Poverty Eradication and
Gender Equality
A Benchmark for the Successor Agreement between the EU and the ACP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. SUMMARY
3. EXPLANATORY NOTE
3.1. Bakground: International commitments to gender equality
3.2. Proposals for gender mainstreaming
3.2.1. General remarks about the EU negotiation directives
3.2.2. Preamble
3.2.2.1. Social development
3.2.2.2. Migration
3.2.2.3. A sound economic environment
3.2.3. Principles and objectives
3.2.3.1. Eradication of poverty
3.2.3.2. Equitable distribution and employment generation
3.2.3.3. Trade and the multilateral system
3.2.3.4. International financial system
3.2.4. The political dimension of the partnership
3.2.5. The actors of the partnership
3.2.6. Support for social policies
3.2.7. Economic and trade cooperation
3.2.8. Humanitarian assistance
3.3. Indicators
4. DEFINING THE FEMINISATION OF POVERTY
5. SOURCES
1. INTRODUCTION
Eurostep outlines in this document the necessary elements for inclusion into the new agreement between the EU and the ACP in order to make it consistent with internationally adopted policies on women and development. Eurostep believes that EU commitments need to be translated into clear and practical plans for action, which can be monitored in future so as to see whether the goals of the new agreement are reached.
The proposals presented in this paper relate to the EU "negotiating directives for the negotiation of a partnership agreement with ACP countries". Each of these proposals is directly based on commitments that have already been agreed in the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women.
The specific identification of the actions geared to promote gender equality will help to monitor, in future, to what extent the agreement will have contributed to the eradication of poverty by gender-sensitive policies and gender-specific activities. They provide a minimum baseline for a gender-sensitive programme that will have the potential to profoundly contribute to greater equality between women and men.
The summary sets out the central points to achieve greater gender equality in the agreement between the EU and the ACP. The explanatory note will describe the background of international commitments made by the EU and the ACP. It will also give concrete suggestions for inclusion in the agreement, in order to ensure that the new Convention between the EU and the ACP will be a real tool for enhancing gender equality. Finally the document provides indicators for measuring whether the agreement between the EU and the ACP will contribute to promoting greater equality between men and women.
2. SUMMARY
The successor agreement between the EU and the ACP will be based on the overarching objective of poverty eradication(1). Both the EU and the ACP also recognise that "social and economic development cannot be secured in a sustainable way without the full participation of women(2)." The EU negotiating directives set out three guiding principles "for systematic application in all areas of cooperation", including "gender mainstreaming and gender equality(3)". Negotiating group 2, dealing with the "Private sector, Investment and other Development Strategies" agreed that gender should be recognised as a crosscutting issue(4). Further progress has also been made in the negotiations between the EU and the ACP. Working group 2 released key sentences on gender on April 20, 1999. Taking gender and youth issues together it produced the following sentences(5):
"Cooperation will strengthen policies and programmes that improve, ensure and broaden the participation of women in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life, as equal partners, and improve their access to all resources required for the full exercise of their fundamental rights. More specifically, cooperation will create the appropriate framework to:
Further analysis of the texts released by the negotiating groups so far gives great concern about the way in which the idea that gender is a crosscutting issue is implemented. No where until now are gender specific measures proposed in other parts of the text in the mandates or by the negotiating groups.
Consequentially Eurostep comes to the conclusion that the text agreed in working group 2 is inadequate. It does not bring forward a coherent policy approach focused at the empowerment of women for the new agreement between the EU and the ACP. Even though it proposes that gender issues be mainstreamed, it does not implement this approach. A consistent approach to gender equality is needed and should comprise the following elements.
1. Gender issues are qualitatively different from youth issues and they need to be separated. A separate heading for gender issues should highlight the principles, objectives, goals and the approach of the new agreement.
2. The principles should bind parties to protect women's rights as human rights, including reproductive rights. The term 'fundamental rights', used by group 2, does not have a proper legal definition. Parties should ratify the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women and review reservations made with ratification of the Convention.
3. The objectives of the agreement between the EU and the ACP should include:
4. The goals of the new agreement between the EU and the ACP should include:
5. The approach of the Convention should be that gender is a crosscutting issue and will, therefore, be based on 'mainstreaming'. It will define this approach as integrating gender equality concerns "at every level of action; aid programming, macro-economic policy support (notably on the basis of impact analyses), support for social and productive sectors, programmes and projects"(7).
6. Clearly, the approach of mainstreaming needs to be implemented in the Convention itself. This means that the new agreement should not only make mere general statements relating to gender mainstreaming, but it should do this wherever relevant in the Convention. The actions agreed should be sufficiently specific so that their implementation can be monitored.
7. Sound political and macro-economic environment forms the basis for the advancement of women. Therefore, mainstreaming of gender issues should be implemented in social policy areas as well as in the political and macro-economic enabling environment
8. The agreement must reaffirm the EU commitment to sustainable and social development, as set out in the Maastricht Treaty articles. The agreement should refer throughout the text to 'sustainable social development'. The agreement must contribute to the establishment of national policies, which ensure that all people have adequate economic and social protection during unemployment, ill health, maternity, disability and old age. The new agreement should establish a mutual commitment to contribute resources to basic social services, such as health and basic education, based on the principle of the 20:20 compact between the EU and the ACP countries to give adequate resources to social policies, with special attention to the access of women and the girl child to these services.
9. The agreements between the EU and the ACP on trade should be based explicitly on the objective that the parties "seek 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"(8). Trade between the EU and the ACP can not be based on reciprocity. Small and medium sized producers, the majority of which is women, can not compete with an influx of EU imports.
10. Women living in poverty are particularly vulnerable in a financial crisis, as care-takers of their families, among others because financial crisis leads to increases in food prices. Financial crises also dramatically increase unemployment. The new agreement should promote stable monetary policies. The parties should agree measures to resolve the onerous debt problem of ACP countries. Introduction of the Tobin Tax, an international taxation on capital transfers to discourage portfolio investment and speculation, should be discussed in the context of political cooperation between the parties.
11. Women living in poverty should be empowered in the context of the future agreement through organisation and participation. Women should be encouraged and strengthened to take decisions and to implement them through support to local community projects that facilitate their active participation in efforts to eradicate poverty. Gender equality concerns must be integrated in the planning, implementation and evaluation of all policies and programmes.
This note will provide further background to the central proposals presented in the summary. In the first part of this addendum information is provided that serves as a background to understanding the international commitments that the EU and the ACP have agreed to. The second part will offer concrete suggestions for mainstreaming gender throughout the new agreement between the EU and the ACP. The third part will provide a set of indicators for measuring whether the principle of gender mainstreaming has been adequately implemented.
3.1. Background: International commitments to gender equality
In 1995 the international community recognised expressly that the objective of eradicating poverty can only be achieved if the problem of the disparate and unequal effects of current macro-economic and political policies on gender relations are fully understood and taken into account in development cooperation. In that year world leaders committed themselves to implementing concrete activities in order to eradicate poverty by way of well-defined and gender-specific measures at the Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen and at the Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing. In the Beijing Conference the EU committed itself to a broad plan of action directed to "the advancement of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of humanity"(9).
Important groundwork for the plans adopted in that year had been undertaken at the Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo (1994) and the Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993). These conferences stressed the inter-relationship between human rights and development and specified women's rights in that context, including reproductive rights.
Following the series of UN conferences the donor countries, the EU Member States and the European Commission pledged in the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD (DAC) to focus the implementation of the agreements on a number of selected targets to which they had already committed themselves. The selected targets are:
The priority attached to these selected targets by the OECD DAC again demonstrated awareness of the inequity affecting women living in poverty, particularly in terms of access to basic social services. It also showed a commitment to redress this problem as a key issue in the context of the eradication of poverty.
The weakness of these targets agreed by the OECD DAC was that the selection process excluded the developing countries. The OECD DAC did recognise that the targets could only be reached if "there is a shared commitment of all partners"(11). Clearly, without commitment of the governments of developing countries the targets could not be implemented and this makes the selection by OECD DAC of a few targets out of all the UN commitments a precarious matter. It is in this light that one should see that the members of the DAC did commit themselves to: "a willingness to make mutual commitments with our development partners, supported by adequate resources"(12). The relationship between the EU and ACP has been one of the best examples of development co-operation in which the partnership has been built on mutual participation and involvement. It, therefore, deserves special attention, because it could become one of the most powerful instruments for eradicating poverty that the EU has.
In the context of the EU it is relevant to note in particular that the commitments made by the Member states and the Commission at the international level have been re-confirmed by the EU Council in various resolutions. The Resolution on "Integrating Gender Issues in Development Co-operation" (1995) and the Conclusions "Gender and Crisis Prevention, Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation" (1996) as well as the Council Conclusions on gender issues (1998) set out how the Council intends to translate the international agreements into gender - policy for the EU. They emphasised the need for gender mainstreaming in all development and humanitarian activities.
It is clear that gender-sensitive policies must be at the heart of the new agreement between the EU and the ACP. This understanding should profoundly go beyond the level of mere statement. Concrete and specific measures to achieve greater gender equity and to foster the empowerment of women in development should, therefore, be fully mainstreamed throughout the Convention.
In conclusion, the key concern at this point is how the international commitments will be translated into concrete and mutually agreed measures within the future agreement between the ACP and the EU.
3.2. Proposals for gender mainstreaming
This section aims to provide concrete proposals for inclusion into the new agreement between the EU and the ACP. It is structured in accordance with the EU negotiation directives in order to provide some connection to the current EU proposal that is on the negotiation table. Firstly some general remarks about the negotiation directives will be made from a gender perspective. Secondly the preamble, principles and objectives of the negotiation directives will be discussed. Thirdly the areas of social development and trade will be looked at in order of appearance in the negotiating directives. Finally, this chapter will focus on some areas that have been overlooked, in particular in relation to emergency and humanitarian aid. As the sections will be linked to the order of the negotiation directives some overlap is unavoidable - since this is also the case in the directives themselves.
3.2.1. General remarks about the EU negotiation directives
The EU negotiating directives set out three guiding principles "for systematic application in all areas of co-operation", including "gender mainstreaming and gender equality".
The principle on 'gender mainstreaming' and gender equality' is internally inconsistent. While 'gender mainstreaming' is a principle, 'gender equality' is an objective. This causes unnecessary confusion. Therefore, greater clarity could be achieved if the new agreement will be outlined according to the following fundamentals:
The article 3.1.2.B (1) and (2) on 'gender mainstreaming and gender equality' should be moved up to the chapter on principles and objectives, and be implemented throughout the new agreement itself.
3.2.2. Preamble
3.2.2.1. Social development
Structural adjustment programmes have severely undermined social policies, particularly in areas such as health and education, sanitation and clean drinking water. Women are the main, and increasingly sole, caretakers of children and the elderly, and therefore, need access to basic social services. Women are also more vulnerable in terms of reproductive health. However women living in poverty, who constitute 70 % of all people living in poverty, have been increasingly excluded from the enjoyment of basic social services. Women are entitled to have access to basic social services and this requires that social development be regarded as a fundamental element of sustainable economic development. The agreement should, therefore, reaffirm the EU commitment to sustainable and social development, as set out in the Maastricht Treaty Articles 130U (1992). The agreement should refer throughout the text to 'sustainable social development'.
3.2.2.2. Migration
The EU and the ACP are committed to enhance political dialogue, among others in the area of migration, which "must produce mutual obligations between the parties." Women are particularly vulnerable in these circumstances, as domestic workers, or when left behind with children by their husbands who look for income elsewhere. The international legal instrument, the UN Convention on Migrant Workers and their Families, needs to be used as the yardstick for this political dialogue and the basis for any measures taken within this framework. The parties should, therefore, refer to the UN Convention on Migrant Workers and their Families, as the basic framework for a political dialogue on migration. The parties should ensure the full realisation of the human rights of all women migrants, including women migrant workers, and their protection against violence and exploitation, and facilitate the productive employment of women migrant workers.
3.2.2.3. A sound economic environment
The phrase that the parties should acknowledge "that sound and sustainable economic policies are also a prerequisite for development" is ambiguous, particularly since it follows with the statement that "the parties will also recall their commitments within the framework of the World Trade Organisation". The commitments made in the WTO do not have the objective to eradicate poverty and the reference is, therefore, irrelevant and should be deleted. Instead the parties should acknowledge that "economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components (...). [These] can not be secured without the full participation of women (.). (.)[E]quity between women and men is a priority in the international community and as such must be at the centre of economic and social development"(13).
3.2.3. Principles and objectives
3.2.3.1. Eradication of poverty
The EU has committed itself in the Maastricht Treaty (1992) and the Summit for Social Development (1995) to the eradication of poverty, and to sustainable social development. The commitment to "the goal of eradicating poverty in the world", adopted at the Social Summit and reaffirmed at the Beijing Conference by all the EU Member States, should unequivocally and unambiguously be at the heart of the agreement between the EU and the ACP.
3.2.3.2. Equitable distribution and employment generation
Economic growth does not necessarily resolve poverty - on the contrary, economic growth can even increase poverty. Economic growth is not an end in itself. Economic policies must be regarded as a means to eradicating poverty and must promote the equitable distribution of income and greater access to resources through equity and equality of opportunity for all.
The agreement should, therefore, set out the objective to eradicate poverty by promoting the goal of full employment and enable men and women to attain secure and sustainable livelihoods through freely chosen productive employment. The creation of employment, the reduction of unemployment and the promotion of appropriately and adequately remunerated employment should be at the centre of strategies to eradicate poverty. Particular attention should be paid to women's access to employment, the protection of their position in the labour market and the promotion of equal treatment of women and men, in particular in respect to pay.
Policies and programmes, including those relating to macroeconomic stability, structural adjustment programmes, trade, taxation, investments, employment, markets and all relevant sectors of the economy, should be analysed with respect to their impact on poverty and inequality, including inequality between men and women. To this end the parties must develop, update and disseminate specific and agreed gender disaggregated indicators of poverty and vulnerability, including income, wealth, nutrition, physical and mental health, education, literacy, family conditions, unemployment, social exclusion and isolation, homelessness, landlessness, and other factors, and periodically assess and share this information.
3.2.3.3. Trade and the multilateral system
Trade is not an end in itself. It should be part of overall policies to eradicate poverty, aiming at the expansion of productive employment and reduction of unemployment.
Given the emphasis on trade in the Lomé Convention the new agreement between the ACP and the EU should be based explicitly on the objective that the parties seek 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.
In the context of globalisation international trading rules have become increasingly important. The international rules on trade should be based on the same objectives, namely to expand productive employment and eradicate poverty. In this context it is often overlooked that liberalisation has not only lead to economic growth but has at the same time also contributed to substantial job losses in developing countries. Women are particularly affected, because they are often in less protected sectors more vulnerable to global competition. Productive employment found in the Export Processing Zones can contribute to poverty because wages are low and there is little protection in terms of labour rights.
Current rules in the WTO that promote liberalisation without looking at the impact on the poorest countries form an obstacle to development-oriented policies. The EU and the ACP should work together in the WTO for a rules - based trading system that protects the Least Developed Countries, small island states and land-locked countries.
According to the EU the WTO does not give alternatives other than the Regional Free Trade Agreements (or REPAs) but this is not the case. Also Regional Free Trade Agreements between the EU and ACP regions would need to be sanctioned by the WTO, as would a waiver for the ACP - and there is no certainty in either option that the WTO would approve of the agreements that were made. Coordination between the EU and the ACP is essential in order to achieve any trade agreement. Therefore coordination in the World Trade Organisation is needed, which should focus on establishing trading policies that contribute to the eradication of poverty and to social sustainable development and enhance women's' productive opportunities. Non - reciprocity should remain the key principle governing any trade agreement between the EU and the ACP countries.
In order that proposals put forward by the negotiating parties on the new agreement between the ACP and the EU adequately take into account the effects on women the parties must audit the impact on women's economic and productive capacities of the REPAs.
3.2.3.4. International financial system
The impact of financial crises on women living in poverty has been dramatic. Not only have food prices gone up exorbitantly, unemployment has seriously increased and the immense increase of the debt burden of the countries hit will necessitate further austerity programmes and subsequent cuts in social programmes and employment opportunities. It is crucial, therefore, that the new Convention promotes stable monetary policies. This requires the coordination of macroeconomic policies at the national, subregional, regional and international levels in order to promote, inter alia, a higher degree of stability in financial markets, reducing the risk of financial crisis, improving the stability of exchange rates, stabilising and striving for low real interest rates in the long run and reducing the uncertainties of financial flows. In the context of the cooperation between the EU and the ACP efforts should also be undertaken to alleviate the onerous debt and debt service burdens connected with the various types of debt of many of the ACP countries. The Tobin Tax should be discussed in the context of political cooperation between the EU and the ACP as an instrument against speculative capital that destabilises the financial markets.
3.2.4. The political dimension of the partnership
Ad (1) In the context of political dialogue meetings should be set up between Ministers in charge of gender equality policies as a means of exploring gender matters, including the question how the political participation of women can be enhanced at the local, national and regional level. In addition meetings of women MEPs/MPs from the EU and the ACP should explore how the participation of women in the parliaments can be increased.
As the ACP mandate has set out, the political dialogue should include the subject of trafficking in women. The EU and ACP should take concrete steps to coordinate policies, actions and legal instruments and measures to combat trafficking in women, and in adolescents and children, migrants and human organs.
Ad (2) The essential element should refer to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
3.2.5. The actors of the partnership
People living in poverty and vulnerable groups, particularly women, should be empowered through organisation and participation. Women should be encouraged and strengthened to take decisions and implement them through support to local community development projects that facilitate their active participation in efforts to eradicate poverty. People living in poverty should be empowered by involving them fully in the setting of targets and the design, implementation, monitoring and the assessment of national strategies and programmes for poverty eradication and community-based development, and ensuring that such programmers reflect their priorities. Gender concerns must be integrated in the planning and implementation of all policies and programmes.
Small farmers, landless tenants and labourers, other small producers, fisherfolk, community-based and workers' cooperatives, especially those run by women, should be strengthened in order to improve market access and increase productivity, provide inputs and technical advice, promote cooperation in production and marketing operations, and strengthen participation in the planning and implementation of rural development.
3.2.6. Support for social policies
The new agreement should depart from the objective that universal access to basic social services should be ensured, with particular efforts to facilitate access by people living in poverty and vulnerable groups. The satisfaction of basic human needs is an essential element of strategies to eradicate poverty.
In order to strengthen social policies in the ACP countries, the new agreement should support ACP governments to:
3.2.7. Economic and trade cooperation
Economic opportunities for women, particularly women living in poverty, should be improved through the elimination of legal, social, cultural and practical obstacles to women's participation in economic activities. Women should have equal access to productive resources
Trade policies should focus on promoting, including by micro-enterprises, rural non-farm production and service activities, such as agro-processing, sales and services of agricultural equipment and inputs, irrigation, credit services and other income generating activities, through, inter alia, supportive laws and administrative measures, credit policies, and technical and administrative training, with particular efforts to ensure the availability of such services to women. Governments should review national, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks that restrict the access of people living in poverty, particularly women, to credit on reasonable terms. The governments should promote banks to open special windows for lending to women who lack access to traditional sources of collateral.
Urban poverty should be addressed by promoting and strengthening micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative enterprise, and expanded market and other employment opportunities, and, where appropriate, facilitating the transition from the informal to the formal sector. The governments in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, should develop and implement education, training and retraining policies for women to provide skills to meet the needs of a changing socio-economic context for improving women's employment opportunities, and to provide unemployed women with employment opportunities, including self-employment.
3.2.8. Humanitarian assistance
3.3. Indicators
The following indicators will measure the extent to which the new agreement will have mainstreamed gender.
The new agreement should:
4. DEFINING THE FEMINISATION OF POVERTY.(14)
5. SOURCES
DAC, Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Co-operation, OECD, Paris, May 1996.
ACP negotiating mandate, ACP/28/028/98 Neg., Brussels 31 August 1998.
The membership of Eurostep includes:
Notes:
(1) Dakar, Negotiating Group no 2 - Private Sector, Investment and other Development Strategies, Dakar 8-9 February 1999, CONF 10/99, ACP/OO/139/99.
(2) ACP negotiating mandate, ACP/28/028/98 Neg., Brussels 31 August 1998.
(3) European Union, The Council, Negotiating directives for the negotiations of a development partnership agreement with the ACP countries, 10017/98, Brussels 30 June 1998.
(4) Dakar, Negotiating Group no 2, Ibid.
(5) ACP EU Negotiations, Group 2 "Private Sector, Investment and other Development Strategies, Draft Key Sentences, Brussels, 20 April 1999.
(6) DAC, Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Co-operation, OECD, Paris, May 1996.
(7) EU Negotiating Directives, ibid.
(8) Beijing Platform for Action, 165k.
(9) Beijing Platform for Action.
(10) DAC, Shaping the 21st Century: The Contribution of Development Co-operation, OECD, Paris, May 1996.
(11) Ibid.
(12) Ibid.
(13) Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development (6 and 7).
(14) Beijing Platform of Action, no. 49/50.