For women and girls in poor urban and rural areas, indigenous communities, and in conflict and emergency situations all over the world, the implications of the financial crisis are that:

• They are the first to lose jobs or be compelled to accept cheaper “3D” jobs (i.e. dirty, demeaning and dangerous jobs);

• Many of them will be prostituted or illegally trafficked;

• Former professionals and members of the middle class will join the increasing ranks of the poor and unemployed;

• States’ austerity measures will drop maternal and child health care services, gender mainstreaming programmes, and other basic social services as they are considered least in their biased priority;

• More poverty will breed more domestic and social conflicts and more of such conflicts will cause more women and girls being raped, violated, ill-brunt, and disregarded;

• Reproductive rights guarantees existing at international, regional or national levels may be undermined; and,

• Possibly lesser grants and aids for grassroots women and girls.

Women, who comprise the majority of the world's poor, have been victims of the recent decades of rapid globalisation. Their poverty and marginalisation is, in part, due to a world economic system that has created massive wealth for a few.

Lack of food, clean water, shelter, education, livelihood, are not so much resulting from the present crisis as they are exacerbated. It is the everyday reality of grassroots women and girls because of the basic social inequities and injustices in class, race and gender, which in many of their countries have been historically imbedded by their colonial past.

The prevailing economic policies of the Global North such as unregulated finance, profit-oriented capitalist overproduction, and unjust price of labour in a geographically borderless market do not address, but in fact aggravate the historical poverty of these Global South states. Never had the world seen such a rapid creation and accumulation of wealth, concentrated in the hands of a few, trumpeted as a means of ending global poverty.

Rich populations, such as those in the USA, were pushed into an orgy of consumerism and debt---made necessary the overproduction of commodities and a willingness of governments of the developing South to fund huge imbalances in trade. At the beginning of 2007, the housing values in the USA fell as supply overwhelmed demand. Mortgage defaults rose as the real value of homeowners’ incomes slid and the cost of basic commodities jacked up; sending many broke or homeless.  Then investors piled on collaterised debt obligations as firms borrowed to load up on its obligations and real estate. The mortgage sector collapsed; rising delinquencies resulted in valueless obligations affecting the re-insurers and creditors all over the world; and the markets weakened with worry thus raising the costs for businesses. As lending tightened, short-term loans on which all kinds of businesses and individual purchasers rely became less available. Growth slowed and layoffs followed as companies trimmed costs.

When Southeast Asian and Latin American economies suffered similar meltdowns in the past, they were allowed to “go under” by the IMF and the World Bank.  Banks failed, businesses went bankrupt and the value of people's incomes plummeted. These same prescriptions of “allowing the market to correct itself” are obviously no longer on the table now that the populations of the North are at risk.

The governments of the North would have us believe that this capitalist cycle can be brought back into control and, with greater regulation, be made to serve the peoples of the world. Yet bank bailouts, lower interest rates, mortgage refinancing and economic stimulus packages do not answer the needs of the poor. They are directly beneficial to the banks, major corporations and the incompetent mercenaries who head them. The logic remains the same—save the banks so that the benefits may trickle down to the poor. Indeed we require a new consensus! Not one that would “save the markets” or even “allow the markets to correct themselves” but one that would finally make the markets serve the majority of the world's population.

For the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights, in the light of the United Nations’ call to come up with solutions to the global financial crisis taking into consideration the best interest of the international community, the first step is to democratise the dialogues and decision-making processes at all levels—local, national, regional or international. Women and girls should be part of these processes. Their reproductive rights must not be disregarded; remembering that gender discrimination, amongst others, is both a cause and an effect of poverty. 

WGNRR holds that the return and expansion of social services including primary health care and reproductive health services for all must be ensured and guaranteed by the world’s governments. We believe that the global financial crisis must be addressed at its roots---resources must be equitably shared among the peoples within States; and between Global North and South; regardless of race, class, and gender.

This present conjuncture presents the world's people with unprecedented opportunities for solidarity and cooperation. It calls us to hold global institutions and governments accountable. It calls the world's people to tap into our immense creativity so that we may feed, educate, house and protect the health of all.

On the International Day of Women, it is our call in these times of global adversity that the reproductive rights of women and girls must not be sacrificed but rather upheld to guarantee the substantive and decisive solution to the crisis.

Defend our reproductive rights!

WGNRR

March 08, 2009