The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Women’s Funding Network are calling all women to jointly urge their respective governments to eradicate poverty by increasing investments in women. This campaign is set to take place on October 17, World Poverty Day.

On October 17, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, women are yet again set to voice out their call to end poverty.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Women’s Funding Network, a global network of 124 women’s funds, are now calling for women to participate in this global call to action.

For women, poverty not only means the lack of income but also the lack of control over that income. Women are more at risk of poverty because of their unequal access to resources and capabilities, such as education, skills, land and property, the discrimination they face in the labour market, and their lack of political voice.

“Women are indeed the missing piece of the poverty puzzle,” said Christine Grumm, president and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, adding that “Our network’s experience in the area of economic empowerment has convinced us that policy supporting women’s economic empowerment—from education to job training to child care to financial literacy to micro-finance and beyond—holds the potential for vast change, and fast change. Our cooperative outreach with UNIFEM will call on policymakers to recognise the untapped potential of women in eradicating extreme poverty.”

Stand up against poverty

Visit <http://www.womenfightpoverty.org/> on October 17 and join the millions of women in calling for the world leaders to:

• educate girls and increase women’s “economic literacy” and political participation;
• reform discriminatory ownership and inheritance laws to help women embark on asset-building;
• remember that there is no such thing as a “gender-neutral budget”—the impact of every fiscal policy, be it relating to taxation, or resource allocation, must be assessed in terms of its impact on the lives of both men and women;
• improve child-care options and flexibility for working mothers;
• eliminate the gender gap in wages;
• include unpaid household work in national income accounts and mandate maternity and paternity leave benefits;
• give women the “credit” they deserve: facilitate women’s access to credit and finance, coupled with training, as well as involving them in the development of macro-economic policy to ensure it is gender-sensitive; and
• support women’s funds to support the women for whom every day is poverty day.

FYI: Women are missing—and missing out

The value of women’s unpaid work is estimated to equal USD 11 trillion, or almost 50 percent of the world’sgross domestic product, yet this work is missing from national income accounts—leaving women to miss out on social security, pension schemes, and access to public services.

In terms of paid employment, while more and more women are joining the workforce, they are predominantly clustered in informal work—short term, part time, or contractual work that leaves them to miss employment-based pensions and health insurance benefits. Even in formal employment, women are paid less than men—worldwide, women’s wages are 73-77 percent of men’s wages—and lack similar promotion opportunities.

In too many countries, women and girls are denied a solid education and have no access to credit or legal title to land and property—pre-conditions to overcoming poverty.

Women are also missing from the public decision-making structures with the power to shape social and economic policies. As long as social, cultural, and economic barriers exclude women from full participation in public life, the solution to the poverty puzzle will remain elusive.

Source: <http://www.womenfightpoverty.org/>

FYI: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been observed every year since 1993, when the United Nations General Assembly designated October 17 to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries, particularly in developing countries—a need that has become a development priority.

At the Millennium Summit in 2000, world leaders committed themselves to reduce by half the number of people living in extreme poverty by the year 2015.

Source: United Nations, <http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/poverty/>.

Source:
“UNIFEM and Women’s Funding Network Call for Investment in Women to End Global Poverty” from United Nations Development Fund for Women, posted on October 5, 2007, <http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=635>.