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Article Artículo

Gender Action: IFI’s Fail to Adequately Address Gender Based Violence in Post-Quake Investments

To mark International Women’s Day, HRRW is highlighting recent research concerning issues relating to women’s rights in Haiti.

Gender Action released a report this week analyzing the extent to which the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) address gender-based violence (GBV) in their post-earthquake loans. Gender Action applies their Essential Gender Analysis Checklist to five different projects implemented by the two international financial institutions. The report finds that:

[N]either the World Bank nor the IDB adequately address GBV within other critical post-earthquake investments. Sadly, this lack of attention to GBV is hardly surprising: according to Interaction, an alliance of international non-governmental organizations, “the humanitarian community continues to see women’s protection as a second-tier concern in crises, particularly natural disasters, and is slow to address GBV at the onset of an emergency” (Interaction, 2010). This case study underscores the urgent need for the World Bank and IDB to strengthen their own gender policies and explicitly address GBV across all sectors.

The report does salute the World Bank for a recent grant to combat GBV in Haiti, which was the result of advocacy efforts on the part of Gender Action and other groups.

Jake Johnston / March 08, 2012

Article Artículo

Lack of Access to Basic Services a Driving Factor Behind Sexual Violence in IDP Camps

To mark International Women’s Day, HRRW is highlighting recent research concerning issues relating to women’s rights in Haiti.

Recent research from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice sheds light on factors contributing to an increase in sexual violence since the earthquake over two-years ago. The report, “Yon Je Louvri: Reducing Vulnerability to Sexual Violence in Haiti’s IDP Camps,” is based on surveys conducted in four IDP camps in January 2011 and additional follow up research throughout 2011. While the small sample size and logistical constraints prevent the research from being representative of the IDP population at large, it nonetheless provides an important analysis of the factors contributing to gender-based violence (GBV) and steps that can be taken to remedy the situation using a human rights based approach.

The report found that in the four camps visited, 14 percent of surveyed households reported that at least one member of the household had been a victim of sexual violence since the earthquake, while 70 percent of those surveyed were “more worried” about sexual violence after the earthquake. The report explains that because of underreporting this “is particularly striking because it likely captures a minimum level of sexual violence within the studied IDP camps.” Other studies have estimated significantly higher levels of sexual violence.

The vast majority of victims, 86 percent, were female. The study also found a significant correlation between a lack of services in IDP camps and the likelihood of being a victim of sexual violence. The report finds four significant factors other than gender:

• Suffer from limited access to food. Individuals who reported that they went at least one day without eating in the previous week were more than twice as likely to come from a victim household, as compared to those who did not report insufficient access to food;

• Confront limited access to water. The average victim household had less consistent access to drinking water than their non-victim counterparts. Four out of ten respondents from victim households did not obtain water from a free connection inside their camp during the previous week;

• Face limited access to sanitation. Participants who felt that the nearest latrine was “too far” from their shelter were twice as likely to live in a victim household, and among victim households, 29 percent indicated that they knew someone who was attacked while using the latrines;

• Live in a camp that lacks participatory and responsive governance structures. The survey found that camps with lower levels of consultation regarding camp management had a higher proportion of households reporting that one or more of their members had experienced sexual violence.

Jake Johnston / March 08, 2012

Article Artículo

Europe

World

Troika Greece Program Could Easily be Derailed by Smaller Bond Swap

The deadline for Greece's bond swap, the so-called PSI (Private Sector Involvement), is approaching tonight (10 p.m. Greek time).  As part of Greece's latest bailout agreement with the European Central Bank, European Commission, and the IMF (the so-called Troika), Greece needs to achieve the near universal participation of private bondholders in a debt-restructuring plan to lower the face-value and interest rates on 206 billion euros of privately-held bonds.  

Under the terms of the bailout program Greece must reduce its debt to 121 percent of GDP by the year 2020, a level the Troika considers sustainable, and the upcoming bond deal is essential to reaching this target.  Under the official terms Greece has offered private bondholders, old bonds would be exchanged for new bonds with a face value of 46.5 percent of the original.  The new bonds would make annual coupon payments of 2 percent between 2012-15, 3 percent for 2016-20, 3.65 percent in 2021, and 4.3 in 2022-42.  

As reported today by Bloomberg, bondholders representing around 60 percent of all outstanding privately-held bonds have announced they will participate in the swap.  It remains to be seen how many more will accept the deal before the official deadline tonight but even if voluntary participation remains low Greece recently inserted collective action clauses into bonds that were issued under Greek law.  These stipulate that so-called holdouts, bondholders who refuse to accept the deal, can be forced to accept the terms of the swap if a large enough number of bondholders (usually a super majority) vote to participate.

CEPR and Juan Antonio Montecino / March 08, 2012

Article Artículo

And the Struggle Continues…
Here at CEPR we like to fight for the underdog, so as economic blogs are all aflutter over the recent string of positive numbers, we’d like to remind you that for many, the struggle continues. Since our recovery began in 2009, the unemployment rate, and e

Janelle Jones / March 08, 2012