Wednesday, April 19, 2006

undp overview | women in politics

Carol Flore-Smereczniak
Pacific Regional Millennium Development Goals Specialist
UNDP Pacific Sub-Regional Centre (PSRC)
2nd Flr, YWCA Bldg, Ratu Sukuna Park, Suva
Tel: 679-3300399
Fax: 679-3301976

PACIFIC REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON ADVANCING WOMEN’S REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENTS
19-21 April 2006
Rarotonga,
Cook Islands

Objective
  • Enhance awareness of the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs

  • Highlight some of the dimensions of inequality addressed under Goal 3 + way forward

  • Hopefully, this will link the workshop discussions to the MDG achievement framework
Millennium Declaration
  • Commitment by 189 Heads of States & Governments at the Millennium Summit

  • Focus on specific dimensions of human development

  • Peace & security

  • Human Rights

  • Reproductive Health

  • Governance

  • Issue of countries in crisis & post-crisis

8 Major Goals … 2015
  • 1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

  • 2.Achieve universal primary education

  • 3.Promote gender equality & empower  women

  • 4.Reduce child mortality

  • 5.Improve maternal health

  • 6.Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases

  • 7.Ensure environmental sustainability

  • 8.Develop a global partnership for development

MDG Goal 3: Promote gender equality & empower women
  • Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015

  • Indicators:

  • Ratio of boys to girls in primary, secondary and tertiary education

  • Ratio of literate females to males 15-24 years old

  • Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector

  • Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Global observationson gender equality & women empowerment
  • Generally, economic and non-economic inequality has increased in many parts of the world

  • Certain forms of inequality have become more profound and more complex in recent times
General observations cont.
  • There is no country that treats its women the same as men

  • Women do not have the same opportunities as men

  • Despite some headway, women are still disadvantaged in economic and political life
General observations
  • Persistent gender gaps in:

  • Access to education

  • Decent employment

  • Fair & equal remuneration

  • > women in the workforce masks the deterioration in employment conditions of women, resulting in jobs with lower pay

General observations
  • Women’s unequal access to economic & non-economic opportunities :

  • lead to their lower status in society

  • Often results in abuse and sexual exploitation, and making them voiceless on issues that impact on their lives
The World’s Women 2005:Progress in Statistics
  • Focus on the availability of statistics to address gender concerns

  • Include disaggregated statistics on health, population, education and work

  • New focus on statistics on such aspects as violence against women, poverty, power & decision-making and human rights
The World’s Women 2005:Progress in Statistics cont.


  • Overriding concern in the Report about the large number of countries who do not report by sex on wages, births and deaths
GenderHow Goal 3 links to the other MDGs
Gender inequalities are often exacerbated by:
  • Lack of Economic well-being, relating to poverty & hunger (Goal 1)

  • Lack of Social development, such as

  • unequal access to education (Goal 2)

  • Fewer employment opportunities / decision-making  (Goal 3)

  • Lack of adequate health services (Goal 4 & 5)

  • vulnerability to infectious diseases such as STI and HIV/AIDS (Goal 6)
GenderHow Goal 3 links to the other MDGs cont.
Gender inequalities exacerbated by:
  • Lack of Sustainable development (Goal 7)

  • limited access to safe drinking water

  • Unequal access to improved sanitation

  • Low control over environmental and energy resources

  • Slum dwellers / squatter settlements

  • Extreme inequalities and scarce resources often result in conflicts (women and girls more affected)
GenderSituation analysis in the Pacific
  • Gender imbalances and inequalities across sectors and society

  • Women are hit harder by poverty and hardship

  • Low access to paid employment for women; poor working conditions, limited access to ICT and low control of trade & market forces

  • Under-representation of women in leadership positions, with men continuing to dominate in decision-making at the highest level

  • Issues of

  • Gender-based violence

  • access to reproductive & primary health services

  • HIV/AIDS, STI, NCDs
Interventions needed to promote gender equality and women empowerment
  • The goal of social justice and equity must be explicitly incorporated in policies, programmes, legal frameworks

  • Increase awareness of the importance of, and provide education

  • Enhance equal access to and treatment in work and property rights (more and better employment opportunities for women,

  • Decent working conditions: equality, security and dignity

  • Legislate to protect women’s equal rights to property, assets, etc, taking account of cultural norms & values

  • Improve awareness of and access to women’s reproductive health services and rights

  • Prevent practices that are harmful to girls’ and women’s sexual and reproductive health and promote rights through legislation in compliance with international conventions (CEDAW, Beijing Platform of Action)

  • Address the plight of women migrant workers

  • Effective monitoring and implementation of laws protecting women’s human rights
GenderInterventions: what will it take?
  • Mobilization of stakeholders

  • Institutional strengthening & reform (mechanism for adequate women representation at all levels of government + training)

  • Support to national women’s machineries / appropriate budget

  • Lobbying & advocacy (awareness campaigns)

  • Address violence against women

  • Data collection & monitoring (gender disaggregated data)

  • Address systemic issues

Conclusion
  • If more women are better educated,

  • and have better health care,

  • There can be more women in better jobs,

  • Increasing  higher levels of decision-making

  • If there is more support and training opportunities, it is possible to have more women in Parliament …

Thank you …

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