The European Parliament adopted, by 347 votes to 136 with 44 abstentions, a resolution on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development Cooperation in response to the Commission Communication on the subject. The own-initiative report had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Feleknas UCA (GUE/NGL, DE) on behalf of the Development Committee.

While welcoming, in theory, the Commission’s strategy, MEPs deplore the fact that, since 1995, when the Council first declared consideration of the gender perspective in development cooperation to be a principle underpinning the development policy of the Community, not enough has been done in practice.

Members also regret the fact that most Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) Country Strategy Papers refer to gender as a cross-cutting area. They call for gender-specific targets and activities to be included in future strategies. Parliament regrets that only 5% of the DCI funds for the thematic programme 'Investing in People' (2007-2013) are allocated to gender equality and that regional and country strategy papers do not give an overview of budget allocation to gender equality since gender is only mentioned as a cross-cutting issue and thus no financial details are provided. The Commission and Member States are called upon to take action in development cooperation with concrete and measurable effects on gender relations (amending laws, institutions and existing patriarchal patterns, increasing budgetary resources and improving social and economic conditions for women).

On a general note, MEPs call on the Commission to undertake a gender analysis at every stage of policy design, implementation and evaluation so as to ensure that all forms of gender-based discrimination are eliminated and so as to protect and promote women’s human rights. In particular, the Commission is urged, when drawing up development cooperation policies, to support measures to strengthen the legal status of women, further promoting equal access to decent work as well as fundamental human and social rights, and paying particular attention to the increasing number of migrant women and their increasing vulnerability, so that women do not become the new exploited class of society. Parliament also calls on the Commission to evaluate the potential effect of Economic Partnership Agreements from the gender perspective.

Parliament welcomes programmes addressing female victims of violence but criticises strongly the fact that measures to combat violence against women are not part of the Commission’s strategy. Members condemn any legal, cultural or religious practices that discriminate against women, exclude them from political and public life and segregate them in their daily lives, as well as those that condone genital mutation, rape, domestic violence, forced marriage, honour killings, any obligation against the woman's own will to observe specific dress codes, harassment for not conforming to gender-related norms or rules, trafficking and forced labour. The Commission and Member States are urged to combat these practices in development cooperation policies. Parliament deplores in the strongest possible terms the virtual chattel status of women trapped under Sharia law, and regards this oppression as representing the diametric opposite of every principle which Parliament holds to be of paramount importance.

Recalling that in sub-Saharan Africa, 57 per cent of adults with HIV are women, Parliament invites the Commission and the Member States to develop specific, time-bound and measurable commitments ― backed by the allocation of adequate resources ― to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for all women and girls by 2010. MEPs also call on the Commission to strengthen its political leadership role in health policies, addressing currently neglected women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues. They emphasises the importance of putting women at the centre of water supply, sanitation and hygiene and emphasises, therefore, the importance of increasing access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and water for productive uses;

In order to promote the development of local communities, the Commission is called upon to develop policies that encourage women to form self help groups and set up on their own and, in collaboration with international organisations (such as Finance PlaNet), to expand the microfinance network so that more women can take out loans in order to improve their economic status.

Parliament points out that the ability of women to influence the development of their own lives is contingent on their education. It stresses the need to further promote access to education and vocational training at all levels for girls and to support education policies that are equitable and of a high standard, by providing teachers with training in gender issues and supporting reform of the curriculum to include gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and women's empowerment issues.

Lastly, Members emphasise the importance of encouraging donor coordination for gender mainstreaming and, improving dialogue and communication to achieve a common understanding of gender concepts and appropriate methodology.

The Committee on Development adopted the own-initiative report drawn up by Feleknas UCA (GUE/NGL, DE) in response to the Commission’s Communication entitled “Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development Cooperation” (COM(2007)0100).

While welcoming, in theory, the Commission’s strategy, MEPs regret the fact that, since 1995, when the Council first declared consideration of the gender perspective in development cooperation to be a principle underpinning the development policy of the Community, not enough has been done in practice.

Members also regret the fact that most Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) Country Strategy Papers refer to gender as a cross-cutting area. They call for gender-specific targets and activities to be included in future strategies. The Commission and Member States are called upon to take action in development cooperation with concrete and measurable effects on gender relations (amending laws, institutions and existing patriarchal patterns, increasing budgetary resources and improving social and economic conditions for women).

On a general note, MEPs call on the Commission to undertake a gender analysis at every stage of policy design, implementation and evaluation so as to ensure that all forms of gender-based discrimination are eliminated and so as to protect and promote women’s human rights. In particular, the Commission is urged, when drawing up development cooperation policies, to support measures to strengthen the legal status of women, further promoting equal access to decent work as well as fundamental human and social rights, and paying particular attention to the increasing number of migrant women and their increasing vulnerability, so that women do not become the new exploited class of society.

The report welcomes programmes addressing female victims of violence but criticises strongly the fact that measures to combat violence against women are not part of the Commission’s strategy. Members condemn any legal, cultural or religious practices that discriminate against women, exclude them from political and public life and segregate them in their daily lives, as well as those that condone genital mutation, rape, domestic violence, forced marriage, honour killings, any obligation against the woman's own will to observe specific dress codes, and harassment for not conforming to gender-related norms or rules. The Commission and Member States are urged to combat these practices in development cooperation policies.

Recalling that in sub-Saharan Africa, 57 per cent of adults with HIV are women, the report invites the Commission and the Member States to develop specific, time-bound and measurable commitments ― backed by the allocation of adequate resources ― to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for all women and girls by 2010. MEPs also call on the Commission to strengthen its political leadership role in health policies, addressing currently neglected women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues.

In order to promote the development of local communities, the Commission is called upon to develop policies that encourage women to form self help groups and set up on their own and, in collaboration with international organisations (such as Finance PlaNet), to expand the microfinance network so that more women can take out loans in order to improve their economic status.

The report stresses the need to further promote access to education and vocational training at all levels for girls and to support education policies that are equitable and of a high standard, by providing teachers with training in gender issues and supporting reform of the curriculum to include gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and women's empowerment issues.

Lastly, Members emphasise the importance of encouraging donor coordination for gender mainstreaming and, improving dialogue and communication to achieve a common understanding of gender concepts and appropriate methodology.

PURPOSE: to propose a Programme of Action to support gender equality in development cooperation.

CONTENT: women are at the centre of sustainable social and economic development, poverty reduction and environmental protection in developing countries Despite this, gender inequality is part of the daily experience of a large proportion of the world’s women. Therefore, the role of women in employment and economic activities is often underestimated because most women work in the informal sectors, often with low productivity and incomes, poor working conditions, with little or no social protection. For example, in Africa women constitute 52% of the total population, while they produce and market 60 to 80% of food. The female labour force in sub-Saharan Africa in 2005 was about 73 million, representing 34% of those employed in the formal sector, earning only 10% of the income while owning 1%of the assets.

Inequalities can also be seen in terms of decision-making with a very low rate of female representation in positions of power or even in terms of education (as an example, 57% of school age children outside of education are girls, while two thirds of illiterate people in the world are women). Moreover, the sexual and reproductive health of women remains precarious and many of the modest gains in women’s health made in recent decades are now threatened by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Women are also the main victims of domestic violence and armed conflict.

The ability of women and girls to empower themselves economically and socially by going to school or by engaging in productive and civic activities outside the home is persistently constrained by their responsibility for everyday tasks in the household division of labour. In addition, gender inequalities are still ingrained in the cultural, social and political systems of many countries.

Reaction at EU level: in order to tackle these many challenges, the Commission decided to react and propose a Programme of Action in an effort to close the gender gap in the developing world.

There are already several European and International initiatives in this area to progress towards greater gender equality (for example, in the framework of the European Consensus, the development cooperation Agreements with all geographical regions or even the Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men). On an operational level, most Member States and the European Commission have, hitherto, adopted a twin-track strategy, which comprises, on the one hand, the mainstreaming of gender equality in all policies, strategies and actions and, on the other, the financing of measures which directly support women's empowerment. However, the Commission aims to go further and proposes adapting this approach to the new aid modalities, to the requirements of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and on the 2005 Conference that it organised, in this context, on the theme “Owning Development: Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships”.

The present Communication builds on the outcome of that Conference, the policy framework of the European Consensus, and on the practical experience gained so far. It also responds to the commitments made in the Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men by formulating an EU strategy to progress towards achieving: (i) equal rights (political, civil, economic, employment, social and cultural) for women and men, girls and boys; (ii) equal access to, and control over, resources for women and men; (iii) equal opportunities to achieve political and economic influence for women and men.

An EU Strategy to Accelerate the Achievement of Gender Equality: according to the Commission, the new EU strategy must meet two objectives:

(a) to increase the efficiency of gender mainstreaming;

(b) to refocus specific actions for women's empowerment in our partner countries.

In order to reach these objectives, the cooperation strategies must act on three levels:

1. Political action: gender equality and women empowerment have to be brought to the table during the political dialogue with partner countries at the highest level;

2. Development cooperation: the key role of women in growth and development needs to be taken into account in the preparation and implementation of cooperation strategies; e.g. agricultural and food security strategies must clearly address the differing constraints faced by rural women, since in certain developing countries they are responsible for up to 80 % of basic food production; effective partnership, dialogue and consultation have to be established with relevant stakeholders (including governments, research centres, universities, civil society, international organisations) in the preparation of country strategies and aid programmes; mutual accountability mechanisms have to be put in place to improve the accountability role of different actors (government, regional economic communities, development agencies, civil society and media…) must be clarified; gender sensitive performance indicators have to be developed and used; budget support has to take into account Gender Equality concerns by linking the disbursement of incentive tranches to gender sensitive indicators;

3. Institutional capacity building: updated practical tools have to be developed in the assessment and implementation phases (26; improved access to information and best practices, and gender training for partner countries and staff have to be provided.

It is on this basis that the Commission proposes 41 actions listed in the annex of its Communication in the following broad areas:

· Governance (human rights, women's political empowerment, development of indicators, role of women in conflict and post conflict situations);

· Employment and economic activities (economic and social empowerment of women, employment, gender budget analysis, public finance management);

· Education (abolishing school fees, incentives to send girls to school, improving school environment, adult literacy);

· Health (social protection schemes, sexual and reproductive health and rights);

· Gender-based violence (legislation, victim protection, awareness raising through media, education and training).

These activities are examples to help to identify the proper programme mix for each specific country or region. The proper mix of activities will be decided case by case after a thorough analysis of each individual situation.

The set of identified actions will be implemented by the country programming of development aid (national and regional strategies of the DCI in particular) and via thematic programmes and other financial instruments (additional resources are available through multi-annual thematic programmes tabled by the Commission under the financial perspectives 2007-2013; the Thematic Programme “Investing in People” contains a financial envelope for funding EC actions in the area of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women; actions will also be implemented to further raise awareness of gender inequality, to build the capacity of NGOs acting in this area and to strengthen the statistical capacity of governments). The funds available will be allocated through calls for proposals from eligible organisations and by direct agreements with selected partners.

Gender Equality will also be supported through the implementation of the Environment and Food Security thematic programmes, as well as under the new European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and the Instrument for Stability .

Lastly, the Commission will ensure the monitoring and follow-up of actions taken. It will organise in 2010 a second major international Conference on Gender Equality with the participation of all major stakeholders. Furthermore, a mid-term and a final evaluation of the implementation of this strategy will be undertaken by an external evaluator in 2010 and at the end of the 10th EDF cycle.

Conclusion: through enhanced political dialogue which incorporates gender equality as an explicit theme and which paves the way for the EU to engage actively with those civil society organisations for increased gender equality and specific, targeted actions to complement mainstreaming activities in each of the EU’s developing partner countries, the Commission aims to change cultural, social and political patterns and the distribution of political and economic power to further promote gender equality in developing countries.