| |
Back to Index
Removing
"unfreedoms": Women and debt cancellation
Pambazuka News
Extracted
from Pambazuka News 213
June 30,
2005
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=28756
Women have
suffered the most as a result of the diversion of funds from social
services in order to service debt repayments. In solving the debt
crisis and making sure that it never happens again, the political
and economic participation of women is crucial. That’s why the Protocol
on the Rights of Women must be ratified, says this Pambazuka News
article.
In 2005 the issue of debt cancellation has received an enormous
amount of attention, with world leaders under pressure to deliver
on what has been described as one of the biggest stumbling blocks
to Africa’s development.
The argument for debt cancellation is that undemocratic governments
contracted the debt and these debts are therefore illegitimate.
Repayments prevent governments from channeling money into much needed
social services such as health and education. This violates the
rights of people to adequate health care, for example.
Continued debt repayments also make a mockery of efforts to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which require substantial
financial commitments. As long as governments have to continue paying
large amounts to service their debt, the MDGs will remain a pipe
dream. Many countries are so mired in debt that they can never realistically
hope to fully repay their debts and live a debt free existence.
Rich countries have also only been willing to write off debt subject
to the adoption of certain conditions by debtor countries, such
as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), which have in turn had
a devastating impact on the social fabric of the countries where
they have been implemented.
This is why countless statements have been issued over the years
calling for unconditional cancellation of third world debt. For
example, the Dakar Declaration for the total unconditional cancellation
of African and Third World debt adopted in Dakar, Senegal on December
14, 2000 stated that debt and structural adjustment plans (SAPs)
constitute the principal causes for the degradation of health, education,
nutrition, food security, the environment and socio-cultural values
of African populations. Debt and SAPs, said the statement, are the
cause of the aggravation of unemployment, the destruction of families,
the worsening of women's socio-economic conditions, the ecological
degradation of the continent and wars.
It has been clear for many years that the onerous burden of debt
has an enormous impact on nearly every aspect of life and none more
so than on the lives of women. As Barbara Kalima from the African
Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) in Harare, Zimbabwe
has previously pointed out, in Sub-Saharan Africa, women's roles
have been increasing in scope because of the impact of economic
reforms, wars and crises. Women are not only crucial to the economy,
but also play a key role in delivering social services. But Kalima
goes on to note that women often live in difficult social and economic
conditions. This is amplified by a reliance on the formulations
of the Bretton Woods Institutions: "The essence of adjustment
conditionality denies women the right to participate in economic
policy formulation and to identify the economic models that suit
them. The international financial institutions are actively contributing
in mortgaging women's well-being." Kalima states that women's
economic rights must be fostered through engendered human development
which means that gender biases are corrected through the process
of developing people's capacity to enjoy a decent life and be educated.
The often poor economic condition of women is of direct benefit
to the market. Yassine Fall notes that women’s inequality has benefited
the capitalist system. "Women not only represent a cheap labour
force, but they also contribute to the survival of the economic
system though their unpaid labour," she writes. Fall argues
that the link between gender and debt can be explained in the impact
of the macroeconomic policies such as SAPs on women. "The very
things that can help raise their status - education, health care
and employment - are being decimated as governments struggle to
meet crippling debt repayments to the creditors."
While the United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit provided the international
community with a clear set of development goals, Fall says meaningful
development requires the removal of major sources of "unfreedom"
- including institutional arrangements that deny people, especially
women. "Alleviating poverty, ensuring food security, reducing
population growth, improving the quality of a country's future labour
force, and properly using the natural resource base all depend substantially
on women, and thus major gender policy analysis should not ignore
this fact. Without gender analysis, there is little chance that
any efforts to reduce and manage external debt will bring about
substantial poverty alleviation for both women and men."
Fall makes some recommendations to redress the gender and debt disparity.
Governments should generate economic policies that have a positive
impact on employment and income of women workers; governments should
seek to mobilize new and additional financial resources in the form
of grants and not loans; and explore more effective ways of integrating
gender into debt management negotiations and monitoring processes.
How to avoid future manifestations of the debt trap? Gerald Mwale,
in an article for One World Africa, argues governments must develop
clear guidelines as to how loans will benefit men, women, and children.
The location of control also needs to shift from the centre to citizens,
who need to become the mechanism of control. "Governments should
only obtain loans that are sanctioned by the people through their
representatives (parliamentarians) and allow civil society to monitor
them," he writes. Moreover, Mwale continues, debt negotiations
ought to consider the link between debt and budgeting for social
services. "Last but not least, complicity of borrowers and
debtors plus the historical cause of debt must be included in debt
analysis," he concludes.
If women have experienced the worst of the debt crisis in Africa,
then their perspective is crucial not only in resolving the situation
but also in participating in the process that results in redress
and makes sure that history does not repeat itself. The Protocol
on the Rights of Women in Africa, which clearly deals with women’s
political and economic participation, is an important mechanism
in making sure that this happens.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
References:
1. Barbara Kalima: Gender, debt and development abstract paper;
African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), June
2002. (http://www.afrodad.org/archive/gender_debt.htm)
2. Yassine Fall: Promoting sustainable human development rights
for women in Africa., February 1998. (http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/africa-cn.htm)
3. Gerald Mwale : African women carry the debt burden, One World
Africa. May 2005. (http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=12958)
4. World Development Report 2001: The vicious cycle: Aids and third
world debt.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
