World Widows Report World Widows Report – a critical issue for the Sustainable Development Goals World Widows Report First Edition, February 2016 Commissioned and produced by The Loomba Foundation London, Delhi and New York www.theloombafoundation.org Researched, compiled and written by Risto F. Harma, M.Sc. Edited by Kasper de Graaf, MCIL, FRSA Paintings by Reeta Sarkar (all Oil on canvas, 2011): Cover – 1 Genocide victims in Darfur Frontispiece clockwise from top left – 2 Murambi-Kigali Memorial Centre, Rwanda 3 Widows bathing in the Ganges 4 Sons of a genocide widow, Rwanda 5 Young widow by her bakery in Nairobi, supported by The Loomba Foundation Designed by Images&Co London and Manchester Typeset in Van Dijck MT Pro, Univers LT Pro and Palatino Published by Standard : Information London www.standardinfo.london Copyright © 2015 The Loomba Foundation ISBN 978-0-9934156-1-6 (Hardback edition) Contents 5 Contents Acknowledgements 8 A critical issue for the Sustainable Development Goals 9 1 Introduction 11 1.1 The omission 11 1.2 The evidence 12 2 Scale 17 2.1 Not limited to one culture, society or region 17 2.2 Key findings 18 3 Key statistics 22 3.1 Number of widows and poverty 22 4 Causes 32 4.1 Global death patterns 32 4.2 Poverty 35 4.3 Hazardous work, disease and chronic poor health 41 4.4 Psycho-social response deaths 45 4.5 Road traffic deaths 46 4.6 Conflict: Interstate war, civil war, genocide and unexploded ordnance 47 5 Consequences: developing countries 56 5.1 Loss of income, disinheritance, government neglect, social exclusion 56 5.2 No way out: HIV/AIDS, famine, macroeconomic catastrophe and war 79 5.3 Discrimination, stigma, violence and predatory sexual behaviour 88 5.4 Ebola: Widowhood as a driver 99 6 Consequences: developed countries 105 6.1 Incomplete welfare states: lack of free healthcare and pensions 105 6.2 Poverty and deprived social groups: ethnic minorities and low skilled workers 107 7 Outcomes for children 113 7.1 Some examples 113 7.2 Wider implications of widows’ deprivation: girl-children 117 8 Key issues 119 8.1 Property theft and denial of inheritance 119 8.2 Superstition and/or cruel beliefs 119 8.3 Discrimination against women 119 8.4 Denial of right to family 119 8.5 Child labour 120 8.6 Remarriage 120 8.7 Widowhood customs 120 8.8 Child marriage 120 8.9 Poverty and neglect 121 8.10 Little or no social welfare protection 121 6 World Widows Report 2015 8.11 Disease and public health 121 8.12 Girl-child deprivation 121 9 How the world can help 122 9.1 Effective advocacy 122 9.2 Awareness of rights and entitlements 123 9.3 Social and economic programmes 125 9.4 Food security 127 9.5 Empowerment 128 9.6 International Widows Day 129 9.7 Millennium Development Goals 129 9.8 Sustainable Development Goals 130 Appendix 3 – Key definitions Appendix 4 – Usage and methodology Appendix 5 – Region definitions Appendix 6 – Census and survey data Appendix 7 – Definitions of gender-based violence Appendix 8 – The Sustainable Development Declaration References List of Tables Table 3.1 Regional and global estimates of widows 22 Table 3.2 Regional distribution of widows as percentage of global 23 Table 3.3 Percent of widows of marital age female population – 2015 estimates 23 Table 3.5 Widows’ children: 2010 (adjusted) and 2015 24 Table 3.6 Countries with one million widows or more – 2015 estimates 25 Table 3.7 Countries with highest percentage of widows in female marital age population 26 Table 3.8 Widows age cohorts regional averages as percent of total widows, 2010 29 Table 3.9 Top 20 countries with the highest number of widows, 2010 30 Table 3.10 Countries with highest percentage of widows in female marital age group 2010 31 Table 4.1 Percent of premature deaths by sex and 15-59 age group, 1990 and 2001 33 Table 4.2 Percent of male deaths by age range of total male deaths, 2005-2010 34 Table 4.3: Global and regional estimates of widows in extreme poverty 36 Table 4.4 Male premature death top 5 causes, percent of annual deaths 2001, ages 15-59 44 Table 4.5 Percentage change in widows during the Russian transition of the 1990s 45 Table 4.6 Countries with war widows (part 1) 49 Table 4.6 Countries with war widows (part 2) 50 Table 4.7 Pre- and post-civil war Liberia: Widows of child-bearing age, percentages 52 Table 4.8 Pre- and post-genocide Rwanda: Widows of child-bearing age, percentages 52 Table 5.1 Maternal mortality: Deaths in childbirth per 100,000 live births, 2000 59 Table 5.2 Inheritance regimes in Central and South America 76 Table 5.3 Marital regimes in Central and South America 78 Table 5.4 – Incidence of Ebola by country as at 17 February 2015 103 Table 7.1: Widows’ children by key child age groups, 2015 global estimates 113 Contents 7 Appendix 1 – Widows: Estimates by country, 2015 1 Sub-Saharan Africa 132 2 East Asia and Pacific 133 3 Middle East and North Africa 134 4 Central Asia 135 5 South Asia 135 6 North America 136 7 Caribbean 136 8 Central America 136 9 South America 137 10 Europe and Russia 137 11 Regions and worldwide 139 Appendix 2 – Data sources, 2010 and 2015 1 Sub-Saharan Africa 141 2 East Asia and Pacific 142 3 Middle East and North Africa 143 4 Central Asia 144 5 South Asia 144 6 North America 145 7 Caribbean 145 8 Central America 145 9 South America 146 10 Europe and Russia 146 List of Figures Figure 2.1 Treatment of widowed women 17 Figure 4.1 Widows incidence model 33 Figure 4.2 Widows and poverty 38 Figure 5.1: 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa – Outbreak Distribution Map 103 8 World Widows Report 2015 Acknowledgements The evidence brought together in this book and our earlier study (Loomba Foundation 2011) demonstrates clearly what those who have worked on the ground in this field have known for many years: the plight of widows has systemic implications for societies and is one of the key issues to be addressed if progress in achieving a number of the Sustainable Development Goals is to be made. Thanks are due to all who have contributed to or collaborated in the preparation of this re- port: to Salma (name changed), the Bangladeshi garment worker from Dhaka; to the Centre for Development Studies in Kerala, where some of the work for the first study was carried out; Dr. Jyotsna Jha for her insights and providing a copy of her co-authored book on education issues among India’s most deprived communities; Action Aid India in Bangalore; Professor Sylvia Chant of the London School of Economics; Professor Paul Spicker of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, who was consulted on the technical aspects of poverty measurement; Martha Chen of the Harvard Kennedy School; Professor Jody Heymann of McGill University; Professor Roger Jeffery of the University of Edinburgh; Jean Drèze for his input in an earlier consultation pre-dating this re- port; Mike Cowley for extensive editorial guidance on the project for over six months; the School of African and Oriental Studies, Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs), Oxfam GB and the British Library for access to their library collections; Oxford University Press and New Internationalist for allowing use of quoted material in the report; the UN Population Division for help with international data on widows; IPUMS; Will Goddard for checking and or- ganising the references; Sally Brough, Safdar Shah and José Jimenez for logistical support at the Loomba Foundation; Kasper de Graaf at Standard : Information for editing the manuscript; and Lord Loomba for having the vision and determination that persuaded the United Nations to adopt International Widows Day and the understanding that research will drive change in this critically important area. Risto F. Harma Researcher Foreword 9 A critical issue for the Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Declaration adopted by the United Nations at its New York summit in September 2015, reproduced here in Appendix 8, commits member states to a series of goals, inter alia to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages, to ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning oppor- tunities for all, and to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The evidence in this report, both statistical and narrative, shows that achieving these goals is a forlorn hope if we do not address the plight of millions of widows and their children. Rooted in culture, traditions and attitudes, the treatment of widows demonstrates that in much of the world, women have no status or entitlement except in relation to their men – and to protect themselves and their chil- dren, they are forced to perpetuate that injustice by discriminating against their own daughters. In many countries, when women lose their husbands, they are deprived of their possessions and their dignity, subjected to degrading treatment and excluded or marginalised in the community. Their children often forego any education and are forced to support themselves and their families through child labour, begging and prostitution. The plight of widows is a moral issue in that it offends fundamental standards of human rights, but also an economic and societal one, because it sets in train a cycle of deprivation that can last generations, perpetuating poverty and threatening social stability.