Women's Empowerment and Finance: Highlights from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4)
Funding for progression should take into consideration the needs of women.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) held in April 2023, brought together global leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders to discuss strategies for promoting gender equality and women's empowerment within the global financial architecture.
One significant initiative launched at FfD4 was the Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA), which compiled over 130 multi-stakeholder commitments aimed at translating ambition into concrete actions. Nearly 70 of these initiatives directly address SDG 5 on Gender Equality, including specific efforts to support gender-responsive financing for development.
Among these endorsed initiatives is the "Investing in Care for Equality and Prosperity," a global initiative led by Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, UN Women, and the Global Alliance for Care. This initiative focuses on advancing gender-responsive financing linked to care work, which is crucial for women's labor participation.
Another notable initiative is the "Financing for Gender Equality," a multistakeholder partnership led by Spain and UN Women. This partnership seeks to create roadmaps and action plans with accountability mechanisms to improve financing flows for gender equality.
The FfD4 outcome document also emphasized the importance of debt justice and financial system reform. The Malala Fund highlighted that unjust debt burdens constrain fiscal space essential for financing girls' education—a key enabler of women's empowerment and future labor-force participation. By advocating for reducing debt servicing ratios, particularly in lower-income countries, governments could unlock billions (estimated at $506 billion over five years) for education, which supports gender equality in finance and employment.
Incremental steps toward inclusive economic governance were also discussed at FfD4. Although the outcome document does not fully transform the international financial architecture, it keeps open the possibility of gradual reforms toward a gender-responsive economic governance system.
The document also called for creating decent and productive employment opportunities ensuring inclusive and sustainable economic growth. While there is civil society critique of the World Bank’s emphasis on private sector and growth over transformation, the intention includes labor market inclusion, which implicitly supports increasing women’s labor participation.
However, concerns remain about the adequacy of protection for workers’ rights and whether these jobs meet standards that truly support gender equality.
In conclusion, FfD4 emphasized multi-stakeholder partnerships like the Sevilla Platform for Action to drive gender-responsive financing in development; advocated fiscal space creation through debt justice to fund education critical for women’s empowerment; supported inclusive jobs creation; yet stopped short of deep systemic reform of the financial architecture, reflecting ongoing challenges in aligning global finance fully with gender equality goals.
Sources: 1. [UNCTAD, 2023] 2. [Oxfam, 2023] 3. [World Bank, 2023]
- The Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA), one of the initiatives endorsed at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), explicitly focuses on gender-responsive financing for education and development, aiming to promote women's empowerment and gender equality (SDG 5).
- Recognizing the connection between health-and-wellness and women's workforce participation, the "Investing in Care for Equality and Prosperity" initiative, led by Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, UN Women, and the Global Alliance for Care, addresses gender-responsive financing linked to care work (women's health).
- Through the "Financing for Gender Equality" partnership—led by Spain and UN Women—stakeholders are working together to create roadmaps and action plans with accountability mechanisms, targeting improvements in financing flows for business (finance) and education-and-self-development (personal growth).
- To address the systemic issue of unjust debt burdens impacting girls' education and women's labor-force participation, governments are urged to advocate for a reduction in debt servicing ratios, potentially unlocking billions of dollars for finance and development, fostering inclusive economic growth (business and education-and-self-development).
