Sufficient Financing For Gender Equality
The importance of sufficient financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment cannot be overstated. During the last ten years, 50 countries have launched the gender-responsive budgeting. But changes in budget policies and allocation are slow, with very little measurable impact. This week, representatives of member governments of the United Nations come together in New York to participate in the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The discussions focus on
financing for gender equality and empowerment of women. They identified that a big obstacle to achieving gender-targeted financing is the lack of a political will by political leaders, the majority of which are men. “Men just turn off when they hear the term gender equality believing it meant women fighting only for their representation not equally representation of both men and women” says one delegate. Most politicians are not gender-sensitive; they sometimes claimed that they could not include gender in their projects because women and men must be treated equally and that gender inequality is not an obstacle to development. The false assumption that men and women act the same way as economic agent and benefit equally from the provision of public goods has produced the “neutral” character of Government budget. This false belief is another obstacle to gender-sensitive budgeting. Without being able to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights, and without access to adequate sexual and reproductive health services, women stand little chance of having the same opportunities as the men. Investment in reproductive health is key to a sustainable social and economic development, and to the protection and promotion of human rights. What gender-sensitive financing really aimed at are the reform of a country’s public sector finance and the fairer distribution of wealth. It is important, therefore, for governments to examine all policies from tax laws to general budgets through a “gender –lens” in order to ensure that the gender perspective is mainstreamed across budget procedure, law drafting and other major project from the very beginning. This will require the Ministry of Finance of each country to develop a national system of “gender-budgeting” in order to establish coherence between economic and social policies to achieve a long-term objective of gender equality, democracy, and sustainable development.
Women and Decision-making
Two months ago, the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women invited me to participate in an online Seminar on “ Women and Decision-making”, a follow-up to the Platform of Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. The global community stressed the importance of women assuming positions of power and influence because despite the widespread movement for democracy, women were largely underrepresented in most governments especially in ministerial and other executive bodies. I learnt from discussions that the situation of women’s participation in decision-making has not changed much. Also from my own observation, today, the majority of women still remain outside most important decision-making arenas that effected their political, economic, and social lives, except in Scandinavian countries. But Dianne Lockwood, a participant of the UN seminar from Australia, surprised me of the progress in her country. In cultivating women leaders, she said that change happens because her government has a genuine commitment to gender equality. She reported that in the last decade, there had been considerable effort by Australia’s Federal Government to increase women’s leadership role. Now women hold one third of all Commonwealth parliamentary positions that give clout where it counts. Australian women hold 12% of all executive managerial positions in the private sectors, 35% of senior executive positions in the Public Service, and have 34.3% of all seats on government-controlled boards and bodies. Last year, the Australian government provides about 180 rural young women with leadership and role model opportunities through mentoring and leadership program pilots. Grants have been given to increase women’s leadership in sports and several key forums and “think thanks” to give women a voice. In addition, women were given a chance to have input into government policy through four National Women’s Secretariats funded by the government. I want to say that the progress in Australia happened because of many years of action taken by the women themselves, combined with efforts by the non-governmental organizations in lobbying their government to achieve the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making in the country. For me, women’s equal participation in decision-making is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy but also a necessary condition for women’s interests to be taken into account.
Filed under Gender Issues, United Nations | Comment (0)Preference For Sons - Girls Gone Missing
Preference for sons has long been part of Asian’s culture and tradition based on believing in male-superiority in society. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) alerts us that one of the most alarming change in Asia’s population dynamics in recent decades has been a dramatic increases in the proportion of males within its local populations. There is now an average of 120-130 male born for every 100 female born per year in India and China and similar trend in other countries. At the Fourth Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights, held in Hyderabad, India, two months ago, UNFPA presented the study “Sex-ratio Imbalance in Asia: Trends, Consequences, and Policy Responses”. After analyses of the consequences of the growing gender imbalances in the population of four studies conducted in India, China, Viet Nam and Nepal, the participants came to a conclusion that gender discrimination, son preference and the resultant unequal status of women and girls have contributed to an increasing demand for sex selection services. As a way forward, they recommended that governments and civil-society organizations should take priority action to eliminate sex selection. I agree that sex selection, with assistance from new ultrasound and amniocentesis technology, can lead to the problem of “Girls Gone Missing” through the abortion of female fetus. But I disagree with their way forward recommendation to elimination sex selection altogether. Stopping the abortion of female fetus, as practiced by a small group of women in the population, is not the same as stopping all the people from sex selection/services and access to information and technology. It is wrong for the participants to encourage governments and civil society organizations to take action against the right of parents to have the freedom to choose the size of their own family, the sex of their child, and the use of modern technology to improve the quality of their own lives. I have been working for years in population information, education and communication field in programs and projects where sex selection information was provided freely to parents along with information on family planning methods. We should keep the free flow of information to the people, especially, when we see success such as the Thailand Family Planning Program, which is based on the provision of unrestrictive information makibg use of available modern technologies. Authoritarian force must not be used by anyone to solve the problem of missing girls in the population. Instead we should use persuasive methods and give advice on appropriate technology for sex selection, while at the same time, provide gender equality and human rights education for all people from childhood to adulthood. Parents will then be able to make their own free choice about the number and sex of their children based on knowledge and understanding of the equal value of the male and female child. Without change in respecting women’s integrity and their right to be in charge and control of their own body, authoritarian government and religious authority will not succeed in stopping the women to abort female fetus from their own body.
Filed under Gender Issues, Thailand, United Nations | Comment (0)Dignity and Justice For All
In six days, we will be celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And yet last month we heard disturbing news on human rights abuse in Saudi Arabia.. a 19 years old girl, identified as “Qatif girl”, has to spend six month in jail and suffered 200 lashes because she was gang raped. This action by the Saudi Court is violence against women. I join friends in the Human Rights Watch around the world to urge the Saudi King Abdullah to void the verdict and drop all charges against “Qatif girl” and other rape victims. Human rights issues include women’s right, arbitrary detention, and discrimination on the ground of sex. On 10 December, the Human Rights Day, Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General will ask all of us around the world to take part in the campaign to celebrate 60 years that the world has come together to recognize the importance of respect of civil and political rights of each person, including economic, social and cultural rights. There are many ways for all of us to join in this campaign and bring about dignity and justice to women and men, no matter where they live. There are more than 50 ideas for commemorating the Universal Declaration of Human Right. Any of us can pick and choose to act from them as suggested by the human rights educators from five continents at their 1997 meeting. We can celebrate 2007 Human Right Day by joining force to help the Saudi woman fights gang rape ruling.
Filed under Gender Issues, United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (0)The Bali Meeting on Climate Change
Actions by the people and all states are very important to mitigate and to adapt to climate change The intergovernmental process in the context of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol begins on 3 December in Bali. Negotiations by 180 country representatives, with the help of world scientists, and with facilitation by United Nations staff will continue for two weeks ending on the 14th. China, India and the United States are three biggest contributors to the problem of climate change. People around the world expects them to make changes in their policies to play a constuctive role in the negotiation to come up with a new treaty to follow-up Kyoto protocol, which will end in 2012. Their constuctive participation in the meeting will result in heading off forcast by the scientific communities that our world will face catastrophic floods and droughts resulting from the melting of the ices and glaciers in the North and South Poles. Developing countries need assistance to avoid these disasters which will kill millions. I join others in hoping for a success outcome when participating government representatives agree to sign a new Climate Change Treaty. I wish the Indonesian Government best wishes in organizing this important global meeting.
Filed under Environment, United Nations, World Affairs | Comment (0)Well-Deserved Noble Prize
It is good week for those of us in the environment movement trying to educate the World of the danger of Global Warming and Climate Change. I am delighted in hearing the news that IPCC and Al Gore are the winners of the Noble Peace Prize this year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), created by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has been working since 1988 to alert the World of the danger of global warming. IPCC team of scientists have presented us with facts and figures to convince us that climate change is human-made, therefore we can reverse the effects of it by changing behavior of human beings. I want to congratulate Rajendra Pachauri for his excellent work as chairman of IPCC in moving the international communities and governments to take action to deal with global warming, and Al Gore, for his life-long dedications to the global environment issues. He has convinced me of the danger of global warming by his excellent presentation of facts and figures in the film “An Inconvenient Truth”. I have changed my way of living after seeing the film. Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim, the film producer, have succeeded in getting people in the World to change their ways of living to reverse the effects of global warming. As part of a world communities that want to do things differently
to reduce global warming, I try to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in my day-to-day living by driving less. I try to reduce waste and the demand for fossil fuels; to use less heat and air conditioning; to buy energy-efficient products; and to replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs in my home and office. Beyond individual’s effort, there is a need for real action, such as emission reduction, by governments to avoid the grave consequences of accelerated environment deterioration and societal upheaval as a result of global warming.
Successful Leadership On Global Warming
I congratulate the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his success in taking a bold initiative to bring global leaders together on 24th September 2007, before the opening of the 62 General Assembly, for one day meeting to discuss global warming phenomenon. It was an impressive gatherings of people, from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, Arti Mehra, Mayor of New Delhi, to Al Gore, Former United States Vice-President and present world environment champion; a real break through, indeed, on our efforts to deal with Climate Change. Participants included 40 heads of State or government, 9 deputy prime ministers and vice presidents and 70 cabinet ministers from all over the world come together to discuss under three important theme: mitigation, innovating a climate-friendly world through new technology; and financing the response to climate change. It is true what Al Gore said. The old divide between North and South, between developed and developing countries is now obsolete and business cannot continue as usual. At the end of the session at the UN Headquarters in New York, the leaders agreed to take appropriate actions by working together in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, focusing on clean technologies and making massive economic change needed to cut global emissions from industries. Women leaders attended the meeting, gave useful ideas on how we should move ahead on this: German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, suggested that a global carbon-trading scheme, which places a price on industries’ carbon-dioxide emissions, should play a central role in future attempts to fight global warming; Gro-Harlem Brundtland of Norway, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, and Mitchelle Bachelet, President of Chile, led important plenary discussions on “Mitigation”; United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested that the world must find ways to “transcend” fossil fuels in the search for clean, renewable alternatives; and Meena Raman of Friends of the Earth International gave advice to industrialized countries to cut carbon-dioxide emissions to give more “wiggle rooms” for developing countries to act. Ban Ki-moon succeeded in his aim to “jump-start” and build-up of political support as a momentum for the Bali December 2007’ Climate Change Negotiation. As host, Indonesian President Sosilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that success of the meeting is when we have agreements on what action to take between now until 2012, the end of the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, and action afterwards. He said that the Bali meeting must yield a “new roadmap” that spells out what developed and developing countries agree to do to save humankind and our planet from the looming tragedy of climate change. Ban Ki-moon was certain that we know enough to act, but warned that what we do not have is time.
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Tackling Effects of Global Warming: Grass-roots Solutions
We have moved forward a little bit in tackling the effects of global warming when 1700 community activists from 62 countries agreed on the 12-Month Framework for Action on Climate Change. Members of the NGOs and civil societies met last week at the United Nations’ organized Conference focusing on,“Climate Change: How It Affects Us All”. It is good timing for the grass-roots solutions before the problems of global warming become irreversible. The agreed 12-Month Framework for Action at grass-roots level surely is a major step forward to protect our future ecosystems and infrastructures. Since we share one Planet Earth, leaders of each community will have to find appropriate action locally, aiming to stop people’s behavior which will end up polluting the Earth’s environment. Governments and industrial leaders have begun to take concrete action to reduce greenhouse gas or to find alternative sources of energy. Financial and development institutions give incentives to foster climate-friendly technologies towards the eventual phase-out of fossil fuels and nuclear-based technologies. Each community should make their own action plan to face the severity of impact of climate change, which is different from one community to the other, depending on geography and location. For example, sea level rise will affect the livelihood of the people who live along coastal areas or on small islands more than those living on mountain terrains, while the melting of the Himalayan glaciers will affect people in Central and East Asia more than people living in South America. This agreed Framework For Grass-roots Action has given us hope in that, together, we can combat global climate change. We are all responsible to change our own bad habit of excessive consumption, and bad practice of waste of clean water and other precious natural resources. Our positive action can prevent disaster for ourselves and for billions of other people who will face famine, mass dislocations and death that will come from global warming and climate change. This successful last week conference has increased the momentum leading up to the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Meeting to address the leadership challenge of climate change, which is scheduled for 24 September in New York, andthe United Nations Climate Change Conference at Nusa Dua in Bali from 3-14 December 2007.
Filed under Environment, United Nations, World Affairs | Comments (2)Shortages of Freshwater
The World is facing a freshwater crisis. Only 23 years from now the global urban population will reach sixty per cent, placing enormous pressure on the available clean water supplies, which already are very limited. By 2020, the average water supply per person worldwide is expected to be a third smaller than today. Phil Dickie, the author of the report, “Making Water” of the WWF’s Global Freshwater Programme, estimated that 1.1 billion people are at the moment living without adequate water supply, and twice that number without adequate sanitation. The warning also came from 23 United Nations’ agencies working together at the World Water Assessment Programme based in UNESCO headquarters in Paris, that the water crisis is so severe it could take almost 30 years to eradicate hunger and that the “availability of clean water supply” is an issue that can threaten the world’s social stability. We have to create awareness around the world to stop wasteful water consumption. By 2025, The United Nations Environment Programme predicts that the amount of freshwater wasted by different sectors will rise to 1000 for agriculture, 1100 for domestic use and 500 cubic km for industry. Second only to global warming, scientists worldwide said that water shortages are most worrying problems for the new Millennium. Good news is that on 15 August 2007, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development launched a very useful
“Global Water Tool” at the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, showing where water risks are in the World to guide future action. We need to know the water situation and problem locally in order to manage water supply globally for the survival of all of living beings in this World.
Growing Cities
This year, the State of the World Population Report 2007, issued by the United Nations Population Fund, highlights the positive and negative aspects of the rapid increase of people living in cities around the world. In Asia alone, it is estimated that urban population grows from 1.4 billion to 2.6 billion between the year 2000 and 2030. Together, we need to plan action to face this global phenomenon, with full participation of city people, including present slum dwellers. The special needs and rights of the urban poor have to be considered in each city plan. No one can survive living in the city without having adequate shelter, sanitation, electricity and clean water supply. Women, whether rich or poor, need special reproductive health and family planning services. City youth need, not only education and employment opportunity, but also sexual/health and environment-related education, especially the prevention of HIV/AIDS. I recommend that all policy-makers read this interesting report in order to make urbanization a positive force for change. They are key groups of people that can take real action to prevent future disaster that will come from a more crowded-living space and the danger that will come from the rising of sea level as a result of global warming. Also, all governments need to have better policy to stem population migration into urban areas.
Filed under Environment, United Nations, World Affairs | Comments (2)