Friday Focus : Gender Equality and Poverty Eradication
According to the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) women account for more than 50 percent of the global population and yet they own only one percent of the world’s wealth. Women also account for six out of every ten of the world’s poorest people. 
The UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) , a feature of their annual Human Development Report (HDR) has consistently shown that there are considerable links between development and the role of women in society.
In countries where women have restricted access to education and economic opportunities poverty is likely to be more prevalent. And on the flip side when women are educated and are able to increase their earning power, it contributes to better standards of living for them and their children, thereby reducing the impact of abject poverty on the next generation.
It stands to reason then, that the economic and social empowerment of women is an increasingly central part of poverty eradication strategies.
UNDP and UNIFEM (The United Nations Development Fund for Women) work in tandem to advocate for equal rights and responsibilities for women all over the world. The efforts stretch beyond improving literacy among women and providing economic opportunities. They include, for example, efforts to increase the number of female peace keepers in conflict zones and recognize the unique perspective of women and the role they can play in conflict resolution.
Even private companies like the US based bank Goldman Sachs have targeted women as being central to reducing inequality across the world. In 2008, they launched a program called the 10,000 Women Initative which aims to ensure – through a variety of partnerships with universities and development organizations – that 10,000 women all over the world recieve business and management education.
The trend is clear.
These programs and intiatives are not magically free from the constraints and challenges that face other development efforts and organizations. They are not fundamentally less vulnerable to corruption. They are not more likely to face fewer funding issues or less resistence on the ground.
What they have done, however, is identify an approach that given time, will make significant inroads in reducing poverty around the world and improving the standard of living for millions of individuals.
The World Bank estimated last year that 80 percent of the world’s population was living on less than $US 10 a day; 10 percent on less than one dollar.
Poverty is the root cause of so many of the other issues that plague the world, from transnational crime and conflicts to climate change and the AIDS pandemic.
Eradicating it might seem like the obvious solution but it is much easier to say than to implement. Adovactes and humanitarians often wonder where to start.
Those that have chosen to start with empowering women have taken a crucial first step in the right direction.
