MDG info Sheets

Children

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Cultural Foundation Global Understanding Workshop, Spring 2012.

It focuses on Children in two regions: South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Children and the Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, 189 nations made a promise to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations. This pledge became the eight Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015.

"Eradicating extreme poverty continues to be one of the main challenges of our time, and is a major concern of the international community. Ending this scourge will require the combined efforts of all. The Millennium Development Goals set time bound targets, in order to reduce

Gender Perspective to understanding the MDG’s

2015

income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion — while promoting gender equality, health, education and environmental sustainability. They also embody basic human rights — the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security. The Goals are ambitious but feasible and, together we can set the course for the world’s efforts to alleviate extreme poverty by 2015. "

Target Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education, no later than 2015.

-United Nations SecretaryGeneral BAN Ki-moon

In effort to achieve gender equality, the United Nations defined the concept of mainstreaming a gender perspective. Globally women and children are often most affected by extreme poverty, disease, lack of shelter and exclusion. The idea is that gender perspectives should be at the core of each MDG. Attempting to achieve the MDGs without promoting gender equality could both raise the costs and decrease the likelihood of achieving the other goals. The MDG’s provide a basic roadmap for development and gender equality is the 3rd goal, but it’s also integral to achieving all eight MDGs. This idea enables the ‘concerns and experiences of women to be an integral part of the entire MDG process.

Gender equality: Indicators

Region South East Asia: Where do we stand?

Education

Employment & Representation

Security

Achievement is measured by access to education, health and nutrition. Achievement will be indicated by the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education

Measured by equality of opportunity to access of economic assets, and resources such as income and employment, as well as political opportunities.

Indicated by the share of women in wage employment.

Measured by Reducing vulnerability to violence and conflict. Genderbased violence against women and girls is often intended to keep them ‘in their place’ through fear.

There is unequal access to university-level education remains highly unequal. In this region only 76 girls per 100 boys, are enrolled in tertiary education.

Completion rates also tend to be lower among women than men.

The share of women employed outside of agriculture remains as low as 20 percent in Southern Asia and Western Asia.

In 2003, women held only 15% of seats in national parliaments

Each year 2 million baby girls are lost throughout the world to a combination of sex-selective abortion and infanticide.

Women are often jailed or killed for ‘allowing’ themselves to be raped.

The War on Baby Girls IMAGINE you are expecting your first child in a fast-growing country. You are part of the new middle class; your income is rising; you want a small family. Traditional morals hold sway around you, most important in the preference for sons over daughters.

Now imagine that you have had an ultrasound scan; it costs $12, but you can afford that. The scan says the unborn child is a girl. You yourself would prefer a boy; the rest of your family clamors for one. You would never dream of killing a baby girl, as they do out in the villages. But an abortion seems different. What can or do you do?

For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son. In China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls. Nature dictates that slightly more males are born than females to offset boys’ greater susceptibility to infant disease. But nothing on this scale.

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are ‘missing’ in the world today because of this so-called "gendercide” or “infanticide.”

THR EE WO OF THE RDS IN T DEADLIE IT’S HE WORLDST A :

GIRL

In 2008, there were 96 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in primary school, and 95 girls for every 100 boys in secondary school in developing regions.

The share of women employed outside of agriculture remains as low as 20 per cent in Southern Asia, Western Asia and Northern Africa.

The global share of women in parliament continues to rise slowly and reached 19 per cent in 2010 — far short of gender parity.

WAYS WE CAN ACHIEVE MDG 3 TO

What has made a difference?

EMPOWER WOMEN

Training in campaigning & governing In Cambodia, an initiative run by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), provided training in political campaigning and governing to 919 women candidates.

This helped increase the number of women running for office from 16 per cent in 2002 to 21 per cent in 2007, and the number of women elected rose from 8.5 per cent to 15 per cent.

Educate girls and women Educated girls tend to become women with greater economic independence. They have an increased ability to negotiate and bargain in home, community and economic life. Educated girls and women tend to participate more in public life, and they can manage natural resources in a more sustainable manner.

Overcome barriers to schooling for girls There has been tremendous MDG focus on expanding enrollment in primary school. But these gains for girls are often lost in the transition to secondary school due to lack of separate, private, safe girl’s sanitation facilities, sexual harassment or violence at and en route to school, and due to the need for curriculum reform and teacher training for higher quality schools with greater relevance to girls’ lives.

Promote mechanisms that give women a voice in politics These mechanisms can vary widely from proportional representation systems that increase the probability women will be elected, to more transparent political party selection processes, public funding for campaigns, and more. But women in politics are strengthening the credibility of democracies through their participation, reinvigorating political accountability, and contributing to improved efficiency in

policy making through bringing their diverse perspectives.

Enact and implement equal economic rights for all.

Enact and implement equal economic rights for all. Legislation on equal pay for equal work, free choice of profession or employment, equality in hiring and promotions, leave and unemployment benefits, freedom from sexual harassment in the workplace, and other critical rights are increasingly being legislated. But weak implementation of these laws continues to constrain women’s equality and empowerment.

Count women’s work Continued lack of political will and financial resources necessary to collect good quality data disaggregated by sex hampers the ability to make effective policies on wages, informal employment, unpaid care work, and other issues critical to women’s economic participation.

Microfinance In Vietnam, UNFPA works with the Vietnam Women’s Union on a microfinance initiative that helps women get credit and training. Participants meet weekly to review loans and learn about household economics, farming and animal husbandry.

Teacher Training The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) supports teacher training and the development of learning materials that promote gender equality. Through the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, UNESCO also develops legal tools to reduce genderbased violence in schools and supports innovative methods to bring education to hard to reach women, such as through mobile phones.

Fund to End Violence The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, managed by UNIFEM on behalf of the UN System, supports national and local action to address violence against women and girls. Since 1996, it has supported 304 programs in 121 countries and territories with over US $50 million in grants.

Technical skills and equipment The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), UNIFEM, UNESCO and the World Bank partnered with the Liberian government in 2007 to stimulate the production of cassava through the Ganta Concern Women’s Group in Liberia. By mid-2009, the initiative had provided technical skills and equipment to 500 women.