Goal #3Gender Equity
Introduction
Poverty has a woman's face. Global prosperity and peace will only be achieved once all the world's people are empowered to order their own lives and provide for themselves and their families. Societies where women are more equal stand a much greater chance of achieving the Millennium Goals by 2015. Every single Goal is directly related to women's rights, and societies were women are not afforded equal rights as men can never achieve development in a sustainable manner.
The Targets
Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals sets out by the year 2015 to:
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
Did You Know?
- Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world, 70% are women. (Source: World Revolution)
- Women do about 66% of the world's work in return for less than 5% of its income. (Source: Women's International Network)
- In the least developed countries nearly twice as many women over age 15 are illiterate compared to men. (Source: UNFPA)
- Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. (Source: AskWoman)
- Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. (Source :World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind Worldwide)
Achieving the Goals
In 2005, Mozambique signed a new law that gave women equal rights as members of a household. Women finally received the legal right to divorce, create pre-nuptial agreements and inherit property.
The Family Law legally redefined the status of women and overhauled marriage laws.
The law also limited marriage to women of 18 years of age and older. Men were now no longer the defacto head of household, and women are able to work outside the home without acquiring permission and can buy and manage financial assets. Members of the Family Law coalition are now teaching leaders how to practice the new laws in ways that will not undermine traditional views of the family.
Goal News
New Analysis Reveals African Countries Top List of 20 Countries Making Most Overall Progress on MDGs
As G-8 and G-20 leaders prepare to gather in Canada, new analysis issued by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the United Nations Millennium Campaign finds that, in absolute terms, many of the world’s poorest countries are making the most overall progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of promises world leaders made to significantly reduce extreme poverty, illiteracy and disease by 2015.
I feel very much at home here, and in tune with the purpose of your meeting.
I have been among the first women in several positions, which was not always easy, including certain minor inconveniences: when I became a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands in 1981, there was only one toilet – for the men – near the Plenary. When I became a member of the World Bank Board of Executive Directors in 1991, it was the same: One labeled “Gentlemen” in the antechamber of the Board Room – I had to walk a corridor to the “Women”…
In an address at the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on March 3, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, spoke on the progress made and obstacles that remain in the effort to realize UN Millennium Development Goals related to women’s empowerment and international development. Verveer emphasized the value that safeguarding women’s rights, improving maternal health, and supporting women’s economic advancement can have on whole communities.
“PIGA DEBE” in Kiswahili means “make a big noise,” and draws its inspiration from millions of women’s voices in Africa who say “enough is enough. Women should not die while giving life.” Translated into Luganda, the campaign is referred to as “Gwanga mujje.”
.jpg)
“The Danish Government has decided to take an international lead on MDG3. We want to make sure there is a stronger focus on gender and the empowerment of women all over the world because the world will not reach the Millennium Development Goals without putting a strong focus on women,” says Ulla Tørnæs, the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation.
The basic premise is that increased investment in women provides support to economic growth and poverty reduction.
