Women's fund should be transparent: seminar
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The government's Women Empowerment Fund needs to be run with good governance and transparency, and should not be used just as a loan resource, a seminar held by Thammasat University's Women and Youth Studies Programme was told yesterday.
Ryratana Rangsitpol, a UN Women programme officer in Thailand, said certain United Nations’ programmes meant for women do not just grant funds to solve problems, but use the resources to monitor and evaluate the programmes to see what is working and what isn’t.
“The objectives of the Women Empowerment Fund include circulated funds [for loans] and the promotion of income. But will there be money allocated for building a network and leadership as well as the evaluation and analyses of the projects?” Ryratana asked.
She said women’s potential had to be promoted so they could participate in community development and play a role in public policies, which would eventually change the society’s attitude against women. Moreover, help should be provided for specific groups, such as women living with HIV/Aids, those living in Thailand without Thai nationality or those who are stateless.
Sakon Varanyuwatana, an economist with Thammasat University, said he agreed with Ryratana’s suggestion that there should be a close evaluation and the building of a database.
Sakon said the condition prohibiting people who receive aid from the Women Empowerment Fund from seeking additional aid from other funds could cause rifts among different groups. The economist, who has closely studied the financial management of local organisations, also raised concerns about transparency and good governance issues.
“Setting aside as much as Bt7.7 billion for the Women Empowerment Fund without identifying the means of examination, the source and the use of the money leads to big questions on the issue of good governance,” Sakon said.
He added that since the fund was set up as a PM’s Office regulation and not an Act, issues of good governance including transparency, justice, people’s approach, equality, the ability to respond to people’s needs, efficiency and effectiveness would be difficult to see.
Sutada Mekrungruengkul, coordinator of the Women Networks Reshaping Thailand, said the fund had been set up without a previous public hearing or participation. She also questioned the role and power of the committees that will be in charge of the fund at national and local levels.
Sutada and other women’s networks had asked PM’s Office Minister Nalinee Taveesin, who is in charge of the Women Empower-ment Fund, to review the fund’s regulations as well as cancel the registration requirement.
Sutada explained that the registration requirement would result in very few women benefiting from the fund. She explained that while there are 33 million women in Thailand, about 24 million would be eligible, which means many will be left out if Nalinee only targets the fund at 10 million women.
However, a male participant in yesterday’s forum disagreed, saying it was only normal that people know who would benefit, and hence, the registration requirement would offer better public relations.
Wanee Bangprapha Thitiprasert, a researcher from the Peace and Culture Foundation, said the village fund had left many women wallowing in debt, while some did not get any assistance because they were widows or considered as having low potential to return the money, while other women did not return the money at all.
“Some people said that this was [ex-PM] Thaksin [Shinawatra]’s money and that it was okay if they didn’t return it,” Wanee said.
Bantoon Chamnaektan from the Network of Urban Underprivileged People said it was true that when loans were offered, women took them and the debt cycle never ends.
Sanyawimutsaeng Tammapati-ma, a member of the audience, said she was not interested in the loans but wanted to see the fund being used to do something that really empowers and promotes women’s potential, such as providing education.
Suwakon Yuankerd, a community radio host from Samut Prakarn, said she wanted to learn the pros and cons of the fund so she could share the info with her listeners. She also complained that the speakers only talked about the village fund and merely focused on its flaws.
Niramon Sutummakid, head of Thammasat University’s Women and Youth Studies Programme, said they had chosen to discuss the flaws so they could come up with better suggestions.
“We are not worried about people who are strong, but are worried about the weak, that’s why the Women Empowerment Fund was created,” she said.
“We are not worried about people who are strong, but are worried about the weak, that’s why the Women Empowerment Fund was created,” she said.
