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Global Call to Action against Poverty launches plans for International Women's Day

Members of Global Call to Action Against Poverty GCAP Feminist Task Force today launched global plans for International Women’s Day (March 8) actions at UN Headquarters in New York during the meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). With women representing 70% of the worlds poor, the issue of gender equality in the fight to end poverty is the core theme of hundreds of actions planned by GCAPs national coalitions on and around March 8th.

Read the Blog from Ana Agostino and see the Photo Gallery.

In New York today, GCAP members are focusing on the theme of this year’s CSW, “Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,” calling for increased financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as support for an improved gender equality architecture of the UN.  GCAP’s Feminist Task Force (FTF), which was founded three years ago at these same meetings of the CSW, will present the progress made alongside the findings of International Women’s Tribunals on Poverty (see below), which were held in India and Peru in 2007. 

Ana Agostino, GCAP Co-Chair and spokesperson for the Feminist Task Force said:
 “Poverty cannot be eradicated without equality and justice for women. Current international policies rob women of livelihoods, healthcare and other economic rights, while feeding fundamentalist backlash and militarism that deprive women of personal autonomy and choices.  Our demands are fundamental to breaking through this paradigm, they are not cosmetic, they need dedicated funding and integration into all existing policy decisions.”

GCAP’s Global demands for gender equality to end poverty on International Women’s Day are:

• Trade Justice for women’s social, economic, cultural and political empowerment
• Debt Cancellation to lift the burden on poor women and their families
• More and Better Aid to fund an end to the feminization of poverty
• Democratic, Transparent, Participatory and Accountable National Policy Processes to open doors for women and eliminate discriminatory policies
• Gender Equality as central to achieving sustainable development

ENDS/

For further information contact Ciara O’sullivan, GCAP Global Media Coordinator Tel: + 34 6790 594 809 or ciara.osullivan@civicus.org

Notes to Editors

GCAP demands on the UN

Financing for Development:

• Donor and developing country governments must ensure direct funding and establish clear mechanisms for the participation of women’s rights organizations as part of civil society, particularly women from socially excluded groups, in all the national development planning processes and aid planning, programming, management, monitoring and evaluation.
• There should be a significant increase in investments in women’s rights organizations and movements; these organizations should receive substantial, predictable, multi-year, core funding for women’s rights organizations at all levels to play watchdog and advocacy roles.
• Promote the integration of gender responsive budgeting as a tool to combine with General Budget Support (GBS) and Sector-Wide Approaches (SWAps), with the participation of women’s empowerment organizations.

Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR):

• To develop a newly created women-specific entity at the highest level with Under Secretary General leadership and to be fully and ambitiously funded.

GCAP’s Global Demands

• Trade Justice for women’s social, economic, cultural and political empowerment:  Trade expansion – both within and across borders – has been dependent on poor women’s labour.  Trade justice therefore implies not only more equitable terms of trade and national economic sovereignty, but also guaranteeing women’s land rights, labour rights and decent jobs, protecting women’s agricultural activities, maintaining food security, livelihoods and traditional knowledge, ensuring essential public services for all, and developing policies so that the benefits of trade will advance development objectives and reach the most marginalized members of society, particularly poor women.   
• Debt Cancellation to lift the burden on poor women and their families:  Much of the debt of developing countries is being paid for by poor women. Currently women are providing healthcare, education, child and elder care, and other services which support families, societies and economies as part of their unpaid labour.  In order to eradicate poverty and advance human rights therefore, debt must be cancelled, resources shared equitably to meet the needs of the poor, especially women, and essential services must be provided by the state.      
• More and Better Aid to fund an end to the feminization of poverty:  The volume of development assistance given by rich countries must be increased to the 0.7% of GNP goal in order to help poor countries lift themselves out of poverty.  This aid should prioritize empowering women and achieving gender equality in order to eradicate poverty.
• Democratic, Transparent, Participatory and Accountable National Policy Processes to open doors for women and eliminate discriminatory policies:  National strategies to eliminate poverty need to empower women through education, health care and HIV/AIDS treatments, reproductive rights, strategies to end violence against women, full political participation, equal citizenship, inheritance and property rights, and access to essential services including affordable housing.  Moreover, processes must be developed that facilitate the participation of all – especially women, youth, migrants and indigenous peoples – in policy development, implementation and monitoring, with mechanisms for information sharing, input, and redress.

WOMEN’S TRIBUNALS AGAINST POVERTY

In October 2007, as part of the mobilisation around the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, GCAP’s Feminist Task Force organised several Women’s Tribunals Against Poverty. The Tribunals served to inform and present testimony on the conditions women endure as well as put pressure on governments.  The tribunals took place in Peru and in India, and a third one is planned in Egypt in March 2008. More

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