Authorities discuss impact of global crisis on gender equality
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The impacts of the economic crisis on gender equality were discussed at a conference this week organized by the UNDP Georgia project “Gender and Politics,” supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Georgian parliament.
The conference focused on ways to integrate gender aspects into macro-economic policies.
The major topics were the impacts of the global crisis on gender equality, controversial aspects of macro-economic policies and ways to achieve stability, social justice and gender equality.
International and local organizations, state officials, policymakers, local authorities, NGOs focusing on women’s issues, experts and academic institutions participated.
Vice Parliamentary Speaker and Gender Advisory Council Chairwoman Rusudan Kervalishvili said at the conference that there is a “huge” problem with gender equality, and referenced the importance of a pending law on the issue, which will be heard by parliament in the near future.
“It will help to achieve social equality between women and men at all levels and will aid women to achieve the social level that they deserve,” Kervalishvili said.
European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Deputy Minister Tamar Beruchashvili agreed that gender issues are important and should be mentioned in the government’s action plan.
“The Gender Dimension of Financial Policy in Georgia,” a new source of information to help further educate influential parties on the issue.
As is noted in the publication, infrastructural development is of critical importance for society. Speaking about the issue of consumer interest protection, “major attention is paid to the energy policy and involvement of women in the energy sector management at all levels,” but it is less common at present.
International evidence shows that the “encouragement of renewable energy resource initiatives supports the establishment of gender equality, as access to renewable energy resources alleviative women’s labor and, hence, they have more time for their professional development and leisure,” the publication states.
Gender orientation of financial policy is also necessary to provide equal opportunities for career advancement of both men and women. The budget should provide an answer as to how the sphere of women’s employment has increased in state and municipal sectors. According to the publication, the average number of employees in the three ministries from 2005-2008 reveals certain increases in vertical segregation.
As state budget spending in previous years was focused on improving employment among men, the “question arises as to what extent the incomes of people employed in the care economy had increased,” the document reads. “It is necessary to conduct a financial analysis in this direction to prevent the poverty program from becoming a declared strategy and maintain a rational balance between the social sector and other sphere of state funding.”
The “Resolution of the Conference on the Global Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development,” which was held in June in New York, noted that particularly women and children suffer and die of hunger, malnutrition and preventable or curable disease during financial crises, and suffer from the rise in unemployment. Women also face greater income insecurity and increased burdens of family care.
“Women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable jobs, to be underemployed or without a job, to lack social protection, and to have limited access to and control over economic and financial resources,” UN Undersecretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said at the 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which took place at the UN Headquarters in March 2009 in New York. “Policy responses to the financial crisis must take gender equality perspectives into account to ensure, for example, that women as well as men can benefit from employment creation and investments in social infrastructure.”
Liene Veide
24.07.2009 |
