United Nations: MDG – Ending Poverty is Gender Equality

Did you know?

“A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy. This compares with a 1 in 3,700 risk for a woman from North America.”

“Lack of safe water and sanitation is the world’s single largest cause of illness.”

I am being inspired on this issue of poverty. The last few posts have looked at Economics and market failure. The issue of women is central to peace and their input is needed on the planet. Changing attitudes towards women is critical as many misperceptions have existed on this planet about the role of women and their disempowerment through the bearing of children and their intellectual capacity. The reality is that women are experts in human development as they typically raise children, this gives them skills in emotional intelligence, awareness, nurturing, meeting needs, planning,  sacrificing and selflessness. These qualities: emotional intelligence, awareness, nurturing, meeting needs, planning, structure, communication and humility are the very qualities that rebalance the issue of poverty. Poverty can only arise when the opposite is in ascendency. It is due to our imbalance between the masculine and the feminine. That is my viewpoint.

This blog is about ending poverty. It can be a reality. Previous blogs have made clear that the world has enough food. We can deal with needs but not greed. A new horizon of promise can be seen, when we collectively commit to a world that is free and abundant, in truth.

http://www.endpoverty2015.org/en/goals

End poverty by 2015. This is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when they agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The United Nations Millennium Campaign supports and inspires people from around the world to take action in support of the Millennium Development Goals. Learn More.

http://www.endpoverty2015.org/2010_mdg_review_summit

I have been looking at the Millennium Development Goals and in particular to End Hunger 2015.

Introduction

When 189 Heads of State and government from the North and South, as representatives of their citizens, signed onto the Millennium Declaration at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, there was a palpable sense of urgency. Urgency to “free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.”

What’s different this time?

Given the proliferation of UN Conferences and commitments, it’s important to understand why the Millennium Development Goals are unique in many powerful ways:

* They represent a compact between all the world’s major economic players. Poorer countries pledged to improve policies and governance and increase accountability to their own citizens; wealthy countries pledged to provide the resources. Since the commitment to achieve the goals comes from the highest political levels, for the first time, entire governments are committed to their achievement—including the trade and finance ministers who hold the world’s purse strings. And major international financial institutions—the World Bank, the IMF, the regional development banks, and increasingly, the membership of the World Trade Organization—have made explicit that they will be accountable for achieving the Goals too.

* The world has never before seen so much prosperity. The hundreds of billions that are being spent in Iraq have put things in perspective. We might not need more than about $50 billion of additional aid per year to meet the Goals. About $900 billion was invested in arms by governments in 2003 alone; and rich countries grant large support to their domestic agricultural producers, totaling $300 billion each year. Financially, in the grand scheme of things, we’re talking about relatively small change.

* Performance against the goals is being monitored. These are not just lofty statements of intent; precise monitoring mechanisms have been put in place, in the form of national Millennium Goals reports and the Secretary General’s reports to the General Assembly. Civil society organizations around the world are creating their own set of reports as well, to ensure that governments are held to the highest possible standards of performance. Over 60 country reports have already been produced at the national level.

* The Goals are clearly achievable. Some have even argued that they are not in fact millennium, but ‘minimum’ development goals. We believe that to set the bar any lower than this would be morally unacceptable. Individual Goals have already been achieved by many countries in the space of only 10-15 years.

Women Must Make it Happen

To ensure the world realises its potential to make poverty history, significant progress must be made to ensure that the needs of women are given greater priority. Women disproportionately suffer from hunger, disease, environmental degradation and impoverishment. As a result, poverty remains stubbornly “feminised”, with women accounting for a vast percentage of the world’s absolute poor.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, it is important to highlight the interconnectedness of women’s issues to all of the MDGs.

In preparation for International Women’s Day on March 8th, – a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future, the UN Millennium Campaign is launching a competition to find women around the world who have made the MDGs real in their lives and by doing so, have inspired positive change in their towns, cities and local communities.

Overview of Civil Society Hearings:

The first day of the Informal Interactive Hearings of the General Assembly (GA) with NGOs, civil society organizations and the private sector at the UN in New York provided a diversity of urgent messages about meeting and exceeding the MDGs. The day began with a number of pre-Hearings civil society actions and meetings, one of which was a morning briefing with NGOs about what we might expect at on the first day of Hearings. Immediately following the meeting, all those present hit the streets around the UN with a march from the Church Center to Dag Hammerskjold Plaza. With a bull horn in hand, Rajiv and others took turns calling for an End to Poverty and pushing for The World We Want. At the plaza, representatives of GCAP, the FTF, international partner organizations, and NY-based organizations signed a jumbo-sized version of the letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General outlining NGO demands and recommendations.

In an historic first, a meeting focused on civil society input and statements took place in the General Assembly hall, usually reserved for Member States and dignitaries and for the occasion NGO representative to address governments. Here, members of civil society filled the hall, outnumbering government delegates. The President of the GA, H.E. Ambassador Treki had invited Member States to participate, unfortunately there were many empty seats and few comments from governments in the first day.

In his opening statements, President Treki highlighted he importance of “promoting gender equality” and addressing the concerns of women. He also said, “more than ever, we need the full engagement of civil society” to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). He followed up with, “The world is counting on you.” Unfortunately, we know that we cannot do it on our own and it is the responsibility of governments to fulfill their commitments. Our job is to keep the pressure on governments and certainly, presenters of the first panel did this.

In the very first panel, “Building a better tomorrow: local actions, national strategies and global structures,” I must say I was happy to note that every speaker focused on, or at least mentioned, the needs and conditions of women (some highlights—links to full texts below).

Farah Kabir, ActionAid, focused on women farmers—the main producers in the world of staple crops, and yet they also makeup the majority of the hungry,…Due to the feminization of poverty women are doubly vulnerable.”

GCAP’s David Winjobi highlighted how Goal 1 “is intrinsically linked to the remaining goals, and if governments could be responsive to this goal, it would go a long way in attenuating the attendant problems of the other goals. For example, a woman that is earning a pittance or does not have a wage employment (Goal 3) would not be empowered enough to improve her waning health (Goal 5) or the health of her child suffering from malnutrition (Goal 4) because she is suffering from poverty and hunger (Goal 1).” He summarized by calling for “funding programmes on gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially programmes aimed at immediately alleviating poverty and hunger currently being experienced.”

Charlotte Bunch, present on behalf of the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign, addressed the “linkages between gender equality, human rights and the Millennium Declaration and Development Goals.” She began with a historical perspective, highlighting the “historic 10th anniversary of the MDGs is also the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and 35 years since the first World Conference on Women in 1975″ She pushed Member States and the UN Secretariat to establish the proposed gender equality entity before the Millennium Summit. We see this as a critical component of realizing the MDGs and fulfilling the UN’s mandate of working for gender equality, development, human rights, peace and security.”

Neha Sood with the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights focused on adolescent girls, stating that “young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights cannot be neglected without disastrous consequences. The MDGs cannot be achieved unless it is acknowledged that young people are sexual beings and have sexual and reproductive health needs, and sexual and reproductive rights.”

The representative of the private sector, Marie Gad mentioned how the business environment also provides more obstacles for women than for men, “Evidence from the World Bank shows that more women are likely to be formally engaged in entrepreneurship where the ease of doing business is greater. The more difficult the business environment, the fewer female entrepreneurs.” They recommended removing judicial obstacles for female entrepreneurs and business leaders (e.g. access to land and credit).

With less than five years to the 2015 deadline set to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), progress on the Goals has been uneven. We have seen great strides made in some areas, while in others, there is still much work to be done.