By: Lykke E. Andersen*
Poverty is usually measured at the household level, and since there is pretty much the same number of women as men in each household, poverty rates have almost by definition been identical for men and women. This fact, however, has not prevented thousands of articles from claiming that “poverty has a female face” (1). The perception that women are more likely to be poor is almost universal, despite the lack of empirical evidence.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set to reduce by half the number of people without access to clean water by 2015 as target ten of goal number seven: ensure environmental sustainability. And—although this fact remains controversial*—this target was met three years early in March 2012. However, this is not a cause for complacency since, according to the 2012 report by the Joint Monitoring Program—the body that carries out MDGs target assessments—780 million people are still at the back of the queue for access to clean water. In the future, improving access to water for the remaining three quarters of a million people without it will need to become a bigger, more crosscutting priority because it has much more to offer than environmental sustainability. Read More »
By Ioulia Fenton and Tracey Li.
Every year, March 8 is a date reserved for honoring the fairer sex around the world. To celebrate some of the best the world has to offer, Development Roast brings you 8 organizations that are making a difference to the lives of Bolivia’s women. Happy international women’s day!
FIMI & MADRE Building Political Participation:
International Indigenous Women’s Forum (IIWF), which is best known by its Spanish name and acronym Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indígenas (FIMI), was founded in 2000. It is a network of indigenous women from all over the world that partners with another global women’s organization, MADRE, to increase the role of women in international decision making, improve women’s human rights, and build political participation of women in Bolivia. Read More »
What exactly leads to development is a topic of great debate in academic and practical circles. Proposed cures for underdevelopment vary from providing infrastructure to enacting large-scale macro-economic reforms. Yet, often, there is little conclusive evidence of many solutions’ consistently marked effects on different countries’ economic prosperity or social and environmental cohesion. One factor that does stand out, which is frequently promoted in reports by the likes of the World Bank, United Nations (UN), the OECD, ActionaAid and even Forbes Magazine as the key to achieving all Millennium Development Goals, is investment in the health, education and equality of women.
Development Roast Giving international development a proper roasting