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Women's Defense of Local Politics in the Face of Structural Adjustment and Globalization

ABSTRACT This study shows how socio-economic and political developments in the small island states of the English-speaking Caribbean (CARICOM) have always been shaped by global events and trends as these have been adopted, modified or resisted in relation to the specific conditions prevailing in these islands. This interaction between the local and the global, and the implications for securing the goals of sustainable livelihoods, are illustrated with reference to the author's own experience in national planning in the late 1950s, in local and community development in the 1960s and in Women in Development programs from 1974 to date. One response to structural adjustment was Women in Development programming, the success of which was limited by the overwhelming influence of macro-economic shifts towards neo-liberal policies. The emergence of a Caribbean women's movement in the context of the United Nations Decade for Women marked the beginning of a new kind of politics in this region. This politics was much more aware of global events and trends. It forged a distinct identity for Caribbean women who demonstrated their capacities to strategize across regional and national borders. This identity as Caribbean women within a larger international women's movement enriched and empowered women in the region to promote their own agendas, pursue their own priorities and launch their own campaigns while drawing on the support and solidarity of women from other countries.