AWID
MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION and Global development Partnership
Stakeholder forum
23rd April
Alejandra Scampini AWID, member of the Post 2015 Women’s Coalition
1. On FFD and 2015 development agenda: the emphasis should be on the need for synergies and complementarity towards an economic global environment
We are concerned about the recent negotiations around FfD departing from its primary focus on… and moving into a direction of focusing on private financing, etc. Monterrey and Doha provided a holistic framework for the consideration of all different sources of finance, as well as systemic issues that relate to the stability and governance of the international financial system. We urge Governments and all stakeholders to agree on a new financing that integrates HR and fundamental freedoms.
WE insist that the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration should provide the conceptual framework, for the mobilization of resources from a variety of sources and the effective use of financing required for the achievement of sustainable development (paragraph 4, resolution A/RES/68/279)
The ability of governments to use the resources they receive for sustainable development depends on the international finance, trade and tax framework. The current framework is deeply unbalanced, inequitable, and inhibits countries’ ability to address their development priorities. For example, debt owed by countries to international financial institutions: the IMF and World Bank continue to require total debt repayments that are 5 times that of total annual ODA flows to developing countries. Synergies shall not dilute efforts towards fundamental development oriented right based and structural reforms of the international trade and finance architecture based on Principles of transparency, accountability, and participation.
Why does GOAL 17 matter for women? The means of implementation of sustainable development, which provides those means, and terms on which they are provided fundamentally will affect women’s 5 dimensions of autonomy: economic, political, sexual and reproductive autonomy and women’s freedom from all forms of violence; There is plenty of evidence that shows that in times of economic crisis, austerity measure and reduced investment in social sectors, impact negatively on women and girls increasing their unpaid care burden for example. 2 on Development Financing AWID key messages are The issue of financing is fundamental to the realization of women’s human rights. In short, without public money for services and infrastructure, there will be no guarantee that women’s human rights will be supported. It is the public sector’s role to support social needs and global public goods, such as a clean environment, universal social protection, health, education. The public sector is therefore the cornerstone of a sustainable development financing strategy. We therefore call for a binding accountability framework that will ensure these is done. Decisions around financing and revenue are also development decisions in and of themselves. Taxes on harmful industries and practices like speculative financial transactions, military and arms trading, carbon emissions, and extractive industries, can provide the means of implementation, support reductions in inequality, and limit practices that undermine sustainable development. Illicit financial flows must be a corner stone of the FfD discussions to prevent continued hemorrhaging of resources by developing countries.
Governments and stakeholders should agree on a renewed and strengthen meaningful global partnership for development that articulates international cooperation on a broad range of key development issues, it must occur principally between governments of developed and developing countries, with the developed countries taking the lead in providing resources and the means of implementation. The principle of common but differentiated responsibility must be applied to the financing for development negotiations. Official Development Assistance (ODA) PLAYS A CENTRAL ROLE in development financing,i and requires developed countries to commit 0.7% of their Gross National Product to development assistance. Other sources of financing, including public-private partnerships, innovative financing mechanisms, and South-South cooperation,ii may be complementary to—but not substitutes for—North-South cooperation.iii The fiscal and public debt risks of PPPs be properly accounted for and placed under public scrutiny through mechanisms for organized social participation and monitoring. Institutional and capacity pre-requirements for the success and effective functioning of PPPs, including social participation and provision of free prior and informed consent (FPIC) from affected communities, should be in place prior to project design and implementation". If the private sector is involved in financing development projects or public services, companies must be accountable to human rights and International Labor Organization norms, environmental protection standards, as well as strict regulatory frameworks that prevent tax evasion.
3) ON FINANCING AND NEW ACTORS,
Recent trends around the world1 elucidate the importance for a new framework of development financing that is built on principles of equality, transparency, sustainability and rights based approach. Within this realm of transforming the ‘business as usual’ approach are new actors from the private sector who are increasingly involved, playing central roles in financing for development, particularly focused on women and girls. AWID’s recent research study “New Money, New Actors, New Conversations” found that out of 170 initiatives that focused on women and girls, over 60% of the actors identified as corporate sector actors2.
AWID’s research shows that over the past 5 years 14.6 billion dollars have been pledged towards women and girls globally3 by private sector actors. Thus, it is crucial that we work to understand the private sector’s overwhelming interest in “investing in women” and sustainable development more broadly. AWID’s research shows that private sector funding is diverse, with funding and partnerships emerging from a range of new/multiple sources including: crowdfunding, social media, corporate actors, women of wealth and celebrities to name just a few. The most common actors involved in multistakeholder collaborations included the corporate sector actor (60%), national or regional non-government organizations (35%), private family foundations started in the last 10 years (32%), international non-governmental organizations (28%) and government and public institutions (28%), among others. These new actors are bringing to bear innovative thinking and strategies for addressing long-standing problems, with new approaches and resources. They are are also increasingly setting the tone and agenda of funding discourses for women and girls through their involvement in agenda setting spaces such as the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), the World Economic Forum, the Women’s Economic Forum, to name a few.
1 In spite of a decade and a half of the Millennium Development Goals, an estimated 3 billion people - 50% of the world’s population - are still living in poverty (on less than $2.50 a day), at least 1 billion - most of whom are women - live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day)1.
2 New Money, New Actors” surveyed 170 initiatives and found that the most common actors involved in partnership initiatives focused on women and girls included, corporate actors (60%), NGOs and INGOs (63%), private family foundations (established in the last 10 years) (32%), and government/public institutions 28%.
3 Investments are primarily focused in Sub Saharan Africa (50% of initiatives) and South Asia (25%)and all regions, Global (25%).
HOWEVER , The private sector’s meaningful involvement in development rests on important roles that have not yet been fulfilled—
to involve strong organized feminist and women’s rights organizations, who have historically proven experience and collective wisdom to advance women’s rights; and, to recognize the holistic and structural issues at play, while fulfilling commitments to human rights standards4 in programming and policies.
to move away from the strong tendency towards the instrumentalisation and commodification of women to improve profitability and competitiveness of business. This is a dangerous departure from addressing patriarchal power structure at plan in the political, social cultural and private spheres that perpetuate gender inequality. It is also going backwards in terms of recognizing the inherent entitlements of women as full and equal citizens and subjects of human rights. Achieving the full realization of human rights, including women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment is central to any sustainable development agenda and must be an end in itself. Development debates and decisions need to strengthen different dimensions of women’s autonomy to advance women’s rights and gender equality. The distorted, fragmented or limited implementation of diverse approaches these last fifteen years has reinforced the lesson that policies, norms, and strategies for women’s empowerment must take into account at least the following five dimensions:
Finally on financing and GE, we welcome past statements from different countries most recently Iceland on behalf of many countries at FfD DEBATES ON IMPORTANCE OF Gender Equality and Womens empowerment for FfD We also welcome UNWOMEN and others donors and foundations messaging on scaling up resources for gender equality
Yet. As far as FfD PROCESS IS CONCERNED THERE IS s no mention of dedicated resources to advance gender equality. Commitments on achieving women’s rights and gender equality must be matched by dedicated resources and all countries need to establish robust systems to track allocations for women’s rights and gender equality through disaggregated data as well as to take action to reverse and address Areas of underfunding in women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Autonomous civil society organizations and social movements led by women and girls have been shown to have the most significant and sustainable impact on promoting, protecting and advancing the human rights of women and girls. These organizations and movements tend to be grossly under-resourced. 5 A significant and sustained increase in financial resources to them is therefore a necessary component of a comprehensive approach to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
CONCLUSIONS
Any decision on MOI and Global dev partnership should be founded on key Rio principles, including human rights, gender equality, and common but differentiated responsibilities. It should endorse a “renewed and strengthened global partnership for sustainable development, defining a compact of commitments by Member States of the UN”6 and acknowledged the critical role that international
4 The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights approved in 2011 also serve as a global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity.
5 AWID where is the money programme
http://www.awid.org/Library/Watering-the-Leaves-Starving-the-Roots
6 Report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (Final Draft, August 8, 2014). Pg 173
public finance and Official Development Assistance (ODA) have in financing sustainable development. We welcome past progress on this. On the way forward we need to establish a timetable in relation to the fulfillment of the ODA commitments, and do not explicitly prohibit the attachment of conditions to aid, which threatens to undermine the important principle of country ownership of recipients of ODA. n August 2014 we were pleased with the adoption of the SDG document by the OWG in some sense as a step forward, we hope today we are taken a leap forward and meaningfully address an enhanced global partnership for development as well as ambitious and substantive means of implementation both within the goals and through themes of trade, finance and technology. Role for civil society including women’s rights/feminist groups in an international architecture for sustainable development financing, through institutionalized participation in public policy-making and implementation that goes beyond monitoring, at both domestic and international levels is paramount in providing an equal playing field for efficient and effective management of available resources for sustainable development. The mechanism to ensure their participation after July and September are crucial to the success of the development agenda.
i Para 258.
ii South-South cooperation refers to the exchange of resources, technology and knowledge between developing countries.
iii Rio +20 Outcome Document, paras 253; 260; 267.
Stakeholder forum
23rd April
Alejandra Scampini AWID, member of the Post 2015 Women’s Coalition
1. On FFD and 2015 development agenda: the emphasis should be on the need for synergies and complementarity towards an economic global environment
We are concerned about the recent negotiations around FfD departing from its primary focus on… and moving into a direction of focusing on private financing, etc. Monterrey and Doha provided a holistic framework for the consideration of all different sources of finance, as well as systemic issues that relate to the stability and governance of the international financial system. We urge Governments and all stakeholders to agree on a new financing that integrates HR and fundamental freedoms.
WE insist that the Monterrey Consensus and the Doha Declaration should provide the conceptual framework, for the mobilization of resources from a variety of sources and the effective use of financing required for the achievement of sustainable development (paragraph 4, resolution A/RES/68/279)
The ability of governments to use the resources they receive for sustainable development depends on the international finance, trade and tax framework. The current framework is deeply unbalanced, inequitable, and inhibits countries’ ability to address their development priorities. For example, debt owed by countries to international financial institutions: the IMF and World Bank continue to require total debt repayments that are 5 times that of total annual ODA flows to developing countries. Synergies shall not dilute efforts towards fundamental development oriented right based and structural reforms of the international trade and finance architecture based on Principles of transparency, accountability, and participation.
Why does GOAL 17 matter for women? The means of implementation of sustainable development, which provides those means, and terms on which they are provided fundamentally will affect women’s 5 dimensions of autonomy: economic, political, sexual and reproductive autonomy and women’s freedom from all forms of violence; There is plenty of evidence that shows that in times of economic crisis, austerity measure and reduced investment in social sectors, impact negatively on women and girls increasing their unpaid care burden for example. 2 on Development Financing AWID key messages are The issue of financing is fundamental to the realization of women’s human rights. In short, without public money for services and infrastructure, there will be no guarantee that women’s human rights will be supported. It is the public sector’s role to support social needs and global public goods, such as a clean environment, universal social protection, health, education. The public sector is therefore the cornerstone of a sustainable development financing strategy. We therefore call for a binding accountability framework that will ensure these is done. Decisions around financing and revenue are also development decisions in and of themselves. Taxes on harmful industries and practices like speculative financial transactions, military and arms trading, carbon emissions, and extractive industries, can provide the means of implementation, support reductions in inequality, and limit practices that undermine sustainable development. Illicit financial flows must be a corner stone of the FfD discussions to prevent continued hemorrhaging of resources by developing countries.
Governments and stakeholders should agree on a renewed and strengthen meaningful global partnership for development that articulates international cooperation on a broad range of key development issues, it must occur principally between governments of developed and developing countries, with the developed countries taking the lead in providing resources and the means of implementation. The principle of common but differentiated responsibility must be applied to the financing for development negotiations. Official Development Assistance (ODA) PLAYS A CENTRAL ROLE in development financing,i and requires developed countries to commit 0.7% of their Gross National Product to development assistance. Other sources of financing, including public-private partnerships, innovative financing mechanisms, and South-South cooperation,ii may be complementary to—but not substitutes for—North-South cooperation.iii The fiscal and public debt risks of PPPs be properly accounted for and placed under public scrutiny through mechanisms for organized social participation and monitoring. Institutional and capacity pre-requirements for the success and effective functioning of PPPs, including social participation and provision of free prior and informed consent (FPIC) from affected communities, should be in place prior to project design and implementation". If the private sector is involved in financing development projects or public services, companies must be accountable to human rights and International Labor Organization norms, environmental protection standards, as well as strict regulatory frameworks that prevent tax evasion.
3) ON FINANCING AND NEW ACTORS,
Recent trends around the world1 elucidate the importance for a new framework of development financing that is built on principles of equality, transparency, sustainability and rights based approach. Within this realm of transforming the ‘business as usual’ approach are new actors from the private sector who are increasingly involved, playing central roles in financing for development, particularly focused on women and girls. AWID’s recent research study “New Money, New Actors, New Conversations” found that out of 170 initiatives that focused on women and girls, over 60% of the actors identified as corporate sector actors2.
AWID’s research shows that over the past 5 years 14.6 billion dollars have been pledged towards women and girls globally3 by private sector actors. Thus, it is crucial that we work to understand the private sector’s overwhelming interest in “investing in women” and sustainable development more broadly. AWID’s research shows that private sector funding is diverse, with funding and partnerships emerging from a range of new/multiple sources including: crowdfunding, social media, corporate actors, women of wealth and celebrities to name just a few. The most common actors involved in multistakeholder collaborations included the corporate sector actor (60%), national or regional non-government organizations (35%), private family foundations started in the last 10 years (32%), international non-governmental organizations (28%) and government and public institutions (28%), among others. These new actors are bringing to bear innovative thinking and strategies for addressing long-standing problems, with new approaches and resources. They are are also increasingly setting the tone and agenda of funding discourses for women and girls through their involvement in agenda setting spaces such as the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), the World Economic Forum, the Women’s Economic Forum, to name a few.
1 In spite of a decade and a half of the Millennium Development Goals, an estimated 3 billion people - 50% of the world’s population - are still living in poverty (on less than $2.50 a day), at least 1 billion - most of whom are women - live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day)1.
2 New Money, New Actors” surveyed 170 initiatives and found that the most common actors involved in partnership initiatives focused on women and girls included, corporate actors (60%), NGOs and INGOs (63%), private family foundations (established in the last 10 years) (32%), and government/public institutions 28%.
3 Investments are primarily focused in Sub Saharan Africa (50% of initiatives) and South Asia (25%)and all regions, Global (25%).
HOWEVER , The private sector’s meaningful involvement in development rests on important roles that have not yet been fulfilled—
to involve strong organized feminist and women’s rights organizations, who have historically proven experience and collective wisdom to advance women’s rights; and, to recognize the holistic and structural issues at play, while fulfilling commitments to human rights standards4 in programming and policies.
to move away from the strong tendency towards the instrumentalisation and commodification of women to improve profitability and competitiveness of business. This is a dangerous departure from addressing patriarchal power structure at plan in the political, social cultural and private spheres that perpetuate gender inequality. It is also going backwards in terms of recognizing the inherent entitlements of women as full and equal citizens and subjects of human rights. Achieving the full realization of human rights, including women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment is central to any sustainable development agenda and must be an end in itself. Development debates and decisions need to strengthen different dimensions of women’s autonomy to advance women’s rights and gender equality. The distorted, fragmented or limited implementation of diverse approaches these last fifteen years has reinforced the lesson that policies, norms, and strategies for women’s empowerment must take into account at least the following five dimensions:
Finally on financing and GE, we welcome past statements from different countries most recently Iceland on behalf of many countries at FfD DEBATES ON IMPORTANCE OF Gender Equality and Womens empowerment for FfD We also welcome UNWOMEN and others donors and foundations messaging on scaling up resources for gender equality
Yet. As far as FfD PROCESS IS CONCERNED THERE IS s no mention of dedicated resources to advance gender equality. Commitments on achieving women’s rights and gender equality must be matched by dedicated resources and all countries need to establish robust systems to track allocations for women’s rights and gender equality through disaggregated data as well as to take action to reverse and address Areas of underfunding in women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Autonomous civil society organizations and social movements led by women and girls have been shown to have the most significant and sustainable impact on promoting, protecting and advancing the human rights of women and girls. These organizations and movements tend to be grossly under-resourced. 5 A significant and sustained increase in financial resources to them is therefore a necessary component of a comprehensive approach to gender equality and the empowerment of women.
CONCLUSIONS
Any decision on MOI and Global dev partnership should be founded on key Rio principles, including human rights, gender equality, and common but differentiated responsibilities. It should endorse a “renewed and strengthened global partnership for sustainable development, defining a compact of commitments by Member States of the UN”6 and acknowledged the critical role that international
4 The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights approved in 2011 also serve as a global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked to business activity.
5 AWID where is the money programme
http://www.awid.org/Library/Watering-the-Leaves-Starving-the-Roots
6 Report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (Final Draft, August 8, 2014). Pg 173
public finance and Official Development Assistance (ODA) have in financing sustainable development. We welcome past progress on this. On the way forward we need to establish a timetable in relation to the fulfillment of the ODA commitments, and do not explicitly prohibit the attachment of conditions to aid, which threatens to undermine the important principle of country ownership of recipients of ODA. n August 2014 we were pleased with the adoption of the SDG document by the OWG in some sense as a step forward, we hope today we are taken a leap forward and meaningfully address an enhanced global partnership for development as well as ambitious and substantive means of implementation both within the goals and through themes of trade, finance and technology. Role for civil society including women’s rights/feminist groups in an international architecture for sustainable development financing, through institutionalized participation in public policy-making and implementation that goes beyond monitoring, at both domestic and international levels is paramount in providing an equal playing field for efficient and effective management of available resources for sustainable development. The mechanism to ensure their participation after July and September are crucial to the success of the development agenda.
i Para 258.
ii South-South cooperation refers to the exchange of resources, technology and knowledge between developing countries.
iii Rio +20 Outcome Document, paras 253; 260; 267.