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CONCLUSIONSImproving substantive equality for women andrealizing their human rights require a rethinking ofmacroeconomics. Changes at the macroeconomiclevel affect women’s socio-economic disadvantageand the stigma, stereotypes and violence womenface. Moreover, macroeconomic policy-makingtypically excludes women’s voice. At the sametime, although macroeconomic policy can createa favourable environment for substantive equalityand relax constraints on other policy efforts, itis important to recognize that it cannot achievethese goals by itself. It must be coordinated withthe other policy areas highlighted in this Report,in particular employment, social protection andsocial services.If macroeconomic policy is to support substantiveequality, it should comply with human rightsobligations, both nationally and internationally,paying particular regard to the immediateobligations for non-discrimination and equalityand ensuring that everyone enjoys the minimumessential level of economic and social rights. Itmust support, rather than undermine, efforts toredress women’s socio-economic disadvantagethrough employment policies, social protectionsand social services. This involves considering abroader set of goals and indicators—for example,considering potential trade-offs betweenmaintaining very low rates of inflation andemployment outcomes. It also requires ensuringthat sufficient resources are available to supportthe realization of human rights. Governmentsshould pursue strategies for expanding fiscalspace by improving the efficiency of tax collection,enlarging the range of tax instruments andreprioritizing government expenditures. Debtfinancedfiscal expansions can be sustainablewhen used to finance employment programmesand social investments with long-term economicreturns.Macroeconomic policy processes and institutionsat the national and international levels shouldbe opened up and made more transparent,participatory and accountable on an equalbasis to women and men. Governments shouldadopt measures to increase women’s presence inmacroeconomic decision-making bodies, includingcentral banks and ministries of finance. Informationon budgets and monetary policy decisions must bepublicly available and readily accessible. Meaningfulparticipation requires that channels be created toenable dialogue with civil society organizations,women’s groups and non-governmentalorganizations.As part of the commitment to non-discriminationand equality, macroeconomic policy-makingshould incorporate distributive impact analyses.This a would allow macroeconomic policies to beevaluated in terms of their impacts on women’ssocio-economic disadvantage. Specifically, there isa need to analyse the effects that public spending,tax policy and monetary policy have on genderequality. When gender inequalities are uncovered,such as in the case of an unequal impact of taxpolicies, governments must take steps to correct theseimbalances.Finally, the development of human potential and theneed to redistribute the burden of unpaid workshould be at the heart of macroeconomic policy.Resources, both public and private, dedicatedto developing human potential represent aform of investment with long-term returns. Themacroeconomic contributions of social policyand unpaid care work need to be explicitlyrecognized and incorporated into macroeconomicmeasurement and concepts, policy formulationand the assessment of outcomes with regard togender equality and the realization of humanrights.229