Program Strategy

Over the past decades, economic processes associated with globalization have deeply impacted the lives of men and women of all ages, nationalities, social classes and ethnicities, around the globe. SAP was meant to bring the Third World, Africa inclusive, into globalization, whose analytical categories are free market, efficiency, economic rationality, comparative advantage, economic growth and related aspects. The site of its analysis being micro-economic and its epistemology is grounded or focused on policy.  Thus globalization is thought to have destroyed national and local spaces as sites of accumulation and reconstructing societies (Shivji, 1998 in Bagile 2005). Trade and Capital account liberalization, fiscal retrenchment, privatization and the deregulation of labour markets among others, have been individual components of these corporate led, anti poor, gender and class biased policies. African Countries have been forced to face the realities, stemming from economic interdependence, relatively loss of fiscal control and growing authority of markets.
Among the impacts of macro economic and neo liberal policies has been the fact that fiscal squeezing in social sectors due to budget cuts and introduction of user fee made women to be strata that continue to be vulnerable. With both retrenchment exercises as part of measures to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, women was a large group affected due to lower levels of education
Economic sectors have not contributed significantly to changes in poverty from a gender perspective, due to the inadequate programmes and budgetary resources earmarked for poverty related programmes and gender related economic activities. Even where Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers of selected countries realized the importance of gender for poverty reduction, resource flows did not reflect the government commitments to same. This is due to the realization that existing national budgets have limited monetary embodiment of the political commitment to specific policy direction and programmes nationally and internationally, for example, Millennium Development Goals-MDG, to mention just a few, leaving the poorest strata, majority whom are women, to bear the brunt.
Worse of all is agriculture, which is a backbone of many African economies in enhancing 85% of Africa’s livelihood system. Meanwhile, women contribute 75% of its produce and they have not benefited from the both budget cuts and market led economy. It is worth noting that African countries have continued to lack voices in world market, in terms of prices of their produce. As such, despite their increased role in agriculture so as to meet the cost of social services, most women have continued to lack access to productive assets, such as land and capital. Again, they lack access to extension services and markets, which results into lack of fair remuneration in unpaid subsistence production. Even where policies such as land policies, small and medium enterprise policy, and employment policy exist, in addition to being ignorant of their existence, such policies are left on Government shelves, hence non-functional. Also, Gender neutral policies and the patriarchy/ system have continued to render women vulnerable to poverty.
It is worth noting that despite a wide recognition of failure of a market led economy on its simple definition of development as synonymous with growth, and the fact that poverty is now understood as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, resulting from the intersection of social inequalities  including gender inequalities and powerlessness rather than just being about lack of income, these unpopular way of analysis still  continue to inform policy making in main institutions of global governance,  namely World Bank, IMF and the World Trade Organizations (WTO). Neo-liberalism is still the intellectual framework that guides the economic policies promoted by these institutions to enhance growth despite some modifications. Focus such as sound economic macro economic policies, fiscal prudence, rule of law and accountability and transparency, trade as engine of growth and good governance are some of terms used as an extension of Washington consensus.
As a feminist research organization, it is imperative to continue examining  and monitoring(i) gender differentiated effect of globalizations and economic liberalization (ii) the effects of gender inequalities on the outcomes of economic liberalization policies and globalization and (iii) promotion of efforts aimed at enhancing gender equality in the macro economic policies and outcome of trade policies and performance (iv) the extent of the understanding to which gender inequalities as illustrated by the socio-economic indicators for sectors are covered in Poverty Reduction Sectors (PRSPSs) and its impact on national budgets.

Key interventions

AAWORD will  conduct the following interventions: Using results from feminist researches to be conducted, provide a platform for its membership to engage in evidence based policy, advocacy and social dialogue on macro economic policies, democratize PRSPs and monitor subsequent budget guideline development and implementation processes with gender lens

Monitor trade agreements from a gender and right based approach

Audit Government performance by ensuring efficient service delivery with allocated resources reaching the intended recipients, through Public Expenditure Tracking in two areas of our focus

Organize and conduct economic literacy programmes to empower chapters to engage in macro economic analysis

To increase opportunities for marginalized groups in accessing and controlling productive resources, Training and Information and build capacities for self help

Build capacities for self help at grassroots levels, through activities, such as solidarity groups formation, forming women’s cooperatives/association including linking them with markets and capital

To advocate for gender responsive employment policy and conduct economic empowerment programmes  to that effect ( as a response to strategic and practical needs of rural women)