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http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/in-focus/poverty
WOMEN & POVERTY INFOGRAPHIC - http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/infographic/poverty
The Beijing Platform for Action Turns 20
Women and Poverty
The last few years have seen historic
achievements in reducing the number of people who are poor, making the end of
extreme poverty possible in the coming generation. That requires cutting the
multiple roots of impoverishment. One of the deepest is gender discrimination,
which imposes a disproportionate burden on women.
When women are poor, their rights are not
protected. They face obstacles that may be extraordinarily difficult to
overcome. This results in deprivation in their own lives and losses for the
broader society and economy, as women's productivity is well known as one of
the greatest generators of economic dynamism.
While both men and women suffer in poverty,
gender discrimination means that women have far fewer resources to cope. They
are likely to be the last to eat, the ones least likely to access healthcare,
and routinely trapped in time-consuming, unpaid domestic tasks. They have more
limited options to work or build businesses. Adequate education may lie out of
reach. Some end up forced into sexual exploitation as part of a basic struggle
to survive.
And while women at large have not yet
achieved an equal political voice, women in poverty face extra marginalization.
Their voices are rarely heard, for example, in decisions on managing an economy,
or sharing benefits and costs.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action, adopted by 189 Member States in 1995, reflects the urgency around women
and poverty by making it the first of 12 critical areas of concern. Actions
under any of these, whether education, the environment, and so on, help women
build better lives. But measures targeted to reducing women's poverty are
critical too.
Governments agreed to change economic
policies to provide more opportunities for women, improve laws to uphold economic
rights, and boost access to credit. They committed to collecting better
information to track how poverty affects women differently, as knowing any
problem is essential for solving it.
Since Beijing, much progress has been made
in these areas. There is still far to go. Ending extreme poverty will come
within reach only by fully involving women and respecting their rights—at every
step along the way.
Full Infographic: http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/infographic/poverty