On 14 March, Soroptimist International (SI) hosted an online parallel event during the Commission on the Status of Women in partnership with Women for Water Partnerships. The session featured key speakers Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, Lesha Witmer, and Maria Fornella, who delved into the critical relationship between gender equality and access to financial resources. SI Advocacy and Communications Coordinator, Joseph Mason, reports on this event.

Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, Women for Water Partnership

Introducing the session, Mariet Verhoef-Cohen, SI Past President and the current President of Women for Water Partnership (WfWP), underscored the critical relationship between gender equality and access to financial resources.

Emphasising the role of WfWP in advocating for equitable access to safe water and sustainable development, Mariet highlighted the ongoing struggle for women’s inclusion in decision-making processes regarding water projects. By linking the organisation’s goals with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 (Gender Equality) and 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), Mariet established the imperative of empowering women through access to financial resources, vocational training, and recognising their competencies.

In many countries, Mariet noted, women are responsible for water management in the household as well as for productive use in the community. Yet, women are often still excluded from decision making processes about water management, meaning their knowledge and experiences are not recognised.

In her presentation, Mariet stressed the necessity of gender-responsive budgeting to address the disparities in finance allocation and to promote economic independence for women. Highlighting the challenges faced by small organisations and women-led initiatives in accessing funding due to existing procedures and biases, Mariet called for a re-evaluation of donor and sponsor procedures to ensure that financial support reaches local women directly.

Women should be a part of the planning and decision-making processes surrounding the implementation and design of new water infrastructure; here, there are always challenges. However including the voices of women is vital as they can share direct and personal expertise on what the impact will be for their local communities.

Through capacity development, advocacy, and collaborative efforts with organisations like Soroptimist International, Women for Water Partnership aims to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the water domain, ultimately contributing to sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs.

Lesha Witmer, Women for Water Partnership

Next, Lesha Witmer, representing WfWP, led a discussion on the findings of research conducted on funding mechanisms for women’s organisations, a topic that has seen limited in-depth exploration. The research delved into two main aspects: the direct allocation of financial support to women’s organisations and the identification of good practices in funding mechanisms. The researchers sought to understand what drives funding to reach these organisations, as well as the enabling factors, the bottlenecks, and effective strategies. Moreover, the research focused on external sources of finance too, excluding internal funding initiatives among women’s organisations.

The study revealed that while there are numerous funders globally, only a handful—less than 15—have visible strategies and methodologies for transparently allocating funds to women’s organisations. Many organisations claimed to have such mechanisms but had ceased them, illustrating a lack of consistency and transparency in funding practices.

Additionally, Lesha highlighted the various funding methods employed by these organisations, including revolving funds, guarantees, and blended finance. Despite efforts to facilitate funding to local groups, administrative hurdles, long timelines, biases, and complexities in administrative procedures often impede the flow of funds to grassroots women’s organisations, indicating systemic challenges that need to be addressed.

Maria Fornella-Oehninger, Soroptimist International

Maria Fornella-Oehninger, SI UN Representative in New York, delivered a presentation on the significance of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) as a pivotal tool in advancing gender equality in governmental budgets. Maria began by highlighting the importance of budget allocations in reflecting government priorities, emphasising that budgets should mirror the values of a country, including how it values and rewards different types of work.

One key set-back which Maria discussed further, involved acknowledging the patriarchal power structures which often skew budget allocations away from vulnerable groups, particularly women and marginalised communities. Despite progress in transparency and advocacy by NGOs over the past 25 years, inequality persists, with women disproportionately affected by factors such as the gender pay gap and the feminisation of poverty.

Maria’s presentation underscores the role that GRB can play in reducing inequality by integrating gender into public financial management policies and processes. It emphasises GRB’s focus on promoting gender equity through strategies like increasing women’s participation in budget processes and ensuring accountability and transparency in fiscal policy planning. The segment also explores examples from various countries, showcasing both successful implementations and challenges faced, ultimately advocating for greater representation of women in public finance to address the unique challenges women encounter.

Q&A Session

Following the main presentations delivered during this session, a brief Q&A took place with the event speakers and partners:

What have we learned since 1984 in terms of Gender Budgeting?

Lesha Witmer:

Lesha highlighted two main points in response to this question regarding gender budgeting and women’s involvement in financial decision-making. Firstly, noting that there was initially progress in the nineties with initiatives like gender budgeting and inclusion of women’s groups, which later stagnated until around the start of the last decade.

Moreover, despite some advancement with more women in financial roles, such initiatives were still insufficient, leading to a resurgence of interest in the issue in recent years. This is possibly due to renewed attention from international organisations and initiatives like the Beijing platform for action. Overall, there is still a significant imperative to promote further action and increase women’s participation in this sphere.

Donnell Davis:

Responding to the same question, Donnell Davis (SI South-East Asia-Pacific Federation Programme Convenor) addressed how although there has been progress achieving transparency and traceability in funds allocated overseas, there’s a significant lack of scrutiny in domestic budgeting. Here, tendencies to scrutinise external allocations meticulously while neglecting internal budgeting practices have been observed across several countries.

Donnell emphasised the importance of applying the same rigorous procedures used for international funds, such as SDG traceability, domestic budgeting, and particularly focusing on gender traceability, as well as stressing the need to address issues within our own countries rather than expecting recipients of funding to take sole responsibility for addressing them.

Conclusion

In summary, the session stressed the urgency of addressing gender disparities in financial resource allocation, advocating for gender-responsive budgeting as a critical tool. Collaboration between organisations like Soroptimist International and Women for Water Partnerships is essential for advancing gender equality in water management and sustainable development efforts.