Multiple Global Crises and Gender: Rethinking Alternative Paths for Development Seminar 25th June 2012 TIME FOR A GAME SHIFT Devaki Jain 1
UNDP gender team and feminist scholars drawn from diverse fields initiated the idea to ensure that justice is built into macro economic ideas and policies. The process of trying to rebuild had a long journey, it had many stops such as…. First stop, Beijing+ 5, UN, 2000 Second stop, Kampala,Uganda,2002 Third stop, Casablanca, Morocco, 2006 Whistle stops at Durban, New York Fourth stop, Istanbul, Turkey, 2007 Fifth stop, Rabat, Morocco, 2008 Sixth stop, Geneva, Switzerland, 2009 2
First, to reconstruct how growth is fuelled. Second, was a call for deconcentration of the source of the GDP of the market and the location of the power of the financial market. Third, was how to safeguard the environment. 3
In Uganda, it started with the feminist movement to revive the movement’s which are more inclusive, more grass root oriented, culturally relevant and more apt to appeal to a large segment of the world’s population. In Casablanca and Istanbul, the group attempted to link women’s understanding of reality into macro economic propositions. In Rabat, the group emphasized that there is a need to bring women’s voice into the debate. 4
This book is the 6 th stop in the Casablanca group’s journey of thinking and writing and trying it out on the ground and then coming back to thinking and writing, that started in 2000!! The initial aim of the Casablanca Dream group was narrow, to influence, to actually re-design the UN’s framework for gender and development moving it from gender equality to the influence of gendered analysis on macro economic policy directions . BUT with the global crisis in 2008 and so much re thinking and critique of global management of finance, and of the economic reasoning behind macro policies, we thought we would also join the conversation with our ideas and perspectives. This book then is that step. 5
6
Part 2 Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy Voices from the Volume 7
DIANE ELSON “If post-crisis economies are to meet the goals of social justice and environmental sustainability, more will have to be changed than the international financial system…. Measures to end the crisis will fail if they simply seek to restore growth and greed.” STEPHANIE SEGUINO “Wide gaps in income and well-being – that is, economic inequality between individuals, households, and social groups – conflict with the goal of broadly shared economic prosperity…it is evident that the policies that have undermined the goals of dignified work, security, and inter-group equality have contributed to the crisis and must be replaced.” JAEL SILLIMAN “It is imperative for women’s movements as well as feminist scholars to engage the developing body of research on masculinities and seek out more partnerships and collaborations with nascent activities led by men to reach other men, for greater synergy between these two movements.” 8
LOURDES BENERIA “The paradigm tied to global capitalism and rational Economic Man, with its conceptual frameworks and economic policies, has failed us not only because it has brought some “development” while neglecting “human development” for all, but also because, despite progress toward gender equality at many levels, it has done so within a paradigm of social inequality that feminism needs to question.” HIROKO HARA “ The global financial crisis stemming from subprime loan problems in the United States in 2008 has been having, albeit slowly, a profoundly adverse effect on the labor market and the national economy in Japan, and there are looming threats to the progress made toward gender equality.” LANYAN CHEN “Given the gendered slant to the economic slowdown in China, the Government needs to adopt a stimulus plan first to address disparity and vulnerability, while not adversely affecting the strong growth rate, and second to meet the long term need in society for a more equitable approach to economic and social development.” 9
Email Id: devakijain@gmail.com Thank You! 10
Recommend
More recommend
