WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--After working
inside the World Bank as an economist earlier in her career, Elaine
Zuckerman is now on the outside glaring in.
During three days last month timed to the anti-globalization protests
surrounding the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund in Washington, Zuckerman's advocacy group, Gender Action,
staged a series of workshops accusing international financial institutions
of discriminatory lending.
Her thrust: that the World Bank--which makes loans to developing
countries--and the International Monetary Fund--which monitors global
finance and extends credits to stabilize economies--both undermine women's
rights by exacerbating poverty, gender-based violence and the spread of
sexually transmitted diseases including HIV-AIDS.
"Each year, these international financial institutions make tens of
thousands of investments in developing countries that claim to empower
women but in fact often harm them," Zuckerman told an audience at
Georgetown University Law School last month.
In 2003, for example, Tanzania accepted loans from the World Bank and
the IMF that required privatization of parts of its water utility. That led
to irregular service and price increases, making water less affordable and
forcing women and girls--responsible for providing water for their
families--to walk longer distances to gather water or pay huge markups to
water vendors, according to a 2006 report by Gender Action.
Founded in 1945, the World Bank has grown from a single organization
designed to make reconstruction loans after World War II to a group of five
development banks that make million- and billion-dollar loans ostensibly
aimed at reducing global poverty. The International Development
Association--the World Bank arm that focuses on the world's poorest
countries--offers longer-term and lower-priced loans than can be found on
the free market.
The IMF also came into existence in 1945 and has a macroeconomic
mission: to promote global economic stability to prevent a repeat of the
1930s-era worldwide depression. The IMF does that mainly with initiatives
to keep national currencies stable and promoting cross-border trade, but it
also makes its own loans to help countries pay off debt.
World Bank membership is restricted to countries that belong to the IMF.
Countering
Claims of Harm
World Bank and IMF officials took strong exception to Zuckerman's claim
that the financial bodies' actions hurt rather then help women and girls.
Spokesperson Amy Stilwell said the World Bank--now headed by Robert
Zoellick, who in July succeeded Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary
of defense for the Bush administration that resigned amid a storm of
controversy--is paying more attention to women's issues and has made great
inroads on fronts such as primary education for girls and maternal and
infant health.
In 2006, the World Bank unveiled a four-year, $25 million plan for
gender-specific projects relating to infrastructure, agriculture, private-sector
development and finance. The budget has since increased to $30 million over
four years.
Last month, the World Bank pledged to heighten its focus on the farm
economy in sub-Saharan Africa, which is managed largely by women and girls.
The promise came after an October critique from the bank's internal
assessors, who charged the bank with neglecting sub-Saharan agriculture.
For its part, the IMF takes gender equality and women's rights issues
into consideration when giving advice to poorer countries on how to improve
their economies, said spokesperson Conny Lotze.
"We look at the potential effects of our advice on poverty,
including whether women and girls may be disproportionately harmed by cuts
in social spending and layoffs in government or public enterprises.
Improving health, education and gender equality plays a central role in
developing a stable economy and achieving sustainable growth."
Putting Women
and Girls in Context
But Zuckerman says the institutions fail to fully consider the
implications of their actions on women and girls.
The IMF lacks any specific policy on gender and none of its 2,633
employees are gender experts, according to Gender Action. Of the 15,000
employees at the World Bank only 115 are experts in gender issues, she
says.
Malcolm Ehrenpreis, a World Bank gender expert, said that data give a
distorted view because all paid employees, such as receptionists and
administrative staff, are included. He said the bank is not adding gender
specialists because it is working instead to make women's rights a
mainstream concern.
At the same time, he said, bringing about gender equality is an ongoing
mission, and noted that women trail men in formal labor force
participation, access to credit, entrepreneurship rates, income levels, and
inheritance and ownership rights.
"This is unfair, it hampers poverty reduction and it is bad
economics," he said.
Zuckerman says the World Bank, the IMF and other international financial
institutions have not rectified systemic problems--such as policy-based
loans--that discriminate against women.
Conditions for
Receiving Loans
With a policy-based loan, a development bank negotiator might, for
example, tie strings to a loan offer that require changes in national
policy considered good for the nation's economy's solvency. Such changes
have often included privatizing state-owned businesses, cutting labor
protections and public-sector wages, liberalizing trade laws and
eliminating corporate taxes.
Gender Action Programs Coordinator Suzanna Dennis said such changes
often lead to price increases, public-sector downsizing and social
displacements that hurt women.
Bangladesh, for example, agreed in 2005 to liberalize its trade laws.
The deal exposed the country's garment industry to fiercer competition with
China and India and led to job losses in an industry dominated by women,
according to Gender Action.
Some loan terms have led governments to cut spending on public schools
and hospitals and impose user fees. This can hurt girls disproportionately
because they are more likely to be taken out of school if it becomes
costly. As caregivers, girls and women often leave school and jobs to
provide health care when it becomes too expensive, Dennis added.
Ehrenpreis, at the World Bank, said the bank supports countries that seek
to abolish fees for primary school or basic health care.
And he said foreign aid has contributed to "steady
improvement" for women and girls, especially in health care and
education. The bank is combating HIV-AIDS with programs designed to
strengthen women's rights, he added.
"It doesn't happen overnight," World Bank AIDS expert
Elizabeth Lule said in a statement about curbing HIV-AIDS. "I think we
have laid a good foundation. But much more needs to be done."
Allison Stevens is Washington bureau chief at Women's eNews.
Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at editors@womensenews.org.
For more
information:
"Pipeline Aid Projects Called Harmful to Women":
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3036/
World Bank, Gender and Development:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTGENDER/0,,
menuPK:336874~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:336868,00.html
International Monetary Fund:
http://www.imf.org/external/
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