States should be made accountable for women rights: Ban
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that there should be accountability in allocating resources fairly for women "who are marginalised and whose needs are ignored".
By PTI |
NEW YORK: Ahead of a meeting of world leaders on Millennium Development Goals in New York next week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that there should be accountability in allocating resources fairly for women "who are marginalised and whose needs are ignored".
"Without accountability, governments will not allocate resources fairly...Women are the most severely impacted because they often lack access to education, political office and courts. They are marginalised, not mobilised, and their needs are ignored, not answered," Ban said at the launch of a new report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
The publication, Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009, Who Answers to Women, Gender and Accountability, says that there is a long way to go to ensure that pledges to women's rights are translated into changes in their lives.
In legislatures, women decision-makers are outnumbered four to one, while women earn on average 17 per cent less than men. Some one-third of women are victims of gender-based violence during their lives and one in 10 women dies while pregnant despite the fact that preventing maternal mortality is relatively inexpensive, the report says.
It points out that accountability mechanisms work best for women when they can ask for explanations, information and, when needed, compensation or investigations.
The report's launch comes a week before world leaders converge at UN Headquarters in New York to discuss the Millennium Development Goals and eight anti-poverty goals with a 2015 deadline.
"Building accountability for gender equality is not a luxury, it's a necessity," UNIFEM Executive Director Ines Alberdi told reporters in New York, adding that moving from "commitments to results" is crucial to meet the MDGs.
Governments and organizations not doing a better job of answering to women impede poverty reduction as well as human development, she said, pointing to the example of maternal mortality.
"Reforming the health system to reduce maternal mortality is cheap and uncomplicated," Alberdi said, but more than half a million women die every year from complications while giving birth. The rate of maternal mortality is falling at a rate of 0.4 per cent annually, far shy of the 5.5 per cent drop needed to meet the fifth MDG, which calls for slashing the ratio by three-quarters by 2015.
The UNIFEM study calls on multilateral aid and security institutions to step up efforts to work towards their own standards regarding gender equality, noting that organizations such as the UN have no agreed means to assess the amount of funding earmarked for women's rights.
"Without accountability, governments will not allocate resources fairly...Women are the most severely impacted because they often lack access to education, political office and courts. They are marginalised, not mobilised, and their needs are ignored, not answered," Ban said at the launch of a new report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
The publication, Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009, Who Answers to Women, Gender and Accountability, says that there is a long way to go to ensure that pledges to women's rights are translated into changes in their lives.
In legislatures, women decision-makers are outnumbered four to one, while women earn on average 17 per cent less than men. Some one-third of women are victims of gender-based violence during their lives and one in 10 women dies while pregnant despite the fact that preventing maternal mortality is relatively inexpensive, the report says.
It points out that accountability mechanisms work best for women when they can ask for explanations, information and, when needed, compensation or investigations.
The report's launch comes a week before world leaders converge at UN Headquarters in New York to discuss the Millennium Development Goals and eight anti-poverty goals with a 2015 deadline.
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"Building accountability for gender equality is not a luxury, it's a necessity," UNIFEM Executive Director Ines Alberdi told reporters in New York, adding that moving from "commitments to results" is crucial to meet the MDGs.
Governments and organizations not doing a better job of answering to women impede poverty reduction as well as human development, she said, pointing to the example of maternal mortality.
"Reforming the health system to reduce maternal mortality is cheap and uncomplicated," Alberdi said, but more than half a million women die every year from complications while giving birth. The rate of maternal mortality is falling at a rate of 0.4 per cent annually, far shy of the 5.5 per cent drop needed to meet the fifth MDG, which calls for slashing the ratio by three-quarters by 2015.
The UNIFEM study calls on multilateral aid and security institutions to step up efforts to work towards their own standards regarding gender equality, noting that organizations such as the UN have no agreed means to assess the amount of funding earmarked for women's rights.
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