Development: Women's rights essential for MDGS
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Gender equality and women’s empowerment are key to achieving all of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, gender equality experts insist.European Union (EU) officials, women’s lobby groups and development non-governmental organisations (NGOs) insist women’s rights must be “embedded” in development so that security, human rights, poverty eradication and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be achieved.
"We cannot have security, human rights, poverty eradication or achieve the Millennium Development Goals if we don’t have gender equality. Gender equality is fatal. It’s not just a matter of equality, but a matter of life and death," Noleen Heyzer, executive director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem) told delegates at the 'Owning Development: Promoting Gender Equality in New Modalities and Partnerships' conference Thursday (Nov.10).
"Gender equality is not just about the rights of individuals, it is essential for the eradication of poverty and development. If we advance women's rights, we will also advance democracy and human rights," added Lieve Fransen, head of the human and social development unit at the European Commission's development directorate-general.
The three-day meeting, jointly hosted by Unifem and the European Commission, the EU executive, is examining how changing development policies are affecting efforts to promote gender equality and women's rights.
The MDGs are a set of eight goals agreed by world leaders in 2000. The third goal is to promote gender equality and empower women by 2015. Other targets include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger, a reduction of child mortality by two thirds and the promotion of environmental sustainability.
Glenys Kinnock, British Socialist member of the European Parliament (MEP) and development expert, says the importance of the link between the MDGs and gender equality "could not be simpler".
"If we do not achieve the Millennium Developments Goals, we will not achieve gender equality. If we do not achieve gender equality, we will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Reaching that goal underpins success in all the others," she told delegates.
In this year's United Nation's Human Development Report, the MDGs are described as being "for all people regardless of their income, their gender or their location". Kinnock says the reality is that famine and AIDS are "eroding the skills, experience and networks that, through women, keep communities going".
"The costs of gender discrimination are higher for lower income countries and within countries for the poor. Ours is an ethical obligation and a collective responsibility to ensure that there is respect for human rights, human dignity and personal security," she said.
Mirjam van Reisen, director of the Brussels-based European External Policy Advisors (EEPA), says more gender experts are needed to address such issues.
"As we are clearer and clearer in our policies that gender equality is key to poverty eradication, the issue of expertise in professional organisations, including donors, needs to be addressed," she said.
But while experts insist that gender equality is essential to achieve the MDGs, they fear that women’s rights have not been given sufficient space within the Goals.
Heyzer says the MDGs are important as indicators to monitor countries progress regarding the discrimination against women, but says the goals are "lacking" in some areas.
"There are new areas of work that need to be attended to. While the goals already focus on education, health and political participation, we also have to look at three or four areas of work that need to be included such as ending violence against women, inheritance and decent work and reproductive health and rights," she said.
Fransen agrees, but hopes that the EU will make moves to embed women’s priorities in development.
"We recommitted to achieving the MDGs in September, but women’s rights and gender empowerment are a poor sister on the block of the goals," she said. "We have policies in place to do so, but now it requires going outside of of places immediately around us and beyond people who are already convinced about the need to do so".
"Gender equality is not just about the rights of individuals, it is essential for the eradication of poverty and development. If we advance women's rights, we will also advance democracy and human rights," added Lieve Fransen, head of the human and social development unit at the European Commission's development directorate-general.
The three-day meeting, jointly hosted by Unifem and the European Commission, the EU executive, is examining how changing development policies are affecting efforts to promote gender equality and women's rights.
The MDGs are a set of eight goals agreed by world leaders in 2000. The third goal is to promote gender equality and empower women by 2015. Other targets include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger, a reduction of child mortality by two thirds and the promotion of environmental sustainability.
Glenys Kinnock, British Socialist member of the European Parliament (MEP) and development expert, says the importance of the link between the MDGs and gender equality "could not be simpler".
"If we do not achieve the Millennium Developments Goals, we will not achieve gender equality. If we do not achieve gender equality, we will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Reaching that goal underpins success in all the others," she told delegates.
In this year's United Nation's Human Development Report, the MDGs are described as being "for all people regardless of their income, their gender or their location". Kinnock says the reality is that famine and AIDS are "eroding the skills, experience and networks that, through women, keep communities going".
"The costs of gender discrimination are higher for lower income countries and within countries for the poor. Ours is an ethical obligation and a collective responsibility to ensure that there is respect for human rights, human dignity and personal security," she said.
Mirjam van Reisen, director of the Brussels-based European External Policy Advisors (EEPA), says more gender experts are needed to address such issues.
"As we are clearer and clearer in our policies that gender equality is key to poverty eradication, the issue of expertise in professional organisations, including donors, needs to be addressed," she said.
But while experts insist that gender equality is essential to achieve the MDGs, they fear that women’s rights have not been given sufficient space within the Goals.
Heyzer says the MDGs are important as indicators to monitor countries progress regarding the discrimination against women, but says the goals are "lacking" in some areas.
"There are new areas of work that need to be attended to. While the goals already focus on education, health and political participation, we also have to look at three or four areas of work that need to be included such as ending violence against women, inheritance and decent work and reproductive health and rights," she said.
Fransen agrees, but hopes that the EU will make moves to embed women’s priorities in development.
"We recommitted to achieving the MDGs in September, but women’s rights and gender empowerment are a poor sister on the block of the goals," she said. "We have policies in place to do so, but now it requires going outside of of places immediately around us and beyond people who are already convinced about the need to do so".
