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April 18, 2021

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 People to People
WHEN headlines announcing that India and Pakistan
were resuming trade flashed across our screens, the
first response of many was ‘what about Kashmir?’ or
‘has Pakistan given up on Kashmir?’ For some reason,
the government decided against the move. And, just as
quickly as they had agreed to restart, Pakistan and
India were no longer trading.
Given the state of Pakistan-India relations over the
past few years, this was not unexpected: we no longer
watch Bollywood movies in Pakistani cinemas and
Pakistani films were almost always entirely banned in
India. We no longer play cricket together, and even
when Pakistanis do have a chance to play in India, visas
are hard to get. Gone are the days when it was easy to
travel to Delhi, or to come to Lahore, whether to attend
friends’ weddings, meet relatives or conduct business.
But the question remains: what about Kashmir? The
Kashmir dispute is one of the longest-running
conflicts in history, frozen in time. Kashmiris in
Indian-occupied Kashmir have gone through some
of the hardest times. And though the
decision to not resume trading
with India was not
unexpected, especially
given the trajectory of the
Kashmir dispute including
the revocation of Article 370
of the Indian constitution that
took away Kashmiris’ UNSC-
guaranteed rights, absurdity is
defined as doing the same
thing over and over again
but expecting different
results.
Clearly, the BJP-led
Indian government is not
going to reverse the
revocation — the party’s
entire identity is based on a muscular approach to
national security, particularly Kashmir. Additionally, in
today’s geo-economics-driven world, it is unwise to
depend on the UN or the larger international
community to fulfil their role faithfully. Believing that
the world will be suddenly up in arms over human
rights violations in Kashmir is naïve, when it otherwise
remains silent as the Rohingya are being forced to
settle on an uninhabitable island, as Syrian children
escaping conflict drown in the Mediterranean or as
Israeli settlers bulldoze Palestinian homes.
This is not to say that the world did not take notice. It
did. But that doesn’t fix the issue. The Kashmir dispute
is still simmering, ready to explode at any time. It is
important for India and Pakistan to recognise that and,
for all that they hold sacred including the safety and
security of almost two billion people, attempt to resolve
it, even if the Kashmir issue’s convoluted nature means
/cepipakistan 0303-6449744
Ravale Mohydin
it will take a long time to resolve. Dialogue,
understanding and trust are needed. In fact, building
trust is the starting point.
This brings us to trade, entertainment and sport
diplomacy. By banning each other’s movies, cancelling
cricket and not granting visas, India and Pakistan are
losing out on potential public diplomacy efforts by
restricting exchange and access. During the Cold War,
ie the “war of ideologies”, American jazz musicians
were sent to the Soviet Union to influence the Soviet
public positively towards US culture and way of life, and
there could be no comparison between the impact of
yet another speech by a US politician and, say, Louis
Armstrong singing What a Wonderful World when it
came to generating goodwill in a suspicious Soviet
audience.
More recently, NGOs facilitated access to indirect
diplomacy by having Israeli and Palestinian children
play football together, so they are able to “break down
barriers, open dialogues, and form friendships”, in
their own words.
In well-functioning democracies, the
public needs to support government
action. By facilitating access between
the two countries, the governments of
India and Pakistan can start to build trust
and understanding between the two
publics. Let Indians and Pakistanis
experience each other’s art, play
cricket together, let them trade
and make money together.
Whether people choose to or
not, whether they even like the
experience or each other
shouldn’t be the government’s
concern, but enabling access
could be the elusive answer to
lasting peace in the region. This is
a unique situation in terms of
security, but a long-term approach may yield more
enduring benefits than a short-term one.
As per Joseph Nye, an expert on public diplomacy, the
US won the Cold War because of “smart power” that
combines hard (military) power with soft power, which
relies on the power of attraction to convince. It is clear
that hard power alone may mean a nuclear disaster.
But if hard power translates to restraint on both sides,
it provides an opportunity to practise soft power and
diplomacy to create dialogue and trust, and eventually,
peace. The basis of the Kashmir dispute is a deep lack
of trust between Pakistan and India. Though it may take
a while, instead of attempting to cure the symptoms, it
may be time to cure the disease itself.
© Dawn News
@cepipak CEPI Pakistan
 Ostrich Approach
ON Friday, Pakistan blocked all popular social media
and internet messaging applications including
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and WhatsApp for
four hours across the country to “maintain public
order” in anticipation of protests by the recently
banned TLP. Such blocking undermines fundamental
rights, impacts an already fragile economy, defies
logic of security, and punishes citizens for the state’s
mistakes.
Whereas in the past the state has used measures such
as network shutdowns in particular areas of protests
and blocking of particular social media applications for
as long as around four years in the case of YouTube,
this is the first time that all popular social media
applications including WhatsApp were blocked
simultaneously for all citizens.
This should be a cause of alarm
and concern. Such a
disproportionate measure
in the name of maintaining
‘public order’ is a gross
violation of the basic rights of
Pakistani citizens, as the
Constitution protects the right to freedom of
speech, right to information, right to education,
right to livelihood and freedom of association.
Whereas constitutional rights are “subject to
law”, even the draconian Section 37 of the
Prevention of Electronic
Crimes Act, 2016,
stipulates blocking or
removal of unlawful online
content, but nowhere does
it allow a pre-emptive
blanket blocking of all social media applications and
websites. So the question is, under what law was the
blocking of social media applications and websites
ordered by the interior ministry? The notification cited
none, and it should have.
This new turn in the nature of state censorship is also
bad news for Pakistan’s digital economy, which is a
supposed priority for this government with its Digital
Pakistan plans. A country that arbitrarily blocks entire
websites and applications that are critical to business
activity in today’s digital age is an unattractive
destination for those wishing to do business or
investing here. No business wants such uncertainty.
These bans also gravely impact the thousands of small
businesses that rely on social media to function, as
well as students who are studying online. It is
important to understand that messaging services and
social media applications have increasingly become
the primary mode of communication, and their usage
complements other learning tools. During the Covid-19
pandemic, this dependency has increased, and is likely
to remain.
/cepipakistan 0303-6449744
Usama Khilji
The logic of blocking social media to contain protests is
flawed, especially for groups with strong networks on
the ground. There are several ways of circumventing
such censorship, despite a VPN ban that is ineffective
even in the most authoritarian countries, as was
evident from the trending topics while the blocking was
in place. It only ends up disturbing millions without
achieving the stated goal.
Further, blocking social media makes citizens suffer
for the state’s mistakes and failures. A group that was
mobilised on the basis of passionate religious beliefs
by a charismatic leader who enjoyed state protection,
whose protesters were given cash by state officials to
end a protest, and with whom the government signed
an agreement acceding to its demands to quell a violent
protest, will not be easy to dismantle by burying our
heads.
Instead, the state needs to permanently ban the
practice of setting up, supporting and nurturing
individuals and organisations that exploit
religious sentiments for short- or long-
term political gain; have consistent zero
tolerance for violence and militancy by
non-state actors; and ensure the rule of
law is always upheld. The state also
needs to bear in mind the consequences
of a radicalised political party with
representatives in assemblies that is all
of a sudden declared a terrorist group —
it is not only the members but also
the vote bank and supporters
that are bound to revolt. We
have suffered long enough for
what panned out at Lal Masjid.
The likelihood of this is no less mitigated by several
videos of custodial torture by police of protesters.
Granted that several police personnel were beaten and
tortured by protesters, but no crime is grave enough
for suspects’ violation of dignity through torture. This
only perpetuates a cycle of violence and vengeance
that our society cannot afford anymore. The
constitutional right to dignity, fair trial, due process and
legal representation must be upheld, and families kept
abreast of the whereabouts of detainees.
A video statement of the interior minister on Friday in
which he apologised for blocking social media and said
it will not happen again while admitting that there were
no protests held on Friday due to the possibility of
which social media had been blocked, cannot be
trusted.
Could this instead be a test of social media blocking,
and harbinger of what is to come? Such measures must
be resisted at all levels.
© Dawn News
@cepipak CEPI Pakistan
 Wings of Mediation
Rashid Javaid Rana

LITIGATION in the US is like a luxurious hotel, open
to all but affordable to few. This is true for Pakistan as
well. Article 37 of the Constitution guarantees that
inexpensive and expeditious justice is the state’s
responsibility. While the state has provided multiple
judicial forums at various levels, millions of cases are
pending adjudication.
A large chunk of cases in litigation pertains to tax
matters which are unpleasant for both the taxpaying
business communities and the tax authorities. A tax
notice results in parties resorting to stepping on to the
judicial ladder to avail the statutory right of appeal.
Here, the real ordeal starts ie ‘the
litigation’ which is like a game of
snakes and ladders. Be it civil,
criminal or tax litigation, the state
has to play its role while
providing access to justice for all.
Public-sector development
budgetary allocations and debt
servicing depend on revenue
collection. Time is money and this
concept is crucial to aggrieved
parties hit by protracted tax
litigation. In such a scenario,
problems may be addressed
through the informal settlement
of disputes.
Dispute settlement here does not
involve a trial. Instead, it deals
with negotiation, mediation,
conciliation and arbitration —
quite simply the alternative
dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism.
With assured confidentiality, the tax authorities and
taxpayers interact in an informal environment. It goes
without saying that the benefits of ADR are high and
ensure the expeditious and cost-effective settlement of
disputes. Parties save on court fee and court visits as
well as the hefty amounts that lawyers demand.
Without the usual procedural hiccups, interim relief is
swiftly provided. A quick dispute settlement
mechanism is always an attraction for international
investors and provides an impetus to the country’s
economy.
Countries like the Netherlands, US, Belgium, and UK
have adopted the ADR in tax litigation. Diligently
adopting this international best practice may help ease
the burden on our courts. In our case, the ADR
mechanism remains a less-explored option in tax
litigation.
Tax litigation is different from regular litigation in that
the adjudicator himself/herself is party to the case. The
issues involved are of a fiscal nature and involve
technicalities of liability, customs duty, the admissibility
of refunds and rebates, default surcharge, penalty,
fines and confiscation of goods etc. In tax cases,
additional vertical adjudicating forums extend an
already prolonged and cumbersome process. A
dedicated study may be required to ascertain the
percentage of litigation in tax cases.
Currently, eight different statutes encompass tax
litigation provisions at the federal and provincial levels.
Unfortunately, the tax ADR provisions barely meet the
formalities of these tax-related statutes. Likewise, the
principles of inclusion and empowerment of the
taxpayer have not been incorporated appropriately. For
instance, in Inland Revenue
cases, the power to choose
mediators from a designated
panel lies only with the
department, not the taxpayer.
Due to lack of provisions for the
establishment of independent
ADR centres, the power balance
remains tilted in favour of the tax
department which may
contribute to mistrust.
Similarly, unlike civil
litigation, an equitable
referral system is
conspicuous by its absence.
Taxpayers (and not the tax
department) can only opt for
mediation, and that too at the
appellate stage.
Legislative interventions for
evolving a referral system — for
the facilitation of both taxpayers
and the department — are sorely needed. Thresholds
and categorisation of cases may be incorporated in line
with the ADR Act 2017 (ICT), the Punjab ADR Act 2019,
and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ADR Act, 2020. The
current uni-referral arrangement must be replaced
with binary referrals. For instance, the assessing
officer should also be empowered to refer to mediation,
alongside the taxpayer, at the stage of issuance of the
show cause notice. Fears of unjust accountability may
be allayed through parliamentary sanction.
Harmonising all fiscal laws and taking on board all
stakeholders, including taxpayers, collectors,
adjudicators, and lawyers, may bridge the trust deficit.
Obviously, mediation won’t plug all the gaps, but it could
prove a viable option to change the way the authorities
operate. If there can be a voluntary compliance
scheme, then why not a voluntary settlement scheme
for dispute resolution? Mediation can do marvels by
pushing up the revenue curve and curtailing tax
litigation. An open-mind and open-heart approach is
needed to seriously consider mediation.
© Dawn News

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 F.D.R. Didn’t Just Fix the Economy
The New Deal was more than a recovery program for
the economy. It was, as the historian Eric Rauchway
argues in his new book, “Why the New Deal Matters,” a
recovery program for American democracy.
“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the
American people,” Franklin Roosevelt declared at the
1932 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Roosevelt had broken tradition to accept his party’s
nomination and deliver a speech in person. And in that
speech, he promised a program based on the “simple
moral principle” that the “welfare and the soundness of
a nation depend first upon what the great mass of the
people wish and need” and second on “whether or not
they are getting it.”
Aware of the challenge ahead of him should he win the
presidency — nearly a quarter of Americans were out
of work and the economy was shrinking by double
digits — Roosevelt concluded his address
with a call to action. “Let us all here
assembled constitute ourselves
prophets of a new order of competence
and of courage,” he said. “This is more
than a political campaign; it is a call to
arms. Give me your help, not to win
votes alone, but to win in this
crusade to restore America
to its own people.”
These days we tend to
think of the New Deal
as a very large
stimulus program.
And that was true,
to an extent. The
Public Works
Administration,
established
under the
National
Industrial
Recovery Act
of 1933, spent
around $3.3 billion (roughly $65 billion in today’s
dollars) on public buildings and infrastructure. The
Works Progress Administration, established two years
later, went even further, spending almost twice as
much over eight years to employ more than 15 percent
of the nation’s labor force.
But as Roosevelt suggested in his acceptance speech,
the New Deal was bigger than just a recovery program.
Rauchway, a professor of history at the University of
California, Davis, writes: “The foundational belief of the
New Deal was the conviction that democracy in the
United States — limited and flawed through it remained
— was better kept than abandoned, in the hope of
strengthening and extending it.”
/cepipakistan 0303-6449744
Jamelle Bouie
It was not clear, when Roosevelt took office, that
democracy would survive the long night of the
Depression. To show what could have happened in the
absence of recovery, Rauchway recounts the story of
the Bonus Expeditionary Force — veterans of the First
World War who occupied parts of Washington in the
last months of the Hoover administration, demanding
early payment of their “bonus,” or promised
compensation, for service. On one hand were the
marchers, thousands of disaffected veterans and their
families, and their leader Walter Waters, who drew
inspiration from Mussolini’s Black Shirts and Hitler’s
Brown Shirts, and who proposed reinventing his Bonus
Army as a new “Khaki Shirt” organization.
Here’s Rauchway:
“The Bonus Army’s newspaper drew international
comparisons to prove the veterans’ importance: “For
five years Hitler was lampooned and derided, but today
he controls Germany. Mussolini before the war was a
tramp printer driven from Italy because of his political
views. But today he is a world figure … The Khaki Shirts
would be essentially American” — though similar to the
backers of those strongmen overseas.”
On the other hand were those Americans at the top who
believed democracy had failed the country. In
Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s
draconian response to the
Bonus marchers
— burning
their camps
and driving
them out of
the city,
against
President
Herbert
Hoover’s
explicit orders
— they saw a
model for how
the
government
might restore “order” to the United States. “To his aide
Rexford Tugwell,” Rauchway notes, “Roosevelt
described Douglas MacArthur as one of the ‘most
dangerous men in the country.’”
MacArthur appealed to Americans who yearned for a
strongman, who believed “democracy had run its
course and that the totalitarians had grasped the
necessities of the time.” Roosevelt said that among
people he knew — rich people, who came from
privileged backgrounds and who found the mobilized
people deeply alarming — such talk was commonplace.
Roosevelt had to prove to all Americans that self-
government worked; that it could restore confidence
and tackle the economic crisis without compromising
@cepipak CEPI Pakistan
the principles of the revolution and the ideal of economic equality and opportunity put forth in
founding. That’s why Roosevelt the New Deal.
embraced public employment and
its direct line to ordinary Americans, That’s why at this moment of crisis — for our economy,
so government could “restore for our climate and for our democracy — the New Deal
the close relationship with its remains a lodestar for liberals and the left alike, from
people which is necessary Joe Biden to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It is a model, it
to preserve our democratic is an aspiration, it is a live part of our political
form of government.” That’s imagination.
why he would direct his
administration to build dams © New York Times
in the Tennessee Valley,
bridges in California’s Bay
Area and a second tunnel
connecting New Jersey and
New York — to show
Americans that the
government could do big
things and do them well. The
New Deal libraries and parks
and postal offices and other
buildings also stand as
monuments to collective effort
and the public good, to the idea
that democracy works best
when it works for most of us,
and that through this effort, we
come closer to the “more
perfect union” of our
Constitution’s preamble.

The New Deal was not perfect. It

liberated some Americans from
same time that it deprived others
freedom. It opened new
of
want at the
their
opportunities
REGISTRATIONS
for Black Americans — providing jobs,
education and even housing to citizens who
lived in need of each — at the same time that it,
as Rauchway writes, “left existing
untouched and even expanded it
areas, perpetuating it for new
segregation
into new FOR
generations.” And yet the
breakthrough of the New Deal — the way it
reshaped the nation’s politics and

NEW
transformed the relationship between
state and citizen — set the stage for the social
revolutions of subsequent decades. The New
Deal brought, in Roosevelt’s phrasing,
“the broadening conception of social justice” to
American life. And once introduced, it could not

SESSION
be removed. Or, as he said in his January
1934 message to Congress,

“Civilization cannot go back;

civilization must not stand still.
We have
undertaken new
methods. It is our
task to perfect, to
improve, to alter
ARE
when necessary, but in all cases to go forward.”

Put another way, you can think of the New Deal as a

OPEN!
third founding moment in the history of American
democracy. And in the same way that we still struggle
to live up to the ideals of political equality expressed in
our first founding and those of racial equality
expressed in our second, we have not yet realized the

/cepipakistan 0303-6449744 @cepipak CEPI Pakistan

 Indo-Pak Friendship in Post-COVID
World
It is a more recent tale of two letters: On Pakistan’s
70th National Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
penned a note to his Pakistani counterpart, expressing
desire for a “cordial relationship with the people of
Pakistan”. Soon enough, Prime Minister Imran Khan
reciprocated by saying he, too, wanted “peaceful,
cooperative relations with all neighbours”.
In between the genial notes, the frozen ties between
the South Asian neighbours had started to show initial
signs of a thaw. In February 2021, both countries
pledged to adhere to the 2003 Ceasefire Accord,
defusing tensions and violence at the Line of Control in
Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan’s Army chief General
Qamar Javed Bajwa added to the slow build-up of
positivity by calling for New Delhi and Islamabad to
bury the past and move on to help unlock the full
potential of South and Central Asia.
As India and Pakistan blow hot and cold over restoring
trade and ties, reinstalling diplomats, and on the long-
contested dispute over the Kashmir region, can both
nations co-exist as good neighbours, even allies in a
post-Covid world? Both countries have not faced a
pandemic of this scale since their Independence in the
late 1940s; a complicated crisis that needs a
collaborative response. They have lost enough time and
resources on fuelling animosity. Now could be the time
to redefine and reimagine a partnership that builds
back from the pandemic and into the future.
Investing in Health, Education, and Social Safety
Nets
COVID-19 pandemic contracted the global economy 3-5
percent, and the South Asian nations were hit among
the hardest. In India, as per government estimates, the
economy shrunk by 7.7 percent in 2020-2021, and
Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell to -0.38
percent — negative growth for the first time in seven
decades.
Despite the economic slowdown this year, defence
expenditures in both countries saw an upward trend.
While India increased its budget for arms procurement
by 16 % as compared to last year, Pakistan’s defence
budget climbed up by 12 %.? a paradox for nations that
are seeing high rates of unemployment, and drop in
health, education, and poverty indices.
One would think the pandemic would move them to
focus more on recovery, resilience, and development?
instead India slashed its education expenditure by 6 %
and Pakistan continues to straddle high debts. Arms
/cepipakistan 0303-6449744
Dr. Akbar Ahmad & Pawan Bali
procurement, however, for these nuclear-armed
nations remains an uncompromising expenditure. A
deep mutual distrust entrenched political complexities,
and regional tensions have mounted a growing rhetoric
and expenditure on war preparedness. All this at the
cost of health, education, and social welfare of millions
of vulnerable people in both countries. For comparison,
both countries spend barely 1- 3 percent of their GDP
on health, as compared to around 17 percent by
developed countries.
If allies, India and Pakistan can direct investments to
pressing development issues and uplift the millions
that live below the poverty indices. Collaborative
investments in education, health infrastructures, and
digital connectivity are easily possible geographically,
but need to be pushed politically.
Partners in Trade and a Resilient Future
When India and Pakistan started trade across the Line
of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in 2008, the
border villages were brimming with hope. Often at the
forefront of military tensions, trade and travel brought
in prospects of peace? connecting divided families
across the borders and reviving traditional trade links.
A boost in the local economy was an added bonus.
Since 2019, the cross-LoC trade and bilateral trade has
been suspended, leading to heavy losses, and up to 60
% increase in prices of some goods.
Prior to the suspension, India and Pakistan’s direct
trade was around USD 2 billion per annum. The
potential is much higher, anywhere between USD 37 to
40 billion. If both countries become favoured trading
partners, the benefits are not just limited to the border
economies but will spread to the entire region. This
collaboration would also revive the traditional trade
links into Central Asia.
As allies, the
neighbours can
not only strengthen
economies, but
also
build
resilience
to disaster,
climate-change, and pandemics. There is an
opportunity in sharing health and policy frameworks,
promoting data and technology for use in epidemiology,
and strengthening public health infrastructures. Both
@cepipak CEPI Pakistan
countries are increasingly prone to floods and impacts
of climate-change? Like the recent floods in
Uttarakhand that were triggered by melting glaciers or
the 2020 floods in Karachi after heavy rains. These are
just the tip of the iceberg. Climate change alone
threatens to push 60 million people into poverty and
displacement in South Asia. Close collaborations on
glacier monitoring, floods and climate risks
forecasting, air pollution, and promoting agriculture
and food security will become critical for managing
resources and risks.
Shared History and a Shared Future Ahead
With a monstrous pandemic looming, the economy
struggling, and the poverty levels of millions still
hopelessly sunken, India and Pakistan are inexorably
heading for the abyss. In the past, both countries have
come to the brink of a nuclear conflict and threats of
annihilation. The war rhetoric and toxicity have seeped
into our homes and diverted our cultural energy.
Hatred is often being streamed on our social media
feeds and television screens. It is time to tone down the
rhetoric and redirect forces.
Double Standards Amid Freedom of
Expression
Prime Minister Imran Khan has hit the nail on the
head by reminding some western countries,
Europeans in particular about their double
standards when it comes to freedom of religious
and/or political expression because this debate
clearly needs firmer representation from the Muslim
bloc than has been the case so far. There’s no
denying that nobody can be allowed to use any card,
even religion, to defy the law and the constitution;
and the Pakistani government did move forcefully
against the religious-political party that recently
caused much disruption in public life, as the PM duly
pointed out. But the popular take on all this in the
western press, and indeed their political circles, is
very misguided and needs to be addressed.
The fuss about the holocaust is just one point of this
debate. For it is, after all, a bit rich of Europeans to
disallow religious expression and debate while at
the same time punish even the slightest mention of
the terrible tragedy that befell the Jews in the
second world war with prison sentences lasting
many months. This is the clearest example of double
standards at not the just governmental but
continental level. And it is about time that the playing
field is levelled, so to speak. But it goes much further
than this.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was right that right-wing
European politicians have got into the habit of
/cepipakistan 0303-6449744
The past has also held promise of dialogue. Both
countries have come close to a meaningful dialogue?
even on some of the most contentious issues like
Kashmir. The gains have often been derailed, but not
entirely lost. From resources to human cost, both
countries have paid a high price for the confrontation.
The nations and their people need to absorb the
lessons of coexistence and find their own modus
vivendi. This move comes with the dignity and integrity
of the other fully respected. Not just for the present, but
for the sake of our future generations; it is time to make
the idea and practice of friendship go viral!
© Daily Times
Daily Times
deliberately speaking against Islam and Muslims,
and encouraging all such speech, purely to rally the
extremist voter base. And they are also used to
getting away with it. So, while Muslim communities
have a duty to respect laws of every state they
choose to live in, those states have an even more
sacred duty to protect all rights of all minorities
within their borders. PM Imran Khan has done the
right thing by presenting the side of this story that is
always brushed under the carpet and never given
any breathing room. There are encouraging signs
from the highest offices of some other countries as
well, like
Turkey and Malaysia, so the ball has been set rolling.
Western democracies have set the standard in
upholding human rights. Hopefully, they will
appreciate the need for extending the scope of their
privileges a little bit.
© Daily Times
@cepipak CEPI Pakistan
 What Happens When Women Run
the Economy
Women now hold many of the jobs controlling the
world's largest economy - and they're trying to fix it.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary
Gina Raimondo and trade czar Katherine Tai hold top
jobs in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and
many of his economic advisers also
are women, as are nearly 48% of
his confirmed cabinet-
level
officials.
This sea
change may
already be
affecting
economic
policy - a
new $2.3
trillion
spending plan
introduced by Biden
last week includes $400 billion to fund the "care
economy," supporting home- and community-based
jobs taking care of kids and seniors, work normally
done by women that has mostly gone unacknowledged
in years past.
The plan also has hundreds of billions of dollars more
to fix racial and rural-urban inequalities that were
created in part by past economic, trade and labor
policies.
Yellen says the focus on "human infrastructure," and
the earlier $1.9 trillion rescue bill should result in
significant improvements for women, whose share of
the workforce had hit 40-year lows even before the
crisis, and for everyone else as well.
"In the end, it might be that this bill makes 80 years of
history: it begins to fix the structural problems that
have plagued our economy for the past four decades,"
she wrote on Twitter, adding, "This is just the start for
us."
Women leaders can bring fresh perspective to
economic policy, experts say.
"When you're different from the rest of the group, you
often see things differently," said Rebecca Henderson,
a professor at Harvard Business School and author of
"Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire."
"You tend to be more open to different solutions," she
said, and that is what the situation demands. "We're in
a moment of enormous crisis. We need new ways of
thinking."
EMPATHY, STABILITY
/cepipakistan 0303-6449744
Andrea Shalal
Over the past half-century, 57 women have been
president or prime minister of their countries, but
institutions that make economic decisions have largely
been controlled by men until recently.
Outside the United States, there's Christine Lagarde at
the helm of the European Central Bank with its 2.4
trillion euro balance sheet, Kristalina Georgieva at the
International Monetary Fund with its $1 trillion in
lending power, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the World
Trade Organization - all jobs held by men a decade ago.
Overall, there are women running finance ministries in
16 countries, and 14 of the world's central banks,
according to an annual report prepared by OMFIF, a
think tank for central banking and economic policy.
The limited measures available suggest women have a
better track record of managing complicated
institutions through crisis.
"When women are involved, the evidence is very clear:
communities are better, economies are better, the
world is better," Georgieva said in January, citing
research compiled by the IMF and other institutions.
"Women make great leaders because we show
empathy and speak up for the most vulnerable people.
Women are decisive ... and women can be more willing
to find a compromise."
A study by the American Psychological Association
showed that U.S. states with female governors
had fewer COVID-19 deaths than those
led by men, and Harvard
Business Review
reported that women got significantly better ratings in
360-degree assessments of 60,000 leaders between
March to June 2020.
Women account for less than 2% of CEOs at financial
institutions and less than 20% of executive board
members, but the institutions they do run show greater
financial resilience and stability, IMF research shows.
@cepipak CEPI Pakistan
Eric LeCompte, a UN adviser and executive director of
a non-profit that advocates for debt relief, said he
noticed a clear difference during a meeting with Yellen
and the leaders of Christian and Jewish faith groups
last month.
"The lesson for us is (to) make sure ... that we don't sink
into business as usual," said Okonjo-Iweala, who was
also Nigeria's first female finance minister. "It's about
people. It's about inclusivity. It's about decent work for
ordinary people," she told Reuters.

"I've been meeting with Treasury secretaries for 20 © Reuters

years, and their talking points have been entirely
different," he said. "In every area we discussed, Yellen
put an emphasis on empathy, and the impact of policies
on vulnerable communities."

Her male predecessors had a "brass tacks" approach

that focused first on "numbers not people" and never
mentioned words like "vulnerable," he said.

THE GLOBAL SHE-SESSION

The stakes are high.

The global recession related to the

coronavirus pandemic is actually a "she-
session," many economists say,
because of how hard it has hit women.

Women comprise 39% of the global

workforce but account for 54% of
overall job losses, McKinsey
found in a recent study. In the
United States, women
accounted for more than
half the 10 million jobs lost
during the COVID-19 crisis
here and over 2 million
women have left the
labor force altogether.

Bringing these women back to work could boost gross

domestic product by 5% in the United States, 9% in
Japan, 12% in the United Arab Emirates and an
astounding 27% in India, the world's largest democracy,
the IMF estimates.

Georgieva on Tuesday said the IMF had put in place

quantitative targets to ensure countries focused

CEPI WISHES
recovery spending on health, education, social
protection and empowering women after years of
neglect. "If we don't do it, we risk inequalities
deepening," she said.

The rise of female leaders should lead to "a more

inclusive - in the true sense of the word - response to
the many, many challenges that are the legacy of
GOOD LUCK TO
OUR FUTURE
COVID," Carmen Reinhart, the World Bank's chief
economist, told Reuters.

Tai, the first woman of color to lead the U.S. Trade

OFFICERS!
Representative's office, has told her staff to think
"outside the box", embrace diversity and talk to
communities long ignored.

Okonjo-Iweala, also the first African to head the World

Trade Organization, which oversaw trade flows of
nearly $19 trillion in 2019, said addressing the needs of
women will mark an important step toward rebuilding
deeply eroded faith in government and global
institutions.

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