Federal Minister, Ms Wieczorek-Zeul, Vice President of the World Bank, Colleagues in governmental office, Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to be here at the opening of this Conference. I very much welcome the fact that Germany and the World Bank are cooperating so closely and, together with the OECD and our British, Danish and Norwegian friends, have made this Conference possible. I am of course pleased that the announcement met with such a positive response and that representatives from all over the world have joined us today.
I hope that my presence here will show that I, as Federal Chancellor, and in my current capacity as President of the EU Council and the G8, lend my full support to the implementation of the Gender Action Plan. We in the Federal Government have, I believe I can safely say, set ourselves an ambitious agenda.
It is of course fitting that 2007 is also the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All. It will spur us, the Federal Government, to work with our European partners in particular for the cause of gender equality in all areas of life – as Ms Wieczorek-Zeul has already said, in Germany, Europe and around the world.
To start off, let us look at Germany. Ever since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the principle of gender equality has been enshrined in Article 3 of our constitution, the Basic Law. "Men and women shall have equal rights" – this sentence was intended to be absolute, with no ifs or buts. Nevertheless, 45 years after the adoption of the constitution, a broad debate led to the insertion of a second sentence in Article 3. The German Basic Law thus now contains the following provision: "The state shall promote the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and take steps to eliminate disadvantages that now exist." In other words, 45 years after the entry into force of the Basic Law, society underwent a reality check and we had to admit that disadvantages still exist. The state has in effect been ordered to pursue an active antidiscrimination policy. Our programme of government must thus advance this state objective.
But even this is not enough to ensure that equality actually exists in everyday life, and has the impact we envisage. We all know that society as a whole must act, that it entails changing the role of men – for the better, I would say, not for the worse. Gender equality cannot be considered in isolation as women's policy, as if it were only of concern to half the population. It effects all of us.
When I say that it is a task for society as a whole, that does not mean that the politicians can abdicate all responsibility. They must of course also do their part to create the framework conditions within which equality is possible. I think that the Federal Government is well aware of this responsibility. We have a whole series of gender equality statutes that apply to the public sector. We have made significant progress on getting women into senior positions. Ms Wieczorek-Zeul has just told us that during her time in government she has seen the share of women in senior positions in her ministry rise from 8% to 27%. Similar things are happening in many other federal ministries.
I won't pretend that the term "gender mainstreaming" has not taken on a new meaning between the time when I was Minister for Women's Affairs – from 1990 to 1994 – and the beginning of the 21st century. Whether this development has contributed to a better understanding of gender equality is something we won't address here. For my part, I have to say that I am beginning to get used to the term. But it will still take quite some time, I fear, for the population at large to really take it to heart. At any rate, it signifies a guiding principle for action. It means that all our policies should take account of the different situations of men and women. It is a never-ending task that impacts all areas of political work.
We know that statutes alone cannot always be the answer – and please note, I do not say "cannot" be the answer, I say cannot "always" be the answer. Sometimes statutes do not foster organic changes in society, but cause people to do the minimum possible to comply with the law. For this reason, I believe that liberal societies should have the self-confidence to count on social forces, and not on legislation alone. But there again, one should not assume that society will take care of everything itself, and thus never raise the issue again. That would be a serious mistake. But benchmarking, best practices, exchanges of experiences are all options worth pursuing. Social expectations do change. For example, it would today be unacceptable for a federal ministry to have absolutely no female heads of division – something that was still the case in the early 1990s.
The compatibility of family and career is now surely one of the key issues relating to the equality of men and women in a society. The Federal Government introduced parental allowance last year, drawing inspiration from Scandinavian models. The Swedish Prime Minister recently visited my party, the CDU, and told us that in Sweden – and I think we should be careful not to generalize here – paternity leave was taken primarily during the FIFA World Cup. That cannot be the solution for gender equality! But now the World Cup is safely over, and parental allowance has only just come into being here in Germany.
The issue here is one that I find very interesting, and is also the issue that generated the most public debate about parental allowance – the fact that fathers now have the option of taking two to twelve months off to look after young children. This is an incredible social transformation, because suddenly now fathers go along to their employers and ask if they can be given leave – something that requires much more courage in our society for a father than for a mother. Fighting for gender equality does not imply that everything is harder for women and easier for men. Rather, it is always easier to do whatever is "mainstream". We want to change what is mainstream. I feel that this will benefit society as a whole.
A second issue that is being discussed at the moment is childcare. In the past ten years, it has become generally accepted in society that children over three should be legally entitled to a nursery place. Now the discussion has turned to children under three – what care should be provided for them?
There is a principle that is accepted by all parties – free choice. Parents should be able to decide how and to what extent they wish to combine work and family while their children are still young. Free choice means freedom of choice. And freedom of choice presupposes that there is a choice. When there are only enough places for 7% of the children under three in the western federal states, many parents in fact have no choice. In the eastern federal states the situation is somewhat better. Childcare is on offer for almost 40% of the age-group – a much better guarantee of freedom of choice.
Over the next couple of days you will also be devoting your attention to problems in other parts of the world – including some truly serious problems. But Germany is a country in which 40% of all women with a university degree are childless. We really can't leave it at that. And so we have to consider what to do. I am the last person to believe there are any simple solutions. But I do not believe that more people will want to start a family unless childcare is available and compatibility of career and family is assured.
We need to make working conditions more family-friendly. This is also one of the major tasks that will overtake many countries undergoing a transformation from agricultural to industrialized societies, i.e. societies in which the workplace is often distant from the family home, where relatives cannot automatically help out with childcare. It is obvious that here too we still have a lot to do.
We know that women today are increasingly becoming their own bosses. Women who work in banks know that women are pretty good loan risks. I hope that you will talk about that at this conference. 28% of all self-employed persons in Germany are women. This is good news. But at the same time, a woman on the board is a rarity in the 30 largest German companies, the so?called DAX companies – you could say they haven't caught up with political realities. So you see, this is still a major task for us, too. Some things may take a long time, but we must push on with them.
However, you will not only be looking at Germany. And rightly so. But I would like to clearly state at the start of the conference that we can all learn from one another. It is certainly not the case that women's rights is a topic of interest only to other parts of the world and not to us. We all have to deal with this issue.
Of course, if we look beyond our national borders, we need clear goals, strategies, plans and the necessary resources to reduce gender discrimination and to enable equal participation in political, economic and public life. That's why it is particularly interesting to see how many African colleagues have assembled at this conference and to know that the African Union has recently unambiguously decided to promote the equality of men and women. This has also, I believe, launched a debate that is very important to us.
We want to support our neighbouring continent by making it a focus of the German G8 Presidency. But we can only do this if the African continent itself is willing to work with us. In my opinion, we should view such cooperation as a win-win situation and not as something imposed – that would be bound to fail. That is why a frank debate is one of the great opportunities that a conference such as this can offer.
I am hopefully not saying too much when I state that culture and gender roles shape the realities of life as much on the African continent as they do in Europe. That's why the African Union's commitment to gender equality is so important. This is just one of the issues that I will discuss in depth with President Kufuor of Ghana, who is now also President of the African Union. I will have a great number of opportunities to talk to him in the course of the year.
We can be glad that there is positive news to report, and I don't just mean in Africa but around the world. Back in 1987, some 9% of all parliamentary seats in the world were held by women. This figure is up to 17% today. This is still not satisfactory, but it is a great improvement.
We have seen that women can do great things in business – as you will spend much of this Conference discussing. Progressive thinkers such as this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus have of course known this for a long time. This was no mere theoretical insight for him. His Grameen Bank is a practical example of how to sensibly fight poverty by backing women – something that has a really fundamental impact on the lives of whole families. Women are reliable borrowers – which is something I hate having to spell out, because it would never have occurred to me to think otherwise. At any rate, women can manage money very well, of that I am sure.
We are also very pleased that we will meet Muhammad Yunus in May for an exchange of experience, and look forward to hearing about his work. He puts into practice the theories developed by economists and moral philosophers such as Mr Sen, to name another Asian Nobel laureate and a prime campaigner for the economic participation of women. Things don't just depend on the quantity of economic resources, but rather also on the spirit in which they are distributed, and the rights and freedoms involved.
In my opinion this is one of the interesting discussions now being conducted with the World Bank. For I believe that the World Bank, too, has learned from the past. The World Bank is a moderately gifted learner, as it were, if I may compare it with the IMF, which learns at least as fast as the World Bank does or should – and I'm being careful what I say here. One has to be diplomatic, so that everyone can hope things may get even better.
I further believe that cooperation between the various financial institutions is close – not least due to what President Köhler has told us. For what's the use of one body elaborating economic plans for the poorer countries of this world and the other drawing up development cooperation strategies if they don't add up? I have just seen this problem in Lebanon – and there are many other examples. The question of how you can dovetail growth, poverty reduction and transparent economic development is one of the most exciting questions of all.
The debate in Germany is relevant on this point too. We used to have a huge budgetary deficit, and so when this Government assumed office we had to decide whether to try to address the budget deficit and invest in services, or just to consolidate first, before investing. We decided to do something that was far from easy – we decided to raise VAT by 3% and to do more than just consolidate. So far, with consolidation and investment combined with reforms we seem to be progressing in the right direction – but we haven't got there yet, further monitoring is required. Of course, this is a matter that every country must debate for itself.
The Federal Republic of Germany is committed to development policy – so much is certain. We want men's and women's rights to be realized. Our double Presidency is a wonderful opportunity to work to this end. I would be delighted if the Council Conclusions adopted during the German Presidency were to touch on development cooperation and include calls to promote gender equality – I very much hope this will happen.
As I have already said, Africa is one of our priorities. We will invite not only the outreach countries – Mexico, Brazil, India, China and South Africa – to the G8 Summit, but also the NEPAD founding members and the Presidency of the African Union in order to underscore the fact that Africa has our special attention.
Much has been done at G8 meetings for cooperation with Africa – debt initiatives, political, economic and social reforms. Looking at the debt initiatives alone, we can say that we have made tremendous progress in the past eight or nine years. There has been an intensification of development cooperation, both in terms of quantity and quality. Of course, the G8 states' reform partnership with Africa should be continued. That is why Africa is a priority at this year's Summit, too.
I am very glad that the EU Strategy for Africa was adopted in December 2005. It is a clear expression of the European Union's commitment to actively contribute to the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals. As migration has clearly demonstrated, we truly are neighbours and in today's global world we can no longer say that some problems are ours, whereas others are confined to other continents. Globalization means no more and no less than that the problems of this world must be on the minds of us all.
We all face the same question – which is perhaps the key political question of the 21st century: Can we use politics to mould globalization, or are we simply reacting to globalization's impact? The number of opponents to globalization is indicative of the fears and concerns that this phenomenon inspires. We have to find a way to dovetail the work of international organizations with national and regional initiatives. Nobody wants a "world government". But to pretend that we in Germany can still manage a social market economy with no regard for international issues, as in the founding years of the Republic, would be to turn a blind eye to the opportunities presented by these issues around the world.
Another reality is that the Internet has made many things more transparent. It is now possible, wherever you are, to find out who is offering what at what price. Jobs have for instance shifted from China to Africa. In other words, work is moving around the globe. If we don't join forces against child labour, for employment standards and basic ecological standards, jobs will move around the world even faster. And then all we will have time for is a joint damage limitation exercise. That is why it is necessary to recognize these global interconnections for what they are.
We want to act to seize the opportunities that this ever-smaller world has to offer. This needs a new kind of thinking – something that we in Europe were not used to either. For more than 200 years we have been content to take a relatively Eurocentric view of the world. We were often at the forefront when it came to industrialization. But today we have to acknowledge that we have new competitors, that the spirit of Article 1 of our Basic Law, "human dignity shall be inviolable", applies beyond our borders, and beyond those of the European Union, and that we must now decide to what extent we will stand up for this principle elsewhere.
Of course people in Germany have their worries and cares. While some of your countries are worried about population growth, we are concerned about a demographic change brought about by diminishing numbers of children and young people. Our problems are very different, but we all share this planet. We cannot tackle our problems alone, as shown by issues such as climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
That is why it is so important for us to empower women as actors in this global world, to have networks and to exchange experience on practical problems and potential solutions. With regard to Africa, I would like to say that we are not only pursuing classical development cooperation, but are also ensuring that institutions are transparent and that the money gets through to the people, and is not siphoned off into grand palaces and private roads.
This is a point we will have to discuss at length with newly emerging economies such as China. We Germans are presently engaged in development cooperation with China, for example in the field of climate protection. This I support. But at the same time we see China becoming ever more active in Africa, and we can't be sure that all African countries will profit from this economic development. We have to talk openly about this.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are at present hearing good news, especially from Africa. But this good news can, in my opinion, only continue if men and women participate equally. This Conference is tackling the role of women, and will look at how they can contribute to economic development, poverty reduction and education.
I hope that your discussions will be fruitful. The fact that a large number of panels will be discussing the issues is an indication that the topics will also be addressed from a practical point of view. For coming up with practicable solutions requires us to do more than theorizing – we must also try out our ideas in practice. When we talk to emerging economies and developing countries about transparency, we do not always mean to talk down to them, even if our tone is at times a bit paternalistic. That is certainly not what we mean. But sometimes the tone distracts from the content.
You should feel free to ask us lots of awkward questions. Indeed, I encourage you to do so at this Conference. But we have to check that our efforts really do some good. Which is why we have to keep an eye on the statistics.
I hope that this Conference will give women's empowerment a boost, so that in a few years time we can say that the role of women has been improved, that women's successes can be passed on, that families as a whole have profited, and that progress has been made towards equality in law and fact for men and women.
I would like to thank everybody participating in this Conference. I wish you all a successful meeting. When it is over, I will ask the Minister for Development Cooperation how it went, what outcomes were achieved and to what we should be lending our support in the future.
Thank you very much for coming.
