All Development Goals are Gender Goals
This week, in a guest contribution, Natalia Cardona, Advocacy Coordinator, Social Watch discusses development and gender goals.
All Development Goals are Gender Goals
Natalia Cardona, Advocacy Coordinator, Social Watch
Thirty one years ago, many of the governments of the world committed legally to women’s rights by signing the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Sixteen years later the Beijing World Conference on Women adopted a comprehensive plan of action towards gender equality. And this September, the presidents and prime ministers of the world will meet in New York at the Millennium Development Goal summit to assess a decade of anti-poverty efforts. They will discuss how to progress in spite of the tremendous challenge coming from multiple and overlapping crises on climate, food, energy, finances and the economy. The challenge is tremendous and it will take the combined efforts of men and women to take the next step towards eradication of poverty for both men and women.
In spite of some progress, the follow-up of Beijing conference and CEDAW commitments are not yet complete. Gender equity is not yet fully implemented nor is it an equal component of sustainable economic and social development. By any measure, including Social Watch’s Gender Equity Index, all is quiet where advances are most needed in gender equality. Social Watch members share a concern that governments are quick to sign on to international instruments but short on implementation. There is also a gap in gender legislation and its actual implementation. With the present global recession there is also a need to take stock of the progress made towards Internationally Agreed Development Goals including the MDGs and emerging issues.
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