Women’s Needs Are High on MDG Summit Agenda

NEW YORK, September 12 – Action to meet the needs of women and girls will be high on the agenda at next month’s summit here, when world leaders convene to assess progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. Some women’s advocates want to raise the issue even higher.

Theme of the Sept. 20-22 United Nations summit meeting is “Making it happen by 2015.” Six round-table sessions, each co-chaired by two heads of state or government, will discuss a recent 15-page report from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that found mixed results in the ten years since world leaders established the MDGs in 2000.

Noting that only five years remain until the 2015 MDG deadline that the leaders set for themselves, the report described some progress in all eight MDGs. However, escalating climate change and the global economic downturn caused hunger and poverty to spike in 2009, stalling further movement. It said progress on MDG 5, improving maternal health, is lagging most.

However, the MDGs can still be achieved if national development strategies, policies and programs are supported by international development partners, the report said. “The summit will be a crucially important opportunity to redouble our efforts to meet the goals,” said Ban. “Our challenge today is to agree on an action agenda.”

Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s deputy UN representative, said Ban’s paper offered only a “superficial” discussion of gender equality, treating it as a key goal rather than a basic human right. She and her team have produced their own version of the document calling for women’s empowerment to be recognized as a “fundamental value and an issue of social justice.”

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty, an international civil society coalition of 162 partners in 130 countries, is also lobbying for the summit’s outcome document to include gendered language and gender-specific commitments throughout, rather than bracketing them into women-specific sections.

"It's of course not a bad thing to make a strong statement about maternal health, except if it is made in exclusivity," said Lysa John, campaign director of the Global Call. "It's not an issue you can work on in isolation. It's not just about access to a hospital or medical care; it's nutrition, education, sexual and reproductive rights and much more at all stages of a woman's life."

A side event by the advocacy group Women Deliver will seek to mobilize conference participants to make those points in their presentations using language documenting women’s value to families, communities and nations.

In a June 30 statement on the summit, U.S. President Barack Obama said, “Meeting the needs of women and girls is at the core of our presidential initiatives.” The statement  criticized slow rates of reducing maternal mortality and child malnutrition and noted that gender inequality “hampers achievement of most MDGs.” It added, “Investing in and empowering women and girls is central to promoting sustainable development and achieving many MDGs.”

Calling for stronger rules and institutions to protect women’s human and economic rights, to educate girls and to measure gender differences in policy impacts, the statement said, “Empowering women is an important force multiplier in its own right, as well as a key ingredient for sustaining development gains.”

The administration pledged $30 million to assist victims of gender-based violence in Africa and $60 million in new programs to address child labor abuses, as well as support for enforcement of women’s legal rights in 10 countries and legislation to combat sexual harassment, domestic violence and human trafficking in several countries.

Program events at the three-day summit will include sessions on “Mother and Child Health Care,” by the International Red Cross and selected member states; “Progress and the World’s Women: Gender Justice and the MDGs,” sponsored by Denmark; “Botswana’s experience with integrated approach to HIV/AIDS challenges,” with the Global Health Council and others; “Women, Peace and Security,” sponsored by Switzerland; and the Launch of the Joint Action Plan on Women and Children’s Health, by the Secretary-General’s office.

Letty Chiwara, chief of the Africa Division of the UN’s Development Fund for Women, also wants the summit outcome to include specific, itemized goals for women, such as more funding for women living with HIV/AIDS and greater political participation for women everywhere.

"We've had enough commitments and we don't want a document that narrates the good work we have done," said Chiwara. "We want a document that articulates key gaps and what actions we need to close those. We still need a lot of work to achieve that."

Resources
Millennium Development Goals Summit - September 20-22, 2010, New York

Millennium Development Goals Report 2010

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report: Keeping the Promise
A forward-looking review to promote an agreed action agenda to
achieve the MDGs by 2015

Celebrate, Innovate and Sustain: Toward 2015 and Beyond
The United States’ Strategy for Meeting the Millennium Development Goals

The path to achieving the Millennium Development Goals: A synthesis of evidence from around the world

What Will It Take To Achieve The Millennium Development Goals?

Millennium Development Goals Report Card: Learning from Progress

Millennium Development Goals: 2010 Progress Chart

Official list of MDG indicators

MDGs After the Crisis - The World Bank

Women and children stand to bear the brunt of the global economic crisis 

Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Developmnt Goals – We can end poverty 2015

Secretary-General’s MDG Advocacy Group

World Health Organization

MDG Video Spot to increase awareness and galvanize support

Antonio Banderas Goodwill Ambassador speaks on MDGs

past features