Globalization and Its Effects on Women and Girls Open

The 31st GWI Conference resolves that:

1. National Federations and Associations (NFAs) urge their respective governments to recognize that globalization in its present form has exacerbated the inequalities and insecurities of women and girls worldwide, particularly in developing countries, and to take immediate appropriate actions to reduce and ameliorate the “feminization of poverty” that has resulted from the policies of globalization;
2. NFAs oppose the most harmful of World Bank (WB) loan conditions, International Monetary Funds (IMF) policy advice and World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements; and
3. GWI endorse the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) in Doha, Qatar, supporting “development-centered” globalization rather than finance-centered globalization, utilizing all the resources at its disposal to emphasize its endorsement of the “Doha Mandate of 2012.”

Suggested Action:

1. NFAs should educate their members as well as their local women’s organizations about the basic agreements that their respective governments have made with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and particularly the World Trade Organization, and study the consequences of these agreements for poor women in their respective countries;
2. NFAs should, along with other like-minded women’s organizations, support NGO and other grassroots campaigns to urge their governments to reject the policies and conditions of globalization that are not inclusive or sustainable of women’s rights;
3. NFAs should urge their governments to take immediate appropriate actions to reduce the ‘feminization of poverty” that has already resulted from the programs and policies of globalization;
4. GWI should use its committees, its consultative status with ECOSOC at the United Nations, its conferences and virtual discussions forums, its website and world-wide communications system to emphasize its endorsement of the “Doha Mandate”; and
5. GWI should seek consultative status with UNCTAD to join other NGOs in ensuring UNCTAD’s vitally important role in balancing decision-making power with developing countries and in global governance.