Gender and the MDGs in Europe & CIS

Gender and the MDGs

The MDGs are integrated set of eight goals and 18 time-bound targets for extending the benefit s of globalization to the world’s poorest citizens. They consolidated previous agreements, including those on women’s rights, women’s empowerment and gender equality, into a single set of core goals and benchmarks for the development community. Aim of MDGs is to stimulate real progress by 2015 in tackling the most pressing issues that developing countries are facing – poverty, hunger, inadequate education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, HIV /AIDS epidemic and environmental degradations.

Why GENDER matters to the whole set of MDGs?

UNDP and MDG Goal 3

Gender equality is a goal in itself as set in the Millennium Development Goal 3 - Promote greater gender equality and women's empowerment. It is also a condition for the achievement of the other goals. There are more or less clear links with other development goals such as strengthening the rights of women, their access to resources and their negotiating position has an effect on reducing poverty at the household and macroeconomic level (MDG 1). The increased influence of women over important resources can benefit diet, education and health care for the entire family  (MDG 2, 4-6). According to studies, greater political participation by women also impacts positively on the pro-poor allocation of public funds. Education is of foremost importance for achieving all of the MDGs. A higher level of education has a positive effect on all aspects of development - from economic and employment opportunities to health to the sustainable use of natural resources.

Read more on MDG Goal 3 here.