WOMEN, CHILDREN AND POVERTY

Fight Against Poverty: Where We Stand and What Is At Stake

Financial means required to alleviate the scourges of poverty are within our reach.
Examples1:

• 3 dollars: cost of one insecticide-treated mosquito net to prevent malaria infection (every 30 seconds an African child dies of malaria).
• 5 dollars: average cost of providing one pregnant woman with quality antenatal care.
• 10 dollars: provide 5 couples with protection for 1 year against HIV/AIDS and unintended pregnancies (condoms).

Poverty affects us all since it is not only of concern to its immediate victims but also breeds many forms of violence, insecurity and environmental damage everywhere in the world. The fight against poverty, in particular extreme poverty still rampant in least developed countries, is therefore a global objective that requires a long term commitment on the part of all stakeholders, rich and poor, and whose achievement is entrenched in everyone's individual action.

• More than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day;
• another 2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than two dollars per day; on the whole,53% of people worldwide live below the poverty threshold.
• 70% of people living in extreme poverty (with less than one dollar a day) are women. The world's richest 500 individuals have the same income as the world's poorest 416 million people.
• Every year 11 million children die – most under the age of five – from completely preventable causes (malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia).
• Every minute one woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth; this adds up to an estimated 530'000 deaths each year, 99% of which in developing countries.
• Some 115 million children are not in school – and two thirds (584 million) of the world's illiterate people are women.

United Nations projections suggest that over the next 30 years virtually all of the world's population growth will occur in the urban areas of low- and middle-income countries; increasing numbers of the world's poor will therefore be city dwellers. For the first time in history, the urban population will exceed the 50% mark by 2007; 60% of the world's inhabitants will live in cities by 2030. The Indian cities of Mumbai (Bombay) and New Delhi will be the second and third most populous of our planet by 2015 (the first being Tokyo). The Indian nation will add 500 million people to its population by 2050, and will probably be the world's most densely populated country by 2040.

Currently, more than 900 million people – approximately 1 out of every 6 people worldwide – live in slums; this number could double by 2030 and triple by 2050; unless the world changes course, the global slum population will grow to 3 billion people by the middle of this century.

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, 189 states agreed to achieve 8 objectives, called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by 2015.
Each of these objectives includes a number of specific targets and indicators. Thus Goal n° 7 mentions, among other targets, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
To this day, the means supplied by rich countries are unfortunately far from being sufficient to achieve the objectives mentioned above.

Specialists agree that living conditions in slum settings represent a condensed mixture of virtually all the problems listed in the Millennium Goals. Considering the growing urbanisation in developing countries, the fight against poverty in slums is of crucial importance to the achievement of these Goals.

Everywhere in the world, girls and women bear the brunt of poverty. In spite of their manifold and heavy responsibilities within their families and communities, they are very often denied the most basic social and economic rights, such as the rights to health, education, employment and ownership.
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs2, internationally renowned economist, as well as poverty reduction experts worldwide are unanimous in asserting that women's empowerment is one of the main driving forces leading to poverty reduction and economic growth.

The instruments facilitating women's empowerment are manifold and interdependent; they include access to primary and reproductive health care, family planning, education, training, income generating activities, gender equality, and the recognition of women's fundamental rights.
In parallel, women's empowerment brings about direct benefits for their families and society as a whole. Examples:

• The children of a woman with 5 years of primary school education have a survival rate 40% higher than children of women with no education.
• Educated mothers immunise their children 50% more often than mothers who are not educated.
• Compared to men, women spend a higher proportion of their income on their families, especially their children.
• In the Indian State of Kerala – where the literacy rate is extraordinarily high – a significant decline in the population growth rate has been observed.
• AIDS spreads twice as quickly among uneducated girls than among girls who have even some schooling.

Fulfilling the MDGs definitely requires the active collaboration of various development stakeholders. These include not only governmental and multilateral institutions but also organisations from civil society and the private sector. Besides official development aid, private resources actually play a decisive role for developing countries. They consist in particular of direct foreign investments, fund transfers of migrants to their home countries, and donations made to development cooperation organisations.
When it comes to working with local partners, civil society organisations prove to be remarkably efficient in promoting the autonomy of people and initiatives advancing to the MDGs. Private donations hold an important share in development cooperation, and it is therefore essential to cooperate with civil society and the private sector to improve fundraising opportunities.

Experts of the UN Millennium Project in charge of identifying strategies to improve the lives of slum dwellers emphasise the importance of involving civil society and promoting local strategies based on the cultural, ethical and operational needs and principles of target populations. Grass root strategies stemming from the domestic context, deeply rooted in the realities of life, and integrating the active participation of local beneficiaries and networks are likely to be developed on a large scale, and represent an efficient and sustainable means to fight poverty on the regional, national and international levels; they also form a solid basis for the elaboration of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP)3 in low income countries.

The report entitled "Investing in Development – A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals", presented to the UN Secretary-General by Jeffrey D. Sachs in January 2005, confirms the significant role played by civil society in promoting initiatives for poverty reduction: "CSOs [civil society organisations] […] play a crucial role in scaling up the delivery of services to meet the Goals. In addition to their important role in representing the needs of the poor people, the UN Millennium Project strongly recommends that CSOs participate in the design, implementation and review of MDG-based poverty reduction strategies in all developing countries."

Regarding contributions of the private sector, the same report states: "Companies and their leaders can also take action to support the Goals more broadly, by contributing to MDG-based policy design, by advocating publicly for the Goals, and by pursuing various models of corporate philanthropy."

For further reading:

	Development as Freedom Amartya Sen (1998 Nobel Prize in Economics), 1999
	The End of Poverty Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2005

1 Numbers taken from: UNFPA Global Population Policy Update, May 2004

2 Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the MDGs and Director of the Millennium Project (independant advisory body commissioned by the UN Secretary-General in 2002 to propose the best strategies for meeting the MDGs).

3 Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are prepared by governments in low income countries through a participatory process involving domestic stakeholders and external development partners, including the IMF and the World Bank. A PRSP describes the macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes that a country will pursue over several years to promote broad-based growth and reduce poverty, as well as external financing needs and the associated sources of financing.
The PRSP approach, initiated by the IMF and the World Bank in 1999, results in a comprehensive country-based strategy for poverty reduction. It aims to provide the crucial link between national public actions, donor support, and the development outcomes needed to meet the Unites Nations' Millennium Development Goals.