The theme of the 12th AWID International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development, celebrated in Istanbul, Turkey (19-22 April 2012) was ‘transforming economic power to advance women’s rights and justice’. On the first day of the forum, participants took part in session block dedicated to information sharing, awareness raising, and skills building on themes linked to economics, economic policies or other issues of key concern for feminists interested in transforming economic power.
This section of the 12th AWID Forum website has been shaped from the ideas, resources, debates and materials shared at the Feminist Economics Toolbox sessions. It contains multimedia resources, divided into the following sections:
– Gross Domestic Product (GDP) / Growth – explores the current status of national income accounting, the best questions feminists can be asking, and the best strategies to adopt.
– Surviving Money and the Financial System – addresses how money and financial systems operate and impact on women of limited means; how the system serves economic purpose, but also deceives and impoverishes through abuse; what women need to know and do to counter the system and survive.
– Gender Equity through Taxation – includes the Tax Advocacy Tool Kit from the Tax Justice Network-Africa to equip gender-based organisations to expose the implicit and explicit gender biases of tax policies and advocate for their removal.
– Rethinking Ideas of Work – covers how feminists have sought to reconceptualise the idea of work, highlighting the artificial nature of the distinction between paid and unpaid work; and discussing how the rise of global care chains has made visible some of the hidden dimensions of women’s work.
– Climate Change Finance – explores the gender dimensions of international climate change finance, including essential nuts and bolts of gender climate change adaptation, mitigation and technology transfer and development.
– Demystifying the Financial Crisis – expresses participants’ concerns about the on-going financial crisis of 2008 and austerity measures being imposed upon entire populations, finding these to be citizen’s and women’s issues.
– International Financial Institutions (IFIs) – includes an overview on the IFIs (what they are, their role, and how they influence and impact country policies, investments and women’s rights and livelihoods), and how civil society can advocate for gender sensitive IFI investments that promote women’s rights and justice.
– Macroeconomic Policy – asserting that understanding the overall impact of macroeconomic policies on human rights can be an effective tool in feminist activism, this section explores the linkages between macroeconomic policies and human rights.
– Food Sovereignty and Food Security – presents basic concepts of food security and food sovereignty; where these concepts emerged and their contexts; and highlights distinctions between the two and their relevance for advancing women’s rights and economic justice.
– Feminist Economics 101 – provides a basic understanding of Feminist Economics (FE), and explores its contributions to both economics and feminism.
– Commodification of Knowledge – includes an article by genderit.org of the issues raised in the economic toolbox session addressing how increasing access and availability of the Internet has transformed the way knowledge is produced and shared.
– New Forms of International Trade – with a focus on developing countries, explores issues regarding the gendered impacts of bilateral free trade and investment agreements across sectors such as agriculture, industry and services.
– International Financial Architecture – with a focus on gender justice, examines key pillars of the international financial architecture, fiscal and monetary policy, financial markets, public debt, and the roles of various actors; highlighting the ideology and principles shaping the current system and how it could be re-structured.
– Corporate Campaigning 101 – discusses how campaign organisations working to advance worker rights in global supply chains balance campaigning and engagement with corporations to pressure for change.
– Development: Some of Us Live It – engages with critical feminist perspectives of the different constructions and conceptions of development; exploring and challenging what these diverse, mainstream and complex understandings of development mean for women’s rights.
The 12th AWID Forum website contains more materials from the event preparations, outcomes, and follow-up; exploring key issues and debates; and helping people learn more about economic power and its connections with women’s rights issues and agendas. To learn more, visit: http://www.forum.awid.org/forum12/