brief 10 eastern africa

Brief 10

By Zo Randriamaro1

Preamble

This series of briefs entitled The crisis’ impact on women’s rights, published by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), includes sub-regional perspectives on the

impacts seen to date of the current crisis on women and women’s rights as well as those likely to come. These sub-regional analyses are a key input from women activists and analysts to inform development debates and decisions that are being made to respond to the crisis. The series also includes a cross-regional and global analysis.

We know that women are at the center of the fallout from the current crisis, which itself combines interlocking crises: a global economic recession, the devastating effects of climate change, and a deepening food and energy crisis. All of this is compounding the increasing poverty and inequality in different parts of the world, as well as the impacts of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. At the same time, traditional power relations among international players are shifting, the so-called ‘middle income countries’ with the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) assuming greater power (Brazil and China have become creditors of the United States, and important investors in the International Monetary Fund, and all of them hold some of the most important sources of reserves of the world). The current situation, a result of aggressive free-market capitalism pursued in the past decades, calls into sharp question dominant—and even many of the so-called alternative—models for development. The crisis is not new for

1 Zo Randriamaro is a human rights and feminist activist from Madagascar. She is a development sociologist by training and has authored several published papers on gender, economic trade and global governance issues. She has served as an expert for international organizations as well as the major United Nations agencies, and has been involved in global advocacy around these issues. She is currently the Training Coordinator for DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women For a New Era).

The Impact of the Systemic Crisis on Women in Eastern Africa

The crisis’ impact on women’s rights: sub-regional perspectives

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The Systemic crisis’ impact on women: sub regional perspectives

most of the developing countries that have struggled with crises in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and beginning of 2000’s. This crisis, however, reached global proportions when it impacted hegemonic economies and their role in global arenas and put in evidence the interconnectedness of the diverse realities of countries in this globalized world.

This systemic crisis poses a huge challenge for governments, donors and every development practitioner, activist and policy-maker to reinvent the system in the long term, and reduce the negative impacts in the short and medium terms. In this sense, as many have said, the crisis also represents a historic opportunity to be bold, creative and attempt to right the wrongs of neoliberal development. As the crisis is now a driving force behind many development choices and processes (from the global to the local), and will shape approaches to development for years to come, the role of women and gender equality as a central goal must not be further overlooked. This is not simply because women are among those most negatively impacted by these crises, but also because they are key development players in most communities around the world, as well as relevant and vital actors in proposing effective approaches to mitigate the impacts of the crisis and expand the fulfillment of human rights, environmental sustainability and development commitments around the world. The exclusion of women, gender equality and women’s rights as central to these processes is unacceptable and should be used as an indicator of the seriousness of proposed responses.

In preparation for the United Nations (UN) High Level Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development (New York from June 24th to 26th 2009), several women’s rights groups expressed their concerns about the impacts of the crisis on women’s lives2 and their rights and the limitations of the actual responses to the crisis implemented or proposed so far. The Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, of which AWID is a member, has been very active and committed to promoting the UN’s pivotal role as the legitimate space to address the crisis from a truly inclusive multilateral perspective.3

AWID is committed to engaging with and supporting collective initiatives to influence this process, as well as building alliances with actors from other social movements. Solutions that have been defined by the same actors who produced this financial and economic meltdown are unacceptable. Responses to the crisis must emerge from broad processes where both government and civil society engage in dialogue that is both enriching and makes decision-making more responsive to people’s needs and the fulfillment of human rights. Both civil society and governments from all countries of the world, including low-income countries, should be central actors included in this global policy dialogue process. Multilateral venues under the UN are the most inclusive and balanced spaces existing in the international system, and the only spaces with clear mechanisms for the participation of developing countries and civil society actors.

2 See the statement: The G20 committed to save the global economy at the cost of women, November 17, 2008, 11th AWID International Forum, from http://www.awid.org/eng/Enjeux-et-Analyses/Library/LE-G20-DECIDE-A-SAUVER-L-ECONOMIE-MONDIALE-AUX-DEPENS-DES-FEMMES/(language)/eng-GB3 Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, Statement from the Second Women’s Consultation convened by the WWG on FfD in New York from April 24-26, 2009 from http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/A-call-for-struc-tural-sustainable-gender-equitable-and-rights-based-responses-to-the-global-financial-and-economic-crisis

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Whatever the proposals and responses that emerge from such high level processes - they must be informed by analysis on how these trends are playing out in communities and how the impacts are differentiated among women and men and across different sectors. Allocation of resources for these responses must also be implemented in a way that takes into account the gender dynamics at play, and ensures that key social development sectors, such as health or education, are not the ones to be defunded for the sake of economic growth and financial stability. The very social development achievements that have been made in the last two decades, as limited as they are, are currently at stake, if the focus of responses to the crisis is only economic growth and a return to ‘business as usual’. In this sense, women’s rights and gender equality commitments made by governments and other actors, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action, the Millennium Development Goals must not be trade-offs in the definition of responses to the crisis.

It is in that spirit, that the authors of the briefs included in this series accepted the challenge to explore answers to the following questions:

• Considering the diversity of situations in which women live, what are the main challenges for women in your sub-region in the context of the current crisis? • Can you identify concrete actions or initiatives (responses to the crisis) that have already had either negative and/or positive impacts on women’s lives?• Are women’s groups in your region experiencing increased discrimination as a direct or indirect result of the financial crisis? • If stimulus packages are not inclusive of human rights and gender equality perspectives then are there any alternatives so that these packages are reshaped in order to include gender and rights dimensions?• If the governments of the region/sub region (or regional bodies) have not set up any stimulus packages or measures yet: what do you expect will be the impact of not tackling the crisis in a timely way at the national and regional level?• What are potential future impacts on women in your region in the context of a global recession? Which are the most outstanding weaknesses of the region in regards to the economic crisis?• The UN Stiglitz Commission4 and the G20 are trying to identify international initiatives to reduce the impact of the crisis on development. Do you think these global initiatives consider challenges confronted by women, and how to help women in your region face the crisis?

The sub-regional analyses presented in this Series are an initial attempt to contribute to identifying challenges, potential responses and proposals from a women’s rights perspective, that builds on the different realities and impacts the crisis is having on different regions of the world. The analyses also aim to contribute to grounding responses to the crisis in gender equality and women’s rights and promoting a profound transformation for a more inclusive and democratic international system. Various regions raised common areas of concern that reflect common challenges for women’s rights around the world.

4 See the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development Statements on the Stiglitz Commission from http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/Women-s-Working-Group-on-FFD-Contributions-to-the-Stiglitz-Commission/(language)/eng-GB and the Stiglitz Recommendations from http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=cfr

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A lack of gender equality perspectives in the stimulus packages or policy responses to the crisis at the national level seems to be commonplace, as well as how women are particularly affected because of their strong participation in the informal economy, and the non-recognition of their unpaid and reproductive work, as well as the high levels of discrimination and inequality they face. Amongst other important issues raised, these common findings call for a new understanding of the role of the state and how it affects women in particular through the care economy (in relation to the key reproductive roles that women play which sustain the current economic system at their peril), but also in terms of advancing the decent work agenda. When the role of the state was reduced, several of the social functions previously performed by the state - healthcare, caretaking and education - were absorbed by women across regions, usually in addition to their paid work. Thus, women have disproportionately shouldered the burden of the consequences of state reduction, particularly as they relate to the fulfillment of economic and social rights (such as housing, health and education).5

If a post-neoliberalism era is emerging, the new international system should build on community, national, regional and global experiences of development actors, and on historic women’s rights agendas. These longstanding struggles should be reinterpreted and communicated broadly to promote alternative thinking around responses to the crisis.

Today we call for holistic responses to the systemic crisis. In doing so, our own efforts (amongst women’s movements and organizations) for building alternative discourses and influencing the international system must be grounded in different kinds of knowledge (informal and formal). Our alternative discourse should also be based on a holistic/cross-cutting approach, ensuring full space for the voices of the most excluded groups.6

Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)

5 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE STRATEGY MEETING: To follow-up efforts on Aid Effectiveness, gender equality and the impact of the crisis on women, 6-7 August 2009, New York, Edited by Cecilia Alemany (AWID).6 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE STRATEGY MEETING: To follow-up efforts on Aid Effectiveness, gender equality and the impact of the crisis on women, 6-7 August 2009, New York, Edited by Cecilia Alemany (AWID).

Copyright ©Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), October, 2009Author: Zo Randriamaro

Coordination: Cecilia AlemanyEdition: Natalie Raaber and Rochelle Jones

Proof- Reading: Karen Murray Production: Michele Knab

Graphic design and layout: Miriam Amaro (sicdos.org.mx)

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1. The Perspective of the Voiceless: “What Crisis?”

Despite the widespread view that the Africa region is immune to the impacts of the global financial and economic crises because of its under-developed financial markets and ‘incomplete globalization’, there is now ample evidence of the crises’ large and differentiated impacts on African countries and the men and women within them. This paper provides an overview of the varying gender impacts of the global financial and economic crises in the specific context of countries with different economic structures and levels of develop-ment. Economic structures such as commodity export-dependent models with a focus on mineral and oil-exporting, oil-importing, net food importing, and conflict and post-conflict countries in Southern, Eastern and Central Africa.

The analysis of the impacts of the financial and economic crises should start with the ac-knowledgement of the chronic crisis that is confronting most African countries since the end of the 1970s, and is manifested in the per-sistent and high levels of poverty across the continent. Thus, as reported by the media, the answer from ordinary men and women who were asked what they think about the finan-cial and economic crisis was predominantly “what crisis?” Such an answer from people who have been living in poverty for decades comes as no surprise, and points to the fact that before this crisis, there was an underlying crisis rooted in the contradictions of the current global development paradigm, nota-bly widening income inequality whereby the richest 1% of the world population received as much as the entire bottom 57%.

This underlying crisis is also linked to the post-colonial legacy that confines most African economies in Southern, Eastern and Central Africa to the production of a few primary commodities, which makes them particu-larly vulnerable to the volatility of commodity prices in the international market. Moreover,

their vulnerability to the impacts of the global economic crisis is heightened by their debt burden and dependence on aid, combined with the deleterious effects of political crises and civil conflicts in several countries (Zimbabwe, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, etc.)

Cutting across the different sectors and inter-twined with the different forms of social and economic inequalities, there is also a history of continuing gender discrimination that accounts for another pre-existing crisis in the care economy which is mainly performed by women. This crisis, which has been largely neglected, is reflected in the human development and poverty indicators in the Africa region, where women constitute the large majority among the poorest segments of the population. They are also over-represented among the groups that are most vulnerable to the nega-tive consequences of the crises because of their lack of access to human, social, natural and financial capital, as well as their lack of voice and participation in financial and eco-nomic governance. These vulnerable groups include households and individuals living in poverty, landless and smallholder farmers, and informal workers - especially the survivalist segments of the informal economy.

In addition to these underlying trends being ignored and not documented, the absence of gender-disaggregated data also implies that it is difficult to disentangle the effects and impacts that directly result from the financial and economic crisis, from those which are due to pre-existing trends and factors.

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2. The Background and Transmission of the Financial and Economic Crisis

The Background of the Financial and Economic Crisis7

The negative impacts of the global financial and economic crisis on African countries are increasingly apparent, with an expected eco-nomic growth rate of 2.8% in 2009, less than half of the 5.7% estimated for 2008 (OECD, 2009). These impacts must be considered against the backdrop of the deleterious con-sequences of the climate, energy and food crises, and the dearth of social protection systems in most African countries. It is also critically important to recognize and address the inter-connections between these global crises, as well as the significant variability between countries, within countries, and with-in communities in oil-exporting, oil-importing, net food-importing, and conflict and post-conflict countries.

Oil-exporting countries

The commodity most affected by the volatility of prices is crude oil, which experienced price declines of more than 50% between February 2008 and February 2009 (AU and UNECA, 2009). While the negative effects of the food price hikes on the terms of trade of oil-exporting countries have been offset by rising fuel ex-port prices, the challenges for these countries derive from increased foreign exchange inflows, which have led to real exchange rate appreciation in 70% of these countries (AU and UNECA, 2008), making their exports less competitive. Most importantly from a gender perspective, the increase in oil revenues and currency appreciation have fostered greater domestic demand, which has increased prices, including the prices of basic consumer goods. Thus, while the contribution of food price hikes to inflation has been smaller than in other countries, poor women and men also suffer from inflation, just like in other countries. The negative impacts of inflation on poor

women and men’s incomes and well-being are aggravated by the failure to use oil revenues for domestic investment, including in public infrastructure and job creation AU and UNECA, 2008.

Oil-importing countries

Persistent high oil prices in the recent period have considerably increased the import bill of oil-importing countries, especially since the relative decline in oil prices has not been entirely passed through to domestic markets. The food price hike has further increased their expenditure needs, resulting in the need for these countries – especially those with limited access to financial markets – to make substantial and painful reductions in consumption, investment and non-oil import spending. As it is well known from previous experiences, reductions in public spending are likely to affect the essential social services that are most needed by poor people, espe-cially women. At the community and household level, the poverty impact of the food crisis in net food and oil-importing countries is com-pounded by the effects of rising fuel prices. These effects are generally less than those of food prices, since household energy con-sumption shares are much smaller, around 10% (World Bank, 2008; IMF 2008). However, because the bulk of petroleum is consumed indirectly by poor households through a wide range of other goods and services that use petroleum products as inputs, especially transport, their real incomes are affected by the indirect effect of higher oil prices for such products and services.

Net food-importing countries

In the face of the food crisis, a basis for major concern is that “nearly all countries with the

7 This section draws heavily on the interim draft of a pa-per commissioned by the UNDP Gender Team on “Gender equality and the global food, fuel and financial crises: a per-spective from Africa”. The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this draft paper.

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lowest capacity to import (measured by the value of food imports as a share of foreign ex-change reserves) are in Africa” (World Bank, 2008). Foreign exchange reserves are rapidly falling in countries like Tanzania and Rwanda, which gravely constrain their capacity to respond to higher food and fuel prices. Moreover, FAO forecasts that low-income food-deficit coun-tries – including many African countries - will see their import bills soar by more than 40% in 2008-2009 (HLTF, 2008). This trend will increase the strain on their budget and may lead to macroeconomic policy responses such as tighter fiscal and monetary policies and over-valued exchange rates.

In order to accommodate the additional fiscal costs generated by the need to respond to rising food prices, countries such as Eritrea and Djibouti are likely to reduce public spending and implement tax reforms, most probably by increasing taxation. Such measures are likely to affect women disproportionately, by re-ducing their access to essential public servi-ces, while increasing their unpaid care work to compensate for the services that Governments no longer provide. If the fiscal policies that will be adopted in response to the crisis favour regressive taxation (such as VAT and indirect taxes), then poor women’s real incomes will also be negatively impacted.

Conflict and post-conflict countries

Conflict and post-conflict countries, as well as those located in the agro-ecological zones that are particularly affected by climate change, are characterised by very fragile livelihoods, and are at very high risk in the face of higher food prices. In such contexts, the food crisis combined with long-term stresses caused by conflicts and climate change, can further increase people’s vulnerability and deepen poverty, especially among women and children. Food riots suggest that in the absence of ap-propriate responses, conflicts may be pro-longed or re-activated, and increase the plight of women and children who are invariably the

most affected by conflicts. In Somalia, about 1.3 million children “are already affected by a nutrition crisis caused by drought and prolonged conflict. As a result of rising food prices, many are now either skipping meals or are switching to cheaper and lower quality cereals. It is estimated that the number of women, men, girls and boys needing hu-manitarian assistance, needing humanitarian assistance in Somalia could reach 3.5 million (or half the total population of Somalia) by the end of 2008” (World Bank, 2008). Among this high risk group are also countries with high HIV/AIDS incidence in Eastern and Southern Africa. The food crisis aggravates dramatically the vulnerability of HIV positive women and the 12 million AIDS orphans, and increases women’s care burden.

The channels of transmission

The impacts of the global financial and eco-nomic crisis have affected men and women differently, with considerable heterogeneity across countries. Trade, capital flows including official development assistance and remittances have been the main channels of transmission, through their effects on prices, exports, em-ployment, incomes, credit, taxes and transfers.

In Southern, Eastern and Central Africa, as well as in other sub-regions, the energy and food crises have increased general inflation. In particular, it has been underlined that in the African region, food price inflation con-tributed about 40% of total headline inflation (IMF, 2008). The recent decline of oil prices and some food products has not entirely been passed through to domestic markets, however, where prices remain largely above their 2007 level. Furthermore, since several countries in the region are net importers of food, which is a major component of the consumer price index, the depreciation of currencies in the region has increased domestic prices of consumer goods and reduced access to food by vulnerable groups.

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Sectors that are most affected by the global economic crisis have been agriculture, mining, tourism, textiles and manufacturing. According to recent estimates, thousands of jobs have been lost in the agricultural sector (ITUC, 2009). In Botswana the production of diamonds has fallen by 50% and 5,000 jobs have been lost due to the fall in its price in the international market. Zambia’s copper and cobalt mining industry, a major source of employment for the country’s 11 million people, has been gravely affected by the fall in copper prices, which slid from US $8,000 per metric tonne to about US $3,100 in less than six months. More than 3,000 jobs have been lost in the copper industry – including many women’s jobs - while some projects in the country have been put on hold. The potential consequences of the chain effect of the slowdown in the Copperbelt on the entire Zambian economy could be devastating, as the mining industry in Zambia feeds many other industries. Moreover, a 65.8% fall in the price of coal has led to a considerable fall in reserves (ITUC, 2009).

The negative effects of the crisis on the finan-cial sector have tightened access to credit. African financial institutions and countries are facing difficulties due to the withdrawal of commercial banks; the cancellation of their foreign credit lines; and the high costs of raising funds in international capital mar-kets (AfDB, 2009). The vulnerability of the banking system – which is highly dependent on foreign ownership in countries like Cape Verde, Botswana, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho and Zam-bia (ITUC, 2009) - is further exacerbated by the increasing number of defaults on loans by borrowers, including domestic firms. Most im-portantly from a women’s rights perspective, the global credit freeze heightens the issue of poor people’s access to credit and finance. In particular, because micro-credit is the main source of financing that poor African women have, the impact of the crisis on their access to micro-credit and other sources of financing is a basis for major concern.

The foreign exchange markets of African countries have been under enormous pressure since the onset of the crisis. For example, the Zambian kwacha lost 13% of its value relative to the US dollar in the first quarter of 2009. Important currency depreciations have also been observed in Uganda (22%), Demo-cratic Republic of the Congo (23%), South Africa (27%), Zambia (43%), the Comoros (45%), and Seychelles (84%) (AU and UNECA, 2009). Given the high levels of foreign debt in many of these countries, the depreciation of their currencies against the dollar has increased their debt service burdens, along with the cost of their imports. In particular, the increased costs of imported intermediate inputs have negatively affected production, output and employment.

The consequences of the global economic recession on commodity markets could al-ready be seen since 2008 with the decline in external demand for agricultural raw ma-terials and minerals and the price decreases of most of these products since 2008. On the one hand, this is a positive trend for importers of these commodities. On the other hand, falling commodity prices are damaging for the region’s exports, which have been the main driver of growth since 2005. As reported by the media8, the detrimental impact on the terms of trade of exporting countries as well as on their produ-cers and workers has already affected mineral - dependent economies such as Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, which have registered significant cuts in their export receipts, severely affecting revenue flows for governments as well as employment.

In general, the declining trade flows have led to a critical shortfall in government foreign exchange earnings and revenues from trade taxes, with negative impacts on government balance of payments, fiscal position and ex-penditure and subsequently, on their ability to

8 http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2009/01/global-finan-cial-crisis-africa-bears.html

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respond to the crisis. These negative effects are compounded by increased protectionism and the contraction in markets for the exports from the different sub-regions due to falling consumer demand resulting from global eco-nomic downturn.

3. The gender differentiated impactsand challenges9

In general, the impacts of the multiple crises on men and women within different social groups depend on their location in the economy and society in their respective countries. While these gendered impacts are still unfolding and need to be fully analysed, it is equally im-portant to acknowledge the gender differen-ces in the responses to the crises. The various social groups use different coping strategies that have critical implications for their liveli-hoods and welfare: “For the middle classes, it means cutting out medical care. For those on $2 a day, it means cutting out meat and taking the children out of school. For those on $1 a day, it means cutting out meat and vege-tables and eating only cereals. And for those on 50 cents a day, it means total disaster...The poorest are selling their animals, tools, the tin roof over their heads—making recovery, when it comes, much harder” (WFP, cited in The Economist).

Impacts on employment and women’s unpaid work

The gender-specific impacts of this crisis on employment depend on men’s and women’s location within the affected sectors / sub - sectors. In the export-oriented sectors for instance, job losses in the mining industry have mostly affected men (eg: in the DRC, 300,000 workers have been laid off in the mining sector), while in textiles and high-value agricultural sub-sectors where women pre-ponderate, they have been the most affected. In particular, women’s jobs in the export - pro-cessing zones (EPZs) are particularly sensi-

tive to the fluctuations of the export markets and economic recession. EPZs have been the main providers of jobs for poor women in many African countries (Zimbabwe, Mada-gascar, Kenya, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia, etc.) and are characterized by their high level of job insecurity.

However, these trends must be contextualized so as to take into account the existing higher rate of unemployment among women, and the general pattern whereby women are the first to be laid off in times of retrenchment. Moreover, because of their reproductive roles, women are affected by the losses in men’s employment and subsequent reduc-tion in household incomes. As evidenced in the literature on the gender impacts of eco-nomic reforms in Africa (Taylor, 2000; Tsikata and Kerr, 2002) women serve as a safety net in times of crisis, and increase both their paid and unpaid work to respond to the needs of their families, regardless of whether or not men lose their jobs. It is interesting to note that during the sixth African Development Forum in Addis Ababa, the President of Ethiopia stated that “the challenges which Africa is facing affect women and men differently”, and that “the current financial crisis, for example, threatens the well-being of African women in particular, because it can thwart the ability of many Afri-can countries to promote gender equality and empower women”. He further underlined that “women are already disadvantaged in terms of employment opportunities. The combined effect of these challenges will further reduce their chances of getting decent jobs or indeed any jobs at all”.10

9 This section draws heavily on the interim draft of a pa-per commissioned by the UNDP Gender Team on “Gender equality and the global food, fuel and financial crises: a per-spective from Africa”. The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this draft paper. 10 http://allafrica.com/stories/200811200993.html

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Sectoral impacts: the informal sector and the case of tourism in Eastern Africa

Since economic contraction in developed countries implies fewer jobs in the global pro-duction chains - especially in manufacturing in developing countries – the crisis inevitably has a negative impact on employment across the continent. For example in South Africa, 36,500 jobs have been lost in the automobile industry (ITUC, 2009). Because the informal sector will be the last resort for retrenched workers and job-seekers, it will be critically important to monitor ensuing developments in this sector. In particular, as poor women are concentrated in the informal sector, the arrival of an increasing number of workers competing for jobs could displace them from their segments of the informal labour market. The crisis had severe impacts on the tourism sector, which holds high potential for develop-ment in many African countries. In October 2008 for instance, tourism operators in Tanzania have reported as much as 60% booking cancellations from the USA and Europe, which account for the bulk of their clients. As a result, tourism revenue has fallen by 20% (ITUC, 2009). For East Africa as a whole, it is estimated that a 50% reduction in the number of tourists from the USA, Canada and Europe would result in foregone tourism earnings in the range of 500 billion shillings.11 The con-traction resulting from the economic crisis has also led to retrenchments that have affected women’s jobs in companies working in the tourism sector, as women are usually the first to be laid off in such circumstances.

Impacts on private capital flows

Growth and poverty reduction are affected by the slowdown or reversal in private capital inflows12, which have increased in the past five years. Countries like Kenya and South Africa were using these inflows for investment, particu-larly in infrastructure. There are also the po-tential long-term impacts on the development

of agriculture and hence, food security, as the economic slowdown could delay or prevent investment in agriculture, which is a key part of the long term solution to the food crisis. All this will have a huge impact as agriculture is the mainstay of nearly 90 percent of African poor women and men (World Bank, 2007). Since women constitute the large majority of the rural labour force, this has vital implica-tions for them. The cutback in foreign invest-ment flows would also further reduce long term investment finance, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises where women preponderate. The withdrawal of some inter-national investors has already affected Stock Exchanges in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa (World Bank, 2008).

Migration and remittance strategies are a critical component in the risk management of the poor in many African countries13, and are highly gendered. Countries such as Lesotho and Seychelles are highly vulnerable to reduc-tions in workers’ remittances because inflows represent more than 10% of their gross do-mestic product (GDP) (AU and UNECA, 2009). Empirical evidence confirms the predictions that remittances to Africa will be halved in 2009 and 2010 (IMF 2009), as layoffs in the sectors affected by the recession might primarily target immigrants. Because remittances are an important source of income for many house-holds - especially female-headed households - the reduction in the inflows of remittances is having adverse impacts on their livelihoods. For instance in Zimbabwe, lines outside money transfer agencies are reported to have become noticeably shorter. According to a pensioner, whose fortnightly receipts from a U.S.-based son are now monthly, “this is our

11http://WWW.ETURBONEWS.COM/6258/GLOBAL-FINAN-CIAL-CRUNCH-PUT-TANZANIA-TOURISM-INDUSTRY-UNDER-PRESS 12 Foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, loans and remittances.13 In 2008, remittances from developed countries to the Africa region accounted for almost 2% of GDP (Ratha et al, 2008).

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lifeblood. Without it, we would not survive.” (Reuters, 2008). However, even if the level of remittances remains stable, adjusting for rising inflation implies that their real value would be less than before the crisis. This means reduced income in the face of rising inflation for concerned households, which particularly penalizes women in their role as household managers.

Impacts on development finance

Official development assistance (ODA) con-stitutes a major source of funding for the budgets of many African countries, especially for social protection and the agricultural sector where poor women and men are concentrated. In Southern, Eastern and Central Africa, there are 13 countries where ODA represented more than 10% of gross national income over the period 2000-2007 (AU and UNECA, 2009). But as developed countries have to invest in their own economic recovery plans and stimulus packages - especially the recapitalization of their banking sector - whether or not previous commitments to increase ODA will be met is an outstanding question that is critical to the implementation of programmes related to food aid, gender equality and women’s rights, most of which rely on funding from donors (AWID, 2006). This could also affect ODA pledges for HIV/AIDS - for which the USA promised USD 40 billion over the next five years (Washington Post) - which are vital for millions of African people, especially women who are most affected by both the HIV infection and the burden of care. There is similar concern with the promised doubling of Japan’s bilateral aid to Africa by 2012 to improve infrastructure, boost agricultural production and invite more private investment in the region.

4. Responses to the crisis

There are significant variations between the responses of various Governments and institutions - the type of response depending

on both available fiscal space and the degree of vulnerability to the crisis. Thus, it is mainly oil-exporting countries that “have more fiscal space to conduct counter-cyclical policies because they accumulated huge foreign re-serves during the recent oil price hikes” (AU and UNECA, 2009). Various measures that have been adopted include interest rate reductions, recapitalization of financial institutions, increasing liquidity to banks and firms, fiscal stimulus packages (Gabon, Na-mibia, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa), trade policy changes, and regulatory reforms (AU and UNECA, 2009). Some countries like Rwanda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have also set up task forces or committees to monitor the financial crisis and advise the Government on how to respond.

While the impacts of the various responses on different social groups are not yet clear, it is important to note that potential discrimination against women is not overt but derives from the neglect of gender differences in both the impacts of and the responses to the crisis. Because all these responses were aimed at addressing the immediate needs and dampening the worst effects of the crises on women and men alike, they cannot be expected to have significant impacts on the structural and long-term issues underlying the crisis. In particular, there is little evidence of the extent to which these responses have taken gender inequalities and women’s specific needs into account. The assessment of their gender impacts in the different categories of countries (oil-importing, net food importing, etc.), as well as Governments’ responses, is therefore critically important.

Fiscal stimulus packages raise the issue of the opportunity costs for gender equality, as it is not clear whether or not such packages are more effective and efficient than specific measures directly targeted at the affected groups (such as cash transfers). There is a notable emphasis on infrastructure development – particularly energy and transport - in most

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of the fiscal stimuli packages, which can potentially marginalize women because these sectors are male - dominated. By contrast, Na-mibia’s fiscal measures involve a 24% public-sector pay raise, which can potentially benefit women, as they are highly represented in the public sector. The South African stimulus plan includes “a $69.4 million three -year public in-vestment programme; expansion of public sector employment opportunities; increase in social spending; and assistance to the private sector ” (AU and UNECA, 2009). All these measures have potential positive impacts on women’s livelihoods and well-being.

In general, these responses have been severely constrained by the narrow policy space and public revenue base in most countries. The responses have also tended to focus narrowly on safety nets, as opposed to a comprehensive social protection policy in favour of the affected groups. Of particular concern is the fiscal restraint exercised by several countries in response to the crisis, because it is likely to affect public spending in the social sec-tors that are the most important to women. For example, “the Government of Kenya plans to cut expenditure to the tune of 25 billion shillings.. (…)…In Botswana, restric-tions have been imposed on travel budgets, vehicle purchases and the creation of new posts. In Angola, the Government plans to revise its budget downward to take account of the anticipated decline in oil revenue” (AU and UNECA, 2009). Similarly, fiscal reforms introduced in the aftermath of the crisis and aimed at boosting domestic resource mobilization might also have negative impacts on women, if fiscal policies focus on regressive forms of taxation.

Trade policy measures adopted by some countries in order to boost economic growth through trade have been an important component of the response plans in several countries. For instance, Cameroon has reduced or waived import taxes on equipment, tools and goods required for research and oil

exploration. While this will certainly benefit oil companies, the impact of such measures on the overall balance of payments and government revenue is not clear. In Mada-gascar, the devaluation of the local currency by the Central Bank in order to restore export competitiveness has negatively affected poor urban households and domestic firms as a re-sult of the increase in the prices of imported consumer goods and production inputs.

The prevailing approach to social protection has been reduced to the short - term pro-tection of basic consumption levels of people who are already affected by shocks related to the crises, while the resources allocated to social protection depend on donor funding in many cases. By and large, the various approaches had considered safety net pro-grams and other social protection strategies as gender-neutral, thereby conflating gender and poverty (Jackson, 1996; Randriamaro, 2002), which is likely to cause gender biases against women in many safety net programs such as the public works schemes that ignore women’s specific constraints related to their multiple gender roles.14

5. Towards gender-responsive responses to the multiple crises

Ensuring gender - responsiveness of the various responses to the multiple crises starts with the recognition that gender is a deter-mining factor of poverty and vulnerability. The cumulative impacts of the climate, food, energy, financial and economic crises heighten the risk of reversal in human development and gender equality in Eastern, Southern and

14 For instance, it has been found that food-for-work and cash-for-work programs tend to exclude poor women caring for small children, as well as poor people who are unable to work, like the elderly and the disabled (McCord, 2008, cited in Ellis et al., 2009). In Zambia and Sudan, many women in-volved in public works have to carry their children on their back, or to bring along older children to take care of their babies on work sites.

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Central Africa, and reduce the choices and opportunities available to both women and men. In particular, these impacts increase the pres-sure on women’s unpaid work in the care econ-omy for social reproduction, as it becomes the main safety net for an increasing number of disenfranchised people while serving as a buffer for families and communities against the shocks resulting from the crises, in the face of reduced State provisioning as a result of resource shortfalls.

At the regional and country levels, the impacts of the crises and overall inflation on poor women and men’s real incomes and well-being should be addressed as a matter of urgency. This requires immediate and short - term actions (such as safety nets and subsidies) that take into account women’s multiple roles as producers, consumers and managers of food security at household level. Actions also need to consider the gender differences in coping strategies, along with policy measures to address the needs of retrenched workers, especially in the informal sector and EPZs, in terms of social protection re-training and job creation. The crisis of social reproduction should be addressed through public provi-sioning of adequate support mechanisms.

It is also high time to acknowledge that these multiple crises are not only interconnected, but that their causes are rooted in the neoliberal model of production and consumption. As such, these crises can be seen as paroxystic manifestations of the prolonged crisis of the neoliberal model. In this regard, primary commodity - dependent African countries should use the current commodity price crisis as an opportunity to move away from the ex-port - led neoliberal model. Responding to the crises provides an opportunity for transformation, and to foster economic recovery and increase their domestic demand by focusing on their domestic markets, especially food and consumer goods segments where small scale producers and women’s small and medium sized enter-prises are concentrated.

Such a transformation at the country and regional level cannot happen without the required changes at the global level, which should not aim at repairing the failed development model and financial architecture, as proposed by the G20. Rather, effective responses at the global level require incentives and financing that enable African countries to address food security, energy security, climate change, economic recovery and gender equality not as separate challenges, but as key parts of a coherent and gender-aware sustainable development agenda. At the minimum, this requires the following actions:

• Address the regulatory deficit of global finance, including through new financial governance, with adequate representation of African countries and UN agencies, and the authority to influence decision making in national regulation bodies, especially in de-veloped countries where the financial crisis originated.

• Given the highly negative effects of the sharp decline in commodity prices on African countries, establish compensatory financing schemes and quick-disbursing mechanisms with minimal conditionality to reduce the large costs of adjustment for African countries, most of which are hit by exogenous shocks linked to their terms of trade.

• Acknowledge and address the critical flaws in the international food market, including issues of corporate monopoly and social responsibility, and trade rules in the WTO, regional and bilateral trade agreements.

• Address double standards in the responses to the crises, and ensure a coordinated global macroeconomic policy response that focuses on counter - cyclical and expansionary monetary, credit and fiscal policies not only in developed countries, but also in African countries.

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References

AfDB (2009) “AfDB Response to Financial Crisis Economic Impact,” March 5, 2009.

AWID (2006) Where is the Money for Women’s Rights? First Fundher Report. http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Library/2006-First-Fundher-report

High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis (2008) ‘Comprehensive Framework For Action’, United Nations, New York.

IMF (2008) “Food and Fuel Prices—Recent Developments, Macroeconomic Impact, and Policy Responses,” June 2008.

IMF (2009) Regional Economic Outlook Sub-Saharan Africa, April 2009.

ITUC (2009) Africa and the Troubles of Global financial crisis: A Contribution to the trade union debates and responses: ITUC-Africa’s prospection: Economic and Social Policy department - Executive bureau - Nairobi 7-8 May 2009.

OECD (2009) “Measuring the pulse of Africa in times of crisis”, Policy Brief.

Jackson, C. (1996) “Rescuing gender from the poverty trap”, World Development, 24(3): 489-504, 1996.

Randriamaro, Z. (2002) “The NEPAD, Gender and the Poverty Trap: the NEPAD and the Challenges of Finan-cing for Development in Africa from a Gender Perspective”, paper presented at the joint TWN-Africa/CODESRIA International Conference on “Africa and the Development Challenges of the New Millennium”, Accra, 23-26 April 2002.

Ratha, Dilip, Sanket Mohapatra, and Zhimei Xu (2008) “Outlook for Remittance Flows 2008-2010.” World Bank Migration and Development Brief.

Taylor V., (ed.) (2000) “Marketisation of Governance. Critical Feminist Perspectives From the South”, DAWN.

Tsikata, D. and Kerr, J. (eds.) (2002) Demanding Dignity: Women Confronting Economic Reforms in Africa (Ottawa: The North-South Institute and Accra &Third World Network-Africa).

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union (2009) “The Global Financial Crisis: Im-pact, Responses and Way Forward”, Meeting of the Committee of Experts of the 2nd Joint Annual Meetings of the AU Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance, ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance, planning and Economic Development, Cairo, Egypt, 2-5 June.

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union (2008) Economic Report on Africa 2008. Africa and the Monterrey Consensus: Tracking Performance and Progress’, Addis Ababa.

World Bank (2008) “Double Jeopardy: Responding to High Food and Fuel Prices”, G8 Hokkaido-Toyako Summit, July 2, 2008.

World Bank (2007) World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development, Overview. Washington DC.

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By Alma Espino & Norma Sanchís

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