Linking Rio +20, Cairo +20 and MDGs +15 from South Feminist Perspectives – DAWN panel at the People’s Summit

This article outlines a panel session organised by Development Alternatives with Women of a New Era (DAWN) at the People’s Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The panel, moderated by Gita Sen, focused on looking beyond poverty to environmental and social justice and a development in which everyone can participate. Speakers included Alex Garrita from Mexico, who drew parallels between Rio +20 and the UN Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, alerting the audience to the push to control women’s fertility. She thought the main challenge of Rio +20 was to ensure women’s reproductive rights were in place before the move to the post MDG process. Another speaker Nicole Bidegain saw three options for post-2015: the extension or reformulation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the introduction of a new framework. She proposed that feminists should be advocating for a new framework which is not minimalistic or donor driven, but instead holistic, including human rights, equity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the care economy. She added any post-2015 agenda must address issues of financing and the reform of global economic and financial governance as little can be achieved without this.