Perfecting an imperfect framework: G20’s shortcomings and thematic suggestions
G20 is an intergovernmental organization, consisting of 19 states and European Union (EU). At the time of its inception, G20 was mainly concerned with coordinating response to global fiscal and economic issues, but since then its scope has expanded enormously. Now, issues like climate change, trade, environment, energy etc also come under its ambit. The success of G20 depends on dealing with all these issues in an inclusive manner. But inclusivity has not been a strength of G20. Many global South countries remain excluded from its membership. Western powers i.e., EU and America have wielded more power over agenda-setting in G20. (Jokela 2011). Moreover, there is a marked silence in the G20 framework regarding gender. The macro-economic policies that the group promotes such as ‘fiscal consolidation’ and ‘restrictive monetary policy’ are gender-blind insofar it resorts to public spending cuts while ignoring its gendered consequences (Heintz 2013).
The line-up of upcoming G20 presidencies provide a striking opportunity for the Global South to address these shortfalls. The baton of leadership will be passed from Indonesia to India, then to Brazil and finally to South Africa. The Global South thus has an exceptional chance to incorporate their problems into mainstream G20 discourse with a particular focus on women’s issues from the South. India, which will assume G20 presidency in December 2022 has its work cut out. Its presidency comes at a time when the world is caught up in geopolitical conflicts and economies are struggling with post-covid recovery and the aftereffects of the Russian invasion. It will be the ultimate test of Indian diplomacy, leadership and vison, to ensure that:
- Dialogue between G20 states is sustained;
- North-South parity is addressed and; with South agenda and issues put at the core
- Gender is mainstreamed
The three key priorities as outlined by Indonesia included ‘global health architecture, digital transformation, and sustainable energy transition’. To ensure a smooth transition thematically, India can opt to continue the momentum on energy transition and incorporate new concerns such as ensuring a sustainable financial and economic environment for developing countries. BFW members after consultations with diverse feminists and women’s organisations in India would like to propose the following thematic areas for India to take up during its G20 presidency:
- Women’s economic empowerment
- Women and Natural resource management
- Women and renewal energy
- Women and infrastructure
- Women and digital economy
Gendering clean energy
Transition to clean energy is important to achieve net zero emissions, a clean and healthy environment and to meet rising energy demands sustainably. But while developing and emerging economies will contribute to around 70% of the global increase in energy demand, they have not seen a concomitant increase in clean energy investments (IEA, 2021). Lack of investments mean that the pace of clean energy transition in these economies will be slow.
Around 2.8 billion people do not have access to clean cooking technologies, particularly in rural sub-Saharan Africa and Asia-Pacific. Who suffers the most due to the reliance on unclean sources of energy? It is women and girls, often tasked with household responsibilities who suffer the most. Lack of clean energy affects every facet of women’s life, be it their economic, educational, security or health prospects. Cooking with kerosene or coal stoves leads to increased pollution exposure among women and puts them at a high-risk of household-pollution linked deaths or diseases. Dependence on time-consuming traditional sources of energy impinges on women’s economic productivity and educational opportunities. Some evidence indicates that women face the risk of sexual violence when collecting fuelwood at night. Hence, it is quite evident that without linking gender and energy concerns, we cannot achieve gender equality. For India this means ensuring proper representation of women while coordinating global strategies on clean energy financing within the G20. The World leaders at G20 should recognise women as workers, producers, farmers, as climate champions, and as entrepreneurs and ensure women are managers of energy and by tapping into their knowledge, governments can have a better understanding of the weakness of the existing energy infrastructure (United Nations 2018).
The gendered cost of debt crisis
A severe debt crisis has engulfed the developing world, exacerbated by the pandemic and the Russian invasion. Pandemic led to a decline in the foreign exchange earnings of developing economies due to fall in export revenue, tourism, remittances and foreign investments. While advanced economies like US have been able to shore up the post-covid economic crisis by heavy public spending, developing economies cannot afford to do the same. In many countries, the pandemic aggravated an already poor debt situation (Frankel 2020). The Russian invasion and supply chain disruptions led to high food and fuel inflation which the advanced economies dealt with by hiking interest rates. This has raised the cost of borrowing for developing countries, made imports more expensive and spiralled them into deeper debt (United Nations 2022).
As the developing world slides into a financial quicksand, how has this economic turmoil impacted women? There are multiple layers to this answer. Firstly, austerity measures have been gender-blind and hurt women more. The debt servicing conditions imposed by IMF and World Bank leads to cuts in social spending on welfare programs for children, elderly and women. This translates into increased care responsibilities for women and puts their own ‘welfare, nutrition and educational status’ at risk (UNAIDS 2012, 6-8). Secondly, patriarchal norms and gender pay gap at the workplace imply that women are more prone to economic vulnerability and job loss during financial crisis. (UNAIDS 2012, 7) Thirdly, gender inequalities get reinforced within households. Meagre supplies mean that women end up prioritizing food access for male members and children (UNAIDS 2012, 8). Lastly, due to financial crunch, the immediate concern with reviving the economy tends to push women further out of the state’s priority focus (UNAIDS 2012, 7). As the upcoming G20 president and a developing country itself, it is vital that India discontinues the long tradition of gender-blind approaches in debt response.
This is by no means an easy task, given the tardy operationalization of existing G20 debt response frameworks i.e., Common Framework for Debt treatment beyond the DSSI. Although it sought to build up on the deficiencies of Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), one key lacuna i.e., enforcing the participation of private creditors has remained unresolved (Ahmed and Brown 2022). A big challenge for the Indian presidency is therefore to ensure that the delivery of the common framework is made effective. Any reform of the framework should foremostly focus on mandating the participation of private creditors— the benefit of debt restructuring or deferral will be futile if the money saved goes to service the debt owed by private creditors.
Going over the history of G20, one can observe the prevalence of interest-based multilateralism. In simple terms it means that major powers (US and EU) used G20 to fulfil their ‘particular interests’, instead of emphasizing on the ‘common global responsibilities’ of all states. Now, the challenge for India is to build back a ‘norms-based multilateralism’ (Jokela 2011). By bringing forth a gendered perspective on clean energy and debt treatment, India will have the opportunity to evolve a multilateralism that is inclusive and people-oriented.
References
Ahmed, Masood, and Hannah Brown. 2022. “Fix the Common Framework for Debt Before It Is Too Late.” Center for Global Development . 18 January . https://www.cgdev.org/blog/fix-common-framework-debt-it-too-late.
Frankel, Jeffrey. 2020. “The Impact of the Pandemic on Developing Countries.” Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs . 3 August. https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/impact-pandemic-developing-countries.
Heintz, James. 2013. Missing Women: The G20, Gender Equality and Global Economic Governance. Heinrich Böll Stiftung.
IEA. 2021. Financing clean energy transitions in emerging and developing economies. Paris: Inernational Energy Agency .
Jokela, Juha. 2011. THE G-20: A PATHWAY TO EFFECTIVE MULTILATERALISM? EU Institution for Security Studies .
UNAIDS . 2012. Impact of the global economic crisis on women, girls and gender equality. Discussion Paper , UNAIDS.
United Nations . 2022. Global impact of the war in Ukraine: Billions of people face the greatest cost-of-living crisis in a generation. United Nations .
United Nations . 2018. Policy Brief #12. GLOBAL PROGRESS OF SDG 7— ENERGY AND GENDER. United Nations .
