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Women Call for Greater
Recognition of Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment Across All
Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)
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By Margaret Thompson
Radio Feminista/Feminista International Radio Endeavour (FIRE)
July 5, 2005
Bringing a gender perspective
to the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) is a crucial issue that
will help ensure that indeed, these goals benefit ALL.
The eight goals, which were signed by UN member governments in
2000, seek by 2015 to cut in half poverty and hunger worldwide, put all
children around the world into (at minimum) primary schools, combat
HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, improve maternal health and
ensure environmental sustainability. |
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Sound like far reaching
and lofty goals? They
are, and have triggered considerable debate, particularly among
feminists and the international women’s movement who were
shocked and outraged about the limited way that gender was
included in the MDGs, being explicitly mentioned in only one goal.
Many say that the lack of consultation with civil society
by the U.N. limited their input in the creation and approval of
the original goals contributed to this shortsightedness.
Media
Coverage of 5-Year MDGs Review by Radio Feminista
& Women's Media Pool
A 5-year review of the
goals will take place September 14-16, 2005 at the United Nations
in New York, which will be covered by Radio Feminista/Feminist
International Radio Endeavour (FIRE-- see www.radiofeminista.net)
as well as the Women’s Media Pool (www.womensmediapool.org),
a collaborative effort of over 60 women’s media and other groups
that started during Beijing +10.
MILLENIUM
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
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Eradicate
extreme poverty & hunger;
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Achieve
universal primary education;
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Promote
gender equality and women's empowerment;
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Reduce
child mortality;
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Improve
maternal health;
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Combat
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other sicknesses;
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Ensure
environmental sustainability;
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Develop
a global partnershiop for development.
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To get further input
for the review process, Informal Interactive Hearings of the UN
General Assembly were held with NGOs, Civil Society Organizations
and the Private Sector (23-24 June 2005), as well as strategy
meetings by GCAP (Global Call to Action Against Poverty) including
the GCAP Feminist Task Force on June 22nd.
Advocates of the MDGs hail
them as providing a common framework agreed to by governments in 2000
with measurable targets and indicators of progress that can be used
across all nations. UN
Secretary Kofi Annan claims that mobilizing collective action by nation
states, civil society and the private sector will “reshape” the
United Nations “in ways not previously imagined, and with a boldness
and speed not previously known.” |
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Lack of Gender Perspective Just One of Many
Problems of MDGs
Numerous women’s and
feminist groups have criticized the goals for only including
gender as a specific issue in one goal, rather than integrating
gender equity and women’s empowerment across goals, although
these are key to achieving the MDGs.
Also strongly criticized was the decision to leave out key
goals such as those related to violence against women and sexual
and reproductive rights.
Peggy Antrobus of
Barbados
and leader in DAWN noted that sexual and reproductive rights are also a
crucial target or indicator of progress related to four other goals:
#3: related to women’s equality and empowerment; #4: child
mortality; and #5 maternal health, and #6: combating HIV/AIDS.
Antrobus presented this analysis in a July 2003 conference of a
working group on the MDGs and Gender Equality. |
Failure
to include sexual and reproductive rights in the MDGs represents a
step backwards, rather than forward.
Latin American &
Caribbean Women's Health Network |
Recognition of sexual and
reproductive rights and the right to health were a key part of the
conceptual advances from the 1994 International Conference on Population
and Development (ICPD) in
Cairo
and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in
Beijing
. According to the Latin
American & Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN), failure to
include these rights in the MDGs represents a step backwards, rather
than forward.
CLADEM (Latin American &
Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights) declared that
“the agendas of governments and those of some donor agencies are
prioritizing the MDGs over the achievement of other programs, including
the Beijing Platform for Action, which runs the risk of being consigned
to oblivion.”
MDGs Ignore Powerful
Contexts of Neoliberal Economic Model and Religious Fundamentalism
Also a problem with the MDGs
according to Antrobus, is their abstraction from the social, political
and economic context in which they are to be implemented – the
‘political economy’ of the MDGs in a neoliberal economic context.
According to Ana María Pizarro of Nicargua’s Si
Mujer, the result is that they transfer authority and legitimacy
from the UN to the international financial institutions, including the
World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund).
Also a factor in removing
sexual and reproductive rights from the MDGs were forces of religious
fundamentalism, which, according to Antrobus, have influenced UN
conferences going back to the 1994 ICPD in Cairo, as well as greater
right-wing control or influence on many governments including that of
the U.S.. These trends also
represent a backlash against women’s rights, said Antrobus.
Numerous Women's Groups Launch Advocacy
Campaigns to Reshape MDGs
Advocacy campaigns to
encourage government officials to reconceptualize and broaden the MDGs
to incorporate aspects of gender in all goals, are being launched by
several groups including the LACWHN and the GCAP Feminist Task Force.
The GCAP Feminist Task Force
outlined several key messages that they plan to promote in lobbying
during the MDG +5 review process, including concerns about the
definition of “development” in the MDGs which follows the neoliberal
economic model (called “economic fundamentalism” by Antrobus),
focusing on weakening the public sector and strengthening the private
sector by opening up markets, which undermines the role of civil
society. By
emphasizing a neoliberal approach, the MDGs fail to account for problems
with trade liberalization and unequal net resource flows between north
and south.
The Special Rapporteur of the
UN Commission on Human Rights stated in 2003 that greater attention
should be paid throughout the MDGs to the situation of poor women,
minorities and indigenous populations.
Likewise, CLADEM and also the
Feminist Task Force are asking that the MDGs be implemented within a
human rights framework that includes economic, social and cultural
rights, as well as sexual and reproductive rights, and which also
encompasses development and peace. These
groups also advocate a more historic approach that implements the action
plans from the UN Conferences in Vienna (human rights), Cairo (sexual
and reproductive rights), and Beijing (12-point women’s rights
agenda). In addition, the
task force emphasizes greater participation of women in the review and
implementation process, including NGOs and women’s organizations.
As for UN Reform, which will
intersect with the MDGs review and implementation process, the Feminist
Task Force called for greater access by civil society and women’s
groups to the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
They also advocate elevating the status of women-specific
entities in the UN system, strengthening the role of ECOSOC (Economic
and Social Council), and increased funding for women-specific and gender
mainstreaming work in the UN.
Others may use all of part of this press release for redistribution but
please give credit to Radio Feminista/FIRE.
For
more information on the MDGs, go to: http://www.un.org/milleniumgoals/.
For
more information on the Informal Interactive Hearings, go to http://www.un.org/ga/civilsocietyhearings/.
For more
information, see FIRE’s webpage at: www.radiofeminista.net
or write to oficina@radiofeminista.net.
For more information about the Women’s Media Pool, see the
webpage at: www.womensmediapool.org
or write to the WMP coordinator, María Suárez at: maria@radiofeminista.net.
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