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Programme |
Engendering Economic Policies in a Globalising World | September 1 - 7 in Berlin
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Globalisation has impacted upon gender relations in complex and contradictory ways, and gender inequalities are fundamentally shaping the global political economy. The world market is based on an increasing international division of labour, but as well on the the gendered division of labour. Women are specifically affected by economic and other crisis situations, since they are the main care providers in the households and communities while they lack livelihood rights, and the gender bias in the allocation of resources persists. The liberalisation of trade relations has also increased the “feminisation of the labour force”, such that more women are income earners but at the same time more jobs are precarious, informal and without social protection. Women have been active in campaigning for global economic justice and gender equality. They have taken the initiative in exploring theoretically and empirically new ways of engendering macroeconomic and international trade policies, and have analysed the implications for specific macroeconomic policy questions within democratic governance frameworks. A large gap continues to exist between government commitments of the Beijing Platform of Action, which was ratified by 189 governments at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, and the “silencing” of gender issues in the agendas of the WTO and IMF. Focus on Agricultural Politics However, contrary to the articulated intention to balance needs and interests of agriculture-based and industry-based, of import- and export-oriented countries, and provide Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) for developing countries, inequities and distortions in trade persist: OECD countries continued their high levels of protection and maintained high tariffs, in the wake of a protective farm bill, the USA increased subsidies substantially, while developing countries were forced to reduce tariffs and remove their import restrictions. The globalisation of agriculture and food systems is directed towards industrialised export production which normally externalises social and ecological costs and enhances the expansion of transnational corporations. Exactly, this system has failed to feed the world, and to globalise food security. End of 2003, the FAO had to state that hunger is on the increase again. Critics blame the AoA to be a root cause of this problem instead of being the solution.
The negotiations on agriculture are considered to be the key to the conclusion of the Doha Round. At the 5th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Cancun in September 2003, the denial of Northern countries to reduce their export subsidies and their domestic support was the main reason for the collapse of the negotiations. At the “package” negotiations in Geneva in July 2004, which the WTO praised to be a win-win-game, countries of the North made some vague promises on agricultural reform in exchange for the opening of markets in developing countries for manufactured goods and service companies from abroad. Accordingly, commitments on Special and Differential Treatment for developing countries were unsatisfactory. Agriculture, food security and ultimately the right to food become part of a trade off within the WTO regime. The AoA is far and away from referring to the right to food as normative principle, and from setting up a regulatory regime for the sake of sustainable, environmentally sound agriculture and fair trade. The equitable balancing of needs and interests is still pending in the post-Doha round of the WTO, the promise of development largely disregarded. At the same time, a differentiation of interests among countries of the South can be observed which lead to new political alliances and power formations. Critics from civil society and peasant organisations demand to take agriculture out of the WTO regime. Due to its focus on free trade at all costs, WTO seems to be not in a position to provide the appropriate mechanisms and regulations to ensure food security. They advocate for the establishment of an alternative system of agricultural production and distribution which should be based on food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and fair trade. Regarding gender and food security, presently discourses move into two directions:
1) Capacity building on free trade in agriculture and food, on power relations within the WTO-regime, and the progressive liberalisation of the agricultural sector from a gender perspective,
The purpose of the workshops is to exchange information on ongoing liberalisation of the agricultural markets in various regions of the world, and share experiences about successful political campaigns and interventions. They provide the space to the participants to assess and connect their knowledge on agricultural policies in their respective countries as well as their attempts to revisit the concept of food security and their political strategies. This aims at encouraging the participants to network on the various topics in future. The Summer School 2005 will take place from September 1-7 with around 50 participants from different regions of the world. Programme issues
Immediately after the Summer School, September 8th to 10th, HBF will organise in Berlin an international conference “Femme Globale - Gender Perspectives in the 21.Century”. All participants of the Summer School are invited to join the international conference.
Participants are expected to come from different regions of the world, with different political and academic background, and various work experiences, from NGOs, universities, or public institutions. Interested participants, women and men, will be selected according to geographic regions and some prior knowledge of trade and financial global issues, agricultural politics, and gender dimensions. Conference language will be English. Please fill in the enclosed application form and e-mail it back with your CV of max. 5 pages by March 31st, 2005 to summerschool@boell.de. You will receive the confirmation for your participation not later than May 15th, 2005. Participants have to pay a contribution of 100 Euro. The material for the Summer School, accommodation (double bed rooms), food, and – if necessary – health insurance valid for Germany will be covered by HBF. Some fellowships to cover travel expenses, visa and the participation fee are available on special requests. Application Form: Application Form >> Download PDF Contact: In cooperation with: HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN - AGRICULTURAL-HORTICULTURAL FACULTY - CENTRE FOR ADVANCED TRAINING IN RURAL - DEVELOPMENT (SLE) Heinrich Boell Foundation
Aktualisiert: 03.08.2006 |
The Summer School 2005 of Heinrich-Boell-Foundation, the third one on “Engendering Economic Policies in a Globalising World”, will focus on the WTO-Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), on the progressive liberalisation in the agricultural sector and the globalisation of free trade in food. Women are specially affected by agricultural politics as small-scale farmers, as workers on fields, in food production and the trade chain, as consumers, and providers of care and nutrition in private households. The multilateral Agreement on Agriculture has been one of the most controversial issues within the WTO, and it will be once again a highly contested area at the forthcoming WTO-Ministerial-meeting in December 2005 in Hong Kong. 
It is obvious that trade liberalisation has different impacts on different agricultural economies, on different social groups of farmers within economies, and on gender. Due to the gender specific division of labour in agriculture and a strong male bias in the control and allocation of resources within the households, women and men are differently affected by trade liberalisation. Liberalisation tends to benefit large-scale farmers, commercial producers, trade corporations, and sometimes medium farmers. At the same time, trade distortions by the industrialised countries such as export subsidies and dumping of food crops in the south have the most adverse impact on small-scale farmers in the south, and on the livelihoods of women farmers. It is women farmers who lack resource rights, in particular rights to land and water, as well as access to credit, agricultural extension services and technology. Their production for subsistence and local markets gets undermined by the export oriented structural adjustment programmes and outcompeted by trade liberalisation. These gender inequalities influence the agricultural productivity, trade performance as well as food security in different countries. Macro-economic structures and policies have an effect on micro-economic conditions and gendered resource rights, labour and livelihoods, and vice versa.