Download - Poverty has a female face
World leaders have promised women betterIn the year 2000, 189 world leaders pledged
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals
— a set of 8 benchmarks to eradicate extreme
poverty, achieve universal primary education,
promote gender equality and empower women,
reduce child mortality, improve maternal health,
combat major diseases, ensure environmental
sustainability and develop a global partnership
for development by the year 2015. But progress
is moving too slowly to meet the deadline.
World leaders have made the least progress on
their promises to women.
Governments have the resources to keep their
promises to women. But not the political will. In
many countries, the unequal status of women
extends to government policy, where women’s
pressing needs are given very little priority.
This is unacceptable. And it is up to us to tell
our leaders in no uncertain terms that we expect
them to make decisions based not on their own
narrow interests but on the needs of women and
all vulnerable citizens.
We must demand that they create a world where
poverty and hunger are the exception, where every
girl goes to school and where women no longer die
in childbirth. This world is possible. The Millennium
Development Goals offer a roadmap to get us there.
Poverty has a female face
Seventy percent of the world’s poor are women
and children. The economic crisis that began in
2008 is expected to have more devastating long
term effects for women. According to UNICEF,
women perform 66 percent of the world’s work
— both paid and unpaid — but earn 10 percent
of the world’s income and access 1 percent of the
world’s resources, including land and credit.
Women continue to die while giving life
The number one killer of young women in the
developing world is not a disease whose cure
eludes us, or a condition which the world lacks the
resources to treat. It is pregnancy and childbirth.
Every year, 500,000 women die while trying to
give life. That’s one every single minute. The vast
majority of these deaths are preventable.
What can we do about it?
Governments make promises all the time. It’s up
to us to demand that they deliver. Movements
such as the campaigns for civil rights in America
and against apartheid in South Africa have shown
the world that peaceful action of the masses
can reverse the course of history, no matter how
entrenched the status quo may seem.
The United Nations Millennium Campaign and
our partners support citizens to find platforms to
send the message to decision makers that women
will no longer stand by and accept the ongoing
discrimination and abuse of women throughout
the world — particularly those women with the
least resources and recourse.
We demand that decision makers prioritize the
needs of women and put them front and center
in all policy and budget actions and ensure that
women have equal access to health, education
and employment opportunities.
With just five years until the 2015 deadline
for achieving the Millennium Development
Goals, it is critical for citizens to pressure their
governments to deliver. Each October, millions
of citizens, in countries all across the world,
join together to take part in the “Stand Up and
Take Action” mobilization to demand that world
leaders eradicate extreme poverty and achieve
the Millennium Development Goals. The event
holds the Guinness World Record for the largest
mobilization of human beings in recorded history.
With the Millennium Development Goals that aim
to achieve gender equality and improve maternal
health making the least progress, “Stand Up” is
increasingly focusing on the empowerment of
women and excluded groups. Women across
the world are mobilizing to demand that their
governments match the promises they made in
the year 2000 with action.
Will you stand with us?
For more information on “Stand Up and Take
Action” and to find an event near you, visit
www.standagainstpoverty.org.
World leaders have failed to deliver for Women
Monica aMollo chendraMMa
noorjahanawabu iddrisu
MONICA AMOllO (top left) is a woman on a mission. After being told she won a
Parliamentary election in Kenya and then seeing her seat handed to a male opponent,
Monica organized the first-ever public anti-poverty rally in Kenya’s Nyanza province,
where women spoke about being sexually harassed on lake Victoria while trying
to access fish — their main means of livelihood. The women petitioned their local
authorities, and police immediately began cracking down on harassment. Today,
women in the area are able to work with a greater sense of security.
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ChENDRAMMA (top right), a 48 year-old poor tribal woman from India’s lowest caste,
spearheaded public rallies during “Stand Up” in 2008 and organized a human chain to
demand fair, equal and productive employment opportunities. Taking inspiration from
the massive mobilization, anti-poverty campaigners filed a Public Interest litigation
in the high Court of Andhra Pradesh, demanding wages in line with the country’s
Minimum Wages Act. The effort culminated in great success when on July 3, 2009, the
State Government revised wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act as per the demands of the citizens.
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“We got a chance to raise our voices and speak out in a public rally organized in a
prominent place of the city … Finally, because we as a village spoke out and made
ourselves heard, changes are happening in our lives.”
— NOORJAhAN (bottom right), an illiterate, Muslim woman from India’s lowest
caste, who participated in “Stand Up” in 2008 to protest the lack of health services in
her village of Badarpur Khadar. The local health department is now sending a mobile
health van to the village twice a week.
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“‘Stand Up’ gives us a fantastic platform to address our leaders face-to-face to
demand what belongs to us and get a sense of satisfaction that we are playing a
part in Ghana’s development. It’s the only time that grassroots women like me get an
opportunity to address their leaders directly.”
— AWABU IDDRISU (bottom left), a gender activist in Ghana’s Naleirigu district
Women chanGinG their Worlds
The UN Millennium Campaign was established by former UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan in 2002. The Campaign supports citizens’ efforts to hold their
governments to account for the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals. The Millennium Development Goals were adopted by 189 world leaders
from rich and poor countries, as part of the Millennium Declaration which
was signed in 2000. These leaders agreed to achieve the Goals by 2015. Our
premise is simple: we are the first generation that can end poverty and we
refuse to miss this opportunity.
the United nations millenniUm camPaiGn
www.endpoverty2015.org www.standagainstpoverty.org