February 21st, 2008
Crowne Plaza, Crystal City VA
Is
it Worthwhile to Engage in PRPSs?: Capacity-Building Discussion
with Members of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive
Rights from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and North and South
America
Elaine Zuckerman spoke to the Youth Coalition for Sexual and
Reproductive Rights about the negative gender impacts of PRSPs
and alternative strategies for reducing poverty and empowering
women.
Past Events
USA 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 3:30-5:30PM
Georgetown University Law CenterElaine Zuckerman spoke about
Gender Action’s work at a fellowship seminar hosted
by the Women's
Law and Public Policy Fellowship Program
Friday, October 19th 12:30-2pm (Brown Bag Lunch)
Environmental Law Institute, Washington, DC
Gender
Justice: A Citizen's Guide to Gender Accountability at International
Financial Institutions
At this event, Gender Action and the Center for International
Environmental Law launched Gender
Justice: A Citizen's Guide to Gender Accountability at International
Financial Institutions, the first guide for taking gender
discrimination cases to IFI accountability mechanisms! The
Guide provides tools for women and men harmed by gender discrimination
in IFI investments to use these mechanisms to seek redress.
We find that despite IFI commitments to promote gender equality,
only half of the eight IFIs we reviewed have policies to address
gender issues in their work. These policies tend to be weak,
poorly resourced and understaffed. Additionally, most IFIs
have accountability mechanisms that enable people harmed by
IFI investments to raise concerns about project impacts. Although
these mechanisms have not yet been used to address gender
issues, complaints based on gendered impacts could help ensure
that the IFIs having gender policies comply with them. Gender
Action is also pressuring IFIs lacking gender policies to
adopt them to permit citizens to hold all IFIs accountable
for gender discrimination caused by their projects.
Thursday, October 18th 12:30-2pm
The
Moriah Fund, Washington, DC
Mapping
Multilateral Development Banks' Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS
Spending
Gender Action presented Mapping
Multilateral Development Banks' Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS
Spending—the first report assessing the quantity
and quality of Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs’)
spending for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Mapping demonstrates
a decline in World Bank and little African Development Bank,
Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank
loans and grants for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Mapping
also charts unmet MDB commitments to reproductive health and
HIV/AIDS, and harmful loan conditions such as restricting
public spending which undermine poor countries' ability to
address these key public health issues. Mapping provides evidence
for conducting advocacy to improve MDB performance on achieving
reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and other Millennium Development
Goals. At this event we also discussed the World Bank's recent
attempts to eliminate its commitments to reproductive health
and family planning.
Wednesday, October 17th 3- 4:15pm
Lutheran
Church of the Reformation, Washington DC
The
Gender Impacts of Debt and the IFIs
Gender Action and Jubilee USA Network hosted this education
session on gender, debt and the IFIs. We discussed how the
often illegitimate and unpayable debt burden of poor countries
disproportionately falls on women and girls. Indebted governments
are forced to prioritize payments to rich country creditors
over spending on essential services such as healthcare, education
and clean water. Women and girls must make up for the shortfall,
for example, by quitting their jobs to care for sick family
members when public health services are reduced. The World
Bank and International Monetary Fund require indebted countries
to implement painful reforms such as water privatization.
Water becomes unaffordable, increasing women's time spent
collecting water. Another common IFI reform requires poor
countries to impose user fees for basic services such as education.
Girls are the first to be taken out of school when fees are
imposed. We also highlighted debt relief successes, such as
how Kenya and Uganda abolished user fees for primary school
after receiving partial debt relief, which led to an immediate
increase in girls’ enrollment!
Tuesday, September 25, 12noon-1:30PM
International
Funding Investments for Gender Equality featuring
Elaine Zuckerman
Sponsored by: Clearinghouse on Women's Issues
Location: American Council on Education, One Dupont Circle,
8th Floor Kellog Room, Washington DC
Tuesday, September 11, 12noon-1:30PM
Mapping
Multilateral Development Banks’ Reproductive Health
and HIV/AIDS Spending
A donor luncheon briefing with report authors Suzanna Dennis
and Elaine Zuckerman
Sponsored by: Wallace Global Fund
Location: 1990 M Street, NW, Suite 250, Washington DC
RSVP: ktibone(at)popact.org or 202-557-3444
July 30-August 2, 2007
Gender Action and nearly one hundred gender-equality activists,
policymakers and academics from around the world participated
in the Heinrich Boell Foundation International Summer School
2007, "Engendering Economic Policies in a Globalizing
World." Gender Action led the following events:
- Gender Impacts of Indebtedness and Structural Adjustment
Policies, presentation by Elaine Zuckerman
- Gender and World Bank Post-Conflict Reconstruction,
workshop facilitated by Suzanna Dennis
- Gender
Justice: Gender Accountability at the International Financial
Institutions, presentation by Suzanna Dennis
July 15-17, 2007 (Thailand)
Conference:
Understanding Global Finance, Building International Resistance
Sponsored by: Bretton Woods Project, Eurodad, Fifty Years
is Enough, Focus on the Global South, Gender Action, IDEAS,
Jubilee South APMDD, and Solidarity Africa.
July 2007 marked the 10-year anniversary of the Asian Financial
Crisis, which global activists commemorated with a conference
in Bangkok, Thailand. As part of the events, Elaine Zuckerman
presented on The
Crisis of Multilateral Institutions of Global Financial Governance.
July 11, 2007
Mapping Multilateral Development Banks’ Reproductive
Health and HIV/AIDS Spending
At Population Action International’s (PAI’s) office,
Washington DC
A launch presentation with Suzanna Dennis and Elaine Zuckerman,
moderated by Suzanne Ehlers of PAI
April 13, 2007
National
Sovereignty Versus Aid Cartels in the Global South
Location: Gender Action Office, Washington DC
Event Sponsors: Jubilee USA, Action Aid USA, Gender Action,
50 Years is Enough Network, Center for Economic and Policy
Research, and the Center of Concern.
Panelists:
- Nancy Alexander, Globalization Challenge Initiative, Washington
- Oscar Ugarteche, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México
- Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research,
Washington
- Sun Baohong, Counselor, Policy Analysis Section, Embassy
of the People's Republic of ChinaChinese Government Official
(invited)
April 11, 2007
Panel Discussion: Gender Impacts IFI Conditionalities
International Student House, Washington, DCElla Burling Hall
Co-Sponsored by Gender Action and the South Asian Women's
Leadership Forum
Featuring:
- Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action
- Suzanna Dennis, Gender Action
- Lidy Nacpil, Jubilee South Asia/Pacific
- Monét Cooper, Jubilee USA Network
This workshop launched our Gender
Guide to World Bank and IMF Policy-Based Lending. International
Financial Institution (IFI) investments such as those of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank often
aggravate discrimination against women and girls by intensifying
poverty, trafficking in and violence against women, prostitution
and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. This
is particularly true of IFI policy-based loans, which often
require governments to implement reforms such as privatization
of essential services and cutting government spending that
reduce services to the poor.
Several IFIs have gender policies or strategies which tend
to be poorly implemented and apply to projects but not policy-based
lending. The World Bank's Operational Policy on Gender and
Development specifically excludes policy-based operations.
The IMF, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
and the European Investment Bank lack gender policies.
USA 2006
December 14, 2006
The
Policy Space Debate: Does a globalized and multilateral economy
constrain the ability of developing countries to pursue development
policies?
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington
DC
Featuring:
- Keynote speaker: Jomo Kwame Sundaram, United Nations (UN)
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
- Heiner Flassbeck, UN Conference on Trade and Development
- Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action
- Commentator Mark Allen, International Monetary Fund
Moderator: Bhumika Muchhala, Wilson Center
Elaine examined the gendered impacts of economic conditions
attached to IFI loans which constrain policy space. The entire
debate can be viewed by clicking on the event link above.
Elaine’s presentation is in Part I of the video.
November 29, 2006
Boom-Time Blues: The Gender Impacts of Big IFI Financed
Oil Projects
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC
Sponsored by the Bank Information Center, Gender Action and
the Heinrich Böll Foundation
This panel discussion on Boom-Time
Blues: Big Oil’s Gender Impacts in Azerbaijan, Georgia,
and Sakhalin was moderated by Liane Schalatek (Heinrich
Böll Foundation North America), included a welcome and
introduction by Elaine Zuckerman (Gender Action), and presentations
by:
- Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath, CEE Bankwatch Network
- Suzanna
Dennis, Gender Action
- Manish Bapna, Bank Information Center
October 30, 2006
Elaine Zuckerman was a panelist on Setting the Post-Conflict
Donor Agenda at The
Center for Development and Population Activities' WomenLead
in Promoting Peace and Stability Training, Washington
DC
September 16, 2006
Elaine Zuckerman, How Gender Action Advocates for
Change
Georgetown University Progressive Students' Conference, Washington
DC
June 26-27, 2006
Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action and Social Entrepreneurship
The
Chicago Global Donors Network 3rd Annual Conference on International
Giving
May 15, 2006
Elaine Zuckerman, The
Gendered Impacts of IFI Investments
Syracuse University, Washington DC Campus
February 23, 2006
Elaine Zuckerman, The Gendered Impacts IFI Policies
American University, Washington DC
February 15, 2006
Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action’s Advocacy Campaign
on the IFIs: Empowering Women as Change Agents in Development
The Philanthropy West Workshop Alumni Network
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park California
China 2005
Every two years since 1999, the International Fund for China's
Environment, People’s University of China, and other
partners such as Conservation International, Global Village
of Beijing and Green Watershed have co-sponsored a Non-governmental
Organization (NGO) Forum on International Environmental Cooperation
in China. Gender Action has participated actively in these
forums.
Elaine Zuckerman made three presentations at the last forum
in this series, the Fourth Non-governmental Organization Forum
on International Environmental Cooperation in China, held
in November 2005 in Kunming, China as follows:
Tuesday November 8, 2005
How to
Start an NGO
Wednesday November 9, 2005
Forum Opening Plenary Presentation. Elaine Zuckerman, invited
to speak as the International NGO Representative, presented
on:
An Historical Perspective on the Gender and Environmental
Impacts of Economic Development and the Role of NGOs in China
(1970-2005)
Thursday November 10, 2005
Gender
and Biodiversity: The World Bank Track Record
Friday June 10, 2005
The
Practices of NGOs: Why Gender Action?
Elaine Zuckerman's videoconference with students at the Shanghai
Jiao Tong University in partnership with the George Washington
Center for the Study of Globalization
Thailand, 2005
In Bangkok in October 2005, Elaine Zuckerman presented at
UNIFEM and at the Association for Women’s Rights in
Development (AWID) Forum.
October 28, 2005
AWID Forum
The Gendered Impacts of the International Financial
Institutions
Gender Action and Third World Forum – Africa
co-sponsored this session that included the following speakers:
- Rose Mensah-Kutin, Abantu for Development, Ghana, Chair
- Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana
- Junya Lek Yimprasert, Thai Labour Campaign, Thailand
- Alma Espino, International Gender and Trade Network, Uruguay
Elaine Zuckerman presented on the gendered impacts of IFI
economic policy reforms in the context of the 25-year history
of IFI structural adjustment programs. She presented examples
from Gender Action’s publication The
Gendered Impacts of Structural Adjustment: the Case of Serbia
and Montenegro.
October 26, 2005
Elaine Zuckerman, How UNIFEM Can Influence Engendering
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
In this presentation Elaine Zuckerman advised UNIFEM
officials on how it can contribute to ensuring that PRSPs
promote women’s rights and gender equality. She emphasized
focusing on economic conditions and interventions.
Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) 2005
Elaine Zuckerman worked with PRSP stakeholders to better engender
PRSP implementation in BiH. She delivered the following papers:
September, 19, 2005
Engendering
Macroeconomics in PRSPs
Therme, Bosnia & Herzegovina
At a workshop for BiH PRSP macroeconomics and gender team
members and other PRSP stakeholders, Elaine Zuckerman presented
on how macroeconomics ignores women’s work in the unpaid
care economy; gender differences in paid employment and in
policies affecting consumption, savings and investment; macrostability
and social needs; revenue sources including taxation; PRSPs
and related structural adjustment measures; and the gender
impacts of trade.
September 13, 2005
An
Introduction to Gender Budget Initiatives (GBIs)
Elaine Zuckerman presented a paper on this theme to a group
of BiH gender experts as a basis for brainstorming with them
on BiH’s early gender budget analyses and advocacy outcomes
and to explore other countries’ best practices.
USA 2005
June 21, 2005
The
Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Institute for Women’s Policy Research Conference, Omni
Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC, USA
Roundtable Discussion Sponsored by Gender Action and the Heinrich
Böll Foundation
Presentations by:
- Elaine Zuckerman, President of Gender Action
- Marcia Greenberg, Consultant and Adjust Professor of Law,
Cornell University
- Nata Duvvury, Gender, Violence and Rights Director at the
International Center for Research on Women
Moderator: Liane Schalatek, Deputy Director of the Heinrich
Böll Foundation USA
June 10, 2005
How to Start an NGO
From a George Washington University teleconference site, Elaine
Zuckerman presented to a class of about 100 students at Jiaotong
University in Shanghai, China. She discussed her life and
studies in 1970s China; her work on China and on the social
impact of structural adjustment during the 1980s for the World
Bank and in the 1990s on Latin America for the Inter-American
Development Bank; and how these experiences impassioned her
to establish an NGO to hold the IFIs accountable on their
unkept gender-equality promises. Then she discussed mechanisms
for establishing an NGO that are reflected in her November
8 outline, How
to Start an NGO
May 15, 2005
The Gendered Impacts of IFI Investments
Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Washington DC Campus
Elaine Zuckerman presented to a graduate class on the gendered
impacts of IFI structural adjustment loans, poverty reduction
strategies and post-conflict investments.
May 13, 2005
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 2004 Fundraiser
Benefiting the Green Belt Movement
Women,
Development and the Future
Co-Sponsored by the Women’s Edge Coalition, the Academy
for Educational Development, Gender Action, and other citizen’s
groups
AED Academy Hall, Washington DC, USA
May 2, 2005
Gender and
the IFIs
University of Kansas, Lawrence Kansas
Elaine Zuckerman made two presentations at the University
of Kansas. First she made a public presentation on gender
and the IFIs. Second she presented to a graduate class on
Gender Action’s work around the IFIs.
April 9, 2005
Partners
in Help or Partners in Crime?: Structural Adjustment Programs,
Policies of the World Bank, IMF, WTO, and their Impact on
Poverty
The Feminist Majority Foundation National Collegiate
Global Women’s Rights and Human Rights Conference, Arlington
Virginia
Panel presentations by:
- Elaine Zuckerman, President, Gender Action
- Marie Clark Brill, Director for Public Education and Mobilization,
Africa Action
- Rick Rowden, Policy Analyst, ActionAid International
Moderator: Jessie Raeder, Campus Organizer, Feminist Majority
Foundation
In her presentation, Elaine Zuckerman argued that IFI Structural
Adjustment Lending further impoverishes women, who already
comprise 70% of the world’s poor. Zuckerman made a Call
to Action for IFIs and other “donors” to target
70% of an improved version of their aid to women.
USA 2004
September 29, 2004
Gender
and Post-conflict Reconstruction: The World Bank Track Record
Sponsored by the Heinrich Böll Foundation
The Brookings Institution, Washington DC
Panel Presentations by:
- Elaine Zuckerman, President Gender Action
- Marcia Greenberg, Adjunct Law Professor, Cornell University
- Ian Bannon, Manager Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction
Unit, The World Bank
- Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, Director, Policy Commission, Women
Waging Peace
- Anita Sharma, Director, Conflict Prevention Project, The
Woodrow Wilson Center
Introduction/Moderator: Adriana Quinones, Heinrich Böll
Foundation
Many conflict resolution approaches have advocated women’s
participation during conflict and peace negotiations, humanitarian
assistance, and peacekeeping. Elaine Zuckerman and Marcia
Greenberg presented their paper addressing women’s inclusion
and gender issues in the reconstruction that follows by examining
the post conflict reconstruction gender dimensions of social,
economic and political development and the weak World Bank
track record in integrating gender dimensions into its post-conflict
grants and loans.
July 12, 2004
Elaine Zuckerman, Gender, Development and the IFIs
American University, Washington DC
Gender and Peacebuilding in Development Course
January 13th, 2004
Reforming the World Bank: Will the New Gender Strategy
Make a Difference?
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington
DC
Sponsored by Gender Action, The Heinrich Böll Foundation
and The Bank Information Center
Panel Presentations by:
- Elaine Zuckerman, President, Gender Action
- Karen Mason, Director, Gender and Development, The World
Bank
- Nasreen Khundker, Professor of Economics, University of
Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Bruce Jenkins, Policy Director, Bank Information Center
Introduction/Moderator: Liane Schalatek, Heinrich Böll
Foundation
International development research demonstrates compellingly
that greater gender equality translates into greater economic
growth and less poverty worldwide. Thus, there are many good
reasons to promote engendering – or ensuring gender
considerations are included in – World Bank investments,
programs, projects, and initiatives. With its 2002 Gender
Mainstreaming Strategy, "Integrating Gender in the World
Bank’s Work: A Strategy in Action," the World Bank
promotes the "business" and "poverty reduction"
cases for engendering World Bank initiatives.
This panel discussion assessed the strengths, weaknesses,
the implementation track record and the potential effectiveness
of the Bank’s Gender Mainstreaming Strategy and made
recommendations on how to strengthen it. It presented the
results of a study on the World Bank’s Gender Mainstreaming
Strategy by Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action, and Wu Qing,
China Women’s Health Network which was commissioned
by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
A Gentle Touch?
Gender and the World Bank — A Critical Assessment,
presented by Nasreen Khundker.
An updated version of this study titled, Reforming
the World Bank: Will the Gender Strategy Make a Difference?
A Study with China Case Examples is available on our Publications
page.
Kenya 2003
December 2003
Engendering PRSPs: The Track Record and Key Entry
Points
Conference
on Engendering PRSPs in Africa, December 2003
Nairobi, Kenya
Sponsored by GTZ
Elaine Zuckerman presented on the PRSP track record in addressing
gender issues. Click
here to view her slide presentation which is also available
on the conference website.
North America 2003
April 13, 2003
Elaine Zuckerman, The Gendered Impact of Multilateral
Investments
Concordia/Universite de Quebec a Montreal Conference,
Women’s Access to the Economy in the current Period
of Economic Integration of the Americas: What Economy?
Montreal, Canada
January 15, 2003
Elaine Zuckerman and Ashley Garrett, PRSPs
and Gender
At the International Center for Research on Women
(ICRW)
Brown Bag lunch workshop co-Sponsored by ICRW, InterAction’s
Commission on the Advancement of Women (CAW) and Committee
on Development Policy and Practice (CDPP) and Gender Action
June 23, 2003
Gender Action One-Year Anniversary Launch Reception
Gender Action celebrated its official launch through
a reception held on its one year anniversary. About 125 people
participated in this celebration.
Bill Drayton, Gender Action seed and steadfast funder, whom
US News and World Report honored on its cover as one of America's
25 Best Leaders in 2005, and Business Week cited as one of
America’s most creative philanthropists in 2004 for
developing the field of social entrepreneurship through Ashoka:
Innovators for the Public, introduced Elaine Zuckerman. He
portrayed her social "intrapreneurial" track record
inside the international financial institutions. Drayton said,
"Gender Action is taking on the biggest and most complex
players at the international level and getting them to change.
If any organization will succeed in this challenge, it is
Gender Action because of its strong leadership."
Elaine Zuckerman described Gender Action's programs (see
the About Us page) and presented
Joanna Kerr, the Executive Director of the Association for
Women's Rights in Development (AWID), Gender Action's Achievement
Award for Kerr's outstanding transformation of AWID into a
globally influential women's rights advocacy organization.
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