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PRESENTATION
BY
ANWARUL
K. CHOWDHURY
UNITED NATIONS UNDER-SECRETARY GENERAL
AND HIGH REPRESENTATIVE
FOR THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES,
LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
AND SMALL ISLAND DEVELOPING STATES
AT THE
SESSION
ON “POVERTY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND EMPOWERMENT – MAINSTREAMING
WOMEN”
OF THE HIGH-LEVEL POLICY-MAKERS’ SYMPOSIUM
ON SOUTH-TO-SOUTH COLLABORATION: MULTI-SECTORAL APPROACHES
TO POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
ORGANIZED
BY
NPO2050,
UNDP AND PPD
TOKYO,
11-13 SEPTEMBER 2002
Presentation by Mr. Anwarul K. Chowdhury
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for LDCs,
LLDCs and SIDS,
United Nations, New York
at the High-level Policy-Makers’ Symposium on South-to-South
Collaboration:
Multi-Sectoral Approaches to Population and Development
Organized by NPO2050, UNDP & PPD, 11-13 September 2002,
UN House, Tokyo
Session
one, Part One: Poverty, the Environment and Empowerment –
Mainstreaming Women
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It
is timely that two years ahead of the tenth anniversary of
the ICPD this High-level Policy-Makers’ Symposium is
seized with the question of mainstreaming women in the context
of population and development. The global conferences of the
1990s have recognized the linkages between poverty, environment
and empowerment of women. Sustainable development and poverty
eradication are constant themes throughout in all their outcomes,
declarations and programmes of action. All those will remain
unaccomplished without the full and effective participation
of women – fifty percent of our strength worldwide. Empowerment
of women is therefore critical to achieving the objectives
that form the socio-economic agenda of our time.
ICPD
goals
At
the centre of the ICPD and its plus five goals lies the question
of mainstreaming women in all spheres of life. The practitioners
will attest that progress in realizing these goals has invariably
been linked to positive advancement of women. The lack of
progress, conversely, is explained mainly by the failure in
mainstreaming women - empowering women, protecting their rights
and ensuring their rightful role in society. One of the strongest
statements setting international norms for the international
community is the recognition in the Beijing Declaration that
‘women’s rights are human rights’. That sets
the starting point.
Gender
mainstreaming
Experience
in developing societies over the past decades has shown that
economic opportunity, education and reproductive health services
are essential factors in empowering women. Progress in these
areas has brought about revolutionary transformations in developing
societies. Women, when empowered, have contributed to substantial
improvement in the quality of life in the families, generated
employment and created wealth. The economic and social impact
have been tremendous slowing down population growth, spurring
economic prosperity and making development sustainable by
reducing pressure on environment.
The
Beijing Platform for Action therefore set gender equality
as a goal with mainstreaming as the strategy. This needs to
be complemented with inputs that address specific gaps in
gender equality. Empowerment would require opening of economic
opportunities, right and access to factors of production,
education and healthcare, training and employment and markets.
Mainstreaming
within the UN
The
intergovernmental mandates for gender mainstreaming draw their
strength from the recognition that incorporating gender perspective
contributes not only to the realization of human rights and
social justice but also significantly to other social and
economic goals. The Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General
for Gender Issues and Advancement of Women has a broad responsibility
to oversee UN system-wide implementation of these mandates
and directives.
In
concrete terms, what does it involve to mainstream women?
As Special Adviser Angela King puts it, mainstreaming would
involve changes in organizations, structures, procedures and
cultures. This may require changes in goals, strategies and
actions so that woman can also influence, participate and
benefit from development.
Empowerment
While
mainstreaming opens up the opportunity, empowerment is the
key to women’s effective participation. In this context,
emphasis has long been on economic empowerment through employment
and ownership of micro-enterprise or other income generating
activities. But that is only a basic step, transforming women
from dependence to meaningful economic self-reliance. The
social impact of this empowerment is tremendous as has been
seen in many countries including my own, Bangladesh. Consolidation
of the gains of economic empowerment needs to be complemented
by ensuring women’s participation in decision-making.
The protection and promotion of their rights are essential
to the creation of conditions for mainstreaming women. Empowerment
thus requires multi-sectoral approaches.
Education
As
the Secretary-General underlined in his Millennium Report,
‘education is the key to the new global economy, it is
central to development, social progress and human freedom’.
A study of the East Asian miracle reveals that the rapid reduction
in poverty and the tremendous economic and social progress
in these countries owe a great deal to their early investment
in education. “Experience has shown over and over again,”
the Secretary-General asserted, “ that investments in
girl’s education translate directly and quickly into
better nutrition for the whole family, better health care,
declining fertility, poverty reduction, and better overall
economic performance”. Education of girls is the single
most effective tool in empowerment and in advancing development
goals. This has been recognized throughout the global conferences
of the 1990s. Education affords girls to make informed choices
about their life and opens opportunities for realization of
their potential.
Access
to health care including reproductive health services
There
are certain basic premises in achieving women’s empowerment.
I shall not go into those except for underscoring the importance
of support for reproductive health services. The International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) agreed to
ensure universal access to reproductive health services by
2015. ICPD+5 reiterated that objective. This forms the major
global agenda for the United Nations. A cardinal point in
the Beijing Platform for Action is that women have the right
to control all aspects of their health, in particular their
own fertility. This right is basic to human dignity and it
is basic to women’s empowerment.
Participation
in decision-making
There
is need to bring back the emphasis on women’s participation
in all spheres of social and public life. The Inter-Parliamentary
Union has been calling for women’s representation in
politics and public institutions. But in reality, women’s
percentage in national parliaments has not significantly increased
over the years. Promoting women’s participation in the
decision-making process is a major international objective.
This would ensure empowerment. Increased participation of
women in public offices would contribute to social transformations,
most importantly to cultural changes- changes in attitude
toward women, stereotyping and inhibitions. Cultural fixes
and often-misplaced attribution of religion and tradition
remain major impediments to women’s empowerment. There
is certainly scope for further work in this area.
Role
of women in peace, security and post-conflict peace building
Let
me also bring in one crucial area in women’s participation
and empowerment. Peace and security are inextricably linked
to development. The rights of women are subject to the worst
forms of violation in areas of armed conflict. Women had long
been only the victims. Their role and potential for contribution
to peace making and peace building had been neglected or denied.
In March 2000, Bangladesh took the initiative for the issue
of the first ever Security Council statement on the role of
women in peace and security. The statement issued on the occasion
of the International Day of Women created an unprecedented
momentum resulting in adoption of resolution 1325 of the Security
Council that formally recognizes the role of women in peace
and security and includes decisions to mainstream a gender
perspective in all UN peace operations. Despite serious obstacles,
today women are fighting their way to the peace table all
over the world within political parties and through civil
society. From East Timor and Sri Lanka to Burundi, Congo and
Somalia, women are establishing a new dimension in the quest
for peace and development.
Eradicating
Poverty
Eradicating
extreme poverty and hunger figures at the top of the Millennium
Development Goals. At the Millennium Summit, the world’s
leadership made solemn commitment to reduce by half the number
of people living on less than a dollar a day. That would mean
taking half a billion people out of extreme poverty by 2015.
An absolutely relevant question in this context would be –
will women constitute half of that half expected to come out
poverty? That is a concern that worries me, and my concern,
I am sure, is shared by all of you.
Achieving
the goal would require more than economic growth. Projections
by the UNDP and the World Bank are not very encouraging. Had
the economic growth of the 1990s continued (we know it has
not), according to the UNDP, only 11 countries, including
India and China would meet the 2015 target while 70 countries
would lag behind. The World Bank predicts a more discouraging
scenario – that only a marginal number of people emerging
out of the one dollar-a-day trap by 2015. The trend must be
reversed. Opportunities of reaching the poverty reduction
goal certainly exist. A pro-poor economic growth, the UNDP
says, would allow 29 countries to be on track in meeting the
goal, though 50 will still lag far behind. Evidently, it will
require a multi-sectoral approach, focussing at the national
level on improving income and wealth distribution and accelerated
social development.
Achieving
progress in these areas and sustaining them will depend on
some key external factors - making globalization work for
the developing countries, especially the least developed,
mobilizing resources for development , equitable inflow of
foreign direct investment , increasing official development
assistance , and faster, deeper and broader debt relief. Last
year the General Assembly endorsed these measures recommended
in the Report of the Secretary-General on the First United
Nations Decade on Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006).
Brussels
Programme of Action
These
are also among the priorities defined in the Brussels Programme
of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade
2001-2010. The over-arching objective of the Brussels Programme
is poverty eradication. The Office of the High Representative
– my office -, envisaged as ‘an effective and highly
visible follow up mechanism’, has been mandated by the
UN General Assembly to oversee the implementation, coordination,
review and monitoring of this Programme of Action that enjoins
both the LDCs and their development partners in seven sets
of commitments requiring specific action for - people-centred
policy framework, good governance at national and international
levels, making globalization work for the LDCs, enhancing
the role of trade in development, reducing vulnerability and
protecting environment, and mobilizing financial resources.
Progress in implementing the Brussels Programme will mean
realization of the major goal of the Millennium Summit in
reducing extreme poverty.
Feminization
of poverty
Closely
connected to empowerment is feminization of poverty. Poverty
has a pronounced feminine face. A disproportionate number
of the world’s poor is women. Women account for 70 percent
of the world’s poor. Gender gap in education persists
with 60 percent of children out of school being girls. One
woman dies every minute during pregnancy and childbirth due
to lack of medical care. Advancement, empowerment and mainstreaming
as concepts and programmes lose their meaning and relevance
when a woman faced with extreme poverty is reduced to a subhuman
existence.
Population,
poverty and environment
Their
linkages and the rationale for action have been stated and
re-stated at every possible forum. The latest assertion came
from our colleague Kunio Waki who stressed at the WSSD at
Johannesburg that global population, environmental issues
and women's reproductive health and rights are interrelated.
Population is growing by 77 million people every year - 200,
000 per day- most of them in the world's developing and least
developed countries, where hunger, water scarcity, HIV/AIDS
and environmental degradation are already serious problems.
Yet, as the UNFPA asserted, spending on population assistance
is declining and has dropped by 25 per cent since 1995. The
current figure is now less than one half the assistance targets
agreed at Cairo .
Gender mainstreaming and Millennium Development Goals
The
Millennium Declaration includes strong commitments to the
right to development, to gender equality, to the eradication
of the many dimensions of poverty and to sustainable human
development. The largest population increases and most fragile
environmental conditions are occurring in the least developed
countries . Unless the 49 LDCs are able to meet their sustainable
development targets, the Millennium Development Goals will
remain largely unachieved globally. The challenges of achieving
Millennium Development Goals need to be confronted with a
particular focus on countering feminization of poverty, ensuring
women’s empowerment and overcoming negative impact of
population on sustainable development.
I
shall conclude by echoing what our colleague Thoraya Obaid
has recently said, “ To promote sustainable development
that meets the needs of present and past generations, she
noted, “ we need strong partnerships, strong political
will and practical steps. As a first step, we must empower
women and place them at the centre of development efforts.
And we must direct resources, policies and programmes to benefit
the poor.”
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Footnote:
1. ICPD+5
goals:
a.) Reducing to half the 1990 illiteracy rate for women and
girls by 2005; and by 2010, the net primary school enrolment
ratio for children of both sexes should be at least 90 per
cent;
b.) By 2005, 60 per cent of primary health care and family
planning facilities should offer the widest achievable range
of safe and effective family planning methods, essential obstetric
care, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections,
including sexually transmitted diseases, and barrier methods
to prevent infection; 80 per cent of facilities should offer
such services by 2010, and all should do so by 2015;
c.) At least 40 per cent of all births should be assisted
by skilled attendants where the maternal mortality rate is
very high, and 80 per cent globally, by 2005; these figures
should be 50 and 85 per cent, respectively, by 2010; and 60
and 90 per cent by 2015;
d.) The gap between the proportion of individuals using contraceptives
and the proportion expressing a desire to space or limit their
families should be reduced by half by 2005, by 75 per cent
by 2010, and by 100 per cent by 2015. Recruitment targets
or quotas should not be used in attempting to reach this goal;
e. To reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection, at least
90 per cent of young men and women, aged 15-24, should have
access by 2005 to preventive methods—such as female and
male condoms, voluntary testing, counseling, and follow up,
and at least 95 per cent by 2010. HIV infection rates in persons
15-24 years of age should be reduced by 25 per cent in the
most affected countries by 2005 and by 25 per cent globally
by 2010.
2. The strategy of mainstreaming is defined in the ECOSOC
agreed conclusions, 1997/2 as: “The process of assessing
the implications for women and men of any planned action,
including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas
and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s
as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral
dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
of policies and programmes in all political, economic and
societal spheres..”
3. Beijing Platform for Action, ECOSOC Agreed Conclusions
(1997/2) establishing important overall principles for gender
mainstreaming (followed up by the Secretary-General in letter
dated 13 October 1997 giving directives to heads of all UN
entities), ECOSOC resolution 2001/41(July 2001) calling of
ECOSOC to ensure that gender perspectives are taken into account
in all its work, including the work of its functional commissions.
4. Gender Mainstreaming- An Overview, United Nations, 2002;
Foreword by Angela E.V. King, page vi.
5. World Bank, Global Economic Prospects and
the Developing Countries 2001 (Table 1.8 shows 961.4 million
people in 1998 having an income of less than a dollar day).
Data excludes China. The estimate is based on $1 per day in
1993 purchasing power parity terms.
6. The General Assembly at its 56th session welcomed favourably
the Secretary-General's proposal for a world solidarity fund
for poverty eradication. The 57th session is expected to consider
the proposal on the basis of a further report that would detail
the modalities, functioning and relationship with other relevant
organizations and institutions.
7. In 1993-98, only 20 countries accounted for all FDI flows
to developing and transition economy countries, the LDCs as
a group received only 0.5 percent of FDI inflows in 1999.
Report of the Secretary-General on the First United Nations
Decade on Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006)- A/56/229. A
further report as requested under resolution A/RES/56/207
would be submitted to the 57 UNGA.
8. As a percentage of gross national product (GNP), ODA continued
to decline over the past two decades reaching its lowest level
ever - 0.22 per cent in 1997 and again in 2001. Only five
countries met the 0.7 per cent target in 2001- with one (Denmark)
giving as much as 1 per cent of its GNP- while others gave
as little as 0.1 per cent. The announcements made at Monterrey
would lead to an increase of at least US$ 12 billion per year
by 2006. This is an important step but it still falls far
short of the additional US$ 50 billion needed to give developing
countries a fair chance of meeting the Millennium development
goals. Report of the Secretary-General on Millennium Goals,
A/57/270
9.
At the ICPD in 1994, participating nations made commitments
to meet the cost of reproductive health and related programmes
amounting to $18 billion in 2005, $20.5 billion in 2010 and
$ 21.7 billion in 2015. To date only about $10.5 billion is
being mobilized annually. As of 2000, developing countries
are contributing 75 percent ($8.6 billion) of while the developed
countries are contributing only 40 percent (2.6 billion).
10. In the next 50 years, the combined population of the LDCs
is projected by the UNFPA to be tripled from 658 million to
1.8 billion people.
11. Commemorative publication for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) at Johannesburg, August 2002.
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