2006 Annual Report

Empowering women to transform societies

Empowering women is critical to advancing human development and achieving progress towards the MDGs. Gender equality is and will always remain an end in itself. But we must also recognize that when women suffer abuse and discrimination, when they do not play an active role in shaping the world around them, everyone in society loses out. Making headway in alleviating poverty and promoting equitable growth is inextricably linked to improving women's lives and increasing their participation in decision-making. Women's empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduce infant mortality. It contributes to improved health and nutrition. It increases the chances of education for the next generation.

In December 2005, UNDP, UNIFEM and the UN Mission in DRC provided technical and financial support to the national Independent Electoral Commission to ensure women's participation in the country's constitutional referendum. As a result of these efforts, over 50 percent of all voters were women.

The past 12 months have seen significant changes on the political front, with the election of Africa's first woman President in Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Chile's first woman President, Michelle Bachelet. There are now 11 women Heads of State or Government, in countries on every continent. But despite these achievements, progress towards gender equality remains painfully slow. Seventy percent of the 130 million children who are out of school are girls. Women account for two-thirds of the 960 million adults in the world who cannot read. Of the world's one billion poorest people, three-fifths are women and girls. With notable exceptions, such as Rwanda and the Nordic countries, women are conspicuously absent from parliaments, making up, on average, only 16 percent of parliamentarians worldwide.

Taking women's empowerment seriously means putting gender equality at the centre of the human development equation. In Ukraine, through UNDP's Equal Opportunities Programme, state officials and parliamentarians learned how to design programmes and budgets that help empower women, and representatives of law enforcement agencies were sensitized to violence against women. As a result of these and other initiatives, the importance of women's empowerment is now being recognized in the Ukrainian government. In 2005, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's Parliament) adopted the "Law on equal rights and opportunities for women and men" and three women have since been appointed heads of regional administrations. UNDP is working on similar projects with other parliamentarians and government officials in the region to support women's political participation.

Gender inequality is a major obstacle to ending poverty and meeting the MDG targets. An effective way of tackling this gender gap is by helping governments develop budgets that reflect the specific needs and interests of women. Analyzing national budgets from the perspective of their impact on women and men, boys and girls, promotes equity across the development spectrum by identifying who is allocated what in diverse development fields, including education, health and employment— areas that are crucial to empowering people and reducing poverty. Through a partnership with the Japan Women in Development Fund, UNDP sponsored the training of development practitioners, economists and representatives from ministries of finance from more than 50 countries in gender budgeting. Today, an international pool of over 90 specialists are engaged with their own countries in spreading the knowledge they have gained and providing technical support to carry out gender budget audits.