demystifying economics and empowering women
 

Executive Summary
The UNIFEM Regional Programme for Engendering Economic Governance addresses the lack of resources for the implementation of international commitments made to women under the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), CEDAW, and other international human rights instruments. In particular, it addresses the gender blindness of macroeconomic policies that has seriously impeded implementation of Government commitments to advance the status of women in Asia-Pacific and the Arab States.

The Programme has four major components:

The Programme will adopt an economic governance framework that combines the principles of good governance with an approach to economic theory that incorporates the care economy of unpaid domestic work and childcare into an analysis of the economy as a whole. It will engender economic governance through the application of gender-responsive tools such as gender analysis and gender budgeting, and the use of sex-disaggregated data and statistics on gender issues, particularly unpaid domestic work and childcare.
The Programme will also adopt a rights-based perspective to ensure that Government and decision-makers are accountable to the women’s constituency for engendering economic governance, and that women are able to claim their economic rights effectively.

The Programme's country and sub-regional activities will be implemented through the sub-regional offices and their Regional Programme Directors.
The Regional Programme will also seek to add value to existing sub-regional economic empowerment programmes and related activities.
The Regional Economic Advisor will facilitate sharing of materials and of lessons learned in the Programme among the four Sub-Regional Offices of Asia-Pacific and the Arab States, and the Economic Empowerment Section in UNIFEM New York. The Programme will maintain an Economic Governance Website, which will also provide other resources for learning.
The programme will act primarily through government officials in the various agencies and women leaders, including women NGO leaders, whose capacities will be developed in terms of their understanding of economic governance issues from a gender perspective, or their understanding of the gender issues in economic governance.
The ultimate beneficiaries of the Programme will be the women who are currently disadvantaged or negatively affected by gender blind economic policies and programmes.
Other sections of this site describe the Key Issues, the Conceptual Framework and the project Components. Because the project has evolved considerably since its inception, the original project document describing the components is attached for reference.
Dated: 6 Feb 2003
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Key issues to be addressed
The gender blindness of macroeconomic policy arises from failure on the parts of governments, including National Women's Machineries [the UN term for women's ministries or departments, to:

At one level, these failures are technical and relate to deficiencies in the theoretical and empirical bases for economic decision-making. Failure to use sex-disaggregated data and recognize the limitations of existing data sources to adequately enumerate women's labour force participation are empirical deficiencies. Failure to recognize and take into account the micro-economic impact of macroeconomic policies arises from inappropriate application of basic economic theory [2]. The failure to recognize and take into account the economic contribution of the care economy represents a failure of the basic theory that underlies conventional economic analysis. Such failures can be addressed through advocacy, lobbying, capacity building for economic policy makers in gender analysis and development of technical materials to promote more gender-responsive models and standards for policy analysis; and through the use of gender-responsive tools such as gender statistics, gender analysis and gender budgeting to support the implementation of such policy analysis.
At another level, such failures are political and relate to the lack of accountability of governments in general, and macro economic policy makers in particular, to a women's constituency, and the lack of a clear, well-articulated and strongly promoted women's agenda on economic governance. This lack of accountability can be addressed through capacity-building in economic literacy to enable women's NGOs and the national women's machineries to dialogue with and hold policy makers to account; strengthening the women's agenda on economic governance through economic literacy, advocacy, lobbying and materials development; and the development or strengthening of tools such as gender statistics and gender indicators and mechanisms such as the CEDAW reporting process to strengthen monitoring and evaluation of economic policies by women's groups and the women's machineries.
Footnotes:
1. Although many developed countries collect time use data, very few have used it to develop satellite accounts to the Standard National Accounts on which they typically rely for macro economic policy formulation. Where satellite accounts have been developed, they are rarely incorporated into policy analysis on a systematic basis.
2. See Lorraine Corner, 1996. Women, Men and Economics. The gender-differentiated impact of macroeconomics with special reference to Asia and the Pacific. UNIFEM Bangkok, 80 pp ISBN: 0-912917-47-4.


Conceptual Framework for the Project
In order to address the key issues, the regional Economic Governance programme uses:
• A framework that combines the principles of good governance with good economic theory that incorporates the household-based care economy into an integrated analysis of the total economy. Within this conceptual framework, economic governance will be engendered through the application of gender-responsive tools such as gender analysis and gender budgeting, and sex-disaggregated data and statistics on gender issues, particularly unpaid domestic work and childcare; and
• A rights-based perspective to ensure that Government and decision-makers are accountable to the women's constituency for engendering economic governance and that women are able to claim their economic rights effectively.
Good Governance - what is it?
The term economic governance is relatively new [1]. Governance, as contrasted to government, is part of the emergence of globalization and the consequent reduction in the monopoly power of national governments, which increasingly have to share power with a variety of non-state institutions [2]. Progress of the World's Women 2000 describes governance as:
"a system of partnerships among governmental, para-governmental and non-governmental organizations in which the state is not sovereign but seen as the first among equals."
Women's Transformative Leadership for Good Governance
Although the term "good governance" is widely used and is generally associated with principles of democracy, accountability and transparency, there have been few attempts to develop a clear conceptual framework for good governance.
One exception has been work supported by UNIFEM and others [3] in Asia-Pacific on women's transformative leadership for good governance, which emphasizes the accountability of transformative leaders to an active and supportive women's constituency [4]. The work began in the early 1990s when a group of women who later formed the Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP) began to ask "Why should women be in politics?" Today, we would answer that question very simply: "Because it is our right!" However, at the time women still felt a need to justify their entry into politics in terms of better and more gender-sensitive decision-making that would ultimately benefit both women and men.
The next question the women asked was: "What kind of politics do women want?" Their answer was very clear - a transformed and transformative politics that was free of corruption, gender-sensitive and based on gender equality between women and men and accountable to the people, including women. Transformative politics rested on a different notion of power - power to work with others for mutual goals - rather than the "traditional" concept of "power over others".
Some raised the question of whether women were inherently transformative and innately "better" leaders than men. The number of examples of women who were not good leaders brought the realization that we do, indeed, get the leaders we deserve. In the long term, leaders - women or men - will be "good" or "transformative" because they are held accountable for the quality and results of their leadership by their constituencies.
Thus, the concept of transformative leadership emerged, not as a quality that some people had and others did not, but as a relationship between leaders and a constituency for an agreed objective or agenda. The role of the constituency was gradually seen as just as important as that of the leaders, and especially important for women.
Constituencies were recognized to play two roles. On the one hand, constituencies must actively support their leaders on their agreed agenda. This is especially critical for women in politics because women leaders in politics and decision-making are almost invariably a minority when they advocate on women's issues. Despite this, women leaders can successfully advocate on women's issues if an active and informed general women's constituency is vocal in its support for the issues. The active support of women in the personal or party constituencies of men leaders can help persuade men to consider and ultimately support women leaders on women's issues.
The second role of the constituency is essential to ensure that women - and men - in leadership do not become tempted by the traditional spoils of power over others and the perks and benefits of office. An active and empowered women's constituency must hold women leaders to account for their leadership on the women's agenda and for remaining true to their shared vision of transformative politics and good governance.
Thus, a broad conceptual framework for good governance, whether in political or economic decision-making includes six components:
Box 1 - Framework for Good Governance
1. Leaders/Decision makers > Competent and committed leaders
2. Constituency/ies > Active and empowered constituencies
3. An agreed agenda > A clear and mutually agreed agenda linking leaders and their constituency
4. Institutions > Working through democratic institutions that support
• Transparency
• Accountability
5. Information > Access to and skills in using appropriate information for decision-making
6. Accountability Processes > Institutionalised mechanisms for monitoring and accountability

1. Leaders/Decision makers: while "good" leaders are the product primarily of effective accountability mechanisms, leaders must also be competent. Since women often lack access to the traditional sources of knowledge, capacity-building and experience (mentoring) that generate men leaders, leadership training is especially important for women. This is especially the case in relation to economic decision-making, where women tend to believe -sometimes mistakenly - that male leaders are better equipped with technical understanding of the relevant issues.

2. Constituencies: active and empowered constituencies must be aware of and able to exercise their basic human rights, as well as sufficiently informed about issues and supported by access to relevant information in order to develop a clear agenda. Again, technical training and capacity-building for empowerment are particularly vital to the development of strong women's constituencies.

3. An Agenda: this vital linkage between the leaders and their constituencies has sometimes been overlooked for women. Women leaders have sometimes been promoted merely because they were women without a clear agreement or understanding of the expectations of their constituency. Women's leadership has sometimes been unfocused and support from the constituency lacking because of the lack of an agreed agenda on which both can focus. This is a particular gap for economic governance, where both women leaders and the women's constituency often feel that they lack technical understanding of the issues.

4. Institutions: the institutions of governance must be generally open to public scrutiny and subject to accountability through a democratic political system, appropriate financial regulations and reporting procedures supported by legal sanctions where necessary. Institutionalizing the routine use of sex-disaggregated and gender statistics in all areas of public policy, and the appropriate use of gender indicators and gender analysis of budgets are vital tools for ensuring the accountability of governments to women and for their commitments to gender equality.

5. Information: "good" decisions can only be made if both decision makers and their constituencies have access and are able to make appropriate use of "good" information.

6. Accountability Processes: institutionalized monitoring and accountability mechanisms enable constituencies to hold their leaders and Government to account. Accountability can be achieved through direct "stick" or indirect "carrot" mechanisms. The stick approach involves accountability mechanisms such as mandatory reporting that are directly enforceable through sanctions for non-compliance. The carrot approach uses lobbying and advocacy to motivate those responsible to fulfil their obligations and commitments to the constituency. Each has its place in good governance.
Engendering Economic Governance
Each of the key components plays a specific role in efforts to engender economic governance.
Decision-makers, both economic leaders, and women leaders, need capacity to understand the differential impact of macroeconomic policies on women and men. Economic decision-makers must be aware of the need for, and have the technical capacity to incorporate, a gender perspective into policy and programme analysis. The National Women's Machinery and women in politics must be able to participate effectively in dialogues and debates on economic policy.
Active and empowered constituencies must be created and strengthened among women (and men) to advocate and demand accountability from government and political leaders at the national and international levels for the impact of macroeconomic policy on women and national capacity to implement commitments made in the BPFA and under CEDAW and other human rights treaties and conventions. In a globalized world, linkages need to be built and/or strengthened between national and regional NGOs working on women in politics, women in media and women's human rights and those working on women and trade and women and macroeconomic policy issues. Women's lobby groups need capacity to lobby and advocate from an informed perspective, on the implications for women's human rights of WTO and other trade agreements.
The women's economic agenda must be generally understood by leaders and constituencies. Other actors, particularly key government economic agencies and international economic institutions, must also understand and accept the general validity of the conceptual basis of the women's economic agenda.
The institutions of economic governance must be engendered through advocacy and their active involvement in capacity building under the programme. Among the principle targets will be the mainstream economic agencies: Ministries of Finance, Trade, Commerce or Planning, and Budget Departments, Units or Treasuries. Secondary targets include those who influence the key economic institutions, particularly the World Bank, inter-governmental banks and UN agencies such as UNDP, ILO, UNIDO and the economic divisions of the Regional Commissions of the UN.
Appropriate data - sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics on the differential impact of macroeconomic policies on women and men (and especially on women and men in vulnerable population sub-groups) must also be available to decision makers, as well as their constituencies. In particular, this should include accurate data on women's labour force participation (or at least a realistic appreciation of data limitations), particularly in agriculture, especially unpaid farm work and within the informal sector, especially home-based work, sub-contracted homework and street vending. It should also include data on women's and men's differential contributions to the care economy through domestic work, childcare, family care and community activities.
Accountability processes. The key to a rights-based approach to accountability to women on engendering economic governance lies in the economic articles of CEDAW, where the Convention has been ratified, and of other relevant human rights instruments. The CEDAW principles of non-discrimination and the CEDAW reporting framework are powerful tools for holding Government to account on national commitments and its international obligations on women's economic empowerment under the Convention and the BPFA through the core economic articles: Article 11 on 'discrimination against women in the field of employment'; Article 13 on 'discrimination against women in other areas of economic and social life' ...in particular, (a) the right to family benefits; and (b) the right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit', and Article 14 on rural women.
CEDAW reporting framework - a tool for accountability
Given that CEDAW predates much of the work on gender mainstreaming, the CEDAW reporting framework is a surprisingly powerful tool for gender mainstreaming and for ensuring the accountability of Governments. The approach requires:
1. A description of the de jure situation of equality between women and men;
2. A description of the de facto situation, using both quantitative and qualitative data;
3. An analysis of the reasons for gaps between the de facto and de jure situations; and
4. Commitments to bring about specific changes in the next reporting period.
This provides a powerful framework for policy formulation and programme development for mainstreaming, and for promoting the rights and empowerment of women both as a collective, and for specific groups. This is particularly apparent in the economic articles, and especially in Article 14 on rural women.
The majority of countries in Asia-Pacific and the Arab States have ratified CEDAW, although a number signed with reservations. A major problem for reporting agencies, which are usually the National Machineries for Women, is the lack of data to meet the reporting requirements. Many of the data required are not normally collected by the national statistical system through censuses or surveys, and are also often not readily available from other sources [5]. Many of the data that are available are held by sectoral agencies in the form of administrative data. Many of the commitments made by Governments to the Committee must also be implemented by sectoral agencies. Thus, a major challenge is to involve sectoral agencies in the reporting process, and develop a sense of ownership and commitment in those sectoral agencies that must implement Government commitments.
Footnotes:
1. Kruiter, A. 1996. Good Governance for Africa: Whose Governance? Maastricht: ECDPM: " 'Good governance' entered the vocabulary of development in the 1980's and, under the influence of . . . the World Bank and bilateral donor agencies, . . . as conditionalities intended to promote accountable government and democratisation in aid-receiving countries."
2. UNIFEM, Progress of the World's Women 2000, UNIFEM New York, 2000: p. 108.
3. Most notably Canada through the CIDA-SEAGEP Gender Equity Program and UNDP through APGEN.
4. Rounaq Jahan, "Transforming Politics and Leadership"
5. For example, when Indonesia reported passing a law to give women awarded only a half share in inheritance under the Sharia law the right to appeal to a special court for an equal share on the basis that the Indonesian Constitution declares women and men equal before the law. The Committee asked: how many women had used the provision and with what result? The delegation could not answer because at the time the results were not being monitored.


Components of the Project
Component 1: Monitoring and Reporting System on Women's Economic Rights

Component 2: Capacity Building for National Statistical Systems on Gender Statistics and their Use in Policy Analysis and Advocacy.

Component 3: Promoting Dialogue among Macro Economic Policy Makers, National Women's Machineries, Women Leaders & Women's Groups on Engendering Economic Policy

Component 4: Gender Budgeting Cross-regional and Regional-Global Learning

Component 1: Monitoring and Reporting System on Women's Economic Rights
Development Objective: Promote the reallocation of existing financial and other resources at both the macro and sectoral levels to implement national commitments under the BPFA, the 2000 Beijing+5 review and CEDAW.

Specific Objectives
1. Promote dialogue at the national level between the key macro economic agencies, including Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, and the Ministry of Trade, the national women's machineries and women's organizations and the major social sectors on the differential impact of macro economic policies on women and the interaction between macro economic policy and social and gender mainstreaming policies and programmes;
2. Promote an understanding of and commitment to women's economic rights, CEDAW and gender mainstreaming in the key macro economic agencies;
3. Create a national mechanism for monitoring and reporting on the implementation of national commitments on women's economic rights;
4. Facilitate preparation of a National Assessment of the Economic Rights of Women; and
5. Facilitate the active and committed participation of macro economic policy makers and a broad range of state and non-state actors in this process.

Strategies
1. Develop a national framework for accountability through a national broadly based and participatory mechanism such as a Women's Economic Rights Task Force to monitor and report on the implementation of national commitments on women's economic rights;
2. Promote the use of appropriate gender statistics and gender indicators by a wide range of state and non-state actors to monitor and report on women's economic rights; and
3. Promote the use of the CEDAW analytical framework by the Women's Economic Rights Task Force to prepare, with appropriate technical assistance, a National Assessment of the Economic Rights of Women that:

Component 2: Capacity Building for National Statistical Systems on Gender Statistics and their Use in Policy Analysis and Advocacy.
Development Objective: Strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems to provide and utilize gender statistics and gender indicators for policy analysis, programme development and monitoring and advocacy for gender mainstreaming.

Specific Objectives
1. Strengthen the capacity of data producers in the national statistical system to provide timely and readily accessible sex-disaggregated data, gender statistics and appropriate gender indicators for policy analysis, programme monitoring and advocacy;
2. Strengthen the capacity of the national women's machinery, women's NGOs, policy analysts and advisers and other users or potential users to use sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics and gender indicators for policy analysis and programme development, implementation and monitoring, and for lobbying and advocacy for gender mainstreaming; and
3. Promote the use of gender statistics and appropriate gender indicators by a wide range of users in government, among women's groups and in the media to monitor and hold government accountable for the implementation of national commitments for the advancement of women and gender equality.

Strategies
1. Assist national partners to design and obtain funding for appropriate in-country activities on gender statistics to achieve the component objectives and maximize synergies with other gender statistics or related activities at the national level. Unless previously completed, this would include the production, publication and distribution of a national assessment of the situation of women and men as depicted by existing sex-disaggregated data, gender statistics and appropriate gender indicators and a brief report on national priorities for the further collection and development of gender statistics.
2. Collaborate with the Statistics Division of ESCAP to provide technical support as required and training at the regional level to countries participating in the Component; and
3. In particular, in collaboration with the Statistics Division of ESCAP, provide training at the regional level to:

Component 3: Promoting Dialogue among Macro Economic Policy Makers, National Women's Machineries, Women Leaders & Women's Groups on Engendering Economic Policy
Development Objective: Promote a gender perspective in national macroeconomic policy formulation and macroeconomic management that takes account of the differential impact of macroeconomic policies and macroeconomic management on women and men, including the gendered interaction of economic and social policies.

Specific Objectives
1. Build the capacity of National Women's Machineries and women leaders, particularly those in politics, to understand and advocate for women's concerns and a gender perspective in macroeconomic governance, globalization and trade liberalization in economic policy dialogue and formulation;
2. Build the capacity of mainstream economic policy makers to understand the differential impact of macroeconomic policies, including globalization and trade liberalization, on women and men and support efforts to engender economic policy; and
3. Promote dialogue among informed and empowered women leaders and gender-aware economic policy makers on the need to take explicit account of the impact of macro economic policies and management on women, including the gendered interaction of economic and social policies.

Strategies:
1. Identify regional NGO or academic research groups with experience and expertise on macroeconomics and awareness of gender issues and a sub-regional research team of gender-sensitive economic experts;
2. Develop a training module and materials to provide basic economic literacy skills, particularly in relation to macroeconomic policy and management, globalization and trade liberalization, to women leaders and women's advocates from non-economic backgrounds;
3. Pilot the materials with staff from National Women's Machineries, women's NGOs and other women's leaders at a 2-3 day regional workshop on Macroeconomic Literacy for Women Leaders and Gender Advocates;
4. Identify regional NGO or academic research groups with expertise on gender issues in economics and a sub-regional team of economically competent gender experts;
5. Develop a module and materials on gender, gender mainstreaming and engendering macroeconomic policy and management for economists and economic policy makers who lack a background in gender or an understanding of gender issues;
6. Pilot the module and materials with key economic decision makers from Ministries of Finance, Trade, the Trade Division of Foreign Affairs and Central Banks at a 2-day workshop on Engendering Macroeconomic Policy and Management (to be held concurrently with the regional workshop on Macroeconomic Literacy for Women Leaders and Gender Advocates);
7. Immediately following the two workshops, which would be held simultaneously in the same location, the women leaders and advocates from the regional workshop on Macroeconomic Literacy and the key economic decision makers from the regional workshop on Engendering Macroeconomic Policy and Management would meet together in a facilitated Regional Dialogue on Engendering Macroeconomic Policy and Management;
8. Following feedback from the Regional Workshops and Dialogue, the modules and materials would be revised and widely disseminated through government and other training, research and academic institutions in the region, as well as on the UNIFEM Economic Governance Website; and
9. The UNIFEM Regional Economic Advisor and Regional Programme Directors will also encourage UNDP and other donors to support adaptation of the materials to specific national contexts and translation into national languages.

Component 4: Gender Budgeting
Development Objective: To increase the share of national financial and other resources directed to the implementation of national commitments for the advancement of women and gender equality through the effective and sustained application of gender budgeting.

Specific Objectives
1. Implement gender budgeting initiatives in at least three countries in Asia-Pacific; and
2. Draw out and widely disseminate the lessons learned in gender budgeting in all sub-regions.

Strategies
1. Support national gender budgeting initiatives in government and the institutionalization of gender budgeting through appropriate legislative and regulatory measures;
2. Build the capacity of National Women's Machineries and women's groups and women leaders to use the results of gender budget analysis conducted by government or other means to hold governments to account for the implementation of national commitments for the advancement of women;
3. Support gender budgeting initiatives in local government and at the community level and empower women's groups to utilize such gender budget analysis to increase resource allocations to meet the needs and priorities of women and monitor effective implementation of programmes to benefit women and promote gender equality at the community level; and
4. Document the lessons learned in the various approaches to gender budgeting in the region, as well as elsewhere, and make these readily available through the UNIFEM Economic Governance Website and other materials.

Cross-regional and regional-global learning
Objective: To facilitate cross-regional and regional-global learning within UNIFEM and between UNIFEM and its government, NGO and other partners on engendering economic governance.

Strategies
1. Produce and disseminate timely materials and information to support the implementation of activities under the Programme;
2. Draw out commonalities and contrasts among related activities being implemented by the regional offices, and build linkages between UNIFEM Asia-Pacific and the Arab States and UNIFEM global economic governance activities;
3. Contribute to the cross-regional development of approaches and tools, particularly in: