Beijing Platform for Action. Chapter IV. A. Women and Poverty – Paragraph 59(a)-(b)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/09/28
Strategic objective A.1.
Review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and development strategies that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty
Actions to be taken
59. By multilateral financial and development institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and regional development institutions, and through bilateral development cooperation:
- In accordance with the commitments made at the World Summit for Social Development, seek to mobilize new and additional financial resources that are both adequate and predictable and mobilized in a way that maximizes the availability of such resources and uses all available funding sources and mechanisms with a view to contributing towards the goal of poverty eradication and targeting women living in poverty;
- Strengthen analytical capacity in order to more systematically strengthen gender perspectives and integrate them into the design and implementation of lending programmes, including structural adjustment and economic recovery programmes;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The Beijing Declaration’s paragraph 59 covers the responsibilities of actors than the governments. These including the multilateral financial and development institutions, which are centralized forms of great power. In sections (a) and (b), there are statements as to commitments and capacities. On commitments, (a) speaks to the “World Summit for Social Development” in an attempt to garner further financial resources for the eradication of poverty, with an emphasis on women living in poverty.
These could fall under fundraising for anti-poverty programs in a manner of speaking. The use of huge potential financial backers in order to get funds for the benefits of the general public’s least off. Those with the, often, least chance in life. It becomes a moral question with empirical outcomes: “Is it moral to help the least among us?” I answer, “Yes.” Others may not answer, “No,” in a direct way but by the implications of their politics, social policies, and economic programs – with known outcomes in prior examples through similar contexts.
The targeted improvement of the livelihoods of women is important. Because women remain among the least among us, globally. If some populations have women surpassing men, it is within the much younger generations and remains a highly new phenomenon and, immediately, organizations are working on the problems of men already; thus, it is not as if this is a travesty for the men of the world or a negligence on their needs but, rather, a simple equitable distribution of concern and resources for the implementation of women’s rights, as women are people and individuals have human rights.
The mobilization of resources in order to maximize their availability is non-trivial because distribution and access are fundamental aspects of equality. You cannot simply have the resources. There needs to be an infrastructure for the women and for the distribution of the resources to them. The world, in some ways, lives in abundance; the concern is the proper systematic distribution of the resources to those in need around the world.
The inclusion of a gendered perspective set can be important for the development of the society. It is, indeed, a fact of the statistics of the world that women and girls were not considered, as much or at all, in the economic and political systems of the world for a long time. Furthermore, there was also the problems associated with the lending programs, and the structural adjustments and economic recovery programs.
If women were more considered in these, then, perhaps, we could work for the greater advancement of the concerns of women. But if women and are simply not in them, as they were circa 1995, then the outcomes will be more probably neutral, which on a moving train means to fall behind, or even negative. These are the contexts of the modern world and the problems that we inhabit. It is a problem.
It is an issue needing dealing with, which will need direct planning, coordination, and implementation with a gendered perspective and, even better, with an input from women at all stages.
–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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