Why is attention to gender equality and women’s empowerment essential to enable countries and the international community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? Women have multiple roles. At any given time they can be mothers, leaders, students, 1 decision-makers, farmers, workers, voters and much more. In each of these roles, the abil- ity to be educated and healthy, to have voice and influence, and to enjoy opportunities and choices are critical to the attainment of the Goals. Gender equality and women’s empower- Making ment are central to achieving the MDGs because without these capabilities and opportuni- ties, women are less able to reach their full potential, live a life of dignity, and be productive Change citizens. Happen Gender equality helps accelerate achievement of each goal. In addition, there is solid evidence that progress in gender equality in one goal often contributes simultaneously to- Actions wards progress on a number of other development goals. For example, gender equality in education also makes significant contributions to a nation’s economic growth and poverty Necessary to reduction as well as to reduced malnutrition, fertility, and child mortality.

Accelerate the Achievement of all Millennium Development Goals

I have many roles. I need the ability to be I may be a mother, educated and healthy, to leader, student, have voice and influence, decision-maker, farmer, and to enjoy opportunities worker, and/or voter. and choices.

Goal Actions

1. Eradicate Support women’s fundamental role in food security. Women are the cornerstones of food production and uti- Extreme Poverty lization. With more equitable distribution of assets, such as credit, improved seeds and fertilizer, and information and Hunger and technology, women can achieve significantly higher agricultural productivity. Eliminate legal restrictions. In order to overcome feminized poverty, legal restrictions that perpetuate poverty must be addressed, such as: rights to own, inherit and acquire property and land and to retain property brought into marriage; limits on access to reproductive health information; rights to access credit; rights to birth registra- tion, travel abroad, and a passport. Guarantee equal social protection and employment rights for all. Whether in the formal or informal economy, women need equal protection of their rights and entitlements as workers, equal adherence to labour standards and conventions, and a safe workplace free of harassment and violence. Enforce women’s rights and enable claims to realize those rights. Legal reforms can only translate into great- Almost two thirds of er food security and reduced poverty if they are enforced. Through harmonizing statutory and customary laws, promoting legal literacy, and helping women make land and other claims, women’s roles as important economic employed women in actors in the household and the community can be supported and protected. the developing world Upgrade women’s skills and protect assets so they can compete in the modern global economy. Only are in vulnerable through continual investment can women move up the value chain and seize opportunities in this era of globaliza- tion. In many cases, the opposite is happening; lack of women’s ownership over the land they farm can lead to jobs as own-account eviction of female subsistence farmers from areas turning to commercial crops.2 or unpaid family Educate women. A one-year increase in schooling of all adult females in a country is associated with an increase workers.1 in Gross Domestic Product per capita of around $700.3 In addition, educated mothers place higher value on schooling their own children, improving productivity in the next generation. Higher education tends to be associ- ated with higher labour productivity, greater ease in finding formal sector employment, and higher income. Expand paid work opportunities for women. Access to paid work offers income and much more. It often allows fundamental shifts in gender relations--- greater sense of self-worth and societal respect, a say in critical life choices such as postponing the age of marriage, and a greater role in household decision-making and ability to speak out against abuse.4 5 Share caring and household work. In virtually all countries, women work more hours per day than men, dis- proportionately caring for children, the sick, and the elderly and managing food, cooking and many household affairs. This time poverty can limit their ability to generate income, build literacy and other skills, and participate in community affairs. 2. Achieve Universal Continue to focus on girls’ education. There has been significant progress in primary education enrolment for Primary Education boys and girls. But the gender gap persists, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, and North Africa. To meet the target of universal primary education, action must focus on girls’ school completion rates. Improve school conditions for girls. Lack of female teachers as role models, lack of safe transport to school, lack of separate sanitation facilities, and school fees continue to be deciding factors for whether a girl goes to Ten million more girls school. than boys are out of Address parental concerns about female modesty, safety, and the lack of economic returns to girls’ education, primary school.6 which can hamper girls’ school attendance. Educate mothers. Mothers with at least a few years of formal education are considerably more likely to send their children to school. A country failing Overcome traditional gender-based division of labour in the home, which often extends to children. In cases to meet gender of economic hardship, families are often forced to pull children out of school – for girls to help with housework education targets and, in some cases, for boys to tend livestock. would suffer a deficit in per capita income of 0.1 to 0.3 percentage points. 7

3. Promote Gender Educate girls and women. Educated girls tend to become women with greater economic independence. They Equality and have an increased ability to negotiate and bargain in home, community and economic life. Educated girls and Empower Women 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 sepa- In one third of rate, private, safe girl’s sanitation facilities, sexual harassment or violence at and en route to school, and due to developing countries, 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 and governance institutions. These mechanisms women constitute can vary widely from proportional representation systems that increase the probability women will be elected, to less than 10 per more transparent political party selection processes, public funding for campaigns, and more. But in countries around the world, women in politics are strengthening the credibility of democracies through their participation, cent of members of reinvigorating political accountability, and contributing to improved efficiency in policymaking through bringing parliament.8 their diverse perspectives. 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 imple- mentation 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.

4. Reduce Child Prioritize care of mothers. Adequate nourishment and care during pregnancy and childbirth could prevent three Mortality of the four million infant deaths in the first four weeks of life.10 Invest in mothers’ education and empowerment. Women’s education is a main determinant of child mortality. Better educated women space childbirths over longer periods, ensure their children are immunized, are better informed about children’s nutritional needs, and adopt improved sanitation practices. Literate mothers are more The greatest progress likely to have read about health concerns and to be confident in explaining problems to health providers. Literate women often bring sick children for treatment at an earlier stage.11 All of these practices lower infant and child in child mortality is in mortality rates. the richest 40 per cent Fight discrimination. Discrimination against girls-- which can include, at worst, female infanticide and systematic of households, where neglect, but more commonly, unequal sharing of food and resources--fuels higher under-five death rates for girls mothers have some than boys. Ensure equitable access for the most vulnerable women and girls to health services. Untreated syphilis of education and basic mothers during pregnancy results in a stillbirth rate of 25 per cent. Particularly vulnerable groups, such as girls healthcare access.9 who live apart from their parents or who are out of school as well as women and girls who have recently migrated to cities or are domestic workers, often fall outside the attention of social service delivery and protective social networks and must be targeted to reduce child mortality.12

5. Improve Support women’s greater bargaining power and control. Women die for lack of family planning, inability to Maternal Health negotiate the number and spacing of their children, lack of money to pay for transport to and for skilled birth attendance or emergency obstetric care, and from violence. One in three maternal deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth could be avoided if women who wanted effective contraception had access to it. Further, evidence shows that in societies where men traditionally control household finances, women’s health expenses are often Maternal mortality not a priority. 15 Women’s empowerment is a prerequisite to forward progress on this stalled goal. rates in sub-Saharan Increase the share of women in decision-making positions in the health sector. Women at all levels of health services can make sure the specific health needs of women and girls are not neglected, can ensure attention Africa and parts of to local health care provision, the front line providers of health care to most women, and can help to redress Asia have barely inequalities in health outcomes and access that exist in every region. changed over two Cease practices that bring danger to mother and child. Child marriage, female genital cutting, dietary restric- tions, and all other forms of violence against women must end if maternal mortality is to be reduced. decades.13 Increase young girls’ opportunities, support and knowledge. Girls age 15-20 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as women in their twenties.16 Significant investments in programs focused on adolescent girls, including education, a fair legal environment, more equitable social services, and greater protection from gender-based A woman dies in violence, will pay off big dividends for reducing maternal mortality. childbirth every Switch to clean energy alternatives for cooking. More than half of the world’s households cook with wood, minute.14 crop residues, or untreated coal, which exposes them to indoor air pollution—and acute health problems such as lung cancer and respiratory infections. Women and girls suffer disproportionately from these illnesses. Cleaner alternatives, such as gas, electricity or solar energy, vented stoves and hoods can significantly reduce mortality among women and girls.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Enact and enforce legal measures against discrimination that drives the feminization of HIV and AIDS. Malaria and Other Social and cultural factors such as child marriage, female genital cutting, dietary restrictions for girls, and other Diseases harmful traditional practices have resulted in a growing HIV prevalence among young women. Stand up against gender-based violence that perpetuates the spread of AIDS. Rape, trafficking of women, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation of women and girls in situations of conflict are all recognized as signifi- cant risk factors for HIV transmission.18 In every region, Educate girls. HIV and AIDS spreads twice as fast among uneducated girls as among girls with even some women represent schooling. a growing share of Advocate equality in marriage and family relations. Girls and women must acquire the negotiating power, con- people living with HIV fidence, and information to insist on safe sex in marriage and to be an equal partner in family planning decisions. since 1990.17 Reorient donor priorities for HIV and AIDS. The largest HIV and AIDS programs in low-income countries are funded by international donors. Donors should direct resources to the needs of the most vulnerable populations, which in many cases are adolescent girls and young women. Offer HIV prevention and care in maternal health services. About 35 per cent of children born to HIV-infected mothers will also contract HIV. Yet only 11 per cent of pregnant women living with HIV today receive services to prevent HIV transmission to their children.19 Expand economic opportunity. Women’s greater economic independence can reverse the spread of AIDS and other epidemics through increasing their bargaining power and reducing the chance they will be sexually exploited. Enlist men and boys to fight the feminization of AIDS. Men can play a critical role in advocating positive attitudes towards women, promoting prevention, and taking a stand against practices that perpetuate gender inequality and gender-based violence. Invest in HIV prevention programmes for sex workers. There is strong evidence that targeted programmes combining treatment of sexually transmitted infections, condom provision and promotion with workers and male clients, and improved health services for sex workers can help reduce transmission of HIV. Doing so can also help to avert the spread of HIV to members of the wider population.20 Share the burden of caring for people living with HIV and AIDS. Caring for sick family members is seldom paid, rarely recognized, and most often done by women. Women, who are more likely to be employed in jobs with little sick leave and other benefits than men, pay a heavy price in terms of lost labour and skills-building opportu- nities, overwork, and less time for other responsibilities. 7. Ensure Reform policies for equitable property and resource ownership. Without title to land, women are often denied Environmental access to technologies and resources-- such as water resources, irrigation services, credit, extension, and seed-- Sustainability that strengthen their capacity to manage natural resources (of which they are often the primary users) in a more sustainable manner. Reverse the loss of environmental resources. Water contamination and deforestation increase the time women must spend and often the distance they must travel to secure fuel and water. 1.6 billion more people Improve access to safe drinking water. Women are most often the primary users, providers, and managers of need access to water in rural households, and guardians of household hygiene. With improved access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation women have more time to earn income, girls are more likely to attend school, family health and hygiene are im- proved, and women suffer less from the burden of carrying heavy loads. to reach the MDG Bring sanitation services to the billions who lack them. Lack of safe, private, nearby sanitation facilities ex- 21 target. Searching for poses women to harassment and assault and erodes their dignity. privacy to defecate Fight climate change. Because of their higher levels of dependence on local natural resources for their liveli- exposes women hood, women are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events resulting from climate change. to ridicule, sexual harassment, and rape.

8. Develop a Global Build capacity for gender analysis and programming among donors and partners alike. Partnership for Track resources spent on gender equality as an integral part of overall development performance Development assessment. Increase gender equality in the international sphere. Greater voice and influence of women in decision-making positions in international organisations has been show to lead to higher investment in gender equality. Seven percent of 2006 Demand global rules and institutions that strengthen gender equality. Building an enabling international aid flows (totaling environment for women’s empowerment requires rules, standards, practices, and institutions that support gender $104 billion) in 2006 equality and accountability for progress on these issues. Strengthen systems to collect, analyse and use sex-disaggregated data. Only then can we measure the had gender equality as impact of aid on gender equality and have the necessary evidence to change course to make aid more effective. a major objective.22 Many of the actions summarised above are well-trodden territory — issues that have been discussed and researched starting well before the Millennium Declaration. But there is increasing evidence and understanding that a few of these actions in isolation will not con- tribute to progress on agreed goals and targets. For example, even if girls are in secondary school at equal rates with boys, this does not guarantee they will then be able to find safe, decent work. And even when opportunities for school and work are expanded, there is no guarantee of immunity from the harassment or sexual violence that is the lived experience of too many women in every country and at every age. Women’s empowerment, though much harder to measure than school attendance or salaries, and perhaps requiring more time to develop, is the “mortar” that helps to build a solid wall of development and prog- ress. For women and girls worldwide, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of yet unsolved basic challenges, are a prerequisite to the much more ambitious goal of reaching their full potential and having full control over their destiny at home, in their communities and beyond.

1 United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008. 2 Rossi, Andrea and Yianna Lambrou. Gender and Equity Issues in Liquid Biofuels Production: Minimizing the Risks to Maximize the Opportunities. FAO, 2008. 3 World Bank, “Focus on Women and Development: Improving women’s health and girls’ education is key to reducing poverty,” 2004. 4 Kabeer, Naila, Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals: A handbook for policy-makers and other stakeholders, 2003; see also UNIFEM, Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty. 5 For examples of successful approaches to women’s economic empowerment, see: UNDP. “Innovative Approaches to Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment: Paper for the Partnership Meeting on the MDG3 Global Call to Action,” 2008. 6 Turquet, Laura et al. Hit or miss? Women’s rights and the Millennium Development Goals ActionAid, 2008. ActionAid calculations using 2007 UN Millennium Development Goals Report, New York, 2007. 7 Abu-Ghaida, Dina and Stephan Klasen. “The Costs of Missing the Millennium Development Goals on Gender Equity,” Institute for the Study of Labor Discussion Paper 1031, 2004. 8 United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008. 9 United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007. 10 Department for International Development. “Child Mortality.” DFID, 2007. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/mdg-factsheets/childmortalityfactsheet.pdf. 11 Watkins, Kevin. Oxfam Education Report, Oxfam Publishing, 2000. 12 Levine, Ruth et al., Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda. Center for Global Development, 2008. 13 United Nations Secretary-General. “Committing to action: achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” Background note by the Secretary-General, 2008. 14 World Health Organization. The World Health Report: 2005 – make every mother and child count. 15 UNFPA. “Facts About Safe Motherhood.” http://www.unfpa.org/mothers/facts.htm. 16 UNFPA. “Facts About Safe Motherhood.” http://www.unfpa.org/mothers/facts.htm. 17 United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008. 304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor 18 UNICEF, “Millennium Development Goals: 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women,” http://www.UNICEF.org/mdg/gender.html.ork: United Nations, 2007. New York, NY 10017 USA 19 UNAIDS, “Towards Universal Access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector,”.April 2007. 20 UNAIDS. “HIV/AIDS and Gender Fact Sheets.” UNAIDS Inter-Agency Task Team on Gender and HIV/AIDS. 2008. http://www.genderandaids.org/downloads/ T: +1 212-906-6400 events/Fact%20Sheets.pdf. F: +1 212-906-6705 21 United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008. www.unifem.org 22 Kerr, Joanna. The Second FundHer Report: Financial Sustainability for Women’s Movements Worldwide. Association for Women’s Rights in Development, 2007. Goal Progress Unfinished Agenda on Gender Equality on Gender Equality

A number of women’s organizations, par- Rural women produce between 60 and 80 ticularly in African countries, have fought for percent of the food in sub-Saharan Africa,2 and won equal rights of property for women, yet female-headed households are more 2 pastoralists, and in the case of land reform, likely to be poorer, and thus to spend a landless people. greater proportion of their income on food.3 1. Eradicate The Extreme Women’s participation in paid employment Available data indicate that women are less Poverty has increased in the period 1995 to 2004 in likely to own land than men, and female every region of the world except for sub- landowners tend to own less land than male and Hunger Unfinished Saharan Africa.1 landowners.4 The paucity of gender-disaggregated data Agenda on women’s access to credit, property ownership and other critical skills and tools for economic security continues to hamper Balance Sheet efforts to address extreme poverty and hunger among women and girls. of Progress and Nearly two thirds of countries reached gender Ten million more girls than boys are out of Backlogs on parity in primary school enrollment ratios by primary school.7 the target year of 2005.5 Nearly two-thirds of the world’s 780 million Gender Equality Globally, 94 girls were in primary school for people who cannot read are women.8 2. Achieve every 100 boys in 2005, compared with 92 in 6 Universal 1999. Primary Education

Only seven countries are still not parties Worldwide, over 60 per cent of unpaid fam- to the Convention on the Elimination of All ily workers are women.14 Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).9 In 2007, the share of women with a wage and salaried job stood at only 15.5 per cent, 3. Promote Between 1990 and 2005, all regions except which represents half of the same share of 15 Gender Europe, Central and East Asia saw an in- men. crease of women in national parliaments.10 Equality and At the current rate, it will take women 40 Empower Women account for almost 40 per cent of all years to reach 40 per cent parliamentary Women paid jobs outside agriculture, up from 35 per representation in developing countries.16 cent in 1990.11 A rigorous study in ten countries from dif- More than 70 countries have supported ferent regions found between 15 per cent gender-responsive budgeting in order to and 71 per cent of women reported having introduce gender equality objectives into the experienced violence by a partner over the budget cycle.12 course of their lifetime, and up to nearly a third had reported violence in the past Violence against women is one of the most year.17 serious challenges to gender equality and women’s human rights. A 2002 UNIFEM scan of anti-violence legislation found only 45 countries with specific laws on domestic violence. In 2006, that number had risen to 60 states.13

In 2006 for the first time in recorded history, 9.7 million children died in 2006 before their the number of children dying before the age fifth birthday.20 of one dipped below 10 million.18 Child mortality was nearly cut in half from 4. Reduce 1990 to 2006 in Central and Eastern Europe/ Child CIS, in Latin America and the Caribbean and 19 Mortality in East Asia and the Pacific.

Every developing region has made progress Maternal mortality rates in sub-Saharan increasing the percentage of births attended Africa and parts of Asia have barely by skilled health personnel, from 54 percent in changed over two decades. The target to 1995 to 61 percent around 2005.21 reduce the maternal mortality ratio is the area of least progress of all the Millennium 5. Improve Worldwide, fewer women died during preg- Development Goals.23 Maternal nancy and childbirth in 2005 (536,000) than in 22 Health 1990 (576,000). Over half a million women still die each year from treatable and preventable complica- tions of pregnancy and childbirth, an aver- age of about one death every minute.24 Violence against women during pregnancy can endanger the health of the mother and/ or newborn child, with rates in developing countries ranging from 4 per cent to 32 per cent.25 Goal Progress Unfinished Agenda on Gender Equality on Gender Equality In a global surge of new resources for HIV/ Globally, the percentage of women and girls AIDS, funding has increased from $260 living with HIV and AIDS has risen from 41 million in 1996 to almost $10 billion in 2007, per cent in 1997 to just under half today.28 along with commitments to empowering women and girls and guaranteeing their rights In sub-Saharan Africa, about 60 per cent of 6. Combat 29 26 adults living with HIV are women. HIV/AIDS, to prevention, treatment and care. Malaria and International funding for malaria control Only approximately 11 per cent of preg- Other increased more than tenfold over the past nant women living with HIV today receive services to prevent HIV transmission to their Disease decade.27 children.30

Between 1990 and 2006, more than 1.2 billion Sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the safe people gained access to improved sources drinking water target given current trends.33 of drinking water, and the world as a whole is Carrying water long distances, a task typi- on track to achieve the drinking water target cally performed by women and children, is 31 7. Ensure for MDG. physically burdensome, takes time from pro- Environmental ductive activities, and increases women’s Between 1990 and 2006, more than 1.1 vulnerability to violence.34 Sustainability billion people gained access to improved sanitation.32 The world will miss the MDG sanitation target by 700 million people if current trends continue.35 Searching for privacy to defecate is a humiliating routine that exposes women to ridicule, sexual harassment, and rape.36 The growing use of targets and indicators In 2006, only $10.2 billion in bilateral aid, to signal development priorities has led to a about one sixth of the total, was identi- stronger emphasis on accountability for meet- fied by donors as intended to contribute ing agreed commitments. These tools can to either gender equality or women’s 38 8. Develop help in tracking, in resource allocation, and in empowerment. a Global the process of holding development actors accountable to women through aid.37 Based on a survey of about 1,000 organiza- Partnership for tions working on women’s rights, 67 per Development cent said they find it more difficult to raise funds today than 5 years ago.39

1 ILO, “Global Employment Trends for Women,” 2008. 2 FAO, “Gender and Food Security: Agriculture.” http://www.fao.org/gender/en/agri-e.htm. 3 FAO, “Prospects for Meeting the Hunger and Poverty Goals.” http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/a0056e/A0056E02.htm. 4 Doss, Cheryl et al. “Gender and asset ownership: a guide to collecting individual-level data. Policy Research working paper no. WPS4704,” World Bank, 2008. 5 United Nations, “Committing to action: achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Background note by the Secretary-General,” 2006. 6 UNESCO, Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2007. 7 Turquet, Laura et al. Hit or miss? Women’s rights and the Millennium Development Goals. London, UK: ActionAid, 2008. ActionAid calculations using 2007 UN Millennium Development Goals Report, New York, 2007. 8 UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “Adult Literacy Rates and Illiterate Population by Region and Gender,” 2006. 9 United Nations Divison for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ states.htm. 10 Buvinic, Mayra and Elizaeth M. King. Smart Economics. Finance & Development Magazine, Vol 44, no. 2 June 2007. 11 United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2008. 12 UNIFEM, “Gender Responsive Budgeting Quarterly Newsletter Issue 1, February 2008.” 13 United Nations, “In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women: Report of the Secretary General, 2006; UNIFEM, Not a Minute More, 2003. 14 United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007. 15 ILO, “Global Employment Trends for Women,” 2008. 16 UNIFEM. Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009: Who Answers to Women? UNIFEM estimates based on UN Statistics Division MDG Database and Inter-Parliamentary Union. 17 WHO, “Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women,” 2005. 18 UNICEF Annual Report 2007. 19 UNICEF, Progress for Children 2007, http://www.UNICEF.org/progressforchildren/2007n6/index_41403.htm. 20 Ibid. 21 UNICEF, Progress for Children 2007, http://www.UNICEF.org/progressforchildren/2007n6/index_41403.htm. 22 UNICEF Annual Report 2007. 23 United Nations Secretary-General. “Committing to action: achieving the Millennium Development Goals.” Background note by the Secretary-General, 2008. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/commiting.pdf. 24 United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007. 25 United Nations, “In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women: Report of the Secretary General, 2006. 26 UNAIDS. “Resources and funding for AIDS.” http://www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/ResourcesAndFunding/default.asp. 27 UNICEF, Progress for Children 2007. 28 Action Aid. Walking the Talk. 2008. 29 United Nations Secretary-General. “Committing to action: achieving the Millennium Development Goals.” Background note by the Secretary-General, 2008. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/commiting.pdf. 30 UNAIDS, “Towards Universal Access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector. Progress Report,” April 2007. 31 UNICEF/WHO, “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation.” 2008. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Santiation, “Health, Dignity and Development: What Will It Take?” 2005. 35 UNICEF/WHO, “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation,” 2008. 304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor 36 Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, International Year of Sanitation Advocacy Kit: Dignity and Social Development http://esa.un.org/iys/ New York, NY 10017 USA dignity_social.shtml. T: +1 212-906-6400 37 See, for example, United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007. http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/ Progress2007/UNSD_MDG_Report_2007e.pdf. F: +1 212-906-6705 38 United Nations, Millennium Development Goals: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Progress Chart 2008. www.unifem.org 39 Association for Women’s Rights in Development, “The State of Women’s Organizations,” FundHer Fact Sheet #1, 2008. While it is relatively easy to set goals, it is much more complex to figure out how to reach them. How much will it cost? What investments are required? Estimates of the costs and required investments for gender equality differ; however, what is certain is that 3 the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of action. The Cost Of Gender Equality... What Estimating costs is essential for prioritizing, planning, and budgeting. At the national level, much work has been done since 2000 to cost the MDGs and to forge a path, based Does It in part on those exercises, which both brings results and is affordable. A number of coun- tries have arrived at estimates of the cost of interventions required to make gender equality Cost? a reality.

Putting a Price The task of producing estimates is complex, no matter which target is considered. The challenges have to do in part with the complementarities and overlap among poli- Tag on Gender cies or investments and the goals they help to attain. For instance, efforts to reduce the Equality mortality rate of baby girls, such as improving access to safe water and basic sanitation, and promoting equality in nutrition and health services, also go a long way to reducing maternal mortality. Educating girls pays off not only in their own expanded economic op- portunities and greater livelihood security as adult women (thus aiding in the fight against feminised poverty) and in terms of a reduced likelihood of early marriage (thus contribut- ing to efforts to reduce maternal mortality), but also in the educational attainment and very survival of the children they may one day have. The question then becomes where to “count” expenditures for an intervention to improve girls secondary school completions rates: it would contribute to Goal 1 by reducing poverty, to Goal 2 by increasing primary school enrollment, to Goal 3 by directly promoting gender equality, to Goal 4 by reducing child mortality, and so on.

One widely quoted global estimate for resources needed to achieve MDG3 comes from work prepared for the World Bank. Researchers estimated that external resources in the range of $13 billion annually were required for financing interventions that promote gen- der equality in the context of the MDGs in low-income countries over the next few years, with readjustments thereafter based on increased domestic resources for these interven- tions. They further estimated that the costs for achieving gender equality, on average, accounted for between one-third and one-half of the total MDG costs (in the range of US$37-$57 per capita per year), depending on the country.1 This finding was corroborated in a subsequent ten-country study.2

Notably, the bulk of expenditures aimed at advancing gender equality – over 90 per cent3 – MDG programmes went to “non-targeted” gender mainstreaming activities across virtually every MDG sec- tor, such as improving water supply and sanitation services, upgrading childcare centers, that advance building roads, subsidizing home energy costs, and improving infant and child health and gender equality survival. A far smaller share of expenditures went to “direct” gender equality-promoting have been activities related to specific MDG 3 targets – such as eliminating school fees for girls and implemented user fees for poor women, building the capacity of women’s machineries, and supporting women in the political process. In other words, MDG programmes that advance gender primarily through equality have been implemented primarily through sectoral initiatives in agriculture, sectoral initiatives. infrastructure, employment, education, health, and so on – pointing to the need to build capacity for gender-responsive programming and policy-making at all levels and in all sectors. Gender-responsive budget initiatives are a valuable tool for tracking and assess- ing the degree to which different government ministries and departments are promoting gender equality through their work in support of the MDGs. These initiatives ideally include increased financing to support capacity development of women’s ministries and women’s organizations, not only for costing gender-specific programmes, but also to effectively cost and monitor gender equality initiatives in other sectors. ...is Dwarfed by the Costs of Inequality. The price tag for action may seem high, but the cost of inaction is far higher. And the costs are borne not just by women, but by all of society. There is strong evidence that failure to educate women impedes growth; a one-year increase in the schooling of all adult females in a country is associated with an increase in GDP per capita of around $700.4 Research also shows how stalled progress in girls’ secondary school enrollment means foregone reductions in fertility, maternal mortality, child mortality, and malnutrition.5 And evidence suggests that failure to give women title to land, control over other natural resources, and adequate agricultural services has high costs in terms of lowered agricul- tural productivity, slowed adoption of new technologies and improved techniques, loss of agro-biodiversity, and environmental degradation.6

The price tag for Calculating the cost of inaction is extremely complex. The issue described above of double-counting is there, as is the challenge of estimating both short- and long-term action may seem damage and opportunity costs. In addition, while some impacts of inaction are somewhat high, but the cost easier to estimate, such as changes in agricultural outputs, or increases or decreases in of inaction is far public health expenditures due to disease, others, such as the long-term trauma caused higher. by violence or the multiple and lasting effects on young children who lose their mothers to death in childbirth or to AIDS, are far less straightforward to calculate.

But despite the complexity, it would be a worthwhile exercise, if at least to gain an un- derstanding of the order of magnitude of losses created by inequality backlogs. To what extent will countries falling short on gender equality experience losses in economic growth, foregone reductions in fertility, greater child mortality and malnutrition, a higher prevalence of depression and other mental illnesses, higher rates of illiteracy, and the like? In other words, what are the costs associated with the status quo? We know the cost of educat- ing a girl — the World Bank estimates that meeting just the universal primary school goal in low-income countries will cost around $9.7 billion per year7 — but what cost are we already paying by not educating her?

Calculating the Cost of Inaction on Gender Parity in Schooling Compared to girls who do not complete primary and secondary school, girls who do earn and produce more, are less likely to marry early and are more likely to plan for and space their children, are more able to negotiate with intimate partners around condom use, are less likely to find themselves in situations of exploitation or remain in abusive relationships, are more likely to get adequate medical care during and after pregnancy, and are more effective parents as adults, prioritizing health and education investments for their own children. Thus, in terms of MDG education targets, it would be revealing to compare the price of ensuring gender parity in primary and secondary school to the various costs that countries will pay if they fail to meet this target. These costs might include the following:

• The lost wages, reduced labour force participation, and lower productivity of women whose limited education leads to a lifetime of underemployment; • Foregone reductions in fertility (a year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 per cent, on average);8 • The increased incidence of HIV and AIDS among women with limited negotiating power around condom use and the resulting costs from health care use, reduced productivity, and premature death; • The higher rates of maternal mortality among less educated women; • The economic and social costs associated with caring for children whose mothers die prematurely from AIDS, violence, and maternal mortality, including not just direct costs like orphan subsidies but also long-term psychological costs to the children; • Higher rates of morbidity, mortality, and malnutrition among the children of less edu- cated women,9 leading to greater health care costs, lost productivity, premature death; • Reduced school attendance and educational attainment among the children of less educated women (each year a girl stays in school translates into up a half-year of additional schooling for her child, on average;10 children of uneducated mothers are twice as likely to be out of school as are children whose mothers attended primary school).11

These are merely the costs associated with shortfalls in education. Imagine adding the costs associated with feminized poverty and maternal mortality, as well as poor water, sanitation, and energy services, environmental degradation, and violence. For instance, ESCAP has estimated that the Asia-Pacific region alone is losing more than $40 billion per year because of women’s limited access to employment, and $16-$30 billion because of gender gaps in education - figures that far exceed the $13 billion global cost estimate for gender equality measures.12

The world community is already paying top dollar for inequality in monetary terms as well as in unfulfilled human potential. This cost far exceeds that of closing the gender gap and empowering women.

1 Grown, C., Bahadur, C., Handbury, J., and Elson, D. “The Financial Requirements of Achieving Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,” Paper Prepared for the World Bank, 2006. 2 Ebbeler, Jessica, “Financial Requirements to Achieve Millennium Development Goal on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Review of Country Experiences” Paper Prepared for the World Bank, 2007. 3 Grown, C., Bahadur, C., Handbury, J., and Elson, D. “The Financial Requirements of Achieving Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,” Paper Prepared for the World Bank, 2006. 4 World Bank, “Focus on Women and Development: Improving women’s health and girls’ education is key to reducing poverty, 2004. http://web. worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20174172~menuPK:34457~pagePK:64003015~piPK:64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html. 5 UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and Children, the Double Dividend of Gender Equality. 6 FAO, “Gender and Food Security: Agriculture.” http://www.fao.org/gender/en/agri-e.htm. 7 World Bank, Achieving Universal Primary School Enrollment by 2015: A Chance for Every Child. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/ Resources/278200-1089739404514/chapter4.pdf. 8 World Bank, “Girls’ Education,” http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:20298916~menuPK:617572 ~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html. 9 UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and Children, the Double Dividend of Gender Equality. 10 World Bank, “Girls’ Education.” 11 UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2007: Women and Children, the Double Dividend of Gender Equality. 12 ESCAP, Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007. The Cost of Gender Equality is Dwarfed by the Costs of Inequality

The Cost of The Costs of Gender Equality Gender Inequality

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 - i>Ì ÊVˆ˜ˆVà UÊ Vœ˜œ“ˆVÊ>˜`ÊÜVˆ>ÊVœÃÌÃʜvÊ UÊ ˆ“ˆ˜>ÌiÊ}i˜`iÀ‡L>Ãi`Êۈœi˜Vi V>Àˆ˜}ÊvœÀʜÀ« >˜Ã UÊ Õˆ`Ê`œ˜œÀÊ>˜`Ê«>À̘iÀÊV>«>VˆÌÞÊ UÊ œÀi}œ˜iÊÃ>ۈ˜}Ãʈ˜Ê i>Ì Ê vœÀÊ}i˜`iÀ‡L>Ãi`Ê>˜>ÞÈÃÊ>˜`Ê VœÃÌÃÉ«Àœ`ÕV̈ۈÌÞʈ˜VÀi>ÃiÃÊ`ÕiÊÌœÊ «Àœ}À>““ˆ˜} ۈœi˜ViÊ>}>ˆ˜ÃÌÊܜ“i˜ 304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor UÊ œÀi}œ˜iÊ̈“iÊÃ>ۈ˜}ÃÊ`ÕiÊÌœÊ New York, NY 10017 USA ˆ˜>`iµÕ>ÌiÊÜ>ÌiÀÊ T: +1 212-906-6400 ÃÕ««ÞÉÃ>˜ˆÌ>̈œ˜Éi˜iÀ}ÞÊÃiÀۈVià F: +1 212-906-6705 www.unifem.org Introduction Violence against women (VAW) is a gross violation of human rights. It is also an obstacle to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The last twenty years have seen unprecedented progress in the political attention paid to violence against women and girls 4 as well as in the number and scope of laws and policies that extend the state’s duty to prevent and respond to gender-based violence into the home and the family. Grass-roots women’s organizations and international coalitions have upended the notion that violence The Tragic against women is a private matter, an aberrant individual act, or an inevitable fact of life, Reality of especially during war; they have successfully reframed violence as a human rights issue. Yet despite the progress at the policy and political levels, violence against women per- Violence sists, unabated, in all parts of the world. According to World Bank estimates, VAW kills and incapacitates as many women of reproductive age as cancer does.1 A rigorous study in Facing the Facts ten countries from different regions and involving interviews with 24,000 women revealed of Violence that domestic violence against women is “frighteningly common” and that, far from being a safe haven, home is too often a place of pain, fear, and humiliation for women and girls. Against Between 15 per cent and 71 per cent of women reported having experienced violence by Women and a partner over the course of their lifetime, and up to nearly a third had reported violence in the past year. The rate of sexual violence in particular ranged from 10 per cent to 50 the Millennium per cent. Most acts of violence by an intimate partner were part of an ongoing pattern of Development abuse.2 Goals Intimate partner violence is the most common type of violence against women, but VAW takes many other forms, as well. The 1993 UN General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women3 defined VAW as “any act of gender-based vio- lence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” The forms of violence against women are many, and there is no fixed, exhaustive list. VAW includes violence in the family and community, such as female infanticide, sexual abuse of girls, marital rape, battering, and emotional abuse like isolation and humiliation. It also includes harmful traditional practices like female geni- tal mutilation, child and forced marriage, dowry-related violence, femicide, rape, forced sexual initiation, date rape, acid throwing, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in schools, and in public places, trafficking and forced prostitution, and forced sterilization.

Research shows Violence against women also includes violence in times of war or when governance sys- that violence tems have collapsed; the systematic use of sexual violence to terrorize whole communities or ethnic groups is a chilling feature of conflict that has received increasing recognition in against women recent years. The unanimously adopted June 2008 UN Security Council resolution 1820 on is frighteningly women, peace and security calls for the “immediate and complete cessation by all parties common. to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians” and affirms that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.” Table 1: Violence Against Women: An Obstacle to the Millennium Development Goals Goal The link to violence against women 1. Eradicate extreme Violence against women is a drain on the productive workforce; WHO found that abused women in Nicaragua poverty and earned 46 per cent less than women who did not suffer abuse. The World Bank estimated that domestic violence hunger and rape accounted for nearly one in five disability-adjusted life years (DALYS) lost to women aged 15-44.4 Violence against women diverts scarce societal resources in poor countries; studies from several countries show that women who have been assaulted use health services more than women with no history of violence. According to WHO, rape or assault is a stronger predictor of health care use than any other variable, with medical care costs of victims more than twice that of non-victims.5 In some countries, in poor families, girls’ share of food is diverted to boys, resulting in disproportionate mal- nutrition among girls – leading to stunting, anemia, micronutrient deficiencies, greater vulnerability to a host of diseases, and reduced school performance. 2. Achieve universal Girls who are victims of violence are less likely to attend or complete school, and the long-term educational primary education achievement of children who witness violence is lower than that of other children.6 Sexual harassment of primary school girls by teachers, peers, and others in school and on the way to and from schools is common.7 3. Promote gender Sexual harassment and assault of adolescent girls by teachers or other students as well as on their way to and equality and from school is commonplace in many countries. empower women Lack of separate sanitary facilities in schools exposes girls to harassment and assault. Concerns about physical safety impel some parents to keep their daughters out of secondary school, especially after they start to menstruate, in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.8 Violence and the threat of violence limit women’s freedom to participate in public life, in politics, in employment, and in decision-making.

4. Reduce child Girls are more likely than boys to die in a number of countries in South and East Asia, North Africa and the Middle mortality East, resulting in adverse sex-ratios.9 Excess female mortality causes some 250,000 preventable deaths among girls under age 5 every year. Female infanticide, malnourishment, and systematic neglect fuel higher under-five death rates for girls than for boys.10 Research in Nicaragua found an under-five death rate six times higher among children whose mothers were physi- cally and sexually abused by their partners than among other children.11 Harmful traditional practices such as child marriage, dietary restrictions for female children, female genital mutila- tion or cutting, and excessive workloads at home also contribute to excess morbidity and mortality among girls. 5. Improve maternal Evidence suggests that violence against women is commonplace during pregnancy, with rates in developing health countries ranging from 4 per cent to 32 per cent;12 it can lead to high-risk pregnancies, miscarriages and stillbirths, pre-term labour, low birth weight, other complications during pregnancy and delivery, and the death of the mother or newborn child. Higher levels of rape and sexual abuse are recorded during conflict, which can lead to unwanted pregnancies, gynecological disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases. Sexual violence as a weapon of war, including rape designed to cause pregnancy and thus advance genocidal aims, has been a chilling feature of many conflicts. Harmful practices like child marriage lead to too-early childbearing. This can result in fistula as well as cephalopel- vic disproportion, which can cause severe birth complications, including the death of the mother or child. Genital cutting, to which more than 130 million girls have been subjected, also poses increased risks to the health of the mother and baby during delivery.13 Abused women are less likely than other women to use family planning services and are more likely to face un- wanted pregnancy.14 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Rape can expose women to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. malaria and other Child marriage increases the risk of HIV infection.15 disease Women often do not insist that their partner wear a condom for fear of negative or violent response (there are also many other reasons, such as women’s limited negotiating power). Some evidence suggests that women are targeted for violence when their HIV-positive status becomes known to an intimate partner or family or community member and that fear of violence can prevent HIV-positive women from seeking treatment. Conflicts may increase the risk of HIV and AIDS by dislocating communities and bringing combatants into contact with civilians. This can make women and girls highly vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation. 7. Ensure Environmental degradation and poor basic water, sanitation and energy services force women to travel longer dis- environmental tances from home to secure water, obtain food and fuel, or to move about at night in search of privacy to defecate, sustainability all of which increase their vulnerability to assault.

8. Develop a global Despite the normative advances in the area of violence against women, the international community, national gov- partnership for ernments, and local leaders have failed to allocate sufficient resources toward the elimination of violence against development women. Part of the global partnership for development must be adequate financial resources for ending violence against women. Why does violence against women occur? At its most basic level, violence against women is about power; it establishes the domi- nance of men and the subjugation of women. It is both an example of gender inequality and a means by which it is perpetuated. While violence against women is universal, there is variation in its nature and manifestation across societies as well as within societies at different times, for different groups of women, and even for the same woman at different times in her life.

Prenatal Infancy Childhood Adolescence Reproductive Old Age • Prenatal sex selection • Female infanticide • Female genital • Dating and courtship Years • Abuse of widows • Battering during • Emotional and physical mutilation violence • Intimate partner • Elder abuse (which pregnancy abuse • Incest and sexual abuse • Sexual harassment in violence affects mostly women) • Coerced pregnancy • Differential access to • Differential access to school • Marital rape (as when rape with food and medical care food, medical care, and • Economically coerced • Dowry abuse and intent to impregnate education sex murders is used a genocidal • Child prostitution • Sexual abuse in the • Partner homicide weapon of war) • Trafficking workplace • “Honor” killings • Child marriage • Rape • Psychological abuse • Sexual harassment in • Sexual abuse in the the community workplace • Trafficking • Sexual harassment • Forced prostitution • Rape • “Honor” killings

Source: Heise, Lori, “Violence Against Women: The Hidden Health Burden,” World Bank Discussion Paper, 1994.

Many experts use an ecological framework for understanding the varying causes and consequences of violence against women.16 An ecological framework, commonly used in the public health arena, looks at the individual and her relationship to her surroundings. This model suggests that there may not be one single cause but rather a range of variables that can increase or reduce a woman’s risk factors for experiencing violence. It looks at the individual; her relationships with family members, partners and friends; the norms and circumstances of her community; and the larger society, including legal and policy frameworks, the prevalence of violence of all sorts, and the prevailing construction of mas- culinity and femininity. Table 2 identifies risk factors for violence against women at each of these four levels. It is easy to see how risk factors can converge to make certain classes of women particularly vulnerable – for instance, adolescents from an impoverished ethnic minority group during a conflict situation.

Table 2: Risk factors for violence against women INDIVIDUAL: Young; large age discrepancy in marriage or early age at marriage; high parity; witness to abuse in the home; abused as a child; membership in a low-status social or ethnic group; little education; alcohol/sub- stance abuse; mental illness; displaced; disabled; HIV-positive RELATIONSHIPS: Male control of wealth/decision-making in the family; marital conflict and marital instability; economic stress; poor family functioning; nature of mother-in-law/daughter in-law dynamic; woman’s lack of ac- cess to her family of origin; significant interpersonal disparities in economic, educational or employment status COMMUNITY: Male peer groups that condone violence; social isolation of women, particularly from natal kin- ship support groups that provide support and sanctuary (parents, siblings); women’s lack of social support; high crime; high unemployment; gender roles in flux; family matters viewed as “private”; ongoing civil conflict/war or other crisis situation, and resulting population displacement (migrants and refugees); physical environment (such as location of water sources and sanitary facilities); poverty SOCIETY AND STATE: Gender roles rigidly defined; masculinity linked to male honor, toughness, dominance; male sexual aggression normative; violence of all sorts prevalent and accepted; perception and even reality Sources: Heise, Lori, “Violence Against Women: that men “own” women; domestic violence accepted as a punishment for “disobedience” for both women and An Integrated, Ecological Framework” in children; highly stratified social hierarchy or ‘“caste” system; strong son preference; bride price/dowry part of Violence Against Women. WHO, 1998. marriage negotiations; child custody laws that favor men; ongoing civil conflict/war or other crisis situation, and resulting population displacement (migrants and refugees). At the state level, inadequate laws and policies for Report on Violence and Health, 2002; and “The Secretary-General’s in-depth study on the prevention and punishment of violence; limited awareness and sensitivity on the part of law enforcement all forms of violence against women,” 2006. officials, courts and social service providers Conclusion Data-collection, advocacy, awareness-raising and capacity-building efforts by NGOs, re- searchers, activists, and the international community have spurred policy-makers and oth- ers to action in many countries. The result has been important legal gains for women, such as the enactment of laws against marital rape and the repeal of laws that allow rapists to evade punishment by marrying their victims.

But clearly there is a long way to go. Working with men and with young people holds great promise as a way to stop the cycle of violence against women. In addition, the Secretary- General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women identifies the following priority actions:

• States should take concrete steps to secure women’s human rights and promote gender equality. Working with men • Politicians, government officials, opinion leaders, business people, civil society organizations, admired public figures in sports and entertainment, religious authorities, and influential individuals within local and with young communities should exercise leadership to end violence against women. people holds great • States must close the gap between international standards and national laws and practices to end impunity for violence against women. This includes acting to prevent VAW; punishing perpetrators; and promise as a way providing support and access to redress for victims. • States should create an institutional framework and multi-sectoral strategies to support systematic and to stop the cycle sustained action to address VAW and bring to scale the successful work of NGOs. of violence against • States should allocate adequate resources and funding to programmes to prevent as well as provide women. redress for violence against women. • Governments should systematically collect and publish data that assesses the nature and extent of vio- lence against women as well as which policies and practices are most effective in addressing it.

An important step forward was the 1996 establishment, via General Assembly resolution 50/166, of the UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women. The Trust Fund, managed by UNIFEM on behalf of the UN system, is the lead multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports local, national and regional efforts to combat vio- lence. Since it began operations in 1997, the Trust Fund has distributed more than US$19 million to 263 initiatives to address violence against women in 115 countries. Trust Fund projects conduct public education and awareness campaigns, build coalitions, involve law- enforcement, judicial and government agencies, and train educators, healthcare personnel and police officials to respond to and prevent violence. Many projects strive to alter com- munity attitudes and involve men as allies.

In 2008, the UN Secretary-General launched UNite, a multi-year campaign that aims to secure political will and increased resources to end violence against women and girls, to galvanize world public opinion to ensure action at the highest level, and to engage men leaders and mobilize men and boys. He called it “a campaign for the women and girls who have the right to live free of violence, today and in the future, … a campaign to stop the untold cost that violence against women inflicts on all humankind.” The campaign, which will run from 2008 through 2015 to coincide with the target date for achieving the MDGs, offers a unique opportunity to make violence against women history.

1 World Bank, World Development Report: Investing in Health, 1993. 2 WHO, “Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women,” 2005. http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_ study/en/. The countries in the study were Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania. 3 GA resolution 48/103 of 20 December 1993. 4 Bott, Sarah, Andrew Morrison, and Mary Ellsberg, “Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle and low-income countries: a global review and analysis,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3618, June 2005. 5 Heise, Lori and Claudia Garcia-Moreno, “Violence by intimate partners” in World Report on Violence and Health. WHO, 2002. 6 United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, “Good practices in combating and eliminating violence against women,” http://www.un.org/ womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw-gp-2005/docs/FINALREPORT.goodpractices.pdf. 7 Amnesty International, “Safe Schools: Every Girl’s Right.” 2007. 8 Bott, Sarah et al. “Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle and low-income countries: a global review and analysis,” 2004. 9 The Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women, 2006. 10 UN Population Division, “Health and Mortality,” www.un.org/esa/population/ publications/reviewappraisal/chap5rv6.doc. 304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor 11 Bott, Sarah et al., “Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle and low-income countries: a global review and analysis,” 2004. New York, NY 10017 USA 12 The Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women, 2006. T: +1 212-906-6400 13 Ibid. 14 UNFPA, “Ending Violence Against Women and Girls” in State of World Population 2000. F: +1 212-906-6705 15 The Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women, 2006. www.unifem.org 16 Heise, Lori and Claudia Garcia-Moreno, “Violence by intimate partners.” Introduction The programme-based aid delivery modalities promoted in the aid effectiveness agenda offer fresh opportunities for promoting gender equality – while at the same time pre- senting new challenges for gender equality advocates. The new modalities represent a 5 move away from project-based, donor-driven aid toward aid that is aligned to nationally- determined development priorities, is pooled from diverse sources, directly supports the national budget or whole sectors, and is stable and predictable. The principles of the new New Aid aid effectiveness agenda are:1 Agenda • Ownership. Developing countries direct development policies and coordinate action. Making Aid • Alignment. Donors support overall national development strategies. This takes the form of direct bud- get support and sector-wide approaches, in which funding is provided to a general area like health rather Effectiveness than to a specific health project. It means that aid is “untied” rather than tied to a specific donor priority. Frequently, the national Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) provides the overall framework for aid. Work for Gender • Harmonization. Donors make their actions more consistent with one another in terms of aims and priorities, reporting requirements, and the predictability of funding. Pooling resources through basket Equality funding is part of harmonization. Harmonization reduces transaction costs. • Results. All parties focus on achieving clearly defined results, particularly the Millennium Development Goals, rather than on inputs and delivery. • Mutual accountability. Donors and developing countries are accountable for these results.

Opportunities and Risks There is much that women might gain from more predictable aid flows, greater national self-determination, lower transaction costs, greater accountability, more inclusive own- ership of national development processes, and other features of the new aid regime. Similarly, moves toward greater aid effectiveness are enhanced by investments in gender equality. Yet the new aid modalities – like the old aid modalities – still present the risk of “policy evaporation” and “invisibiization”2 of gender. Indeed, the new aid regime shares this potential malady with gender mainstreaming, which has much to recommend it on pa- per and in “best practice” examples, but sometimes leads to a disappearance of women and their concerns from policies and programmes. Other cross-cutting issues, such as en- vironmental sustainability, also face risks of marginalization in the aid effectiveness regime, though in the case of the environment, for instance, many concrete steps have been put in place to mitigate such risk. No such steps have been taken for gender.

Progress clearly Some of the potential opportunities and risks are summarized in Table 1. All turn on the depends on question of power. If women and women’s organizations are empowered as equal “own- effective gender ers” of national development policy to whom governments and donors are accountable and around whose priorities all actors align and harmonize, then the new aid modali- equality advocates ties can serve to enhance gender equality and bring about positive change for women. who are men as If women are not thus empowered, then the new aid modalities threaten to marginalize well as women. women and their interests with great efficiency and little potential for redress. Across the developing world, most policy-makers are men; worldwide, they make up 83 per cent of parliamentarians, to give just one example.3 Thus progress clearly depends on effective gender equality advocates who are men as well as women.

Seizing Opportunities and Mitigating Risks: What Will It Take? Evidence and analysis suggest that whether the new modalities help or hinder gender equality hinges on four questions:

• Is adequate financing allocated for programmes that meet the needs of women and girls? Simply put, financing development and achieving the MDGs requires financing for gender equality. • Is there sufficient national capacity to advance gender equality? There are binding capacity con- straints in developing countries that must be addressed to achieve gender equality. National women’s machineries and civil society groups need better skills in macroeconomic analysis and effective advo- cacy. Line ministries require better gender analysis skills. The incentive structures and performance mea- sures in public institutions must create incentives for meaningful engagement in and action on gender equality. • Are robust accountability systems in place to track government and donor contributions to gender equality? Donor and developing country government accountability systems must be refined to monitor their performance on advancing women’s rights and promoting equality. Direct budget support needs to be complemented with funding for civil society so that it can continue to monitor public policy and expenditure and advocate for justice. • Are the indicators, data collection, progress assessments, and performance monitoring used to evaluate the effectiveness of aid gender-responsive? Gender analysis, gender-sensitive capacity building, and assessing gender equality results all require sex-disaggregated data and gender-sensitive indicators. Because “what get measured gets done”, measuring tangible progress against well defined baselines and benchmarks is critical to making gender equality a reality.

Table 1: The New Aid Agenda: Opportunities and Risks for Gender Equality 4

Potential Opportunities Risks Ownership Women in developing countries could take a meaning- Evidence shows that national development plans, ful role in articulating their priorities and crafting nation- poverty reduction strategies, and other nationally al development policy; this requires capacity building owned planning documents often do not incorporate in women’s analytical skills and policy-makers’ gender gender equality goals except in a cosmetic way, or analysis skills as well as donor funding. Creating policy only reflect gender considerations in areas like health space for gender equality advocates and strengthening and education. women’s machineries to take part in national discus- sions on development and aid are key.

Alignment National commitments to and plans for gender equality If gender equality priorities do not appear in national must be reflected in national plans and budgets to plans, then donor funding will not be directed toward allow donors to align their support to the priorities and gender equality policies and programmes. In terms needs of women and girls. Adopting gender-responsive of sector-wide support, evidence shows that al- budgeting approaches is a good way to assess donor though women are profoundly affected by spending alignment as well as national commitment. in sectors like justice, law enforcement, infrastruc- ture, and transport, plans in these sectors are typi- cally gender-blind. In terms of CSOs, alignment can impede funding to women’s organizations and others whose work is vital to equality. Innovative funding mechanisms that target gender equality programmes are still needed. Harmonization Pooled aid flows in support of gender equality objec- Donor capacity for and commitment to gender tives would be more predictable and potentially larger, mainstreaming is uneven, creating the possibility as well as having lower transaction costs, making them for further marginalization of gender concerns un- more effective in promoting long-term, lasting change. less accountability mechanisms are robust; gender considerations may be sidelined in the interest of creating donor consensus. Results Often gender mainstreaming is viewed as an end in The assessment frameworks and tools envisioned itself, and mentions of gender in plans and policies a thus far to measure financial management, account- replacement for real change; managing for results in ing and auditing, procedures, results, transparency, the area of gender equality would put the spotlight on and capacity do not incorporate elements to monitor actual progress. Gender-sensitive indicators, targets gender and social equity and equality. Nor do the and objectives introduced in country policy matrices assessment frameworks deal with substantive and PRSPs have great promise. content such as gender equality; they are focused on process. In addition, very few countries have sound, results-based frameworks for monitoring develop- ment results in place, increasing the difficulties in monitoring gender equality results.5 Accountability If policy frameworks are gender responsive, and if mon- The cross-cutting nature of gender equality priorities itoring and reporting are done with gender-sensitive can create monitoring and tracking challenges, as indicators, then governments and donors can be held can weak national capacities to collect and use sex- accountable to women. Capacity building of women’s disaggregated data. If frameworks and indicators are organizations, legal reforms, tackling corruption, and not gender responsive (which most are not today), support to gender budget initiatives will aid in the quest then accountability to women will remain elusive. for accountability.

1 UNIFEM, “Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships,” 2006. 2 Gaynor, C., “Paris Declaration Commitments and Implications for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.” Paper for consideration by the OECD-DAC Network on Gender 304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor Equality and the OECD-DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness 6-7 July 2006. New York, NY 10017 USA 3 www.ipu.org. +1 212-906-6400 4 Table Sources: World Bank, PRSP Sourcebook, Gender, Chapter 10, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPRS1/ T: Resources/383606-1205334112622/4221_chap10.pdf; UNIFEM, “Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships;”; Budlender, F: +1 212-906-6705 Debbie, “Financing for Development: Aid Effectiveness and Gender-Responsive Budgets.” www.unifem.org 5 OECD DAC, “Effective Aid by 2010: What it will take,” http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/58/44/41202160.pdf. 1. When did you first become interested in gender equality and women’s empower- ment, and why? I was at university in the 1970s when women’s rights issues were being raised in Spain along with the movement for democratization. Spain was under a dictatorship until 6 1975, so women’s rights were all part of the same struggle for political and social rights. Spain was not the only place -- these issues emerged together with democratization, civil rights and social justice movements all over the world during the last quarter of the Meet century. the New 2. Can you share one example of something with which you were involved that you Director believe really made a difference for women? The women’s movement in Spain had a huge impact. You have to realize that up to the late 1970s in Spain divorce was not permitted; married women had no rights and had to obey their husbands in all things – they had to ask his permission to get a passport, to open a bank account, even to work. All household income was controlled by the man. The husband also had sole authority over the children – unless he was dead or in prison. And all of the legal frameworks – the civil code, penal code, labour code – reflected the same lack of autonomy for women. Women played a major role in getting the new constitution in 1978, which gave women equal rights with men in public and private life, including marriage, divorce and custody. Individual laws to implement gender equality in employment and other arenas took time, but in the end we got them. To me this shows that women, in connection with broader Inés Alberdi, democratic and social struggles, can really make a difference – not only for women but for society itself. We united under the banner of modernization, which was the dream of UNIFEM everyone in Spain, to be a ‘modern’ country. Executive Director, on 3. Who is a leader you think of as someone who has really made a difference? gender and I would first say Simone de Beauvoir, who had an enormous influence in redefining the Millennium the way in which women thought of themselves in their personal and public lives. Her struggle to live in a way that maintained her independence and autonomy as a woman Development went on all of her life and is recorded in her multi-volume memoirs as well as her essays. Goals Among political leaders I think have made a difference I would certainly want to put Eleanor Roosevelt close to the top. Her achievement in getting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would by itself entitle her to this place, but her belief that government had a responsibility to respect and protect the rights of all citizens and to improve the lives of poor and disadvantaged people also made a huge difference in the U.S. and set an example for women’s political leadership everywhere in the world.

4. A year past the halfway mark to the MDGs, what gives you the greatest cause for Among political hope and optimism? leaders I think have The vision articulated in the Millennium Declaration – of a world free of fear and free of made a difference want – is tremendously important in helping to unite people around these fundamental I would certainly goals. Also what has been truly inspirational is the successful struggle to put sexual and gender-based violence on the peace and security agenda. The unanimous adoption want to put Eleanor of resolution 1820 by the UN Security Council, which mandates military protection for Roosevelt close to women in conflict, is a cause for optimism. the top. 5. What causes you the greatest concern? I share the concern that halfway along the timeline for achieving the MDGs, we are still not halfway to our goals – especially regarding poverty, which is now far more difficult to eliminate in the face of the dramatic increases in energy and food prices. I share the 6. If you could change one thing about the Millennium Development Goals or targets, concern that what would it be? halfway along Goal 3 is extremely important in its own right and is central to the achievement of the other MDGs. Yet measurability of progress against this goal, and accountability for it, is the timeline for constrained by the fact that it has a single target. While of fundamental importance, the achieving the education target captures only part of the spectrum of gender equality and women’s MDGs, we are empowerment. Existing indicators under this goal, including paid employment and politi- cal representation, are not reflected in any targets. Some key areas, such as violence not halfway to against women, are not identified at all. our goals... The UN has helped make tremendous progress in opening up the indicators on gender equality—inserting women’s access to decent work into Goal 1 on poverty, adding wom- en’s access to reproductive healthcare and HIV treatment to health-related goals, and so on. Now we need to agree on an indicator for ending violence against women, add it to Goal 3, and hold every government responsible for making meaningful progress against this crime.

7. What one single action could the international community take in the next few years that would make the greatest impact on the likelihood of achieving the MDGs? It is hard to identify a single action. Ending violence against women, for example, would go a long way to improving women’s access to education, paid employment and politi- cal participation as well reducing poverty and increasing growth -- but such a goal requires a great many actions, engaging families, communities, schools and religious or- ganizations as well as government ministries and the media. That said, however, I think that increasing resources to all of the UN and civil society organizations working to end gender-based violence and inequality would help expand and implement the innovative strategies we know can work. I really think that when people are 8. Why are societies so slow to change attitudes about gender roles and gender doing work that equality? they care about, These attitudes come about as a result of centuries of thinking that women were inferior it makes a big to men. It is only in the 20th century that ideas about women’s roles and identities have difference. been changing, which is very recent, really. I have seen in my lifetime how much things can change when people come together to make it happen.

9. You have been inside the UN for three months now. What are some of your early impressions? I want to say that my impressions of UNIFEM, which is what I know best so far, is that it is really exceptional in that most people are committed to the issues and values they are working on, and that this is a source of strength. I really think that when people are doing work that they care about, it makes a big difference.

304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor New York, NY 10017 USA T: +1 212-906-6400 F: +1 212-906-6705 www.unifem.org Who Answers to Women? Progress 2008/2009 shows that realizing women’s rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals depends on strengthening accountability for commitments to women and gender equality. The examples highlighted throughout the Report suggest that some progress has been achieved. In the past decade, there has been marked improvement in responses to women’s needs. But vast and daunting account- 7 ability challenges remain at both the national and international levels. Progress 2008/2009 demonstrates that for women’s rights to translate into substantive improvements in their Book lives, and for gender equality to be realized in practice, women must be able to fully par- ticipate in public decisionmaking at all levels and hold those responsible to account when Launch their rights are infringed or their needs ignored. Published at the half-way point to the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs, Progress presents new data providing clear evidence that women’s empowerment and gender equality are drivers for reducing poverty, building About food security, reducing maternal mortality, safeguarding the environment, and enhancing Progress of the the effectiveness of aid. World’s Women PART I 2008/2009 Chapter 1: Who Answers to Women? Chapter 1 focuses on the critical links between government accountability to women and gender equality. It argues that government commitments to gender equality are important, but they are likely to remain mere words on paper unless supported by adequate account- ability mechanisms. Progress 2008 understands accountability as the capacity of citizens —in this case women—to ask for explanations and information regarding government actions; where necessary, to initiate investigations or to get compensation; and to see of- ficials sanctioned, if they have failed to respond to women’s needs or protect their rights.

Chapter 2: Politics Women’s direct engagement in public decision-making has long been seen not just as a matter of democratic justice, but as a means of ensuring better government accountability to women. Yet increasing the numbers of women in politics is not sufficient to ensure bet- ter public sector responsiveness to women’s needs. Rather, what is required are gender- sensitive good governance reforms that will make all elected politicians more effective at promoting gender equality in public policy and at ensuring that policies are implemented.

Chapter 3: Services The delivery of public services is where women experience accountable and responsive governance – or its absence – most directly. If women enjoy access to appropriate and good quality services, it is likely that public resource managers and public service delivery staff are informed of women’s needs, and that women as citizens are able to influence de- cisions over the allocation of public resources. This chapter takes an in-depth look at ac- countability as the critical underlying factor in ensuring women’s access to public services.

Chapter 4: Markets Women’s everyday lives are increasingly shaped by the dynamics of the private sector, yet many of the assumptions about accountability made in the previous chapters do not hold true in this area, where decisions are often shaped by the principles of free trade and free financial flows and the diminishing role of organized labor. Nevertheless, women are learning to leverage their collective rights as workers and consumers in order to achieve important shifts in corporate practices. This chapter looks at the changing nature of ac- countability relationships in a globalized world and their implications for women. Chapter 5: Justice Women’s contribution to building the accountability of the judicial system to all citizens has come in large part from the insistence that justice starts at home, and that courts and the judiciary have a critical role to play in ensuring that the legal framework is applied fully, justly and evenly to benefit all individuals. Yet even as the number of equal rights and anti- discrimination statues has grown at both the national and the international levels in recent years, many of these face considerable enforcement challenges. This chapter examines the role and effectiveness of formal and informal justice systems as vehicles of account- ability for women.

Chapter 6: Aid & Security Multilateral organizations and international security institutions have a critical role to play in supporting countries to enhance their accountability to implement national commitments and track investments for gender equality. But the record of these organizations in comply- ing with their own gender equality policies often falls far short of expectations. This chap- ter examines the changing context of aid and the role of international development and security organizations in assisting countries to meet promises to achieve gender equality in development and peace building.

PART II Millennium Development Goals & Gender Part II of Progress 2008/2009 applies a gender perspective to analyse key dimensions of the MDGs and identify crucial issues. In 2008, governments around the world are rais- ing the alarm at the lack of progress in keeping to the timetable of achieving the MDGs by 2015. The analysis in Part II confirms that the least progress is being seen in efforts to build gender equality and advance women’s empowerment in all areas except education. Equally alarming, many countries still lack information regarding their progress and many more do not report sex-disaggregated data.

ERADICATE PROMOTE GENDER EXTREME POVERTY ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL EQUALITY AND REDUCE AND HUNGER PRIMARY EDUCATION EMPOWER WOMEN CHILD MORTALITY

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304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor New York, NY 10017 USA T: +1 212-906-6400 F: +1 212-906-6705 www.unifem.org