Gender Equality Distant But Reachable

Fitzroy Nation


AMSTERDAM, May 20 (IPS) - Some cautious optimism accompanied
skepticism at a meeting this week on the millennium development goal
of promoting gender equality and empowering women.

This third among the eight millennium development goals (MDGs) seeks
specifically to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary
education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

The preferred goal has certainly not been reached. But both
skepticism
and optimism found expression at a meeting of international gender
experts and European researchers at a workshop on 'The MDGs, gender
equality and human security'. The event Wednesday was sponsored by
the
independent institutions Society for International Development (SID)
and Women in Development Europe (WIDE).

An editorial in the international journal 'Development' launched at
the workshop set a provocative tone for the attempt to reach the
MDGs.


"One can understand why it is already set for failure," said the
article entitled 'The Millennium Development Goals: A missed
opportunity?'. "It seems that the MDG process is taking a
technocratic, if not bureaucratic, approach to an infinitely complex
world. It seems to be leaving the negotiating of politics to others
or
at best to the UN corridors while relying on 'campaigns' and
'experts'
to calculate the figures and then sell the strategies to governments
and civil society."

This kind of cynicism about the goals was addressed directly by
keynote speaker Caren Grown, director of the poverty reduction and
economic governance team at the International Centre for Research on
Women..

"We as activists can bring many agenda items into the policy
processes
to implement the MDG goals," she told IPS. "At the moment, there is a
lot of objection around the world, and some skepticism not only about
whether this is happening, but whether it will happen."

One argument, said Grown, who is also a senior associate on the UN
millennium project task force on education and gender equality is
that
although promoting gender equality and empowering women is one of the
MDGs, that goal is the only place where the gender issue is
addressed.


"In fact gender inequality is a central feature of poverty, and any
effort to reduce poverty must pay attention to the way that gender
inequality makes women disproportionately vulnerable to poverty, both
income poverty and non-income poverty," she said.

Gender equality is relevant to all the millennium goals, Grown said.
But because gender inequality is deeply rooted in entrenched
attitudes, societal institutions and various types of market forces,
different countries need to adopt different steps, she said.

The UN millennium project task force on education and gender equality
suggests seven strategic priorities as prerequisites for achieving
the
gender equality and women empowerment goal.

These include a focus on education for girls, on their sexual,
reproductive and health rights, infrastructure to ease time burdens,
guaranteeing property rights for women, eliminating gender equality
in
employment, increasing women's participation in politics, and
combating violence against women and girls.

These seven recommendations "are essential for all countries,
although
there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint," said Grown. "Countries have
to examine where their priorities lie, what investments will be
needed, but these seven issues - which are all interdependent, must
all be in thrust with that goal of gender equality and women's
empowerment."

That is a mammoth task. Two-thirds of the estimated 855 million
people
worldwide without access to schooling are women and girls. According
to the latest estimates, the target of eliminating gender disparity
in
primary and secondary education by 2015 will be missed in at least 21
countries for primary education and 24 countries for secondary
education.

"But it's not too late to pick up the pace by building women's
capabilities, improving their access to political and economic
opportunity, and guaranteeing women's safety," said Grown.

She believes there are entry points for further advocacy and action,
which if grasped can lead to achievement of the MDGs. "The world has
the resources. We know what the resource requirements are. But we
need
donors to honour their part of the bargain by increasing their ODA
(official development assistance) commitment to 0.7 percent of GNP
(gross national product). Five governments have already done that.
Another six have made the pledges. We need many more governments to
step up to the plate."

The eight MDGs are to 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, and develop a global partnership for development. The
target date for most is 2015. (END/2005)