Pergamon Narvral Resources Forum, Vol. 20. No. 2, pp. 153-161, 1996

Copyright 0 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved

S01654203(96)0000~ 01654203/96 S 1 5 . 0 0 f O 0 0

Gender analysis and international financial institutions

The perspective of a grassroots environmental NGO

Eric Griffin

The following article is an attempt to reconcile the opinions of various activist-oriented non- governmental organizations (NGOs) on the use of gender analysis as a policy tool in the field of international development and macroeconomic policy. Of special concern to the author is the evolving relationship between international financial institutions (IFIs) and grassroots environmental NGOs seeking reform in macroeconomic policy initiation, implementation and evaluation. The ideas presented below are those of the author alone, and are solely intended to facilitate dialogue between the aforementioned parties as an alternative to the characteristic set of untenable demands and concomitant uncompromising resistance. Thus stated, the reader is chaljenged to remove histher professional hat to accept or reject the validity of the propositions with an equal proportion of reason and intuition. Copyright 0 1996

With this article, the author hopes to relay to the reader a sense of what it means for a grassroots, environmental NGO to acknowledge the role of gender and gender relations in each of its issue campaigns. He wishes to present his understanding of the use of gender analysis as a policy tool, not as a case to be argued, but rather as food for mental rumination. Having received training as a public policy analyst, he respects the importance of brevity and objectivity. In this case, however, he offers his reflections on this complex and pervasive subject in a story-like manner. Most of what follows has been influenced by his experience as a fellow at Friends of the Earth - US, an all-purpose environmental NGO based in Washington, DC. The author was responsible for an experimental (read unfunded) campaign that promotes alternative economic valuation techniques as methods to derive differential impacts of macroeconomic policy on men and women. The premise of the gender and resources campaign mirrors the research of feminist economists, political economists, and other social critics such as Diane Elson (1995), Isabella Bakker (1994) and Pamela Sparr (1994), who argue that

The author is Graduate Student, Sanford Institute of Public Policy and Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, 1315 Morreene Road, Apt 3043, Durham, NC 27705, USA

many of the gender roles we accept, ascribed to us as societal norms, are grounded in the exploitation of the once-termed weaker sex. Such weakness is attributed to a complex web of impediments, the most important being economic exclusion and discrimination. Initially, the author believed that problems related to gender could ultimately be solved with some degree of fine-tuning public policy, partly because of his educational background, and partly because most of the women he calls family and friends consider the annoyances of everyday discrimination too insignificant to become full-time activists. However, most of these women are fortunate enough to reside in a nation with an economy strong enough to provide moderate compensation for the inconvenience of gender bias.

The author's assessment quickly evolved as he began to explore the reality that many women, stricken by poverty and powerlessness, face around the world,' especially dire are the lives of poor women of the South, formerly known as least developed countries (LDCs), formerly known as the Third World. However, he also discovered many examples in which women either obtained for themselves, or were awarded the power' to control some portion of their own destiny (Ofosu-Amaah

'Women comprise 70% of the poorest 1.3 billion people on earth according to UN and World Bank statistics.

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and Philleo, 1991). While the eradication of poverty, in and of itself, is an admirable, albeit unclear goal from a policy standpoint, activist NGOs can take certain actions toward the alleviation of burdens associated with an increase in women’s unpaid labour, or what Chayanov referred to as unbearable levels of drudgery, brought about as unintended consequences of prescriptive economic policy (Kerblay Thorner and Smith, 1966).

Of NGOs, IFIs, international development and macroeconomic policy Standing apart from both the private and government sectors as the self-appointed defenders of public interest, NGOs have the potential to cultivate and mobilize public opinion to affect massive change in our society. The methods, tactics and goals may sometimes appear questionable to uninvolved individuals, but on the whole, the NGO community is filled with dedicated and intelligent people who want to make a difference in this world. NGOs derive strength from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, a receptive public, the ability to procure funding and the perceived tractability of an issue of concern. One issue of particular longevity in NGO circles that has received an increasing amount of attention over the past 10 years is the pace and direction of international development, as governed by macroeconomic policy.

For the NGO community, international development is one of the main engines driving many of the ills of our time, ranging from environmental degradation to any number of social injustices. Therefore, as the most visible engineers of international development, international financial institutions (IFIs) stand as primary targets for NGO reform campaigns. Most NGOs involved with such campaigns direct their energies toward reforming the two premier global institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These multilateral institutions operate at the supranational level which plays to the fears in the NGO community that a relatively few unaccountable individuals are responsible for setting global policy. To be sure, conspiracy theories often are based on connecting historical, yet unrelated, events. However, the fact of the matter remains that the IMF and World Bank, at the very least, aid in the formulation of macroeconomic policies that indirectly impact all of us, regardless of gender, age, nationality, or whether or not we participate in the formal economic ~ e c t o r . ~

*NGOs and global institutions have used the term empowerment without fully explaining their particular conception. Definitions become very important when potentially successful social programmes or negotiations are hindered by dissimilar intent in the wording of documents. This effect could be observed during the Fourth World Conference for Women’s Platform for Action deliberations, as delegates struggled over seemingly uncomplicated words and phrases.

For some NGOs, the real problem lies in the non- participatory nature of the policy process. Others focus on the unequivocal evidence that indicates certain groups are severely and disproportionately burdened by the long-term consequences of policy decision^.^

NGOs have persistently campaigned against the IMF and World Bank with mixed results. In the past, most failures to affect change tended to rest in the unwillingness of IFIs to hold counsel with NGOs. However, some progress has been made, especially concerning the World Bank. The remainder of the problem continues to rest in the inability of the NGO community to articulate collectively how much, and what manner of reform is necessary. While some would argue for specific alterations in the decision making process of IFIs, others have called for the consolidation of the IMF and World Bank. Still others have demanded the complete deconstruction of both organizations. None of these solutions adequately satisfies all parties. Therefore, to understand better the current relationship between NGOs and IFIs, we must explore the institutional development of the IMF and World Bank, and why NGOs harbour such strong feelings of opposition towards them.

Bretton Woods In much the same way as women hold far less economic power than men,’ the nations of the developing world stand unprotected from the ability of major economic powers, such as the G-7 nations, directly or indirectly to set global macroeconomic policy. Although we should avoid placing unfair blame on any single convention, the competitive nature of free-market economies naturally produces the urge to outperform rivals, and dictates that comparative and absolute advantages be exploited.6 How to moderate such urges, or whether to moderate them at all, is a question that has plagued economists for decades.

However, times of crisis can present windows of opportunity to attempt previously impossible social experiments. The American, French and Russian Revolutions, as well as Franklin Roosevelt’s New

~~ ~~ ~______ _________

3The formal economic sector generally involves employment in which the participant receives a wage for services rendered. For the purposes of this article, the non-formal sector will refer only to work which receives no explicit monetary valuation, such as subsistence agriculture and rearing children. 4This assessment is a summary of a recent teleconference between members of the Gender Issues Committee of the 50 Years is Enough Campaign and Women’s Eyes on the World Bank. ’According to the Wall Sireer Journal (29 August 1995) ‘it is estimated that women perform about 60% of the world‘s work, but own only 1% of the world’s land and earn just 10% of the world’s income’. %e author has modified the concept of advantage here to apply to relative levels of exercisable economic power rather than to the standard economic reference to throughputs and trade.

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Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society were all products of the ancient Chinese curse of living in interesting times. In the former examples, citizens wrested power away from a governing body, thereby charting the untested waters of theoretical social organization. In the latter, the governing body asserted authority over its citizens’ welfare, thereby preserving existing social structures. World War I1 produced its share of natural and social science experiments as well, including unleashing the mysteries of the atom and developing the Marshall Plan. Further, World War I1 produced another little known social experiment undertaken by economists and treasury officials that continues to this day.

The inception The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are collectively referred to as the Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs), deriving their name from a town in New Hampshire to which representatives from 44 nations converged at the height of World War I1 (Driscoll, 1994). Leaders from both highly and less developed countries were concerned about the state of global financial and economic affairs upon the cessation of hostilities. They travelled to Bretton Woods with the intent to ensure that events in the financial community leading up to the war did not repeat themselves. Economists of the period had concluded that a breakdown in trade between nations with incompatible methods of determining exchange rates played a role in growing tensions that led to war. Harry Dexter White, a Treasury official in the USA, and John Maynard Keynes, an English economist, simultaneously developed plans to create an independent structure that would oversee the regulation of exchange rates, thereby ending future trade disputes and promoting ‘international monetary cooperation, balanced growth of international trade and high levels of employment and real income as primary objectives of economic policy’ (IMF, 1993). Another less developed vision was the need for a sibling institution, a bank that would oversee lending for the reconstruction of devastated nations upon the war’s end, and for infrastructure development in LDCs.

During the negotiations at Bretton Woods, the relative importance of the two institutions was indicated by the significant amount of debate focused on the creation of the Fund, while the charter vote for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), or World Bank, did not occur until the final day of deliberations. Paradoxically, with notable exceptions, NGO reformists have devoted their attention exclusively to the World Bank.

The metamorphosis Individually, the BWIs have become prime case studies in institutional evolution. Although the

sources of motivation for the IMF and World Bank to adapt to changing conditions are not the same, both organizations have exhibited enough flexibility to depart radically from the original intent of their founders. The International Monetary Fund, once the watchdog of fixed exchange rates, ran into an identity crisis when most nations switched to floating exchange rates.7 After several unsuccessful attempts at redefining their role, the IMF stumbled upon a niche that would change its destiny.

The World Bank, on the other hand, almost immediately lost half of its raison d’etre. The Marshall Plan usurped the reconstruction function of the IBRD, which left the fledgeling institution with the sole purpose of lending to countries in the developing world. After a slow start, the Bank eventually convinced member nations of the benefits of long- term, low-interest loans. Unfortunately, the amount of capital the World Bank received in the form of interest payments soon exceeded the level of funds flowing to the developing world in the form of new loans. For this reason, many critics began to question the role of the IBRD as a bank. Since that time, and partly to atone for inflows exceeding outflows, the World Bank has proved to be more socially progressive than the IMF, exhibiting a willingness to allow outside interest groups to help shape its destiny.

The IMF, though, was accustomed to making short-term balance of payments loans to member nations which were unable to meet creditor obligations due to unforeseen or temporary disturbances in the world market. After the demise of fixed exchange rates, however, the lending function did not present a strong enough justification for continued existence since the World Bank covered most lending other than for short-term corrective measures. It was during this period that an increase in oil prices consequently led OPEC nations to begin filling foreign bank vaults with petrodollars. Commercial banks suddenly found themselves scrambling for investment opportunities to keep the capital flow from stagnating. Fortunately for the bankers, government administrations in development-starved LDCs were willing to accept larger and more frequent loans. As the world debt level rose, IMF officials realized the magnitude of the impending global crisis should developing countries default en masse.

By the time borrowing nations actually threatened default, global financial confidence had fallen and international funding had become scarce. Thus, the IMF, along with the World Bank, developed a

’Floating exchange rates are determined by the world currency market, or what price a speculator is willing to offer for a particular currency. The major world currencies are most commonly traded (and also comprise the IMF’s basket of values known as a special drawing right or SDR (see IMF. 1995), while smaller currencies are often pegged to major curiencies. For example, if the US dollar goes up in value, so should currencies pegged to the dollar.

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strategy known as structural adjustment, which may or may not have saved the global economy from collapse. None the less, structural adjustment has led to the NGO perception that BWIs consider poor and powerless clusters of people to be acceptable casualties of elusive financial stability.

Structural adjustment At the most basic level, structural adjustment is nothing more than a form of loan conditionality. Before structural adjustment policies or programmes (SAPS) were initiated, borrowing countries were bound to few restrictions regarding the use of loans. IMF and World Bank reasoning was largely based on matters of national sovereignty, but a new drastic situation called for new drastic measures. To receive debt rescheduling and to build lender confidence, borrowing nations were compelled to agree to undergo economic adjustments, such as massive cuts in government expenditures, privatization of state- owned enterprises, decreased import restrictions, and increased emphasis on export-oriented agriculture. Unfortunately, unexpected consequences of structural adjustment have resulted in increased burdens on dispossessed groups, especially on poor women, in borrowing nations (see, for example, Hammond and McGowan, 1992; Woestman 1994; and Renshaw, 1995).

The IMF has countered NGO complaints in a short pamphlet entitled Ten Common Misconceptions About the ZMF (1992). The misconceptions are as follows:

The IMF applies identical remedies, irrespective of a country’s circumstances. IMF supported adjustment programmes are anti-growth. IMF supported programmes impose austerity on member countries. The IMF has a market oriented, free enterprise philosophy, which it applies in a doctrinaire manner. IMF supported programmes do not work. IMF supported programmes harm the poor. The IMF bails out the commercial banks. Developing countries have no influence on IMF policies. The IMF has influence only over deficit countries; it does nothing about surplus countries.

(10) The IMF and the World Bank collude in dealing with developing countries.

This reads like an NGO wish list of aspects they would most like to change about the IMF. Therefore, the title of the pamphlet indicates how IFIs generally perceive NGO demands for reform: NGOs are somehow misconceiving the truth of the matter,

which, honestly, is quite frustrating from the point of view of an NGO. To be fair, typical activist oriented NGO publications tend to vilify IFIs to such a degree that a publication such as Ten Common Misconceptions becomes a necessary defence strategy. However, there appears to be a fundamental lack of discussion as to the degree to which the above accusations are accurate. To get an idea of why this is the case. we must turn to the world of the NGOs.

Non-governmental organizations

Purpose and goals Other than sharing the typical non-profit status, no formal standards dictate what should or should not be considered an activist or grassroots non- governmental organization (NGOs). In the USA, grassroots NGOs promote raising awareness among the general populace. This process usually entails an attempt to educate the public about the negative byproducts of human society, such as ambient pollution or political repression, and make clear why the average citizen should be concerned enough to act on intentionally fomented outrage. Generally, a successful campaign will target distinct or widely recognized adversaries that an NGO can easily paint as abject evildoers, such as the US Congress or corporate America. Therefore, pervasive, yet nebulous, issues such as gender bias tend to receive less than adequate attention.

NGOs can be found in an endless variety of sizes and structures, filling every imaginable niche of special interest. An NGO may consist of a few individuals who develop and evaluate international technology and development policy from their home in a strictly research oriented capacity. At the other extreme, an NGO may claim hundreds of thousands of grassroots members with a participatory interest in an assortment of issues ranging from global human rights activism to socially responsible investment at the local level. The latter tend to be pluralist in nature, and very often operate as a reactionary force, mobilizing members in response to one crisis after another. The former tend to operate as a prescriptive policy mill, churning out both solicited and unsolicited optimal solutions to difficult political, social and economic problems. In the end, however, most NGOs share the same ultimate goal - to influence, directly or indirectly, public policy on behalf of others who cannot do so for themselves, but wish to be helped; others who appreciate the help of and defer to those who have made a career of public interest work; or in the most delicate case, others who are not aware that they require any help at all.

As non-market and non-governing entities, NGOs serve the invaluable purpose of keeping public goods and basic human rights, such as clean streams and the freedom from oppression, in the public eye.

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Unfortunately, very few issues have the potential to transcend the ideological spectrum or penetrate the boundaries that an individual NGO must erect to protect its justification for existence. In the USA, funding plays an essential role in the ability of an NGO to function in its capacity as a shaper of public policy. For this reason, NGOs are forced to seek out previously unexplored facets of a particular issue so as to appear on top of the game to potential funders. This type of competition leads to cutting-edge problem identification, but can also result in unhealthy claim staking.

Furthermore, a sharp distinction is made within the NGO activist community between Northern and Southern partners in an effort to move away from terms such as less developed or Third World. In any case, international development is one particular issue that appeals to NGOs across the board because it touches on overconsumption, environmental degradation, and human rights issues worldwide.

The campaign against IFIs As noted, NGOs have typically focused their criticisms of IFIs on the policy known as structural adjustment because it stands as a symbol of the ultimate top down, decision making horror story. The people at the bottom of the economic chain are victimized by the uncaring villains at the top who care more about financial stability than the physical and mental health of millions of individuals. NGOs can get away with assessments such as this because they are forced to live in the black and white world of morals, having been denied access to the grey world where policy directions are actually determined. In truth, some NGOs would prefer to move away from knee-jerk reactions and the necessity of opposing every action undertaken by IFIs. Unfortunately, IFIs have been unwilling to confide wholly in NGOs, always citing a responsibility to national sovereignty as an excuse for their inability to divulge complete information.

The IMF is the more secretive of the siblings, refusing to release all but the most general information regarding economic performance data of member nations, often in an untimely fashion. This need not be the case, however, as Switzerland attempted to prove. After Swiss representatives made public the country's Article IV consultations,8 the Swiss were rebuffed by other members, and were invited to refrain from repeating their mistake.

The other sibling, however, has been more willing to accommodate NGO requests. The IBRD and the International Development Agency (IDA): two of the four limbs most often associated with the World

'Article IV consultations offer the IMF a chance to review the status of a member nation's economic performance in a process known as surveillance. Surveillance is stated to be the IMF's most important function. For more on Article IV, please see Articles of Agreement (rev). IMF (1993). 91DA is the arm of the World Bank that was established to provide soft credit to severely indebted countries (Chan, 1995).

Bank, have increasingly listened to the NGO community, acquiescing to NGO calls for greater environmental impact awareness, indigenous peoples' rights, and attention to poverty concerns. The IBRD/ IDA have instituted reforms that many NGOs have conceptually endorsed, such as the creation of an oversight inspection panel and a gender analysis and policy (GAP) team; but to what end?

Both institutions are still, and will continue to be, the target of one of the largest functioning coalitions of environmental, social justice, and religious groups. The 50 Years is Enough campaign, which mobilized around the 50th anniversary of the BWIs in 1994, continues to monitor, expose and protest against socially and environmentally undesirable projects in developing countries. This network of approximately 350 NGOs worldwide has increased its visibility through a variety of actions. They have published an astonishing amount of literature documenting the effects of structural adjustment around the world. They have held educational seminars and fora that bring together people from diverse backgrounds to share stories and strategies. Most important, they facilitate meetings between members of local NGOs and their respective IMF/World Bank Executive Directors (EDs) during annual meetings of these institutions.

The most recent annual meeting was held in Washington, DC during which time the resistance of executive directors toward such meetings was readily apparent. Although some were very responsive, others refused a meeting as short as five minutes. Less than 50% of the executive directors agreed to meet face to face with the people they represent, during the once a year opportunity. Undoubtedly, difficulties in NGO coordination play a role in shaping the reticence of IMF and World Bank officials. None the less, NGOs continue to push for reform because the stakes are so high for so many who do not have access to such meetings.

As mentioned above, IF1 reform groups have concentrated only residual attention on the International Monetary Fund, the very institution around which the Bretton Woods negotiations were centred. The greatest amount of effort has been devoted to the IBRD and IDA, and to a lesser extent, the two newest arms of the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Insurance Guarantee Association (MIGA)." Two possible reasons for the paucity of direct criticism towards the IMF are the following:

(1) The IMF makes funds available to member nations conditioned on suggested prescriptions for macroeconomic policy reform which have

"IFC is the private-sector lending facility at the World Bank, while MIGA helps developing countries attract productive foreign investment by providing long-term non-commercial risk insurance to foreign investors (Chan, 1995).

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(2)

no immediate tangible effects. The World Bank, on the other hand, mobilizes funds for distinct infrastructure projects and programmes. The flow of funds is traceable (although the role of the IFC as facilitator of private capital has obscured the path somewhat), rendering the World Bank more vulnerable to public scrutiny. Even supposing IMF policy-based lending could be made visible for immediate examination, the NGO community has not yet achieved a critical mass of concerned activists familiar with the theoretical foundations of macroeconomic policy, providing the IMF with a protective shroud.

To many the IMF appears to be a black box of quasi-rational theory practiced by economists posing as laboratory scientists. NGO activists have suggested that social scientists might adopt conventions similar to those embraced by natural scientists with which they refuse to perform experiments on unwilling participants.

Gender This article began with references to economic exploitation and discrimination. We will now return to that theme by dividing the population of earth in half to expose a discrepancy in the relative amount of power held by one half over the other, a discrepancy effectively cloaked by aggregate economic data. Gender fits into the equation of international development and macroeconomic policy in that, while some of the most damning testimony regarding the effects of structural adjustment is told with a female voice, an extremely small number of female voices can be heard in senior decision making posts."

Although women comprise more than 50% of the world's population, as a distinct group, they endure the greatest magnitude of discrimination. Discrimination can be grossly overt, or insidiously subtle. For instance, women in economically dominant countries of the North have made significant progress in terms of rights, but often to the detriment of the poorest women in the world (Ault and Sandberg, 1992). The tendency in the North to overconsume produced goods is, in part, dependent upon the economic relegation of some countries to produce mainly primary goods, which promises insubstantial standard of living increases. At the other extreme of

"According to the Washington Post, women account for '51% of the [World] bank's 7164-member staff. They represent 8% of senior management, but only one vice president and no managing directors are women. Furthermore, the 1995 Human Development Report (UNDP, 1995) states that in developing countries, less than 1/7 of the administrators and managers are women, and around the world, women occupy 10% of the parliamentary seats and 6% of the cabinet positions' (Washington Post, 5 September 1995).

discrimination and exploitation, we seldom hear about the rape of males unless by the hand of another male, or about men not being able to obtain birth control because their spouse forbade them to do so.

What Berger (1966) has deemed our 'social construction of reality' is filled with man-made rules for social interaction. Aggressiveness is a highly valued commodity in a social system constructed by men, and based on competitiveness. In their struggle for equality, even women have come to place a high value on aggressiveness as a tool for getting ahead. Getting ahead of what? What does gender analysis really mean in the context of a move toward equity?

Defining gender analysis Gender analysis, gender awareness and other gender combinations are relatively new phrases circulating among the parties concerned with international development. It is hoped such terms will obtain some degree of definitional standardization, unlike previous fashions, such as appropriate technologies of the 1970s and sustainable development of the present.

To that end, Diane Elson (1995) has noted that global institutions such as the IMF claim to be gender neutral in the formulation of macroeconomic policy. Essentially, neutrality legitimizes an inherent male bias which becomes exacerbated by two related processes. First, male decision-makers at the IMF may not be capable of fully exploring the potentially negative implications of structural adjustment for women due to a lack of exposure to or understanding of the issues involved. Second, the small number of women who have obtained senior status at the IMF cannot concern themselves solely with women's issues without losing a degree of credibility, largely because the IMF has adopted a hands off position on social issues vis-u-vis macroeconomic policy.

For these reasons, Elson equates gender neutrality with gender blindness. Because the structure of power relations was developed by and continues to favour one agent over another, men over women, treating specific male concerns and specific female concerns with neutrality implicitly returns the verdict of a refusal to recognize societal role differences, and more specifically, the differential impacts of structural adjustment. Numerous studies detail the negative effects of structural adjustment on women in developing countries (see, for example, Sparr, 1994; and Bakker, 1994).

Gender analysis and SAPS The major theme that runs throughout the various critiques of structural adjustment from a gender perspective is that unpaid labour, performed by women in the household, is considered unproductive according to current macroeconomic accounting techniques. In contrast, the 1995 UN Human Development Report (UNDP, 1995) refers to women's unpaid labour by stating, 'When you add it

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up it comes, very crudely, to $11 trillion, about half of global economic output’.

Although women and their labour constitute far more than input resources, a striking parallel exists with the valuation of natural resources. Revenues derived by reducing or degrading natural resource stocks only serve to bolster current national income accounts, with no concurrent measure of depreciation attributable to a loss in assets or future output potential. Garnering revenues garnered at the expense of women, especially resulting from the distributional effects of structural adjustment, fails to reflect the ensuing decline in a healthy human resource base, and hence, long-term productivity.

Short-term adjustment programmes as currently instituted, lead to increased liabilities, which the IMF seeks to reduce. The IMF appears to focus exclusively on reducing a member country’s foreign and domestic liabilities, while ignoring the quantity and quality of that country’s asset base, leading to an unsustainable economy in the long term. Policy makers must broaden their perspective on adjustment policies, not only to focus on arresting the accumulation of debt, but also to stem the loss of assets. Specifically regarding women and the macroeconomy, the IMF should undertake measures to disaggregate economic variables by gender to better understand the unique role women play in the economy, the egregious impacts structural adjustment has on women, and what effects these conditions have on sustainable development.

The labour constraint of time Several common economic assumptions, hidden within macroeconomic models, lead to the unexpected policy outcome of increased labour burdens for women. During the formulation of structural adjustment policies, the most imprudent assumption that pervades economic analysis is that time is a limitless resource to be reallocated smoothly and dissected infinitely, thereby increasing efficiency and productivity (time use). However, planners fail to take into account a reasonable work day, along with reasonable expectations regarding individual work capacity, as constraints in macroeconomic models of equilibrium.

Economists would surely argue this point with graphs indicating the relationship between labour and leisure. Two responses are in order. First, labour is generally classified as such according to monetary valuation, which excludes unpaid labour. Second, removing monetary value from the equation to focus solely on preferences for labour/leisure activities implicitly assumes that leisure is an option which conceivably may not exist in all cases. Thus, the unrealistic assumption regarding time allocation allows economists to treat all consumption as discretionary. The logical conclusion suggests that not only can market-related consumptive activities be reduced to

zero in response to economic adjustment, but also that women’s unpaid labour can absorb any level of increased burden associated with austerity measures of structural adjustment. For example, as government expenditures are reduced, social services are often the first areas to receive cuts. As the supply of health care and education fall from the purview of public responsibility, it is assumed that women in the household will fill the void to compensate for the undiminished demand for such services. Women already bear a disproportionate share of non-wage labour, juggling an astounding variety of responsibilities each day (Hostetler et af , 1995). A real danger of model failure arises in assuming women can increase their work burden while maintaining the same level of proficiency preceding structural adjustment.

A typical counter argument notes that both women and men will simply adjust their economic activities accordingly to cope with any market adjustments. However, a close examination reveals that further assumptions do not take local realities into account. For instance, economists rely upon the assumptions of perfect information and unimpeded mobility of labour to explain movements among sectors. Gender analysis could provide economists with a more accurate picture of human economic activity.

The labour constraint of immobility While men’s wage labour is highly mobile, constraints of home responsibilities preclude women from shifting among sectors with any fluidity. The case might be different if women and men shared in all aspects of labour, paid and unpaid, as gender neutral models assume. However, reality suggests that the distinct division of labour drawn along gender lines results from an unwillingness on the part of men to engage in women’s work as a matter of masculine pride. Furthermore, even without the burden of women’s work, men often miss opportunities to transfer their labour because they do not have the appropriate skills, or simply lack adequate information, which dispels the fundamental economic assumption that individuals can easily transfer their labour among sectors.

None the less, because men tend to dominate both private and public sector positions in developing countries, they are directly affected by adjustment policies designed to reduce government expenditures and individual consumption. For example, the freezing of wages and salaries, layoffs in government sponsored jobs, and downward revisions in minimum wage legislation and price indexation of wages lead to unemployment, underemployment and a decline in purchasing power. Women, however, are victims of such policies on a more subtle, often invisible, level. They have to make up for the wage loss incurred by men, while acting as substitutes for the reduction in public expenditure.

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The labour constraint of capacity When the family can no longer obtain basic necessities because of falling income and devaluation of currency, exacerbated by a reduction in public expenditures on social services, wives, mothers and daughters must bridge the gap. Women must provide the services that once might have been purchased in the market. Furthermore, when women can find wage labour, it is certain to be paid at a far lower rate than men would receive (Washington Post, 18 August 1995) and will be performed in addition to domestic work. Finally, young women may be removed from educational opportunities to help the family survive, thereby reducing the potential for future advancement, and completing the feedback loop that dictates which roles a woman can and cannot pursue.12

Adjustment policies designed to expand a developing country’s export market result in remarkably similar outcomes as those incurred with adjustments in domestic expenditures discussed above. While women may not have the opportunity or right to own their own land of have access to credit, they will often spend time on their husband’s plot, in addition to maintaining the family’s subsistence crop.

One can clearly see the theme that structural adjustment policies are based on unrealistic assumptions about the human condition, thereby resulting in the unexpected consequence of increasing women’s labour burdens to a point of unsustainability. The tendency to romanticize women’s capability to adapt to any condition is fanciful, and can lead to a level of drudgery so severe that overall productivity falls in response. What can be done about this apparently intractable situation, and where does the NGO community fit into the picture?

Reasonable demands Many different types of NGOs have begun to establish themselves as champions of gender awareness. Several grassroots feminist networks such as the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) have long promoted gender analysis as a tool for all stages of the macroeconomic policy process. The International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) researches the technical aspects of policy reform. The 50 Years is Enough Campaign is beginning to work towards inserting gender analysis into all future campaigns. Finally, a new network has taken shape out of the Women’s Conference in Beijing. Women’s Eyes on the World Bank will be devoted exclusively to working with IFIs on gender policy. However, much is to be done.

The first step is to create an independent unit at the IMF specifically devoted to political and social issues, and to strengthen the aforementioned GAP team at

‘*The 1995 UN Human Development Report (UNDP, 1995) states that, ‘Among the developing world’s 900 million illiterate people, women outnumber men 2 to 1. Girls constitute 60% of the 130 million children without access to primary school.’

the World Bank. The IMF has little regard for non- economic issues. However, politics, the environment, the economy and social structures undoubtedly influence one another. Within a supersystem, a small component, such as politics, may derive strength from another component, such as the economy, producing waste byproducts that are dumped on a third component, such as society or the environment. Good politics can help drive the successful implementation of an alternative, equitable form of structural adjustment. On the other hand, political repression of the citizenry can drive inequitable structural adjustment until the point in time when the citizenry is faced with no other option than to demand reform. While the IMF and World Bank are highly concerned with spreading democracy as a facilitator of the free market at the national level, the actual practice of democracy at the local level has lagged behind. Some women benefit from structural adjustment. Many more do not. Therefore, NGOs should press the IMF to uphold its obligation to increased prosperity by developing a unit of highly qualified individuals to identify, research, deliberate, advise and aid in the implementation of specific policy recommendations to deal with social, political and environmental ramifications of structural adjustment.

Next, the IMF should make broader use of its highly acclaimed institute of financial and economic instruction. The infrastructure with which to instruct both employees and officials representing member nations in gender sensitivity is available to accommodate a shift in thinking. The IMF proclaims that it cannot force countries to accept structural adjustment or any other policy recommendation (IMF, 1992). However, the Institute is a place of learning that produces highly competent graduates who return to their professional positions with the clear intention of guiding financial and economic policy. What better way to promote sound, efficient and equitable policy measures than to offer instruction on issues of diversity?

Finally, IFIs must secure a channel for women of the developing world to apply for credit. Nancy Barry (1995) of Women’s World Banking recently remarked at a World Bank brown-bag lunch session that institution building is the key to ensure women’s continual access to credit, a direct form of empowerment. This is true to the extent that women create the institution themselves and maintain control.

Institution building is easily applicable to another form of empowerment - education. Larry Summers, a former chief economist at the World Bank, indicated in 1992 that ‘Investment in the education of girls may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world’ (Emerging Markets, 12 October 1995). Unfortunately, he was also assailed by critics for mentioning in a memo that shipping toxic waste from industrial countries to developing countries would lead to efficiency gains because the value of life is lower in the potential recipient nation. Nevertheless,

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if one who prizes efficiency above all else regards something as useful, as do others solely concerned with equity, we should look for the makings of the elusive win-win scenario. Natural resource economists have actively sought to include variables that lack strict monetary value in order to increase Pareto optimality. Activists should consider the prospect of securing real social reform even if the free market is strengthened by acknowledging the importance of social equity. Of course, easy solutions are not readily available; but failing to recognize difficult problems does not render them non-existent.

As Albert Einstein noted, the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking as when we created them. This may hold true for our established rules regarding macroeconomic theory. Unfortunately, what has come to be known as the ‘marketplace of ideas’ (Ginsberg, 1986) cannot exist in truth if the participants remain unwilling to critique seriously their own prejudices. Genuine revolutionaries such as Mahbub ul-Haq, originator of the United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR) series, have done their part to change attitudes about gender using the diplomatic language of the economist and policy maker. James Wolfensohn, the current president of the World Bank, noted during a speech at the Women’s Conference in Beijing, ‘I need no persuading that women are absolutely central to sustainable development, economic advance and social justice. All the evidence tells us that not to empower women is a tragically missed opportunity - not only to create a more just, but also a more prosperous society’ (Wolfensohn, 1995). If a rational case presented by an insider fails to convince IFIs of the necessity for re-evaluating conventional valuation techniques, NGOs will be forced to continue to exert pressure from the outside. NGOs would much rather discuss than yell, persuade than coerce, present their case than protest. However, the undesirable process of entrenchment has led to situations ranging from minor embarrassments, like budget gridlock between the US Congress and the Administration, to horrible tragedies, like the struggle for metres of ground in the Western European theatre of World War I. On one level, the NGO battle with IFIs is an embarrassment as we deal in the bureaucratic politics of policy making in Washington, DC. On another level, a horrible tragedy is taking place around the world as women succumb to abusive, yet legally protected, spouses; to remorseless soldiers in hot zones like the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; to the misdirected good intentions of social scientists; and to unemotional free markets. The age of information has given life to a network of individuals concerned less with rates of return or development based on consumption, and more concerned with aspects of living not easily captured by cost-benefit analysis. While this article is not meant to serve as a condemnation of something so relative as personal values, humanity has progressed

not only because of our ability to learn from mistakes, but also to use our experiences to adapt to changing conditions. We have been standing at a fork in the road for some time, stumped as to which direction we should take. As we approach the 21st century, we cannot help but wonder how history will treat us.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Ms Marijke Torfs, Director of International Affairs at Friends of the Earth - US for her guidance and support, as well as the other fellows with whom I had the great fortune of working.

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