The global financial crisis led to greater job loss and poverty among women than men while rising food prices and responsibility for social reproduction take excessive tolls on the livelihoods of women. Financial crises and austerity measures to combat crises undermine the human rights to work, education, health and nourishment and the capacity to provide […]
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What can the most invisible and marginalized of women workers contribute to the discourse on solidarity economy based on their concrete experiences over time? This question acquires significance in the light of the combined financial, economic, and environmental crises coupled with the increasing incidence of disasters in Southeast Asia. These have led to massive job […]
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Contribution by Just Associates (JASS). Abstract: At the 12th International AWID Forum, JASS organized the in-depth session “Access to and Control over Resources: Organizing for Women’s EmPOWERment”. The following section presents some of the key ideas discussed in an attempt to broaden the understanding of access and control of resources from an analysis of power […]
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Consumer-driven capitalism, the elimination of social safety nets and the privatization of public goods and services has turned everything, from land and capital to healthcare, technology, clean air, and even political influence, into a commodity – accessible only to those willing and able to pay a price. The resulting inequities in access to and control […]
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In the context of converging crises, this in-depth session aimed to contribute to the debate on challenging the mainstream economic model from a critical feminist perspective. By convening a range of voices from different movements and sectors, the session began by unpacking development, departing from the understanding that development is a politically constructed process and […]
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This session presented basic notions of concepts of food security and food sovereignty; where these concepts emerged and their contexts. As well, the session highlighted distinctions between the two and their relevance for advancing women’s rights and economic justice. Speakers: Francisca Rodriguez (Asociación Nacional de Mujeres Rurales e Indígenas de Chile, ANAMURI and CLOC-Via Campesina) […]
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FRIDAY FILE: The onslaught of transgenic food production, the advance of agro-business driven single-crop farming and the exploitative economic development model, are putting food sovereignty at risk. Those supporting and reinforcing these practices, including transnational corporations, are more focused on profit than caring for food and natural resources. AWID spoke to Chilean peasant activist Francisca […]
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Nitya Rao. Policies that seek to give women assets, particularly land, have often failed to achieve their goals. Explained as a failure of implementation and adequate resourcing, the deeper problem lies in the use of a segmented rather than holistic analytical framework that treats both assets and women as discrete, individual objects, rather than socially […]
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By Alejandra Scampini. FRIDAY FILE: As we celebrate International Food Day and International Rural Women’s Day this month AWID interviewed Elizabeth Mpofu, peasant women leader of La Via Campesina in Zimbabwe to reflect on the intersections between hunger, agriculture, gender, social and environmental justice and highlight the importance of food sovereignty. AWID: Via Campesina challenges […]
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As Mozambique receives huge international investments in mining and natural gas, some find jobs and new opportunities while others find displacement and despair.
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FRIDAY FILE: In Africa land rights are critical to economic power. In recent history, there have been three waves of land grabs: colonization, post-independence and present-day land grabs for commercial and apparently environment preservation purposes. Governments and corporations continue to wield their power to the detriment of women in Africa. This article is part of […]
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by Asoka Bandarage. The author argues that growing economic inequality and the distribution of resources and opportunities is the main social issue of our time. She explores the systemic roots of the current crisis through an integration of critical social science analysis and a universal spiritual approach to ecological sustainability and social development. She argues […]
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by Elissa Braunstein. It reviews the gendered employment impacts of the macroeconomic policy environment, with a particular focus on women’s employment. This is a summary version of the article: ‘Neoliberal Development Macroeconomics: A Consideration of its Gendered Employment Effects’, published by UNRISD, February 2012. Click here for full original version. IS GROWTH GOOD FOR WOMEN? […]
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Srilatha Batliwala. Today’s targeting of women in processes of realigning economic controls is perhaps quite unique. In order to unpack and understand economic power, we must revisit the different realms in which power operates, and the various forms that it takes – visible, hidden and invisible, says Srilatha Batliwala On the eve of the 12th AWID […]
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Morning plenary Experiences of Resistance and Collective Organizing to Transform Economic Power showed how different grassroots movements across the globe have been challenging the current overarching system. Plenary take aways: Include men. Given from the rural organizing perspective: when women are meeting to organize themselves – men tend to step aside – we have to educate and […]
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Militarism, Violence & Conflict
Labour & Work
The Role of the State
Sexuality
The Planet and Ecological Health
Financial Flows
Access to and Control of Resources
Private Sector and Corporate Power
Culture and Religion
Global Governance