Millennium Development

Goals
And Women’s Empowerment

Maya Morsy
UNIFEM Coordinator
Egypt
Cairo 10th September
The Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) were adopted by
189 member states in the
Millennium Summit of United
Nations in 2000. These states
have pledged to achieve the
.MDGs by 2015
 The Millennium
Development
    Goals:
 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
 Achieve universal primary education
 Promote gender equality and empower women
 Reduce child mortality
 Improve maternal health
 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
 Ensure environmental sustainability
 Develop a global partnership for development
 Analysis of
MDGs
The MDGs are:
• A set of targets;
• of a quantitative nature;
• that are time-bound;
• and express key elements of human
development
 Analysis of
…MDGs
 the MDGs fail to specify the developmental
effect on women despite their important role
as beneficiaries and contributors
 2 out of 8 goals directly address women
(Goal 3 and Goal 5). Yet, these goals do not
achieve fairness to women as they concentrate
on the quantitative aspect of these goals and
their indicators
 Analysis of
…MDGs
A notable example of the gender-
blindness in the MDGs is regarding the
income-poverty eradication goal…
 
 Analysis of
…MDGs
Nowhere does this goal indicate that the
proportion of poor and hungry women is
higher than men. It is a well known fact
that two thirds of the world’s poor are
women, and neglecting to address this
issue means that even if extreme poverty
is halved by 2015, two thirds of the
remaining will be women.
 Analysis of
…MDGs
The selective focus of the MDGs presents a
narrower perspective than that of the
Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) that
was influenced by the advocacy of women’s
movements.

 Thus, the BPFA is more relevant to

achieving equality and empowering women
than the MDGs
 The MDGs in
Arab Countries
The Arab countries have made progress towards
many of the MDGs through initiatives that led to:

- A rise in life expectancy,

2. - A decline in child and maternal
mortality,
3. - A fall in illiteracy rate,
4. - And a large proportion of the people
are enjoying access to safe water and
sanitation
However…
 The MDGs in
Arab Countries
- The progress towards achieving the MDGs
is not a constant stable one. Uneven
progress, ranging from fast to regressing
reflects the dissimilarity between the
countries of the region.
- Differences in human development within
countries are apparent as well.
 The MDGs in
Arab Countries
No Off On
MDGs
Data Track Track
10 7 5 Halving hunger
9 7 6 Net primary enrolment
4 9 9 Gender equality in primary education
0 9 13 Under 5 mortality
10 5 7 Access to water (urban)
11 6 5 Access to water (rural)
6 3 13 Access to sanitation
 The MDGs in
Arab Countries
Based on the available data, the countries of the
region fall in three groups almost equal in size:
 one-third are on track or ahead of the curve for
reaching the 2015 targets,
 one-third are stagnant or regressing and are
unlikely to meet the MDGs without concerted
efforts;
 and one-third lack relevant and reliable data
 MDGs Tracking Indicators in Egypt
Goals Met
• Percentage of population
below $1 per day
• Poverty gap (using national
poverty line)
• Ratio of girls-to-boys in
secondary education
• Ratio of girls-to-boys in
tertiary education
• Prevalence of malaria
• Proportion of population
with access to water
Probable
• Percentage of population
under national poverty line
• Net enrollment in primary
education
• Ratio of illiterate women-
to-men (15-24 years)
• Infant mortality rate
• Maternal mortality rate
Challenges
• Share of women in wage
employment in the non-
agriculture sector
• Percentage of seats held
by women in Consultative
Assembly
• Percentage of seats held
by women in People’s
Council
 Achieving Goal 3:

Promoting gender
equality and
empowering women
Goal 3 aims at eliminating
gender disparities in primary and
secondary education preferably by
2005 and to all levels of education
no later than 2015.
 Achieving Goal 3:
Although the region might not fulfill the
MDG target by 2005, indicators
strongly suggest that it will do so by
2015.
 Achieving Goal 3:

The potential for achieving gender equality in primary schools

varies within the region from one country to another.
 Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, and the Occupied Palestinian
Territory are already close to gender parity
 Nine countries are expected to meet the target.
 Another seven need to accelerate their rate of advancement,
 And two countries need to reverse declining trends.
 Achieving Goal 3:

• Gender inequalities are also present in

employment, where the average share of employed
women does not exceed 20% in most cases. The
lowest women’s participation is 7% in Yemen,
and no country surpasses 30%
• In the legislative arena, gender equality falls short
as women have not been able to occupy more than
25% of the seats of any parliament in the region.
 :Achieving Goal 5

Improving Maternal
Health
 Achieving Goal 5:
• generally, maternal mortality declines when
skilled health professionals attend births as they
can efficiently handle emergencies
• Yet, despite recent improvements, more than
one third of women in countries like Egypt,
Morocco, and Yemen still give birth in the
absence of professional support.
• By contrast, other countries in the region like
Jordan and Kuwait, less than 5% of births are
without professional support.
Status of
women and
the role of
:MDGs
As women’s organizations
and networks push forward
to strengthen their position
and overcome their vulnerability, they
advocate and actively work towards better
recognition and legislation. For that reason,
they have been utilizing existing
developmental tools to enhance women’s
human rights.
And now that the MDGs are
formulated, and a political
commitment towards achieving these
goals is expressed by 189 countries, a
new tool to actualize their goals is
presented to women
The MDGs include
achieving equality and
empowering women, and
improving maternal health.
These two goals offer a
direct channel through which
women can reach the status
they work towards…
However…
Women can embrace the other goals
and employ them to serve gender
equality by gender-sensitizing their
indicators. And since women are
important key players in achieving
the MDGs, this will result in synergy
towards achieving the goals on a
larger scope.
This can be attained if the
MDGs are harmonized with the
provisions of the CEDAW and
the BPFA.

 Since these three are

synonymous in terms of human
development, this can be done
without negatively affecting the
effectiveness of any of the
components
 For example:

Goal 1 aims at eradicating

extreme poverty and hunger…
•Due to its large scope, Goal 1 fails to
address women as a crucial factor since two
thirds of the poor are women.

 Thus, incorporating the provisions of

CEDAW and BPFA into this goal would
result in a more inclusive gender-sensitive
goal and indicators
 CEDAW:
 ensure rural women  Eliminate
enjoy adequate discrimination against
living conditions, women to ensure the
especially in relation same rights for men and
to housing, women in employment.
sanitation, electricity (Article 11)
and water
supply,and transport  Ensure men and
and communication. women equality in all
(Article 14.2h) areas of economic and
social life, and in
particular the same
rights to bank loads and
all forms of financial
credit (Article 13.b)
 BPFA:
 Promote  Revise laws and
harmonization of administrative practices
work and family to ensure women’s
responsibilities for equal rights and access
women and men to economic resources
(strategic objective (strategic objective A.2)
F.6)
 Develop gender-based
methodologies and
conduct research to
address the feminization
of poverty
(strategic objective A.4)
“We have a collective responsibility to uphold
the principles of human dignity, equality and
equity at the global level. As leaders we have a
duty therefore to all the world’s people,
especially the most vulnerable and, in
particular, the children of the world, to whom
the future belongs”
Millennium Declaration, 2000
Thank you