Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Ten years after global leaders vowed to work toward eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality, and more, the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- particularly those relating to women -- remain a distant hope. Though women were a focus of much discussion this week at the MDG summit in
An MDG report released in June noted that when it comes to women, "progress has been sluggish on all fronts -- from education to access to political decision-making."
While progress has been made on girls' primary school enrollment, only three of ten regions are on track regarding women's share of paid employment. The figure is even bleaker concerning women's equal representation in national parliaments.
Data is still being collected, but early figures show the maternal mortality ratio reduction rate is "well short" of the 5.5 percent annual decline required to slash global maternal mortality by the MDGs' stated 75 percent. Data from 1990 shows 430 maternal deaths per one hundred thousand live births. As of 2008, that figure had dropped only slightly to four hundred deaths per one hundred thousand live births, nowhere near the goal of below 150.
UN Secretary General
Aid organizations say this
Women have become a hot topic among the development crowd, and women's health and economic issues have received a great deal of attention recently, but attention does not change women's lives. Investment does.
Some progress has been made in getting antenatal care to pregnant women, particularly in
Other areas, like reproductive health, have received decidedly less attention and investment. Family planning funding as a percentage of total health aid plummeted from 8.2 percent in 2000 to 3.2 percent in 2008. As the UN reported, "external funding for family planning in constant
The world has five years to meet the eight admirable goals its leaders outlined in 2000. Ensuring that half the world's population can access healthcare, education, and economic opportunity is part of creating a safer, more stable, and prosperous world.
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