Essay: United Nations Millennium Declaration

Background:
In September 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which created a series of eight goals to be completed by 2015. Among these was the goal to promote gender equality and empower women. Its target was to, “eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015” by measuring four indicators: (1) the ratio of girls to boys at the three tiers of education; (2) the ratio of literate young women to men; (3) the share of women in non-agricultural paid work; and (4) the proportion of women in national parliaments. Along with UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the OECD contributed to defining and assessing the progress made with these indicators.
Progress and Challenges:
Of the four indicators for Goal 3, only the first has been achieved, and even then only at the primary level. While the numbers are encouraging when looking at the primary level, this is simply not the case when considering gender equality in secondary schools. The most substantial progress here is seen in Western and Southern Asia, but improvements remain a necessity. Though poverty as a cause of low school enrollment rates for girls is significant at every level, it is most influential at the secondary level. The greatest degree of gender inequality in education is to be found at the tertiary level. According to the UN’s Fact Sheet for MDG 3 (2013), there is evidence to support the claim that the enrollment rates of women compared to the enrollment rates of men has in fact worsened in the past decade at the university level in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the most recent data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics Fact Sheet (2015), 93% of 15-24 year-old males are literate, whereas that figure is 89% for females. Of the 115 million illiterate youths in the world in 2013, nearly 60% were female. Gender parity with respect to literacy has been achieved in Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Eastern Union among all age groups, and in East Asia and the Pacific among youths only. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, young women are 14% and 9% less likely to be literate, respectively.
Regarding continued income inequality, women earn 24% less than men, with the largest disparities found in Southern Asia, 33%, and Sub-Saharan Africa 30%. In terms of unpaid care and domestic work, women still perform two-and-a-half times more than men. This is essential for the development of children, but prevents women from fully engaging in employment. In developing regions, the majority of women remain concentrated in low-skilled, low-paid jobs that do not provide an adequate route out of poverty (MDG Report, 2015). As of 2015, women make up 41% of paid workers outside of agriculture, an increase from 35% in 1990. Globally, less than half of working-age women are employed, compared to almost three-quarters of men. In Northern Africa, Southern Asia, and Western Asia the participation rate is especially low; one quarter of women compared to one third of men. Finally, the Millennium Development Goals Report (2014) states that the average proportion of women in parliament has nearly doubled over the past twenty years, yet only one in five members are women. Only Rwanda and Bolivia boast a female majority of office holders at 63.8% and 53.1%, respectively.
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Oceania especially continue to face a myriad of challenges. According to the 2013 MDG Progress Report for Africa, these include “high grade repetition, early marriage, sexual harassment and violence both in and outside the education setting.” The same report cites the Centre for Reproductive Rights at the University of Toronto as also noting the exclusion of women from the inheritance of property and the discriminatory punishments women face for adultery in countries such as Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Uganda. Traditional practices such as forced marriages as well as difficulty in organizing women are other barriers to improving female literacy in the country. Barriers to greater participation of women in parliament include having few female candidates, uneven access to financing, a lack of work-life balance, limited political encouragement, and a lack of commitment to gender balance within parties (OECD).
Sub-Saharan: the success and failure
Despite the progress of MDG 3 in many places of the world, most areas of Sub-Saharan Africa still lag behind: 18 of 37 countries for which data exist are off track, and another 11 countries lack data (World Bank). This memo studies two cases: Mozambique, a relative success, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which failed to achieve its goals.
Overall, Mozambique is off-track in terms of reaching the targets set by the MDGs, with a 31% MDG Track Global Index. However, in terms of Goal 3, it is on track to reach its target for 2020. The ratio of females to males receiving primary education went from roughly 3:4 to 9:10 (MDG Track). In 2013, women represented 53% of the total labor force in Mozambique (Wikigender). Important progress for women has been made in areas such as political representation (ranked 61 out of 116 countries under the Gender Empowerment Measure), education, and health (Tvedten, 2011). According to Tvedte, “Mozambique’s important political vehicles for gender equality have been the establishment of a separate Ministry for Women and Social Affairs in 2000; the establishment of Gender Focal Points and Gender Units to promote gender equality in most public institutions; the approval of the Family Law of 2002 and the Law Against Domestic Violence of 2009; and relatively strong gender-based NGOs, headed by Forum de Mulher, in an otherwise weak civil society context (FDC 2007)” (Tvedten, 2011).
In contrast to encouraging trends in Mozambique, the DRC is still deeply unequal in terms of gender. The ratio of girls to boys in enrollment in secondary and tertiary education is 0.59:1 and 0.48:1, respectively. Women are largely underrepresented in decision-making institutions, holding 9.8% of seats in parliament for the legislature of 2011-2016 compared to 8.4% in 2006-2011. On average, the index of the Status of Women (ICF) is 0.49. The target is to reach an index of 1 by 2015 (UNDP). The DRC actually ratified many international legal instruments dedicated to addressing gender equality, specifically in the area of protecting girls’ and women’s rights (Annie Matundu Mbambi & Marie-Claire Faray-Kele). Thus far, however, these efforts have been minimally impactful, as the laws are not often implemented. More alarming are the allegations that legislation authorities have even created contradictory provisions to deliberately eliminate women’s rights (Annie Matundu Mbambi & Marie-Claire Faray-Kele). After the disastrous gang-rapes of 200 women near a UN peacekeeping base in Luvungi between July 30 and August 2, 2010, the UN issued a statement admitting its own failure. The UN mission’s failure in the DRC may be the result of inadequate resources and constraints imposed by its limited mandate (Thomas Avery, Sikina S. Hasham 2010). The UN urged the DRC to do more to protect its citizens. In response, the DRC established clear laws to protect women against gender-based violence; which yet again were rarely enforced. Failures in the DRC are largely due to the deep cultural and poor structural conditions present during the initial stages of national development, as well as the poor implementation of the country’s authority, heavily rooted in corruption. Instead of attempting to enact broad changes simultaneously, the DRC should take piecemeal steps using a bottom-up approach.
SDGs
In September 2015, a UN-led committee came up with seventeen goals relating to global poverty to be achieved by 2030. These were named the Sustainable Development Goals. These goals attempt to pick up where the MDGs left off. MDG 3 relates directly to Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender Equality. The six indicators of SDG 5 vary in terms of specificity. Take Indicator 1, “end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere”, for example. While this is a fantastic sentiment, it is an incredibly generalized and not easily measured target. Indicator 2, “Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation” is also problematic. Again, this is a general and loosely-defined target. In 2030, any amount of progress could be construed as a success given the lack of a specific outcome to work towards. Indicators 3 and 6 in part focus on addressing main causes of gender equality, including child marriage and access to sexual/reproductive health. This is an improvement upon the MDGs, which did little to address gender equality at the base level. Indicators 4 and 5 go into greater detail in targeting specific issues vaguely referred to in the MDGs. More specifically, Indicator 4 elaborates on the MDG discussion of the proportion of women in paid non-agricultural work with its target to make women’s unpaid work in the home recognized and reduced by divvying the workload amongst other members of the household.
Policy Recommendations
In order to tackle the difficult challenge of improving literacy rates, programs need to be better aligned with the realities of the communities they intend to serve (sometimes even within the communities they intend to serve). Each level of education should be assessed and policies should be made in accordance with those assessments. There should be an emphasis on not only education but also on sexual education. The prevention of unwanted pregnancies allows for girls to attend school for more consistent periods of time. When funding is available, the introduction of e-readers and mobile devices has done well for improving literacy (USAID). The problem of facilities and maintenance is also of paramount importance. Schools should be built with the capacity to maintain and employ teachers. Similarly, incentives like food and competitions have also proven useful in getting young women to attend school (USAID).
To remedy the issue of gender inequity in employment, one must first consider infrastructure. Access to electricity and water sources closer to home or other facilities is likely to free up women’s time for work, and is essential to empowering women and allowing them to participate in the labor force. Additionally, training opportunities of higher-skilled work should be accessible to women in areas where most women participate in agricultural work. In the meantime, self-employment supportive projects can be significant in assisting women to work. For general policies, an integrated set of policies like non-discriminatory laws and employment programs to ensure the right to work is vital. Fiscal policies like reducing the tax burden for females can encourage women to participate in nonagricultural sectors and improve aggregate labor market outcomes. Furthermore, systematically tracking and addressing wage gaps would enable appropriate policy responses and corrective measures.
One of the biggest barriers facing women in employment and government positions is imbalances in work and private life. One suggested policy would be to implement gender-sensitive policies such as paid maternity leave, or changing work hours to support family schedules. Ending gender stereotypes is a crucial next step in gaining equal participation in government. Media can play a significant role in changing ideas about women in politics (OECD, 2014). Women in top government positions should be held at high esteem and set models for young girls and women as early as at primary and secondary education levels. Young women should be taught about women in parliamentary positions and should be able to take apart in useful practices such as mock governments and model UNs. Additionally, many OECD countries have introduced gender quotas into their voting processes (OECD, 2015). Ballots often require a certain number of female candidates. Other strategies involve target setting, anti-discriminatory policies, removing legal restrictions on participation, leadership development opportunities, gender sensitive trade unions, and merit-based recruitment and competitions. Although progress has been made, much work remains to be done in order to come closer to achieving the goals regarding gender equality outlined by both the MDGs and SDGs.