Inclusive economies for women needed in development

The current economic crisis is negatively affecting women and girls in developing countries specifically in terms of job loss, social service cuts, and school dropouts. According to the International Labor Organisation, an increase of 22 million unemployed women is expected this year alone. Rises in levels of violence against women, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation have also been perceived.

Anna Falth of the UNDP Gender Team told MediaGlobal, “[The economic and financial crisis] affects women and girls differently than it does men. And these differences tend to be overlooked when it comes to measures to address the crisis. Some of these differences are due to three major pre-crisis factors: differences between women and men in their labour market participation; women's unequal access to financial resources and other assets; [and] poor women's higher burden of unpaid care work.”

In terms of increased levels of violence against women, Falth said, “Economic insecurity, job loss, home foreclosures, debt — all of this increases tensions in households which plays out in most countries in greater levels of violence against women.”

Social protections such as unemployment insurance, health insurance, pension schemes, and job security, according to Falth, “could be implemented without funding if employers were mandated to provide it. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Japan, are including such provisions in their stimulus packages along with subsidies to employers.” She added that government could take these on as well.

Policies needed to allow for women to enter traditionally male dominated sectors include “affirmative action policies of various kinds,” Falth noted, which encompass “mandating equal opportunities for women and other disadvantaged groups in awarding government contracts… It's important in countries investing in new green economy jobs, such as China and Korea as well as U.S. and Japan, to provide information and training support so that women have equal access to these jobs.”

Falth concluded, “The current crisis provides important opportunities for transforming or building a new financial architecture and establishing national economic policies that allow both women's and men's voices to be heard, and that benefit women and men equally.”

She pointed to the UNDP Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative, which is a three-week, pan-African Master of Arts in Gender-Aware Economics program on Gender-Responsive Economic Policy Management. Falth said, “[The program] has been launched to produce a critical mass of economic policy makers and practitioners in Africa that have the skills needed to identify and address gender biases in economic sectors and analyse economic policies and budgets from a gender perspective. Integrating women and girls' concerns and needs as key parameters in economic policy planning, budgeting, and implementation will facilitate women's empowerment.”

A set of practical recommendations to relevant stakeholders in responding to the crisis was discussed at Friday's dialogue, formed jointly by UNIFEM, UNDP, and Nicaragua. The following were included:

“The need for a new financial architecture to deliver greater voice and equal benefits to women and men; greater policy consistency…particularly those policies that promote gender equality; increase resources to developing countries…and finance gender equality and women's empowerment; institute enabling policies for retrenched women to enter male-dominated sectors with decent employment by providing women with training and orientation in these sectors; create jobs for both women and men by investing in physical and social infrastructure—while decreasing the burden of unpaid care work on women and girls—and expanding and improving the provision of health, education and nutrition; provide social safety nets to...prevent inter-generational transmission of poverty, in particular from women to girls but also to older women; invest in alternative and innovative ideas, such as...women's green jobs and businesses, and alternative low cost energy programmes that contribute to the reduction of women and girls' unpaid care work.”

Article published courtesy of MediaGlobal