Theme: Gender Equality in Economic Crisis and Recovery: Getting the Macroeconomic Policies Right
Date and Venue: March 4, 2010 Millennium Plaza Hotel, Landmark View Room (East 44th Street, opposite the Church Center)
As governments and women's rights activists gather to take stock of progress towards achieving the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals, countries are still locked in multiple and interlinked crises of international finance, food, climate and energy. While these crises pose a particular threat to the achievement of gender equality and women's rights, they provide a unique opportunity to put forward alternative economic policies centered on social justice and gender equality.
UNIFEM, in collaboration with the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID), Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS), and the Women's Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG-FfD) invite you to a one-day discussion to explore these critical issues.
Panelists will examine the structural causes of the crises; their impact on women in different regions; the policy responses governments have made; and the ways in which gender equality advocates can push for more gender responsive economic policies, budgets and financing.
Session 1: Counting the costs! Financing for gender equality in economic crisis and recovery
Time: 10:00 - 12:30 pm
Chair: Madina B. Jarbussynova, Ambassador-at-large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Kazakhstan
Moderator: Joanne Sandler, Deputy Executive Director, UNIFEM
- Cecilia Alemany, Strategic Initiative Manager, AWID, WWG-FfD
- Letty Chiwara, Regional Programme Manager, UNIFEM
- Elizabeth Salguero, Chair, Parliament of Bolivia, Human Rights Commission
- Diane Elson, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex, IAAFE
Session 2: Articulating an alternative macroeconomic and gender and development framework
Time: 2:30 - 5:00pm
Chair: Manuel Montes, Chief, Policy Analysis and Development, UNDESA
Welcoming remarks: Ines Alberdi, Executive Director, UNIFEM
- Radhika Balakrishnan, Executive Director, CWGL
- Hameda Deedat, Reseacher, Gender and Economic Reforms in Africa
- Emily Sikazwe, Executive Director, Women for Change for Zambia, Social Watch
- Gul Unal, Assistant Professor of Economics, Bard College
- Marina Durano, Coordinator, Political Economy of Globalization, DAWN, WWG-FfD