Key Demands from Women’s Rights Organizations to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (Busan, Korea, 2011) and the Development Cooperation Forum (2012)
Outcome Document- Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness; Busan, Korea 29 November – 1 December
Beyond Busan (referring more to the BOD5): Global Partnership on Cooperation for Development Effectiveness- Move beyond aid effectiveness towards a human rights-based development cooperation framework to advance development and poverty eradication in ways that are coherent with international human rights standards and give adequate attention to women’s rights, the right to development and environmental justice.
See full document here: Global Women’s Forum Political Statement- December 2011
As feminists, gender equality and women’s rights activists and organizations mobilizing on the road to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4), this document reaffirms our vision for transformation and offers concrete recommendations for improving the international development cooperation architecture.
We reaffirm our vision of a world where aid is no longer necessary, where transformed power relations and the democratic redistribution of wealth continually challenge norms and structures of injustice and war and create new forms of relations based on respect, solidarity, equity, inclusion, non-subordination and justice for all.
We believe in development as a right, as stated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and in the UN Declaration on the Right to Development.1 International solidarity through sustainable international cooperation has a crucial role to play in fulfilling states’ responsibility to ensure that all peoples realize their rights, across countries,2 thereby contributing towards redistributive justice and the eradication of inequalities at the global level.
We stress that gender equality and women’s rights are located at the heart of development. This means that women’s empowerment and full and equal participation in all spheres of society, including participation in decision-making processes and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of gender and social justice, substantive democracy and peace for all.
We challenge the instrumentalisation of aid and of gender equality embodied in mainstream visions of development cooperation that promote the privatization and militarization of aid and gender equality and that view women solely as catalysts for market expansion, investment and trade.
We challenge mainstream economic development models based on unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, exploitation and unequal gender and social relations. Development is a state responsibility and women’s groups contest the notion that stimulating private sector profit should be a development aim. We call for the recognition of women’s and men’s right to define how they understand and envision development, based on their own rights, local experiences, needs and responses, in ways that are sustainable for our planet and promote human rights, peace and justice for all free from any kind of violence or imposition.
We aim to shift the traditional development discourse towards an inclusive, sustainable, and just paradigm, which recognizes and values reproductive and care work, and promotes the empowerment, autonomy and emancipation of women and girls.
We underscore that women, feminists and women’s organizations and movements play a key role in development. This is true from households to communities, and at regional and international levels: they carry out the largest share of unpaid reproductive work (including much of the world’s food production), playing key roles in peace-building and in the management, conservation and use of natural resources. As women, we refuse to be seen as passive, solely as consumers or victims in need of protection and rescue. We must be recognized as key development actors in our own right.
We demand the full realization of women’s rights as human rights, which are essential to any development cooperation framework. Human rights are universal and inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and the implementation of gender equality and women’s rights commitments are cornerstones for development.
The current draft of the Busan outcome document is not acceptable for women’s rights groups engaged in the HLF4 process. We call on governments and other relevant development actors involved in the HLF4 and 2012 DCF preparation to consider the following imperatives:
1. Any new development cooperation framework to be agreed in Busan should be based on human rights, including women’s rights.
2. A new equitable development cooperation system for gender equality and women’s rights under the United Nations is in place.
3. Development effectiveness requires democratic ownership by women and meaningful and systematic participation by civil society, especially women’s and feminist organizations.
4. Promote multiple accountability systems for women’s rights and gender equality, improving existing monitoring systems.
5. Financing for Development: Gender Equality and Women’s Rights Beyond Mainstreaming
6. Development cooperation to the countries in situations of fragility and conflict must acknowledge the differential and disproportional impact of armed conflict on the lives and rights of women and girls.
Development cooperation for women’s rights, gender equality, and social and environmental justice.
Keeping in mind that the Paris Declaration is mainly gender blind, we recall the commitments made in the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) on gender equality (Paragraphs 3, 13c, 21b and 23a) and urge all signatories to translate their words into concrete actions and deepen these commitments on gender equality.
The current (1st) draft outcome document for Busan acknowledges the need for a new paradigm for development cooperation but is gender silent and does not advance a vision or framework where the existing international agreed development goals (IADGs) on gender justice, human rights, decent work and environmental sustainability are at the center.
We are convinced that HLF4 must produce an outcome document that builds the foundation for a new development cooperation architecture that is responsive and sensitive to women’s rights and gender equality. This architecture should be situated within the United Nations (UN) with participation from the OECD, ensuring full participation of all actors, including civil society and women’s groups. We recognize that the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness in the post-Accra era advanced substantially in the inclusion of civil society actors. This has been an experience that should be integrated into broader fora such as the UN Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) under the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). There should be clear and effective mechanisms of ongoing participation for CSOs, including formal representation beyond the existing structures.
These key demands were elaborated during the International Women’s Organizations Consultation on Development Cooperation, Women’s Rights and Gender Equality held in Brussels, Belgium, 9-10 June 2011. The consultation was hosted by WIDE Network and co-organized with the other women’s organizations of the BetterAid Coordination Group: the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) and Coordinadora de la Mujer from Bolivia.
See full details of Women’s Key Demands
What is development effectiveness and why is it important for women’s human rights?
APWLD’s Regional Coordinator, Kate Lappin
MEDIA COVERAGE
12 January 2012, Huffington Post Hillary’s Women’s Rights Problem
“Commitments (to gender equality) should be driven by a real commitment to the enjoyment of women’s rights and to strengthen their autonomies, not a desire to generate economic benefits.” Kate Lappin, APWLD Regional Coordinator
For more media coverage, please click here
MEDIA RELEASE
US gender plan lacks the ‘power’ in ‘empowerment’
For Immediate Release: 30 November 2011
Busan, Korea- Women’s organisations from around the world have chosen not to endorse the current Busan Joint Action Plan on Gender Equality and Developmentthat US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will launch today. The group are releasing a position statement on the plan which expresses concern about the overwhelming focus on promoting women as vehicles of economic growth, rather than rights holders in the plan. Women’s Groups who have been engaged in the BetterAid civil society platform are particularly concerned about the plan’s narrow focus on developing economies, rather than developing women’s enjoyment of rights.
See full media release here:
Drafted by women’s organizations within the BetterAid Coordination Group
Contact: Sarah Matsushita sarah@apwld.org Ph: 66 53284527
SURVEY
APWLD (with the Civil Society Open Forum on Development Effectiveness) recently conducted a consultation on Gender and Development Effectiveness, and would like to invite your participation in a survey exploring how gender equality can be promoted and realised by civil society organisations, donors and governments.
APWLD is a member of the Civil Society Open Forum for Development Effectiveness, and the Better Aid Coordinating Group, two civil society platforms which are working to promote effective development practices and increased space CSOs within the Aid Effectiveness agenda of donors and governments in the lead up to the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, 2011.
APWLD wants to ensure that women’s voices and concerns are central in the dialogues prior to and at Busan, and your input will be important in shaping our strategies and advocacy for integrating women’s agenda into the Aid agenda.
In the coming months we will be sharing the outcomes of the consultation and providing more information on how women can contribute to the conversation on development effectiveness.
To voice your concerns please participate in our online survey:
Click here to be taken to survey
The survey is open until Monday April 4th, 2011. I hope that you will be able to participate and share within your networks.
