Gender

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Gender Accountability What is the Problem?

• How to explain the vast gaps between lofty
  international commitments and realities for
  women?
• maternal mortality is declining at 0.4 per year
  instead of the 5.5 needed to reach the 2015
  target
• Women are still outnumbered 4 to 1 in government
• Women still earn 17 less then men for the same
  work.
• Discrimination on this scale is a sign of a
  serious accountability gap there are no
  consequences for not upholding commitments to
  womens rights or gender equality.

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Women Perceive an Accountability Gap Gender
Differences in Perceptions of Corruption
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The Basics of Accountability

• Power holders must answer to those who delegated
  power, resources, and mandates to them
  (answerability)
• There must be consequences for failures to
  implement mandates (enforcement of remedy and
  redress, including corrective measures)

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The Accountability Cycle
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Essentials of Gender-responsive Accountability

• Women must be included in oversight processes.
  Women must be entitled and empowered to ask for
  explanations and to obtain information about
  public actions.
• Advancing womens rights is a key standard
  against which the performance of public officials
  is assessed.

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Progress in 6 Slides

1. More women are needed in public office, but also
   need state capacity to promote gender equality

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2. Public services that respond to womens needs
are the basic test of government accountability
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3. Women can be at one remove from
accountability processes because of constraints
on decision-making
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4. The Brain Drain has become female. What
does this say about labor standards and what does
it mean for the pool of women leaders in local
communities?
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5. Low rates of reporting, prosecution and
conviction for violence against women shows a
gender bias in judicial systems
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6. Aid and development institutions do not
adequately track resource allocations to women
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Gender Equality is Mission Critical to
Accountability

• Who answers to women? Why is this an issue for
  all of society?
• Accountability to women is a core part of
  democratic governance - it helps to make
  democracy work, and it helps to promote state
  capacity to deliver on promises of equality and
  poverty reduction for all.

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• Who is accountable for gender equality? We
  cannot assume that democracy and good governance
  will directly bring gender equality and
  empowerment to our countries. If women are not in
  the national leadership, their voices on
  economic, political and social issues will not be
  heard. And then only by promoting the right
  policies, will we be able to answer this
  question.
• Who is accountable to women? Everyone in my
  government is.
• Spanish Prime Minister José Louis Rodrégues
  Zapatero

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Hvala
http//www.unifem.org/progress/2008 www.unifem.sk