Most country reports silent on women's issues<\/p>\n
Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
What is the use of focusing on all the details of women's daily
\nlives when nations need to lift billions out of poverty?<\/p>\n
Maybe it is because, for instance, girls still drop out of
\nschool so parents can keep their brothers enrolled; because more
\nwomen are infected with HIV\/AIDS, while they still must feed the
\nfamily and care for the sick; and because spending precious cash
\non the doctor for a woman in labor who's fighting for her life
\nmust be approved by her husband and mother-in-law.<\/p>\n
While special country reports on women have long been the norm
\nfor global forums seeking to enhance everyone's welfare, many
\ncountries are \"silent\" on the above issues, with apparent biases
\nagainst women. All of this clearly contributes to poverty, a UN
\nconsultant said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"Real life is not divided into MDG goals,\" Kalyani Menon-Sen
\nsaid. The expert with the United Nations Development Programme
\nwas referring to the eight Millennium Development Goals aimed to
\nimprove the well-being of people and human rights.<\/p>\n
Trying to reach the goals without promoting gender \"will raise
\nthe costs and decrease the likelihood of achieving the other
\ngoals,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Menon-Sen noted the misperceptions on women's rights that were
\nreflected in the country reports, in part because women are
\nexplicitly mentioned in only a few of the goals -- such as those
\nmentioning \"gender equality\" and \"improving maternal health.\"<\/p>\n
Speaking during the second day of an Asia Pacific conference
\non reaching the MDGs, Menon-Sen said that the absence of the
\ncrucial issues on women in the reports, including that of
\nIndonesia's, was \"strange\", given the \"strong women's movements\"
\nin many of the countries. Further reports should involve \"more
\nconsultation\" between the government and the public including
\nwomen's organizations, she said.<\/p>\n
While governments have raised the issue of increasing the
\nnumber of women in the labor force as one way to reduce poverty,
\nshe added, none of the reports mentioned the issue of workers'
\nrights, which would require clear contracts. In most reports,
\nwomen's rights are limited to their roles as mothers, she said.<\/p>\n
In the same session, the UNDP launched a program to help
\nensure that gender equality was central to all the goals.<\/p>\n
Earlier Sjamsiah Achmad, deputy of Asia Pacific Women's Watch,
\na regional network of non governmental organizations, read out a
\nstatement \"on behalf of the millions of women of Asia and the
\nPacific\", comprising \"60 percent of the world's women\".<\/p>\n
Among others she said that the \"accession by many of our
\ncountries to the World Trade Organization, through promising
\neconomic growth and business and employment opportunities, has
\ncaused employment contraction in many economies, and has driven
\nto bankruptcy local small and medium enterprises that have been
\nmajor providers of jobs and income for women.\"<\/p>\n
She said women were ready to become full partners to
\ngovernments in reaching the MDGs, and thus urged recognition for
\nmore women groups as participants in September's UN plenary on
\nreviewing the five-year progress of the goals.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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