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Gender equality is not only a goal in itself, but a prerequisite for reaching all the otherinternational development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals.

- Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary General

In September 2000, the leaders of the world committed to the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) to end poverty and make development a reality for all people by 2015. The world nowstands at the halfway point towards making the Goals a reality, but results have been uneven.To ensure the world realizes its potential to make poverty history, significant progress must be

made to ensure gender equity.

Women disproportionately suffer from hunger, disease, environmental degradation and impover-ishment. As a result, poverty remains stubbornly "feminized", with women accounting for a vastpercentage of the world's absolute poor.

On the occasion of International Womens Day, it is important to highlight the interconnected-ness of womens issues to all of the Millennium Development Goals.

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Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

Economic, political, legal and social discrimination have created a world where the majority ofthe poor are women. To achieve Goal 1, the world must to address the underlining structuresthat create the feminine face of poverty.

Globally the number of people living on lessthan $1 a day fell from 125 billion in 1990 to 980million in 2004. At this rate, Goal 1 will beachieved by 2015. However, progress has beenuneven. Rapid economic growth in Eastern andSouthern Asia resulted in massive poverty re-

duction, but progress in sub-Saharan Africa hasbeen far slower. At todays pace, sub-SaharanAfrica wont reach Goal 1 until 2147.

- Target: Between 1990 and 2015, halvethe proportion of people whose incomeis less than one dollar a day.

o Womens access to public goodsand services, especially education, healthcare and skill-enhancement is severelyrestricted in many countries, perpetuating the disparity of wealth between menand women that has been widening for more than a decade.1

o Restricted employment opportunities, job discrimination, and significantly re-duced wages have led to a disproportionate concentration of women in the in-formal sector. As a result, women earn only 50 cents for every dollar that a manis paid for the same work.2

- Target: Between 1990 and 2015, halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.o Unequal distribution of resources within families causes higher rates of malnutri-

tion and anemia among women and girls and directly results in higher maternalmortality rates and chronic illness.

- Shaping Progress:o Particular attention needs to be given to rectifying the economic, political, legal

and social forms of discrimination that structurally inhibit the potential of women.

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Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Primary education is the crucial first step for women to open doors that have historically beenblocked.

Progress has been made in primary education rates, yet there were still 72 million children ofprimary school age who were not in school in 2005; 57% ofthem were girls.

- Target: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere,boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a fullcourse of primary schooling.

o Many girls are discouraged from attendingschool in order stay home and work in thehousehold. As a result, nearly 60% of allprimary school dropouts are girls.3

o Early marriage and pregnancy lead to highdrop out rates, and better-educated girls tend to delay having sex and are morelikely to insist that their partner use a condom.4

o Economic limitations create a vicious cycle wherein school fees limit a familyspotential to send children to school, and preference is often given to boys whendifficult decisions must be made.

- Shaping Progress:o Political commitments from the highest levels must focus on eliminating gender

disparities in access, retention and familial commitment to educationo Develop gender-sensitive education training coupled with sufficient resources formonitoring and evaluation

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Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and EmpowerWomen

In order to achieve gender equity, governments must allow women to acquire skills, realize op-portunities and increase their personal security.

Worldwide, womens role into political leadership is also broadening. 35 women presided in par-liament as of March 2007 including first time female representation in Gambia, Israel, Swazilandand Turkmenistan.

- Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary andsecondary education preferably by 2005 and to all

levels of education no later than 2015.o In Ethiopia it has been demonstrated that by

reducing gender disparity in primary schoolenrollment by 0.5% per year, the economywould grow an additional 0.4%5.

o Universal primary education would preventroughly 700,000 cases of HIV infection eachyear.6 However, in countries plagued by HIV/AIDS, young girls are increasingly becomingthe active heads of household, prematurelyending their education.

o Women who have completed primary schoolare more likely to seek prenatal care, as-sisted childbirth, and postnatal care and aremore likely to immunize their children.7

- Shaping Progress:o Pass and enforce government legislation to

establish equal rights and protections for women under the law

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Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Reducing Mortality Rates requires more than just medical interventions because the survival ofnewborn children is dependent upon the income, education and health of their mothers.

In 2005, over 10 million children died before theirfifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes.Although infant and child mortality rates globallyhave declined, the rate of progress has been un-even and with sub-Saharan Africa lagging far-thest behind.

- Target: Between 1990 and 2015, reduceby two-thirds the under-five mortality rate.

o The most common cause of childmortality is malnutrition of themother during pregnancy.8

o Up to 90% of infant mortality couldbe prevented through breast feeding, oral rehydration therapy, malaria preven-tion, proper diet and access to antibiotics and vitamin supplements, but manywomen simply lack the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions.9

- Shaping Progress:o Provide quality reproductive education as well as pre-natal, delivery and post-

partum health care for both mother and childo

Promote wide-scale education efforts aimed at highlighting the consequences ofgender based discrimination on the survival of the next generation

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Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

Half a million women continue to die each year during childbirth, almost all of them live in Asiaand sub-Saharan Africa.

Many middle-income countries have made significant progressreducing their maternal mortality rates. However across largeparts of the developing world, childbirth remains a deadlythreat for women.

- Target: Between 1990-2015, reduce the maternal mor-tality ratio by three-quarters .

o Social pressures mandating early and frequentpregnancy are a major cause of maternal death.Girls of 10-14 years are five times more likely todie during childbirth than young women 20-24.10

o Lack of education means that many women donot have knowledge about their own bodies, in-creasing their vulnerability during pregnancyand childbirth.

o The chance of dying because of pregnancy inSub-Saharan Africa is 1 in 16, but only 1 in 3,800in the developed world.11

o The subordination of women leads to violence, abuse, unprotected sex, un-wanted pregnancy and increased rates of STD infection including HIV/AIDS all ofwhich contribute to increased maternal mortality rates.

- Shaping Progress:o Provide more opportunities for women to achieve economic, social and educa-

tional independence through government incentives and increased social spend-ing targeted at the needs of women and girls

o Improve the quality of family planning education and respect the decisions of in-dividuals as they make informed choices concerning their health

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Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseasesIn 2006, over 39 million people were living with HIV. Power imbalances continue to increase thefeminization of HIV, and an increasing number of married women are now becoming infected.

- Target: By 2015, have halted and begun to reverse, thespread of HIV/AIDS.

o Women constitute the majority of people with HIV/AIDSdue to sexual violence, subordination and denial of re-productive education. Young women aged 15-24 arebeing infected with HIV/AIDS three times faster thantheir male peers.12

o 77% of all HIV-positive women live in sub-SaharanAfrica.13

- Target: Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the inci-dence of malaria and other major diseases.

o Pregnant women are more susceptible to malaria in-fection and three times more likely to develop life-threatening complications.14

- Shaping Progress:o Begin country-wide campaigns to break sexual taboos, bring HIV/AIDS into the

open, and increase knowledge of various diseases including means of transmis-sion, prevention practices and treatment options

o Promote gender-sensitive efforts at promoting political participation and greaterempowerment of women

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Goal 7: Ensure Environmental SustainabilityAlthough significant efforts are being made to conserve our land, seas, and air, biodiversity con-tinues to decline. With half the developing world lacking basic sanitation, Goal 7 will require ex-traordinary efforts to achieve by 2015.

- Target: Integrate the principles of sus-tainable development into country policiesand programmes so to reverse the loss ofenvironmental resources.

o Women are the primary users ofcommon resources including crop-land, forests, pastures and bodiesof water, and they are dispropor-tionately affected by environmentaldegradation as they not only losesources of livelihood but also mustsuffer more direct exposure to pol-lutants.

- Target: By 2015, halve the proportion ofpeople without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

o As the distances to clean water, fuel and food grow longer, women must devotemore and more time finding these resources. Many Young girls are forced to dropout of school in order to spend each entire day fetching these daily necessitiesfor the family. On average women and children travel 8 hours covering1015 km

per day collecting water15

- Shaping Progress:o Involve women actively in environmental decision-making and integrate gender

concerns regarding common resources into sustainable development programso Establish monitoring bodies at the local, national and international levels respon-

sible for tracking the relationships between development, growth and genderequality

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1 The Feminization of Poverty. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/session/presskit/fs1.htm.

2Ibid.

3 Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women.www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/ Gender-complete.pdf.

4Education and HIV/AIDS: A Window of Hope.http://hivaidsclearinghouse.unesco.org/ev.php?ID=1383_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC.

5 En Route to Equality: A Gender Review of National MDG Reports 2005.http://www.undp.org/women/docs/en-route-to-equality.pdf.

6 Learning to Survive: How Education for All Would Save Millions of Young People From HIV/AIDS.http://siteresources.worldbank.org/CSO/Resources/Learning_to_Survive_by_Oxfam.pdf.

7 En Route to Equality: A Gender Review of National MDG Reports 2005.http://www.undp.org/women/docs/en-route-to-equality.pdf.

8 Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals, 1990-2005.http://millenniumindicators.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Attach/Products/Progress2005/goal_4.doc.

9Ibid.

10 State of the World Population 2005: Child Marriage Fact Sheet.http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_child_marriage.htm

11 The Millennium Development Goals Report 2005. www.un.org/docs/summit2005/MDGBook.pdf.

12"UNICEF, UNAIDS Applaud Milestone in Coordinated Global Response to Children Orphaned Due to AIDS."http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ACOS-64BT87?OpenDoc ument.

13Ibid.

14 Malaria: Millenium Development Goal 6.http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Pubs/files/mdg-factsheets/malariafactsheet.pdf

15 A Commitment to the Worlds Women: Working for Womens Empowerment and Gender Equality.http://www.unifem.org/filesconfirmed/2/351_at_a_glance_water_rights.pdf.

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