[Gcap-mujeres] Rosa Interview on IPS

[Ana Agostino]

Dear friends,
queridas amigas,
during the CWS Rosa was interviewed by IPS. Below is the link and also the 
interview.
durante la CSW Rosa fue entrevistada por IPS. Debajo está el link para la 
entrevista y también la entrevista copiada.
Saludos,
Ana


Ana Agostino
ICAE
International Council for Adult Education
General Secretariat
18 de Julio 2095 - Apto  301
11200 Montevideo - Uruguay
Tel/fax: 005982 409 79 82
E-mail: ana en icae.org.uy
www.icae.org.uy



Link:
 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46084

 Q&A:  "Women Need a Bigger Voice at the G20 Summit"
 Nergui Manalsuren interviews ROSA LIZARDE of GCAP's Feminist Taskforce

 Rosa Lizarde

 Credit:Nergui Manalsuren/IPS

 UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (IPS) - Activists are calling for an economic
 bailout plan for women and demanding that their voices be heard at
 the decision-making table ahead of the G20 summit of the world's
 biggest economies in London on Apr. 2.

 Rosa G. Lizarde, a member of GCAP, the Global Call to Action against
 Poverty, told IPS during the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
 this week that the taskforce is calling for women to be central to
 crafting solutions to the financial crisis - particularly since 70
 percent of the world’s poor are female and the primary food providers
 for their families and communities.

 Excerpts from the interview follow.

 IPS: On International Women’s Day, Mar. 8, you launched the global
 Internet campaign, "20 Days to G20", highlighting the connections
 between the feminisation of poverty and the global financial and
 economic crisis. What are the impacts of the current crisis on women?

 RL: Well, there are many impacts of the crisis on women, primarily
 exacerbation of the food and energy crises. There is a very large
 percentage of women in the agricultural sector providing food for
 families, [so rising prices] creates more hardship for women and
 families, and has an impact on communities. In turn, those stresses
 create increased tension, which in turn increases violence against
 women.

 Women also tend to be last to be hired and first to be fired during
 times of economic hardship. Particularly around the cuts that the
 private sector makes, there are reductions which impact women
 receiving services such as health care, education, and other social
 services. So the burden of the financial and the economic crisis
 falls on women.

 IPS: How does this campaign hope to change the outcome of the G20
 meeting?

RL: One of the reasons why we launched this "20 Days to G20" was to
 make those links between the feminisation of poverty and the
 financial, food, energy, and the climate change crisis. And to have
 women included in the dialogue and the decision-making of the
 economic and financial summits - not just the G20 meeting, but also
 at the upcoming conference on the economic and financial impacts on
 development. We want to ensure that particular attention is paid to
 the specific needs of women and girls due to the disproportionate
 hardships that they bear.

 IPS: How much funding should be made available for gender equality
 and women’s empowerment, particularly for the eradication of poverty?

 RL: Well, as Sylvia Borren, co-chair of GCAP, has said, the funds
 that go to the economic bailouts don’t trickle down to women, but
 impacts of the financial crisis do trickle down to women. One of the
 issues is to look at how, during this time of crisis and negotiations
 within and amongst governments, to be able to bail out some of the
 hardships that women are facing.

 Some people have mentioned that 0.7 percent of all bailout funds
 should go to the developing countries, and that a portion of that
 certainly should go to assist the conditions of women during this
 time. So there’s no exact estimate that we’re calling for, but we’re
 saying that we want to be included in any decision around funding.

 IPS: What are some key policies that could provide immediate and long-
 term relief for women who are affected by the current financial crisis?

 RL: Some of the key policy points we have outlined in the platform
 policy paper directed to the upcoming G20 meeting around the issues
 of justice, accountability, jobs, and the climate change. We’re
 calling for the eradication of poverty and inequality, within that we
 want to ensure that needs of women and girls are addressed because it
 is estimated that 70 percent of the poor are women.

 In terms of accountability, we want to ensure democratic governance
 of the global economy, and we call for the support of the U.N. to
 serve as the heart of the solutions for the financial and economic
 crisis.

 Within the area of jobs, we call for decent jobs and public services
 for all with particular attention to be paid to identifying and
 responding to the specific needs of women and disenfranchised
 communities.

 Around climate, we want governments to commit to investing in women
 as one of the most effective ways to advance sustainable development
 and to help to combat the climate change devastation.

 IPS: Are there enough women in the dialogue and decision-making
 processes of the economic and financial summits?

 RL: I think if we look at the members of the G20 and the heads of
 those governments, the members of the Stiglitz Commission that are
 meeting today [Mar. 10] as a matter of fact and have been meeting
 these past couple of days to provide alternative solutions to the
 financial crisis, we see that women are not represented as they are
 in the general population, which is 50 percent.

 So I think that until we achieve that 50 percent representation, we
 can’t say that women are represented equally. Currently, at the table
 of the G20, the U.N., and other commissions, we know that women are
 not equally represented at the negotiating [and] decision-making
 table - that’s the fact.

 (END/2009)