Global Policy Forum

A 2007 index places Nordic countries at the top of the list as the world's most gender equal countries. The report shows improvements in gender equality worldwide, but the advances are small and mainly take place in rich countries. A number of wealthy countries are decreasing on the ranking, among them the US and Switzerland, while Middle Eastern countries are advancing. (World Economic Forum)

In its 50th session, the UN Commission on the Status of Women looks at the problems and opportunities women worldwide face in their search for equal conditions in education, health and employment. The draft urges regional, national and international authorities and organizations to implement legal frameworks that improve women's equality in areas such as post-primary education, sexual and reproductive health and representation in political bodies. (United Nations)

Amartya Sen describes gender inequality as not being a "homogeneous phenomenon, but a collection of disparate and interlinked problems." He argues that "informed and critical agency" is a key in combating this issue. (Frontline India)

UNFPA's recent report has warned that climate change will affect women more than men in developing countries. Women do most of the agricultural work in developing countries. As managers and caregivers of households, women have limited chance of moving around when floods or drought hit their region. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the executive director of UNFPA, calls for a new climate treaty to take into account women's struggle with the environment. (BBC)

Debates over climate change do not pay enough attention to women who produce up to 80 percent of Africa's food. Left behind by their men who migrate to find a job, women have to struggle with day-to-day problems of climate change, such as lack of productivity due to drought. Ban Ki-Moon's statement about neglect of women in global discussions on climate change has spurred NGOs to advocate more on the issue. (IRIN)

Social Watch published the Gender Equity Index 2008 to contribute to the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The index ranks 157 countries on a scale where a score of 100 implies total equality between women and men in education, economic activity and participation in decision-making processes. The highest score totals 89 (Sweden) and the world average is a mere 61. The top-five countries are Sweden, Finland (85), Norway (84), Germany (80) and Rwanda (80) – one of the poorest countries in the world. This shows that high per capita income does not guarantee gender equity. Social Watch concludes that "progress towards gender equity is difficult and vulnerable to regressions."

This Wall Street Journal article finds that men continue to view stay-at-home fathers with skepticism and cynicism. Only 4.8 percent of US families have a father who stays at home, while more than 30 percent of mothers leave their jobs to care for children. Commentators suggest that as with women, men who return to work after staying at home find that their careers are set back by years and managers and co-workers undervalue their skills.

NGOs and EU politicians are worried about the decline in development aid directed at sexual health and family planning. They insist that providing sexual health services is both a moral imperative and an important factor in reducing poverty. Every year more than 500,000 women die from complications during pregnancy and child birth. In addition to the immediate loss of lives, problems of poverty arise due to insufficient health care and excessive population growth. Increased funding could allow women to choose how many children they want to have and they could then find themselves in more favorable economic conditions. (Inter Press Service)

This UNIFEM working paper calls on governments to consider how their development financing policies affect gender inequality. The authors suggest a range of public policy tools – gender responsive budgets, results-based public expenditure management – to improve the incomes, productivity and job security of women in developing countries.

This article explains how gender inequality grows when disasters occur. Climate change will have particularly strong effects in poor areas of the world, and the majority of the poor are usually women. A range of women's organizations suggest that if women were better informed of possible changes in weather patterns and forthcoming disasters, local communities would stand a larger chance of survival. They also argue that as women possess significant "generational knowledge" on local agriculture and safety, it would be extremely beneficial to include women in community decision making. (MediaGlobal)

The Federation of National Associations of Business Women in COMESA (FEMCOM) highlights illiteracy and insufficient access to credit as two of the main reasons why African women are unable to participate effectively in regional and international trade. In order to better integrate women into the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trade system, FEMCOM has initiated training for local business women to increase gender sensitization, and to improve quality management, packaging, market information and business management. Increased information on the functioning of markets will greatly improve the productivity of the women and integrate them in formal rather than informal sector trade activities. (Inter Press Service)

The author of this Guardian article contests the idea that gender equality is a purely Western value. The author gives examples of medieval female Hindu poets teaching Indian women how to oppose inequality and injustice. Further, the author also reminds us that it was Muslim women who encouraged Western feminists to view gender inequality in light of social divisions such as race and class. The author argues that developed countries such as Britain and the US need to address their own gender inequality issues before using female suppression to "justify cultural condescension and colonial occupation" as rich countries have had a history of doing.

Nursuna Memecan, a businesswoman from Istanbul announced that she will run in Turkey's July 22 parliamentary elections for the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a moderate conservative party. Turkey has the "lowest percentage of women in parliament in all of Europe" averaging a mere 4.4 percent. By contrast, in Sweden 47 percent of all parliamentarians are women while in Bulgaria's parliament they amount to 22 percent. Many Turkish women are now asking for "legal changes" that would introduce a "quota system in parliament and other political bodies to insure gender equality." (Eurasianet)

In this article from Finance and Development, Janet G. Stotsky of the IMF makes a strong case for "gender budgeting." Experience in developing countries show that increased opportunities for women has contributed to countries' economic growth. Women spend more money on necessities and thus improve the opportunities for their children, they save more of their income and female leaders often focus more on redistributing income and social security schemes than male counterparts. The author argues that governments must consider these facts in their budgets and in financial planning.

Save the Children's eighth annual State of the World's Mothers report focuses "on the 28,000 children under age 5 who die every day from easily preventable or treatable causes." Along with an analysis on the living conditions of children worldwide, the report provides key recommendations to governments on improving children's lives, such as ensuring the well-being of mothers, expanding health care, and increasing funding for basic medicines. The study concludes with a "Mothers' Index," which ranks 140 countries to show "where mothers and children fare best and where they face the greatest hardship" – Sweden and Niger, respectively.

The World Economic Forum 2006 Gender Gap Report analyzes gender inequality in 115 countries and ranks them based on economic, educational, political, and health criteria. Although no country has eliminated the gender gap, the study reports that the Nordic countries, led by Sweden, "have succeeded best in narrowing" it. Researchers rank Saudi Arabia and Yemen as having the least gender equality in the world.

Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa, explains the "paramount" need for an expanded UN agency to address global women's rights. This Inter Press Service article describes women and girls as victims of gender-violence, genital mutilation, rape and illiteracy. Lewis suggests that to represent over half of the world population, an agency dedicated to the needs of women and girls deserves to have at least one billion dollars a year, which is less than 1% of annual global foreign aid.

In spite of their promises at the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, governments have failed to support the UN agencies and programs that promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. UNIFEM, for example, suffers from insufficient funding and limited access to decision making. Gender at Work proposes a new entity that can strengthen the UN's work on gender equality. This entity must be autonomous, well-resourced and have sufficient authority to enforce women's rights.

This Levy Economics Institute working paper suggests that Quick Impact Initiatives (QIIs) can effectively and efficiently jump-start the third Millennium Development Goal of achieving gender equality and women's empowerment in low and middle income countries. Through immediate and low-cost initiatives such as free school meals, nutrition programs and campaigns to reduce violence against women, the author suggests that governments and donors can effect tangible results. Although QIIs do not solve long-term problems, they may build confidence in government and donor efforts, from both the aid recipients and those who donate.

Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, strongly urges the High Level Panel on System-Wide Coherence to create a separate women's agency, replacing the current approach of mainstreaming gender throughout development, environment and humanitarian assistance. Lewis describes this practice as "near criminal" and a "pathetic illusion of transformation." A new UN women's agency deserves financing, staff and a broad mandate to place it on equal footing with other UN agencies. Lewis argues that the staggering vulnerability of women to AIDS could have been diminished if such a multilateral agency had existed. (Harvard Law School)

Secretary General Kofi Annan has stated that the UN is ready for a female leader, but the author argues that Annan has not demonstrated this during his term. Only 16% of Under Secretary Generals at the UN are women and Annan replaced the first ever female Deputy Secretary General with a male. This article states that there are many qualified candidates from the Asian region that member states should consider, but the secrecy that shrouds possible successors keeps these qualified women from being properly considered. (Washington Post)

Secretary General Kofi Annan refers to the empowerment of women as the "single most effective tool for development." However, a UN report says that while female representation in governments has increased, it remains very low on higher levels of politics and the private sector. (Independent)

Equality Now has launched "It's Time for a Woman" - a campaign to elect a female UN Secretary General. The UN's failure to appoint a female SG in the last 61 years raises questions about the UN's commitment to gender equality and hinders progress towards the UN's goals. The article reports that patriarchy has influenced UN culture, where women remain underrepresented in professional and under-Secretary General roles. (Gender Links)

Although the UN has collected data on gender inequality for more than 50 years, its report on World's Women 2005: Progress in Statistics reveals an enormous lack of sophisticated statistical systems within many countries, above all in poor countries. This article discusses the UN report and gives an overview of the most significant grievances within gender statistics. (UN News)

When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan finishes his term at the end of 2006, a woman could fill the position for the first time in history. Despite continuous resolutions promoting gender parity within the UN, women still represent a vast minority among the higher positions within the UN Secretariat. This article gives an overview of the most promising female candidates for the world's top diplomatic job. (Times, London)

This report demonstrates how trade generally benefits men more than women. The report lists gender-biased consequences of trade such as increased unemployment and greater human rights abuses. To lessen the detrimental effects of trade on women, governments, trade alliances, the UN, NGOs, and development agencies could engage in gender analysis and build measures of accountability for themselves. (Bridge: Development-Gender)

In this interview, the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa urges western leaders to "keep the promise" they made at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland in July 2005. So far, governments have given only half of the money necessary to address this issue for 2006 and 2007. Furthermore, gender inequality is causing a growing "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic. (Pambazuka)

This report examines the complexities of defining inequality within and between countries. Using ethnic and gender disparities as case examples, the author argues that inequality can lead to short and medium term economic growth and development, but may come at a long run detriment to the marginalized group. The author calls on countries and development agencies to take into account the diversity of economic needs among different sectors of society and to make "growth and equity compatible." (Levy Economics Institute of Bard College)

The WTO Director General Pascal Lamy classified free trade and open markets as a "fundamentally important" tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and tackling poverty. However, this article points out that such neoliberal policies have not only failed to free people from poverty, but also contributed to a "feminization" of poverty. This article urges the WTO members to focus the next meeting in Hong Kong on fair trade rules and social and economic rights, with particular attention to gender equity. (World Economy and Development in brief)

Women from hundreds of countries gathered in Barcelona to protest against fourteen centuries of sexist discrimination in the Muslim world. They propose a more balanced reading of sacred texts stressing that "many fundamental concepts of equality embraced by feminism can be found in the Qur'an." The meeting aims to develop a global movement to free women from the discrimination they face in many Muslim countries. (Guardian)

In Africa, women make up more than a half of the workforce and play a key role in the economy. Nonetheless, the World Trade Organization is leaving them behind by liberalizing trade and agriculture, generating a "feminization" of poverty. This article urges decision makers to apply policies that prevent gender discrimination and meet basic human rights. (Pambazuka)

Even though the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) did not include universal access to reproductive health, this United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) press summary points out that women's emancipation is indispensable to economic development. The UNFPA publication analyzes governments' commitment to achieve the MDGs, looking at gender disparities in education, access to reproductive health, economic rights, conflict and violence against women.

According to women's rights activists, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) fail to recognize that poverty, gender and reproductive health are interlinked. Rather than limiting their efforts to global campaign targets like the MDGs, Latin American countries should develop their own agendas focused on local and national priorities. Since international institutions do not automatically solve real, on-the-ground problems, "It is essential to eliminate the bureaucracy and train and empower local agents." (Inter Press Service)

A report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women says that in 10 years the female labor force increased by 200 million worldwide. Nonetheless, this does not translate into an automatic alleviation of poverty. Since most of the women are employed in the informal sector, they have low income, no benefits and usually work in an unsafe environment. Furthermore, the income gap between the genders continues to widen. (Women's e-News)

Women have suffered the most as a result of the diversion of funds from social services to debt repayments. In solving the debt crisis and making sure that it never happens again, women must participate fully in political and economic decisions. That's why the international community must ratify the Protocol on the Rights of Women, says this Pambazuka article.

This report examines an extensive array of statistics to measure the current and projected status of world poverty, and how gender inequality should fit into development strategies. Focusing on various aspects of gender equity - women's empowerment, gender and education, gender gap in economic activity and earned income - this document reports a grave global situation. The world has made only half the progress needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals and the gap between rich and poor is growing larger each year. The world must take action now in order to alleviate gender inequity and poverty in the next ten years. (Social Watch)

Investing in girls' education has been a major factor behind the Asian economic "miracle." During the past two decades, other poor countries have also succeeded in improving girls' education by building new schools in the countryside, eliminating primary school fees for girls and improving conditions in schools. To help states still lagging behind, NGOs such as Save the Children call for increases in development assistance and debt relief for poor countries. (Christian Science Monitor)

Ten years have passed since delegates at the Fourth World Summit in Beijing made specific pledges to revoke all laws that discriminate against women and adopt policies advancing gender equality in public life. While women's educational opportunities have increased and legal rights have improved somewhat, women still lack economic opportunities and equal representation in decision-making. In addition, over 40 countries refuse to change laws that institutionalize discrimination against women. (Inter Press Service)