ANALYSING THE CURRENT SCENARIO OF WOMEN STATUS

On the run-up to the UN Millennium Development Goal Summit in New York, the Africa Progress Panel has published a resource guide highlighting the critical necessity of achieving the full participation and empowerment of women and girls in all aspects of political, economic and social life in order to achieve the goals.
The guide, “Women and the MDGs in Africa”, is a new resource for policy-makers, presenting key statistics and insights alongside the most important reports and best practice examples. Bringing important information into one place, the guide aims to mobilise action and contribute to better informed decision-making.
Speaking shortly ahead of the Summit, Kofi Annan, the Chair of the Africa Progress Panel, said:
“The Millennium Development Goals have already improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people, but we are still far from achieving what we set out to do in 2000. Much more can be done to mobilise private and public sector resources for public goods and services, and to put investment in jobs and people at the heart of growth and development strategies. Several important donors have already scaled back on their commitments or relaxed their development efforts. The Goals do not need fair-weather friends, but serious investors in for the long haul.
“Revitalizing the political will to achieve the Goals and mobilizing greater resources to deliver tangible results is the linchpin to success. The primary responsibility rests with political leaders, and their challenge is to re-articulate a compelling case for global solidarity and equitable growth. The message must be that achieving the Goals is not optional, but an essential investment in a fairer, safer and more prosperous world.”
The guide shows that:
MDG 1: End Poverty and Hunger
“Poverty alleviation strategies that fail to target girls and women have little to no chance of success in Africa.”
* Eight out of ten women workers are in vulnerable employment in sub-Saharan Africa.
“The eradication of gender discrimination is one of the key ways to increase the supply of food in Africa.”
* African women produce more 20% more than men. However women own 1% of the land and receive only 1% of all agricultural credit
MDG 2: Universal Education
“Providing girls with access to education at both primary and secondary levels support progress on all the Goals.”
Educating a girl means that:
* She will be three times less likely to get HIV/AIDS
* She will earn up to 25% more in income, out of which she will invest up to 90% in her family
* She will have a smaller, healthier family with children who are 40% more likely to live past the age of five
MDG 3: Gender Equality
“Empowering women has a multiplying effect on all development aspects and should be a priority at all levels and sectors.”
* Educated women are less likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth and more likely to send their children to school (UNICEF)
MDG 4: Child Health
“Most of under-five child deaths are preventable if women had better knowledge of when to seek for help combined with a better access to basic healthcare.”
* Africa’s under-five child deaths account for 51% of the total number of child deaths in the world
MDG 5: Maternal Health
“Maternal health is a rights and a public health issue. But it is more than that. Women are important economic drivers and their health is critical to long-term sustainable economic development in Africa.”
* Almost 75% of women in Africa who die in childbirth would be alive if they had access to the interventions for preventing pregnancy and birth complications
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
“Globally, the leading cause of death among women between the ages of 15 to 44 years is HIV/AIDS.”
* Directly and indirectly, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria severely affect the health of women and children: Together, HIV, TB and malaria directly cause 1.1 million deaths a year among women aged 15 to 59 and 1.2 million deaths among children aged 0 to 4
MDG 7: Environmental Sustainability
“Climate change has numerous impacts on women such as increased household work burden and time spent on gathering water, food and fuel, exposure to contaminated water sources, loss of traditional land tenure and forced migration.”
* In West Africa, the proportion of urban population living in slums has decreased from 80% in 2001 to 64% in 2005
MDGs 8: Global Partnerships
“It would be both deeply counterproductive and a breach of faith if countries relax their commitment to the Goals”
* As a result of debt relief, between 2001 and 2008 and (post-decision HIPCs) poverty-reducing expenditure has increased from 6.5 billion to 26.7 billion



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