The third Financing for Development conference currently underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, provides a historic opportunity to insist on financing that is gender-responsive and fit to deliver on both long-established and newly won commitments on women’s rights. In order to deliver on the ambitious agenda for achieving gender equality and women’s rights, pledges and commitments must be matched by resource allocation. At same time the structural, systemic global policy and power imbalances and incoherencies that exist need to be overcome.
The increased call and emphasis on countries to maximise local revenue in order to finance their own development agenda is of critical importance, and adds to the urgency of working to make sure that domestic resources are tailored towards achieving gender equality and must be responsive to women’s needs and priorities.
There are major concerns by women’s lobby groups that tax systems are biased against women, and that contemporary tax reforms may increase the incidence of taxation on the poorest women while failing to generate enough revenue to finance the fulfillment of human rights, including women’s rights. This is evident in the decrease of taxes paid by corporations globally through tax evasion and exemptions, and the increase in value added tax on basic commodities.
