Goal #3Gender Equity
Introduction
Poverty has a woman's face. Global prosperity and peace will only be achieved once all the world's people are empowered to order their own lives and provide for themselves and their families. Societies where women are more equal stand a much greater chance of achieving the Millennium Goals by 2015. Every single Goal is directly related to women's rights, and societies were women are not afforded equal rights as men can never achieve development in a sustainable manner.
The Targets
Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals sets out by the year 2015 to:
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
Did You Know?
- Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world, 70% are women. (Source: World Revolution)
- Women do about 66% of the world's work in return for less than 5% of its income. (Source: Women's International Network)
- In the least developed countries nearly twice as many women over age 15 are illiterate compared to men. (Source: UNFPA)
- Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. (Source: AskWoman)
- Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. (Source :World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind Worldwide)
Achieving the Goals
In 2005, Mozambique signed a new law that gave women equal rights as members of a household. Women finally received the legal right to divorce, create pre-nuptial agreements and inherit property.
The Family Law legally redefined the status of women and overhauled marriage laws.
The law also limited marriage to women of 18 years of age and older. Men were now no longer the defacto head of household, and women are able to work outside the home without acquiring permission and can buy and manage financial assets. Members of the Family Law coalition are now teaching leaders how to practice the new laws in ways that will not undermine traditional views of the family.
Goal News
Senegalese Entertainer Baba Maal promoting MDG Goals 4 and 5 at an event organized by the UN Country Office to support the MDG Campaign. The event was jointly organized with the National Civil Society Consortium.(CONGAD)
Senegal launches Parliamentary MDG Committee to monitor MDG Performance. This was a join event by the UN Millennium Campaign and the UN Country Team, lead by the RC.
DAKAR (AlertNet) – African solutions to African problems is the mantra of governments across this continent. But what about the goodwill ambassadors that fly around speaking about the issues that touch Africa most deeply, should they be African too?
Just days before an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Cameroon and Senegal in Dakar, the United Nations named Senegal’s captain, Mamadou Niang, a champion of the U.N.
As cities around the world struggle to meet the basic needs of their booming populations, many are falling behind when it comes to water, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement marking World Day for Water.
“Urbanization brings opportunities for more efficient water management and improved access to drinking water and sanitation,” Ban said. “At the same time, problems are often magnified in cities,” he added.
The ‘AIDS and MDGs’ approach
“Over the past three decades, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reminded us of the fundamental linkages between health and development more broadly.
