Delivered by April Porteria
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
In the 8th FoM Parallel Interactive Session 1: “An Economic System for Gender Justice”

Thank you so much Ms Moderator, and to the organisers of this session and this conference for inviting us. I’m April Porteria of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), a feminist regional membership-based organisation working on women’s human rights and Development Justice, and we’re also part of the CSO FfD Mechanism.

We would like to speak on behalf of the Asia Pacific region – as the largest in population and economic potential. Firstly, in looking at the gaps, I would like to refer to the latest UN ESCAP SDG Progress Report, stating that achievement of the sustainable development goals will not be reached until 2062–that is 32 years behind schedule. The report shows that out of the 116 measurable targets, only 11% are on track to be achieved by 2030 while the region is likely to miss on the remaining 89% of the targets.

The report also alarmingly states that Gender Equality (Goal 5) together with Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (Goal 16) continue to have the least available data, while Climate Action (Goal 13) have major regressions. 

In Goal 5, in particular, target indicators 5.4 (unpaid care work and domestic work) and 5.a (equal economic rights) are impossible to measure. In another study, ESCAP also elaborated on the increasing gender-based violence in the region particularly during the pandemic. We also note that there is increasing informalisation of work mostly of women, increasing gender pay gap, widening inequality in terms of access to social protection including pension, dispossession in terms of land and resources, and a looming debt crisis. 

According to UNESCAP, 19 countries in the region are facing a high risk of debt distress, largely due to the low output growth at 3.3 percent and record-high inflation at 7.6 percent. Half of the developing economies in the region rely on external debt to finance its needs. Countries have increased their borrowing in order to adequately respond to the various impacts of the pandemic and the shocks from the increasing conflicts in other parts of the world. In turn, developing countries needed to allot as much as 10 percent of their GDP towards debt servicing, which will impact the budget for social services for women and children.

We would like to reiterate that the problem is systemic – patriarchy, fundamentalisms, increasing militarism and neoliberal globalisation continue to force these situations. The multiple crises, and the rising geopolitical tensions and increasing conflict across the region and the world disproportionately impact women and marginalised communities. We also note that several governments, especially in our region, have undertaken undemocratic measures by closing civic space and undermining accountability processes. This while the patriarchal division of labour has continued to invisibilise women’s unpaid care work and disregard its significant contributions to the economy and potentials in radical reforms in the achievement of sustainable development, gender equality, and the realisation of women’s human rights. 

 

In this regard, the women, in particular, grassroots and toiling women, are demanding an economic system that will recognise and address these systemic barriers, as well as visibilise women’s contributions and initiate feminist economies of care–or a system based on justice and reparations. In order to achieve this, we have the following recommendations:

  1. Recognise women’s unpaid care work as the backbone in reproducing and sustaining societies and economies. In particular, to recognise that the history of unpaid care work is rooted in gender as a system of unequal power relations that characterises the history of capitalism. It is important to note that the subsidy provided by unpaid care work to the world economy is valued at almost $11 trillion (2019), which reproduces and sustains human society at zero cost. A care-responsive economy is built in terms of sustaining public investments in public goods and services that benefit women and their communities.
  2. We call for cancellation of all illegitimate debts and demand for reparations, and ensure debt-free support to education, health, and social protection in the post-pandemic recovery period. Debt is a shackle to maintain the colonial and imperialist power structures. Debt cancellation will enable governments, especially in the global south, to use their fiscal and monetary instruments to provide basic services, implement policies for women’s human rights and ensure social protection for the people.
  3. We also demand for a binding and transparent multilateral debt workout mechanism in a process convening all – bilateral, multilateral, and private – creditors within the United Nations. This mechanism is a necessary alternative to the fragmented, ad hoc and often inequitable legal approach that currently exists for restructuring debt— a problem exacerbated by the growing number of creditors as debt has moved from banks to capital markets.
  4. Feminists also say an end to austerity measures and we reiterate to rechannel public financing to universal social protection and ending inequalities. Specifically, provide long-term, sustained, public investment for public goods and essential services–including but not limited to healthcare, education, universal social protection, pensions, and early childhood care and education, which comprise the foundation for gender equality and realisation of women’s human rights, and remedy for systemic dis-investment in these areas.
  5. We also support establishment and ensuring an inclusive and just UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, that would allow a global tax body to be housed in the UN, and would be a critical step towards a coherent global system of tax rules that is in the interests of all countries, including the poorest countries who stand to lose the most from the loss of tax revenue, and towards putting an end to the dangerous ‘race to the bottom’ in tax incentives, that highly impact women’s human rights in aspects of labour protection, decent work and living wage.

Specifically at the national level, the burden of regressive consumption taxes and reduced domestic resources falls disproportionately on women in the global south, who account for a larger proportion of those living in poverty and represent a greater percentage of low-income earners than men. The billions of dollars lost through international tax abuse, illicit financial flows, tax holidays and incentives for corporations could have been significant to address gender-related inequalities.

6. We continue to demand a binding, regulatory framework for business based on international human rights law. There is a need for robust regulation of businesses to ensure they act consistently with human rights standards and are held accountable for human rights violations, especially to women in the global south. 

7. End all corporate-driven public private partnerships, and demand transparency and accountability from governments on impacts of these projects, and ensure democratic decision-making inclusive of the right holders. PPP should be a contested approach, and should be reviewed and scrutinised for its negative impacts to many communities, especially in the global south.

8. And lastly, we demand transformation of international trade and investment rules to facilitate Development Justice. The ex-ante and periodic human rights and gender impact assessments of trade and investment agreements will help in preventing the implementation of harmful programmes and policies. These also have the potential to help create trade and investment rules that will aid in achieving Development Justice that is rooted in economic, redistributive, environmental, social and gender justice, as well as accountability to the peoples. 

Finally, as part of feminist movements in the global south, we also reiterate the need to decolonise the discourse and start conversing with us, and build relations based on solidarity, care, justice and reparations. 

Thank you so much again for this opportunity.