When Germany's first woman chancellor Angela Merkel hosts the G8 summit in June, it will be the first time a woman leader has done so since Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Even an objective observer has got to find that a little bit staggering. Although Merkel has committed herself to a more collaborative style of leadership, like many women who rise to the top she's a right-wing politician and has not chosen to champion women's cause. In terms of political outcomes it remains to be seen whether the fact that she's a woman will make any difference at all.
However, for the first time, gender equality has somehow slipped onto the G8 agenda. German civil society activists can claim credit, not only for including a focus on women, but also on Africa - which Merkel belatedly added to her dual G8 and EU presidency plans in October 2006. The umbrella group for development nongovernmental organisations Venro has been actively preparing for Germany's G8 summit since Gleneagles 2005. According to director general Ulla Mikota, who also heads up the Global Call for Action against Poverty (GCAP), "Merkel has proved that campaigning works".
German civil society has seized the opportunity presented by the German leadership of both the G8 and the European Union. In collaboration with African partners, Venro has published a manifesto as a basis for lobbying the German government on European development policies. Christa Randzio-Plath (Venro vice-chair and former MEP) argues that the EU presidency is "more than a photo opportunity... it's a chance for German and African civil society organisations to develop a coherent approach". Similarly, chair Claudia Warning highlights the need for NGOs collectively to lobby the G8 leaders to prevent these from "pushing their own private investment agenda for the global economy and pulling out from their responsibility for global justice".
Interestingly, Venro have also been working with the German ministry for international development (BMZ) in a series of events on women and development, climate change and HIV/AIDS. The Africa focus has brought another prominent woman into play - Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (known as HWZ) - who, as the longest serving government minister and a former deputy leader of the social democrat party (SDP), is both politically powerful and has an established reputation in Germany for promoting women's rights. She seems a better bet than Angela Merkel for putting women's priorities on the agenda.
HWZ has taken the opportunity to champion the World Bank gender equality plan (GAP) and in February co-hosted a high-level international conference for the WB initiative "women's economic empowerment is smart economics". (However, it's worth noting that, while the cost of mounting the three-day G8 summit is 100 million euros, the entire fund for the worldwide GAP is 25 million dollars over four years.)
Back in December 2006, HWZ officially supported public debate on female genital mutilation, along with civil society organisations like Terre des Femmes. Now the German government is considering a law to protect migrant women from this practice in Germany.
Having seen HWZ in action at a public meeting on "women bringing about change" organised by Marie-Schlei-Verein, I think her commitment is genuine - although the question is whether this will have wider influence on implementation. Like Britain's first woman minister for international development Clare Short - who had widespread respect overseas - she does not necessarily have the power to change the national or international agenda. When the world's eight most powerful leaders withdraw into "fortress Heiligendamm" for the summit, women's role in development, promoted in Germany over the past six months, may at best be reduced to bland statements about micro-credit schemes and family planning - as usual tacked on to the end of the document. And as regards Merkel's now vaunted focus on African partnerships, many fear this will merely result in more of the same north-south economic coercion.
Taking back the future
Meanwhile, outside the 12 km security fence women will be taking part in the alternative G8 summit - which continues to attract an ever-broader constituency and reflects partnerships forged at the World Social Forum in Nairobi. The main programme consists of high-level expert panels with a deliberate 50.50 policy (women-men, south-north). Accompanying workshops include those run by the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN, on feminism and resistance), World March of Women (on gender and poverty) and Attac: "we are simply taking back the future of the world into our own hands".
The anti-G8 NGO-Platform - with its plans for up to 100,000 people to carry out eight days of direct non-violent action - is also coordinated by a woman, German environmentalist Mona Bricke. She reminds me of the real issue at stake: "it's not about counting how many women are on the panel, but whether both women and men are committed to changing the political agenda from one which is a male-dominated profit-based view of the world".
That's known as feminist deconstructionism. But in Nairobi I heard an even more inspiring discourse from African feminists in their process of developing a common language that underpins shared goals for social capital and self-determination. They talk about ubuntu - being a person through other people; about women shaping humanity; about a radical democracy where women use their collective power as voters and consumers in a catalyst for change.
Last year I wrote a critique of the top-down approach adopted in Tony Blair's Africa Commission and the Gleneagles G8 commitment to aid. Basically my message was: if you want to know how to support development in Africa, ask the women. Well, nothing has happened in the meantime, except an increase in conflict, poverty and HIV/AIDS.
So, this year openDemocracy is covering the G8 process from a women's perspective. We have invited debate in an openSummit, with articles on key issues such as aid, globalisation, climate change and health. And we are running a blog, Women talk to the G8, as a platform for discussion among women activists, academics and journalists from a variety of organisations worldwide. A summary of these voices will be published at the end of the month. And men, in the spirit of ubuntu, are also invited to contribute.
Turning the tide
There will be a historic photo opportunity in Berlin on 22 May when Angela Merkel and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf together open the eighth gathering of the African Partnership Forum. But one female G8 leader shaking hands with one female AU leader can barely be said to be setting a trend - can it?
After all, it's only been sixty years since the universal declaration of human rights. Current institutional approaches to women's rights and equality, post Beijing 1995, have rightly come under scrutiny. As Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said in Hamburg, "In all this gender mainstreaming, women themselves seem to have been carried away in the flood."
But, in some ways, she herself, along with Venro, is going with the flow as regards acceptance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as the way forward. Many feminist analysts have questioned the target-driven as opposed to people-oriented approach, and highlight the need for gender equality to be taken into account in each of the goals.
Unfortunately, since I started researching this article, the gender agenda has just about been submerged in the official G8 websites. Still, this year women are a little more visible in the G8 process. Might the tide be turning? Are civil society organisations beginning to pull together against the prevailing current? Women are moving into key positions and influencing the political agenda either from government or civil society perspectives. Such women in Germany have helped to open a window of opportunity, whatever reservations we may harbour about short-term outcomes.
And with openDemocracy we have the technology to address G8 and make the challenge. As part of the struggle to reform the world, we can also help to reshape the news.
