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THE 45TH CPA AFRICA AFRICA REGION CONFERENCE, ARUSHA, TANZANIA,

JULY 2014

PARLIAMENT OF KENYA
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THE 45th CPA AFRICAN REGION CONFERENCE
Arusha, Tanzania
16th –27th July 2014
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THEME: UTILISING COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTS TO COMBAT THE
CHALLENGES TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Challenges and Achievements in the Implementation of the Millennium


Development Goals That Relate To Women and Girls

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The United Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted at the Millennium Summit on 8
September 20001.

In the declaration, member states affirmed the fundamental values that are considered essential to
international relations: freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared
responsibility.

The promotion of gender equality and women empowerment was recognized as an effective
means to combating poverty, hunger and disease and stimulating sustainable development.2

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that resulted from the Millennium
Declaration and their specific time-bound targets and indicators were formulated in order to
monitor progress. The eight MDGs are:-

1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger


2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
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8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

A critical evaluation of the challenges and achievements of the MDGs from a gender perspective
is necessary in order to: inform and design a post-2015 development agenda; accelerate progress
in achieving gender-related MDGs and identify key gender issues to be addressed going
forward1-4.

Analysis
The UN 2013 Report described the MDGs as ‘the most successful global anti-poverty push in
history’1. Evidence suggests that while the pace of progress has been uneven across different
goals and across countries, and between different regions within countries, there has been
tangible progress as well.1-4

2.0 ACHIEVEMENTS
According to the UN Report 2013, a key achievement of the MDGs, particularly those relating to
women and girls was its unprecedented role in galvanizing policy attention and support on global
development issues;1,2

MDG 3, which is specific to gender equality and women’s empowerment established gender
equality as a global and national priority with the result that policies and spending towards the
gender equality and women empowerment was improved1;

Improved access to basic education was realized with increased enrolment of girls in primary
education 2,3,4;

In addition, women’s voice and participation in political processes and decisions was improved.
According to the UN Report 2013, improved women’s participation in decision-making has
influenced public policies and spending to improve access to education, health and decent work1.

3.0 CHALLENGES
Despite its successes, the MDG framework has broadly been recognized as narrow, modest in its
ambitions and missing in several important dimensions of gender equality1-4.

The goals, which were simplified for purposes of easing implementation, left out many key
priorities, such as: inequality within and between countries; climate change and sustainability,
local participation and democratic governance, and conflict and security. The narrow scope of
the goals thus proved insufficient to promote the full spectrum of gender rights1,2.
Structural drivers of gender inequality, for example, unpaid care work, violence against women
and girls and limited sexual and reproductive health and rights have served to impede progress
on the achievement of all MDGs relating to women and girls1,2,3;

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Structural barriers such as economic crisis and austerity measures that have affected the quality
and accessibility of public services and social protection have also posed significant challenges
to the achievement of MDGs relating to women by intensifying their vulnerabilities3;
Progress in achieving gender-related MDGs has been mixed and uneven with broad success
registered in some areas such as primary school enrolment of girls, and reduced progress in
others such as reducing maternal mortality1,2;

Where progress has occurred, it has not necessarily translated to better outcomes for women. For
example, increased enrolment to primary school was accompanied by the lowering of
educational quality and challenges in accessing secondary education1;

In addition, gender concerns have not been effectively mainstreamed into the implementation of
all MDGs, particularly MDGs 7 and 8 which deal with issues of sustainable development and
global economic governance1,3,4;

The collection of important data on gender and women empowerment issues was neglected with
the result that the capacity of stakeholders to produce and use knowledge and information
effectively for purposes of supporting policy making was significantly constrained1,3;

Finally, weak institutions and poor governance and accountability systems have continued to
impede progress for women and girls1.

3.1 Other Related Limitations of the MDGs Framework


The progress towards achieving the MDGs and the gains made in Kenya, Africa and the rest of
the developing countries risk being reversed by among others;

(i) Inadequate funding of the MDG programmes by governments.


(ii) Recurrent domestic and external setbacks/shocks, such as drought, climate change, global
economic crisis, internal economic and political instability, etc.
(iii) Dwindling donor support. Developed economies have not honoured the 0.7% of GDP
undertaking to support developing countries towards achieving the MDGs.
(iv) Inadequate human capacity, technological adoption, etc.
(v) Poor dissemination and scant awareness of the framework by the targeted population.

4.0 STRATEGIES FOR PARLIAMENTARY ENGAGEMENT


Parliaments are uniquely positioned to promote the mainstreaming of MDGs into the government
and country development planning. Initiatives and efforts by commonwealth parliaments in
Africa will include:-

(i) Establishing a parliamentary forum on MDGs;


(ii) Mainstreaming the MDGs into the parliamentary committees;

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(iii) Making the budget making process more responsive to MDGs related to women and
girls including scaling up of innovative initiatives;
(iv) Mainstreaming the MDGs into the national planning; and
(v) Engaging with stakeholders in the MDGs process.

5.0 LESSONS LEARNT


A number of lessons can be drawn out of the experience of the MDGs:

1. Internationally accepted goals are important for galvanizing political support and
resources.
2. Specifically setting out to promote gender equality and women and girls rights within a
global development framework is important for leveraging political will and funding, and
providing an accountability mechanism for governments and civil society.
3. There is a need to mainstream gender across the board.
4. A narrow focus on simplified goals and indicators left out core issues on gender
inequality such as violence against women and girls, unpaid work and limited
reproductive health rights.
5. Broader and more disaggregated data is needed in order to more effectively measure
progress on issues of gender inequality and women empowerment.

6.0 CONCLUSION
While the MDGs have resulted in tangible achievements for gender equality and the betterment
of girls and women, much remains to be done:

The post-2015 development agenda will require the use of broader indicators of gender equality
that take into account the structural environment and everyday realities of women in order to
strengthen the effectiveness and impact of future development frameworks relating to girls and
women.

A stand-alone gender equality goal, and gender mainstreaming across all future goals particularly
in the areas of sustainable development and global partnership is necessary in order to effectively
address issues affecting girls and women1,4.
The effective implementation of a development framework for gender equality will require an
enabling environment with strong political will, gender-responsive institutions, and strong
governance and accountability systems1.

Ensuring high quality and regularly updated data on gender equality is also critical, while going
forward, it will be critical that indicators for the entire post-2015 development agenda be
disaggregated by sex, age, income level, social groups, disability and so on1,2,3.

In addition, adequate and sustained resourcing and financial support will be critical to
accelerating progress towards the attainment of MDGs for women and girls1.
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Bibliography
1. Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women. Challenges and Achievements in the
Implementation of the Millenium Development Goals for Women and Girls, The Road
Ahead. Stakeholder’s Forum. December 2013.
2. European Parliamen, Directorate-General for Internal Policies. Challenges and achievements
in the implementation of the Millenium Development Goals for women and girls from a
European Union Perspective. 2014.
3. United Nations. Joint Statement on accelerating progress on the MDGs for women and girls.
March 2014.
4. UN Women. A transformative stand-alone goal on achieving gender equality, women’s
rights and women empowerment: Imperative and key components. June 2013.

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