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MOBILIZING INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES
By Janice Goodson Foerde
Our position
n the FfD
Facilitator’s most recent report, “Towards a Fully Inclusive and
Equitable Globalization,” the first of the seven principles of global economic and social governance is “equity: redressing
the asymmetries and imbalances in the distribution of costs and benefits
in the current international economic system.” The cross-cutting
concerns and priorities of gender equity and sustainable social
development have been rendered invisible—perhaps unintentionally—in
the section on “mobilizing private international resources for
development.”
Progress towards poverty eradication, sustainable economic growth, and
an equitable human development is undermined by the constraints on
women’s and girls’ participation in the development process and the
globalized system, imbalances in resource allocation and distribution,
and women’s and girls’ skewed share in the returns of development.
Gender matters in macro-economic policies and in the mobilization of
international financial resources involving the transfer of funds
between countries, sectors, institutions, households and individuals,
through a wide range of institutions and structures that serve as
channels, intermediaries, and facilitators. This transfer is guided by
the financial policies and monetary and fiscal regulations that direct
the actions of an economy, govern the actions of states and
institutions, and influence the mobilization and allocation of resources.
These policies and regulations also determine the degree of control and
access over these resources. Therefore, financial, fiscal and monetary
policies have a social and gender content. Existing markets, market- and
non-market institutions are permeated by underlying gender biases and
inequalities. These policies are not gender neutral—they affect women
and men differently, as players and agents in both the formal informal
economies, and as members of households. Policies and regulations that
do not take gender into account are gender blind and not gender
sensitive.
Gender concerns must be consciously designed into economic and financial
policy. Gender justice is critical, since women constitute at least half
of the global population yet they control and own less than 10% of the
resources and earn less than men for comparable work. Gender matters for
the effectiveness of both investment and trade policies when gender
inequalities and bias constrain women’s ability to effectively use the
opportunities available, to respond to policy initiatives or to engage
in productive improvements in terms of land rights, credit, and
technology.
It is important
to improve the development content of foreign capital flows because:
- 500
largest TNCs control 80% of foreign investment and 70% of world
trade;
- Skewed
distribution of FDI—only 12 developing countries received over 70%
of FDI in 1997/98, with China topping the list with about 30%;
- FDI
has replaced official development assistance (ODA) as the largest
provider of financing for some countries;
- FDI
flows to the 48 least developed countries (LLDC) are tiny and the
level of concentration is higher than with ODA—the top FDI
recipients account for 79% of total FDI flows while the top 10 ODA
recipients account for 32%;
- Most
FDI originates from developed countries, with only about 10%
(1990-94) from developing countries, mainly Hong Kong, Taiwan, China,
South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore;
- UNCTAD
estimates that for every USD1.00 of net capital inflow to
Sub-Saharan Africa from the rest of the world, USD1.06 has flowed
out—30 cents through leakage into reserve build-up and capital
outflows; 51 cents through terms of trade losses; 25 cents through
debt servicing and profit remittances.
The
guiding question must be: How to mobilize international resources for
development, in the context of gender-aware economic and financial
policy-making, to ensure that the concerns of women and girls are
addressed.
Prioritized Global and Regional Issues
Taking
our point of departure in the “Women’s Consultation Recommendations”
presented at the first half of the FfD Third Preparatory Meeting, 2-8
May, 2001, and the Facilitator’s Draft Report of 19 September 2001, we
recommend the following:
- Promote
investment policies and strategies that prioritize gender-sensitive
sustainable human development as a designed, integral part of
sustainable economic growth. A mechanism to facilitate this policy
could be the establishment of a gender desk in national finance
ministries.
- Promote
and design gender-sensitive development plans for national and
foreign enterprises, both national and multinational (MNE), that
embody the social-economic development agenda of the host country.
- Design
and enact gender- and environmentally sensitive regulatory framework
to direct and monitor global capital flows and employment practices
of global corporations/MNEs that promote coherence between FDI the
host country’s socio-economic development priorities and
initiatives.
- Design
and require gender-sensitive Sustainability Impact Assessments of:
- Public-private
sector partnerships that include responsible assessments of both
fiscal and social risks of joint investments and ventures.
- FDI
to ensure social responsibility, accountability and transparency
from the investor that involves the participation of women’s and
other civil society organizations and unions.
- Develop
gender-sensitive programs that promote the development of small
businesses, ensuring women’s access to these opportunities,
linking the development of small businesses with foreign enterprises
and encouraging the transfer of information and technology to small
businesses and the informal sector.
Language Recommendations
Para.
15: …Such support
includes strengthening export-credit, risk-guarantee, and co-financing
mechanisms, and promoting long-term private flows to support
sub-regional and regional projects with high (add: sustainable human)
development impact.
Para. 16: …In this regard, we request the World Bank Group and
regional development banks, through their private sector activities, to
promote (add: gender-balanced) socially and environmentally
responsible investments, (add: the use of sustainable impact
assessments that include gender, social, environmental and core labor
standards analyses in designing activities and cooperation), and
foster good corporate citizenship and (add: responsibility).
Draft prepared by Janice Goodson Foerde, WEDO
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