50th Session Issues
Development Projects to Promote Economic Empowerment of Women
by
Daniel Sommerstein
"Despite all our technological breakthroughs, we still live in a world where a fifth of the developing world's population goes hungry every night, a quarter lack access to even a basic necessity like safe drinking water, and a third lives in a state of abject despair -- at such a margin of human existence that words simply fail to describe it." - UNDP Human Development Report, 1994
Poverty will continue to plague the world into the next millennium. In fact, the situation for the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty (living on less than US$1 per day) is not improving much at all. Worldwide we see the problem of feminization of poverty: 900 million of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty are women. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) reports that women earn a meager 10% of the world's aggregate income, and own less than 10% of the property. The evidence is clear -- women do not have access to the same opportunities as do men. Poverty is the leading cause of death. Due to chronic malnutrition and hunger-related diseases, 35,000 children die every day -- almost 13 million children could live beyond the age of five if we found a way to eradicate poverty. Poverty of women often leads to higher birth rates and the physical and social underdevelopment of their children -- a global problem. We find it across the world, both in industrialized and developing nations, though the majority of the poor live in developing nations. A third of the world's poorest 20% live in India and China. Action needs to be taken, and taken soon. Below, three subareas of development projects to promote economic empowerment of women will be discussed: habitat, agriculture, and microcredit.
Habitat
The poorest of the poor are women, and a vast majority of them live in conditions that are devastating to their own health and their children's health. Though habitat is normally the field for the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), UNCHS, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) must work closely with the UNCHS to develop programs to eradicate poverty. The UNCHS has stated that: "The good of human settlements development is to improve the living environments of all people, making habitats healthy, safe and sustainable for women and men, young and old alike." The Centre launched the Women in Human Settlements Development Programme (WHSDP) in 1990. The objective is to promote advancement of women in human settlements development and management. The reason for focusing on women is that, until recently, policy makers have not considered that women often do not have equal opportunities to resources and education, while having less power over decision-making in the household, and they have assumed that the family is of nuclear kind and that the man is the "breadwinner."
Urban poverty is a problem around the world. Women are commonly worse off than men. Some reasons for this include women's location in the labor market (worst paid and insecure jobs), unequal control of resources and assets, and less decision-making power within the household. Housing is a basic human right. This was highlighted in a joint statement by UNCHS, WHSDP, Habitat International Coalition (HIC), Grassroots Organizations Operating Together for Sisterhood (GROOTS), and International Council of Women (ICW) for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in September of 1995. They noted that: "The fact that women are not equitably involved in the decision-making of the design of the home, the choice of the area to live in, the planning and development of the neighborhood and even more importantly, the planning, developing, and maintenance of their villages, towns and cities, makes the world further removed from achieving the right kind of sustainable development for its families and communities."
There have been several resolutions passed on this : Resolution 13/13 of the Thirteenth Commission on Human Settlements, Resolution 14/14 of the Fourteenth Commission on Human Settlements, Resolution 15/3 of the Fifteenth Commission on Human Settlements, along with General Assembly Resolution 43/181 of 20 December 1998, all of which support and enhance women's participation, opportunities, and other areas of economic empowerment. Areas that still need to be addressed include: education, decision-making in the household, access to services and infrastructure, access to land and housing, and discrimination issues.
Women in Agriculture
Related to the issue of habitat is that of agriculture. Access to land seems to be the common denominator. There are many areas in which women, historically, have been struggling. Women play a very important role in agriculture around the world. They often support the family operation and sometimes run their own farms.
In order to meet the needs of women in agriculture, share experiences, and to network, the First International Conference on Women in Agriculture (ICWA) was held in July of 1994, in Melbourne, Australia. It had support from governments, philanthropic groups, corporations, and NGOs -- a very powerful combination. Issues discussed included: environmental concerns, developing new skills, getting access to information and networks, and raising awareness of women's contributions in agriculture and of economic, social, legal, and cultural factors affecting their status. A second ICWA was held in Washington, D.C., and a third one will be held in Spain in 2002.
Problems in acquiring land for women are widespread, but seem to be worst in Africa. Hindering access to credit, land ownership, technology, marketing, and training, are all sources of serious constraints on national development. There are needs for more women in decision-making positions, better organization of women in agricultural organizations, and for women's unpaid work to be recognized in both official statistics and the calculation of GDP. In Iran, 1991 statistics show that only 8.5% of rural women are economically active. This number is clearly a misrepresentation of rural labor market characteristics.
Many women in developing countries farm in the city. In the capital of Peru, Lima, 80% of urban farmers are housewives. In other countries, such as Brazil and China, men do most urban farming, generally because of constraints on women's opportunities to do so. One example of a successful urban farming project is in Kinshasa, Zaire, where one community operates cooperative fish ponds, orchards, poultry raising, erosion control, and vegetable growing. The men manage the income-generating parts, while the women manage the parts for home consumption. While this is a good example of how a community successfully can work for increased production, there is much need for outside aid to help people start similar self-help projects.
Microcredit
Probably the most promising solution to ending poverty and enabling people to work their way into a sustainable, improved situation is called microcredit. One organization defines microcredit as "programs that extend small loans and other financial and business services to very poor people for self-employment projects that generate income allowing them to care for themselves and their families." The following example will illustrate what that means.
Mary Akoth from Kenya is a 38-year-old single mother with 5 children. After attending an AFRICA NOW training she received a loan of 200 Kenyan Shillings (US$4) from that organization. She used the money to start trading foods on the roadside. After being able to request a small plot of land from the county council, she built a temporary kiosk. Three years later she hired two people to help with the business. Today, Mary makes a profit of Ksh 400 every day and employs three people. The example illustrates a success story and shows us that much can be accomplished if the will and know-how are there, and small financial loans are available. Microcredit provides exactly this. The power of people is incredible and with some assistance they can work their way out of absolute poverty. In fact, in July of 1996 the president of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn, said the following about microcredit: "[M]icrocredit programs have brought the vibrancy of the market economy to the poorest villages and people of the world. This business approach to the alleviation of poverty has allowed millions of individuals to work their way out of poverty with dignity."
Microcredit is a dynamic approach to global poverty eradication. The example above shows a common scenario in the developing world. In transitional economies (from socialist and communist to market economy) poor people are suffering from unemployment, underpayment, and even withheld salaries. Women's situation is continually getting worse. Regular banks and financial institutions will not lend to people with bad or no credit, or without collateral. Microcredit can be a powerful tool to help stumbling economies recover and strengthen, while making the lives of millions better. It can also be a tool for helping poor in the developed world. In the United States, 43% of the net new jobs created between 1990 to 1994 were microbusinesses with one to four employees and in France (1994) 40% of the enterprises created were created by unemployed people. Loans, support services, and networking opportunities are important factors to a successful business and which microcredit systems can provide. Another feature of microcredit programs a safe place for savings to be kept. Savings offer stability and emergency reserves that the poor seldom enjoy. It leads to a higher standard of living, too. In a UNICEF-supported microcredit program in Vietnam, 97% of the daughters of the borrowers attended school. For non-borrowers the number was 73%. One attainable goal is for the borrowers to own the financial institutions themselves. One NGO developed a list of characteristics for successful programs, including making programs available for women, simple procedures for approving loans, quick disbursement, low interest rates, encouraging and accepting savings, access to business information, expertise, and advice to microentreprenuers. The idea is for these new financial institutions to become financially independent, but in order to get there, initially there is a great need for funding, preferably in the form of grants and donations from corporations, NGOs, governments, and the United Nations. The UNDP has started so-called "micro start" pilot projects, predominately in developing countries, but there is significant need for more. Microcredit should be considered a socially-responsible business, not looked upon as charity or social welfare. If handled correctly, microcredit may be our most powerful tool in helping people out of poverty. Women can be economically independent, gain a higher status and standard of living, while feeding their children nutritional food and giving them hope for a brighter future.
Sources
- Feminist.com: http://www.feminist.com/global.htm
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): http://www.fao.org/docrep/V9103e/v9103e01.htm
- A Global Agenda 1998-1999. UNA-USA/Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.
- Global Fund for Women: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org
- Global News for Rural Women: http://werple.net.au/~faawagri/global/index.html
- Microcredit Summit: http://www.microcreditsummit.org/declaration.htm
- UN Centre for Human Settlements: http://habitat.unchs.org/unchs/english/women
- United Nations Development Program Gender: http://www.undp.org/toppages/gender/genframe.htm
- United Nations Fund for Women: http://www.unifem.undp.org/economic.htm
- UN WomenWatch: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/
- United States Information Agency Resources for Women: http://www.usia.gov/topical/global/women/women.htm
- Womensnet: http://www.igc.org/igc/womensnet
- World Bank GenderNet: http://www.worldbank.org/gender