Richard Liu (RL): I now like to move to Cristina. And Cristina, thank you for being here and for your leadership. As an Adviser, a Special Adviser to the UN on Africa, I cannot help but ask you, when I, in my reporting over the years on the continent, have seen much leadership come in gender equality.
From your perspective, as a UN Special Adviser, how has Africa led? How can we further mobilize resources to increase gender equality on the continent and also to unlock the economic power of women and girls?
Cristina Duarte (CD): Thank you. Good morning to everybody. So honoured to be here. My dear sister Sima, thank you for inviting me. And I'm always available. Please count on me. I'm always available.
I would like to make a call to this room. I will present three ideas, but I need you to walk with me in these three ideas. There is a magic word that we need to tackle when responding to your question, Richard: Access ... to means of production. I believe this, this has been the missing piece in the equation.
So, the magic word is “Access” – access to means of production. I would like to take this opportunity to bring the macroeconomic policy dimension to this conversation because I think this is the missing piece and maybe the reason why the DSG and our Ambassador, beautiful Ambassador, say enough is enough.
First idea … let's walk together. We all know that ... lots of studies. We all know that there is a clear association between gender gaps and lack of economic progress. Everybody knows that in this ... in this room. The reason behind this is that macroeconomic policies, in a silent way, have been producing gender gaps. If we do nothing, we will just respect the status quo: The gender gap is just automatic. It is just automatic.
But let's reason together. We know that gender gaps feed, let's say, lack or cause a lack of economic progress because gender gaps, at the end of the day, are a huge machine to produce opportunity costs, as you mentioned very well.
If macroeconomic policies have been perpetuating gender gaps and these have undermined economic progress, we need altogether to realize that macroeconomic policies have internal contradictions in the sense that they have been producing unstability and instability. So, if this is true, gender gaps cannot be only a social affair, with all due respect. Gender gaps cannot only be a human affair. It touches the state. It touches the nation. This is the first idea.
Second idea: The agency and power of women is a macroeconomic stability tool. I know it has a strong Human Rights [aspect]. I'm not saying that [it doesn’t] I respect it, but it's, above all, a strong macroeconomic stability tool. It impacts the management of fiscal space and consequently, again, is a state affair.
How come? I would like to bring this macroeconomic stability tool of the agency of power of women as an important relationship, sometimes a problematic one, but we are allowed in this setup to have an open conversation. I hope so. So, it is the relationship between fertility rates and fiscal space. Maybe everybody thinks there is no relationship between fertility rates and fiscal space.
But fertility rates need to enter a balanced relationship with the country's capacity to respond to the provision of social services and public goods. And what we have been assessing in the case of Africa is a complete mismatch. The fertility rate today in Africa is 4.6, and the average is 2.1. I'm not saying that Africa does not have the economic potential, but today's mismatch is huge.
And, of course, we do have a problem. This brings another, allow me to be a little bit technical, another important dimension, because if we don't address these questions, we don't address the root causes. And in ten years, we will be saying enough is enough. It is the demand and supply side of the equation. The fertility rates drive the demand and countries' potential, and the public policies to apply to countries' potential drive the supply side.
And if this is true, we need all to agree. This is the reason I asked that we walk together in this conversation. We all need to agree that gender gaps need first to land on Ministers of Finance’s desks before they land on Ministers of Family’s desks before they land on Ministers of Economy. Because if they don't land first on Ministers of Finance desks, we will be in a trap.
And I will tell you the trap. The trap and then I move to the ... Now, the trap is ... I don't know if you notice when you start talking about economic empowerment of women, there is always someone in the room that pulls out the card of microcredit. We are delivering microcredit. So, we are empowering women. Wrong. Wrong. If you analyze the microcredit experience, at the end of the day, they have been unable to break the poverty reduction nature of the business model.
Sometimes I have the impression that microcredit is just to put good words in the picture. We are empowering women from an economic standpoint. But at the end of the day, you are not breaking the [inaudible] poverty nature of the model.
And this means, to my third idea, I'm about to finish … my third idea. A woman as the landlord, not the tenant. A woman should be the landlord, not the tenant, and be in touch with access to means of production. Let's put land in Africa. Women are essentially the majority in the agriculture sector workforce. They have no access to the most obvious basic asset of that sector. So, they have no access to means of production, and this is the mismatch.
My last sentence, if you want to really address gender gaps and unlock economic progress in Africa to move from a number or a model to actual inclusion, we need to focus our efforts on the property ownership of economic resources and assets by women. Give women the same capacity and rights to acquire and own.
And I have no doubt that women will rise to the top without needing anyone to reserve one testimonial spot for them.
RL: Thank you, Cristina. Thank you so much for your message and for your energy.