Women and Girls in a World of 7 Billion

In a world of 7 billion, the promotion and protection of women and girls rights are paramount. Without participation of half of the worlds population and without them being treated in a fair, equitable and just way - the challenges in a world of 7 billion - will continue to multiply. At the same time, the potential contribution that women and girls can make towards realizing a healthy, prosperous and productive planet is vast. Despite the connection between gender equality and development, women remain far from achieving parity with men. Women and girls voices, choices, decisions and opportunities are muted and cut short by barriers stemming from stereotypes and harmful social norms and beliefs leading to discrimination and human rights violations. They have unequal access to education and health services and there is still a gap in collection and analysis of data related to women and girls. While illustrating these problems and obstacles is critical, the 7 Billion Actions Campaign is forward looking. The Campaign aims to highlight the challenges that women and girls still face in a world of 7 billion - while putting forth some concrete recommendations to specific decision-makers including those within governments, civil society and academia. The Campaign also targets a very important constituency in a world of 7 billion - the wider public. Seven billion is a big number in an environment where fears of population boom and explosion could drive arguments that imply population control it is just as important as ever to safeguard the principles laid out in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). At the conference, the world agreed that population is not about numbers, but about people. Implicit in this rights-based approach is the idea that every person counts. The conference also made it clear that empowerment of women is not simply an end in itself, but also a step towards eradicating poverty and stabilizing population growth. A womans ability to make autonomous and informed choices about her own body is essential to her ability to take part in opportunities that lead to her educational, economic, and political empowerment. Part of moving beyond rhetoric to action includes improving womens access to reproductive health care, including family planning services, especially women and girls who come from the most marginalized groups. Family planning allows women to delay childbearing so they can complete their education, participate in the labor force while acquiring skills and experience. This can have a profound impact on a womans empowerment, as she is able to make free and informed choices about the number and spacing of children. Maternal and infant health improves as a mother is better able to look after her baby while the spacing of her children offers her more opportunities both social and economic.

Key Issues
Several areas of concern stand out in relation to women and girls when considering population and development issues, in a world of 7 Billion: 1

Women and poverty Womens sexual and reproductive health and rights Women and migration and urbanization Women and the environment Women and humanitarian contexts and engagement in peace and security efforts

Key take away message

Sustainable and responsible population and development policies will require the engagement, participation and consideration of a gender perspective. It is time for the world to actively strengthen its commitment to gender equality. To achieve their full potential, women and girls need access to the same social and economic opportunities as men and boys, along with their fair share of resources. They also need to enjoy their human rights and to benefit from policies that promote gender equality.

Further Research
Womenwatch www.un.org/womenwatch - is the central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system. Wikigender www.wikigender.org - is a project developed by the OECD Development Center to facilitate the exchange and improve the knowledge on gender equality-related issues around the world. UNFPA website on gender equality www.unfpa.org/gender provides latest news, information on UNFPA programming, links to publications on gender equality and other information related to UNFPA strategic framework for advancing gender equality. International Knowledge Network for Women in Politics - http://www.iknowpolitics.org/ connects women political leaders online across borders, generations and faiths, equipping them with the information, expertise and advice they need to make their political mark.

Women and Poverty

As the global population surpasses 7 billion, wealth disparities within and between countries are expanding. Those living in extreme poverty, particularly women, bear a hugely disproportionate burden of the worlds sickness, poor health and inequality. It is estimated that 60 per cent of those living in extreme poverty in the developing world are women and girls.1 A woman living in poverty is more likely to bear too many children too close together at too young an age; die during childbirth; bear an underweight baby; contract HIV; and witness the death of her young children. The lack of adequate financial resources limits the ability of poor families to handle these traumatic health events and often plunge them into an even worse economic situation from which, generations later, they still have not recovered. Layers of discrimination hinder women as they attempt to break out of poverty, including discrimination in the sharing of household responsibilities; in access to education, training, employment and productive resources; in access to property and inheritance; and in economic and political decision-making.

Statistics:
Globally, 53 per cent of women work in vulnerable employment, rising to more than 80 per cent in South Asia 5 and sub-Saharan Africa. 70 per cent of children live with women without male income 6 earners. Worldwide less than 15 per cent of 7 land is owned by women. Womens nominal wages are 17 per 8 cent lower than mens. Of the worlds 776 million illiterate 9 adults, two-thirds are women. More than 101 million primaryschool-age children are not attending school, and more than half of them 10 are girls.

Laws and customs often deny women and girls the right to schooling, to own land, inherit property, get credit, receive training or move up in their field of work. Womens relative lack of assets and education makes them dependent on male family members, whether fathers or husbands, and reinforces their lack of power and autonomy.

Women and girls spend a disproportionate amount of time in unpaid care work including child bearing, childcare, and care for the disabled, sick and elderly. This has intensified with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as estimates show that globally up to 90 per cent of the care due to the illness is provided in the home by women and girls.2 Unpaid care work is important for a nations economic development but it also leads to less time for women to engage in income-generating activities and puts additional stress on womens income. When women access the labour market they are often unable to secure decent jobs. Womens work compared to men is more likely to be characterized by insecure employment, low earnings, low productivity and with no social protection. The International Labour Organization reported that in 2008 the majority of work in the agricultural and service sectors is comprised by women, with the service sector accounting for 46.3 per cent of all female employment. 3 Lower lifetime earnings also decreases savings, leaving women especially vulnerable to economic hardship in old age.

Progress and Potential

Gender equality is, first and foremost, a human rights objective, which is key for social and economic development. Empowered women are able to claim their human rights and contribute to the health and productivity of whole families and communities, and in doing so, improve the prospects of the next generation. Significant progress has been made on the total number of people living below the poverty line, and by many estimates the world is on track to meet the first Millennium Development Goal target of reducing the number of people living on less than a dollar a day to half of 1990 levels. The number of people in developing countries living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005.10 There has also been significant progress on legal reform in favor of womens rights over the last 30 years. The 2011 UN Womens Progress of the Worlds Women reported that 139 constitutions now include guarantees of gender equality, 125 countries outlaw domestic violence, at least 117 countries have equal pay laws, 173 guarantee paid maternity leave, and 117 outlaw sexual harassment in the workplace. Of course, laws and policies, particularly related to domestic violence, are often unenforced. In terms of education, close to two-thirds of all countries and territories have reached gender parity in primary education. Girls are still at a disadvantage, however, in many countries particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia. Poor girls from rural areas and ethnic minorities or indigenous groups tend to have the lowest literacy levels.

Recommendations
Governments:
Reform and enforce legislation guaranteeing women access to economic resources, including

property and inheritance rights. Involve women and womens organizations meaningfully as development actors, with serious consideration of their input, to contribute to more effective development Eliminate school and uniform fees to ensure that all children, especially girls, are not out of school because of their families poverty. Eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination. Strengthen the collection and analysis of gender and age disaggregated data. Devote resources to understanding the living situation of different sub-populations including rural populations, indigenous, ethnic or religious minorities, migrants, youth, widows, the elderly, disabled people, people living with HIV/AIDS, etc. Provide business services, training and access to markets, information and technology, particularly to low-income women.

Civil society:

Promote a multi-sectoral approach by engaging with governments, businesses, and other national partners. Reach out to key policymakers, elected officials, the private sector, and other NGOs, and urge them to promote womens economic rights and independence, including access to employment, appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources. Encourage inspiring individuals to share their stories at www.7billionactions.org.

Academia: Utilize an intersectional analysis in order to build knowledge on the life experiences of different groups of women, including the effects of compounding effects of a persons gender, age, marital status, race, health, income level and religious and ethnic affiliation.

Additional Resources
Publications Global Employment Labour Trends (ILO, various years) provides the latest global and regional estimates of employment and unemployment, employment by sector, vulnerable employment, labour productivity and working poverty, while also analysing country-level issues and trends in the labour market. A special edition focused on women was released in March 2009. Progress of the Worlds Women: In Pursuit of Justice (UN Women, 2011) outlines ten recommendations to make justice systems work for women. The provided recommendations are proven and achievable and, if implemented, hold enormous potential to increase womens access to justice and advance gender equality. Exploring Linkages: Womens Empowerment Microfinance and Health Education (UNFPA, 2011) highlights the results of a survey of women clients of microfinance institutions in 14 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, with a special focus on the effects of the social services provided by those institutions.

Websites Microcredit Summit Campaign - www.microcreditsummit.org an online knowledge hub that brings together microcredit practitioners, advocates, educational institutions, donor agencies, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and others involved with microcredit to promote best practices in the field, to stimulate the interchanging of knowledge and to work towards reaching our goals.

End Notes
1 2

UNFPA. Beijing at 15: UNFPA and Partners Charting the Way Forward (New York, 2010, p. 58). Op. cit. UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNIFEM (now UN Women). Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis (New York, 2004, op cit., p. 31).

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Global Employment Trends for Women (Geneva, March 2009, p. 10). World Bank poverty estimates (2005). 5 UN Women. Progress of the Worlds Women: In Pursuit of Justice (New York, 2011, p. 35). 6 UN-NGLS Website: http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?article2616 7 UN Women website: http://www.unifem.org/partnerships/climate_change/facts_figures.php#1 8 UNFPA. State of the Worlds Population Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate (New York, 2009, ip cit., p. 49) 9 UNFPA and UNICEF. Making the Connection (New York, 2010, p. 12). 10 UNFPA and UNICEF, op cit., p. 18.

Womens Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

In a world of 7 billion, it is critical to ensure that every person is given the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life. The international community has long recognized that all couples and individuals have the right to decide whether and when to have children. Yet, hundreds of millions of people worldwide who want to space their families lack access to modern contraceptive methods and other supplies to protect their reproductive health. Culturally based gender inequalities are often at the root of family planning gaps, along with poverty and marginalization. Culture influences the status of womens reproductive health through a determination of the age and modalities of sexuality, marriage patterns, the spacing and number of children, puberty rites, decision-making mechanisms and their ability to control resources. Social expectations often put pressure on girls to marry and begin bearing children before they are ready. Despite a shift towards later marriage in many parts of the world, 60 million girls aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18. 2 Child marriage jeopardizes the health and limits the opportunities afforded to women, usually disrupts their education and often violates their human rights.

Statistics:
Every 90 seconds, a woman dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth. 99 per cent of these deaths are in 1 developing countries. Worldwide, more than 60 million girls aged 20-24 were married before they reached 2 the age of 18. Some 16 million women and girls under age 20 give birth each year. Their babies are 50 per cent more likely to be stillborn or die during the first week of life than babies 3 born to mothers aged 20-29. In sub-Saharan Africa, girls and women 1524 are twice as likely as men their age to 4 become infected with HIV. Up to 70 per cent of women experience 5 violence in their lifetimes. About 100 to 140 million women have been subjected to FGM/C, and 3 million more are 6 at risk of being cut each year.

Teenage mothers are more likely to have children with low birth weight, inadequate nutrition and anaemia, and to develop cervical cancer later in life. Early childbearing is also linked to obstetric fistula, a devastating and socially isolating condition that leaves women incontinent. Women and girls are also subjected to harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), son preference and its implications for sex selection and neglect of the girl child and honour-based violence and killings. Despite excellent progress in legal reforms to eliminate FGM/C, the roots of the practice lie in long standing cultural norms, and its prevalence remains high even in countries that have outlawed the practice.7 Sexual violence in both domestic and conflict settings can cause severe physical and psychological trauma. It can also pose a significant barrier to accessing contraceptive information and services, and

unintended pregnancies and STIs. When women are subjected to sexual or domestic violence their ability to control their fertility is impaired. Violence often diminishes womens ability to negotiate contraceptive use, and economic dependence may make women unable to access household resources to buy contraceptives without their partners knowledge. In many societies, women face barriers in accessing HIV prevention treatment, care and support services due to limited decision-making power, lack of control over financial resources, restricted mobility, and care responsibilities. Lack of education is a significant barrier, with two-thirds of the worlds 796 million illiterate adults being women.7 Denial of property and inheritance rights means that many women lose their homes, possessions, livelihoods and custody of their children if they lose their partner. This may force women to adopt survival strategies that increase their vulnerability to HIV. In all regions, it is poorer women who have the greatest unmet need for family planning. In the least developed countries, an estimated 24 per cent of women of reproductive age who are married or in union still do not have access to modern contraceptive methods.8 It is these families and communities as a whole that have the most to gain from improvements in reproductive health conditions.

Progress and Potential

Family planning allows women to delay childbearing so they can complete their education, participate in the labor force while acquiring skills and experience. This can have a profound impact on a womans empowerment, as she is able to make free and informed choices about the number and spacing of children. Maternal and infant health improves as a mother is better able to look after her baby while the spacing of her children offers her more opportunities both social and economic. In 1994, 174 countries at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo agreed that all couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of children, and to have the information and means to do so without discrimination, coercion and violence. In the years since, various meetings and pronouncements have reaffirmed the central role of reproductive rights and reproductive health in achieving human rights, reducing poverty, attaining gender equality, building a world free of violence against women and girls, and preventing HIV/AIDS and attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to a 2004 UNFPA survey, about 86 per cent of countries have adopted policy measures, laws or institutional changes at national levels to promote or enforce reproductive rights, and 54 per cent had formulated new policies.9 Progress for sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights include a reduction in the adolescent birth rate by close to 17 per cent from 1990 to 2000 and a 6 percentage point increase for the number of women of reproductive age, married or in union, using at least one method of contraceptive.10 During last ten years, however, we have witnessed stagnated progress, and MDG 5, which focuses on maternal mortality, is the furthest behind of all the Millennium Development Goals.

Recommendations
Governments: Provide a secure supply of reproductive health essentialscondoms, contraceptives and other medicines and equipmentin order to protect reproductive health and save lives. Collect and analyse age and sex disaggregated data to better understand the sexual and reproductive health of different communities as well as the effectiveness of programmes. Ensure age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health education aimed at building life skills. Include very young adolescents (10-14), who no longer qualify for many programmes aimed at children and are often neglected in programming and policy. Focus on achieving womens equitable access to HIV services and reducing gender inequalities that make women vulnerable to HIV. Enact laws against child marriage and increase the minimum age at marriage to 18 for young women. Address FGM/C as a social norm and use positive values and communication to promote the abandonment of the practice. Launch national campaigns to reduce violence against women. Develop national policies that integrate boys and mens engagement and participation in overall gender and development work. Explore and support scaling up of innovative good practices in the area of male engagement.

Civil society: Raise awareness about culturally relevant factors that continue to put women and girls at risk of HIV/AIDS. Support programmes that assist girls in deferring marriage; and provide HIV and reproductive health information and services. Advocate for laws to protect those who are most vulnerable (including migrants, street children, sex workers, refugees and victims of violence) from sexual exploitation. Mobilize communities, including religious and other opinion leaders, to address the root causes of child marriage and to find ways to discourage and eventually eliminate the practice. Continue to support organizations and networks that aim to engage men and boys in gender equality efforts, including through the enhancement of resources tools, exchange of programme experiences, and development of community of practices. Encourage inspiring individuals to share their stories at www.7billionactions.org.

Academia: Help document the realities faced by married girls and seek strategies for finding feasible alternatives to child marriage.

Contribute to the growing body of research linking sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights to sustainable peace and development. Continue to conduct research and evaluations on the effectiveness of different strategies utilizing gender transformative approaches. Undertake research that would inform the development of policies and programmes which encourage the participation of men and boys, with particular focus on how the approaches of engaging men and boys, respectively, differ.

Additional Resources
Publications: Sexual and Reproductive Health Framework: A Reality for All (UNFPA, 2008) provides overall guidance and a cohesive- Fund-wide response for implementing the Reproductive Health and Rights elements of the UNFPA Strategic plan 2008-2011. The Rights to Contraceptive Information and Services for Women and Adolescents (UNFPA, 2011) examines the right to access contraceptive information and services for women and adolescents. It provides practical guidance for activists, scholars, UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations, governments and other actors working in the area of sexual and reproductive health to integrate human rights into programmes and policies on contraceptive information and services. Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls in Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (UNFPA, 2010) focuses on the integration of resources to address gender-based violence against women and girls into the existing health care services. Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality and Health: A Global Toolkit for Action (UNFPA, 2010) presents conceptual and practical information on engaging men and boys in promoting gender equality and health. It provides examples of programmes that have effectively addressed these challenges as well as guidance on advocacy, needs-assessment, monitoring and evaluation.

Websites: POPLINE: Your Connection to the Worlds Reproductive Health Literature - www.popline.org the worlds largest bibliographic database on population, family planning and related health issues. Youth InfoNet monthly electronic newsletters focusing on youth reproductive health and HIV prevention. Say NO to Violence Against Women - www.saynotoviolence.org - is an interactive communication platform that highlights social mobilization and advocacy efforts on ending violence against women and girls worldwide.

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VAW Virtual Knowledge Center - www.endvawnow.org online resource, in English, French and Spanish, designed to serve the needs of policymakers, programme implementers and other practitioners dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. Partners for Prevention - www.partners4prevention.org - an initiative that unites four UN partners UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA and UN Volunteers with the aim of creating a more comprehensive regional response to gender-based violence. MenEngage Alliance www.menengage.org a global alliance of NGOs and UN agencies that
seeks to engage boys and men to achieve gender equality.

Engaging Men. NET: A Gender Justice Information Network www.engagingmen.net is a public resource for anyone interested in effectively working with women and men in partnership for gender equality and addressing the negative consequences of unequal power relationships. UN Secretary General Campaign UNITE to End Violence Against Women and Girls calls upon governments, civil society, the UN and people from all walks of life, to come together and work towards ending violence against women under the framework for action provided by the campaign.

End Notes
1 2

WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank. Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990-2008. (2010). UNICEF. State of the Worlds Children: Maternal and Newborn Health (2009, p. 33). 3 UNFPA. Young People and Times of Change, Fact Sheet: http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/factsheets/young_people#fn06 4 UNFPA and UNICEF. Making the Connection (New York, 2010, p. 12). 5 UNIFEM, Violence against Women Worldwide, Fact Sheet (New York, 2005, p. 2): http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/sayno/docs/SayNOunite_FactSheet_VAWworldwide.pdf 6 UNFPA, Frequently Asked Questions on FGM/C, Fact Sheet: http://www.unfpa.org/gender/practices2.htm#14 7 UNFPA and UNICEF. Making the Connection (New York, 2010, p. 12). 8 UNFPA. How Universal is Access to Reproductive Health? A Review of the Evidence (New York, 2010, p. 15). 9 UNFPA. Making Reproductive Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health a Reality for All (New York, 2008, p. 7). 10 UNFPA, Universal, p. 12, 15.

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Women and Migration and Urbanization

In a world of 7 billion, populations are on the move with men, women, boys and girls migrating from rural to urban areas and across state lines for a variety of reasons including economic opportunities and security. It is becoming increasingly evident that migration is not a gender-neutral phenomenon: men and women display differences in their migratory behaviours and face different opportunities, risks and challenges from the moment the decision to migrate is made.1 Fast-paced urban growth is one of the most significant population trends the world is currently facing. While urbanization has the potential to significantly improve the lives of men and women, poverty, poor living conditions and lack of social safety nets can lead to increased health problems, heightened risks for gender-based violence and exploitation compared to rural counterparts. Women living in urban are far more likely to report having ever experience violence. Part of this can be ascribed to better possibilities for denouncing violence. Yet, women may also be at greater risk due to the breakdown of cultural mores that govern relations between the sexes, the lower likelihood of neighbours intervening, and poor-quality and overcrowded shelter.

Statistics:
In the last two decades, 3 million people per week are added to cities of the 4 developing world. 1 in 3 urban dwellers in developing 5 regions lives in a slum. On average, violence makes up at least 25 to 30 per cent of urban crime and women, especially in developing countries, are twice as likely to be 6 victims of violent aggression as men. Women constitute approximately 52 per cent of migrants in developed countries and 46 per cent of all international 7 migrants in developing countries. An estimated 2.5 million people are in forced labour at any given time as a 8 result of trafficking. 43 per cent of victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 9 98 per cent are women and girls.

In urban settings, the risk and prevalence of HIV/AIDS also increases. Cash dependency, coupled with poverty and gender discrimination, may increase transactional sex; at the same time, it reduces opportunities for negotiating safe sex, especially for women and girls but also for younger men and boys. Injecting drug use tends to be higher in urban settings. Sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis, which increase the acquisition and transmission of HIV, are also more common in urban areas.

In terms of international migration, while most policies are not designed to favour one gender over the other, recruitment policies for skilled labour can be biased towards male dominated occupations, such as IT, in which men tend to be more skilled and educated than women. By linking migration policies to occupation, this can limit the number of economic opportunities for women. And when legal channels are not available, women may see trafficking or smuggling as the only option to cross the border. Even when legal channels to migrate exist, there is no guarantee that female migrants will obtain the jobs that they were promised. Many women and girls typically apply for advertised jobs as babysitters, models, hairdressers, dancers or waitresses with friends or relatives acting in some cases as recruiters. 12

Once in the country of destination, they realize that these jobs do not exist. Instead they find themselves in the hands of traffickers who often violate victims rights by seizing passports or other identity documents, not living up to promises or contracts, withholding pay, and forcing women into subjugation or even sex work.2 Female victims of trafficking have little recourse in the law. Cultural and language barriers, illegal status, and intimidation by the traffickers can lead to female migrants being afraid to report abuses and seek help from local authorities. Many suffer extreme violence, illnesses and disease, and irreparable physical and psychological harm. Forty-three per cent of trafficking victims are forced into commercial sexual exploitation and are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDs.3 The health conditions of international migrants are typically overlooked by national and local health authorities, limiting all migrant workers access to health services. When policies do address migrant health, it is typically in response to potential diseases migrants may bring into the country. This affects the lives of all migrant workers, including health concerns for reproductive health and family planning. Additional barriers, such as language and communication problems, can prevent women migrants from seeking health services that do exist.

Progress and Potential

Migration and urbanization have tremendous potential for improving the lives of women and girls. Besides the economic benefits, it opens up opportunities for women to meet, work, form social support networks, and exchange information. Cities tend to favour greater cultural diversity and, as a corollary, more flexibility in the application of social norms that traditionally impinge on womens freedom of choice. Migration can offer the opportunity for women to break through oppressive gender rules as well as provide structural and institutional changes. Recent evidence has shown a downturn in HIV prevalence in urban areas of some countries suggesting that urbanization may have the potential to reduce the epidemic. Condoms key for HIV prevention and information about HIV transmission may be more readily available in urban areas. Stigma and discrimination may also be lower in urban areas because of better education and exposure to people living with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, a number of human rights instruments exist to protect the rights of women and girls who migrate. The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICRMW) addresses the rights of migrant workers and their families in both regular and irregular situations during the entire migration process: departure, transit, destination and return, and provides useful guidance on how to ensure that migration is managed humanely. However, to date only 44 countries have ratified the Convention. Several countries have made advances in passing legislation protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers. One example cited by a UNFPA review was the Special Working Contract for Non-Jordanian Domestic Workers, which guarantees migrant womens rights to life insurance, medical care, rest days 13

and repatriation upon expiration of the contract. The legislation was passed by Jordans Ministry of Labour in 2003.

The Recommendations
Governments: Enact migration policies that foster the positive gender and development impacts of migration. Support the acknowledgment and realization of migrant rights throughout the migration process, including ensuring access to basic services such as housing, education and health services. Recognize urbanization as an integral part of the development process one that can lead to better education, more economic opportunity and increased access to services and infrastructure. Plan for the land and housing needs of the urban poor, paying particular attention to providing safe spaces for women to access basic services. Ensure that services available to migrants are accessible by keeping in mind other obstacles such as language and communication problems, cultural differences regarding the perception of health and health care, and awareness of what is available. Ensure an effective criminal justice system in order to actively addressing the crimes of human trafficking and migrant smuggling. Collect and analyse sex and age disaggregated data on migration patterns and urban populations in order to identify gaps in gender equality. Develop strategies to close the gaps and monitor implementation.

Civil society: Help raise womens awareness of their options regarding the migratory process itself and conditions at the intended destination so that they can make informed decisions. Reach out to key policymakers, elected officials, other NGOs and private sector companies and urge them to protect and promote migrant workers rights, particularly female migrant workers. Encourage inspiring individuals to share their stories at www.7billionactions.org.

Academia: Consider female migration from a life cycle approach examining the situation of women and girls before they migrate, as they migrate, their situation abroad and upon return to the country/region of origin. Assist in data collection, analysis and further research on the different forms of migration from a gender perspective. More information is needed specifically on internal migration as sexdisaggregated statistics on internal migration are particularly rare.

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Additional Resources
Publications State of the World Population: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth (UNFPA, 2007) outlines the challenges and opportunities presented by the coming, inevitable urban growth. It also dispels many misconceptions about urbanization and calls on policymakers to take concerted, proactive steps to harness the potential of cities to improve the lives of all. State of the Worlds Cities (UN Habitat) 2010/2011 edition uses the framework of 'The Urban Divide' to analyse the complex social, political, economic and cultural dynamics of urban environments. The book focuses on the concept of the 'right to the city' and ways in which many urban dwellers are excluded from the advantages of city life, using the framework to explore links among poverty, inequality, slum formation and economic growth.

Websites International Organization for Migration Gender and Migration - IOM is the leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. Urban Density - www.urbandensity.org - presents a new approach to planning for urban density. The examples provided are from four settlements in Karachi, Pakistan, but the lessons apply to much of urban Asia, and beyond.

End Notes
1 2

Global Migration Group. International Migration and Human Rights. (2008, p. 45). Global Migration Group, p. 47. 3 Global Migration Gropu, p. 46-47. 4 UN-Habitat. State of the Worlds Cities (New York, 2008, p. 15). 5 UN-Habitat website: http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=303&cid=6663 6 U N-Habitat. State of the Worlds Cities (New York, 2006, p. 144). 7 UNFPA. Beijing at 15: UNFPA and Partners Charting the Way Forward (New York, 2010, op cit., p. 15). 8 UN Global Compact, Human Trafficking, Fact Sheet: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HUMAN_TRAFFICKING_-_THE_FACTS__final.pdf 9 UN Global Compact.

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Women and the environment

In a world of 7 billion, we need action in order protect the planet and those most at risk to climate change and natural disasters. Women particularly those in poor countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change, not because of biological determinism but because of socially-constructed gender-specific inequalities. Because women are disproportionately involved in subsistence farming, natural-resource management and water collection in developing countries, they are more likely to be affected than men by the effects of soil erosion, desertification, droughts, water shortages, floods and other environmental changes. Women also predominately manage households and care for family members, which can restrict their mobility and increase their vulnerability to sudden weather-related natural disasters. Drought and erratic rainfall force women to work harder to secure food, water and energy for their homes. Girls drop out of school to help their mothers with these tasks. This cycle of deprivation, poverty and inequality undermines the social capital needed to deal effectively with climate change.

Statistics:
Because women account for 70 per cent of the worlds farmers, they will face the lions share of climate change 3 challenges in many rural areas. Women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during 4 natural disasters. More than 70 per cent of the dead from the 2004 Asian tsunami were 5 women. An estimated 87 per cent of unmarried women and 100 per cent of married women lost their main source of income when Cyclone Nargis hit the Ayeyarwaddy Delta in Myanmar in 6 2008.

The livelihoods of women in rural areas, for example, often depend on forest resources, and loss of forests may undermine income-earning opportunities. In one rural community in Sudan, the time required to fetch firewood quadrupled over a single decade. Having to walk further and further to gather fuel can directly affect a womans health as carrying heavy loads of firewood over long distances can result in spinal damage, complicate pregnancies and increase the risk of violence and sexual assault as women search for fuel farther from the protection of their own communities.1 Restrictions on behaviour and limited access to information and resources can directly reduce womens chances of survival during a natural disaster or in its aftermath. With weaker social networks in the world outside their homes, information essential to survival may pass right by them. Because women are the main care givers in many societies, they tend to look after their childrens safety at the expense of their own in a crisis.

During the 2004 tsunami, more than 70 per cent of the dead were women. Many women perished because they were in their homes, unaware of the fateful oncoming wave. Some women had never been encouraged to learn to swim despite living all their lives next to water. Girls drowned because they never learned to climb trees as their brothers had. One girl was released into a tidal surge by her father 16

because he could not hold on both to her and to her brother, and, as he said later, the son has to carry on the family line.2

Progress and Potential

Awareness of the needs of women has improved among many governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations. The growing influence of global civil society has enabled women to play a much larger role by creating alternative channels to male-dominated national delegations. Through these new channels, women activists have applied a gender lens to some of the most urgent issues of our timebringing their perspective and life experiences to bear on the way these issues are understood and addressed. At the grass roots level, women have stepped forward in some cases to insist on participating in disaster management and reconstruction planning. Non-governmental organizations have documented inspiring models of women and men working against stereotypes. For example, widower fathers in the wake of disasters sometimes become active caretakers of their children and even move their homes to be close to the childrens schools. However, strong involvement of, or participation by, women remains the exception in the climatechange field and it may continue to be the exception without stronger commitment by Governments and the publics they serve.

Recommendations
Recommendations for Governments: Develop climate change mitigation and adaption programmes that use gender analysis to improve the welfare of women and girls e.g. access to credit, capacity building and extension services, information dissemination, improved access to land and natural resources, sustainable energy and technology and access to reproductive health and information services. Prioritize research and data collection to improve the understanding of gender and population dynamics in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Evaluate local and regional population dynamics e.g. the variable impact of aging, household size and urbanization on climate change (and vice versa) when designing mitigation and adaption programmes. Promote greater participation of women of all ages and income levels in climate issues whether as scientists, community activists, or negotiators at conferencesin order to add a diversity of perspective and a better understanding of the issues and challenges climate change presents. Incorporate gender and population issues into National Adaptation Programmes of Action and climate policies to effectively meet the goals.

Recommendations for civil society:

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Advocate for the inclusion of women in the development of climate change laws, policies and programmes.
Reach out to key policymakers, elected officials, other NGOs, private sector companies and urge them to promote womens economic rights and independence, including access to employment,

appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources. Encourage inspiring individuals to share their stories at www.7billionactions.org.

Recommendations for academia: Contribute to the growing body of research linking gender issues to climate change, both in terms of unique vulnerabilities and areas where men and women can contribute to environmental protection. Help improve the data collection and analysis process for better understanding the impacts of climate change on women, men, girls and boys.

Further Research
Publications State of the World Population: Women, Population and Climate (UNFPA, WEDO, 2009) demonstrates that reproductive health care, including family planning, and gender relations could influence the future course of climate change and affect how humanity adapts to climate change. It expresses how women, especially impoverished women in developing countries, bear the disproportionate burden of climate change but have been largely overlooked in the debate about how to address these problems. Climate Change Connections: A Resource Kit on Climate, Population and Gender (UNFPA, 2009) a comprehensive resource kit on gender, population and climate change that shows how gender equality can reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts and how women are uniquely positioned to help curb the harmful consequences of a changing climate.

Websites Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - www.ipcc.ch - is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. Womens Economic and Development Organization (WEDO) - www.wedo.org is a global womens advocacy organization. It envisions a just world that promotes and protects human rights, gender equality and the integrity of the environment.

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End Notes
1 2

UNFPA. State of the World Population. (2009, p. 27). UNFPA (2009), p. 46. 3 UNFPA. State of the World Population: Youth Supplement. (2009, p. iv). 4 Soroptimist International of the Americas. Reaching Out to Women When Disaster Strikes, White Paper: Disaster Relief (2008, Philadelphia, PA). Available at: http://staging.soroptimist.org/whitepapers/wp_disaster.html 5 Soroptimist International of the Americas. (2008). Op. cit 6 British Red Cross on Relief Web (2009). Myanmar Cyclone Nargis: One Year on Enormous Challenges to Recovery Remain. 30 April. <http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/OYAH-7RMLTW?OpenDocument>.

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Women and Humanitarian Contexts and Engagement in Peace and Security Efforts
In a world of 7 billion, millions are suffering as a result of conflict, war and forced migration. Women rarely wage war, but they too often suffer the worst of its consequences. Millions of women are disempowered by rape or the threat of it, and by HIV infection, trauma and disabilities that often result from it. Girls are disempowered when they cannot go to school because of the threat of violence, when they are abducted or trafficked, or when their families disintegrate or must flee. Modern conflict has changed over the last century. Today, close to 90 per cent of war casualties are civilian, the majority of whom are women and girls. Gender-based violence, including rape, is a repugnant and an increasingly familiar weapon of war. Sexual exploitation and abuse is used as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instill fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an average of 36 women and girls are raped every day.2

Statistics:
Some 43.7 million people worldwide are forcibly displaced, the highest number in 4 more than fifteen years. Women and girls constitute approximately 49 per cent of all refugees, internally displaced people and other populations under the jurisdiction of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for 5 Refugees (UNHCR). In the Democratic Republic of Congo approximately 1,100 rapes are being reported each month. Over 200,000 women have suffered from sexual violence in that 6 country since armed conflict began. Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.7

Gender-based violence, especially against young people, is underreported because of survivors fear of reprisals and the limited availability of services such as health care and justice. Lack of accurate and reliable information on trends and patterns also makes it more difficult to take action and to prevent gender-based violence from happening. In most contexts, survivors lack access to emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy, post-exposure prophylaxis to minimize HIV transmission, treatment for sexually transmitted infections, counseling and other psychological support, collection of forensic evidence, and referrals to legal and social support services within the community.

The decision to flee ones home due to persecution, conflict or natural disasters is a difficult decision and often results in families separating, traveling with few possessions, and through areas with potentially high violence and minimal security. Displaced families, especially those headed by women, are most often thrown into extreme poverty. In such situations, the physical and mental health of women and girls suffers. Their work burdens increase since enormous effort may be required just to cook a meal and care for ill and aged family members. The insecure, crowded environments of camps for displaced people often lack basic sanitation and health services and make women more vulnerable to maternal mortality, unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion, HIV infection and GBV. 20

Following conflict, women and men have unequal access to resources. Evaluations conducted by the United Nations of a wide range of humanitarian response efforts including Darfur, Pakistan, the 2004 tsunami and the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 noted serious neglect of gender issues in relief and recovery planning. Prevailing gender norms often place men in a better position to take advantage of reconstruction initiatives. Without these efforts, peace building activities run the risk of exacerbating existing gender inequalities.

Progress and Potential

After highly publicized episodes of widespread sexual violence in conflict situations in several countries caused worldwide outcry, the Security Council passed multiple resolutions identifying sexual violence as a war crime, demanding its complete cessation and an end to impunity for perpetrators, and calling for increased capacity-building and training among military forces and peacekeepers to prevent sexual violence in conflicts. Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) called on parties to armed conflicts to take measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence and for greater involvement by women in negotiating and implementing peace agreements The proportion of women on the military and police side has grown steadily since resolution 1325 was passed. For its part, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations is recruiting more women as civilian police officers for missions around the world. Some women are also serving as peacekeeping soldiers sent by their national armed services. In 2009, women represented 7 per cent of United Nations police officers, a huge increase compared to a decade earlier but still far from the goal of having 20 per cent women in police units by 2015. Women in police or military uniforms send a message to local people that the United Nations not only sees women as equal to men in carrying out missions but also understands that female police and troops can be powerful models. Women who have survived assaults may also be more likely to report incidents to women officers. Numerous partners United Nations, Governments and international NGOs have demonstrated increased commitment to mainstreaming gender equality and womens participation in humanitarian response. UNFPA, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Rescue Committee, developed a Gender-Based Violence Information Management System, which may serve as a model to enhance data backed programming and improve coordination in the field. The pilot system is an effort to systematize management of relevant data across the humanitarian community. The new system would provide a standard tool and methodology for data collection and analysis, improve the reliability of gender-based violence-related information within humanitarian settings and improve decision-making at local, country and global levels.

Recommendations
Governments: Pay special attention to gender equity in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes of armed groups; female combatants or women associated with armed groups are often excluded from the benefits of such programmes. 21

Include women and girls in the developing of national emergency preparedness plans. Promote young peoples participation in relief and recovery efforts, with attention to overcoming barriers to girls participation. Young peoples contributions give them useful work and leadership experience, protect them from depression and often prove to be crucial in community recovery and rebuilding. Improve the safety of camps for displaced people by ensuring that the placement of water points and essential services are in protected and safe areas. Ensuring equal access for women and girls to health care, education, training programs and income generating activities. Address the sexual and reproductive health risks faced by adolescents in conflict and postconflict settings. This could include drop-in centers and other supportive facilities where young people can freely access health information and services. Collect and analyse age sex disaggregated data to inform humanitarian interventions in conflict, post-conflict and emergency situations.

Civil society: Help raise public awareness and generate political will to address sexual violence in conflict settings. Advocate for national emergency preparedness plans to incorporate the needs of women, men, girls and boys. Encourage inspiring individuals to share their stories at www.7billionactions.org.

Academia: Contribute to the growing knowledge hub on conflict-related sexual violence in conflict, including data collection methodologies, international jurisprudence and effective responses.

Further Research
Publications Guidelines on Data Issues in Humanitarian Crisis Situations (UNFPA, 2010) address key data issues related to the preparedness, acute, chronic and post-crisis phases of humanitarian emergencies. It also provides an overview of the main data needs for each phase, challenges to obtaining reliable data and information, plausible approaches to data collection, management and use, and the strengths and weaknesses of the methods considered. Interagency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings (UNFPA, 2010) is the result of a collaborative and consultative process engaging over 100 members from United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations that make up the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) on Reproductive Health in Crises. State of the World Population: From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal (UNFPA, 2010) - highlights how women in conflict and post-conflict situationsas well as in emergencies or protracted 22

crises are faring a decade after UN Security Council Resolution 1325. It draws on the experiences of women and girls, men and boys, living in the wake of conflict and other catastrophic disruptions.

Websites Gender-Based Violence Information Management System - gbvims.org is a multi-faceted initiative that enables humanitarian actors responding to incidents of GBV to effectively and safely collect, store, analyze and share data reported by GBV survivors Stop Rape Now/ UN Action - www.stoprapenow.org - unites the work of 13 UN entities with the goal of ending sexual violence in conflict. It is a concerted effort by the UN system to improve coordination and accountability, amplify programming and advocacy, and support national efforts to prevent sexual violence and respond effectively to the needs of survivors. NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security - www.womenpeacesecurity.org advocates for the equal and full participation of women in all efforts to create and maintain international peace and security. It serves as a bridge between womens human rights defenders working in conflict-affected situations and policy-makers at U.N. Headquarters.

End Notes
1 2

UNICEF. Impact of Armed Conflict on Children: http://www.unicef.org/graca/patterns.htm United Nations. UNiTE to End Violence Against Women, Fact Sheet: http://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/pdf/UNiTE_TheSituation_EN.pdf 3 UNFPA. State of the World Population. (New York, 2010). Op cit. 4 UNHCR. Global Trends 2010. Available at: http://www.unhcr.org/4dfa11499.html 5 UNFPA. Beijing at 15: UNFPA and Partners Charting the Way Forward (New York, 2010, p. 51). Op. cit. 6 United Nations. 7 United Nations.

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