International Women’s Day 2013
March 8, 2013 in MDG 3 (Gender Equality)
Today is International Women’s Day, first celebrated in 1975. It is a day to celebrate the achievements of women, but also a day of reflection when we can contemplate what remains to be done. While there have been many improvements for women in recent decades, there are still significant problems. The UN theme of the day this year is:
‘A promise is a promise. Time for action to end violence against women.’
As Ban Ki-Moon reminds us in his statement, we have witnessed several horrific acts of violence against women this past year. This problem is not isolated to any one segment of people. It is an issue that permeates the world, and also one that has a strong effect on youths. Rape, domestic violence, assault, sexual trafficking, and genital mutilation are just a few examples of the problems girls and young women face. Violence against women occurs in every country to varying degrees. It is time we all stand together, women and men, and make it clear that this cannot be tolerated.
The UN estimates that up to 50% of sexual assaults occur to girls under sixteen, over 100 million girls have experience genital mutilation, and 60 million girls under eighteen are child brides. Overall, 7 in 10 women worldwide reporting having experienced some form of violence against them in their lifetimes. [1]
In addition to violence, women also experience barriers to education and limited economic opportunities. The current MDG regarding gender is ‘Promote gender equality and empower women.’ It focuses mainly on education and reducing the disparities between boys and girls in learning. They number of girls attending primary, secondary, and tertiary education has risen notably since 2000, in nearly all corners of the globe. [2]
This is good progress, but more needs to be done for women. Gender equality is a vital issue for global youth. What do you believe should be the next goal for women? Should we aim to reduce global violence against women? What gender equality issue do you feel is most important in your area?
Generation Development is committed to ensuring young voices around the globe are heard in the formation of the post-2015 agenda. Find out more about how to get involved here.
Gender equality is something we can achieve in our lifetimes! Let’s get our voices heard and ensure gender equality stays on the post-2015 agenda and addresses problems faced by young women all over the world.
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[1] UNiTe report
[2] The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010
This goal deals with an integral issue, which solution should involve concepts related to development from all its approaches; its accomplishment depends on many factors, like empowerment of the communities and implementation of entrepreneurship programs, along with financial assistance, in order to attack the issue from the root, rather than only diminishing its consequences. Furthermore, involvement from the civil society constitutes an essential factor in the quest for equality and social justice, along with the political will of government representatives of any kind and level; they should be encourage to build a reliable database using empirical evidence, that will allow those in charge of resources to properly allocate them. We strongly suggest the leaders throughout the world to become involved in the solution of this issue, taking into account that every person has dignity and is entitled to the right t food and development.
The following are actions taken around the globe, which can be more broadly utilized, to implement Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals; to ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. Remove fees associated with attending school, including the cost of tuition, books, supplies, uniforms, and transportation. Provide amnesty for undocumented, migrant, and refugee children to attend school with out deportation or other consequences. Provide two meals a day to encourage families facing poverty to send their children to school. Address gender barriers, especially in rural areas. Provide feasible transportation to children, or adopt mobile schools.
It become evident in the group discusions that the 8 MDG is not recognised and the information around the issues that it affects is not well recognised. This goal deals with developing an open finance system and non discriminatory trading practices. After much delibaration some points were agreed upon as to how this MDG could be improved to suit a system based approach of how the MDG’s should be implemented. Overally the group felt the MDG was articulated on a top down approach and very much western centric.Thus not representing the real issues of all countries. Firstly the use of ‘partners’ in wording of the MDG should be replaced with ‘stakeholders’ as this word is more inclusive of all the actors in achieving this MDG. There was a consesus that debt problems is not only on developing countries thus it should change focus and include all countries and also include debt owing to international monetary organisations. Also that the issue of tarrifs should be reduced or removed as countries for example the UK places high tariifs on products from Africa of which the collect more money then the one the give aid to the African continent. Much needs to be done on this MDG in order to achieve its targets.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are the world’s time bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education and environmental sustainability. There are eight goals and this article focuses on MDG 6 which targets to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.
Bangladesh, being geographically positioned at the receiving end of perhaps the largest river system, and owing to other concomitant factors like the deltaic formation history and low-line coastal morphology has become the most disaster prone region on earth. Processes embedded in the nature, caused by multitudinous factors, constitute hazards to the environment of this region having severe aftermath on local lives, property and livelihoods of the population, and eventually, impeding the overall socio-economic development of Bangladesh. The (co)occurrence of these natural events are often coupled and multiplied with the high base vulnerabilities of the individuals, households and communities results in disasters that further drive the country towards greater environmental degradation, hunger, poverty, social deprivation and political conflicts, thereby impeding the development of Bangladesh. Therefore, over the last few decades, both national and international communities have been engaged in counteracting the negative developmental impacts of disasters as well as ensuring that development interventions do not exacerbate vulnerability to hazards.
It become evident in the group discusions that the 8 MDG is not recognised and the information around the issues that it affects is not well recognised. This goal deals with developing an open finance system and non discriminatory trading practices. After much delibaration some points were agreed upon as to how this MDG could be improved to suit a system based approach of how the MDG’s should be implemented. Overally the group felt the MDG was articulated on a top down approach and very much western centric.Thus not representing the real issues of all countries. Firstly the use of ‘partners’ in wording of the MDG should be replaced with ‘stakeholders’ as this word is more inclusive of all the actors in achieving this MDG. There was a consesus that debt problems is not only on developing countries thus it should change focus and include all countries and also include debt owing to international monetary organisations. Also that the issue of tarrifs should be reduced or removed as countries for example the UK places high tariifs on products from Africa of which the collect more money then the one the give aid to the African continent. Much needs to be done on this MDG in order to achive its targets.