Women - men - gender. - Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

48 STRUCTURING GLOBALIZATION SOCIALLY
Gender on the agenda of development cooperation
It is also to the credit of the FES that during the
conference on development fi nancing in Doha,
gender issues took centre stage. In the run-up to
the Doha conference, at a preliminary international
symposium in Bonn issues such as national
resources, trade relations and government development
aid, which were to be taken up at Doha, were
discussed extensively and analyzed in detail.
There was unanimity on the fact that gender-budgeting
led to increased growth. The examples cited
were the programmes extending credit to women.
Studies corroborate that women spend a larger proportion
of their earnings on their families than
men. In the run-up to Doha, a new approach – in
addition to providing loans to women – was discussed,
namely, social security systems for the
poorest, which was to benefi t especially poor
women and their children.
During the Doha conference, there were lively discussions
on the consequences of trade liberalization.
In the panel discussion organized and moderated
by the FES, people were cautioned against
“gender blind” liberalization. Such an approach, it
was felt, would lead to an increase in informal jobs,
which carried neither job nor income guarantees.
The working conditions were deteriorating; there
were either few or even no workers’ rights. As a
positive counter-example, experiences from Cambodia
were cited: there the quota regulations and
the guaranteed compliance with work norms had
resulted in an increase in employment and exports.
This positive development was observed routinely
in developing countries, where alongside economic
initiatives, measures to alleviate poverty, to promote
environmental norms and gender equality
were also introduced.
FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG