‘Stop austerity measures’ women movements implore Bretton Woods countries
Some women movements on Wednesday implored Bretton Woods institutions to stop imposing on the country austerity measures seeking to cut expenditure to essential social services, saying such moves actually thwart economic growth, leading to gruesome suffering of women and girls.
But Chairperson of the Budget and Finance Committee of Malawi Parliament, Gladys Ganda, while welcoming the call, said the women must also be mindful that some austerity measures actually help economies of countries to tick.
The women movements made the call during a workshop in Lilongwe, which involved ActionAid delegates from Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and India, experts from United Kingdom and USA and ActionAid local allies, including Malawi Congress of Trade Union, NGO-Gender Coordination Network, Young Urban Women’s Movement and Feminist Macro Economics Alliance-Malawi.
Aimed at sharing knowledge on neoliberalism, the workshop was based on a project ActionAid Malawi is implementing alongside other countries, focusing on economic justice.
Participants unanimously noted that austerity measures—imposed by, among others, International Monitory Fund, especially when countries are obtaining Extended Credit Facilities and other loans—seek to cut expenditure to public service delivery.
In her remarks, ActionAid Malawi Executive Director, Pamela Kuwali, said such conditions including unfair wage bills, are problematic, as cutting expenditure to public service is counterproductive.
“It means, for instance, we are not allocating enough money to health and education services. It means we are also imposing punitive tax measures that hinder economic growth.
“Women and girls actually suffer the most. If government is unable to provide facilities to admit the sick, women look after these people at home. If there are no education facilities, girls will not be educated, meaning we will not set them on the right path to a successful future”.
Kuwali added that ActionAid, being a feminist organization, feels women should understand all these things, know what could be the alternative solutions and then engage policy makers in order to raise a critical mass of awareness, resulting into rethinking how these things should be done.
Alternative economic models to begin to follow, suggested Kuwali, could be, among others: creating a conducive environment for the private sector to produce, discarding punitive tax measures, relooking interest rates and addressing corruption.
NGO-Gender Coordination Network Chairperson, Barbara Banda, concurred with Kuwali, adding that due to government’s failure to, for instance, support the health sector, women are subsidizing a lot of services in the sector.
“They are, for example, playing guardianship role in homes and hospitals. Sad is the fact that such free medical healthcare delivery is not even documented and counted”.
Mayeso Grace Msuku, an economic justice advocate affiliated with Young Urban Women’s Movement, said it is high time countries began to push back austerity measures.
“Otherwise what we are doing is counter intuitive to what is actually good for the economy and the well-being of the people”.
But Chairperson of the Budget and Finance Committee of Malawi Parliament, Gladys Ganda, while welcoming the call, said the women movements must also be mindful that some austerity measures actually help economies of countries to tick.
“Maybe the issue should be where exactly do we really need to apply austerity measures.
“Otherwise I agree. Some austerity measures do not really make sense. For example, they would say do not employ nurses and doctors, yet we all know there is shortage of staff in the health sector and service provision is compromised”.
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