept and the different
movements for equality between men and women do not need to be demonstrated anymore. Now it is up to us to
act!
Source:
Women’s Information Technology Transfer ©
Regional Initiative of Women's Groups for Promoting ICT as a Strategic Tool for Social Transformation
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http://www.witt-project.net/article109.html
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Statement on Communication Rights Vision and Context
Statement on Communication Rights
Vision and Context
By World Forum on Communication Rights
Communication plays a central role in politics, economics, and culture in societies across the globe.
Information and communication technologies, together with the political will to implement
communication rights, can provide vital new opportunities for political interaction, social and
economic development, and cultural sustainability. The means to achieve these ends include universal
access of all to the means of communication and information and to a diversity of media throughout
the world.
Communication is a fundamental social process and the foundation of all social organization. It is more than the
mere transmission of messages. Communication is human interaction among individuals and groups through
which identities and meanings are shaped. Communication rights are based on a vision of the free flow of
information and ideas which is interactive, egalitarian and non-discriminatory and driven by human needs, rather
than commercial or political interests. These rights represent people’s claim to freedom, inclusiveness, diversity
and participation in the communication process.
Our vision of communication rights is based upon the recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and
inalienable rights of all people.
While recognizing the great potential of communication in contemporary societies, we also draw attention to some
of the problems facing full recognition of communication rights. The problem of political control and interference
with freedom of expression remains a central concern. Along with media saturation comes a dependency upon the
media for knowledge about the world, a dependency that is greater in times of armed conflict. At the same time,
the influence of propaganda and censorship has never been so widespread.
Communication has become big global business. Many of its products and services are shaped by commercial
goals instead of considerations based on the common good. The global media market is largely controlled by a
small number of giant conglomerates, endangering the diversity and independence of information flows. This
threat to diversity is heightened by current trends in international trade negotiations, which risk subjecting
‘culture’ to the same rules as commodities and undermining indigenous culture, knowledge and heritage. On the
other hand, strict intellectual property regimes create information enclosures and pose critical obstacles to
emerging ‘knowledge’ societies
The exclusion of large numbers of people from the democratic political process due to the lack of effective means
of participation is another challenge for communication rights. This problem is exacerbated by the expansion of
‘around the clock’ powers to monitor and intercept communications, justified in the name of security but almost
universally abused.
New technologies and a more profound understanding of communication rights have the power to make
information and knowledge more readily available to people everywhere and to transform social and political
processes. However, much remains to be done for this to become a reality. Global communication remains far
from universal, with most of the world’s people still excluded from meaningful access to communication,
information and the media.
Communication Rights
With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international community recognised the
inherent dignity of all members of the human family by providing everyone with equal and inalienable rights.
Communication rights are intrinsically bound up with the human condition and are based on a new, more powerful
understanding of the implications of human rights and the role of communications. Without communication rights,
human beings cannot live in freedom, justice, peace and dignity. The recognition of this universal human need has
inspired us to set out a statement on communication rights based upon the key principles of Freedom,
Inclusiveness, Diversity and Participation [*] .
Freedom
The core of communication rights is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.” This basic freedom is also recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article
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Statement on Communication Rights Vision and Context
19), in other UN treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 13), and in all three main
regional human rights instruments (Africa, the Americas and Europe).
Despite these guarantees, censorship remains a reality as humankind embarks on the 21st century. Political and
commercial pressures on independent news reporting are ever-present and freedom of speech on the Internet is
under serious threat in many parts of the world. The right to freedom of expression is also increasingly under
threat from significantly enhanced State powers to monitor and intercept communications around the world. It is
crucial that the international community adopts robust rules and mechanisms to secure effectively the
confidentiality of private communications. It is therefore urgent that we renew global commitment to freedom of
information and expression as “the touchstone of all freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated”, as
stated in The United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 59(I), adopted at its very first session in 1946.
Inclusiveness
International human rights treaties include many provisions designed to guarantee inclusiveness, such as
universal access to information and knowledge, universal access to education, protection of the cultural life of
communities and equal sharing of advancements in science and technology. In the current global reality, however,
large numbers of people are excluded from access to the basic means of communication, such as telephony,
broadcasting and the Internet. Access to information about matters of public concern is also unduly limited, and is
also very unequal between and within societies. True commitment to inclusiveness requires the allocation of
considerable material and non-material resources by the international community and national governments to
overcome these obstacles.
Diversity
Worldwide, existing forms of cultural, informational and linguistic diversity are seriously threatened. Diversity in
culture, language and communication is as critical to the sustainability of the planet as the world’s biological and
natural diversity. Communication diversity is crucial to democracy and political participation, to the right of all
people to promote, protect and preserve their cultural identity and the free pursuit of their cultural development.
Diversity is needed at a number of levels including the availability of a wide range of different sources of
information, diversity of ownership in the media and forms of access to the media that ensure that the views of all
sectors and groups in society are heard.
Participation
International human rights stress the importance of people’s participation in political processes which from the
perspective of communication rights implies the right to have one’s views taken into account. In this context, the
equal participation of women and the participation of minorities and marginalized groups is particularly important.
Communication is essential to the processes of political decision-making. As the role of media in modern politics
expands, this should not obstruct but rather support the participation of people in the political process through the
development of participatory governance at all levels.
Vision and Reality
Communication rights remain for most of the world’s people a vision and an aspiration. They are not a reality on
the ground. On the contrary, they are frequently and systematically violated. Governments must be constantly
reminded that they are legally required under the human rights treaties they have ratified to implement, promote
and protect communication rights. Communication rights are the expression of fundamental needs. The
satisfaction of these needs requires a strong political will and the allocation of substantial resources. Lack of
commitment to such resources serves only to deepen the global distrust of political institutions.
At the same time, full implementation of communication rights cannot depend only upon governments. Civil
society has a key role to play in terms of advocacy for rights, in terms of monitoring and exposing rights abuse
and in terms of educating and popularising rights.
Encouraging and facilitating people to assert these rights through different types of social action and to use them
to realize the enormous potential of both the old and new technologies of media and communication, are vital
tasks for all concerned people.
We endorse this Statement as an expression of our commitment to communication rights and we further
undertake to develop an International Charter on Communication Rights with the widest possible support as a
common standard to which every individual and every organ of society should take action to achieve.
Geneva, 11 December 2003
Statment from The World Forum on Communication Rights, an independent civil-society led initiative, open to all
seeking democratic, just and participative media and communication. Presented by professor Cees Hamelink the
World Forum on Communication Rights December 11 2003, in Geneva, aims at gathering under the name
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Statement on Communication Rights Vision and Context
"Communication Rights" a number of existing Human Rights related to information and communication. This
statement is there to remind us that the majority of these rights are often ignored on the ground everywhere. The
statement calls for a real practical application of these rights at all the levels. http://www.communicationrights.
org/statement_en.html
[*] The most relevant references to communication rights in international human rights instruments:
On the principle of freedom:
Freedom of Expression: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Article 19 International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (1966), Article 19
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), Article 13
Protection of privacy:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Article 12
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Article 17
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), Article 16
On the principle of inclusiveness:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Articles 19, 21, 28
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), Articles 13, 15. Declaration of the
Principles of International Cultural Co-operation (1966), Article IV (4).
On the principle of diversity:
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Articles 1 (1), 27
Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (1995), Article 5
On the principle of participation:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Articles 21, 27
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Article 25
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Gender and ICTs: Overview Report
By Anita Gurumurthy
BRIDGE
New technologies in the information and communications arena, especially the Internet, have been seen as
ushering in a new age. There is a mainstream view that such technologies have only technical rather than social
implications. The dramatic positive changes brought in by these information and communication technologies
(ICTs), however, have not touched all of humanity. Existing power relations in society determine the enjoyment of
benefits from ICTs; hence these technologies are not gender neutral. The important questions are: who benefits
from ICTs? Who is dictating the course of ICTs? Is it possible to harness ICTs to serve larger goals of equality and
justice? Central to these is the issue of gender and women’s equal right to access, use and shape ICTs.
Access to new ICTs is still a faraway reality for the vast majority of people. The countries of the South, particularly
rural populations, have to a significant extent been left out of the information revolution, given the absence of
basic infrastructure, high costs of ICT deployment, unfamiliarity with ICTs, dominance of the English language in
Internet content and indeed – lack of demonstrated benefit from ICTs to address ground-level development
challenges. These barriers pose even greater problems for women, who are more likely to: be illiterate; not know
English; and lack opportunities for training in computer skills. Domestic responsibilities, cultural restrictions on
mobility, lesser economic power as well as lack of relevance of content to their lives, further marginalise them
from the information sector.
The ICT arena is characterised by the strategic control exercised by powerful corporations and nations –
monopolies built upon the intellectual property regime, increasing surveillance of the Internet and an undermining
of its democratic substance, and exploitation of the powerless by capitalist imperialism, sexism and racism. Within
the ICT arena women have relatively little ownership of and influence on the decision-making processes, being
underrepresented in the private sector and government bodies which control this arena.
ICTs have brought employment gains, including for women. However, patterns of gender segregation are being
reproduced in the information economy where men hold the majority of high-skilled, high value-added jobs,
whereas women are concentrated in the low-skilled, lower value-added jobs. Work in call centres perpetuates the
devaluation of women’s labour, and organisations in the information technology sector, as elsewhere, reward
behaviour that is considered masculine.
Some international organisations and civil society groups are engaging with issues that concern the
democratisation of the ICT arena − from the digital divide and the right to communicate, to cultural diversity and
intellectual property rights. Gender equality advocates have also been pushing for addressing the gender
dimensions of the information society: integrating gender perspectives in national ICT policies and strategies,
providing content relevant to women, promoting women’s economic participation in the information economy, and
regulating violence against women and children connected to pornography on the Internet. The World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS) held at Geneva in December 2003, brought together the multiple stakeholders in
the arena to address the challenges and possibilities posed by ICTs, although with mixed outcomes.
ICTs have also been used by many as tools for social transformation and gender equality. For example:
● E-commerce initiatives that link women artisans directly to global markets through the Internet, as well as
support their activities with market and production information, are being tried today in many places by
NGOs.
● E-governance programmes have been initiated by some governments using ICTs to make government
services more accessible to citizens by providing them electronically, in some cases with an explicit strategy
to ensure these services reach women and others who face barriers to access.
● Health educators have used the radio to communicate information related to women’s sexual and
reproductive health. Possibilities based on the Internet are also being explored.
● Information sharing and dialogues through email, online newsletters and List Serves between women from
the North and South and among women in the South have also enabled collaboration and a convergence of
effort on a global scale to push the agenda of gender equality.
Such activities have been most effective where they go beyond issues of access and infrastructure to consider the
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larger social context and power relations. Effectiveness and reach have also been enhanced by combining “old”
technologies such as radio, with “new” technologies such as the Internet.
Far-reaching changes towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in the ICT arena are needed at every
level – international, national and programme. Engendering ICTs is not merely about greater use of ICTs by
women. It is about transforming the ICT system. This involves:
● Governments building ICT policies with strong gender perspectives and engaging with civil society and
gender and ICT experts on these areas.
● International fora such as WSIS being used to challenge northern and corporate dominance of the ICT
arena.
● Clear gender strategies being deployed through design, in the implementation and evaluation of ICT
projects and programmes.
● Collecting information with sex-disaggregated statistics and gender indicators on access to, use of and
content of ICTs, on employment and on education.
● Consideration of gender issues in: ICT/telecommunications policy; representation in telecommunications/
ICT decision-making; and the differential impact of telecommunications/ICTs on men and women.
To make these happen, gender equality advocates need to storm the ICT arena in the untiring ways we have seen
them engage in before.
2. Inequities in the Information Society
This section seeks to examine the political underpinnings of the global information society. Looking at the larger
picture – the political and economic context of ICTs – is important to understanding who benefits, who does not,
and why. Gender dimensions of this context are extremely significant.
2.1 The Digital Divide
The divisions between winners and losers in the global ICT arena are stark. This subsection offers some statistical
analysis to illustrate inequities in access to ICTs. It also shows how the control of the ICT arena by powerful
corporations, and the power relations between rich and poor countries, the state and citizen, men and women,
determine access to benefits in the ICT arena. It highlights how, in the process of globalisation, the potential of
ICTs is captured for furthering the interests of the powerful.
In the information economy, wealthy countries and sections of society with the orientation, skills, income and time
to access ICTs reap the benefits. Access to and strategic control of the ICT arena confer on powerful nations,
corporations, groups and individuals alike, the privilege to influence the arena and gain from the innovation and
change occurring at an extraordinary pace in the larger ICT environment.
On the other hand, a disproportionate burden of challenges is borne by the majority. The digital divide, referring
to the uneven distribution of benefits of ICTs within and between countries, regions, sectors, and socio-economic
groups, signifies the uphill task facing developing countries and disadvantaged groups and sections in society
(even in the developed countries) in their attempts to reap the benefits of the ostensibly level playing field that
ICTs are supposed to provide.
2.1.1 Inequalities in Access
‘The so-called digital divide is actually several gaps in one. There is a technological divide – great gaps in
infrastructure. There is a content divide. A lot of web-based information is simply not relevant to the real needs of
people. And nearly 70 per cent of the world’s websites are in English, at times crowding out local voices and
views. There is a gender divide, with women and girls enjoying less access to information technology than men
and boys. This can be true of rich and poor countries alike.’ [1]
UN secretary General, Kofi Annan
Infrastructure gaps are reflected in telephone density figures, which show high levels of geographic disparity with
113.4 phones per 100 population in the US and 7.36 in Africa. Telephone connections have historically been the
backbone of Internet connectivity, and are therefore at the heart of the infrastructure divide.
The infrastructure divide manifests itself in differential access to computers and the Internet. Asia and Africa lag
far behind the rest of the world in this respect. In Asia, there are only 4.45 personal computers per 100
inhabitants, in Africa 1.3. Even within regions, there are wide variations. For instance, in 26 out of 45 countries in
Asia where data is available, Internet users constitute less than 5 per cent of the population. In South Korea and
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Singapore, more than 50 per cent of the populations use the Internet, whereas in countries like Myanmar and
Tajikistan, only 0.5 per cent of the populations are Internet users.
It is also important to remember that Internet users, even within any country, are geographically extremely
concentrated, and rural populations are mostly excluded.
Income disparities are another key determinant of differential access. 70 per cent of Internet users belong to the
top 16 per cent income bracket; and the bottom 40 per cent by income constitute only 5 per cent of all Internet
users.
Apart from location and income, language is another determinant of the digital divide. The predominance of
English on the Internet is a barrier for most users globally. Speakers of non-European and indigenous languages –
including a large proportion of women – tend to be left out of the information loop. Even among the educated,
proficiency in the dominant European language of a region may not be such that the user feels comfortable in
using the Internet for training or involvement in List Serves (Huyer and Mitter 2003).
The information society divide is especially acute for women. This is discussed in detail later in this chapter.
2.1.2 Inequalities in Ownership and Control
The ownership of global ICT systems is alarmingly skewed. Globally, media ownership reflects multinational
ownership patterns and mega-mergers. The monopoly of Microsoft illustrates the tremendous challenges for
democratising software architecture and ownership. The few large corporate players – software and hardware
corporations, telephone companies, satellite networks and Internet Service Providers − are driven purely by profit
motives.
The Internet has been seen as a potentially level playing field, a space in which all participants are equal.
However, the fact is that the Internet is built upon the corporate control of information content and infrastructure,
IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and domain name systems (necessary for a presence in the Internet), and
technical standards which include communication protocols, mail and document formats, sound and video
formats, without all of which there would be no Internet.
Also, the democratic substance of the Internet is increasingly threatened, and individual liberties are under attack.
Powerful corporate interests and some national governments are seeking to assert economic and political control
respectively over the Internet to promote their interests. Many multi-national ICT giants are interested in
garnering their monopoly to control “personal information” about their clients. The “war against terror”, it is
widely acknowledged, has served as an excuse for the deployment of new technology as weapons of control to
limit the right to privacy, and often to dissent. In countries like Vietnam and Tunisia, individuals have been
arrested and some sentenced to prison terms for using the Internet for criticising the government or sharing
information with overseas dissent groups. In mid-2001, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of
the Republic of Korea (South Korea) adopted an Internet content rating system classifying gay and lesbian
websites as “harmful media” and enforcing their blockage − all under the guise of protecting youth. [2]
The growth of the Internet has coincided with the rise of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime, within the
framework of neo-liberal globalisation. New ICTs have the potential to alter knowledge-sharing dramatically. This
means that the excluded can freely access information resources for empowerment. However, such potential
threatens vested interests, who have earlier benefited by controlling information, and stand to lose enormously
unless information is kept scarce. These interests have pushed for an intellectual property regime that is harsh
and unfair.
IPR is the key issue in the ICT sector today. Software monopolies such as Microsoft make huge profits by selling
copies of software, thus incurring zero incremental cost of production. What is sold is only the license to use the
software and not the software itself. This means buyers cannot make changes to the software as they may
require. Advocates of free and open-source software counter this by promoting the sharing of software
applications that can be modified by users. The open-source movement aims to provide an alternative to the
existing intellectual property regime.
2.1.3 Work in the Information Economy
New ICTs are part of and influence the larger economic process of globalisation, which impacts men and women
across the globe. In the new economy, ICTs have enabled new forms of work organisation and a new global
division of labour.
For developing countries, the ICT industry offers employment opportunities as jobs are relocated, but the current
rules of the game in the information economy do not guarantee equitable growth. Global production and
distribution processes, supported by ICTs, actually mean that most activity continues to be controlled by
transnational companies (TNCs) based in the North. Specific activities do take place in the South, but only in
limited domains, and concentrated in particular geographic areas (Sassen 1997). Most developing countries
perceive the IT sector as an opportunity for rapid job creation. However, a majority of call centres and data entry
facilities – the segments where employment increase is maximum − are located in few countries of the world –
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India, Mexico, Philippines, Jamaica, and also increasingly in China. Even within these countries such facilities are
geographically heavily concentrated in few zones.
The projected development of this sector seems to be no different from the route followed by the long-established
garment and electronics sweatshops – poor wages, poor work conditions, the absence of unions, little to no skill or
technology transfer, deskilling of the workforce, absence of career growth, and feminisation of the low-end jobs.
Poor nations compete with each other to attract transnational corporations in a race to the bottom (Costanza-
Chock 2003, Bidwai 2003).
It is important to remember that redressing skewness in access is possible with affirmative action; however, the
issue of skewed ownership and control needs to be addressed by appropriate regulatory frameworks at
international and national levels. Needless to say, vested interests − powerful Northern economies and
corporations pushing Intellectual Property regimes disadvantageous to the South – pose huge challenges to
building equitable regulatory frameworks.
Women have entered the ICT arena, claiming jobs that technology is creating. However, as Hafkin and Taggart
(2001) argue, in order to retain and build upon the employment gains associated with globalisation and
information technology, women need to move into more technical or higher-level, better-paying jobs. For this,
they need access to the educational and training opportunities necessary to equip them for the rapidly changing
skill requirements. Policy should encourage girls and women to use ICTs early in education, and pursue higher
studies in ICTs as well as technical careers − as scientists, researchers, administrators and educators.
(…)
Women will also need to confront gender-based obstacles: the greater demands on them for the maintenance of
household and family and the discrimination that women in all societies face within work environments. In
addition to policies that ensure gender equality at the firm level, within the ICT sector, a strong role for state
regulation of job security, insurance, maternity leave, and healthy and safe working conditions is vital for gender
equality in the information economy.
Source:
BRIDGE (development – gender) ©
(…)
NOTE: The article is an excerpt from the BRIGDE PUBLICATION “Gender and ICTs – an Overview Report”. See the
full text at: http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_general.htm
BRIDGE can provide further gender and development material in English, through websites or by contacting them.
BRIDGE (development - gender)
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202
Email: bridge@ids.ac.uk
Website: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge /
[1] http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=695
[2] See http://lists.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v15/0212.html .
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Neoliberalism
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NEOLIBERALISM
The G8 Summit 2006 and global economic justice
By Kathambi Kinoti
The richest countries set the economic policies that govern the world. Can women look to
this year's pledges by the Group of Eight to facilitate economic justice?
The Worldwide Resistance of Women to Neoliberalism
By Joelle Palmieri
Neoliberal globalization is based on patriarchy and therefore on the widespread
oppression of women. Confronted by accelerating impoverishment and by more and more
sophisticated forms of exclusion, numbers of women are aware that the diversity of their
demands and their experience of economic pluralism form a counter-current to the
dominant economic theory - neoliberal and patricidal - and represent serious forms of
resistance.
World Bank and Women’s Rights in Development
AWID
In recent years, factors that are considered “social issues” (e.g. gender, the
environment) have become part of the dialogue around macroeconomics, aid and debt. A
tendency remains, however, for the World Bank to focus first on market-based criteria
and then to add on social policies. This “add on” approach can produce policies that
impose additional burdens on women while failing to address their needs. For the World
Bank to be truly accountable to women, it needs to open the dominant macroeconomic
model up to debate and seriously consider reforming it or replacing it with alternative
visions. Growth may be a necessary component in the elimination of poverty, but it is not
sufficient on its own and may be accompanied by rising inequalities.
Ten Principles for Challenging Neoliberal Globalisation
By AWID
Neoliberal globalization is one of the primary threats to women’s human rights and
equitable, sustainable development that we face today. Every day and in almost every
aspect of life, gender equality and women’s rights are affected by economic policy.
Choices and opportunities regarding education, health care, employment, and childcare,
for example, are all directly impacted by national economic agendas and international
financial forces. Women therefore have a lot to lose when economic policies do not take
gender discrimination and gender roles into account. At the same time, women’s rights
can be advanced through economic policies that put their concerns, needs, and
livelihoods at the centre of the analysis.
Shape up or ship out: Why Millennium Goal No. 3 can not be achieved until the
multilateral institutions stop imposing neo-liberal policy on the
rest of the world
By Rochelle Jones
AWID
Whilst undertaking research on macro-economic policy and the feminisation of poverty, I
was struck by how many miles have already been walked, how many articles and books
have already been written, how many task-forces have already been deployed, and how
the policies of the multilateral institutions remain unashamedly as opaque and
undemocratic as ever. The evidence and the research are astounding and date back to
decades before now. Countless reports and articles have succinctly and systematically
recorded and analysed the forces of neo-liberal globalisation and how they are destroying
the livelihoods of people all over the world.
Economic Globalisation and Paradoxes
By Mirjana Dokmanovic
Technological development, market integration, and free movement of goods, capital,

Neoliberalism
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and labour have resulted in enormous opportunities for human development and the
uprooting of many maladies of humankind such as poverty and hunger. Current trends in
the world, however, indicate that the benefits of economic globalisation are unevenly
distributed and that they stimulate discrimination and inequality. Thanks to neoliberal
politics based on gathering profit at any cost, paradoxes in the form of bigger gaps
between the rich and the poor are intensified.

World Bank and Women’s Rights in Development
World Bank and Women’s Rights in Development
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
The World Bank is a powerful institution steering the international development agenda and instigating policy
reforms that have important implications for the day-to-day lives of women and men in developing countries. This
primer describes the World Bank, its governance structure and its new gender mainstreaming strategy. It
concludes with some action suggestions for gender equality advocates.
What is the World Bank?
Originally established in 1944, the Bank is the world’s largest supplier of development capital and know-how,
having provided more than US $17 billion in loans to its client countries in 2001. It is headquartered in
Washington, D.C., U.S.A., and it has 100 country offices, in total employing approximately 10,000 staff. [1] At its
core, the World Bank is engaged in three activities: lending, development research and economic analysis,
and technical assistance. It provides funding from public sources for development programs in areas such as
health, education and environmental protection, focusing on national legal, political and economic structures. The
Bank promotes reforms designed to create long-term economic growth and stability, lending to governments and
using the profits generated from the loans to finance its operations. It has recently promised to allocate more of
its future financing to the poorest countries in grants (not loans) for social programs.
The IMF
The International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) is a partner of the World Bank, also established out of the 1944 Bretton
Woods conference. It focuses on short-term balance of payments crises. Its three main areas of activity are
surveillance of exchange rate policies, financial assistance to members with balance of payment problems, and
technical assistance with respect to policies, institutions and statistics. In a nutshell, the IMF formulates economic
policy based on the mantra “tighten your belt” and they have created (and enforce) a body of international
monetary law.
The World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organization strive for coherence in global economic policy and
complement each other in their policies and activities. While coherence can at times be a good thing, we must be
concerned about “cross-conditionality” as a triple threat to women. This can happen, for example, when structural
adjustment conditionalities are used to promote trade liberalization or through “capacity building loans” that
interlink the mandates and activities of the institutions.
The World Bank’s original mission was to assist in the reconstruction of war-ravaged territories and to help
establish a stable peacetime economy. The current poverty and development focus of the Bank is a substantial
reinterpretation of its original mandate.
Today, the stated mission of the World Bank is to “fight poverty for lasting results and to help people help
themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity, and forging
partnerships in the public and private sectors”. [2] The Bank has focused on women for the last two decades,
although it has had primarily an instrumental “women in development” agenda, as opposed to a gender equality
or women’s human rights agenda.
How is the World Bank Governed?
Officially, the Bank is “owned” by its 184 member countries. In practice, the Board of Governors and the Board of
Executive Directors govern the organization; they approve loans and debt relief, and determine Bank policies.
Votes are divided between the Executive Directors based on the number of shares held by each country (in other
words, according to wealth and power). The United States has about 15% of the voting power and 8
Western countries together hold over 50% of the total votes, actually representing many developing and
transition countries on the Board. [3]
Although most of the World Bank’s activities focus on the developing world, Northern countries lead the
institution. By custom the head of the World Bank is always an American. It is usually male finance ministers and
central bankers who represent their countries at the Bank. They tend to be closely tied to business and financial
communities and as a result the policies of the Bank are often closely aligned with the commercial and
financial interests advanced in industrial countries.
Obviously, such an enormous institution is not homogenous. While a neoliberal economic orthodoxy may
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World Bank and Women’s Rights in Development
dominate, many people inside the Bank have alternate visions and are working for change from within. The
women’s movement must work simultaneously to support the efforts of those on the inside and also to push for
changes from outside of the institution.
How Does the Bank Operate?
The primary activities of both the World Bank and the IMF are based around several key instruments. They are
inter-linked and represent a logical trajectory of the history and ideology of these institutions.
Poverty Reduction Strategies (“PRSs”): Likely due to significant external criticism of the lack of transparency
and national ownership of economic policy reforms, the World Bank and IMF decided in 1999 that participatory
poverty reduction strategies should provide the basis of their lending and debt relief. Each country must prepare
— with the participation of civil society and consultation with World Bank and IMF experts — a Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper (“PRSP”). The PRSP is a comprehensive, practical plan for action with respect to national poverty,
outlining the country’s overall development strategy and proposing policies in all areas. It is required to qualify for
the HIPC Initiative.
The Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (“HIPC”) Initiative:
Under this initiative which was introduced in 1996, countries can apply to have their debt reduced “to a
sustainable level” by their creditors if they are unable to make their debt payments and have a record of
implementing World Bank/IMF-supported reforms. The HIPC Initiative is not a generous debt forgiveness
program; it offers only limited debt reduction, conditional on the implementation of prescribed structural reforms.
Country Assistance Strategies (“CASs”):
The World Bank’s long-term relationship with a government is articulated in a Country Assistance Strategy. The
CAS elaborates the Bank’s business plan and details the level and types of assistance to be provided in a country.
According to the World Bank, the CAS is based on a country’s PRSP and prepared with the government in a
participatory way. It is not a negotiated document however; any difference between the country’s own
development agenda and the Bank’s strategy are highlighted but not necessarily significant in implementing Bank
projects.
What is Conditionality?
A defining feature of the World Bank (and the IMF) is its use of conditionality. This means that loans, credits and
project funding are given to countries with strict conditions attached. While all loans are expected to have some
conditions (such as a repayment schedule), “conditionality” refers to a set of more forceful economic and
political conditions that can turn the loan into a policy tool.
Standard conditions (especially those associated with structural adjustment-type programs) are aimed at
improving the efficiency of a country’s resources use in order to stimulate growth and stabilize the economy.
Formal conditionality and development assistance programs are negotiated between the Bank and the
government, however, the negotiations are very one-sided and conditions tend to be more-or-less standard from
one country to the next. The Bank’s recommendations (which inform the loan agreement and become
conditionality) include currency devaluation and other measures to promote trade liberalization, privatization of
strategic sectors (such as energy, health and water), a reduced role for government, lower social spending, new
user fees (e.g. for health, education and electricity), higher interest rates, and compression of wages.
Conditionality applies not only to economic and financial matters; by adopting a “good governance” agenda, the
Bank is able to undertake reforms in otherwise political areas such as freedom of the press, the design of court
systems and the recruitment of civil servants.
“… increasing gender equality is central to the idea of development as freedom,of expanding the choices and
control that people have over their lives.”
World Bank press release,
December 2001
Conditionality is problematic for several reasons. It is prescribed as a “one size fits all” model and does not
respond to the specific needs or goals of different societies. It represents a large loss of independence on the part
of governments. It is often based on political considerations and ideology. Most importantly, these mandated
reforms have often produced further suffering, inequality and poverty within a country.
Conditionality is often justified in terms of accountability — for a country to receive financing from a public
institution (backed by foreign taxpayers) it must demonstrate that it will use the money responsibly and repay the
debt in a timely manner. Corrupt governments are blamed for much of the debt of developing countries and
therefore the Bank demands increasing accountability from borrowers/ aid recipients. Where, however, is the
comparable accountability on the part of the Bank?
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The World Bank, Gender Equality and Women’s Rights
It has been repeatedly demonstrated that economic restructuring is not gender-neutral or genderless. Some Bankendorsed
structural adjustment policies have particularly negative impacts on women, for example:
a) Women’s unpaid labour increases with the removal of subsidies on social services. When subsidized daycare
is cut, for example, women provide free childcare for their families and neighbours. When medical services are
cut, women care for those who would otherwise have been hospitalized. Inherent in structural adjustment
programs and the dominant economic agenda is an assumption of the unlimited availability of women’s time and
unpaid labour; women are seen as a resource to be tapped to promote the efficiency of the market and a solution
to the shortfall in social services. [4]
b) Removing food subsidies (which results in increased food prices) is a common tactic for reducing public
expenditures. Devalued currencies also make imported food more expensive. Higher food costs tend to be borne
by the woman in the household — she has less to feed her children and may compensate by eating only once a
day herself or having protein only once a week. [5]
As a result of such findings, the Bank has paid increasing attention to women and gender in development
processes. In January 2002 the Bank attempted to consolidate its work in this area by releasing Integrating
Gender into the World Bank’s Work: A Strategy for Action. [6]
What is the Bank’s Strategy for Action Gender?
Integrating Gender into the World Bank’s Work: A Strategy for Action is now the Bank’s internal gender
mainstreaming policy. A key element of the strategy is the requirement of periodic multi-sectoral Country
Gender Assessments (“CGAs”) from each client country. They should analyze the gender dimensions of
development across sectors and identify gender-responsive actions for poverty reduction, economic growth and
human development. Priority policy and operational interventions that respond to the CGA should then be
implemented as part of the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy.
The Strategy for Action is a very positive development in that it formalizes and prioritizes many positive elements
of the Bank’s gender strategies of the last decade. There are several reasons, however, to be cautious in our
optimism regarding this report, including:
• only the CGA is mandatory; no gender-responsive actions are required (for this reason it is a “selective or
strategic mainstreaming approach”);
• no rights-based targets are included; the strategy continues to focus on women as instrumental to the
development process and focuses attention on gender issues in order to reduce poverty and induce economic
growth, not to secure the rights of women or gender equality;
• there is no requirement for civil society participation in the preparation of the CGA, in the identification of
priority gender responsive-actions, or in the evaluation and monitoring of the outcomes; there is no requirement
for information-sharing and transparency in either the implementation or the evaluation of this strategy;
mechanisms for evaluation and monitoring were not released with the strategy (they are “under
development”); and the status of the strategy is unclear (e.g. it is not an “operational policy” which is clearly
mandatory within the Bank’s operations). This ambiguity may impact on the attitudes of Bank staff and
governments towards the strategy and increases the possibility that it will remain a set of ‘promises on paper
only’ because no solid rights, responsibilities or incentives are tied to it.
The absence of women in economic policy formulation can only reinforce gender-blind policies. Given that all
macroeconomic policy is gendered and neoliberal policy has distinct impacts depending on gender, class, age,
education level and ethnicity, gender analysis within all policy and project design is imperative to guaranteeing
women’s rights and ensuring that
Accountable to Women?
women benefit from development.
Groups such as Women’s Eyes on the World Bank, Iniciativa Feminista Cartegena, Gender Action, the Gender and
Economic Reforms in Africa program, Development Alternatives With Women for a New Era, Women’s
Environment and Development Organization, and the Tanzania Gender Networking Program have been advocating
for women’s rights and gender equality in World Bank projects and have proposed mechanisms to hold the Bank
and other multilateral organizations accountable for many years. Their efforts have undoubtedly contributed to the
Bank’s increasing focus on gender issues and women’s rights both internally and in their policy prescriptions. [7]
As the following three issues reveal however, despite the progress that has been made, the World Bank continues
to falter in terms of accountability to women.
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Participation:
Participation is vital to a rights-based approach to development and is a key avenue for institutional
accountability. Effective participation should be based on transparency, collaboration, learning, equity and
flexibility. The World Bank requires some civil society participation in the PRSP process and invites public
comment on its policies and procedures. Civil Society groups can also influence the institution through
consultative groups including the External Gender Consultative Group, the Europe and Central Asia Region NGO
Working Group, and the Joint Facilitation Committee.
While the Bank requires civil society participation in processes such as PRSPs, there are no guidelines for either
the quality or form of this participation and PRSP writers and Bank staff do not necessarily use the outcomes of
the participatory process or implement changes in response to critical commentary. [8]
This model of “participation” begs the question: is mandated civil society interaction about benefiting from
the input of those who will be impacted by the chosen policies, priorities and targets, or is it a method
to sell an already decided upon package of policies? [9] Similarly, is mandated participation genuinely
representative, or are international organizations used as proxies for local stakeholders who are excluded from
participatory processes? Furthermore, there are numerous factors which inhibit the ability of women, the poor and
local non-governmental organizations to effectively participate in economic policy-making, including: time
pressures, inexperience, cultural exclusions, political risks, and limited analytical, advocacy and research
capabilities. Some groups also question the utility of participating in processes such as PRSP consultations,
perceiving that participating may lend legitimacy to an illegitimate agenda.
“Modern high-tech warfare is designed to remove physical contact: dropping bombs from 50,000 feet ensures that
one does not “feel” what one does. Modern economic management is similar: from one’s luxury hotel, one can
callously impose policies about which one would think twice if one knew the people whose lives one was
destroying.”
The Neoliberal Macroeconomic Model:
Joseph Stiglitz
(Former World Bank Chief Economist)
Globalization and Its Discontents (2002)
In recent years, factors that are considered “social issues” (e.g. gender, the environment) have become part of
the dialogue around macroeconomics, aid and debt. A tendency remains, however, for the World Bank to focus
first on market-based criteria and then to add on social policies. [10] This “add on” approach can produce policies
that impose additional burdens on women while failing to address their needs. For the World Bank to be truly
accountable to women, it needs to open the dominant macroeconomic
model up to debate and seriously consider reforming it or replacing it with alternative visions. Growth may be a
necessary component in the elimination of poverty, but it is not sufficient on its own and may be
accompanied by rising inequalities. [11] Alternative approaches make explicit that all macroeconomic policies
have social and gender content because they are enacted within a gendered set of distributive relations and
institutional structures. The soundness of economic policy should not be judged by financial criteria or economic
growth results but instead by whether it ultimately leads to social justice and gender equality. [12]
Formal Mechanisms of Accountability:
Human rights and gender strategies that lack mechanisms of accountability are of limited value. The Inspection
Panel offers one potential avenue for accountability. It is an independent body established by the World Bank with
the power to review Bank activities that have adverse impacts on the rights or interests of individuals because of
a failure on the part of the Bank to follow one of its own operational policies or procedures. [13] This type of panel
is encouraging but of limited value in terms of accountability to women since the Bank does not have
enforceable policies or procedures on gender equality and women’s rights.
Another avenue for women’s rights accountability could be developed through the internal human rights
discussions ongoing at the World Bank. While the Bank has previously argued that its mandate does not include
human rights and that it will not include women’s rights within its activities (although implicitly its loans, projects
and policy advice impact on the rights of women throughout the world everyday), it has now opened a door by
admitting that its mission is tied to the advancement of human rights and by proposing the development of a
human rights strategy. Of course, whether the potential of this strategy for advancing women’s rights in
development is achieved remains to be seen.
Developing other mechanisms to ensure accountability with respect to gender, based on principles of
transparency, responsiveness, flexibility, and democratic governance must be a priority for all international
institutions. Human rights and gender equality reviews of CASs, project lending and programming
would seem a logical starting point with respect to the Bank.
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How to Influence International Economic Institutions:
● bring together solid research and effective advocacy strategies;
● learn how the project/program cycle works from sympathetic insiders;
● analyze project documentation using a gender, class, race and ethnicity analysis;
● meet regularly with officials and employees — know the facts, provide alternatives, and use their language;
● share your analysis and recommendations with the media;
● keep up the pressure with more meetings and campaigns; and
● demand access to information about programs, policies and loans that are in the works.
Women Demanding Human Rights Accountability:
Given the power and impact of the World Bank’s activities, it is impossible to work for gender equality, women’s
rights and sustainable development without paying some attention to the policies and activities of the Bank.
Feminist strategies to create sustainable and equitable economies take numerous forms: some are advocating for
the abolition of the World Bank, others argue that its scope should be narrowed and its structures democratized,
and still others contend that the Bank can play an important role in reconstruction and development efforts. We
need to develop strategic short- and long-term strategies to influence the dominant economic agenda
and to shape international governance. Here are a few ideas that can be adapted to local experiences and
goals:
● From billion dollar health care reform programs to forestry projects and financial sector reforms, large loans
are being designed and implemented throughout the world without the input of the individuals they are
meant to benefit. These programs need to be monitored from a gender perspective. Those with
expertise in economics and gender analysis can provide the needed skills for the integration of gender
analysis into projects and into CAS and PRSP documents. Furthermore, gender advocates can contribute to
CGAs and work to ensure that the CGA recommendations are actually prioritized in the Bank’s lending and
project design.
● Advocacy around international financial institutions should not be confined to women of the South. Northern
governments are members of the World Bank and Northern citizens should demand accountability and
transparency of the institution through their government representatives. As members and “owners”,
Northern governments can influence the Bank’s agenda and hold it to account for human rights
violations and environmental degradation resulting from the projects it funds. Thus far, the West has driven
the globalization agenda — it’s time to use this power responsibly to demand human rights accountability
and gender justice.
● When women’s rights are negatively impacted by World Bank funded programs, victims can request that
the Inspection Panel investigate and hold the Bank to its own policies on indigenous peoples, involuntary
resettlement and other issues. Moreover, women's groups can keep pressure on the World Bank to
operationalize its promises to mainstream gender by adopting strong operational policies and
monitoring procedures for gender. Bank staff are required to follow operational policies and the Inspection
Panel can review their compliance.
Gender advocates can join the voices of environmental and social justice activists all over the world
demanding accountable and democratic governance. The women’s movement needs to ensure that gender
equality is at the center of this agenda.
AWID wishes to thank Elena Kochkina & Liliana Proskuryakova (Open Society Institute), Mariama Williams (DAWN
& International Gender and Trade Network) and Elaine Zuckerman (Gender Action) for their helpful suggestions on
this primer. All errors remain the responsibility of AWID.
Published in:
Women’s Rights and Economic Change
Facts and Issues
No. 5, October 2002
Association for Women’s Rights in Development ©
L’Association pour les droits de la femme et le développement
Asociación para los Derechos de la Mujer y el Desarrollo
96 Spadina Avenue, Suite 401
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA, M5V 2J6
T: (+1) 416-594-3773
F: (+1) 416-594-0330
E: awid@awid.org
http://www.awid.org/
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[1] “About Us” section of the World Bank website (www.worldbank.org).
[2] “About Us” section of the World Bank website (www.worldbank.org). The “World Bank Group” actually
comprises five institutions, operating under a common Board: The
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International
Development Agency (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multinational Investment Guarantee
Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). For the purposes
of this primer, we are focusing on the IBRD and IDA.
[3] See Annual Report 2001. [accessible through the “About Us” section of the World Bank
website: www.worldbank.org.]
[4] D. Tsikata and J. Kerr (eds.), Demanding Dignity: Women Confronting Economic Reforms in Africa (The North-
South Institute and Third World Network-Africa, 2000) page 7.
[5] Ibid., and C. Moser, “Adjustment from Below: Low-Income Women, Time and the Triple Role in Guayaquil,
Ecuador” in Afshar and Dennis (eds.), Women and Adjustment Policies in the Third World, (Macmillan, 1992).
[6] See http://www.worldbank.org/gender/overview/ssp/home.htm.
[7] See for example the World Bank Policy Research Report Engendering Development:
Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice (Oxford University Press, 2001).
[8] A study by Elaine Zuckerman indicates that even if women have been able to participate in the PRSP process,
the outputs of the participatory processes have seldom fed into the actual PRSP. See “Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers and Gender” (Background Paper for the Conference on Sustainable Poverty Reduction and PRSPs –
Challenges for Developing Countries and Development Cooperation, Berlin, May 13-16, 2002).
[9] See D. Elson and N. Çagatay, “The Social Content of Macroeconomic Policies” 28(7)
World Development (2000), page 1352.
[10] Ibid., page 1347.
[11] D. Tsikata and J. Kerr (eds.), Demanding Dignity: Women Confronting Economic Reforms in Africa (The North-
South Institute and Third World Network-Africa, 2000) page 7.
[12] United National Development Fund, “Budgets as if People Mattered: Democratizing
Macroeconomic Policies” (Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division, Bureau
for Development Policy), page 10.
[13] See http://www.inspectionpanel.org.
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Ten Principles for Challenging Neoliberal Globalization
”Facts and Issues”
By Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
Neoliberal globalization is one of the primary threats to women’s human rights and equitable, sustainable
development that we face today. These ten principles are starting premises for opposing this narrow economic
agenda and devising alternatives.
Every day and in almost every aspect of life, gender equality and women’s rights are affected by economic policy.
Choices and opportunities regarding education, health care, employment, and childcare, for example, are all
directly impacted by national economic agendas and international financial forces. Women therefore have a lot to
lose when economic policies do not take gender discrimination and gender roles into account. At the same time,
women’s rights can be advanced through economic policies that put their concerns, needs, and livelihoods at the
centre of the analysis. Neoliberal globalization, which is the dominant driving force for economic policies
throughout the world today, is therefore a crucial focus of gender equality advocates.
What is Neoliberalism?
Neoliberalism is a particular brand of economic theory that has gained prominence in recent decades, becoming
the predominant ideology steering globalization, macroeconomic policy and political decision-making in much of
the world. Primarily a response to the economic downturn and international debt crises of the 1970s,
neoliberalism is based on an unwavering belief in “free markets”. It promotes competitive market
capitalism, private ownership, “free trade”, export-led growth, strict controls on balance of payments and deficits,
and drastic reductions in government social spending. This formula is assumed to promote economic growth;
which is seen as the means and end to economic problems and poverty. Until recent decades, national
governments were responsible for economic policies which affected their domestic economies. Yet since the
1970s, political, social and economic processes have stretched across borders and the neoliberal
project has spread throughout the world.
In the 1980s, international financial institutions (IFIs) began to impose their economic prescriptions on countries
that accepted loans or aid from them through “conditionality”, a central feature of structural adjustment policies.
[1] While the programs of IFIs have evolved over the years, the neoliberal agenda remains the standard for what
is considered “sound and prudent” economic policy. National Poverty Reduction Strategies of the World Bank
continue to be framed around these types of policies. [2] In addition, international investors, donors, and trade
organizations (e.g. the World Trade Organization) have increased powers of persuasion with respect to economic
policies. Their overwhelming preference for policies of trade liberalization and investor rights has further solidified
this vision of development and governance.
Neoliberal economic globalization has not brought about equality or eliminated poverty; it has instead resulted in
a concentration of wealth in certain parts of the world and in the hands of certain people. In most areas,
marginalized members of society — especially poor women — have not benefited from neoliberal
economic restructuring. For example, in many regions women are disproportionately suffering from disruptions
to their local economies, from the continuing undervaluing of their work, and from the insecurity brought about by
the increasing prevalence of casual and flexible jobs. Women are often the primary users of social services, they
are frequently employed in the public sector and in service industries, and they lack access to capital, credit and
property rights. All of these factors exacerbate the promotion of gender equality in this era of globalization.
The System Needs to Change in at least Ten Different Ways
Accounts in the media, by politicians, and in much of the literature imply that neoliberal globalization is
irresistible, uncontrollable and inevitable. This is not true. We can influence processes of globalization and
shape the policies and structures that govern our lives. The global popularity of the World Social Forum
process is a key indicator that alternatives can be harnessed towards making ‘another world possible’.
As gender equality advocates, we can look for biases in economic policies that undermine gender equality and
work to address the economic inequalities that face women and other marginalized groups. Strategies and policies
can not necessarily be generalized from one context to another. We can, however, articulate feminist
principles to guide our analysis, our advocacy and our policy recommendations. Feminist principles
(feminist in that they underscore equality for women through structural change) can be applied in various
contexts, in accordance with the local needs, priorities and circumstances.
“It seems utopian, but the world must recover its capacity for dreaming and in order to start, a new economic
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1. Policy-Making Processes must be Participatory and Transparent
paradigm is required… [3] ”
Cecilia Lopez
While national policymakers will often take credit for creating policies to boost the economy and many boast about
taking stakeholders needs into account, it is always necessary to look behind the scenes to find out who is really
calling the shots. In poor countries, especially those that rely heavily on development assistance and loans from
foreign sources, policies are often primarily developed based on growth models and economic theories advanced
by the IFIs and certain Northern universities. As a result, states that hold disproportionate power within the IFIs
(most notably the United States) and Northern trained policymakers in ministries of finance play a central role in
dictating the economic policies of developing nations, often with little direct knowledge of the realities and
priorities of poor people within those countries. Furthermore, economic policies developed for one country are
frequently applied to other countries with only slight modifications. Meaningful participation requires more
than mere consultation. The country consultations that have been undertaken in conjunction with the Poverty
Reduction Strategy process have been gender-blind, male dominated, and ineffective in terms of responding to
local needs and perspectives. [4] Moreover, consultation processes have been used as instruments to legitimize
economic policies imposed by donors.
Economic policy is seldom based solely on technical calculations – the calculations and economic models should
inform deliberative democratic processes where the policies are actually formulated. The voices of local people,
particularly women’s rights advocates, therefore must be given real weight in all stages of policy development,
implementation and evaluation.
2. Recognize Diverse Experiences and Identities to Determine who Wins and who Loses
Neoliberal globalization has been uneven, contradictory and complex. Some women have benefited from new
opportunities brought about by processes of globalization, while many others are struggling to survive in the face
of insecure employment, rising prices, reduced services and escalating poverty. Often it is those from
marginalized groups, such as racial or ethnic minorities, indigenous people or poor women and men, who are
negatively impacted by neoliberal economic policies. Gender, race and class analysis is therefore essential
to both understanding the impacts of neoliberal policies and for developing alternative policies that
put sustainable development and human rights ahead of profits. For example, prioritizing the needs of the
most disadvantaged and discriminated against is one way to ensure that policies are just, empowering and
transformative.
“Multiple and radical resistances to neoliberalism are spawning alternatives in many places but, alas, these are
being frustrated by institutionalized market fundamentalism. The challenge is to interlink there resistances into a
truly global movement by all of humanity and multiply spaces where people’s alternatives that are grounded on
democracy, diversity and inclusiveness could be debated, crafted and actualized with greater force.” [5]
3. Transformative Economic Policies Must Address Power Dynamics
- Josefa (Gigi) Francisko
Neoliberal policies, in common with most economic theories, often do not address the power differentials that
exist between “economic agents” (i.e. individuals) and within households. Policies that assume that men and
women have the same access to and control of resources, the same ability to engage in paid employment and
equivalent responsibilities in the home, will generally negatively impact women. Women may be unable to take
advantage of new opportunities created by economic reforms; they may have increased burdens as a direct
results of the new policies. Moreover, while poverty is interrogated and problematized, wealth tends to be
unquestioned and herefore the inequalities which permit the accumulation of excessive wealth by certain
individuals and institutions are not addressed.
Gender equality advocates need to push for alternative economic prescriptions that address the root
causes of power differentials in specific communities, whether they are cultural, economic, religious,
social or otherwise. Examples could range from programs of land redistribution, alternative savings and
investment mechanisms, nonmonetized exchange arrangements, and subsidized childcare, to global taxation and
redistribution schemes (e.g. a “Tobin Tax”), debt cancellation, and reparations for past injustices. Assumptions
about the roles and responsibilities of women, class and ethnic divisions, inequalities in the law, and skewed
distribution of resources ultimately can only be rectified through holistic economic, social and political strategies.
4. Account for Women’s Unpaid Work
One of the biggest problems with many economic policies is their failure to account for women’s unpaid work. For
many women, unpaid work, (including attending to children, cooking and small-scale farming) accounts for a large
portion of their contribution to the economy. Together, unpaid housework, volunteering and community work is
the single largest sector of all nations’ economies. [6] If women did not contribute their unpaid labour, the
monetized economy could not function. The strength and well-being of the paid labour force is directly correlated
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to unpaid care work, the bulk of which is carried out by women. Furthermore, economic policies that do not
account for this unpaid labour are likely to have a detrimental impact on women by assuming that their ability to
contribute unpaid labour is unlimited. Too much unpaid work and too little care are both detrimental to
quality of life. [7] Therefore, when economic policies take unpaid work into account, communities can have
better programs for food security, childcare, education, water and sanitation, and all the other essential elements
that guarantee the well-being of households.
5. Make the Links: Local,National, Regional and Global
Trade liberalization, privatization of essential services, foreign investment promotion, and labour market
flexibilization are all part of the same agenda. Activities in national ministries of finance, regional trading bodies
and international financial institutions are all interconnected. While policy coherence is not well-developed
between human rights institutions and financial institutions (in other words, economic policies are not
necessarily in line with human rights law), coherence between financial institutions is well
coordinated.
In order to challenge the neoliberal agenda therefore, gender equality advocates must be sophisticated in making
the analytical links between local, regional and global levels of economic policy making and their impacts. For
instance, changing the conditions of Mexican women factory workers could simultaneously involve: workers
organizing at the factory level to demand better working conditions; legislative changes and enforcement at the
national level to require higher levels of protections for workers; using international mechanisms such as those of
the International Labour Organization to guarantee the rights of workers; and advocacy at the international level
to influence the provisions of trade and investment agreements that impact on working conditions. In terms of
advocacy and activism therefore, we need to make the links in order to select the most strategic venues for
raising our concerns.
6. Protect Human Rights and Prioritize Equality
Traditional economic theories are built around the model of a ‘male breadwinner’, that is, a full-time, life-long
worker who supports his family. Those who do not fit into this norm are accorded lesser rights because they are
seen as dependents. A focus on human rights, therefore, is important for women as it provides a counterweight to
policies focused purely on economic growth and models which continue to assume that women occupy a position
of dependency on men. [8] Pro-women, pro-poor alternatives to neoliberal globalization would
acknowledge the equal worth and dignity of each person in their own right, advancing equality and
human rights as a means of development.
In the current system, many women are employed in informal and unregulated sectors, free trade zones, or do
home-based work. Women are the majority of the small-scale farmers on the planet and also the majority of
those employed in factories producing for export. Many are not protected by labour laws, are not unionized, and
are isolated from their families, communities, and other women who share their experiences. Moreover, the
evidence shows that women’s rights to food, to housing, to health care, and to political participation (to name just
a few), continue to be violated the world over, the violations often resulting directly from or exacerbated by trade
liberalization and investment policies.
Instead of only analyzing impacts and developing social safety-nets after the fact, we need to institutionalize
regulations and structures that will provide for the welfare and empowerment of women. Economic
planning must therefore include economic and social policies that support the equitable distribution of resources,
universal provisioning of essential services and the protection of human rights.
7. Do Not Underestimate the Role of the Nation State
Many neoliberal policies involve limiting state involvement in the economy, often through privatization of
previously state-run enterprises including the provision of water, electricity, health care and education. A defining
characteristic of the contemporary state is the subordination of social policy to the demands of labour market
flexibility and competitiveness. Many contend that governments have lost their power in the face of IFIs and
transnational corporations, but despite the shifts and structural changes that have taken place the state continues
to play many important roles. As the manager of the domestic economy, the protector of marginalized groups and
the voice of the nation in international institutions, national governments continue to be powerful actors in their
own right.
Governments have international obligations (including women’s human rights commitments) and responsibilities
for redistributing income and developing action plans for eradicating poverty. They should not be allowed to ‘get
off the hook’ by blaming all their woes on international actors. National governments are therefore important
entry points for gender equality advocates, between local constituencies and international
institutions.
“Promoting gender-sensitive economic policies is not only about establishing safety nets. It is primarily about
ensuring that there will be no need for safety nets. In this regard, a feminist approach would posit that sound and
equitable policies require men and women to have equal access to, and control over, productive resources, equal
participation in decision making, and equal distribution of the benefits of their work.” [9]
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8. Align Goals and Indicators with Gender Equality and Women’s Rights
- Zo Randriamaro
Economic policies often aim at maximizing economic efficiency and growth, as measured by and indicator such as
Gross Domestic Product. [10] Increased economic efficiency and growth are abstract concepts that say
nothing about increasing human welfare, protecting human rights, or ensuring gender equality and
empowerment. We therefore need to question the conventional wisdom of what constitutes “sound and prudent”
economic policies. Shortsighted and narrow definitions of efficiency Do not give an accurate account, including
how resources are distributed and the full costs of production.
By articulating the goals of a policy and the indicators of success in terms of increasing equality, improving the
lives of the most marginalized, realizing human rights, and achieving sustainable human development, policies
that are pro-women and pro-poor will more likely be implemented. Indicators of progress must be tangible,
concrete and meaningful. The end goal cannot be solely that more women are engaged in paid work. We must
instead look to the types of jobs they have secured, the benefits they receive, their working conditions and their
paid work.
9. Hold Decision-Makers To Account
Economic policies have often failed large segments of the population, including and especially women. By holding
decision-makers to account for these failures, redress can be obtained for the ‘victims’ and better programs can
be developed for the future. Actors that may be held accountable include governments, IFIs, private corporations
and others. Accountability may be based on commitments to international human rights treaties,
domestic constitutional guarantees or other regulatory frameworks, and also political processes.
Developing and using accountability mechanisms that are accessible, transparent and effective are key strategies
for guaranteeing women’s rights in this era of neoliberal globalization.
10. There are Alternatives to Neoliberal Globalization
Finally, it is important to remember that despite messages to the contrary, there are alternatives to the
current dominant paradigm. Macroeconomic policy is not given or non-negotiable. Countries that do not follow
the IMF-prescribed policy agenda do not necessarily have to suffer from poverty, insecurity and hyperinflation;
there is no “one-size fits all” policy. We have feminist analyses of the economy – what we need now is to
further strengthen advocacy efforts based on our analysis in order to bring about a more equitable,
just world.
These principles have been articulated in order to provide direction to gender equality advocates all over the world
who want to oppose neoliberal globalization. As a check-list for evaluating local policies, a training framework for
understanding globalization, a rallying point for campaigning and lobbying, or an empowering and unifying agenda
for diverse social justice groups, these principles can assist us in developing global solutions to global problems
because, as the poignant motto of the World Social Forum reminds us, “Another World is Possible”.
Economic Terms Demystified
Economic Growth: an increase in the amount of money flowing through a country’s economy. Promoting
economic growth is the goal of much economic policy because it is often incorrectly assumed that economic
growth is good for everyone.
Efficiency: the allocation of goods and services such that no person can be made better off without making
someone else worse off (or such that those who are made worse off can be compensated by those who are made
better off). Efficiency is usually a goal of economic policies. An efficient allocation, however, does not necessarily
require an equal or fair distribution of goods or services.
Fiscal Policy: policy relating to government revenue, particularly taxation and spending.
Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC): countries that have accumulated a large amount of debt during the
1980s and as a result qualify for the HIPC debt reduction initiative of the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund.
Macroeconomics: refers to economic issues that concern the performance of the economy of a whole country,
including the overall output and income of a country, unemployment, trade, interest rates, investment, and
government budgets (as opposed to microeconomics which looks at the economic activity of individuals or small
groups).
Monetary Policy: the government policy that controls the amount of currency available in an economy.
Neoliberalism: an economic theory which opposes state intervention in the economy and believes in the free
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operation of the market.
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs): comprehensive action plans for combating national poverty.
These are required by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in order for a country to access
development loans and aid.
Privatization: occurs when services that were owned by the government are sold to private companies. When
privatized, services such as health care, education and social services are provided by companies who aim to
make a profit. A belief in the inherent superiority of profit-oriented production has lead to a drastic increase in
privatization in recent years.
Structural Adjustment: processes of reform imposed mostly on poor countries requiring that they export more
products, privatize services, increase taxation, devalue their currency, and reduce the government’s role in the
economy in order to stabilize their economies. In the 1980s, structural adjustment policies (SAPs) were imposed
by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in over seventy developing countries.
Trade Liberalization: the reduction of restrictions (including tariffs, quotas and regulatory standards) on the
trade of goods and services across borders.
Myth: Economics is pure science.
Myths and Realities about Economic Policy
Reality: Economics is often represented as technical and scientific, based on ‘truths’ from mathematics or
statistics. However, economic policy is profoundly political and represents a certain set of subjective assumptions
about power and the distribution of resources.
Myth: Economics is gender-neutral.
Reality: Traditional economic analysis can have devastating impacts on women because it does not take into
consideration the gendered nature of our societies and the resulting gender differentiated impacts of economic
policies. Women’s assumed status as secondary wage earners in the paid labour force results in women
experiencing more poverty than men, for example. The privatization of public services increases women’s unpaid
work as they take over where the public sector leaves off in terms of nursing the sick, educating children and
caring for the elderly and those in need of assistance. And as companies cut costs by laying off employees,
reducing salaries and using home-based workers, women are the most affected. Furthermore, the impacts of
economic crises are more severe for women. Applying a gender analysis to economics reveals biases that exclude
women and allows for the redress of economic inequalities that face women.
Myth: Gender equality advocates do not have the expertise to engage with macroeconomic policy.
Reality: Gender equality advocates come from all walks of life and are all affected by economic policies in their
day-today lives. They are therefore capable of critiquing economic policies and of suggesting policy directions that
would empower women.
Who is Working Towards Economic Gender Justice?
Many NGOs, civil society organizations, grassroots movements, academic institutions, and individuals all over the
world are challenging the neoliberal globalization model from a gender perspective. Some organizations you
might want to contact or become involved with include:
African Women’s Economic Policy Network (AWEPON):
http://www.awepon.org PO Box 33576, Kampala, Uganda
Articulación Feminista Marcosur:
http://www.mujeresdelsur.org.uySalto 1265, Montevideo 11200, Uruguay
Development Alternatives with Women in a New Era (DAWN)
http://www.dawn.org.fj Secretariat, PO Box 13124, Suva, Fiji
Gender and Economic Reforms in Africa (GERA)
http://twnafrica.org/aboutgera.asp Secretariat, TWN-Africa,9 Ollenu Street, East Legon, PO Box AN19452, Accra-
North, Ghana
Iniciativa Feminista de Cartagena:
http://www.repem.org.uy/iniciativafc.htm Colonia 2069, CP 11200, Montevideo, Uruguay
International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN):
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http://www.igtn.org Secretariat, 1225 Otis Street, NE, Washington, DC 20017, USA
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ESCR-Net):
http://www.escr-net.org162 Montague Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA
KARAT Coalition:
http://www.karat.orgul. Karmelicka 16 m. 13, 00-163 Warsaw, Poland
Maquila Solidarity Network:
http://www.maquilasolidarity.org606 Shaw Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6G 3L6
Network Women in Development Europe (WIDE):
http://www.eurosur.org/wide Rue de la Science 10,1000 Brussels, Belgium
Third World Network (TWN)-Africa:
http://www.twnafrica.org9 Ollenu Street, East Legon, P.O. Box AN19452, Accra-North , Ghana
Women’s Edge Coalition: http://www.womensedge.org1825 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C.
20009, USA
Women’s Environment and Development Organization(WEDO):
http://www.wedo.org 355 Lexington Avenue, 3rd FloorNew York, NY 10017-6603, USA
Women’s International Coalition for Economic Justice (WICEJ):
http://www.wicej.org 12 Dongan Place #206, New York, NY 10040, USA
AWID, Women’s Rights and Economic Change ©
Facts and Issues, No. 6, December 2003
Written by: Renu Mandhane and Alison Symington
Copyedited by: Jane Connolly
Produced by: Shareen Gokal
Design: Dana Baitz
Editing in MS Word for Windows for the purpose of publishing in the Journal “Globalizacija.com”: Women’s Centre
for Democracy and Human Rights, Serbia
See original paper at:
http://www.awid.org/publications/primers/factsissues6.pdf
The Association for Women’s Rights in Development is an international membership organization connecting,
informing and mobilizing people and organizations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable
development and women’s human rights. A dynamic network of women and men, AWID members are
researchers, academics, students, educators, activists, business people, policy-makers, development
practitioners, funders and others, half of whom are located in the global South and Eastern Europe.
AWID’s goal is to cause policy, institutional and individual change that will improve the lives of women and girls
everywhere. Since 1982, AWID has been doing this by facilitating on-going debates on fundamental and
provocative issues as well as by building the individual and organizational capacities of those working for women’s
empowerment.
215 Spadina Ave., Suite 150,
Toronto, ON, Canada, M5T 2C7
T: +1 (416) 594-3773
F: +1 (416) 594-0330
E-mail: awid@awid.org
Web: http://www.awid.org
[1] See AWID Facts & Issues No. 5, “The World Bank and Women’s Rights in Development”, for a more detailed
discussion of conditionality.
[2] See ibid.
[3] Cecilia Lopez, (former Minister of the Environment in Columbia and member of Iniciativa Feminista Cartagena),
Plenary Speech, AWID’s 9th International Forum on Women’s Rights in Development: Reinventing Globalization,
October 2002. http://es.awid.org/forum/plenaries/day1cecilialopezspanish.html.
[4] See Ann Whitehead, Failing Women, Sustaining Poverty: Gender in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Report
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for the UK Gender and Development Network, May 2003. See also Elaine Zuckerman and Ashley Garrett, “Do
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) Address Gender? A Gender Audit of 2002 PRSPs” (Gender Action,
2003).
[5] Josefa (Gigi) Francisco is the South-East Asian Regional Coordinator of DAWN and the Executive Director of the
Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College Foundation in Quezon City, Philippines.
[6] With the possible exception of the United States.
[7] See Elson, D., and N. Catagay, “The Social Content of Macroeconomic Policy” World Development, 28:7 (2000)
[8] Diane Elson (Professor, University of Essex), at the Conference “Women’s Access to the Economy in the
Current Period of Economic Integration of the Americas: What Economy?”, Montreal, 23-26 April 2003.
[9] “African Women Challenging Neo-liberal Economic Orthodoxy: The Conception and Mission of the GERA
Programme”, Gender and Development, 11.1 (2003): 47.
[10] Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures all of the market transactions that take place in a country.
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Shape up or ship out: Why Millennium Goal No. 3 can not be achieved
until the multilateral institutions stop imposing neo-liberal policy on the
rest of the world
By Rochelle Jones
AWID
Whilst undertaking research on macro-economic policy and the feminisation of poverty, I was struck by how many
miles have already been walked, how many articles and books have already been written, how many task-forces
have already been deployed, and how the policies of the multilateral institutions remain unashamedly as opaque
and undemocratic as ever. The evidence and the research are astounding and date back to decades before now.
Countless reports and articles have succinctly and systematically recorded and analysed the forces of neo-liberal
globalisation and how they are destroying the livelihoods of people all over the world. I don’t know how many
passionate, compelling, tragic and simply shocking stories I have read over the past years that have spelled out in
sophisticated detail that the system of economic globalisation imposed upon countries of the South has to be
redesigned. We have visibly been working hard to have our voices heard. It is the United States government and
the multilateral institutions of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation
(WTO) and Asia Development Bank – not to mention Export Credit Agencies of national governments and the
profit-greedy multinationals – that have to now take action.
Gender equality and freedom from the feminisation of poverty is enshrined in many international instruments,
such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW – 1979), and the Beijing Declaration and Platforms that will undergo its
ten year review at the end of this month. The recent UN Millennium Development Project (UNMDP) report also
outlines some important strategic priorities in achieving Millennium Goal number three – Gender equality and
empowerment of women. With such outstanding frameworks to work with, coupled with extensive research that
shows clearly how people and especially women are suffering under the current neo-liberal system, why do
women still constitute the majority of the poor? Why are women still not granted their full rights as human
beings?
Blind policy has been negotiated for too long behind thick walls that obscure women’s diverse realities. Freedom,
liberty and human rights are all energetically advocated by those in powerful positions within the neo-liberal order
(usually men), however, if they placed their ears close to the ground, they would hear the voices of the
marginalised, muffled by their own dancing feet. I am not saying that women do not have any agency under these
powerful institutions. On the contrary, women have made and continue to make important gains in terms of rights
and equality. What I am saying is that if these milestones are to continue, the monopoly on power and knowledge
that is held by the multilateral institutions and others has to stop. It is simply not fair.
So what do we do as women and sisters who have passionately fought for a right to be heard, but constantly find
ourselves in a position where the most powerful institutions in the world, supported by the most powerful state in
the world, hear our voices, but fail to listen? We keep telling the truth until they do listen.
Why Millennium Goal Number 3 will not be achieved unless the multilateral institutions shape up:
Neo-liberal policy and the multilateral institutions that impose it play a key role in undermining sovereignty and
perpetuating the feminisation of poverty. Institutions such as the World Bank, WTO and the IMF have eroded the
ability of national governments to make decisions regarding economic and social policy, through the
implementation of ‘globalisation from above’. Decision-making processes within the IMF and the World Bank are
based on a system of investment. The more a country ‘contributes’ to the organisation, the more voting power
they have. This undemocratic system of decision-making has resulted in countries of the North imposing neoliberal
policies on countries of the South. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) solidifies neo-liberal policy
convergence in the international political system by creating the rules governing international trade. Agreements
are drafted by “The Quad” governments of the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan, and these draft
agreements are then discussed by a group of representatives from 20-30 countries, with the smaller one hundred
or so developing countries typically excluded. Policies are imposed upon countries as conditions to lending,
whereby the neo-liberal mantra of trade liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation becomes the orthodoxy,
undermining democratic processes and participation within the state, and resulting in cleavages between civil
society and the government. The recent collapse of trade talks at Cancun in 2003, exemplifies how not much has
changed in macro-economic policy since Seattle in 1999.
Women, who already constitute the majority of the poor, feel the negative consequences of neo-liberal policy on a
greater scale than men do. Millennium Development Goal 3 is to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of
women. The latest UN Millennium Project (UNMP) task-force report on gender [1] identifies seven strategic
priorities as the “minimum necessary to empower women and alter the historical legacy of female disadvantage
that remains in most societies of the world”:
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1.Strengthen opportunities for post-primary education for girls.
2.Guarantee sexual and reproductive rights.
3.Invest in infrastructure to reduce women’s and girls’ time burdens.
4.Guarantee women’s and girls’ property and inheritance rights.
5.Eliminate gender inequality in employment by decreasing women’s reliance on informal employment, closing
gender gaps in earnings, and reducing occupational segregation.
6.Increase women’s share of seats in national parliaments and local government bodies.
7.Combat violence against girls and women.
These seven priorities are intimately linked to macro-economic policy and in particular multilateral trade rules, in
that “globalisation, trade liberalisation and the emerging coherence between international financial and trade
institutions greatly impinge on the policy space at the national level [and yet] there is no policy interaction at the
institutional level with regard to gender mainstreaming” [2]. Achieving these strategic priorities will require an
increased focus from national governments and a significant diversion of funding from other areas, but according
to UNCTAD [3], multilateral trade rules: “can limit the capacity of governments to apply policies in support of
gender inequality”; contribute to “maintaining large wage differentials between male workers (mostly skilled) and
female workers (mostly unskilled) despite increases in exports”; and contribute to widespread job losses for
women via the removal of domestic support to small-scale farmers in countries of the South. Whilst these
strategic priorities identify important areas of concern in regards to alleviating the feminisation of poverty, they do
not specifically refer to the structural issues of inequality that are embedded within the practices and policies of
the most powerful institutions in the world governing trade and development policy. These institutions “have
added gender mainstreaming to their rhetoric, but have not changed their practices or their policies” [4].
Mariama Williams from the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN) argues that within macro-economic
policy, gender is relegated to “soft” areas that “must work to complement and offset the necessary adjustment
costs of macro planning decisions and outcomes”. This means that “hard” areas such as agricultural liberalisation
and tariff reductions are deemed gender neutral, whereas food distribution between men and women are analysed
from a gender perspective [5]. This is a significant problem whereby decisions on neo-liberal policy are not only
made through an undemocratic decision-making process that favours the rich countries over the poor, but they
are made without any real consideration of gender. This simply reifies existing structural inequalities and results in
a perpetuation of the feminisation of poverty. Taking a closer look at two of the priorities identified in the taskforce
report reveals how neo-liberal policy convergence ignores gender concerns and exacerbates the difficulties
faced by women. Strategic priority 4 is to guarantee women’s and girls property and inheritance rights. Land
ownership is deemed important to empowering women both economically and socially, and means that women
have access to direct benefits such as the use of crops and rights to their proceeds. There is also evidence to
suggest that asset ownership can also protect against domestic violence [6]. The report asserts that there are few
statistics on the magnitude of gender asset gaps, but that some reports conducted indicate that women hold a
substantially lower amount of land ownership than men in countries throughout Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa
and South and Central Asia.
The right to ‘land ownership’ is an interesting way to discuss women’s relationship with the earth. It is estimated
that women grow at least 59 percent of the world’s food, with women in Africa producing more than 70 percent of
Africa’s food [7]. Clearly, women are key stakeholders in any trade agreements on agricultural products, yet their
needs and interests are not taken seriously by the institutions that push for lower trade barriers, greater access
for multi-national corporations and cash crop exports. The same could be said for intellectual property
agreements. For thousands of years women have been looking after the nutritional needs of their families through
subsistence agriculture, as well as the use of natural medicines, and now this indigenous knowledge is being
increasingly “discovered” and patented by MNCs. Eco-feminist Vandana Shiva explains: “patents and intellectual
property rights are supposed to be granted for novel inventions. But patents are being claimed for rice varieties
such as the basmati for which the Doon Valley (where I was born) is famous, or pesticides derived from the neem
tree which our mothers and grandmothers have been using for centuries. Rice Tec, a US-based company, has
been granted Patent no. 5,663,484 for basmati rice lines and grains… The knowledge of the poor is being
converted into the property of global corporations, creating a situation where the poor will have to pay for the
seeds and medicines that they have cultivated, developed and used to meet their needs for nutrition and health
care” [8].
Under the current neo-liberal agenda, women who produce food for their families are classified as unproductive,
with only cash crops counting for productivity within the economy. Simplistic poverty reduction strategies such as
export-oriented growth ignore the productive capacity of women in subsistence and community farming, and often
destroy women’s productivity and self-worth when they are forced to change to cash crops for export, and are
unable to provide food from subsistence agriculture for their families. Small autonomous producers are rendered
invisible to the global economy when governments are forced to compete with giant agribusiness companies, and
shift agricultural production to industrial monocultures [9].
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Coupled with increases in production for exports, neo-liberal policy advocates for a reduction of welfare services,
higher charges for basic services and lower wages [10]. In addition to these barriers, there are rising production
costs and decreasing commodity prices as a result of cheaper goods flooding the market. The right to land
ownership, then, is rendered useless when women and their families are faced with rising costs they are simply
unable to meet. Increasingly poor, many families are selling their land to investors, who either use the land for
industry, or create large cash crops for export. The right to land ownership also disregards the reality of
communal land. In Africa, for example, wherecommunal land tenure is still common, privatisation of this land for
cash crops has been a major objective of the World Bank [11], with absolutely no consideration of the historical
use of the land by women for subsistence farming.
Many women are forced to find extra employment to meet rising costs, and because they are generally paid less
than men, women usually find it easier to gain employment [12]. This channels them into the informal workforce,
where they work as street vendors, domestic workers and in the service industry – perpetuating the gendered
division of labour.
Strategic priority 5 is to eliminate gender inequality in employment. According to the report, women’s status in
the labour market is inferior to men’s in most countries of the world [13]. Women in countries of the global South
continue to be found in low-skill, repetitive work in industries such as textiles and electronics and the informal
workforce because of the many barriers to training and education that women face as opposed to men [14]. Job
segregation in terms of gender is a major area of concern for the fight against the feminisation of poverty.
Neo-liberal policy such as the removal of trade barriers, privatisation and deregulation is meant to foster a climate
for foreign direct investment to jump-start stagnant economies and bring in foreign currency. MNCs are taking
advantage of these environments to set up manufacturing and production facilities in countries of the South where
there are large pools of cheap labour, flexible labour laws and tax incentives. This can have both positive and
negative effects for women. On the positive side, the influx of MNCs entering the labour-intensive sectors of the
South, such as textiles, footwear, data processing and service outsourcing has resulted in an increase in levels of
employment for women in some countries [15]. The UNMDP report asserts, however, that in the last twenty
years, “women’s overall economic activity rates increased… yet women’s status in the labour market remains
significantly inferior to that of men’s worldwide”. Responsibility for this lies within neo-liberal policy convergence,
which creates these ‘favourable’ environments for foreign investment, fails to take into account the different
experiences of men and women, and focuses only on economic growth factors as development indicators,
rendering gender implications invisible.
Export Processing Zones (EPZs) or Free Trade Zones, have increased dramatically as a result of neo-liberal policy,
and yet recent research shows that EPZs often fall short of their goals and their performance is erratic, despite the
incentives offered by host governments. Some of the biggest problems arising from the rise of EPZs include
environmental damage, poor safety and health standards, and labour rights abuses. The majority of employees in
EPZs are women, and despite arguments suggesting that EPZs exist as a route for women to enter the formal
employment sector where wages are often higher than in the informal sector, women face sexual harassment and
discrimination in hiring, wages and benefits.
There has been a wealth of research into the negative effects of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) on countries of
the South, with some of the most compelling examples coming from John Pilger [16], an Australian journalist who
has helped to expose some of the labour rights abuses and discrimination that women face when they are
employed by some MNCs. Of course not all MNCs are guilty of labour abuses, but the climate of free trade zones
or EPZs leaves it almost entirely up to the employer as to what regulations and standards they are going to
impose. Under these conditions, and with the bottom line of every MNC being profit, labour rights abuses and
lowered standards are inevitable.
Whilst visiting an EPZ in Indonesia, Pilger describes a common scenario: “Posing as a London fashion buyer… I
was given a tour of one such factory, which makes Gap clothes for Britain and America. I found more than a
thousand mostly young women working, battery-style, under the glare of strip lighting, in temperatures that
reach 40 degrees centigrade. The only air-conditioning was upstairs, where the Taiwanese bosses were… The
women have no choice about the hours they must work, including a notorious ‘long shift’: 36 hours without going
home. I was assured that, if I wanted to place a last-minute order, that was ‘no problem’ because ‘we just make
the workers stay longer’” [17].
Indonesia was described as the World Bank’s “model pupil of globalisation” under the Suharto regime before the
financial crisis. When he was forced to resign in 1998, he took with him approximately $10 billion dollars of the
World Bank’s money, which is still being repaid by the Indonesian people. When Pilger interviewed the World
Bank’s chief economist at the time, Nicholas Stern, he asked him to explain why the World Bank or IMF did not
speak out against the regime, who was singled out by the UN Commission on Human Rights because of inequality
and discrimination. Stern responded that “Indonesia’s economy grew as a result of integrating into the global
economy… it was a dictatorship, so people didn’t have some of their human rights” [18].
Clearly the World Bank’s narrow focus on economic growth in Indonesia is an example of how this approach
ignores the consequences of neo-liberal policy on people’s lives. The reality is that labour segregation and the
‘race to the bottom’ in terms of wages in the workforce is perpetuated, not alleviated, by neo-liberal policy. The
WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, for example, which rested on a system of clothing export quotas for
countries exporting to the European Union, Canada and the United States, expired at the end of 2004 and is being
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phased out in 2005 [19]. From 2005, all WTO member countries will have unrestricted access to European,
Canadian and US markets. Countries who previously had high quota allocations, such as Sri Lanka, will now have
to become more competitive in the market. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is
concerned that an increase in competitiveness across the international textiles and clothing sectors, will result in
further violations of labour practices as companies look to invest in countries where labour costs are low and
labour laws are weak [20]. China is already showing signs of competitive advantage in this area of low-cost
labour.
So whilst the strategic priorities of the Millennium Development Project are obvious for achieving gender equality
and alleviating the feminisation of poverty, they are unrealistic given the structural impediments of neo-liberal
policy imposed on countries by the multilateral institutions. No-where in the UNMDP report does it mention
embedded, structural inequalities in macro-economic policy, despite the intimate relationship between multilateral
institutions and national policies. The feminisation of poverty is inextricably related to policies and decisions made
inside the ‘Green Room’ of the WTO, and vetoes and conditionalities on lending decisions by the US and other
affluent countries within the walls of the World Bank and the IMF. These institutions have no accountability in the
area of gender or human rights, and if this continues, objectives such as the Millennium Development Goals, will
be difficult to reach.
It has become an imperative to wrestle back the agenda and investigate alternatives to economic liberalisation
and neo-liberal policy convergence. This does not only involve reform of the international institutions that fortify
the inequalities we see in the North and the South, but it involves a return to our Socratic right to question truth.
Our reliance on mainstream political ideology is thwarting our ability to conceptualise truth and distinguish it from
rationality. Problem-solving theories like neo-liberalism use the current structures as the framework for action and
reify the existing world order with its accompanying power and wealth inequalities that reinforce these
inequalities. Frameworks to alleviate poverty and to achieve gender equality are of no use unless they include a
serious rethinking of the global economic system.
Published in:
Resource Net Friday File, Issue 212
Friday February 4, 2005
Association for Women’s Rights in Development ©
http://www.awid.org
Notes:
[1] UNMP Report 2005. Taskforce on Education and Gender Equality. Taking action: achieving gender equality and
empowering women. Sourced from http://unmp.forumone.com/eng_html_02.html January 2005.
[2] IGTN (International Gender and Trade Network) 2004. Statement of Mariama Williams: Roundtable Discussion
on Mainstreaming Gender Perspectives into all Policies and Programs in the UN System. United Nations, NY, July 6-
7, 2004. Sourced from:
http://www.genderandtrade.net/Research/UNStatementMariama-07-04.pdf January 2005.
[3] UNCTAD 2004. UNCTAD XI and the Gender Implications of the multilateral trading system. Round Table on
Trade and Gender, 15 June: Press Release.
[4] AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development) 2004. “Gender Mainstreaming: Can it work for
Women’s Rights?”. Spotlight, November 2004: 3.
[5] IGTN (International Gender and Trade Network) 2004. Statement of Mariama Williams: Roundtable Discussion
on Mainstreaming Gender Perspectives into all Policies and Programs in the UN System. United Nations, NY, July 6-
7, 2004. Sourced from:
http://www.genderandtrade.net/Research/UNStatementMariama-07-04.pdf January 2005.
[6] UNMP Report 2005. Taskforce on Education and Gender Equality. Taking action: achieving gender equality and
empowering women. Sourced from http://unmp.forumone.com/eng_html_02.html January 2005.
[7] Warren, K.J. 1997. “Taking Empirical Data Seriously: An Ecofeminist Philosophical Perspective” in Warren, K.J.
1997 (Ed). Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
[8] Shiva, V. 2001. “Globalization and Poverty”, in Bennholdt-Thomsen, V. Faraclas, N & Von Werlhof, C. (Eds.)
There is an alternative: Subsistence and worldwide resistance to corporate globalisation. London: Zed Books.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Henshall Momsen, J. 2004. Gender and Development. London: Routledge.
[11] Federici, S. 2001. “War, Globalization and Reproduction” in Bennholdt-Thomsen, V. Faraclas, N & Von
Werlhof, C. (Eds.) There is an alternative: Subsistence and worldwide resistance to corporate globalisation.
http://www.globalizacija.com/doc_en/e0019neo.htm (4 van 5)12-9-2006 10:23:37

Doc
London: Zed Books.
[12] Henshall Momsen, J. 2004. Gender and Development. London: Routledge.
[13] UNMP Report 2005. Taskforce on Education and Gender Equality. Taking action: achieving gender equality
and empowering women. Sourced from http://unmp.forumone.com/eng_html_02.html January 2005.
[14] Ibid.
[15] UNCTAD 2004. UNCTAD XI and the Gender Implications of the multilateral trading system. Round Table on
Trade and Gender, 15 June: Press Release.
[16] Pilger, J. 2003. The New Rulers of the World. London: Verso.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) 2004. Behind the Brand Names: Working
conditions and labour rights in Export Processing Zones. Available from http://www.icftu.org. December 2004.
[20] Ibid.
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Trade Liberalisation
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TRADE LIBERALISATION
DG Trade civil society dialogue meeting: The EC is a soft power?
By Amandine Bach & Katariina Lensu
WIDE
According to the European Commission (EC), Hong Kong was a “relative success”. It was
important after the failure of Cancun for the WTO membership to take the necessary
steps to make Hong Kong succeed. However, the DG Trade representative stated that the
EC did not get as much out of Hong Kong as it had wanted.
WTO Meeting in Hong Kong: What's in it for Women?
By Women’s Edge Coalition
Last month, the countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) met in Hong Kong from
December 13-18, 2005 to revitalize and push forward the ‘Doha round’ of trade talks.
Their challenge was to ensure that the needs of developing countries were kept at the
core of the negotiating agenda, as was promised at the beginning of the round in 2001.
After Hong Kong, most issues remain unresolved, and negotiations will continue through
2006.
Impacts of Privatization and Trade Liberalization on Women in Georgia
By Charita Jashi, Ph.D.
Liberalization of the world economy creates new opportunities to take full advantage of
the market economy. The trade policies of national governments and the activities of the
World Trade Organization (“WTO”) have a significance influence on the economic and
social development in the world. The modern global marketplace is characterized by a
high degree of monopolization. It is very difficult for the developing countries to access
these markets.
Gender Effects of Globalisation on the Serbian Economy: The Case of the
Clothing Industry ‘Novitet’
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Ph.D.
Neoclassical interpretations of globalisation mainly focus on the changes on the market
and in the state and on their mutual relationship. In terms of trade, globalisation
operates as trade liberalization, grounded in the ideology of free trade and the theory of
comparative advantage. Thus, powerful international institutions such as IMF and the
World Bank argue that reducing all barriers to trade in goods and services between
countries will have positive economic effects on the development of countries and,
therefore, will yield better living standards for the majority of their populations.
Civil Society Protest in Geneva Against the WTO Corporate Agenda
By Amandine Bach
WIDE
Hundreds of civil society trade campaigners from around the world gathered on 27-29
July in Geneva during the WTO's General Council meeting. After the so-called July
framework was agreed in Geneva last year, campaigners had decided to be in Geneva in
July while the negotiations were taking place, to prevent a bad deal from being signed by
developing countries.
Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
By AWID
The trade policies of national governments and the activities of the World Trade
Organization (”WTO“) have important ramifications for economic and social development
throughout the world. This primer describes the WTO and the relationship between trade
policies and gender, and concludes with an agenda for action.
Gender and Trade Indicators
By Irene van Staveren

Trade Liberalisation
http://www.globalizacija.com/english/e_lit.htm (2 van 2)12-9-2006 10:23:41
WIDE Information Sheet
Although we know that women are the majority of the poor and low skilled workers,
there is very little known on the impact of globalisation on women. Partly this is because
of a lack of gender disaggregated data in trade statistics, and partly because of a lack of
gender awareness in economic analyses and models. In particular, the blind spot for the
unpaid care economy prevents the study of links between trade and unpaid labour. WIDE
therefore has developed a tool that will help to understand, measure and monitor the
relationship between trade and gender. This tool consists of three sets of indicators,
which can be applied to any trading relationship between countries or trade blocks.
Many Good Reasons for Women to be Against GATS
By Christa Wichterich
WIDE Briefing
No doubt, the public sector must be reformed, as often it is inefficient, sick and corrupt
and unable to guarantee basic rights and the provision of basic services to all members of
society. But GATS and privatisation are not the right path to follow. We must look for
alternatives and re-invent social thinking and solidarity. But for this we do not need any
GATS.

Impacts of Privatization and Trade Liberalization on Women in Georgia
Impacts of Privatization and Trade Liberalization on Women in Georgia
By Charita Jashi, Ph.D., Tbilisi State University, Georgia
Liberalization of the world economy creates new opportunities to take full advantage of the market economy. The
trade policies of national governments and the activities of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) have a
significance influence on the economic and social development in the world.
The modern global marketplace is characterized by a high degree of monopolization. It is very difficult for the
developing countries to access these markets. Such countries are unable to compete for trade due to serious
domestic political and economic problems.
Georgia became the 137th member of the WTO in June 2000. Georgia was the fourth former Soviet republic to
join the WTO. Accession to the WTO was a significant step in the process of transition to a market economy. The
process of accession into the WTO was preceded by a series of substantial changes in national legislation in the
areas of intellectual property; trade-related investment regime; trade in services; government procurement and
etc.
The Georgian government hoped that by assuming a place in the global trading system it would achieve prosperity
and stability and expand its activity in the world economic arena. The membership in the WTO has encouraged
Georgia’s integration with Europe. The Georgian government has committed to implement all international
obligations regarding tariffs, international investments, and a favorable business climate in Georgia, which are
supposed to facilitate the growth of economic development. But due to the asymmetric development of the
political and economic processes in the country, these conditions have not been implemented.
As a result, Georgia had experienced the following effects: rapid decline of national economy; a trade policy
oriented towards imports only; limited potential to increase exports; a flourishing shadow economy, and increased
prices of goods and services in the country. Additionally, political and social instability, corruption, and security
concerns have hampered the growth of direct foreign investment.
Georgian exports are partially concentrated on low value-added commodities such as ferrous metals, copper,
aluminium, iron steel, and mineral fuels. However, the dynamics of exports indicates that the concentration of
exports on low value-added commodities will decrease gradually over time. Imports are dominated by mineral
products (importantly including natural gas, oil and oil products), and electricity, which indicates the dependence
of Georgia on foreign energy. [1]
The advantages created by membership in the WTO have not been fully realized. Transitional mechanisms for
domestic market protection are insufficient. Approximately 51.1 percent of the population lives below the poverty
line, and 23.6 percent is unemployed. Widespread illicit activity has undermined the competitiveness of legal
imports and locally produced goods. Most Georgians earn their livelihood in the agricultural sector. As a result of
land reform, 57 percent of arable land is now privately owned and 27 percent is leased by the state to farmers. [2]
However, agricultural output is limited by inadequate access to credit, poor irrigation, and the high cost of inputs
such as fuel, pesticides, and machinery. Profitability is also affected by exorbitant transportation costs and
constrained manufacturing growth, resulting in an urban unemployment rate that is greater than 40 percent.
The process of globalization and trade liberalization has impacted negatively the population of Georgia. It is
interesting to analyze these effects from gender perspective . Currently, there is a lack of information and
research on this issue in Georgia. The effects of trade on women, who make up the vast majority of Georgia’s
poorest citizens, should be carefully examined. If trade is to reduce poverty, then there should be positive
benefits for poor women. A small increase in income could have an enormous impact on a poor woman’s quality of
life. Processes of reforms, that affected practically all sectors of economy and social sphere, conditioned significant
differentiation of women based on income, level of life, conditions in labor market, and demands in particular
forms of social support. In addition, there were impacts of such factors as a difference regarding the access of
men and women to financial and credit resources, and property, including land and realty.
Although Georgia is strategically located as a bridge between Europe and Asia, is a European Union (EU)
neighboring country, and has access to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) markets, a democratic and
liberal policy, a competitive export regime, a liberal and simplified tax code, an agricultural sector with significant
potential, and a transport and communication infrastructure, but still there has been a lack of foreign investment.
This impeded the process economic stabilization aimed at strengthening the country’s foreign economic relations
and increasing the volume of trade, finance and investment. Georgia's main economic activities include the
cultivation of agricultural products such as citrus fruits, tea, hazelnuts, and grapes; mining of manganese and
copper; and output of a small industrial sector producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, metals,
machinery, and chemicals. The country imports the bulk of its energy needs, including natural gas and oil
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Impacts of Privatization and Trade Liberalization on Women in Georgia
products. Its only sizable internal energy resource is hydropower.
Despite the severe damage the economy has suffered due to civil strife, Georgia, with the help of international
donors, has made substantial economic gains, achieving positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth and
curtailing inflation. The Georgian new government is making progress in reforming the tax code, enforcing taxes,
and cracking down on corruption. However, low wages and pensions, increasing social injustice, and decreasing
purchasing power of the population remain crucial issues for Georgia.
Georgia also suffers from energy shortages; it privatized the T'bilisi electricity distribution network in 1998, but
payment collection rates remain low, both in T'bilisi and throughout the regions. The country is pinning its hopes
for long-term growth on its role as a transit state for pipelines and trade. The construction on the Baku-T'bilisi-
Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-T'bilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline have brought much-needed investment and job
opportunities to the country.
The transformational processes underway in the country have greatly influenced the development of gender
equality. As a result of neo-liberal economic policy, restructuring has taken place in various fields of the economy.
The implementation of a macroeconomic policy that did not consider social factors brought about a sharp decrease
of social guarantees and a mass exodus of women from production facilities.
The sectors of the economy in which women majority traditionally participated have changed dramatically in
recent years. Gender inequality in terms of the accessibility of resources, has become more acute, and women’s
security and the protection of their labor rights have become considerably worse. The socioeconomic situation and
gender-neutral policies create specific barriers that obstruct women’s successful political and professional careers.
The economic reforms launched in the country, the restructuring processes, and privatization have caused the
polarization of the population into rich and poor strata. A social layer of entrepreneurs and private owners was
formed, which, through the initiative of the state, appropriated privatized facilities.
Great hopes were pinned on the privatization process, because it was believed that it would create new jobs, but
all those hopes proved unfounded. Meanwhile, a huge number of unemployed persons was created, without any
social guarantees. The sharp reduction in the number of jobs has caused the decrease of the demand for labor
and the fewer employment options for men and women. On one hand, this can be explained by the fact that the
traditionally “women’s fields” (textile industries, food industry, chemical production, the social sphere, etc.)
experienced the greatest negative effects as a result of the economic restructuring and trade liberalization in
Georgia. Unemployment among women has reached a massive scale. Unfortunately, official statistics hardly
reflect the existing reality.
In 1994, the first stage of privatization in Georgia gave birth to a new stratum of enterprisers in the country. The
existing legal basis (specifically, the law on privatization) did not restrict the participation of the population in this
process. This paper will not give a legal assessment of the privatization process, but it is clear that a large part of
state property was appropriated by those entrenched in the governmental hierarchy, i.e. those who already
exercised great power. Because women’s participation in the top levels of state management was practically
negligible, they were unable to acquire any large industrial or agricultural facilities and managed only to become
proprietors of small enterprises in the service field. They did not possess the capital needed to purchase the
facilities which were available for purchase through the privatization process.
The data show that women are the majority in the education and health care sectors only, which are typically less
profitable. Other business sectors that are likely to hire women are the mass media and entertainment sectors.
The mass media is well known as a “women’s sector;” two-thirds of reporters are women, and there has been a
sharp increase in the number of women holding leading administrative positions. Another example is the
entertainment business, where young women are working as artists, designers, and advertising agents.Especially
striking is the small number of privatized facilities in the fields of banking, energy, and building. In those spheres,
where the opportunity to gain profit is higher, women’s participation is non-existent, which means that women’s
enterprising opportunities are developed in Georgia in accordance with professional gender segregation.
In 2004, with the help of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Entrepreneur Support
Association conducted a special survey in order to study the situation in 50 large companies in Georgia. The study
showed that only two women occupied high-level positions in these companies. Women are mostly involved in
small businesses, especially in the service areas, such as education, health care, trade, restaurants, hotels,
pharmacies, publishing houses, etc. In recent years, economic growth in Georgia has been concentrated in sectors
such as communications, transport, financial services, industry and trade; most of those engaged in these fields
and in leadership positions within them are men.
It is interesting to note that the majority of officially employed women (70 percent) belong to the so-called selfemployed
group, and only 30 percent of them are occupied in various enterprises and organizations. Only 15
percent of the total number of self-employed women works as employers in the informal sector, whereas the vast
majority of the self-employed are on the verge of poverty. [3]
The link between working in the informal economy and being poor is stronger for women than for men. Working in
the informal sector has become a common form of occupation for women. The combination of formal work with
secondary work in order to earn a sufficient income has become a widespread practice. The overwhelming
majority of women are employed in the agricultural sector. Work in the informal sector is regarded as a necessary
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Impacts of Privatization and Trade Liberalization on Women in Georgia
strategy for physical survival, especially in cases when there is no other alternative for finding a job. Many women
are similarly engaged in unpaid labor in their households.
The difference is especially significant in terms of income. The average salary and income of employed women
lags behind that of men considerably. In particular, the average salary of women working in the state sector on
the basis of contracts amounts to only 55.1 percent of men’s compensation. In the budget organizations and the
organs of state management, this number stands at 46 percent; in the non-governmental sector it is 63.6
percent, in agriculture – 82.5percent, in trade – 71.2 percent, in education - 72.6 percent, in health care – 71.3
percent, and in other fields of social services this figure amounts to 51.7 percent. [4] .
This difference is significant among employers as well as the employed. The income of women entrepreneurs is
34.7 percent less than that of male employers, and among women hired as employees it is 21.8 percent less than
men. This data indicates that women (especially hired employees) are mostly engaged in low-qualified work and
can only obtain relevantly low positions (with the corresponding low salaries).
In the top positions in management organs, men outnumber women 26 to 1. In contrast, women constitute a
majority of highly-qualified specialists – 1.7 times the number of men, though close to an equal number of men
and women have received professional education of this level. Half of employed women are unskilled laborers, as
compared to 48.5 percent of men.
The research materials show that the informal sector is more dominated by women, whereas the private sector is
primarily occupied by men. [5] Women’s participation in the private sector is rather limited, and their labor rights
are frequently violated; in the current situation, chances for improvement of their material welfare are almost nonexistent.
Women take such work only for the sake of saving their families from starving. Unfortunately, due to
scanty information, gender analysis of the private sector is very difficult, but disproportion between the sexes is
still apparent in this sector.
The unfavorable environment for entrepreneurship in Georgia creates more problems for women than for men.
Because of unfair competition in business management and women’s lack of experience “cutting deals” (often
illegal) with public or private officials, women have great difficulties acquiring the trust and confidence of potential
partners when starting businesses. Even in the period of uncontrolled allocation of large-scale credits, no women
businessmen were able to obtain such credit.
Entrepreneurship automatically does not follow from liberalization and privatization. An entrepreneurial
economy must be promoted through appropriate policies and adequate institutions in many areas, such as
education and training and starting capital. The first step must involve research on businesswomen and their
status in the labour market, to be used as the basis for subsequent policies.
One of the biggest problems faced by Georgia on the path to economic growth is that micro and small businesses
have a hard time gaining access to credit. In every vibrant economy, micro and small businesses are at the core
of job creation and inceasing incomes.
If Georgia’s small entrepreneurs continue to find it difficult to gain access to credit, the country’s economy will
have a hard time developing. Georgia could very well address the big issues faced by large business – taxes,
overregulation, lack of investment, etc. – but without making the business environment friendlier to the micro,
small, and medium businesses, a large section of the economy will not grow.
At the same time, the government cannot expect to maintain a system in which only large business constitutes
the nation’s tax base – without tax contribution from small business, the government will never have sufficient
resources to provide the services it is charged with providing.
Currently, there is an additional problem faced by micro-, small-, and medium-businesses in
Georgia. Following the Rose Revolution, many of the micro-sale “stores” (the so-called “outside
salespeople”) as well as flee markets across Georgia were closed down in a very abrupt way. This
happened very quickly, with virtually no warning and no planning for how to ensure that the
thousands of individuals engaged in this work would not suffer tremendous adverse consequences.
The majority of them were women. They have faced bankruptcy, job loss, and large debts to some
of the micro-credit banks. It essential to help these individuals in light of the problems that they have
faced.
Violence against women in the workplace has become a serious problem. Because of the high rate of competition
in the labor market, women are afraid of losing their jobs and therefore, in most cases, do not report abuse
perpetrated against them. However, most Georgians are aware that such acts are committed in many offices and
institutions. Prestigious and highly paid jobs, along with those in professional sectors create discriminatory
requirements for women seeking employment, i.e. physical appearance requirements and age restrictions. In
cases of pregnancy, it employers often deny women the privileges they are entitled to by law.
All of these factors impede the involvement of women in the private sector. It should be emphasized that women
have a lot to contribute to business, and it is detrimental to society when their participation in this sphere is
limited. Equalizing the work opportunities of men and women requires a whole range of measures, such as
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Impacts of Privatization and Trade Liberalization on Women in Georgia
credits with discounts, micro financing, improving legal protection of women’s labor rights, etc.
It is important to analyze global trade issues from different perspectives. On the one hand, trade expansion can
cause displacement, unemployment and new hardships. Those sectors likely to suffer most from international
competition should therefore be targeted for public support and financial and technical assistance. On the other
hand, many new income and employment opportunities emerge with liberalization. Efforts should be made to
identify such potential growth areas, and women should be provided with the necessary skills, training,
information and contacts to be able to take full advantage of these openings. [6] .
As mentioned above, the globalization process has influenced the structure of employment in Georgia
considerably. On the international market, the demand for women’s work as a relatively cheap labor source has
increased greatly. Therefore, the number of women and their share among labor emigrants has become quite
substantial. Feminization is considered to be a new stage in the development of working emigration and is
regarded as important progress on the road to achieving gender equality. [7]
Before 1990, the migration of Georgian women abroad for work was highly uncommon. Within Georgian society,
it was completely unacceptable for a woman to leave her family and go abroad to earn a living. But as a result of
the existing reality and the deep social crisis, as well as the sharp fall in the standard of living, labor migration
became one of the ways for the people of Georgia to meet their most basic physical needs. This gave way to the
broad involvement of women in labor migration.
In developing countries all over the world, women have had to move to a lower stage of the service infrastructure,
and therefore the majority of them are obliged to work as nurses, shop assistants, waitresses, and in other
unskilled positions. In the free economic zones of the countries of South Asia and Eastern Africa, women
constitute 80 percent of the total labor force (cheap working force). Many women become victims of trafficking.
More often women find the jobs not adequate to their qualification while being abroad, its subsequence is a total
devaluation of value of women labor force. No guarantee for social protection is available for them. All above
mentioned have had negative impacts on women and families and was reflected in the demography situation and
the devaluation of family values as well.
Globalization also tends to privilege large companies (in which the majority of employees are men) as they can
capture new markets quickly and easily to the disadvantage of small and micro entrepreneurs (where women are
the majority), which face difficulties gaining knowledge of and access to emerging markets. In sum, globalization
puts pressure on low-skilled workers and petty producers by weakening their bargaining power and subjecting
them to increasing competition. These trends have negative impacts on women, especially in the form of low
wages, lack of benefits, and lack of security in the workplace.
The recent events that have taken place in Georgia (namely, the so-called “Rose Revolution”) have considerably
accelerated changes in the political and economic life of the country; the belief that the country will embark on a
road of economic revival and fully adopt European values has become quite tangible. Yet greater efforts are
needed to turn Georgia into an economically powerful state capable of occupying its rightful place in the
globalization processes that are underway in the world.
Bibliography
Access To Finance and ICT For Women Entrepreneurship in the UNECE Region, Challenges and Good Practices,
Geneva: UN, 2004
Bam, A., Trade and Women`s Issue , WIDE Bulletin, Brussels: WIDE, 2003
Carr, M. and Chen, M., Globalization and Informal Economy : How Global Trade and Investment Impact on he
Working Poor, Cambrigde: Harvard University, 2001
Carr, M., Chen, M. and Tate, J., “Globalization and Homebased Workers”, Feminist Economics; Vol. 6, No. 3: pp.
123–142.
Charmes, J., Informal Sector, Poverty and Gender: A Review of Empirical Evidence. Washington D.C.: The World
Bank, 1998
Davituliani, A., “Globalization and Several aspects of Georgia’s Economic Security”, Strategic Surveys and Center
of Development, Bulletin, 76, Tbilisi, 2000
Dokmanovic, M.(ed.), Transition, Privatization and Women, Subotica: Women’s Center for Democracy and Human
Rights, 2002
Elson, D., « The impact of structural adjustment on women: concepts and issues », dans Onimode, B. ( dir. ), The
IMF, the World Bank and the African debt, vol. 2, The social and economic impact, Zed Books: London, 1989
Gvelesiani, R., Small and Medium Enterprise Success Strategies and Corporate Culture, Tbilisi, 1999 (in
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Georgian).
Jashi, Ch. Gender Economic Issues: The Case of Georgia, Tbilisi: UNDP, SIDA, 2005
Joekes, S., “A Gender-Analytical Perspective on Trade and Sustainable Development”. In UNCTAD, Trade,
Sustainable Development and Gender. New York and Geneva: United Nations, 1999
Papava, V. The International Monetary Fund in Georgia, Achievements and Errors, Tbilisi, 2002 (in Georgian)
Ruminska-Zimmy, E., Employement Policy in Transition Countries, Geneva:UNECE, 2004
The Millennium Objectives in Georgia, Tbilisi, 2003 (in English)
Trade Policy and external Trade , Invest in Georgia, Tbilisi: Georgian National Investment and Export Promoting
Agency, 2005
WIDE, Globalization, Development and Sustainability, Brussels: WIDE, 2002
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Bulletin, Brussels: WIDE, 2003
Williams, M., Women in Labour Market, Brussels: WIDE, 2000
About the author:
Charita Jashi, Ph.D., (Georgia), Associate Professor of Tbilisi State University, Founder and Head of the
Association of Gender For Social Economic Development, President of the Association for Economic Education.
Formerly served as Georgia’s National Coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP)
“Women in Development” and “Gender in Development” projects. She has worked on gender issues and
economics issues for nearly a decade. is Currently, she is a consultant for the UNDP project “Gender in Politics
in the South Caucasus” on Gender Responsive Budget”.She is a member of a number of organizations, including
the Network of Women in Development Europe (WIDE), the International Association for Feminist Economics
(IAFFE), Gender Expert Panel/OSCE office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Coalition of
Georgian Women’s NGOs. She is author of 5 books and 40 articles on gender and economic issues in Georgia
and recently published the book Gender Economic, The Case of Georgia, Tbilisi: UNDP (2005).
Contact: charita@access.sanet.ge
[1] Trade Policy and external Trade , Invest in Georgia, Tbilisi: Georgian National Investment and Export
Promoting Agency, 2005
[2] World Bank Report, Economic Trends of Georgia, o.26964, GE. Aug. 20, 2003
[3] Household enterprises with little land , the informal petty traders booth and market stalls, as well as people
employed in the service create the category of self-employed. According to the mitigal criteria of the definition of
unstable employment if an individual work for a at least one hour a week ,he/she will be considered selfemployed.
[4] See: Women and Men, Statistical abstract, Tbilisi, 2005
[5] Studies from Hungary and East Germany indicate that as banking, insurance and the entire financial sector
have become privatized, increasingly central to the economy, and significantly more lucrative, men have streamed
into jobs there. Men started to occupy leadership positions even though women have dominated banking for
decades before, when it consisted largely of routine accounting. See, Karadenizli, M. “A Research Agenda For the
Analysis of the Impact of Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment on Women`s Economic and Social Rights in
The Transition Countries,”, in Dokmanovic, M.(ed.), Transition, Privatization and Women, Subotica: Women’s
Center for Democracy and Human Rights, 2002, p. 37
[6] Carr, M and Chen, M. Globalization and Informal Economy : How Global Trade and Investment Impact on he
Working Poor , Cambridge: Harvard University, 2001.
[7] Castles S. and Miller J. The Age of Migration, International Population, Movements to the Modern World,
London, 1993
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Gender Effects of Globalisation on the Serbian Economy
Gender Effects of Globalisation on the Serbian Economy: The Case of the Clothing Industry ‘Novitet’
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Ph.D., The Advanced Business School, Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro
In this paper*, I will explore approaches that could offer insights into the impact of globalisation and trade
liberalization on Serbian women. I shall examine the effects of these changes on the well-being, earnings, and job
segregation of Serbian women employed in the textile and clothing sector.
Key words: globalisation, trade liberalization, Serbian clothing industry
Introduction
Neoclassical interpretations of globalisation mainly focus on the changes on the market and in the state and on
their mutual relationship. In terms of trade, globalisation operates as trade liberalization, grounded in the ideology
of free trade and the theory of comparative advantage. Thus, powerful international institutions such as IMF and
the World Bank argue that reducing all barriers to trade in goods and services between countries will have positive
economic effects on the development of countries and, therefore, will yield better living standards for the majority
of their populations (World Economic Outlook, 1997). Although they promote the ideology of ‘free trade’,
international trade is not free and fair at all. Increasing inequalities between the industrialized countries of the
North and the developing countries of the South, as well as between rich and poor social strata within each
country, plus some events in the world economy (like the Asian economic crisis), have brought social policy issues
to the forefront of macroeconomic policy debates (Espino, Staveren, 2001). Even mainstream economists have
begun to question the neoclassical belief in the efficiency of market liberalization and have replaced it with new
approaches that emphasize social, structural, and human aspects of development (Sachs, 1998; Stiglitz, 2003).
However, globalization has interrelated political, economic and socio- cultural dimensions that operate at the local,
national, regional, and global levels.
One aspect of globalisation is the changing position of women (Hutton & Giddens, 2000). The benefits and costs of
globalisation and trade liberalization are differentiated between women and men, as well as among different
groups of women (Pearson, 1998: 173; Joekes, 1987; Elson, 1996: 35-55; Standing, 1999: 583-602). [1] Trade
policies are often implemented in a social context that discriminates against women (Elson, 1996) and that
assumes that women will subsidize the formal economy through the care economy. [2] Thus, trade liberalization
policies could contribute to raising women’s employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, but in theprevailing
patriarchal culture in Serbia and male dominated decision-making processes, such policies could also increase
gender inequalities. Controversy remains about the terms and conditions of women’s employment in exportoriented
companies and about the gender share of benefits within the family. However, “…international financial
institutions and trade agreements adopted between nations rarely take the gendered nature of globalisation into
account” (Bell with Brambilla, 2002: 3).
Globalisation, Non-transition, and the Textile Sector in Serbia
The former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia [3] disintegrated through the war during 1991 - 1995. During
the 1990s, the government of Serbia [4] was actively engaged in preventing and undermining economic
development in order to preserve its power. This process, that I have elsewhere called ‘directed nondevelopment’
(Djuric Kuzmanovic, 1997), had devastating consequences in every respect - economic, social, and
political. Serbia experienced destructive economic consequences: economic chaos (Lazic, 1994:10), political
conditions of war and nationalism internally, and isolation from the external world. In 1992, after the imposition of
the UN sanctions against Serbia, a closed economy was created, with no reference to the mainstream world
economy and with absolute control of the flow of goods and money in the hands of the very few people in power.
In 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia finished off whatever economic infrastructure was still in place. After 2000, with
the change of government and opening to the outside world, Serbia finally re-entered the world economy.
The concept of women’s emancipation was part of the official socialist theory. However, although the socialist
Yugoslav ideology proclaimed gender equity and women’s right to employment, political participation, and
education, it reproduced, at the same time, a patriarchal system of values and gender relations. The purpose of
the women’s emancipation project was not the liberation of women. The concept of liberation would mean the
destruction of the very patriarchal nature of society, and transformation at all levels, including sexuality, family,
and household, as well as freeing women from all forms of oppression. The actual position of women in socialist
Yugoslavia was much worse than was publicly represented, especially with regard to their economic position and
political participation.
The socialist women’s emancipation project never went beyond the ‘women’s question’ into the transformation of
gender relations. Consequently, both images of women and women’s positions at various levels of society were
highly ambiguous. Women shared equal legal rights with men in the spheres of education, employment, and
political participation; and they had the right to divorce and abortion. However, the socialist state granted women
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legal equality while maintaining traditional gender relations and their related structures, both in families and in
society. The de jure equality, moreover, could not lead to de facto equality, because the gendered social
structures were either precluding women from assuming the rights they had been granted, or were marginalizing
and ghettoising them when they did assume their rights. Thus, women in socialist Serbia were subordinated in the
public sphere of economic firms and political institutions, as well as in the private sphere of the family (Markov &
Stankovic, 1991).
State-directed non-development and the increase in nationalism further contributed to gender oppression and
feminisation of poverty (Opstine u Republici Srbiji, 1997: 124; UNICEF, 1997). On the one hand, deterioration
occurred because of the overall worsening ofsocial and economic conditions in the country. On the other hand,
assumptions about the ‘proper’ role of women (which were part and parcel of nationalist ideologies) contributed to
the faster deterioration of women’s positions and to the exclusion of women from the public sphere, particularly
after 1989. In Vojvodina in 1999, for example, women made up 55% of all unemployed, 56% among qualified
unemployed, and 67% of unemployed with higher education. Recent research [5] shows that, including all types of
work, women in Serbia work on average 75 hours per week, 15 hours more than the average in the West, and
female life expectancy at birth is 7 years less than in Western Europe (Milosavljevic, 2001). In the mid-1990s, the
average woman in Serbia spent 4.2 hours at work and more than 6 hours doing household work, caring for
children, etc. (UNICEF, 1997).
Clothing is not only important as a final commodity for consumption. The apparel industry is also very important
as a labour-intensive economic sector to ensure employment. As a labour-intensive economic sector employing
many women, production and international trade in clothing has a strong impact on women’s health, environment,
and human development (Malhotra, 2003: 167). In Serbia, as elsewhere, clothing is a so-called female industry
since it employs more women than men. The Serbian textile industry is typically very labour-intensive, paying
traditionally low wages per worker (Korosic, 1983: 61) and employing a growing number of the female workforce.
Together with the Leather and Shoe Industry, it makes up 12.2% of the total number of businesses in the Serbian
economy and 13.8% of the total number of employees. It is estimated that 80% of those are women (Statement
of Branislav Atanackovic, at the meeting of the Textile Board, Serbian Chamber of Economy, Belgrade, May,
2002). [6]
Literature identifies three main mechanisms through which a trade policy reform may affect the distribution of
income: employment, price, and public provision (Addison and Demery, 1986). However, existing sources on the
gender dimension of trade liberalization focus “on income and employment rather than consumption effects.
Furthermore, they examine the impact of changes in export production rather than of import displacement”
because it is “analytically less difficult than examining other aspects and data are more readily
available” (Fontana, Jokes, and Masika, 1998: 5). In order to demonstrate globalisation and trade impacts on
gender discrimination in employment, I will focus my analysis on non-wage gender discrimination, i.e. in job
segregation and promotion. I will use the case of the factory Novitet as an illustration.
Novitet produces male and female heavy clothing for both the domestic and international markets. However, the
prevailing part of their production is export oriented, due to the loan contracts with Slovenian and German trade
companies. These exports are female labour intensive. However, there is no disaggregated data about female and
male productivity in the Serbian textile sector.
I also take into consideration women’s unpaid work in the care economy and intra-household resource allocation.
Females dominate the care economy, but these females also have to work to support their households and are
thus subject to the classic ‘double burden’ and time poverty. I will look at the discrimination women have been
facing in the company and, for some of them, even within the household, during 1990s. However, problems with
data availability and gaps in the information disaggregated by gender in Serbian statistics, as well as time
constraints, will be very limiting factors of my analysis.
A starting analytical framework to study the links between trade and employment could be based on Hecksher and
Ohlin’s (H-O) theory of trade. [7] The limitation is that the assumptions of full employment of resources and
quickly adjusting markets are not too realistic. Labour market inflexibility, ideological, social, and structural
factors, as well as non-price mechanisms in the Serbian economy largely prevent the response to changes in
relative prices. Thus, for example, labour displaced in the declining sectors may not easily be re-employed in the
expanding sectors because of inflexible employment and segmentation of the labour market. This aspect is
particularly significant from the gender perspective. On the other hand, my analysis of intra-household allocation
follows the heterodox alternative and some feminist cooperative, non-cooperative and bargaining models, which
have highlighted the fact that resources within the household are not always pooled and have stressed the role of
bargaining processes in determining women’s and men’s access to those resources (Cagatay, Elson, and Grown,
1995; Appendix 4 of World Bank, 2001; Fontana, & Wood, 2000: 1173). Due to strong patriarchal relations in the
Serbian society, it is realistic to assume that, within the ordinary Serbian household, the struggle over household
resources is characterized by both conflict and cooperation, where women tend to have less bargaining power
than men.
Labour conditions in the Serbian economy used to be very different, and still are different, from the neo-classical
concept of labour force flexibility and the concept of imperfect competition (Chhaschhi, 1999: 15). A labour
market in Serbia – in the sense of a market where the price of labour is formed under the influence of supply and
demand for labour - has not existed for over 50 years. Under the regime of ‘social ownership’, the socialist state
proclaimed the ‘right to work’ and permanent ‘job security’ with a surplus of over 30% of employed workers as
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the consequence (Marsenic, 1999: 298). During the 1990s, employment adjusted to the decreasing level of
economic activity through a sharp decrease in real wages, the increase of employees on leaves, more retirements,
a large decrease in labour productivity in the formal sector, the increase of latent unemployment, and the
expansion of the informal labour market.The Law on Work, introduced in December 2001, finally abandoned the
ideal of full employment and introduced labour market flexibility. In the case of Novitet, over 200 workers, mostly
highly qualified, lost or left their jobs during the 1990s phase of state directed non-development. Most of them
were women, who found new jobs in the newly privatised clothing sector or in the informal private clothing sector,
both working in their homes and outside their homes.
The market disorder caused by the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and
the introduction of economic sanctions by the UN Security Council had many adverse effects on Novitet.
Production decreased 35 - 40% and co-operation with foreign firms faded away. During this period, Novitet kept
international business co-operation based on loan business only with one firm from Germany. Recently, after the
beginning of the democratic transition of the country, such forms of cooperation started anew with some textile
firms from Slovenia. The disintegration of socialist Yugoslavia radically decreased the supply of ready-made
clothes. The Yugoslav apparel market lost legal assortments from Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These loses were not replaced by new producers from the wider international market. At the same time,
consumers from Serbia were stimulated (by significantly lower prices) to buy ready-made clothes, as well as many
other items, on the black or informal market. [8]
Gender Labour Inequalities in the Serbian Economy and in Novitet
The basic characteristics of the Serbian labour market are its division into formal and informal (illegal, ‘black’)
labour markets and the large wage disparities among workers with the same or similar qualifications in different
economic branches of the labour market. Those branches that suffer discrimination, like the textile industry, have
lower wages relative to the wages in privileged industries (Krstic and Reilly, 2000). Besides, an empirical analysis
of wages in the Serbian economy shows an increasing gender wage gap: while in 1996 employed women earned
15 % less than men, this gender wage gap increased by 2.6 % in 2000 (Krstic and Reilly, 2000).
The situation in Novitet also illustrates these trends. Female workers made up 85% of the 759 workers in 1999.
The number of women decreases at higher levels of the management hierarchy. Women mainly work in the
production and trade divisions, mostly have low education, and are from poor worker or peasant family
backgrounds. Regarding the age structure, 70% of them are between 27 and 45, with working experience
between 10 and 30 years. In the production section, about 90% are women. Women can be found in great
numbers only at the first level of control - as direct supervisors on production lines: they are heads of at least 4
out of 6 production lines, and in the 32 shops, (Novitet has its own shops) there are 17 male heads and 15
female. Shop assistants are by and large women. In upper management, there is only one female director of
production, and she is the only woman in the company’s eleven-member Board of Directors (oral statement of the
general director of Novitet, 1999; Sistematizacija radnih mesta, Novitet, 1999: 3).
Theoretical H-O predictions of full employment of resources do not take into consideration structural
unemployment, segmented markets, and their gendered effects. Under the circumstances of high unemployment,
women are likely to be pushed out even from temporary, seasonal, and low-paid jobs. On the other hand, women
accept low paid jobs and very poor working conditions because of the poverty that struck most ordinary Serbian
families during the 1990s. They must also support their families as second bread-winners. There is strong
pressure on them to participate in the labour market. In terms of intra-household relations, women tend to accept
gender inequalities: more often than men they accept work in the care economy and enable men to ‘build their
careers’ in paid jobs.
Novitet’s workers’ average monthly wage in 2001 was about 75 euros while the average monthly salary in
Vojvodina was 214 euros and in Central Serbia 174,5 euros (Sluzbeni glasnik Republike Srbije,[Official Gazette of
the Republic of Serbia] 2001: 3-4). The wages at Novitet have been officially the same for women and men, and
thus the non-wage indicators are more indicative of gender discrimination. The mechanisms of non-wage gender
discrimination are widely represented in Novitet. Due to the gender division of labour in the Serbian economy,
supported by patriarchal relations in the whole society, women are faced with vertical barriers at work and are
already segregated in the low-paid sectors of industry and trade. Also, they experience non-wage discrimination in
job promotion. There are clearly visible vertical barriers within the company through gender discriminatory
employment practices regarding education. Out of almost 800 workers, of whom only about 25 are men, there are
a handful of them (only 35) with 2-year college and full university degrees (Table 1). Although women with
university and college education are more numerous than men (23 women versus 12 men), 50% of men with
college degrees (3 out of 6) work in positions that require university degrees, while 80% of women with university
degrees (4 out of 5) work in positions that require require only graduation from secondary school or a 2-year
college (Pay Roll, Novitet, 2001; Systematisation of working places, Novitet, 1999).
There is also obvious gender discrimination relating to maternity leaves. While on leave, some of the women could
not use their holiday and holiday benefits. During 2001, there were 35 workers (about 5% of the total number of
workers) in Novitet who did not realize their right to take a holiday, and 18 of them who did not realize their right
to take a holiday were women on maternity leave. Only four women on maternity leave used this right.
Nevertheless, this was related to the fact that the entire production unit where those four women worked was
sent, as superfluous, on a compulsory holiday.
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There is a methodological problem in attempting to include the effect of intra-household allocation in my analysis;
however, I can make some indications. I investigated gender patterns within five households where one or both
members worked at Novitet. In all five households, I carried out in-depth interviews with both the husband and
wife. The division of labour within these households is still placing a heavier burden on the women. The division of
labour and dynamics within the households seem to influence opportunities and outcomes for the women’s
employment outside the home. Apparently, women’s bargaining positions within the household were enhanced
when they worked outside the home and were members of collective organizations. Nevertheless, further research
in this field could give more specific results. For example, it would be interesting to examine how households
redistribute resources in the face of competing preferences and unequal bargaining power among members and
whether their employment opportunities and each spouse’s assets at marriage have differential effects on intrahousehold
allocations, household-level outcomes, and individual-level outcomes (such as children’s education and
clothing) (Quisumbing and Maluccio, 1999; Appendix 4 of World Bank, 2001).
Can Globalisation’s Gender Effects be Changed?
Gender analysis is important for understanding that trade liberalization has different effects on women’s and
men’s employment and working conditions and on women’s unpaid labour. Even the World Bank promoted the
view that economic globalisation and its neo-liberal policies have negative impacts on social welfare and social
services such as health and education (World Bank, 2001). Governments’ reductions in subsidies to social services
force an increasing number of women to provide unpaid work. However, World Bank justify its focus on gender
issues by the fact that “gender inequality at home and in the market is also believed to result in women’s inability
to respond effectively to incentives to increase their productivity” (Bell with Brambilla, 2002: 4). Also, the UN
Report on the Role of Women in Development concludes that “globalisation has given rise to ambiguous and at
time contradictory effects on gender equality” and recommends that national governments make their
macroeconomic policies gender-sensitive and improve their regulation and coordination of the international
economy (United Nations, 1999: 100).
However, feminist economists broaden the neoclassical focus to incorporate the gender perspective into the
efficiency and differential effects of trade (Fontana, Jokes and Masika, 1998). Firstly, this means understanding
the inability of countries, sectors, and regions to capitalize on potential trade opportunities. Secondly, it means
respecting the fact that the benefits of trade expansion can differ for men versus women and also among different
groups of women (Espini and Staveren, 2001: 15). Feminist economists’ analyses show how important it is to
“investigate if women acquire greater control over their income, make spending pattern changes, and if there is a
reallocation of time between unpaid and paid work occurring as a result of their employment entry in the export
trade sectors of the economy?” (Fontana, Jokes and Masika, 1988). This direction of analysis inspires my future
work in this field.
Some points, however, can be made already. An increase in textile manufacturing for export in Serbia could be
easily associated with the feminisation of the industrial labour force (Joekes, 1987). An increase in wages in the
Serbian textile industry, even in the short run, is not expected. It is more realistic to expect persistently low
wages and cuts in the number of workers. My short analysis is only an illustration of those trends, which are
clearly visible in this particular firm. Women remain lower paid, segregated in poorly-paid jobs and often deprived
of work benefits guaranteed by law. In other words, the low-cost comparative advantage is predicated upon the
unpaid care economy interlocking with a low-paid labour force.
During the 1990s, due to the state-directed strategy of non-development, most of the households, companies,
and people experienced a dramatic increase in poverty. This had a significant impact on the care economy in
Serbia. Home-made goods and services were substituted for market goods due to the low purchasing power of
households; there was a break-down of public provisions and social services, up to the point of increased need for
care-work from female children. [9] The attack on paid maternity leaves and child subsidies and provisions (that
used to be provided by government), that started at the beginning of Serbian transition, continues unabated. It
leaves child care entirely to the family, and this – because of gender relations – means to the women. This
“privatisation” of care, feminisation of nurturing, coupled with poverty, pushes women back into the private
domain. The context of the unpaid care economy and low female wages further reduce market-based costs and
thus improve the comparative advantage at the expense of women.
The Serbian transitions lead to an increase of unemployment resulting from decreasing labour demand on the one
hand and increasing labour supply on the other. In the situation of generally high unemployment rates, structural
changes occurred in employment. These changes lead to greater availability of temporary, seasonal, and low-paid
jobs. Women are likely to be crowded out even from such employment opportunities by unemployed men.
Some positive effects of all these changes may be expected, but they will not benefit everybody. Besides, all these
changes have their time lags. In the short term, unemployment will remain high and the salaries of workers low.
Highly-educated and skilled women may still get new job opportunities in the newly expanding sectors. However,
we can hope only for a few female winners among many female losers amidst the expected economic changes.
Globalisation’s effects could be changed if powerful agents in companies, economies, and international markets
follow the principles that housework and care are crucial parts of every economic system and that human welfare
should be the central measure of economic success (FENN Seminar Report, 2002). The problems of Serbian
governmental policy are its political instability, organization of the economy, and redistribution of social wealth.
Its aims are to reduce the budget deficit and to achieve faster and higher growth rates, but not even this is
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consistently followed. Also, government could use some engendered measures to encourage domestic clothing
industries and workers to export.
Furthermore, government policy fails to emphasize gender equality in the monitoring and enforcement of labour
standards, in enforcing equal pay and employment opportunities and legislation. There are no signs of either
corporate or state responsibility for gender equality of labour conditions. However, the situation with the Serbian
government is not only specific to Serbia, and thus emphasizes the need to engender governments.
Finally, international organizations choose partners within the states with whom to implement programs for
development and formulate the set of conditions under which the loans will be given. But they should evaluate the
success of their trade policies in the sense of social justice and gender equality, i.e. trade contracts should include
total social effects and differentiated effects on men and women.
* Paper presented at the IAFFE Conference “Central and Eastern Europe: A Feminist Economic Dialogue on
Transition and EU Enlargement”, January 21 – 22, 2005, Budapest, Hungary
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(06.10.2004).
Joekes, S. (1987). Women in the World Economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kamal Malhotra ed. (2003). Making Global Trade Work for People. London, Sterling, Virginia: Earthscan
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Krstic, G., and Reilly, N. (2000). ‘Gender Pay Gap in the FRY’, Beograd, Ekonomska misao, No 3-4: 233-143.
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Sociology). Novi Sad, Matica Srpska.
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Marsenic, D., Rikalovic, G. and Jovanovic Gavrilovic, B. (1999). Ekonomika Jugoslavije (The Economics of
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Table 1. The gender and qualification structure of workers with junior college and university degrees
Male Female Sum
University degree 6 5 11
Junior college*
degree
6 18 24
Total 12 23 35
*Junior college, called higher school in Serbia, is a two-year tertiary educational program that ends in a degree;
whereas, the university degree usually requires 4 or 5 years of study
Source: Platni spisak Noviteta (Pay Roll of Novitet, December, 2001)
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Dr. Irene van Staveren, Dr. Dubravka Žarkov, and Dr. Haroon Akram-Lodhi for their useful
and inspiringcomments on this paper.
[1] Traditional neoclassical interpretations of globalisation mainly focus on the changes which take place on the
market and in the state and on their mutual relationship. Until the 1970s modernization and dependency theorists
agreed that industrialization marginalized women. After that time, the rapid incorporation of women into new
export manufacturing sectors in South East Asia and Central America showed that industrialization, relying on
cheap female labour as a comparative advantage, was both female and export led (Ruth Pearson, 1998: 173;
Joekes, S., 1987). This process occurred under conditions of flexible and deregulated employment (Ruth Pearson,
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Gender Effects of Globalisation on the Serbian Economy
1998: 176) and global feminisation of labour. The growth of women’s share of industrial employment and the
increasing flexibility of employment often reflect more the decline of jobs previously done by men and the
weakening of their position rather than significant improvement in the occupational opportunities for women
(Elson, D., 1996: 35-55; Standing, Guy, 1999: 583-602). It had an impact on women’s emancipation as well as
on women’s support of the family. Providing jobs for women was an important means of including women in the
development process in both the neoclassical and the Marxist traditions (Pearson, R. 1994). Also, the belief that
globalisation leads to poverty feminisation and that poverty is most present in households led by a woman is
widespread. However, such a picture of female households is to a great extent differentiated. A household is not
homogenous towards marital status, old age and class position, race, and legal status.
[2] It is widely assumed that women will produce, reproduce, nurture, and educate the workforce and carry the
burden of caring work whether or not they have support from the state in the form of child care provisions, tax
relief, grants, etc.
[3] War began in 1991 in Slovenia. Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia separated later. The country
that emerged, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, includes Montenegro, with 14% of the area and 6% of the
population, and Serbia. Serbia produces about 95% of GNP (gross national product) and Montenegro produces
about 5%. Montenegro has its own sovereignty, except for some elements of the Federal state, like the Federal
Army.
[4] Serbia is divided into three parts: The province of Kosovo (in the South, under NATO and UN protection since
1999); the province of Vojvodina (in the North) and the central Serbian area.
[5] This public opinion study was initiated by the organization "Veza i akcija" (Connection and Action) in 33 Local
Communities in Serbia, excluding Kosovo, using a sample of 900 women. The aim was to give a basic picture of
the social status of women in Serbia in order to improve their position. This research was finished in October 2001
by Medijum Index Agency and Gallup International.
[6] From the very beginning, the Yugoslav textile industry showed signs of imbalance and peripheral development,
due to the different historical and socio-economic conditions of the region. After the Second World War, the
situation in the textile industry worsened, as a consequence of the strategies of ‘forced’ industrialization and its
development priority: heavy industry. Generally, the socialist development strategy from 1945 to 1965 was based
on ‘forced’ industrialization, followed by an ‘import-substitution trade strategy’, with resistance of market and selfreliance.
In 1965, the socialist state made the most significant turn towards the market, but did not question
social property and made changes in development priority to ‘light’ industry, followed by an ‘export-oriented trade
strategy’. This introduced the textile industry to a new period of development. The textile industry became a
dynamic, fast-growing, export-oriented sector, influenced by the world economy: more than two-thirds of its
capacity is dependent on import.
[7] H-O theory assumes that “countries export goods which use intensively those factors of production that are
relatively abundant at home and import goods which use intensively factors that are relatively scarce. Trade thus
increases the demand for abundant factors, because of the expansion of export sectors, and reduces the demand
for scarce factors, because of the contraction of import-competing sectors, with corresponding effects on factor
prices” (Fontana, Jokes, and Masika, 1998: 5). This analytical framework “directly links trade to domestic demand
and supply for factors, including various categories of labour ‘inputs’ … and ‘outputs’ (i.e. the consequences of
trade-induced changes in wages and employment)…does not consider gender as an analytical category… and …
important aspects of gender relations, such as women’s unpaid reproductive work and intra-household resource
allocation” (Ibid: 6).
[8] Besides the mass appearance of second hand clothes, the market was inundated with ready-made clothes
made in Turkey, China, etc. While usually being of lower quality, they are usually much cheaper and often more
fashionable than Novitet's products. Due to the increasing pauperisation of the population in Serbia, for the
majority of people this became the only way to procure apparel.
[9] The patriarchal household division of labour meant that female children took much more responsibilities in
household work anyway but with increased poverty the burden of work also grew.
http://www.globalizacija.com/doc_en/e0047lit.htm (7 van 7)12-9-2006 10:23:57

Civil Society Protest in Geneva Against the WTO Corporate Agenda
Civil Society Protest in Geneva Against the WTO Corporate Agenda
By Amandine Bach
Women in Development Europe (WIDE)
Hundreds of civil society trade campaigners from around the world gathered on 27-29 July in Geneva during the
WTO's General Council meeting. After the so-called July framework was agreed in Geneva last year, campaigners
had decided to be in Geneva in July while the negotiations were taking place, to prevent a bad deal from being
signed by developing countries. Even if no real move was made in the negotiations this year, the three-day event,
organised by the Geneva Peoples' Alliance, offered civil society representatives the opportunity to discuss the
main issues at stake in the negotiations. The civil society discussions took place in the context of plenaries on
agriculture, NAMA (non-agricultural market access) and GATS (the General Agreement on Trade in Services) and
in more specific workshops. While critically analysing the current positions of the different countries in the WTO
negotiations, civil society made it clear that a human rights agenda should be at the forefront of the negotiations.
On agriculture, while no new proposals that would seriously address the concerns of developing countries were
put on the table in the WTO, the farmers' movement, farm workers, and consumer, environmental and other
NGOs again raised the point that the WTO and free trade agreements ignore the obvious problems that women
and men farmers face worldwide. They claimed that free trade rules have in fact imposed a plague of low prices
on agricultural goods in every continent while disregarding the local and regional nature of farming and food
systems. One way forward would be to get agriculture out of the WTO, so as to ensure the right of every country
to have people's food sovereignty.
On GATS, the main focus of the civil society discussions unexpectedly turned out to be mode 4, which allows for
the cross-border travel and movement of company workers in the context of the delivery of services. While NGOs
have a clear position on benchmarks in GATS, the implications of mode 4 are still an issue and need urgently to
be debated. Mode 4 might be a deal-breaker in the run-up to Hong Kong, as some developing countries are asking
for more substantial commitments in mode 4 (especially opening it up to include low-skilled workers). However,
there was a clear agreement among civil society that the free movement of people should not be determined by
global trade regimes. These are matters of fundamental human rights and should be determined and governed
under principles and rules established by the UN Human Rights Commission and the International Labour
Organization.
Different actions took place in front of the WTO every day. WIDE representative Amandine Bach participated also
in a Seattle-to-Brussels action staged in front of the EU representation in Geneva during a press conference given
by Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner. Under the common slogan 'Stop the EU corporate agenda', NGO
representatives demanded that the EU halt its aggressive attempts to open up developing country markets for the
benefit of European negotiations on industrial tariffs and services. This action aimed at denouncing the EC's
development rhetoric and the EU's apparent good will in the negotiations while the EC is actually increasing the
pressure on developing countries to speed up the negotiations. The EC's tabling of a 'non-paper' at the WTO at
the end of June 2005 to change the modalities in the GATS negotiations, for example by establishing benchmarks
for the quality of offers and the prioritisation of some sectors, shows strikingly that the EC's practice is not
development-friendly, for it is totally contradictory to the flexibility and the bottom-up approach of GATS. WIDE
will keep monitoring the EU position in the run-up to Hong Kong to ensure that no trade agreements will be
accepted at the expense of women's and men's rights.
Source:
WIDE News N°8 - August 2005
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org/
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Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
By Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
The trade policies of national governments and the activities of the World Trade Organization (”WTO“) have
important ramifications for economic and social development throughout the world. This primer describes the
WTO and the relationship between trade policies and gender, and concludes with an agenda for action.
What is the WTO?
The WTO is an international organization based in Geneva that was established in 1995. It was formed to oversee
the series of trade agreements that had emerged from the “Uruguay Round” of negotiations on an international
trade agreement called the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (“GATT”) and to implement a dispute
settlement process regarding members’ rights and obligations under these agreements. As of January 2002, 144
countries are WTO members. Government representatives of these countries steer the activities of the
organization. [1] Officially the WTO is a member-driven ‘one-country one-vote organization’. In practice, however,
there is a long-standing custom of decision-making “by consensus” and rich countries exert disproportionate
influence within the organization. While some of the world’s least developed countries are not even
represented in Geneva and have minimal capacity to participate in negotiating sessions, the richer countries have
large staffs of trade specialists, lawyers and expert negotiating teams. Moreover, powerful transnational
corporations have been successful in swaying trade policy to suit their interests.
Why the push for international trade liberalization?
Mainstream economic theory teaches that international trade is beneficial to all countries and their citizens. This
belief is based on the idea of “comparative advantage“ — each country should focus on what it does best and
trade for other products in order to reach the most efficient allocation of resources in the global economy and the
highest levels of output and growth in all countries. It is assumed that trade leads to growth which in turn
promotes national development and reduces poverty. While it is recognized that trade produces both “winners“
and “losers“ in every economy, the theory is that the “losers“ can be compensated from the net gains. The
evidence, however, does not support these simplistic assumptions.
Furthermore, the ”comparative advantage“ of some countries is their low wages, poor environmental regulations
and lax labour standards. Comparative advantage based on the exploitation of women and the
environment is incompatible with a human rights and human development approach, irrespective of
the perceived economic benefit or efficiency for the country.
The stated objective of the WTO is “to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly and predictably.” The original GATT
was limited to facilitating trade in goods by eliminating so-called ‘trade barriers’ (e.g. quotas, tariffs) and
articulating the basic principles of free trade (i.e. non-discrimination, fiscal and regulatory independence of states)
[2] . The scope and power of the organization, however, has greatly increased. Today, the WTO’s reach
includes issues of service provision, intellectual property, health and safety standards, and a vast
array of products. It is now the primary actor in international trade, administering multilateral agreements,
hosting negotiating sessions, handling disputes, monitoring national trade policies, and providing technical
assistance and training for developing countries.
With good reason, the WTO has been described as “the institutional face of globalization” and has been the focus
of many so-called “anti-globalization” protests in recent years. The organization’s structure has been nontransparent,
unaccountable, non-participatory, undemocratic, and imperialistic, and trade liberalization
has become an ever-expanding end in itself. Furthermore, the WTO’s contribution to human rights protection and
sustainable development is questionable.
Why is gender analysis important?
Case studies reveal that women’s time, labour, sexuality and health are at times exploited in the pursuit of gains
from trade in various countries. In fact, some governments overtly appeal to sexism to increase their country’s
trade revenues, for example, by using low wages of women as a basis to compete internationally in export
industries or through campaigns to encourage married women to do home based work. Furthermore, men and
women experience poverty differently and women do not have equal access to and control over resources, do not
enjoy equal protection of human rights, and have distinct roles in terms of production and reproduction. For these
reasons, women and men may benefit from or be harmed by trade policies in different ways. They may also
respond differently to the economic incentives set up by the governments’ chosen strategies. Trade policy,
however, tends to be gender-blind and silent about gender-specific repercussions.
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Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
Consider the following examples:
• Women’s unpaid work: Trade liberalization policies have pulled many women into the formal labour force and
also affect the cost and availability of food, medicines, household goods, and social services. Each of these
impacts can increase the demands on women’s unpaid labour — women may have less time available for
reproductive work but simultaneously face greater demands to provide services. Unfortunately, studies show that
men are not picking up the slack.
• Women’s conditions of employment: Women are increasingly at risk of working in highly exploitative and
dangerous conditions because trade liberalization tends to increase their employment in the industrial sector, in
commercial agriculture and in export processing zones, which are characterized by low rates of pay and substandard
conditions. Globalization has also fueled informal employment arrangements and subcontracting in
female-dominated industries (such as food and garment production), threatening the security, status and rights of
workers.
• Gender inequality constrains productivity: Gender based inequalities (especially in education, health and
training) hinder women’s abilities to take advantage of new opportunities created by trade liberalization such as
skilled employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. This in turn constrains the “output response” to the
economic incentives created by trade promotion policies and constrains the export capacity of the whole economy.
[3]
Gender analysis reveals that the relationship between trade and gender relations is complex and ambiguous. The
question we need to ask is not whether trade liberalization is good or bad for women as a group, but
how trade policy can contribute to the achievement of human rights for everyone and promote
sustainable development in all societies. Gender analysis demonstrates how pushing forward with more of
the same “one-sizefits-all”, gender-blind trade liberalization policies — which do not consider local social factors
and human needs — will not remedy inequalities in the economy or eradicate poverty. The challenge is to
implement policies that will.
The laws that bind
The rules of the international trading system (including the trading rules, conflict resolution mechanisms, etc.)
currently reflect the power of rich countries and transnational corporations. These vested interests are apparent at
two different stages: a) the making of the rules, and b) the implementation, enforcement and interpretation of the
rules. The rules are contained in a set of agreements which have been elaborated in successive rounds of very
political, intense and often biased negotiations between state representatives. This set of agreements includes the
GATT, the Agreement on Agriculture, the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (“TBT”), the General
Agreement on Trade in Services (“GATS”), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(“TRIPS”), among others. [4]
Establishing the rules is only the first stage of the game however; the implementation, enforcement and
interpretation of the rules is another matter altogether. While the agreements that make up the WTO system are
the product of political negotiations, they become public international law once they are adopted. As international
law they are enforceable, binding on states, and subject to the rules of international legal interpretation (as
opposed to U.N. conference documents for example, which are aspirational but do not have the force of law
behind them). In other words, international trade rules “have teeth”. This is at least in part because through
the advent of the WTO, the international trade system was transformed from a political/diplomatic
regime to a highly legalistic one.
When a country is not following the rules, another country can bring a case against them in a court-like setting
known as a dispute settlement panel. The panel makes a judgement as to whether the country is violating the
law, and if so, orders them to comply with the law or face sanctions. This is not a negotiation; it is a litigation
based enforcement system. The judgements can be appealed to the Appellate Body (sort of like a “supreme court
of international trade”). [5]
So for example, while the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (“CEDAW”)
states that countries must grant women equal nationality rights with men (Article 9), many countries do not and
there are few consequences for their defiance. In contrast, when a WTO member country does not meet the
standards for the protection of patents mandated by the TRIPS agreement, or imposes a tax that makes locallyproduced
products cheaper than foreign ones (prohibited by GATT Article 3), the countries who are harmed can
bring a case against the defiant country and punish the offender for their breach.
Untempered trade liberalization not only runs the risk of further marginalizing women from key activities in the
national economy but may itself engender significant violations of women’s social and economic rights.
Mariama Williams [6]
The legal stature of these rules also means that if circumstances change or a government realizes that the
provisions are not “a good deal” for their country, they can not simply back out of their commitments or negotiate
different provisions. And unlike some other legal regimes (e.g. human rights treaties including CEDAW), states
must accept the entire package of WTO rules or none at all. This is a major problem for developing and less
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Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
powerful countries since they are less able to influence the formulation of the rules in the first place.
Finally, the legal nature of the trading system is important because some of the most complex WTO agreements
have important provisions that are subject to differing interpretations. While the words on the paper may be clear,
how to apply them in real-life scenarios can be more difficult. In a dispute settlement proceeding, the “judges”
interpret the rules based on the arguments put forward by the participants in the proceedings and principles of
legal interpretation (much like in national constitutional litigation). Hypothetically, they may decide whether
clothing produced under sweatshop conditions and sweatshop-free clothing must be treated as the same products,
whether a pesticide ban is necessary for the protection of public health, or whether providing drugs necessary for
the treatment of a pandemic at a low cost is “a circumstance of extreme emergency”.
Legal imagination, not hard economics, determines these cases. While the answers to these questions may
seem inconsequential, they can have huge impacts on the actions governments take and hence on the lives of
women.
What are the implications of this legal model?
On the one hand, legal enforcement removes flexibility and the possibility of adopting trade policies that coincide
with national development strategies.
The mere threat of legal action may be sufficient to force a government to change their policies. The dispute
settlement process also limits participation
and transparency because only governments can act as complainants and defendants in the proceedings.
Furthermore, effective participation in a dispute proceeding is very costly and requires specialized training. Finally,
the legal forum focuses very narrowly on specific rules and facts, ignoring the broader context and full range of
values and factors relevant to justice and development. Gender issues, for example, are usually not “legally
relevant”.
A strategic opening?
On the other hand, as opposed to negotiations and ‘behind closed doors’ deals, the judicial setting at least
formally places the parties on an equally footing and allows them to present their positions in front of formally
impartial decision-makers. The judicial setting also provides an opportunity to develop the law and interpret
provisions in ways that further a social justice agenda. In deciding whether a state is acting in a manner
consistent with the rules, the panelists look at the relevant provisions and must decide what they mean in light of
modern day values, the overarching objectives of the agreement (which often include environmental protection
and human development), and the entire body of principles that constitute international law. Given the intensified
advocacy around the WTO by women’s groups, we should consider potential of legal interpretation and dispute
settlement proceedings to steer existing WTO rules pro-poor, pro-equality direction.
The Post-Doha Agenda
The Ministerial Conference is the WTO’s top decision-making body; it meets at least once every two years.
Country representatives come together to negotiate new agreements and market access commitments, clarify
existing agreements and set the organization’s agenda. The most recent Ministerial was in Doha, Qatar, in
November 2001. The official outcomes were a 10-page Ministerial Declaration plus a declaration on intellectual
property and public health (focusing on pharmaceutical patents, including HIV/AIDS medications) and a decision
on “implementation” (i.e. the concerns of developing countries). [7] The mandate coming out of the meeting is
several years of intense and complex negotiations with an ambitious deadline of January 2005 for a new set of
agreements. Despite the official “development” focus of the conference, the outcomes fall far short of any
development objective and were achieved by undemocratic, manipulative and biased processes.
In light of Doha, analysts and activists from around the world are articulating an action agenda. Here are some of
its components:
• No new issues: The WTO’s mandate must be limited to trade issues. It is not the appropriate venue for issues
such as labour, the environment, human rights, and competition policy. Other institutions (e.g. the International
Labour Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization and U.N. committees) should be given the
resources they need to properly address these other issues.
• New systems of governance and accountability: The WTO has been secretive, undemocratic and
unaccountable for too long. Political will and creativity must be devoted to establishing structures for consultation,
dialogue, and stakeholder involvement in decision-making and monitoring. Clear ground rules must be established
concerning information sharing, reporting and stakeholder participation. Participation needs to be based on
principles of transparency, collaboration, learning, equity and flexibility. Furthermore, governments need to be
accountable to their own citizens for their actions at the WTO.
• Judicial independence: The dispute settlement system needs to have complete independence from the WTO
Secretariat, member governments and transnational corporations who may try to inappropriately influence
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Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
outcomes. Dispute panelists and the Appellate Body must apply the full body of principles of international law and
interpret WTO rules consistently with the objectives of equality and sustainable development. In addition, clear
and fair procedures for the participation of non-governmental stakeholders, including NGOs, need to be
developed.
• Human development as the central guiding principle: We need to re-think the dominant model of
international trade and challenge its underlying values and assumptions. Why not ‘co-operation’ instead of
‘competition’ as a basic assumption, for example? Trade policy must be situated within the overall development
strategy of a country and each country must have the flexibility and policy autonomy necessary to achieve their
development goals. Trade liberalization can no longer be seen as an end in itself. The WTO should be evaluated
according to its contribution towards poverty reduction, equality and sustainable human development.
• Putting developing countries first: Imbalances in the WTO must be redressed and the needs of developing
countries should define the WTO’s agenda. The negotiating and monitoring capacity of developing countries must
be increased and mechanisms must be developed to hold transnational corporations accountable for their actions.
Developed countries need to open their markets to the products of developing countries and grant them
appropriate exceptions to liberalization commitments. Finally, developed and developing countries need to work
together to redistribute opportunities in favour of the poor and women.
• Gender analysis: We simply don’t yet know enough about the relationship between gender and trade policies.
We need comprehensive gender analyses of current trade policies, specific WTO agreements, different sectors and
the full range of trade-related issues. We need to determine when women stand to win and when they stand to
lose from new trading relations and also how different trade-related policies impact on women’s empowerment.
Researchers and women’s rights advocacy groups need to work together to articulate alternative, appropriate
policies that guarantee women’s rights and contribute to a more just and sustainable world.
Gender across the full range of trade issues:
Trade between different countries is regulated by a large number of negotiated agreements, including bilateral
agreements between two countries, multilateral agreements between groups of countries (including regional free
trade agreements such as NAFTA, Mercosur, CARICOM, etc.) and also a group of agreements that fall under the
umbrella of the WTO (most of which were the outcome of the 1986-94 ‘Uruguay Round’ of negotiations) [8] 8.
These agreements are like contracts between the countries that sign them, granting each country certain rights
and confining their actions to within certain limits. While these texts are almost without exception silent on
gender, consider the following examples of gender issues in WTO agreements:
GATS: The General Agreement on Trade in Services applies to service providers including banks,
telecommunication companies, tour operators, health care providers, energy companies and education providers.
This agreement has profound impacts on women who are the majority of workers in the service sector, on access
to and availability of public services, and on governments’ abilities to regulate the quality of health care and
education provided.
TRIPS: The agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights sets out the rules of how intellectual
property rights (including copyrights, trademarks, product names, industrial designs and “trade secrets”) should
be protected when international trade is involved. Its ramifications include public health, food security,
biodiversity, agriculture and traditional knowledge, all of which have gender specific impacts.
Agreement on Agriculture: This agreement seeks to promote trade liberalization in the agricultural sector and
is therefore of concern with respect to food security and small farms producing food for local consumption as well
as to sustainable livelihoods of many female agricultural workers.
SPS and TBT: These two agreements (Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Agreement on
Technical Barriers to Trade) aim to promote the harmonization of domestic health and safety standards. Their
potential implications for women’s health are immense. These agreements should also be of particular concern
because they set very high standards for governments that wish to implement precautionary regulations to
protect the health of their citizens or the environment and because they greatly expand the scope of governance
by the WTO by condemning measures that are not discriminatory but are simply deemed to be excessive.
How to do gender analysis of economic policies?
• Examine what is happening to men and women separately in order to compare changes in their status and
responses to the changes. Do not focus exclusively on women and girls.
• Consider other variables such as race and class. Do not oversimplify by focusing exclusively on gender.
• Consider all three spheres of work: reproductive work in the family/household, reproductive work in the
community, and productive labour. Consider both consumption and service provision in each sphere.
• Do not focus solely on quantitative measures. Consider issues of empowerment, well-being, cultural integrity/
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Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy
identity, environmental integrity and the quality of reproductive work and nurturing.
• Consider how economic policies impact on prices, the types and quantities of goods available, and the provision
of services, and consider how each of these impacts on household incomes and quality of life.
• Explore how gender relations and poverty impact on economic policy implementation and effectiveness. Explore
why the expected positive benefits of trade liberalization do not materialize.
• Choose appropriate indicators in empirical work, including human rights-based indicators and indicators related
to everyday life. Obtain accurate sex-aggregated data which accurately reflects how resources are allocated
between men and women.
• Consider economic policies in their broader context, not in isolation, and highlight constraints imposed by
women’s socially constructed roles.
Published in:
Women’s Rights and Economic Change
”Women‘s Rights, the World Trade Organization and International Trade Policy”
”Facts and Issues”, No. 4, August 2002
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) ©
http://www.awid.org/
[1] See generally http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/thewto_e.htm
[2] For definitions of trade terms, consult one of the many available glossaries or primers, including Oxfam’s at
http://www.maketradefair.com/stylesheet.asp?file=08042002112446 and IGTN’s at http://www.genderandtrade.
net/EconoLit/Literacy.html or a textbook such as M. Trebilcock and R. Howse, The Regulation of International
Trade (1999).
[3] N. Çagatay, Trade, Gender and Poverty, United Nations Development Programme: October 2001, p. 26-7. The
author notes that although most dimensions of gender inequality (e.g. health, education, skills training, etc.)
constrain a country’s productivity and economic growth, wage inequalities seem to actually boost economic
growth in some industrial sectors faced by international competition. Pursuing gender-based wage differences as a
country’s competitive advantage is not, however, consistent with a rights-based approach to development nor
necessarily a sound long-term economic development strategy.
[4] The full text of these agreements can be found at
http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm
[5] The texts of the decisions and more information on how the dispute settlement process works are on the
‘Dispute Settlement’ page of the WTO’s website:
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_e.htm
[6] Mariama Williams is an AWID Board Member, affiliated with the International Gender and Trade Network and
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
[7] These texts can be found on-line at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm
[8] The full texts of these agreements can be found on-line at
http://www.wto.org/English/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm
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Privatisation
http://www.globalizacija.com/english/e_pri.htm (1 van 2)12-9-2006 10:24:24
PRIVATISATION
Privatization of Public Enterprises in Nigeria:
The Views and Counterviews
By May Ifeoma Nwoye, Ph.D.
The issue of privatization has been a subject of intense global debate in recent years. In
Africa, it has remained highly controversial and politically risky. Privatization in Nigeria
has not been a popular reform. It has received so much criticism from labor, academia,
and individuals. There have been numerous strikes against proposed sell-offs by unions
fearing loss of jobs. While proponents of privatization see that aspect of economic reform
as an instrument of efficient resource management for rapid economic development and
poverty reduction…
Public Goods – The Economic vs the Ethical Category
By Ljubica Komazec, Ph.D.
The phenomenon of public goods has existed since the dawn of civilization, but their
significance and the approach to them has been different in various historical, and
especially socio-economic, stages of the development of civilization. This issue is
becoming emphasized in the conditions of the occurrence of the New Economy (or Total
Economy), especially in countries in transition.
Faites vos jeux, Messieurs!
or
A Case Study on the Impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services
(GATS) in Bulgaria - The Concession of Sofia Water Supply and Wastewater
Services: Legal, Economic, Social and Gender Aspects
By Genoveva Tisheva and Irina Moulechkova, Ph.D.
By joining GATS the Bulgarian government had to start playing the GATS game and,
subsequently, to follow its rules. GATS is the first multilateral agreement containing the
commitment for a continuous liberalization of the trade in all services, essential services
included, through binding rules. The aim of GATS is to increase international trade by
removing any control and restrictions as fiscal policies, standards, conditionalities,
environment protection, existing social standards or laws which maintain the public
monopoly on some services.
Is Water a Public Good or a Commodity?
Thoughts on water privatization and related issues for poor populations
By Massan d’ Almeida, AWID
More than 1.1 billion humans are indeed deprived of drinking water and 2.4 billion of
health services. Already, more than half of the population in developing countries suffers
from at least one of the six main water related diseases that kills more than five millions
people every year, eleven thousands of whom are children who die every day, which is
three to four times the number of victims of the World Trade Center attacks! How then is
one to understand the deafening silence of the media and our own?
Women and Water Privatization
By Ana Elena Obando, WHRnet
The increase of the global degradation of ecosystems, the excessive consumption of
water, contamination and salinization of water-bearings, aquifers and dams, along with
the impact of extreme poverty which has been worsened by privatization, are
contributing factors to an environmental catastrophe. This has had profound effects on
the availability of drinking water and, consequently, has led to the violation of the right to
life, safety, food, health and education of billions of human beings. Water is a
fundamental and inalienable human right and a common good that every person and
institution of this planet should protect.

Privatisation
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Privatization of Public Enterprises in Nigeria:
Privatization of Public Enterprises in Nigeria:
The Views and Counterviews
By May Ifeoma Nwoye, Ph.D., Nigerian Institute of Management, Nigeria
The issue of privatization has been a subject of intense global debate in recent years. In Africa, it has remained
highly controversial and politically risky. Privatization in Nigeria has not been a popular reform. It has received so
much criticism from labor, academia, and individuals. There have been numerous strikes against proposed selloffs
by unions fearing loss of jobs. While proponents of privatization see that aspect of economic reform as an
instrument of efficient resource management for rapid economic development and poverty reduction, the critics
argue that privatization inflicts damage on the poor through loss of employment, reduction in income, and
reduced access to basic social services or increases in prices. Whatever are the views of the two parties, the only
group that has no voice in the matter is the poor. The author is of the view that privatization is not inherently
good or bad, but the poor performance or effectiveness depends on implementation (Nightingale and Pindus,
1997).
This paper draws extensively from the empirical research by the author, Management Practices and Performance
Determinants of Public and Private Sector Enterprises in Anambra, Edo and Delta States of Nigeria: A Factor
Analysis (Nwoye, 1997). Comparing the effectiveness of public versus private service delivery, the analysis shows
no clear evidence that private service delivery is inherently more effective or less effective than public service
delivery but rather that each sector has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The paper provides a general overview of the extent, effect, and consequences of privatization of public
enterprises in Nigeria in terms of opinions held within various schools of thought. The paper is not intended in any
way to be a panacea in the treatment of the overall subject of privatization; rather, it is a review of support or
apprehension specifically relating to the issues of employment, income, social services, and economic welfare
including prices.
Conceptual Issues
The concept of privatization in recent times evokes sharp political reactions from many angles. Privatization can
be defined as the transfer of ownership and control of enterprise from the state to the private sector. Various
groups have also defined it differently. The Privatization and Commercialization Act of 1988 and the Bureau of
Public Enterprises Act of 1993 defined privatization as the relinquishment of part or all of the equity and other
interests held by the Federal Government or any of its agencies, in enterprises whether wholly or partly owned by
the Federal Government. But, however privatization is defined, it transfers ownership of production and control of
enterprises from the public to the private sector. It is an ideological concept.
Justification for Establishment of Public Enterprises
Many reasons have been adduced as the justification for creating public enterprises. Following are six important
ones:
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The first of these, especially in the context of developing countries such as Nigeria, is the development
emphasis. In many developing countries, the resources available to the private sector are not adequate for
the provision of certain goods and services. For example, the investments required in the construction of a
hydroelectricity-generating plant or a water scheme for a large urban center are quite enormous and the
returns on such investments will take a very long time to realize.
Secondly, political considerations influence governmental involvement in the provision of certain social and
economic services. In many African countries, development is closely associated with the provision of social
services; consequently, the performance of the government, in many of these countries, is evaluated on
the basis of its ability to provide different types of public services in areas where such services do not exist.
The third reason for governmental intervention in the provision and management of goods and services in
many parts of the world is the fact that no person should be permanently deprived of the access to such
facilities because of lack of finances or by reason of geographical location.
A fourth reason relates to the need to protect the consumer, which may not be of interest to the private
sector. For example, government intervenes in the provision of education in many countries to protect
children, who are not capable of making important decisions for themselves, by making education up to a
certain age compulsory and free.
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The fifth reason for governmental intervention in the provision of certain goods and services relates to the
indivisibility that characterizes such services. Some facilities, such as bridges, tunnels, roads, streetlights,
and waste disposal facilities, cannot be divided or partially provided. Either streetlights are provided for the
benefit of everybody in the community or they are not. Facilities of this type must therefore be provided
publicly and financed through taxation.
The sixth reason for governmental intervention is the consciousness of the national security. Certain
facilities, like the National Ports Authority and the police, are too vital to be left at the mercy of private
citizens.
The evolution of public sector enterprises often takes one of two forms. First, they could evolve from local calls or
responses to an ad-hoc economic crisis, a specific shortage, flagrant abuse of monopoly or oligopoly powers by
private producers, economic bottlenecks and scarcities, apparent market failures in resource allocation, etc. It is
economic crises that create socioeconomic conditions that justify public intervention. Alternatively, the evolution
can take the process of a carefully planned body of ideas involving the issues of management, financial control,
and/or pricing. In most situations, the primary interests of the society such as “welfarism” [1] are predetermined
and postulated. These two processes have characterized the evolution of public sector enterprises in Nigeria,
which dates back to the precolonial era.
A Brief Historical Perspective on Development of Public Enterprises in Nigeria
The private sector was the traditional structure of the world’s economies. The Nigerian economy is largely privatesector
based. The public sector emerged in Nigeria as a result of the need to harness rationally the scarce
resources to produce goods and services for economic improvement, as well as for promotion of the welfare of the
citizens. The involvement of the public sector in Nigeria became significant during the period after independence.
The railways were probably the first major example of public sector enterprises in Nigeria. At first, conceived
mainly in terms of colonial strategic and administrative needs, they quickly acquired the dimension of a welcomed
economic utility for transporting the goods of international commerce, like cocoa, groundnut, and palm kernels.
Given the structural nature of the colonial private ownership and control of the railways in the metropolitan
countries, it would hardly be expected that the Nigerian Railways Corporation could have been started as any
other project than as a public sector enterprise for such mass transportation.
The colonial administration was the nucleus of necessary economic and social infrastructural facilities that private
enterprise could not provide. Facilities included railways, roads, bridges, electricity, ports and harbors,
waterworks, and telecommunication. Social services like education and health were still substantially left in the
related hands of the Christian Mission. But even at this initial stage government itself moved positively into some
of the direct productive sectors of the economy: the stone quarry at Aro, the colliery at Udi, and the saw mill and
furniture factory at Ijora. Those were the early stages.
The emergence of the crude oil industry into the Nigerian economy, after the civil war in the 1970s, with the
associated boom intensified governmental involvement in production and in control of the Nigerian economy. One
major aim of government at that time was to convert as much as possible of the growing oil revenue into social,
physical, and economic infrastructural investments. The Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree of 1972, which
took effect on 1 April, 1974, with its subsequent amendment in 1976, provided a concrete basis for government’s
extensive participation in the ownership and management of enterprises. Given these developments, public
enterprises at the federal level had exceeded 100 in number by 1985; and these had spread over agriculture,
energy, mining, banking, insurance, manufacturing, transport, commerce, and other service activities. Before
long, the range of Nigerian public enterprises had stretched from farm organizations to manufacturing, from
municipal transport to mining, from housing to multipurpose power, and from trading to banking and insurance.
At the state and local governmental levels, the range of activities that had attracted public sector investment also
had become quite large. Thus, a variety of enterprises - with public interest in terms of majority equity
participation or fully-owned by state and local government as well as other governmental entities - became visible
in various parts of Nigeria. Between 1975 and 1995, it was estimated that the Federal Government of Nigeria had
invested more than $100 billion in public enterprises.
Problems of the Economy in the 1980s
The 1980s witnessed steady economic deterioration and seemingly faulty economic policies. At the beginning of
the 1980s, the country had entered difficult times. Scarcity of foreign exchange had set in. By the mid-1980s,
reality had dawned on the nation’s economy. Retrenchment of workers was rampant in both private and public
sectors. There were inflation, very high levels of unemployment affecting both skilled and unskilled workers, and
low levels of plant capacity utilization. The origin of the socioeconomic difficulties was generally traced to the
global economic recession which opened with the decade of the 1980s. Earlier, these socioeconomic problems had
forced the Federal Government, under President Shehu Shagari, to embark on an economic stabilization program
(Aboyade, 1974).
The problems of performance of the public sector enterprises in Nigeria were further complicated by the downturn
in socioeconomic development in the country due to the global economic recession and the collapse of the oil
market. Thus, Nigeria’s precarious fiscal and monetary posture could no longer sustain the requirements of its
public sector enterprises, particularly since they performed below expectations in terms of their returns on
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investments and quality of services. Towards the end of 1980s, the public enterprises, which had grown too large,
began to suffer from fundamental problems of defective capital structures, excessive bureaucratic control and
intervention, inappropriate technologies, gross incompetence, and blatant corruption. With the deep internal crises
that included high rates of inflation and unemployment, external debt obligations, and foreign exchange
misalignment, Nigeria and many other African countries were strongly advised by the worldwide lending agencies,
particularly IMF and the World Bank, to divest their public enterprises as one of the conditions for economic
assistance. With the intensified push for economic liberalization, Nigerian and other African leaders were told that
privatization as an economic reform would help cut public sector inefficiency and waste, provide greater scope to
the private sector, attract more investments, bring in new technologies, and hence revive economic growth. Thus
many countries, including Nigeria, embarked on privatization and other market oriented reforms to pull them out
of the structural imbalances (Nwoye, 1997).
It is against this background that the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) proposed a kind of reform which
would affect the goals, administration, and management of most of the public sector enterprises for purposes of
efficiency (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1986). One of the main objectives of SAP was, therefore, to pursue
deregulation and privatization leading to removal of subsidies, reduction in wage expenses, and retrenchment in
the public sector ostensibly to trim the state down to size.
Under the reformation scheme, public sector enterprises were expected to be classified into three broad
categories:
1. fully privatized or partially privatized,
2. fully commercialized or partially commercialized, or
3. retained as public sector institutions.
Whereas SAP has shown the broad categories under which the public sector enterprises can be grouped, it has
failed to actually classify the existing enterprises into specific categories.
Privatization in Nigeria
Privatization in Nigeria was formally introduced by the Privatization and Commercialization Act of 1988, which
later set up the Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization (TCPC) chaired by Dr. Hamza Zayyad
with a mandate to privatize 111 public enterprises and commercialize 34 others. In 1993, having privatized 88 out
of the 111 enterprises listed in the decree, the TCPC concluded its assignment and submitted a final report. Based
on the recommendation of the TCPC, the Federal Military Government promulgated the Bureau for Public
Enterprises Act of 1993, which repealed the 1988 Act and set up the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) to
implement the privatization program in Nigeria. In 1999, the Federal Government enacted the Public Enterprise
(Privatization and Commercialization) Act, which created the National Council on Privatization chaired by the Vice
President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The functions of the council include:
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making policies on privatization and commercialization;
determining the modalities for privatization and advising the government accordingly;
determining the timing of privatization for particular enterprises;
approving the prices for shares and the appointment of privatization advisers;
ensuring that commercialized public enterprises are managed in accordance with sound commercial
principles and prudent financial practices; and
interfacing between the public enterprises and the supervising ministries in order to ensure effective
monitoring and safeguarding of the managerial autonomy of the public enterprises.
The 1999 Act also established the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) as the secretariat of the National Council on
Privatization. The functions of the bureau include among others to do the following:
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implement the council’s policies on privatization and commercialization;
prepare public enterprises approved by the council for privatization and commercialization;
advise the council on capital restructuring needs of enterprises to be privatized;
ensure financial discipline and accountability of commercialized enterprises;
make recommendations to the council in the appointment of consultants, advisers, investment bankers,
issuing houses, stockbrokers, solicitors, trustees, accountants, and other professionals required for the
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purpose of either privatization or commercialization; and
ensure the success of privatization and commercialization implementation through monitoring and
evaluation.
The subsequent exercise brought with it controversies that are still raging on. Western countries, and in particular
IMF and the World Bank, have been blamed for forcing the privatization of public services and natural resources in
Africa as a condition for development assistance (Nwoye, 1995). They are accused of telling impoverished
countries to turn their public services over to private owners and to sell off their oil, gas, mining, electric,
telecommunication, transport, and water companies, which are also said to be conditions for debt relief. Many
African countries are neck deep in debt and begging for debt forgiveness. It is said that Nigeria has a debt burden
of $32.3 billion, where servicing is estimated to gulp as much as $2.91 billion in 2003.
Bias against Privatization
Given the fact that the initial impetus for privatization in Africa came from creditor institutions, especially the IMF
and the World Bank, as part of the push for structural adjustment, many believed that there must be a hidden
agenda in the form of economic exploitation. It is principally the conditionality that was attached to privatization
vis-à-vis debt relief and financial assistance that provoked resentment from the public view, especially labor,
which views privatization as creditors’ initiative. As in some of the other African countries, resentment is
intensified because a good number of the larger enterprises being privatized are bought over by foreign interests.
Several of the arguments against privatization are as follows:
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Rising Prices - Opponents fear that the private sector will exploit consumers where there is monopoly or
oligopoly power such as by raising the prices of goods.
Creating Poverty - At the heart of the criticism of privatization is the perception that it has not been fair -
hurting the poor and the vulnerable work force, while benefiting the rich, the powerful, and the privileged -
thereby perpetrating poverty.
Breaking of Unions - Workers dismissed as a result of privatization have great difficulty finding other
work; the large number of people out of jobs is forced to accept jobs with lower pay, less security, and
fewer benefits. They, therefore, believe that the aims of privatization are to reduce labor costs and
numbers, and to break union power.
Corruption - There is this argument that even if privatization contributes to improved efficiency and
financial performance, it has a negative effect on the distribution of wealth perhaps arising from corruption.
Corruption is the single most destructive factor responsible for the pitiable state of affairs in many
developing countries. It distorts the economy through waste and misallocation of resources and creates
need for external assistance. Transparency International has for a long time decried the evil consequences
of corruption and has identified acute corruption in many developing countries. For example, in 1997 [2] ,
its Annual Corruption Index rated Nigeria as the most corrupt country on earth, followed by Pakistan and
Kenya. By 1998, the index moved and Cameroon displaced Nigeria as number one. [3] Some misguided
Nigerians have argued thus “…after all, corruption is everywhere, including industrialized countries.” It is
true that corruption is a worldwide phenomenon, and so are industrial development and technological
advancement. Why is it then that when industrialized countries are pushing for technological invention,
African countries are busy expanding only the frontiers of corruption and poverty-prone ventures?
Public Enterprises Should Stay - There is this strong belief that privatization is not necessary. Public
enterprises need not run at a loss; all they require is good managers, less political interference, competent
boards of directors, and especially more rational pricing policies.
Injustice - There is an assertion that it is the politicians and bureaucrats that caused the public enterprises
to perform poorly but only labor is asked to carry the burden of reform. Critics view this as injustice.
Exploitation by Capitalist Countries - Privatization is seen as an imposition by foreign capitalists and
agencies like the IMF and the World Bank; therefore, privatization must be meant to exploit the developing
countries.
Privatization Is Foreign - Some critics have argued that privatization is neo-colonialism since the policy
is being pushed by International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and their agencies. It is not an indigenous
idea; therefore, it will not work.
Labor’s Demands for Job Protection -Right from the onset, the most publicly persistent and organized
opposition of privatization in Nigeria has come from the labor movement. There always have been strikes
and counterstrikes against any decision to privatize a government agency. Sometimes workers have
succeeded in blocking or slowing down the privatization of specific enterprises. In other cases the
government simply has brushed aside the labor opposition leaving a legacy of anger and political tension.
What is obvious is that workers are reacting against threatened jobs or the possibility that benefits might
be jeopardized under new management.
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Perhaps it may be likely that it is the continued pressure from World Bank to get the reform process moving and
to keep it on track that causes some of these humanitarian issues somehow to be brushed aside. These
indictments are not a rarity. The fears about privatization are not only Nigerian-made apprehensions. Worldwide,
proponents of labor have been the most vigorous and persistent. Critics of privatization are consistently portraying
its negative effects on income distribution and worker welfare. Not enough is yet known empirically about the
impact of privatization in Nigeria to form definitive judgments; the current statements on the issue still lie
between propositions and conclusions.
Objectives of Privatization
It is possible that some of these popular and critical perceptions and assertions about privatization are accurate.
There is no doubt that mistakes have been made in the past and that promises have not been kept, for instance
the incidence of interference from political office holders. However, it may turn out to be a mistake to judge
privatization from a limited perspective. The set of objectives privatization programs are meant to achieve is
broad and involved; it has many fundamental components that can act together for the enhancement of
microeconomic efficiency. There are, indeed, some critical long run objectives to be achieved through privatization
including the following:
● increasing productive efficiency;
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strengthening the role of the private sector in the economy, which will guarantee employment and higher
capacity utilization;
improving the financial health of public services with savings from suspended subsidies;
freeing more resources for allocation to other needy areas of governmental activities (for example, finances
that would have been applied for subsidies should now be channeled to the development of rural
communities); and
reducing corruption because interference by politicians will cease.
Invariably, a privatization program ought to be judged and assessed by the extent to which the stated objectives
have been met. Furthermore privatization could take a slow but steady developmental speed.
Agenda for a Successful Privatization Exercise
Capturing the Confidence of Labor
Government should endeavor to win over labor’s acceptance of privatization by giving them ownership of shares
in the enterprises. Workers could be allocated a percentage of the shareholding at a special discounted price.
There is need for good follow up on privatized enterprises. There is need to keep a record of accurate figures on
pre- and post-privatization employment levels including statistics to show whether employment is declining or
increasing to calm the fear of labor unions. Other statistics should include how much of capable and qualified labor
will be absorbed by the buyers, etc.
Addendum
Labor on the other hand must also realize that many of the jobs also might have been lost anyway by
retrenchment, since government could not keep subsidizing crises-ridden public enterprises indefinitely; the only
exercise that could be guaranteed is constant layoff. Other than privatization, any serious attempt to address the
deficiencies and losses of public sector enterprises must necessarily involve downsizing.
Inclusion of Labor
Interaction with the unions as stakeholders is often a good strategy. One of the major mistakes that is common in
privatization in Africa is taking the workers for granted. When the unions are not involved in the organized
process, it may be difficult to gain their cooperation. The stakeholders must be sensitized to the impending
constraints that privatization is likely to bring about, especially in the short run.
Monitoring of Privatization Processes
Some countries have created strong semi-autonomous privatization commissions with participation from
government, business, and other sectors. Nigeria can create such a commission consisting of governmental
representative(s) - possibly the BPE, labor union representative(s), and representatives of Chambers of
Commerce - to be involved in the monitoring and implementation processes.
Transparency and Accountability
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One of the most important issues in privatization is the concern for transparency and accountability. The Nigerian
nation is characterized by distrust and suspicion. Suspicions of corruption that follow privatization deals require
that separate auditing and House of Assembly Oversight Committees be established to help in the monitoring
process. Transparency creates a perception of honesty and accountability. The funds realized from sale of public
enterprises can be invested in tangible public interests like services of education and health. Some developing
countries apply their proceeds towards debt repayments. It is my considered opinion that money realized from
sale of public enterprises and saved through withdrawal of subsidies should be invested in the hinterland for
provision of infrastructure. This will not only enhance development, but also will check the drift of rural-urban
migration, especially among the youth, since the cities are getting overpopulated while the rural areas are quickly
deteriorating.
Consistency and Credibility
I learned sometime ago that consistency plus credibility equals economic confidence. There is no doubt that the
public always desires an unbroken record of credibility to win their confidence in any structural reform program.
The key to credibility is consistency and communication. Whenever government lacks credibility, people refuse to
change, until the confrontation that ensues imposes unavoidable cost on the warring parties at the expense of the
economy.
Ideological Imperatives
It is quite instructive to note that successful structural reform cannot be recorded unless:
1. the government trusts, respects, and, most importantly, informs the public adequately, every step of the
way, as to why certain actions are being taken
2. privatization is done properly with no special concessions or privileges when selling public enterprises; and
3. the creditor countries consider Nigeria’s specific circumstances while mounting pressure on the speed of the
privatization exercise because ours is a low-income country characterized by poverty.
The Bottom Line
The concluding point is that if privatization is carried out with sincerity of purpose, almost every group will come
out ahead as a result of divestiture. Workers will be shareholders. Consumers will be better off because of better
services. New graduates and the unemployed will get jobs because of expansion. Government will be relieved of
the burden of subsidies. Investors will gain investment opportunities. Ultimately, the public (both foreigners and
nationals) will be free to pursue any private economic interest.
Given the enormity of the socioeconomic problems facing Nigeria, there is every reason to worry about the state
of our plans and actions. The issues involved, from development of infrastructure through production of
vegetables, all have serious ramifications, not only for the public sector but also for the economy as a whole.
Bibliography
Aboyade, O. [1974]: "Nigerian Public Enterprises as an Organizational Dilemma" in Public Enterprises in Nigeria.
Proceedings of the 1973 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Society.
Federal Republic of Nigeria [1986]: Structural Adjustment Programme for Nigeria. Lagos: Federal Government
Printers.
Nightingale, S.M; Pindus, M.N. [1997]: Privatization of Public Social Service: A Background Paper. Unpublished.
Nwoye, M.I. [1995]: Small Business Enterprise: How to Start and Succeed. Benin: Benin Social Science Series for
Africa.
Nwoye, M.I. [1997]: Management Practices and Performance Determinants of Public and Private Sector
Enterprises in Anambra, Edo and Delta States of Nigeria: A Factor Analysis.
National Productivity Centre, [1991]: Productivity for Self-Reliance and Excellence.
Proceedings of the 1st National Productivity Day Celebration, 21 February 1991, Lagos.
Obadan, M.I. [1993]: Wither Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. Ibadan: NCEMA Monograph Series No. 3.
Transparency International, “Transparency International publishes 1997 Corruption Percpetion Index”, Press
Release, Berlin 31 July 1997
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Yahaya, S. [1991]: "The Performance of Public Enterprises in an International Context: An Empirical Study" in
Public Enterprises in Nigeria. The Nigerian Economic Society Annual Conference, Sokoto.
World Bank [1994a]: Adjustment in Africa: Reforms, Results and the Road Ahead. Washington, DC: The World
Bank.
World Bank [1994b]: World Development Report, 1994: Infrastructure for Development. Washington, DC: The
World Bank.
About the author:
May Ifeoma Nwoye, Ph.D., (Nigeria), obtained her BBA (Accounting) from George Washington University,
USA, MBPA (Finance) from SouthEastern University, Wasington DC, and Ph.D (Management), University of Benin,
Nigeria. She is Certified National Accountant of Nigeria (CNA), and a member, Nigerian Institute of Management.
She is a Nigerian female writer. Her doctoral dissertation research was related to the Public and Private sector
enterprises in Nigeria. She is the author of a number of books and many scholarly articles on entrepreneurship
and management in many local and international journals.
E-mail : maynwoye@yahoo.com
[1] ‘Welfarism” - the set of attitudes and policies characterizing or tending toward the establishment of a welfare
state (note of the editor).
[2] Transparency International, “Transparency International publishes 1997 Corruption Percpetion Index”, Press
Release, Berlin 31 July 1997, p. 2. Available at:
http://www.transparency.org/cpi/1997/cpi1997.pdf (added by the editor)
[3] See: http://www.transparency.org/cpi/1998/cpi1998.html (added by the editor)
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Public Goods – The Economic vs. the Ethical Category
Abstract
Public Goods – The Economic vs the Ethical Category
By Ljubica Komazec, Ph.D., Faculty of Economics, Subotica, Serbia and Montenegro
Property is theft.
Proudhon [1]
The phenomenon of public goods has existed since the dawn of civilization, but their significance and the approach
to them has been different in various historical, and especially socio-economic, stages of the development of
civilization. This issue is becoming emphasized in the conditions of the occurrence of the New Economy (or Total
Economy), especially in countries in transition. Serbia & Montenegro is currently in the stage of general transition,
which involves a dramatic process of transforming social into private property, with all the elements of the elitist
process. During such a transition, it is necessary to explain and educate all the interest and social groups about
the essence of public goods, as well as about the consequences of their uncritical, excessive and immoral
privatization. This paper points to the very essence of public goods and their generally adopted classification with
a special emphasis on the ethical, as opposed to the economic, dimension of determining the goods themselves
and the approach to them. This is an obligation of present generations both for ourselves and for all future
generations.
Key words: public goods, ethics, awareness, public choice
The phenomenology of public goods is as old as civilization in general. What is variable in relation to public goods
is the awareness of them, the knowledge about them (cognition on a scientific basis) and the approach to them.
An additional variable is the degree of organization in providing public goods at various stages of the development
of civilization.
Economic Genesis and Classifications
Economics as a science started to develop intensively and to systematize its knowledge in the second half of the
19 th and the early 20 th centuries. It is, therefore, a very young science, compared to mathematics or philosophy,
for example. Its constitution and development are mostly related to the development of markets, exchange,
money, and production as organized activities, etc. However, we shall all agree that human communities had
existed and functioned even before the occurrence of economics as a science and of the elements of economics in
the categorical sense. These communities used natural goods (natural resources) under some principles that we
cannot call economic in the above sense.
The primitive accumulation of capital, the development of trading capital, the beginning of manufacturing and
technological inventions, and the formation of strong nation states made the economic processes complex and
imposed a need to explain them. Furthermore, these conditions created a need that is considered more important
today, the need to predict and project them.
In terms of economics, in relation to public goods, the strongest influence was the occurrence and development of
manufactured goods. That is to say the fact that public goods - in large numbers - acquired the characteristics of
goods and all the features of commodities – use-value, exchange-value, and market price. Three facts cardinally
contributed to this process:
- Increase in the global population,
- The scarce and limited character of natural resources, and
- The developmental trend of economic sciences, especially political economics, supported by marketing and
similar skills, and their turn from the objective (labor) theory of value to a subjective value theory, which meant
opening the process of “creating” human needs. [2]
Modern economic science defines and systematizes public goods starting from the most general division of all
goods into private and public. Thus goods range from purely/completely private goods to purely/completely public
goods.
The basic economic characteristics of private goods are:
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- Users of private goods easily can be and are charged for their utilization;
- The marginal production cost of goods is positive (equal or higher than the average cost); and,
- In the acquisition (purchase and use) of private goods, consumers act by the principles of rivalry (if I do
– you don’t) and exclusion (I paid – only I use).
What is characteristic of public goods, however, is that:
- It is practically impossible to charge for utilization because production cost is indivisible, so that marginal
cost equals zero; and
- What applies in their utilization are the principles of non-rivalry (both I – and you – and others) and
non-exclusion (nobody can be prevented from use).
Between these two (theoretically known as extreme) definitions of goods are the so-called transitional forms of
goods, such as common pool resources (hunting grounds and pastures [3] ) or club goods (concert halls, sports
halls or swimming pools).
Another, not less significant, classification of public goods uses allocation criteria. According to these criteria, all
public goods are divided into:
- Global public goods (state borders are not obstacles for the inhabitants of other countries to benefit from
these resources – such as biological diversity, tropical rainforests, and air);
- National public goods (national defense and national parks); and
- Local public goods (municipal parks and squares).
It is the allocation criteria that introduce key economic categories (and related problems) into the system:
- The category of ownership and
- The category of rent (cost, i.e., benefit from utilization).
The largest number of natural resources does not have an owner or is in a special ownership regime, (e.g.
essential resources necessary for life - water, air, and biodiversity). This ownership regime is known as “res
nullius” - nobody owns and nobody controls the resources.
Unlike this regime, there are:
- State ownership regimes (state-owned and controlled resources) and
- Communal regimes (resources owned and controlled by groups of co-owners).
The systems of ownership and rent (utilization cost) are the categories leading to problems and conflicts in the
production and use of public goods. The most often addressed consequential issue is that of free riders, (i.e. rent
dissipation) which ultimately leads to the “tragedy of the commons.” [4] Simplified, in the absence of price, access
to public goods is not limited by anything so scarce resources are subject to an unlimited degree of exploitation.
To prevent this drastically negative phenomenon, it is necessary to set utilization rules, especially through:
- Legislation (or a regulation arrangement), which implies setting standards for participants regarding
exploitation and imposing sanctions on those who break the regulations;
- An arrangement (system) of utilization fees (based on the principle “the users pay”);
- An arrangement of developed licenses, set by a competent authority (i.e. in exploiting marine fisheries
and resources); and
- Traditional resources based on awareness, responsibility, good practices, culture and tradition, without
particular enforcement forms other than social values.
From Ethics to Economics and Back
History teaches that human communities at a lower degree of technical development had a higher awareness of
the significance of public goods (e.g. drinking water springs), like the awareness shown nowadays by Swiss dairy
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Public Goods – The Economic vs. the Ethical Category
farmers or animal rights activists. This simplified parallel leads to a conclusion that high awareness, and the
related ethics, of the importance of public goods is immanent in those human communities that are extreme in
terms of technical development – either at a very low or a very high level.
What is it all about? It is obvious that this important issue is directly related to the level and degree of satisfaction
of a person's need for goods. If a person is satisfied at the level of his or her personal needs his or her
awareness of public goods is higher and vice versa.
Let’s take a very simple example. You have your own car that you use daily to commute to work. In this way, you
have solved and satisfied your own need to get to work and back home efficiently and comfortably, using all the
benefits of your own private good (the car). At the same time, your have the possibility, of which nobody deprives
you, to use bus, tram, train, etc. (i.e. public transportation) – as public goods. Many of your fellow citizens will
use the public goods because they are entitled to them, because they do not own cars or because they do not
want to drive their own cars. In this case, objective circumstances or motives for using public goods are
completely irrelevant, and we all bear the costs of using public goods – paying the fares (if we ride on it) or taxes
and fees used to finance the organization and functioning of public transportation.
Another textbook example of public goods is a national defense system. Every citizen in the state has an equal
right to security and safety of his or her life and property. In terms of organizational economics, production of the
public good, national defense, is in the hands of the state, for which certain funds need to be provided. Financing
defense is one of the most important state expenditures, and the awareness of it is widespread no matter how
pacifist one may be.
As a third example, during the summer heat, each person has equal (natural) need to cool down in the water.
This need may be satisfied in various ways. They can, for example, go to the municipal swimming pool (a public
good) or build their own swimming pool (a private good). They can travel to some of the appealing resorts where
they will be using the swimming pool inside their hotel (a club good) or go to a public beach – depending on their
needs, wishes or personal attitudes. Let us stick to the municipal pool. We may, but do not have to, use this
public good. However, the awareness of the need for it will seldom cause protest if the municipal authorities use
funds collected from the taxes we all pay (or should pay) to build (produce) a municipal swimming pool. The
problem may arise if, at one point, the municipal authorities decide to sell the pool, as the new ownership form,
guided by the logic of profit and the policy of pricing for the service of using the pool, will lead to the exclusion of
certain people (first of all the poor) from the availability of this good for all citizens.
Production of public goods is financed from public income. The players in this process are all the members of a
community, at any organizational level – local, regional, national or federal. Nobody, therefore, is excluded from
production or consumption (availability). Within these coordinates, a public good is an explicit economic category
determined by other economic categories: income-expenditure, cost-benefit, production-consumption.
In the above mentioned, as well as all other examples of public goods, however they may be categorized (as
global, national, communal, common pool or club). What inevitably imposes itself is the concept of awareness
(consciousness?) of the need for public goods and their production, as a per se necessity. This ontologism based
on the concept of good (as opposed to bad) leads us into determining public goods as an ethical category.
Where is the Lost Ethic?
The ethical discourse of technology, with all its good and bad consequences, is rooted in the ancient tragedy,
when the “machine” appeared as the intermediary between God and humans (i.e., natural resources and people)
in its modern explicit meaning.
It is not necessary nowadays to demonstrate particularly that technological process has led to an imposing extent
of economic and any other type of progress in humankind. Similarly, it is unnecessary to demonstrate specifically
that development has lead to a regression in many spheres of human life with very pessimistic prognoses for the
future.
Despite the facts and the knowledge of harmfulness of certain technological solutions, humans use them
excessively and indiscriminately, turning in this process against themselves. Production of one resource (e.g.,
motorways, so that we can travel faster and more safely) necessarily destroys another resources (e.g., fertile land
or forests). The awareness of a natural (public) good withdraws in this away before the (created?) need to rest on
a distant shore of a sea or a lake or to do “business” quickly. Technical solutions and their role in the frantic
satisfaction of generated rules, willingness to pay for them, and especially to make profit, bring us into a situation
where we must once again “form” people's awareness of the gradual, but radical, “change of people's attitude
toward nature, society, other people, the world and life, on the foundations of the new naturalized humanism and
humanism in general,” [5] with the creation of the new value matrix.
On the boundary between the industrial and the post-industrial epochs, perhaps the most important question of
the civilization is: Does what I do benefit or harm the human in me and/or in other humans? Probably the solution
to this dilemma, at the same time the most difficult, is creating needs appropriate to a person. Maybe it will tickle
our imaginations to know why a person, a famous athlete or businessperson, hoards 10 - or more - best or fastest
cars in his or her garage and lives in a house with several dozen rooms on an estate of several hundred hectares,
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Public Goods – The Economic vs. the Ethical Category
even though it exceeds by far his or her existential needs. Can we imagine what would happened if he or she
wished for, or could afford, and were willing to pay for, purchase and turn into his or her private good, Niagara
Falls, Plitvice Lakes or the Tara Canyon?
There are numerous examples showing how economics defeated ethics. Accumulation of private goods beyond the
extent of a person’s needs is evidence of this and will persist as long as material private goods remain the
measure of a person’s value.
The Tara Canyon – Victory of Ethics over Economics – for the Time Being
A recent idea of the Government of Montenegro to publish an Invitation to Tender for a dam and hydroelectric
plant on the River Tara is the most typical example of how a purely public good nearly became a marketable
economic (maybe even private) good. This infantile idea of the Government, fortunately, mobilized a wide front of
conscious people, formally and informally organized groups, expert and non-governmental organizations. For the
time being, the Tara will remain what it should be – a public good.
At this point, we come to the key assumption for the preservation of public goods and their function – public
choice. According to the theory of public choice (a separate, modern economic discipline), public choice is a
“process whereby individual preferences are joined into common decisions.” [6] A democratic society (a mature
one, of course) coordinates and appreciates the significance of individual values and tastes and establishes them
by the principle “one person – one vote.”
It is the sum of individual values and preferences, on the basis of the qualified majority, that directs and shapes
(through its legitimate representatives) the frameworks and goals of policy in a community (state, region, local
community) and nominates politicians as the reflection of the voters’ awareness. Conscious voters (educated,
informed, responsible) will choose such representatives, and vice versa. Not entering any further into this equally
significant issue, it is necessary to underline that in this way, by public choice, we, citizens-voters, actually
establish our own system of values. For this reason it is necessary to open the widest possible front for educating
and informing the population about public goods and their importance for us and especially for future generations,
to whom we also bear huge responsibility.
Translation from Serbian: Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Serbia and Montenegro
Sources:
1. Babi•, Mate (2001). Makroekonomija [Macroeconomics]. Mate d.o.o, Zagreb.
2. Bojovi•, Viktorija (2004).“Javna dobra – karakteristike, formiranje tražnje za javnim dobrima i problem
besplatnih korisnika” [Public Goods – Characteristics, Forming Demand for Public Goods and the Free Rider
Problem] in Anali ekonomskog fakulteta u Subotici, Issue 12, 2004.
3. Draškovi•, Božo (ed.) (1998). Ekonomija prirodnog kapitala [The Economics of Natural Capital]. Belgrade.
4. Goodstein, Eban (2003). Ekonomika i okoliš [Economics and the Environment]. Mate d.o.o, Zagreb.
5. Ili•, Bogdan et al. (2000). Politi•ka ekonomija [Political Economics]. Beograd.
6. Maleševi•, Krstan (2004). •ovek protiv sebe – ogledi iz socijalne ekologije [Man Against Himself – Essays in
Social Ecology]. Belgrade.
7. Milenovi•, Božida (2000). Ekološka ekonomija [Ecological Economics]. Niš,.
8. Samuelson, Paul, and William Nordhaus (2000). Ekonomija [Economics]. Zagreb.
Ljubica Komazec, Ph.D., Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia and
Montenegro. Her fields of expertise are Economics of Companies, Menagement, and Environmental Economics.
She is a co-author of three textbooks, published about forty articles and papers, and participated in developing
about forty scientific and research projects. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal «Annals of the Faculty of
Economics in Subotica''.
E-mail: ljkomazec@eccf.su.ac.yu
[1] Proudhon, Jean-Pierre, Qu’est-ce que c’est la propriété ? Recherche sur le principe du droit et du government,
[What is Property? Or, an Iquiry into the Principle of Right of Government], 1840
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[2] According to the subjective value theory, the value of goods is determined by the desire of an individual (i.e.,
the attitude of an individual toward a commodity – what it means for him/her). If, for example, we like to follow
fashion, we shall do anything to come into possession of fashion novelties, entering the consumer society whirl.
[3] An example of communal goods is the utilization regime of pasture rights in Switzerland. Alpine pastures have
been communal property for centuries. Overgrazing was prevented by associations of users who limited the
allowed number of cattle. These associations have had a long-term, stable function and have transferred rights
and responsibilities from one generation to another. The bases for their functioning are awareness of
communality, trust and obedience to rules.
[4] An irresistibly imposing association is that of the system of social property in the former Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia.
4 Krstan Maleševi•: •ovek protiv sebe – ogledi iz socijalne ekologije [Man Against Himself – Essays in Social
Ecology] Belgrade, 2004, p. 59.
[6] Mate Babi•: Makroekonomija [Macroeconomics] , Zagreb, 2001, p. 390.
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Faites vos jeux, Messieurs!
Faites vos jeux, Messieurs!
or
A Case Study on the Impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in Bulgaria - The
Concession of Sofia Water Supply and Wastewater Services: Legal, Economic, Social and Gender
Aspects
By Genoveva Tisheva and Irina Moulechkova, Ph.D., Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria
Executive Summary and Recommendations *
On October 6, 2000 Sofiyska Voda - EAD /Sofia Water/ started to operate the water supply, wastewater and
sanitation services for Sofia city. Sofiyska Voda /Sofia Water/ is a special purpose company established between
the winner of the bid for a water concession - International Water Ltd. (IWL) /a company in consortium between
US Bechtel Group and the British United Utilities International/, and the existing municipally owned utility
company - ViK /Vodosnabdyavane i Kanalizatsia EAD/. “Sofia Water” was established initially with 75% of shares
belonging to International Water Ltd. and 25%- to Sofia municipality through ViK EAD. The financial contribution
of IWL was supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development /EBRD/.
The Concessionaire’s responsibility is to operate and maintain the water supply and sewerage system during the
Concession period and to design, plan, finance and construct the required capital investments. The MoS retained
ownership of all existing water and wastewater infrastructure assets during the Concession period. Ownership of
new infrastructure assets, construed by the Concessionaire was also vested in the MoS. The Concession company
was entitled to the right to use those assets in accordance to the Concession Contract. The duration of the
concession was initially determined to be 25 years, extendable for a further 10 years in accordance with the
Municipal Property Act. A significant programme of capital investment was required in both the water supply and
the wastewater systems to meet the target service standards and the Concessionaire was required to invest at
least USD 150 million in capital works over the concession period. The Concessionaire had the obligation to make
mandatory investment of the amount of USD 152 Million during the first 9 years of the concession period. It is the
first transaction of that kind in Bulgaria and one of the biggest investment contracts for the period. Furthermore,
the Concessionaire is responsible for the metering, billing and revenue collection and has the power to warn
customers with disconnection for non-payment.
Thus, the concession contract left within the hands of the concessionaire, with predominant foreign participation,
the implementation of the right to water and the provision of water supply as essential service.
Not surprisingly, the concession contract was concluded within a special legal and economic international context -
the commitments undertaken by Bulgaria in the framework of the WTO, and namely under the GATS /General
Agreement on Trade in Services/, combined with the conditionalities of the World Bank and the other international
financial institutions pushing for liberalization of the water and energy sector, as well as of other essential
services. This contract means as well that Bulgaria has become a target of the interests of the big water
transnational companies /TNCs/ - a market clearly dominated by the biggest European and US actors at the
moment.
Bulgaria joined the WTO as of December 1, 1996 after entering into force of the Protocol for the Accession to the
Marrakech Agreement. The country applies all multilateral trade agreements, annexed to Marrakech Agreement
from the date of accession without recourse to any transitional period. Bulgaria accepted as a single undertaking
the three major agreements - GATT, GATS and TRIPS. Due to the fact that Bulgaria “jumped” into the WTO
directly with the status of a developed country / being one of the first countries in Eastern Europe to do so/, the
reforms of the transition period had to be conducted in a framework of open markets and strong international
competition. Despite the scarce economic effect and the negative social impact of liberalisation, Bulgaria is firmly
intended to join and pursue the WTO agenda. This is because the country wants to be recognised and accepted in
the democratic international community.
By joining GATS the Bulgarian government had to start playing the GATS game and, subsequently, to follow its
rules. GATS is the first multilateral agreement containing the commitment for a continuous liberalization of the
trade in all services, essential services included, through binding rules. The aim of GATS is to increase
international trade by removing any control and restrictions as fiscal policies, standards, conditionalities,
environment protection, existing social standards or laws which maintain the public monopoly on some services.
Exemptions are very limited in practice and commitments, once made, are irreversible. The Bulgarian government
made a lot of horizontal commitments as well as commitments through a broad range of services; namely,
Bulgaria is bound by liberalisation in the field of environmental services - wastewater, sanitation, litter collection,
except for services in the exercise of state authority. There are no limitations for the commercial presence
concerning sewerage, wastewater and other related services. The liberalization and deregulation of water supply
services, in Bulgaria included, are subject to the pressure within the WTO. In the frame of the request – offer
procedure launched, a high number of requests in the water sector were made mainly by the EU /apparently more
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Faites vos jeux, Messieurs!
than 70/ to the developing countries. There is unofficial information about the pressure that should be exerted
also on states from Eastern Europe, too. The forthcoming Ministerial in Hong Kong is an important stage for the
negotiations around this large amount of “water requests”.
The Bulgarian government has not adopted safeguards and regulatory mechanism in order to protect the socialeconomic
right of the Bulgarian citizens in the conditions of liberalization. The services sector is particularly
relevant for women’ s employment and for the safeguard of other social rights but the gender implications are
ignored as well. Women make almost 63% of the employed in services, according to the National statistical
institute /NSI/. The share of women in the total amount of employed people in the middle of 2002 has been about
47%. Thus, women are much better represented in the sectors as education (79,6%), where they are 4,2 times
more than men, health care (75,7%) and other social services, they are 3,9 times more than men, finances and
insurance (61,7%), hotels and catering (57,7%) commerce (51,4%). According to the estimations of the
specialised trade union for water supply and wastewater sector, women make about 36-38% of the people
working there. It is a relatively high number, given the characteristics of the work the sector involves.
The arguments about the impact of trade liberalization, and namely of GATS, on women, shared by feminist
organisations and experts, are valid also for Bulgaria:
- The costs and the benefits from intensifying the monetary flows, the trade in goods and services, and the
labour market are unevenly shared between women and men. It consolidates the traditional division of roles of
women and men, just like it consolidates the other forms of social inequalities.
- Trade liberalization impose significant constraints on governments - they have to remove regulations
concerning labour rights, gender equality, social policies, which make obstacles to foreign investors - thus causing
welfare losses; it impairs the capabilities and willingness of the government to start and to continue implementing
gender equality and gender empowerment programmes.
- It devalues the contribution of women to taking important decisions at political level, and also in the sphere
of privatisation and trade at national and international level.
- Trade liberalisation causes decrease in the purchasing power of the households and progressively increases
obstacles for access of marginalized groups to basic services, with significant implications for women’s
reproductive roles. Special implications are observed in women - headed households.
- Women are finally responsible for the survival of the family, they have to compensate with their care and
other work the lack of or the lack of access to basic services.
- GATS affects women who make a high percentage of the employed in the services sector, especially in the
health and education sectors; due to the division of labour in other sectors, like the water supply and sewerage
sectors, for example, women are endangered from redundancies in the administrative departments.
- Women are affected by the privatisation of basic services, as they are main beneficiaries of services as
health, social security, and social assistance.
Bulgaria has ratified all the international treaties on fundamental human rights and freedoms and is bound by
them, and namely by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Given the vital
importance of access to water, as well as the dangers for the enjoyment of this right, the UN Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at its 29 th session on 26 November 2002 issued a General Comment No.
15/2002 on the Right to Water /E/C.12/2002/11 /. The General Comment/GC/ is adopted in relation to art.
11 /right to an adequate standard of living/ and art.12 /right to health/ of the Covenant. The rights to water is
declared as indispensable for leading a life in human dignity and a prerequisite for the realisation of the other
human rights.The main requirements for the realisation of the right to water are: availability, quality,
accessibility /in this respect, all water facilities and services must be sensitive, among others, to gender and lifecycle
requirements/, economic accessibility, non-discrimination, information accessibility concerning water issues.
Women should not be excluded from decision-making on the issues related to the right to water. State
responsibility is explicitly stressed upon- state is responsible for ensuring the right to water, no matter by whom
water supply is operated and it has to adopt a national water strategy and an effective regulatory system.
As specialized agencies of the UN, the World Bank /WB/ and the International Monetary Fund /IMF/ are related to
the UN Charter and have special roles to play in the implementation of the two Covenants, especially in the
ICESCR. According to the legal theory, states cannot be exempt from their HR obligations, when they adhere to
another legal body. A point of inconsistency of the positions of the states forming the international financial
institutions /IFIs/ and the WTO is that they opted for strict regulations and enforcement of the decisions only at
the level of their financial and trade multilateral agreements, but left basic human rights without a reliable
enforcement mechanism
In the case of the Sofia water concession, the foreign investor “International water” is related to the global Water
oligarchy, which makes the driving force behind the otherwise legitimate claims for more investments,
restructuring and privatisation. Their thirst for profit and control and global alliances with banks and governments
made out of the right to water a mere commodity.
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In Bulgaria we observed the same pattern of conduct and social implications of the activities of the water TNCs,
identified in the investigation of the ICIJ /International Consortium of Investigating Journalists/ - they can be
ruthless players who constantly push for higher rate increases, frequently fail to meet their commitments and
when companies are fined for not achieving performance targets, they often don't pay, preferring to appeal
rulings in lengthy and expensive arbitration and court proceedings.
It is not accidental that prior to the concession of “Sofia water” by the time of the finalisation of the concession
contract, “International water” had failed already in Manila, the Philippines they provoked the famous riots in
Cochabamba.
Although the investor r had no experience in Eastern Europe, it found a lot of assets in Bulgaria which opened
good opportunities for profit: a strong deregulation and privatisation agenda of the government, with the
respective conducing privatisation climate and legislation, an obsolete infrastructure of water supply, well qualified
and trained personnel in the sector, favourable technical and climate conditions in Sofia. And last, but not least -
citizens who are not used to stand for their rights, who do not go out in the streets.
So, in these conditions, the concessionaire could afford: to take advantage of the defaults in the concession
procedure, by “overselling” its services; then to directed the investments towards the information and accounting
system, instead of investing in the infrastructure in need for modernization; not to account properly for the
investment and the use of the EBRD loan; to contract out essential water supply and sewerage services and to
make a good part of the qualified personnel redundant; to push for continuous increasing of the water rates , to
allow overcharging and arbitrary cuttings of water supply, without informing the clients, and non - achievement
of planned technical parameters ensuring the access to water. A survey conducted in the course of the research
revealed the trend that women are more sensitive to worsening of the services and raising the prices by “Sofia
water”. All the decision taken – about the concession and about its implementation were made with deficit of
women’ s participation.
Media remained the main vigilant ally of the citizens during the last three years, characterized by gaps and noncompliance
of the concessionaire with the initial contract.
At present and before taking a decision about the replication of the water concession model in other locations, the
government has to analyse and assess the social and economic effects of the transaction. The Bulgarian
government faces the dilemma- to answer the need for regulation of the water sector or to obey the agenda for
liberalization and deregulation. It is essential that the State implement the General Comment on the Right to
Water, ensure accessible water supply to all the citizens and regulate the water price rates, beyond the strict
division of public water supply companies, municipal, or private ones.
Recommendations:
- In the course of the interviews with experts it was stressed that with more investments allocated directly,
without passing through a foreign investor, and despite the conditionalities of the banks the situation with water
supply can be improved.
- The establishment of big regional water companies with a democratic structure as alternative to the model
of water concession were proposed by the experts in the field of water supply. This structure has to be combined
of course with the establishment and democratic functioning of national regulatory and controlling bodies.
- In any reform, a socially balanced approach that takes into account the needs of people and local
circumstances is preferable to any slavish imitation of models, as PPPs or 3Ps. The interests of workers in the
sector must be guaranteed, as well as access to water and energy at reasonable prices for all citizens, especially
the poor and disadvantaged.
- Bulgarian government has to opt for transparency of the decisions taken in relation to WTO and GATS.
In this respect - the citizens, the representatives of civil society, the trade unions have to be informed in advance
about the decisions to be taken, they have to be consulted on all important issues of trade liberalisation
- The government has to consult and account for to trade unions and civil society organizations - human
rights, social NGOs, organizations of minorities and vulnerable groups, women’ s organizations about liberalization
and restructuring in the sectors related to essential social services
- The political decisions about the liberalization of essential services have to be taken with the
participation of women and with respecting the opinion of women – the most affected and concerned by any
restructuring of this sector.
- In the meantime, all the implications of GATS in Bulgaria, and especially in the field of essential services,
should be reviewed, analysed and assessed from the point of view of their human rights and social implications.
Where needed, new laws, policies and programmes of the government in implementation of GATS should be
stopped.
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Faites vos jeux, Messieurs!
Bulgarian civil society has to start playing a leading role in supporting the international social
movements working in the field of the implications of GATS, and namely on essential services and to support the
appeals for STOPPING GATS: In implementation of that, civil society has to exert pressure on the Bulgarian
government to accept, support and to lobby for the implementation of the resolution of the UN Sub-
Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, which calls upon “ all governments and
international economic policy forums, including the WTO and its GATS Council, to conduct an assessment of the
impact of GATS on the implications of international trade in basic services such as health and education services
and their impact on human rights. An initial assessment would need to clarify what the GATS text actually means,
and the political sovereignty implications of what governments will or will not be able to do as a result of the
agreement”.
- Bulgarian civil society should insist and exert pressure on the government, in order to: make
Bretton Wood institutions recognise that the treaties on human rights are binding on their members, that
they ensure that their policies and programmes are in compliance with the provisions of international HR law;
make WTO adopt in its agreements legal safeguards for the protection of basic human rights, the right
to equality included, with effective legal mechanisms for implementation.
About the authors:
Prof. Irina Nikolova Moulechkova, Bulgaria, Ph.D., senior lecturer of International Public Law, University of World
and National Economics (UNWE), Sofia and of International Protection of Human Rights. Ex member of the
Supervisory Board of State Privatisation Agency. Articles and studios on International Standards of Human Rights
and Women’s Rights, ILO standards with regard equal opportunities of women and men on labour market. One
monograph on the status of individuals in International Public Law. Co-author of BGRF in Annual reports on
Bulgaria for Social Watch - 1999, 2000, 2003. Co-author of the Final report: “Privatization’s Impact on Women
during the Economic Transition in Bulgaria” 1999. Participation in the preparation of the Alternative report to the
Third Periodical Report of Bulgaria on the implementation of ICESCR, presented at the 21 st session of the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1999. Appointed by the President of Republic of Bulgaria as a
member of the Commission for Protection against Discrimination in 2005.
Genoveva Tisheva, Bulgaria, lawyer, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation.
Contact: brfg@fast.bg
* The Case Study is thepart of the WIDE (Women in Development Network) - BGRF Project ‘A Gender Perspective
in Privatisation of Public Goods and Services’ funded by Heinrich Boell Foundation (carried out in 2003 and
publication of the report in 2004)
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Is water a public good or a commodity?
Is Water a Public Good or a Commodity?
Thoughts on water privatization and related issues for poor populations
By Massan d'Almeida, AWID
Water is at the origin of life on earth. For a long time, it was considered an element. It was only in the eighteenth
century that the physician Henry Cavendish conducted his analysis and discovered its double structure, a binary
compound composed of oxygen and hydrogen. However, water can not be reduced only to what physicists and
chemists may have to say about it. The biologists' stand point on the matter is just as interesting.
"No living organisms can live without water in any of its forms. The reason why is simple: our cells, all living
animals, ourselves included, live in an aqueous environment. Therefore, there are constant chemical exchanges
through the membranes of our cells between the external environment composed of blood and interstitial liquids
and the internal environment composed of various substances dissolved in water. Living organisms are first and
foremost composed of water since there is water inside and outside of those cells."
(Claude Villeneuve, Eau secours!)
"We do not know the value of water as long as the well isn’t dry."
(Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732)
"Every eight seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from a disease related to shortage in drinking water
and health services."
(WHO, 2000).
More than 1.1 billion humans are indeed deprived of drinking water and 2.4 billion of health services. Already,
more than half of the population in developing countries suffers from at least one of the six main water related
diseases that kills more than five millions people every year, eleven thousands of whom are children who die
every day, which is three to four times the number of victims of the World Trade Center attacks! How then is one
to understand the deafening silence of the media and our own? Especially since this 'water woe' is stupidly,
recklessly and greedily imposed upon millions of us, as Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke's book eloquently
demonstrates: "States have indeed agreed at the Johannesburg Summit, to grant access to drinking water and
health services by 2015 to half of the population deprived of that access, however, this was accomplished at the
cost of a non-recognition of access to water as a basic human right, contributing thereby to this public good
becoming a commodity for the benefit of the water cartel."
Water needs an ethic for action. It must be guided by precautionary principles and principles of mutual respect as
well as by ideas of justice and solidarity. And so far, a binding human right to water has only explicitly been
mentioned in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and only in the
context of access without discrimination. Today, the right to water derives essentially from the binding norms of
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this regard, the right to water is derived as
a precondition to the right to life, the right to food, the right to health and the right to housing. This stance was
translated in the FAO's slogan for the World Food Day in 2002: "No food without water".
Therefore, it is clear that whoever is concerned with the future of humanity must irrevocably ponder on the issue
of water. Water, this "blue gold", has become an unavoidable issue. According to the UNEP, the global water crisis
is the biggest challenge facing the international community and the drinking water crisis has the same dimensions
and presents the same potential threats than climate changes.
The need for a convention on water is not a tokenistic exercise separate from the emerging reality as stated by a
few experts. Fundamental questions underline this call for a binding right, questions which need to be dealt with
as quickly as possible. Is access to water a human right? Is water a public good, like the air we breathe or is it a
commodity? Who can assume the right to open or close the water tap: a relevant authority, the population
(through public authorities or governments) or the invisible hand of the market?
Lack of financial resources is at the top of the list of arguments produced by the international community to
explain why billions of human beings continue to live in unacceptable conditions, deprived of water. The estimates
of additional private means required to reach the Millennium Goals vary greatly. The UNEP calculated that we
would need up to 180 billions dollars per year while the World Bank is talking about doubling annual investments
to reach 30 billions dollars. The report called "Camdessus" presented at the third Global Forum on Water in Kyoto
is also based on this argument. The primary originators of this report were the Global Water Partnership and the
World Water Council. It had been drafted by a financial expert under the responsibility of the former Director of
the International Monetary Fund, Michel Camdessus and must be used as a reference for donors' future policies. It
speaks again of mega projects such as those which have been implemented in the last few years in many
countries with all the fatal social and ecological consequences that we all know.
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Is water a public good or a commodity?
According to advocates for the privatization of water supply services, additional financial resources would need to
be mobilized through the private economy. We know the numerous examples of indebted developing countries
who are pressured by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to privatize their water services in
order to obtain new loans. Reality shows without any ambiguity that the privatization of water supply services is a
dead-end path even when financial arguments are used.
The Millennium Goals will never be reached this way. Multinationals are only interested in providing water services
to mega cities, in other words areas with a clientele of a certain level of buying power and where there are great
opportunities for profit. Cases such as Manila, Maputo, Togo, South Africa, etc., demonstrate that multinationals
have no concern about backing out of their commitments when gains do not meet their expectations. It is then
the State who is forced to pay the consequences. Public-private partnerships that have been subjects of countless
praises and have been highlighted again in the Johannesburg Action Plan are also leading down the wrong path
and have not thus far contributed to solving the water crisis.
Rather, the reality is as follows: the majority of people who do not have access to safe drinking water live either
in rural areas or in slums. Another far-reaching consequence of water privatization is higher water bills and drastic
measures that are taken by companies against customers when they are not paid on time.
Water, basis of all life, remains without global and autonomous protection embedded in international law. An
international convention on water could be one solution, offering the following benefits:
● Rendering the right to water, like any human right, binding on legal grounds.
● Guaranteeing the right to water to future generations.
● Protecting water as a public good for humanity.
● Prioritizing water provision and holding States accountable for the respect, protection and implementation
of the right to water.
● Preventing water from being privatized and for becoming a commercial good.
● Granting priority to human rights to water as opposed to the international trade law (i.e. WTO).
● Putting water sources, unconfined groundwaters, rivers and lakes under the complete protection of public
international law.
● Guaranteeing women’s access to water as a human right.
● Protecting local and nations rights to water for indigenous peoples within international law.
● Anchoring the traditional culture of water and locals rights (nomads', for example) to water within
international law.
● Ensuring that the population is a stakeholder and has its say, democratically, in the development of
national and local strategies in water related matters.
● Making available to all women and men legal ways internationally and nationally to claim the right to water.
Published in:
Resource Net Friday File,
Issue 198
Friday, October 8, 2004
Association for Women's Rights in Development ©
http://www.awid.org
* This article originally appeared on our French-language e-list Carrefour, Volume 3, Number 16, May 25, 2004.
It was translated to English by Cécile Grégoire.
References:
1. Global+ Dossier N°2, April 2004
2. L'Encyclopédie de l'Agora
3. Business Africa
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Overview
Women and Water Privatization
By Ana Elena Obando
WHRnet (Women’s Human Rights Net) *
The increase of the global degradation of ecosystems, the excessive consumption of water, contamination and
salinization of water-bearings, aquifers and dams, along with the impact of extreme poverty which has been
worsened by privatization, are contributing factors to an environmental catastrophe. This has had profound effects
on the availability of drinking water and, consequently, has led to the violation of the right to life, safety, food,
health and education of billions of human beings.
Water is a fundamental and inalienable human right and a common good that every person and institution of this
planet should protect. This resource is, like air, a heritage of humanity and must be declared that way. Water is
not merchandize and no person or institution should be allowed to get rich from the sale of it. It should not be
privatized, marketed, exported or transferred to a few multinational companies, which today already control 90
percent of privatized water utilities. For the GATT, NAFTA and FTAA, water is a commodity, an investment, a
simple service for commercial use and profit.
Women are the most affected by this crisis. More than half of the 1.2 billion people who do not have access to
water are women and girls. The IV World Women’s Conference of the United Nations in 1995 contains one chapter
in its Action Plan about women and environment in which the right to water was incorporated, although it was not
analyzed how the water shortage or contamination disproportionately affect women.
However, later investigations, as the one sponsored by UNIFEM, have verified that “… in most developing
countries women are responsible for water management at the domestic and community level. It was also
estimated that women and girls use more than 8 hours a day traveling from 10 to 15 km. to transport between 20
and 15 liters of water in each trip”. Men, especially in rural areas, do not play the role of getting or carrying water.
Their relation with water has more to do with agricultural work, and with the storage of water. This gender
inequality has implications in women’s daily life, from a rights based perspective, since the carrying of water not
only causes them physical disorders, but also makes it difficult for them to get involved in activities such as
education, income generation, politics, leisure and recreation.
According to a WEDO report, “…Women use vegetation and forests-for medicinal plants, food and fuel, as well as
for income generation-but these ecosystems rely on a healthy water supply. As the environment deteriorates,
women's livelihoods become increasingly vulnerable.” For example “the availability and placement of toilets has a
huge impact on women but in many communities women must walk a long distance to use facilities, often risking
their personal safety-there is an increased incidence of sexual and physical assault when toilets are in a remote
location. In rural areas where toilets may be unavailable, deforestation and loss of vegetation have forced women
and girls to rise earlier and walk further in search of privacy. Toilets are also unavailable for vast numbers of poor
women who work in urban centers. About 1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school during
menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the absence of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools”.
Together with this existing inequality and the consequent violation of almost all human rights, the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund have imposed the privatization of water services on several countries as a
condition to grant them loans. This has serious consequences for the entire population, but for women in
particular. Today many people in the world are advocating that water, as a basic right, be excluded from the WTO,
FTAA and FTA negotiations. This is because the when water is legally considered a commodity, an investment or a
service under international, regional or bilateral agreements, it violates the Agreement on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights and other International laws, and it also subjects the entire population of the world to a slow
environmental genocide due to the lack of this resource.
The Colombian researcher Mariela Adela Rivera-Santander highlights the consequences of water privatization “…
In Cochabamba, Bolivia, water privatization has caused an indiscriminate rate increase of up to 200 percent,
whereas in Conakry, Guinea, the increase has been 500 percent in only five years, resulting in a serious impact on
the lives of displaced women, girls and boys. She explains how: “...in Colombia and the Philippines when water
service is suspended due to nonpayment, women start using contaminated water again, which puts them at risk
of having serious illnesses they also spend long hours carrying water, in addition to not being able to cover food,
health or education expenses, since they are using that money to pay for the water service …”
Everyone must share water world resources: Economic sectors, interstate jurisdictions and sovereign nations,
while respecting the need for a sustainable environment. Women often have the responsibility of using and
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managing water in the worst conditions, sometimes having to choose between eating or being able to rely on
having water for daily chores. Time invested on securing water excludes them from participating in decisionmaking
processes, advocating against poverty and improving their quality of life. Equal access to water and
monitoring of water ecosystems to protect this resource and to prevent natural disasters is more than a necessity.
It is an urgent human right that cannot be postponed.
It is essential to reassess the economic, social and environmental roles of water and to recognize and value the
women’s function as users and managers of water resources. We need to consider the sustainability of
environmental resources in the planning, construction, operation and management of main water projects, to
evaluate the social impact of the development of water resources, to reestablish the quality and protection of
subterranean and surface waters, and to link water policies with other ecosystem policies from a gender
perspective.
Human Rights Mechanisms
● The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights excluded water as an explicit right. Its explicit inclusion was
believed unnecessary given its nature as a resource necessary for basic survival.
● Nevertheless, the General Comment #15 on the Articles 11 and 12 on the right to water, adopted in
November 2002 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights explicitly recognized that water
is a fundamental human right.
The 145 countries that ratified this Agreement are obliged to progressively ensure that every person has access to
safe drinking water, equally and without any discrimination. Obligation to respect this right requires that the
States part of this agreement abstain from adopting any conduct that interferes with the enjoyment of this right,
such as practices denying equal access to acceptable drinking water or illegally contaminating the water by
dumping industrial waste from Government companies. The parties are obliged to protect Human Rights, avoid
the interference of third parties in the enjoyment of the right to drinking water. This obligation requires that all
parties adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the right to drinking water.
● In the Convention for Eradicating Discrimination against Women (1979) is established that rural women’s
health depends on adequate and non-discriminatory access to water. Other rights usually not associated
with the right to water, but that directly affect women and girls, are the equal right to education and to
political participation.
● In 1995, during the Fourth World Women’s Conference (Beijing China), the Governments committed in the
Beijing Declaration “to
promote the knowledge and favor the investigation of women’s role, particularly in rural and indigenous
areas, in watering, land management and cleaning up, by focusing particularly on the knowledge and
experience of indigenous women”.
● This right is also mentioned in the Children Rights Convention (1989), article 24. Documents about the
Earth Summit , produced during the Rio De Janeiro meeting in June 1992.
● The UN Millennium Development Goals
● In the Ministerial Declaration of the Second World Water Forum , 2000 it was established that the best way
to protect the planet's ecosystem is to consider women’s involvement in the planning process, thereby
ensuring their participation in issues linked to water and land ownership.
● The International Water Conference (Bonn, Germany) establishes that water policies and water
management systems must be sensitive to gender issues. Any issues linked to water must deal with the
division of labor –with or without remuneration- between men and women. Men and women must
participate in the management of sustainable water resources exploitation and in the distribution of benefits
in equal conditions. The women’s role in any sphere linked to water must be strengthened and their
participation must be broadened”.
● The World Summit on Sustainable Development (August 2002).
● The Ministerial Declaration of the Third World Water Forum (March 2003)
● The Declaration of San Salvador for the defense of the Right to Water .
● Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to
Human Rights .
Facts and Figures
· 2.4. billion people in the world, in other words two fifths of the world population, do not have access to
adequate health.
● 1.1. billion people in the world, in other words one sixth of the world population, do not have access to
potable water.
● 2.2. million people in developing countries are dying every year, most of them children, from diseases
linked to the lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate health and poor hygiene.
● 6000 boys and girls die everyday from diseases linked to the lack of access to clean drinking water,
inadequate health and poor hygiene.
● The average distance a woman in Africa and Asia walks to collect water is 6 km.
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● The weight of water that women in Asia and Africa carry on their heads is equivalent to the baggage weight
allowed by airlines (20 kg).
● In developing countries one person uses an average of 10 liters of water per day. In the United Kingdom,
one person uses an average of 135 liters of water everyday.
● When you flush the toilet, you are using the same water amount that one person in the Third World uses all
day to wash, clean, cook and drink.
● In the last ten years, diarrhea has killed more girls and boys than all people who have died since the World
War II.
● In China, Indonesia, and India, the people dying from diarrhea are double to those dying from HIV/AIDS.
● The population of Nairobi, Kenya, pays five times more for one liter of water than does a North American
citizen.
● The Guatemalan a hand-washing initiative reduced 322,000 deaths from diarrhea in 1998.
● 1.5. billion people in the world are suffering from parasite infections due to solid waste in the environment,
which could be controlled with hygiene, water and sanitation. These infections can cause malnutrition,
anemia and delayed growth.
● In China, Mexico and Vietnam, communities are practicing ecological healthiness.
Sources:
Global Water Partnership, Understanding the Causes of Water Problems
Marcelina White, ¿Cómo afectará el ALCA a la mujer? (“How Will FTAA Affect Women?”), Women's EDGE
November 2003
UNIFEM, Mujer, Medio Ambiente, Agua: Reflexiones sobre la promoción y protección del derecho de las mujeres al
agua (“Women, Environment, Water: Reflections on the Promotion and Protection of Women’s Right to Water”),
24 de marzo del 2003
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, WASH Facts and Figures
WEDO, Conexiones No Escritas: Diferencias de Género en Cuanto al Uso y Manejo del Agua ("Unwritten
Connections: Gender Differences Regarding the Use and Management of Water”)
World Water Development Report, El acceso al Agua como Derecho Humano (“Access to Water as a Human
Right”)
Association for Women’s Rights in Development ©
http://www.awid.org
http://www.whrnet.org/docs/issue-water.html
* WHRnet (Women’s Human Rights Net) is a project of the Association of Women’s Rights in Development
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Transition
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TRANSITION
The Western Balkans – from “the leopard skin” to European Union
By Ilija J. Jombic
The situation in the Western Balkans is the result of the so-called “leopard skin” politics
of the international community. The consequences of this politics are a great number of
small states with significant national identity, among those there are still problems due to
undefined mutual borders, and all of them lagg behind the realization of the market and
democratic reforms. (IN SERBIAN)
Relevance of New Solutions:
The Example of Free Zones in Serbia and Montenegro
By Zdenka Djuric, Ph.D.
The transfer of the global economy into the phase of New Economics more than ever
gives significance to the issues of the relevance of new solutions being limited by time
and the issues of the knowledge and skills of particular subjects required to deal with
change successfully. The problem of changing patterns of successful functioning of the
global economy and its subjects does not lie only in the strength of arguments and
positions of the participants in the debate.
Position of Women in Montenegro
By Rosa Popovic
During the past ten years Montenegrin economy underwent economic transformation, as
well as serious social changes. This period is marked by the disintegration of former
Yugoslavia, wars in the region, a large number of refugees and internal displaced persons
(IDP's) who find shelter in Montenegro (at one moment they represented 12% of the
total Montenegrin population, and that was actually the period of the greatest economic,
social and political crisis).
The Quintessential Step of Serbia and Montenegro towards the European Union:
Facing Historical and Present Day Myths and Delusions
By Ognjen Radonjic
The European Union is the only rational future road to political and economic
development for Serbia and Montenegro. At the same time, it is also a powerful
guarantee of peace and stability in the region. Serbia and Montenegro is very far from
the European integration processes at this moment. In order to make the process of
accession faster and easier and at the same time to prevent eventual wars in the near
and distant future, this study has the aim of revealing two extraordinary delusions on the
part of Serbian people and present day national leaders.
Women’s Rights in the Western Balkans: In the Jaws of the Free Market
Mirjana Dokmanovic
The transitional economies of the region have a number of common characteristics, many
of these arising from their common experience of structural adjustment. The region’s
SAPs, dictated by the IMF, have features familiar from previous SAP experiences in other
regions, requiring removal of all obstacles to the international trade and foreign
investments, prompt privatisation, labour market flexibility and reduction of all social
costs. The new “transitional policy” abolished many of gained economic and social rights,
and these social and economic turbulences have mostly negatively influenced
marginalized groups, women being the majority of them.
Economic Reform and Poverty: A Gender Analysis
By Sally Baden
BRIDGE
Economic reform in many developing countries has been associated with stabilisation and
structural adjustment programmes supported by international financial institutions
(IFIs). As these have become more widespread and long term, concern has grown about

Transition
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the impact of economic reform policies on poverty. Evidence is not encouraging, with
many countries experiencing increases in poverty under programmes of economic reform
in the 1980s, or a worsening of income distribution, with a few exceptions. In recent
years, however, it has become evident that the poverty in countries undergoing economic
reform is not temporary in nature. Moreover, there is considerable evidence that
adjustment policies themselves have contributed to increasing poverty.
Invisible Workers: Women in the Informal Economy in Russia
By Zoya Khotkina, Ph.D.
The results of Russian quasi-reforms was deep economic crisis, break-down of the
industry, decline of the production, deterioration of living standard of the population and
mass unemployment. The lack of job, and livelihood opportunities drives labour force
from the official sphere of employment into the informal economy. The feminisation of
poverty and gender discrimination at the labour market are reasons why are women
more likely than men to work in the informal economy.

Relevance of New Solutions:
Relevance of New Solutions:
The Example of Free Zones in Serbia and Montenegro
By Zdenka Djuric, Ph.D., Faculty of Entrepreneurial Management, Bra•a Kari• University, Novi Sad, Serbia and
Montenegro
Abstract
On the example of free zones in Serbia and Montenegro, the author addresses two theses. The first, by which
even the best solutions do not last forever and have a limited period of relevance. The second, by which the utility
of a new solutions is highly dependent on the quality of the environment and the subjects using it.
Key words: free zones, Serbia and Montenegro
Introduction
The transfer of the global economy into the phase of New Economics more than ever gives significance to the
issues of the relevance of new solutions being limited by time and the issues of the knowledge and skills of
particular subjects required to deal with change successfully.
The problem of changing patterns of successful functioning of the global economy and its subjects does not lie
only in the strength of arguments and positions of the participants in the debate. The problem also lies in the
knowledge and skills to adopt new solutions in a qualitative manner within the relevant period.
In order to elaborate the above positions, this paper considers an unused possibility in Serbia and Montenegro.
Knowledge, skills and coincidence have caused the institution of free zones not to yield expected results and
effects during the period of high relevance.
Free zones as a new, advanced institution in a socialist country
The former Yugoslavia was a socialist country. Unlike other socialist countries, it had far more of the elements of a
market economy. In the conditions at that time, it maintained a rich practice of foreign economic relations. A little
less than one-half of total exports were placed in developed markets. Domestic practices included joint ventures
and long-term cooperation with foreign partners.
In such an environment, in the mid-1970s, legislation introduced the institution of free zones. Introduction of free
zones was accompanied with strong media campaigns about their significance for further access of the domestic
economy to the developed world, attracting international capital and transfer of international technology, for
further growing exports and creating new employment in the country. A climate was being created in which the
institute of free zones was represented as a condition for energizing further economic development.
Nowadays, regretfully, we find that the institution of free zones in Serbia and Montenegro, and as far as we know,
even wider, in the area of former Yugoslavia and its environment (Romania and Bulgaria) did not accomplish its
mission. One exception is Hungary, which initially opted for and very successfully used the trading zones.
Transitional changes in the country and liberalization of international trade and business sooner or later will raise
the issue of relevance and further maintenance of free zones.
Aim and basis of consideration
The question asked in compiling this paper is: Why did an institution, which at the time of its introduction
represented a modernization and liberalization of links between national and international economies, did not
accomplish its mission?
When answering this question, besides a decade of professional work on their development, I also wanted to rely
on empirical data. Having asked the Association of Free Zones of Serbia within the Chamber of Economy of
Serbia, I received the answer that there are no data and that the data are confidential.
Free zones in the Republic of Serbia
According to the data from the Internet [1] , free zones in the Republic of Serbia are located in Belgrade, Novi
Sad, Smederevo, Kovin, Šabac, Subotica, Sremska Mitrovica, Prahovo, Sombor, Lapovo, Vladi•in Han, Ba•ka
Palanka and Pirot. Most of these free zones have obtained establishing and working licenses, but factually, they
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are doing very little or no business at all. We must point out that in the 1980s and the 1990s there was a lot of
interest from numerous local governments and companies, mostly in underdeveloped communities, to establish
free zones. It was a climate in which it was in to have one's own free zone.
Definition of a free zone
Under the Law, (Official Gazette of FRY, issues 81/94 and 28/96), a free zone is:
● a part of the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY),
● enclosed area under Customs surveillance, regulated in terms of urban development and infrastructural
equipment,
● where, in the case of construction or business transactions, applicable regulations are the laws of the host
country and the company's bylaws related to the administration of free zones.
Enterprises managing free zones
Free zones on the national territory are incorporated companies owned by local governments, banks, freight
forwarding or transporting companies and other corporate entities.
In the practice of domestic free zones, new shares were issued and new share capital was added in a very small
number of cases. Otherwise, the assets of the free zones did not include the value of land in the free zone area.
Free zones are administered by free zone managing enterprises. The range of activities of these enterprises
includes:
● introducing tenants to land and premises within the free zone area;
● providing that investors and users of the free zone enjoy the privileges in construction and business
provided by the law for the area of free zones;
● managing the unobstructed operation of free zones; and
● providing certain services to the users of free zones.
Privileges for investment and business in free zones
At the time of passing the first Free Zones Act, when there were numerous customs barriers to the import of
goods on national level and when goods could be held under customs surveillance up to 60 days, free zones
provided the possibility of keeping goods under customs surveillance for unlimited time. Otherwise, any transfer of
goods from free zone area into the national market is subject to complete import procedure. One of the
advantages in this procedure is that the free zone area included Customs offices. At the time of passing the first
Free Zones Act, the Direct Foreign Investments Act did not provide, as it does today, the possibility for goods
used for setting up a new enterprise or a jointly owned facility to be imported exempt from import duties. The
Free Zones Act provides such a possibility. In the first Free Zones Act, the beneficiary of the free zone could have
a foreign currency bank account and full freedom of its use. By the changes in legislation regarding foreign
currencies, this privilege in doing business in free zones has lost significance.
Changes and liberalization of legislation regarding foreign trade and foreign currency transactions of domestic
subjects caused the dissipation of minor legislative privileges for investments and business transactions in
domestic free zones.
Services in free zones
Inside the free zone areas, the Law does not allow retailing or rendering services to users who are outside the free
zone area. It only allows wholesale between subjects located inside the zone and subjects outside the zone.
In compliance with contracts with free zone managing companies, a body corporate may organize and render
services inside the free zone area. As far as I know, such a possibility is not used in domestic free zones. On a
daily basis, the free zone area includes a small volume of individual specialized services, so that anyone who is
potentially interested faces the problem of their cost effectiveness.
In a number of free zones, managing enterprises organize and render services of handling and storage of goods,
as well as catering, for their users.
Programs and contents of free zones
In the 1970s and 1980s, domestic free zones were promoted as export-oriented production zones, although
legislation did not define it anywhere. Namely, legislation allows organizing all industries and activities in the free
zone area, with the exception of activities endangering national security and environment.
Experience has shown that domestic free zones acquired a profile of free trading zones. Some stages of
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production were organized in a very small number of free zones, mostly assembly stages, employing no more
than 10 workers per individual program.
Strengthening trading and transporting operations in the free zone area has lead to direct competition between
free zones and Customs zones and public storage facilities in the direct environment.
Users of free zones
The 1980s and 1990s were the time of frequent talks about the entry of multinational companies into the free
zone areas. The practice, however, failed to live up to the expectations. An average free zone user may be defined
as:
● a small rather than medium-sized enterprise;
● a domestic enterprise from the independently-developed private sector in the 1990s, or a foreign company
registered in a neighboring country by our citizens;
● an enterprise renting small premises for a shorter time, often using it to carry out a single or a few
importing or re-exporting transactions.
Foreign trade balance of free zones
The legislature provided that free zones must have exports worth 50% of the value produced and services
rendered in the free zone area over the period one year. Under the Law, if a free zone does not comply with this
requirement over three consecutive years, this entitles the competent authorities to hand down a decision for
withdrawing the permit to operate a free zone.
Justification of organizing export-oriented production in free zone space is highly subject to dispute. Legallyprovided
privileges for transactions in free zones do not stimulate export-oriented production. The legislature gave
a high quality solution to the problem of temporary import for finalization or for export, or the issue of temporary
import into the territory of the country.
According to my information, the value of import in the 1990s exceeded the value of export, but the issue of
implementation of the law was not raised due to the situation the entire country was in. Although I do not have
the latest accurate information, I tend to conclude that the recent years have not seen significant changes in
terms of the volume and size of foreign trade of the free zones. I believe that the share of exchange conducted in
the free zones is below 1% of the country’s total foreign trade.
Constructing and equipping of free zones
By definition, free zones cover areas regulated in terms of urban development, infrastructure and equipment, on
high-quality locations. It is true that in several cases free zones also have unregulated grounds in terms of
development and equipment. The problems of development and equipment, as well as lack of interest in
construction, have lead to the fact that only a part of the ground has been fenced and put to use. So far, local
authorities do not comply with the legal provision under which land allotted for construction must be used for
construction within a given period of time.
The average area of larger free zones is several dozen hectares of land. Smaller free zones cover a few hectares.
In the largest number of free zones, built business premises in the free zone regime include facilities that
represent the initial investment capital of the free zone.
Depending on the free zone, the areas of the built premises of standard dimensions range from 2,300 to 15,000
square meters. These premises, owned by the managing companies are either rented or used by the owners
themselves as storage space.
The largest number of free zone management enterprises has not invested in further expansion of business
premises. Only in the case of two free zones is there a recorded entry of foreign capital and construction of
premises for their own needs.
Rights of foreign investors
The Free Zones Act allows for foreign investors to be shareholders of free zones. Most of foreign equity
participation is limited to 49% of the value of the free zone's capital. This provision is one of the reasons for the
lack of foreign interest in capital extension of free zones.
In case of building within the free zone area, the investor is the owner of the facility and the tenant of the grounds
upon which the facility is built. The maximum period of tenancy is 60 years.
Factors contributing to failure of free zones to accomplish their mission
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Relevance of New Solutions:
companies in Vojvodina. She has published over 120 research and scientific papers.She is the author of one
monography and three university textbooks, and co-author of one university textbook. She is affiliate of the
Economics Institute in Belgrade and member of the Scientific Association of Economists.
Contact: zduric@eunet.yu
[1] Source: www.carinskatarifa.com/linkovi/slobodne_zone.htm
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Position of Women in Montenegro
By Rosa Popovic, Subregional coordinator of the Women's network of Southern Europe, International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions, Montenegro
Introduction
During the past ten years Montenegrin economy underwent economic transformation, as well as serious social
changes. This period is marked by the disintegration of former Yugoslavia, wars in the region, a large number of
refugees and internal displaced persons (IDP's) who find shelter in Montenegro (at one moment they represented
12% of the total Montenegrin population, and that was actually the period of the greatest economic, social and
political crisis).
Since the economic and political collapse of former Yugoslavia, Republic of Montenegro suffered the loss of 57% of
the economic power it had in 1989 (GDP per capita was 3000 USD). Since 1999 it started recovering slowly, with the
annual increase of approximately 2% in the past two years. In 2002 GDP was only 63% of what it was in 1989, which
influenced the drop in the living standard of the population in Montenegro and resulted in the reduced social safety of
the citizens. Transition was marked by national and international politics, economic shocks that resulted in serious
deterioration of productive activity, increase in inflation, official unemployment and participation of the informal
sector (gray economy) in the overall economic activity. In January 2002 Montenegro introduced Euro as the official
currency.
Montenegro is currently part of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, with the common Parliament, President
and Council of Ministers. Council of Ministers acts in five fields: foreign affairs, defense, international economic
relations, internal economic relations and protection of human and minority rights.
These common functions of Serbia and Montenegro will be financed jointly for both in the percentage of contribution
of each republic to the national GDP. Although the two republics have some common institutions, they still define
economic, fiscal and monetary policy independently.
After the 1999 elections, Montenegro started the process of economic reforms, much earlier than Serbia. These
reforms were aimed at stabilizing prices, reducing budgetary deficit and elimination of irregularities in trade. With the
introduction of German Mark as an official currency there has been a significant drop in the inflation rate.
Despite the ambitious reforms Montenegro is characterized by high participation of the public sector in the total
number of employed persons, thus, there is a strong dependence on donor assistance and other forms of financing in
order to cover the existing level of consumption and investment. Many state enterprises are still non-profitable and
require significant state subsidies in order to survive.
Most of the companies are privatized, many workers in those companies are dismissed, especially women. High
unemployment rate is still present, and those who work have low wages. There is a large number of pensioners and
their average benefit is low. All this resulted in the increase of poverty in Montenegro, which represents 12% of the
total population (absolute poverty), according to the international standards.
Real poverty in Montenegro is much higher than what is defined in the DPRS document (Development and Poverty
Reduction Strategy of Montenegro). According to that project the following categories of the poor have been defined:
1. 12,2% of the population is in absolute poverty as compared to consumption per person of 116 Euro per
month;
2. 36,4% of the population is economically vulnerable and poor as compared to the consumption per person of
160,5 Euros per month;
3. 9,1% of the population are in relative poverty, as compared to consumption per person of 105 Euros per
month;
4. 4,0% of the population is considered poor on the basis of inadequate nutrition.
Source: Draft PRSP and ISSP – Living standard and poverty in Montenegro, 2003.
Social position of women in Montenegro
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There is no doubt that the position of women in Montenegro has improved since WW II. On the basis of the
Constitution, women became equal to men in 1945, including the right to vote and be elected.
In the self-management system women were recognized and respected in the society, but the traditional influence of
men on the position of women in the family and society could still be felt. However, in that period women were more
involved in politics and in other leading positions in the society, than today. In the past ten years, with the gradual
introduction of market economy, social position of women in Montenegro deteriorated significantly. Not very many
women occupied important positions, and men tried to push them out even more, thus, women became less and less
represented in the decision-making bodies and their social status became almost problematic. Some people claimed
that women are incapable of being managers, politicians, ministers, and that they do not know how to run business.
However, the real situation is different. There is much more success in those businesses that are managed by
women. Globally speaking, women are more efficient, socially more sensitive and more responsible than men.
Despite all the positive characteristics, in this period of transition and reforms, women are more affected by all the
changes than men.
Position of women is best illustrated by the indicators of employment, unemployment and their participation in
performing social and public functions, and similar.
Republic of Montenegro has the population of 664.865 (June 30, 2002), out of which 51,8% are women. According to
that, it should be expected that women participate with 45-48% in all the spheres of working and social life.
Number of women in the Parliament of Montenegro was 7% in 1993, while it is 10,66% in 2003, which means that
the participation of women in politics is slowly improving, which was definitely contributed to by women's NGO's,
fighting for a better status of women in the society.
In the Government of Montenegro there are 15,38% of women ministers, that is, two women are ministers – Minister
of culture and Minister for foreign economic relations and EU integrations. For the first time in recent period a woman
was elected State Prosecutor in Montenegro (this was reserved as a male position in the past).
On the basis of case studies and data from the automobile dealer shops, 30% of women buy cars for themselves,
while the remaining 70% of the customers are men (until 10 years ago it was a rare situation that a woman bought a
car for herself).
Also, on the basis of the case studies and data from the Real Estate Agency «AS» and Real Estate Agency ²Krstaš², in
Podgorica, 20-25% of the owners of apartments are women, and this mostly involves smaller apartments. When an
apartment is looked for, women are the ones who are consulted on the size, location, and similar, but after the
purchase, men become registered owners. This is a reflection of tradition, where men are seen as the heads of the
family, thus, the owners of real estate, as well.
Due to the transformation of banks in Montenegro it was impossible to get any loan from them. In recent times,
when the banks regained their position in the society, their status has been legally regulated, and they provide
housing loans to citizens, with the payment period of 10-15 years, with a relatively high interest rate. Not very many
women will be able to get a bank loan to build a house, buy an apartment, or similar, as they have no ownership over
real estate, which is necessary as a mortgage for the loan.
Statistical data by sex are not maintained for the above-mentioned activities, which creates difficulties in getting a
real picture of the position of women in this respect, which, again, shows their status in the society.
Education of women is, however, a good indicator of their status in the society.
Education level among population above 25 years of age, by sex (data from 1991):
Education Women % Men %
No education 77,3% 22,7%
Primary school finished 63,59% 36,41%
Primary education 50,4% 44,6%
Secondary education 42,3% 57,7%
University education 36,66% 63,34%
Unknown data for education 1,5%
Source: Republican Statistics Agency, Statistical Yearbook – year 2000
On the basis of this data it can be seen that the level of education of the population is continuously increasing, and
the gap between men and women is reducing, as well as the illiteracy of the population.
There is a very low percentage of illiterate population, especially in the population category of 10-34 years of age.
However, education level among some population groups s still low, especially among the poor, who start primary
school, but never finish it.
Approximately 5% of the Montenegrin population is considered «educationally poor», which means that they have not
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attended primary or secondary school.
In the education system in Montenegro, that is, in the primary education, gymnasium, and vocational education there
are 119.360 students enrolled. There are 7.485 teachers and professors hired for the teaching process, and together
with the support staff this number goes up to 12.205 workers.
Overview of the employed teaching staff in primary schools
Table 1
School year No of teaching staff
1997/98. 4.885
1998/99 4.895
1999/00 4.978
2000/01 5.001
2002/03 5.115
Source: PRSP draft
These indicators reflect slight increase in the number of teaching staff in primary schools, by 270 persons specifically,
in the period from 1997/98 until 2002/03.
University education among women
On the basis of official statistics received through the 1991 Census, women represent 36,66% of the total number of
students who graduated from University.
On the basis of the data of the Ministry of education for 2002, out of the total number of enrolled children into preschool
institutions (11.432), primary and secondary schools (119.360) and the University (11.000), women represent
56%. This is a big improvement in the education of women as compared to the past.
Employed in education by sex
Table 2
Year Total no of the employed Participation of women in
education (%)
1978. 7.896 36,86
1979. 7.909 36,20
1980. 8.035 37.40
1981 8.162 38,59
1982 8.241 39,34
1983. No data
1984. 8.604 40,68
1985. 8.644 40,75
1999. 10.632 57,60
2000. 10.825 59,30
2001. 11.182 59,30
2002. 13.206 53,30
Source: Statistical Yearbook 2002
Looking at the sex structure of education, it can be noted that more and more women are involved in the education
sector. On the basis of the data from the Ministry of education and the Republican Statistics Agency, it can be noted
that there is an increasing number of girls who finish primary schools (52,8% of the total number of students), both
in cities and villages, and this is a significant improvement as compared to the past, especially in the villages.
There are still cases in some villages where girls don't finish primary schools even though they have been enrolled,
due to traditional and other views of their parents and the environment where they live. Luckily, this number is
insignificant, so we have not presented any data on it here. With the increase of the standards in education coverage
of female children with all levels of education and in all the communities will be higher.
Position of women in the labor market
One of the real indicators of emancipation of women in the society is their employment. In the post-war period of
development one of the priorities in the society was faster employment of women. In the period 1948-1989, number
of employed persons in the state sector was increased, among them there was an increasing number of women, thus
in 1971 participation of women in the total number of employed persons was 28,2%, in 1982 – 35,5%, in 1989 –
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38,7%, and in 1999 – 41,8%.
General characteristics in the field of employment of women are positive in the long run until 1989 (if we look into
the overall structure of the employed).
In the past ten-year period there has been a reduction in the number of employees in the state sector, thus
increasing specific problems of employment of women.
In order to analyze more thoroughly the position of women in the labor market, it is necessary to say a bit more
about the paid working hours of both sexes, especially of women. According to the Law on labor relations, paid
working hours for both sexes, men and women, is 8 hours per day, which is 40 hours per week, where there is also a
daily rest of 30 minutes during those working hours. This relates to full working hours of both sexes. There is no data
on whether there is some overtime work performed, unless the company keeps such records in order to pay the
workers accordingly. There is no research done in relation to the working hours on any grounds, so there is no data
about it either. Currently performed census (November 15, 2003) contains this question working hours of the
employed, so we can hope to get a clearer picture about that category in the near future.
Working hours (for women and men – weekly)
For men For women
Paid work (weekly) 40 40
Unpaid work – in the household 10 35
On the basis of a case study, we have learned that women work 3,5 times more in the household (unpaid work) than
men. This is a reflection of gender inequality within the family.
Unpaid work is even less analyzed, and this primarily relates to voluntary activities and work in the household, and
similar. In practice, there is a big difference between the unpaid work in the household between men and women.
Women work 8-10 hours in the household on average, while men work 1-2 hours, which means that women work 6-8
hours more in the household than men every day. This is primarily the result of the traditional relations in the family,
and the view of the role of women. Even today (although not as much as in the past), men look at women as perfect
for household activities, even in relation to upbringing of children. Younger generation of men and women change
those views, luckily, and perform most of the household activities together, even the ones related to care and
upbringing of children. Slowly, but safely, this work in the family performed by men and women together will become
practice among young couples and this will contribute to the better position of women in the family and in the society
in general.
Voluntary, professional and social work exist among both sexes, but there are no statistical records kept in this
respect either. Also, there are no statistical data on part time work, except for some data related to the work of the
disabled of the II category (4 hours per day), which is regulated by the Law on labor relations. However, the new Law
abolished that right and proposed a different solution for the position of the disabled. The new Labor Law provides for
new forms of work, such as work at home, work for several employers, full time work, part time work, and other
forms. It can be expected that these forms of work will be implemented in case of both sexes, but especially in case
of women. Due to the non-existing practice and no statistical data in the sphere of labor on the basis of gender, no
data can be presented here in relation to the position of women from the aspect of time of their work engagement
involving paid or voluntary work.
Employment (1992 and 2002)
Annual average
Year Total no of the
employed
Women % of women
1992 135.587 53.046 39,7
1993 130.948 52.238 39,9
1994 128.797 51.083 39,7
1995 125.399 49.492 39,4
1996 125.194 48.996 39,35
1997 121.278 49.035 40,4
1998 118.273 48.252 41,3
1999 115.328 48.180 41,8
2000 113.784 48.725 42,8
2001 114.440 48.335 42,2
2002 113.827 45.474 39,95
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook 2000 and 2002
Above-mentioned data show trends of reduction of employment in Montenegro in the past 10, that is, 11 years. In
the period from 1992, when the employment was 135.587 until 2002, when the employment was 113.827, we can
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note that there has been a reduction of 16,04%, or in numbers - 21.760 workers. The reason for it is a reduced
scope of economic activity, changes in the structure of population (constant reduction in the number of workers in
the industry is followed by an increase in the number of pensioners, but there is an insufficient number of registered
workers in the private sector). Among the registered workers in the industry sector, there is an estimate that 11.000
of them are technological surplus – workers who will be dismissed, as they are not needed in the company (some
estimates say that their number is as high as 20.000).
Generally speaking, in the above-mentioned period, the average number of employed women is 40% of the total
number of workers. All the social, economic and transitional changes have affected the employment of women.
Women have more difficulties in finding employment than men, especially now that most of the state owned
enterprises have been privatized. A woman is still seen as a worker who will be more absent from work due to family
obligations, who will take sick leaves to take care of family members, and the new employers don't accept that. This
is hidden discrimination of women at the workplace, without any official records, but women and their families feel it
as a big burden on their backs.
Employment by sex in the period 1992 – 2002.
(in percentages)
Year % of women % of men
1992 39,7 60,3
1993 39,9 60,1
1994 39,7 60,3
1995 39,4 60,6
1996 39,35 60,65
1997 40,40 58,7
1998 41,3 58,7
1999 41,8 58,2
2000 42,8 57,2
2001 42,2 57,8
2002 39,95 60,05
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook 2000 and 2002.
This data clearly shows the inequality in employment of women and men, although female population in the total
number of Montenegrin inhabitants participates with 51,8%, which is a slight majority. On the basis of the traditional
division of jobs by sex, many posts are reserved in advance for men, usually according to the education level,
tradition (such as the jobs of pilots, captains of ships, drivers, and similar). In recent times, these traditional barriers
have been destroyed, and younger generation of workers is asking for changes, so now many jobs that used to be
reserved for men are now open to women, which is encouraging (e.g. women police officers, miners, etc).
Annual average employment in all ownership sectors by field of activity in 2001
Total Women
Annual average Annual average % of women in total no
of employed
Total 114440 48.335 42,2
Agriculture, forestry and water
management
3698 1111 30,0
Fishery 79 27 3,4
Mining and stone excavation 4132 702 17,0
Processing industry 26786 8622 32,3
Civil works 5183 729 14,0
Hotels and restaurants 6.549 3618 55,2
Transportation and commun. 11515 3029 26,3
Financial mediation 3097 2066 66,7
Real estate activities 1200 515 42,9
State administration and obligatory
social insurance
8790 4426 50,4
Education 13206 7033 53,3
Health and social work 9629 7843 81,5
Communal and other services 4566 1847 40,5
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook 2002.
Data analysis shows that women are mostly employed in the sector of health and social protection (81,5%), then in
financial mediation – 66,7%, in hotels and restaurants – 55,2%, and in education – 53,3%. These activities are
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typically female ones, thus women are mostly occupying these positions.
There are some indicators that these relations will change in the future, with the change in tradition and position of
women in the society, so women will become more involved in the activities that used to be predominantly male in
the past.
Employment by sex and type of activity in the period 1991 – 2001.
Activity Year Total no of
employed
Textile 1991
2672
2001
Metal sector 1991
2001
Education 1991
2001
Health and social work 1991
2001
Trade 1991
2001
Housing and communal activity 1991
2001
Tourism and catering 1991
2001
Financial technical services 1991
2001
Agriculture and fishery 1991
2001
Civil works 1991
Transportation and
communications
Employment rate
2001
1991
2001
3000
11750
15320
12292
13.206
9784
9629
14112
10238
3518
4566
8788
6549
3713
3097
6026
3698
7896
5183
13569
11515
Women % of working
women
1886
70,58
2703
1803
2153
6116
7033
7128
7843
8168
5687
666
1847
4931
3618
2125
2066
3054
1111
1117
729
2540
3029
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook 1993. and 2002.
80,1
15,34
14,05
49,7
53,30
72,1
In the past 10 years there has been a constant fall in the employment rate, which can be seen from Table 1. There is
a significantly lower employment of men, with a bit higher participation of women, and the reasons can be found in
the fact that many companies were closed, bankrupt, and similar, thus, many jobs disappeared and workers were
dismissed. This is a characteristic of the period of transition, which resulted in many problems in the sphere of labor,
such as the increase in the unemployment, especially among women.
81,5
57,9
55,5
18,9
40,5
56,1
55,2
57,2
66,7
50,7
30,0
14,1
14,6
18,7
Year General unemployment rate Men % Women %
1991. 33,66% 40,76% 26,48%
2001. 27,44% 32,22% 23,96%
Source: Some data are taken from the Statistical Yearbook (1993-2002), and some from the Employment Agency
Employment rate was calculated by taking the number of employed persons in the analyzed period and dividing it by
the number of inhabitants with the capacity to work (age 15-64). Official institutions (Statistics Bureau of
Montenegro, Employment Agency of Montenegro) do not disclose the unemployment rate, but only the number of
unemployed persons. This rate was calculated for the period 1991-2001.
Wages of the employees in Montenegro are not statistically covered on the basis of sex, that is, there are no gender
statistics in the companies where they work or at the level of the Republic. Practice shows that wages of women are
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18% lower than the wages of men. During the past two years, average wage at the level of the Republic was not
published. The last time it was officially announced was in June 2002, and it was 118,57 Euros.
Average net wage by field of activity for 2001
In Euro
Total for the Republic of Montenegro 107,80
Agriculture, forestry and water management 63,63
Fishery 23,29
Mining and stone excavation 129,63
Processing industry 89,88
Electricity production and processing 166,58
Civil works 59,95
Trade 74,79
Hotels and restaurants 40,92
Transportation and communications 128,54
Financial mediation 186,54
Real Estate activities 88,55
State administration and obligatory social insurance 149,29
Education 131,30
Health and social protection 132,68
Communal and other services 97,14
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook 2002.
Wages in different fields of activity for the mentioned period are very low, and the Republican average is 107,80
Euros, where 50% of these sectors have wages below the average, and 50% are slightly above the average wage in
the Republic.
Wage increase in 2002 was reduced and brought down to what is realistic, which during the year 2001, wage
increase was partially financed by the significant international assistance, which positively reflected the position of
the workers. In order to stabilize the economy, in 2002 the wage increase was reduced. This partially resulted from
the reduced inflation rate in 2002, which came down to one figure number, and we can expect it to drop down even
further in the medium term.
Wage level, wage types and coverage of the consumer basket with the average net wage are some of the basic
indicators of poverty in an economy. Average net wage estimates in Montenegro vary. According to the estimates of
the Republican Statistics Agency, average wage in June 2002 was 118,57 Euros, while the ISSP from Podgorica
estimated it to be 199 Euros. Coverage of the consumer basket with the average salary, according to the official
statistics, for June 2002 was 46,72%, and according to ISSP wage coverage of monthly consumption of food and
drinks of the population was 46,2% during the year 2002. These indicators show that the regular incomes are very
low and hardly satisfy some 40% of the needs of the population, maybe even less than that, and due to that
population is faced with a high poverty risk, which is usually mitigated by additional salaries from the informal sector.
It can be concluded that a large number of workers have low wages and the worker is obliged to provide lacking
funds through additional activities, either in the gray economy sector or in some other way, in order to satisfy basic
needs of the family.
Discrimination of women at the work place
On the basis of indicators on employment of women, their low participation in the management structures in the
companies and institutions, it can be noted that there is strong discrimination of women in respect to their
professional promotion and other aspects of work, as shown by the following table:
Vertical discrimination of women
Profession Total no Women % Top positions-total Women %
Medical doctor 1214 57,9% Directors of health institutions 9,7%
Teachers in primary school 5.115 60% Primary school directors 13,4%
Diplomats 49 37% Ambassadors (1 M) none
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Health Institute of the Republic of Montenegro
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This data shows open discrimination on vertical and horizontal levels, in respect to the managerial positions in very
important fields, where women are mostly employed, such as health, education and similar.
On the basis of data from Draft PRSP, only 7,2% of women perform managerial tasks in the companies where they
work, which is an insignificant number as compared to the number of employed women with the managerial capacity
in relation to the total population. Women are usually managers in small and medium size companies with the small
number of workers, and with a low economic power, which means that these 7,2% shows that women are engaged
only so that it cannot be said that they are ignored in this respect, and not because they are less capable of
performing managerial jobs.
Unemployment by gender
Unemployment of the population with the capacity to work is a national problem in Montenegro. Employment Agency
of Montenegro has 80.548 persons registered as unemployed.
Main characteristics of unemployment in Montenegro are: unfavorable ratio of the employed and the unemployed,
long waiting for employment, gender inequality in relation to employment possibilities, regional disharmony, high
participation of youth in the number of unemployed, structural disharmony between the supply and demand of the
labor force, high participation of illegal work and high participation of the workers who are no longer needed, that is,
technological and economic surplus workers.
According to the official records, from the aspect of relationship between the unemployed and the number of active
inhabitants in 2002, unemployment rate in Montenegro was 30,4%, or 20,6% among men, and 40,6% among
women.
Permanent employment is one of the main characteristics in Montenegro. Thus, according to data from 1992, 82,3%
of the unemployed are waiting for employment over one year, 59,2% are waiting more than 5 years, 25,6% are
waiting over 8 years, while there are 62,1% of the unemployed with no work experience. According to the data from
the Labor Force Survey, long-term unemployment is present in 86,9% of the cases as compared to total
unemployment.
Employment is usually awaited for 4 years in Montenegro. According to official statistics 24% of people below 25
years of age are waiting for employment. Average age of the currently unemployed persons is 33.
Labor market in Montenegro is characterized by a whole set of regional disharmonies in structural and dynamic
sense. Thus, participation of the number of unemployed persons in the northern part of the Republic in total
unemployment between 1993 and 2002 has gone down from 58,5% to 52,0%, and in the middle part it has
increased from 42,5% to 45,3%, while in the southern part it has gone up from 13,0% to 17,5%.
Increase in the number of the unemployed in the middle and southern part of the Republic as compared to the
northern part is, primarily, the consequence of the migrations of the population, which is still ongoing.
Participation of women in the total number of the unemployed (%)
(Data from 1992– 2003)
Table 1.
Year Women %
1992. 54,6
1993. 58,3
1994. 59,4
1995. 59,3
1996 60,3
1997. 60,5
1998. 60,1
1999. 59,6
2000. 58,6
2001. 60,4
2002. 60,6
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook 1992–2002
Data from Table 1 shows that in the past 10 years there has been a high unemployment rate among women. The
highest unemployment rate for women is noted in 2002 – 60,6%, which is explained by the large influx of female
labor force on the basis of technological and economic surplus workers in the companies that have been privatized
and where women were dismissed from work, as well as a result of the natural increase in the number of female
workers (coming out of school). In practice, women wait longer for employment than men. Causes of such a
discriminatory status are multiple.
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Unemployment by sex
(1992 – 2002)
Table 2
Year Men % Women %
1992 45,4 54,6
1993 42,7 58,3
1994 40,6 59,4
1995 40,7 59,3
1996 39,7 60,3
1997 39,5 60,5
1998 39,9 60,1
1999 40,4 59,6
2000 41,4 58,6
2001 36,6 60,4
2002 39,4 60,6
Data from Table 2 shows the difference in percentages, related to the unemployment by sex, which can be
interpreted in several ways. In order to reduce the differences between men and women in relation to the
unemployment rate, it is necessary to achieve better family and social standard that would enable women to get a
job more easily and to perform it more easily. Also, it is necessary to be more aware of women's problems, to create
legal preconditions for gender equality, as well as to develop knowledge in the field of gender studies.
It is necessary to develop services in order to assist the needs of modern working women (better family services,
preschool institutions for children and institutions that care for the elderly, and similar). Also, it is necessary to
eliminate discrimination at the time of employment and in promotion possibilities, sexual blackmail and other
negative things. One encouraging fact is that there is an increase in the number of women entrepreneurs, which
affects the unemployment of women, and there is also an increase in the number of women taking employment
loans, and similar.
One of the most important things is, surely, the introduction of adequate legal regulations that would sanction any
form of violation of the right to work, on one hand, and that would stimulate responsibilities, as well as rights of the
workers on the basis of employment, on the other hand.
Characteristics and specificities of unprotected work
Social and demographic characteristics of unprotected work
Structure according to sex
In the total number of workers in the informal economy, men participate with 50,74% and women with 49,26%.
Age structure
Most of the workers in the informal sector belong to the age group of up to 25 years old – 36,5%, and 44,4% of
them belong to the age group of 55 years and above (according to the Survey on informal economy).
Qualifications of the workers
Most of the workers have primary school education – 47% of them, or have only vocational training as ordinary
workers – 42,8%, while there are 11,5% of the workers with University education. According to profession, most of
them are construction workers – bricklayers – 75%, then 50% of waiters, salesmen – 25,4%, and the lowest is the
number of administrative workers.
Territorial coverage
The highest number of workers engaged in the informal sector is found in the southern part of the Republic – 39,4%,
while in the northern part the participation of informal work is 21,3%.
Sectoral coverage
Looking at different sectors, it can be said that the highest number of informal workers is seen in the field of catering
– 41,6%, civil works – 38,5% and trade – 25,7%, while the number is lowest in the field of transportation.
Survey shows that there is a slightly higher number of men working in the informal sector – 33% than women –
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28%. Then, younger workers of up to 25 years of age, as well as the older ones over 55 years of age are forced to
work in this sphere of work for purely existential reasons.
Main reasons for engagement in the informal sector are:
- provision of funds for life
- inability to find legal employment
- long period of waiting for employment
- loss of permanent job
- insufficient salary at the legal job.
Duration of employment in the informal sector
Up to 2 months - 6,8%
2-6 months - 16,1%
6 months-1 year - 27,6%
1-2 years - 14,6% and
more than 2 years - 34,9%
Salaries in the informal sector
Salaries of the workers usually range from 100-200 Euro per month. A smaller number of workers (approximately
20%) receive 200-300 Euro. Salaries are paid out regularly only to some 85,8% of the workers and these salaries are
higher than the ones in the formal sector by approximately 30% (the difference is in the amount of taxes in
contributions that are not paid to the state).
Working hours vary. From 8-12 hours for 40,2% of the workers, more than 12 hours for 4% of them, up to 4 hours
for 2,2% of the workers and from 4 to 8 hours for 53,6 of them.
On the basis of the above-mentioned data it is clear that these workers are deprived of the basic labor and social
rights, they are exploited by the employer, without any social security.
In order to legalize this kind of work, that is, to reduce the number of problems related to registration of workers and
payment of all the contributions for them by the employer, the state started an action and reduced taxes and
contributions for the first year of employment of the newly registered workers. Government of Montenegro, as well as
CITUM, will work on the implementation of certain measures in order to reduce the problem of informal work to the
lowest possible level, as this is in their mutual interest.
This is the way to make this a priority issue for the society and to include as many actors in the process of solving
this problem as possible.
Pensions
In the Republic of Montenegro the right to pension is based on the Law on pension and disability insurance. In August
2003 there were 89.750 pensioners (age, disability and family pensions), with the average pension of 112,87 Euros.
The lowest age pension for the full number of years of work experience was 107 Euro in this period, and limited
pension for a small number of beneficiaries (approximately 91 of them) was 403 Euros. In the structure of age and
disability pensioners, there are 41.917 men and 23.038 women, which is 81,95%.
Average pension of the age and disability pension beneficiaries is 129,29 Euros for men, and 106,52 Euros for
women, or 21,37% lower for women than for men.
Average age pension is 137,83 Euros, average disability pension is 99,66 Euros, and average family pension is 90, 87
Euros.
Family pension is awarded to the family of a deceased worker (spouse, children and other members of close family,
in accordance with the Law), and it was not analyzed from gender aspect at this occasion.
In the labor sphere, there are more men employed than women, thus there are more men as pension beneficiaries,
and the situation is the same from the aspect of salary level. Higher salaries of men are later followed by higher
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retirement benefits. Jobs performed by women are usually less complex than the ones performed by men, thus they
are valued less from the aspect of salary calculation, and this results later in a lower retirement benefit.
Level of retirement benefit is not sufficient for existence in case of most of the pensioners, thus the Republican fund
for pension and disability insurance awards a number of pensioners with the lowest benefit one-time only financial
assistance, from time to time, through the local associations of pensioners. There is no statistical data from the
gender aspect in relation to this type of assistance, thus we cannot say how many women received it.
According to some estimates, 10-12% of the pensioners provide the lacking funds for normal existence through the
engagement in the informal sector.
On the basis of the Law on pension and disability insurance, apart from pension, citizens have other rights, such as:
financial assistance on the basis of physical disability of the worker in 8.269 cases, financial assistance for the
disabled of the 2nd category on the basis of part time work (4 hours) for 689 workers, then disabled at work of the
3rd category and there are 2.034 of them according to the register of the Employment Agency, and they are awaiting
employment and in the meantime receiving financial assistance in the amount of 65% of the minimum wage, which is
32 Euros monthly.
These are the so-called derived rights, financed by the Republican Pension Fund.
The analysis shows that the existing pension system does not provide adequate protection to the elderly and that it
results in the unfair distribution of assets. Every society should decide what is the optimal level of redistribution of
funds from the younger to the elderly, from the rich to the poor, from the capable to the incapable. Balance must be
achieved between sufficient revenues for the elderly and sufficient assets in the hands of those capable of production.
We need a balanced approach, in order to secure equal treatment of different generations, thus providing for
minimum social security for those who can no longer work, and at the same time, to provide enough funds for
economic growth and development.
In the last few years, funds collected as contributions participated with 60% in the total revenues of the Fund
necessary for the payment of retirement benefits, and the remaining 40% were provided from the Budget of the
Republic. Due to that we have started the reform of the pension system and the new law was adopted (29.09.2003)
on pension and disability insurance, which is much more restrictive than the previous one, and the implementation of
this law will start on 01.01.2004. So, practice will show after some time what are the levels of protection of the
elderly secured by this Law.
Table 1 – Data on the number of the insured from 1992 – 2000
Year 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
No of the
insured
131.698 128.325 134.212 134.705 135.426 128.745 128.958 123.162 111.801
No of
pensioners
71.039 71.552 72.656 74.782 77.421 80.747 81.752 83.102 84.726
Source: Pension Fund
The analysis shows that this big increase in the number of pensioners is a big burden for the economy, and at the
same time it causes other consequences, such as evasion of payment of contributions, increase of gray economy and
increased participation of pension insurance expenditures in GDP, etc.
Table 2 – Number of pensioners, structure and average benefit for August 2003
Total no of pensioners 89.750 112,87
Age pension 37.011 137,83
Disability pension 26.932 99,66
Family pension 25.807 90,87
Source: Pension Fund
On the basis of this data it can be concluded that the age pension users are the most common ones, which was not
the case in the past, where the largest group were disability pension users.
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Table 3 – Size of pension
Average pension 112,87
Minimum pension for full no of working years 107,00
Limited pension (maximum) 403,00
Source: Pension Fund

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According to this data it can be concluded that due to difficult economic situation in the past 10 years, there has been
a sudden increase in the number of pensioners, in the way that many companies have used the institute of buying
the remaining number of years until retirement for their workers, in order to release them, thus since 1990
approximately 6.000 workers were retired on these grounds. At the same time, it can be concluded that there is an
unfavorable ration of the number of pensioners and the number of workers of 1:1,3; there is also high participation
of the expenditures of the Pension Fund in GDP – 17%, etc.
Social support to women
Coverage of children with preschool education and upbringing by age, for the age group 1-7
Preschool network in Montenegro consists of 20 institutions. There are 175 children per building and 35 children in a
group. There is a difference between different areas. Central part of the Republic is the most burdened one, and the
burden is smaller in the northern part of the Republic. According to age, 90,8% of the kids are of the age 3-7, while
9,2% are groups below 3 years of age (nursery).
On the basis of the official data coverage of children from 1-7 years of age is as follows:
1975/76 covered 7% of children up to 7 years old
1982/83 ² 13%
1999/00 ² 19,04%
2000/01 ² 21,32
2002/03 ² 22%
Source: - Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook for 2002
- Ministry of education of Montenegro
Data shows that coverage of children with preschool institutions is slowly increasing. This is, primarily, due to the
lack of space that is currently 1,89 m2 per child, while the existing pedagogical standards prescribe 8 m2 per child.
Due to that, number of children in groups is much higher than the normative. Thus, there is still a big gap between
the capacity of the preschool institutions network and the needs of the parents for this form of care for children.
This low level of coverage of children with preschool institutions (nursery and kindergartens) reduced the possibility
for higher employment among women, as many of them are not able to provide adequate care for their children in
some other way. To be honest, in Montenegro, apart from the official preschool institutions network, there are a
number of private kindergartens in the education system, for children between the age 3 and 7, but for a high
compensation, which makes these services inaccessible to many parents.
If we wish to secure higher employment of women in the future, it will be necessary to provide space for nursery and
kindergartens, as well as to develop adequate social services, that is family support services.
Children born in marriage or not within marriage structure (1993 – 2002.)
In Montenegro we still have a patriarchal family and the institute of marriage is still traditionally respected as a form
in which children are born.
However, children born in marriage or outside such a structure are equal in their rights, thus, there are no problems
from this aspect in order to achieve their legal rights.
But, irrespective of the reasons that have caused to persons not to get married, children from these kinds of
communities – non-marital ones are still faced with the lack of understanding of the social environment they live in.
On the other hand, in recent times there has been an increase in the number of non-marital units in which children
are born, which is a reflection of the change in tradition and change of the patriarchal view of the family in
Montenegro.
The data in the following table best shows the type of changes that are happening in the Republic in relation to the
children born in marriage or outside such a structure.
Children born in marriage or not within marriage structure 1993 and 2002
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Year Children born in marriage Children born outside marriage structure %
1993. 8.057 865 10,73
2002. 7.270 1.202 16,53
Source: Republican Statistics Agency
Data shows that in 2002 there were 16,53% of children born outside marriage structure, which is 54% higher than in
1993, and this clearly proves that the occurrence of non-marital unit as a family model is slowly being accepted by
the young couples.
Number of single parents
There is no data on the number of single parents, as the official statistics do not follow this. ISSP research of family
situation, undertaken in 2003, shows that single parents represent 5,7% of the total population. These are mostly
women as single parents, with one or two children that they have to care for, with the help of their families (parents,
brothers, sisters and other members).
Single parents have some assistance provided by the society through the system of social and child protection, which
is realized as increased child allowance, or through material allowance for single parents if they have no other source
of income. There are also some other forms of social care for children, such as free summer vacations, winter
vacations, one-time-only financial assistance, free provision of school textbooks, and other. But, irrespective of all
that, although they are present as a category in labor and social legislation, as well as in the General Collective
Agreement in the part related to paid leave related to care for children, this is still not the adequate system of social
protection of parents and their children.
It can be expected that the reform of labor and social legislation reform that is underway will resolve the status of
single parents in a quality way.
Average number of children in families.
There are no official statistics on this issue. There are some estimates and researches undertaken by some
institutions in Montenegro. So, here is the data published by ISSP (Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses) –
Household Survey, which shows average number of children (up to 15 years of age) in families in Montenegro:
Roma 2.61 children per family
Refugees 0.72
IDP's 0.78
Residents 0.57
Total in Montenegro 0.61
In order to analyze this occurrence in more detail, it is necessary to give more information about the birth rate in
Montenegro.
Birth and death rate in Montenegro per 1000 inhabitants
Table 1.
Year Children born alive Children who Birth rate Babies that die per 1000
died
of babies born alive
1997 13,5 7,9 5,5 14,8
1998 14,1 8,1 3,9 13,9
1999 13,5 8,2 5,2 13,3
2000 14,0 8,2 5,7 11,1
2001 13,3 8,3 5,2 14,6
Source: Republican Statistics Agency – Statistical Yearbook for 2002
Analysis of data presented in Table 1 shows that the birth rate in Montenegro is still showing positive trend, although
some municipalities show negative rate of population increase, such as Žabljak, Plužine, Šavnik, Cetinje and
Andrijevica.
Data collected on this issue shows that in 7 other municipalities in Montenegro there is a small birth rate, close to
negative: Danilovgrad, Kotor, H. Novi, Pljevlja, Kolašin and Mojkovac.
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So, more than one half of Montenegrin municipalities have a reduced rate of population growth right now. Contrary to
them, in some municipalities this rate is much higher, such as in Rozaje (421 babies born, and 121 died). In other
Montenegrin municipalities, in the northern and central part of Montenegro there are twice as many children born
than those that die, which contributes to the increase in the population growth rate. In 2002 there were 8.494
children born in Montenegro, while 5.524 persons died. On the basis of these indicators, population of Montenegro
was increased only by 2.970 inhabitants last year.
All this shows that Montenegro is faced with such a demographic process where the natural birth rate is at the edge
of becoming negative.
Population policy is an important question for every state; thus, statistics on birth rate are followed closely in order to
maintain the optimal population growth rate. In that sense, certain measures of population policy are defined that will
result in population increase, especially in the municipalities with the negative population growth rate.
It is well known that with the lower number of child births every society becomes older and less capable to create
new values. Thus, selfish views that one cannot provide enough funds to support one or two children, will result in a
situation where those children will not be able to provide for better life of their own children tomorrow, as there will
simply be no work force available. Renowned demographic experts, economists, sociologists and analytics say that
the white plague is dangerous for every society, and it is storming through most of Europe right now. This trend is
explained by the destruction of villages, tradition, destruction of families, increase in social pathology, difficult
economic situation in the family and society in general. There are many persons who feel that the increase in white
plague is also the result of giving women the right to interrupt pregnancy.
All these reasons are present in Montenegro, as well, and must be solved quickly in order to avoid negative rate of
population growth, which does not allow even for basic reproduction.
Sexual harassment of women at the workplace
According to positive legal regulations in Montenegro, problem of sexual harassment at work is not regulated by law,
nor by any other bylaw, which is a big problem in relation to protection of women in the sphere of labor.
It is a fact that Criminal Act of Montenegro regulates rape and mistreatment within marriage by a spouse and
punishment is defined for such actions. However, in practice it is difficult to prove this, and to punish the offender.
By the end of 2003 we expect to adopt changes and amendments of the Criminal Act of Montenegro, and the
Association of working women »Woman Today« within CITUM will submit an initiative to the Legislative committee of
the Parliament of Montenegro to add an article in the Criminal Act that would relate to sexual harassment of women
at the workplace. We expect this initiative to be accepted by the responsible committee and the deputies in the
Montenegrin Parliament.
On the basis of the research undertaken by Center for entrepreneurship and development of Montenegro, related to
the discrimination of women in the process of employment and at the workplace, obtained results show that there is
sexual harassment at work. It is seen in excessive jokes made by men, in demands to dress provocatively, comments
related to the way a woman looks, touching, a director insisting on having a meeting, in the form of letters,
invitations and messages to women, following or spying on them, open invitations to have sex, and similar. These
things happen in practice, but not to a great extent, thus, they should be prevented from spreading if not in other
ways, than through legal regulations and criminal prosecution of the offenders. Case study based on visits to several
boutiques, cafes, where primarily young women are employed, included interviews with employed women. The
following questions were asked – Is there any sexual harassment at work, as well as blackmails? The answer was
shyly presented to be YES, without an explanation, which proves that this occurrence is present in the sphere of
labor, especially among private employers in the fields of catering, trade, where mostly young women are employed.
If it happens that a case of blackmail or sexual harassment occurs at the workplace, this usually results in a person
leaving that job, and the offender is not punished, and even the closest family of the young women is never informed
about it.
***
This research shows that the position of women in the labor market, in the society, and family is inadequate (bad) as
compared to their contribution in all the segments of life and work.
In order to change this situation to improve the position of women, it is necessary, among other things, to do the
following:
● To provide a higher level of family and social standard;
● Education on gender equality at all education levels;
● Adoption of legal regulations on gender equality;
● Change of textbooks in schools, where women are treated differently than men (remove the stereotypes
related to women as less valuable creatures);
● Greater participation of women in the authorities (Parliament, Government, Trade Union, Judiciary, and
similar);
● Organize a campaign on relations between sexes – public debates;
● Greater solidarity among women themselves (solidarity of all types);
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● Encouraging women to achieve better status in the family, society, and similar, as well as a whole set of other
activities.
REFERENCES:
Draft PRSP and ISSP – Living standard and poverty in Montenegro, 2003
Republican Statistics Agency, Statistical Yearbook 1992–2002
Republican Statistics Agency, Statistical Yearbook – year 2000
Republican Statistics Agency, Statistical Yearbook – year 2002
About the author:
Rosa Popovic, subregional coordinator of the women's trade unions network of Southern Europe, International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions, president of the Employed Women's Association «Women Today» at the Trade
Union, Montenegro. Obtained her BA at the Facutlty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia. She has
published a number of papers and articles.
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The Quintessential Step of Serbia and Montenegro towards the European Union:
Facing Historical and Present Day Myths and Delusions
By Ognjen Radonjic, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
Abstract: Political stability goes together with economic stability. What is more, both are preconditions
that must be fulfilled in order to provide fertile ground for economic growth and development in the
future. Consistently, we think that the European Union is the only rational future road to political and
economic development for Serbia and Montenegro. On the assumption that Serbia and Montenegro
sincerely wants to join the European Union and to become a reliable ally of the international community,
this study is pointing out two tasks that have to be accomplished at the very beginning in order to achieve
this goal. The first is to face myths about the Serbs as “sinless Celestial people,” Serbian historical justice
and self–victimization, and international conspiracy aimed to destroy the Serbian nation. The second is to
create and activate as soon as possible political mechanisms that will provide undisturbed and smooth
cooperation with the International Tribunal in The Hague.
Key words: political stability, economic stability, myths, delusions, cooperation, European Union,
international community, Serbia and Montenegro
Introduction
The European Union (EU) is the only rational future road to political and economic development for Serbia
and Montenegro. At the same time, it is also a powerful guarantee of peace and stability in the region.
Serbia and Montenegro is very far from the European integration processes at this moment. In order to
make the process of accession faster and easier and at the same time to prevent eventual wars in the
near and distant future, this study has the aim of revealing two extraordinary delusions on the part of
Serbian people and present day national leaders. First is that Slobodan Milosevic (along with his former
close political and military collaborators) [1] was a politician occupied with the welfare and the future of
his country. Second is that Serbia and Montenegro is enjoying international credibility and trust at the
moment that enables the present government to constantly delay fulfilling its obligations towards the
International Tribunal in The Hague.
A short historical background
After the devastating WWII, enormous efforts have been made by the Western countries to
institutionalize world peace and secure harmonized economic development worldwide through
international political and financial institutions. The most prominent ones are the United Nations, the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and, later, the World Trade Organization. [2]
Spontaneously, as time passed and war wounds started healing, nations realized that the ideals of peace
and sustainable economic development were about to be carried out in the most efficient way by
intensification of the world integration process. However, integration processes where largely slowed
down after the biggest threat in history to the existence of humankind took place – the Cold War. The
Cold War was a classical example of ideological clashes between the extreme political and economic elite
movements in both Western and Eastern blocs.
After those years living on the edge of a third world war, the Iron Curtain finally fell down in 1989 when
communist systems collapsed. The end of the war threat and the achievement of peaceful consensus
worldwide opened new opportunities for acceleration of the integration processes. [3] At the same time in
1991, seemingly unexpectedly, so soon after the Cold War period had ended multiethnic conflicts in the
territory of former Yugoslavia began. The conflicts escalated into violence and destruction where many
innocent people were killed, tortured, imprisoned and left without homes and property. Terrible atrocities
were committed. In order to punish war criminals, provide justice for war victims and prevent eventual
new conflicts in the future, in 1993 the United Nations Security Council established the International
Tribunal in The Hague. Cooperation with the International Tribunal is compulsory for all countries that
took part in the wars. In other words, cooperation is a precondition for approval of financial loans and
donations and for accession of Serbia and Montenegro to all political, military and financial international
institutions including the European Union. [4]
Serbian virtual reality
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Political stability goes together with economic stability. What is more, both are preconditions that must be
fulfilled in order to provide fertile ground for economic growth and development in the future. [5] Aware of
this fact, Deputies of the House of the Republics of the Federal Parliament on 11 April 2002 passed the
Law on Cooperation with The Hague Tribunal. [6] This law contains a provision about extradition of citizens
of Serbia and Montenegro charged with committing war crimes. [7] During the pragmatic Serbian
government under the leadership of assassinated Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, [8] the Law was enforced
and cooperation with The Hague was not without difficulties but was satisfactory.
At this moment, although the present authorities [9] are to a great extent aware of the need to cooperate
with the international community, they do not show the will to do so. [10] At the same time, putting into
effect full cooperation with the international community requires existence of national consensus
concerning this issue. Unfortunately, at this moment Serbia does not have agreement because about
thirty percent of the electoral body, mainly supporters of the former regime and its policies, are very
hostile toward international ultimatums. In other words, they are strongly opposing “delivery to the illegal
International Tribunal in The Hague of Serbian heroes and patriots, like former president Slobodan
Milosevic, who bravely defended their country against numerous aggressors. [11] ” In addition, they have
been pointing out that during the wars in former Yugoslavia, the international community was biased,
supporting financially, politically and militarily only the Serbs’ enemies; whereas, on the other hand,
Serbia was under heavy sanctions imposed by the United Nations.
We think that there is no doubt that the international community has made some strategic mistakes that
primarily resulted in a sharp drop in ordinary people’s living standards, thereby giving the Serbian
oligarchy an excuse for leading such a destructive and dangerous policy. Furthermore, we think that the
international community, probably unaware of the very complicated political situation in the country, is
still making mistakes. More concretely, mistakes including imposing ultimatums and not practicing a more
flexible approach in negotiations with current Serbian authorities concerning the arrest of persons who are
accused by the International Tribunal of crimes against humanity. Nevertheless, in our view it is more
important and beneficial for our country to face the tragic policy and irreversible mistakes, with all their
deterrent consequences, which former Serbian authorities under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic
have committed. The main purpose of this action should not be simply to achieve eligibility for loans and
financial support, but rather to condemn war crimes. In our opinion, this would be the first but at the
same time the quintessential step towards European integration.
Consistently, we strongly believe that Slobodan Milosevic (and the like) was not a political leader occupied
with the welfare and the future of his country. On the contrary, the only thing he was worried about was
how to seize power and later to keep it by all means. In order to dismiss the mythical delusion of part of
the Serbian nation about unjustified allegations against him and his self-victimization and patriotism we
will briefly turn to his style and the legacy of his ten-year reign:
● He is the primary (but not the only) one who has to be blamed for violent dissolution of the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY); for civil war in Croatia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Kosovo;
and, as a result, for the Balkan’s hell during those painful years with numerous human victims who lost
their lives, families, friends, property and homes. [12]
● As a consequence, in 1992, the United Nations imposed very severe economic and military sanctions
against the Federal Republic of (F. R.) Yugoslavia. In addition, F. R. Yugoslavia was expelled from all
international political, financial and trade organizations.
● His reign was strongly based on using cruel and severe repression measures against citizens of Serbia
who did not support his policies. (Some of them were imprisoned and tortured, put under surveillance and
bugged.)
● He controlled media heavily, isolated Serbia from the rest of the world and, often fiercely and
mercilessly, clashed with political opponents and independent journalists using all means of repression
(secret and regular police, military intelligence and paramilitary formations like the Unit for Special
Operations). [13]
● HHJe and his clique usurped national natural resources, industrial and agricultural capacities, and old
currency savings of citizens.
● We experienced two hyperinflations [14] in a five-year interval that had a devastating influence on the
Yugoslavian economy and investments, monetary, fiscal and foreign trade stability. The drastic drop of
investments (especially in industrial production) caused a systematic and rapid depreciation of the popular
wealth. [15]
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● The living standard of common people sharply decreased to the level of Third World countries. In such a
way, the average monthly salary in Serbia was 752 DM (Deutsche Marks) in December 1990, 21 DM in
December 1993, 87 DM in December 1999, and just 70 DM in December 2000. In December 1990, only
15% of families had an income of less than 100 DM per family member. In 1993, about 50% of families
had an income of less than 100 DM per family member. [16] According to the 2000-2001 Report of the
World Bank, in 1999 about 73% of the Serbian population had incomes less than 2 US dollars per day.
[17]
● Recorded GDP at current prices declined from about 28.5 billion US dollars in 1990 to about 9 billion US
dollars in 2000.
● In 2000, Yugoslavia’s external debt amounted to over 12 billion dollars. About 4.5 billion dollars of old
foreign currency savings (internal debt) should be added to this amount. [18]
Are these facts convincing enough to dismiss the delusion that “domestic traitors” are sending “national
heroes” to The Hague? On the eve of Milosevic’s fall, we believed that the majority of the Serbian
inhabitants were aware of his and his clique’s crimes, abuses, corruption and violent nature. It seems that
we were wrong because today, five years later, a significant part of the nation still shows very hostile
attitudes towards international institutions and politicians. Why is it so? Partly the answer derives from
the second delusion, but this time, of actual present day national leaders.
The second delusion we want to deal with is that present day government seems to think that Serbia has
the credibility to defy the international community by refusing to arrest persons charged with committing
war crimes. To be honest this is not a delusion, this is a hallucination. We do not want to put this delicate
issue in some theoretical framework, because in our opinion we need, now more than ever, pragmatism
and not fairy tales. Political forbearance under the slogan “problems will be solved by themselves” or
“give us some more time to do our best” is incompatible with current international or Serbian realities.
Consequently, the USA imposed partial financial sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro in January, 2005.
[19] Is this our return to the past or the fact that members of the former regime have never lost their
positions and power? It seems the truth is somewhere in between.
This game with the patience of the international community irresistibly reminds us of Milosevic’s
uncompromising attitude towards international diplomatic incentives and his unwillingness to cooperate
and negotiate with the international community until it became too late. Similarly nowadays, instead of
managing and solving luke-warm Serbian problems, the present government makes them more serious
and complicated from day to day by expressing its irresoluteness and obvious lack of interest and
initiative. The features of our current foreign policy are almost the same as they used to be during the
1990s; In other words irrationality, formal legalism, arrogance, negation of international policy factors
and the worst kind of political autism. So we firmly ask the present national leaders and the nation in
general if they have not learned anything from the mistakes and failures made by the post-second world
war communist leaders and their successors (Milosevic’s clique).
Conclusion
On the assumption that Serbia and Montenegro sincerely wants to join EU and to become a reliable ally of
the international community, there are two tasks that have to be accomplished at the very beginning in
order to achieve this goal. The first is to face myths about the Serbs as “sinless Celestial people,” Serbian
historical justice and self-victimization, and international conspiracy aimed to destroy the Serbian nation.
The main purpose of this act should be to condemn war crimes without reservations and finally to lay
foundations for long term friendly relations with the international community. In our opinion it would be
the first, but at the same time the quintessential, step towards European integration. The second is to
create and activate as soon as possible adequate political mechanisms that will provide undisturbed and
smooth cooperation with the International Tribunal in The Hague.
Appendix:
Macroeconomic and Country Risk Indicators
Desirable levels of some economic quantitative indicators that must be reached in order for a country to
be eligible for nomination for accession to the European Union are listed below: [20]
● GDP per capita should tend toward the EU average value (about 9000 US dollars per year).
● The minimum GDP per capita should be 6000 US dollars (USD) per year.
● The current account deficit should be below 5% of annual GDP.
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● Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) should be about 10% of annual GDP.
● The fiscal deficit should not be more than 3% of annual GDP.
● Public spending should not be more than 40% of annual GDP.
● Public debt should not be more than 60% of annual GDP.
● Foreign debt should not be more than 30% of annual GDP.
● The unemployment rate should not be more than 10%.
● The annual inflation rate should not be more than 5%.
● The money market interest rate should be slightly above the annual inflation rate.
Values of some economic quantitative indicators in Serbia
Year 2003 2004
GDP (USD millions) 18 984 21 643
GDP per capita (USD) 2 531.2 2 885.7
Current account deficit, before grants (%
of GDP) 10.2 13
FDI (% of GDP) 7.2 4.1
Fiscal deficit (% of GDP) 3.93 1.7
Public spending (% of GDP) 49 46
Public debt (% of GDP) 71.9 60.8
Foreign debt (% of GDP) 43.7 35.6
Unemployment rate (%) 32 32.1
Annual inflation rate (retail prices in %) 7.8 13.7
Money market interest rate (%) a 11.05 14.85
a Average weighted interest rate on commercial papers issued by the National Bank of Serbia.
Sources: Bilten javnih finansija. Ministarstvo finansija, Republika Srbija, Beograd, Decembar 2004 (Public
Finance Bulletin, Ministry of Finance, Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, December 2004) and Statisti•ki Bilten,
Narodna Banka Srbije, Decembar 2004 (Statistical Bulletin, National Bank of Serbia, December 2004),
www.nbs.co.yu
As we can see, at the moment Serbia is rather far from reaching desirable levels of economic indicators
(except for the fiscal deficit and the public debt). Consequently, as country risk rating indicators of the
Coface Group [21] show, lack of political and economic stability results in low attractiveness of Serbia and
Montenegro for foreign investors (intolerantly high investment risks).
The country rating issued by the Coface Group measures the average level of short-term non-payment
risk associated with companies in a particular country. It reflects the extent to which a country's
economic, financial, and political outlook influences financial commitments of local companies. However,
international trade actors know that sound companies can operate in risky countries and unsound
companies in less-risky countries and that overall risk will depend not only on a company's qualities but
also on those of the country in which it operates.
Consistently, ratings are based on twofold expertise:
● macroeconomic expertise in assessing country risk based on a battery of macroeconomic financial and
political indicators and
● microeconomic expertise that draws on Coface databases covering 44 million companies worldwide and
50 years’ experience with payments in trade flows it guarantees.
Coface Group ranks country ratings on seven risk levels:
A1 The steady political and economic environment has positive effects on an already good probability of
payment record of companies. Very weak default.
A2 Default probability is still weak even in the case when one country's political and
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economic environment or the payment record of companies is not as good as in A1-rated countries.
A3 Adverse political or economic circumstances may lead to a worsening payment record that is already
lower than the previous categories, although the probability of a payment default is still low.
A4 An already patchy payment record could be further worsened by a deteriorating political and economic
environment. Nevertheless, the probability of a default is still acceptable.
B An unsteady political and economic environment is likely to affect further an already poor payment
record.
C A very unsteady political and economic environment could deteriorate an already bad payment record.
DThe high risk profile of a country's economic and political environment will further worsen a generally
very bad payment record.
Source: Coface North America Group, http://www.coface-usa.com/
In January 2005 Serbia and Montenegro was ranked in the C risk level group as along with, for instance,
Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique, Kenya, Angola, Uganda, Mauritania and Niger. For comparison, Slovenia was
ranked in the A2 risk level group along with Czech Republic and Hungary. Poland was ranked A3; Croatia
was A4; and Romania and Bulgaria ranked B. [22]
References
Bilten javnih finansija. Ministarstvo finansija, Republika Srbija, Beograd, Decembar 2004 (Public Finance
Bulletin, Ministry of Finance, Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, December 2004).
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, www.federalreserve.gov
Chomsky, N. 1999. “Profit iznad ljudi. Neoliberalizam i globalni poredak (Profit over People. Neoliberalism
and Global Order).” Svetovi, Novi Sad.
Dimitrijevi•, B. 2002. “Best Practices of EU Accession of Select Countries in Transition.” Policy and Legal
Advice Centre, Beograd.
G17 Plus, “Bela knjiga Miloševi•eve vladavine (The White Book of Milosevic’s Reign).” www.g17plus.org.
yu/
Nikoli•, M. 2002. “The Tragedy of Yugoslavia – The Rise, the Reign and the Fall of Slobodan Milosevic.”
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden.
Radonji•, O. 2003. “A View on the War, Dissolution and Economic Collapse. The Case of Serbia and
Montenegro (1990-2000).” www.epunto.ch
Statisti•ki Bilten, Narodna Banka Srbije, Decembar 2004 (Statistical Bulletin, National Bank of Serbia,
December 2004), www.nbs.co.yu
[1] Slobodan Milosevic is a personification of the tragic policy that was led by Serbian authorities during the
1990s. This refers to all his former political and military collaborators within the territory of ex-Yugoslavia.
April 2005
[2] Of course, there are also opposite opinions. For instance, Noam Chomsky (1999) thinks that those institutions
are nothing but the tools of powerful governments to force other countries to accept diverse agreements that
enable multinational corporations to dominate the world by unlimited exploitation of their resources.
[3] Today, world integration processes are commonly defined as the process of globalization. Naturally, it is not
easy to define the process of globalization. This is because it involves numerous aspects, where the economic one
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is surely the most important. Briefly, economic globalization is characterized by elimination of international trade
barriers in order to promote free and fast flows of goods, services and factors of production.
[4] However, cooperation is only a precondition. Another issue is the quality of the investments
undertaken (naturally these investments are covered by foreign sources) in order to reach institutional
and legislative standards necessary to enter the European Union.
[5] For further discussion on quantitative economic indicators of convergence towards the European Union and
the current position of Serbia and Montenegro, see the Appendix.
[6] The Law was adopted under strong political and financial pressure exerted by the United States and Europe.
[7] We must point out that the Law has a few controversial loopholes. For instance, the Law applies only to the
individuals against whom indictments had already been issued. But full cooperation requires extradition of
individuals charged with committing war crimes no matter when indictments are issued.
[8] The reformist political leader of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated in March 2003 in
action named “Stop The Hague.” Some soldiers of the paramilitary formation Unit for Special Operations, several
secret police agents and the members of the criminal organization, Zemun clan, are charged with committing this
terrible crime.
[9] The coalition government of the Democratic Party of Serbia (Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica), G17 Plus, the
Serbian Renewal Movement, New Serbia and the Socialistic Party of Serbia ( Milosevic’s political party).
[10] The present government's foreign policy strategy is based on the concept of “two-way cooperation with the
International Tribunal” and “voluntary surrender of individuals charged with committing war crimes.”
[11] The Croats, the Bosnian-Muslims, the Albanians and the NATO countries.
[12] In essence, the civil war was the battle for redistribution of power, territory and resources between
new authoritarian rulers that came to power mainly by inflaming national and confessional hatred.
Milosevic, no doubt, had heavy influence on the drastic rise of tensions in the region by practicing his
uncompromising style and intolerance. However, he was not alone. He initiated conflicts to which the
Croatian, the Bosnian-Muslim and the Albanian leaderships reacted mercilessly and furiously.
[13] A few of them were killed. The most prominent were former Serbian communist leader Ivan
Stambolic (killed in autumn, 2000) and independent journalist Slavko Curuvija (killed in spring, 1999,
during the NATO air raids).
[14] Among other things, accumulated bad loans of well-connected banks and enterprises (so-called “political
favorites”) were heavily financed through monetary expansion. In 1992, yearly inflation was 8993%, while in
1994 yearly inflation reached a 15-digit number, 116 trillion percent. Only in January, monthly inflation reached
313 million percent.
[15] The average rate of investment in F. R. Yugoslavia was -20.1% in 1990; -12% in 1994; -3.7% in
1995; -5.7% in 1996; 0.8% in 1997; and -2.2% in 1998. Source: G17 Plus, “Bela knjiga Miloševi•eve
vladavine (The White Book of Milosevic’s Reign).” www.g17plus.org.yu/
[16]
The 1 DM ranged from 0.47 to 0.7 of one US dollar during the 1990s. Source: Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, www.federalreserve.gov
[17] At the same time, the percent of the population with incomes less than 2 US dollars per day was
77.8 in Bangladesh, 84.6 in Rwanda, 2 in Slovenia, 2 in Slovakia, 2 in Czech Republic, 4 in Hungary, and
10.5 in Poland. Source: Nikoli•, M. 2002. “The Tragedy of Yugoslavia – The Rise, the Reign and the Fall of
Slobodan Milosevic.” Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden.
[18] For more details, see Radonji•, O. 2003. “A View on the War, Dissolution and Economic Collapse. The
Case of Serbia and Montenegro (1990-2000).” www.epunto.ch
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[19] In our opinion, if persons charged with committing war crimes were true heroes and patriots they would
surrender immediately in order to avoid threats to their country.
[20] Desirable levels of economic quantitative indicators are not theoretically precisely defined. They
represent opinions of numerous world economic experts for macroeconomics and transition. For example,
see Dimitrijevi•, B. 2002. “Best Practices of EU Accession of Select Countries in Transition.” Policy and
Legal Advice Centre, Belgrade.
[21] Coface North America Group is a well-known credit insurance and country risk rating company.
[22] For more details see http://www.coface-usa.com
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Women’s Rights in the Western Balkans
Women's Rights in the Western Balkans: In the Jaws of the Free Market
Mirjana Dokmanovic
Women's Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Subotica, Serbia and Montenegro
My presentation* will look at the macroeconomic trends in the Western Balkans region and their effects on
women's rights, and then try to identify obstacles to women's economic and social position and openings to
improve them. The story is basically one of the stripping away of human rights / women's rights to make our
countries more attractive for investors. A great deal of energy is being put into attracting investment: for
instance, on my way to this conference I noticed, in a recent copy of the Financial Times, two whole pages on
Albania, all angled in such a way as to interest investors, together with several ads for foreign banks.
The countries of the region are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Albania,
with a total population of 24 million. GDP per capita was €2,380 in 2002, with only Croatia above the average;
while foreign direct investment (FDI) has risen from 3.9% of GDP in 2002 to 5.4% in 2003. Superficially, the
impact of FDI is visible in the large presence of foreign banks, but its main economic impacts are on domestic
investment, employment and the balance of payments. Albania, Croatia and Macedonia are already members of
the WTO, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro are in the process of acceding to the
Organization. The region enjoys duty-free access to the EU market, thanks to the asymmetrical trade measures
granted since the end of 2000.
Macroeconomic trends and their effects
The impact of the international financial institutions (IFIs) is high in the region. They support the structural
reforms through macroeconomic support and technical assistance. IMF programmes in are in place in all the
countries, and the World Bank provides technical and financial assistance with a wide array of structural
adjustment programmes (SAPs). The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) finances mainly
private-sector development, although in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro it works mostly with
the public sector.
The transitional economies of the region have a number of common characteristics, many of these arising from
their common experience of structural adjustment. Throughout the region, transition to the market economy has
been delayed because of wars, armed conflicts, and exclusion from the international community during the
periods of conflict. The region's SAPs, dictated by the IMF, have features familiar from previous SAP experiences
in other regions, requiring:
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Removal of all obstacles to the international trade and foreign investments;
Prompt privatisation;
Labour market flexibility;
Reduction of all social costs.
You can imagine who pays the price for all this economic turbulence! The example of Serbia and Montenegro
serves to illustrate what is happening throughout the region. The transition to a full market economy in the
country has been very rapid and unsettling. In the 1990s, Serbia and Montenegro had a state-led, quasi-market
economy. In 2000, political changes led to economic changes and a SAP was started, geared to the development
of a market economy based on privately-owned capital and trade liberalisation. A new wave of privatisation was
introduced; even after failed exercises in privatisation 1990 and 1997, this is still seen as a panacea for all our
economic problems. This round is based on tender privatisation, involving selling through tenders and auctions
and capital transfer without compensation.
The results anticipated from all this privatisation were:
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An efficient economy, guaranteeing economic growth and stability;
A clear ownership structure;
A functioning stock exchange;
Strong corporate governance.
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However, this has not really materialised. At the macroeconomic level, the results so far include:
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70% state and socially owned firms and factories have been privatised; strategic industries (cement, oil,
tobacco) are now owned by foreign companies and multinational corporations;
New IMF loans have been granted, but they are only for debt servicing;
The trade deficit has increased (US$ 3.2 billion);
Large-scale bankruptcy of big banks and up to 34,000 socially owned firms has been announced.
At the same time, the following effects on the population can be observed:
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Increasing economic, political, social and personal insecurity;
Increased corruption;
Increased unemployment (the official rate is 31%, but the real level is much higher);
People forced increasingly into participation in informal economy - up to 60%;
Increased dismissal of workers (400,000 job losses were recently announced);
Higher living costs;
Loss of free or low-cost services in health, education and housing.
All this, plus the consequences of the armed conflict of the 1990s, has generated rising poverty and polarisation of
wealth. While the percentages of the population living in poverty have risen from 14% in 1990 to 35% in 2003,
some 5% of the population have become extremely rich, profiting either from the economic upheavals or from
war. The middle class has almost disappeared. Those in need of social protection include:
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1.2 million retired people;
400,000 families beneficiaries of child allowance;
14,.500 families beneficiaries of family sustenance;
100,000 beneficiaries of food allowance (FAO);
77,000 disabled persons.
However, the budgetary support to underprivileged people has dropped from 16.7% (1995) to 11.7% currently,
while a share of the budget in the social security funds has also fallen sharply from 22,2% to 13,3%. Social
welfare support is provided mostly by donations from the developed countries. The result is poorer health care
and quality of life for citizens.
The transition represents a fierce attack on economic rights. New laws on labour and on employment abolished or
decreased many long-established rights and entitlements. Full employment is no longer guaranteed, and
introduced flexibilisation of labour, seen as an important feature of the economic reforms, means that many fulltime
jobs have been replaced by part-time, temporary, seasonal and low-paid jobs. Since the mechanisms to
regulate the private sector and force companies to fulfil their legal obligations to workers are weak and are not
enforced, companies get away with many violations, such as non-payment of salaries and social security benefits,
irregular contracting procedures, and so on. Labour inspection is weak, and the special courts that dealt with
labour rights, which were free for workers, have been abolished; instead, workers claiming their rights must go
through a very long, expensive and ineffective procedure in the regular courts.
Meanwhile, social dialogue between the private sector, government, and workers is lacking. The trade unions are
weakened and declining in influence; in fact, they hardly exist in the growing private sector, where employees are
often blackmailed by employers not to organise trade unions.
This situation is the same throughout the region. In Croatia, for instance, the average wage is enough to cover
only 65% of a family's basic costs, while a third of employees receive the minimum wage. Pension and healthcare
funds are facing collapse, and social differences are increasing. In Macedonia, poverty has increased fivefold since
1991.
The impact on women's rights
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Using Serbia and Montenegro again as an example, the following basic statistics give a broad picture:
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Women are 43% of the labour force
Women are 55% of the working population
60% of university degrees are held by women
90% of women have degrees in education
58% of total number of refugees and displaced persons are women
11% of members of the Parliament are women, and there are local asseblies that have no women
members.
Overall, the impact of the transition has not been good for women. The socialist gender ideology and gender
equity is currently regarded as a part of the repressive socialist system that has been overthrown. These
ideological changes influenced new legislation and deprived women of the incentives they had previously been
granted by the socialist state. The new democratic governments now support women's right to stay at home. In
this and other ways, the transition has encouraged a patriarchal ideology that pushes women back into the
home.
Thus, women are the first to lose jobs, particularly higher-level and better-paid jobs, and particularly in industry,
as a result of privatisation. More and more women are working in low-paid industrial and service sectors, with a
growing pay equity gap. Women's unemployment has increased, and at 26% it is higher than men's
unemployment (20%), while there are decreasing opportunities to find jobs, especially for women over 40–45 in
the private sector. The feminisation of poverty is thus gathering pace, as women have lost the benefits of previous
social welfare system. Women are more likely than men to be exposed to poverty, because the support of children
depends mainly or totally on women; and they are more likely to be poor in old age as a consequence of the
higher unemployment rate and the gender-based income gap. With growing poverty, sex trafficking and domestic
violence are increasing. The needs of many of the most vulnerable groups of women (Roma, rural, minority, selfsupporting
mothers, elder, housewives, disabled) are invisible and unmet.
Women's position in the economy is very largely as employees, on an increasingly insecure basis. At least twice as
many men as women are employers, with women accounting for only 30% of employers (i.e. founders/cofounders
of an enterprise or a shop). Almost no privatised firms have been bought by women. Women are impeded in
becoming entrepreneurs by poor access to bank loans, capital and resources. Being underrepresented in the
privatisation process, women were usually not informed of their rights. e.g. to free shares.
As employees, moreover, women find their rights systematically ignored. Private-sector employers prefer to hire
women, because they are considered to work harder, cause less trouble, and be readier to accept subordinate
positions despite having greater expertise; they often perform jobs beneath their educational level. Employers
also prefer to hire young women, so there are few or no jobs for women over 45. Many women work without a
contract, without paid pension, social security or healthcare security, and without protection at work.
Barriers to women's advancement
In this context, there are a host of barriers to women's advancement. Underpinning them all is the persistence
and strengthening of the dominant patriarchal society. Such barriers include:
Rights
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Shortage of mechanisms and political will to protect and fulfil economic and social rights; blindness to
women's concerns;
Lack of respect of international labour and environmental standards, lack of transparency, and adequate
legislation to regulate foreign investments;
CEDAW and other UN Covenants ratified, but not implemented, no mechanisms, no national strategies for
implementing them;
Absence of gender-sensitive legislative mechanisms to protect women against discrimination.
Development planning
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Development policies do not take gender concerns into account;
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Lack of gender awareness and awaraness of gender dimension of trade, unemployment, SAPs, poverty;
Absence of adequate statistics;
No national strategies for advancement of women;
Underrepresentation of women in decision-making positions;
Administrative barriers to development of women's entrepreneurship;
Low participation of women in enterprise ownership.
Social barriers
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Continued gender segregation in education and professions, stereotypes and prejudices in education and
media;
Unrecognised unpaid work at home (4-5 hours more per day than men);
Burden of child and elder care.
Achievements and opportunities
This list of barriers is daunting, but there have been some achievements and there are some opportunities for
building on them. All governments in the region are now under pressure of the EU to harmonise legislative
accordingly the EU standards and to adopt measures to promote gender equality and end sex-based
discrimination, set quotas for women's political participation, and so on. The process of introducing law on equal
opportunities between women has started. The process of building national, regional and local machineries for the
advancement of women has also begun, thanks to pressure from UN agencies, the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Stability Pact Gender Task Force and women's groups. Gender concerns are,
in theory at least, integrated into the PRSPs.
There are also openings and opportunities for advocacy by women's groups and human rights groups. Research
on the gender dimensions of poverty and of macroeconomic issues such as trade liberalisation, SAPs, etc., is
important and necessary. Housework and the care economy need to be taken into account in economic analysis
and planning, and gender-sensitive indicators need to be designed.
The development of pro-poor budgets and gender budgets is a key instrument for fulfilling women's economic
rights. A new gender budgeting initiative in the CEE/NIS region launched in 2003 by the Network East-West
Women is promoting strategies and activities to popularise gender budgeting as a tool for achieve gender equality
in the labour market and employment and for addressing domestic violence, etc.
Strengthening mechanisms for enforcing ILO standards will help to counter the growing discrimination against
women in employment and entrepreneurship. Regional monitoring mechanisms (e.g. ombudspersons) could be
set up to do this. Gender concerns should be integrated into development policies, within a general rights-based
approach to development that includes women's rights. Women's organisations in the whole region are eager to
develop this approach as a counterweight to the prevailing profit motive.
* Presentation at the WIDE Annual Conference 2004 "Globalising Women's Rights: Confronting Unequal
Development Between the UN Human Rights Framework and WTO Trade Agreements", Bonn, Germany, May 2004
Published in the WIDE's Conference Report "Globalising Women's Rights: Confronting Unequal Development
Between the UN Human Rights Framework and WTO Trade Agreements"
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
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1. Executive Summary
Economic Reform and Poverty: A Gender Analysis
By Sally Baden
BRIDGE
Economic reform in many developing countries has been associated with stabilisation and structural adjustment
programmes supported by international financial institutions (IFIs). As these have become more widespread and
long term, concern has grown about the impact of economic reform policies on poverty. Evidence is not
encouraging, with many countries experiencing increases in poverty under programmes of economic reform in the
1980s, or a worsening of income distribution, with a few exceptions. These concerns have led to changes in the
thinking about economic reform and poverty, including by IFIs, and in the design of stabilisation and adjustment
packages, particularly the introduction of conditionalities on social sector spending and the funding of social
programmes. There has also been considerable research into poverty in adjusting countries. It is unclear,
however, whether these changes have yet had a significant impact or whether concerns with poverty outcomes
have much influence over macroeconomic policies. Greater integration is required between strategies to reduce
poverty and economic reform policies.
Early writings on structural adjustment and women highlighted the potentially negative affects, particularly on
poor women, but were not based on rigorous studies. In spite of mounting evidence, the mainstream literature
on poverty and adjustment still pays little attention to gender aspects of poverty and vulnerability. Where the
poor are disaggregated, it is not usually in terms of gender difference, although female-headed households are
often singled out as a vulnerable group. Some empirical research has been done which compares poverty trends
between male and female household heads, but this does not address the questions of intrahousehold resource
allocation and poverty, relevant to the majority of women. Although tools exist for integrating a gender analysis
into many aspects of economic reform, these are rarely applied in practice.
Gender affects vulnerability to poverty in periods of insecurity, and women are likely to find it more difficult to
escape poverty. Poor women may be particularly vulnerable to deepening poverty under adjustment. Any
poverty reducing effects which adjustment may bring, e.g. through renewed stimulus to small scale agriculture,
may not reach women directly, due to their lack of command over productive resources and control over output,
as well as, particularly for poor women, lack of time. Poor supply response, observed in some adjusting
economies may be linked to constraints to women’s ability or willingness to increase production, or market
increased production, including gender biases in financial markets, and marketing systems. The costs of
economic restructuring are often disproportionately borne by women, through increased labour, or reduced intake
of food, with severe human development consequences for women themselves and, potentially, for children,
especially girls, who may be drawn into household or income earning labour. Finally, existing safety net
programmes have tended to target men, explicitly or implicitly, and wider social security and welfare provisions
have not taken account of changes in social relations (including gender relations) which are occurring as a result
of economic restructuring, as well as political and social conflict.
Policy responses required are further steps to incorporate gender concerns into the design of economic reform
programmes, both through gender-aware economic planning and through increasing the accountability of policymaking
to (poor) women. Monitoring the gender differentiated impacts of economic policies is also important,
using women’s budgets and gender-disaggregated expenditure incidence analysis. Measures to remove the
constraints to economic opportunities for poor women include reform of marketing systems and infrastructure
and of financial markets and institutions. Reform of social security provisions is needed to take account of
changes in household relations and the coping mechanisms of poor people themselves.
Useful conceptual frameworks are now in place which can assist understanding of the linkages between economic
policy, gender and poverty concerns. There are also a number of initiatives which have attempted to influence
policy in this area from a gender perspective. What is now needed is detailed context specific research, and
comparative empirical research, which investigates how and whether policy changes take effect in
implementation, and links between macro level changes and micro level responses.
2. Economic reform and poverty
2.1 Economic reform programmes and poverty trends
In many developing countries, economic reform has been closely associated with structural adjustment packages,
promoted by the international financial institutions (IFIs - i.e. the IMF and World Bank) in conjunction with lending
programmes. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, particularly, Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)
have dominated economic policy-making in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some East Asian countries (Philippines,
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Indonesia, Malaysia) have also undergone processes of adjustment and, more recently, South Asian countries
(India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). The experience of structural adjustment is highly varied although, broadly, in Asia,
it has been associated with continuing growth, while in Latin America and particularly Africa, it has been
associated with negative growth and increasing poverty. There are a number of exceptions to these overall
trends.
Early discussions of structural adjustment were principally concerned with short term stabilisation and
macroeconomic aggregates, and beyond this with removing distortions and increasing economic efficiency. It was
only in 1987, with the publication of UNICEF’s Adjustment with a Human Face (Cornia et al. 1987), that the
debate on poverty and adjustment gained some prominence. Since then, a considerable theoretical, empirical and
policy-oriented literature has developed on this topic (Demery and Squire 1996; Killick 1995; Stewart 1995).
The IFIs have, by and large, tended to disassociate poverty in adjusting countries with adjustment policies,
arguing that either pre-adjustment economic crises or government policies (linked to vested interests and lack of
political will) are mainly responsible for increases in poverty or the failure to address poverty. Adjustment
policies, it is argued, would improve the situation of the poor in the longer term, through labour-intensive growth
and providing new opportunities and increased incomes for the poor, especially in rural areas. To the extent that
adjustment had a negative social impact, it was perceived to be temporary, and concentrated in urban areas.
In recent years, however, it has become evident that the poverty in countries undergoing economic reform is not
temporary in nature. Moreover, there is considerable evidence that adjustment policies themselves have
contributed to increasing poverty. Growth has not occurred as fast or as much as predicted in adjusting
economies, and, where it has occurred, it has not, in general, been ‘pro-poor’, i.e. has tended to benefit higher
income groups more. Not only has adjustment often been associated with worsening income distribution, but the
majority of adjusting countries have also seen increases in levels of absolute poverty. Trends in social indicators
have been more mixed, with infant and child mortality rates often continuing to fall, but in some places,
educational enrolment has fallen and maternal mortality rates have worsened (Stewart 1995).
Killick (1995) finds evidence on poverty is mixed: in some countries there has been a fall (e.g. Indonesia,
Malaysia), in others results are mixed (e.g. Chile, where income distributive effects of reform are regressive but
targeted programmes have been effective in reducing absolute poverty), and in others adjustment is associated
with increases in poverty (e.g. Malawi). Those countries that have done relatively well under adjustment are the
East Asian and middle income heavily indebted countries, which are now recovering. The urban working poor are
especially vulnerable under adjustment, through price rises, increased indirect taxation, job losses, and reduced
real wages. However, the poor, especially in rural areas, can benefit from adjustment and any impact, positive or
negative, is more likely to affect the poor than the very poor, who are weakly integrated. Benefits to the poor
depend on such factors as land distribution and on the proportion of cash crops being produced by smallholders.
2.2 Changes in policy to address poverty concerns
Since the late 1980s, the IFIs have acknowledged the need to reconsider adjustment policies in the light of
poverty reduction concerns. The core of the World Bank’s approach to poverty reduction - set out in the World
Development Report of 1990 - is the promotion of labour intensive growth, investment in basic services (health,
education) and the provision of safety nets (or targeted schemes to assist the vulnerable). These objectives are
reflected in changes in approaches to adjustment in the early 1990s, with increased emphasis on: expenditure
switching, rather than deflation; greater flexibility about the timing and phasing of subsidy removals and price
reform (e.g. allowing food or fuel subsidies to remain in place after devaluation); reallocation of social investment
towards basic services used by the poor (e.g. primary education and health care systems); and the development
of compensatory programmes, mainly employment schemes or social funds, in conjunction with reform
programmes rather than as an afterthought. Other measures include a requirement that policy framework papers
(PFPs) and country assessments contain an analysis of poverty issues, as well as an increase in research and data
gathering on poverty issues, at country level (i.e. through poverty assessments), sectorally and through cross
country analyses.
Eighteen of 32 programmes in 1992, and six of 17 adjustment programmes in 1993 included specific measures to
protect the poor (World Bank 1993, cited in Haddad et al. 1995). Specifically, an increase in the number of
programmes with conditionalities relating to social spending, from under five percent in 1984-6 to 30 percent in
1990-2, is reported (based on the Bank’s own data - others claim the increase is a more modest, from three to six
percent) (Killick 1995: 320-321).
The extent to which these changes have made an impact is unclear. The limited evidence is not encouraging but
perhaps there has been insufficient time for changes in policy emphasis to make a significant impact. In the
1980s, adjusting countries’ spending on the social sector and priority to pro-poor services worsened compared to
non-adjusting countries, in part because of stronger pressure to meet debt service obligations of the former
(Stewart 1995). Social programmes introduced in conjunction with adjustment programmes have reached only a
small percentage of the potential target group, and were more often used as political tools. While some progress
is reporting in including poverty (and gender) concerns in adjustment documents, there is ‘no evidence that
poverty and gender sensitivity is applied to the formulation of macroeconomic stabilisation policies’ (Foster and
Lee 1996: 7). Even where poverty assessments have been done, these are not carried through into
recommendations to change economic policy (ibid.).
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The impact of safety nets on poverty has been slight and patchy, in most cases, due to the widespread nature of
structural poverty and the limitations of a project approach in addressing this (Vivien 1995). Political objectives
have tended to dominate, by favouring schemes with high visibility rather than poverty reducing impact, or
attempting to ‘buy off’ vocal opposition groups. Demand led schemes have tended to benefit better off groups
who are already organised, and who often have limited outreach to the poor.
‘Social Funds introduced in the context of adjustment reached only a small fraction of the poor' (Stewart and van
Geest 1995: 126). In Ghana, 0.3 percent of the total population were reached and only five percent of retrenched
workers; in Egypt, 0.5 percent of the total population benefited; in Honduras, 13 percent, and in Mexico, a more
impressive 27 percent (ibid.; Graham 1994). In Zimbabwe, only 26 percent of the urban poor who were targeted
with food subsidies were reached.
Economic reform policies clearly still need considerable rethinking if poverty is to be reduced, and more action is
required in the form, for example, of greater emphasis on poverty in policy dialogue, and the closer integration of
poverty strategies with adjustment programmes. Economic policies are needed which limit the costs of
adjustment. Some measures such as user charges for health and education have clearly had damaging effects
on low income groups and therefore need to be reviewed (Killick 1995; Stewart 1995). There is a need for reform
to social security systems to address poverty issues, rather than a reliance on often ineffective safety nets
(Graham 1994).
3. Gender in mainstream debates on economic reform and poverty
In the literature on poverty and adjustment (reviewed above) there is still a tendency to ignore gender (and
other) aspects of vulnerability and to treat the poor as a homogenous and passive category (e.g. Stewart 1995).
The World Bank’s own poverty assessments have, until recently, paid very little attention to gender issues
(Hamner et al. 1996).
Where ‘the poor’ are further disaggregated, it tends to be by rural-urban residence, or by degree of poverty (e.g.
destitute or extreme poor versus absolute poor), or sector of activity, so that gender aspects of poverty are rarely
visible. There are also distinctions made between the ‘new’ and ‘old’ poor (the former being those who have been
impoverished under adjustment). Where reference is made to gender issues, it is usually by singling out femaleheaded
households as a vulnerable group, requiring targeted assistance.
Initially, concern with gender issues in relation to economic liberalisation and adjustment, emerged as a subset of
the debates on poverty referred to in 2.1. Poor women were seen to carry the major burden of adjustment
through increased demands on their reproductive labour, as well as falling social services provision, an argument
first advanced in UNICEF’s Invisible Adjustment (1988) mainly in the context of urban Latin America.
The Commonwealth Secretariat’s two volume study Engendering Adjustment (Chinery-Hesse 1989) argued that
women bear the major burden of adjustment, in their four ‘roles’ as producers, mothers, home managers and
community organisers. A ‘pincer’ effect, added to the pressure for women to earn market incomes at the same
time as increasing their reproductive burden, through decreasing social services provision and community
infrastructure and by increasing household labour requirements, e.g. the need to prepare cheaper foods.
These studies, while they set out an initial agenda for looking at the impact of adjustment on women, were not
persuasive, because they lacked the backing of rigorous empirical studies and tended not to address the impact of
adjustment on men, or gender relations. There is still considerable disagreement as to whether it is adjustment
policies which have negatively affected women, or the pre-existing conditions (Moghadam 1997; Haddad et al.
1995). More recent arguments for consideration of gender in structural adjustment have focused on efficiency
questions (Elson 1991, 1993; Palmer 1991), and it is these perspectives that have proved influential in
mainstream policy debates because they have drawn attention to the possibility that unequal gender relations
may underlie some of the poor performance of adjusting economies (see e.g. World Bank 1993).
A few more rigorous quantitative empirical studies have attempted to look at the gender differential impact of
adjustment on poverty using household survey data. However, these have tended to focus on comparisons of
male- and female-headed households, in part because of data limitations. While these provide a certain amount
of insight, including some counterintuitive findings, they do not provide a comprehensive view of gender and
poverty questions related to adjustment, since the majority of women live in male-headed households.
A series of measures have been taken by the World Bank and donor agencies in the last two to three years, in
part stimulated by external pressure from NGOs as well as researchers, to give a higher profile to the gender
differentiated impacts of economic policy reform and to modify policies on this basis. These include: setting up a
consultative group, with international representation, to monitor progress on gender issues and propose reforms
to the Bank; the piloting of ‘gender-aware’ adjustment missions in Mali, Mozambique and Burkina Faso (see
section 5); and sponsoring research (notably the SAGA programme’s three country study, and major study of
gender and adjustment in Tanzanian agriculture commissioned by the EC).
However, despite the fact that ‘macro-economics is notoriously gender blind (but often biased)... other growth
related policies such as public expenditure allocation, tax policy, deregulation/price liberalization and even
privatization are all highly amenable to gender analysis...’ (Foster and Lee, 1996: 7), few adjustment documents
integrate such an analysis.
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4. Why is gender important to economic reform and poverty linkages?
4.1 Gender, economic reform and vulnerability to poverty
Gender is a key determinant of vulnerability (others are, e.g., age, class, ethnicity, region etc.) so that in a period
of economic transition, women are likely to be especially vulnerable to increased poverty or insecurity. While job
losses may affect men and women, women may find it harder than men to regain employment or become selfemployed,
due to relative lack of education and skills, lifecycle issues (employers may favour younger women)
and lack of independent access to capital. Poor women are more likely to have no other adult earners in the
household and to have a higher dependency ratio and may be especially vulnerable to the removal of subsidies
and increasing charges for services and rising prices, leaving them in deepening poverty.
4.2 Poverty reducing effects of economic reform are mediated by gender relations
Poverty reducing benefits of economic reform may not reach women. For example, benefits to poor rural farmers
from increased prices of cash crops accrue directly to men, but may have limited positive, or negative impacts for
women, whose labour is intensified to increase production, but who are not always recompensed for this
additional effort, as demonstrated in contrasting studies of sugar commercialisation in the Philippines and Kenya
(Kennedy and Bouer, cited in Haddad et al. 1995). In addition, reduced direct control over incomes undermines
women’s bargaining power in the household and influence over economic decision-making, as found with the
intensification of traditional cash crops (e.g. tobacco) in Uganda (Elson and Evers 1997).
Where women do benefit directly from economic reform and liberalisation (e.g. in the expansion of female
intensive export manufacturing, through gaining access to the labour market for the first time, and earning a
higher income than would be available in alternative forms of employment), these gains are often in the context
of discriminatory practices in labour markets and often harsh working conditions (see e.g. Moghadam 1997).
Also, these benefits often do not accrue to poor women (those most likely to be employed are younger, more
educated women) and are not always durable.
4.3 The supply response issue
A failure to consider the systemic barriers to increased production faced by women, in response to price
incentives, may lead to over-optimistic assumptions about their impact (World Bank 1996). A variety of
interlocking, gender-related constraints limit the extent to which women are willing, or able, to increase their
output, or to market their increased output. These include time constraints, linked to the burden of reproductive
labour, lack of command over productive resources (land, capital, labour) because of limited property rights,
household power relations, and high market transactions costs as well as gender biases in marketing systems,
and in the provision of associated marketing infrastructure (information, transport, storage, market facilities,
credit) (Baden 1997a, 1997b). The fact that women themselves often do not receive the benefits of their own
increased production (see 4.2) is an additional constraint.
Time constraints are a major limiting factor for poor women, who cannot afford to hire in labour, and are occupied
with meeting immediate survival needs. A recent study of farming households in Zambia showed that
discrepancies in time use between men and women were particularly marked in subsistence level households. In
general, poor women are concentrated in low profit, petty trading segments of agricultural marketing, with high
levels of competition and rates of wastage, often barely able to generate enough revenue to buy new stock and
often buying on credit from suppliers on highly unfavourable terms. Higher up the marketing chain, the number
of men increases.
4.4 Hidden costs, human development and intergenerational transfer of poverty
Often, the costs of economic transition are ‘hidden’ because they are absorbed by increases in poor women’s
unpaid labour, intensity of work, reduced nutrition or energy depletion. This has severe potential costs in terms of
women’s own health and well-being, and girls’ education may suffer due to mothers drawing heavily on girls’
labour in informal sector activity, agricultural work, or in household work. For example, in Uganda, women and
girls are employed in the production of non-traditional exports, such as vanilla, and seasonal peaks in demand for
their labour were known to affect girls’ school attendance (Elson and Evers 1997). Hence a vicious cycle of
poverty, whereby girls’ future prospects are also limited, is set in train.
4.5 Gender biases in social programmes and social security systems
Safety nets tend to see women as targets for social assistance and men as targets for employment, based on a
male breadwinner model. Their populist orientation and appeal to political support means that they often tend to
reinforce ‘family values’. Women benefit mainly from nutritional programmes. For example, in Bolivia, 99 percent
of beneficiaries of the ESF were men. In Chile, the introduction of a new scheme (POJH) targeting (male) heads
of household (women were 25-30 percent of beneficiaries), and which paid 40 percent of the minimum wage, led
to the feminisation of a pre-existing programme (PEM), paying only one quarter of the minimum wage (Graham
1994; Vivien 1995).
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Lack of gender policies, reliance on NGOs and other organisations to carry out projects, with no systematic
monitoring, mean that social funds are ill-equipped to address gender aspects of poverty. Moreover, participatory
activities or community-based social provisioning in social programmes often rely on the unpaid labour of women.
Some social programmes associated with economic reform packages have a poor record on women’s participation:
because they have explicitly targeted the new poor, i.e. retrenched workers from privatised industries, more likely
to be men; because of a male biased model of the breadwinner in either targeting or recruitment procedures;
and/or because the design of programmes builds in barriers to female participation (e.g.: project site a long way
from the household, or markets, lack of child care facilities; heavy ‘men’s’ work required, such as construction).
Indirect beneficiaries of social programmes are often assumed to be household members of the main earner (by
implication usually women and children), which fails to consider inequities in intrahousehold resource allocation.
Some safety net programmes have been more successful in targeting poor women. The benefits from social
infrastructure provision through public works have a gender differential impact. Local community facilities (e.g.
wells, schools, nurseries, sanitation provision etc.) are likely to be of much greater benefit to women, than, for
example, roads, airport runways etc.).
Social safety nets by and large have not yet taken on gender issues (see above) and, more broadly, wider social
security and welfare provisions have not taken account of changes in social relations (including gender relations)
which are occurring as a result of economic restructuring, as well as political and social conflict (Baud and Smyth
1997; Moghadam 1997). These include changes in patterns of household formation (such as later marriage,
increased incidence of non-formal unions), dissolution (rising rates of abandonment, separation, divorce), and
residence (living apart as a result of migration), as well as changes in intrahousehold expenditure patterns, due to
unemployment, falling real wages, poverty and women’s increased market earning capacity.
5. Implications for policy and practice
5.1 Incorporating gender concerns into design of economic reform
5.1.1 Gender-aware economic policy-making
A variety of tools are being developed to make economic policy and planning more gender-sensitive. This
includes, for example, macroeconomic models which take account of women’s unpaid labour and thus are able to
factor this into attempts to predict the impact of policy reform (Cagatay et al. 1995). Public expenditure reviews
(PERs) can incorporate a gender analysis. Underpinning these approaches is a need to refine methodologies, and
improve the collection, analysis and use of gender-disaggregated data for policy and planning.
Various initiatives have been taken to increase dialogue between finance ministries, other key sectoral ministries,
and women’s machineries, to promote the consideration of gender perspectives in economic policy formulation.
The World Bank has piloted ‘gender-aware’ adjustment operations in three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa,
attempting to ensure that gender-based constraints are taken into consideration when adjustment policies are
being devised. Much work remains to be done in this area, so that these efforts are systematic.
5.1.2 Increasing accountability of economic policy to (poor) women.
A second and equally important mechanism for incorporating gender concerns into the design of economic reform
is to make the processes of economic policy more accountable to women and their organisations (e.g. through
consulting with women’s groups, economic literacy work, women’s budget campaigns etc.). Examples of this
approach include the work of CEEWA in Uganda, in lobbying for changes to economic legislation (the recent
Financial Institutions Act 1993 and Bank of Uganda Statute 1993) enacted in the context of financial sector
reform, to ensure that it does not institutionalise discrimination or biases against poor women who are the main
beneficiaries of non-formal microenterprise finance (Kiggundu 1998). The setting up of consultation mechanisms
during the process of formulating economic policy is also important and, alongside this, raising gender issues
during policy dialogue with governments.
5.2 Monitoring of gender-differentiated impacts
The gender-disaggregated impacts of economic policies require monitoring to inform future policy development.
One mechanism for this is gender-sensitive indicence analysis of public expenditure (Demery 1996). Women’s
budget exercises, notably that in South Africa which has gained considerable support both within the Parliament
and beyond, are also possible leverage mechanisms to raise awareness of the implications of public expenditure
decisions, and trace through their impacts (Budlender 1996). Other mechanisms are also required which
institutionalise capacity for monitoring adjustment impacts, e.g. the collection of indicators via development
programmes, social sector service provision or community based initiatives.
5.3 Reducing barriers to women’s response to economic opportunities
A number of measures can be taken to reduce or remove the constraints to women’s response to economic
opportunities. Some of these relate to reducing the time burden on women, e.g. through improvements in the
provision of social infrastructure, such as water supply, child care facilities etc. In order to improve direct returns
to women’s labour, there is a need to secure their property rights through legal reforms although these often have
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limited effectiveness at local level, unless women develop bargaining power to assert their claims.
Gender biases in financial and agricultural markets need to be tackled. In the financial sector, support to the
development of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) which are successful in reducing transactions costs of
lending to women, an emphasis on savings, as well as credit, to mobilise women’s own resources, and the reform
of banking institutions and legislation to remove discriminatory practices are all possible measures. The definition
of financial instruments in legislation should be flexible to ensure that institutions lending to women are not
negatively affected (Baden 1997a).
Initiatives needed to support women’s trading include group loans for transport, storage etc. to women traders,
measures to limit police harassment and excessive taxation of informal traders, and the provision of services
which are located in areas where women trade (Baden 1997b).
5.4 Social security and safety nets
There is now considerable experience of the gendered impact of safety nets and of measures which can be taken
to ensure greater participation of women, such as decentralised location of work sites, near homes and markets,
provision of child care and health facilities, use of women’s networks to publicise schemes, improved recruitment
practices, hiring of women in supervisory positions (BRIDGE 1995). Programmes which specifically target female
heads or women may have drawbacks in that they can institutionalise gender divisions of labour and
discriminatory payment practices and, in some instances, create a political backlash.
There is a need for greater recognition of the increasing variety of household forms, and associated patterns of
vulnerability, and a need to move away from the male breadwinner model underlying social security and welfare
systems, as well as for legal and institutional changes which strengthen the rights of women in non-formal unions,
or who are not living with, or supported by, male partners. At the same time, the coping strategies of poor
women, as well as men, need to be better understood, and supported, as alternatives to top down provision of
safety nets (Baud and Smyth 1997).
6. Directions for further research
Useful conceptual frameworks are now in place which can assist understanding of the linkages between economic
policy, gender and poverty concerns. There are also a number of initiatives which have attempted to influence
policy in this area from a gender perspective. What is now needed is detailed context specific research, and
comparative empirical research, which investigates how and whether policy changes take effect in implementation
and links between macro level changes and micro level responses. Some areas are suggested below.
● Monitoring of extent to which incorporation of gender considerations at policy level in economic reform
impacts on actual changes through budgetary allocations, investment, changing employment patterns and
resource allocation to men/women.
● Research on the linkages between economic policy and restructuring and changing household forms and
relations, e.g. through changes in male/female participation rates, incomes and expenditure patterns and
their effects on household relations.
● Research on how policies of trade and investment liberalisation impact on the gender intensity of the work
force in different sectors, and on wage structures and working conditions. Parallel to this, research on the
impact of labour legislation and labour standards provisions in redressing gender inequities in the labour
force.
● Research on coping strategies in the face of insecurity caused by economic restructuring and policy
changes, and the scope for improving social security provision.
● In agricultural and other product markets, analysis/mapping of gender segmentation in marketing systems,
to increase understanding of the different conditions faced by women and men in trading.
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Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
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Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202
Email: bridge@ids.ac.uk
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Invisible Workers: Women in the Informal Economy in Russia [1]
By Zoya Khotkina, Ph.D.
Russian Academy of Sciences,
Institute for Socio-Economic Studies of Population, Russia
The results of Russian quasi-reforms was deep economic crisis, break-down of the industry, decline of the
production, deterioration of living standard of the population and mass unemployment. The lack of job, and
livelihood opportunities drives labour force from the official sphere of employment into the informal economy.
This problem is critical for Russia due to the large scale of the informal sector and the role it plays in the economy
of the country in the last decade. According to Goscomstat RF official data in 2003, 8 to 10 million people work in
the informal economy. Approximately 15% of the active part of the population does not have any other sources
for survival. What is more important, mostly all of them are hired workers with low salaries.
The labour relations and employment are regulated in Russia by two federal laws – Labour Code (2002) and Law
on Employment of Population (1991). National labour legislation does not take into account the realities of modern
labour market. Workers in informal economy are neither recognized nor protected by these laws. As a result,
current growth of activities in the informal economy has led to growing ranks of vulnerable, marginalized workers
with no access to justice. The feminisation of poverty and gender discrimination at the labour market are reasons
why are women more likely than men to be in the informal economy.
Women and men involved in the informal sector do not even possess a minimal level of social guarantees. They
do not receive annual paid leaves or payment for a temporary disability; their working day is not limited by set
hours; women do not have right to a maternity leave or to support for child care. They do not have life and health
insurance, so they are exposed to constant risk. They are also deprived of legal protection. On the other hand,
they and their problems are invisible for the governmental officials and statistics.
In Russia, according to Goskomstat statistics, the number of workers in informal sector in 2002 was same as the
number of unemployed (each about 9 million persons). The government allocates considerable institutional
(employment service) and material (benefits) resources aimed at solving the problem of unemployment, but there
are no resources available at solving the labour and social problems of millions working in informal economy.
Moreover, this problem is not recognised at the governmental level. These people and their problems are invisible
for the law, government and society. Currently, there are no programs and projects in Russia, aimed at solving
the social problems of men and women working in the informal sector of economy.
The tendency of growth of informal sector has a global character, and everywhere poor women are involved in
this type of activity more than men. But the specific of Russia is that women involved in informal sector have (in
many cases) high level of education. There are former engineers, teachers, and etc. Our survey shows that 55%
of men and women employed in informal economy have professional education (more then high school — they
finished collage or university). Their entry into this sector is absolutely necessary, as it is often sole source of
income for themselves and their families. Economic crisis, unemployment and open discrimination in the Russian
labour market denied them the opportunity to attain the professional employment commensurate with their label
of education. They have no other opportunity but to work in the informal sector, and they cannot reconcile their
identity with such reality.
The informal economy in Russia has different impact on the social and economic status of men and women. My
study has shown that the problems faced in the informal economy first and foremost affected women. The main
gender problems in the employment sphere include the growth of female unemployment, the difficulty of finding
jobs, the discrepancy between the job specifications and the professional qualification, the dismissal of qualified
women employees, barriers to carrier promotion, and so on. All these problems stem from gender inequality or
discrimination against women in the sphere of employment and labour market. Unemployed women, especially
divorced and single mothers, as families’ sole bread-winners, but also young girls coming into the labour market
for the first time, agree to any work on any terms, including in the informal sector. These so-called “terms”
include that women do not have the right to marry or to have children while they work.
Factors of predomination of the growth of women’s informal work in Russia:
● Economic crisis and reduction of the labour force in last decade in Russia (1990-2002) on 11 million
workers;
● Uneven reduction of the labour force with visible discrimination against women - as a result 7,5 million
women lost a job in the formal sector of Russian economy (20% of women’s labour force) and only 3,5
million of men (10% of men’s labour force);
● High level of unemployment;
● Gender discrimination at the labour market.
The strongest influence on female labour force in Russian society today is discrimination in hiring practices that
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pushes them beyond the labour market. On the other hand, a decline in the quality and standard of living
demands their contribution to a family budget, since the family cannot make living on one salary. According to
statistics, 2/3 of families with children where only one parent works live below the poverty level. Under these
conditions, women choose various survival strategies, among which in the past few years is the work in the
informal sector as the only means of possibility to realize their right to work and right to receive a salary.
The liquidation of 7,5 million jobs for women in the last decade illustrates not only their position in the society, but
also the deformation of the labour market. This is the biggest price that women pay for the Russian transition to
the market economy.
[1] Abstract of the paper presented at the IAFFE (International Association of Feminist Economics) Conference “A
feminist economic dialogue on transition and EU-enlargement”, January 21-22, 2005, Budapest, Hungary
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Gender Equality
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GENDER EQUALITY
The Women’s Movement in Russia: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
By Zoya Khotkina
The women’s movement in contemporary Russia exists as the social, cultural, and
political activity of women’s groups and organisations, aimed at bringing together the
interests of various social strata of women and bringing about a change in the system of
gender relations. The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has officially registered
over 600 women’s organisations. The women’s movement in Russia is one of the most
active parts of the Third Section Movement, encompassing approximately 10% of the
most active NGOs.
The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
By Marijana Pajvanèiæ, Ph.D.
The constitutional issue in the Republic of Serbia has been open for a long time now. The
debate on the constitutional issue was initiated among experts as early as the moment of
adopting the Constitution, and debate has continued. The constitutional debate has been
conducted in stages, focusing on various constitutional issues. Constitutional guarantees
of gender equality did not come into the focus of attention of the expert and political
community until late 2004. Some other constitutional contents had been the object of
interest until then.
The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Neighbouring Countries: the Western Balkans -
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic and
Mirjana Dokmanovic
WIDE briefing paper
The privatisation process has lead to the abolishment of economic and social rights and
inadequate protective mechanisms; a lack of respect for international labour and
environmental standards; a lack of transparency. Moreover, there is no legislation on
corporate responsibility. The need to make the economy attractive for foreign
investments is being used as justification for all these legal changes. Of course, all these
policies are not gender-neutral. Women have absorbed the shock of the adjustment by
intensifying their unpaid work necessary because of budget cuts in basic public services
such as education, social services, and health care.
The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Neighbouring Countries in Eastern Europe/ Former Soviet Union -
By Zofia Lapniewska, Raisa Sinelnikova, Shorena Dzotsenidze, Halyna Fedkovy and
Oksana Kisselyova, PhD
The transition from centrally planned to market-based economies was based on
privatisation, liberalisation and a strengthening of the financial and tax discipline of
companies. These changes had serious implications for the redistribution of resources and
budgetary spending. Price increases and an increase in foreign debt put pressure on
national budgets resulting in cuts in public expenditures - including in health, education
and family related benefits. The transition process had significant social impacts including
destabilising the labour market and creating a class of so-called “new poor”.
The Enlarged EU and its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Candidate Countries -
By Irina Moulechkova, Ph.D., with Plamenka Markova, Ph.D. and Genoveva Tisheva
Structural reform, privatisation, attracting foreign direct investments and accession to the
European Union in 2007 are the main priorities of the Bulgarian government - but the
government is not taking into consideration the negative effects of globalisation on social
protection, especially among vulnerable groups (women, young people, pensioners).
Armed conflicts in the Balkans and financial constraints related to structural adjustment

Gender Equality
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programmes have negatively affected the ability of the previous and the current
governments of Bulgaria to promote social development through better safety nets.
The Enlarged EU and its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Central and Eastern European New Member States -
By Anita Seibert and Kinga Lohmann, with Jana Javornik
The CEE countries share a common economic history of being centrally controlled until
the end of the 1980s - including wages, prices of goods and services, and real estate,
followed by the subsidisation of a great range of goods and services (and hence those
goods were relatively affordable). At the beginning of the 1990s, the process of political,
social and economic transition led to the privatisation of state assets and the integration
into the global capitalist market.
The Enlarged EU and its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Old Member States -
By Elizabeth Villagómez
From a women’s rights and a gender equality perspective, and indeed from a social
protection perspective in general, there is growing evidence that social directives and
guidelines from the EU are at odds with those ruling economic matters. It is undeniable
that in some countries the social directives and guidelines have done much to introduce
and accelerate an increased awareness and needed change with respect to women’s
economic and social rights and gender equality in general. However, economic policies
can work directly and indirectly against adequately guaranteeing these rights inasmuch
as these policies assume gender neutrality when in fact they are gender blind.
The enlarged European Union and its agenda for a ‘wider Europe’:
What considerations for gender equality?
By Mandy Macdonald
WIDE Report
Among the shared values the EU wants its new and future members and its neighbours to
foment are democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. But do these values
include gender equality? The European Commission’s 2003 Communication ‘Wider Europe
- Neighbourhood: A new framework for relations with our Eastern and Southern
neighbours’ is silent on the subject. The hearing held by Women in Development Europe
(WIDE) at the European Parliament on December 2, 2004 explored the potential for
mainstreaming gender equality in key areas of national policy in the new member states
and other Eastern European countries, and the extent to which the EU can help in this
respect. The hearing followed up WIDE’s consultation on gender equality in EU accession
negotiations held in 2003 in Brussels, and aimed to carry the discussion forward to the
formulation of recommendations to be taken back to the participants’ national
governments.

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The Women’s Movement in Russia: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
By Zoya Khotkina, Ph.D., Moscow Centre for Gender Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
1. What does Russian feminism (as the basis for a social movement) look like?
The women’s movement in contemporary Russia exists as the social, cultural, and political activity of women’s
groups and organisations, aimed at bringing together the interests of various social strata of women and bringing
about a change in the system of gender relations. The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has officially
registered over 600 women’s organisations. The women’s movement in Russia is one of the most active parts of
the Third Section Movement, encompassing approximately 10% of the most active NGOs.
To understand the originality of the contemporary Russian women’s movement, and to distinguish it from Western
feminism, it is essential to give at least a brief overview of its historical roots. I shall present only the main theses
on this issue and shall state a few historical fact and instances.
Thesis one
Russian feminism (as a theory) and women’s movement (as practice) were not “imported” to Russia from the
West; rather than that, they had a deep historical tradition, dating back to the mid-19 th century. This means that
Russian feminism is over one hundred and fifty years old, rather than fifteen, as argued by some Russian and
Western specialists. Russia has had two great waves of feminism:
● the first wave – from the mid-19 th century until 1930 and
● the second wave – from the late 1980s to the present.
The first wave of feminism in Russia (mid-19 th century until 1930)
The beginnings of feminism in Russia are closely connected with the 19 th century liberation and peasants’ rights
movement. (Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861.) It was the struggle for the peasants’ rights that actualised
the issues of women’s status and rights in the Russian society.
Western researchers are better informed about the Soviet-period feminism in Russia, associated with the name of
Alexandra Kollontay, while being insufficiently familiar with the pre-Revolution stage of the first wave of feminism
in Russia. But nowadays, owing to the efforts of modern Russian feminist historians, the scientific discourse has
included a multitude of documents and theoretical texts of pre-Revolution (up to 1917) Russian feminists. These
texts show how strong and efficient the women’s social movement was at the time and that it had a serious
theoretical basis.
The massive nature of the Russian women’s movement is illustrated, for instance, by the occurrence of the First
Pan-Russian Women’s Congress in St. Petersburg in 1908. The Congress was attended by 1000 delegates from all
over Russia (while the interest was even higher). They represented various types of women’s organisations from
women’s fractions within political parties to charitable and proletarian organisations. The texts of their speeches
show that the essential issues and problems discussed at the Congress were women’s social and political status,
their economic status and the issue of paid work, participation of women in local government, the fate of
democracy, women in Russia, etc. Obviously, the agenda of the Women’s Congress held a hundred years ago is
still relevant!
The maturity of the first wave of Russian feminism as a theory is evidenced by the following facts. For over ten
years (1904-1917), Russia saw the publication of feminist magazines such as Women’s Gazette and Women’s
Association containing serious articles (on the problems of women workers, on the participation of women in local
government, on marriage, abortion, and prostitution), informative ones (on the work of political, provincial, and
foreign women’s organisations), as well as theoretical articles (such as A. Kalymanovich’s “A Few Words on
Feminism,” E. Kuskova’s “Women and Equal Rights,” M. Pokrovskaya’s “Prostitution as a Form of Violence against
Women,” etc.). Even then, the theory of feminism was elaborated in two basic streams: egalitarian feminism and
the feminism of diversity. The egalitarian stream was more popular and stronger, as the struggle for equal rights
with men was the most relevant at that moment. However, the positions of the adherents of diversity feminism,
with their idea of “equality in differences” were represented both in speeches at the Congress and in publication.
Here is a quotation from a speech entitled “Women’s Self-Awareness as a Factor in the Restoration of the Society”
presented at the Congress by Olga Sapir: “It is time to stop proving that SHE can be like HE: no! First of all, she
must be herself and develop her own individual abilities.”
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Thesis two
In view of the above, my second thesis is that rights of Soviet women were not granted “from above” as argued
by some Western and Russian authors. It was an act of realisation of the results of many years of struggling by
Russian women for their rights. In 1917, women got all these social and political rights for which they had fought
for over 50 years. Bolsheviks, who took power as a result of the October Revolution in 1917, cleverly used the
women’s protest movement to win them over by giving them full social and political rights.
Aleksandra Kollontay played a significant and tragic role in the process through which the traditions and ideas of
the Russian women’s movement and theoretical first-wave feminism were discontinued, forgotten, and even
banned in the Soviet era. Before the Revolution, she assured female workers that they have more common social
interests with male proletarians than with “bourgeois feminists” (Kollontay, 1909). The protest of “proletarian
women” that she lead against “bourgeois feminism” in Russia in the early 20 th century bears certain resemblance
to the political protest of African-American feminists against “white feminism of middle-class women” that
challenged Western feminism in the 1980s.
In the early 1920’s, Kollontay also strove to abolish and ban all women’s organisations apart from women’s
sections of proletarian organisations. Established at her initiative after the 1917 revolution, trade unionist and
territorial Women’s Councils and Women’s Sections were called in to perform the tasks of work (as the country
was initiating its industrialisation and needing labouring hands) and political mobilisation (as the Bolsheviks were
reinforcing their power). Still, when Women’s Sections tried to widen the scope of their activities and started to
gain control over the work of the government bodies and the budget – they were banned. It means that 75 years
ago our grandmothers made the first steps towards gender budgeting. Unfortunately, they were prevented;
otherwise, we would have found it much easier to work today.
Here is an extract from the agenda of the Women’s Section of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party for
1928/29:
"Supervise the work of trade unions, co-operatives, Councils for the Improvement of Women Workers’ Lives;
supervise the work of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education in improving the lives of peasant
women, and also how much the federal and local budgets of the country have reflected the measures for the
improvement of living and working conditions of the “Easterners” (women from Central Asian republics)."
The document is kept at the RCCHDNI Archives and was published in E. Kostyusheva’s “Women and Feminism” in
Women’s Issues in the Context of National Culture (Materials of the International Congress at the Nevsky
Language and Cultural Institute, St. Petersburg, 1998, p. 48).
The establishment of Stalin’s totalitarian regime lead to the destruction of all forms of civil activities and, in the
early 1930s, to closure of Women’s Sections. It was announced that the “women’s issue” in the Soviet Union was
resolved and, accordingly, no women’s organisations were required.
Over the following 60 years of Soviet rule (from the mid-1930s until the mid-1980s), the women’s movement in
Russia was practically non-existent. In 1944, for the purpose of propagating the achievements of Soviet women
abroad, the government formed the Soviet Women’s Committee. It, however, did not encompass solving the
practical problems of Soviet women. An attempt was made in the late 1970s to publish a dissident women’s
magazine Maria for which Tatiana Mamonova and her colleagues were exiled from the USSR. In the mid-1980s,
Gorbachev proposed reinstatement of Women’s Councils, which were controlled by the Party and, in most cases,
were purely ceremonial in character. The Iron Curtain and Soviet censorship gave practically no opportunity for
information on the development of feminism in the West to reach the country.
A new era in Russian feminism (late 1980s to the present)
The beginning of a new era in Russian feminism is associated with the period of glasnost and perestroika.
Women’s NGOs as a phenomenon of social life emerged in the late 1980s.
The activities of new feminist organisations in Russia in the 1990s and their critique regarding the “solution of the
women’s issue” in the Soviet Union are rather well-known in the West. This information is considerably welldistributed
owing to the active work of the Moscow Centre for Gender Studies. They introduced to Russia in 1991
and 1992 the First and Second Independent Women’s Forums in Dubna, and they published in English the book
Women in Russia: A New Era in Russian Feminism which I co-authored.
Nearly 600 women’s organisations exist in Russia now but only 5-10% of them declare themselves to be feminist
organisations. The activities of all other women’s organisations are connected with the following (by rate of
occurrence):
● human rights, women’s social security, reproductive rights, committees of soldiers’ mothers, etc.;
● educational and training organisations for women and related programmes, including university centres and
programmes of Women’s and Gender Studies in the universities;
● information work (production, storage, and dissemination of information; women’s archives and libraries;
information centres and programmes, including the women’s portal http://www.owl.ru);
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● work with the public and services for women (emergency centres for women, legal and psychological
consulting, public reception offices, etc.);
● family assistance (organisations of single mothers and mothers with many children, mothers of disabled
children, work with minors, charity work for poor and other children);
● women’s entrepreneurship (associations, clubs, and programmes);
● feminism, research, resource, and training centres;
● political activities (parties, women voters’ clubs, organisation and active participation at rallies, actions, and
picketing); and
● women’s creative organisations and associations, and women’s SMIs (mass media).
There are several women’s organisations in Russia that either form a wide regional network or are networks
themselves. They usually work in several directions. For example, the Information Centre of the Independent
Women’s Forum connects about 100 organisations; the Consortium of women’s NGOs (1998) connects 85
organisations; the Union of Women of Russia (former Soviet Women’s Committee) registered in 1991 formally
comprises 94 regional departments; and the Women’s Movement of Russia (1996) has 59 regional departments.
The peak of activity of the second wave of feminism in Russia can be placed in the mid-1990s. In this period
(1993-95), the Duma (the Federal Parliament of Russia) included a faction of the “Women of Russia” advocating
the interests of women in the country’s highest legislative body. Moreover, 1995 was the time of preparation and
occurrence of the 4 th World Women’s Conference and NGO Forum in Beijing. At the Beijing Forum, Russia was
represented by more than 270 women (delegates and women from NGOs). In comparison, in Nairobi in 1985, the
Soviet Union sent only 10 people, mainly men from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Enriched by the experience of active participation in the women’s movement in the late 1990’s, Russian
researchers started their active involvement in empirical research, as well as in introducing feminism into
university curricula. The Moscow Centre for Gender Studies, together with regional universities of the Russian
Summer School on Gender Studies in 1996-98, contributed greatly to unification and consolidation of Russian
feminist-oriented research. I was the Director of the first three summer schools (Valday-96, Volgga-97, and Azov-
98). This initiative was accepted then by universities; and, since 2000, such schools have been operating regularly
in various regions of Russia.
The end of the 1990s in Russia can be regarded as the institutional phase of gender relations studies as a
scientific and educational stream. Not only at certain Russian universities, this was the time when the research of
gender relations was introduced as a compulsory university standard for experts in social work and sociology.
The results of the development of Russian research of gender relations became more obvious at the beginning of
the 21 st century. There was a real boom in publications on gender relations; dissertations on this topic are being
presented all over the country; and hundreds of qualified university instructors have been educated. At Russian
universities, hundreds of students write their graduation papers on and thousands of students attend courses in
the history and theory of feminism. This is all contributing to the process of establishing knowledge in this field
and wide dissemination of feminist ideas in Russia.
2. How and why is Russian feminism different from Western feminism?
The first thing to mention is that feminism is theory and practice that has emerged and developed as a response
to women’s social demands. Thus, if real problems faced by women of the East and West, white and non-white,
rich and poor, from various countries and cultures are not the same, then their “feminisms” are different as well.
According to Russian feminists Anna Temkina and Elena Zdravomyslova, these differences are ontological,
political, and gnoseological.
In ontological terms (as the experience of the relationship between masculinity and femininity), the Russian
system of gender relations is essentially different from the Western one. The experience, practices, and
deprivation of the Soviet “working mother” differ significantly from the situation of an economically dependent
American “housewife,” and this is why the issues of oppression, conceived in the West through the prism of
“patriarchate,” are not quite apparent in Russia.
Among the political factors determining the different character of Russian feminism, one must first highlight the
change of the political system as a whole and the occurrence of public discourse in the real sense of the word, as
the possibility of dealing with a problem whose solution is the interest of the civil society rather than of the
government. The second factor is the emergence of the women’s movement. Originally, the Russian women’s
movement was diversified into two streams – the post-Soviet women’s movement (Women’s Councils) – and the
feminist faction. In accordance with those, two streams of research and education developed as well – feminology
(vaguely similar to Women’s Studies) and more radical gender studies of feminists. It must be pointed out that
now such a clear-cut distinction no longer exists, neither in the Russian women's movement nor within the groups
of researchers and university lecturers.
The gnoseological factors also affected the specific character of the formation of feminism in Russia because all
other scientific approaches and theories were banned and tabooed during the era of dogmatic Marxism. Analysing
barriers to spreading feminist philosophy in Russia, researchers argue that the Soviet scientific discourse saw the
discontinuation of the theoretical tradition that had formed a basis for feminist critique and that was characteristic
of feminist gnoseology and the Western women’s movement.
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In connection with the significant differences in the contemporary socio-economic situations of Russia and of
Western countries, Russian feminism and women’s movement are naturally targeted toward solving their own or
others’ social tasks and cannot imitate the traditional Western institutions and patterns of social relationships. As
the philosopher Irina Zherebkina believes, not only Russia but also the entire East European region was definitely,
in this context and in the eyes of Western analysts, the cultural “other,” unharmonised with Western-type
democracy. This exotic “other” was hardly comprehensible to Western feminists. This is why, for example, they
could not hear what East European women wanted to tell them at the NGO Forum in Beijing in 1995 about ethnic
wars, the lack of basic human rights, unemployment among women, the rise in violence, control of women’s
bodies and reproductive ability, sexism, and the emergence of new forms of social inequality. However, in the
documents of the Beijing conference, the transition of former Communist countries to democracy was termed a
“completed” and “relatively peaceful” process. The reality of women of the East European region was
characterised by the West with terms of categorical imperative: the ideology of democracy must transform your
lives for the best; if you claim the opposite, then it is your personal feeling that nobody is interested in
(Zherebkina, p. 11).
But as the Russian proverb goes, “there is no bad without good.” The disregard shown by the international
women’s movement for the problems of women in countries with transitioning economies, on the one hand, and
real development of Russian gender studies, on the other, have given impulse to the active study of feminist
heritage in Russia, not only that of Western origin but of genuinely Russian origin as well. In various towns and at
universities, the 1990s saw the beginning of active study of the historical heritage of the first-wave Russian
feminism.
Russian feminism of the first wave is currently actively studied and taught at universities, first of all by Svetlana
Aivazova and Natalia Pushkareva (the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow), Irina Yukina (Nevsky Institute in
St. Petersburg), Valentina Uspenskaya (the University of Tversk), Olga Hazbulatova and Olga Shnirova (Ivanovsky
Institute), etc. Owing to their publications and lectures on these subjects, modern researchers and activists of the
women’s movement, as well as students, have not only found a lot of new information on the history of feminism
in Russia, but also have gotten an opportunity to read texts by Russian feminists of the first wave.
3. What barriers in Russian society and politics have prevented feminism from developing as a
movement?
The barriers in the Russian society and politics that have prevented feminism from developing as a movement are
similar to those in other countries – gender stereotypes; sexism; and the absence among women of the material,
governmental, and institutional resources necessary to build a more humane, gender symmetrical, and just
society; however, additional barriers exist in Russia. Concentrated ideological pressure through SMIs (mass
media), religion, and literature pertaining to the propagation of the traditional wife-and-mother role for women,
does not allow Russian women to realise the true status of work and the importance of their own roles in the
contemporary society. The process of democratisation and market “quasi-reforms” in Russia and other East
European countries is a men’s project. It has targeted appropriating former state property rather than improving
the quality of life.
The dramatic situation of Russian women is reflected in the fact that now they are forced to protect the rights and
guarantees that they already had under the Communist regime but that were lost for them in the process of
liberalising state policy: the rights to free medical services and free education, financial assistance for mothers
and cheap kindergartens, reproductive rights (e.g., free abortion), and the right to work. Even more today, the
Russian women’s movement has been forced to fight for what already had been acquired ten years ago. For
instance, the national mechanism of gender equality was formed before the Beijing Conference, in the form of:
1. The Committee for the Issues of Women’s Rights in the Russian Federation, headed by the Deputy Prime
Minister, whose decisions were mandatory and executive (dissolved by Decree no. 215 of the Government of the
Russian Federation, dated 16 April, 2004);
2. The Committee for the Issues of Family, Women, and Demography, within the Ministry of Labour and Social
Development of the Russian Federation (but the Ministry of Labour has not existed since 2004 so there is no
Committee either); and
3. The Committee for the Issues of Family, Women, and Demography, working with the President of the
country since 1994 (which disappeared in 2000 with the election of President Putin).
This endless “Sisyphean task” of continued endeavour to achieve what already had been achieved and then was
wasted is by all means a clearly visible feature of the modern Russian women’s movement.
Barriers preventing the development of the women’s movement in Russia can be divided, conditionally, into three
types. These are barriers of society, of state policies, and of women themselves, as outlined below.
1. The most significant barriers at the level of society are:
● the traditionalism of Russian society and the wide incidence of sexism and gender stereotypes in it;
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● underdeveloped civil society; and
● sharp social segmentation of the Russian society and differentiation of social groups.
2. Barriers created by state policy include:
● abolishing the national mechanism of gender equality in early 2000 (i.e., formal governmental and
executive structures for protecting women’s interests and promoting their status in the Russian society);
● neglecting the interests of male and female populations in forming basic social policies (e.g., priorities in
solving the social problems of military and law enforcement personnel) – actions which place many
women’s social problems outside the focus of attention of state structures;
● weakening state control in the implementation of legislation, forcing the women’s movement to fight for the
implementation of laws securing women’s rights because Russian legislation is harmonised with
international standards of gender relations but de facto they are not implemented;
● failing of masculinised governmental structures to implement anti-discrimination laws (e.g., in the late
1990s the Duma (90% men) voted against legislation to prevent domestic violence; for the past five years,
the Duma has failed to pass the law on “state guarantees of equal rights, and freedoms and equal
opportunities for men and women in the Russian Federation”);
● lacking coherent state policy on women’s relations (i.e., the demographic policy is the only relevant one
clearly articulated and institutionalised at the state level but its existent form implies control of women’s
reproductive function and sexuality); and
● initiating only “decorative” and declarative state-level activities (i.e., announcing the significance and
importance of women’s issues for state policy, while the Government and the Duma are doing nothing even
in cases of open and intolerable breeches of women’s rights, like discrimination at work and domestic
violence).
3. Barriers at the level of women themselves and within the women’s movement:
● the Russian women’s movement should not be called massive because its major segment encompasses
educated, politically-active, middle-class women (e.g., academic researchers, professors, and students
from university circles), while mass surveys show that almost one-half of women are unaware of the
existence and work of women’s organisations;
● there is a lack of models, programmes, and concepts of development of the women’s movement in
perspective; and
● many representatives of the women’s movement lack clarification or acceptance of the basic theses of
feminist theory, which frequently gives rise to conclusions about “bad” feminism and “good” gender
relations.
In comparison with the mid-1990s, nowadays Russia is obviously experiencing a decline in the women’s
movement. In view of this, I would argue that the situation in the Russian women’s movement needs to be
considered not only as something separate, but also in the context of overall processes occurring today in the
global women’s movement.
As Seyla Benhabib wrote 10 years ago, “We do not know, in fact, what this general feminist ‘we’ means, but it is
sure that today we should not feel a nostalgia for expired integrity in the women’s movement, because it is the
healthy pluralism of viewpoints and practical strategies that expresses the various aspects of the modern women’s
movement” (Seyla Benhabib, ‘From Identity Politics to Social Feminism’, p.29. In: David Trend, ed., Radical
Democracy: Identity, Citizenship and the State. NY: Routledge, 1996).
4. Are there any strategies that would help a feminist movement to develop?
Despite the above mentioned problems and barriers, in the past 15 years, the Russian feminism of the second
wave has accomplished a lot! The main achievement is that basic ideas and notions of feminist and gender
theories have become part and parcel of the life of modern Russian society. They have transformed considerably
public discourse and public awareness of the population and decision makers. Such notions as gender,
reproductive rights, and sexual harassment have been brought into scientific usage and have become known not
only to specialists. In discussions about the status of Russian women, the discourse about women’s “rights” is
used actively now alongside the discourse about women’s “problems.” The taboo has been lifted on public
discussion of such topics as discrimination of women in the sphere of politics, labour, and family violence. Now
many Russians and decision makers understand that these are not personal problems of separate women but are
social and political problems of the society.
Thousands of militia and local administrative officers, judges, and journalists have had training in Russia and
abroad in the issues of prevention of violence against women. Gender expertise of legislation at all levels,
programs of political parties, statistics, media, textbooks, and now also budgets, have become practiced widely in
Russia. Methods and results of gender expertise are published in books, web sites of women’s organizations, and
a women’s portal (http://www.owl.ru). These are available to everyone.
The process of reproduction of gender knowledge and specialists is making good progress through development
and implementation of university programs on women’s and gender studies, as well as through publication of
books and articles plus defence of dissertations and students’ diplomas on gender issues. We witness a real boom
of publications on gender issues. In the directory Gender Studies in Russia and NIS: Who is Who, prepared by me
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in 2000, there were about 2000 titles of books and articles, but by now the number of publications on gender
issues has tripled.
The women’s movement is making a substantial contribution to development of the civil society in Russia when
the Government is pursuing the policy of monetization of children’s and pensioners’ privileges. Women’s
organizations have established public consulting offices that provide free consultations with lawyers and
psychologists. These services are used widely by women in regions. They express a high opinion of the work of
women’s organizations (Saratov, Smolensk, Syktyvkar, Murmansk, etc.). A network of crisis centres and hot lines
for women has been established across the country and is successfully operating now.
A professional expert community of highly skilled specialists has been created in the field of gender studies, whose
reputation is recognized both in Russia and abroad in international organizations. For example, my colleagues
from Moscow Center of Gender Studies, Olga Voronina, Marina Malysheva, Elena Ballayeva, and Marina
Baskskova, are experts of UNDP, ILO, UNIFEM, World Bank, and other international organizations. I, myself, am
an expert of UNDP and a consultant to ILO in gender and related areas.
Regional women’s movements are successfully preparing and promoting women to oblast, city, and municipal
legislative bodies. For example, in such regions as Yekaterinburg, Murmansk, and Snezhinsk, 30-40% of local
authorities are women. Over ten years, Russian women’s information networks have been working successfully to
disseminate information about the women’s movement in Russia and worldwide, about workshops and
conferences, as well as about new publications, calls for grant proposals, and experiences and achievements of
organizations and women in Russian regions.
During all 15 years, the Russian women’s movement of the second wave has been working in hard conditions,
when the advanced ideas of gender equality were moved forward despite the traditionalist policy and ideology
imposed on women and society. Therefore, we are deeply grateful to the international women’s community for the
great moral and material support rendered to us. Financial support from the West made it possible to carry over
60% of our projects and programs conducted by the Russian women’s movement in these years.
At present the activity centres of the women’s movement are moving more and more from the centre to regions
and from large-scale mass events and actions to intricate everyday work at the local level. While in Moscow the
low-skill government is pursuing anti-popular and anti-gender policy (for example, monetization of privileges,
liquidation of the National mechanism on women’s affairs), at the local level women are making efforts to ensure
successful and fruitful work to solve many social and political problems of women, including by promoting women
to power. For example, in Syktyvkar there is a Women’s Chamber successfully working, and in Yekaterinburg and
Veliky Novgorod are Women’s Parliaments; and no serious political and economic decision can be taken without
their participation.
Regretfully, these local women’s activities have not been investigated and conceptualized by Russian feminist
science. This is partly due to domination of the liberal-democratic egalitarian orientation of the Russian feminist
discourse; it is more sensitive to examining drawbacks and to being critically minded, but is not quite fit for
analyzing and summarizing the policies of “small actions” and positive practices. Yet, the results of the local
activities are mostly appreciable and effective at the level of women’s everyday lives.
This strategy of “small actions” of women and women’s organizations that show themselves in everyday practices,
rather than in large-scale events, was called “constructive feminism” by a researcher from Syktyvkar, Svetlana
Yaroshenko. The main work on changing the society and women’s consciences has been started by the women’s
movement, and no “barriers” can stop it. Therefore, today we have not to “struggle” but to act and create
constructive feminism – every day, everyone in her own place – and we shall change the world for the better!
Translation from Russian: Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Subotica, Serbia and Montenegro
REFERENCES:
Alexandra Kollontay, The Social Basis of the Women’s Questions, 1909. See at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/
kollonta/works/1909/social-basis.htm
E. Kostyusheva, ‘Women and Feminism’, in Women’s Issues in the Context of National Culture,Materials of the
International Congress at the Nevsky Language and Cultural Institute, St. Petersburg, 1998, p.48
Seyla Benhabib, ‘From Identity Politics to Social Feminism’, p.29. In: David Trend, ed., Radical Democracy:
Identity, Citizenship and the State. NY: Routledge, 1996
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
Marijana Pajvancic, Ph.D, Law School, University of Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro
1. The Constitutional Process in Serbia: Contents and the Progress of Constitutional Debate
The constitutional issue in the Republic of Serbia has been open for a long time now. The debate on the
constitutional issue was initiated among experts as early as the moment of adopting the Constitution, and debate
has continued. The constitutional debate has been conducted in stages, focusing on various constitutional issues.
Constitutional guarantees of gender equality did not come into the focus of attention of the expert and political
community until late 2004. Some other constitutional contents had been the object of interest until then.
The search for new constitutional solutions began after a phase of critical consideration of the 1990 Constitution,
which brought about a lot of criticism concerning this constitution. The first incentive to the discussion on new
constitutional solutions for Yugoslavia was a project by a group of authors, Proposal for a New Association of the
Republics of Former Yugoslavia. [1]
The initial debate was conducted on the most important open constitutional questions and constitutional
principles, which are the foundation of the basic constitutional consensus. This is further evidenced by the studies
on individual constitutional issues [2] and constitutional projects published between 1995 and 2000: A Draft
Constitution of Serbia; [3] The Constitution of the Regional State of United Serbian States, [4] Constitutional
Principles for a Democratic Serbia. [5] After the year 2000, this theoretical debate was substituted by a debate on
specific constitutional issues, [6] and more specific definition of the contents of constitutional principles and the
most important constitutional institutions. [7] The experts’ attention was focused on two groups of issues: the
concept of the new constitution and vertical power sharing.
Interest in constitutional issues grew in 2003, with the commencement of work on the new Constitution of Serbia.
The discussion was focused on four constitutional projects that were the objects of particular attention:
Constitutional Solutions for Serbia and Yugoslavia, [8] Draft Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbia, [9] A Model of
the Constitution of Serbia, [10] and The Basic Principles for a New Constitution of Serbia. [11] Four groups of
questions were differentiated during the debate: [12] the basic principles and definition of the state, human rights,
organisation of government, and territorial organisation.
The third phase began in 2003. It was marked by the commencement of work on the preparation of the new
Constitution of Serbia at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. During the work on changing the
Constitution, the Democratic Party of Serbia specified their views, previously stated in The Basic Principles for the
New Constitution of Serbia, in a document Draft Constitution of Serbia (2003). A different party, Democratic Party
submitted another Draft Constitution (2003), while some political parties supported the fundamental ideas stated
in the projects elaborated by expert groups. [13] . The first attempt at adopting the new Constitution of Serbia
resulted in a failure. The work of the Constitutional Committee [14] was discontinued by the dissolution of the
National Assembly of Serbia in late 2004.
When work on the preparation of the Constitution was recommenced in Serbia, the attention was focused on eight
constitutional projects. [15] Three of the eight projects were prepared by political parties, [16] two were the work
of expert groups gathered by NGOs, [17] one was the original work of a professor of constitutional law, [18] and
the most recent proposals were submitted by the Government of Serbia and the expert group formed by the
President of the Republic. [19] Gender aspects of these eight alternatives are discussed in section two of this
paper.
A brief overview of the constitutional debate so far points to the conclusion that no serious attention has been
paid to considering the ways in which general constitutional guarantees of gender equality are to be provided in
the future Constitution of Serbia. We find this issue important because it refers to the constitutional status and
human rights of the citizens of Serbia, so it will be the object of our particular attention.
A democratic constitution is legitimised by consensus, not only of political actors of the constitutional process, but
also of the widest circle of citizens on the most important issues comprising the basis of the community in which
they live. The constitutional process and the adoption process of a constitution should make it possible to reach a
consensus on the fundamental issues of a political community’s structure and of the position of citizens in it.
Serbia needs a new constitution that would constitutionalise the framework of democratic transition and, within
this framework, would set the rules providing and specifying the constitutional principle of gender equality.
Adopting a constitution means defining the new identities and the institutional framework of future new communal
life. This applies not only to all individual citizens, but for the political association as well. A constitution is not only
a fundamental but also a founding act - legislation which legally formalises decisions enabling the existence of
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
citizens and of the state in a manner of constitutional democracy. The status of individuals and the nature of the
political association will depend on which principles and criteria the constitution makers choose in approaching
these and the related questions.
For the new Constitution of Serbia to meet all these requirements, the constitutional process must equally include
men and women. As early as the time of the French Revolution and the preparation of the Declaration of the
Liberties and Rights of Man, Olympia de Gouge (1775-1793) warned in the Declaration of the Rights of Women
and Citizens that female citizens had the right to participate actively in creating and adopting a constitution: “The
Constitution is null and void if the majority of citizens comprising the Nation did not participate in adopting it.” Led
by this principle, we state our willingness to participate in the constitutional debate and the process of preparing
the new Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.
2.Constitutional Solutions of Gender Equality in the Projects of the New Constitution of Serbia
In this section, we point to the fundamental solutions and the manner of setting up gender equality in the eight
constitutional projects that were the focus of special attention from the expert and political communities. These
can be used as sources for new constitutional solutions.
A Proposal for the New Constitution of Serbia by Belgrade Centre for Human Rights starts from the
international standards of human rights. Guarantees relevant to gender equality include: equality before the law;
the right to equal legal protection without discrimination; [20] prohibition of direct and indirect gender
discrimination; the right to marriage with free consent of future spouses; equality of spouses entering, during,
and ending marriage; protection of the family, mother and child; the right to the lawful state pregnancy and postnatal
benefits; health care for children, pregnant women, and senior citizens, if not provided on other grounds;
and affirmative action as required to achieve equality, special care, and advancement for people in inequitable
positions so they can enjoy human rights fully under equal conditions.
Although the authors of the project are trying to use gender sensitive vocabulary, they do not do it in full. [21] The
policy of equal opportunities is not established as a right and an obligation of the state. Reasons for prohibiting
the work of a political party do not include gender-based discrimination – only racial, ethnic, and religious hatred
and discrimination. Parental rights are not provided as equal rights and obligations of father and mother. Special
rights after childbirth (maternity leave) are guaranteed only to mothers, not to fathers. The right of decision
regarding procreation is not specifically guaranteed.
A Draft Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbia by P. Nikoli•, Ph.D. guarantees equality of all before the law
including citizens in terms of gender; availability of all jobs and positions under equal conditions; the right to fair
wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value without difference; special job safety and special working
conditions for women, youths and invalids; mandatory social security for all employees and members of their
families; the right to health care from public revenue for children, women, and senior citizens not receiving those
benefits on other grounds; special care for families, mothers, children, and minors without parents; marriage with
free consent of the future spouses; equality of the spouses in marriage; free decision of the spouses regarding
procreation; parents’ rights and obligations to support, raise, and educate their children.
The project uses gender sensitive vocabulary [22] inconsistently. Measures of affirmative action are not provided
separately. There are no specific provisions regarding indirect or direct discrimination. The policy of equal
opportunities is not established as a constitutional right and obligation of the state. Reasons for prohibiting the
work of a political party do not include gender based discrimination – only racial, ethnic, and religious hatred and
discrimination. The right to decide regarding procreation is guaranteed only to married spouses, not those in
common law marriage. The right to maternity/paternity leave is not guaranteed specifically.
A Project of the Constitution of Republic of Serbia by Forum Iuris guarantees human rights originating from
international standards. In accordance with the principle of social solidarity, it stipulates that it is the obligation of
the state to actively undertake measures of economic and social aid to citizens and social groups who are in
underprivileged position for various reasons. Such measures must be aimed at removing economic an social
barriers to achieving equality of rights; equality before the law; equality in the protection of freedoms and rights;
equality of parents in parental rights and responsibilities; the right to marriage; equality of men and women
entering, during, and ending marriage; marriage based on free consent of future spouses; citizens’ rights to enter
public service under equal conditions and to perform political functions; the right to equal opportunities and equal
treatment in choosing employment; employment without gender-based discrimination; special rights for women,
youth, and the handicapped; the right to equal remuneration for work of equal value without any difference; the
right to personal dignity at work; right of employed women to the protection of maternity; the right to equal
opportunities and equal treatment of employment versus family responsibilities; obligations of the state and
employees to take legal measures in terms of labour rights; availability of all forms of education under equal
terms; the right to shelter from gender-based persecution; and obligatory state-provided health care for children,
pregnant women, and the elderly, if they are not receiving those benefits on other grounds.
The authors of this proposal use gender-sensitive terminology. [23] The proposal does not explicitly stipulate
prohibition against direct and indirect discrimination and does not explicitly provide the possibility of undertaking
affirmative action measures. The policy of equal opportunities is not established as a general obligation of the
state, except in the case of the principle of social solidarity. Reasons for prohibiting the work of a political party do
not include gender based discrimination – only racial, ethnic, and religious hatred and discrimination. The right of
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
decision regarding procreation is not guaranteed. The right to maternity/paternity leave is not specifically
guaranteed.
A Draft Constitution of Serbia submitted by the Democratic Party also starts from the international human
rights standards. It prohibits gender based discrimination; restrictions on human rights under the pretence that
they are not constitutionally guaranteed; and forced labour, explicitly defining whether sexual or economic
exploitation of disadvantaged persons is considered forced labour. It guarantees the rights of equal legal
protection without discrimination; shelter from gender-based persecution; men and women of the age of consent
to marry and to have a family; the pregnancy and post-natal support and care for mothers during the lawful
period; special protection of the family, mother, and child; and parents and guardians to educate their children
according to their religious and moral beliefs. It stipulates equality before the law; the possibility of introducing
affirmative action measures; equality of spouses entering, during, and ending marriage; and special health care
for children, pregnant women and senior citizens, if not received on other grounds.
The authors of the proposal have striven to secure gender sensitive vocabulary [24] but this rule is not followed
consistently throughout the text. Some important rights are not provided, for example, the rights to decide
regarding procreation, to maternity or paternity leave, to equality of the mother and the father in parental
responsibilities, to special workplace safety for pregnant women and mothers, and to equal remuneration for work
of equal value. Special care and support are guaranteed only to mothers during pregnancy and post-natal periods,
while the right to this support and protection after childbirth is not guaranteed to the father. Reasons for
prohibiting the work of an association include only racial, ethnic, and religious hatred and not gender based
discrimination. It does not stipulate equal opportunities policy as an obligation of the state.
A Draft Constitution of the Republic of Serbia prepared by the Democratic Party of Serbia guarantees human
rights starting from international standards in this field. The proposal specifically guarantees the rights to equal
legal protection without discrimination; marriage; parents and guardians to develop their children according to
their religious and moral beliefs; support and protection of mothers in pregnancy and the post-natal period; and
health care from public revenue for children, pregnant women and the elderly not receiving those benefits on
other grounds. It prohibits direct and indirect gender based discrimination and forced labour, explicitly defining
sexual or economic exploitation of disadvantaged people as forced labour. It guarantees equality before the
Constitution and the law and equality of spouses entering, during, and ending marriage. It guarantees equality of
parents in their rights and responsibilities to support, raise, and educate their children and the possibility of
revoking or limiting the rights of one or both parents in the child’s interest, by court decision and in accordance
with the law. The proposal stipulates affirmative action measures to achieve full and effective equality of persons
or groups in really unequal positions to other citizens; special workplace safety and special working conditions for
women, youths and invalids; marriage based on free consent of men and women; stimulation and help by the
Republic of Serbia to parents in deciding on procreation; and special protection of the family, mother, and child
guaranteed by the Republic of Serbia.
This proposal does not follow the standard demanding that the vocabulary of legislation be gender sensitive. [25]
The proposed Constitution does not include the obligation of the state to implement an equal opportunities policy.
Special protection and support is guaranteed during pregnancy and the post-natal period only to the mother,
while the right to this support and protection is not guaranteed to the father. The right to maternity/paternity
leave is not specifically guaranteed. There is no guarantee of social security and protection for pregnant women
and mothers. Reasons for prohibiting the work of an association include only racial, ethnic and religious hatred –
not gender-based discrimination. There is no explicit prohibition against expressing gender-based intolerance. The
right of asylum is not specifically guaranteed.
The Constitution of Serbia proposed by the Liberals of Serbia also starts from international human rights
standards and specifically stipulates the rights to equal legal protection without discrimination; to the lawful state
support and protection for mothers during pregnancy and post-natal periods; and for parents and guardians to
educate their children according to their religious and moral beliefs. It prohibits gender based discrimination and
forced labour, considering sexual or economic exploitation of disadvantaged persons to be forced labour. It
stipulates equality before the law; special protection of the family, mother, and child provided by the society and
the state; and special healthcare for children, pregnant women, and senior citizens not receiving those benefits on
other grounds. It guarantees the possibility of taking measures of affirmative action.
This proposal does not respect the standard demanding that the vocabulary of legislation should not be
discriminatory. [26] It does not explicitly stipulate the forms of discrimination (indirect and direct). The proposed
Constitution does not include the obligation of the state to implement an equal opportunities policy. Special care
and support is guaranteed during pregnancy and post-natal periods only to mothers, while these rights are not
guaranteed to fathers. The right to maternity/paternity leave is not specifically guaranteed, nor are social security
and protection for pregnant women and mothers. Reasons for prohibiting the work of an association include only
racial, ethnic, and religious hatred – not gender-based discrimination. There is no explicit prohibition against
expressing gender-based intolerance. The freedom of decision regarding procreation is not guaranteed.
Two draft constitutions will be the subjects of our special attention. They are the Draft Constitution of the Republic
of Serbia prepared by the Government of Serbia, and a proposal by an expert group gathered by the President of
the Republic. The reason for this is that these proposals came from persons who are entitled, under the current
Constitution of Serbia, to submit proposals for adopting a new constitution.
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
The Draft Constitution of the Republic of Serbia prepared by the Constitutional Committee of the
Government of Serbia contains both general provisions on gender equality and several special guarantees
regarding gender equality. General provisions that should be mentioned include direct application of international
law and constitution in the national law (Article 17), and explicit constitutional prohibition against direct and
indirect discrimination (Article 19). These provisions enable direct application of all universal and regional
conventions and standards, both general and specific to gender equality. In addition, the draft constitution
includes the prohibition against discrimination, among others, on the ground of gender; and, in accordance with
international standards, specifically emphasises direct and indirect discrimination as the fundamental modalities of
discrimination (Article 19). Positive discrimination (Article 20), which includes regulations, measures, and
activities, is a new concept of the constitutional system, contributing to the elimination of discrimination.
Among particular provisions specifically concerned with gender equality, we point would point out: prohibition
against trafficking of human beings (Article 25); prohibition against sexual exploitation, which, by explicit
constitutional provision, is considered as forced labour and subject to prohibition as such (Article 25); equality of
husband and wife (Article 60); guaranteed freedom of decision regarding procreation; parental rights (Article 63);
constitutional guarantees of special care for the family, mother, and child (Article 64); and special health care for
pregnant women (Article 66). The proposal, however, does not use gender sensitive vocabulary, nor does it oblige
the state to implement equal opportunities policies, which are international standards in this area. There is no
explicit guarantee of the free consent of spouses before entering marriage or of protection of single parents. A
general provision enabling positive discrimination is not specifically stipulated by the draft constitution, nor is that
content specified in relevant chapters.
A Proposal for a New Constitution of Serbia by an expert group [27] formed by the President of the Republic
also contains general guarantees and specific rights regarding gender equality. This proposal is characterised by
the use of gender sensitive vocabulary in accordance with international conventions (CEDAW). Among the general
provisions, the fundamental principles of the proposed constitution guarantee equality of men and women (Article
15) and oblige the state to implement an equal opportunities policy (Article 15). The general provisions in the
chapter on human rights guarantee the direct application of international law as well as direct application of
constitutional provisions on human rights (Articles 23 and 24). Those general provisions also prohibit
discrimination (Article 25) and list direct and indirect discrimination as forms of discrimination, while measures of
positive discrimination are provided as instruments to eliminate discrimination (Article 25). In addition, among the
general provisions on human rights, this proposal includes provisions which indirectly protect constitutional rights
from possible restriction or elimination that may occur by the interpretation of constitutional guarantees which
would “imply the right of the state, group or individuals to take action aimed at abolishing a constitutionally
guaranteed right or imposing restrictions greater than those permitted by the Constitution” (Article 26), and
explicitly prohibits placing restrictions on human rights under the pretence of their not being guaranteed by the
Constitution (Article 28).
The proposal also contains several special guarantees specifically concerned with gender equality including
prohibition against sexual exploitation, which is considered as forced labour (Article 34). Matters of gender
equality in family relations include guarantees of free consent of the spouses when entering into marriage (Article
49), equality of spouses in marital relations (Article 49), special protection of mothers and single parents (Article
63), and equality of parents in parental responsibilities (Article 63). In the political area, guarantees concerning
gender equality are explicitly guaranteed measures of positive discrimination in the elections, both parliamentary
and local (Article 57) and the guarantee to at least one seat as the Vice President of the National Assembly for the
underrepresented gender (Article 97).
This overview of constitutional solutions specifically concerned with the general constitutional principle of gender
equality points to ten general conclusions:
1. Although there is a noticeable attempt to use gender sensitive vocabulary in the highest legal act of the
state, it is done with only partial success. Only two of the projects pay attention to this aspect using both genders
of the noun “citizen” in the preamble, while only one uses this vocabulary consistently.
2. Most of the proposals guarantee equality of men and women, either by positive norm or by prohibiting
gender based discrimination. There are specific guarantees of equality before the law as well equality in the right
to the protection of freedoms and rights. Some of the projects lack the definitions of forms of discrimination
(indirect or direct). It is noticeable that causing gender-based intolerance or hatred is not prohibited, nor is
gender-based discrimination listed as a reason for prohibiting the work of a political party or citizens’ organisation.
In both cases the prohibition only applies to racial, religious, and ethnic intolerance.
3. All projects, except one, lack the provision on the obligation of the state to implement an equal
opportunities policy.
4. Measures of affirmative action are provided as a possibility in most of the projects, and the discontinuation
of these measures is connected to achieving the goal of these affirmative action measures.
5. The freedom of decision regarding procreation is guaranteed by most of the projects, but it is noticeable
that its contents are determined differently. In some projects, it is guaranteed by a general provision. In others,
the decision regarding procreation is the parents’ right.
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
6. Most of the rights guaranteed by project proposals concern the special care for women in their reproductive
roles (mothers and pregnant women in pre- and post-natal periods). Still, none of the projects specifies, for
instance, the right to paid maternity (or paternity) leave for the employed. Also lacking is the guaranteed right to
social security for parents (men or women), especially single parents having children up to a certain age. Despite
the obvious attempt in some projects, they are not fully successful in emphasising the rights and responsibilities
of both parents in relation to their children. For instance, the rights to health care and special post-natal care are
guaranteed only to mothers, not to fathers. Only one of the projects explicitly stipulates the funding source for
this form of health care (public revenue), which is especially significant for the possibility of effective
implementation of the right. There is no guarantee whatsoever of rights of single parents. Some rights are
guaranteed by the general norm that requires further specification in order to be implemented effectively (e.g.,
the provision under which families, mothers and children enjoy the special care of the society and the state).
7. It is obvious that the authors are trying to provide special forms of protection for employed women.
Although in this respect there could be some more decisive guarantees, these are definitely the most completely
regulated guarantees, now formulated in the form of blanket provisions (e.g., rights could be formulated as the
employer’s responsibility). It is significant that only a few proposals contain an explicit provision regarding the
right to equal remuneration for work of equal value. Only one of the projects explicitly guarantees the right to
equal opportunities and equal treatment in the choice of profession and employment without gender-based
discrimination.
8. The right to education is guaranteed in all projects as a general right enjoyed by every person. Yet, there
are certain differences regarding education levels (e.g., whether it includes only primary education or all
educational levels). Wording should be unambiguous, and the right should be guaranteed for all levels of
education, as equal availability to all levels of education.
9. Equality of future spouses when entering marriage, freedom of decision of future spouses about entering
marriage, and their equality during the marriage and at its dissolution are guaranteed by all projects.
10. In some projects, sexual or economic exploitation of disadvantaged persons is considered to be forced labour
prohibited by the Constitution. These are definitely solutions to be supported, and they should find their place in
the future Constitution of Serbia.
All of the above speak in favour of the need to approach the constitutional matters regulating the equality of men
and women in a responsible and careful manner. This is because the Constitution remains the fundamental
framework defining the contents of the constitutional principle of equality and the source of accompanying
regulations, notably laws regulating this matter more specifically. Therefore, it is important to have a Constitution
with a firm and clear guarantee of equality of women and men and with a reliable guide for legislative activity.
3. Gender Equality and The Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Freedoms
The legal reference framework for the constitutional arrangement of gender equality in Serbia is represented by
two types of legal sources to be borne in mind when writing the Constitution. One source is international legal
sources and the other is the Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Freedoms as an act of national
legislation. This is why we shall make a brief overview of these documents.
Specific proposals of constitutional norms for the new Constitution of the Republic of Serbia start from the
international human rights standards established in international conventions. Especially important are those
ratified by the competent authorities of the Union of Serbia and Montenegro and specified through the practice of
international institutions for human rights protection and the generally accepted rules of international law.
Specific proposals especially refer to constitutional guarantees of gender equality and prohibition of indirect and
direct discrimination and the obligations of the state and the government to implement an equal opportunities
policy. Another important provision is for closer definition of the contents of the gender-equality principle in
individual spheres of social life, especially in the spheres of economics (e.g., work and employment) and politics
(e.g., the principle of equal participation of women in electoral and appointed positions). Also vital are
establishment of the possibility of taking affirmative action measures to eliminate actual inequality and protection
of the right to gender equality (e.g., the right to protection, tools, and procedures).
When stipulating the principle of gender equality, it is necessary to bear in mind the general and regional
international standards in this field. They are contained in ratified international conventions. [28] They are
operationalised specifically through the practices of international bodies in charge of the implications of these
standards and of international institutions in charge of the protection of human rights. These standards need to be
implemented in the new Constitution of Serbia.
In addition to the above, it is necessary to point out the guarantees regarding the principle of gender equality
stipulated by the Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Freedoms. Provisions in the Charter relevant to
constitutional solutions of the gender-equality principle include several guarantees. These are prohibition against
direct and indirect discrimination (Article 3, Paragraph 3); affirmative action measures (Article 3, Paragraph 4);
prohibition against placing restrictions on human rights under the pretence of their not being guaranteed by the
Charter (Article 8); guarantees of acquired rights (Article 47, Paragraph 1); the right to marriage based on the
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
free will of the spouses (Article 9, Paragraph 1); equality of spouses entering, during, and dissolving marriage
(Article 9, Paragraph 1); special protection of mothers and children (Article 40); special health care for pregnant
women (Article 45); and the right to asylum based on fear of gender-based persecution (Article 38, Paragraph 1).
However, the Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Freedoms does not include some significant
guarantees of gender equality that represent international standards. Thus, the Charter does not meet the
standard demanding that legislation, especially the Constitution as the most important legal act, should be written
in gender-sensitive vocabulary. We shall quote a few examples to illustrate. The right to vote is enjoyed by
citizens, but the noun is only in masculine-gender form (Article 33, Paragraph 2); The right to participate in
decision-making in all public affairs is guaranteed to citizens, but the noun is only in masculine-gender form
(Article 33, Paragraph 1). The right to citizenship is guaranteed to citizens, but the noun is only in masculinegender
form (Article 35).
The Charter also contains good examples of gender sensitive vocabulary that should be used as a model. For
instance, every person has the right to establish newspapers and other means of public communication (Article
30, Paragraph 1); every person enjoys the freedom of association (Article 32, paragraph 1).
The Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Freedoms does not guarantee some rights or freedoms of
special importance for effective implementation of the constitutional principle of gender equality. Unlike other
rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, without guaranteeing these rights, the principle of gender
equality remains at the level of a programmatic constitutional norm without effective and direct implementation.
In the area of constitutional protection of family and marriage, there are no guarantees to equality of spouses in
marriage. There are no provisions regarding the principle of equal responsibilities of parents in bringing up
children and for rights and responsibilities to children. Freedom of decision regarding procreation is not
guaranteed. In the area of political rights, there is no explicit guarantee of equal opportunities for both genders to
participate in political life and public government, nor of equal representation of men and women in all elected
and appointed positions. Reasons for prohibiting the work of a political party do not include gender-based
discrimination – only racial, ethnic, and religious intolerance and hatred, etc. In the area of work and employment
there are no guarantees of the right to equal remuneration for work of equal value, to availability of each job
under equal conditions, to equal opportunities for professional advancement and training, etc. In the areas of
social security and health care, there are no provisions for some important rights connected with the production of
reproductive rights that would point to the special care of the state in the area of reproductive rights such as the
right to maternity and paternity leave; special rights to social and health care for single parents (fathers and
mothers) with children up to a certain age; special rights to financial security during the unemployment period for
single parents (fathers and mothers) with children up to a certain age; and the right to health care for household
workers, etc.
4. A Point of View to the A Constitutional Framework to Provide Gender Equality in the New
Constitution of Serbia
The remaining section of the paper will contain the author’s specific proposal regarding gender equality and
specific stipulations of this fundamental constitutional principle in the future Constitution of Serbia. The Preamble
to the Constitution should be written with the noun “citizen” in both grammatical genders. [29]
In the introductory part of the Constitution, among the fundamental principles underlying the Constitution, it is
necessary to include provisions on equality between women and men and on the obligations of the state to
develop an equal opportunities policy and to undertake special affirmative action measures towards this goal. The
wording of the constitutional provision could read: “The Republic of Serbia provides for equality of citizens of both
genders. It promotes the equality of women and men by developing the policy of equal opportunities, including
special measures of affirmative action (positive discrimination).” [30]
The part of the Constitution regulating freedoms and rights should include several important guarantees, so as to
provide the following:
● Guarantees of an attained level of rights. The wording of this norm could be, “The attained level of
human and minority rights, individual or collective, may not be reduced. This Constitution shall not abolish
or amend any rights or freedoms acquired by way of confirmed and publicised international treaties.” A
similar guarantee is contained in the Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Liberties; whereas,
there are no such guarantees in the Draft Constitution of Serbia; therefore, they should be included.
● Prohibition against restricting and minority rights under the pretence that they are not
guaranteed by Constitution. The wording of this norm could be, “It is not permitted to restrict human
and minority rights guaranteed by generally accepted rules of international law, adopted and ratified by
international treaties and laws, under the pretence that they are not guaranteed by Constitution or that
they are guaranteed to a lesser extent.” Such a provision is contained in the Charter on Human and
Minority Rights and Civil Liberties (Article 8). The Draft Constitution does not contain this prohibition as an
important guarantee of human rights; therefore, and it should be incorporated into the new Constitution of
Serbia.
● The right to effective judicial protection of human rights guaranteed by the Constitution and
international law. The wording of the norm could be, “Everyone shall have the right to effective judicial
protection in cases of infringed or denied human or minority rights guaranteed by generally accepted rules
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The New Constitution of Serbia and Gender Equality
later on this is not done consistently, nor is there a general remark that nouns are to be understood as referring
to both genders.
[25] E.g., articles 1, 2, 12, 13, 16, 50, 51, and 55.
[26] E.g., articles 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 43, 54, and 57.
[27] The expert group included Prof. M. Gruba•, Ph.D.; Prof. V. Dimitrijevi•, Ph.D.; Prof. M. Pajvan•i•, Ph.D.; Prof.
D. Popovi•, Ph.D.; O. Nikoli•, Ph.D.; V. •eri•, M.Sc.; S. Bulaji•, M.Sc.; S. •ipli•, M.Sc.; and R. Žarevac, M.Sc.
[28] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948); the Convention on the Political Rights of Women (1952);
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966); the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (1966); the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(1967); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979); The Convention
on the Nationality ofMarried Women; Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriages; the Convention on the Equality of Women and Men (1988); The Conclusion of the
Conferences in Strasbourg (1986), Vienna (1989), Rome (1993); the conclusion of the Fourth Conference on
Women (Vienna 1994); Beijing documents 1995 (Parliamentary Declaration, Platform for Action) the Council of
Europe Declaration on Equality Between Women and Men as a Fundamental Criterion of Democracy (1997); the
Universal Declaration on Democracy (1997); the final document of the Interparliamentary Conference in New
Delhi (1997); the final document of the Interparliamentary Conference on Security and Cooperation in the
Mediterranean (2000); the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;
the Charter on Fundamental Rights in the European Union (2000); the document adopted in Bucharest (2001);
the International Labour Organisation Convention 3 Concerning the Employment of Women in Pre-natal and Postnatal
Period; ILO Convention 45 Concerning the Employment of Women on Underground Work in Mines of All
Kinds; ILO Convention 89 Convention Concerning Night Work of Women Employed in Industry; ILO Convention
100 Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value; Maternity Protection
Convention no. 103; ILO Convention 111 (1958) Concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and
Occupation, etc.
[29] See the documents of the Interparliamentary Union – especially the agenda for correcting the current
discrepancy in the participation of women and men in political life (Point B IV / Paris 1994) stipulating that
language used in legislation must not be gender blind and recommending that states revise their constitutions and
eliminate vocabulary that tends to advocate gender stereotypes.
[30] The basic principles especially guarantee the protection of three categories of citizens: subjects of the
Republic of Serbia living abroad, members of the Serbian nation (Article 13), and ethnic minorities (Article 14).
We believe that the introductory section of the Constitution should also specifically stipulate equality of women
and men, and especially the policy of equal treatment. This is supported by the comparative constitutional
practice and international documents (Articles 3 and 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women; the Final Document of the 4 th UNO Conference on Women, Beijing 1995;
Paragraph 3 of the Charter on European Security; Sections A and B of the Declaration on Equality Between
Women and Men as a Fundamental Criterion of Democracy, Istanbul 13-14 Nov. 1997; Article 17 of the Directive
of the Council of Europe No. 78 of 27 Nov. 2000, etc.).
[31] E.g., Articles 4 and 7/1 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
Point 14 of the Final Document of the Interparliamentary Conference, New Delhi, 18 Feb. 1997; Section A of the
Declaration on Equality between Women and Men as a Fundamental Criterion of Democracy, Istanbul, 1997;
Section C-III, Point 104 of the Universal Declaration on Democracy, Paris, 1997; Strategies G-1 and G-2 of the
Final Document of the Interparliamentary Conference, Marseilles, etc.
[32] E.g., Article 11, Paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women; Strategies G-1 and G-2 of the Declaration on Equality Between Women and Men as a Fundamental
Criterion of Democracy, Istanbul, 1997; Convention 111 of the International Labour Convention – prohibition of
discrimination against women in employment and occupation; Article 23 of the European Charter on Fundamental
Rights no. 364/01 of 7 th November 2000; the European Charter on Social Rights, etc.
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The enlarged EU and its agenda for a wider Europe:
The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Neighbouring Countries: the Western Balkans -
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, PhD, Advanced Business School, Novi Sad, and
Mirjana Dokmanovic, Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Serbia and Montenegro
WIDE briefing paper
Short description of the region
The countries of the region, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic (FRY) of Macedonia,
Serbia and Montenegro, with a total population of 19,6 million, belong to the least developed countries in Europe.
The average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in 2002 was 1.544 Euro ranging from 710 Euro in Kosovo
to 2.055 Euro in Serbia and Montenegro. Albania and Macedonia are members of the World Trade Organization
(WTO); Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro are in the process of joining. These Western Balkan
countries are also progressing towards EU membership within the framework of the so-called Stabilisation and
Association process.
Macroeconomic overview
Transition to the market economy has been delayed because of armed conflicts and exclusion from the
international community during the periods of conflict. The region’s Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs),
dictated by the International Monetary Found (IMF), are similar to other SAPs in that they require the removal of
obstacles to international trade and foreign investments, the privatisation of public services, labour market
flexibility and the reduction of all social costs. The countries of the region are characterised by political
uncertainties and weak institutions. Moreover, they are struggling to transform their economies. The dissolution of
the former Yugoslavia and associated hostilities and conflicts, followed by sanctions, cut off important markets
and transit routes to all the countries. This, plus the Kosovo crisis and the NATO intervention in 1999, have
severely crippled economic activities and engendered a high level of uncertainty in all the successor states. As the
economic system was designed to foster close ties among the republics, its dissolution has magnified the
downward spiral of economic activity.
Albania Bosnia and FYR Macedonia Serbia and Kosovo
Herzegovina
Montenegro
GDP per capita
in 2002
1602 1383 1971 2055 710
Year: 1998 2003 1998 2003 1998 2003 1998 2003 2000 2003
Real GDP growth
%
12,7 6 15,6 3,5 3,4 3,0 6,7 3,0 21,2 4,7
Trade balance %
of GDP
-22,8 -22,8 -48,4 -36,6 -14,4 -17,2 -13,1 -25,1 -184 -88,8
Foreign debt In
billion EUR
0,9 1,2 - 1,8 1,2 1,3 9,0 12,2 - -
FDI in million
EUR
40 135 100 282 105 41 101 1063 - -
FDI % of GDP 1,5 2,7 2,9 4,9 3,3 1,0 0,8 5,8 - -
Unemployment
%
17,8 14,9 37,4 41,0 34,5 36,7 27,0 30,0 - -
Poverty rate [1] 25,4 19,5 10,5 - -
Corruption rank
2003 [2]
92 70 106 106
Source: European Commission, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, The Western Balkans in
transition, Occasional Papers no. 5, Brussels, January 2004
Impact of EU policies on the region
In 2000, within the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (SPSEE), the World Bank (WB) and
its main regional development partners adopted a report on a comprehensive approach to development for South
East Europe (SEE). The report outlined how quickly the SEE countries and their private sectors should move
towards trade integration with the EU [3] . Domestic sector reform priorities have been put in place including the
implementation of privatisation and structural reforms as well as policies to encourage Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI), to eliminate labour market inefficiencies and reduce rigidity in labour market legislation, to promote trade
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The enlarged EU and its agenda for a wider Europe:
liberalisation, and to reduce the size of the public sector and overall level of public spending.
Most of the experiences of moving from a communist/socialist regime and state-led economies to free market
economies have been negative. The effects have included increasing poverty, insecurity, unemployment, crime,
and corruption; a vanishing middle class; and new economic and political elites arising from amongst war
profiteers and former communist leaders. Furthermore, there is a widening gap between the poor and the rich.
Registered unemployment is very high as much as 36% in Serbia and Montenegro. However, real unemployment
levels are believed to be much higher - possibly as high as 55% in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Decreased
opportunities for employment are also leading to a ‘brain-drain’ of young educated people as they seek
opportunities elsewhere.
The privatisation process has lead to the abolishment of economic and social rights and inadequate protective
mechanisms; a lack of respect for international labour and environmental standards; a lack of transparency.
Moreover, there is no legislation on corporate responsibility. The need to make the economy attractive for foreign
investments is being used as justification for all these legal changes.
Of course, all these policies are not gender-neutral. Women have absorbed the shock of the adjustment by
intensifying their unpaid work necessary because of budget cuts in basic public services such as education, social
services, and health care. The costs of the care economy and other reproductive costs are not included in the
national income outputs and thus they become invisible. This is just one example of the negative effects of the
SAP and how it impacts women’s lives. With regard to gender equality in the economic sector, two other issues
emerge: the extent to which a gender bias exists in the shift to the informal market; and the increased pressure
on women’s time, with its negative effect on their health and welfare.
As the state has retreated from its role as a social institution and public expenditure is reduced, so too the tax and
benefit systems have been objects of region-wide reforms. The general trend has been to maintain the individual
as the unit for taxes and benefits, and use an individual’s employment history to determine benefits and
entitlement levels. But the employment history of women is more likely to have been interrupted and shorter
which means they are more adversely affected. Across the region, pension systems are also being reformed with
substantial erosion in the value of the benefit paid to all recipients. Men will benefit more than women from both
these reforms and will gain more in terms of total benefits.
Common characteristics in the region regarding gender equality issues
The economic and social status of women is declining. This is due to:
● A re-patriachalisation of the societies, pushing women from the public sphere and labour market (paid
work) to the private sphere (family and child care);
● High levels of bankruptcy leading to the dismissal of workers;
● Increasing unemployment and flexibility of labour market;
● Cuts in social services and public spending;
● The abolishing of economic and social rights gained;
● A reduction of workers’ rights and protection laws plus weakened trade unions;
● The horizontal and vertical segregation of women in the labour market;
● The increasing shift of the labour force, particularly of women, from a formal economy to informal
economy;
● The fact that women are more ready than men to accept unfavourable working conditions, often in the
informal economy.
● Women have been excluded from the privatisation process: very few women are owners of enterprises;
they tend more often to be employees rather than employers.
● Women own less land, and other assets.
● Poverty is becoming increasingly feminised. Those most vulnerable to poverty such as self-supporting
mothers, rural women, minority women, the elderly, Roma, housewives, are the least visible.
● Women are often excluded, isolated or removed from decision making. This can be seen in the decreasing
number of women in parliaments and in decision making positions. Women are also excluded from the
peace negotiations and stabilisation processes.
● Discrimination and violence against women are both increasing. Despite the adoption of many of the acquis
international commitments to secure equal opportunities for women these are not respected de facto. The
principles of gender mainstreaming are widely acknowledged but implementation lags behind. Laws and
other measures are inadequate to eliminate discrimination and violence against women.
● There is a lack of research on women’s position in society, their position in the labour market, the level of
violence against women, and the impact of economic and social policies on women’s livelihoods. In addition
where data is available it is rarely gender disaggregated.
● Gender sensitive budgeting does not exist or, as in the case of Serbia, has even been rejected.
● Policy makers and the public lack gender awareness.
Impact of EU legislation on gender equality issues
The harmonisation of domestic legislation with EU legislation has been beneficial for women, as it has meant
adopting and developing laws, legal measures and mechanisms for protecting women’s rights and empowering
women. As part of the EU membership process, all the governments in the region have started to develop and set
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The enlarged EU and its agenda for a wider Europe:
up national machineries for advancement of women [4] and adopt laws on equal opportunities of both sexes [5] .
The governments have set quotas for women’s political participation; and women’s concerns relating to their
position in the labour market and their access to resources are integrated into the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers (PRSPs). In spite of these achievements, de facto gender equality is far from being realised. In all
countries of the region, the governments give priority to the managing of the economic and political situation,
with gender issues being a much lower priority. In addition, implementation of the adopted legislation is slow and
inconsistent.
Recommendations for policy change
To the EU institutions
● To promote a human rights/women’s rights based approach to development, and to create a social Europe,
not one focusing purely on profit and economic growth.
● To analyse the impact of EU policies on the neighbouring countries from gender and human rights
perspective, and to develop policies that would create opportunities for economic development and well
being for all people in all the European countries.
● To take appropriate measures and develop a long-term policy aimed at promoting rule of law, gender
equality, social justice and human rights in all the European countries, including the EU non-members
countries, in order to build a new Europe without borders, wars, conflicts, poverty, unemployment etc. The
achievement of this goal is not possible without the elimination of the existing gap between the EU
members and non-EU members.
● To support comparative research/analysis of past accession processes and how the EU enlargement has
influenced the neighbouring countries (looking at unemployment, poverty, migration of workers, living
standard, cross-boarder crime and sex-trafficking, etc.). The EU also needs to look at how the isolation/
exclusion of the EU neighbouring countries influence the EU (e.g. in terms of wage levels, labour markets,
unemployment).
● To include gender perspectives and gender assessments of the EU policies in all agreements and
negotiations with the EU neighbouring countries.
● To support and encourage women to put forward their candidacy for the European Parliament elections, and
to promote women’s interethnic cooperation within parliamentarian and non-parliamentarian frameworks.
● To develop corporate responsibility mechanisms that would oblige enterprises and corporations to protect
human rights and provide safe working environments.
● To urge governments in the EU neighbouring countries to interact with and support women’s NGOs and
create sustainable national structures/mechanisms for the advancement of women.
● To support national governments to implement and regularly assess gender mainstreaming policies,
including gender budgeting as a tool for monitoring and assessing the differentiated impacts of EU policies
on women and men, and for supporting gender equality objectives.
● To establish a European agency on advancement of gender equality and women’s rights. This agency
should have enforcement powers.
● To take measures to engender macroeconomic and trade policy decision-making. This should include
identifying the impacts of current policies and programmes on different groups of women and men;
addressing gender power relations; and recognizing the care economy as a component of the formal
economy.
● To support national governments in Europe to stop the current negotiations in the framework of the
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The privatisation of social services and public goods will
increase poverty in all EU and non-EU member states.
To the national governments in the Western Balkans
● To include gender mainstreaming and gender equality issues in all domestic legislation.
● To adopt and implement effective equal opportunity legislation. Sufficient financial support should be
provided to support the implementation of this legislation.
● To integrate gender issues into all national strategies (economic development, employment, poverty
reduction, access to training, education, health, etc.), with special attention to the most vulnerable groups
of women.
● To develop a National Strategy for Advancement of Women based on commitments to the CEDAW, Beijing
Platform for Action, ILO conventions and the EU directives and recommendations.
● To secure adequate representation of women in the parliaments and decision making positions, as well as
in the conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction.
● To introduce and implement sex-disaggregated data in the analysis of the impact of economic, trade, social,
pension, health, education etc. policies. To formulate indicators to measure gendered impact for reporting,
monitoring and policy change.
● To reject the transition model based merely on economic growth and profit; to avoid “copy-paste”
programmes and strategies dictated by the International Financial Organisations in creating healthy
environment for economic development and democratisation of the countries, without taking into
consideration the particular economic and political context and needs and interests of families, women and
men.
● To analyse the consequences of joining the EU from gender perspective.
This infosheet was produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission, DG Education and Culture.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official
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The enlarged EU and its agenda for a wider Europe:
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
[1] World Bank Group, 2004 World Development Indicators, 2004
[2] Table 1: Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2003
http://www.transparency.org/cpi/2003/cpi2003.en.html
opinion of the EC or of WIDE.
[3] Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, The Road to Stability and Prosperity in South Eastern Europe - A
Regional Strategy Paper, 1 March 2000. With the World Bank (WB) and cooperation with its main development
partners in the region (European Commission (EC), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD),
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Council of
Europe and Council of Europe Development Bank) it looked at the speed of acceptance for trade integration with
the EU was the SEE primary goal in moving forward.
[4] For example, the Secretariat for Labour and Gender Equality at the Executive Council of Vojvodina, the
counselling body at the government of Serbia, the office for gender equality in Montenegro.
[5] For example, in the Serbian province of Vojvodina the provincial parliament has recently adopted a Declaration
on Gender Equality.
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The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider Europe: What Consideration...ity? EU Neighbouring Countries in Eastern Europe/ Former Soviet Union
The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Neighbouring Countries in Eastern Europe/ Former Soviet Union -
By Zofia Lapniewska, NEWW-Polska. With the contribution of Raisa Sinelnikova, Counterpart Alliance for
Partnership, Belarus; Shorena Dzotsenidze, Center for Women and Development, Georgia; Halyna Fedkovych,
Women’s Perspective, and Oksana Kisselyova, PhD, Liberal Society Institute, Ukraine.
Short description of the region
The Russian Federation and the fourteen Newly Independent States (NIS) - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,
Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan -
form the region of EU neighbouring countries in Eastern Europe/ Former Soviet Union (FSU). Three of them -
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - are already European Union (EU) member states. This report analyses the situation
of women in the remaining eleven countries, with a special focus on Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine.
Belarus Georgia Ukraine
Population
GDP per capita
9.89 million 4.7 million 47.7 million
(USD) (2003
est.) [1]
6.100 2.500 5.400
World Trade
Organization
(WTO)
membership
status [2]
EU relationships
Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI)
inflows
Observer status since
September 1993.
The EU-Belarus
relations are regulated
by the 1997 General
Affairs Council
conclusions [3] on
Belarus.
84 million Euro (0,7
percent of GDP) [4]
Member since June 2000.
EU-Georgia cooperation:
the EU will aim at ensuring
a coordinated use of all
available policy and
assistance instruments and
focus on three key areas:
(1) Promoting rule of law,
good governance and
respect for human rights
and democratic institutions,
(2) Reducing poverty,
targeting assistance to the
most vulnerable groups,
especially in rural areas, (3)
Enhancing stability and
security through confidence
building measures aimed at
the prevention and
settlement of internal
conflicts and actions in
favour of affected
populations.
Unemployment level 2.7% (2002) (women 1.69%) 17% (2001 est.) [1] (women
11.80%)
Overview on common macroeconomic tendencies
Observer status since
November 1993.
EU relations with Ukraine
are based on the
Partnership and Cooperation
Agreement (PCA)
which entered into force in
1998 for an initial period of
ten years, and on the EU’s
Common Strategy of 1999.
Technical assistance has
been provided since the
early 1990s in support of
the transition process
towards democracy and
market economy, through
the TACIS programme.
Ukraine has been
considered a priority
partner country within the
European Neighbourhood
Policy (ENP). [5]
USD 165.4 million (4,9% of GDP) USD 693.0 million (1,6% of GDP)
3.7% (2003) [1] (women 2.53%)
The transition from centrally planned to market-based economies was based on privatisation, liberalisation and a
strengthening of the financial and tax discipline of companies. These changes had serious implications for the
redistribution of resources and budgetary spending. Price increases and an increase in foreign debt put pressure
on national budgets resulting in cuts in public expenditures - including in health, education and family related
benefits. The transition process had significant social impacts including destabilising the labour market and
creating a class of so-called “new poor”. In one decade (1988-1998) the poverty rate in Central and Eastern
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The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider Europe: What Consideration...ity? EU Neighbouring Countries in Eastern Europe/ Former Soviet Union
Europe (CEE) and the NIS region increased by 19% and now the percentage of the population living below the
poverty line is 27% in Ukraine and 54% in Georgia [6] . The present economic conditions have forced many
unemployed people to emigrate - most of these have been women. Over the last 13 years the Georgian
population decreased by 20% and various estimates state that today between 3 to 7 millions Ukrainians are
working in foreign countries. Another significant trend is the shift from formal to informal work. According to a
World Bank survey informal work in Belarus generates 48.1% of the gross national income. The shadow economy,
corruption and smuggling form critical obstacles to democratisation in the region.
Gender equality - Common characteristic in the region
In spite of the economic and political differences, one common feature of all the countries in the region -
supported by a wide range of research and data [7] - is the worsening position of women and the reduction of
their economic, social and political rights. The reasons for this deteriorating situation include:
●
●
●
●
●
Women shifting from the public sphere to the private sphere, to traditional gender roles within
the family and the household.
A revival of patriarchal values and prejudices against women have led to this shift. The changes in practices
and attitudes are further discussed below.
The increased vulnerability of women to poverty.
The adverse economic and social conditions in the countries have particularly affected women, who today
constitute the largest number of the poor, powerless and disenfranchised. The region has experienced the
rising feminisation of poverty and unemployment, as well as increased prostitution and trafficking in women
and children within and across borders. Women are more vulnerable to poverty as their reproductive and
family responsibilities increase (as a result of the reduction in social services and cuts in social budgets)
and as they lack opportunities to participate in formal economic activities. The most vulnerable are single
mothers, divorced women with children, rural women, elderly single women, disabled women, mothers
having disabled children, and unemployed women. Moreover, the economic and social position of women
has worsened as discrimination increases, as they are excluded from decision-making, and because
ownership of assets by women is very low. During the Soviet period Ukrainian women held very few partyleadership
positions or managerial positions. Once privatisation began, this meant that men inevitably
ended up controlling more assets than women. Women in Ukraine own no more than 5-7% of privatised
assets. The share of women in the labour market is declining. Women continue to be seen as secondary
income earners partly because of their domestic and care roles. In 1994-2000 women made up 80% of the
discharged workers in Ukraine [8]. The negative effects of the economic structural adjustments pushed
women out of the formal labour market into the informal economy and into their own, mostly small,
enterprises. In Belarus for example, more than 60% of shuttle traders and street vendors are women. In
Belarus women can legally become entrepreneurs, as can men. However, this opportunity is rarely taken
up. Women own only 5% of small and medium enterprises (SME); they often have less start-up capital
than men, and they have limited access to finance and credit for business operations and expansion. It is
even more difficult for women in rural areas to own their own business.
Increased discrimination and horizontal and vertical segregation of women in the economic
sphere.
Despite their relatively higher education (more than 57% of working Ukrainian women and 58.5% of
Belarusian women have higher education), women are still discriminated against in the labour market and
face more difficulties than men in accessing stable and well paid jobs. In Ukraine, despite the fact that
equal pay for both sexes is guaranteed by the Constitution and the Labour Code, the average nominal
salary of women is 17% less than the average salary of total labour force, and constitutes only 65% of
men’s salary. In Belarus the ratio of female to male monthly earnings is 80.9%. Georgian wages of
employed women in total are more than 1.5 times less than men, and the proportion remains the same for
the average net income of self-employed women/men. The gender wage gap is a result of the
concentration of women working in low paid sectors, the lack of women in top management positions, and
discrimination through lower pay for equal value work. This demonstrates that high female participation
rates are not sufficient to guarantee gender equality in the context of a patriarchal society where caring
activities remain primarily the responsibility of women, and where women continue to be seen as secondary
income earners.
Under-representation in politics and decision making positions.
Women are underrepresented and even excluded at all policy levels. In Belarus, although 62.8% of the
employees in governmental bodies are women, only 10.4% hold management-level positions. The cabinet
includes only 7.3% women, while in the legislature there are 23.7% women. In Georgia, the situation is
similar with women now holding only 22 out of 230 seats in Parliament. This is a very slow rise from the 14
women that held seats in 1995. In Ukraine women represent 75% of civil servants but there are very few
women in senior positions. And when women do rise into management positions, they tend to be at the
lower levels of management • 68% of the managers of the lowest category are female, only 7% of womenmanagers
can be found in the highest category.
Reforms of the social security scheme, cuts in social services, health, public services,
privatisation of health institutions, childcare institutions.
Ukraine has undertaken significant restructuring of its social security programs with resultant negative
impacts on women. Following the requirements of the structural adjustment programmes, welfare state
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●
institutions and provisions were adjusted to be ‘compatible with a market economy environment’. As a
result, the majority of public pre-school childcare institutions have been closed or sold and women are now
facing difficulties combining work and motherhood. Private childcare is inaccessible for many families as it is
unaffordable, state childcare allowance stays miserably low and as a consequence, women are forced to
stay at home and take care of children. Since 1994 national expenditures on the public health sector in
Ukraine have been cut at least four times, making medical and health services less accessible for many
people, particularly for unemployed, poor, rural, and elderly women. The shift to a chargeable healthcare
system has created overwhelming difficulties for the majority of the population; the tariffs for medical
services often exceed the family budget; and access to free medical services is limited. As a result, the
morbidity of the population has rapidly risen in the region.
Lack of legislation on gender equality and protection from discrimination, accompanied by a lack
of effective mechanisms for monitoring and implementation.
The countries within the region differ with regard to their formal acceptance of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the (non)existence of National
Action Plans (NAP) and machineries for the advancement of women. What they do have in common,
however, is a large gap between the declared de jure and the de facto gender equality. Ukraine is signatory
to the CEDAW, but does not have a NAP based on the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). While many of the
provisions in the Ukrainian Constitution are designed to be favourable for women, they are in fact
discriminatory. Civil servants in the state employment centres and departments of family and youth lack an
understanding of gender issues and the importance of gender equality. In addition, they lack the necessary
legal provisions to support the elimination of discrimination against women. Belarus is not a signatory to a
number of key international human rights conventions, but has recently signed the CEDAW. Gender
segregation in the labour market is reinforced by the lack of equal opportunity legislation. However,
national mechanisms have been put in place to implement a policy for ensuring gender equality and the
elimination of discrimination against women, and a NAP has been drafted.
Recommendations for policy change
To the EU institutions:
●
●
●
●
●
●
To develop mechanisms to facilitate the sharing of best practices (within EU member countries and with
countries and institutions outside the EU) to illustrate where gender equality has played a significant role in
addressing poverty and social exclusion.
To facilitate a common framework for the promotion of gender equality. This should include training,
learning and creating long-term strategies based on core values, knowledge and skills.
To ensure that EU-supported projects implemented in the region are based on gender equality and that
they take necessary measures to reduce gender disparities and promote equal opportunities.
To assist national governments to develop employment and social policies based on the European
Employment Strategy and the European Social Policy.
To assist with projects focussing on development, not only on humanitarian aid.
To facilitate the closer collaboration between (national and local) governments and non-governmental,
grassroots and community-based organisations in the region.
To the national governments and institutions:
● To adopt a Law on Equal Opportunities of Both Sexes; to integrate gender equality in all legislation; to
adopt and/or develop National Action Plans for the advancement of women followed by effective
implementation and monitoring measures, including affirmative actions.
● To promote equal opportunities of women and men via the establishment of national gender machineries at
national, regional and local levels.
● To introduce and implement affirmative actions programmes and policies aimed at increasing the
participation of women in the national parliaments, the governments and the ministries, the judiciary, and
local decision making bodies, as well as eliminating obstacles for the advancement of women in all spheres
of the public life.
● To make efforts to raise gender awareness of state officials and the judiciary through education and
training, financially supported by the state; to improve and promote the court system as a mechanism of
protection from discrimination.
● To make efforts to harmonise domestic legislation with EU legislation; to integrate the EU gender equality
directives into domestic legislation and policies.
● To conduct and financially support an analysis, in cooperation with NGOs and business representatives, of
the main constraints to economic development and gender equality; to initiate a public dialogue on key
findings and develop a framework for state action over the next three years to be monitored by the EU
institutions and national NGOs.
● To fund women's economic development initiatives aimed at developing economic strategies and
opportunities for women.
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● To stop the further abolishment of the social welfare system and cuts in public spending in the areas of
education, health, child care, and other social services; to develop a social care system, including the
improvement of state pre-school childcare systems at the local level; to take efforts to stabilise the
economies by reviewing the budgetary allocations and improving the tax system, instead of cutting
spending for social services.
● To review, control and limit the liberalisation and privatisation of social services and public goods.
● To change the taxation law to take into account the number of children in a family; and to provide statefunded
financial compensation for working mothers for childcare services.
This infosheet was produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission, DG Education and Culture.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official
opinion of the EC or of WIDE.
Women in Development Europe (WIDE) ©
http://www.wide-network.org
-----------------------------------------
[1] The World Factbook: www.cia.gov.
[2] WTO Statistics Database: www.wto.org
[3] More information on EU-Belarus relations is available on the European Commission website:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/belarus/intro/index.htm.
[4] Country Strategy Paper National Indicative Programme, Belarus 2005-2006, Adopted by the European
Commission on 28 May 2004:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/belarus/csp/csp05_06.pdf.
[5] For more information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/ukraine/intro/index.htm.
[6] Country Strategy Paper 2002-2006, National Indicative Programme 2002-2003, Ukraine.
[7] UNECE, Economic Survey for Europe 2003 no. 1, ‘Some aspects of labour market performance in Eastern
Europe and CIS, Geneva, 2003; UNECE, Employability Policies in the Transition Countries: Issues, Good Practices,
and Policy Options, Regional Symposium on Mainstreaming Gender into Economic Policies, 28-30 January 2004,
Geneva; Dokmanovic, M. (ed.), Transition, Privatisation, and Women, WCDHR, Subotica, 2002.
[8] Human Rights Watch report, 2003: “Women’s Work: Discrimination Against Women in the Ukrainian Labour
Force”
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The Enlarged EU and its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Central and Eastern European New Member States -
By Anita Seibert and Kinga Lohmann, Karat Coalition, Poland.
With the contribution of Jana Javornik,
Institute for Macroeconomic Analyses and Development, Social Analyses and Development Department,
Slovenia
Short description of the region
Eight of the ten new European Union (EU) member states that joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 are from
the Central and Eastern European (CEE) states: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Slovakia, and Slovenia. Basic economic indicators show some significant differences between the countries. The
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita ranges from USD 7.809 (Latvia) to USD 17.762 (Slovenia). This is still is
below the GDP level of the ‘old’ EU member states. Before rising to the current level, GDP in all the countries in
the region dropped significantly during the 1990s. In the early 1990s the inflation rates increased dramatically
and came under control only in 2000. All CEE states are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Macroeconomic overview
The CEE countries share a common economic history of being centrally controlled until the end of the 1980s -
including wages, prices of goods and services, and real estate, followed by the subsidisation of a great range of
goods and services (and hence those goods were relatively affordable). At the beginning of the 1990s, the process
of political, social and economic transition led to the privatisation of state assets and the integration into the
global capitalist market. The countries applied a variety of privatisation strategies from a gradualist approach
(Slovenia, Hungary and Czech Republic) to shock therapy (Poland). Price and wage liberalisation followed. The
transition to the market economy has eliminated the shortage of goods and ‘alternative’ economies, led to the
disappearance of about 10-30% of jobs, and resulted in the erosion of services such as childcare and social
protection related to motherhood. These countries are now characterised by mass unemployment, poverty, and
economic inequality between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ in a region accustomed to relative equality.
Foreign capital flowed into the region following privatisation. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has played a
significant role in the economic development of the countries [1]. While FDI rates vary between each country in
the region, in early 2000 the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia had the highest rates in the whole of the EU.
One of the outcomes of the socio-economic changes was the creation of a capitalist class. Unfortunately few
women managed to join this class and of those that did most of them gained access to assets through family
connections (as wives or daughters of the ‘new’ capitalists) rather then independently. For example in Hungary in
2004 only 3 women were listed among the top 100 richest Hungarians. In Poland, women currently constitute
more then 1/3 of company owners, but these companies are predominantly very small firms which do not
generate significant economic and political power. Nevertheless this illustrates that women were able to take
advantage of the changing economic situation, even if, economically, they still lag behind men.
Common characteristics regarding gender equality issues
The EU enlargement process has had an impact on gender equality policy and implementation, but it has been
difficult to assess the depth of the effects until now. Gender (in)equality is a political issue and political choice.
Accession to the EU has not led to significant changes in gender equality in the CEE countries because of the
choices made by the governments. One of the reasons for this is that in order to achieve gender equality, gender
justice has to be incorporated into all policies (both at the EU and national levels). This document briefly describes
how this has not been undertaken or achieved with special reference to labour market and social policy. Two case
studies from Poland and Slovenia illustrate these points.
It is important to understand that the new EU CEE member states share a joint history of Soviet domination
(except Slovenia, which was a part of the former Yugoslavia). This has affected their economic, social and political
conditions - and the position of women in all these countries. The EU needs to recognise the shared history and
characteristics of the CEE states as it addresses issues of gender. At the same time, the differences between the
eight CEE states should not be underestimated.
A policy of gender equality in official policy during the pre-transition period did not result in the practice or
implementation of gender-friendly policies. While women had guaranteed access to employment, education and
political participation in most of the CEE states, the provision of services such as childcare and social security did
not fully compensate for the traditional division of labour. The already disadvantaged position of women was
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exacerbated by the transition process. The deterioration was caused not only by the macroeconomic changes but
also by strengthening of patriarchal values into policy by various political formations in the eight countries. In
Poland this is particularly worrying due to the political power of the Catholic Church supporting conservative views
and policies. For example, the Church plays a leading role in the reproductive rights arena, resulting in laws and
policies preventing women from taking control of their fertility and sexuality.
Many citizens of the CEE states see EU membership as an opportunity to counteract the negative impact of the
transition from being a centrally planned economy to becoming a market controlled economy. This is particularly
the case in relation to gender issues, as the EU accession process required the introduction of new laws and
policies focusing on and addressing gender issues. However, reaching certain levels of economic development was
also one of the requirements of becoming an EU member and this was given priority over social issues. The post-
1989 economic transition fused with macroeconomic adjustments associated with the EU accession process and
therefore, some of the recent negative changes to the economic situation of women can be linked to the EU
accession process itself.
Case Study 1:
Poland - EU policy and the situation of Polish women in the labour market
In Poland, as in other EU CEE member states, the reforms associated with the introduction of a free market
economy and to meet EU economic criteria had negative impacts on the socio-economic position of many women
and led to a monumental increase of the gap between the wealthy and poor.
The disadvantaged economic situation of women is largely related to their position in the labour market. It needs
to be understood that the position of women in the labour market is not exclusively linked to the economic
situation of the country or employment policies alone, but to all policies including those focusing on social
services, security and reproductive rights. Poland joined the EU with the highest unemployment rate of all the new
member states. Despite historically having almost the same level of unemployment of women and men, the
situation of women in the labour market is now much worse than that of men. The participation rate of women
has dropped from 54% in 1992 to 48% in 2002. Women tend to be discriminated against due to their assumed
reproductive responsibilities; they have problems reconciling work and family responsibilities caused by a lack of
affordable care services; they tend to remain unemployed for longer periods then men; and when they are
employed they are rarely economically independent due to the gender wage gap.
Country Unemployment rate 1995 in % Unemployment rate 2003 in %
Women Men Women Men
Czech Republic 4.8 3.4 10.1 8.4
Estonia 8.9 10.2 9.9 10.2
Hungary 8.7 13.3 5.5 6.
Latvia 18.0 19.7 10.6 10.1
Lithuania 13.1 12.3
Poland 14.4 12.1 20.0 18.6
Slovakia 13.7 12.6 17.8 17.2
Slovenia 7.1 6.1
EU 15 average 11.7 8.9 9.0 7.4
Table 1: Source Eurostat, World Bank
EU membership required a number of legal and policy changes that has provided new opportunities for Polish
women. For instance, the availability of funds to target gender issues in a country where social expenditure is
largely restricted to very limited financial support to the most disadvantaged groups, is an innovation. No
immediate improvement, however, should be expected as the administration struggles to implement projects and
is resistant to innovative methods of addressing these issues.
Further, the lack of specific recommendations/requirements in EU policy focusing on social policy allows
governments to cut budget expenditure on social provisions - this predominantly impacts the poorest women. An
example of this was the elimination of the child maintenance fund in 2004 and its replacement with a smaller, flat
rate payment available to unmarried custodian parents which led to a skyrocketing of divorce among the poorest
groups of society.
The European Employment Strategy is now reflected in documents produced by the government and programmes
focusing on (re)integration of women in the labour market are being implemented. These programmes are
important not only for their impact on women but also because they challenge the belief that equality already
exists and that additional targeted policies are not necessary. One example is Program Equal, which explicitly
focuses on equal opportunities of women and reconciliation between family and professional life. It is a pilot
programme that will soon be implemented simultaneously in Poland and other EU countries.
Generally, there is not enough emphasis on effective social policy. The government focuses on economic policy
but not in such a way that guarantees long term growth which will benefit society as a whole. It is also important
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to note that social issues, including gender issues, are not addressed unless specifically required by the EU. An
example of this is Poland’s response to the Lisbon Strategy. So far the Lisbon Strategy and its recommendations
for childcare have been largely ignored, with debate around it focusing almost exclusively on economic growth.
Still, the Lisbon Strategy is an important, if inadequate tool for NGOs focusing on gender justice.
Case Study 2:
Slovenia - Women in the labour markets and the European Employment Strategy
In Slovenia labour market shifts and challenges have resulted in a declining labour force regardless of sex. An
analysis of the unemployment rate by sex over the whole transition period shows that the previously held
advantage of women did not last long. In 2000, women comprised 50.7% of the unemployed; in 2003 their share
had risen to 52.8%. Further trends will greatly depend on the future restructuring of employment activities. The
gender pay gap in Slovenia (10.2 percentage points in 2002, SORS) is also significantly smaller than the EU 25
average. At the end of the 1990s various programmes of active labour policy were in place in Slovenia, but it was
not until the late 1990s that actions targeted women.
Before questions of gender equality came increasingly to the fore of attention of international organisations and
associations, the prevailing and generally accepted perception of gender equality in Slovenia was that all had
already been achieved in the former political system and that equality between women and men was fully
established. For that reason, over the last 10 years, the most considerable improvements in the area of gender
equality were achieved in the legislative area. The main legal mechanisms of promoting equal opportunities are
now provided in three acts: the Parental Care and Family Cash Benefits Act, the Equal Opportunities Act and the
Labour Act. These have not been (fully) implemented.
The Development of the Labour Market Strategy through the year 2006 states that the achievement of gender
equality in the labour market is one of its long-term objectives. The National Action Plan for Employment is a
fundamental programme document for the implementation of policies in the labour market. Yet, this does not
indicate a real shift in the implementation and enforcement of gender equality as there is no process of laying
clear grounds and setting high standards of achieving gender equality in the labour market. The Ministry of
Labour, Family and Social Affairs has, however, in accordance with the European Employment Strategy, developed
a system of labour market indicators which can now be monitored with regard to gender. This provides a means
to monitor disparities between women and men in the labour market and plan future measures for guaranteeing
equal opportunities for both genders. Moreover, the implementation of the EQUAL Community Initiative
programme is intended to achieve objectives in this area. In 2004-2006 only theme 8 (Reducing the Gender Gap
and Supporting Equality at Work) is planned to be carried out.
One of the main challenges to promoting gender equality in the labour market is the elimination of both horizontal
and vertical segregation as well as correlated pay gaps. Slovenia has not yet put gender mainstreaming as a tool
or strategy into practice nor does it fully understand the principle of gender mainstreaming. It rather argues for
gender neutrality, which is too often understood as not taking gender dimension into consideration at all.
Recommendations for policy change
To the EU institutions:
●
●
●
●
EU strategies addressing the position of women in the labour market should be revised to respond more
effectively to the situation in all eight new EU member states from the CEE region. This includes the
European Employment Strategy, the Lisbon Strategy and the Social Policy Agenda.
Social concerns and social policies should be given greater emphasis within the EU policy context. The EU
should ensure that social policy is given priority and is effectively monitored.
Policies targeting the poorest of women, and responding to the realities and needs of women in the new
member states should be developed at the EU level.
The principle of gender mainstreaming should serve as a standard tool in shaping and developing policies to
include the gender perspective into the process of all policy development. For this to work gender
mainstreaming needs to be understood and supported by the CEE countries.
To the national governments:
●
●
Increasing women’s participation in the labour market is a necessary condition for achieving gender
equality, but it is not a sufficient one. Gender equality in the labour market also requires major
improvements in the nature of jobs, their quality and the conditions of work.
National governments should not only focus on economic policy but also on social policy. The two policies
have to be closely linked and should not contradict each other. Gender equality objectives should be
integrated in all policies.
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This infosheet was produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission, DG Education and Culture.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official
opinion of the EC or of WIDE.
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
--------------------------------
[1] Except in Slovenia.
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Short description of the region
The Enlarged EU and its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Candidate Countries -
By Irina Moulechkova, Ph.D.
with the contribution of Plamenka Markova, Ph.D. and Genoveva Tisheva,
Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria
The European Union (EU) membership candidate countries are Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey. All of them
are situated in South Eastern Europe (SEE) but they are culturally, economically and socially very different. This
paper does not examine Turkey as it is at a very different stage with respect to membership of the EU. As a part
of the accession process these countries will take on board a different set of values, commonly included in the
concept of the European Social Model, with its emphasis on employment, equality, social protection and social
dialogue.
Bulgaria: Population: 7.8 million; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of USD 2.538. Bulgaria lags far
behind EU countries, including the new member states, in per capita GDP with an average monthly income of 120
Euro. The discrepancy between economic growth and living standards in Bulgaria is obvious. Bulgaria’s corruption
index has risen from 2.9 in 1998 (compared to 4.6 for Poland; 5.0 for Hungary and 3.0 for Romania [1]) to 4.1.
Since November 2002, when Bulgaria was invited to join the NATO, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased
four times and is expected to be 2.5 billion Euro in 2004.
Croatia: Population: 4.7 millions.
Romania: Population: 22.41 million.
Turkey: Population: 67.8 million.
All four countries candidate countries are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Overview on common macroeconomic tendencies
Romania and Bulgaria began the process of transition to the market economy at the end of 1980s. Croatia’s
process of transition was delayed by several years due to armed conflicts and the break up of former Yugoslavia.
All three countries show a trend of high growth for this last period. The average growth of all the eight SEE
countries is 5.1 % for 2003 and 4.5% for 2004 [2]- but their GDP is still much lower than in other EU member
states. The real GDP per capita for 2002 for the all the eight SEE countries was USD 6.372,50 compared to USD
26.047 for the fifteen old member states and USD 11.906,10 for the new member states.
Bulgaria and the other candidate countries (excluding Turkey) have many common characteristics. This has
allowed us to draw many conclusions and arguments for the region based on information from and the experience
of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria joined the WTO as of 1 December 1996 and has signed onto every multilateral trade agreement annexed
to the Marrakech Agreement from the date of accession, without recourse to a transitional period. The country has
also accepted as a single undertaking the three major agreements - the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs
(GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS). Prior to this, until 1991, Bulgaria belonged to the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance
(COMECON) and practised state monopolisation of foreign trade. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank (WB), as in many other countries, promoted trade liberalisation as an essential element of Bulgaria’s
structural reform and financial stabilisation package.
Facing the challenge of deregulation and abandoning the socialist planning and centralised system, the Bulgarian
government took too long to find a form of regulation that would stimulate competition and as a result enterprises
have been exposed to the chaos of a hazardous post-communist market. Bulgaria’s difficulties have been
compounded because it joined the WTO as a developed country, which meant that structural reforms had to be
conducted in a framework of fully liberalised markets and exposure to strong international competition. Trade
liberalisation can only correct trade imbalances and reduce foreign debt if the national economy is healthy and
competitive. Instead, the unrealistic terms on which Bulgaria joined the WTO have jeopardised the country’s
structural reforms and they have had a negative impact on crucial sectors of economy, in particular industry.
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Shortly before joining the WTO Bulgaria began the process of EU accession, which has also entailed structural
reforms in order to comply with EU standards. The establishment of a free market economy is a core EU
requirement for a country and its citizens to be able to operate within the liberal European market. The positive
aspect of the EU accession for Bulgaria is that the process imposes high environmental and social, including
gender, standards. The Bulgarian government has had to respond to the double challenge from the EU and the
WTO of carrying out structural reforms and raising social and environmental standards.
The Bulgarian government is now involved in a complex dual process. In its pursuit of liberalisation as required by
GATS, the Bulgarian government has had to provide extensive market access to foreign suppliers of services in
sectors, such as business, research and development, information technology, transport and tourist services. But
because of the EU accession, the government is bound to a large extent by the common trade policy of the Union,
and therefore has had to harmonise its position regarding the liberalisation of trade in services with that of the
EU.
EU accession, economic restructuring and liberalisation [3]and their impact on gender equality
Structural reform, privatisation, attracting FDI and accession to the EU in 2007 are the main priorities of the
Bulgarian government - but the government is not taking into consideration the negative effects of globalisation
on social protection, especially among vulnerable groups (women, young people, pensioners). Armed conflicts in
the Balkans and financial constraints related to structural adjustment programmes have negatively affected the
ability of the previous and the current governments of Bulgaria to promote social development through better
safety nets.
Unemployment is a main concern of the region [4]despite clear signs of improvement in Bulgaria and Romania.
SEE countries have seen a deterioration in employment security and social protection. Employment growth and
quality remain core issues to be addressed. Gender discrimination is another serious issue - women still encounter
greater difficulties than men in securing decent work with equal wages; in obtaining adequate social protection;
and in being able to participate in social dialogue. Unemployment often affects women more acutely than men and
gender segregation in employment is widespread, with women tending to be concentrated in low-paid occupations
and sectors. The employment rate of women in Bulgaria (38.4 % compared to 46.8% of men in 2003) is still far
from the ambitious goals set at the Lisbon Summit. From the first quarter of 2004 to September 2004
unemployment rate fell from 13.3% to 11.74%. Despite that, the analysis of the data of the State Employment
Agency shows that from 1990 women’s unemployment is higher than men’s.
Bulgaria does not receive funding from EU programmes such as PHARE [5]for gender equality issues and no
accession funds have been allocated to gender issues [6]. At the same time Bulgaria’s domestic labour, social
security and non-discrimination laws have been harmonized with the European Community law, including
directives regulating equal opportunities for men and women and gender issues, such as non-discrimination based
on gender, equal remuneration of men and women, elimination of sexual harassment at the work place as well as
paid and unpaid parental leave for both parents or grand parents [7]. Formally the government is able to declare
compliance with the EU standards of gender equality. However, NGOs and trade unions have revealed gross
violations in all sectors, especially in relation to the principle of equal remuneration especially as this relates to
private small and medium size companies. Problems of enforcement and implementation of the adopted new
labour and anti-discrimination legislations are common for all the countries under review.
The negative consequences of privatisation of formerly state-owned property and liberalisation of public services
have led to the violation of labour and social security legislation by both Bulgarian and foreign investors. Such
violations include low salaries, forced and unpaid overtime, non payment of social and health security instalments
by the employer, etc.
“Podkrepa” Labour Confederation estimates that around 65% of Bulgaria’s population live in moderate to serious
poverty. The trade union states that the most vulnerable groups in the current economic situation are families
with children, long-term unemployed, old people and the disabled. Muslims and the Roma also find it very difficult
to meet even their basic needs for physical survival. And poverty is growing among women-headed households
which comprise 21.4% of households in Bulgaria and their number continues to increase partly because of the
higher life expectancy of women. Of women-headed households, 64.9% live in absolute poverty and they are
poorer than male-headed households. For women, balancing their roles as breadwinners and primary caretakers
has become especially difficult. As state support for families shrinks, especially for single mothers, more
responsibility is shifted to individuals, who, in turn, appear to rely more heavily on kinship systems and local
support networks.
The average monthly earnings for women as a share of male earnings in Bulgaria in the public sector is around
69%. The government claims that women earn less because they have different levels of education and
qualifications and they accrue shorter working records, often as a result of family responsibilities. All major
amendments to the Labour Code in the past four years are reported to be in response to a need to increase labour
market flexibility, but it is the women that have been most adversely affected.
During the transition period differences in opportunities and income levels became more pronounced and had a
negative effect on the social and economic status of women. Women traditionally have had very limited access to
financial resources for independent economic activity and today there are no targeted programmes or affirmative
action policies to increase the access of women to credit or finance to try and narrow the gap.
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Opportunities to acquire industrial or real estate property or to make any profits apart from salaries were
restricted in socialist times. As a result the majority of Bulgarian citizens lack the financial means to participate
actively in the case-by-case cash privatisation. Lack of clear, consistent regulations and control over the
privatisation process has meant effectively that privatisation of the existing state and municipally owned assets
has occurred behind closed doors and in a very un-transparent manner.
To sum up, trade liberalisation and related structural adjustment policies in Bulgaria have resulted in:
●
●
●
●
●
Substantial impoverishment of the population. Despite the lack of specific gender disaggregated data, it is
clear that women are more likely to be victims of poverty.
Substantial loss of social benefits for women during the transition period.
A number of budget constraints that combined with further liberalisation has resulted in a new social
security system with built-in inequalities.
Job insecurity, unemployment, systematic and in some cases gross violations of employment rights and
gender discrimination, as well as a rise in female participation in the informal economy.
The privatisation of basic services. Women are more adversely affected by the privatisation of basic
services as they are the main beneficiaries of services as health, social security, social assistance and other
social services.
Gender equality legislative and mechanisms
Well-functioning and transparent regulations and institutions have not been established in Bulgaria: the
ombudsperson for equal opportunities was not supported by the Parliament Act on equal opportunities; a
commission against discrimination was not included under the Act on Protection against Discrimination (in force
since 1 January 2004); and the envisioned consultative body on gender equality - the consultative council on
equal opportunities - was not approved by the government.
However, the Employment Agency has started the project ‘Back to work’ for the period 2003-04 aimed at
promoting real gender equality through interim affirmative measures for access to employment [8]. Other
projects incorporating affirmative actions include the ‘New professional qualification in the field of information
technologies and computer networks’ [9]and the ‘Promotion of independent economic activities of women in child
care services’ [10] . These projects should be evaluated as a first step to articulate a unified strategy on gender
equality in Bulgaria. During 2004, the first EU funded governmental project was implemented in the field of
gender mainstreaming. In addition, a special unit on equal opportunities was created in the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policy.
Romania and Croatia are further ahead on gender equality in terms of legislation and institutional frameworks.
Both countries have gender equality acts. Romania adopted a National Action Plan for equal opportunities in 2000
and established a commission for equal opportunities within the Economic and Social Council. Croatia has a
deputy ombudsperson on equal opportunities and a national office on equal opportunities. In addition a
commission on gender equality was established in the government, which approved a National Policy for
promotion of gender equality. Despite this institutional progress, the effectiveness of these bodies need to be
improved and the level resources allocated to them need to be increased.
Conclusions
The Bulgarian government would like us to believe that its sole priority is the harmonisation of domestic
legislation on equal opportunities for men and women with EU standards. However, it ignores the obligation to
take measures, including affirmative action interim measures, to guarantee the real equality of opportunities for
men and women. Transposing the acquis communautaire in Bulgarian domestic legislation is not enough to
declare that gender equality objectives have been reached in Bulgaria, and that the state has no further
obligations to promote and protect gender equality through state policy and programmes initiated and funded by
state agencies. The above mentioned projects are not enough to promote an integral strategy on equality and
equal opportunities for women and men. In order to guarantee proper implementation of the new standards,
further strengthening of the capacities of labour administration is needed, particularly a mechanism for labour
inspection and a properly functioning and effective legal system.
Recommendations for policy change
To the EU institutions:
●
The EU institutions should monitor closely the implementation of the new adopted standards on gender
equality and exert pressure on the government in the region to adopt a consistent gender equality policy
and gender mainstreaming approach.
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To the national governments:
●
●
Institutional mechanisms for gender equality should be established. Where they already exist, guarantees
for their effectiveness should be given and they should be supported by appropriate and sufficient personal
and financial resources.
Additional budgetary resources should be allocated to monitor the effects of liberalisation and EU accession
on gender equality.
This infosheet was produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission, DG Education and Culture.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official
opinion of the EC or of WIDE.
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
---------------------------------------------
[1] The higher the index, the lower the level of corruption in the country. For example, the three top countries –
that is, those with the lowest levels of corruption - are Finland – 9.7, New Zealand – 9.6 and Denmark -9.5.
[2] For comparison the growth in the 15 EU countries for the same period is respectively. 0.8% and 2 %. Source:
UNECE 2004.
[3] For this part information is from: Genoveva Tisheva, Irina Moulechkova. “Structural Reform versus Social
Development”, Social Watch, N 4/2000; Genoveva Tisheva, Plamenka Markova, Irina Moulechkova “European
Union: Opportunity or Marginalisation”, Social Watch, N 5, 2001; “Faites vos jeux, Messieurs! or A case study on
the impact of GATS in Bulgaria, A BGRF – WIDE publication, 2004.
[4] For 2002 the unemployment rate for 7 SEE (without Turkey) is 17.2 %, compared to 7.7% for the old member
states and 14.8 % for the new member states. Source: European Commission
[5] The PHARE programme is one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the EU to assist applicant
countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the EU.
[6] Information received from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Division for Equal Treatment of Men and
Women in Labour Market.
[7] For the first time parental leave for both parents has been introduced.
[8] http://www.az.government.bg/elmnt1/el_16/Proekti/Project%201.htm
[9] http://www.az.government.bg/elmnt1/el_16/ProjPCWom.htm.
[10] http://www.az.government.bg/elmnt1/el_16/Proekti/Project_2.htm.
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Short description of the region
The Enlarged EU and its Agenda for a Wider Europe:
What Considerations for Gender Equality?
- EU Old Member States -
By Elizabeth Villagómez
Almenara Estudios Económicos y Social, S.L. Spain
WIDE briefing paper
Prior to the European Union (EU) enlargement in 2004, there were fifteen European member countries now
considered the ‘old’ EU. The old EU or ‘Western Europe’ consists of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece,
Finland, Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom.
Except for Greece, Portugal and Spain, all of these countries have a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of greater than
USD 25.000, ranking them amongst the most developed and the richest of countries both at the European and the
global level. They are also amongst the most highly ranked countries in terms of the Human Development
Indicators as developed by UNDP. All of the countries are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and all
have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and
various conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Macroeconomic overview
From a women’s rights and a gender equality perspective, and indeed from a social protection perspective in
general, there is growing evidence that social directives and guidelines from the EU are at odds with those ruling
economic matters. It is undeniable that in some countries the social directives and guidelines have done much to
introduce and accelerate an increased awareness and needed change with respect to women’s economic and
social rights and gender equality in general. However, economic policies can work directly and indirectly against
adequately guaranteeing these rights inasmuch as these policies assume gender neutrality when in fact they are
gender blind.
The gender implications are many as nation states restructure themselves, reform their tax and benefit systems
and decentralise operations. Many of these countries are already characterised by inequalities within the systems
and institutional discriminatory practices. Many of the EU mandated structural changes result in the continued cutbacks
of social services or their privatisation. This seriously diminishes women’s possibilities to access and
maintain their footing in the labour market as they struggle to reconcile their work and private life. The
assumption that the household will absorb the shocks that these changes provoke continues to assume specific
gender roles, in particular the unpaid care work of women. Macroeconomic stability, or at least a good part of it,
can thus be credited to women’s unpaid work.
Given the importance economic growth is granted in reaching convergence targets and in achieving greater
welfare for all members of society (what neo-liberal terminology calls the trickle-down effect), it has to be noted,
that economic growth alone does not fully guarantee economic development, nor welfare and much less gender
equality. Under the Swedish presidency of the EU in 2001 a paper on Gender Equality and Economic Growth was
prepared where it was clearly established that gender equality and economic growth is a two-way street. There
are at least two issues which must be addressed in order to reinforce this relationship: pay differentials and the
tax-benefit systems. The setting, design and finance of these two issues are closely related to the goals and
objectives for economic convergence in the EU. The “trickle-down” effect will not reach the wider population
without planned and targeted policies that address baseline inequalities. This has been demonstrated in many
countries outside the EU who have followed this flawed neo-liberal advice.
Macroeconomic policy and its gender impact
The stability and convergence programmes that have been in place since 1999 for all the fifteen old EU member
states make up the main core of macroeconomic policy across the EU. Although a Council Regulation ((EC) No.
1466/97) sets out the essential elements of these programmes, they are not homogeneous in design and practice,
but they “should show the medium-term objective of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) as being achieved and
maintained in accordance with the budgetary recommendations in the broad economic policy guidelines.”
Therefore, having ceded the main elements of monetary policy to the Central European Bank (except in those
countries outside the Euro zone), budget or fiscal policy then becomes the main macroeconomic policy
instrument. Fiscal reforms must strike a balance between increasing incentives to business to invest and
increasing household incomes to consume which are based on tax reductions and reducing social services. These
social services, in particular, are crucial for women’s employment as can be demonstrated by a recent EU
parliament study which points out that for the fifteen old EU countries there is a clear link between higher levels of
taxation and higher participation of women in the labour market.
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There is growing recognition that macroeconomic policy plays an important role in affecting living standards and
economic opportunities for the population in general and women in particular. This provides the rationale for the
introduction of a gender perspective into government budgets. According to Elson, (2002) there are costs
associated with lower output, reduced development of people’s capacities, less leisure and diminished well-being
when macroeconomic policy, through its different instruments, increases inequalities instead of reducing them.
Increasing access to resources and opportunities has, consequently, positive economic effects. This is particularly
true for women and other members of the population that endure inequalities. A gender impact assessment of all
policies is yet another instrument that should be used regularly by governments.
Budgetary discipline is often another way of talking about cut-backs in government spending, particularly with
regards to social services, education, health and culture as well as human resources in the government, an area
where in general a large proportion of women work. Statistics show, that expenditure on social protection and
other benefits as a percentage of GDP has fallen - social expenditure can therefore not be blamed for growing
deficits.
These policy choices contrast with increasing expenditure in other areas such as military or security, particularly
after September 11. The choices made by governments thus respond to political and not just purely economic
arguments. If economic growth indeed makes the cake larger, the partitioning of the cake is a discretionary
exercise. Commitments to CEDAW and to the protection of human rights must be given at least the same level of
importance as commitments to NATO or to the fight against terrorism.
The level of social expenditure on benefits related to childbirth, child-raising and dependency (long-term care)
shows a positive relationship with women’s activity and employment rates. The recommendation is given that
member states with lower employment rates should increase expenditure on these benefits, especially through
better provision of child and adult dependent care services at affordable prices. While at an individual level, there
is a negative relationship between taxes, especially income tax and female employment, at an aggregate level
there is a positive relation between the average tax level and the employment rate for women. In other words,
countries with higher taxation levels are those with a higher percentage of working women. This apparent
contradiction is explained by the positive effects that targeted public expenditure can have on the demand and
supply of female labour. Higher taxes allow a higher public expenditure in services such as health, education or
social services - areas that traditionally employ many women. But also, importantly, higher tax levels are
associated with more and better social infrastructures, especially with regards to childcare and dependent adults,
areas that favour women’s labour supply and affect women’s ability to take work outside of the home.
It is also important to highlight that women continue to be over represented in low-wage positions and in jobs
that have less than favourable conditions of employment (for instance temporary, part-time, and informal
positions often in un- or under-regulated sectors of the economy). Improving these wages and conditions could,
through increased productivity, improved taxing revenues, higher consumption, etc, advance the process of
achieving convergence. This is also relevant in understanding the gender dimensions of trade. Systems which
continue to treat women as secondary income earners and assume that they have access to another, often higher
male-related income in effect perpetuate the problems of women exiting the labour market, receiving lower hours
and pay, and undertaking undeclared work, as households calculate that the extra income from women’s work in
effect results in higher taxes for the household unit.
The participation of women in the labour market has not been fully taken into account in any of the reforms, plans
and pacts that affect fiscal and social security reform issues. And these reforms have not resulted in equal pay for
men and women. The principle of equal pay, that has been included since the Treaty of Rome, has not been
enforced. Indeed, only five of the fifteen old EU member states have consistent data showing a narrowing of the
gap - the rest show stagnation or a widening of the gap.
Internal market and trade
As recently illustrated in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, cuts to social services or reforms to social
protection systems are not easily implemented. In this respect, the Bolkestein initiative (proposal for directive COM
(2000) 507 final 2000/0260 (COD)) later approved as a directive, has failed to take into account the gender
implications of occupational pensions. It is also clear that directives affecting the free movement of persons,
services and goods across the EU still fail to recognise and identify gender dimensions and implications. Also, the
trend to privatise social services connected to these occupational schemes will impact adversely on women’s
ability to access resources.
The most recent publication of Employment in Europe points more to the benefits than to the costs of outsourcing
and globalisation on European employment. An obvious policy question would be how to increase women’s access
to the better jobs and how to protect women stuck in the lower paying, less protected jobs, those that are more
likely to be outsourced to third countries. It can therefore be seen that the downward trend in employment growth
highlighted in the previous section, is affected by both globalisation and growing government deficits.
Employment, gender equality strategies, social protection and social inclusion
The objectives of EU social policy seem to run contrary to the objectives of economic policy particularly when
looking at the distribution of income, social exclusion and equality, and on quality of employment. Although
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unemployment has decreased over the past 10 years (from 10% to 7% in EU15), and the employment and
poverty reductions strategies at EU level make coordinated and some targeted efforts to address the needs of
those who are excluded or at risk, there are still persistent shortfalls and gaps in particular for women.
The improvement in economic conditions and access to health and education are not sufficient to close gaps
created by inequalities and discrimination in the access to the labour market where most social benefits are
obtained. Furthermore, the higher percentage of women, particularly those over 65, under the relative poverty
threshold (60% of median equivalised income) reinforces the idea that closing the pay gap and improving the
participation rates of women in the labour market throughout their lifetime is crucial to prevent poverty later in
life. The many benefits of paid, declared work reiterates the importance of reforming systems in a way that take
women’s reproductive role into account. At the same time, policies must be put in place to encourage an increase
in men’s participation in social reproduction, particularly in the care of children and other dependents. Pension
reforms that do not take this into account will be detrimental to women.
Brief comment on the EU Constitution
The constitutional text has, for some, meant a lower standard in the equality legislation that has already been
achieved. However, Article II-23 as it stands states that equality between men and women must be ensured in all
areas, including employment, work and pay and that the principle of equality shall not prevent the maintenance or
adoption of measures providing for specific advantages in favour of the under-represented sex. Therefore, both
mainstreaming and positive action remain as the basis for moving forward with gender equality. Given that
member states have already made commitments to women under international conventions such as CEDAW, the
Constitution would be a stronger document if these commitments were expressly mentioned. It should be noted
that the Constitution does, in effect challenge these commitments as it is based on a patriarchal social and neoliberal
economic model, neither of which advances the position of women.
Recommendations for policy change
● There must be implicit recognition by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the
gender dimensions of the stability and convergence programmes, particularly around appropriate mediumterm
budgetary targets. Gender budget analysis and gender impact analysis of policies, as tools mentioned
in the Community Framework, should be moved forward more decisively.
● There is an urgent need to address the question of coherence: Economic policies need to be in compliance
with women rights and gender equality issues.
● In the context of on-going reforms to tax and social security systems, the European Commission (EC) and
the European Parliament must encourage member states to do away with the last vestiges of malebreadwinner
models that discourage women from active participation in the labour market. WIDE
recommends collective responsibility and horizontal subsidising.
● The effects of globalisation phenomena such as outsourcing should be analysed by the EC through a gender
lens. Particular attention should be paid to the fact that women are concentrated in low-paying jobs with
less than favourable employment conditions.
● National Action Plans for employment and for social inclusion should continue to strengthen the gender
dimension of both analysis and the corresponding measures to address inequalities. In this sense stronger
language on affirmative action should be included in addition to the gender mainstreaming approach taken
and the references to specific problems such as the pay-gap and reconciliation of work and family life.
● The provision of social services and public goods must be guaranteed - the EC should take measures to
encourage member states to protect and to ensure access to public goods and social services for all, and
discourage privatisation and commercialisation in the interests of private companies and international
corporations.
● The EC should take measures to eliminate the gap between the adopted gender equality legislation and its
implementations in the area of employment and equal pay; this includes the need to build and strengthen
mechanisms and institutions responsible for monitoring the progress of implementation of relevant
legislation. Moreover, the monitoring needs to be linked to the general process of the European
Employment Strategy.
● The EC should urgently take the initiative to eliminate the neo-liberal, patriarchal and militaristic structure
of the European Constitution and to integrate a rights-based approach to development that will ensure
equal access to resources and rights for all.
● The EC should take measures to eradicate poverty by strengthening social policies and economic rights
instead of further weakening them.
This infosheet was produced with the financial assistance of the European Commission, DG Education and Culture.
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official
opinion of the EC or of WIDE.
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
----------------------------
[1] A Report on Gender Equality and Economic growth, Åså Löfström, University, S-Umeå.
[2] European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, European Economy Nº 3/2002,
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Opinion on the content and format of stability and convergence programmes (2001 code of conduct).
[3] European Parliament, Women’s Human Rights Committee. Social Security Systems in the EU and their Impact
on Reconciling Family Life and Work Life, prepared by Almenara Estudios Económicos y Sociales, S.L.
[4] Diane Elson (2002) “Integrating Gender into Government Budgets within a Context of Economic Reform”, in
Gender Budgets Make Cents, Commonwealth Secretariat, Gender Affairs Department, London
[5] Op. cit.
[6] Here the choice lies between horizontal equity principles, in other words equality on tax treatment for families
with the same capacity to pay, and neutrality to the civil status of individuals. The choice of an individual tax
system or of a joint tax system means to a great extent choosing one or the other.
[7 ] EGGE – EC’s Expert Group on Gender and Employment, “The Gender Pay Gap and Gender Mainstreaming Pay
Policy”.
[8] Directive 2003/41/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 June 2003. On the activities and
supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision.
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The enlarged European Union and its agenda for a ‘wider Europe’:
What considerations for gender equality?
By Mandy Macdonald
Women in Development Europe (WIDE) Report
On 1 May 2004 ten new countries joined the European Union (EU): Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Four more countries - Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and
Turkey are now sufficiently advanced in the negotiations for EU accession to be classed as candidate countries.
Further back in the queue are the countries now known as EU ‘new neighbours’ - those countries in the Western
Balkans and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) which now border upon the ever-expanding EU and are being
encouraged by it to adopt values and policies consonant with those of the EU - but without any guarantee of
accession in the short term.
Among the shared values the EU wants its new and future members and its neighbours to foment are democracy,
respect for human rights and the rule of law. But do these values include gender equality? The European
Commission’s 2003 Communication, ‘Wider Europe - Neighbourhood: A new framework for relations with our
Eastern and Southern neighbours’ is silent on the subject. This hearing held by WIDE at the European Parliament
(EP) explored the potential for mainstreaming gender equality in key areas of national policy in the new member
states and other Eastern European countries, and the extent to which the EU can help in this respect. The hearing
followed up WIDE’s consultation on gender equality in EU accession negotiations held in 2003 in Brussels, and
aimed to carry the discussion forward to the formulation of recommendations to be taken back to the participants’
national governments.
Forty invited participants from 12 European countries met in the European Parliament building in Brussels. They
included Members of the European Parliament (MEP) and their researchers, members of staff from two relevant
European Commission Directorates (DG Enlargement and DG Employment), feminist researchers from a number
of countries, and WIDE staff. The meeting was especially pleased to welcome two representatives of the Provincial
Secretariat for Labour, Employment and Gender Equality of the Serbian province of Vojvodina, whose provincial
parliament adopted a Declaration on Gender Equality in 2004.
The hearing was facilitated by Bettina Musiolek of the Protestant Academy of Meissen, and the opening speech
was given by Elisabeth Schroeder, Member of the Parliament (MEP), Green Group, who hosted the meeting. Two
pairs of presentations were made, interspersed with work in small groups, so as to alternate information-sharing
with discussion and practical strategising.
Outcomes of the Hearing
Two consistent themes emerged in the four presentations and the discussions: the gap between policy and
legislation and its implementation, and the need to intensify international networking. Concerns were expressed
that the ever-expanding EU is more concerned with economic growth and the maintenance of ‘secure’ borders
than with social and gender justice for all its citizens, even though there is clear evidence from all the regions
represented at this hearing that even the largely formal equality enjoyed by women under the socialist regimes
has been swept away on a rising tide of feminised poverty and renewed patriarchy. Where there is legislation to
address gender equality, it is often not implemented or enforced, and participants were keen to dialogue with
representatives of the EU on ways in which it could influence the governments of their countries in this respect.
Civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are struggling to move the gender equality agenda
forward, and there have been some notable successes, but inadequate resources put a strong brake on their
efforts. In this context, international networking among NGOs and women’s movements is proving invaluable, and
participants urged governments to cooperate in the same way both among themselves and with civil society.
These themes formed the basis of the strategic discussions held in the four working groups and are reflected in
the recommendations put together by the groups and presented at the conclusion of the hearing.
Recommendations
1) New EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe
To the EU institutions:
● EU strategies addressing the position of women in the labour market should be revised to respond more
effectively to the needs of new member states as well as regional, social and economic differences between
women in old member states.
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● The EU institutions should increase the capacity and role of civil society and facilitate its participation in
existing EU-related bodies, by providing funds and expertise, simplifying the procedures for civil society
participation, and making the existing mechanisms more visible.
● The EU institutions should effectively monitor the implementation of gender-specific policies and
recommendations, and should develop specific mechanisms to do this.
To national governments:
● Gender budgeting should be applied to EU funds received by national governments, and to national
government budgets.
● Policies to address the drop in activity rate for women in the new member states must be implemented.
● The role of civil society in policy-making processes, including gender mainstreaming, should be
strengthened and institutionalised.
To EU and national governments:
● Ensure that national equality bodies play a meaningful role in monitoring gender-related issues, including
gender mainstreaming.
● Promote cooperation between decision-makers in old and new EU member states, so that the Central and
Eastern Europe (CEE) new member states can benefit from best practice across a range of countries.
● Policies and laws introduced, in particular those referring to gender equality, should be specific to country
situations, and should not be merely based on a blueprint designed for the old EU states.
2) EU candidate countries
To the EU institutions:
● Monitor the gap between policy/legislation and implementation, and exert pressure on governments in the
region to adopt a consistent gender equality policy and gender mainstreaming approach.
● Gender should be mainstreamed effectively through PHARE assistance, training, and publications.
● Strengthen the demand that gender mainstreaming be taken into account by appropriate departments in
the European Commission when designing and planning programmes and projects, using mechanisms such
as gender markers (OECD) or gender evaluation guidelines.
● There should be greater transparency in EU expenditure on gender-related matters.
● Ensure that at least 40% of those participating in high-level and other meetings on accession between the
EC and the candidate countries are women and 40% are men.
To national governments:
● Be more proactive in dialogue with civil society.
● Be more proactive in promoting gender-mainstreamed projects.
● Establish institutional mechanisms for gender equality. Where these already exist, guarantees/ indicators
for their effectiveness should be given and they should be supported by appropriate and sufficient human
and financial resources.
● Additional budgetary resources should be allocated to monitor the effects of economic liberalisation and EU
accession on gender equality.
● Consider the possibility of refusing offers of funds which come accompanied by identifiable World Bank
conditions.
3) EU neighbouring countries in the Western Balkans
To the EU institutions:
● Promote an approach to development based on human and women’s rights rather than one focusing only
on profit and economic growth, and develop an economic model which is open not only to productivity but
to production of social value.
● Make space in the European Structural Funds (ESF) for the neighbouring non-EU countries.
● Promote the sharing of experiences among countries by greater networking in civil society; support such
networking with adequate resources.
● Educate/lobby policy-makers on development and implementation of gender equality legislation and
instruments.
To national governments:
● Support women’s activities in the region.
● Integrate gender perspective and women’s needs and interests in the reforms of pension system, social
security, etc.
● Make a gender analysis of economic policies.
● Make space for a gender-responsive social economy.
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4) EU neighbouring countries in Eastern Europe/ Former Soviet Union
To the EU institutions:
● Use their power and influence in Eastern Europe to promote and monitor human rights.
● Support NGOs and civil society for public dialogue.
● Support cooperation between CEE/NIS governments and new member state governments and civil sector
(especially women’s NGOs).
● Put pressure on national governments to ensure that border regimes do not discriminate against people
living in border areas in terms of mobility of workers etc.
● Facilitate and support the creation of programmes/projects promoting equal opportunities in CEE/NIS
countries. Projects should aim at long-term, sustainable development, including capacity building for local
populations.
● Revise the European Employment Strategy (EES) to take account of the situation of Eastern European
Former Soviet Union countries.
To national governments:
● Observe human rights in general and women’s rights in particular.
● Develop and execute legislation on gender equality and establish gender machineries at local, regional and
national levels.
● Raise the gender awareness of government officials through education and training, and resource this
activity adequately.
● End cuts in public spending on core services such as education, health, water; adopt a more gradual
approach to economic reform.
Full Report has been recently published and is available at: WIDE, rue de la Science 10, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
phone: ++32-2-545.90.70 fax: ++32-2-512.73.42
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org
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Engendering Macroeconomics
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ENGENDERING MACROECONOMICS
Feminist Economics Challenges Mainstream Economics
By Diane Elson, PhD
A feminist alternative would make social reproduction the dominant domain, with
production and finance acting to serve it. The macroeconomic policy objective would be
decent work for all, with an equal sharing of unpaid work between women and men,
supported by public policy which recognises the importance of this work. In analysing
how to move to this alternative from where we are no, we argue that feminist
macroeconomics will need to build on and extend heterodox macroeconomics, while
challenging neoliberal macroeconomics.
Introduction to Feminist Economics:
Household, Market and State
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, PhD
Gender is a complex category using economic structure, symbols and identities to
express culturally and socially constructed differences between men and women. Decision
on who is to generate income outside family and how the family income is to be allocated
are strongly gender structured and based on power relations. They greatly influence not
only the relations within households and enterprises, but also market relations and the
state’s economic policy, and thus the total economic and social development of any
national economy.
Briefing Paper on the ‘Feminisation of Poverty’
By BRIDGE
The term the ‘feminisation of poverty’ originates from US debates about single mothers
and welfare, dating from the 1970s. Recently there has been much discussion, in both
academic and development policy circles, of the phenomena. However, there is little
clarity about what the feminisation of poverty means, or about whether such a trend can
be empirically verified. The feminisation of poverty has been linked to firstly, a perceived
increase in the proportion of female-headed households (FHHs) and secondly, the rise of
female participation in low return urban informal sector activities, particularly in the
context of the 1980s economic crises and adjustments in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin
America.

Feminist Economics Challenges Mainstream Economics
Feminist Economics Challenges Mainstream Economics
Diane Elson, PhD, Professor, University of Essex (UK) and Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute, Bard College,
(USA)
In this presentation I will discuss some of the ways in which mainstream macroeconomics has been extended by
gender analysis; and some of the ways in which feminist economists, taking heterodox macroeconomics as a
starting point, are seeking to challenge mainstream macroeconomics.
I want to distinguish between extending the mainstream paradigm and challenging the mainstream paradigm. The
paradigm can be extended by adding new features, filling in gaps, and replacing simple assumptions by more
complex assumptions. I think that feminist economics can be more ambitious than that. We can and should seek
to challenge the fundamental assumptions of the mainstream. And begin to develop alternative forms of analysis
and policy.
I will draw upon the macroeconomics I learned as a student in Oxford, at St Hilda’s college in the late sixties; a
macroeconomics witch drew inspiration from Keynes, Kalecki, and Marx; and was grounded in an appreciation of
the importance of institutional context and of history. I would particularly like to salute the women who taught me
macroeconomics at Oxford, especially Nita Watts, Fellow of St Hilda’s College. I will also draw upon the research
of the International Working Group on Gender and Macroeconomics, and informal international network of women
and men, co-ordinated by Niluer Vagatay, Cren Grown, Rania Antonopolous, Sergy Floro and myself. The Group
produced two special issues o World Development (November 1995 and July 2000) and has for the last two years
organized a summer school on gender, macroeconomics, and international economics at the University of Utah.
I will define the scope of macroeconomics broadly, to consider analysis that looks at the economy as a whole, as
distinct from microeconomics, which analyses the economic behaviour o individuals, households and enterprises;
and meso economics, which analyses the operation of mediating institutions such as markets and state agencies.
Feminist economics has, to date, produced more analysis of the operations of economies at the micro and meso
level. The programme for the 2004 IAFFE conference contains many more sessions on micro and meso economics
than on macroeconomics. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of feminist research that has produced the
following critiques of mainstream macroeconomics:
●
●
●
mainstream macroeconomics is gender blind It is based on an incomplete understanding of how economies
work. This promotes the introduction of policies which disadvantage women, especially poor women;
macroeconomics should recognise and incorporate the unpaid domestic work that is vital for social
reproduction (the reproduction of the whole society, including the day-to-day and intergenerational
reproduction of labour power);
macroeconomics should incorporate gender inequality variables.
Feminist economists have done empirical and conceptual work to incorporate social reproduction and gender
inequality variables in macroeconomic analysis. So also have some mainstream economists. I will discuss
examples of each.
Mainstream macroeconomics that incorporate gender analysis
We learnt in a Conference presentation by Irene van Staveren that macroeconomists in the Netherlands have
incorporated the unpaid domestic work of caring for family members in the model that is officially used to analyse
macroeconomic policy. They have modelled the supply and demand for this labour in much the same way as the
supply and demand of paid work, with one important exception. The performance of unpaid work is assumed to
generate utility for the provider as well as for receiver; but the performance of paid work is assumed to generate
utility only for the receiver. Irene challenged this on the grounds that both paid and unpaid work can generate
both utility and disutility for the provider; and there is no good reason to assume that unpaid work uniquely
generates utility for the provider. Because women so often do unpaid care work out of love, does not mean that
they always love doing it!
Another area in which mainstream economists have engaged with gender is in the analysis of the determinants
and benefits of economic growth. World Bank economists David Dollar and Roberta Gatti have run cross-country
and time series regressions and come to the conclusion that growth is food for gender equality and gender
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equality is good for growth. In other words, all i sfo the best in the best o all possible worlds. But Dollar and Gatti
examine only a restricted range of gender inequality variables, focusing on education and not on the labour
market. This is in line with the major focus of the World Bank policy advice which argues that investing in the
education of girls promotes benefits for all. World Bank economists have also incorporated gender into the model
of the small dependent economy that underpins the design o structural adjustment models. Collier treats gender
as a market imperfection that hinders the reallocation o female labour from the production of non-tradables to the
production of tradables in low-income sub-Saharan African economies. Gender is in this view a barrier to
successful structural adjustment.
Gender as a market imperfection also provides the theoretical framework for recent research by Black and
Brainard at the US National Bureau for Economic Research on the impact of international trade on the gender
wage gap in the USA. They find that import competition has reduced discrimination against women in the US
labour market, a result given considerable prominence by Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics at Columbia
University, in his recent book on the benefits of globalisation.
Contrasting examples of feminist macroeconomics
Feminist economics that challenges the mainstream dose not see gender as just another market imperfection. It
takes a more structuralist view of economies, as incorporating persistent asymmetries in power and knowledge.
Stephanie Seguino finds no convulsive evidence to support the view that women do better in countries that grow
faster. Moreover, using cross-country and time series regression analysis she finds evidence that gender
inequalities in the labour market has facilitated economic growth in semi-industrialised countries. Underpinning
this last result is a more structuralist model in which low female wages stimulate industrial investment, in a
profits-led process of growth.
Sandy Darity offers a different understanding of gender in a low-income Sub-Saharan African economy. He
models gender not as a market imperfection but as a relation of power which structures how the agricultural
sector responds to structural adjustment. He brings to light the contradictory interrelation between gender and
structural adjustment. If women have sufficient bargaining power to resist demands on them to supply more
labour to produce export crops controlled by their husbands, there will be a weak supply response to structural
adjustment policies. If they do not have sufficient bargaining power and do re-allocate their labour from locally
consumed food crops, which they control, to export crops which their husbands control, then there is a more
elastic supply response in tradable production, but food security is likely to suffer and the nutritional status of
women and children may deteriorate.
A number of feminist economists have a very different take on gender wage gaps and globalisation. Ebru Kongar
mounts a direct challenge to the work of Black and Brainard. She acknowledges that the gender wage gap has
narrowed in the USA in the period of increased import competition, but points to a very different explanation: not
reduction of discrimination against women, but a process in which import competition has resulted in downward
pressure on male wages, and downward pressure on female employment in tradables Kongar’s model does not
assume that labour markets clear rapidly and that full employment is the norm.
Gunseli Berik finds that gender wages gaps worsened in South Korea and Taiwan in the period of expansion of
manufactured exports while improving slightly when there was a contradiction of manufactured exports, due to a
decline in male wages.
From the real economy to the capitalist money economy
A limitation of all of the analysis discussed so far, whether mainstream or feminist, is that it abstracts from the
specificities of capitalist monetary economies. It is grounded in ‘real economy’ models, in which finance is not
specifically modelled. It is therefore of limited help in responding to the challenge issued to me by a former
finance minister of Chile, in the summer of 2002: “I can see how gender analysis can be useful to Ministers of
Education and Health, and even Ministers of Agriculture and Industry, but I do not see why it is relevant to
Ministers of Finance. It would not have helped me when I was Minister of Finance”.
To respond to that challenge, one needs to bring finance specifically into the analysis. Korkut Erturk, Nilufer
Cagatay and I have been working together on ways on doing that. We propose and analysis based on the
interrelation of three domains: finance, production and social reproduction. All three domains are considered to be
‘bearers of gender’ in the sense that they are structured through social relations which are gendered, implicitly, if
not explicitly. We propose an understanding of the macro-economy in terms of the interrelation of these domains.
In the period of the Keynesian consensus (1950s and 1960s), production dominated, with social reproduction and
finance at the service of production. This was founded upon heterodox macroeconomics. It was not assumed that
economic agents would automatically respond to price signals emerging from markets in ways that produced
growth and full employment. International trade and financial links were managed in the service of the objectives
of full employment and national development. Social reproduction was articulated to the other domains through
systems of wage determination, social protection social insurance (for the formal sector); and systems of
patronage and clientilism (for the agricultural and informal sectors); all o which were based on the assumption
what men were the breadwinners and women were dependent housewives who would carry on doing the
necessary unpaid work without any support from public policy. Feminist analysis re-emerged towards the end of
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this period to challenge the articulations that placed women in a position of dependency. Ministers of Finance did
not see the relevance of this analysis because they assumed that the unpaid work would be done regardless of
their policies, and their attention focused on the medium term dynamics of how to maintain the appropriate level
of aggregate demand to ensure full utilization of the capacity of the paid economy.
Since the mid ‘70s this has been overturned and the Washington Consensus has emerged, putting finance in the
dominant position, with production at the service o finance and social reproduction at the service of both. The
Washington Consensus assumes that economic agents will respond to price signals emerging from markets in
ways that produce full employment and growth. Economic problems are assumed to set mainly from public
policies which distort prices. Thus international trade and finance must be liberalized. it is recognised that markets
may be imperfect and incomplete, so there is some role for public policy to make markets perfect and complete.
This has resulted in changes of the articulation of social reproduction and production, demonstrated in some detail
for the case of Australia in a Conference paper by Ray Broomhill and Rhonda Sharp. Social reproduction is
increasingly articulated to the other domains through individuals participating in ‘flexible’ labour and credit
markets. However, much of the male breadwinner mode of articulation persists for poor people. In better-of
households unpaid domestic work has been replaced by paid domestic work, often done by migrant women. But
the system is still heavily reliant on the unpaid work of women in poor and average households; and it is still
largely assumed that this work will be done regardless of public policy. Finance Ministers do not see the relevance
of gender analysis because they make this assumption; and because they are too busy dealing with the very short
run dynamics o the domain of finance, in which lage movements of currency can move in and out o a country
overnight.
A feminist alternative would make social reproduction the dominant domain, with production and finance acting to
serve it. The macroeconomic policy objective would be decent work for all, with an equal sharing of unpaid work
between women and men, supported by public policy which recognises the importance of this work. In analysing
how to move to this alternative from where we are no, we argue that feminist macroeconomics will need to build
on and extend heterodox macroeconomics, while challenging neoliberal macroeconomics.
Heterodox macroeconomics points to intrinsic limits to the ability of the money mechanism to co-ordinate capital
accumulation that set from within the money mechanism itself, in the context o a necessarily uncertain world.
Feminist heterodox macroeconomics shares the starting point that monetary contracts are necessarily incomplete
and contradictory; that, to use Polanyi’s language, money is a fictitious commodity that ultimately rests on nonmarket
relations for its value. But feminist heterodox macroeconomics also insists that the domain of social
reproduction also constitutes an unsurpassable limit to the ability of the money mechanism to co-ordinate capital
accumulation.
The fact that social reproduction is not co-ordinated by markets and is not governed by the profit motive is not
the result of purely contingent problems of missing and imperfect markets that could be remedies by extending
and improving markets. The absence o markets and the profit motive in this domain is an essential aspect of the
functioning of a capitalist monetary economy. Such an economy is based on the large scale availability of free
labour, both free from servitude and free from access to the means of production, except via the sale of labour
power. Commercialisation of the production and nurture of human beings does of course take place in capitalist
economies (surrogate motherhood for cash, babies for adoption via sale, paid care services) but production of
people on the same basis as the commercial production of chicken, pigs and cows would call into question the
whole operation of a free labour market and the legitimating myths of capitalist monetary economies. Polyani
went some way to identifying this problem when he referred to labour as a fictitious commodity. Contracts in a
capitalist money economy are necessarily incomplete nof only because of the characteristics o the domain of
finance, but also because of the characteristics o the domain of social reproduction.
Moreover the capitalist monetary economy adjust not only through “forced savings,” in which poor consumers are
priced out of markets for consumption gods, but also through “forced unpaid labour” in which social norms lead
women and girls to attempt to maintain family consumption by doing more unpaid work to produce non-market
substitutes. There are limits, however, to the ability of women and girls to do this. Beyond narrow limits,
substitution is not possible, with the result that human capabilities and social networks deteriorate. This reduces
the productive capacity of the economy. This is indeed a problem for Finance Ministers, but if the rules of
international trade and finance force their attention to be focused on the problems of the next 24 hours, they will
not have time to consider the problems of the next 24 years. The fast dynamics of hyper-liberalised finance tend
to obscure the slower dynamics of social reproduction.
This is changing in some parts of the world, as major changes take place in the organisation of social reproduction
through the ageing of the population structure in the North and the ravages of HIV-Aids in many countries of the
South.
Heterodox macroeconomics recognizes that economic growth and fluctuations are not independent, and that
fluctuations in demand lower the overall productive capacity o the economy. They have not yet recognized that
changes in the domain of social reproduction also lower the overall productive capacity of the economy. More
work needs to be done to develop quantitative feminist heterodox analysis that would reveal the significance of
these interactions. In the Conference session on feminism and post-keynesian economics, Haroon Akram-Lhodi
made the interesting suggestion of doing this by building on the work of Kalecki. Feminist macroeconomics can
also build on the work of Marx, who recognized that the problems of capitalist monetary economies cannot be
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reduced to insufficient aggregate demand, and stem from the dynamics of production that is governed by profit. A
feminist macroeconomics can show that the dynamics of production that is NOT governed by profit (ie social
reproduction) is also relevant.
Feminist macroeconomic policy
Feminist economists are beginning to work on alternative policies. For instance, valuable work has been published
by Isa Bakker and Brigitte Young on the critique of macroeconomic policy rules (including balanced budget laws,
asymmetric inflation targets for central banks, rules on debt to GDP ratios and budget deficit to GDP ratios).
Caren Grown and Stephanie Seguino have produced a paper on a feminist-Kaleckian approach to policy. We must
build on this work to show in what ways a feminist approach goes beyond the alternative polices proposed by
heterodox macroeconomics. This, for me, is the appropriate task of extension and completion, while seeking to
undermine the paradigm of mainstream macroeconomics.
Note:
This piece originally appeared in 'Feminist Economics Challenges
Mainstream Economics' edited by Bina Agarwal, Special issue of the newsletter of
the International Association for Feminist Economics, Vol.14, No. 3, 2004
International Association for Feminist Economics ©
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Introduction to Feminist Economics: Household, Market and State
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Ph.D.
Advanced Business School, Novi Sad, Serbia
Summary: This paper addresses the feminist perspective in economy and the significance of gender relations
governing the allocation of resources at household, market and state levels. Gender is a complex category using
economic structure, symbols and identities to express culturally and socially constructed differences between men
and women. Decision on who is to generate income outside family and how the family income is to be allocated
are strongly gender structured and based on power relations. They greatly influence not only the relations within
households and enterprises, but also market relations and the state’s economic policy, and thus the total
economic and social development of any national economy.
Key words: gender methodology and indicators, household resource economy
Feminist methodology and gender indicators – definition and methodology
The entire economic science is about answering the key question: how limited resources are distributed, allocated
and used by people in economy not only at global level but also at macro- (national) level, meso- (sectoral and
local community level) and micro-levels (household, company, individual). Despite the pronounced absence of
people at the level of macroeconomic theory and measurement, economic science is built on assumptions of
rational individuals and natural reproduction, according to which women’s work is infinitely elastic, and the belief
that all factors are relatively equally mobile.
The analysis of economy in a feminist sense is based on understanding unequal power relations between men and
women and the need to transform the current power relations towards gender equality. Feminist economics
identifies gender inequalities within economy, defines gender objectives for economic policy and develops gender
indicator necessary to observe how gender objectives are being achieved. Feminist economy redefines economy
from the viewpoint of gender as an analytic category and its relation to other identity categories such as racial,
class and gender orientation, comprising and demonstrating the governing hierarchies and privileges in economic
and social systems.
Gender affects economy, but economy also affects gender relations – such as different positions of men and
women on labour market – labour market segregation makes it less efficient, and is based on the gender
assumption of ‘appropriate’ jobs for women. Using gender as an analytic category, one considers inequalities that
occur between men and women in the private and public spheres of their action. Gender inequalities between men
and women stem from their different social roles and unequal power relations (such as work invested in care).
Feminist economics is a scientific and theoretic discipline approaching economic issues from a wider social and
political standpoint. It enhances all existing theoretical approaches to economy (neo-classical, post-Keynesian,
neo-institutional) with political, interdisciplinary, philosophical approach to economy, demonstrating that the lack
of gender analysis is related to male interpretation of science as a whole.
Feminist critique of methodological individualism and other key assumptions of economics is a challenge to market
economic paradigm. The economic assumption of a rational and genderless economic agent implies an assumption
of traditional gender roles, racial, class and national hierarchies and thus a privileged male agent. Feminist
economics investigates the ways in which theoretic concepts of economics are gendered, and how gendered
concepts and theories help in the distribution of power relations and status.
The feminist perspective (Barker, Drucilla, and Edith Kuiper, 2003, pp.1-18, Bina Agarwal, ed., 2004, pp. 1-2,
Bina Agarwal, 2004, pp. 2-6, Dian Elson 2004, pp. 6-9) simultaneously offers a theoretical and ethical position. In
the ontological sense, feminist economics starts from the position that events and experiences rather than objects
are the basic factors of reality in an imperfect and evolving world whose main determinants are time and changes.
Objectivity does not exist, as each one of us comprises a component of reality with our own positions (Amartya
Sen’s ‘positional objectivity’). Ethical attitudes (such as the elimination of discrimination and human rights,
equality of people and nations) are, thus an integral part of economic analysis and evaluation. Outside statistical
mathematical and economist reasoning, there is a multitude of explanations conceptualising economy as an
integral part of cultural power relations and changes in line with ethic and democratic principles. In feminist
economics, human welfare is the measure of success, and housework and care work are included in the economic
analysis and evaluation of an economy’s performances. Accordingly, the key areas of feminist, but increasingly of
traditional economic analysis as well are: market, state and household.
Feminist economics is focussed on a variety of approaches in economic analysis (problem-oriented approach):
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1. Structuralist approach identifies and analyses gender as an economic phenomenon through structures,
symbolism and identity;
2. Empirical approach identifies measurable gender inequalities by gathering and analysing primary and
secondary data;
3. Political approach analyses possible policies aimed at improving economic positions of women and girls
(such as the impact of fiscal policy on women).
Gender is expressed in economy and society (Sandra Harding) in three ways, through:
1. Economic structures: segregated markets, discrimination in wages, labour division etc expressed in
economic variables, institutions, policies and models;
2. Symbols: femininity vs. masculinity, job characteristics, paid vs. unpaid work, mathematical vs. verbal
explanation;
3. Identity expressed in preferences, rationality, beliefs and metaphors.
Gender indicators in feminist economic analysis
Gender sensitive indicators contribute to the visibility of women’s position and the dimensions of gender
inequalities in economy and society. Gender indicators offer a possibility of comparing various accomplishments of
various development actors over time and various relationships established between gender inequality and
economic growth, economic and social development (Tables on GDI and GEM, Human Development Report 2004:
310 –330, Rekha Mehra and Sarah Gammage, 1999: 533- 550). Alternative gender indicators focus on measuring
human dimensions of development in terms of evaluating choices and opportunities which women and men face,
their freedom and dignity, self-respect and respect for others, and which greatly surpass their incomes – an
example of feminisation of poverty (Durbin Elizabeth, 1999: 104- 108, Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko, 1999: 99-104).
The lack of indices of economic and social growth and gender inequalities, their insufficient disaggregation and
gender sensibility is one of the key manifestations of the problem i.e. situation in Serbia (Sanja Æopiæ, 2001: 11-
37, Marija Lukiæ, 2002: 2- 8, Marija Lukiæ i Slaðana Jovanoviæ, 2002, Tatjana Ðuriæ Kuzmanovic, 2002: 49-
65).
Household economics – a feminist view of intra-household resource allocation
Economics processes occur in two key spheres of human activity. The private sphere comprises production for
domestic purposes, whereas the public sphere comprises production for exchange and accumulation.
What is a household and why is it significant? Household is a social institution. It is in the household that specific
relationship patterns between units as biological and social beings are established. These relationship patterns are
based on various gender ideologies – socially constructed roles – whereby men and women are defined differently
in relation to one another. Gender is therefore the basis for their material and social inequality.
Three forms of reproduction occur simultaneously in a household: biological, labour and social. Reproduction
occurs within a household through: consumption of goods, childcare, clothing maintenance, providing
accommodation, maintaining hygiene and cleanliness, and providing care for household members, and wider to
persons outside the household.
Household reproduction requires resource allocation. Women’s labour predominates in the processes of providing
these biologically and socially required services. Resource allocation occurring within a household is a prerequisite
for resource allocation occurring through the market.
The unitary model of intra-household resource allocation
According to the unitary model (Gary Becker), the intra-household allocation of work is based on comparative
advantages of all household members based on which their work is allocated between the household and the
market. Maximising the household welfare is a result of intra-household gender division of labour based on the
decision of the male household member. Abandoning the assumption of the male ‘benevolent dictator’ who makes
all the key decisions in the household, leads to the domain of intrahousehold conflicts and inequalities resolved
through various co-operative and uncooperative models or negotiation models (World Bank, 2001: 147-180;
Appendix of World Bank, 2001: 307-312).
The feminist critique of unitary model
Feminist critique of unitary models (Blau F, Ferber M and Winkler, A, 1998: 31-75) refers to the critique of: the
concept of household itself; the concept of individual preferences, the logic of competition; the concept of gender
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homogenous work and identity; unitary production function of the household. Feminist economists approach
household as a social institution, meaning that our preferences in the household are not formed independently,
but rather as a result of numerous social factors, various lexicographical preferences, demonstration effects and
income levels. Our choices are socially constructed and determined, and therefore our behaviour can surpass our
individually formed preferences. The logic of competition and contest cannot be fully transferred onto the
household situation. Our decisions regarding supply and demand are inseparably interlocked, and cannot be
separated theoretically or empirically.
Men and women have different approach to intrahousehold resources, approach reflecting their asymmetrical
gender identities, so that consequently the production opportunities that they face are different. Households have
a gender specific production function within which the production factors cannot be easily substituted by one
another, both within and outside the household. Work can be differentiated on the basis of gender, age and status
– gender relations are socially constructed and reflect the structure of household and asymmetrical gender
identities of household members. The assumption of intra-household resource allocation is problematic, because
in many cases men and women do not share resources, but rather have different approaches to different
resources and thereby different types of income, resulting in gender specific consumption patterns. The common
utility function is often fictitious, being based on the assumption that some household members will altruistically
submit their individual tastes and preferences to the needs of household
Care economy
Women are largely absent from economics, both as researchers and the subject of economic research. The
situation is the same in terms of economic evaluation of domestic, traditionally women’s work. Therefore the huge
significance of feminist economic analysis of the quantitative and qualitative significance of unpaid work in
economy.
Care economy is the allocation of scarce resources (mostly work) contributing to the welfare of others, within and
outside household (Susan Himmelweit, 1999: 27- 38, Folbre Nancy, 1995: 73-92 Lourdes Beneria, 1999: 287 -
309). Care work comprises specific activities such as child care, providing for others’ needs without expected
reciprocation and without remuneration. Similar are the concepts of family work and unpaid work. The most
common motives of care providers are altruism, expectation of long-term reciprocation, or obligation and
responsibility.
Moral values cannot be bought or sold on the market. On the other hand, the positive external effects of care are
that while providing care we learn values such as trust, loyalty, responsibility and reputation that reduce
transaction costs on the market as well (e.g. asymmetric information). In a negative sense, the values of care can
be abused (when somebody wants to be educated but is expected to care for a family member).
Dimensioning care is complex. Intuitively, however, it is possible to draw a boundary between care as unpaid
work and leisure activity (the teacup story). Somewhere between making and drinking tea is a demarcation line:
it is the context that makes a difference. The dimensions of the economy of care are illustrated by the fact that
globally, out of the total (paid and unpaid) hours worked, men take up 47% and women 53% (HDI, UNDP, 1995).
In other words, ¾ of total men’s hours worked is paid work, compared to 2/3 of women’s total hours worked that
are paid. It is estimated that the financial value of unpaid work is 70% of global GNP (HDI, UNDP, 1995).
Feminist redefinition of economics as a science dealing with the allocation of scarce resources, therefore, refers to
three interlocked key economic domains: market (exchange relations), state (redistribution relations) and care
economy (gift relations).
Macro economy – the market and a State as engendered institutions
The experiences of structural adaptation of global economy in the 1980’s, globalisation and transition processes,
have confirmed the deterioration of the position of women in many aspects of human development. Such a
situation has resulted in a growing interest of feminist economists in investigating the interdependence of macro
economy, gender and development. The general conclusion of the feminist analysis of the above mentioned
processes was that the deterioration of women’s economic and social position is the result of their minor influence
on the decisions shaping their lives, in relation to men.
The neo-liberal approach to economic development and economic policy, based on methodological individualism,
‘naturalness’ of the market and the rational economic actor, was profoundly shaken by events and trends
occurring in the global economy (Asian economic crisis, liberalisation of global trade and the Washington
Consensus). The issues of social policy (Joseph Stiglitz, 2002 : 23-52) thus reach the focus of the debate on
desirable macroeconomic policy. With their analysis, feminist economists have disclosed the ways in which gender
inequalities occur in domains such as trade, financial services, and international labour division.
Feminist economists have exposed the popular myths (FENN Seminar Report, 2002: 35 - 62) occurring in the
context of globalisation:
- That exploiting women is better than excluding them from the development process;
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- That women working in export oriented industries are in privileged position;
- That globalisation and the development of information and communication; technologies will facilitate
access to information for women;
- That privatising social services leads to the increase in their efficiency;
- That macroeconomic policy must be evaluated by market criteria.
The effect of the market relies on the effect of social and institutional norms reflecting asymmetrical power
relations based on the interdependence of the categories of gender, race and class. The market and a State are
institutions comprised of formal rules, conventions and informal codes of conduct limiting human autonomy. These
institutions have a gender dimension reflecting and influencing the institutional context.
Markets are gendered (Lourdes Beneria, 2003: 63-90), as the purchases and sales on the market are bound by
gender relations and the changing constructions of gender identities.
Capital, land and goods are also gendered, because what happens in the family in terms of time and resource
allocation influences how a household is included into the factor and commodity markets.
The role of state is important in the development process, but state macroeconomic policy does not necessarily
have to be a neo-liberal one. Moreover, neo-liberal policy is often inefficient in the realisation of macroeconomic
goals. What is necessary today is a macroeconomic policy that is gender sensitive (Nilufer Cagatay, 2003: 22-41,
Ingrid Palmer, 2003: 42-87). For example, the aim of a balanced budget, or the reduction of its deficit/sufficit
does not be have to be achieved only by focussing on cost cuts. An alternative to it may be an increase in state
revenue, or redistribution of state revenue within the budget itself. Namely, among the budget expenditures,
items supported by strong political interests, such as defence budget, tend to decrease less than it is the case, for
instance, with costs aimed at satisfying the interests of the poor and women.
The experiences of globalisation and transition in Serbia
The subordinate position of women is analysed in the context of directed non-development and patriarchal society
(Tatjana Ðuriæ Kuzmanoviæ, 2002). One defines directed non-development as a process occurring in Serbia in
the nineties, i.e. a process of institutional, state discouragement of economic and social development in Serbia. In
other words, the state took measures to prevent transition (for example, the privatisation in the early nineties and
subsequent revalorisation of already privatised capital, with a simultaneous rapid process of bottom-up conversion
of socially-owned capital into private hands).
The subordinate position of women dates back to the socialist era. In short, the socialist state proclaimed a
humanisation of gender relations and gender equality. Accordingly, women were supposed to be at the same time
participants in the process of socialist economy as a whole equally with men, as well as educators and carers of
future generations. In reality, patriarchal gender regimes dominated women’s lives inside the household, and
gender inequalities remained present both in the private and public spheres of women’s lives. Women were more
commonly employed in poorly paid industries (such as textile) or services. Gender-based wage difference for the
same quality and quantity of work occurred both in apparent and latent forms: compared to men, women received
15% lower salaries or when the salary was the same, they were given jobs below their education levels.
Such women’s position was added to by the austere nineties. Serbian Socialist government was refusing
transition, while simultaneously dragging the country through dramatic economic and social changes and wars.
These dramatic changes had their synthetic expression in a sharp rise in poverty among the population, even
higher that the social price of transition paid by other countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Women in Serbia
experienced the painful consequences of the government’s nationalist and sexist policies. Women were favoured
as mothers and carers, but hindered in expressing their own total potentials. Patriarchal social relations and
sexism were a basis on which women were represented as symbols of nationalist polity. It was a context which
one terms state-supported gender discrimination against women. This context was rooted in the lack of specific
non-violent culture and decomposition of the society as a consequence of all above mentioned.
Passing the Law on Employment and Law on Privatisation (2001) inaugurated the beginning of the transition of
our current economic system towards an economy with an integral marked comprised of factors (work and
capital) and final products. Transitional changes and privatisation have lead to further growth of unemployment
among women, primarily as a result of confluence of two opposed trends: fall in the demand for women’s work
and rise in the supply of female labour.
The arguments above speak in favour of a need to redefine state policy in terms of gender, i.e. to focus the
state’s attitude towards gender first towards the economic aspect of gendering so as to consider the costs and
benefits contained in gender as a category. To promote gender equalities during the period of transition and
privatisation of Serbian economy, the state must provide an adequate answer to at least these key questions:
- How much does it cost when a woman really earns as much as a man?
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- How expensive is it not to take in consideration women’s leadership and total potential?
The key question is how economic policy car be reformulated so as to benefit women, and whether economic
policy can be reformulated at all, in view of women’s multiple roles and social construction of their lives.
Significant gender sensitive questions to be posed in the process of economic restructuring, which are usually
neglected, refer to intrahousehold labour division, gender segregation of labour market and social gender costs
(health, safety, violence). The analysis of gender relations should therefore include: the market (where, due to
women’s labour invested in reproduction, a woman does not enter with the same resources and mobility as a
man), and expert approach to the state policy and the budget.
Literature:
1. ----- ‘Myths and Working Group Discussions’ in: FENN Seminar Report, 2002, Gender Tools for the
Development. A Feminist Economics Perspective on Globalisation, The Hague: Institute of Social Studies, 2002,
pp. 35-62
2. Amartja Sen, ‘Aktivnost žena i društvene promene’ u: Razvoj kao sloboda, Beograd, Filip Višnjiæ, 2002,
str.227 - 242
3. Amartja Sen, ‘Uvod: Razvoj kao sloboda’ u: Razvoj kao sloboda, Beograd, Filip Višnjiæ, 2002, str.19 – 28
4. Appendix 4 of World Bank, Engendering Development: Through Gender Equalitz in Rights, Resources and
Voice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 307 –312
5. Barker, Drucilla, and Edith Kuiper, ‘Introduction: Sketching the Contours of a Feminist Philosophy of
Economics’, in Drucilla Barker and Edith Kuiper, (eds.) Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics. London:
Routledge, 2003, pp.1-18
6. Bina Agarwal, ‘Challenging Mainstream Economics: Effectivenes, Relevance and Responsibility’, IAFFE
Newsletter, 14(3), 2004, pp. 2-6
7. Bina Agarwal, ed. ‘Feminist Economics as a Challenge to Mainstream Economics?’ IAFFE Newsletter, 14(3),
2004, pp. 1-2
8. Blau F, Ferber M and Winkler, A, ‘The family as an Economic Unit’, in The Economics of Women, Men and
Work, 3 rd edition, Saddle River, New Jerse: Prentice Hall, 1998, pp. 31-75,
9. Dian Elson, ‘Feminist economics Challenges Mainstream Macroeconomics’ IAFFE Newsletter, 14(3), 2004,
pp. 6-9
10. Durbin Elizabeth, ‘Towards a Gendered Human Poverty Measure’, Feminist Economics 5(2) 1999: 105 - 108
11. Folbre, Nancy,’ Holding Hands at Midnight: the Paradox of Caring Labour’, Feminist Economics 1 (1), 1995,
pp.73-92.
12. Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko, ‘What Does Feminization of Poverty Mean? Isn’t Just Lack of Income’, Feminist
Economics 5 (2), 1999, pp. 99-104.
13. Harding, Sandra, ‘Can Feminist Though Make Economic more Objective?’ Feminist Economics 1 (1) 1995,
pp.7-32
14. Ingrid Palmer, 'Macro-economics and Gender: Options for their Integration into a State Agenda', in: Martha
Gutierrez (ed.), Macro-Economics. Making Gender Matter. Concepts, Policies and Institutional Change in
Developing Countries, London, New York: Zed Books, GTZ, 2003, pp. 42-87
15. Isabella Bakker, The Strategic Silence. Gender and Economic Policy, London, Ottawa: Zed Books and The
North-South Institute, 1988
16. Joseph Stiglitz, ‘Broken Promises’ in: Globalization and Its Discontents, London: Allen Lane and Penguin
Books, 2002, pp. 23- 52
17. Lourdes Beneria, ‘Markets, Globalization and Gender’ in: Gender, Development and Globalization. Economisc
as if All People Mattered, New York and London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 63 – 90
18. Lourdes Beneria, 'The Enduring Debate over Unpaid Labour', International Labour review, 138 (3), 1999, pp.
287 -309
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19. Marija Lukiæ i Slaðana Jovanoviæ, Konkurentnost žena sa decom na tržištu rada, Beograd: Glas razlike, 2002
20. Marija Lukiæ, ‘Ekonomski položaj žena 1990 – 2002’ u: Ekonomski ravnopravne, Beograd: Glas razlike, 2002,
str. 2-8
21. Marilyn Waring, If Women Counted. A new Feminist Economics, London: Macmillan, 1989
22. Nilufer Cagatay, 'Engendering Macro-economics', in: Martha Gutierrez (ed.), Macro-Economics. Making
Gender Matter. Concepts, Policies and Institutional Change in Developing Countries, London, New York: Zed
Books, GTZ, 2003, pp. 22-41,
23. Rekha Mehra i Sarah Gammage, ‘Trends, Countertrends, and Gaps in Women Employment’, World
Development, 27(3) 1999: 533- 550
24. Richard Swedberg, ‘Gary S. Becker’ in Economics and Sociology, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1990, pp. 27-60
25. Sanja Æopiæ, ‘Položaj i uloga žene u društvu’, u: Ljiljana Dobrosavljeviæ Grujiæ (ur.) Žene u Srbiji. Da li
smo diskriminisane? Beograd: Sekcija žena UGS ‘Nezavisnost’ i ICFTU CEE Women’s Network, 2001, str. 11-37
26. Susan Himmelweit, ‘Caring Labour’ in Annals of the American Academz of Political and Social Science, 561
(0), 1999: 27- 38
27. Tables on GDI and GEM. 2004, in Human Development Report 2004, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 217-
237,
28. Tatjana Djuriæ Kuzmanoviæ, 2001, Ekonomika Jugoslavije. Ekonomika razvoja i tranzicije, Novi Sad: Alef
29. Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Rodnost i razvoj u Srbiji – od dirigovanog nerazvoja do tranzicije, dvojezièno
(Gender and Development in Serbia – From Directed Non-development to Transition), Novi Sad: Buduænost i
Ženske studije i istraživanja, 2002, str.49 – 65
30. World Bank, Engendering Development: Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources and Voice, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 147- 180
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1. Introduction
Briefing Paper on the ‘Feminisation of Poverty’
By BRIDGE
The term, the ‘feminisation of poverty’ originates from US debates about single mothers and welfare, dating from
the 1970s. Recently there has been much discussion, in both academic and development policy circles, of the
phenomena. However, there is little clarity about what the feminisation of poverty means, or about whether such
a trend can be empirically verified. The feminisation of poverty has been linked to firstly, a perceived increase in
the proportion of female-headed households (FHHs) and secondly, the rise of female participation in low return
urban informal sector activities, particularly in the context of the 1980s economic crises and adjustments in Sub-
Saharan Africa and Latin America. It has been used to mean three distinct things:
● That women have a higher incidence of poverty than men;
● That their poverty is more severe than that of men;
● That there is a trend to greater poverty among women, particularly associated with rising rates of FHHs.
2. Addressing poverty and gender inequality
The household is a key site of gender discrimination and subordination and is thus an important focus for
examining gender and poverty issues. However, aggregate national poverty estimates based on household
surveys (whether on income or food availability type indicators) assume that household resources are equally
shared. Little systematically gender-disaggregated data on income and other welfare measures is available and
so an empirical assessment of poverty trends and incidences by gender is impossible.
Consideration of poverty often neglects differentials between men and women in terms of their access to income,
resources and services. Such differentials may occur within households between men and women, or between
individuals (i.e. between single men and single women), or between households with women-headed households
at a disadvantage to male-headed households. There are also gender-based differentials in vulnerability to illness
and violence (Wratten, 1995).
Any poverty-reducing programmes may not reach women directly, due to their lack of command over productive
resources and control over output, as well as (particularly for poor women) lack of time. The costs of economic
restructuring under structural adjustment are often disproportionately borne by women, through increased labour
or reduced intake of food, with severe human development consequences for women themselves and potentially
for children, especially girls, who may be drawn into household or income earning labour. Moreover, existing
safety-net programmes have tended to target men, explicitly or implicitly. Wider social security and welfare
provisions have not taken account of changes in social relations (including gender relations) which are occurring
as a result of economic restructuring, as well as political and social conflict (Masika et. al., 2000). Not all evidence
reveals discrimination against women in the household; there are some case studies that demonstrate
disadvantages for men once the gendered division of labour is taken into account (Razavi, 1999).
A substantial body of literature now exists to show that men and women experience poverty differently such that
women's poverty status cannot be 'read off' that of the household. What is less clear, is the relationship between
household-level poverty and female well-being, i.e. does gender discrimination intensify or diminish with poverty?
Evidence from South Asia shows that discrimination does not disappear and may even intensify as household
income increases, but this may be region specific. Sub-Saharan Africa shows no clear evidence of gender bias in
consumption, but women have very little leisure time compared to men and this may be further curtailed as
poverty increases. In general, as household-level poverty increases, there may be a tendency for men to retain
an increasing share of their income in order to maintain personal consumption levels at the expense of
contributions to the household. Women's limited claims on male income may diminish. In more extreme cases,
there may be a total breakdown in normative entitlements through marriage or other familial support, resulting in
FHHs (Baden and Milward, 2000).
Despite this lack of clarity, multilateral and bilateral development agencies have focused their gender polices on
the presumed connection between gender inequality and an increase in the incidence of poverty. According to
UNDP ‘Poverty has a woman’s face - of 1.3 billion people living in poverty, 70 percent are women’ (UNDP,
1995:4). However, the lack of systematic data that disaggregates expenditure or consumption by gender means
that such broad statements are often based on questionable assumptions. There is a need for further research to
avoid making simplistic correlations, such as between increases in female-headed households and any
‘feminisation of poverty’.
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3. Female-headed households (FHHs)
In the absence of good gender-disaggregated data, there has been a tendency to rely on comparisons between
male and female-headed households in order to examine gender and poverty questions. The limited data
available seems to indicate a slightly upward trend in the number of FHHs in eight of the twelve Sub-Saharan
countries surveyed by DHS [1] . In Latin America, DHS data also showed an increase in FHHs in five of the six
countries for which data was available. Data on the other regions is sparse and does not indicate a clear trend
(United Nations, 2000). However, this does not necessarily signal an increase in the number of women living in
poverty. Moreover, this method of analysis does not address the questions of intra-household resource allocation
and poverty, relevant to the majority of women.
There is now a considerable body of evidence on the relative income levels, household structures and work
patterns of male versus FHHs. There is some evidence of a link between female headship and poverty, but the
relationship is by no means straightforward and there are considerable methodological and conceptual difficulties
surrounding studies of this issue. Female-headed households are a heterogeneous category and may include
relatively well-off women. There are now more sophisticated analyses of female headship which disaggregate this
category into subgroups, such as those determined by lifecycle stage, marital strategies or labour deployment.
Different subgroups are more likely to be vulnerable to poverty than others. The characteristics of these
subgroups vary considerably between contexts depending on a number of factors, including the extent of social
support available and the degree of social legitimacy accorded to different types of FHHs (Baden and Milward,
2000).
Female headship may have positive aspects. FHHs are likely to be less constrained by patriarchal authority at the
domestic level and female heads may experience greater self-esteem, more personal freedom, more flexibility to
take on paid work, enhanced control over finances and a reduction or absence of physical and/or emotional
abuse. Female heads may be empowered in that they are more able to further their personal interests and the
well-being of their dependants (Baden and Milward, 2000). Studies have shown that the expenditure patterns of
FHHs are more biased towards nutrition and education than those of male households (Chant, 1995).
However, while FHHs may be better off in some ways, they may face greater difficulties than men in gaining
access to labour markets, credit, housing and basic services, and there are sometimes additional layers of
discrimination against female heads. Single parent households, most of which are FHHs also face the difficulties
of one adult having to combine income earning with household management and child rearing. This generally
means that the parent can only take on part-time, informal jobs with low earnings and few if any fringe benefits
(ibid.). In terms of the impact of female headship on child welfare and education the evidence is conflicting
(Buvinic and Gupta, 1994).
There is a need for more subtle categorisation of female headship and a cross checking of large-scale survey data
with qualitative studies, paying attention to the differences between female heads, in particular those related to
life cycle issues, marital status and social support. More detailed and systematic data are required on work hours,
income sources, expenditure patterns, assets and claims of different types of household, both male- and femaleheaded.
The variation in incidence of female headship within as well as between countries requires more
attention. It is also vital not to treat female headship as a proxy for gender discrimination in general (Baden and
Milward, 2000).
4. Labour force participation
The rise of female participation in low return, urban, informal sector activities is also considered evidence of the
feminisation of poverty. Due to household survival strategies during economic restructuring, there is an increasing
reliance on informal sector employment for both men and women. However, UN statistics show that the informal
sector is a larger source of employment for women than for men (United Nations, 2000). The greater insecurity
and lower earning capacity in the informal sector is therefore seen as another reason for the feminisation of
poverty. Moreover, because of the concentration of women in casual labour of informal sector work, legislative
measures have either excluded or not been enforced in relation to most of their economic activities.
Labour market approaches offer an alternative framework for examining questions of gender and poverty, which
avoid the problems of aggregation at household level. However, the question of whether and why women’s
participation in the informal sector labour force has risen and the relationship between this and poverty trends is
not clear. The empirical evidence here is also relatively weak due to lack of time series data for many countries
(Baden and Milward, 2000). Conventional labour market categories have tended to be gender-blind and generally
focus on formal sector activities. They therefore have a limited value in identifying poor people. Measurement
problems are exacerbated by the wide range of activities and diverse modes of operation that the informal sector
incorporates.
Although informal sector activity is often associated with poverty in general and specifically with female poverty,
there is considerable heterogeneity here and men particularly can prosper in the informal sector. Where women
earn income outside the home, there is some evidence that gender biases in resource allocation within the
household may diminish (Baden and Milward, 2000). Since, in many developing countries, the majority of women
(and indeed of the overall labour force) work in the informal sector, it also does not provide a useful guide to
poverty status (ibid.).
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5. Changes in how poverty is understood
A review of current approaches to understanding urban poverty points to the need of broadening the way poverty
is understood and measured. Poverty is multidimentional, and hence limiting measures to income shortfalls and
poverty lines masks the true extent of poverty, particularly for women and children. Standard income/
expenditure data fails to capture the complexity of gender differences in poverty and a gender-differentiated
assessment of well-being. It can therefore be helpful to examine broader indicators of well-being:
● Health indicators, e.g. nutrition, life-expectancy, maternal mortality;
● Access to resources e.g. employment participation and earnings, land ownership, and access to safe water
and sanitation.
These reflect the outcomes of income/expenditure decisions rather than the means whereby well-being is
achieved (Kabeer, 1996). Gender disparities in development can be captured by using the Gender-related
Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) devised by UNDP (UNDP, 1995). These
measures can be used to rank countries in order of achievements on gender equality, rather than just on human
development, as with the Human Development Index (HDI). The GDI attempts to capture achievement in the
same set of basic capabilities included in the HDI – life expectancy, educational attainment and income – but
adjusts the HDI for gender inequality. The GEM measures gender inequality in key areas of economic and political
participation and decision-making, such as seats held in parliament, and percentage of managerial positions held
by women. The GEM thus differs from the GDI, which is an indicator of gender inequality in basic capabilities
(UNDP 1995: 39; Wach and Reeves, 2000)
Measures, such as GEM and GDI have added credence to the view that women are more vulnerable to poverty.
‘The Gender-related Development Index value of every country is lower than its Human Development Index
value’ (UNDP 1997:39). Cagatay (1998) also argues that if indicators of well-being associated with human
poverty are used, such as literacy, women on average are unambiguously worse off than men in almost all
contexts. A case study from Bangladesh also cites evidence to support women’s disadvantage (Khaleda, 1998).
However, as Shahra Razavi (1998) argues, these measurements of well-being outcomes (health indicators and
access to resources) are prone to be employed in making simplistic correlations with aspects of gender equality.
This not only leads to questionable polices (see section on policy implications) but also may sideline other aspects
of gender inequality such as mobility in public spheres and decision-making power, which have an ambiguous
connection with poverty indicators. In addition, gender-sensitive well-being outcomes are extremely difficult to
quantify and national poverty assessments still tend to rely on traditional measures such as household income and
nutritional intake.
Recent years have seen a further broadening of debates around poverty, which has led to a more pluralistic
approach to measuring or assessing poverty and deprivation. There is increasing emphasis on self-assessment of
poverty, leading to issues such as domestic violence and social support networks becoming part of the
mainstream poverty debate. From a gender perspective, this opens up the possibility for highlighting the genderspecific
dimensions of deprivation, through concepts of vulnerability, shocks, fluctuation, powerlessness and so on
(Baden and Milward, 2000). However, participatory methods for assessing poverty (e.g. PRA, PLA) can obscure
gender-specific interests unless careful contextual analysis is carried out (Cornwall, 2001). Gender-sensitive
participatory methodologies need to be further developed. Even where gender-sensitive participatory methods
are employed, for example, by the World Bank in their Participatory Poverty Assessments (PPAs), results are too
often sidelined or ignored when policy recommendations are made (Whitehead and Lockwood, 1999).
6. Policy implications
Concerns have been raised about gender issues becoming a subset of poverty concerns with attention being
focused solely on poor women, rather than gender inequality. As Jackson (1994) points out, gender subordination
does not arise out of poverty per se. Collapsing gender concerns into a poverty agenda narrows the scope for a
gender analysis which can fully address how and why gender inequalities are reproduced, not just among the
‘poor,’ but in society as a whole. In the same way, conflating gender and poverty issues may not assist the
poverty alleviation efforts, in that it could lead to confusion in targeting since ‘not all women are poor and not all
the poor are women’ (Kabeer, 1994).
6.1 Women in development approach
The ‘feminisation of poverty’ idea can be problematic where it informs poverty-reduction approaches which target
resources at women - in particular microcredit interventions - without attempting to change the underlying ‘rules
of the game’ (Goetz, 1995; Fraser, 1989 cited in Jackson, 1996). Where women are targeted with resources it is
often assumed that benefits accrue directly to them and also to their children, to a greater extent than resources
targeted at men (Buvinic and Gupta, 1997). It has also been argued that where women gain access to external
resources, perceptions of their value to the household may change, increasing their bargaining power and leading
to more equitable allocation of resources and decision-making power within the household (Sen, 1990). Beyond
this, claims have been made for example, that credit programmes empower women economically, socially and
politically, as well as in the context of the family (Hashemi et. al, 1996). Focusing on women in isolation from
their social relationships does little to address the power imbalances rooted in these social relations that lead to
women’s greater vulnerability to poverty (Baden, 1999).
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Poverty reduction approaches that focus on women’s and girls’ education are also the result of simplistic
assumptions. The World Bank advocates the education of women and girls particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa
because of its supposed benefits to household welfare, agriculture production and fertility reduction. Their focus
on this ‘win-win’ situation does not reveal the causal dynamics of low levels of female education and how gender
inequalities underlie educational outcomes (Razavi, 1999).
6.2 Focusing on gender relations
It is important to consider how power embedded in gender relations may, in some circumstances, mediate these
desired outcomes. It may be that benefits from targeting resources at women are siphoned off by men (Goetz
and Sen Gupta, 1996), or that men reduce their levels of contribution to household expenditure as women’s
access to resources increases (Bruce, 1989). Even where women do gain greater access to resources, this maybe
at the expense of increases in their burden of labour, leaving them exhausted. Where they have control over
resources, they may be unable to effectively mobilise these resources to support sustainable livelihoods. Women
may feel compelled to invest resources, including their labour, in ‘family’ businesses or in children, identifying
their own interests with those of other household members and thereby leaving themselves vulnerable in the
event of family breakdown (Baden, 1999).
7. Conclusion
Because of the consistent use of inappropriate and gender-blind statistics it is difficult to substantiate the claim
that the number of women living in poverty is rising. Although there is evidence to support the trend of rising
rates of FHHs it is important not to treat female headship as a proxy for gender discrimination in general.
Furthermore, due to the heterogeneous nature and difficulties of measuring activities in the informal sector,
caution also needs to be taken in using this as an indicator of the feminisation of poverty.
There is evidence to demonstrate that because of the weaker and conditional basis of their entitlements, women
are generally more vulnerable to poverty and once poor, have less options in terms of escape. Gender
discrimination in the household and the market can result in the unequal distribution of resources leading to
women experiencing a greater severity of poverty than men.
However, what makes men or women more vulnerable and the different ways they are able to move out of
poverty have to be further explored to avoid simplistic policy recommendations that may fail to address the
underlying causes of gender inequality. Although a substantial amount of work has been conducted on gendered
experiences of poverty, there is still a need for more attention to gender-disaggregated data collection, detailed
context specific research, and comparative empirical research. Also important is the exploration of how and
whether gender-sensitive policy changes take effect in implementation.
Bibliography
Baden, S., 1999, ‘Gender, Governance and the ‘feminisation of poverty’’, second version, BRIDGE (unpublished
report)
Baden, S. and Milward, K., 1995, ‘Gender and poverty,’ BRIDGE Report No 30, Brighton: Institute of Development
Studies
Baden, S. and Milward, K., 2000, ‘Gender inequality and poverty: trends, linkages, analysis and policy
implications’, BRIDGE (unpublished report)
Bruce, J., 1989, ‘Homes divided’, World Development, Vol 17 No 7
Buvinic, M. and Gupta, G.R., 1994, ‘Targeting poor women-headed households and women maintained families in
developing countries: views on a policy dilemma’, ICRW/The Population Council, Family Structure, Female
Headship and Poverty Projects, February
Buvinic, M. and Gupta, G.R., 1997, ‘Female headed households and female-maintained families: are they worth
targeting to reduce poverty in developing countries’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol 45 No 2
Cagatay, N., 1998, ‘Gender and poverty’, UNDP Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division, Working
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April 2001
Institute of Development Studies ©
ISBN 1 85864 386 4
Source:
BRIDGE (development - gender)
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202
Email: bridge@ids.ac.uk
Website: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge /
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[1] The Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat from Demographic Health Surveys (DHS), country
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Gender Budgeting
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GENDER BUDGETING
Gender Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria: Experiences and Challenges
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Mirjana Dokmanovic and Genoveva Tisheva
Gender budgeting includes range of strategies examining whether gender rhetoric are
reflected in government spending and taxation policy. It links gender equality with
budget and promotes more equitable and transparent budgetary process and more
efficient use of public resources. Thus, gender budgeting is very successful both in
economic and gender sense.
A Glance at Some Gender Budgeting Initiatives Throughout Europe
By Elisabeth Klatzer. Ph.D.
Gender Budgeting initiatives have started in many European countries, initially inspired
by the work in Australia, South Africa and the UK. In recent years a diversification of
strategies, methodologies and practices adopting to country-specific circumstances can
be observed throughout Europe. In several countries there is work on its way to
implement Gender Budgeting into the regular tasks of public administration.
Gender Budgeting and Initiatives in Serbia
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Ph.D.
A major problem of standard budgeting processes is that they are based on prevailing
economic opinion that assumes the rational behaviour of individuals who are exclusively
market-oriented and led by their own best interests, without considering gender, class,
age, or ethnicity. Such individuals live beyond specific historical, geographic, and social
contexts. It is also assumed that the decisions made by such individuals are not affected
by ruling power relations. Differences between men and women remain unrecognised due
to the assumption that economic policy objectives and instruments are broadly applicable
and “gender neutral” accordingly.

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A Glance at Some Gender Budgeting Initiatives Throughout Europe
By Elisabeth Klatzer, Ph.D, Austrian Gender and Budget Group, Austria
Gender Budgeting initiatives have started in many European countries, initially inspired by the work in Australia,
South Africa and the UK. In recent years a diversification of strategies, methodologies and practices adopting to
country-specific circumstances can be observed throughout Europe.
In several countries there is work on its way to implement Gender Budgeting into the regular tasks of public
administration. At the central government level, the examples of France and Sweden demonstrate established
procedures, Other countries are on its way (e.g. Belgium, Austria). Nordic countries pursue common Gender
Budgeting activities in the frame of the Nordic Council. Examples of ambitious initiatives at the regional local level
are the Basque country (Spain), Berlin (Germany) and some communities in Italy (Modena, Genova). In some
countries, civil society initiatives take the lead (e.g. UK). Initiatives in Eastern Europe are emerging recently (e.g.
in Bulgaria and Serbia). Some of these will be described in the following.
Switzerland
Switzerland is one of the Gender Budgeting pioneer countries in Europe. In a period of restrictive budgetary policy
the focus of analysis was on who bears the major cost of cuts in public expenditure. A Gender Budgeting pilot
study, commissioned by the National Women’s Conference of the Trade Union of Public Employees and the Swiss
Conference of Equal Opportunities Officers, was published in 1996. The researchers, assisted by an expert group
of women (equal opportunities officers and of the federal statistical department) looked at the consequences of
fiscal cuts at all three levels of government activity (Federal, cantonal/Bern and communal/city of Biel). The
research focus was not an analysis of the budget as a whole but an analysis of the effects of changes in budgetary
policy on men and women. The aim was to develop a methodology to analyse the impact of changes for the whole
budget. Three criteria were used to analyse the effects of expenditure cuts:
● Impact on employment of men and women;
● Impact on men and women as beneficiaries of public services;
● Impact on unpaid work of women.
The analysis of employment effects looked at the development of public administration employment as well as on
the employment effect of public expenditures for goods and services by calculating a type of gender multiplier.
The results of this initial research demonstrated clearly that at all levels women had to bear an over-proportional
cost of restrictive budgetary policies. It led to wide-spread follow-up initiatives.
Since the publication of this pilot, several initiatives at the national, cantonal and communal level have been
started by women’s coalitions, equal opportunity officers, members of parliament and trade unionists. All were
aimed at raising the issue of gender awareness in budgeting. An important strategy is lobbying parliamentary
bodies to obtain favourable votes to initiate deepen the analysis. Among the follow-up activities the work in the
canton Basel is particularly interesting. A large coalition of women’s groups and institutions pushed for pursuing
the topic. In Basel further research was conducted in cooperation with the Statistical Office and in consultation
with a group of experts on Gender issues. The methodology was refined and besides gender the criteria age and
nationality were included. The results were published in 2003 under the title “The small difference in public
finance [1] ”.
France
Since 2000 the French government publishes the “Yellow Paper” on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
(download of the current document – in French – at the Finance Ministry homepage: http://www.minefi.gouv.fr/
minefi/publique/budget_etat/index.htm). Its publication is based on a legal obligation. The document is published
as part of the annual budgetary material. The first part of the document gives on overview of progress towards
equality in different spheres of life. In the second part of the Yellow Paper each Ministry and Department sets out
the expenses relating to the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality. In addition, the institutions are
requested to be explicit about their policy on gender equality and present indicators to measure progress. It is
intended as an information and monitoring instrument, primarily for the legislature. France is a good example of a
continuous inside government exercise. As such it is a good starting point. Even though this exercise is not a fully
fledged Gender Budgeting analysis it puts together information which serves as a tool for Gender Mainstreaming.
Further work to deepen the analysis and formulate specific recommendations on policy action to reduce
inequalities is needed.
Austria
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The Austrian case will be described somewhat more in detail due to two reasons: Firstly, the Austrian activities are
still quite unknown and not included in standard survey articles about the state of Gender Budgeting. Secondly,
the author being Austrian can contribute her insight knowledge.
In Austria the independent Women and Budget Group, founded in 2001, plays a leading role. Its initial work was
devoted to make the concept of Gender Budgeting known in Austria, to spread knowledge and to motivate
government, opposition parties and NGOs to pursue the issue further. With this in mind, the group published a
book in 2002: “Frauen Macht Budgets, Staatsfinanzen aus Geschlechterperspektive”. The title plays with the word
“macht” which means power and doing at the same time: “Women power budgets/Women, go over budgets.
Public finance from a gender perspective” (available in German only). This book explains the concept of gender
budgeting, its potentials and its limits, reviews the main international initiatives and contains some approaches to
engendering the Austrian national budget. The work on the Austrian budget addresses the overall macroeconomic
strategy and its impacts on women as well as government revenue (focusing on taxes, social security and user
fees) and selected areas of public expenditure (education and research, labour market policy and funding for
women’s organisations).
The purpose of the book is twofold: on the one hand, the governments at federal, regional and local level are
addressed with a list of demands both, to introduce the concept of Gender Budgeting in a meaningful way into
government policy as well as specific recommendations on how to change policies in order to achieve more gender
equality.
The Austrian Women and Budget Group emphasises that Gender Budgeting is much more than a simple Gender
analysis of government income and revenue. The aspects of transparency of the whole budgeting process, the
translation of results of the analysis into alternative policies, the inclusion of the overall macroeconomic strategy
into analysis as well as the focus on participatory processes are included as equally important. This approach
equally guides all subsequent work.
In response to the publication more attention was drawn on the issue, especially from women activists, NGOs as
well as opposition parties (Greens and Social Democrats). Especially as a response to the increasing demand for
more practical assistance in how to do gender budgeting at the local level, some women from the Women and
Budgets Group embarked on developing a handbook for introducing Gender Budgeting at the regional and local
level (published in 2004, German only, download www.beigewum.at ). Workshops addressed at a broad range of
multipliers were designed as well.
One main shortcoming of this civil society initiative is the lack of funding and the lack of time of the women
involved as several have small children, many full time jobs and/or many other civil society engagements. There
have been attempts to spread the ideas among NGOs in order to build up civil society pressure demanding
government to take action. But it is hard to maintain the level of activities. Again, it is lack of time and funding.
Currently Austria has a conservative/right wing government which is dedicated to neo-liberal policies, including
restrictive budgetary policies. Funding for NGOs, especially women’s organisations is being cut repeatedly.
Still, due to the attention around the issue, the federal government moved forward. The Ministry of Finance
carried out a small exercise in 2002 titled “Is the Austrian tax system in fact ‘gender neutral’?”, which actually
was a short data analysis of income taxation. It clearly shows shortcomings of the tax provisions, for example,
men profit over-proportionally from tax breaks. Still, even the few results where not incorporated in the current
tax reform project, to the contrary, some effects of the current reform reinforce the gender bias. This fits into the
trend of other reform projects, like a recent pension reform, women’s special situation and needs are widely
neglected.
In 2004 the Austrian Federal government decided to implement Gender Budgeting. A Gender Budgeting Working
group has been set up but without political power or clear guidelines and without additional resources. And
somewhat hastily a section on “Gender Budgeting” was included in the 2005 budget material. Due to the
uncoordinated last minute exercise the quality of the material is quite poor and public officials involved are
frustrated about this additional task. Recently, two research pilot projects have been launched, one at the federal
level and one at the regional level. Both are intended to develop methods and tools to implement Gender
Budgeting as part of regular administrative tasks. In spite of the poor performance of the government so far, at
this point the strategy of the Women and Budget Group is to cooperate with the government officials in charge
and offer expertise. This is motivated by the hope to influence the scope of the exercise and push towards broad
implementation and institutionalisation. The Gender Budgeting is part of an ongoing constitutional reform in
Austria as well. Due to a coalition of women across political parties in cooperation with the non-governmental
experts it was possible to include Gender Budgeting. Agreement has been reached to explicitly state in the
Constitution that financial policies shall aim at gender equality. Furthermore it is stipulated in the draft
Constitution that Gender Budgeting is included in the annual budget [2] .
Sweden
Sweden for over 10 years has been producing annual reports on an analysis of the gender impact of current
economic policies, e.g. social insurance and pensions, women’s contribution to GNP and productivity of men and
women. The document has recently been “upgraded” by moving it to the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance
[3] . A gender budget project started in 2002, which is aimed at making gender visible throughout the whole state
budgetary process. The project is carried out in co-operation between the Division for Gender Equality and the
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Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance. Its purpose is to develop methods and tools for gender budgeting
and prepare an action plan covering the whole state budgetary process. Social welfare, regional development and
transport have been selected areas for pilots.
Basque Country
In the Basque country (Spain), EMAKUNDE, the Basque Women’s Institute, an autonomous organization
dependent on the Presidency of the Basque Government, launched a Gender Budgeting initiative in 1999. With the
aid of external experts a comprehensive strategy to implement Gender Budgeting was launched (a documentation
of the efforts, including a broad range of materials and the pilot reports – partly available in English – can be
found at http://www.emakunde.es/actualidad/presupuestos/indice_.htm). The aim is to implement a gender
perspective on budgeting into every administrative unit. An inter-ministerial task force was set up to guide and
coordinate the endeavour. A special focus was on preparing public officials to take over the task. A series of
seminaries and trainings in the initial phase as well as the set up of support teams facilitated spreading the
concept and tools within public administration. Furthermore written material, like a comprehensive handbook, was
developed to support analysis at this initial stage. For analysis during the pilot phase several portfolios where
selected, Home Affairs, Industry, Trade and Tourism, Health, Culture, Environment as well as Transport and Public
Works. The pilot phase was concluded end of 2002. It is especially this initial stage which can serve as a model for
other projects to implement Gender Budgeting within public administration. Careful planning, the institutional
framework and strategic implementation contribute to its success. Regarding the institutional setup the central
role of Emakunde is important. In its board the Basque governor as well of representatives of all important state
institutions are present. This gives the guidelines published by Emakunde the necessary backing and facilitates
the following implementation. The step wise introduction of the concept at the political level and subsequent
process of guided practical analysis in pilot areas created strong foundations for further work.
Serbia and Bulgaria
Gender budgeting initiatives in Bulgaria and Serbia [4] were initiated and coordinated in 2003 by two women’s
organizations, the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) and the Serb Women’s Center for Democracy
and Human Rights (WCDHR). A starting point was the joint project on “Budgetary Implications of Domestic
Violence in Bulgaria and Serbia” supported by a grant of AWID (Association of Women’s Rights in Development).
As domestic violence was identified as one of the major women’s issues in both countries it was chosen as a pilot
to develop a methodology for gender budgeting. At an initial stage, NGOs, women’s groups and researchers were
invited to contribute papers on the topic. These research findings formed the basis of developing a methodology
to analyse budgetary implications of domestic violence. This initiative has established a concrete base for starting
gender budgeting in Bulgaria and Serbia in other areas as well. It prepared the ground for the co-operation
between civil society and the state in this specific area. The aim of the project was to bring Gender Budgeting as a
key strategy to be adopted by the government to the attention of society in general as well as specialized
institutions and agencies. Both organizations are involved in the “Gender Budgeting Initiative in the CEE/NIS
Region” of the Network East-West Women (NEWW) initiated in 2003. This initiative is aimed at sharing
information and experience on Gender Budgeting. A central goal is to make government policies and priorities
more responsive to gender issues by popularising Gender Budget analysis, working towards fully incorporating
gender concerns into public spending and towards increasing women’s participation in budgetary decision making
processes.
European Union financial and macroeconomic policies call for attention
The policies at the European Union level have an increasingly important impact on financial policies of the
individual member states. Thus a focus needs to be directed to the EU macro-economic policy documents. There
has been some activity around this issue in 2002 but without effective follow-up. Above all the Guidelines of
Economic Policy need to be broadened by introducing a gender equality perspective and including gender
budgeting instruments.
Some major challenges ahead
● Not losing ultimative goals and political perspective out of sight.
● With the increasing involvement of governments in Gender Budgeting there is a risk that the governments
take over the concept without changing policies substantively. Clearly, any Gender Budget project needs
dynamic outside government monitoring activities.
● Move from analysis to policy action. At this point there is a strong focus on analysis. Clearly this is an
essential part, but more attention needs to be directed towards changing policies in order to improve
gender relations.
● Provide gender-disaggregated statistics in all areas and develop performance indicators as well as
monitoring instruments.
● Strengthen the participatory element of Gender Budgeting.
● Develop instruments, methods and procedures to implement Gender Budgeting as standard task of
governments and public administrations.
● Definition of and some sort of international understanding about quality control criteria for Gender
Budgeting itself. Not everything which is called Gender Budgeting is actually fulfilling its purpose.
● Build ownership within public administration. This needs clear political commitment, continual training,
support and resources.
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● Ensure continuity.
About the author:
Elisabeth Klatzer, Austria, PhD in Economics, Master in Public Administration Harvard University. Working on
Engendering Budgets since about five years: as member of the Austrian Gender and Budget Group, a civil society
initiative, as researcher and as public official (Austrian Federal Chancellery).
Contact: eklat@aon.at
[1] Gleichstellungsbüro/Statistisches Amt/Frauenrat Basel (Ed.), Der kleine Unterschied in den Staatsfinanzen.
Basel 2003.
[2] The adoption of the provisions – the idea of gender budgeting is included in several public finance articles –
depends on whether the whole constitutional reform will be adopted.
[3] The current document is available – in Swedish – under
http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c6/03/00/97/99d957f1.pdf.
[4] This section draws on: Dokmanovic, Mirjana. Djuric Kuzmanovic, Tatjana. Tisheva, Genoveva (2004), Gender
Budgeting Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria –Experiences and Challenges, proposal and paper, International IAFFE
Conference on Central and Eastern Europe: A feminist economic dialogue on transition and EU-enlargement, 21-
22 January 2005, Budapest.
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Gender Budgeting and Initiatives in Serbia
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Ph.D.
Advanced Business School, Novi Sad, Serbia
Summary: The text presents key objectives and gender effects of governmental economic policy and its main
instrument – the budget. It points out the significance of the gender-sensitive approach to the budget from the
point of view of the objectives of economic efficiency and gender equality that are integrated into all stages of the
political process: analysis, formation, and evaluation.
Key words: budget tools, gender budget initiatives, gender equality
What Is a Gender Budget, and Why Is Gender Budgeting Important?
A budget is a key political decision of government for it presents the process of funds allocation in accordance with
set objectives. A political objective that goes beyond the financial resources necessary for its realisation remains
only a futile dream or demagogy. Governmental economic policy usually means activities planned by a state
through which the state directs economic growth and economic and social development. Each state defines
particular objectives and uses relevant instruments to realise these objectives. For example, usual economic
policy objectives are: growing the economy at a desirable rate, reducing the unemployment rate, achieving price
stability, and a harmonised balance of payment (deficit decrease). Usual economic policy instruments are:
monetary policy, fiscal policy and foreign trade policy. The objectives and instruments of economic policy are often
mutually in conflict, i.e. the achievement of one economic policy objective usually results in the disturbance of or
the failure to realise one or more other objectives. This is a well-known problem in economic theory solved by
prioritising.
A budget is the key point where information is outlined on the amount of governmental funds available for a
period of time and on the sources and allocated uses of those funds (Andy Norton and Diane Elson, 2002: 5-14;
Katarina Ott, 2000: Katarina Ott, 2003). In the narrowest sense, a budget indicates: total government
expenditures (for spending and investment), income (mostly from taxation), and income distribution to sectors
(education, health, transportation, agriculture, finance, defence, etc.). Usual budgetary functions are: resource
allocation, income and wealth distribution, and economic stabilisation.
To a great extent, feminist economics has shown that the gender neutrality of economic policies, their objectives,
and their instruments is an illusion (Diane Elson, 1994: 33 – 45; Nilufer Cagatay, 2003: 22-41; Ingrid Palmer,
2003: 42-87). The engendering of economic policy covers a twofold analytical process. First, gender
macroeconomic analysis studies the impact on men and women of emphasising paid activities and neglecting
reproduction in macroeconomic policy. Secondly, macroeconomic decisions and constrains have a significant
retroactive effect on gender-based social, economic, and political differences that should be analysed.
The issue of direct versus indirect taxation presents a good example of how the effects of fiscal policy differ by
gender. As for taxes, in principle there are no differences according to gender; however, some gender effects may
be seen if observed as direct (income) taxes versus indirect (consumption) taxes. For example, indirect taxation is
recognised as the one that has significant impact on women due to their general and prevailing role as household
budget managers, while direct income tax is considered to have a greater impact on men because they have
greater access to significant employment and higher income accordingly. Although there are few studies on this
topic, it has been observed that indirect tax payment affects women more than men. When goods and services
get more expensive, due to the increase of tax on particular goods and services, women then have two
possibilities. One possibility is to try to increase their paid working hours. The other possibility is to try to invest
more of their unpaid labour into the production of these goods. Thus, in both cases, they increase their efforts.
Consumption taxes put a disproportionately higher burden on social groups with lower earnings because, relative
to other groups, they spend a larger proportion of their money on consumption (Isabella Bakker, 1994: 2-29).
Usual shortcomings of budgets are their gender neutral economic framework, the lack of socio-economic and
gender-sensitive statistics, non-transparency, and the lack of public participation (Transparency and Participation
in the Budget Process, 2002). A major problem of standard budgeting processes is that they are based on
prevailing economic opinion that assumes the rational behaviour of individuals who are exclusively marketoriented
and led by their own best interests, without considering gender, class, age, or ethnicity. Such individuals
live beyond specific historical, geographic, and social contexts. It is also assumed that the decisions made by such
individuals are not affected by ruling power relations. Differences between men and women remain unrecognised
due to the assumption that economic policy objectives and instruments are broadly applicable and “gender
neutral” accordingly.
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Gender budgeting is not, by itself, either pro or contra government’s role in the economy (plan versus market),
and it does not mean the making of separate budgets for men versus for women. Budget gender analysis shows a
financial relationship between economic development of a nation’s economy (economic growth, poverty reduction,
investment, and savings) and gender equality (women’s poverty and access to resources). Therefore, gender
budgeting relates to the processes of disaggregating expenses and income to show their various impacts upon
women and men, thus indicating points where a state’s collection and distribution of resources is unfair. In other
words, this means that gender analysis of all forms of public consumption and the identification of causes and
effects born by women compared to men may improve economic policy efficiency. On the other hand, gender
budgeting is just one strategy focused toward gender equality, and it should be a constituent part of a wider
strategy directed toward breaking unequal power relationships in societies.
The Objectives of Gender Budget Analysis
The key questions of gender-sensitive budget analysis are: Do resources reach those who need them and for
whom they are intended? Do government economic policies and instruments decrease or increase gender
inequalities? Including gender analysis in the process of national budgeting means taking the following steps
(Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt, 2003; Isaac Shapiro, 2001; Debbie Budlender, 2002: 82- 87):
1. Estimate the gender-awareness of policy – to what extent do different ministries pay explicit or implicit
attention to gender considerations by analysing to what extent their policies and available resources impact the
decrease or increase of gender inequalities. (For example, in privatisation in Serbia: To what extent may women
count on the resources generated through selling state-owned companies? May women get credit to buy the
property from the state … and so on?)
2. Conduct gender-disaggregated assessment of public services beneficiaries and of budget prioritisation by
studying the attitudes of existing or potential beneficiaries (through interviews, group discussions, public polls,
etc.), assessing the extent to which governmental policies and programmes reflect the beneficiaries’ priorities and
needs. (For example, consider the methods in which the decrease of military expenses may be directed to
programmes that will empower women, like employment programmes and training, campaigns against violence
against women, assistance to the elderly, etc.)
3. Conduct gender-disaggregated analysis of public expenses using statistical data on households, the nature
of the benefit provided by the public sector, and the distribution of benefits by gender. Is public spending of equal
use to men and to women? This analysis measures the budgeted resource distribution to women, girls, men, and
boys by recalculating the total volume of costs belonging to each group. To do this, first, annual expenses are
calculated for particular types of services. Then, the expense totals are divided by the annual quantity of each
service provided (hospital beds, places in school). Finally, the extent to which these units have been used by
women versus men is analysed. Conduct gender-disaggregated analysis of public income regarding the amount of
direct and indirect forms of taxation paid by various categories of the population (i.e. households) including
governments at various levels. To evaluate how tax policy impacts men and women, the impact of direct taxes
(on income) and of indirect taxes (on consumption) must be observed. The objective of gender budgeting in this
case is gender-disaggregated analysis of taxes. For example, the amount of tax paid by an individual or household
is observed, as well as whether tax exemptions are distributed in different manner for women than for men
4. Conduct gender-disaggregated budget analysis from the point of view of time, identifying the ratio between
the national budget and the way time is spent in households. This provides for including time spent on unpaid
labour in the analysis. Gender budget analysis studies the ratio between unpaid men’s and women’s labour and
men and women’s contributions to care economy. Such analysis assesses the degree to which the budget depends
on the care economy and women’s unpaid labour (such as care for the elderly, cooking, cleaning, ironing). This is
analysis disaggregates the gender impact of the budget on the ways in which time is used. A decrease in public
spending mostly results in increases in the time women spend in the care economy to compensate for lost public
services.
5. Formulate a gender-aware, mid-term economic policy framework as the approach that includes the gender
perspective in macroeconomic models. This assumes the measuring of various gender impacts of both national
economic activities and those of each individual, including gender-sensitive indicators. Mechanisms to initiate and
intensify dialogue between various government ministries and the civil sector (stakeholders) are necessary also.
This objective, through the inclusion of the feminist gender perspective in mid-term policy, aims to change genderblind
opinions assumed by prevailing economic models. Long-term budgeting facilitates the activity of the Ministry
of Finance and provides for more effective gender mainstreaming of such policies into the future.
6. Formulate a gender-responsible budget statement. This is one of the objectives of gender budgeting
initiatives. Such a statement takes into account a series of factors, such as the gender balance of employment in
governmental institutions, the share of public spending on services used mainly by women, and gender-sensitive
indicators of development.
Gender Budgeting Initiatives (GBI)
Gender budgeting initiatives are gender aware analyses of governmental budgets that recognise various
contributions of men and women in production and goods and services distribution (Karen Judd, 2002: 13-86).
Gender budget analyses consider whether budgets covers various interests, needs, rights, and obligations of
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women and men, girls and boys, both in the paid economy and in the care economy. Gender budget initiatives
answer the following questions:
- Are budgets and tax systems actually gender neutral as it seems at first sight?
- How may gender become a constituent part of governmental policy?
- How may women and non-governmental organisations be involved further in budget proposal preparation,
and in collection and analysis of macroeconomic data disaggregated by sex?
Gender budget analyses have shown that governmental budgets are the instruments transferring and reproducing
gender relations, but they can become important instruments in transforming gender inequalities (Maeve Taylor,
2003: 65- 84; Karen Judd, 2002: 163 – 181; Hazel Reeves and Heike Wach, 1999; Hazel Reeves and Charlie
Sever, 2003; Debbie Budlender and Julius Mukunda, 2001: 17-21; Simel Esim, 2000).
GBI Experiences of Various Countries
During past dozen years, the interest in gender budgeting has been increased in the world (Debbie Budlender and
Julius Mukunda, 2001: 1-31; Karen Judd 2002: 99- 162; Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanoviæ et al, 2005). Today, over
fifty countries have some form of a gender-sensitive budget. Initiatives for gender-sensitive budgets have
originated from civil societies, parliaments, or governments themselves. The majority of gender budgeting
initiatives are not only aimed at identifying governmental tasks or promoting the of focusing more money toward
women, but also aim to discontinue various impacts of governmental taxation and economic policy on women and
men, girls and boys. Therefore, they may significantly contribute to the achievement of social, economic, and
cultural rights of the whole population and to the realisation of good government.
The earliest GBIs were inspired by women’s budgeting initiatives accepted by the Australian Government in the
1980s. Further initiatives have followed the experiences of the South African gender budget and the Philippines’
gender development budget.
Australia is the first country that introduced a women’s budget in 1985. It assessed the extent to which women
had or did not have benefits from the budget, considering the activities of all ministries. The governmental service
for women’s positions had a key role in coordinating activities among the Ministries of Finance, Economic Planning,
and others regarding how to facilitate dialogue with the civil sector. From 1985 to 1990, Australia introduced
gender-sensitive budget analysis as a comprehensive view of the budget from a women’s standpoint. During one
budget year, each ministry had the task to analyse its expenses. Feminists from the government strongly affirmed
the management of the budget aimed at women, although to the detriment of broader women’s activism.
Many GBIs throughout the world were initiated through the application of three key categories used by the
Australian women’s budget. GBI required (Balmori, Helena Hofbauer, 2003) first, specification of women’s costs
(resources to be allocated to the programmes specifically related to women); second, provision for equal
employment opportunities by providing assets to support affirmative actions (promoting an equal number of
employed men and women, as well as equal presentation of men and women in managerial positions and equal
salaries); and, third, coverage of the remaining expenses not covered in the previous two categories in such a
way that government as a key “player” will advocate the engendering of its own policy.
In Tanzania, a gender budget was first adopted in 1993. The non-governmental organisation Tanzania Gender
Networking Programme (TGNP) focused its activity on the stimulation of gender equality at all social levels. During
1997, with twenty other non-governmental organisations, a GBI was started focused on macroeconomic policies
and planning with specific emphases on the process of budgeting and on the budget’s impact on various
population categories. Within this process, studies at the macro level were managed by four ministries: the
Planning Committee and the Ministries of Finance, of Education, and of Health. Also, selected research at the local
level was done by a team of representatives from the governmental and non-governmental sectors, avoiding the
threat of being co-opted by the government.
In Mexico, non-governmental organisations researched governmental programmes in the field of birth rates in
1999. Afterwards, the non-governmental organisation Gender Equality organised workshops on budgets that dealt
with the needs of the poor, and the non-governmental organisations Fundar Centre for Analysis and Research
implemented budget research. After that, the Project Plan for Providing Support to Women and Local Budget
Understanding was made.
In South Africa, the assembly committee for finance and two non-governmental organisations established the
Initiative for Women’s Budget in 1988. Many researchers were involved in their activities, but economists were
represented in the lowest number. They started their activities by analysing national budget items, public sector
employment, and taxation. In the following years they prepared studies, reports, and research results, and
influenced other groups to consider the impact of budgets on other population groups, above all children and
people with disabilities.
In 1995 in Brazil, the local government of Refice introduced a system of public consultations regarding budget.
In the earliest stages of this process, attention had not been paid to gender inequalities until 2001 when Women's
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Coordination Group was established, with the task to coordinate governmental gender policies. This group started
various initiatives to increase women's involvement in participative budgets. One such initiative referred to the
creation of recreational facilities to be used by children while their mothers were at meetings where a budget was
discussed. Another initiative was related to the introduction of “women's meetings” with the participation of
governmental officials, women's movement representatives, and other activists who searched for ways to increase
women's participation in budgeting processes. In 2002 such meetings were transformed into the Women's
Thematic Forum that defined the priorities to be applied by the General Council of Participative budgets within the
budgeting process.
In Uganda, women politicians, who were involved in the preparation of the proposal of a new constitution,
established the non-profit organisation, Forum of Women for Democracy (FOWODE), comprised of men and
women gender activists. This Forum was active in promoting gender equality with the aim of including gender in
all government policies and programmes at all decision-making levels. Thus, this Forum, in cooperation with
coalition of specific interest groups in Parliament (with representatives including women, the young, employees,
and people with disabilities) did gender-aware budget analysis and organised two conferences on this topic
(Maeve Taylor, 2003: 76).
The majority of GBIs have developed their own methodologies, adjusting GBI objectives and approaches to their
own experiences. In Scotland, for example, GBI is closely connected to the process of transferring political power
to the Scottish Government. In Rwanda, it is related to the process of post-conflict reconstruction and social
decentralisation; while in Peru, it is mostly located at the level of local communities (Helena Hofbauer Balmori,
2003). Many such initiatives are controlled by governments and sometimes include significant participation of
donors. In any case, it is not sufficient to let governments make decisions regarding the gender budgeting process
on their own. Therefore, the approach advocated in South Africa is significant, which has connected both civil
society and MPs from the very beginning of the gender budgeting process. The Mexican initiative has represented
a wide coalition of the civil sector of Mexican society, and as such it has been presented to Parliament.
The Application and Benefits of Gender-Sensitive Budget Initiatives
Although there is no pattern that would guarantee success in the application of gender budget initiatives, certain
strategies may strengthen the gender budgeting process. It seems that central elements of gender budgeting
initiatives are to be driven in parallel through the research process and public advocation. As for governmental
and civil sector initiatives, it is important that they are based on good knowledge of processes, characteristics,
and effects created by the budget. Although no country is able to claim that it has had a fully operational gender
budget so far, women's training to impact Public finance is an important element of strengthening gender
budgeting. Benefits resulting from gender-sensitive budget analysis flow to governments, women, and citizens.
Governmental benefits from gender budget analysis include the improvement of policy efficiency, democratic
progress, responsibility, and public strength, as well as ending corruption and all types of discrimination against
women. Benefits of gender-sensitive budget analysis for women and other citizens include the intensification of
civil initiative, the provision of gender-sensitive data as a basis for fighting corruption and discrimination,
consideration of the needs of the poor, and responsibility intensification.
Besides growing enthusiasm among donors, governments, and civil society, the majority of gender budget
initiatives have been made at the level of analysis, while the key objective of GBI is to integrate gender into the
criteria for the planning, formulation, and application of budgets. The key challenge for the majority of GBIs is to
move from gender budget analysis to gender sensitive budget formulation (Helena Hofbauer Balmori, 2003:2-3).
On this route, it is important to:
- Estimate GBI impact: the success of previous GBIs, the difference of GBI types in relation to
comprehensive objectives of empowerment, equality, and involvement (engagement, empowerment and equity);
- Identify and document specific methodology resulting from the analytical framework; then, test, and focus
it on the integration of gender as the criterion in budgeting;
- Learn various GBI activity stages, and simultaneously build the capacities of GBI advocates at all levels
and in all sectors of society;
- Study new approaches, allies, and new objectives, such as participative budget initiatives and gender
approaches to gender and budgets based on rights; and
- Develop gender-sensitive, participative research techniques that integrate the needs identified at the core
of society when formulating a budget, thus intensifying possibilities for broader participation in budgeting.
What is necessary to realise GBIs is to interpret them as complementary strategies to the strategies of decreasing
poverty and developing the national economy. To be efficient, gender budgeting means partnership among
women's organisations, researchers, media, and those creating government policies.
Steps in Defining GBI for Serbia: How Would We Like to See Our Budget?
In 2002 in Serbia, the Group for the Promotion of Women's Political Rights, Voice of Diversity, in co-operation with
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Institute G17, and the Centre for Alternative Study, researched the competitiveness of women with children in the
labour market. In the same year, a group of non-governmental organisations (Association for Women's Initiative,
Group for the Promotion of Women's Political Rights, Acting Women, Vojvodjanka, Paz, and Star Network of World
Learning) made a campaign for economic equality and empowerment of women from the point of view of
economic and social inequality of women in today's Serbia, and they made comments on existing and announced
laws. In early 2003, the United Nations Development Programme’s Belgrade Office organised a one-day workshop
for civil society members in the field of gender equality and specifically in the field of national budgeting in
accordance with gender equality. The first step in designing a gender sensitive budget is to define the key
problems in Serbia, their causes, and their effects (Law on Budget, 2002, 2004). This is the stage of gender
strategy identification that would be adopted by Parliament. Afterwards, proposals should be stated for good,
stimulating legal, economic, and political measures, programmes, and activities through additional laws. Budget
management should be targeted, but without excessive administration. The existing budget in Serbia is nontransparent.
Therefore, mid-term objectives for the Serbian budget are for it to be made according to
programmes that will commonly cover definition of the situations to be solved by programmes, including
objectives, activities, resources, and indicators of gender concerns.
Literature:
1. Andy Norton and Diane Elson, 2002, ‘Key Issues in Understanding Budget Processes’ in: What is Behind the
Budget? Politics, Rights, and Accountability in the Budget Process. London: ODI, pp. 5-14
2. Budlender, D., Sharp, R. and Allen, K., 1998, How to Do a Gender-Sensitive Budget Analysis:
Contemporary Research and Practice, Canberra: Australian Agency for International Development and
London: Commonwealth Secretariat
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/gender/publications/gms_pdf/AusAIDTr.pdf
3. Debbie Budlender and Guy Hewitt, 2003, Engendering Budgets, A Practitioners Guide to Understanding and
Implementing Gender-Responsive Budgets, London: Commonwealth Secretariat.
4. Debbie Budlender and Julius Mukunda, 2001, Country Experiences in: Gender Responsive Budgeting in East
Africa, Kampala: Forum for Women in Democracy, pp. 21-31.
5. Debbie Budlender and Julius Mukunda, 2001, Gender and Macro-Economics in: Gender Responsive
Budgeting in East Africa, Kampala: Forum for Women in Democracy, pp. 17-21.
6. Debbie Budlender, 2002 ‘Gender Budgets: What’s in It for NGOs?’ in: Caroline Sweetman ed. Gender and
Development and Poverty, Oxfam, Oxford, pp. 82- 87.
7. Debbie Budlender, Diane Elson, Guy Hewitt and Tanni Mukhopadhyay (eds.) 2002, Gender Budgets Make
Cents, Understanding Gender Responsive Budgets, London: Commonwealth Secretariat, http://www.
thecommonwealth.org/gender/ , http://www.gender-budgets.org
8. Debbie Budlender, Elson Diane, Guy Hewitt and Mukhopadhyay, T. (eds.), 2002, Gender Budgets Make
More Cents, Country Studies and Good Practice, London: Commonwealth Secretariat, http://www.
thecommonwealth.org/pdf/gender/GBMC%201%20Understanding%20GB.pf , http://www.
internationalbudget.org/resources/library/GBMMC.pdf
9. Diane Elson, Gender Budget Initiative, 1999, Background Papers, London: Commonwealth Secretariat
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/gender/
10. Elizabeth Villagomez, 2003, Gender Responsive Budgets: Issues, Good Practices and Policy Options, paper
prepared for the Regional Symposium on Gender Mainstreaming in the ECE Region
11. Hazel Reeves and Charlie Sever, 2003, Gender and Budget. Supporting Resources Collection, BRIDGE,
London: Institute of Development Studies
12. Hazel Reeves and Haike Wach, 1999, Women’s and Gender Budgets: An Annotated Resource List, BRIDGE.
Development – Gender, Bibliography No. 9, http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge
13. Hazel Reeves, 2003, Information Support for Gender Budget Analysis, Pan Islands Gender Budgets
Conference
14. Helena Hofbauer Balmori, 2003, ‘Gender and Budget. Overview Report, BRIDGE. Development – gender,
London: Institute for Social Studies, http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge
http://www.internationalbudget.org/openbudgets/Fullreport.pdf
http://www.internationalbudget.org/openbudgets/index.htm
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http://www.internationalbudget.org/themes/BudTrans/transp.htm
http://www.odi.org.uk/pppg/publications/books/budget.pdf
15. Isaac Shapiro, ed., 2001, A Guide to Budget Work for NGOs, Washington: Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, The International Budget Project.
16. Karen Judd (ed.), 2002, Gender Budget Initiatives: Strategies, Concepts and Experiences, New York:
UNIFEM
17. Katarina Ott (ed.), 2000, Proraèunski vodiè za graðane verzija (Citizen's Guide to the Budget), Zagreb:
Institut za javne financije, http://www.ijf.hr
18. Katarina Ott (ed.), 2003, Proraèunski vodiè za graðane, ažurirana verzija (Citizen's Guide to the Budget,
newer edition) Zagreb: Institut za javne financije, http://www.ijf.hr/proracunski/index.html
19. Katarina Ott and Anto Bajo, 2001, Local Government Budgeting in Croatia, Zagreb: Institute of Public
Finance.
20. Law on the Budget of the Republic of Serbia for the Year 2002, internal material.
21. Maeve Taylor, 2003, ‘Module 3: Gender Budgeting’, in: Looking at the Economy through Women’s Eyes. A
Facilitator’s Guide for Economic Literacy, Dublin: Banulacht, pp. 65- 84.
22. Opening Budgets to Public Understanding and Debate: Results from 36 Countries, 2002, Washington: The
International Budget Project,
23. Simel Esim, 2000,‘Gender-Sensitive Budget Initiatives for Latin American and the Caribbean: A Toll for
Improving Accountability and Achieving Effective Policy Implementation,’ paper prepared for Conference on
Women of Latin America and Caribbean – Beijing +5, Lima, 8-10 February, http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/
organizations/healthnet/gender/docs/esim.html
24. Simel Esim, 2000,‘Impact of Government Budgets on Poverty and Gender Equality’, paper written for the
Inter-Agency Workshop on Improving the Effectiveness of Integrating Gender into Government Budgets,
Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, London, 26–27 April
http://www.siyanda.org/docs/future_direction.doc
25. Tatjana Djuriæ Kuzmanoviæ and Mirjana Dokmanoviæ, 2004, The Enlarged EU and Its Agenda for a Wider
Europe: What Considerations for Gender Equality? EU Neighbouring Countries: the Western Balkans,
Brussels: WIDE Infosheet, http://www.wide-network.org
26. Tatjana Djuriæ Kuzmanoviæ, Mirjana Dokmanoviæ and Genoveva Tisheva, 2005, Gender Budgeting
Initiatives in Serbia and Bulgaria - Experiences and Challenges, paper prepared for the IAFFE-Europe
Conference Central and Eastern Europe: A Feminist Economic Dialogue on Transition and EU-Enlargement,
Budapest, 21-22 January
27. Transparency, and Participation, in the Budget Process,2002, Washington: The International Budget
Project,
28. Workshop on Gender Sensitisation and Gender Budgeting for Civil Society Organizations, Background
papers, March 2003, Beograd: UNDP.
29. Zakon o budžetu Republike Srbije za 2005 godinu (Law on the Budget of the Republic of Serbia for the Year
2005), Beograd: Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije, pp. 1- 60.
Useful Internet Addresses:
International Budget Project - http://www.internationalbudget.org
http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/pdf/hdr04_HDI.pdf
Gender Responsive Budget Initiatives - http://www.gender-budgets.org
http://www.gender-budgets.org/en/ev-66829-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
UNIFEM, 2002, Gender Budget Initiatives: strategies, concepts and experiences - UNIFEM_GBI_2002.pdf
BRIDGE, 2003, Gender and Budgets, BRIDGE Cutting Edge Pack, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies -
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http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge/reports_gend_CEP.html
International conference: Taking Civil Society Budget Transparency and Participation Work Forward.
Transparency and Participation in the Budget Process
http://www.internationalbudget.org/themes/BudTrans/transp.htm
http://www.internationalbudget.org/openbudgets/Fullreport.pdf
Elson, D., 2000, ‘Accountability for the Progress of Women: Women Demanding Action’ in D. Elson, Progress of
the World's Women: UNIFEM Biennial Report, New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) -
http://www.bellanet.org/grbi/docs/progr-ww5.pdf?OutsideInServer=no
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Security & Militarism
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SECURITY & MILITARISM
Sexual abuse of women and exploitation of children by peacekeepers:
Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Democratic Republic of Congo
By Olivera Simic
After the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina was over, peacekeepers changed locations
and countries, in following a war torn societies in need of peace. Still, the crimes
perpetuated by peacekeepers against those in need, particularly women and children, did
not change. Moreover, it looks like they exacerbated.
Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
By Olivera Simic
Reconciliation is a long-term process that includes the search for truth, justice, healing
and forgiveness. It should be a broad and inclusive process that involves each member
of a conflict affected society. In addition, the reconciliation process should be engendered
because men and women experience war differently. In this regard, before we examine
the nature of reconciliation we must acknowledge how conflict involves and affects
women and men in different ways.
Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern
Europe
By Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic, Ph.D.
Uneven distribution of wealth has always been among the main generators of sex
trafficking. However, only in the past several decades has sex trafficking become a global
problem. As Dutch researcher Sietske Altink observes, “more and more countries are
joining the ranks of sending countries and increasing numbers are becoming target
countries.”
Aspects of External Perceptions of Identity and Group-Belonging
By Ann-Charlotte Nilsson
The elite-driven conflicts that evolved in Rwanda and Bosnia-Hercegovina were driven by
actors that used and manipulated members of the population to carry out violent acts
based on ethnicity, and where in numerous cases former friends and neighbors turned
into enemies. Maynard terms these types of conflicts, identity conflicts. These are
conflicts among identity groups based on factors such as ethnicity or religion, and are
characterized by their intense animosity, extreme brutality and widespread involvement
by civilian actors in the context of societal collapse.
Gender and Armed Conflict – an Overview Report
By Armani El Jack
BRIDGE
Armed conflict negatively affects women and men and results in gender-specific
disadvantages, particularly for women that are not always recognised or addressed by
the mainstream, gender-blind understandings of conflict and reconstruction. Gender
inequality reflects power imbalances in social structures that exist in pre-conflict periods
and are exacerbated by armed conflict and its aftermath. The acceptance of gender
stereotypes is one of the main reasons that such gender blindness persists.

Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
Introduction
Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
By Olivera Simic, LL.M., M.A., gender consultant, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Reconciliation is a long-term process that includes the search for truth, justice, healing and forgiveness. It should
be a broad and inclusive process that involves each member of a conflict affected society. In addition, the
reconciliation process should be engendered because men and women experience war differently. In this regard,
before we examine the nature of reconciliation we must acknowledge how conflict involves and affects women and
men in different ways.
The following paper has three sections. The first section explores gender roles and militarization and how the
social construction of masculinity and femininity nourishes and legitimizes militarism. In the second section, I
highlight why and how gender roles shifts when war starts. Besides suffering, the conflict can trigger enormous
strength and agency in women that they would not otherwise have the opportunity to exercise because of the
patriarchal structures in their societies. Empowerment moves women from the private to the public sphere, which
is usually reserved exclusively for men. Women are not only victims of war but capable and autonomous
individuals who play an important role as peacemakers. However, at the end of the war, women frequently loose
the gains they made during the war. In addition, women are rarely included in official peace negotiations where
they could articulate their needs and concerns. Finally, third chapter will explore the aftermath of conflict and
question the role of men and women in peace building and reconciliation. Do women and men have the same
interests and concerns in reconciliation process? If they do not, why is that?
1. Gender and Militarism
Militarism is an ideology structured around creating enemies and perceiving the “other” as a threat to one’s own
security. The “other” is defined by making a distinction between people, countries, religions or ethnic groups
whereas the “other” is asserted to be “less then” Once distinction is made and accepted the “other” must be
destroyed or she/he will destroy “us”. [1]
The enemy is portrayed as both absolute and abstract in order to sharply distinguish the act of killing from the act
of murder. [2] By dehumanizing the other and creating a sense of victimhood, authorities can convince their
constituencies that war is unavoidable they must act in defense. [3]
The sense of “manhood” and being male is challenged and manipulated by the state in order to sustain authority
and public legitimacy of the military. The state has to ensure that militarization prevails and that men are willing
to serve the army and go to combat. Authorities have to “feed” the ego and social construction of men as a brave
and strong. Men are made to believe that serving in the military is a “chance of a lifetime” because it will enable
them to prove the socially constructed male attributes. In combat, they become warriors.
Furthermore, a soldier is portrayed as a warrior who “self-sacrificially” protects women, children and others who
are “in need” of protection. It is very an important motivator for military recruitment. The concept of “protected”
is crucial to the legitimacy of force and violence. Moreover, a protector needs to have an object of protection,
something worth fighting for.
When men are sent into war to protect their home and country, they are told to protect their womenfolk from
defilement by enemy men. Women are usually perceived as objects who need protection but also create pressure
and guilt in men if they have any doubt about war. In general, women are often seen solely as victims that men
need to fight and even dying for.
Militarism is important during war but also during the peacetime. [4] Hence, militarism is probably even more
important before the war since war cannot be conducted unless militarism is nurtured before the war started. It is
a form of structural violence imposed by the state, largely through mass rallies and state controlled media.
However, for women who rather work towards common interests across conflict lines, it is harder to cast the
enemy as “the other”. Their concerns about their children and family members give them a social legitimacy and a
linkage with women from different sides of the conflict. [5]
Indeed, women who first stand up against the war and sympathize with women across the ethnic lines are usually
mothers whose sons are drafted into the war. Without any doubt it is of immensely importance for women to
protest against war, hence it is a danger that only women mothers appear to upraise as protestors of a war.
Women mothers are deliberately used as a part of militarism propaganda and their protests are presented in a
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Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
way that justifies claims of the national leaders about necessity of fighting to defend women and children. Media
often chose to ignore the presence of some men but also single women in the demonstrations. It is once more
denial of selfhood to women. [6]
Women’s identities are reshaped and engaged by authorities consisted of men for the sake of realization their
successful national projects. It seems that their identities are only useful as procreators of children, culture and
suddenly valued old, almost forgotten traditions. For that reason, reproduction in both biological and social sense
is fundamental to national politics and practices. Finally, their heterosexuality has never been questioned. It was
taken for granted that all women are heterosexual, fertile and willing to reproduce the nation.
2. Gender and War
While there is a lot of information about women as victims, we have insignificant records about women’s increase
in independence and self-confidence as a result of conflict. [7] Media repeatedly covers abuses women endure
during the war but they fail to focus on the actions taken by women as autonomous actors. Images of women as
victims have serious consequences on the public’s awareness of war. It impedes the recognition of unique
solutions that women might propose.
Indeed, women are victims of war but they are also survivors. Gender-based violence often exists on a wide-scale
before the war but once violence increases, gender based violence does not disappear. Rather it escalates in a
size but also in severity of abuses. [8] Women become battlefields and tools of severe tactics for males,
warriors. Multiple layers of discrimination allow women to be targeted and experience violence, sexual abuse or
slavery. The pre-existing culture of discrimination is often exacerbated. [9] As Cockburn said “while men’s lives
and bodies are at disposal of the nation, women’s bodies are at the disposal of men.” [10]
In fact, rape of the “other” women is seen as the most effective way of “penetrating an enemy nation’s defences,
destroying its property [and] hurting its morale”. [11] Since women are viewed as possessions of “their” men,
when a woman is raped during the conflict it has been perceived as an effective attack on the manhood of “her”
man. They are specifically and deliberately targeted to humiliate and degrade the enemy, his culture, the ethnic
and the religious group.
On the other hand, women are also empowered in the conflict by sudden shifts in gender roles. Conflict can open
up unintended spaces for empowering women to create structural social transformations and produce new
realities that redefine gender. [12] Women step out from their traditional roles in order to meet social and
economic demands of war. Some women become for the first time sole breadwinners, active in politics and
become leaders. Good example is women of Srebrenica who survived Srebrenica genocide. [13] The women of
Srebrenica were forcibly evacuated from the enclave and today the majority of them live as displaced persons in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to the war Srebrenica was male dominated society and males were the primary
breadwinners and the heads of households. War, as well as the post-war situation, have dramatically changed
women’s roles. The role of primary breadwinner has now shifted to women. The majority of these women find
themselves in this role for the very first time in their lives since Bosnia and Herzegovina is still very much a
patriarchal society. Women from Srebrenica have on average less education then men and the majority were
housewives prior to the war.
The challenge to survive in the absence of men, create this sudden expansion of women’s private as well as public
roles. They organize formal and informal small local groups with an aim to provide relief to vulnerable populations,
primarily women, elderly and children. As many men cannot move freely, in a fear of being hunted by military
police and send to front lines, public space is left to women. [14] All the same, women use their traditional
invisibility in the public sphere to create space for their activism. Many women start to work in informal sector,
trying to provide minimum income for survival of their families, while men are in combat or hidden home. They
are in situations to control their incomes and make decisions regarding distribution of their financial assets.
Women redefine traditional gender roles prescribed by society in order to empower themselves and other women.
New, committed women leaders are born and many of them assume leadership roles in the aftermath of war.
Since women have multiple roles, it is very difficult to draw the line between women as victims and women as
agents of change within the society. They can be at the same time victims but also agents of important change
and usually bear these mutual roles. Their roles merge and make complex task set before society: to be
recognized not only as victims but also as autonomous individuals who are capable to take action and demand the
change.
3. Gender and Reconciliation
Reconciliation is a complex term that can mean different things to different people. [15] Reconciliation can entail
a variety of activities and actors within one country. They can include public hearings, rituals, retributive justice,
symbolic acts of forgiveness or material compensation to be paid by the “guilty” side. However, whatever might
be chosen as “traditional” way of healing and reconciliation, organizers and participants are almost universally
men. [16] These practices tend to exclude women from active roles and tend to be about peace building efforts
between men. As a result of gendered local politics and asymmetry of gender power women voices are often
ignored and marginalized.
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The issue of reconciliation has special importance and specific meaning for women that might differ from men. For
example, amnesty does not mean the same for men and for women. For men, it relief them from responsibility
and accountability for crimes, including those committed towards women. Therefore, they might never realize or
comprehend and regret for severity of crimes committed towards women. On the other hand, amnesty leaves
women vulnerable for further attacks, particularly when the attacker was a former neighbor, what commonly
happen in civil wars. For example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are around 10 000 people suspected for
committing war crimes who still enjoy freedom, live and work in the country. [17] All of them live next to their
former “enemies” and victims.
In addition, women are sexually vulnerable during a conflict in the way men are not. They suffer abuses that are
rarely inflicted upon men such as mass rapes, enforced pregnancies or sex slavering. Their experience of the
conflict demands special attention because it is different from men’s. For those women, reconciliation should
acknowledge the gender specific violence so perpetrators are appropriately punished. However, punishment does
not have to be necessarily retributive in its nature, it could be restorative. Instead of systematic punishment
justified on grounds of the wrongdoing committed by a criminal and addressed by the action aganist criminal,
restorative justice strives to achieve reconciliation between crime victims and the persons who have harmed them
through the use of various non conflict resolution forms. [18] Also, for war widows’ reconciliation can include
compensation and application of inheritance and family laws that recognize them as main family providers. [19]
Women’s suffering should be publicly recognized. However, women often do not have political and social power to
address their concerns. Moreover, even when they have space to address their abuses, they do not feel
comfortable speaking about sexual abuses in public hearings with males, their family, or community members.
Even quite successful, South African model established by Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was not
gender sensitive. The debates were weak on extracting the truth about women. According to official statistics of
who made statements to the Commission, more than 55 per cent were women; however they only talked about
experiences of their menfolk and their children. [20] Women did not talk about their own experiences, about
themselves. In general, men spoke directly about their own experiences while women, for the most part,
addressed suffering of others, often men and children. According to some researches, some women did that
intentionally in order to “bring out” their “son’s sory” since “men spoke about themselves when they come to the
truth commission.” Therefore, they think it is them (women) who should bring these stories, as there is no one
else to do so. [21]
Reconciliation can bring relief, but it also can bring stigma and shame for women. By coming forward to testify, in
some situations, women and girls bring social shame not only on themselves but on their family members as
well. This might have fatal consequences for women’s future. They can become ostracized from community,
targeted for the rape or deemed unmarriageable. Moreover, between risking of future and remain to live in their
communities and valid prosecution of perpetrator there might exist a big imbalance so women might decide not to
talk. In addition, even when they decide to speak up and risk social shame and their safety they can encounter
legal difficulties. For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina law considers rape only as being penis-vagina penetration.
Therefore, the woman who had an AK-47 shoved up in her vagina was not legally raped. Instead, the perpetrator
committed an indecent act. [22]
Furthermore, almost all peace processes do not have women present during the negotiations among conflict
parties. Therefore, women’s needs and concerns are left out form final peace agreements that often have longterm
impact on future society. Peace agreements are not just about establishing a cease-fire but they are a
framework for rebuilding and restructuring a whole war torn society.
Men are involved in creation of reconstruction plans, which are very often gender blind. Men present at the
negotiating table are usually interested in distribution of the land and the future power in the state. Who will rule
the country and who will have more power in governmental structures are more of a priority than issues women
might propose. Moreover, while transitioning from war to peace, men still keep high-masculinized society in
which budget and all sources are tend to be allocated primarily to “security issues”. In Bosnia and Herzegovina,
both national and international community (read men) have been primarily concerned with establishing the
national army and international security forces. In this way, they (again) brought into the country large scale of
weapons and military men who cost huge amount of money that could rather be spent for health and education.
Men often do not see or they do not want to see that there is a need for formal recognition and acknowledgement
of gender transformation that happen during the war. To recognize the strengths of women might be seen as
threatening to the preservation of patriarchal society. Indeed, that would be the first step toward loosening
patriarchal structures.
Furthermore, militarism needs militarized masculinity in order to exist. Militarism needs men willing to fight. It
nourishes “warrior identity” in men; his “unique strength” and his “courageous” and “protective” role. Still, with
becoming a “protector” of the homeland, men loose his primary role as provider and breadwinner. This position
can create clashes of masculinity interests and roles, resulting in frustration and anger particularly after the
conflict when men have to rely on women who have assumed the role as family provider during the conflict. The
effects of militarism are hard for women before and during the conflict but especially in the post-conflict period.
Men returning from battlefields transfer their power to commit violence from war zone to their family but also
their wider community. Long term separation from women prevented men to observe and rationally accept that
women got another, more active role and proven that they are able to undertake male role in the family. The
majority of men, after coming form war fields are jobless; their increase in usage of alcohol and practicing
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Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
domestic violence becomes apparent. [23] Being dependant on women’s income might be quite frustrating and
humiliating for men. Therefore, reconciliation process should recognize gender issues, relationships between men
and women, in addition to cross-ethnic and religious issues that might have been the initial causes of the war.
Reconciliation should reach all levels of a community.
Reconciliation cannot be imposed by outside actors. Peace builders have an important role to play in any
reconciliation process, but only after acknowledging the traditional ways addressing justice and forgiveness within
a community. As a long-term process, reconciliation requires time and patience. Rehabilitation of victims and
reconciliation between victim and perpetrator cannot be satisfied immediate after violent conflict. [24] If the need
for change and reconciliation is not internalized, there is likelihood that change will be temporary. [25]
As Zehr describes, the heart of reconciliation is “the voluntary initiative of the conflict parties to acknowledge their
responsibility and guilt.” [26] However, acknowledgment of crime does not necessarily have to be linked with
accepting the guilt for particular event. In the case of Dragoljub Kunarac at The Hague [27] , on trial for
mistreatment of women in Foca, he did not deny having had sexual intercourse with number of Muslim girls and
women. However, Kunarac argued that the woman did not feel severe mental pain or damage because he had
intercourse with her after she had been gang-raped by his comrades. [28] Radomir Kovac, Kunarac’s codefendant,
said that he believed that his victims had consented to intercourse because they did not forcefully resisted
throughout the act and because he was in love with one of them. Moreover, he did not consider them as slaves
since they had the key from his house and could escape at any time. Hence, Kovac did not clarify where Muslim
girls could escape without money and clothes in Serb-controlled Foca in 1992. [29]
Therefore, while Kovac [30] acknowledged that the rape happened there was a lack of guilt associated to the
event. There was not a sense of responsibility and regret for the events that had occurred. Moreover, it almost
seems that women enjoyed in being sex slaves and gang raped. The fact that Kovac was “in love” with one of
them gave him “assumed credibility” to rape. Finally, none of them perceive those events as rapes since there
was no forceful resistance on behalf of women. Admission of ones guilt and preach for forgiveness is one of the
first steps toward reconciliation. If that is the goal, how we are going to move on with mentioned attitude?
Men from both side of the conflict do not want to be accused for sexual crimes during the war since it happened in
both sides. That is something in common for warring parties since sexual violence towards women is a common
crime for all of them. Indeed, they would rather forget about it and move on but women cannot forget. They
might forgive but certainly after male perpetrators, at least admit their acts and being held accountable in one
way or the other. Therefore, for some women the truth as well as the confessional truth on behalf of perpetrators
is needed. They need to acknowledge that perpetrator is really aware what he did and fell regret for it. For others,
the identification of truth on those who committed the crimes and asking the victims for forgiveness have to
happen in order to be able to move ahead. [31]
Looking at the worldwide civil society grassroots projects and who is in majority of them engaged, one might say
that women are more interested in process of truth and reconciliation. Indeed, many NGOs emerge at the
outbreak of conflict and they are mainly female. [32] However, there are reconciliation activities initiated by men,
former soldiers, in forms of public witnessing through which men in public spaces talk about their experiences and
regret for their actions. However, there is a need that in this kind of debates, men besides apologizing to each
other for committing the crimes do so towards women as well.
Women’s roles in reconciliation processes are complex, reflecting the multiple roles women have in one society.
Their approach and life has to be holistically viewed since women symbolize peace educators within the family, in
schools, in women’s and mixed associations, and elsewhere. Their networks and knowledge of local affairs make
them effective early warning monitors, alert for increasing tensions and others signs of potential conflict. Their
often-extensive kinship relations, social prospects and training can make women highly effective mediators.
Moreover, their status as outsiders and the perception that they are not primary stakeholders in conflict also
reveals a role of possibly better negotiators and originators of new approaches to peace. [33]
Without devaluation of destructions war brings itself, war also breaks down the patriarchal structures of society
that degrade and confine political, civil and other liberties of women. It breaks down traditions and customs often
imposed on women in order to control their behavior in society. Hence, war also creates space and opens up the
door for new beginnings. [34] However, with demobilization of combatants, who are most often predominately
men, there is a parallel process of “demobilization” of women from their new gained roles during war. With
stripping of their military clothes and arms and going back into status prior to a war, men assume that women
should do the same. They should be stripped of their painfully gained roles during a conflict: economic freedoms
and independence. Therefore, the reintegration of demobilized combatants and demilitarization of masculinity
clashes with women acquired mobilization during a conflict and their wishes to preserve it.
To conclude, return to peace for women usually means return to the gender status quo that is irrespective of the
nontraditional roles assumed by women during conflict. [35] How to keep and consolidate the gains made during
the conflict is a challenge for women in many post conflict societies.
Conclusion
Building a culture of peace is a process that should involve both men and women to question different types of
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Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
violence, injustice and discrimination. Also, they should bear in mind that security cannot be measured through
arms and guns but by measuring level of understanding among people.
If the men in power continue to perceive women primarily as victims, war widows, or heroic mothers, we have
little room for post conflict social transformation. [36] In order to change this perception women have to play an
important role as well. They also sometimes expose only their role as a victim and by doing so, perpetuate gender
stereotypes about women solely seen as victims. Indeed, women are victims of the war but they are also
survivors. However, women are often perceived as passive victims due to wide range of violence they experience
during the war. Media repeatedly highlights information that describes abuses women endure during the war
while ignoring the actions taken by women as autonomous actors. Images of women as victims that convey in
public have serious consequences on awareness of different impacts war have on men and women and impede the
recognition of creative and new solutions that women might propose.
Our common task should be not to abolish but to reshape gender roles. In other words, we should work to
disconnect courage from violence as well as ambition from domination and exploitation. [37] The courage does not
mean using violence nor ambition and power have to include domination over other less powered. Both men and
women have the potential for peacemaking and the responsibility to build and keep the peace. In order to
achieve this, we have to promote peace education not only in schools but also in other arenas such work places,
community organizations, labor markets, mass media, science, and within family relationships.
About the author:
Olivera Simic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, LLM and MA, holds LLM degree in International Human Rights Law (Essex
University, UK, 2003) and MA in Gender and Peacebuilding (University for Peace, Costa Rica, 2005). Currently,
she works as Gender Expert and Consultant for different agencies. For almost decade she has been working on
women and children human rights as related to these topics. She worked as legal fellow in Human Rights Watch,
one of the biggest NGOs in the USA as well as in UNICEF office in Bosnia and Herzegovina where she was leading
projects related to trafficking in children and gender based violence. Contact: oljasimic@yubc.net
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Books, 2001)
S. Cockburn, The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict (London and New
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2004)
Articles, Reports, Jornals
ACCORD, “Conflict trends”, Special Issue on Women, Peace and Security 3/2003. (The African Center for the
Constructive Resolution of Disputes and UNIFEM, South Africa, 2003)
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January 20, 1999 p. 239-256
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2000) at 24
D. Wilson, M Pilisuk, M. Lee, “Understanding Militarism, Money, Masculinity and the Search for the Mystical”, in
Christie, D., Wagner, R.; and Winter, D. Peace Conflict and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21 st century (New
Jersey, Prentice Press, 2001)
E. Cynthia, “Deminlitarization-or more of the same? Feminist questions to ask in the postwar moment”, in
Cookburn, C., Zarkov, D. (Eds), The PostWar Moment, Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping
(London, Lawrence & Wishart, 2002)
H. Zehr, “Restorative Justice” in Reychler, L., and Paffenholz, T. (eds) Peacebuilding: A Field Guide (Lynne
Rienner: Boulder, 2001)
Infoteka, “To Live With (out) Violence: Final Report [on] Violence against Women [in] Zenica, Bosnia and
Herzegovina” A Second Look, no. 2 (Zagreb, Infoteka, 1999)
K. Kurtenbach, “Dealing with the Past in Latin America” in Reychler, L., and Paffenholz, T. (eds) Peacebuilding: A
Field Guide (Lynne Rienner: Boulder, 2001)
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Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
L. Marshall, “The connection between militarism and violence against women” (26 February 2004) For more see:
< http://www.awakenedwoman.com/marshall_militarism.htm >, accessed 3 March 2005
M. Turshen, “Women’s War Stories” in What Women Do in War-time:Gender and Conflict in Africa, ed. Tushen, M.
and Twagiramariya, C. (London, Zed Books, 1998)
N. Puechguirbal, “Women and War in the Democratic Republic of Congo” in Signs, Journal of Women in Cutlure
and Society (USA, The University of Chicago Press, August 2003)
R. Connell, “Arms and the men: using the new research on masculinity to understand violence and promote peace
in the contemporary world” in Breines, I., Connel, R., Eide, I., “Male roles, masculinities and violence: A culture of
peace perspective (UNESCO Publishing, 9-17 and 21-33, 2000)
S. Ruddick, “Mother’s and Men’s Wars” in Harris, A., King, Y. Rocking the Ship of State (Westview Press, San
Francisco and London)
S. Slapsek, “Hunting, ruling, sacrificing: traditional male practicies in contemporary Balkan cultures” in I Breines,
R Connell and I Eide., Male roles, masculinities and violence, A culture of peace perspective (Paris, UNESCO,
2000)
V. Nikolic-Ristanovic, “Truth, reconciliation and victims in Serbia: the process so far” (New Horizons for
Victimology XI th International Symposium on Victimology Stellenbosch, South Africa 13-18 July, 2003) Draft
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Women, Peace and Security, At a Glance (UN Department of Public Information, 2003)
Y. Sooka, “Keynote Address to The Aftermath: Conference on Women in Post-war Situations” (University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, July 20-22, 1999)
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Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
see:
http://www.awakenedwoman.com/marshall_militarism.htm, accessed 3 March 2005
[2] Ruddick, S. “Mother’s and Men’s Wars” in Harris, A., King, Y. Rocking the Ship of State (Westview Press, San
Francisco and London) p. 79
[3] Nikolic-Ristanovic, V., “Truth, reconciliation and victims in Serbia: the process so far” (New Horizons for
Victimology XI th International Symposium on Victimology Stellenbosch, South Africa 13-18 July, 2003) Draft
paper
[4] Wilson, D.; Pilisuk, M.; Lee, M., “Understanding Militarism, Money, Masculinity and the Search for the Mystical”,
in Christie, D., Wagner, R.; and Winter, D. Peace Conflict and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21 st century
(New Jersey, Prentice Press, 2001) p. 324
[5] Women, Peace and Security, At a Glance (UN Department of Public Information, 2003) at 11
[6] Cockburn, S., The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict (London and New
York, Zed Books, 1998) p. 167
[7] Puechguirbal, N., “Women and War in the Democratic Republic of Congo” in Signs, Journal of Women in Culture
and Society (USA, The University of Chicago Press, August 2003)
[8] J Barry, Rising up in response (Women in Black, Belgrade, 2005) p. 70
[9] ACCORD, “Conflict trends”, Special Issue on Women, Peace and Security 3/2003. (The African Center for the
Constructive Resolution of Disputes and UNIFEM, South Africa, 2003) at 31
[10] Cockburn, C., Supra n. 7, p. 43
[11] Ibid p. 43
[12] Meintjes, S., Pillay, A., and Turshen, M. (eds) The Aftermath: Women in Post Conflict Transformation (Londo,
Zed Books, 2001)at 6
[13] For more see: Gendercide Watch, “Case Study: Srebrenica Massacre, July 1995”. Text available at:
< http://www.gendercide.org/case_srebrenica.html>, accessed 21 October 2005
[14] Slapsek, S., “Hunting, ruling, sacrificing: traditional male practicies in contemporary Balkan cultures” in I
Breines, R Connell and I Eide., Male roles, masculinities and violence, A culture of peace perspective (Paris,
UNESCO, 2000)p. 139
[15] Pankhurst, D., “Issues of Justice and Reconciliation in Complex Political Emergencies” Third World Quarterly
January 20, 1999 p. 239-256
[16] Pankhurts, D., “Mainstreaming Gender in Peacebuilding: A Framework for Action” (London, Women Building
Peace, 2000) at 24
[17] International Conference on Truth, Reconciliation and Global Human Rights, Sarajevo, August 2005,
Statement from Criminal Court of BiH
[18] E Hoffer, “Retributive and Restorative Justice” For more see:
http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/415/415lect08.htm, accessed 1 October 2005
[19] Bloofield, D., “Reconciliation: am Introduction” Available at:
< http://www.idea.int/publications/reconciliation/upload/reconciliation-chap01.pdf>, accessed 2 April 2005
[20] Sooka, Y., “Keynote Address to The Aftermath: Conference on Women in Post-war Situations” (University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, July 20-22, 1999)
[21] Qoute from Ann-Maric. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela “Women’s Contributions to South Africa’s Truth and
Reconcilliation Commission” (Women Waging Peace, Hunt Alternative Fund, February 2005) For more see:
< http://www.womenwagingpeace.net/content/articles/SouthAfricaTJFullCaseStudy.pdf>, accessed 23 September
2005
[22] Infoteka, “To Live With (out) Violence: Final Report [on] Violence against Women [in] Zenica, Bosnia and
Herzegovina” A Second Look, no. 2 (Zagreb, Infoteka, 1999)
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Gender, Conflict, and Reconciliation: Where are the Men? What about Women?
[23] Nikolic-Ristanovic, V., Social Change, Gender and Violence: Post-Communist a nd War Affected Societies
(Kluwer, Dordrecht, Boston, London, 2002), at. 99
[24] Kurtenbach, K., “Dealing with the Past in Latin America” in Reychler, L., and Paffenholz, T. (eds)
Peacebuilding: A Field Guide (Lynne Rienner: Boulder, 2001) at 353
[25] Zehr, H., “Restorative Justice” in Ibid at 342
[26] Ibid at 341
[27] ICTY, Transcript, Prosecutor v. Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic, Foca case nos. IT-96-
23-T, IT-96-23/1-T (2002)
[28] Ibid
[29] ICTY, Appeals Judgment, Prosecutor v. Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic, Foca case nos. IT-96-23-PT, IT-96-23/1-
PT (2002)
[30] Ibid.
[31] Hunt, S., This was not our war, Bosnian women reclaiming the peace (Durham & London, Duke University
Press, 2004) p. 170
[32] For example, in the former Yugoslavia almost all NGOs who emerged at the beggining of the war were
consisted from women. It seems logical as well since men were recruited into the army and went into the war.
[33] Anderson, S., “Women’s Many Roles in Reconciliation”, see:
< http:www.gppac.net/documents/pbp/4/2_intro.htm>, accessed 30 March 2005
[34] Turshen, M., “Women’s War Stories” in What Women Do in War-time:Gender and Conflict in Africa, ed.
Tushen, M. and Twagiramariya, C. (London, Zed Books, 1998) pp. 1-26 at 20
[35] Meintjes, S., Pillay, A., and Turshen, M. (eds) , Supra n. 13, at 8
[36] Cynthia, E., “Deminlitarization-or more of the same? Feminist questions to ask in the postwar moment”, in
Cookburn, C., Zarkov, D. (Eds), The PostWar Moment, Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping
(London, Lawrence & Wishart, 2002) pp. 22-32 at 29
[37] Connell, R., “Arms and the men: using the new research on masculinity to understand violence and promote
peace in the contemporary world” in Breines, I., Connel, R., Eide, I., “Male roles, masculinities and violence: A
culture of peace perspective” (UNESCO Publishing, 9-17 and 21-33, 2000) at 30
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
Abstract:
Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
By Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic, Ph.D., Faculty for Social Education and Rehabilitation, Belgrade University,
Victimology Society of Serbia, Serbia and Montenegro
In this paper [1] the author is exploring interlaced impact, which war, militarism and globalization connected
changes, as macro processes, have on sex trafficking in women. Sex trafficking to, through and from the Balkans
is analyzed as one of the best examples of cumulative effect of all above-mentioned macro processes. The
analyses includes both immediate and long-term impact of ethnic conflicts and militarisation of the region as well
as the impact of changes connected to transition from communism in both the Balkans and other parts of Eastern
Europe. Special emphasis is put on Serbia, UN administered territory of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Macedonia and Bulgaria. The author is looking at interlaced influence of different political, economic and military
factors on both criminalisation and victimization processes and their gendered character. An additional aim of the
paper is to critically assess the role played by international community in fighting the problem of trafficking in this
part of the world.
Key words: sex trafficking, ethnical conflicts, militarism, globalization, the Balkans
"The coffee bars springing up in Bosnia bear a chilling resemblance to these wartime rape houses, but the war is
now a silent one...Those who cause trouble are easily disposed of. Last year, the naked bodies of two women
were found in a river near Arizona Market. Both bore the marks of mafia-style killings - hands tied behind their
backs, feet bound to concrete. Tape over their mouth was marked "Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe.” The symbols of protection had been used to stifle their screams. Their identities are impossible to
trace."
Kate Holt, “Captive Market,” The Sunday Times Magazine, February 18, 2001, 51.
Introduction
Uneven distribution of wealth has always been among the main generators of sex trafficking. However, only in the
past several decades has sex trafficking become a global problem. As Dutch researcher Sietske Altink observes,
“more and more countries are joining the ranks of sending countries and increasing numbers are becoming target
countries.” [2] Economic hardships and their consequences for women create a potential supply of workers for the
sex industry. But this "supply" would never be used for sex trafficking purposes without the creation of demand.
The increased demand for women as sex objects is evident within both post-communist and developed countries.
In the 1980s and 1990s sex trafficking of Eastern European women became more attractive for traffickers than
trafficking in Asian women, because of shorter distances and consequently fewer expenses and risks, which led to
bigger profits. Further, trafficked Eastern European women are more attractive to white Western male
consumers since they fit better their racial, educational, and gender expectations (e.g. they are mainly white,
educated, and ready to obey). Thus, “we need to understand how global capitalism creates conditions for women
to sell sexual services at far better rates of pay than the sale of another form of labor.” [3]
War and militarism particularly influence sex trafficking in women. Their impact is mostly connected to specific
war and post-war situations, but sex trafficking may also be the consequence of the very presence of military in
the region, regardless of whether there is war going on or not. Thus, the impact of militarism on sex trafficking is
not necessarily connected to war, although war may produce militarist cultural ideals about gender which increase
the vulnerability of women to socio-economic factors that lead to sex trafficking. [4] Moreover, examples from
recent history show that the expansion of prostitution due to the extended presence of military forces has longterm
consequences on the development of sex trafficking on both local and global levels. [5]
The impact on sex trafficking of war, militarism, and social changes due to the transition from communism have
been explored separately and without taking into consideration their interconnections. Moreover, the problem of
trafficking in women from former communist countries has mainly been considered as a threat to destination
countries. [6] Less is known about trafficking within post-communist countries, especially about the Balkans as
one of major destinations for trafficked women. The one sided approach to the problem has had significant
negative consequences on policing and treatment of illegal migrants in general, and victims of trafficking in
particular. “Fortress EU” syndrome, together with narrow human rights approaches and the overlooking of broader
structural causes of trafficking led to “instant” and mostly punitive solutions, which are not efficient either in
terms of deterrence of offenders or in terms of protection of victims. The recognition of the role of international
community in sex trafficking in peacekeeping areas is at the earliest stages. [7]
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
The main aim of this paper is to explore the interlaced impact which war, militarism, and political and economic
changes, have on sex trafficking in women. I focus my analysis on sex trafficking to, through, and from the
Balkans because it exemplifies the cumulative effect of these macro processes. My analysis considers both
immediate and long-term impact of war as well as the impact of changes connected to transition from communism
in both the Balkans and other parts of Eastern Europe. I will look at the intertwined influence of different political,
economic and military factors on both criminalization and victimization processes and their gendered character. An
additional aim of the paper is to critically assess the role played by international community in fighting the
problem of trafficking in Eastern Europe. [8]
Sex Trafficking in the Balkans: Scope and Directions
The expansion of sex trafficking in women from Eastern and Central Europe, which coincided with the end of the
Cold War, affected the Balkans significantly and in various ways. The Report of International Organization for
Migration, for example, shows that, even more than a decade after the end of Cold War and several years after
the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, it is evident that trafficking in the Balkans is still significant problem
affecting growing numbers of women and children. [9] Moreover, the Balkans are not a transit and sending
region only, but also one of the major destinations for trafficked women as well. International Organization for
Migration estimates that up to 500,000 women are forced to work as prostitutes in Europe. The same source
suggests that “120,000 women and children are being trafficked into the European Union each year, mostly
through the Balkans.” [10] Some estimations for the UK suggest that more than 70% of women working in
brothels in Soho are from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, with women from the Balkans making
large part of them. [11]
Although the Balkans are not a homogeneous region, they have traditionally acted as a crossroads between East
and West, an area where Eastern and Western influences meet. Thus, the geographical position of the Balkans
predestined it its role as a crossroads for different illegal channels. This makes trafficking in women (as well as
other forms of transnational crime) in the Balkans a particular case in comparison to both Western countries and
other parts of Eastern Europe. As a consequence, factors which contribute to trafficking in women from, through
and to the Balkans, are connected with the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and with the transition from
communism in Eastern Europe, as well as with the broader processes of militarization and globalization of the
region.
Sex Trafficking During Ethnic Conflicts
Ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia have contributed significantly to the vulnerability of women to sex
trafficking. Although only sporadically mentioned in works on wartime sexual violence, sexual slavery and sex
trafficking are strongly connected to war rapes and forced prostitution. Moreover, methods used for bringing
women into rape camps and brothels are extremely cruel and humiliating. News about women held in sexual
slavery appeared as early as in December 1993 in the article “Shame in Bosnia,” written by well-known British
journalist Roy Gutman and published in Newsday. Gutman reported about Sonja’s Kon Tiki brothel in Sarajevo,
where Muslim women were forced into prostitution and held in sexual slavery by Serbs. This report also showed
the complicitous role of UN soldiers in Bosnia, who were regular “clients” of women held as sex slaves, and who
did nothing to protect them. Moreover, survivors of nearby prisons testified that they saw girls who were forced in
UN vehicles and driven to unknown destinations. [12] Further, during the first trial dealing exclusively with sexual
violence before the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, testimony was heard that in the Bosnian town
of Foca “women and children, some as young as 12 years old, were detained and raped, vaginally, anally and
orally, subjected to gang rapes, forced to dance nude with weapons pointed at them, and even enslaved.” [13]
Recently, a former Serb soldier has been arrested by NATO troops for his alleged role in enslaving Muslim girls for
sexual exploitation. He is accused of effectively running a brothel for Serb soldiers against the will of Muslim
women. [14] Additionally, the final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts revealed other cases of
Muslim women kept as sexual slaves by Serbs, and abductions of Serbian women who where held in sexual
slavery in brothels run by Croats in Croatia. Finally, the Albanian mafia largely used the refugee crisis during the
Kosovo conflict and NATO intervention for trafficking Albanian and Roma women from Kosovo to Italy and other
Western countries. [15]
Although sex trafficking that was closely connected to ethnic conflicts stayed mainly within borders of war-affected
and neighboring countries, it contributed to the expansion of prostitution and made good basis for these countries
to become attractive destination for trafficking in women from other parts of Eastern Europe. As well observed by
noted American feminist author Katherine MacKinnon,
'The spectacle of the United Nations troops violating those they are there to protect adds a touch of the perverse.
My correspondent added that some UN troops are participating in raping Muslim and Croatian women taken from
Serb-run rape/death camps. She reports that ‘the UN presence has apparently increased the trafficking in women
and girls through the opening of brothels, brothel-massage parlors, peep shows, and the local production of
pornographic films.’ [16]
Sex Trafficking after Ethnic Conflicts
Post-war militarization and the large presence of international organizations further contributed to the growth of
sex trafficking in the Balkans. As the report from the Conference on Trafficking, slavery and peacekeeping, held in
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
2002 in Turin, Italy, suggests,
'The combination of the end of hostilities and the arrival of relatively rich peacekeeping operation personnel drove
the hasty establishment of brothels and, in turn, founded the links between UNMIK [17] personnel and trafficking
syndicates. Within this observation lies the most significant challenge, then, to the peacekeeping operations in
regards to trafficking - the fact that peacekeepers are often part of the problem. ' [18]
In 1999, Human Rights Watch uncovered brothels “filled with women scattered throughout Bosnia.” Women told
Human Rights Watch interviewers that they had been sold from brothel owner to brothel owner, placed in debt
bondage, threatened, and beaten. One year later, the United Nations report on trafficking in Bosnia confirmed the
widespread abuses. The UN identified 260 nightclubs throughout the country, while the estimate given by NGOs
is that the number is as high as 900, with between four and 25 women in each nightclub. [19] The May 2000 HRW
Report documented significant local police, international police, and some Stabilization Force (SFOR) complicity in
trafficking in women. [20] Also, according to local NGOs, 50 per cent of clients are internationals, mainly soldiers
from SFOR, and at least 70 percent of all profits from prostitution are estimated to come from internationals, who
pay different rates and spend more money in bars than local men. A similar situation exists in Kosovo, where
three higher-level police officers have been recently repatriated for suspected involvement in trafficking. [21]
Serbia, because of its better economic situation at the beginning of 1990s, was for some time one of the main
destination countries within Eastern Europe. However, later on Serbia became mainly a transit country, both to
neighboring territories where the raging war brought a large military presence, and to Western Europe. Women
from the Ukraine, Russia, and Romania make up the majority of women trafficked through Serbia. They are most
often used as prostitutes in Serbia for some time and then sold further, mainly through Montenegro to Italy. A
similar situation exists in Macedonia. Although the economic situation in Macedonia was difficult throughout the
transition from communism, its geographic position, large presence of NATO forces, and strong Albanian mafia
contributed to it becoming one of the main transit countries for many trafficked women. [22] Women from
Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Mongolia, Moldova, Romania, and Albania prevail among women trafficked to or through
Macedonia. From there, women are trafficked to the Middle East and Western Europe, mainly via Greece. Serbia
and Macedonia are often transit countries for the trafficking of women from other East European countries to
Kosovo, as well. According to the IOM's Kosovo data, more than a half of women whom IOM assisted entered
Kosovo from Serbia, and about a third of them entered from Macedonia. Also, women sometimes enter Kosovo
from Albania. [23] Women are usually sold three to six times during their journey to Kosovo. [24] However, after
Kosovo's introduction of tough laws against trafficking in 2000, the trafficking of women from Kosovo to and
through Macedonia also became prevalent. [25]
War, Transitions from Communism, and Global Capitalism: Factors Contributing to Sex Trafficking to,
through, and from the Balkans
Women's vulnerability to sex trafficking is the result of consequences which structural changes in post-communist
and war-affected countries produced in the everyday life and gender identities of both women and men. Thus it is
not possible to understand the wave of sex trafficking of women from Eastern and Central Europe without taking
into account both macrosocial and micro social and individual risk factors which either predispose or trigger
violence against women. [26] Similarly, research on this new slavery by noted British sociologist and antislavery
activist Kevin Bales, shows that it flourishes in societies under stress and in extreme poverty. Bales posits that
“existing power structures are overturned and a battle breaks out to fill the power vacuum. Economies that had
been stable, though perhaps poor, are replaced by haphazard development and exploitation. And, as we have
seen, in the absence of law, greed can overwhelm human rights.” [27] One of the main consequences of social
changes is the sharpening of social differentiation between a small part of very rich and a large part of poor
people, with an almost disappearing middle class. This has important consequences in the creation of new
masculinities and femininities as well as in the emergence of different models of family and class relations. [28]
On the one side there was the rise of traditional hegemonic masculinity, while on the other, multiple marginalized
masculinities arose as well. Complementary to them are what Robert Connell terms emphasized and marginalized
femininity. [29] Connell identifies “hegemonic masculinity” and “emphasized femininity” as the culturally idealized
forms of gender in a given historical setting. These forms, as further elaborated by James Messerschmidt are
“culturally honored, glorified and extolled at the symbolic level in the mass media.” “In Western industrialized
societies,” Messerschmidt continues, “hegemonic masculinity is characterized by work in the paid labor market,
the subordination of women and girls, heterosexism and the driven and uncontrollable sexuality of men.” [30]
Connell posits that emphasized femininity complements hegemonic masculinity through compliance with men's
desire for titillation and ego stroking and acceptance of marriage and childcare. On a mass level it is “organized
around the themes of sexual receptivity in relation to younger women and motherhood in relation to older
women.” [31]
The example of the Balkans very tellingly shows how women a combination of war, economic transition, and
globalisation-related factors pushes women into sex trafficking, thus illustrating the connection between sex
trafficking and social processes. Traffickers make use of the existing market demand and the women's need to
find jobs. In that process development of a market (neoliberal) economy plays a major role both by enhancing
disparity and inequality between countries and by creating demand for women as sex objects. Disparities and
inequalities influence the channels of migration in general, and the channels of trafficking in particular: they are
the consequence of "the world economic order, of the distribution of wealth among nations and the exploitation of
persons by others." [32] Thus trafficking channels go from developing countries to the industrialized nations and
not vice versa. Micro social expressions of macro social factors, such as transition from communism, war, and
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
globalisation, serve as strong push factors for women's migration, their employment in the sex industry, and their
vulnerability to sex trafficking.
The probability of becoming a victim of trafficking is greater for younger women, since young women are more
often identified by themselves and by potential recruiters as sex objects. This is connected with the changes in
gender images about sexuality, which are best mirrored in the explosion of beauty/fashion magazines and
pornography in post communist societies. [33] As noted Bulgarian feminist historian Krassimira Daskalova says,
"the message conveyed is that beauty is the most valuable female 'asset' and that every woman should try to
make herself sexually attractive to men and to become a source of men's pleasure.” [34] Media re-constructed
the traditional opposition between men's sexual needs and women as passive sexual objects and men's property,
which is further used to justify violence and blame the victim . [35] At the same time, global mass media
reinforced this trend through the circulation of stereotyped gender images “deliberately made attractive for
marketing purposes.” [36] As noted British sociologists and criminologists Ian Taylor and Ruth Jamieson
demonstrated, economic processes connected to globalization, such as rapid liberalization of trade and economy
across the world, led to an increase in the role that sexuality plays throughout the public culture. [37]
In addition, vulnerability to sex trafficking is connected with marginalization and hopelessness related to the
difficulty of economic, war-related, family or similar situations. Both women's desperate state because of their
difficult situation and their efforts to find a solution or exit from it contributes to their inaccurate perception of
risks, and to the failure to anticipate danger. In the Balkans, we find foreigners and desperate local women who
suffer short and long-term consequences of war: they are both pushed into sex industry. As Peter Von
Behtlemfavy of the IOM states, “the number of illegal prostitutes from the Balkans, where close to a decade of
war has wiped out many ordinary jobs, has tripled if not quadrupled from 1995 to 2000.” [38]
Socio-economic changes in the everyday lives of both women and men in post-communist countries (e.g.
unemployment and/or loss of previous social positions and privileges) play an important role in precipitating their
involvement in prostitution as pimps, and in trafficking as recruiters or traffickers. [39] The words of one
prostitute illustrate this vividly:
'Many pimps would not work in prostitution if the economic situation were better. If they were employed. Many of
them are not criminals like in the Western countries. They are unhappy people who are not able to find a job.
Sometimes, they live from the prostitution of their wives, girlfriends and daughters. Sometimes, they do not earn
anything for several days. Poverty is common for pimps. There are a few who have a network, good car, etc, but
the majority live only on the prostitution of their wives or daughters.' [40]
Labor distribution among people involved in trafficking is strongly gendered so that among recruiters (who get the
least profit [41] ) women participate in equal measure as men, while men dominate in higher places in the
hierarchy. Also, poor and powerless men are usually subordinated to those who have leading roles within the
mafia. Thus, the place which men hold within economic structure usually determines the role they have within
sex industry business as well, as street pimps, brothel owners, traffickers or clients. Whatever their economic
position, and whether women identify themselves as sex objects or are identified as a such without their consent,
they are always subordinated to men. Although men can be subordinated to women in the hierarchy of sex
trafficking, women are never at the pinnacle of the hierarchy. Although there are differences between feminine
roles (e.g. women involved in trafficking, street prostitutes, call girls, victims of trafficking etc.) and subordinated
masculinities, masculinities are always hegemonic in relation to femininities. As a result of both economic
hardships and changes in normative heterosexuality, both women and men are attracted to jobs within the sex
industry and involve themselves in sex trafficking. Thus, both women and men tend to secure economic survival
as well as social standing for reaffirming gender and gender roles. [42]
War helps to generate sex trafficking in a number of ways. Unemployment, poverty and lack of prospects in
general influence both supply and demand for prostitution and trafficking. Desperate women easily become
vulnerable to false promises and deception, as well as to different forms of violence. Traffickers exploit the fact
that many persons are in vulnerable situations, undocumented and separated from their families. Refugees are
especially vulnerable, both while fleeing from war zones and while in exile. The most commonly victimized groups
were Kosovo, Albanian, and Roma refugee women. [43] Apart from their desperate situation as refugees, they
were also culturally vulnerable since once raped either by Serb forces in the war zone or by traffickers while
fleeing it they knew that their families would never accept them back. Thus, they became involved in sex
trafficking much more easily than rape victims and women from less patriarchal societies did in peacetime. [44]
As British feminist researcher Liz Kelly points out of Bosnia, one of the most common routes into the sex industry
is rape, which makes women “unmarriageable.” [45] Within male-female relationships, rape corresponds to the
behavior of conquering troops toward occupied territories. [46] But women’s bodies can become a battlefield on
which men communicate their rage to other men as well, because women’s bodies have been the implicit political
battlefields all along. [47] As a consequence, raped women bear the message that “their ” men were not able to
protect them as well as that they are worthless as “property.” Consequently, armed conflict makes survival of
raped women even more precarious. [48] When a huge international army is also present, as in the case of
Bosnia, newly created demand for sex workers cannot be met by local women, trafficking of foreign women from
poor post-communist countries supplements the supply. According to some sources, there is evidence of foreign
women working as prostitutes in Bosnia and Herzegovina as long ago as 1993. [49]
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In the post-war period, the demand for sex work further increases with the arrival of peacekeeping troops and the
private military companies that accompany them, and large numbers of international organizations. [50] In
addition, in international protectorates such as the BiH- and UN-administered territory of Kosovo, where the
government and law enforcement is under complete control of the international community, large international
police forces and armies of administrative workers are present as well. As examples of the Philippines, Okinawa
and Thailand show, there is danger that the wartime and post-war increase in prostitution will be transformed into
peacetime institutionalization of the sex industry. [51] The sex industry develops and the vulnerability of women
to sex trafficking increases with the building of military bases. Although otherwise international presences may be
temporary in the region, prostitution and related trafficking in women may become a long-term problem in the
Balkans solely in connection to the emergence of new military bases.
For example, in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteal, is one of the largest military bases in Europe. [52] A similar situation
exists in Bosnia, where the irony is that Arizona Market, established by peacekeeping forces after the war to foster
trade between Serbs, Croats and Muslims, has grown “into five square miles of sinister black facade, where
women from the former Soviet Union and elsewhere in Eastern Europe are sold to the highest bidder.” The
Market is situated near the towns of Brcko and Tuzla, which boast “one of the highest concentrations of the
international police force created to establish law and order in Bosnia, one of the largest American army bases and
one of the biggest UN-administered aid packages of the post-war years.” [53]
Lawlessness, corruption, and social disorganization have a serious impact on the increase of sex trafficking in waraffected
areas as well. The negative impact of war on the functioning of the criminal justice system and the
absence of the rule of law in general have precipitated an increase in crime, including particularly the increase of
violent and organized crime. This further has led to the complicity of the criminal justice system in different forms
of organized crime, with male police officers either directly involved in trafficking in women or turning a blind eye
on it. One important factor in this is the high level of prejudices among criminal justice officers about victims of
sex trafficking; they often treat them as criminals rather than as victims.
In Serbia, the international isolation during the regime of former president Milosevic meant the severing of ties
with Interpol, other international organizations, and other countries' police forces. This contributed to human
trafficking. [54] However, the links between traffickers “extended beyond the usual boundaries of ethnic hatred in
the Balkans. Criminal Serbs, Montenegrins and Albanians collaborated closely to transport the victims and share
the profits.” [55] After the war, the wartime infrastructure of the mafia was easily transferred into postwar crime
and it was able to smuggle large numbers of illegal immigrants into the country. [56]
An important factor which facilitates sex trafficking is the development of organized crime, which is under the
significant influence of globalization. [57] The confluence of these two forces has enabled the development of the
sex industry, which is “based on and perpetuated by prevailing unequal socially and culturally defined gender and
power relations.” [58] Immigration laws and policies in destination countries, including policies on migrant labor,
migration, and prostitution, and corrupt officials in sending, transit, and destination countries, further contribute
to the development of sex trafficking merely by making organized crime possible. [59] As observed by noted
Dutch anti-trafficking activist Marijan Wijers:
'While on the one hand the number of women seeking employment opportunities abroad has grown, on the other
hand many destination countries, and especially the EU, have put in place more restrictive immigration policies,
thereby further decreasing the opportunities for legal migration even when there is a demand for labor in the
informal sector. The result is a growing gap between official policies in destination countries and day-to-day
practices. This is where organized crime comes in, filling the gap that official policies leave.' [60]
The Balkans, with their large presence of international administration, organizations, police, and military forces,
the attendant confusion in jurisdiction, corruption, and inefficient and biased law enforcement system, and its
short distance from the post-communist countries with large supplies of desperate women, is an ideal destination
for traffickers wishing to avoid risks and unnecessary expenses. Moreover, women from other East European
countries usually do not need visas to get to the former Yugoslavia, which make traffickers’ tasks even easier.
When recruiting women, organized crime relies largely on myths about Western countries which exist among
women in post-communist countries. Although some women are aware that they are to stay in the Balkans,
“knowing that the region is home to a population of highly paid, unaccompanied men from military forces,
international aid organizations, the United Nations and private military firms,” many are actually expecting to get
to the West. [61] Thus false promises of high earnings and an easy life in the West are used as a main motivations
for enticing women into the sex industry in the Balkans.
The retraditionalisation of cultural images about sexuality further reinforces socio-economic and political factors
connected to the transition between communism and globalization as factors contributing to prostitution,
migration and sex trafficking. [62] This means that in post-communist societies media re-constructs the traditional
opposition between men's sexual needs and women as passive sexual objects and men's property, which is
further used to justify violence and blame the victim. The presentation of sexuality has shifted from images of
women and men as asexual or partly sexual beings (in communism) to images of hegemonic masculinity and
subservient femininity associated with traditional opposition between men's (uncontrollable) sexual needs and
women as passive sexual objects. This discourse is largely influenced by imitation of Western images of sexuality.
As Messerschmidt points out, in Western industrialized societies “hegemonic masculinity is currently established
through an alleged uncontrollable and insatiable sexual appetite for women, which results in a 'naturally' coercive
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'male' sexuality.” [63] Thus, this kind of normative heterosexuality is based on power relations and, consequently,
it defines masculinity “through difference from, and desire for, women. Therefore, normative heterosexuality is
not only a major structural feature for understanding gender, but for understanding masculinities and crimes
committed by men as well.” [64] In addition, Connell makes clear that in a contemporary world, stereotyped
gender images are “deliberately made attractive for marketing purposes.” [65] These new images about sexuality
influence women's vulnerability to sex trafficking by widening the gap between cultural expectations and the
possibilities for achieving them (e.g. beautiful woman/sex object as an ideal as well as expensive beauty products,
clothes etc.). At the same time, these images operate through feeding the myth that working in the sex industry
is an attractive job (e.g. “pretty woman syndrome”). [66] Cultural images of women as sex objects became a
strong contributing factor for neutralizing and glorifying the seamy side of trafficking and prostitution abroad. But
new gender images in post-communist countries media are part of much broader cultural tendencies associated
with rapid liberalization of trade and economic activity across the world, especially with “market liberalism,” as the
“reorganization of economic and political life around the sovereignty of the citizen as a consumer.” [67] These
cultural tendencies include the colonization or commodification of sexuality, which is now playing an increasing
role in the public culture of market societies throughout the world.
Instead of a Conclusion: Policy Changes between Requests, Needs and Limits
At international forums held over last several years, international organizations often have addressed the sex
trafficking problem in connection to changes of communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe. This has led to
changes in national laws and policies. However, law and policy implementation, on both the European and UN
level, are only rarely based on serious research of the problem of sex trafficking, let alone the exploration of its
connection to structural violence. As a consequence, the international community has often imposed unrealistic
expectations on poor and war-affected countries of the Balkans, which are accused of being bridges for illegal
migration into Western Europe. This overlooks the fact that these same countries are without their own resources
and power, or that they are even governed by the international community, like Bosnia and Kosovo. Moreover,
hypocrisy and imperialistic approaches to the problem of trafficking often is present in both Western immigration
policies and in the international community’s requests for changes of laws and policy regarding human trafficking
in general, and in the Balkans in particular. For example, the pressure of the international community toward postcommunist
countries to undertake decisive (mainly repressive) measures is in obvious contradiction with global
processes which generate structural violence on the world level, leaving no room for appropriate protection of
victims, let alone for the prevention of violence. In addition, the urge for changes in post-communist countries is
an obvious contradiction to rather slow, inconsistent and partial changes undertaken by EU countries themselves
which mostly take into account only the interests of the prosecution and ignore or minimize the needs of victims.
[68] As a consequence, policies which disregard global causes of violence against women are extremely visible in
sex trafficking. Even feminism is misused for the creation of fragmented images and solutions, which has
restricted the problem of violence against women to the interpersonal level of male-to-female relations. This is
what British feminist scholar Peggy Watson called “a kind of American state feminism for abroad.” [69] The
consequences are short-term reintegration and repatriation programs, based merely on victim’s willingness to
cooperate with the prosecution without being offered comprehensive protection, as well as insensitive
deportations and revictimisations of trafficked women.
Cold War ideological, legal, economic, and political constructions of a “pure Europe” versus demonic Others are
now transformed into “discourse concerning the lack of democratic features of Eastern European societies and
doubts about their capacity to change into ‘civil society.’” [70] Thus migrants are constructed as cultural, ethnic,
and religious Others, and the responsibility for illegal migration and trafficking in women is put on the Eastern
European countries of origin. This is well articulated in US State Department’s provision of sanctions against the
authorities of 23 states from the “blacklist” of states which do not make sufficient efforts to act in accordance with
U.S. legislation. This amounts to pure exhibition of imperialism and neocolonialism, particularly in light of the
significant efforts made by the government of the Balkan countries to curtail sex trafficking. In this way, leaders
of global capitalism and militarism seem to hide their own (structural) responsibility for massive sex trafficking.
This hypocrisy is especially evident in the Balkans. Accusations against the Balkans always exaggerate the
lawlessness and corruption of local police while overshadowing the role of the international community in both the
creation of demand and in the administrative chaos in this part of the world. The fact that in Bosnia and Kosovo
the legal and administrative power is in the hands of international community so that no law can be passed or
enforced without approval or supervision of international government and police is usually ignored. Similarly, the
corruption of international police, which directly encourages sex trafficking either through using sex services of
trafficked women, profiting from sex trafficking, or by obstructing anti-trafficking actions of local police, are also
largely disregarded. [71] Thus, the fact that a huge amount of Western tax payers’ money is spent just on the sex
industry in the Balkans is usually hidden from the eyes of the (Western) public. Or, to put it in the other way, the
large amount of money paid for the international presence has destroyed the infrastructure and rule of law in the
Balkans, and has ended up in the pockets of the members of the cruelest mafia in the world.
This criticism of international policy toward sex trafficking is not intended to absolve Balkan countries or local men
of responsibility. It is rather an attempt to look at the problem of sex trafficking in the contemporary world in
holistic way. As well observed by feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe, “we need to widen our lens considerably to fully
understand militarized prostitution,” by including different local and foreign men on the list of those whose actions
may contribute to the construction and maintenance of prostitution around military bases and other places with a
large military and police presence. [72] In addition, in order to reduce violence against women, as Santos
observed, “in militarism prostitution, one sees the heightened integration of classism, racism, sexism, and
imperialism.” Further, “whereas militarism goes in the world, so too goes prostitution.” [73] Changes are
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necessary on all levels of society: in social conditions, patriarchal gender roles, stereotypes about immigrants as
well as in economic and legal institutions, nationally and internationally.
Structural violence contributes to gendered interpersonal violence both by causing it and by preventing society
and victims from confronting it effectively. [74] Therefore, it is not surprising that in spite of positive political
changes and efforts made by civil society and women's movements, few substantial legal and institutional reforms
have directly addressed violence against women in post-communist countries. A significant obstacle even in more
developed post-communist countries is the obvious lack of material resources. Expansion of neoliberal capitalism,
deepening of the gap between poor and rich countries, and the dependent development of post-communist
countries do not promise much chance for a strong welfare state in the near future. [75] The costs of economic
change are very high, especially in poorer and war-torn countries.
A dramatic decrease in the standard of living and an increase in uncertainty, overall fluidity, instability, and war
victimization have led to continued sex trafficking over the last decade. In addition, the European Union’s fear of
illegal migration and the reluctance of the international community to address the causes rather than the
consequences of sex trafficking make arriving at a solution extremely difficult. [76] Both factors are important
reasons why even those changes which have been achieved in the Balkans did not produce the expected results in
terms of increased safety for women who suffer from sex trafficking. [77] To borrow words from noted US
sociologist Susan Cunningham, “if the society's structural dynamics continue to produce violence, anti-violence
policies and programs are bound to fail.” [78] The same may be applied in explanation of the causes of failure of
most of anti-trafficking programs so far, and especially of those in the Balkans and other post conflict societies.
This explains the failure of most anti-trafficking programs to date. Only by critically addressing and eradicating
structural violence can we address the critical problem in sex trafficking in the Balkans and other post-conflict
societies.
About the author:
Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic, Ph.D., Serbia and Montenegro, is professor of criminology at Faculty for Social Education
and Rehabilitation,Department for Prevention and treatment od social disorders, Belgrade University. She is
president of the Victimology Society of Serbia, editor in chief of Temida, Serbian Journal on Victimisation, Human
Rights and Gender, corresponding editor of Feminist Review (UK) and member of Advisory Board of Contemporary
Justice Review (USA). She is the member of the Counsil on Gender Equality of the Government of Serbia. She has
been publishing largely on victimisation, war, violence against women and truth and reconciliation in the former
Yugoslavia. Her most important works include: Women, violence and war , ed.(CEU Press, 2000), Social change,
gender and violence: post-communist and war afftected societies (Kluwer, 2002), and "New wars, Global
Governance and Law”, Hart, (ed) forthcoming in 2006.
E-mail: vnikolic@eunet.yu
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Daskalova, Krassimira “Manipulated Emancipation: Representations of Women in Post-Communist Bulgaria,” in G.
Janhart, J.Gohrisch, D.Hahn, H.M.Nickel, I.Peinl, K.Schafgen (eds.), Gender in Transition in Eastern and Central
Europe, Proceedings. Berlin:Trafo Verlag (2001):284-295.
Enloe, Cynthia. “It Takes Two,” in S.P.Sturdevant and B.Stoltzfus (eds.), Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and
the U.S. Military in Asia. New York: The New York Press (1992): 22-27.
Euler, Catherine. "Razvijanje najbolje vojne profesionalne prakse u pogledu nasilja nad zenama na i u blizini
vojnih baza" (“Developing Best Professional Military Practice With Regard to Violence Against Women on and Near
Defense Estates”), Temida 2 (2000):75-79.
Feher, Lenke. "Forced Prostitution and Traffick in Persons," in M. Klap, Y.Klerk and J.Smith (eds.), Combating
Traffick in Persons. Utrecht: SIM (1995):67-79.
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
Global Survival Network. Crime and Servitude - An Expose of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the Newly
Independent States. Washington D.C: Global Survival Network, 1997.
Goodey, Jo. “Whose Insecurity? Organised Crime, its Victims and the EU,” in A. Crawford (ed.), Crime and
Insecurity: the Governance of Safety in Europe. Devon:Willan Publishing, 2002:135-159.
Gutman, Roy. Svedok genocida (Witness of Genocide). Zagreb: Durieux, 1994.
Hagan, John. Structural Criminology. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1988.
Human Rights Watch World Report 2001:Women’s Human Rights - Women in Conflict and Refugees
International Organisation for Migration "Information Campaign for the Prevention of Trafficking in Women in
Hungary" (unpublished report), 2000.
International Organisation for Migration, Pristina. Return and Reintegration Project, situation report - February
2000 - May 2001.
Kelly, Liz. "Wars Against Women: Sexual Violence, Sexual Politics and the Militarised State," in S.Jacobs, R.
Jacobson and J.Marchbank (eds.), States of Conflict. New York: Zed Books (2000):45-65.
Kelly, Liz and Regan, Linda. Stopping Traffick:: Exploring the Extent of, and Responses to, Trafficking in Women
for Sexual Exploitation in the UK. London: Police Research Series Papers 125, 2000.
Konig, Ilse (ed) Trafficking in Women. Vienna: Federal Chancellery, 1997.
Limanowska, Barbara. Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe. Belgrade: UNICEF, 2002.
Lutz, Helma. “The Limits of European-ness: Immigrant Women in Fortress Europe,” Feminist Review 57,
(1997):93-111.
MacKinnon, Katherine. “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights” in A.Styglemayer (ed.), Mass Rape: The
War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press (1994):183-196.
Messerschmidt, James. Masculinities and Crime. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1993.
Messerschmidt, James "From Patriarchy to Gender:Feminist Theory, Criminology and the Challenge of Diversity" in
N.Rafter and F.Heidensohn (eds) International Feminist Perspectives in Criminology. Buckingham-Philadelphia:
Open University Press (1995):167-189.
Nikolic-Ristanovic, Vesna (ed.). Women, Violence and War. New York: CEU Press, 2000.
Nikoli•-Ristanovi•, Vesna. Social Change, Gender and Violence: Post-Communist and War-Affected Societies.
Boston:Kluwer, 2002.
Nurmi, Reet. "Mobile Russian Prostitution in Finland," paper presented at the 32nd Triennial Conference of the
International Abolitionist Federation, "Breakdown of Borders", December 2-4, 1999, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Oleszczuk, Teresa and Buchowska, Stana. "The 'Pretty Woman Syndrome’" in One Year La Strada (unpublished
report) (1996):24-31
Picarelli, John. “Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping.” (Conference Report). Turin:UNICRI, 2002.
Rejali, Dariu.s “After Feminist Analyses of Bosnian Violence,” Peace Review 3, (1996) :365-371.
Santos, Aida. “Gathering the Dust: The Bases Issue in the Philippines,” in S.P.Sturdevant and B.Stoltzfus (eds.),
Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia. New York: The New York Press, 1992: 32-43.
Sklair, Lesli. Sociology of the Global System. Hertfordshire: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Taylor, Ian and Jamieson, Ruth. "Sex Trafficking and the Mainstream of Market Culture," Crime, Law and Social
Change 32, (1999):257-278.
Watson, Peggy. "Gender and Politics in Postcommunism," in G.Janhart, J.Gohrisch, D.Hahn, H.M.Nickel, I.Peinl, K.
Schafgen (eds.), Gender in Transition in Eastern and Central Europe Proceedings. Berlin:Trafo Verlag (2001):37-
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
49.
Williams, Phil. "Trafficking in Women and Children: A Market Perspective," Transnational Organized Crime, Special
Issue "Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex - the New Slave Trade" (ed. P.Williams) 3-4, (1999):145-170.
Wijers, Marjan and Lin Lap-Chew, L. Trafficking in Women:: Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage,
Domestic Labour and Prostitution. Utrecht: STV, 1997.
Wijers, Marjan “Izmedju ugnjetavanja i osnazivanja” (“Between Oppression and Empowerment”), Temida 3
(1998): 5-13.
[1] Paper presented at the British Criminology Society Conference, “Crossing Borders,” Keele, July 17-2, 2002.
[2] Sietske Altink, Stolen Lives (London:Scarlet Press, 1995), 22.
[3] Azize-Vargas, quoted by Marjan Wijers and Lin Lap-Chew, Trafficking in Women: Forced Labour and Slaver-
like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution (Utrecht: STV, 1997), 53.
[4] Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic, Social Change, Gender and Violence: Post-Communist and War-Affected Societies
(Boston:Kluwer, 2002), 130.
[5] A good illustration for that is the expansion of sex tourism in Thailand after the Vietnam War, and later
trafficking of Thai women to the West.
[6] Jo Goodey, “Whose Insecurity? Organized Crime, its Victims and the EU,” in A. Crawford (ed), Crime and
Insecurity: The Governance of Safety in Europe (Devon: Willan Publishing, 2002), 140.
[7] John Picarelli, Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping (Turin: UNICRI, 2002),7.
[8] The paper is based on my continuing research into the problem of violence against women in post-communist
and war-affected societies in the period 1993-2002. This includes several empirical and action researches, results
of which are mostly presented in my books Women, Violence and War (2000) and Social Change, Gender and
Violence ( 2002). Also, it is partly the result of the on going research project Serious forms of crime in the
conditions of transition, which is funded by Serbian Ministry of science.
[9] International Organization for Migration, Geneva, Press Briefing Notes, January 8, 2002, 2.
[10] Barbara Limanowska, Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe (Belgrade:UNICEF, 2002), 4.
[11] Liz Kelly and Linda Regan, Stopping Traffick: Exploring the Extent of, and Responses to, Trafficking in Women
for Sexual Exploitation in the UK, (London: Police Research Series Papers 125, 2000), 31.
[12] Roy Gutman, Svedok genocida (Witness of Genocide), (Zagreb:Durieux, 1994), 207.
[13] “Serbs Enslaved Muslim Women at Rape Camps,” Guardian, 21 March 2000
[14] “Serb war ‘brothel chief’ arrested’ ,CNN article available from World Wide Web (http:/www.cnn.com/2002/
WORLD/europe/07/09/bosnia.stankovic/index.html), retrieved on July 9, 2002.
[15] Oliver Bacanovic, “Zeni zrtvo na trgovija so luge” (“Women Victims of Traffick in People”), Annual Edition of
the School of Security in Skopje, (2001):104-116.
[16] Katherine MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women’s Human Rights,” in A.Styglemayer, ed. Mass Rape: The
War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Lincoln and London : University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 192.
[17] United Nations Mission in Kosovo
[18] Picarelli, 13.
[19] Limanowska, 65.
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
[20] Human Rights Watch World Report, 2001.
[21] Limanowska, 65, 96.
[22] Coneva, interview, 1999. International Organization for Migration, Skopje, for example, helped 152 victims in
the period between August 9, 2000 and February 9, 2001(Bacanovic, 110). In September 2001, the number of
trafficked women assisted by the IOM in Macedonia reached 328 (Message received through STOP-TRAFFIC
@friends-partners.org list on September 11, 2001).
[23] The majority of women trafficked to Kosovo and assisted by the IOM are from Moldova, Romania, the Ukraine,
and Bulgaria. Women from Moldova are trafficked through Romania, and they are then sent to Kosovo either
through Hungary and Serbia or through Bulgaria and Macedonia. Similarly, Ukrainian women are trafficked to
Kosovo through Hungary, Romania or Bulgaria, and then through either Serbia or Macedonia. Channels for
trafficking of Russian women mainly go through the Ukraine and then through Moldova, Bulgaria and Macedonia.
[24] International Organization for Migration, Pristina, Return and Reintegration Project, situation report - February
2000 - May 2001, 6,7.
[25] Bacanovic, 108.
[26] Nikolic-Ristanovic, 135.
[27] Kevin Bales, Disposable People (Berkley: University of California Press, 1999) , 245.
[28] John Hagan, Structural Criminology (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1988), 171..
[29] Robert Connell, Gender and Power – Society, the Person and Sexual Politics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987,
183-188.
[30] James Messerschmidt, "From Patriarchy to Gender:Feminist Theory, Criminology and the Challenge of
Diversity" in N.Rafter and F.Heidensohn eds. International Feminist Perspectives in Criminology, (Buckingham-
Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1995), 173.
[31] Connell, 187.
[32] Ilse Konig (ed), Trafficking in Women (Vienna: Federal Chancellery, 1997), 17.
[33] Suppression of sexuality during communism delayed the sexual revolution in communist countries. Social
changes were seen as an opportunity to compensate for all that was missed for so long, as well as for achieving
individual instead of collective identity.
[34] Krassimira Daskalova, “Manipulated Emancipation: Representations of Women in Post-Communist Bulgaria,”
G.Janhart, J.Gohrisch, D.Hahn, H.M.Nickel, I.Peinl, K.Schafgen (eds) Gender in Transition in Eastern and Central
Europe Proceedings (Berlin:Trafo Verlag , 2001) p. 249.
[35] Nikolic-Ristanovic, 60.
[36] Robert Connell, “Masculinities and Globalization,” in M.S.Kimmel and M.A.Messner, eds., Men's Lives
(Meedham Heights:Allyn and Bacon, 2001), 61.
[37] Ian Taylor and Ruth Jamieson, “Sex Trafficking and the Mainstream of Market Culture,” Crime, Law and
Social Change 32, (1999): 257-278, 264.
[38] John Smith, “Sex Trade Enslaves East Europeans Migrant Women Brutalized in Burgeoning Business,” The
Washington Post, July 25, 2000, 11.
[39] Lenke Feher, “Forced Prostitution and Traffick in Persons,” in M. Klap, Y.Klerk and J.Smith (eds.), Combating
Traffick in Persons (Utreht: SIM, 1995) , 76.
[40] Nikolic-Ristanovic, 127, interviewed in Budapest on May 17, 1999
[41] For example, criminal gangs buy women from recruiters for small amounts of money such as $50-150 and
resell them for $5000 and more.
[42] James Messerschmidt, Masculinities and Crime (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1993) , 122..
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Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism and Globalization in Eastern Europe
[43] Bacanovic, 106.
[44] Reet Nurmi, (1999) “Mobile Russian Prostitution in Finland,” paper presented at the 32nd Triennial Conference
of the International Abolitionist Federation, Breakdown of Borders, December 2-4, Copenhagen, Denmark.
[45] Liz Kelly, “Wars Against Women: Sexual Violence, Sexual Politics and the Militarised State,” S.Jacobs, R.
Jacobson and J.Marchbank (eds), States of Conflict (London-New York: Zed Books, 2000) , 58.
[46] Christine Chinkin, “Peace and Force in International Law,” in D.G. Dallmeyer, ed., Reconceiving Reality:
Women and International Law (New York: Asil,1993), 206.
[47] Darius Rejali, “After Feminist Analyses of Bosnian Violence,” Peace Review 3, (1996): 366.
[48] A good illustration for that is found in the expansion of sex industry in Serbia during NATO bombing 1999.
[49] Jane’s Intelligence Weekly, 1 September 2000
[50] Private military companies provide an assortment of services to the armed forces, the US government, and
foreign governments and international organizations, and it is a rapidly growing business. In just ten years, the
private military industry has grown from a handful of companies to hundreds, with its income rising from millions
of dollars a year to and estimated $100 billion a year. (source: http:/salon.com/news/featiue/2002/06/26/bosnia.
print.html). As stated in the report from Turin 2002 Conference on Trafficking, Slavery and Peacekeeping, private
contractors supplementing or overseeing the staffing requirements for the peacekeeping operation on behalf of
some Member States or providing them with services, equipment and/or supplies, are found to be directly
involved in the trafficking of women from Eastern Europe (Picarelli, 16).
[51] For example, in the late 1960s, Thailand was used as a place for “rest and recreation” for American G.I.s in
Vietnam. After the end of the war, prostitution became one of the main financial resources for Thailand. By
developing “mass sex tourism” as a means to pay off its debts, it actually encouraged the peacetime
institutionalization of sex industry (Williams, 1999:153). A similar process occurred in the Philippines. Although
in 1972 Okinawa returned to Japanese administration, prostitution “continued to be the mainstay of the
economy.” (Catherine Euler, “Razvijanje najbolje vojne profesionalne prakse u pogledu nasilja nad zenama na i u
blizini vojnih baza” (“Developing Best Professional Military Practice With Regard to Violence Against Women on
and Near Defense Estates”), Temida 2, 2000, 27.
[52] Euler, 75.
[53] Kate Holt, “Captive Market,” The Sunday Times Magazine, February 18, 2001, 47.
[54] “Montenegro to Crack Down on Human Trafficking,” The Associated Press, December 11, 2000, received
through STOP-TRAFFIC @friends-partners.org list on December 11, 2000.
[55] John Smith, “Sex Trade Enslaves East Europeans Migrant Women Brutalized in Burgeoning Business,” The
Washington Post, July 25, 2000
[56] Robert Fisk, “UK:Immigration - How Sarajevo has become the Springboard into Europe,” Independent,
February 5, 2001:.3.
[57] Phil Williams, “Trafficking in Women and Children: A Market Perspective,” Transnational Organized Crime,
Special Issue “Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex - The New Slave Trade” 3-4 (1999):202.
[58] Nurmi, 10.
[59] Konig, 17.
[60] Marian Wijers “Izmedju ugnjetavanja i osnazivanja” (“Between Oppression and Empowerment”), Temida 3
(1998): 8.
[61] Ann Jordan, a lawyer with International Human Rights law Group, quoted in http:/salon.com/news/
featiue/2002/06/26/bosnia.print.html.
[62] Nikolic-Ristanovic, 60.
[63] Messerschmidt, 75
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[64] Messerschmidt, 76.
[65] Connell, 2001:61.
[66] Oleszczuk, Teresa and Buchowska, Stana “The ‘Pretty Woman’ Syndrome” in One Year La Strada
(unpublished report), 1996, 27.
[67] Taylor and Jamieson, 264.
[68] See Goodey, 2002.
[69] Peggy Watson, “Gender and Politics in Postcommunism,” G.Janhart, J.Gohrisch, D.Hahn, H.M.Nickel, I.Peinl, K.
Schafgen (eds), Gender in Transition in Eastern and Central Europe Proceedings (Berlin:Trafo Verlag, 2001), 43.
[70] Helma Lutz, “The Limits of European-ness: Immigrant Women in Fortress Europe,” Feminist Review 57
(1997) : 93-111.
[71] There are, for example, allegations that international police inform bar owners about police raids and buy
women as sex slaves without any critical remark made on their personal record, let alone any kind of legal
responsibility (Limanowska, 68). According to the Washington Post, in the five years since international police
officers were sent to help restore order in Bosnia, the UN police mission has faced numerous charges of
misconduct, corruption and sexual impropriety. But in nearly every case, UN officials handled the allegations
quietly by sending the officers home, often without a full investigation. (http:/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A28267-2001Dec26.html. Also, Picarelli, 9). As a result of allegations of the involvement of peacekeeping
personnel in trafficking, the code of conduct for UN personnel was changed in 2001 to specifically include
trafficking as an offence, but there is no evidence that it has yet been used against those who have violated it.
[72] Cynthia Enloe “It takes Two”, S.P.Sturdevant and B.Stoltzfus (eds) Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and
the U.S. Military in Asia (New York:The New York Press, 1992) , 24, 25.
[73] Aida Santos “Gathering the Dust:The Bases Issue in the Philippines”, S.P.Sturdevant and B.Stoltzfus (eds)
Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia, (New York:The New York Press,1992) , 40.
[74] Nikoli•-Ristanovi•, 2002.
[75] Lesli Sklair, Sociology of the Global System (Hertfordshire: Simon & Schuster, 1991) , 233.
[76] For example, in spite of similar experiences with post-war prostitution and trafficking in women worldwide,
the trafficking problem was not anticipated before entering either Bosnia or Kosovo, even considering the lessons
learned in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Picarelli, 2002:21). As well observed by British criminologist Jo Goodey, “the
neglect of transnational organized crime’s most immediate victims, in this case trafficked women, has been
offered as a balance to TOC’s construction primarily, as a ‘criminal’ concern rather than a ‘victim’
concern”(Goodey, 2002:154). As a result, the EU has constructed itself as the primary victim of organized crime
and, thus, it is not surprising that few efforts are made to prevent victimization of “non-EU others.”
[77] Nikoli•-Ristanovi•, 175.
[78] Susan Cunningham, “What we Teach about When We Teach about Violence,” The HFG Review 1 (2000):4-9.
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Aspects of External Perceptions of Identity and Group-Belonging
Aspects of External Perceptions of Identity and Group-Belonging
By Ann-Charlotte Nilsson, LL.M., B.S., M.A. Int. Affairs, Sweden
1. How Does the International Community Reinforce Divisions Between Groups?
One of the most noted psychological symptoms among the Muslim population in Sarajevo during the conflict in
Bosnia-Hercegovina, was its total puzzlement about that the Muslim community was stereotyped as Muslim
fundamentalists by a Western perception. [1] This perception caused such traumatic stress that people sought
psychological help since they did not recognize themselves in that definition, which also has to be understood in
the context of the Muslim community not seeing themselves as being able to properly defend themselves. [2]
This paper raises the issue that there is an interactive dynamic between the internal and external (international)
actors that risks reinforce the boundaries between groups if certain perceptions are unequivocally accepted
regarding who people are in terms of ethnicity and group belonging, and in the anticipation of how people will
behave. There are consequences of such perceptions since policies and expectations are based upon them.
International actors need to become aware of that dynamic so that in an effort to assist in conflict resolution and
peace-building the divisions that do exist do not get cemented and reinforced, or are seen as something given. In
addition we need to understand the necessity for actors not only at the governmental level but also at the
community level to become engaged in the peace process. This is necessary to consider since it relates to who
defines the issues at hand, how these issues are addressed and which issues the different actors are ready to deal
with. To focus only at the governmental level keeps us within the realm of the political dimension both with
regards to internal and international actors, while we simultaneously need to understand and identify other
dimensions of conflict that interrelate with one another. We need to develop such an integrated approach,
because if properly applied and understood, it will ultimately lead to the prevention of conflict.
2. Elite-Driven Conflicts and the Process of Polarization Between Groups
The elite-driven conflicts that evolved in Rwanda and Bosnia-Hercegovina were driven by actors that used and
manipulated members of the population to carry out violent acts based on ethnicity, and where in numerous cases
former friends and neighbors turned into enemies. Maynard terms these types of conflicts, identity conflicts. [3]
These are conflicts among identity groups based on factors such as ethnicity or religion, and are characterized by
their intense animosity, extreme brutality and widespread involvement by civilian actors in the context of societal
collapse. [4]
The increasing animosity and the resort to violence between groups has traditionally been explained by the
process of polarization. The process of polarization involves the element of mutuality, in that members of the
different groups are brought together into hostile blocs that equally oppose each other. [5] Conflicts over certain
events and issues increase, as does the simplification of issues. The middle ground and the mediating structures
and relationships diminish. [6] Ideologies of polarization develop preconceiving the society in simplified terms,
where the different groups have neither any common nor reconcilable interests. [7] As tensions arise, this dynamic
leads to that violence becomes unavoidable as well as reciprocal. [8] Violence is met by violence with an
accompanied spiral effect on the polarization. The ensuing violence has a direct deteriorating effect on the
relations both among and between the different groups, and on the relations between the groups and the
government. While continuous violence leads to an even higher degree of polarization, extreme violence such as
genocide, transforms the conflict into relations of mutual hatred. [9] The necessity for violence is explained and
justified by the different actors as either that violence is the only available alternative to incur changes in the
system for the sub-ordinate group, or as the only alternative to defend and maintain the existing system from any
changes from the perspective of the dominant group. [10]
However, we also know of numerous cases where people refuse to participate in this process of polarization and
manipulation. In Rwanda, where a well-planned strategy of genocide of the Tutsi population existed long before it
was carried out, moderate Hutu were targeted and killed because they were for mutual coexistence and political
participation of all groups. [11] Many Hutu were not only victims of the violence that ensued, but did also help
assist and protect members of the Tutsi group. Also in Bosnia-Hercegovina many people have helped and
protected each other across ethnic lines, and have not succumbed to the polarization that has ensued. In Burundi,
there are many examples of where people have not followed different leaders’ incitement to violence. [12]
The complexity of the situation is reflected in that while some people have not necessarily seen themselves
defined by a certain group membership, the ensuing polarization has at times forced people into accepting that
identification because of the need of protection from the very real threat from actors that label people according
to a specific group and act thereafter. As the example from Sarajevo on page one shows, there is here an
interrelated dynamic with international actors that can serve to reinforce this identification with painful
consequences.
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Aspects of External Perceptions of Identity and Group-Belonging
In addition, in many places where violence has erupted, former existing local or traditional social networks like
elders’ councils have ceased to function because people simply feel overwhelmed by the situation and the
escalating animosity. [13] There are times when it is very difficult to separate what is right from wrong and to
withstand the dynamics of polarization and violence. It would be useful for international actors to try to
consciously identify such networks or councils to support them in conflict situations, with the purpose of reducing
fear and mistrust and of trying to mitigate the ensuing polarization. In Burundi, the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) as part of its dissemination program on norms of humanitarian conduct identified and
organized a local working group whose members resisted the conflict, and is an example of how international
actors can assist in mitigating tensions between groups. [14] In addition, the ICRC redesigned its program to
reduce the risk that the program itself would feed into suspicions between the groups.
3. How Do We Refrain From Feeding Into the Process of Polarization?
From the perspective of the various international actors, it is necessary to try to identify the dynamics of violence
to be able to understand why people act in a certain way, and also to reduce the risk for international actors to
become emerged into the process of polarization.
The foundation of ethnocentrism and nationalism is said to be the affiliation people feel with what is termed the
‘in-group’ and the fear of the ‘out-group’. [15] In times of societal transition and disintegration feelings of
insecurity and the fear for the unknown make us more susceptible to messages of fear or propaganda especially if
these sentiments are combined with actions that validate this fear. These feelings of insecurity and the fear for
the unknown do not emanate from being a member of a certain group, race or nation, but emanate from being a
human being. [16] It is in the context of certain circumstances, such as societal transition and disintegration, that
in addition, also ordinarily psychologically healthy people can become prone to fuel their feelings and frustrations
into hatred of the ‘other’ followed by violence. [17] The ‘other’ becomes the enemy. These acts of violence no
longer remain private acts of violence if spurred on or incited by actors with a political purpose that use, in this
case, ethnicity as a means to get to or to stay in power. What such actors, leaders, provide is a very powerful
validation of not only the distress and the fear that people are experiencing, but of who the enemy is. [18]
Becoming aware of this dynamic and understanding how powerful it is, provide an opportunity for international
actors to try find a mechanism to mitigate the effects of such fears before violence erupts instead of risk believing
that the eruption of violence might be something given.
Political violence by one group against another has serious consequences for how the different groups view and
relate to each other. It has been said that such violence leads to that the boundaries between the groups become
reinforced, as does the internal cohesion for each group. [19] Also, violence leads to the strengthening of the
inclination of stereotyping the other group, the ‘out-group’, as the enemy, all combined leading to that the gap
between the groups widens. [20] The concept of the enemy, also supports the internal cohesion of the group. [21]
An additional factor is the dehumanization of the ‘other’ which makes it possible for a person to carry out violent
acts.
However, it would be a mistake to take this dynamic as something static. As an example, local non-governmental
organizations (Ngos) working in Sarajevo which provided emergency aid to war victims during the conflict, had
been established by the specific groups, Serbs, Muslim, Catholic and Jewish before the conflict erupted in 1992
serving not only the specific groups but the whole community in areas where they worked based on need. [22]
When the conflict in Bosnia-Hercegovina began, these local Ngos were identified by international Ngos as their
partners and as recipients of funding. However, as a way of showing nonpartisanship some of these international
Ngos targeted their funding to each Ngo based on specific group ethnicity. Later on representatives of these local
Ngos have argued that by targeting aid in this way the international actors reinforced the divisions that existed,
while not creating them. [23] They also suggested that if these funds had been given to them as a group to jointly
decide where to allocate them, joint decision making as well as a mutual understanding of each other’s suffering
would have been strengthened. [24] Such an approach would also have been able to serve as a common ground
for continuous joint decision making in the post conflict phase.
This example not only shows the problem with uncritically accepting definitions and perceptions about how one
thinks the situation is. It also shows the necessity for international actors to become more adept at analyzing the
different dynamics of a certain situation and to take responsibility for the fact that what one does has an impact
on people and that these actions always have consequences, good or bad. It also reflects the necessity for
developing true partnerships where concerns such as these would have been aired and taken into account at the
time of the planning of, in this above-mentioned case, the funding of local Ngos.
4. The Necessity to Let Go of the Enemy – From Simplicity to Complexity
In countries where neighbors and former friends turn into foes as we have seen in so many places, an
examination of also the psychological dimension of conflict resolution is required. [25] This is necessary when the
situation is highly emotionally charged affecting among other things not only how people perceive and relate to
each other, but also how people perceive the deliverance of emergency aid and assistance, as well as
governmental and international initiatives and projects for reconstruction and development. It is both very difficult
and painful to let go of the ‘us-versus-them’ attitude, especially in the context of continuous political polarization.
In moving towards a more peaceful society away from the polarization, letting go of the ‘enemy’ is though a
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necessary process as is letting in a more complex reality. Fear is a very powerful emotion that does not go away
with a peace agreement. This psychological dynamic needs to be properly understood as well as addressed. For
instance, some of the resistance in Bosnia-Hercegovina regarding the difficulties people still have in being able to
move back into their own houses, might be based in continuous fear and not hatred for the other. [26] This has to
be seen in the context of what kind of leadership that is present. Also, again it is a matter for international actors,
at this cross-point, to try not to feed into and thus maintain existing divisions but instead try to assist in finding
ways and mechanisms for moving away from the polarization. Because of the complexity of the situation this
needs to be seen in the context of the interrelationship between not only governmental and non-governmental
actors, but also between the different dimensions of conflict.
Another aspect is that in a highly emotionally charged environment it is easy to lose perspective because of the
mere emotional difficulty of the situation, and some international actors might easily become a target for
manipulation if they are not adept at dealing with emotional issues. For instance while the need to defend and
protect a group, people, is justified, there is a risk such as the case of Rwanda shows that the situation turns into
a power play. In Rwanda, governmental actions, domestically and internationally such as in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, are explained by the government within the framework of the genocide, and the genocide
is used as a justification for disproportionate violence. Some international actors have dismissed or minimized
actions taken by the current government, in some cases because of an ineptitude to deal with the highly
emotionally charged environment after the genocide. [27] Still it is well documented that for instance both sides
have committed crimes against humanity during the conflict in 1994. [28] Also, that soldiers of the RPA (the
Rwandan Patriotic Army) have been responsible for massacres of civilians in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, as well as for killings and “disappearances” of civilians in Rwanda. [29]
An approach that dismisses and minimizes actions taken by actors that surmount to violations of international
humanitarian law or human rights will not lead to peace, because it does not support the dynamic that is
conducive to peace. It is a confusing approach since these external actors do not seem to be able to distinguish
between right from wrong at a time when clarity is needed. International actors have to make sure that their
activities support the country as a whole for the long-term, and not only those who find themselves in a
leadership position at a certain time. Also, such an approach only serves to maintain animosity and division as
well as impunity.
The complexity of the concept of ethnicity is reflected in conflict situations by the relocation or reintegration of
people. Many people have been forced to relocate because of their ethnicity to not only new areas but what has
become a new country, in the context of nation transformation. Others have been living in exile during decades,
and later return to their former home country. Ethnic affiliation with other people of the same group in this new
place might not necessarily lead to being in a more tolerant environment, or at home. Different experiences as
well as lifestyles, and issues such as land distribution and who gets assistance, transcend ethnicity. [30] A too a
narrow focus on ethnicity risks disregard the underlying root causes of conflict that might still be present, such as
continuous political and economic discrimination. Again in Bosnia-Hercegovina, some people have argued whether
the international community in its quest to end the conflict, paradoxically has been working towards division and
not unity. We do not need to create a new lid, here ethnicity, to put on existing problems by not adequately
addressing the root causes as well as the consequences of conflict.
A related example is Rwanda after the genocide in 1994. Hundreds of thousand of Tutsi returned from having
lived in exile during decades in mainly English speaking Uganda or in French speaking Burundi. [31] Some of these
people have never even been to French speaking Rwanda before, or they left Rwanda when they were small
children. [32] This situation is reflected at the governmental level as well, where the initial opposition group of
exile-Tutsi constitutes the core of the current government. Today some of those Hutu and Tutsi that lived in
Rwanda throughout the genocide and never fled have at times more in common with each other than with their
respective ethnic group. [33] Also, concerns about whose interest the government is serving have been discussed,
an issue which transcends ethnicity. This has to be seen in the context of that the current government has long
been criticized of limiting political opposition of all groups, that political space has been seriously curtailed, and
that it is controlling, not governing, the country. [34] In April 2000, tensions increased once again when key Hutu
members of the government resigned, leading to that some people fled to Tanzania. [35] Since April 2000 there
has been what the UNHCR (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) terms a “worrying” increase of
Rwandan refugees into Tanzania. [36] The refugees give as reasons to their flight among other things, an increase
in disappearances, arbitrary arrests and killings targeting young men in particular. [37] The situation is
exacerbated in Rwanda by that a common definition of either the past or the current situation, including the
historical aspect, does not seem to have yet fully developed neither internally nor internationally. This is serious
because that means that some of the post-conflict projects and programs might have been or be counterproductive
for the development of peace.
An integrated approach is necessary because a too a simplistic approach will not only limit the scope of issues that
will be addressed, but also the number of actors involved in the making of peace. As this paper has shown there
are many dimensions to a conflict situation. In recent conflicts there has been a clear gender dimension, where
many women and girls have been exposed to rape and sexual violence as a deliberate method of intimidation.
Such violence is not separated from the general social structure of our societies that includes the role of women,
and that dimension needs to be included and not only framed in terms of crimes having been committed against
women. Finally a simplistic approach will serve to maintain the polarization that already exists instead of help
reducing it, with the result of continuous division.
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In conclusion, international actors in conflict or post-conflict situations, be it through emergency aid or funding of
and participation in different projects and programs with the stated purpose of contributing to peace, need to
become aware of the interrelationship between these different dynamics and dimensions so to make sure that
peace is not built on division and on what separates people, but on how we can create a mutual platform from
where to start living together again.
September 2000.
Bibliography
Amnesty International, Annual Report 2000, London, www.amnesty.org
Amnesty International, Rwanda: the Hidden Violence: “disappearances” and killings continue, AFR 47/23/98, June
23, 1998, London, www.amnesty.org
Anderson, Mary B., Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace- or War, Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., Boulder,
London, 1999
Commission Internationale Non-Gouvernementale sur les Violations Massives des Droits Humains en République
Démocratique du Congo (ex-Zaïre) 1996-1997. Rapport Preliminaire. Rapport Préparé par le Centre Internationale
des droits de la Personne et du Développement Démocratique et L'Association Africaine pour la Défense des Droits
de l'Homme en République Démocratique du Congo (Kinshasa) (ASADHO). June 1998, www://ichrdd.ca
Crenshaw, Martha, Introduction: Reflections on the Effects of Terrorism, in ‘Terrorism, legitimacy and power: the
consequences of political violence: essays/ by Irving Louis Horowitz’, Ed. by Crenshaw, Martha, Middletown,
Conn., Wesleyan University Press, Scranton, Pa., 1983
Destexhe, Alain, Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, New York University Press, New York, 1995
Jones, Lynne, Letter from Sarajevo: On a front line, BMJ 1995: 310:1052-1054, April 22: bmj.com Jones 310
(6986):1052
Frøyland, Anette, Nilsson, Ann-Charlotte, Suhrke, Astri, Rwanda: Verken rettferdighet eller fred (Rwanda: Neither
Justice nor Peace), in ‘Forsoning eller rettferdighet? Om beskyttelse av menneskerettighetene gjennom
sannhetskommisjoner og rettstribunaler’, (‘Reconciliation or Justice? The protection of human rights through truth
commissions and criminal tribunals’), Ed. by Andreassen B-A and Skaar E., Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, Oslo,
1998
Kuper, Leo, The Pity of It All: Polarization of Racial and Ethnic Relations, University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis, 1977
Maynard, Kimberly A., Healing Communities in Conflict, International Assistance in Complex Emergencies,
Columbia University Press, New York, 1999
Maynard, Kimberly A., Rebuilding Community: Psychosocial Healing, Reintegration, and Reconciliation at the
Grassroots Level, in ‘Rebuilding Societies after Civil War: Critical Roles for International Assistance’, Ed. by Kumar,
Krishna, Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc., London, 1996, Boulder, 1997
Prunier, Gérard, Rwanda: La mort d’un juste, Libération, Débats, June 16, 1998, Le Quotidién, www. Libération.
Com;
Reyntjens, Filip, Talking or Fighting? Political Evolution in Rwanda and Burundi, 1998-1999, Current African Issues
No. 21, the Nordic Africa Institute, (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet), Uppsala, 1999
Robins, Robert S., and Post, Jerrold M., Political Paranoia, The Psychopolitics of Hatred, Yale University Press, New
Haven, London, 1997
U.N. Doc. S/1994/1405 Letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council transmitting the
final report of the Commission of Experts, December 9, 1994, in ‘the United Nations and Rwanda, 1993-1996’, the
Blue Books Series, Volume X, United Nations
UNHCR Press Briefing Note, Tanzania: Increase in Rwandan Arrivals in Ngara, July 21, 2000, www. UNHCR
Refugee NewsNet results: Rwanda
UNHCR – South East Europe pages – the World/ South-East Europe/ Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 2000, www.
unhcr.ch
UNHCR Press Briefing Note, Tanzania: UNHCR Concern at Mine Accounts, April 28, 2000, www. UNHCR Refugee
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NewsNet results: Rwanda
U.S. Committee for Refugees, Life After Death: Suspicion and Reintegration in Post-Genocide Rwanda,
Washington D.C., Immigration and Refugee Services of America, February 1998
[1] Jones, Lynne, ‘Letter from Sarajevo: On a front line’, BMJ 1995; 310:1052-1054 (22 April), 1052, p. 1
[2] Op. cit., p. 5
[3] Maynard, Kimberly A., ‘Healing Communities in Conflict, International Assistance in Complex Emergencies’,
1999, p. 6
[4] Ibid.
[5] Kuper, Leo, ‘The Pity of it All: Polarization of Racial and Ethnic Relations’, 1977, p. 128
[6] Op. cit., p. 113
[7] Op. cit., p. 128
[8] Op. cit., p. 128
[9] Op. cit., 1977, p. 205; Kuper talks about how the conflict in Burundi became ‘qualitatively’ transformed by
violence, such as that extreme forms of violence did not only have a deteriorating effect on relations, but an effect
that evolved from deteriorated relations into hatred of each other.
[10] Op. cit., 1977, p. 114, 120
[11] Two to three years before the Arusha Accords in 1993, there was the beginning of a movement in Rwanda
working for the respect for human rights, the rule of law and an end to the one-party system. Many Hutu publicly
were in favor of democratic governance and negotiating with the RPF (the Rwandan Patriotic Front) leading up to
the Arusha Peace Accords in 1993. These were seen by the Hutu extremists as traitors and labeled “accomplices”
of the RPF, and were intimidated and terrorized along the Tutsi by the different militia groups the Interhamwe and
the Impuzamugambi, the youth wings of the Hutu parties the Movement Republican national for development
(MRND) and the extremist the Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR); Destexhe, A., ‘Rwanda and
Genocide in the Twentieth Century’, 1995, p. 28-29:
[12] Anderson, Mary B., ‘Do No Harm: how aid can support peace – or war’, 1999, p. 117
[13] Maynard, Kimberly A., ‘Healing Communities in Conflict’, 1999, p. 116
[14] Anderson, Mary B., ‘Do No Harm: how aid can support peace – or war’, 1999, p. 117
[15] Robins, R. S. and Post, J. M., ‘Political Paranoia, the Psychopolitics of Hatred’, 1997, p. 88
[16] Op. cit., p. 89
[17] Op. cit., p. 89, 93, 97
[18] Op. cit., p. 94, 97: However, at the bottom of such movements are people who are not content with
themselves, p. 97.
[19] Crenshaw, Martha, ‘Intro.: Reflections on the Effects of Terrorism’, in ‘Terrorism, Legitimacy…’, p. 22
[20] Ibid.
[21] Robins R. S. and Post J. M., ‘Political Paranoia, the Psychopolitics of Hatred’, 1997, p. 92
[22] Anderson, Mary B., ‘Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace – or War’, 1999, p. 35
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[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] See the developing literature on the necessity to integrate both psychological and social issues into the
international response and assistance regarding complex emergencies, Maynard, Kimberly A., Rebuilding
Community: Psychosocial Healing, Reintegration, and Reconciliation at the Grassroots Level, in ‘Rebuilding
Societies after Civil War: Critical Roles for International Assistance’, Ed. by Kumar, Krishna, Lynne Rienner
Publishers Inc., London, 1996, Boulder, 1997
[26] A majority of the 660.000 Bosnians that have returned to Bosnia have not been able to return to their old
homes because of continuous political tension between the different communities (Serb, Muslim, Croat). In
addition one million more Bosnian refugees and internally displaced persons have yet to permanently settle.
Some improvements have been made such as setting up a legal framework that includes property laws, that the
UNCHR tries to strictly implement: UNCHR – The World, South-East Europe pages – Bosnia and Herzegovina, July
2000, http://www.unhcr.ch
[27] An ineptitude to deal with the emotional environment in Rwanda is by no means the only reason to why
international actors dismiss or minimize these actions, but a reason that is seldom acknowledged.
[28] Letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council transmitting the final report of the
Commission of Experts, S/1994/1405, December 9, 1994, in ‘the United Nations and Rwanda, 1993-1996’, the
Blue Books Series, Volume X, p. 416
[29] Commission Internationale Non-Gouvernementale, 1998; Frøyland A., Nilsson A-C, Suhrke, ‘Rwanda: Verken
rettferdighet eller fred’, in ‘Forsoning eller rettferdighet? …’, 1998, p. 275; Amnesty International: “Rwanda, the
Hidden Violence: “disappearances” and killings continue”, June 23, 1998, AFR 47/23/98: Annual Report 2000;
www.amnesty.org
[30] U.S. Committee for Refugees, ‘Life After Death: suspicion and reintegration in post-genocide Rwanda’,
February 1998, p. 12-13; Maynard, Kimberly A., ‘Healing Communities in Conflict’, 1999, p. 116
[31] U.S. Committee for Refugees, ‘Life After Death: suspicion and reintegration…’, February 1998, p. 12-13;
[32] While today the official languages in Rwanda are Kinyarwanda, French and English, the main languages
spoken have been Kinyarwanda and French.
[33] U.S. Committee for Refugees, ‘Life After Death: suspicion and reintegration ...’, February 1998, p. 12-13
[34] See Prunier, Gérard, ‘Rwanda: La mort d’un juste’, Libération, Débats, June 16, 1998, Le Quotidién, www.
Libération. com; Reyntjens, Filip, ‘Talking or Fighting? Political Evolution in Rwanda and Burundi, 1998-1999’,
Current African Issues, No.21, 1999, p. 26
[35] UNHCR Press Briefing Note, April 28, 2000, ‘Tanzania: UNHCR concern at nine accounts’, www. UNHCR
Refugee NewsNet: in the first half of April 2000, more than 160 Rwandans fled to Tanzania.
[36] UNHCR Press Briefing Note, July 21, 2000, ‘Tanzania: Increase in Rwandan arrivals in Ngara’, www. UNHCR
Refugee NewsNet:
[37] UNHCR Press Briefing Note, July 21, 2000, ‘Tanzania: Increase in Rwandan arrivals in Ngara’, www. UNHCR
Refugee NewsNet: By July 2000, 3.240 people have fled from Rwanda to Tanzania this year alone. For the whole
of 1999, UNHCR recorded 1,633 people.
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Executive Summary
Gender and Armed Conflict – an Overview Report
By Armani El Jack
BRIDGE
Armed conflict negatively affects women and men and results in gender-specific disadvantages, particularly for
women that are not always recognised or addressed by the mainstream, gender-blind understandings of conflict
and reconstruction. Gender inequality reflects power imbalances in social structures that exist in pre-conflict
periods and are exacerbated by armed conflict and its aftermath. The acceptance of gender stereotypes is one of
the main reasons that such gender blindness persists.
Stereotypical perceptions of roles
Stereotypical interpretations shape and are shaped by social, political, economic, cultural and religious contexts.
Armed conflict encourages expectations that men will fight and women will support them on the ‘home front’. The
popular perception is that men are soldiers or aggressors and women are wives, mothers, nurses, social workers
and sex-workers. It is true that it is primarily men who are conscripted and killed in battle, but women make up
the majority of civilian casualties and suffer in their role as caregivers, due to a breakdown of social structures
(Byrne 1996). However, women are also combatants, as evidenced in Sri Lanka and Liberia, and men are also
victims. These realities have consequences for gender relations, which often go unnoticed and unresolved.
Gendered impacts of armed conflict
The impacts of armed conflict on gender relations are significant. Forced displacement and gender-based violence
(GBV) are two examples of impacts that are not inevitable outcomes of armed conflict, but rather are deliberate
strategies of war that destabilise families and communities. Physical and sexual violence, particularly towards
women and children, occur with greater regularity during and after armed conflict. Women experience rape and
forced pregnancy, forced sex work and sexual slavery, often at the hands of ‘peacekeepers’, police or occupying
forces, as occurred in Bosnia. Although men are the primary perpetrators of violence towards women and
children, it is important to note that men too are subject to victimisation and violence, including sexualised
violence.
International laws and institutions
Gender differences are entrenched within public and private institutions that intervene to end armed conflict and
build peace (El-Bushra 2000a, Kabeer 1994). International organisations such as the United Nations (UN),
governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) vary from ignoring women or taking a gender-blind
approach, to treating women stereotypically. Still others look at women without a consideration of women’s
relative inequality in the context of gender relations.
Often where the term ‘gender’ is used, the focus still tends to be on women and girls without taking into account
the ways in which gender inequality and power imbalances between women and men exacerbate their
disadvantage. Impacts of armed conflict such as forced displacement and GBV are not understood as human
rights violations, but rather as cultural or private issues that are best left alone. Furthermore, many governments
have yet to ratify the international commitments designed to protect the human rights of women and girls during
and after armed conflict. Lack of recognition or enforcement prevents any real progress towards gender equality.
Mainstreaming gender concerns into conflict resolution and interventions
Interventions, such as humanitarian assistance and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR)
programmes for ex-combatants, exacerbate gender inequality if they are administered in gender-blind ways.
Mainstreaming gender awareness into the structures that govern armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction
requires better cooperation between international institutions, states and NGOs. If we are to build more equal
post-conflict societies, it is particularly important to involve women’s organisations at the decision-making level in
the formation of political and legal structures.
Indeed, the all-encompassing upheaval caused by armed conflict creates the potential to redefine gender relations
in the post-conflict period in more gender equitable ways. But without greater support for organisations and
interventions that promote gender equality in all sectors, there is a high risk that long-standing patterns of
oppression will be re-established.
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Recommendations
The report makes a number of recommendations:
Take the lead from the local: Interventions need to be based on context-specific evidence about what women and
men are doing, and not on stereotypical interpretations of gender roles and relations that presume to know what
they should be doing. Interventions should involve local organisations – particularly women’s groups – in decisionmaking
capacities. Outreach and support designed to assist families and communities adjust to shifting gender
roles and relations should be assessed on the local level to ensure they are appropriate to the particular
community or region. The programmes of states and international organisations must also reflect the concerns
and priorities expressed by local populations.
Improve implementation of existing international laws by international institutions and states, particularly in terms
of recognition of impacts of armed conflict such as forced displacement, impoverishment and GBV as violations of
human rights and not as private, cultural concerns that are unavoidable outcomes of war. Implementation and
enforcement of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 would represent a significant step forward.
Increase funding to specialised services that deal with the distinct needs of women and men who suffer violent
impacts of armed conflict such as rape and torture. For women, specialised services must include counselling and
outreach to manage gynaecological/reproductive health concerns related to rape, forced pregnancy and sex work.
More health and counselling services should also be made available for men who move away from masculine,
stereotypical gender roles or resist violence and combat and, as a result, become victims of physical and sexual
violence.
Involve women and provide gender training: The involvement of women is necessary but does not in itself
guarantee that gender concerns will be addressed or that women are automatically gender-aware. Training in
identifying and addressing gendered concerns is important for everyone involved in post-conflict reconstruction.
Peacekeepers in particular must receive tailored gender training in order to build trust with communities, as well
as to minimise the threat of sexual and physical violence from peacekeepers themselves.
Without a proper understanding of how gender roles and relations are shifting, we jeopardise the goal of a
sustainable and peaceful post-conflict society. Greater cooperation is needed between all the actors involved in
conflict and post-conflict reconstruction to address the power imbalances that lead to gender inequality. Without
significant steps towards gender equality, there can be no real or meaningful peace.
Executive summary written by Lata Narayanaswamy.
5.1 Human rights versus human security
Human rights
(…)
Historically, mainstream definitions of human rights, while seemingly gender neutral, have been predominantly
based on men’s experiences. Article two of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises human
rights as a universal ideal of respect for humanity that all people are entitled to, but does not make any specific
mention of women. Indeed, few governments and NGOs are committed in domestic or foreign policies to women’s
equality as a basic human right (Peters and Wolper 1995). In zones of conflict, the denial of women’s human
rights has reinforced oppression and discrimination. When combined with other forms of power imbalance, this
denial has more devastating consequences.
An emphasis on human rights is important but insufficient in dealing with issues related to gender equality.
Violations that occur during all stages of armed conflict are often considered simply to be the consequences of war
and not necessarily human rights violations, and are frequently overlooked:
• Although armed conflicts violate the basic right to life and security, women experience specific vulnerabilities
and violence including forced pregnancy, sexual mutilation and sexual slavery at the hands of soldiers (Anderlini
2001). Similarly, men may be physically or sexually abused or experience trauma after witnessing this type of
abuse against family members. These types of violations are seen as ‘private’ issues or unavoidable outcomes of
conflict as opposed to human rights violations.
• Human rights are also violated in conflict through imprisonment, torture, disappearances and forced
conscription but, again, these acts are considered to be inevitable outcomes of war rather than violations. Women
and men experience violations of human rights in distinct ways. Men of combat age constitute the majority of
those killed during fighting, endure imprisonment and are forcibly conscripted. Meanwhile, women and children in
conflict zones constitute the majority of civilian casualties as well as the majority of those displaced and
impoverished (Byrne 1996).
• Political representation and participation are basic human rights. But whether in conflict or not, political
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institutions frequently exclude women. Women are under-represented in national and international organisations
in both conflict and post-conflict arenas (UNDP 2002). This violation of human rights is not defined as such, but
rather, is seen as a reflection of ‘normal’, patriarchal structures of power in play. Therefore, it is rarely
questioned, particularly during armed conflict.
In short, human rights approaches will continue to overlook serious violations unless they recognise the gendered
effects of armed conflict as basic rights violations and not as private, normal or inevitable consequences of armed
conflict.
Human security
Human security relates to the safety of people (particularly disadvantaged people) from ‘such chronic threats as
hunger, disease and repression . . . [and] from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life –
whether in homes, in jobs or in communities’ (UNDP 1994: 23).
The human security approach is based on the assumption that all people ‘have basic human rights and should
enjoy these rights regardless of who and where they are’ (ibid). In the context of gender, the term implies that all
women and men are entitled to security, including economic security, food security, and health and environmental
security (ibid). Feminist perspectives on human security draw a further link between sustainable development,
social justice and the protection of human rights and capabilities as central aspects of any discussion of human
security (AWID 2002).
A human security focus for studying gender and conflict is significant because it establishes a link between gender
equality and human security. Unlike a focus on rights, the human security approach implies that anything that
threatens security is a violation of human rights, including gender-specific violations long considered to be normal,
private or inevitable outcomes of war. However, even with the security framework, in practice there will still be
resistance to recognition of these violations.
A human security approach is also problematic, insofar as it can be appropriated by states and multilateral
organisations for their own agendas (Enloe 1993). The attacks on the World Trade Center in the US on 11
September 2001, for example, have become a pretext for the racist depiction of Muslims and people from the
Middle East in the name of ‘homeland security’. Current developments within US foreign policy strongly suggest
that human security will continue to be used to justify wars such as those against Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in
2003.
5.2 International law, resolutions and conventions
The human rights of women (and girls) are embodied in a number of international human rights instruments and
international humanitarian laws. These instruments collectively condemn all forms of violence against women.
Many of them also contain specific references to the inclusion of a ‘gender component’ in ‘peace and security’,
most notably UNSC Resolution 1325, the Windhoek Declaration: Namibia Plan (UN 2000).These laws and
resolutions stress that those negotiating and implementing peace agreements should adopt a gender-sensitive
perspective and address the protection and rights of women and girls during conflict and in post-conflict
reconstruction.
What is UN Security Council Resolution 1325?
In October of 2000, the UN Security Council held a debate on Women, Peace and Security, which led to the
passage of Security Council Resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000. Among other things, the Resolution recognises
that an understanding of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls and effective institutional arrangements
to guarantee their protection and full participation in the peace process, can significantly contribute to
international peace and security. The UN calls on all parties involved in conflict and peace processes to adopt a
gender perspective. This will include supporting local women’s peace initiatives and indigenous processes for
conflict resolution. The NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security is working to ensure the
implementation and raise the visibility of UNSC Resolution 1325 and incorporate more women in peace and
security issues. The complete resolution is available in the Supporting Resources Collection that accompanies this
report or online at:
www.un.org/events/res_1325e.pdf .
The language of ‘gender’ in Resolution 1325
UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security is undeniably a breakthrough for establishing broader
human rights guidelines, particularly for women’s human rights, at the international level. Unfortunately, the
resolution does not provide much guidance on what a ‘gender perspective’ consists of, and where the term
‘gender’ is used, it is used interchangeably with ‘women and girls’. It denies many of the gendered concerns that
arise in armed conflict. These concerns require an understanding of how existing power imbalances between
women and men are experienced during and after armed conflict and how these inequalities might be removed to
improve gender relations.
5.3 Why are there difficulties in implementation and enforcement?
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Although the importance of these laws, resolutions, conventions and commitments must not be understated, they
are limited in their application. International commitments are difficult to enforce in practice because of the
limited interpretations of human rights that deny various forms of gender-specific violations, as discussed in the
previous section. Also, a range of cultural, historical and patriarchal justifications exist for the exclusion of
gendered concerns in both human rights and human security approaches. This oversight is reflected in the use of
language in international laws, in that emphasis is placed on women and girls in isolation as opposed to gender
and gender relations. Furthermore, many states have yet to ratify these international commitments. Finally,
despite the availability of this information, communication and information sharing with respect to these laws and
commitments within organisations and between policymakers and grassroots organisations has been poor.
Even where equal rights and security are recognised in theory, the practice remains unequal because women and
men do not have equal opportunities to claim these rights, due to differential access to economic, political and
legal resources. At all levels, there is a need for laws, resolutions, strategies and interventions that specifically
target the differential access to resources and opportunities.
Implementing and institutionalising gendered human security and human rights approaches into policies requires
the commitment of resources and the development of strategies that effectively overcome gender bias. Civil
society, particularly women’s organisations, can play a role in raising awareness and ensuring governments and
NGOs are held accountable.
Through the mobilisation of and cooperation between all actors concerned with armed conflict and reconstruction,
we have a better chance of addressing the power imbalances that lead to unequal gender relations and
establishing a long-lasting, sustainable peace.
BRIDGE (development – gender)
Institute of Development Studies ©
NOTE: The article is an excerpt from the BRIGDE PUBLICATION “Gender and Armed Conflict – an Overview
Report” by Armani El Jack. See the full text at: http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_con_em.htm
BRIDGE can provide further gender and development material in English, through our websites or by contacting
them:
BRIDGE (development - gender)
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 606261
Fax: +44 (0) 1273 621202
Email: bridge@ids.ac.uk
Website: http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge /
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(…)

Alternatives
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ALTERNATIVES
Women’s Voices: Solidarity Based Economy Network
By Les Penelopes
Les Pénélopes believe it is urgent to break barriers of isolation by giving women more
consciousness of their know how, empowering them by the awareness of not being alone
and by multiplying their potential through mutual network. To respond to this social
demand, we need to create new tools for measuring this underestimated know how, new
methods to interpret this invisible qualification.
How Can Globalisation be Changed to Benefit All People?
By Janice Duddy
AWID
A look at the newly released ILO report written by the World Commission on the Social
Dimension of Globalization entitled "A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for all".
The way women's movements have been challenging the current state of globalization
will also be explored.

Women’s Voices: Solidarity Based Economy Network By Les Penelopes, France
Women’s Voices: Solidarity Based Economy Network
By Les Penelopes, France
Les Pénélopes believe it is urgent to break barriers of isolation by giving women more consciousness of their know
how, empowering them by the awareness of not being alone and by multiplying their potential through mutual
network. To respond to this social demand, we need to create new tools for measuring this underestimated know
how, new methods to interpret this invisible qualification.
Women creating alternatives to liberal economy may become visible... In fact, this project's objective is to
enhance women's visibility in the area of solidarity-based economy all over the world in order to be able to
valorize their work and to appreciate the non financial but social richness of solutions they propose. Its aim is to
obtain a mutualism of communication means and know how in the intention of creating an exchange network
among the actresses.
Les Pénélopes believe it is mostly women who conceive economic alternatives being however systematically
invisible, their work and efforts being ignored and underestimated. Women are usually absorbed by their daily
tough work, and do not have the time or energy to wonder about the importance of communicating their activities
or to look for a better management. Getting linked to others with whom they share the same challenges,
difficulties and achievements can seem to them as helpful as inaccessible. Women need to be aware of similar
resistances, especially when the concerns are identical. They often feel as excluded and lonely as hundred of other
women trying to conquer the same challenge !
Acquiring know how through experience exchanges
Les Pénélopes believe it is urgent to break barriers of isolation by giving women more consciousness of their know
how, empowering them by the awareness of not being alone and by multiplying their potential through mutual
network. To respond to this social demand, we need to create new tools for measuring this underestimated know
how, new methods to interpret this invisible qualification. It is only the confrontation of experiences that can
permit us to identify and appreciate this qualification in an adequate way, resulting in a new method to read and
measure this know how and to disse- minate it.
Which actresses are involved ?
Groups involved come from different regions such as Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroun, Equateur, Mali,
Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Southafrica, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Yugoslavia, Quebec, Paraguay,
India and France ; in each region several structures have been already identified with more than 30 initiatiaves
conducted by women. Their aim is to create income, or to help their members for insertion into the job market.
Thus, we can find with a wide variety of activities such as reading and writing learning, knitting, sewing,
embroidery, photography, catering service, ironing, decoration, radio programmes, music and singing, social
work, neighbourhood mediation, cooking teaching, theatre, painting, poetry, dyeing, pottery, cinema festivals,
expositions and sales, children's daycare, cattle breeding in fur farming, fruit and vegetable transformation,
Production of peanut pastry , dressmaking, recycling, woodworking, home repair courses, printing.
The challenge is set
This project fixes a calendar to determine common development objectives, factors of success, difficulties
encountered. The intention is to get gathered soo for a working meeting. For more information and to join us:
info@penelopes.org
Les Penelopes ©
http://www.penelopes.org/Anglais/xarticle.php3?id_article=837
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How Can Globalisation be Changed to Benefit All People?
By Janice Duddy
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, established by the International Labour
Organization (ILO) in February 2002, released a new report on February 24, 2004 entitled "A Fair Globalization:
Creating Opportunities for all". The main premise of the report is that current state of globalization MUST change.
As the Co-Chairs of this Commission, President Tarja Halonen of Finland and President Benjamin William Mkapa of
Tanzania, write, "We believe the dominant perspective on globalization must shift more from a narrow
preoccupation with markets to a broader preoccupation with people. Globalization must be brought from the high
pedestal of corporate board rooms and cabinet meetings to meet the needs of people in the communities in which
they live" (vii).
The Commission sends a "critical but positive message". This report acknowledges the benefits of globalization.
They state, "We recognize that globalization has opened the door to many benefits. It has promoted open
societies and open economies and encouraged a freer exchange of good, ideas and knowledge. In many parts of
the world, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship have flourished" (3).
However, the Commission argues that these benefits have come at a large cost to the world and its people. The
Commission writes, "there is growing concern about the direction globalization is currently taking. Its advantages
are too distant for too many, while its risks are all too real. Its volatility threatens both rich and poor. Immense
riches are being generated. But fundamental problems of poverty, exclusion and inequality persist. Corruption is
widespread. Open societies are threatened by global terrorism, and the future of open markets is increasingly in
question. Global governance is in crisis. We are at a critical juncture, and we need to urgently rethink our current
policies and institutions" (3).
The press release for this report explained that, "Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO, who originally
proposed the Commission, said this was the first time there had been a systematic attempt to deal with the social
dimension of globalization. He added that the Commission was convened by the ILO to search for common ground
and make proposals on issues which are today the subject of "parallel monologues" and a "dialogue of the deaf".
"This Commission provides a clear-eyed, common sense message of hope. Making globalization fair and inclusive
is difficult but do-able, and is an urgent worldwide priority", he said". (http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/
inf/pr/2004/7.htm )
The press release continues, "Mr. Somavia said the 26 Commission members - including a Nobel Economics
laureate, politicians, parliamentarians, social and economic experts and representatives of business and
multinational corporations, organized labour, academia and civil society - were "broadly representative of the
diverse and contending actors and issues that characterize globalization today and had accepted the challenge to
analyze its effects and provide a series of proposals for righting its imbalances". Their report "offers no miraculous
or simple solutions, for there are none. But is an attempt to help break the current impasse by focusing on the
concerns and aspirations of people and on the ways to better harness the potential of globalization itself". ( http://
www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2004/7.htm )
In order to change the current state of globalization to become more fair and inclusive the Commission has called
for a specific set of conditions. They state:
"We seek a process of globalization with a strong social dimension based on universally shared values, and
respect for human rights and individual dignity; one that is fair, inclusive, democratically governed and provides
opportunities and tangible benefits for allcountries and people.
To this end we call for:
● A focus on people.
The cornerstone of a fairer globalization lies in meeting the demands of all people for: respect for their
rights, cultural identity and autonomy; decent work; and the empowerment of the local communities they
live in. Gender equality is essential.
● A democratic and effective State.
The State must have the capability to manage integration into the global economy, and provide social and
economic opportunity and security.
● Sustainable development.
The quest for a fair globalization must be underpinned by the interdependent and mutually reinforcing
pillars of economic development, social development and environmental protection at the local, national,
regional and global levels. This requires sound institutions to promote opportunity and enterprise in a wellfunctioning
market economy.
● Fair rules.
The rules of the global economy must offer equitable opportunity and access for all countries and recognize
the diversity in national capacities and developmental needs.
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● Globalization with solidarity.
There is a shared responsibility to assist countries and people excluded from or disadvantaged by
globalization. Globalization must help to overcome inequality both within and between countries and
contribute to the elimination of poverty.
● Greater accountability to people.
Public and private actors at all levels with power to influence the outcomes of globalization must be
democratically accountable for the policies they pursue and the actions they take. They must deliver on
their commitments and use their power with respect for others.
● Deeper partnerships.
Many actors are engaged in the realization of global social and economic goals – international
organizations, governments and parliaments, business, labour, civil society and many others. Dialogue and
partnership among them is an essential democratic instrument to create a better world.
● An effective United Nations.
A stronger and more efficient multilateral system is the key instrument to create a democratic, legitimate
and coherent framework for globalization".
(http://www.ilo.org/public/english/wcsdg/docs/synope.pdf)
This report makes reference to the importance of gender equality in any global system. In the section titled
"Globalization and its Impact" the report explains that, "in some countries globalization has resulted in serious
gender imbalances" (47). It also makes a call for multilateral organizations to develop research programs that
would examine the gender implications of this impact (138). The members of the Commission realize that it is
essential to remain cognizant of the way that globalization impacts the lives of women and make an effort to
ensure that this is included in their work.
This report runs parallel to work that women's organizations have been doing on Globalization over the last few
years. For instance in an article, "Women in the Global Economy: Issues Roles and Advocacy", written by Nadia
Johnson, WEDO’s Economic and Social Justice Program Associate that was included in WEDO's publication Women
Challenging Globalization published in 2002, she writes,
"Women have recognized for decades that gender-sensitive policies and their implementation are critical not only
to women, but to any plan for poverty eradication. Advocates have insisted that a sounder economic discourse,
benefiting all people, would bring together: a plurality of development
strategies; a political emphasis on accountability and transparency; a focus on local, national, and international
arenas; the recognition that economics is about the interrelationship between private enterprise, the public sector
and the care economy; the need to demystify economics so it is accessible to all; and the identification of the
gendered nature of financial institutions and the macroeconomic policies they implement". ( http://www.wedo.org/
ffd/ffdreport.pdf: 28 )
AWID has also recognized the importance of changing globalization. The Globalize This! campaign that was
launched at the last AWID Forum in Guadalajara, Mexico challenges,
"Envision a world without poverty, without violence, without discrimination; a world where everyone's needs are
met and their human rights are protected; a world where women's rights are both a means and an end of
development.
Envision it - now GLOBALIZE IT!" (http://www.awid.org/campaign/globalizethis.html)
The campaign explains, "The road to real equality is long and bumpy, requiring major changes in attitudes, laws,
policies, economic systems, social and political structures, and core values. Currently, the processes of
globalization represent the most significant challenge on the road to gender equality. We are poised, therefore, to
use our collective creativity and energies to bring our vision of equality to life by "re-inventing globalization".
( http://www.awid.org/campaign/globalizethis.html)
The campaign then lays out eight demands that provide the starting point for a revolutionary international
campaign that will work to “globalize” women's rights in development. This is a working document and is always
seeking input from members. (To read more about the campaign visit:
(http://www.awid.org/campaign/globalizethis.html).
Nadia Johnson reminds us, as participants in the women's movement, of our role in challenging the current
pattern of globalization, she writes, "Women must stay engaged in the United Nations to safeguard our gains and
civil society’s scope and effectiveness to foster more meaningful participation. With their rich experiences and
comprehensive strategies drawn from a deep understanding of sustainability, equality and human rights, women
have a unique role to play in creating a development paradigm that is not compromised by market
omnipotence" (33).
Through the tireless and committed work of women's organizations and civil society organizations from around the
world and now with a commitment from The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization and the
ILO it appears that the time for change is upon us. Globalization MUST be inclusive, fair, and ensure human rights
and now the Commission has laid out a strategy for change that is obtainable.
To conclude the Co-Chairs of the Commission say, "This is an ambitious but realizable common sense vision. The
choice is clear. We can correct the global governance deficit in the world today, ensure accountability and adopt
coherent policies that forge a path for globalization that is fair and just, both within and between countries; or we
can prevaricate and risk a slide into further spirals of insecurity, political turbulence, conflicts and wars".
To read this document please visit the ILO web site at: ( www.ilo.org/public/english/wcsdg/index.htm) .
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Source:
Association for Women’s Rights in Development ©
http://www.awid.org
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About Globalisation
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ABOUT GLOBALISATION
Globalization, Poverty and Food Security: The Linkages of Gender Inequality and
Agricultural Growth in Africa: Conceptual and Empirical Issues
By Bola O Akanji
This paper draws on the extensive but mixed discussions around the concepts of
globalization and liberalization with a view to exploring their linkages with gender
inequality and economic growth in the specific context of developing countries of Africa.
Labor Market Flexibility as a Demand of Globalization
By Danica Drakuli•, Ph.D., and Drago Pupavac, M.Sc.
Globalization of the world is inaugurating a new economy. Compared to the traditional
economy, where the scope of competition was mostly determined by the boundaries of
the national market, the global market environment in the new economy imposes the
need for a permanent increase in efficiency on regional and/or global levels. A decreasing
number of products bear national characteristics. Likewise, human potential is becoming
a global factor despite the fact that the workforce is the least mobile production factor.
The Economic Aspects of Globalization
by Dejan Petrovic
The globalization of economic flows may be the most manifest nowadays, and it is the
first thing one thinks of when globalization itself is discussed. Limiting the once sovereign
role of nation-state, expanding the market across the planet without a visible chance of
anyone preventing it, amassing wealth in ever fewer countries is combined with the
growing disproportion between the rich and the poor within these countries. What
seemed probable over the few decades after World War II – the prominent role of the socalled
nation state, care for the less able, less healthy and elderly population, free
schooling and healthcare – seem to be vanishing into historic oblivion.
Economic Terms Demystified
By AWID
Myth: Economics is pure science.
Reality: Economics is often represented as technical and scientific, based on ‘truths’ from
mathematics or statistics. However, economic policy is profoundly political and represents
a certain set of subjective assumptions about power and the distribution of resources.
Globalisation: a Feminist Economic Perspective
By Tatjana Djuric Kuzmanovic, Ph.D.
Eighties saw radical changes in women’s lives worldwide, whether in terms of their
inclusion into or exclusion from global economy. The issue of the impact of globalisation
on women implies perceiving the most direct relationships between gender and
globalisation. An analytic gender model is supposed to ensure avoiding all pitfalls noted in
the debates on globalisation, and reproducing the existent dichotomies and stereotypes.
Gender analysis, as an integral part of analytic approach to globalisation, contributes to
its better comprehension as a multidimensional process.
Globalisation - Definitions
Globalisation broadly refers to the expansion of global linkages and encompasses several
large processes; definitions differ in what they emphasize. Globalisation is historically
complex; definitions vary in the particular driving force they identify. The meaning of the
term is itself a topic in global discussion; it may refer to "real" processes, to ideas that
justify them, or to a way of thinking about them. The term is not neutral; definitions
express different assessments of global change. Among critics of capitalism and global
inequality, globalisation now has an especially pejorative ring.

About Globalisation
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The Economic Aspects of Globalization
The Economic Aspects of Globalization
by Dejan Petrovic, Serbia and Montenegro
The globalization of economic flows may be the most manifest nowadays, and it is the first thing one thinks of
when globalization itself is discussed. Limiting the once sovereign role of nation-state, expanding the market
across the planet without a visible chance of anyone preventing it, amassing wealth in ever fewer countries is
combined with the growing disproportion between the rich and the poor within these countries. What seemed
probable over the few decades after World War II – the prominent role of the so-called nation state, care for the
less able, less healthy and elderly population, free schooling and healthcare – seem to be vanishing into historic
oblivion. The ancient principle of survival of the fittest is more and more at work, not even trying too hard to
mask its role with seemingly humane goals. As early as twenty years ago, far-sighted economists foresaw the
creation of new – global – economy, which would be something different from the currently known and widely
accepted international economy.
The so-called welfare states owe most of their current problems to the structural change of the world’s economic
system, which is, for some, a synonym for globalization. As we have already said, these changes greatly limit
(even tend to fully abolish!) the force of action of nation-states so that, even if they want it, they are unable to
provide their own citizens with what they have been used to for decade. Transnational capital does not have much
mercy on social policy, equal care for all strata of population, especially those who are unable to generate profit.
The increasing dissatisfaction of masses spurred by this is directed at their own governments, who, in turn, have
their hands tied. Unless an international system is created in the foreseeable future whereby the control and
freedoms of states, corporations and individuals will be regulated more clearly, there are ever smaller chances
that citizens will receive any kind of protection from their governments. This also renders the institution of
democratic elections senseless, reducing it to the role of mere political folklore. It is implied that the poor societies
(mostly those of the Third and even the Second World) have nothing to seek in the “fair competition”. A newly
imposed problem is the fear that even the wealthiest and the most stable societies will not be able to endure this
race. If the market demands as advocated by the neo-liberal ideologists are accepted, the already attained wide
scope of various social rights that their citizens are used to does not have much chance to survive. As Habermas
clearly formulates it: ‘To remain competitive on the growing global market, they (the OECD states) have to take
steps causing irreparable damage to the harmony of civil society… the most urgent task of the First World in the
forthcoming decade will therefore be squaring the circle of welfare, social harmony and political freedom.’ [1] And
we know all too well what a simple task squaring the circle is.
Attempts at an appropriate response to the collapse (after a lengthy agony) of the so-called laissez-faire
capitalism date back as early as the times of the great economic crisis in the 1920s. This is the time of the
occurrence of ‘controlled capitalism’ [2] , taking three forms in capitalist communities: as the ‘New Deal’ in the
USA, ‘protective’ in Japan, and ‘social capitalism’ in Western Europe. Regardless of certain differences, the
common element in all these three forms of reformed capitalism presents a concern for wide strata of population.
They form the basis on which the welfare state developed later. Witnessing the return to some old economic
models thought to be outdated, we can conclude that this actually specific historical regression. If this opinion is
founded, then the not so loud discourse of neo-liberally oriented intellectuals and economists on history, which
has reached its final, ultimate step (of evolution) – has no foundation. But more will be said on this later.
As it was compellingly demonstrated by Naomi Klein as well, all the trends of capital ‘movement’ to
underdeveloped regions are present, but not out of concern for the welfare of local population as it is declaratively
stated, but for their ruthless exploitation. But at the same time, such a manner of re-distributing production to the
poor regions of the Third World will render millions of domestic workforce jobless, closing the circle of poverty.
Regardless of the proclamations on the ‘visible progress’ of global economy. ‘The current progress of economic
globalization points to the fact that capital is moving to underdeveloped regions, i.e. escaping developed regions,
causing, primarily, social problems in them. Stopping this process would mean leaving underdeveloped regions to
their ‘fate’ which would, in turn, whether they get ‘stuck’ with being underdeveloped, or choose their own way of
developing which could be radically different from the Western, mean the discontinuation of the current
globalization trend, or it would be limited only to developed regions as some kind of “mini-globalization”.’ [3] It is
clear that this is a threat to globalization itself, if it is to be understood as the export of the Western, already
confirmed model of organizing human society. If it remained only in some regions of the planet, then it could not
be fully and duly labeled as globalization. If it were the generator of the occurrence of an alternative globalization,
then the results would be even worse for the neo-liberal ideology. This is undoubtedly one of the major problems
to which the above-mentioned have not provided an adequate answer so far.
Moreover, despite the proclaimed efforts (and perhaps even a genuine wish) to put an end to ethnically-based
conflicts by reducing the significance of local identities, the growing poverty among and within various societies
seems to be encouraging animosities, conflicts, and, in the foreseeable future, even wars of the conflicting ethic,
religious, racial or class groups. ‘The neo-liberal type of globalization is creating a new geography of social
inclusion (apartheid). The worlds of wealth and extreme poverty are not divided by the Great Wall of China – a
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The Economic Aspects of Globalization
new poverty is spreading amid the society of affluence. The “black holes of globalization”, people and regions
excluded from progress, can be found in all the cities of the “First World” – in American urban ghettoes, North
African communities in France, Japanese Yoseba slums, Asian megalopolises. They are inhabited by millions of
homeless people, by a world of prostitution, crime and drugs, the sick and the illiterate.’ [4] In one of her texts
[5] , Naomi Klein gives a vivid example of how ‘real’ is the advice of the intellectual gurus of neo-liberal
provenance. Namely, explaining why capital is moving to underdeveloped regions, Thomas Friedman provides a
very interesting answer. Claiming to have talked to several young Palestinians when he was at Ramallah at the
West Coast in his twenties, he established that their desire for war, terrorist actions and suicide attacks results
from lacking jobs, hope and dignity. At first sight, this explanation does not seem irrational. The listed reasons are
surely a good reason for various sources of frustration. But what does Friedman propose for them? That moving
‘jobs’ from the West not only to India or Pakistan, but to Palestine as well would create not only a more
prosperous world, but also a safer world for our own twenty-year-olds! This should be one of the crucial reasons
in favour of globalization as envisaged by similar intellectuals.
More will be said about what kind of ‘jobs’ these are in the section on Naomi Klein’s book No logo. We shall dwell
on another topic here. Friedman ‘forgets’ to state what are the political causes of the dissatisfaction of the
Palestinian or Iraqi people. Klein does not hesitate to remind him: ’In other words, economic development will not
come to Palestine via call centers but through liberation. Friedman's argument is equally absurd when applied to
the country where terrorism is rising most rapidly: Iraq. As in Palestine, Iraq is facing an unemployment crisis,
one fueled by occupation. And no wonder: Paul Bremer's first move as chief US envoy was to lay off 400,000
soldiers and other state workers. His second was to fling open Iraq's borders to cheap imports, predictably putting
hundreds of local companies out of business.’ Klein is even more lucid when finding an even more efficient way of
fighting terrorism: ’ Friedman's bright idea of fighting terrorism with outsourced American jobs is overly
complicated. A better plan would be to end the occupation and stop sending American workers to steal Iraqi jobs.’
Although the current global economy is structured around three main centres of economic power, it can be best
described as a post-hegemonistic order that no single centre, not even the USA, can control through rules of
global trade or exchange. [6] By this, the advocates of such development of economic course mean that the
complex world economy is developing on a totally free, unconditioned market and that individual, i.e. state
responsibility is the only criterion of success or failure in this field. But regardless of this, despite
internationalisation and regionalisation, the role and position of most developing countries in the global economy
is changing incredibly slowly even in long time intervals of a whole century. Held and McGrew observe that the
current international division of labour is based on the one recognised by Marx. [7] Today’s globalisaton brings
about an inconcievably united world for rich individuals, for the elites, but also a growing division inside societies,
as the global international division of labour is divided into parts, into rich and poor countries, the globalization’s
winners and losers. If globalization were as successful as it is (perhaps) desired, then its favourable effect would
influence most of the world’s population, rather than those (chosen?) groups that most offen have a share in its
implementation. Neo-liberals suggest that economic globalization is the only effective road (highlighted by D.P.)
leading to global poverty reduction, whereas, in practice, this looks completely different. The failure of certain
countries to join the community of the so-called First World is explained by their failure to harmonise and
integrate into the contemporary world economy fast enouth. Translated from the language of euphemism, they
seem to mean that these are simply – incompetent.
Not only are differences increasingly felt between states, but they are increasingly obvious inside the countries
themselves. Stratification is more and more under way, ever fewer (super)rich individuals own ever bigger capital,
while the number of those living below the threashold of poverty is growing proportionately. A few percent of the
richest population segment owns more than one-half of national wealth. This chiefly applies to the USA, although
such trends exist in capitalist countries as well. How paradoxical it all is is maybe best expressed by the fact that
powerful corporations posssess more assets than many (=most) countries of the world, and that this list may
even include individuals! An argument that it is about the progress of global economy may be valid, if limited to
people we have just mentioned. Then there is really no dilemma that this argument is valid. But if the moral issue
of simultaneous impoverishment of the majority of the world is raised as equal, then such an attitude is significal
+ntly overshadowed. This is what neo-liberally oriented intellectuals call ’struggle on the open market’: ’To the
extent that standardised life situations and careers are disappearing, individuals facing multiple options, feeling
the growing burden of decisions they must now make themselves, i.e. arrangements that they have to negotiate
themselves. The pressure of ’individualisation’ urges for new social rules to be discovered and controlled at the
same time. Freed subjects, no longer bound and governed by traditional roles, must create binding relations
through their own communication efforts.’ [8] The above is not questionable at all, but it is appropriate to remind
that the ‘freed subjects’ have never been asked anything about their forhtcoming roles! Although these decisions
affect them most directly, they were made elswhere. It is therfore no wander that, in the ever wider regions of
the losers of globalization, the globalization proces is percieved simply as the continuation of well-known
colonisation, i.e. Western imperialism. It will remain so as long as the global inequality remains increasingly
manifest. The fact that many citizens of the ’imperialist’ countries do not feel the benefits of the proclaimed
process does not diminish in the least the justified anger of the inhabitants of all the underprivileged countries of
the Second, Third and all all other worlds in the leaast. It is maybe here that one should look for the roots of
growing terrorism which is really democratically shared – affecting everyone equally!
How do these radically oriented groups and their acts of violence come about? Even in developed countries, the
increasing class differentiation brings about a fear that the existing wealth will have to be shared and that the
aliens present in a given society will take away their ’share of the cake’ undeserved. Such fears (and let us
remember that the Nazis once took over the power riding on such demagogical cliches) are (ab)used by politicians
who political points with populist, isolationist and even openly hostile messages. National, regligious, racial or
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The Economic Aspects of Globalization
class hatred, as well as xenofobia are for the most part rooted in the above. Needless to say, when such forces
take over the power, genuine economic progress is out of question! And this is all a logical consequence of the
philosphy of open, ’deregulated’ market. It only favours its favourites which adapt most sucessfull to its unwritten
laws, to a way of life in which the absolute purpose of human life is generating and increasing profit. Its aim is not
common good, but the realisation of the ancient idea of the human society as war of all against all. The road from
there to universal harmony it proclaims declaratively is a long and rough one. It is also questionable how
justifiable is to expand the impact of market ideology to all other – non-economic – segments of society, and the
democratic legitimacy of international financial institutions (such as the IMF, the World Bank, WTO etc.) is also
highly questinable, as they have no forms of control ’above’ themselves and, accordingly, are not accountable to
anyone. We can only speculate what abuses are possible here. Held tries to provide an answer to all these
questions: ’These sobering realities lead to the conclusion that it is only within the borders of the state – within
the nation as a moral community – that legitimate and effective solutions to the problem of global social injustice
can be constructed.’ [9]
Historically, the state saw the greatest expansion and prosperity in Germany at the time of World War I and
during the Nazi rule in 1930s. It is interesting that it is in the Third Reich [10] that appeals to social justice and
various forms of social protection were vociferous, parallel with the development of impressive military machinery.
This was, of course, one of major arguments used by those who criticize contemporary welfare states as well. The
fact that this happened in Germany becomes clearer bearing in mind that it was in this country that the first steps
to creating a welfare system were made as early as 1883, by establishing health care, taking care of the
unemployed, senior population segments, etc. At the time, the costs allocated for these expenditures were not too
great a burden for the state’s production sector. The initiator of establishing such a system was the famous
Chancellor Bismarck. This idea spread like wildfire all over the planet during the twentieth century, to such extent
that the clear definition of social policies has become a key feature of the modern state. However, some things
had to be sacrificed by these policies. In this case it was the efficiency of capitalist production methods. The
advocates of neo-liberal society put the blame on the enormous growth of public expenditure, taxation and
bureaucracy as one of the causes of the inherent totalitarianism of the welfare stated. This can, of course, give an
opportunity to the beneficiaries of the public social system to abuse it. Anthony Mueller does not fail to notice this:
’The coverage of old age, sickness and unemployment insurance, along with social aid, and disability insurance
and with all the numerous special branches of social policy have turned Germany into an Eldorado for those
seeking a free ride. Often described as "generous", the German social welfare system actually provides a plethora
of incentives for intentionally becoming unemployed, seeking early retirement and fulfilling the necessary
requirements in order to become eligible for social aid and disability payments.’ This especially applies to the
period after World War II when any action directed against such policies was labeled as (expressed in modern
terms) a form of ’politically incorrect discourse’. Thus, increasing expenditure is imposed on the economically
active population, and in view of the aging population structure of most of the countries of the Western
hemisphere, the percentage of really economically active people is drastically reduced and, proportionally, more
burdened by various categories of budget beneficiaries. How to balance the reasonable and objective needs of
social policy beneficiaries and their evident abuses is becoming a new problem to be addressed.
We can take an example from Italy. Namely, the legislator (the state in this case) has stipulated that an employee
laid off from an enterprise with more than 15 employees may sue his or her own employer. There have been
cases in practice that many of such claims have received positive replies. Should the employer be forced to reemploy
the same worker, apart from being entitled to payment of all lost receivables, he or she would receive
further compensation for dismissal, as well as the money from social insurance. What does this tell us? That the
employer’s hands are ’tied’, that laying off workers may cause more economic harm than keeping them in their
jobs. This is what opens space for various ’blackmail’ activities by employees, such as working to rule, lower
productivity, open sabotage of the working process, etc. Not to mention that nothing would motivate the worker
to achieve better work results, and the employer would not have the opportunity to make qualitative selection
among different workers, under the threat of possible lawsuit and multiple damages that may follow. Furthermore,
this is a direct hindrance to economic growth, as many companies will purposely remain within the limit of fifteen
employees, lest they face this threat. This is only an example [11] of the implications of the excessive
consideration of the employee’s interests in relation to the employer, which is still an important wheel in the
development of every economy; and no less than referendum was held on this issue. Regarding this issue, Minardi
quotes the opinion of Bruno Leoni from his book Liberty and Law, where he argues that employers are not the
‘stronger’ side in a possible dispute, nor must employees be the ‘weaker’ side. In cases when he or she needs
workers more than the workers need him or her, and is unable to find them, the employer can by no means be
regarded as the weaker side or seen through the traditional prism of the notorious exploiter.
One of the positive examples of neo-liberally oriented economy comes from Chile, where they came up with the
idea of – private pensions! This is no doubt a very interesting suggestion, so let us see what it is about. ‘The
Chilean pension model is a comprehensive alternative to the social collectivism initiated by German chancellor
Otto von Bismarck at the end of the 19th century, which was used as a model for the welfare states of the 20th
century. By cutting the link between individual contributions and benefits—that is, between effort and reward—
and by entrusting governments not only with the responsibility but also with the management of these complex
programs, the Bismarckian pay-as-you-go pension system turned out to be the central pillar of the welfare state,
in which the possibility of winning elections by buying votes with other people’s money—even with the money of
other generations—led to an inflation of social entitlements, and thus to gigantic unfunded, and hidden, state
liabilities. In Chile, the same rationale that applies to the private pension system has already been extended,
although imperfectly, to the areas of health and unemployment, with individual insurance (health) or accounts
(unemployment) managed by the private sector.’ [12] This system has already been established in many South
American countries (Mexico, Bolivia, Salvador, Peru, Columbia, Argentina, Uruguay), but also in many of the
former Socialist block countries (Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan), which may be especially interesting, but also
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The Economic Aspects of Globalization
indicative as a precedent.
Hungary was the first former Socialist country to ‘break the ice’ in 1998 and allow for a portion of the workers’
salaries to be invested in pension savings accounts. The previous method of investing in pension funds had been
in deficit as early as the nineties, when the contributions amounted to 30% of the salary. If the system had
remained unchanged, Hungary would have been forced to raise the taxes on wages up to 55%, which would, in a
few decades (around 2035 as estimated) have lead to each pensioner being supported by only one worker.
Knowing that in a country such as Italy the government used to pay disability pensions for 30,000 dead people,
and also bearing in mind that it is the country with the lowest birth rate in the world, we can only imagine what
the public expenditures were over a budget year. There was even an example of a woman receiving a (disability)
pension as a blind person, while working as a driver at the same time. The annual expenditure on public pensions
in Italy amounts to as much as 14.5% of GDP. José Piñera argues that nowadays pension systems are under the
highest threat in Western Europe, with the proverbially strong influence of the traditional welfare state. Apart from
purely economic, we can provide a non-economic argument in favour of private pension system. Poor people, who
usually start working earlier than their somewhat better off peers, have (on the average) a shorter lifespan than
the latter. Under such a method of pension payment, poorer workers would find it easier to accumulate higher
amounts on their accounts, thereby de facto lessening the well-known gap between the rich and the poor, as the
workers have so far been investing into a system providing them with the yield rate of less than 2%. Here is,
finally a truly socially humane argument in favor of neo-liberal thinkers! If such a rate could be applied in different
socio-economic models of different countries with an equal success rate, we see no reason why it should not be
done.
Note:
Extract from an unpublished paper entitled The Philosophical Implications of Globalism and Anti-globalism,
Belgrade, 2004
Translated from Serbian: Women's Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Serbia and Montenegro
About the author:
Dejan Petrovi•¸ Serbia and Montenegro, attained a BA degree from the University of Belgrade (2004). Addresses
the issues of considerations of society, political theory, essay-writing and journalism. Especially interested in
issues related to globalization and anti-globalization movement. Author of several dozed authored texts and
interviews. Received awards for essays from Zarez and Srpsko pero magazines. Published in Vreme, Status,
Habitus, Zarez, Aplauz and NSPM.
[1] Jürgen Habermas: Postnacionalna konstelacija [Postnational Constellation], Otkrovenje, Belgrade, 2002, p. 84.
[2] Miroslav Pe•ujli•: Planetarni kentaur – dva lika globalizacije [The Planetary Centaur – the Two Faces of
Globalization], NSPM, Belgrade, 2003, p. 34.
[3] Vladimir Vuleti•: Globalizacija – proces ili projekt [Globalization – Process or Project], NSPM, Beograd, 2003, p.
89.
[4] Miroslav Pe•ujli•: Planetarni kentaur – dva lika globalizacije [The Planetary Centaur – the Two Faces of
Globalization], NSPM, Belgrade, 2003, p. 39,
[5] Naomi Klein: Outsourcing the Friedman, Available at:http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0305-08.htm
[6] David Held & Anthony McGrew: Globalization/Anti-Globalization, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2002, p. 51.
[7] Ibid, p. 45.
[8] Jürgen Habermas: Postnacionalna konstelacija [Postnational Constellation], Otkrovenje, Belgrade, 2002, p.
207. (translated from Serbian)
[9] David Held & Anthony McGrew: Globalization/Anti-Globalization, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2002, p. 87.
[10] Anthony Mueller: Bye-bye Bismarck, Available at: http://www.mises.org/story/1275
[11] Alberto Mingardi: “Italy's Tyranny of Labour Protection”, The Wall Streat Journal Europe, June 13, 2003.
Available at: http://www.josepinera.com/pag/pag_tex_italystyrranny.htm
[12] José Piñera, “Toward a World of Worker-Capitalists”, The Boston Converzationi, Boston University, 2001,
Available at: http://www.josepinera.com/pag/pag_tex_toward.htm
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DOCUMENTS
DECLARATION
Made at the WOMEN ASSEMBLY
of the 4 th European Social Forum, Athens, 6 May 2006
While we are facing increasing political intervention by churches and religious
fundamentalisms are on the rise in Europe, leading to a dramatic undermining of
women's rights and, in spite of the warnings from feminist organizations, such as the
World March of Women, towards the organizing committee of the European Social Forum,
some of the workshops gave the floor to organizations or speakers who support values
contrary to the Porto Alegre Charter and to women's rights.
WIDE Statement to the 50 th CSW session
27 February – 10 March 2006, New York
WIDE views the 50 th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women as an important
opportunity to voice our ideas and concerns regarding the issues of gender
mainstreaming and enhanced participation of women in development.
Statement of the Human Rights Caucus
On the occasion of the
Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization
December 10, 2005
In a matter of days, government delegates will be gathering in Hong Kong for the latest
landmark event in the ongoing process of economic globalization--the Sixth Ministerial
Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). We, members of civil society from
developed and developing countries, concerned about the impact of this process on the
realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world, take
the opportunity of International Human Rights Day to remind our governments that
their human rights obligations cannot be abandoned at the WTO door.
Whose Development is it Anyway?
A Gender Perspective on the EU’s Position in the WTO Negotiations
WIDE statement, November 2005
WIDE is deeply concerned about the European Commission’s insistence on pushing for
the establishment of trade rules that threaten the livelihoods of poor women and men in
the South and that perpetuate gender inequality, unfair gender relations as well as
structural inequalities between women and men and within and between countries and
regions. The EU is aggressively pursuing new markets, while offering little in return to
developing countries.
Seoul-Gyeonggi Declaration on the Equal Participation of Women in the
Information Society
We, the participants in the Forum on Gender and ICTs for the World Summit on the
Information Society 2005, representing 36 countries assembled in Seoul from 24 – 25
June 2005, with affiliations in academia and NGOs as well as government, international
agency, and industry, Reaffirming the principles outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action
and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Noting
paragraph 12 of the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on the Information
Society …
WIDE Statement to the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
New York, 28 February to 11 March 2005
The 10 year review of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) at the 49th Session of the
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a critical opportunity to reaffirm the global
women’s agenda for women’s human rights, gender equality and empowerment for
women. The member states of the UN must use this opportunity to reaffirm their
unequivocal commitment to the accelerated implementation of the entire Beijing

Documents
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Declaration and Platform for Action and the Outcomes Document of the 23rd UN General
Assembly Special Session (Beijing+5).
UNCTAD XI – Adding Soul To "The Spirit Of Sao Paulo"
Amendments to the official UNCTAD XI - The Spirit of São Paulo Declaration
by the Civil Society Forum at UNCTAD XI
17 June 2004
STATEMENT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ON GENDER AND TRADE FOR UNCTAD XI
June 15th 2004
WIDE and GADN Conference Manifesto
We, the Network Women in Development Europe, the Gender and Development Network,
international Southern partners, Central and Eastern European partners, individual
members and feminists present, meeting here in London on the occasion of WIDE’s 20th
anniversary
Resolution 1325 (2000)
Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting,
On 31 October 2000
Declaration of the European Conference, Paris, 25th June, 2005
A new Era may Open itself in Europe
We, the participants of the European Conference in Paris of 24th and 25th June 2005, put
forward for debate in all the associative, trade union and political networks in Europe, the
propositions contained in the following declaration:
The European Feminist Initiative Acts in Priority for a NO to The Constitution
and for a YES To Another Europe
M E M O R A N D U M
The European Union might become the bearer of a true peace project, of a constructive
alternative to the policy of precarity, unemployment, poverty and an alternative to the
policy of militarization and war which generate violence and insecurity. Violence restricts
the field of possibilities, non-violence broadens it. Neoliberalism and common security
policy, in close relationship with NATO and without reference to UN bring economic and
defence choices which will act as reciprocal commitments between countries of the
European union. If the new constitution becomes adopted, it will confirm the dominating
male and neo-liberal power and will carved it “in marble” for several decades.
Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Montréal Principles were adopted at a meeting of experts held December 7 – 10,
2002 in Montréal, Canada. These principles are offered to guide the interpretation and
implementation of the guarantees of non-discrimination and equal exercise and
enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, found, inter alia, in Articles 3 and 2(2)
of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, so that women
can enjoy these rights fully and equally.
Political Declaration of the International Forum on the Rights of Women in
Trade Agreements
9 September 2003,
Cancun/Mexico

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Statement of the Human Rights Caucus
Statement of the Human Rights Caucus
On the Occasion of the
Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization
December 10, 2005
In a matter of days, government delegates will be gathering in Hong Kong for the latest landmark event in the
ongoing process of economic globalization - the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization
(WTO). We, members of civil society from developed and developing countries, concerned about the impact of this
process on the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms of people all over the world, take the
opportunity of International Human Rights Day to remind our governments that their human rights obligations
cannot be abandoned at the WTO door.
The moral and legal primacy of human rights
The human rights struggle is the struggle for human dignity, which is a fundamental and defining ethical value in
any culture. Trade liberalization on the other hand is a means, not an end in itself. The end that must be served
by trade, as well as other aspects of economic policy, is increased human wellbeing through development. This is
the only basis on which a given economic policy can claim moral and political legitimacy.
The canon of international human rights law (comprising civil, political,economic, social and cultural rights) offers
a comprehensive legal definition of the fundamental elements of human wellbeing and human dignity. Therefore,
any trade or other economic policy that offends against the principles of human rights, either in design or practice,
lacks moral and political legitimacy.
Human rights are enshrined in numerous international treaties and in many national constitutions. Substantial
portions of human rights law are regarded as having achieved the status of customary international law. Some of
its foundational principles are recognized as peremptory norms of international law.
The promotion and protection of human rights are included in the UN Charter as being among the fundamental
purposes of the United Nations. Through Articles 55(c) and 56 of the UN Charter, Members of the United Nations
pledge to take joint and separate action to "promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex language or religion.” Charter Article 103
expressly and unambiguously provides that “[i]n the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members of
the United Nations under the present Charter and their obligations under any other international agreement, their
obligations under the present Charter shall prevail.”
Increased trade can undoubtedly serve as one means for the realization of human rights--especially the right to
development--but it does not automatically or necessarily do so. Even when trade does bring increased wealth,
poor distribution of the benefits both within and between nations, perpetuates poverty and impedes the
progressive realization of human rights.
The Doha Development Agenda & coherence in law, policy and practice
Human rights and economic policy are interconnected to a degree that demands coherence in international and
national law, policy and practice. In the wider context of the security-development-human rights nexus, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has declared in his March 2005 report, In Larger Freedom, that:
"We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not
enjoy either without respect for human rights. Unless all these causes are advanced, none will succeed."
Nevertheless, the international trade regime has repeatedly denied and rejected any intersection between its
mandate and human rights. This is both logically and legally indefensible especially since most WTO members
have ratified at least one of the major UN human rights treaties.
This isolationism of the international trade community is based in part on a lack of knowledge of human rights - in
particular of economic, social and cultural rights as an inseparable element of the canon of international human
rights law - and also of the important contribution that human rights can make to desired development outcomes
of trade policy and practice.
Isolationism has resulted as well from the disconnection of international trade policies and practices from the goal
of increased human wellbeing. Increased trade and trade liberalization have become ends in themselves, and
trade negotiations pit governments against each other in a competitive process driven by corporate interests
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Statement of the Human Rights Caucus
rather than human development.
We denounce this isolationist tendency, which runs counter to the Preamble of the Marrakech Agreement, and
demand that our governments take specific steps to ensure coherence between trade means and human rights
ends.
● WTO member States must take their human rights obligations into account in all aspects of trade policy
development, negotiation and practice.
● WTO member States must undertake human rights impact assessments before concluding new trade
agreements or revisions of existing trade agreements, as well as in the course of implementing existing
agreements.
● Information about human rights impacts should be included in trade policy reviews, both in the members'
own reports and in the reports prepared by the WTO secretariat, including information provided by civil
society sources.
● The WTO should be receptive to human rights arguments in the context of dispute settlement, including
through the possibility for human rights organizations to submit amicus curiae briefs to the panels and the
Appellate Body set up under the Dispute Settlement Understanding.
● States should establish effective mechanisms within government to enhance policy coherence between
human rights and trade. Trade ministries and trade representatives should receive human rights
information and assessments from both governmental and non-governmental sources, in order to formulate
and advocate for coherent policy decisions in international economic forums.
Extraterritorial Obligations
No country has, as yet, made a sufficient attempt to ensure that its policy positions in international economic
forums are consistent with its domestic human rights obligations and with the human rights obligations of its
trading partners.
International human rights law places obligations upon States with regard to international assistance and
cooperation. These obligations require that States refrain from actions (including in the context of negotiating and
implementing international trade agreements) that could interfere, directly or indirectly, with the enjoyment of
human rights in other countries, as well as their own. Such extraterritorial obligations mean that steps should be
taken to ensure that activities undertaken by States individually or within multilateral processes including trade
negotiations do not undermine the ability of other States to meet their human rights obligations.
● Developed States must take into account their responsibility for international assistance and cooperation for
the realization of human rights.
● UN human rights treaty bodies should strengthen their capacity to examine the human rights impacts of
international trade agreements and policies and to make observations concerning policy coherence.
Agricultural trade, and the human right to food
In a world that has more than enough food to feed everyone, the number of people who suffer from hunger and
malnutrition is increasing. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 850 million people
lack adequate food. Every five seconds a child under the age of five dies of hunger or hunger-related disease. The
international trade in agricultural food products must be part of the solution, not part of the problem, in relation to
this tragedy.
There are close linkages between agricultural trade liberalization and the failure to respect, protect or fulfill the
human right to food. Developing countries have been pushed to open their agricultural markets to foreign imports
that are often exported at less than the cost of production. Unfair trade rules, coupled with international financial
institution loan conditions, have limited the policy space for developing country governments to meet their human
rights obligations.
The Doha Development Agenda requires that WTO members address livelihood and food security concerns by
establishing adequate flexibilities within new rules for trade in agriculture. However, on the eve of the 6 th WTO
Ministerial Meeting, very little hope of progress towards this goal can be offered to millions of poor farmers and
people suffering from hunger around the world, and to the societies of which they are a part.
● WTO members must honour their commitment to make special and differential treatment for developing
countries an integral part of the negotiations, including in agriculture negotiations.
● Market access rules must allow for differentiation, and allow developing countries to adopt rules and
practices for the purpose of protecting the livelihoods of their agriculture-reliant poor.
● Developing countries must have sufficient policy space to enable them to support small farmers and to
protect their agricultural markets from cheap imports, especially for food staples.
● Developed countries must end the dumping of subsidized agricultural production.
Trade in services and equitable provision of essential services
Current negotiations on the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) threaten to erode the ability
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Statement of the Human Rights Caucus
of national governments to implement measures for the equitable provision of essential services (such as health,
water, sanitation and education) to all their citizens. The implementation of such measures is a central
requirement of States under their human rights treaty commitments. While the GATS does not technically require
withdrawal of the State from the provision of essential services, the logic of liberalization of trade in services does
not favour equitable provision of those services. The legal requirements of the GATS continue to threaten
effective State involvement and oversight in this area. Further mandated negotiations may also threaten
governments’ capacity to regulate services in the public interest.
Moreover, consideration of the potential impact of the GATS should address the power imbalances between
countries in the negotiation process, and the existing pressure towards privatization of the public sector under the
policy prescriptions of the IFIs.
Insofar as the human rights obligations of private corporations are not, as yet, legally enforceable in all
circumstances, as the home States of those corporations are hesitant to adopt extra-territorial legislation to that
effect, and as the host States may find it legally or practically impossible to impose strict obligations on foreign
corporations, the rights of poor and vulnerable populations to the highest attainable standard of health, nutrition,
education etc., may be put in jeopardy.
● Essential services with direct implications for specific human rights--such as the human right to health,
water and education—should be excluded from negotiations under the GATS.
● There should be no new approaches within the GATS negotiations (such as ‘benchmarking’or sectoral
approaches) that could undermine the existing flexibility of the positive list approach.
● The ability of Governments to regulate in the public interest must not be subjected to new constraints.
Trade-related intellectual property rights, and the human right to health
The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has posed formidable obstacles to the
progressive realization of the human right to health and the right to life, particularly in terms of access to
medicines. By protecting, or indeed mandating, monopoly rights for at least 20 years, and stifling competition
from lower-cost producers, the TRIPS Agreement enables drug prices to be set high and to stay high.
The 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health recognized the practical problems for
public health posed by TRIPS compliance and encouraged WTO members to take advantage of TRIPS flexibilities.
However, many commercial and political disincentives continue to limit the practical availability and utility of these
flexibilities, such as compulsory licensing and parallel importation, and hamper the ability of poorer countries to
ensure that TRIPS outcomes are consistent with their human rights obligations. Further, the crisis regarding
neglected diseases (mainly those affecting populations in the developing world) demonstrates the limitations of
the market-based justification for stringent intellectual property laws - i.e. incentive for innovation.
In addition, the TRIPS provision allowing patent monopolies over living organisms is offensive to many religions
and spiritual traditions and is therefore a violation of cultural rights.
● States must ensure that intellectual property rules in TRIPS and in other trade agreements do not obstruct
or undermine any State’s ability to comply with its human rights obligations, including equitable access to
medicines.
● Assurances must be made that the additional seven year delay granted to Least Developed Countries
(LDCs) for the implementation of TRIPS is not used to obtain concessions in agriculture, services or nonagriculture
market access (NAMA).
● G8 countries must honour their commitment at Gleneagles to ensure "universal access to (HIV) treatment
for all those who need it by 2010", and pursuant to that commitment to take all necessary steps to mitigate
the restraining effects of the TRIPS Agreement on access to ARVs in the developing world.
● The review under provision 27(3)(b) should proceed and lifeform patents should be removed from the
agreement.
The above statement has been drafted by a group of human rights organizations and advocates from around the
world. The group functions as a civil society "human rights caucus" around the WTO. The statement was
released on December 10 - International Human Rights Day - in Hong Kong on the eve of the WTO Ministerial
Meeting.
Until December 10, the Joint Statement has been endorsed by 108 human rights organisations all around the
world. It wil remain open for additional signatories until December 18. Please forward any new endorsement to
Tamara at globalisation@dd-rd.ca. This Statement and other information on the Ministerial are availabe on the
Rights and Democracy website at:
www.dd-rd.ca/frame2.iphtml?langue=0&menu=m01&urlpage=english/commdoc/publications/globalization/wto
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Whose Development is it Anyway?
A Gender Perspective on the EU’s Position in the WTO Negotiations
WIDE statement, November 2005
WIDE is deeply concerned about the European Commission’s insistence on pushing for the establishment of trade
rules that threaten the livelihoods of poor women and men in the South and that perpetuate gender inequality,
unfair gender relations as well as structural inequalities between women and men and within and between
countries and regions. The EU is aggressively pursuing new markets, while offering little in return to developing
countries. Of particular concern is the EU’s continued insistence on pushing for progress on non-agricultural
market access (NAMA) and services negotiations in the name of the Doha Development Round whose objective is
stated to be that of putting ‘development at the heart of the WTO’ (Doha Declaration 2001). As a European
network promoting gender equality and social justice, WIDE joins other social movements and NGOs in the EU in
challenging the assumption that increased trade and opening of markets will yield equitable development.
From a gender perspective, we are deeply concerned about the ways in which neo-liberalism, founded on the
promotion of a radical ‘free-trade’ regime, economic globalisation and market liberalisation has both exacerbated
already profound inequalities and led to the creation of new inequalities. It has led to the feminisation of
precarious employment, (poor working conditions, low wages, unsustainable perspectives) intensified exploitation
of women’s unpaid work in the caring economy and has undermined the livelihood strategies of poor women,
including migrant women, in all areas of the world. WIDE appeals for a rethinking of the structural inequities on
which these policies are based. We question the concept of progressive trade liberalisation as a “one-size-fits-all”
recipe for development. We cannot afford the prioritisation of market access over development goals, nor the
false division between social and economic policies. WIDE contests the current neo liberal economic regime which
promotes EU’s self-interest at the expense of women and men in the South.
WIDE does not support the “aid for trade” policies promoted by the EU alongside the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. These policies promote the making of loans only in order to fund the adjustments
required to facilitate trade liberalisation. As feminists and economic and social justice advocates, we believe that
Official Development Assistance should not be linked with conditionalities. We also strongly oppose the
approaches that aim to ‘add women in’ to the liberalisation process as ‘beneficiaries’ without questioning
underlying structural inequities.
The time has come to change EU trade policies. They must be constrained and bound by existing international
agreements that promote human rights and women’s rights, ecological sustainability, human dignity and they
must aim to end poverty and promote well-being. EU trade policies can no longer be dictated by the interests of
EU corporations. Current WTO negotiations should not undermine EU commitments to implement the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action agreed at the Fourth World Conference on Women or the realisation of gender
equality and women’s human rights as enshrined in the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
WIDE calls therefore EU trade ministers, Member of the European Parliament and the European
Commission to:
■ Ensure access to essential services for women and men. The EU should stop pushing in the General
Agreement on Trade in Services negotiations its proposal for “Complementary Approaches” which by setting
quantitative as well as qualitative targets is a paradigm shift from the concept of flexibility to an approach
of coercion within the GATS. Nor should the EU push for the Bolkestein Directive within the EU. Essential
services such as water, education, health should be excluded from the GATS negotiations.
■ Recognise and guarantee government’s policy space and flexibilities by halting the NAMA
negotiations and drop reciprocity demands in the EPA negotiations. Governments should have the
right to use policy tools, including trade measures that preserve government’s policy space to:
- Develop fair and sustainable economies that contribute to women’s empowerment;
- Protect and promote employment, social welfare, health for women and men and the environment;
- Promote sustainable conservation and the sustainable management of all resources.
■ Ensure people’s food sovereignty. The EU should respect the right of developing countries to develop
and implement agricultural policies that guarantee food security and strengthen domestic agricultural
markets, most particularly those where small-scale farmers trade their products. We therefore call on the
EU to remove agriculture from the WTO.
■ Ensure that Official Development Assistance is not linked to any conditionality.
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Doc
■ Complete systematic public impact assessments of the development, social, environmental and
gender impact of trade negotiations before proceeding to the next phases of negotiations. Such
assessment should involve civil society and more specifically women’s organisations from both Europe and
countries of the South, which the EU is targeting. Rather than being considered simply as flanking
measures, which has been EU practice with other impact assessments, these assessments should inform
and also influence EU policy changes.
Celebrating its 20 th anniversary WIDE is a European women’s network whose main activities are lobbying,
advocacy and awareness raising; networking and capacity building on global trade agenda, macro-economic
policy, gender and development policy and women’s human rights. WIDE is a member of the Seattle to Brussels
Network, the International Gender and Trade Network and the Our World Is Not For Sale Network.
Visit the WIDE website: www.wide-network.org
For further information, please contact:
Meagen Baldwin, Executive Director, meagen@wide-network.org
Amandine Bach, GATS and WTO Project Coordinator, amandine@wide-network.org
Barbara Specht, Information Officer, Barbara@wide-network.org
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Seoul-Gyeonggi Declaration on the Equal Participation of Women in the Information Society
Seoul-Gyeonggi Declaration on the Equal Participation of Women in the Information Society
We, the participants in the Forum on Gender and ICTs for the World Summit on the Information Society 2005,
representing 36 countries assembled in Seoul from 24 – 25 June 2005, with affiliations in academia and NGOs as
well as government, international agency, and industry,
Reaffirming the principles outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women,
Noting paragraph 12 of the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),
adopted in Geneva in December 2003, viz: “We affirm that development of ICTs provide enormous opportunities
for women, who should be an integral part of, and key actors, in the Information Society. We are committed to
ensuring that the Information Society enables women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis of
equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a
gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end:”
Noting that the WSIS Plan of Action refers to the special needs of women in relation to capacity building; enabling
environment; ICT applications; cultural diversity and identity; media; and follow-up and evaluation,
Noting that the second phase of WSIS focuses on monitoring and implementation of the progress of feasible
actions laid out in the Geneva Plan and a concrete set of deliverables that must be achieved by the time the
Summit meets again in Tunis in November 2005,
Noting that, this will involve:
- developing a core set of benchmarks or indicators that can be used to evaluate ICT for Development initiatives
- surveying and presenting ‘best practices’ and ‘lessons learned’ from ICT projects and initiatives
- presenting recommendations from the working groups on Financing Mechanisms and Internet Governance
Noting that the current debate on financing in the WSIS process puts disproportionate emphasis on private
investment to achieve ICT for Development goals,
Recognizing that since the first phase of WSIS, governments, international bodies, academia, and civil society
organizations have implemented actions as follow-up to the WSIS Action Plan,
Recognizing that the most critical aspects in the follow up of the implementation of the WSIS Plan of Action are:
• Developing sex-disaggregated statistics and gender indicators
• Integrating a gender perspective in national ICT policies and strategies
• Ensuring ICT training and capacity building for women
• Promoting the economic empowerment of women
• Ensuring that women benefit from financing of ICT for Development
• Facilitating gender equality in Internet and ICT governance
Noting the growth of cyber pornography, trafficking, exploitation, violence against women and sexism on the
Internet, and recognizing that the Information Society provides both threats and opportunities,
1. Recommend, based on these priorities, the following to all stakeholders;
2. Emphasize the gender component in ICT financing discussions, including principles of gender budgeting, with
linkages made between investment in physical and social infrastructure development;
3. Ensure that financing ICT for Development projects accounts specifically for women's development priorities
and their information and communication rights;
4. Take into account the particular needs of indigenous, elderly, rural and marginalized women everywhere,
including those in developing countries and the least developed countries, and earmark a fair percentage of the
Digital Solidarity Fund for projects aimed at bridging the gender digital divide;
5. Ensure women’s participation in the establishment, administration and monitoring of any fund that supports the
use of ICTs for development;
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Seoul-Gyeonggi Declaration on the Equal Participation of Women in the Information Society
6. Establish national level multi-stakeholder level Internet governance mechanisms, independent of political and
market interests, to adopt agendas commensurate with a development-oriented Internet Governance, create
gender working groups, and provide a platform for ICT policy and Internet governance capacity building;
7. Create opportunities for the participation of women in international and intergovernmental organizations
involved in Internet governance;
8. Ensure access to meaningful participation and equal representation of all people, communities and groups,
including women, in the creation of any new global mechanism to address Internet governance. Appropriate
relationships should be established with UN bodies connected with development, with culture and education, and
with the special needs and interests of women;
9. Support the collection of sex-disaggregated data on access and use of ICTs at the regional and international
levels;
10. Emphasize the need for women’s increased presence at all levels of decision-making and in the
implementation of policies, both in NGOs and in government bodies responsible for information and
communication. This includes the provision of appropriate training, and monitoring of impact, for female public
servants;
11. Mobilize resources to fund capacity building programmes at national, regional and global levels, to address ICT
policy and Internet governance issues, taking into account the needs of women, excluded communities, especially
those from developing countries. In implementing such capacity building programmes, the e-readiness of the
community should be adequately assessed;
12. Create opportunities for employment for women in the ICT sector, especially in areas of management,
decision-making, and hardware and software design and production;
13. Invest in and support ICT infrastructure and services to promote women’s participation and empowerment.
Special attention should be given to community-driven information and communication initiatives, using both ICTs
and the long established media, including its ownership;
14. Encourage the widespread use of open-access software.
15. Ensure that content created or funded by government, government contractors conducting essential public
functions, or intergovernmental organizations becomes part of the public domain. This is of particular importance
with respect to technical and scientific information.
16. Recognize the special role of libraries as centres for community access to knowledge. Libraries and archives
should be considered in the development of national ICT policies and supported by public (government and donor)
funds.
17. Support women’s ministries and agencies, gender focal points, and gender advocates to participate effectively
in regulatory policy-making and in all national and international ICT policy processes in a coordinated way;
18. Train relevant government officers in gender analysis of ICT policies and support women’s ministries and
agencies, gender focal points, and gender advocates in the work they are doing.
25 June 2005
World Summit on the Information Society
WSIS Gender Caucus - http://www.genderwsis.org/
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Amendments to the official UNCTAD XI
UNCTAD XI - Adding Soul To "The Spirit Of Sao Paulo"
Amendments to the official UNCTAD XI - The Spirit of São Paulo Declaration
by the Civil Society Forum at UNCTAD XI
17 June 2004
We, the member States of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, gathered at São Paulo,
Brazil, between 13 and 18 June 2004, for the eleventh session of the Conference, agree on the following
Declaration:
1. UNCTAD was created in 1964 as an expression of the belief that a cooperative effort of the international
community was required to integrate developing countries successfully into the world economy. Since then,
UNCTAD has made a substantial contribution to the efforts of developing countries to participate more fully and to
adapt to changes in the world economy through the development of a number of instruments, agreements and
programmes - to stabilize commodity prices, for example - aimed at achieving this objective. UNCTAD has also
provided an invaluable forum for advancing the relationship between trade and development, both from a national
and an international perspective, across the three pillars of its mandate. Reinforcing the traditional UNCTAD
mandate is more crucial than ever.
2. The UN Conferences of the 1990s, (and outcomes such as the Beijing Platform for Action), the Convention on
the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, other international Conventions, the Millennium Declaration, the
Monterrey Consensus, the Programme of Action for the LDCs, the Almaty Programme of Action, the Barbados
Programme of Action, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of Implementation
agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Declaration of Principles and the Plane of Action
of the World Summit on the Information Society, as well as initiatives for UN reform, strengthen multilateralism
and establish a roadmap to guide international actions in the process of mobilising resources for development and
of providing an international environment supportive of development, although these have been criticised by some
who see them as insufficient. We are committed to joining all our efforts and in creasing the resources from the
developed countries in the achievement of the goals established in those texts in the agreed timeframes. The
United Nations system should actively pursue agreed development goals between now and 2015, as identified in
the Millennium Declaration, and a reinvigorated UNCTAD has an important role to play in efforts towards the
accomplishment of these common objectives.
3. In spite of all the efforts at the national and international level to promote growth, development and
intensifying equity at both these levels remain the central issues in the global agenda. The contrasts between
developed and developing countries and within both kinds of societies that marked the world in the early 1960s
have intensified. While globalisation has posed important challenges and opened up new opportunities for many
countries, its consequences have been highly unequal between countries and within countries. Some have reaped
the benefits from trade, investment and technology flows and seem to be winning the struggle for development
and for poverty alleviation: sometimes by following independent policies.
4. Most developing countries, however, especially African countries and LDCs, have remained neglected and
sometimes have suffered as a result of the globalisation process. They still face major challenges for the
realisation of their economic potential and the incorporation of large masses of the unemployed, informal male
and female workers and the working poor into the productive sectors. There is a need to rethink the linkage
between international trade and poverty elimination. There is a need to address the instability in world commodity
prices.
5. For all countries, it is important that, at the international level, efforts will be deployed and policies
implemented in order to facilitate reforms and to remove external constraints to put the developing world on a
firm and sustainable development path. We can rightly say that, 40 years after the foundation of UNCTAD, the
relationship between trade and development, which is the cornerstone of its mandate, has become even more
important to analyse critically and to act on.
6. We are committed to the struggle for the eradication of poverty and hunger. Policy instruments and measures,
such as the Global Fund Against Hunger, at the national and international levels, should be adopted, in particular
by practising policies in the areas of trade, investment and finance (including through new financial initiatives), to
encourage the creation of opportunities for the poor women and men of the world to have access to decent, stable
jobs and adequate negotiated wages. This is the sustainable road to democracy, reforms, stability and growth.
The Millennium Development Goals are an important but insufficient milestone. Special attention should be paid to
the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in order that gender power relations are rearranged, so that
women are empowered to participate equally with men in sustainable development.
7. The plight of the least developed countries should receive the utmost attention from the international
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Amendments to the official UNCTAD XI
community. We are committed to generating and better utilizing additional international resources, market access
and development assistance for the LDCs in order to enable them to establish, in the context of effective
domestically-owned national policies, a solid political, social and economic base for their development processes.
8. Multilateral trade negotiations, under the Doha Work Programme, should be conducted with a view to
addressing developmental concerns of countries, with a special focus on LDCs, in a manner that fully reflects the
level of ambition agreed to at Doha. The Doha Work Programme should place development at the centre of the
multilateral trade negotiations and then should reinforce the mandate of UNCTAD. UNCTAD can play a useful role
in safeguarding the development dimensions of the Doha Work Programme and contributing to assessing and
evaluating the balances and outcomes of negotiations and promoting mechanisms, including regulatory measures,
to establish more balanced and equitable trade relations. We also positively consider the facilitation of accession
of developing countries, especially LDC´s, to the WTO. UNCTAD should also assist developed countries in gender
mainstreaming and engendering their national and regional economic and trade policies to ensure gender equity
and women's empowerment.
9. We recognise that improved coherence between national and international policies and practices and between
the international monetary, financial and trading systems and the Norms of the UN system is fundamental for
democratic and participatory sound global economic governance. We are committed to reforming in a
comprehensive manner the existing inadequacies and insufficiencies of those systems in order to enhance their
capacities to better respond to the needs of development, especially in the case of LDCs. The institutional
dimension in terms of improved global governance is central here. We should also continue working on the
creation of positive and development-centred synergies amongst trade, finance and investment and on how to link
these efforts to development and eliminating inequities at the national and international levels. As recommended
by the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalisation, an inter-agency Globalisation Forum should
be established. UNCTAD should play a key role in this Forum. In particular, attention should be devoted to
improving international non-speculative capital flows for development, through the provision of automatic,
assured and predictable sources of development finance, as well as dealing with the volatility of international
capital markets. Measures to ensure long-term debt eradication of developing countries and countries in transition
should be implemented. As a first step in this direction, we commit to unconditional cancellation of LDC debt.
10. We should also focus on future challenge and opportunities. In addition to national resources, capital
accumulation and availability of labour, new factors such as information, innovation, creativity and diversity
constitute the dynamic forces of today's world economy. We are committed to bridging the digital divide and
ensuring harmonious, fair, equitable and sustainable development for all women and men and to building an
inclusive information society, which will require genuine equal partnership and cooperation among Governments
and other stakeholders, i.e. the private sector, civil society and international organisations, in which rights and
responsibilities of all parties are reciprocal.
11. A more positive integration of developing countries and those developing countries with economies in
transition into the international economy and the multilateral trading system depends also on the adoption of
internal policies to move up the ladder towards sectors that incorporate innovation and that expand more
dynamically. To achieve these results, countries must have the policy space to pursue diverse policy options in
order to arrive at the best possible balance between different approaches in their national development strategies.
12. The process of sustainable development requires increased and equitable participation of all social and political
forces in the creation of consensus for the adoption of effective national policies, which, in turn, requires
democratic policies and institutions. We acknowledge the importance of all stakeholders, i.e. governments, the
private sector, civil society and international organisations and the contribution all can make, in every country, to
good governance. While development is the primary responsibility of each country, domestic efforts should be
facilitated and complemented by an enabling international environment. Development policies should take
cognisance of market forces in the promotion of growth, through trade, investment and innovation. They should
also acknowledge the central role of the State in conferring political and economic stability, developing the
required regulatory frameworks, channelling the resources for infrastructure and social projects, promoting social
inclusion and reducing inequalities. We are committed to supporting national efforts dedicated to institution
building in developing countries and countries in transition.
13. Although still limited to a small number of countries, there are encouraging signs that a significant source of
global growth is being generated in the South. This new development could contribute to creating to a new
geography of world trade. We underscore the importance of initiatives to facilitate the emergence of new dynamic
centres of growth in the South through additional steps for the integration of these emerging economies with
other developing ones. This can be achieved, inter alia, by means of amore comprehensive Global System of
Trade Preferences among Developing Countries, which should also address the problems of the LDCs and
economies in transition.
14. Given the growing importance of regional and interregional initiatives, we encourage UNCTAD to further
develop capabilities designed to assist countries to participate effectively in these initiatives, while ensuring
functional and coherent linkages with the multilateral system.
15. The decisions we have adopted at this UNCTAD XI, in addition to the Bangkok Plan of Action form a solid basis
and are essential instruments in our continued commitment to support UNCTAD in fulfilling and strengthening its
mandate as the focal point internationally for the integrated treatment of trade and development, on the road to
its Twelfth Session in 2008.
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Amendments to the official UNCTAD XI
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STATEMENT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ON GENDER AND TRADE FOR UNCTAD XI
STATEMENT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ON GENDER AND TRADE FOR UNCTAD XI
June 15th 2004
The UN has recognised that gender equality is both a core value for sustainable development and a prerequisite
for poverty elimination. With the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and
the Beijing Platform for Action, the UN has developed an internationally accepted analytical framework and action
plan for gender equality. We welcome the creation of the UNCTAD-led Task Force on Gender and Trade set up by
the UN Inter-Agency Working Group in February 2003 and the UNCTAD XI initiative to highlight gender and trade
as a cross-cutting issue.
As a UN body, UNCTAD has both the responsibility and the competence to take a leadership role in ensuring that
gender concerns are incorporated in a meaningful way in macro-economic policy. Trade policies impact on gender
relations and human development by rearranging relations of power and access to resources between women and
men. If trade policies are assumed to be gender neutral, they may reproduce or even worsen current forms of
inequality and discrimination against women in all countries.
We also welcome the statement of the European Union that 'UNCTAD should mainstream gender equality in its
work. UNCTAD's support to developing countries should enable their economic and trade policies to empower
women as both actors in, and beneficiaries of, economic growth.' Gender mainstreaming must be understood in
the agreed terms of CEDAW and the BPFA as being strategy towards transformation of gender relations and
gender stereotypes, and the empowerment of women.
The impact of trade policy on the lives and livelihoods of women is compounded in countries of the South by the
structural inequalities between North and South. The international economic order through UNCTAD, therefore
must proactively promote the interests of those women who are most vulnerable to the negative impacts of
international trade agreements. UNCTAD should also assist developed countries in gender mainstreaming and
engendering their national and regional trade and other economic policies to ensure gender equity and women's
empowerment.
UNCTAD must take a leadership role by
Promoting the implementation of UN gender equality and women's empowerment agreements within trade
agreements.
Devoting increased emphasis in its work to the social implications of trade and other economic policies, including
their gender impact.
Developing systems of gender and trade indicators and gender impact assessment mechanisms in both
monitoring trade agreements and in ex ante assessment to forestall negative impacts of trade agreements on
vulnerable women and men.
Including in its independent research and analysis the evaluation of the impact of trade on women. Such
research should focus not only on criticising the current neo-liberal framework, but on developing alternatives,
drawing, for example, on the established body of feminist economics, and on the range of existing local level
alternatives.
Focusing its gender analysis not only on improving the condition of women in their current roles (e.g. better
access to credit and micro-finance etc) and seeing them as potential actors in economic growth, but should draw
on the transformative analysis of CEDAW to ensure that women are not confined in discriminatory positions by
gender stereotyping.
UNCTAD must ensure that every country has the competence and freedom to design development measures
aimed at achieving gender equality and social justice. Donor countries should ensure that appropriate resources
are directed to UNCTAD's work on gender equality.
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WIDE (Network Women In Development Europe)
Banúlacht - Women in Ireland for Development, WIDE Ireland
CONDGE (Coordinadora de ONGs), WIDE Spain
KULU - Women in Development, Denmark, WIDE Denmark
Danish 92 Group
ICDA (International Coalition of Development Action)
Cafra (Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action)

STATEMENT TO THE EUROPEAN UNION ON GENDER AND TRADE FOR UNCTAD XI
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EWL (European Women's Lobby)
IGTN-E - International Gender and Trade Network (Europe)
Trade Matters Ireland

Resolution 1325 (2000)Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting,On 31 October 2000
The Security Council,
Resolution 1325 (2000)
Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting,
On 31 October 2000
Recalling its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1265 (1999) of 17 September 1999, 1296 (2000) of 19
April 2000 and 1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000, as well as relevant statements of its President, and recalling also
the statement of its President to the press on the occasion of the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and
International Peace (International Women’s Day) of 8 March 2000 (SC/6816),
Recalling also the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (A/52/231) as well as those
contained in the outcome document of the twenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly
entitled “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century” (A/S-23/10/
Rev.1), in particular those concerning women and armed conflict,
Bearing in mind the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the primary responsibility of
the Security Council under the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security,
Expressing concern that civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those
adversely affected by armed conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are
targeted by combatants and armed elements, and recognizing the consequent impact this has on durable peace
and reconciliation,
Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and
stressing the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and
promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict
prevention and resolution,
Reaffirming also the need to implement fully international humanitarian and human rights law that protects the
rights of women and girls during and after conflicts,
Emphasizing the need for all parties to ensure that mine clearance and mine awareness programmes take into
account the special needs of women and girls, Recognizing the urgent need to mainstream a gender perspective
into peacekeeping operations, and in this regard noting the Windhoek Declaration and the Namibia Plan of Action
on Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations (S/2000/693),
Recognizing also the importance of the recommendation contained in the statement of its President to the press of
8 March 2000 for specialized training for all peacekeeping personnel on the protection, special needs and human
rights of women and children in conflict situations,
Recognizing that an understanding of the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, effective institutional
arrangements to guarantee their protection and full participation in the peace process can significantly contribute
to the maintenance and promotion of international peace and security,
Noting the need to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls,
1. Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national,
regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of
conflict;
2. Encourages the Secretary-General to implement his strategic plan of action (A/49/587) calling for an increase
in the participation of women at decisionmaking levels in conflict resolution and peace processes;
3. Urges the Secretary-General to appoint more women as special representatives and envoys to pursue good
offices on his behalf, and in this regard
calls on Member States to provide candidates to the Secretary-General, for inclusion in a regularly updated
centralized roster;
4. Further urges the Secretary-General to seek to expand the role and contribution of women in United Nations
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Resolution 1325 (2000)Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting,On 31 October 2000
field-based operations, and especially among military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian
personnel;
5. Expresses its willingness to incorporate a gender perspective into peacekeeping operations, and urges the
Secretary-General to ensure that, where appropriate, field operations include a gender component;
6. Requests the Secretary-General to provide to Member States training guidelines and materials on the
protection, rights and the particular needs of women, as well as on the importance of involving women in all
peacekeeping and peacebuilding measures, invites Member States to incorporate these elements as well as HIV/
AIDS awareness training into their national training programmes for military and civilian police personnel in
preparation for deployment, and further requests the Secretary-General to ensure that civilian personnel of
peacekeeping operations receive similar training;
7. Urges Member States to increase their voluntary financial, technical and logistical support for gender-sensitive
training efforts, including those undertaken by relevant funds and programmes, inter alia, the United Nations Fund
for Women and United Nations Children’s Fund, and by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees and other relevant bodies;
8. Calls on all actors involved, when negotiating and implementing peace agreements, to adopt a gender
perspective, including, inter alia:
(a) The special needs of women and girls during repatriation and resettlement and for rehabilitation, reintegration
and post-conflict reconstruction;
(b) Measures that support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution, and
that involve women in all of the implementation mechanisms of the peace agreements;
(c) Measures that ensure the protection of and respect for human rights of women and girls, particularly as they
relate to the constitution, the electoral system, the police and the judiciary;
9. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect fully international law applicable to the rights and protection
of women and girls, especially as civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the
Protocol thereto of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1979
and the Optional Protocol thereto of 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989
and the two Optional Protocols thereto of 25 May 2000, and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court;
10. Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based
violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations of armed
conflict;
11. Emphasizes the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for
genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes including those relating to sexual and other violence against
women and girls, and in this regard stresses the need to exclude these crimes, where feasible from amnesty
provisions;
12. Calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian and humanitarian character of refugee camps
and settlements, and to take into account the particular needs of women and girls, including in their design, and
recalls its resolutions 1208 (1998) of 19 November 1998 and 1296 (2000) of 19 April 2000;
13. Encourages all those involved in the planning for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration to consider
the different needs of female and male ex-combatants and to take into account the needs of their dependants;
14. Reaffirms its readiness, whenever measures are adopted under Article 41 of the Charter of the United Nations,
to give consideration to their potential impact on the civilian population, bearing in mind the special needs of
women and girls, in order to consider appropriate humanitarian exemptions;
15. Expresses its willingness to ensure that Security Council missions take into account gender considerations and
the rights of women, including through consultation with local and international women’s groups;
16. Invites the Secretary-General to carry out a study on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls, the
role of women in peace-building and the gender dimensions of peace processes and conflict resolution, and further
invites him to submit a report to the Security Council on the results of this study and to make this available to all
Member States of the United Nations;
17. Requests the Secretary-General, where appropriate, to include in his reporting to the Security Council
progress on gender mainstreaming throughout peacekeeping missions and all other aspects relating to women
and girls;
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Resolution 1325 (2000)Adopted by the Security Council at its 4213th meeting,On 31 October 2000
18. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.
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WIDE and GADN Conference Manifesto
WIDE and GADN Conference Manifesto
We, the Network Women in Development Europe, the Gender and Development Network, international Southern
partners, Central and Eastern European partners, individual members and feminists present, meeting here in
London on the occasion of WIDE’s 20th anniversary
Recognise…
• The global scale of poverty, inequality and unsustainable levels of environmental damage
• That women and girls experience poverty differently to men and boys and amongst themselves
• That neo-liberalism is creating deep divisions between and within the North and South
• That the new security agenda is dominating global politics
• That human security has been pushed aside by the new narrow focus on military, security, and the war on terror
• That there is a backlash against women’s human rights
• That until the imbalance of power between women and men, girls and boys, poor and rich, and between diverse
cultures is addressed; we will not achieve women’s human rights, economic and social justice nor a sustainable
culture of peace.
Note with concern…
• That the critical inter-linkages between poverty, inequality and insecurity are not being made
• That macro-economic trends are undermining women’s autonomy including sexual and reproductive health and
rights
• That the global trade regime has reinforced the profound inequality between the North and the South, regionally
and locally
• That market-led and private-sector models of development are failing citizens
• That fundamentalisms of ethnic, religious and moral right wing groups are dismantling women’s livelihoods,
economic security and control over their lives and bodies
• That US unilateralism is undermining and threatening global democracy.
Call on world leaders, North and South…
• To recognise and acknowledge the complex inter-linkages between poverty, inequality and insecurity and its
disproportionate negative impact on women and girls
• To meet their international obligations under the Cairo Programme of Action, the Beijing Platform for Action and
the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, to close the gap between policy and practice
• To ensure that foreign policy is not guided solely by economic self-interest of nations
• To recognise the critical role of civil society and social movements in determining good governance
• To be accountable to all citizens.
Demand that…
• Women participate in all levels of political, economic, cultural and social decision making.
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WIDE and GADN Conference Manifesto
Call on women’s movements globally…
• To link North and South for a global feminist agenda
• To engage with other social justice movements
• To be more proactive in shaping our priorities and agenda
• To engage young women and recognise their legitimacy, rights and issues
• To revitalise the feminist movement.
Call on other social movements…
• To engage with the feminist agenda
• To ensure that women’s and girls’ rights and livelihoods are integrated into their economic and social justice
agendas.
Signed in London on the 25 June 2005
1. Network Women in Development Europe
2. UK Gender and Development Network
3. One World Action
4. WOMANKIND Worldwide
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WIDE Statement to the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
WIDE Statement to the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
New York, 28 February to 11 March 2005
The 10 year review of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) at the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status
of Women (CSW) is a critical opportunity to reaffirm the global women’s agenda for women’s human rights,
gender equality and empowerment for women. The member states of the UN must use this opportunity to reaffirm
their unequivocal commitment to the accelerated implementation of the entire Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action and the Outcomes Document of the 23rd UN General Assembly Special Session (Beijing+5), and to ensure
that the appropriate resources are made available for the continued implementation of BPfA and the realisation of
gender equality and women’s human rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
GLOBALISATION AND THE BPfA
The BPfA was drafted and adopted by governments, but thousands of women activists worldwide have contributed
to all the phases of developing, drafting, monitoring and implementing the Platform forAction. WIDE, working in
collaboration with other women’s movements around the world, has helped to shape the BPfA and its
implementation. We have a particular concern about the many ways in which neo-liberalism, including the
promotion of a ‘free’ trade regime, economic globalisation and market liberalisation has led to deep inequalities. It
has led to the feminisation of employment, intensified exploitation of women's unpaid work in the caring economy
and has undermined the livelihood strategies of poor rural and urban women, including migrant women, disabled
and displaced women in all areas of the world.
The increasing impact of such policies on the lives and livelihoods of women is compounded in countries of the
South by the structural inequalities between North and South. If policies are assumed to be gender neutral, they
can reproduce or even worsen inequality. WIDE, in alliance with other women’s groups working on trade, macro
economic, gender and globalisation, calls on Governments to recognise that gender aware macro economic policy,
including the application of a gender analysis of trade and its impact on women globally are essential if economic
development partnerships are to be made real and effective. WIDE asks for far greater economic coherence
among states, non-state actors and multilateral institutions in relation to development cooperation and financial,
monetary and trade policies, so that the systemic inequities and power imbalances within the global economic
system are addressed.
Structural, economic and institutional inequalities are exacerbated by the increase in conservative forces in Europe
and all areas of the world, with the rise of religious fundamentalisms as well as a diversion of resources away from
the fight against poverty to the ‘war on terror’. This has led to increased poverty combined with a backlash
against women’s rights and a weakening of many of the gains won in the 1990s UN conferences.
BEIJING+10 AND THE MILLENNIUM SUMMIT
The 49th CSW is a strategic moment to push for the BPfA to be more visibly linked to the current UN Agenda
based on the 2000 Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are due for
review in September 2005. WIDE expresses serious concern that the MDG process now dominating the UN
System is undermining the BPfA. Unlike the BPfA which takes into account deep inequalities within and across
countries, the MDGs ignore the structural nature of poverty as well as the structural nature of gender inequality.
There is a central contradiction within the MDG process that asks governments to invest in ‘pro-poor policies’
while at the same time employing neo-liberal economic policies that only serve to increase the impoverishment of
marginalized women and men. WIDE therefore calls for a far more democratic and gender aware MDG process,
one that is accountable to the global women’s movement, and which makes gender equality, women’s human
rights and women’s empowerment central to the achievement of the MDGs. It is critical that Governments ensure
that the MDGs draw on the Beijing PfA as integral to all MDG goals.
GROWING INEQUALITIES WITHIN EUROPE
As an organisation of women living in Europe, WIDE is particularly concerned with the growing inequalities
associated with neo-liberal globalisation and exploitation connected with a rise in both legal and illegal forms of
migration, with the latter, in particular, associated with highly insecure and exploitative forms of work. WIDE
expresses concern about the human rights of all migrants, and particularly the specific abuses of human rights to
which women migrants are vulnerable in the context of the growth of the non-formal economy in Europe, the
increase in illegal migration, trafficking of women and children and the growing fragmentation of 'old' and 'new'
Europe. The European Union enlargement in 2004 caused new and largely artificial political dividing lines across
the continent, between those within the EU and those outside. WIDE believes that it is critical to build a common
agenda for gender equality among women in the whole European region in order to prevent a new East- West
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WIDE Statement to the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
divide.
BEIJING+10 AND CAIRO+10
From a holistic human rights approach to development built by the UN conferences of the 1990s, WIDE considers
women’s economic rights intrinsically linked to their sexual and reproductive rights. WIDE therefore joins other
women’s movements and health activists in expressing strong concern that sexual and reproductive health and
rights for all women (as agreed to in the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo 1994) is
reinstated in the MDG agenda, including building women’s capacity to act in response to the increasing numbers
of poor women living with HIV/AIDS. WIDE welcomes the recommendations of the Millennium Project Task Force
Three and Four and calls on European Governments in particular to take a strong stand on this issue.
It is an increasingly challenging climate for women, particularly those from socially excluded groups, transition
countries and conflict-affected areas. WIDE calls on women’s rights groups across the world to protect the gains
made by Beijing and calls on Governments, particularly European governments, to reaffirm those gains, not only
in the 10 year review process, but also in the future, through appropriate resources to put the BPfA into action.
WIDE will be working throughout the CSW to mobilize political will and resources more effectively for the global
women’s agenda in official delegations, at side events, interactive panels, caucuses and through the Global Week
of Action for Women’s Rights from March 1-8 which WIDE promotes and endorses.
WIDE CALLS FOR:
• The unequivocal reaffirmation of the entire Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Outcomes
Document of the 23rd UNGASS (Beijing+5), with the allocation of new resources and the commitment to the full
implementation and relevance of BPfA in itself and as a precondition for achieving the MDGs
• The continued analysis of the critical linkages between trade, development, poverty and gender as essential to
address the systemic inequities and power imbalances within the global economic system
• The integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights into the MDG agenda.
Source:
Women in Development Europe ©
http://www.wide-network.org/
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Declaration of the European Conference, Paris, 25th June, 2005
Declaration of the European Conference, Paris, 25th June, 2005
A new Era may Open itself in Europe
We, the participants of the European Conference in Paris of 24th and 25th June 2005, put forward for debate in all
the associative, trade union and political networks in Europe, the propositions contained in the following
declaration:
The victory of the “No” in France is that of the No of the Left, pro-European, globalisation critical and directed
against neoliberalism and war. Prolonged by the Dutch “No” and the growing mobilisations (to be strengthened) of
public opinion in numerous countries for the rejection of this text, it constitutes a major political event for Europe
in its entirety. We should seize on this first success against neoliberal Europe and prolong it. This experience
reveals to us that a gathering of the people and of citizens can result in anti-neoliberal majorities.
We want to overcome the crisis of this European construction, which has the market as its idol and secret
negotiations as its liturgy in order to found a social, democratic, peaceful, feminist, ecological Europe grounded in
the solidarity among its people.
Together we want to engage a large citizen's movement on the European scale in order to develop, from
the local level up to the European scale, and in solidarity with all the people of the world, political and social
dynamics in favour of another Europe. It is a matter of resisting and winning face to the neoliberal
policies
● Of constructing a large and determined mobilisation on the immediate political objectives (withdrawal of the
directives on liberalisation in course, especially the Bolkestein directive and that on labour time, which
should be replaced by a new directive, which really limits work time and permits to improve working
conditions).
● Of demanding that the people may be allowed to decide on their future and that their choices be respected.
In this sense, we propose a campaign that could, for instance, be based on a petition in all of the countries
and that would demand a fundamental change in the European politics. This reorientation should notably
have as its objective: a better distribution of wealth; the fight against unemployment; precarity; poverty
and social exclusion; the defence of our environment; the questioning of the dominating role of the
European Central Bank and of the Stability Pact; the defence and the development of public services; the
action for a real equality between women and men; the respect of the rights of immigrants; a European
action in favour of nutritional sovereignty as fundamental right of the people.
In order to debate and construct alternatives to the neoliberal policies in Europe, we would like to
begin a European campaign open to all the forces opposed to neoliberalism that should wish so. It
should permit:
● To favour the irruption of the people on the European scene as the only possible way out of the crisis;
● To contribute to the expression of people's and citizens' demands for another Europe;
● To create a public European space based on the principles of pluralism, of tolerance, of laicity (separation of
church and state), in a spirit of assembly and of unity that will permit the gathering of many forces;
● To articulate our alternative propositions;
● To reinforce our cooperation with the people of Eastern Europe in order to help ameliorate the material and
political conditions of their participation in the fight for a democratic and social Europe, with view to
consecrating the budgetary means necessary and to fill the gap that still exists between the two parts of
the continent;
● To construct a Europe refusing discriminations, racisms, patriarchical domination;
● To refuse the logic of war and of militarisation of the European Union, to construct a Europe that acts for
another world.
Construct a social, democratic, peaceful, feminist, ecological and solidarity-based Europe
Everywhere there should engage itself a large political debate for constructing another, a social, democratic and
ecological Europe. In this sense, we appeal to all the political, trade union, associative, network and movement
activists, women and men, to the citizens, women and men, to conduct everywhere initiatives, gatherings and
assemblies allowing to work out proposals.
This vast movement could usher in a Manifesto or a Charter of Social, Democratic and Environmental Rights that
could outline the Europe that we want; It would unfold itself in the process of the European Social Forum; in
particular on occasion of the European preparatory assembly (EPA) of the ESF in Istanbul (September 23 to 25)
and of the international gathering organised by the Italian networks in Rome (November 12 and 13); The ESF of
Athens in April 2006 will permit to keep track of this work of preparation and to give it a new push forward;
Proposals for mobilisation have been formulated on occasion of our meeting: for a day of European-wide
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Declaration of the European Conference, Paris, 25th June, 2005
demonstrations against the Bolkestein directive in connection with the international demonstration against the
WTO in Geneva on October 15; for a day of Europe-wide demonstrations on occasion of the summit of the heads
of state on December 15; for a day of local mobilisations for another Europe with assemblies, reunions, local
social forums on March 4th, 2004; for an alternative summit Europe- Latin America on May 13 in Austria.
The unifying French collective will bring these proposals to life and will prepare a reunion that will take place in the
framework of the European Preparatory Assembly in Istanbul and which will allow us to summarise the work we
have done along these tracks.
We put this appeal at the disposal of all those, women and men, who would like to be a part, at the
European level, of such a process of construction.
Paris, 25th June, 2005
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YES To Another Europe M E M O R A N D U M
The European Feminist Initiative Acts in Priority for a NO to The Constitution and for a YES To Another
Europe
M E M O R A N D U M
The European Union might become the bearer of a true peace project, of a constructive alternative to the policy of
precarity, unemployment, poverty and an alternative to the policy of militarization and war which generate
violence and insecurity. Violence restricts the field of possibilities, non-violence broadens it.
Neoliberalism and common security policy, in close relationship with NATO and without reference to UN bring
economic and defence choices, which will act as reciprocal commitments between countries of the European
union. There are here two ingredients of the patriarchal power. If the new constitution becomes adopted, it will
confirm the dominating male and neo-liberal power and will carved it “in marble” for several decades. We desire
that on the first line of a new treaty between European countries be written Women rights, thus of half the
population, in the same way as human rights and that there appears a reference to Convention for the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as a compulsory measure between countries of Europe.
Indisputably, we dare defying the patriarchal order.
THE EUROPEAN FEMINIST INITIATIVE FEMINISTE (IFE-EFI) ACTS IN PRIORITY FOR A NO TO THE
CONSTITUTION AND FOR A YES TO ANOTHER EUROPE
After the YES of Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia and Greece through the vote of their respective Parliaments, and
the YES of Spain through a referendum past February, 8 countries-France, Holland, Luxembourg, Poland,
Denmark, Portugal, Ireland and England- will held referendums in between May 2005 and 2006. In Sweden and
Czech Republic, there is a tendency for the decision being taken by their respective parliaments but the struggles
are not ended to impose a referendum consultation. A NO in France will be decisive for the whole Constitution
procedure. The odds are great for the NO to block a text where even human rights are dependent upon
economical and military objectives!
IFE-EFI calls the support of the GUE/NGL for organizing meetings, conferences and debates in the
capitals of countries where it is still possible to act for a Democratic opening to the NO to the
Constitution and for another Europe. A moratorium is necessary for new discussions and elaboration
of a new treaty. In this process, feminist organizations and movements must be permanent consultant
organizations in the same way as unions and humanitarian organizations.
WOMEN RIGTHS REGRESS IN EUROPE
● Reproduction rights are forbidden in several countries of EU and are globally in the balance.
● Women are the most threatened on the labour market by precarity, flexibility and increase of the working
time.
● Women are submitted to the male violence in the public sphere and the family sphere.
● Migrant women suffer a double discrimination : as women and as immigrants.
● Laicity is threatened in several countries through the role devoted to churches and religious communities.
● The freedom of sexual orientation is challenged.
● Women bodies are exploited and offered as goods.
IFE-EFI calls the support of the GUE/NGL for the organization of thematic regional conferences in
order to contribute to the fact that women rights should at last be considered as full rights and that
the woman is at last considered as equal to the man.
FOR ANOTHER EUROPE
In order to build another Europe, we want:
● Parity and equality between men and women
● Inversion of economical priorities, which must be based upon the reproductive sphere: health, education,
parental protection, elder people, etc.
● The choice of Resolution 1325 of UN as the base for any negotiation of peace and prevention of conflicts.
● Modern public services
● Banning of sexual exploitation and merchandisation of bodies, assistance, protection, rehabilitation of
women suffering violence, terrorism and war inside and outside Europe.
● New negotiations must start between European countries with compulsory consultation of social
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YES To Another Europe M E M O R A N D U M
movements-among which feminist organizations.
IFE-EFI calls the support of the GUE/NGL for the editing of a quaterly report for contact, information
and awareness about evoked topics.
IFE will endeavour to find supports among European Institutions.
Today, we live the construction of Europe surrounded by the silence and invisibility of women. For the first time in
50 years, people can debate about the future of Europe but in 15 countries among 25, their speech is seized. And
yet women speak! The 1000 signatories from 132 organisations and from 30 countries who signed the call of IFE
propose a feminist analysis critical about the European construction. It is a unique fact that can become th echo of
voices of half the European population, in order to develop a democratic process in the name of all Human rights.
The feminist analysis which gather us among IFE for another Europe is a lever for action against the patriarchal
order. By deciphering its links with neo-liberalism, our analysis will make it visible and vulnerable. The European
Feminist Initiative, by contributing to the democratic process, also contributes to make possible the change in the
European construction.
● We know that 81% of women hold precarious jobs. The major part of people struck by poverty are women.
● We know that incomes, salaries and pensions are unfairly shared between men and women. Women are in
charge of the major par of the non-remunerate home work.
● We know that women are greatly underrepresented in political executive power, union and economic life.
● Whatever differences between countries of EU, we can, with our common feminist analysis, create an action
and transformation force through a large solidarity movement.
Several countries are now watching France. French feminist organizations openly express themselves in favour of
the NO to the European constitution. On the day before the referendum, in Marseille on May 28, la Marche
Mondiale des Femmes has gathered women from all over Europe in order to express our requirement of another
world and another Europe.
We need all democratic forces to build egalitarian Europe.
European Feminist Initiative INITIATIVE FEMINISTE EUROPÉENNE
BRUSSELS May 4, 2005
EFI – IFE for Another Europe
Paris May, 25 2005.
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Montréal Principles were adopted at a meeting of experts held December 7 – 10, 2002 in Montréal, Canada.
These principles are offered to guide the interpretation and implementation of the guarantees of nondiscrimination
and equal exercise and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, found, inter alia, in
Articles 3 and 2(2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, so that women can
enjoy these rights fully and equally.
The participants at the Montreal meeting were: Sneh Aurora, Fareda Banda, Reem Bahdi, Stephanie Bernstein,
Gwen Brodsky, Ariane Brunet, Christine Chinkin, Mary Shanthi Dairiam, Shelagh Day, Leilani Farha, Ruth Goba,
Soledad Garcia Muñoz, Sara Hossain, Lucie Lamarche, Marianne Møllmann, Dianne Otto, Karrisha Pillay, Inés
Romero, and Alison Symington. They unanimously agreed on the following principles.
A. INTRODUCTION
Sex or gender inequality is a problem experienced primarily by women. The systems and assumptions which
cause women’s inequality in the enjoyment of economic social and cultural rights are often invisible because they
are deeply embedded in social relations, both public and private, within all States. Acknowledging this systemic
and entrenched discrimination is an essential step in implementing guarantees of non-discrimination and equality.
The terms “gender” and “sex” should both be understood as referring to the range of economic, social, cultural,
historical, political and biological constructions of norms of behaviour that are considered appropriate for women
and men. Implicit in such an understanding of “gender” or “sex” relations is that male and female norms have
been constructed so as to privilege men and disadvantage women. “Gender” and “sex” discrimination can be used
interchangeably, and both “gender inequality” and “sex inequality” are used to refer to the disadvantaged position
of women. In order to reflect this understanding of women’s disadvantage, the Montréal Principles use the terms
“discrimination against women” and “women’s equality” wherever possible.
Economic, social and cultural rights have a particular significance for women because as a group, women are
disproportionately affected by poverty, and by social and cultural marginalization. Women’s poverty is a central
manifestation, and a direct result of women’s lesser social, economic and political power. In turn, women’s
poverty reinforces their subordination, and constrains their enjoyment of every other right.
The UN Charter mandates universal respect for, and observance of all human rights, including the right of women
to equal exercise and enjoyment of their economic social and cultural rights. [1] All regional and global
instruments which set out economic social and cultural rights contain guarantees of non-discrimination and of
equal enjoyment for women of these rights. [2] An expression of this global consensus is found in Articles 3 and 2
(2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In the political context of the early 21 st century, it is particularly important to underline this long-standing
international consensus regarding human rights primacy. The lack of priority accorded to securing universal
enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights hurts women disproportionately.
Women’s particular vulnerability to social and economic deprivation is deepened further in conflict and postconflict
situations and when economic sanctions are imposed. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights has stated that economic, social and cultural rights must be taken into account when imposing sanctions,
and State Parties to the Covenant should take account of the suffering that such sanctions are likely to inflict on
certain sectors, such as women. As the UN Security Council has recognized, peace and women’s equality are
inextricably linked. [3]
The inequality in the lives of women that is deeply embedded in history, tradition and culture [4] affects women’s
access to and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. To ensure women’s enjoyment of these rights,
they must be implemented in a way that takes into account the context in which women live. For example, the
traditional assignment to women and girls of the role of primary care-giver for children, older persons and the sick
restricts women’s freedom of movement and consequently their access to paid employment and education. The
economic and social devaluation of the work, paid and unpaid, that women traditionally do from a very young age,
contributes further to fixing women in a position of economic and social inequality. These factors diminish
women’s earning capacity and their economic autonomy, and contribute to the high rates of poverty among
women worldwide. Traditional, historical, religious or cultural attitudes are also used to justify and perpetuate
discrimination against women in the delivery of economic, social and cultural rights, including health services and
education, by public and private agencies.
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Inequality in women’s enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights contributes to their economic
dependence, denial of personal autonomy and lack of empowerment. These in turn limit still further women’s
ability to participate in public life, including fora for economic, social, political and legal policy and decisionmaking.
As the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has noted: “‘Policies developed
and decisions made by men alone reflect only part of human experience and potential.’” [5] Such policies and
decisions are less likely to take account of gendered consequences, and the economic and social factors that affect
women’s lives.
Economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights are particularly indivisible and interconnected in
the lives of women: inequality in economic, social and cultural rights undermines women’s ability to enjoy their
civil and political rights, which then limits their capacity to influence decision and policy-making in public life.
Since “‘[a]ll human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated’” [6] equality in civil and
political rights [7] is undermined unless equality in the exercise and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural
rights is secured.
It is especially important that women’s entitlement to equal enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights is
acknowledged and re-emphasized in the current climate of neo-liberalism and economic globalization. Policies of
privatization, economic austerity and structural adjustment have negative impacts for women. [8] For example,
women are often the hardest hit by economic transition, financial crises and rising unemployment. In part, this is
because women are relied upon to provide services that are cut such as caring for children, older persons and the
sick, because women are often in insecure, part-time employment, they are commonly the first to lose their jobs.
Furthermore, poverty can lead to a decrease in food intake among women and girls; girls are the first to drop out
of schools; greater numbers of women are forced to migrate; and women are vulnerable to trafficking, violence
and ill health. Economic and political insecurity provoke private and public backlash against women’s rights that
may be expressed through violence and articulated in the form of defending cultures and traditions.
To fully implement the rights set out in Articles 3 and 2(2) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and
Cultural Rights, and similar guarantees in other human rights instruments, requires an understanding that focuses
upon the subordination, stereotyping and structural disadvantage that women experience. It requires more than
just formal legal recognition of equality between the sexes. It requires commitment by all responsible parties to
take all necessary steps to address the actual material and social disadvantage of women.
B. DEFINITION OF WOMEN'S ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
1. Women’s economic, social and cultural rights include, but are not limited to, the right to:
An adequate standard of living including:
§ food and freedom from hunger;
§ water;
§ clothing;
§ housing and freedom from forced eviction;
§ continuous improvement of living conditions;
See for example: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) article 11(1) and (2);
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) article 14(2)(h); Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) article 25; Universal Declaration on Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition
(UDEHM) article 1; Declaration on the Right to Development (DRD) article 8(1); Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15 ("The right to water"); Additional Protocol to the American Convention
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (San Salvador Protocol) article 12; Rome Declaration on Food Security;
Istanbul Declaration and Program of Action on Human Settlements. [9]
The highest attainable standard of mental and physical health throughout a woman’s life cycle, including
reproductive and sexual health and freedom;
See for example: ICESCR article 10(2) and 12; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) article
6(4) and 18(4); Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW) article 9(e); CEDAW
articles 10(h), 11(2)(a) and 12; UDHR article 25; Declaration on Population and Development para. 7; Beiing
Declaration and Program of Action paras. 89, 94 and 96; Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) articles 24, 3
(2); American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) article 4(5); San Salvador Protocol article 10; Inter-American
Convention on the Protection, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (ICPPEVAW) article 4(b);
American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (ADRDM) article xi; Declaration on Social Progress and
Development (DSPD) article 11(b); DRD article 8(1); Maternity Protection Convention (MPC) article 3; African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter) article 16; Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women, General Comment 24. [10]
Equal inheritance and ownership of land and property;
See for example: ICESCR article 11(1); CEDAW articles 13(b), 14(20(e) and (g), 15(2) and 16(h); DEDAW article
6(1)(a); DRD article 8(1); International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CERD) articles 5(d)(v) and 5(d)(vi); UDHR article 17; ACHR article 21; African Charter, article 14; Beijing
Declaration and Program of Action, para. 61(b), 62, and 63. [11]
Social security, social protection, social insurance and social services, including special assistance before, during
and after childbirth;
See for example: ICESCR articles 9 and 10(2); CERD article 5(e)(iv); DEDAW article 10(1)(c); CEDAW articles 11
(1)(e), 11(2)(a), and 14(2)(c); MPC articles 4 and 6; UDHR article 22, 23(1) and 25(1); San Salvador Protocol
articles 9(2) and 15 (3)(a); ADRDM article xvi; ICCPEVAW, article 8; CRC article 28. [12]
Training and education;
See for example: ICESCR articles 6 and 13; CEDAW articles 10 and 14(2)(d); DEDAW article 9; UDEHM article 4;
CERD article 5(e)(v); UDHR article 26; ACHR article 17(1); ICPPEVAW article 6(b); San Salvador Protocol article 13
(1)(2) and (3); CRC article 28; Convention Against Discrimination in Education article 1; ADRDM article xii; Bejing
Declaration and Program of Action para. 69. [13]
Freely chosen work as well as just and favourable conditions of work including fair wages, equal remuneration and
protection from sexual harassment and sex discrimination at work;
See for example: ICESCR articles 6 (1), 6(2) and 7; CEDAW articles 11(1)c), (f); CERD article 5(e); ICCPR article 8
(3)(a); DEDAW article 10(1)(a); Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (AFLC) article 1; DSPD article 6; UDHR
articles 4 and 23; Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW) article 3; ACHR article 6(2);
African Charter articles 5 and 15; ADRDM, article xiv; San Salvador Protocol articles 6 and 7; Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (CPHRFF) article 4(2); MPC article 8; Equal Remuneration
Convention (ERC) article 1; Convention on Employment Policy articles 1 (1) and (2); ILO Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; ICPPEVAW, article 2(b). [14]
Form and join trade unions;
See for example: ICESCR article 8; ICCPR article 22; CERD article 5(e)(ii); DSPD article 10; San Salvador Protocol
article 8; ILO Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize. [15]
Protection from economic exploitation;
See for example: ICESCR articles 8 and 10 (3); ICCPR article 8; Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery article 1(b); CRC article 32; ILO
Convention on Worst Forms of Child Labour; UDHR article 4; ACHR article 6. [16]
Protection from coerced and uninformed marriage;
See for example: ICESCR article 10(1); CEDAW article 16(1)(b); DEDAW article 6(2)(a); ICCPR article 23(3);
Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage (Marriage
Convention) article 1; CERD article 5(d)(iv); UDHR article 16(2); ACHR article 17(3). [17]
A clean and healthy environment;
See for example: ICESCR article 12(2)(b); African Charter article 24. [18]
Participate in cultural life;
See for example: ICESCR article 15(1)(a); CRC article 29(1)(c); CEDAW article 13(c); ICCPR article 27; DEVAW
article 3; CERD article 5(e)(vi); UDHR article 27; ACHR article 26; African Charter articles 17(2) and 22(1);
ICPPEVAW article 5; San Salvador Protocol articles 14(1)(a) and (b). [19]
Claim and enjoy the benefits of patents and intellectual property;
See for example: ICESCR article 15(1)(c); San Salvador Protocol article 14(c). [20]
Nationality; and to bestow nationality on children;
See for example: CEDAW article 9; DEDAW Article 5; Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (CNMW)
article 1; Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (CSR) article 2; UDHR article 15; ACHR article 20; CERD
article 5(d)(iii). [21]
Freedom from trafficking and exploitation; recognition of the human rights of trafficked persons;
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See for example: CEDAW article 6; DEDAW article 8; DEVAW article 2(b); CRC articles 34 and 35; ICPPEVAW
article 2(b); Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,
Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. [22]
2. Indivisibility and Interdependence of Rights
Economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights are indivisible, interdependent and interconnected.
In the real lives of women, it is difficult to separate these rights. For example, a woman’s right to life is
threatened as much by the deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights as by the deprivation of civil and
political rights.
3. No Justification for Restriction
Nothing in the wording or substance of any international or regional human rights document, policy, practice or
custom can be used to justify restricting women’s equal enjoyment and exercise of economic, social and cultural
rights.
4. Non-Retrogression
International law entitles women to claim the highest level of available protection for their rights that is afforded
by international human rights instruments or national law, policy or custom.
5. Women’s Sex and Gender Inequality
C. Principles of Equality and Non-discrimination
Unequal power relations between women and men must be acknowledged and changed, and the entrenched
disadvantage caused by this power imbalance must be addressed, if women are to achieve the equal exercise and
equal enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights.
6. Non-Discrimination and Equality
Legal guarantees of non-discrimination based on sex and legal guarantees of equality for women, though
expressed differently, are articulations of the same obligation. This obligation is not confined to negative
restraints on States and third parties because negative restraints, alone, do not successfully eliminate
discrimination against women. Both the right to non-discrimination and the right to equality mandate measures
that prevent harmful conduct and positive steps to address the long-standing disadvantage of women.
7. Definition of Sex Discrimination
Sex or gender discrimination occurs when intentionally or unintentionally, a law, program or policy, or an act or a
failure to act, has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, exercise or enjoyment by women
of their economic, social and cultural rights.
8. Forms of Sex Discrimination
Sex or gender discrimination is experienced as discrimination because of being a woman. It can also be
experienced as discrimination on the basis of marital status, for example, as discrimination against wives, cohabitees,
unmarried women, divorced women or widows, or on the basis of family status, family responsibility,
pregnancy, reproductive capacity, or sexuality. Sexual harassment of women and violence against women must
also be understood as forms of sex discrimination.
9. Substantive Equality
Economic, social and cultural rights must be interpreted and implemented in a manner that ensures to women
substantively equal exercise and enjoyment of their rights. Substantively equal enjoyment of rights cannot be
achieved through the mere passage of laws or promulgation of policies that are gender-neutral on their face.
Gender neutral laws and policies can perpetuate sex inequality because they do not take into account the
economic and social disadvantage of women; they may therefore simply maintain the status quo. De jure equality
does not, by itself, provide de facto equality. De facto, or substantive equality, requires that rights be interpreted,
and that policies and programs - through which rights are implemented - be designed in ways that take women’s
socially constructed disadvantage into account, that secure for women the equal benefit, in real terms, of laws
and measures, and that provide equality for women in their material conditions. The adequacy of conduct
undertaken to implement rights must always be assessed against the background of women’s actual conditions
and evaluated in the light of the effects of policies, laws and practices on those conditions.
10. Intersectionality
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Many women encounter distinct forms of discrimination due to the intersection of sex with such factors as: race,
language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability, or socio-economic class. Indigenous women, migrant women,
displaced women, and non-national or refugee women experience distinct forms of discrimination because of the
intersection of their sex and race, or their sex and citizenship status. Women may also confront particular forms of
discrimination due to their age or occupation; family status, as single mothers or widows; health status, such as
living with HIV/AIDS; sexuality, such as being lesbian; or because they are engaged in prostitution. Intersecting
discrimination can determine the form or nature that discrimination takes, the circumstances in which it occurs,
the consequences of the discrimination, and the availability of appropriate remedies. To ensure that all women
enjoy the benefits of their economic, social and cultural rights, specific measures are needed to address the ways
in which women are differently affected in their enjoyment of a right as a result of the intersection of
discrimination based on sex with discrimination based on other characteristics.
11. Autonomy
Women are entitled to exercise and enjoy their economic social and cultural rights as autonomous persons. They
cannot enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights equally if they are treated as inferior to men or as adjuncts
of, or dependents of men, whether those men are family members or others. In turn, economic, social and
cultural rights must be interpreted and applied in ways that recognize women’s right to full legal personhood and
autonomy.
D. IMPEDIMENTS TO WOMEN'S EQUALl ENJOYMENT OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
12. Impediments
Structural impediments to women’s equal exercise and enjoyment of economic social and cultural rights include,
but are not limited to: (i) social norms, customs and traditions that legitimize women’s inequality; (ii) failure to
take account of women’s disadvantage or their distinct experiences when designing laws or measures to
implement economic, social and cultural rights; (iii) restrictions on access to legal or administrative bodies where
remedies for rights violations may be sought; (iv) women’s under-representation in decision-making processes;
(v) women’s unequal status in their families; (vi) the failure to recognize women’s unremunerated work, and to
encourage the fairer distribution between women and men of family and community-supporting labour; (vii) the
neglect of women’s economic, social and cultural rights in conflict and post-conflict situations; and (viii) the
gender-differentiated effects of economic globalization. These impediments must be addressed and eliminated to
ensure that measures adopted to implement economic, social and cultural rights will benefit women equally.
E. LEGAL OBLIGATIONS
13. Justiciability and Allocation of Resources
Women’s rights to non-discrimination and equality are enforceable by judicial bodies and administrative tribunals
in all circumstances, including when they raise issues of government allocation of resources for the realization of
economic, social and cultural rights.
14. Immediate Obligation
The right to non-discrimination and to the equal exercise and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights
imposes an immediate obligation on States. This obligation is not subject to progressive realization. The obligation
is also an immediate one for inter-governmental bodies and quasi-State actors or other groups exercising control
over territory or resources.
15. Respect, Protect, Fulfill and Promote
Women’s right to non-discrimination and equality imposes four specific obligations on States: the obligations to
respect, protect, fulfill and promote women’s exercise and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.
These four obligations are indivisible and interdependent and must be implemented by States simultaneously and
immediately.
16. Range of Conduct
The obligations to respect, protect, fulfill and promote women’s economic, social and cultural rights require a
range of conduct from States. States are obliged to both refrain from acting harmfully and to take positive steps
to advance women’s equality. States are required to repeal laws and policies that discriminate either directly or
indirectly. They are also required to guarantee women’s rights to non-discrimination and to the equal exercise and
enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in appropriate domestic laws, such as national constitutions and
human rights legislation, and in the interpretation of customary and personal laws. States are obliged to regulate
the conduct of third parties, such as employers, landlords, and service providers. States are also obliged to design
and implement policies and programmes to give long-term and full effect to women’s economic, social and cultural
rights. These may include the adoption of temporary special measures to accelerate women’s equal enjoyment of
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their rights, gender audits, and gender-specific allocation of resources.
17. Rights-claiming mechanisms
States must ensure that women’s rights to non-discrimination and to the equal exercise and enjoyment of
economic, social and cultural rights can be effectively interpreted and applied by judicial and quasi-judicial bodies
that are independent from government. Further, States must ensure that the right to be free from discrimination
and the right to equality are interpreted substantively, rather than formally, by judicial and quasi-judicial bodies,
so as to foster the equal enjoyment by women of economic, social and cultural rights. States, when appearing as
parties or intervenors before judicial or quasi-judicial bodies must advocate for the interpretation and application
of rights that will ensure women’s substantive enjoyment of them.
18. Maximum Available Resources
States must use the maximum available resources to respect, protect, fulfill and promote economic, social and
cultural rights. The maximum available resources must be distributed in a manner that provides substantively
equal exercise and enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights by women.
19. Trade, Trade Agreements and International Financial Institutions
States have a non-derogable obligation to guarantee women’s equal enjoyment of their economic, social and
cultural rights in their actions and decision-making in the context of trade, trade agreements, and agreements
with, or participation in, international and regional financial institutions.
20. Due Diligence
All States when participating in international financial institutions, trade agreements, or aid and development
programs shall apply a due diligence test to assess, foresee and prevent any adverse consequences of trade
agreements, structural adjustment programs, development and humanitarian assistance, and other economic and
social policies on women’s economic, social and cultural rights. Where harm is caused by such agreements or
programs, the responsible States and institutions shall implement compensatory measures. This applies at
national, regional and international levels, in public and private spheres of life.
21. Provision for Basic Needs
In the context of scarcity, States shall make sure that the basic needs of women are satisfied, especially in regard
to health care, access to potable water, sanitation services, housing, education, energy and social protection. This
obligation prevails as well in times of conflict and post-conflict. States and other inter-governmental bodies must
ensure that services are provided in a manner that does not discriminate against women, and that ensures
women’s equality.
22. Privatization and Regulation of Third Parties
Where services are partially or wholly privatized, at a minimum States are required to adopt an effective
regulatory system to monitor the distribution of such services and service providers must work in cooperation with
the State to ensure the substantively equal enjoyment of services by women in fulfilment of the State’s
international legal obligations.
23. Regulation of Transnational Corporations and Third Parties
States have an obligation to require transnational corporations and other commercial entities, when they are
providing services or programs related to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, to ensure that
women benefit equally. States also have an obligation to prevent transnational corporations and other commercial
entities from violating women’s economic, social and cultural rights on their territory. When such rights are
violated, States have a duty to provide women with effective remedies.
24. Recognition of Unremunerated Work
States must adopt specific measures to recognize the economic and social contribution of the women who carry
out unremunerated activities. States must also ensure that women or particular groups of women do not carry out
a disproportionately large part of the unremunerated and devalued workload of families and communities,
including domestic labour and the care of children, sick, and older persons.
25. Participation
States and inter-governmental bodies must ensure that women can and do participate fully in the formulation,
development, implementation and monitoring of economic, social and cultural programs and policies. They must
also ensure the full participation of women in the formulation, development, implementation and monitoring of
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specific strategies, plans and policies that aim to eliminate their gender specific disadvantages. This may require
States and intergovernmental bodies to ensure women’s participation in decision-making where non-State actors
provide programs or services that are related to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.
26. Commission and Omission
F. Violations
Violations of women’s economic, social and cultural rights can occur through acts of commission or omission by
States and other actors who are insufficiently regulated by the State, or not regulated by the State.
27. Failure to Correct
Where the economic, social and cultural rights of women, or particular groups of women, have been violated,
States are obliged to adopt concrete measures designed to ensure the immediate enjoyment of these rights by
the affected women.
28. Undermining the Rights
Undermining women’s enjoyment or exercise of their economic, social and cultural rights constitutes a violation. A
State undermines these rights by: adopting overly restrictive interpretations of rights-conferring provisions;
taking the position that economic, social and cultural rights are not justiciable; restricting access by women, and
organizations which represent them, to judicial and quasi-judicial bodies; implementing women’s equal enjoyment
progressively rather than immediately; and, failing to maintain adequately funded and effective enforcement
institutions.
29. Retrogressive Measures
The adoption of retrogressive measures that further reduce women’s access to or enjoyment of their economic,
social or cultural rights constitutes a violation.
30. Unwillingness to Use Resources
A State which is unwilling to use the maximum of its available resources for the realization of economic, social and
cultural rights violates women’s economic, social and cultural rights.
31. Judicial and Quasi-Judicial Mechanisms
G. MECHANISMS AND REMEDIES
States must establish and maintain effective mechanisms for fully claiming and enforcing women’s economic,
social and cultural rights, including independent courts and tribunals, administrative authorities and national
human rights and women’s commissions. Judges and other adjudicators must be provided with adequate training
regarding women’s rights to equality and to the equal enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights.
States must also ratify relevant international and regional treaties that allow international remedies and
communication procedures without reservations that have the effect of undermining women’s equal exercise and
enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights.
32. Policy Mechanisms
States are required to ensure that there is a national system of institutions and mechanisms, including national
human rights institutions, commissions, and ombuds offices, which will support the development of strategies,
plans and policies specifically designed to guarantee women’s equal exercise and enjoyment of their economic,
social and cultural rights. This system must guarantee the effective inclusion of women’s perspectives in the
design and application of public policies in economic, social and cultural areas.
33. Resources for Mechanisms
States must provide sufficient financial and physical resources to the institutions and mechanisms that have the
responsibility to implement and enforce women’s economic, social and cultural rights in order to ensure their
effectiveness and accessibility.
34. Access
States must remove any obstacles that prevent women or certain groups of women from accessing institutions
and mechanisms which enforce and implement women’s economic social and cultural rights and provide women
with information regarding how to access them. States must also adopt measures, such as legal aid, to facilitate
women’s access to institutions and mechanisms that can implement and enforce women’s economic, social and
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
cultural rights.
35. Standards, Data and Review
States must continuously review and revise the implementation and enforcement of women’s economic, social and
cultural rights by developing gender-sensitive standards, methodologies, criteria, targets and indicators, as well as
tools for gender disaggregation of statistical data and for budgetary analysis to specifically assess women’s
substantively equal enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights.
36. Remedies
In the event of an infringement of the right to non-discrimination or the right to equal enjoyment of women’s
economic social and cultural rights, States are required to provide one or more of the following non-exhaustive list
of remedies: compensation, reparation, restitution, rehabilitation, guarantees of non-repetition, declarations,
public apologies, educational programmes, prevention programmes, revised policies, benchmarks and
implementation programmes, and other effective and appropriate remedies. The State has a related obligation to
ensure that the appropriate remedy is both ordered and effectively implemented.
[1] UN Charter Articles 55, 56, and 103.
****
[2] International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Articles 2(2) and 3; American Convention on
Human Rights, Article 1(1); Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 3; European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms (read in conjunction with its Protocols), Article 14; African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights, Article 2; Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, Article 1.
[3] Security Council Resolution 1325, 2000.
[4] As identified by the Human Rights Committee at para. 5 in its General Comment 28: Equality of rights between
men and women (article 3). 29/03/2000. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.10.
[5] CEDAW General Recommendation 23: Political and Public Life. 13/01/97. Contained in document A/52/38. See
para. 13.
[6] United Nations General Assembly, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, I. 12/07/93. A/CONF.157/23
at para 5.
[7] As reiterated in HRC General Comment 28, supra note 4.
[8] Report of Independent Expert, Fantu Cheru, ‘Effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes on Full Enjoyment
of Human Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1999/50, 24 February 1999.
[9] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.S.
1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M.
33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III),
UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. Universal Declaration on the Eradication of
Hunger and Malnutrition, adopted by the World Food Conference, endorsed by GA Res. 3348 (XXIX) 1974, 29th
Sess., UN Doc. E/CONF. 65/20 (1974) 1 [UDEHM]. Declaration on the Right to Development, GA Res. 41/128,
annex, 41 UN GAOR, 41st Sess., Supp. No. 53, UN Doc. A/41/53 (1986) 186 [DRD]. United Nations Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15, E/C.12/2002/11, 26 November 2002. Additional
Protocol to the American Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M.
156 (entered into force 16 November 1999) (San Salvador Protocol). Rome Declaration on World Food Security,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Report of the World Food Summit, Rome, 13-17
November 1996, Part One (WFS 96/REP) (Rome, 1997), appendix. Istanbul Declaration and Program of Action on
Human Settlements, adopted by United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, 4 June 1996.
[10] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Can. T.S. 1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force 23
March 1976) [ICCPR]. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN
GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW]. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M. 33 (entered into force 3 September 1981)
[CEDAW]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc.
A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. Cairo Declaration on Population and Development, adopted at the International
Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, Cairo, 4 September 1994. Report of the Fourth
World Conference on Women: Platform for Action, A/Conf.177/20, 17 October 1995 [hereinafter Platform for
Action]. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1456 (entered into
force 2 September 1990) [CRC]. American convention on Human Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143,
O.A.S. T. S. No. 36 (entered into force 18 July 1978) [ACHR]. Additional Protocol to the American Convention on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156 (entered into force 16 November
1999) (San Salvador Protocol). Inter-American Convention on the Protection, Punishment and Eradication of
Violence Against Women, 9 June 1994, 33 I.L.M. 1534 (entered into force 5 March 1995) [ICPPEVAW]. American
Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, adopted at the Ninth Annual International Conference of American
States, Bogota, 1948. Declaration on Social Progress and Development, GA Res. 2542 (XXIV), 24 UN GAOR 24th
Sess., Supp. No. 30, UN Doc. A/7630 (1969) 49 [DSPD]. Declaration on the Right to Development, GA Res.
41/128, annex, 41 UN GAOR, 41st Sess., Supp. No. 53, UN Doc. A/41/53 (1986) 186 [DRD]. Maternity Protection
Convention, 2000, 15 June 2000, I.L.O. No. 183, 40 I.L.M. 2 (entered into force 7 February 2002) [MPC]. African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 27 June 1981, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982) (entered into force
21 October 1986) [African Charter]. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General
Comment 24, 2 February 1999.
[11] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M.
33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW]. Declaration on the Right to Development,
GA Res. 41/128, annex, 41 UN GAOR, 41st Sess., Supp. No. 53, UN Doc. A/41/53 (1986) 186 [DRD].
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.T.S.
195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into force 4 January 1969) [CERD]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res.
217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. American convention on Human
Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.A.S. T. S. No. 36 (entered into force 18 July 1978) [ACHR].
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 27 June 1981, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982) (entered
into force 21 October 1986) [African Charter]. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women: Platform for
Action, A/Conf.177/20, 17 October 1995 [hereinafter Platform for Action].
[12] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into
force 4 January 1969) [CERD]. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GA Res. 2263
(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW]. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M. 33 (entered into force 3
September 1981) [CEDAW]. Maternity Protection Convention, 2000, 15 June 2000, I.L.O. No. 183, 40 I.L.M. 2
(entered into force 7 February 2002) [MPC]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR,
3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. Additional Protocol to the American Convention on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156 (entered into force 16 November
1999) (San Salvador Protocol). American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, adopted at the Ninth
Annual International Conference of American States, Bogota, 1948. Inter-American Convention on the Protection,
Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, 9 June 1994, 33 I.L.M. 1534 (entered into force 5 March
1995) [ICPPEVAW]. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1456
(entered into force 2 September 1990) [CRC].
[13] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M.
33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW]. Universal Declaration on the Eradication of
Hunger and Malnutrition, adopted by the World Food Conference, endorsed by GA Res. 3348 (XXIX) 1974, 29th
Sess., UN Doc. E/CONF. 65/20 (1974) 1 [UDEHM]. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into force 4 January 1969) [CERD].
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810
(1948) 71 [UDHR]. American convention on Human Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.A.S. T. S.
No. 36 (entered into force 18 July 1978) [ACHR]. Inter-American Convention on the Protection, Punishment and
Eradication of Violence Against Women, 9 June 1994, 33 I.L.M. 1534 (entered into force 5 March 1995)
[ICPPEVAW]. Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S.
No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156 (entered into force 16 November 1999) (San Salvador Protocol). Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1456 (entered into force 2 September 1990)
[CRC]. Convention Against Discrimination in Education, 429 U.N.T.S. 93, B.T.S. 44 (1962) (entered into force 22
May 1962). American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, adopted at the Ninth Annual International
Conference of American States, Bogota, 1948. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women: Platform for
Action, A/Conf.177/20, 17 October 1995 [hereinafter Platform for Action].
[14] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Convention on the Elimination of All
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M.
33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into force 4 January 1969) [CERD].
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Can. T.S. 1976 No. 47,
6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force 23 March 1976) [ICCPR]. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW]. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (ILO
No. 105), 25 June 1957, 320 U.N.T.S. 291, Can. T.S. 1960 No. 21 (entered into force 17 January 1959) [AFLC].
Declaration on Social Progress and Development, GA Res. 2542 (XXIV), 24 UN GAOR 24th Sess., Supp. No. 30,
UN Doc. A/7630 (1969) 49 [DSPD]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d
Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against
Women, GA Res. 48/104, UN GAOR, 48th Sess., Supp. No. 49, UN Doc. A/48/49 (1993) 217 [DEVAW]. American
convention on Human Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.A.S. T. S. No. 36 (entered into force 18
July 1978) [ACHR]. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 27 June 1981, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, 21 I.L.M. 58
(1982) (entered into force 21 October 1986) [African Charter]. American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of
Man, adopted at the Ninth Annual International Conference of American States, Bogota, 1948. Additional Protocol
to the American Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156
(entered into force 16 November 1999) (San Salvador Protocol). Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, 4 November 1950, 213 U.N.T.S. 222, E.T.S. No. 5 (entered into force 3 September
1953) [CPHRFF]. Maternity Protection Convention, 2000, 15 June 2000, I.L.O. No. 183, 40 I.L.M. 2 (entered into
force 7 February 2002) [MPC]. Equal Remuneration Convention, 29 June 1951, 165 U.N.T.S. 303, ILO No. 100
(entered into force 23 May 1953) [ERC]. Convention on Employment Policy, ILO No. 122 (adopted 9 July 1964).
ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, (1998) 37 I.L.M. 1233 (signed 19 June 1998).
Inter-American Convention on the Protection, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, 9 June
1994, 33 I.L.M. 1534 (entered into force 5 March 1995) [ICPPEVAW].
[15] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Can. T.S. 1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force 23
March 1976) [ICCPR]. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March
1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into force 4 January 1969) [CERD]. Declaration on Social Progress
and Development, GA Res. 2542 (XXIV), 24 UN GAOR 24th Sess., Supp. No. 30, UN Doc. A/7630 (1969) 49
[DSPD]. Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No.
69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156 (entered into force 16 November 1999) (San Salvador Protocol). ILO Convention on
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, 68 U.N.T.S. 17, ILO No. 87 (adopted 9 July
1948).
[16] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Can. T.S. 1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force 23
March 1976) [ICCPR]. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and
Practices Similar to Slavery, 226 U.N.T.S. 3, C.T.S. 1963/7 (entered into force 30 April 1957). Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1456 (entered into force 2 September 1990)
[CRC]. ILO Convention on Worst Forms of Child Labour, ILO No. 182 (adopted 19 November 2000). Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71
[UDHR]. American convention on Human Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.A.S. T. S. No. 36
(entered into force 18 July 1978) [ACHR].
[17] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M.
33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW]. International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Can. T.S. 1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force 23 March
1976) [ICCPR]. Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, 7
November 1962, 521 U.N.T.S. 231, (entered into force 9 December 1964) [Marriage Convention]. International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M.
352 (entered into force 4 January 1969) [CERD]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN
GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. American convention on Human Rights, 22
November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.A.S. T. S. No. 36 (entered into force 18 July 1978) [ACHR].
[18] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights, 27 June 1981, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982) (entered into force 21 October 1986)
[African Charter].
[19] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Convention on the Rights of the Child,
20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3, 28 I.L.M. 1456 (entered into force 2 September 1990) [CRC]. Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, Can. T.S.
1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M. 33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, 19 December 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, Can. T.S. 1976 No. 47, 6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force 23
March 1976) [ICCPR]. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, GA Res. 48/104, UN GAOR, 48th
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Montréal Principles on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Sess., Supp. No. 49, UN Doc. A/48/49 (1993) 217 [DEVAW]. International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into force 4 January
1969) [CERD]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN
Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. American convention on Human Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.
A.S. T. S. No. 36 (entered into force 18 July 1978) [ACHR]. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 27
June 1981, 1520 U.N.T.S. 217, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982) (entered into force 21 October 1986) [African Charter]. Inter-
American Convention on the Protection, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, 9 June 1994, 33
I.L.M. 1534 (entered into force 5 March 1995) [ICPPEVAW]. Additional Protocol to the American Convention on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156 (entered into force 16 November
1999) (San Salvador Protocol).
[20] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19 December 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3, Can. T.
S. 1976 No. 46, 6 I.L.M. 360 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. Additional Protocol to the American
Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, O.A.S. T.S. No. 69, (1989) 28 I.L.M. 156 (entered into force
16 November 1999) (San Salvador Protocol).
[21] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.
S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M. 33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. Declaration on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW].
Convention on the Nationality of Married Women, 20 February 1957, 309 U.N.T.S. 65, Can. T.S. 1960 No. 2
(entered into force 11 August 1958) [CNMW]. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, 189 U.
N.T.S. 137, 158 B.S.P. 499 (entered into force April 22, 1954) [CSR]. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA
Res. 217 (III), UN GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. 13, UN Doc. A/810 (1948) 71 [UDHR]. American convention on
Human Rights, 22 November 1969, 1144 U.N.T.S. 143, O.A.S. T. S. No. 36 (entered into force 18 July 1978)
[ACHR]. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 7 March 1966, 660 U.N.
T.S. 195, 5 I.L.M. 352 (entered into force 4 January 1969) [CERD].
[22] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.
S. 13, Can. T.S. 1982 No. 31, 19 I.L.M. 33 (entered into force 3 September 1981) [CEDAW]. Declaration on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GA Res. 2263(XXII), UN GAOR, 22d Sess. (1967) [DEDAW].
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, GA Res. 48/104, UN GAOR, 48th Sess., Supp. No. 49,
UN Doc. A/48/49 (1993) 217 [DEVAW]. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S.
3, 28 I.L.M. 1456 (entered into force 2 September 1990) [CRC]. Inter-American Convention on the Protection,
Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, 9 June 1994, 33 I.L.M. 1534 (entered into force 5 March
1995) [ICPPEVAW]. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, (2001) 40 I.L.M.
335 (not yet in force).
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Political Declaration of the International Forum on the Rights of Women in Trade Agreements
We, the women attendees from Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Unites States of America,
Philippines, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Uganda, Turkey, Venezuela, Mongolia, Thailand, Palestine, Korea, Canada,
Guyana, France, Cuba, Austria, Argentina, Italy, India, Switzerland, Germany, Costa Rica, Guatemal, Bolivia,
Holland, and El Salvador
DECLARE
1. That the fifth ministerial of the World Trade Organization held in Cancun is celebrated within a global context
marked by an atmosphere of war, militarization and unilateralism in several regions of the world.
2. That the big economic powers and the multinational corporations have unfolded new strategies to condition and
pressure the developing countries through regional and bilateral agreements that deepen the inequities and
disadvantages that impact negatively on the communities, indigenous peoples, and especially women.
3. That the WTO negotiations and the free trade agreements violate women's human, economic, social, and
cultural rights consigned in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and in multiple international agreements.
4. That the least favored populations of the world are legally unprotected because of the unequal status acquired
in the aforementioned commercial agreements. While for the deveoping courntries, these agreements gain
constitutional characters, the same is not true for the big economic powers, and once the agreements are signed
it is very hard to cancel them.
5. That the themse hat are discussed int he fifth ministerial conference impact negatively and drastically on
women's quality of life in the planet.
Agriculture is an activity and a fundamental form of life for the development of countries, since it constitutes the
means for subsistence of billions of persons and families. It is also the basis of sovereignty and security of
nourishment, and is related with the know-how and enrichment brought by and protected for thousands of years
by women.
The privatization of the public services transfers the social costs of social reproduction to women. Healthcare,
water, and other services are a public responsibility of governments, and thus cannot be converted into simple
merchandises by the WTO agreements.
The agreements on intellectual properties related to trade, usurp the rights of communities to their natural
resources and the traditional knowledge of indigenous women; the agreemetns favor the privatization of genetic
resources and biodiversity, inhibit scientific and technological development of the developing countries, and give
supremacy to the income of transnational companies.
6. That the so-called "new themes" such as investment, competition, government acquisitions, and facilitation of
trade are not to be opened to negotiations because they will induce the impoverishment of developing countries
and contribute to the genderation of more obstacles to gender inequities that are to be overcome.
7. That women will promote an alternative agenda to globalization that centers on human, economic, social and
cultural rights of women, in which:
● Sovereignty and security of nourishment of the nations are assured, women's preponderant reole in
agricultural production is recognized, and that the gender relations are transformed to allo full exercise of
citizenship to women.
● The establishment of the preeminence of international agreements and treaties related to human,
environmental, labor, sexual, and reproductive rights above any rules or trade agreement.
● Promotion of the instrumentation of instances and mechanisms that note forms of democratic governance
among nations in which developing countries can rescue their reights to sovereignty. These mechanisms
will have to guarantee equitable forms of women's participation. The International Forum on Women's
Rights within Trade Agreements calls upon the governments of the countries to not sign any agreements
that attempt on women's quality of life.
We convoke the Forum for an Alternative Front to the WTO to join in this declaration and adopt the demands of
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women in this declaration that constitute 70% of the world's poor.
9 September 2003,
Cancun/Mexico
Source:
http://www.eurosur.org/wide/Globalisation/Cancun_Decl.htm
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About globalizacija.com
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About GLOBALIZACIJA.COM
Globalisation is one of the contemporary issues that have become more frequent topics of
lively debates in recent years. We can read about globalisation in various contexts and
forms, from newspaper articles to scholarly research. Although there is no universal
agreement on its definition and components, the word globalisation is being used more
often, by politicians, researchers, academics, economists, lawyers, environmentalists,
sociologists, and other experts, as well as human rights activists, anti-globalists and alterglobalists.
The lack of an internationally accepted definition of globalisation incites
controversies about the concept. There are also quite different views on whether or not
globalisation is a novel phenomenon.
Despite differences of opinion about globalisation, there is no doubt that global
macroeconomic tendencies have direct and/or indirect influence on the lives of every one
of us; that global development of technology and information is increasingly visible
around us; and that decisions of policy makers in the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank and the World Trade Organisation indirectly influence the possibilities from
which we can make choices and decisions.
However, what are the effects of globalisation from the human rights perspective? Do all
people have equal access to the benefits of contemporary development? Do all individuals
have equal access to resources, employment, education, health care, food and water? Do
a Cambodian peasant, a female Philippino labourer and a yuppie from New York City gain
equal benefits from open markets with free flow of capital and goods across borders? Do
high levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) bring development and economic well-being
to the receiving countries? How does FDI impact the structure of the labour force? Do
foreign investments have the same influence on employment possibilities for women and
for men? Do they contribute to improvement of the common well-being? Will privatisation
of water, hospitals and schools contribute to better quality of these services? Who will
benefit, and who will lose? Do economic and technological development help decrease the
number of homeless, hungry, unhealthy and powerless people? Despite enormous, fast
technological development, why are there still millions of poor people? What is widening
the gap between those who have and those who have not? Why is the gender perspective
important in linking poverty with human rights?
What is GATS; what is TRIPS; why is it important to know what lies behind these
abbreviations? What will citizens get from their country’s membership in the World Trade
Organisation? Will they lose or win? What are roles of the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank in the Globalisation Story? What is neoliberalism? How is it connected
with regional security and militarism? What does the Bolkeinstain Initiative mean to us?
What are the implications of neoliberal macroeconomic policy and practices on human
rights and well-being? Is development based on private capital and profit the only
possible path to economic development and human well-being? Are there alternatives to
neoliberalism; and, if so, what are they? Is it possible to develop novel indicators of
economic development? What is the ‘care economy’, and how is it connected to a national
economy? How is unpaid women’s work in their homes linked to economic development?
What is ‘gender budgeting,’ and how can it contribute to promotion and implementation
of women’s rights? Why have women’s rights become indispensable to researching
various aspects of globalisation?
These are some of the questions that will be highlights of articles and research present in
this web site, written by eminent experts in fields such as economics, law, human rights,
women’s rights, sociology, and political sciences. The aim of this online publication, as
well as the printed version that will be published twice a year in Serbian and English, is to
offer public access to the knowledge and research of experts from relevant institutes and
of members of international networks with whom we have collaborated over the years.
The web site will be updated twice monthly.

About globalizacija.com
In contrast to the richness of expert articles and publications on these issues that
characterises the English-speaking parts of the world, in Southeastern Europe such work
is rare and insufficiently presented to the public. On the other hand, the transition from
the socialistic economies to market economies has already marked both the economy and
the population in all of the countries in this region. Willing to accept globalisation or not,
being for or against it, is of no consequence – globalisation ‘happens’ to us and around
us.
Awareness of the complex social processes in progress, as well as of their effects on a
National Economy, State, Society, Family and Individual, is the prerequisite for their
comprehension. Interdisciplinary studies of development and research on globalisation
are well developed in many countries. Thus, for us, living in the region of Southeastern
Europe, it is useful to be introduced to and informed about existing expert analyses of
these phenomena, their theoretical aspects and analyses of practices and experiences of
other countries. To perceive, to question and to comprehend are the first steps toward
achieving positive social changes. This inquiry into policies and practices will help us to
recognise what happens (to us), whether we are on a good path, and how to move
forward if we long for a better, more equitable, more humane world. There are always
alternatives, and the choice ours.
The best way to predict future is to create it.
Mirjana Dokmanovic,
Editor-in-Chief
Bela Orcic,
Webmaster & Design
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Partners
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PARTNERS
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
http://www.awid.org/
Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is an international membership
organization connecting, informing, and mobilizing people and organizations committed
to achieving gender equality, sustainable development, and women's human rights.
AWID's web site is divided into four major themes: Feminist Organizational Development,
Gender Equality and New Technologies, Women's Rights and Economic Change, and
Young Women and Leadership. Within each theme, there are innovative advocacy,
research, or development initiatives and analyses of new theories in the field, as well as
book and article reviews and members' comments on provocative and fundamental
issues. In addition, there are practical tools, such as resources and manuals, advocacy
opportunities, and recent news items on local actions and successes.
Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation
http://www.bgrf.org
Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) is an NGO of public utility that promotes
social equality and women’s human rights in Bulgaria through research, education and
advocacy programs. The BGRF is based in Sofia. Its team consists of lawyers, academics,
experts in advocacy, education, monitoring violations of human rights, lobbying for
legislative changes, preparing publications, networking. The BGRF has branches in
Plovdiv, Haskovo, Gorna Oryahovitza.
BRIDGE (development - gender)
http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge
BRIDGE (development-gender) is an information resource on mainstreaming gender in
development. The site produces a newsletter, articles, research papers on gender and
development, and guides in gender mainstreaming.
FemCities
http://www.femcities.at/
FemCities is a service-oriented platform with the aim of connecting women and providing
information, support and mutual advice. The in-depth information pool is open to a broad
public, regardless of gender or profession. FemCities address everyone who is interested
and/or involved in gender and feminist topics in the fields of politics, economy, culture,
the arts, social affairs, technology, science, health, law, media, etc.
Karat Coalition
http://www.karat.org/
KARAT is a regional coalition of organizations and individuals that works to ensure gender
equality in the CEE/CIS countries, monitors the implementation of international
agreements and lobbies for the needs and concerns of women in the region at all levels
of decision-making fora.
Les Penelopes
http://www.penelopes.org
Les Pénélopes of today weave the web aimed at promoting, editing and diffusing
information using all types of media, from the point of view of women and to favour all
activity ensuring the exchange, the handling, the updating, the centralization, and the
diffusion of this information in favour of all women of the world.
Network of the East-West Women-Polska (NEWW-Polska)
http://www.neww.org.pl/
The NEWW links women across national and regional boundaries to share resources,
knowledge, and skills. Its mission is to empower women and girls throughout the East
(Central and Eastern Europe, and Newly Independent States and the Russian Federation)
and the West by dialogue, networking, campaigns, and educational and informational
exchanges. The international Secretariat of NEWW is run by NEWW-Polska in Gdansk.
Network Women in Development (WIDE)
http://www.wide-network.org
Network Women in Development (WIDE) articulates principles of gender equality and

Partners
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justice in the development processes through various its analytical papers, reports, and
advocacy activities. WIDE monitors and influences international economic and
development policy and practice from a feminist perspective. WIDE’s work is grounded on
women’s rights as the basis for the development of a more just and democratic world
order. The WIDE site features readings on women's economic rights, liberalisation and
globalisation, the European Union, and relevant United Nations documents and events. It
also includes information on the WIDE organizational structure, training courses,
newsletter, publications and resources in Spanish.
Women’s Information Technology Transfer (WITT)
http://www.witt-project.net/
Women’s Information Technology Transfer (WITT) is a portal site to link women’s
organizations and feminist advocates for the Internet in Eastern and Central Europe.
www.witt-project.net is a website, providing strategic ICT information to all, and
supporting, in a collective way, Central and Eastern European women in developing the
web as an instrument in their social activism. WITT is committed to bringing women’s
actions, activities and struggles into the spotlight, promoting the use of free software as
a way to highlight women’s voices.
Inclusive Security: Women Waging Peace
http://www.womenwagingpeace.net
The Network advocates for the full participation of all stakeholders, especially women, in
peace processes. Creating sustainable peace is achieved best by a diverse, citizen-driven
approach. Of the many sectors of society currently excluded from peace processes, none
is larger – or more critical to success – than women. Since 1999, the Waging has
connected more than 400 women experts with over 3.000 policy shapers to collaborate
on fresh, workable solutions to long-standing conflicts across the globe. Waging’s Policy
Commission is researching and documenting women’s activities in conflict prevention,
negotiations, and post-conflict reconstruction in some 15 conflicts; these studies provide
models to encourage policymakers to include women and gender perspectives in their
program designs and budgets.
We appreciate support from:
Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos)
http://www.hivos.nl
The Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) is a Dutch nongovernmental
organisation that aims to contribute towards a free, just and sustainable
world. It is committed to the poor and marginalized - and to the organisations that
promote Hivos’s priority issues in countries in the South and in South-East Europe.
Sustainable improvement of their situation is the ultimate benchmark for Hivos's work.
An important cornerstone here is strengthening of the position of women in society.
Mama Cash Fund for Women
http://www.mamacash.nl
Mama Cash, the world’s first independent funding organization for women, strives for a
peaceful and just world where women are free to make their own choices and to develop
their myriad talents and skills. It is for these reasons that Mama Cash supports women's
groups that blaze the trail with self-initiated projects. The fact that Mama Cash supports
groundbreaking projects initiated by new and local women’s groups sets Mama Cash
apart from other grant making organizations.

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LINKS
United Nations
Gender Equality & the Millennium Development Goals
http://www.mdgender.net
The UN Interagency Network on Women and Gender Equality, the OECD/DAC Network on
Gender Equality and the Multilateral Development Bank Working Group on Gender are
pleased to announce the launch of the MDGenderNet website - an online resource on
gender equality and the Millennium Development Goals.
United Nations System of Organizations
http://www.unsystem.org
The United Nations System of Organizations is the official portal to websites of UN
organizations. It also gives direct links to projects and initiatives and various joint
programs of the UN system.
The United Nations
http://www.un.org
The United Nations home page provides access to news, texts of documents, online
databases, and links to UN offices and agencies. The Human Rights section provides the
text of documents and treaties and reports on the status of human rights around the
world.
UN Division for the Advancement of Women
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw
The UN Division for the Advancement of Women is tasked to promote women’s equality
and human rights. It features news and information about women-focused programs and
meetings within the UN.
The United Nations Human Rights Page
http://www.un.org/rights
The United Nations Human Rights Page provides quick links to the websites of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights; the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance; the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia; human
rights treaties; human rights documents; and, a background information on the work of
the United Nations in relation to the promotion and protection of human rights.
UNESCO Division of Human Rights, Democracy, Peace & Tolerance
http://www.unesco.org
The website of the Division of Human Rights, Democracy, Peace & Tolerance of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provides
information on United Nations activities in the areas of human rights, democracy, peace,
and tolerance. Among the features of the site are definitions of these areas, documents,
databases, education opportunities, relevant sites, and publications.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
http://www.unifem.undp.org
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is the women's fund at the
United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and
strategies that promote women's human rights, political participation, and economic
security. Within the United Nations system, UNIFEM promotes gender equality and links
women's issues and concerns to national, regional, and global agendas by fostering
collaboration and providing technical expertise on gender mainstreaming and women's
empowerment strategies.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
http://www.undp.org
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UNs' global development
network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience, and
resources to help people build a better life. The UNDP's network links and coordinates
global and national efforts to reach its goals. It aims to help countries build and share

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solutions to the challenges of democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention
and recovery, energy and environment, information and communications technology, and
HIV/AIDS. It helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. It also promotes
the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
http://www.unchs.org
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) aims to promote
sustainable urbanization through policy formulation, institutional reform, capacitybuilding,
technical cooperation, and advocacy; and, monitor and improve the state of
human settlements worldwide.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
http://www.unhchr.ch
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), is the
UN lead agency for the promotion of human rights. The UNHCHR site provides general
information about the agency and its programs and activities, databases on treaty bodies
and charter-based bodies, reports and press releases on the outcomes of sessions and
meetings, and announcements about agency events.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
http://www.unece.org/oes/gender
The website of the UNECE contains gender section introducing activities aim at
mainstreaming gender into data collection and statistics, economic research and analysis
(including population studies) and economic policies. Special attention is given to Eastern
and South-Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, where in many respects
women's position has deteriorated during the transition process. The site offers Gender
Statistics Data Base and assessments of gender statistic in selected countries; Gender
analysis of selected economic trends in the 'Economic Survey for Europe'; Exchange of
good practice on gender aspects of economic policies, and support of women’s
entrepreneurship. It also introduces documents, publications, news and events, and links
to UN-DAW, Regional Commissions, partner organisations and NGOs.
United Nations Human Rights Organizational Structure
http://www.unhchr.ch/hrostr.htm
The United Nations Human Rights Organizational Structure site provides a chart intended
to describe the functioning of the United Nations system in the field of human rights. It
places emphasis on those bodies and programs with major human rights responsibilities,
such as the General Assembly, Security Council, Secretariat, and Treaty-monitoring
bodies.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
http://www.unhcr.org
The website of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) features the
activities of the agency. It is also a portal of information on the plight of refugees and
internally displaced people worldwide and various campaigns to help them.
United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
http://www.un-instraw.org
The United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of
Women (INSTRAW) is committed to promoting gender equality and women's
advancement worldwide through research, training, and the collection and dissemination
of information. Its operational methodology, the Gender Awareness Information and
Networking System (GAINS), is an internet-based international research and training
environment driven by a worldwide decentralized network. The INSTRAW site offers an
online library that houses over 1,000 gender-related resources from around the world,
including bibiliographies, summaries of and links to online documents, contact
information of gender research and training organizations, websites that focus on gender
issues, and discussion forums and newsletters. The site also features new publications,
news and announcements, and information about the INSTRAW network and training
activities.
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
http://www.unrisd.org
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) aims to carry
out multidisciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems
affecting development. The web site offers information on a variety of topics, including
gender, HIV/AIDS, human rights, and sustainable development.

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United Nations Integrated Regional Information News Network (IRIN)
http://www.irinnews.org
The website of United Nations Integrated Regional Information News Network (IRIN)
contains news and features that aim to provide an accurate picture of issues and events
relevant to people’s human rights and welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia.
United Nations News Wire (UNWire)
http://www.unwire.org
The United Nations News Wire produces daily news about the activities of the United
Nations and mainstream and alternative media news on issues relevant to the work of
the United Nations.
International Court of Justice
http://www.icj-cij.org
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Its
seat is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). The Court has a dual role: to
settle in accordance with international law the legal disputes submitted to it by States;
and, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized
international organs and agencies.
International Labor Organization
http://www.ilo.org
The International Labor Organization (ILO) is a UN specialized agency that promotes
social justice and protection of human and labor rights. The website provides information
about the agency’s programs and activities, meetings and events related to labor, and
links to other ILO sites and UN agencies.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
http://www.itu.int/home
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is an international organization within
the UN system, formed by governments and private sector groups to coordinate global
telecom networks and services. Access this site to know more about the history and work
of the ITU, including one of its major projects, the World Summit on the Information
Society.
Setting the Record Straight: Facts about the United Nations
http://www.un.org/News/facts
Visit this site to find out about the following topics: the International Criminal Court, the
UN and business, protecting the environment, global climate change, UN conferences,
and the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.
Women's Rights are Human Rights
http://www.unhchr.ch/women
Set up by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Women's Rights
are Human Rights website gives readers a menu of basic information on the "women's
rights as human rights" framework, as well as the latest news, conferences, documents,
and other information arising from the UN's work to promote and protect women's rights.
Women and Gender Equality
http://www.unesco.org/women/index_en.htm
Visit this site to find out more about the Women and Gender Equality unit of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The site offers the
latest news about UNESCO’s programs for women, as well as informative readings on
women and gender.
WomenWatch
http://www.un.org/womenwatch
WomenWatch is a gateway to the information and resources on the promotion of gender
equality throughout the United Nations system, including the United Nations Secretariat,
regional commissions, funds, programs, and specialized agencies. Created in March 1997,
WomenWatch provides Internet space for global gender equality issues and supports the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The web site also provides information
on the outcomes of women-related UN meetings and conferences. It also informs about
efforts to incorporate gender perspectives into the follow-up to global conferences, such
as the International Conference on Financing for Development, the World Summit on
Aging, the Children's Summit, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

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World Health Organization (WHO) - Gender and Women's Health Department
http://www.who.int/frh-whd/index.html
The World Health Organization (WHO) -- Gender and Women's Health Department web
site provides information on health issues related to women. The topics it usually covers
are female genital mutilation, violence against women, and women and HIV/AIDs.
International Human Rights Instruments
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/intlinst.htm
Lodged within the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
the International Human Rights Instruments page offers the complete list of international
declarations, resolutions, statutes, treaties and conventions pertaining to various
concerns under human rights.
United Nations Human Rights Organizational Structure
http://www.unhchr.ch/hrostr.htm
The United Nations Human Rights Organizational Structure website provides a chart that
describes the functioning of the United Nations system in the field of human rights. It
places emphasis on those bodies and programs with major human rights responsibilities,
such as the General Assembly, Security Council, Secretariat, and Treaty-monitoring
bodies.
Links to UN Conference Sites
Recent world conferences have produced powerful plans of action that have in common
the protection and betterment of all human futures, North and South, specifically
addressing the protection of women's human rights and generally promoting human
rights principles. Taken together, existing international norms and standards and the
proclamations resulting from these world conferences provide the basis for
comprehensive actions against threats to human dignity and security.
UN Conference for Environment and Development(Rio de Janeiro, 1992)
http://www.pdhre.org/conferences/rio.html
World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993)
http://www.pdhre.org/conferences/vienna.html
International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994)
http://www.pdhre.org/conferences/cairo.html
World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995)
http://www.pdhre.org/conferences/copenhagen.html
Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995)
http://www.pdhre.org/conferences/beijing.html
Second World Conference on Human Settlements (Istanbul, 1996)
http://www.undp.org/un/habitat/index.htlm
50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".
http://www.unhchr.ch/htm/50 th /50anniv.htm
Research on Globalization
Development Alternatives for Women in the New Era (DAWN)
http://www.dawn.org.fj
The network of the Development Alternatives for Women in the New Era (DAWN extends
throughout the regions of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Its
advocacy work covers themes of the Political Economy of Globalization; Political
Restructuring and Social Transformation; and Sexual and Reproductive Health and
Rights. DAWN's site regularly posts analytical papers on covered themes and reports on
relevant world events written from a Southern feminist perspective.
Grassroots Women
http://www3.telus.net/grassrootswomen
Grassroots Women is a Canada-based organization that aims to address the systemic
political and economic marginalization of working class women caused by imperialism.
Since 1995, a diverse group of women have joined Grassroots Women discussions,
events, marches, and conferences on issues such as health, immigration, childcare, and
globalization. The website contains organizational and campaign news and information.

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World Socialist Website
http://www.wsws.org/index.shtml
The World Socialist Website is an online publication that provides news and analytical
articles on global concerns such as globalization, anti-war movements, and workers'
rights.
Socialist Worker Online
http://www.socialistworker.org
Socialist Worker Online is the newspaper of the International Socialist Organization. The
publication features news, announcements on events, and analytical articles on trade and
globalization, anti-war movements, workers' rights, racism and numerous other topics
under social, economic and political justice issues.
Social Watch
http://www.socwatch.org.uy
A website produced by an international coalition of citizens dedicated to monitoring the
world's governments' activities related to the eradication of poverty and attainment of
gender equity. The site offers a very informative collection of country reports, web
resources, in-depth reports, news and events, and outcomes and analyses of relevant
conferences.
World Bank Research on Globalization
http://econ.worldbank.org
Collection of topic papers and reports
Global Policy Forum
http://www.imf.org/external/np/
Useful set of resources and links that explore the nature of globalization.
General Gender Resources
Collection of News on Gender
http://www.oneworld.net
OneWorld is an international network of cooperative centers that aims to be an online
media gateway that effectively informs a global audience about human rights and
sustainable development. You can view an archive of news articles on gender and
women's rights from the news section of the site.
GenderStats
http://devdata.worldbank.org/genderstats/home.asp
GenderStats is a database of gender statistics, the website is currently a work in
progress, but it is already an excellent resource for statistics that are available by country
on gender profile summaries, basic demographic data, population dynamics, labor force
structure, education, and health. Also available are international comparisons on gender
differences, gender and education, and reproductive health from World Development
Indicators (WDI 2000).
Siyanda
http://www.siyanda.org
Siyanda is an on-line database of selected gender and development materials from
around the world. It is also an interactive space for practitioners, policymakers and
academics to share ideas, experiences and resources for mainstreaming gender in
development.
International Gender Studies Resources
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/GlobalGender/index.html
The International Gender Studies Resources aims to facilitate the integration of Women's
and Gender Studies into International and Area Studies philosophy and curricula. General
and specific bibliographies and filmographies on issues pertaining to women and gender
in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Arab World, and among minority
cultures in North America and Europe are provided. The site also includes links to related
resources on the Internet.
International Information Center and Archives for the Women’s Movement
(IIAV)
http://www.iiav.nl/eng
The International Information Center and Archives for the Women’s Movement (IIAV) is a
source, intermediary and the supplier of information and documentation for all those who

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occupy themselves with the position of women. The site provides comprehensive
information on books, periodicals, data, addresses, archives, visual materials, current or
historical, national or international. Its computer database facilities and Women's
Thesaurus allow researchers to enter and receive answers on special queries. Most
collections listed in the site are available at the IIAV facility in Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
Development-Gender (BRIDGE)
http://www.ids.ac.uk/bridge
Development-Gender (BRIDGE) is an information resource on mainstreaming gender in
development. The site produces a newsletter, articles, research papers on gender and
development, and guides in gender mainstreaming.
International Association of Feminists Economists (IAFFE)
http://www.iaffe.org
The International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) is a non-profit organization
that seeks to advance feminist inquiry of economic issues and to educate economists and
others on feminist points of view on economic issues. In 1997 IAFFE gained NGO in
special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
European and North American WomenAction (ENAWA)
http://www.enawa.org
The European and North American WomenAction (ENAWA) is a network of media,
information and communication technology (ICT), information, and advocacy
organizations. It is a web-based community of feminist organizations committed to
developing networks that contribute to the quality of the lives of women in Europe and
North America and to the quality of the lives of women worldwide who are affected by
politics and developments in these regions.
Economic, Social & Cultural Rights
Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR)
http://www.cesr.org
CESR pushes for social justice through its various advocacies on people's economic and
social rights. It is a co-initiator of the Women's Economic Equality Project (WEEP), along
with the National Association of Women and the Law, which is based in Canada.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
This site presents the full copy of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights that was entered into force on January 3, 1976.
The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net)
http://www.escr-net.org
ESCR-Net is an emerging coalition of organizations and activists from around the world
dedicated to advancing economic, social, and cultural rights. This web site contains four
interactive, searchable databases (or directories) of organizations and individuals, project
and activities, regional and domestic case law, and events.
Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com/index.html
The Communication Initiative is a partnership of development organisations seeking to
support advances in the effectiveness and scale of communication interventions for
positive international development. Its activities include an extensive web site,
e-publications, and specific projects in support of development communication.
Equality & Non Discrimination
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW)
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm
This site provides the full text of the international human rights instrument for women,
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW).
Bringing Equality Home: Implementing the CEDAW
http://www.unifem.undp.org/cedaw/indexen.htm

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Shanthi Dairiam, director of the International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW)
Asia Pacific, writes a booklet of case studies exploring the ways and extent to which the
CEDAW has been implemented in various countries.
Equality Now
http://www.equalitynow.org
International human rights organization Equality Now commits itself to protecting the
civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women around the world. It uses
traditional and new forms of communication, organizes media events, conducts research,
and mounts campaigns to condemn abuses against women, and promote awareness on
women's rights and influence political leaders and policy-makers. Its Women Action
Network, which is composed of women's rights groups and advocates from around the
world, serves as the center of information gathering and dissemination of international
appeals and protests.
Gender Equality
http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equ_opp/index_en.htm
This is the website of the Unit for Equal Opportunities for women and men of the
Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission. The
website contains information of the European Commission's activities in relation to the
integration of a gender perspective in European Community policies, compilation of news
and documents arranged according to themes, news on follow-up activities to Beijing+5,
and links to other government and non government websites with a gender focus.
Women and Gender Equality
http://www.unesco.org/women/index_en.htm
The website of the Women and Gender Equality unit of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It offers the latest news about UNESCO's
programs for women, as well as informative readings on women and gender.
International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN)
http://www.genderandtrade.net
The IGTN is an international network of gender advocates actively working to promote
equitable, social, and sustainable trade. The Network utilizes research, advocacy and
economic literacy to address the specific trade issues of the seven regions: Africa, Asia,
Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Pacific.
International Non-Governmental Organizations and Movements
World Social Forum
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where groups and movements of civil
society opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of
imperialism, but engaged in building a planetary society centred on the human person,
come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate
proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. The WSF
proposed to debate alternative means to building a globalization in solidarity, which
respects universal human rights and those of all men and women of all nations and the
environment, and is grounded in democratic international systems and institutions at the
service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples.
Regional Social Forums:
Pan-Amazonian Social Forum
http://www.ivforumpan.com.br
European Social Forum
www.fse-esf.org
Mediterranean Social Forum
http://www.fsmed.info
American Social Forum
http://www.forosocialamericas.org
They are part of World Social Forum mundialization process and are followed by the WSF
International Council. They are called “regional” because they take place at a macroregional
level. They follow the methodology and political criteria that the WSF Charter of
Principles have set and they aim to make World Social Forum closer to the reality of

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social movements and entities around different regions worldwide and vice-versa. For
instance, there are European, Pan-Amazonian and Americas Social Forums.
Peoples’ Global Action
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/
In 1998 movements from all continents met in Geneva to launch a worldwide
coordination of resistances to the global market, a new alliance of struggle and mutual
support called Peoples' Global Action against "Free" Trade and the World Trade
Organisation (PGA). This platform, defined by the PGA hallmarks, manifesto and
organisational principles, is an instrument for communication and coordination for all
those fighting against the destruction of humanity and the planet by capitalism, and for
building alternatives. These documents have evolved during subsequent conferences, in
particular to take a clearly anti-capitalist (not just anti-neoliberal) stand, to avoid
confusion with right-wing anti-globalisers and to strengthen the perspective on gender.
People’s Movement for Human Rights Education
http://www.pdhre.org/index.html
Founded in 1988, the People's Decade of Human Rights Education (PDHRE-International)
is a non-profit, international service organization that works directly and indirectly with
its network of affiliates — primarily women's and social justice organizations — to
develop and advance pedagogies for human rights education relevant to people's daily
lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice and democracy.
Our World is Not for Sale Coalition
http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/
International coalition to stop corporate globalization.
Debt
Jubilee +
http://www.jubileeplus.org
Drop the Debt
http://www.dropthedebt.org
International Financial & Multilateral Institutions
World Trade Organization
http://www.wto.org
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing
with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated
and signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The
goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their
business.
The World Bank Group
http://www.worldbank.org
The World Bank Group consists of five closely associated institutions: the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD); International Development Association
(IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC); Multilateral Investment Guarantee
Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
(ICSID).
The World Bank's Debt Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
http://www.worldbank.org/hipc
International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org
An international organization of 182 member countries, established to promote
international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange
arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide
temporary financial assistance to countries under adequate safeguards to help ease
balance of payments adjustment.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
http://www.oecd.org

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The Free Trade Area of the Americas
http://www.ftaa-alca.org/alca_e.asp
The Secretariat of the North American Free Trade Agreement
http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org

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