The Geopolitics of Financing Post-2015: The Regional and Feminist Analysis Side event during the Second Drafting Session towards the Third Conference on Financing for Development

The Geopolitics of Financing Post-2015: The Regional and Feminist Analysis  

Side event during the Second Drafting Session towards the Third Conference on Financing for Development 

Date: 14 April, 2015

Location: Conference Room 9, UNHQ

Organized by: Regions Refocus 2015, Third World Network (TWN), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and the Permanent Missions of Uruguay and Egypt

Summary: This side event examined the key points essential to the Financing for Development Agenda and the parallel negotiations on the Means of Implementation (MoI). Discussions drew on the  report A Geopolitical Analysis of Ffd3 which was published in March 2015 by Regions Refocus 2015, TWN and DAWN and; on the recommendations which emerged from nine regional workshops which were convened by Regions Refocus 2015. Panelists explored regional and feminist civil society proposals on domestic resource mobilization and ODA, private finance, debt and trade and systemic issues.

The event was moderated by Stefano Prato, Managing Director of the Society for International Development (SID). H.E. Gonzalo Konke, Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the UN was the first panelist to speak. He stated that the third Ffd Conference should aim to remove the structural  impediments for development. Kathryn Tobin, Policy coordinator of Regions Refocus 2015 spoke on two recommendations which came out of the organization’s regional workshops namely, the implementation of taxes on corporations and higher earners with regard to of domestic resource mobilization and; the issues of combatting the “fetish of FDI” in terms of international private finance.

H.E. Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, Deputy Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN stated that in terms of domestic resource mobilization as stated in the FfD3 Zero Draft Outcome document, remittances by migrants for instance should not be included and instead migrants must be protected. In addition, especially given the flow of finances from the South to the North, developing countries remain at a disadvantage. He also welcomed the idea of a taking a feminist, social approach to financing for development while embracing the three (3) pillars of sustainable development as per Rio 1992. Also speaking on the Zero Draft, Bhumika Muchhala, Senior Policy Analyst, Finance and Development Programme, Third World Network stated that the draft document does not address the urgency of multiple global crises we have at hand today. He further stated that in facilitating progress, systemic issues such as debt (the restructuring of sovereign debt and debt relief) and the role of private sector in financing must be adequately addressed. Tamer Mostafa, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Egypt to the UN also stated that these systemic issues in addition to North-South financial flows hinder domestic resource mobilization. Amit Narang, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the UN stated that the draft document does not reflect current realities and is an example of when “rich clubs make policies for the whole world.” Thus, mechanisms to integrate regional outcomes and mechanisms into international processes are needed.

Nicole Bidegain, Executive Committee Member, DAWN and Co-coordinator, Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development, in giving a feminist analysis of the Zero Draft stated  that the document is not ambitious enough to overcome the challenges faced in Latin America. Furthermore, in terms of labor, it does not address women’s access to decent work especially given women’s over-representation in the informal sector. In creating any international legally binding treaties for corporations, women’s rights must be prioritized.

The FfD process was thus presented as a truly geo-political process which necessitates local and regional inputs in addition to the inclusion of feminist and human rights frameworks. As stated by Tessa Khan of the WMG at the Informal interactive Hearing for Civil society on the Third International Conference on Financing for Development held on 9 April 2015 at UNHQ, as a process which seeks to address global inequality in and among countries, FfD requires a recognition of women’s uneven burden of care work and the unequal redistribution of resources and wealth between men and women, the rich and the poor and among countries.