A regional consultation and training institute on Gender, Economic and Ecological  Justice (GEEJ) was held in Accra, Ghana from 20-23 November 2010. This event was the 2nd in a regional sortie of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). For this segment, Ghana-based Third World Network – Africa (TWN-Africa) collaborated with DAWN.

The human expression of structural economic distortions and policy failures of African economies, in particular were magnified by the global crises, reinforcing unequal power relations by further skewing production, distribution and consumption, and thereby magnifying differences between various social groups and men and women. The poor, the powerless and the vulnerable social groups – of which women constitute the large majority – thus continue to bear the brunt of the global crises.

Exacerbated by severe food, energy and climate crises, the global financial and economic crises have gravely penalised women. Jobs and means of livelihood have been lost and the public revenue reduced ; social services have become out of reach of an increased number of impoverished people; and social protection systems are under threat by neoliberal policies, such that women serve  ever-increasingly as the surrogate safety nets for families and communities affected by the negative impacts of the triple crises.

Moreover, finance, food and climate challenges are still separately addressed in their distinct policy silos against a backdrop of continuing lack of political will for public action on global problems at a global level. The growing distrust of development aid and the sluggish pace of international cooperation on climate change illustrate this critical failure in global governance.

Given these persisting challenges, DAWN and TWN recognize the urgent need to analyze the ways in which gender and other social implications are inter-linked with issues of economic justice, particularly as it relates to the key issue of the structural transformation of African economies.
Academics and civil society members from the Africa region, including12 young women activists, worked alongside DAWN facilitators from India, Philippines and Madagascar, building on shared knowledge of linkages between gender, economic and environmental  justice, and enhancing intergenerational capacities within women’s movements at the regional level.

Indeed, one of the key lessons learned from the triple crises is that the predominant sources of growth in Africa – relying mainly on primary commodity exports – do not only deplete natural resources. They have also generated an immiserizing growth for many, especially women, whose fate in the post-crisis context hinges on the policy space and commitment of African governments to address the enduring structural weaknesses of their economies, which existed even before the global economic crisis and have prevented the creation of more equitable African societies.

The achievement of the inter-linked goals of gender, economic and environmental justice will depend on political will to devise approaches to growth and development that can best achieve, simultaneously, the twin-goals of structural change of Africa’s economies, as well as equity, as the necessary foundations for sustainable economic development in Africa.

This meeting therefore brought together key regional actors in various spheres of advocacy around gender, economic and environmental  justice, in a setting of trust and collective reflection.  At this 2nd round of DAWN Gender, Economic and Ecological Justice (GEEJ) regional consultations and training Institutes in Ghana, Africa, discussions focused on: Feminist responses in the African context; Africa in the international economic division of labour and the global financial and economic crises; Policy mechanisms and challenges in relation to regional and global institutional processes; and Strengthening advocacy platforms towards gender, economic and environmental justice in Africa.

The DAWN GEEJ series commenced in the Pacific region in September 2010. The final regional event is scheduled to take place this March  2011 in Latin America, with further regional and inter-regional advocacy throughout 2010-2012.

GEEJ Pacific and Africa discussions are available at DAWN Informs December 2010 issue.

DOWNLOAD the GEEJ Africa Regional Concept Note: arcti-concept-note