Home ›

Economy

No Economic Justice without Gender Justice? Building Inclusive Movements for Change

Published date: 
4 Jun 2012

In a world facing enormous challenges across regions - accelerating climate change, fundamentalisms, militarism, pervasive gender based violence, and rocketing macro-economic instability - the work of social justice movements has never been more important. But as these movements fight for justice, equality and positive social, political and economic transformation, how much attention is paid to the gender power relations within movements themselves? This short clip is from an interactive dialogue with leaders of organisations at the centre of economic justice movements, convened as part of the BRIDGE gender and social movements programme. The aims of the dialogue were to find out more about:

  • How economic justice movements understand gender equality and women's economic rights
  • How more productive alliances between women's movements and economic justice movements can be built
  • What the entry points are for gender justice advocates who want to shape the work of economic justice movements

This short clip, featuring one of the speakers, Shalmali Guttal of Focus on the Global South, gives a taste of the interesting dialogue that took place.

A blog from IDS Knowledge Services' Gender Convenor Jenny Birchall discussing the event is available to read here.

Impact of the Global Economic Crises on Civil Society Organizations

Submitted by sally_jean.shac... on Tue, 27/07/2010 - 18:06
Publisher: 

 NGO Committee for Social Development

Publisher / Organization Main page URL: 
http://www.siyanda.org
Author: 
Hanfstaeng, E-M
Published Date: 
2010
Abstract: 

In early 2009, a number of civil society organizations (CSOs) reported substantial reductions in their funding in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis, and they were concerned that this threatened their ability to deliver the services and activities that are required. The NGO Committee on Social Development has been part of the Steering Committee to guide a UN sponsored project to assess the impact of the Economic Crisis on CSOs and the people they serve. This webpage provides links to the final report, a shorter executive summary, some case studies and a PowerPoint presentation. The final report outlines the main study which examines the current situation of CSOs as indicated by responses from 640 civil society organizations worldwide. The survey finds that although some CSOs have seen increased funding, overall there is a worsening financial situation for CSOs in the period 2008-2010. As main reasons, CSOs explained that owing to the world economic crisis grants from existing sources decreased. Many humanitarian and development CSOs, especially in Europe, are intensifying their fundraising efforts, as several have seen the need to cut back their aid programmes. The revenue decline comes at the same time as demand for services is increasing, requiring more, not less, funding. The web page links to a case study file which contains various examples from the field to back up the final report. These include an AIDS project in Namibia whose funding has been cut by 12%. As yet they have not had to make cutbacks in staff or decrease in services but have had to totally eliminate training and updates this year for staff and volunteers. This is a major problem in a country where apartheid has meant a real lack of human resource capacity. Another AIDS project in Cambodia stressed that they are very concerned about what may happen in 2011 because of some of their regular donors being hit by the financial crisis either in Europe or Australia

Link to external site: 
Impact of the Global Economic Crises on Civil Society Organizations

Challenges Faced by Women Hawkers

Challenges Faced by Women Hawkers
Published date: 
4 Sep 2009
Street vendors have become an important part of the economic activity in South Africa. Numbers in the informal trade are increasing, this due to the rise in unemployment and the negative impact of the economic recession. According to the UN-INSTRAW/SAIIA study, the informal economy is a significant source of employment for women migrants, who are most likely to work as vendors, street traders, or hawkers. A 2006 survey that monitored over 85,000 traders passing through 20 border posts connecting ten countries in the SADC region revealed that 70% of all traders at the main border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe were women. The informal economy generally provides low incomes, which has a negative impact on integration in the destination country and the ability to send remittances.
 

Business 'Can Solve Social Problems'

Published date: 
13 Jul 2009
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus finds it had to understand why conventional banks lend trillion of dollars to rich people and refuse to lend atleast a $100 to a poor woman. 

SMME Sector Kicked While Down

Published date: 
7 Jul 2009

The small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) sector, already bleeding from the effects of the global recession, expects things to get far worse.

Women's Working Group on Financing for Development

Submitted by Eva.Ramokobala on Thu, 14/05/2009 - 10:35
Publisher: 
Financing For Development
Publisher / Organization Main page URL: 
http://ffdngo.org/
Abstract: 

The WWG on FfD is an alliance of women's organizations and networks that advocates for the advancement of gender equality, women's empowerment and human rights in UN processes related to FfD and the global financial and economic crises.

Link to external site: 
Women's Working Group on Financing for Development

African Women Worst Affected by Global Economic Crisis

Submitted by Eva.Ramokobala on Thu, 14/05/2009 - 10:10
Publisher: 

IPS News

Publisher / Organization Main page URL: 
http://www.ipsnews.net/
Author: 
Kudzai Makombe
Published Date: 
2009
Abstract: 
The global financial crisis is on everyone's lips. With first hand reports of job losses, house foreclosures and citizens living on credit card debt, the impact of the crisis on the individual worker in the developed world is clear. In Africa, there have been threats of closures and retrenchments in the Zambian copper mines and Botswana's diamond mines, amongst others. But the impact on the individual citizen and African women in particular, given the existing gender inequalities, has not been well documented.
Link to external site: 
African Women Worst Affected by Global Economic Crisis

Activist Urges Government Departments To Budget For Gender Activities

Published date: 
5 May 2009

The Copperbelt provincial Gender Sub-Sommittee has called on departments to include gender activities in their annual departmental budgets. 

Equality Bill U-turn Could Damage Businesses, Warns Expert

Published date: 
1 May 2009
The United Kingdom (UK) government has published its proposals for new equality legislation however a law expert warns that the 'u-turn' could result in an "deluge of equal pay claims". 

The Female Advantage - A New Reason For Businesses To Promote Women: It's More Profitable

Published date: 
3 May 2009
This blog post talks about the link between gender diversity in senior posts to financial success.
Syndicate content