The United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development, FfD, was held in Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002. The FfD process was spurred into being after WSSD+5 and NGO pressure at Seattle forced unprecedented collaboration between the UN and world finance and trade institutions to find better ways to finance development and fully implement the agreed action plans of the major UN conferences of the past decade.

The focus was on six central areas: mobilizing domestic resources; mobilizing international resources; trade and investment; official development assistance (ODA); debt; and systemic issues. Under pressure from NGOs and other stakeholders, another area on interlink ages has recently been added. Since the December 1999 agreement, several preparatory meetings and events have been held.

DAWN was one of the few women’s organizations interested in the FfD process from the outset. DAWN’s involvement stems mainly from its concern over the global trend towards the privatization of social goods and from an interest in seeing Currency Transaction Tax (CCT) or Tobin Tax introduced and its income mobilized for development. Continuing to influence the outcomes of FfD is important because of their impact on the status of global poverty, gender justice and economic justice.

At present, DAWN coordinates the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG on FfD), which was formed in October 2007 as a network of women’s organizations that advocates for the advancement of gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights in the FfD-related UN processes including:

1. High-Level Dialogue on FfD (Oct 2007)
2. Commission on the Status of Women (Mar 2008)
3. Hearings of Civil Society on FfD (Jun 2008)
4. ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum (Jun 2008)
5. Doha Review Conference on Financing for Development (Nov 2008)
6. Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System (Mar 2009)
7. Commission on the Status of Women (Mar 2009)
8. ECOSOC-BWIs-WTO-UNCTAD Spring Meeting (Apr 2009)
9. High Level Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development (Jun 2009)
10. Concerning Beijing + 15 Process Review at Commission on the Status of Women (Mar 2010)

In the context of the current financial and economic crises, these UN processes present opportunities to make significant structural changes in the global development architecture. The WWG on FfD is seizing this political moment to move towards a rights-based global development architecture that recognizes the central role of the care economy, social reproduction and sexuality.

DAWN works with the following networks/organizations in this process: African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Feminist Task Force-Global Call to Action against Poverty (FTF-GCAP), Global Policy Forum (GPF), International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and Women in Development-Europe (WIDE). Together, they have produced the following WWG documents:

1. Statement on UNCTAD (Apr 2008)
2. CSO Hearings (Mar 09)
3. Women’s Consultation Declaration (Jun 08)
4. Pre-Doha Review (Nov 08)
5. Post-Doha Review (Dec 08)
6. Key Points on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System (Feb 09)
7. Proposals to Reform the International Monetary and Financial System (Mar 09)
8. A Call for Structural, Sustainable, Gender Equitable and Rights Based Responses to the Global Financial and Economic Crisis (Apr 09)
9. The Global Economic Crisis: Its Causes and Multiple Impacts (May 09)
10. Time to Act: Women Cannot Wait – Declaration at HLC (Jun 09)
11. High Diplomacy and Fragile Consensus Limit UN to Development Cooperation – Declaration Post-HLC (Jun 09)
12. G20 & the IMF: Peddling Cosmetic Changes While Hounded by Illegitimacy (Sept 09)
13. Making Governments Accountable and Aid Transparent for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (Nov 09)
14. Concerning Beijing+15 Process Review at the Commission on the Status of Women (Mar 10)

The WWG on FfD listserv gender-in-ffd@googlegroups.com is a vehicle to exchange information, updates and feminist analyses on FfD issues and to advance development alternatives. To join the listserv or for more information, please contact info@dawnnet.org. You may also visit http://www.ffdngo.org for more details WWG on FfD activities.