Gender

International NGO solidarity project facing COVID-19

By Make Mothers Matter

UNESCO – At the start of the global pandemic in 2020, eight NGO-UNESCO partners decided to collaborate with their grassroots associations in solidarity actions to share the voices of the most vulnerable and understand the evolving situations on the ground.

Partners included: the International Federation of Business and Professional Women, International Catholic Cooperation Center for UNESCO, the Association Montessori Internationale, World Organization for Early Childhood Education and Care, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, International Movement ATD Fourth World, and the South Asia Foundation.

The global online exchanges on the Facebook solidarity platform enabled local associations to connect rapidly, sharing reliable information and best practices amongst themselves and international NGOs, including MMM.

The project report addresses many key issues: What major challenges do local populations face? To what extent is civil society mobilised? Which concrete consequences of the crisis should be considered when defining future post-COVID priorities?

For MMM, the priority has always been mothers. Based on real situations and experiences of diverse populations on different continents, this report also highlights the decisive role mothers have played in creating spontaneous initiatives to fight against the pandemic and protect the weakest.

UNESCO SUPPORTS THE PROJECT

Supported by UNESCO, the collaborative solidarity project between NGO partners confirms MMM’s commitment to this international Organisation. Read the article on the UNESCO website.

MMM’s contribution is based on the belief that the indispensable reconstruction of “living together” will be unachievable without strengthening civil society partnerships, particularly local NGOs. Only then can people’s specific needs be addressed and met, allowing for the opportunity to work towards building a more peaceful and just world.

Despite the uncertainty and the many challenges, mothers have remained firmly committed to the hope of a more peaceful and equitable world for their children’s future.

Now more than ever, it is essential to listen to mothers and support them

Project website: www.reseausolidariteong.com

Contact: solidarityproject.ngos@gmail.com

A half step forward in the collective journey towards a more sustainable Europe is not enough

Reflecting on the 2020 ‘Commission’s Staff working document: Delivering on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – A comprehensive approach.’

By Yblin Roman Escobar, SDG Watch Europe

Having travelled a difficult road due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Europeans were longing for fresh and concrete news on our collective journey towards a sustainable Europe in 2030. We believed the long-awaited Commission’s staff working document on delivering the SDGs would help to accelerate progress in the right direction. Unfortunately, this document limits itself to reaffirming the Commission’s commitment and providing an overview of existing actions.

Leadership at the highest level

The good news is that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen herself is coordinating the expedition, while the Commissioners College as a whole remains collectively responsible for the overall implementation of the SDGs. SDG Watch Europe called on the Commission’s President, at the beginning of her term, to take the lead and therefore welcomes her leadership.

However, SDG Watch regrets that five years into this important journey, we still lack an overarching EU strategy for Sustainable Development, with a specific implementation plan and timeline.

The Commission does highlight its strategy in the staff working document, presenting it as pragmatic and focused on the implementation of the SDGs through the Commission’s priorities-particularly through the EU Green Deal – a flagship EU initiative. And, it claims to take a whole-of-government approach through mainstreaming of the SDGs at all levels. However, the staff working document provides insufficient detail on EU governance for SDG implementation. It remains unclear how this will translate into practice or how the mainstreaming will be done, both within the Commission and beyond. In this respect, it seems that as far as this journey is concerned, we are still around the base camp, and haven’t begun the ascent yet.

The staff working document is a good exercise in identifying which way the different Commission policies, actions and initiatives all contribute to materialising the SDGs. We recognise that this scanning exercise allows an initial diagnosis of where the EU situates itself in the SDG journey; helps it to take stock of its strengths and gaps, and set concrete objectives and agree on an accompanying action plan.

Recognising the fact that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put climate and environment and an economy that works for people at the heart of her political guidelines, we see and celebrate all the initiatives listed in the Commission’s staff working document. Nonetheless, we also believe that it paints a biased picture of reality because it does not take into account, together with the bright side of the narrative, its drawbacks and downsides too. The Commission describes how well it is equipped for the journey, the beautiful landscapes on the way, but forgets to report the risks and difficulties too. Let’s look at the following examples:

EU engagement in the world

It is promising to see the Commission having an in-depth analysis of the challenges COVID-19 presents to the countries in the Global South, reaffirming its commitment to support them in their journey towards implementing the SDGs.

It is very welcome that the Commission highlights the coherence between domestic policies and external action. The stated intention to prevent EU spillovers is a new and very welcomed approach.

Trade, for example, is featured in the document as a relevant road to supporting EU partner countries. However, Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and former Special Rapporteur on the right to food, warns that the EU’s trade policy today encourages social and environmental dumping due to the ambition of eliminating all barriers to imports. Friends of the Earth Europe, SDG Watch member, in its paper Setting course for ‘sustainable trade, a new agenda that serves people and the environment’ argues that continuing the current trade trajectory will aggravate economic insecurity and deepen global inequality, setting us on a collision course with planetary boundaries.

The EU must live up to its commitment under the 2030 Agenda to address the negative spill-overs of EU’s trade. In its report ‘Who is paying the bill? (Negative) impacts of European Policies and practices in the world’ SDG Watch Europe calls on the Commission to monitor the spill-over effects of EU policies and to set goals to limit them and to avoid causing harm in the Global South.

Ensuring policy coherence for sustainable development (PCSD)

The document paints a landscape of deep EU commitment to PCSD, including all policies and all levels, within and beyond Europe.

The work of the Commission on policy coherence builds on its longstanding experience and the provision of the international agreements, the Lisbon Treaty (art.208) being the most recent, and it is implemented mostly via the working of DG Development Cooperation (DG DEVCO). Yet, some worrisome developments suggest a weakening of PCSD in the Commission. DG DEVCO is being reorganised into DG INTPA (for International Partnerships) that will be officially launched in January 2021. Tanya Cox, Director at CONCORD Europe, has flagged that PCSD has disappeared off the map. DG DEVCO used to have a dedicated PC(S)D Unit, while in the new DG INTPA, it no longer exists. If we consider that DG DEVCO and DG ENVI (DG for Environment) are the traditional drivers of the 2030 Agenda, this development would risk letting the entire Commission off the hook. How will PCSD then be safeguarded?

European Green Deal

The European Green Deal which is the cornerstone Commission initiative linked to the SDG implementation proposes a welcome strategy to transform the EU into a fair, inclusive and prosperous society. As the Staff document (p.3) (visually) illustrates, it will contribute to 12 of the 17 SDGs. Yet, in the same illustration, the social and gender aspects are missing. The absence of SDG 5, for example, exposes the Green Deal gender-blind-spot. How can this strategy be called inclusive when it overlooks at least 50% of the population?

Furthermore, in the absence of an overarching Sustainability strategy, policy areas remain siloed, and the potential success of the European Green Deal itself is put at risk.

World Wild Foundation International, SDG Watch member, and other civil society organisations, for example, has argued in an open letter that the position agreed in the European Parliament and Council on the CAP reform endangers the realisation of the EU Green Deal (and the associated Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies). This is because they allow harmful subsidies, put most of the money into funding business-as-usual practices, and actively limit Member States’ environmental ambition. Our members call on the Commission to develop a new proposal that safeguards the EU Green Deal, and consequently the implementation of the SDGs.

Monitoring and reporting. Fit for purpose?

Monitoring and reporting on the SDGs is another example of an incomplete picture. The process, as carried out by Eurostat, is showcased as a robust approach to keeping track of our journey towards a Sustainable EU by 2030. The staff working document specifically mentions the EU indicator set was developed in a very ‘broad consultative process’. But expert commentators Schiltz et al. say in a recent study ‘The EU’s SDG monitoring and reporting not yet fit for purpose’, that neither EU institutions, such as the European Parliament, nor civil society, have been structurally integrated into the process of indicator selection. it is argued that the current monitoring does not allow for any specific role for civil society. Furthermore, according to the study, the current set of indicators is not able to fully capture the most relevant aspects of sustainable development in the EU context.

None of these arguments is considered in the working staff document. SDG Watch Europe in its report ‘Time to reach for the moon – the EU needs to step up action and lead the transformation to sustainability’, demonstrates the serious issues that remain unaddressed with the Commission’s “GPS” for monitoring the EU’s progress in this journey. How can we know we are advancing in the right direction and at the right pace if our GPS is not fit for purpose?

The engagement of civil society

The Commission recognises that the implementation of the SDGs demands involving civil society and other stakeholders but it does not provide a clear depiction of how it will achieve this. The new European Climate Pact and the Conference on the Future of Europe are presented as the new public fora for an open inclusive, transparent and structured debate on the SDGs. Still, the document does not specify how this will happen. Furthermore, both spaces suffer from weaknesses. The Climate Pact, as it names indicate, only addresses climate issues, thus failing at having a broad definition of sustainability including all economic, social and environmental issues embedded in the SDGs. The Conference on the Future of Europe is set to be a temporary participatory exercise over 1 or 2 years with the role of civil society organizations still not clear, thus failing at being a formalized long-term civil-society engagement mechanism.

The Commission concludes its staff working document by saying: ‘This is a journey towards a Union that thrives while leaving no one behind and preserves the long-term viability of life- and prosperity supporting ecosystems for this and future generation.‘

SDG Watch Europe understands the aim of this EU journey towards sustainable development to be the achievement of well-being for all, here and elsewhere, now and in the future.

SDG Watch Europe, with its more than 100 member organisations, is ready to support the EU and its Member States to advance further in this important journey.

Gender Equality on the Ground: Feminist findings and recommendations for achieving Agenda 2030

By wcef

We are proud to share with you our #Women2030 global shadow report titled ‘Gender equality on the Ground: Feminists findings and recommendations for achieving Agenda2030’.

This report contains the findings from national assessments on how to ensure a gender-just and transformative #Agenda2030 in the key priority areas of climate and environmental justice, redistributive and economic justice, political participation, Gender Based Violence, and gender stereotypes. It also highlights structural barriers across countries, as well as best practices and opportunities for change. Check out the demands, recommendations and practical examples of what grassroot feminist solutions look like on the ground.

Over the past five years (2016-2020) Women2030 partner-countries have produced 38 shadow reports to government Voluntary National Reviews on the status of SDGs implementation. These reports are based on desk research, multi-stakeholders’ consultations and participatory gender assessments involving 2,414 people across 20 countries, based on a bottom-up methodology captured in the Women2030 gender impact assessment and monitoring tool.

The global shadow report aims to capture the inspiring and diverse range of work that has taken place through the Women2030 programme over the past five years. It provides bottom-up and evidence-based civil society perspectives on SDGs and gender equality progress with a focus on key feminist priorities, structural barriers and opportunities for change. The report ends with feminist recommendations and a call to action for governments, international organisations, women’s rights movement and other civil society to make sure we achieve Agenda 2030 for all.

The country reports provide an evidence-base for monitoring government action and progress on women’s rights and, are used as advocacy tools in different policy processes including the High-Level Political Forum and Commission on the Status of Women. Four regional reports covering Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia were produced by the coalition partners. This global shadow report provides a synthesis of the findings within national and regional reports and the experiences of Women2030 over the past years.

Recognizing the diversity in country reports in terms of focus and data availability, the report highlights key feminist priorities, progress and structural barriers across countries, as well as best practices and opportunities for change. A systemic, feminist and intersectional lens has helped to analyse systemic barriers and dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion that are crucial to address when working to achieve the SDGs – SDG 5 in particular.

The Women2030 partners are proud to share this work with you and keen to work together towards a gender just sustainable world.

You can download our report here.

GENDER EQUALITY: A DATA AND POLICY DIALOGUE FROM THE BEIJING DECLARATION TO THE COVID19 PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

By Forus International

25 years after the adoption of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 2020 was meant to be a milestone for reducing the gender gap, but in fact, we might be witnessing a dramatic backstep in the achievement of gender equality and SDG number five. As part of their global politics series, UN DESA hosted a global policy dialogue on gender equality, where a panel of nine women from different horizons gathered to discuss this new normal, from the Beijing Declaration to the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

A global pandemic, conflicts in the US elections, protests for social change in Latin America, disasters emerging from nature’s pain and humans causing pain to each other. The year 2020 has been defined by a set of events that will steer the future of society as we -used to- know it, creating a “new normal”. A reality that doesn’t recognize borders and where one’s problems are also our neighbours’, where standing alone is not an option and governments need to work together to find collective solutions for a better tomorrow.

In this new normal, we find ourselves both in a reflection and inflexion point. For far too long, we have been living in a society where “different” is synonym of “wrong” and more differences means more marginalization. The simplest differences, such as being a man or a woman, have proven to be the most determinant factors to have an impact on the way we live and cope with this new normal. But what does this mean to gender equality in a context where we are entering the final lap, the last ten years, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the realization of Agenda2030? As the clock ticks in this fast-forward and changing context, where are we into achieving gender equality?

As we try to understand this new reality, we’ve been relying on research and data, to make informed decisions and be in a position to create accurate policies that respond to the needs of the people.

The 2020 Worlds’ Women report, presented by Francesca Grum, lead author of the report, shows that there has been significant progress within gender equality indicators over the past two decades. Education seems to be a success, as we’ve achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education at the global level. Women are marrying later and are having fewer children, and there’s a feeling of increased empowerment. Power and decision-making positions have seen some progress, with doubled women’s participation amongst parliamentarians, tripled amongst ministers.

However, we are still far away from the 30% gender quote and far behind the 50% gender parity. Today, the hard-earned gains in gender equality are being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, that has been produced since 1990, highlights the importance of mainstreaming a gender-based approach in data collection, as an incomplete picture risks taking us to the wrong direction. Without gender-disaggregated data, inequalities are made invisible.

Numerous challenges persist until the Beijing promise becomes a reality. Sarah Hendriks, from UN Women, stressed the importance of addressing women’s and girl’s unique needs and priorities when responding to the covid-19 pandemic. According to the World’s Women report, data shows that in spite of efforts being made around the globe to address gender-based violence (GBV), progress is yet to be made. Violence against women has increased in light of the imposed lockdowns, and there is no evidence of this getting better as lockdowns are eased.

Jayati Ghosh, the Chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, explained that a vicious cycle has been created, as the economic situation of households has been negatively affected by the pandemic, the emotional stability has also worsened, and that frustration is taken on women.

Gender inequalities are also observed in the labour sector, especially as there are little initiatives to address this issue, that has a tremendous impact on women’s economic security. With the lockdowns also came the remote work. Working from home doesn’t mean having a safe space to work.

According to Manuela Tomei, from the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 9 million people have shifted to mandatory remote working, she added that “those who have managed to do so, can be considered as privileged”.

Indeed, a new set of challenges has emerged from this shift that go beyond the digital divide, from an increase in domestic violence to mental health problems that result from combining paid work and increased responsibilities within the family sphere. ILO’s household surveys show that there’s a dramatic decline in women’s employment rate, particularly for those in the informal sector and those with children.

For the workers in the informal sector, remote work is not an option as they rely on their mobility to be able to carry out their work. The ILO estimates that 140 million jobs will be lost by the end of the year because of the pandemic, and if the second wave is accentuated, the estimation could reach 340 millions of full-time jobs. A vast majority will affect women, especially as 40% of employed women are working in the sectors most hit by the pandemic such as working in food services, hospitality and accommodation, and manufacturing in the garment industry.

When referring to a “future normal”, hopefully, an improved version of our current reality, Tomei highlighted the need to invest in the care industry as the crisis has made evident the core role of childcare services. We need to reflect on how to combine policies related to parental leaves with a provision of services by the State.

As seen during this pandemic, crisis can go beyond borders. Alliances and building collective resilience are more important than ever. Ana Guezmes, from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), stressed that the regional level has a key role to play in the way we respond to the crisis. CEPAL’s primarily approach has been to put gender at the core of the region’s development agenda, “we need to go beyond our normal standards and means to put in place a transformative recovery”, she added.

If we aim to strengthen our policy outcomes we need to bring a wide diversity of voices into the discussion. In responding to the covid pandemic, civil society actors, particularly national NGO platforms, have played a key role in coordinating responses with local governments.

In Bolivia, UNITAS, has put forward the need to implement safeguarding practices in this new environment. To do so, they have been coordinating efforts with the local authorities to distribute flyers with information and phone numbers to help women denounce domestic violence cases. When looking at the country level, it is by zooming in at this scale that we really perceive the intersecting inequalities and challenges sub-groups face. UNITAS is one of the many members of Forus International, a global network of national NGO platforms and regional coalitions that have had to adapt their work because of the constraints of the pandemic, particularly in light of the shrinking space for civil society and the absence of enabling environment for their work.

“We have a major policy task, we can’t treat women’s challenges as extensions of our work, we need to really focus on them and think to what extent we can mobilize our work to tackle them”, said J. Ghosh.

We need to understand women’s challenges by analyzing what they do, who they are, how they live, etc. Although policy outcomes might not be visible in the short-term, sometimes because of the multiplicity of variables that can steer the result and its timeline, it is clear that data is a tool that can be mobilized as a means to empower populations. It is the kind of tool that once it is integrated, it can have long-lasting effects.

As Martha Chen, from Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing & Organizing, said: “data in the hands of workers is power, If they could have access to this data, they could effectively negotiate with governments, and other stakeholders”.

Data doesn’t have to be exclusively at the service of policy-makers, it needs to be available and accessible to the rightsholders for them to organize and decide what their priorities are and be able to have a saying in the decision-making process.