It’s time for gendered financing inclusive of the needs of women and girls!

Every year, feminists, women’s rights activists, and governments from around the world prepare to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) in New York.   

This year’s sixty-eighth session priority theme: Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective, explores the institutional capacity for gender-responsive financial policies.  

We look forward to taking a feminist approach in influencing gender financing to build just and fair economic systems that work for women and girls in all their diversities. 

Flawed financial models are keeping women in poverty

Global economic and financial systems continuously perpetuate inequalities between countries and individuals. Global north countries favour their economies at the expense of sustainable development and human rights, including those of women and girls in the global south. And institutions like the OECD, World Bank, and IMF have made policies that disproportionately impact the global south countries resulting to illicit financial flows, debt crises and austerity measures.  

Unpaid care and domestic work are critical components contributing to sustainable economies. To date, they are predominately done by women who remain undervalued and exploited, predisposing them to poverty. We continue to witness how various efforts on advancing women’s economic rights often focus on superficial strategies like financial training and microfinance, neglecting the need for systemic change to address women’s needs and interests.  

Although some progress has been made in the recent years, existing economic and financial systems and structures continue to reinforce gender biases, affecting millions of women and girls and marginalised genders. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023, the lack of representation and voice for marginalized groups, including women has resulted in policies and practices that do not adequately address the needs and priorities of women. The   UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment in 2018 recognizes that negative social norms, oppressive laws, inadequate legal safeguards, failure to acknowledge and address unpaid care work, and limited access to financial, digital, and property resources are the primary obstacles influencing gender disparities.  

Global financial crises, market fluctuations, and debt crises are resurfacing past structural adjustment practices thus worsening economic vulnerabilities for women through new austerity measures by the IMF and World Bank.  

The increasing number of women in the labour force is not an area to celebrate if their work does not offer decent conditions, fair pay, safety, leadership opportunities, personal development, career growth, collective bargaining, and flexible working arrangements. Women are still encountering discrimination and harassment, including sexual exploitation as highlighted in a recent BBC investigation on Kenyan tea plantations supplying popular UK brands like PG Tips, Lipton, and Sainsbury’s Red Label. And yet, such corporations largely remain unchecked since there are no international instruments to hold them accountable.

Gender biases affect funding for women’s rights organisations

Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) and feminist movements lead transformative work on gender equality. Despite their critical role, they are among the most underfunded gender-focused institutions and face barriers in securing adequate and stable funding.  

According to research done by AWID many women’s rights and feminist organizations in the global south operate with annual budgets below $30,000 USD, highlighting significant power imbalances in funding environments. Further, the Handbook on Gender Communication and Women’s Rights, acknowledges that only a small fraction of development aid and foundation grants directly support these organisations, particularly those addressing intersecting forms of marginalization.  

Although, there is a growing recognition among donors of the need to allocate more funding to gender equality, just a drop is going directly to WROs and even less as flexible funding. However, Women’s Funds and bigger WROs such as Womankind are leading the way in funding smaller WROs with flexible funds such as Her Voice Fund and Movement Strengthening Fund. 

What we hope to see at CSW68

We are calling for systems change in economic and financing models alongside other feminists around the world with the following recommendations. These are informed by the: third Financing for Development Conference, Beijing +25 review and Generation Equality processes.    

• Adopting gender responsive macroeconomic policies. We must optimize global policies that give importance to human rights, specifically those of women and girls. This is by allocating funds for investments in gender-responsive, high-quality, and accessible public services, social protection programmes, and sustainable infrastructure. 
• Commitment to resource gender equality. Governments should commit to policy reforms, and collaborations that identify and tackle the distinct challenges women and girls face in gendered financing. 
• Funding feminist and women’s rights organizations in all their diversities. Various funding actors should incorporate holistic gender perspectives into development financing. This is by identifying and addressing the specific obstacles faced by diverse feminist and women’s rights organizations, especially in the global south.  
• Addressing gender-based violence and discrimination. Ratify and implement the ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers rights and ILO Convention 190 on ending violence and harassment in the workplace. 
• Recognising and supporting the role of diverse feminist and women’s rights organisations. All women should be able to exercise choice and control over economic policies and ensure their full and meaningful participation in formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of such policies at all levels.  
• Supporting the finalising and ratification of a UN Binding Treaty. Through the UNBT, regulating corporate behaviour will challenge neoliberal systems, protect and promote women’s rights, and allow States to set fairer policies with women’s rights and interests at their core.  

Finally, gendered financing presents a crucial challenge that demands focus and intervention to tackle the distinct obstacles encountered by women and girls from diverse backgrounds in accessing financial resources and opportunities. It is only through collaborative endeavours and a dedication to gender equality that we can establish a fairer and more prosperous society that benefits everyone, everywhere.