Statement

Progress for Women Progress for All

By Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM

Date: 9 April 2001

Occasion: Santiago, Chile, 9 - 12 April 2001

In preparation for the five-year reviews of Copenhagen and Beijing, UNIFEM published Progress of the World's Women, a new biennial report that assesses what has been achieved for women's empowerment and gender equality from the mid 1980s to the late 1990s. Launched during the UN General Assembly Special Session 'Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century` (`Beijing plus Five'), the publication explores how women are fairing in a globalizing economy, and how governments and civil society are fulfilling the commitments they made to women, particularly in Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing.

Debate continues about what exactly constitutes progress for women based on the life experiences of different groups of women within and across countries along lines of class, caste and ethnicity. Nevertheless, international agreements in human rights and consensus from United Nations conferences provide a common framework for defining and assessing the progress of women. In this context, progress for women means transforming gender hierarchies and basic structures that perpetuate inequalities, increasing women's economic and political power, and ensuring their personal security and rights to live free of poverty and violence. Progress for women means ensuring they have equal opportunities and choices to shape their lives.

Progress for women has been uneven. Over 100 countries have gender policies for progress but need better systems of implementation, more resources and better targets. For me, this means that we cannot examine women's progress without examining the issue of accountability, the focus of my speech. My address will consist of three parts: i) Targets for accountability, ii)Institutional Accountability for Progress, and iii) Actions to accelerate progress in the context of globalization.

I. Targets for Accountability

Although no number of targets and indicators can capture the rich diversity and complexity of women's lives, they help us to monitor the fulfillment of commitments to women's progress, as well as mobilize support for stronger efforts in this regard. I would like to stress a number of points on the issue of targets. Several targets for women's progress have been agreed to at various United Nations conferences. Cairo, the Social Summit and Beijing, all agreed on the target of closing the gender gap in primary and secondary education by the year 2005 as a way of defining progress towards gender equality and women's empowerment. However we are concerned with the following: The missing targets:
There are no targets for improving women's economic position or for reducing the feminization of poverty. Since the majority of existing targets for women's progress relate to health and education, we are sorely in need of targets for women's economic empowerment and rights. These missing targets would enable us to make better connections between women's unpaid work and economic policies; to better understand the dynamics of the informal sector, the location of women's work in many parts of the world; and to better assess gender gaps in lifetime and life-cycle earnings, which go beyond the consideration of the gender gaps in wages from full-time regular employment.

The forgotten targets:
The target that women should have at least 30 per cent of decision-making positions was affirmed in the Beijing Platform for Action. This target is however omitted from the international development targets.

UNIFEM's publication, Progress of the World's Women, provides data for the first time for indicators of gender equality and women's empowerment selected by the United Nations Development Assistance Framework(UNDAF). These include:

• The ratio of girls to boys enrolled in secondary education
• Women's share of paid employment in non-agricultural activities
• Women's share of seats in national legislatures.

Many countries have made progress in these three fields since the early 80's. But there have also been major setbacks in some countries, most notably, in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of girls education enrolment and in countries in transition in terms of women's political participation. To date, only six countries have achieved approximate gender equality in secondary enrolment, plus at least a 30 per cent share for women in parliaments. In closing this first section I want to emphasize that the discourse of rights has a powerful moral force that the discourse of targets lacks. Policies and practices to ensure that targets are met must be implemented in ways that promote women's enjoyment of human rights.

II. Institutional Accountability for Progress

Assessing the progress of women against agreed targets reveals how much change there has been - but also how much still remains to be done. We need to identify the institutions and individuals that can deliver on commitments and find ways to hold them accountable for doing so. States have made national and international policy commitments to advance the status of women. However, with globalization, non-state institutions now increasingly affect the ability of governments to promote or hinder women's progress. Organizations of civil society, labour unions, chambers of commerce and business corporations, as well as multilateral agencies and international economic institutions are part of a decision-making universe that reflects a shift from government to governance. Governance entails a system of partnerships among governmental, para-governmental and non-governmental organizations. In a world that is growing more complex, no single agent can on its own deliver progress for women. Accountability now has many dimensions, and demanding it is a multi-pronged process.

I would like to focus this part of my talk on a) government accountability, especially in the area of gender impact of national budgets; and, b) on corporate accountability especially in the area of socially responsible business and codes of conduct.

Gender Budgets for Promoting Government Accountability:
Given the tendency of commitments to women to flounder due to lack of resources, NGO's have sought ways to focus attention on the issue of resources. One such strategy is to analyse national budgets from women's perspectives, allowing women to "follow the money" to see if government rhetoric is followed in practice. Implementation of international conference commitments, national policy statements, and obligations under human rights treaties can be linked to government spending and revenue-raising decisions.

Gender analysis of a budget, however, cannot be reduced to a technical "fix", merely reformulating budget classification and coding systems. It requires officials and ministers to think about government activities in a new way. A good starting point is to divide the expenditure of each government department into three categories: expenditure specifically targeted at women or men; equal opportunity initiatives in the public sector; and the gender impact of mainstream budget expenditure. Currently, a number of tools for carrying out gender-budget analysis have been developed by researchers and activists associated with the initiatives in Australia, South Africa and the Commonwealth Budget Initiative. UNIFEM has piloted several of these experiences with the Commonwealth Secretariat, and recently convened the first regional seminar on gender budgets in Quito.

Because multinational corporations dwarf many governments in economic power, it is not sufficient to focus just on government budgets. We need to examine the issue of corporate responsibility.

Enforcing Corporate Accountability:
Analysis shows that the gains accompanying globalization have been concentrated in the hands of more men and better-off women with higher levels of education and with greater ownership of resources and access to capital. If a wider range of women are to gain, globalization must be reshaped so that it is pro-poor people and made more accountable to women.

Globalization has been accompanied by increasing calls for social responsibility and accountability of the major corporations, not only to their own shareholders but also to a wider public. In the 1990s, there were attempts to institute mandatory international codes of conduct to regulate the social and environmental conditions under which products are produced and marketed, through an international agency such as the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). This effort did not succeed, and the implementation of codes of conduct has been left to corporations themselves - prodded by trade unions and other organizations of civil society. Women have been active - as consumers, as workers and trade union members as well as shareholders - in campaigns designed to hold corporations to account. These include codes of conduct that set minimum working conditions, social labels that specify the social conditions under which a product is produced, and initiatives directed at ethical consumption and investment. To date, all corporate codes of conduct remain voluntary. However, transnational corporations are coming under increased scrutiny. Their freedom from state regulations has led to a mobilization of civil society actors worldwide, skilled at using the Internet to publicize company abuses around the world. An anti-sweatshop movement has effectively reached almost every corner of the globe, pressuring transnationals to cut back on the use of child labor, limit the number of hours required on the job, and restrict their use of dangerous chemicals. The message is that businesses must operate in ways that promote the realization of human rights and human wellbeing.

How codes of conduct are enforced lies at the heart of the issue of corporate citizenship. At the international level, several specific product codes of conduct have had some success in inducing companies to be more socially responsible. One of the best known is the longstanding international women's campaign regarding the marketing of baby milk, or infant formula. Governments can combine both international and national codes in regulations governing the production and marketing of certain products. In India for example, the government has passed legislation on the marketing of baby milk in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) Code, which specifies the way in which labels and advertisements must be worded so as to avoid improper use. Elsewhere companies have instituted their own voluntary codes of conduct. The International Labour Organization (ILO) currently lists over 215 multinationals that have some form of voluntary code of conduct, including Levi Strauss (jeans), Ford Motor Company, General Electric, and Reebok.

Accountability can mean different things to different women and can be exercised in a variety of ways.

• As citizens and voters, women can hold politicians and elected officials accountable at the polls and through the voice of public opinion.
• As elected representatives, women can hold governments accountable through parliamentary reviews of existing laws and policies and as advocates for the greater representation of women in politics.
• As government officials, and staff in national women's departments or offices, women can hold other government departments to account. Expanded dialogue with women's groups has encouraged greater governmental accountability in terms of opening up the consultative process.
• As members of NGOs, women can hold governments and corporations to account by publicizing reports and organizing hearings and demonstrations.

III. Accelerating Women's Progress

Finally, let me share with you how women's progress can be accelerated by reshaping globalization. I will be highlighting some examples of UNIFEM's work in organizing women to enter, challenge and change the operation of markets, in using new technology for e-quality, and in the formulation of economic policy at national and international levels.

Transforming Markets:
In some parts of the world, women are excluded by social norms from leaving their homes and going to market. In such cases, the challenge is to find a way of enabling women to participate.

One answer may be to bring the customers to women in their homes, as is done by Grameen Telecom Village Phone initiative in Bangladesh (see www.telecommons, com/villagephone). In other parts of the world, where women do not face strong social norms of seclusion, they may confront other barriers in selling their products, including lack of transport, storage or information. Many women know about local market opportunities, but lack information about how to enter international markets.

As well as access to international markets, women also need to learn how these markets are regulated. UNIFEM has been supporting the organising of home-based workers and women producers to access markets and increase their bargaining power to negotiate for better prices. We have also supported the linking of women producers to local marketplaces and international trade fairs for product promotion, marketing and experience sharing.

Transforming Technology to Reshape Globalization:
The vastly increased scope of access to information and speed of communication in the digital age is the second important dimension of globalization. Women must confront the new inequalities brought about by this rapidly changing technology. These technologies will benefit mainly those who are already well-placed in terms of their knowledge and skills.

Research projects UNIFEM supported on gender and new technologies showed that the growth of transnational "teleworking" has opened up many new opportunities for women in the South, including data entry, medical transcription, geographical information systems and software production. But the women who are able to take advantage of these are generally well-educated and from higher income groups. Women with little or no education, especially older women, are losing out. In other words there is an age bias in the distribution of the benefits of globalization. In China, for example, there are opportunities for young women familiar with English in new service sector jobs. However, a vast number of over 35-year olds are made redundant, either because they are in declining industries, or have outdated skills.

Improving Access to ICTs:
To address these issues, and promote universal affordable access, several developing countries have focused not on individuals but on communities. Innovative public access sites are being set up through "telecentres," located in community centres, public schools, libraries and women's centres, where people can obtain and share information through technologies such as computers, internet, e-mail, faxes and telephones, as well as through linkages between these technologies and more traditional media with broader outreach, such as community radio.

E-Inclusion:
In countries where strict cultural norms and traditions isolate women, the internet has facilitated some women's access to knowledge and information. In Saudi Arabia for example, an internet service provider - Awa1Net - has created a special branch for women surfers, adding to the many "ladies only" services - banks, schools, and shopping areas.

Improving access is about more than a larger number of women "logging on". It is about ways to ensure that women who can log on, do so not only for themselves, but also to transmit information from the Internet to women who cannot log on themselves. It is also about ensuring a two-way flow of information - not just from North to South - and in languages that are understood by more than the dominant cultures.

Thus improving access is part of a broader discussion on global knowledge, which focuses attention on human development obstacles faced disproportionately by women - ranging from lower income, education and training to gender roles and limited participation in decision-making - that impact upon their successful participation in the "knowledge society".

E-Campaigns:
The internet provides new opportunities to respond to situations such as humanitarian crises and violations of women's human rights. For limited budgets, it is an effective way to communicate with audiences around the world. UNIFEM has actively supported the use of ICTs in campaigning against violence against women.

The internet offers women entrepreneurs access to a wider market faster and at a lower cost than do traditional market outlets. In some cases, women can also order products on-line. The Virtual Souk (e-market) provides employment opportunities for women in the informal sector, facilitating inclusion for those who risk being left out of the benefits of the information technology because of lack of access and information. The concept of the Virtual Souk goes beyond the market place; it is a development tool designed to empower local artisans and NGOs through training, and access to information and knowledge.

E-Consultation:
The new technologies have made possible the inclusion of a broader spectrum of voices in policy-making. In preparation for the General Assembly review of progress in implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, in June 2000, an effort to guarantee broad participation and input from women around the world was carried out through WomenWatch, the UN Internet gateway to global information about women's concerns, progress and equality. A joint initiative by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women, UNIFEM, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and with the participation of other agencies, WomenWatch held a series of e-mail Working Groups - the Beijing + 5 Global Forum -from September to December 1999.

Engendering Macro-economic Policy:
Several women economists are engaged in a broad social dialogue about the social content of macroeconomic policy and reshaping it to promote social justice. Their key objective is to open up macroeconomic policy-making to consultation, in the way that many other areas of policy are being opened up. One of their concerns is that low levels of unemployment should not automatically be taken as a sign that prices will rise. They argue that in examining the implications of macroeconomic policies for poor women, three forms of bias need to be avoided if macroeconomic policies are to promote improvements in their position.

1. The first is deflationary bias: over-emphasis on deflating whenever the markets show signs of concern about rising inflation, or whenever short-term capital leaves the country. Such austerity measures are sometimes called for - but not without a careful analysis of the problem an economy is experiencing. There is clear evidence that using deflation to deal with problems caused by inappropriate financial liberalization makes the position of poor people, and poor women in particular, worse - as the financial crises in Southeast Asia have shown (World Bank 1998).
2. The second bias is commodification bias: the bias that turns as many public services as possible into commodities, to be sold to the public by newly privatized businesses, or to be delivered by a public sector operating on business principles and levying user fees for its services. There may be good arguments for privatization and business principles in the case of some products formerly produced in the public sector. However, in the case of health, education and social security, inequalities get intensified when this happens. The replacement of citizen entitlements secured through the public sector by market-based entitlements to be bought from the private sector polarizes societies and excludes poor women from access to social support and increases the burden on their unpaid caring work.
3. The third bias is "male breadwinner bias": the bias that sees women as dependents of men and constructs public services and social protections on the principle that men are the breadwinners and direct possessors of citizen entitlements, while women can get access only as dependents of men.

An emerging issue is the gender dimensions of international capital flows. It is important for women to begin articulating their ideas about how the global financial system should be changed and what the new global financial architecture should contain. Women have not yet done work on this dimension of global economic governance. Nor have they been engaged as yet in sufficient numbers in the dialogue on financing for development.

The stakes for women are high. Women want a world where inequality based on gender, class, caste and ethnicity is absent from every country and from the relationships among countries. Women want a world where basic needs become basic rights and where poverty and all forms of violence are eliminated. Where each person will have the opportunity to develop her or his full potential and creativity. Where women's unpaid work of nurturing, caring and weaving the fabric of community will be valued and will characterize human relationships. Where progress for women means progress for all.