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International Women's Day: Women in the Developing World factsheet
8 March 2007
Related pages: Benn calls for end to tide of
violence against women |
Gender Equality - why the role of women is crucial to ending poverty
Did you know that…?
- International Women’s Day is a day that was born almost 100 years ago, out
of the struggle of women demanding shorter working hours, better pay and a right
to vote.
- Domestic violence kills and injures more people in the developing world than
war or cancer or traffic accidents.
- 60 million girls – that’s the population of the UK - are missing from this
planet because they were aborted, or killed as an infant because they were not
boys.
- Every minute a woman dies because of complications with pregnancy or
childbirth.
- Pregnancy is the main cause of death for girls aged 15-19.
- 100 million women and girls have been subjected to genital mutilation, with
more than 3 million more each year suffering this barbaric practice.
- Two-thirds of the world’s 800 million illiterate adults are women as girls are
not seen as worth the investment, or are busy collecting water or firewood or
doing other domestic chores.
- Women make up two-thirds of the people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
- In Liberia, a survey of 6 counties found that three-quarters of women had been
raped.
- In Ethiopia, almost three-quarters of women who have a partner have suffered
physical or sexual abuse in their home.
- Two million girls aged between 5 and 15 join the commercial sex market every
year.
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Meeting the challenge…
- In sub-Saharan Africa, enrolment rates for girls have been consistently
rising. When school fees in Zambia were removed in 2002, enrolment rates for
girls rose to 81.5% by 2004. DFID has committed £8.5 billion over the next 10
years with the aim of getting every child in the developing world into primary
education.
- In Nigeria, DFID’s £26 million support for a three-year Girls’ Education
Project has increased enrolment by up to a quarter in the six states where the
programme operates.
- In Afghanistan there are now 2 million girls in school. Under the Taleban,
sending girls to school was against the law.
- Over the past three years, DFID has increased bilateral spending on maternal
and reproductive health by 41% to £243 million.
- Long-term legal and technical advice from DFID and DFID-funded
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in South
Africa has reduced the number of women who die after an unsafe abortion by 91%.
- DFID provides £20 million to UNFPA (UN Population Fund) for maternal health
and women’s empowerment programmes.
- In Nepal DFID has supported the National Safe Motherhood programme to expand
the role of nurses and midwives and has improved access to safe abortion and
empowered female workers.
- DFID supports the extension of microfinance (small loans) to women.
Microfinance has a potential to empower women and it is estimated that 8 out of
every 10 microfinance clients are women.
- With DFID funding, the Kashf Foundation in Pakistan (a not for profit
microfinance institution serving poor women) plans to extend its outreach from
75,000 to 300,000 women in the next five years.
- DFID:
- supports the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) which provides
legal aid and assistance on issues that affect women, and run a shelter for its
clients
- in Ghana supports the Rights and Voice Initiative for advocacy work on
new legislation on domestic violence, and
- in Pakistan, supports the Women
Development Department to strengthen capacity of those involved in the relief and
rehabilitation of victims of violence and abuse.
- Between 2002 and 2007, the UK government will have contributed £3,768,985
specifically to gender-related activities carried out by the UN’s
Department for Peacekeeping Operations such as women’s participation in
elections and support for civil society addressing gender-based violence.
- Since the beginning of 2006, DFID has agreed grants to two research consortia
to undertake five-year research programmes on factors hindering progress on
gender equality and women's empowerment. These grants - £7.5 million in all -
significantly increase our spending on research in this area. The second
programme - which will look at the situation of Muslim women in Asia - is led by
the City University of Hong Kong.
- DFID’s new £100 million Governance and Transparency Fund, that will help people in
developing countries hold their Governments to account, will help to change the
rules of the game for women to secure their rights.
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International
Women's Day 2007