Sixty-first General Assembly

Informal Thematic Debate

Panel Discussion (AM)

EFFECTIVE TOOLS FOR WOMEN’S ADVANCEMENT INCLUDE EDUCATION, TRAINING, MICROFINANCE,

MICROCREDIT, SAY PARTICIPANTS IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY PANEL DISCUSSION

Participants in today’s panel discussion on the empowerment of women agreed that training, education, microfinance and microcredit were effective tools for women’s advancement, while also pointing out that such programmes could not be effective without an enabling environment and Government support.

The panel was the second one held in conjunction with the General Assembly’s debate on gender equality and women’s empowerment that is going to conclude this afternoon.

Among the factors that still hindered women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship, speakers noted traditional attitudes, segregation in the labour markets, female poverty, lack of access to basic amenities and resources, and women’s predominant involvement in the informal sector in many countries.  Also relevant was the lack of a business culture that allowed for women’s participation in many parts of the world.  Women were often denied credit, because they lacked the collateral to guarantee loans and also because of high interest rates.

Under those circumstances, minimal survival measures were not sufficient, the moderator of the panel, Juree Vichit-Vadakan of the National Institute of Development Administration in Bangkok, said, summarizing the debate.  In terms of economic empowerment, women needed to be in the mainstream in the allocation of resources.  Moreover, gender-sensitive budgeting was crucial, and budgeting literacy was also important.  Women needed to participate in the budgetary process, and the allocation of sufficient funds for gender-related programmes was crucial.  Also key was upward mobility for women.  “Let us not forget that empowerment of women cannot be separated from social change and political empowerment, as well,” she said.

While agreeing on the usefulness of microcredit and microfinance programmes, participants in the dialogue and today’s panellists, including the founder of a civil society group promoting women’s entrepreneurship in Cameroon, Gisele Yitamben, and Diane Elson of the University of Essex, also noted such limitations of microfinancing as cost-effectiveness and profitability.  It was also pointed out that, at some point, such programmes needed to “graduate” to the macrofinancing policy level, with Governments taking responsibility for reaching the vulnerable segments of society.

Speakers listed capacity-building, gender budgeting, good governance and creation of policies conducive to development among the “bigger picture” issues that needed to be addressed.  While appreciating numerous initiatives at the grass-roots level, the panel also challenged United Nations institutions on their responsiveness to microfinance “revolutionaries”.  In that connection, one of the panellists, Sam Daley-Harris, Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, stressed the need to confront the international community’s failure in reaching the very poor.  The promises begun to ring hollow, when the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resisted assuring that half of their microfinance funds went to families living on less than $1 a day, for example.

The panel provided a wide set of recommendations for the United Nations, particularly regarding the need to set up a dedicated and well-resourced gender entity “with clout” that would place women in decision-making positions at all levels and promote their empowerment.  Ms. Yitamben also highlighted the role of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) as a source of support for civil society “to ensure that what has been decided upon will actually reach women”, and Mr. Daley-Harris emphasized the role of the United Nations as “a sharer of best practices”.

Today’s fourth panellist, Mohamed Chafiki, Director of Financial Forecasts, Ministry of Finance and Privatization of Morocco, said that a new vision was needed to change the world through public resources.  States had a responsibility to support microcredit organizations, and gender budgeting was beginning to bear fruit, but, without support from international organizations, such initiatives would remain a technical issue.  Grass-roots participation was also important, and the United Nations should support civil society in recognizing the advantages of gender budgeting and taking advantage of it.  Without the benefit of public budgets, the goals of women’s empowerment would not be achieved.

Opening the discussion, the President of the General Assembly, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, recalled that, at the 2005 World Summit, Heads of State and Government had endorsed a global approach to achieving gender equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.  Among other things, they had also recognized that, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the Beijing Platform of Action must be implemented in full.  Investing in women contributed to national economic development and had many social benefits.  Improving women’s access to microfinance and financial services was an important element of economic empowerment.  It was also a basic human right -- and one that could be achieved quickly -- so that women were in a better position to empower themselves.

Panel Discussion

Opening the discussion, the President of the General Assembly, SHEIKHA HAYA RASHED AL KHALIFA ( Bahrain), recalled that, at the 2005 World Summit, Heads of State and Government had endorsed a global approach to achieving gender equality and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.  They had proposed three key principles to achieve those goals, recognizing that gender equality was essential to development, peace and security; that all countries had a responsibility to mainstream gender policies across economic and social programmes; and that, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the Beijing Platform of Action must be implemented in full.  By delivering on those principles and commitments, everybody stood to gain -- both men and women.

Investing in women contributed to national economic development and had many social benefits, she continued.  Ensuring equitable access to credit and financial services was an essential part of that process.  Benefits for family welfare and local development were striking when women had opportunities to increase their incomes and reduce dependency on men.  Improving women’s access to microfinance and financial services was an important element of economic empowerment.  It was also a basic human right -- and one that could be achieved quickly -- so that women were in a better position to empower themselves.

The moderator of the panel discussion, JUREE VICHIT-VADAKAN of the National Institute of Development Administration in Bangkok, said that empowerment was a complex process and there was no pre-existing model that could be used for any context.  The obstacles and barriers included long-set social practices that reinforced the formal and informal structures of inequality between men and women.  Empowerment of women was also complicated by poverty and lack of access to basic amenities and resources.  Credit and microfinance were among the issues that needed to be considered to address that issue at various levels.

Following a brief film presentation, the first panellist, SAM DALEY-HARRIS, Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, explained that Jorimon from Bangladesh had received her first microloan in 1980 when her family was living on 20 cents a day.  Over the last 28 years, her life had improved beyond her dreams.  The scandal, or failure, of international development was that it ignored the revolutionaries who broke the rules to create breakthroughs in women’s empowerment, rather than championing their innovations.  “We hide behind our assumptions, which say you can’t reach and empower the very poor, especially very poor women, you can’t achieve the impossible,” he said.

He then told the story of Ingrid Munro, the founder of “Jamii Bora”, a microfinance programme that worked in the worst slums in Nairobi.  Seven years ago, she had given loans to 50 beggars, not intending to start an institution.  Six years later, she had 120,000 savers and 65,000 borrowers.  Ingrid Munro was breaking all the rules: providing loans to beggars and criminals; employing staff with no formal training; and yet, her programme was a great success.

Providing several examples, he noted that, last year, 500 parliamentarians had written the World Bank President, the heads of the regional development banks and the Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), urging them to commit half of their microfinance funds to families living on less than $1 a day and requiring the use of cost-effective poverty measurement tools to ensure compliance.  Nothing had come of it, however.  Also last year, Bangladesh’s Ambassador had proposed a United Nations resolution endorsing the new Microcredit Summit goals for 2015, including the goal of reaching 175 million of the world’s poorest and ensuring that 100 million families rose above the $1 a day threshold, lifting half a billion people out of extreme poverty.  While the resolution had been adopted, the two goals had been taken out.

Concluding, he said it was increasingly distressing for him to see the breakthroughs achieved by the revolutionaries in contrast to the foot-dragging by bilateral and multilateral institutions in leadership positions.

GISELE YITAMBEN, founder and President of the Association pour la Soutien et l’Appui a la Femme (ASAFE), shared her experiences concerning the empowerment of women, saying that the organization she had set up supported women entrepreneurs.  Women represented about 70 per cent of the poor living on less than $1 a day, and had been left on the wayside as far as social resources and jobs were concerned.  Women also suffered from violence and prejudice.  Her country, Cameroon, was no exception in that regard.

To allow women to play a greater role in society, ASAFE had fostered their access to resources through partnerships and advocacy to dismantle the mechanisms of women’s subjugation, she continued.  Training and creation of vocational skills could be useful for women’s empowerment and generation of income.  ASAFE had started its activities with providing microcredit to women.  Access to loans became a motivation to women and brought about qualitative change.  The organization also conducted seminars on such issues as HIV/AIDS prevention and family planning.  As a result, women were becoming more self-confident and assertive and were able to make choices that could advance their standing.

“It had not all been roses, however”, she continued, because microfinancing needed to reconcile its social goals with cost-effectiveness of an institution involved.  While many women became rich, others failed, because their efforts had little value added, and loans could only be provided for a short period of time.  Stronger financing was needed.  In fact, the grass-roots organizations that sought to empower women were actually doing the job of Governments.  That was where the United Nations needed to step in to ensure the implementation of internationally agreed goals.

DIANE ELSON of the University of Essex said her basic argument was that women’s empowerment required attention to macrofinance, as well as microfinance.  By macrofinance she meant national fiscal and monetary policy, including policies on taxation, interest rates, money supply, exchange rates and capital flows.  Women needed expanding markets to sell their products.  If they were unable to sell their goods, women who had taken loans would be left with bad debts.

Microcredit was not the answer to improving the livelihoods of all women, she said.  While participants had just heard some encouraging stories, she had heard some tragic stories, including the story of a poor widow who had taken a loan to purchase assets to replace those lost in a cyclone.  She had purchased a cow and another flood had swept away that cow, but not her debt.  Although a microinsurance scheme existed, she had no proof of her purchase.  Such women would be better served by a strategy that paid attention to policies to generate decent waged work, the kind of strategy now being pursued in India through employment-guarantee schemes.  Appropriate fiscal and monetary policies were needed to keep inflation under control without neglecting waged employment.  An appropriate policy would also use public expenditure to support markets for women. 

The public sector in all countries bought goods and services from private sector enterprises, she said.  Governments needed to pay attention to ways for women to win contracts to sell their goods and services.  Employment-guarantee schemes were also needed to guarantee decent work for women and men with no other viable opportunities.  Such schemes would use fair taxation to support egalitarian households.  The balance of taxation should be fair, and goods purchased by women should not be taxed at the same rate as luxury items.  It was also necessary to address unfair international trade and financial systems.

There were alternatives, however, she said.  She was pleased to note that United Nations agencies were among those developing alternatives.  The question was how to ensure the development of macrofinance alternatives that included the idea of gender equality.  The way forward would require the development of a strong United Nations operational entity committed to gender equality, with a presence in each country and sufficient clout to interact with the leaders of world financial organizations.  The women of the world were looking to the United Nations to ensure that their efforts were supported by such a powerful entity.

The last panellist, MOHAMED CHAFIKI, Director of Financial Forecasts, Ministry of Finance and Privatization of Morocco, focused on his country’s gender-budgeting experience, saying that, while that seemed to be a technical issue, it lay at the heart of the principle of democracy.  For the first time, in 2006, the budget of Morocco had included a special annex on how it would be addressing gender-equity priorities.  In preparing its budget, Morocco had taken into account social issues, and sought to ensure consistency of public policy through better allocation of resources, while also giving parliamentarians and civil society a chance to participate in the debate on the budget. Such budgeting could set in motion a whole chain of effects on the ground.

The Government had started with the analysis of the current political situation and determined its political priorities, which had then been introduced into both strategic and budgetary planning, he said.  A budget guide had been made available to women’s organizations and parliamentarians to allow them to get better involved in the debate.  The Government had also conducted workshops, and a recent programme sought to raise awareness within various ministries and departments to better equip them for the preparation of the budget.  The budget also identified specific programmes and target populations.  Its preparation favoured reforms in the area of planning and formulation of public policies.  It also required evaluation of the impact of the budgetary changes.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) had been collaborating with Morocco’s Ministry of Finance in its budgetary efforts, he said.  In the future, he believed it was necessary to enhance international instruments and tools that could strategically improve the lives of men and women all around the world.  The reform of the United Nations system must provide space and means for the new requirements.  While such programmes as microcredit and access to education should not be underestimated, it was also necessary to address budgetary illiteracy.

Summarizing the discussion, panel moderator Ms. VICHIT-VADAKAN said the panel had challenged United Nations institutions on its responsiveness to microfinance revolutionaries.  The panel had also stressed the need for the United Nations to be more proactive in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  Panellists had emphasized the need to focus on macrofinance and develop alternatives in terms of gender macroeconomics.  They had also challenged the United Nations to be a strong player in helping to achieve the macrofinance needs of the poor, emphasizing the need to develop gender budgeting.

Speakers in the ensuing debate shared their national experiences and outlined the main challenges for the advancement of women, including bridging the space between microcredit facilities and purely commercial lending.  Women did not operate in silos, one speaker said.  Several speakers agreed with the importance of sex-disaggregated data and the need to implement gender budgeting in national budgets.  In that regard, women’s participation in decision-making positions would encourage the introduction of gender budgeting.

One speaker noted that she had not heard anything on the right to development -- a cross-cutting factor that was often marginalized in terms of human rights.  “Small islands” should not be set up in today’s globalized world, but efforts in one area should not stifle the activities in another.  Another speaker asked the panel to specifically address what the United Nations could do to help the women described by the panel.

A representative of a non-governmental organization said the outcome of the Monterrey Consensus had done little to reflect the needs of women.  Women were not only “micro”, but were “macro” as well.  The majority of women around the world were not entrepreneurs, but workers.  Upcoming conferences provided a crucial opportunity to bring women’s rights into the discussion of macroeconomic policy.

Several speakers shared their national and regional experiences, agreeing that microcredit had proven to be a valuable tool for the advancement of women.  However, it was also pointed out that microfinance and microcredit programmes should not be seen as “a permanent arrangement”.  At some point, they needed to “graduate” to the macrofinancing policy level, with Governments taking responsibility for reaching the vulnerable segments of society.

Ms. ELSON said that, while microfinancing was generally advantageous, it also had certain limitations.  Financing by the State and programmes to provide employment guarantees should also be added to the repertoire of actions to empower women.

Mr. CHAFIKI said that there had been a boom of microcredit programmes across the world, with over 3,000 such organizations now functioning around the globe.  That was a meaningful development, but there were also issues of profitability and poor people’s eligibility within the banking system.  A new vision was needed to change the world through public resources.  States had a responsibility to support microcredit organizations, so they could reach the poorest people, even in the most remote areas.  Gender budgeting was beginning to bear fruit at the local level, but, without support from international organizations, such initiatives would remain a technical issue.  Grass-roots participation was also important, and the United Nations should support the civil society in recognizing the advantages of gender budgeting and taking advantage of it.  Without the benefit of public budgets, the goals of women’s empowerment would not be achieved.

Ms. YITAMBEN said that the question of cost-effectiveness should not prevail over other considerations.  As for the role of international organizations, UNIFEM was a source of support for civil society to ensure that what had been decided upon would actually reach women.  In that connection, Mr. DALEY-HARRIS also emphasized the role of the United Nations as “a sharer of best practices”.

Among the factors that still hindered empowerment of women and their entrepreneurship, speakers noted traditional attitudes, segregation in the labour markets and women’s predominant involvement in the informal sector in many countries.  Also relevant was the lack of a business culture that allowed for women’s participation in many parts of the world.  Women were often denied credit, because they lacked the collateral to guarantee loans, and also because of high interest rates.  For that reason, a recent meeting of African ministers responsible for gender issues had stressed income-producing activities and mobilizing resources to create businesses, a speaker said.

Echoing the sentiments expressed during yesterday’s discussion, as part of United Nations reform, the participants once again stressed the importance of creating a dedicated and well-resourced gender entity within the Organization; a gender entity that would place women in decision-making positions at all levels and promote their empowerment.  Speakers also emphasized the importance of regional arrangements, with one delegate outlining the initiatives of the Arab Women’s Association that had been created under the aegis of the League of Arab States.

A representative of UNIFEM said national action plans for women and gender-equality policies needed to be linked to national development plans and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.  In addition, the lessons learned from analysing macroeconomic policies also applied to policies in the area of official development assistance.  Gender-responsive budgeting had changed the way national budgets were reviewed.

Responding to comments, Ms. YITAMBEN said there was no passage between micro- and macrofinance.  Both institutions needed to exist simultaneously.

Ms. ELSON, also responding to that issue, said it was very important for the United Nations system and Governments to understand that the policies that would reduce the poverty of men and boys were not the same as policies that would affect poor women and girls.  Different policies were needed.

Mr. DALEY-HARRIS agreed that poor women should have access to commercial banks.  In terms of a strategy, however, he would again emphasize his revolutionary approach.  In establishing the Grameen Bank, its founder had done the exact opposite of the commercial banks by providing small loans to women.  Rules had had to be broken in order for microfinance to exist.

One speaker noted that the International Year of Microcredit in 2005 had moved the discussion from a sole focus on microcredit to the broader issue of microfinance, which included savings.   Following the Year, the United Nations had established an advisory group on inclusive financial sectors.  Valuable things were happening at the United Nations.  Another speaker asked the panel to comment on the issue of mentoring and technical assistance to the credit receiver.

One speaker stressed the need to facilitate women’s access to information technology.  Her Government had strengthened women’s capacity in that regard by fostering an environment that was conducive to information technology access.  It was also providing training for women who wanted to start web-based businesses.  Another element of microfinance concerned women farmers.

Ms. ELSON said the theme of empowerment and self-organization was an important strand in the discussion on microfinance.  It involved the self-organization of poor people, and not dependence on someone else.  It was necessary to transfer that message to the many women not benefiting from microfinance, but who were wage workers.  It was also necessary to support the self-organization of wage workers, including the right to free association.

Mr. DALEY-HARRIS said the challenge was to confront the international community’s failure in reaching the very poor.  It began to ring hollow when the World Bank and UNDP resisted assuring that half of their microfinance funds went to families living on less than $1 a day.

Ms. YITAMBEN said the issue of mentoring was important.  Perhaps it had not been addressed due to lack of time.  People always learned more through case studies.

Mr. CHAFIKI agreed with the need to provide a context for microfinancing experience through national training programmes.  It was possible to “think upstream” with respect to the issue of microfinance.  Morocco, for example, was changing its agricultural policy, as a large number of farmers produced low-yield crops.  He agreed that it was necessary to take stock of areas of failure.  In order to succeed, microfinance needed to be predicated on capacity-building and policies that were conducive to development.

A speaker expressed concern regarding assessment and evaluation of microcredit’s impact on women’s empowerment.  The results were controversial, split between success and failure, and the United Nations should promote evaluation of such programmes.  Women researchers and advocates needed to understand the economic and budgetary aspects involved, and the Organization needed to ensure that women were properly trained to grasp the issues involved.

Also emphasizing the Organization’s guidance role, another participant said the United Nations could provide assistance, for example, in determining specific policies for best possible utilization of the $10 billion poverty reduction fund that had been set up by the Islamic Development Bank.

Mr. CHAFIKI said that today’s discussion had strengthened his conviction that the issues of women’s empowerment were complex and required focused attention.  The issue should be tackled in all its aspects, while also looking at the context, which was vital for changing the dynamics.  An effort should be made to bring together micro- and macroeconomic policies to tackle inequality.  Financial resources, political mobilization and the creation of training institutions were among the measures needed.

Ms. ELSON stressed the need to think of new forms of bringing together “the private and the public” and the importance of challenging the traditional attitudes and conventional wisdom to develop innovative programmes for the advancement of women.

Ms. YITAMBEN said that what remained to be done was much greater than what had been achieved.  Women needed to organize better, so they could contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, but, at the same time, a strengthened international entity “with clout” was needed to promote gender equality.

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For information media • not an official record