Population
How
can population growth and resources be brought into balance? [Challenge
3]
Health
What can the threat
of new and reemerging diseases and immune microorganisms be
reduced?[Challenge
8]
Status of Women
How can the status of
women help improve the human condition? [Challenge 11]
-- Suggested Actions --
3.1 Governments and corporations should encourage
research and development of new long-term male and female contraceptives.
Implement the research on population and policy that has already been
done and make current birth control methods safer. The contraceptives should
be 100% foolproof. Even a low probability of failure affects the
credibility of the system.
Contraceptive methods have to be compatible with local cultural and
religious beliefs.... Educate women and men to accept this.... Make it
easier to use.... Governments should create and implement effective policy
in parallel with this research.... Policies that focus on artificial methods
contradict some religious views, and in the commercial world, concern about
liability is a huge impediment. In this case, liability laws would have
to be reformed.... What is needed is increased awareness of the "morning-after"
pill, which has been in use for many years. Unfortunately, the Vatican
is against it, calling it an abortifacient. It is not. It prevents
implantation in the uterus, preventing pregnancy rather than interrupting
it.... Make economic conditions appropriate for investment and new technology,
and improving the standard of living is more effective than improved contraceptives
for reducing the birth rates.
3.2. Governments, with some leadership also
from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and corporations, should encourage
development of high-yield, sustainable agriculture, particularly through
biotechnology.
There is greater public acceptance of biotechnology for medicines than
for foods. Biotechnology for food will be more acceptable when people look
more carefully at the cost/effect ratio of it. Add corporate leadership....
This action is a top priority of my government.... Science and technology
can feed the world.... Agreed, but by itself, it cannot solve the food
problem.... Many regions lack arable land and should seek new sources of
food, such as from the sea. Water takes up 71% of the world's surface,
and the potential production from the sea is very high. Industrialized
production of algae in arid areas is an effective measure to solve the
food problem.
This action will be more effective than 2.1.1: science and technology can feed the world.... To decrease grain loss, we need proper packaging soon after harvest. We also need mariculture. There's some 20% loss that could be saved with hermetically sealed bags (that protect against rodents and rotting.)
A change of a single gene in foods can cure vitamin A deficiencies worldwide....
Improve post-harvest transportation and storage... Notice that if you saved
20% of the food, which is not lost, this would have the effect of increasing
the food supply by about 25%. This is a big increase, but for a world
population growing about 1.4% per year, this saving would be wiped out
in just 16 years.
3.3 NGOs, with some leadership from governments,
should increase social marketing programs that teach family planning.
Focus on men, as well as women, and the community as a whole. Village
leaders should be involved..... Social marketing should also include reproductive
health, nutrition, and child and maternal survival.... We cannot control
family planning, it has to be voluntary. The economic situation of a family
forces one to plan.... Social marketing does not make a difference until
infant mortality rates begin to fall.
Reinforce South-South (Southern Hemisphere) partnerships.... This is a very sensitive subject in many African countries, although important advances in reproductive health are being made in many locations.
Limiting life is not acceptable.... It is naive to think this will work.
Larger social, cultural, and economic forces make these changes.
3.4 Governments, with some leadership from
NGOs and UN agencies, should establish coordinated global efforts and financial
incentives directed toward increased contraceptive use (e.g. providing
tax advantages to smaller families).
There should be focus on increasing agricultural efficiencies so that
larger families are not as needed to help on the farm.... Avoid punitive
measures. This was well documented in Chapter 7 from the UN conference
in Cairo on population. People will simply pay the fines to have
children. Instead, address social development needs.
In developing countries only a small percentage are taxpayers. Incentives like food and cash are there, but still the program needs to be properly targeted by the family planning officers. This is not effective for poor people, who are not taxpayers; education is more important.
The most effective way to do this is to provide low-cost contraceptives through the private sector.... Focus on social marketing to promote the husband's acceptance of the wife's use.... Teaching has to begin at the grass roots, not top down. Reproductive health should be taught, primarily in the primary schools. The secondary schools should teach the consequences of sexual behavior and fertility. This cannot be done everywhere, because there is a concern that teaching reproductive health will diminish morality.... This concern of diminished morality has been studied by WHO and UNAIDS and found not to be true.
How to increase contraceptive use without changing the culture and religion?
Some countries are suspicious of each other's motives in this area. They
are suspicious that other countries want to keep their population low and,
hence, be perceived as less powerful. Only UN organizations leading this
action would be acceptable.... We will need a coordinated effort among
NGOs.... Financial incentives just do not work. They are generally seen
as coercive.... Users often pay for services and are quite willing to do
so, especially if the services are within reach and are of high quality.
3.5 Governments and NGOs, with some leadership
from corporations, should establish many microcredit mechanisms to promote
loans to women in third world countries to establish new businesses.
This is increasingly being understood and implemented, even by the
World Bank. Accessibility has increased considerably, now focus on awareness
of the programs and marketing skills.... Since increasing income is a leading
indicator of falling fertility rates and credit is a proven way to increase
income, this will be an effective policy.... Yes, but get more leadership
from corporations.... Add training by the UNDP, ILO, UNESCO, and other
international organizations and NGOs. Make sure honest management and monitoring
are part of this action to make sure it gets to the poorer people.
3.6. Governments should invest in rural/urban
marketing and distribution systems so that rural produce can get to urban
markets.
Give incentives for establishment of industries in rural areas so they
become both producers and consumers.... It requires powerful intermediate
networks.
3.7 Promote the self-determination and economic
autonomy of women, (but take care to operate within the permissible local
socio-cultural and religio-moral norms and limits).
Focus on rural populations with radio and television shows that feature
women who have become successful.... Special-training programs should be
developed.... This is linked to action 3.6. Government and NGOs should
lead educational efforts, but government should help provide the minimum
threshold of support. More effective and more important than pure business
activities would be to strengthen women's awareness and confidence in being
independent and taking initiative. NGOs should take the lead. As women
become more involved in the cash economy, birth rates decrease in big cities
of poor countries. Address the symptoms not the cause.
3.8 In anticipation of population growth, governments
should expedite conservation programs for agriculture, food, water, and
resources, including educational campaigns and heavy taxes on meat consumption.
Conservation is only part of the solution.... The problem is not scarcity
of food, but distribution of resources.... Add heavy taxes on meat consumption
in richer countries.... Some want universally equal taxation, some do not....
Add soil conservation methods like "no tillage farming".... If cloning
techniques can produce just part of an organism, like beef muscle, then
meat could be produced in local bio-factories with far less impact on the
environment.... High-yield agriculture has already saved agricultural expansion
into millions of square miles of wildlife habitats, but pollution problems
are still unresolved.
3.9 Actively seek religious dialogues on the
changing roles of women and birth control.
Interfaith coalitions should lead and should not focus just on women,
but on men, the family, and the community. Use folk arts in the rural areas.
Religious leaders, government, and NGOs should collaborate.
3.10 Encourage widespread access by women to
education, communication, and lifestyle awareness.
Oriented not just towards women, but to the family and access to technology
that reduces the needs for large families.... Getting girls through elementary
school is the strategy that positively affects all the other approaches.
Elementary education should be a stand-alone goal.... Include vocational
training for women.
3.11 Encourage health policies that diminish
infant mortality.
Ensure the life of the first child and abolish the myth about the male
child, especially in India. Support government primary health centers
for mothers and children. NGOs should lead public education about ethics.
Include and stress, the construction and equipping of maternity and pediatric
hospitals and clinics and training of nurses. Why is infant mortality still
high in some countries? Government population policy is less important
than achieving a stable political system with a growing economy.
3.12 Encourage land and other inheritance rights
for women.
Laws are there, but not implementation. Legal literacy is needed. It
is important to stress women's economic rights.... Pressure for change
can come from UN conferences like the recent ones in Cairo and Beijing.
Bilateral diplomatic pressure and foreign assistance programs that help
rewrite laws can help reinforce this.
3.13 Support the worldwide women's movement
aimed at freedom, equality of opportunity, and social justice for women.
Hillary Clinton has stressed that human rights are women's rights and
women's rights are human rights. Rights are for all people. Governments
can support but not lead such movements. These movements may have to be
country-by-country keeping a local focus that can be reinforced by global
influences like the Internet and UN conferences. Create a media strategy.
Women's study centers should evolve programs.
3.14 Encourage and initiate policies that protect
the family with adequate benefits so that all can work and support equal
pay for men and women who do equal work.
Implement as a government partnership with community churches and social
groups and develop legislation in the process.... Law exists, but women's
groups should provide leadership for the informal sector. Define the quality
of work and hours of working. Currently being included in diplomatic human
rights discussions.
ADDITIONAL ACTIONS
Planting trees is still one of the most important human actions for
the long-term survival of humanity…. To achieve education for all children,
the world would need to spend about $7 billion per year over the next ten
years. This is less than what is annually spent on cosmetics in USA or
on ice cream in Europe, says a UNICEF report.
Long-term statistics show that we have greatly increased the efficiency with which we use resources. This is what R. Buckminister Fuller called "ephemeralization": we are doing ever more with fewer resources. The real "thermodynamic" limits on the extraction of energy are still a very long way away: the theoretical maximum efficiency of energy extraction is still orders of magnitude higher than the efficiency we have now. Fuller's concepts of ephemeralization and synergetic design should be explored more seriously.... UNEP and the UN Population Fund have agreed to work together on issues of population and environment.
As more retired people live longer and there are fewer working people to support them, retirement communities should experiment with Internet-based businesses to earn income and make life more interesting.... Governments and corporations should promote growth in developing countries of nontraditional crops with export potential after doing cost/benefit studies to show this will not be done at the expense of traditional crop growth.... Currently women bear the burden of reproductive responsibility. This should be changed. Males should equally share responsibility. Change men's attitudes toward male contraceptives. Instead of giving money to governments, which can lead to bribery and corruption, encourage corporations to work directly with people to solve social problems and create sustainable development.... Define what we mean by reproductive rights and how to implement them.... Legalization of abortion should be kept separate from the human rights issues.
Add improvement to people's quality of life. Generally, people with a low standard of living adversely affect the environment and consume and even destroy more natural resources. Population birth rate has an inverse relationship to the educational level in our region.
To improve advocacy of healthy and safe sexuality will require changes of traditional thinking, promotion of certain medical techniques, and better managed health education programs. UN and governments should have greater responsibility for these actions. Create ways to increase gender sensitivity among men that lead to more women being involved in decisionmaking.
-- Suggested Actions --
8.1 WHO, with some assistance from government
agencies such as CDC should strengthen and expand the global network of
collaborating laboratories to create an effective global surveillance system
for emerging viruses and infections.
WHO is working to create a “network of networks”, but not all Member
States of WHO are willing to share surveillance information on infectious
diseases, even though this would help them to better prioritize their public
health efforts. The intention is to link existing local, regional,
national, and international networks of laboratories and medical centers
into a super surveillance network.
In addition to the 191 WHO Member States, other partners will include the European Union-United States Task Force on Emerging Communicable Diseases and the US-Japan Common Agenda.... WHO global network of laboratories is generating standardized, quantitative data on antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Data are used locally for containment of resistance and internationally to develop better drug policies and advocacy for new antibiotic treatment.
In addition to using the latest in satellites and information technology,
WHO should also act as a leader for and coordinator of other UN organizations
and government efforts. It is too dangerous to repeat the mistakes of the
past.... How can we expect UN activity when the United States does not
pay its bill?
8.2 WHO with strong government support, should increase funding and technical assistance for the global program on vaccines to ensure maximum coverage is obtained with existing antigens and that research and development is intensified for other possible vaccines and immunizations (such as for malaria).
The reason pharmaceutical companies are not putting more effort into
antibiotics and vaccines is simply concern over liability. Liability is
the big impediment.... Bacteria are developing resistance to many vaccines
and treatments due to over-use and misuse of antibiotics.... This could
have broad implications. If bacteria can evolve permanent resistance to
streptomycin or other antibiotics, then reducing antibiotic use in agriculture
and medicine may be less effective as a means of combating the rise of
bacteria resistance than most scientists assume.... WHO is working with
the governments, the private sector and other international organizations
in the vaccines program.
8.3 Governments, with support by UN organizations,
should increase funding for safe water supply projects.
A more detailed discussion appears above in Global Challenge 2 on Water....
Add nutrition, education, health, and sanitation to this action. A well-nourished
body is the first line of defense against most infectious diseases. The
human immune system must be empowered with adequate food and care.... Frequently,
it is not a question of funding alone, but of allocating resources to those
areas that would yield the greatest health benefit. This is a difficult
task because priorities are often influenced by political interests or
the structuring of health problems is inadequate. Safe water supply
projects do not in general depend on Ministries of Health, but on Ministries
of Public Works or others. The Ministries of Health are frequently
politically and economically weak and unable to structure good policy arguments
in favor of developing areas they recognize as having a positive impact
on health outcomes. An added problem is the lack of actual recognition
of intersectoral policies and even better of healthy public policies.
The latter assume that all policies approved by the government (commerce,
tourism, economics, public works, education, industrial, etc.) have been
tested for their positive impact on the health of the population.
Public health experts have to understand what is safe and not seek water
supplies that are completely free of pollutants. It is a balance between
what causes disease and costs. To eliminate all possible pollutants is
very costly.... This is very important because according to the World Health
Report, almost half the global population suffers from diseases related
to lack of, or contaminated, water. Dehydration from diarrhea is the biggest
killer of children.... while it may be cheaper to save and protect these
children with health measures, good nutrition, education, and adequate
water and sanitation could go a long way in reducing far more deaths and
disabilities with a growing number of pathogens.
8.4 WHO, with active participation by governments,
should create a rapid international medical deployment capacity to respond
to outbreaks of infectious disease with epidemic potential.
WHO works closely with CDC in this area. WHO also has military
liaisons from national governments whose roll will become more important.
8.5 Governments, with support from international
organizations, should increase the funding and capacity of such agencies
as the CDC, USAID, WHO, and other international cooperation (technical
and financial), to better collaborate with countries in strengthening national
disease surveillance and control systems.
8.6 WHO, with national leadership and management
by governments, should focus international attention and funding on those
diseases that have been targeted by the World Health Assembly for eradication
or elimination as public health problems (polio, measles, guinea worm,
and leprosy).
Polio has been eliminated from the Americas region, the last case happened
in Peru in 1994. CDD will provide $8 million to PAHO to cooperate
in a five-year effort to ensure measles eradication.... Globally invested
money for eradication will bring enormous financial returns. According
the United States Government Accounting Office, the US investment of $32
million into the global eradication of smallpox had saved the US $17 billion
by 1997. TB patients treated in the Third World at $10 to $15 for
drugs can help reduce the chance of a multi-drug resistant strain being
created and eventually imported into the US where multi-drug resistant
patients can cost approximately $250,000.
8.7 Corporations, with some leadership by governments,
should initiate intensified research into advanced-generation antibiotics.
Issues of liability that are preventing corporate initiatives have
to be addressed.... Innovative efforts should lead to making regulations
more flexible in light of the damage that anti-microbial resistance is
and will continue causing…. Loosening the ethical and legal liabilities
on the pharmaceutical companies and research institutions MUST be done
with extreme caution and be kept to a minimum, as human suffering can not
experience any additional abuse, especially under the excuse of medical
research.
8.8 Governments, NGOs, and international organizations
should cooperate in training, credit, and technical assistance for small
and microeconomic development to improve economic development in poorer
countries and thus improve the standard of living.
See Challenge 7 on the Rich-Poor Gap for greater discussion of this.
And Some Actions Specifically on HIV/AIDS:
8.9 Governments should at least double the
amount of funding devoted to scientific research on HIV and AIDS.
Doubling funding is not the answer.... HIV research is already well
funded. It is best instead to focus research on vaccines, where the scientific
community feels strongly about the prospects of a breakthrough in 7-10
years and education in prevention of sexually transmitted diseases in general.
8.10 Governments should at least double the
amount of funding devoted to education and public persuasion to practice
safe sex.
Mass media should be forced to support the family as the only acceptable
life style and help maintaining its stability through refraining from supporting
unregulated sexual relations, and increase the awareness of the public
specially youth to control the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases.
Rather than double the amount of funding, focus the attention on the
small percentage of people who are responsible for a large percentage of
the spread of HIV, such as urban prostitutes, without driving them further
underground. This focus should include continued education at treatment
centers and contact tracing.... Although contact tracing is very effective,
issues of privacy have to be solved. This was the strategy that reduced
sexually transmitted diseases before, not broad general education and posters....
What has to be promoted is negotiating skills that teach a teenager how
to negotiate with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend about the need to use a
condom.... There is a lack of attention among older people. The American
Association of Retired Persons (AARP), for exam-ple, issued a warning to
post-menopausal women to whom “safe sex” has in the past only meant “avoid
pregnancy”.... The UN and other international organizations and governments
should implement these actions cooperatively.... Uganda has experienced
some success in emphasizing prevention through education and public marketing
programs.... The right kind of information is needed to determine what
groups need to be targeted the most, and what kinds of programs to use
in education. Simply saying ‘education is needed’ is not enough; we need
concrete plans based on reliable research.
8.11 Governments and NGOs should establish
free condom programs in all countries in which the disease is spreading.
This action is on target, but do not make condoms free. Research in
Thailand and Brazil proved that low-cost supply (subsidized) to the market
place with social marketing was a better distribution strategy than free
distribution programs. This should be coupled with more normal strategies
to treat other sexually transmitted diseases as noted in action 8.6....
If condoms are free, there is no effect; they are not valued at all. There
must be a small price, possibly subsidized, for the condoms.
8.12 Governments should establish programs
that focus on the rights of women.
Women cannot protect themselves without the man’s cooperation in using
condoms.... This is also an issue of status as well as rights. What are
the choices for a woman whose husband dies of AIDS in a country that does
not allow her to inherit property? … What is the connection between improving
women’s status and the issues of inheritance when her husband dies of AIDS?
Stressing this is totally out of the context here. Moreover, touching a
critical point like this will deviate the attention of those practicing
this kind of discrimination to protect their interests, rather than thinking
of helping women to improve their status and/or regain their violated rights….
Increasing women’s status through education and employment translates into
a closer ratio of males to females in urban populations, which translates
into less commercial sex when compared to urban areas with more males than
females and, hence, increased urban commercial sex. African cities with
a higher male to female ratio have a higher incidence of commercial sex
than those with nearly 1:1 ratios. Also, uneducated and unemployed females
have a harder time saying no to men who do not use condoms.... Brothels
should mandate the use of condoms. Sex trade should be unionized to enforce
condom use and have clients pay for condoms. We need research to find what
a married woman can use to kill the virus without killing the sperm.
ADDITIONAL ACTIONS
Although notification of partners of HIV/AIDS patients seems to be violating their rights of autonomy and confidentiality, it allows those partners to make their own decisions of whether to stop or to continue this intimate relation with their infected partners. In the latter case, those partners will be given the chance to take the enough measures to protect themselves from being driven, blind-eyed, to the death row. Reporting should be mandatory, confidential and timely by the physician/lab etc to the respective health authority. It is very crucial that the respective governments have to insure the safety of those proved to be infected from experiencing any kind of abuse and /or discrimination by their partners and/or the society.
Consider adding the state of environment as one of basic factors of diseases. Minimally is it connected to the immune system and also psychosomatic. Also consider genetic modified organism and the relationship to biodiversity, ethics, etc. Genetics will have both positive and negative impacts on diseases. What indicators could be created to measure all this?
Challenge 8 can be addressed through mass education, making sure that governments assume responsibility and are transparent about the prevalence of these diseases, the adoption of preventive and curative measures, and improved access of the people to health services.
A significant shift in public expenditures and personal practices will be needed to address AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.... UNAIDS and WHO suggest it is counterproductive to require HIV examinations because it converts government health officials into policeman and will lead to abuse and bribery. Similarly, searching for and notification of partners of HIV-positive people can create a stigma and drive some underground. Instead, HIV testing should be made available at cost for individuals and subsidized for couples, including homosexual couples. Another policy UNAIDS and WHO suggest avoiding is international travel restrictions for people infected with HIV because it makes them the enemy of society, who, in turn, would act like the enemy, contribute to crime, and act in other irresponsible ways. Instead, we need people with HIV to identify with society and be socially responsible, as well as some in high-profile positions. Every country needs a Magic Johnson. On the other hand, Cuba initiated a forced testing and humane quarantine policy that seems to have worked well.
Promote telemedicine initiatives to bring the best medical knowledge to all areas of the world and significantly improve the responsiveness of the medical system to critical areas.... Understand more about the relationship between disease and ecology (both external environment and internal ecology of genes) and between disease and genetics (including the mechanism for rapid adaptation to new strengths and mutation)…. Establish religious and cultural values via media to reinforce good health practices....
We need to study what people do once they are notified that they are HIV positive and then base policy on that research. What is the socioeconomic impact of a 25% infection rate? We need to learn how to do contact tracing without being counterproductive. UNAIDS is new and it is doing a good job of collecting information, however, it is too soon to say how coordination of policy implementation will work.... Improve and standardize governments’ information systems for management of HIV. Get all physicians involved in confidential case reporting. Information is the front line of defense.... Stop legalization of prostitution; educate people through media to treat sexual problems correctly.... Others prefer legalization as better way to manage this problem.
AIDS will not be the last pathogen to alter our way of life. We must begin to view all human life and life on earth from the perspective of the pathogen and do all we can early on in preventing their evolution speeding ours.
The 51st World Health Assembly in May 1998 urged the Member States to develop sustainable systems to detect antimicrobial-resistant pathogens; to monitor volumes and patterns of use of antimicrobial agents and the impact of control measures; to develop educational programs to encourage the appropriate and cost-effective use of antimicrobial agents; to improve practices to prevent the spread of infection and of resistant pathogens, to promote appropriate antibiotic use in health care facilities and in the community; to develop measures to protect health workers from the hazards of resistant pathogens; to develop measures to prohibit the dispensing of antimicrobials without prescription; to strengthen legislation to prevent the manufacture, sale and distribution of counterfeit antimicrobial agents and the sale of antibiotics on the informal market; and to take measures to encourage the reduced use of antimicrobials in food-animal production. (Resolution WHA51.17)
The United States proposed a new tax credit for sales of vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS to accelerate the invention and production of these vaccines. Because developing countries often cannot afford to buy vaccines, the market provides little incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines for diseases that disproportionately affect those countries. This tax credit would provide such an incentive, because every dollar paid by a qualifying organization to buy a qualifying vaccine would be matched by a dollar of tax credits representing up to $1 billion of additional funding for future vaccine purchases.
-- Suggested Actions --
11.1 Governments, with some leadership from
UN organizations, should increase emphasis on programs designed to reduce
the female illiteracy rate, especially among rural, migrant, refugee, internally
displaced, and disabled women.
Enhancing the intelligence of individuals is essential for development.
Make primary education universal, free, and compulsory.... Hold the child
in class until the child is literate. Education is the fundamental solution
and economic support is the key to the solution. For example, providing
the opportunity for education and employment to women.... It should be
planned accordingly to the region’s conditions.... In addition to formal
education, the media should help promote literacy through educational programs....
Improving the position of women also has strong positive effects on their
children. Many studies, including some in Bolivia, the US, the Philippines,
Malaysia, India, and Pakistan, show that better education for mothers increases
the likelihood that their children will be educated. Total returns on schooling
are higher for women than for men.... Parents should be told the value
of educating women.
11.2 International organizations and governments
should encourage programs that provide support for childcare and other
services to mothers.
Parental contact and nurturing interaction during the child’s early
ages is critical for future development of social skills, self-confidence,
self-realization potential, and approach to conflict resolution.... Add
generous paid and unpaid parental leave provisions and other measures that
encourage and allow parents to keep a principal role in the care for their
children. It should emphasize that institutional child care should not
and cannot replace care by the family. Mass mechanisms have to be made
more efficient. Awareness is necessary.... Concentrate on preventive
medicine and good health practices.
This is important, but literacy and education are primary.... This issue is less important now in cultures with extended families, but will become a problem as more people become employed.... Governments should include women’s affairs in national planning. For example, as is done in Sweden, extra time off for the mother could be given during the first year for child-care. This society believes the investment in the future is worth it.
Our fathers and mothers can negotiate to share time off and responsibilities.
There is a law in Germany that allows one of the parents to take a
year off from his/her work. However, in most cases, mothers choose the
leave option because of the existing social values regarding child-rearing.
This remains an issue that needs to be addressed.
11.3 Explore sanctions for governments that
do not enact and enforce legislation to guarantee the rights of women and
other groups (including property rights), and adopt and implement laws
against discrimination in employment.
Legal enforcement should be built into the law itself. Economic sanctions
are not the best solution but they are tools. Evolution of rights should
be a continuous process, without the need of rules’ support.... NGOs should
lead the movement.... This action may require enforcement by embargoes
against offending nations.... Couple education to change attitudes in addition
to enforcing legislation.... The US has no credibility when it chastises
the Chinese on human rights. It has no authority to do so. Instead, we
need to create a system of incentives.... Have the Rio and Beijing UN conferences
had any lasting effect? We need to know and measure.... The UN needs enforcement
power. It could use some teeth in the human rights charter.... Women
work longer hours than men in nearly every country and of the total burden
of work, women carry an average 53 percent in developing countries and
51 percent in industrial countries. Men’s work time in industrial countries
is roughly two-thirds spent in paid activities and one-third spent in unpaid
activities. For women, the situation is the reverse.
11.4 Implement the Platform for Action, passed
by the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995.
The Platform for Action of the UN conference is not known to people.
Information dissemination is necessary. Underdevelopment and lack of information
are inter-linked. NGOs and government should join together to get over
this problem.
11.5 Governments should increase funding for
health care and social services.
Sure, but not likely, given the global trends of government budget
cutting.... International organizations such as UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM,
and WHO help establish women’s health centers that provide counseling on
issues ranging from violence and genital mutilation to family planning
and nutrition.
The availability of preventive medicine and good health practices is
crucial. In order to ensure these services, mass mechanisms have to be
made more efficient, and awareness is necessary.... This is important,
but literacy and education are primary.
11.6 Governments should ratify and enforce
international treaties on trafficking and slavery, with some leadership
from corporations and NGOs.
In the meantime, educate the slaves. For example, if a country
says it has no slaves, then educate those people who it says are not slaves
by letting them go to school. As is feasible, NGOs and UNESCO might intervene.
Trafficking in women has become a lucrative $12 billion a year trade, with an estimated 2 million victims worldwide, according to the United Nations.
In Geneva, the International Organization for Migration urged governments
to toughen and enforce laws against sex trafficking. The intergovernmental
agency estimates that some 700,000 women and children each year are caught
up in networks from which there is little or no escape. Many do not know
what they are getting into; others take the risk because their living conditions
are so poor they believe they have nothing to lose, the agency said in
a statement. (InfoBeat, 3/09/01)
11.7 Use the Internet to link and train NGOs,
government officials, and international organizations to improve their
effectiveness working with women and other groups seeking economic autonomy.
Feasible, but the prerequisite is that developed countries provide
more Internet equipment to developing countries.... The role of government
is the most important, however, at the same time, the UN, NGOs, IOs, and
enterprises could contribute to resolving the problem through financial
support and education.
11.8 Governments and NGOs should enhance women’s
access to credit, technology, training, land, other women, and other groups.
Seventy percent of the world’s 1.3 billion poor are female.... Women
need to be involved in decision-making bodies to make this possible....
Women’s education should be strengthened and governments should pay more
attention to the health and security of working women.... There has been
much progress in China.
11.9 Governments, with some leadership from
NGOs, should ensure women’s involvement in decision-making relating to
HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases such as STDs, facilitate
the development of strategies to protect women from HIV and other STDs,
and ensure the provision of affordable preventive services for STDs and
HIV/AIDS.
Research by UNAIDS shows that the subordinate position of women associated
with marital abuse, rape, and trafficking of women and children leads to
HIV infection.... This action should be led by government ministers of
women’s affairs in collaboration with NGOs.... This is becoming a national
debate in Ghana and churches are playing a more important role here....
STDs are now called STIs-sexually transmitted infections. [See Global Challenge
8 for a greater discussion of this action.]
11.10 Governments should restructure and target
the allocation of public expenditures to promote women’s access to family
planning resources.
Insure the life of the first child and family planning will take care
of itself. The implementation of this action depends on each national situation.
It is an issue of quality and education. The network of primary health
centers should be used effectively.
11.11 Support role models for women and other
groups.
Involve local people in finding role models.... Use role models to
raise men’s consciousness and respect for women’s intellectual value and
equality.
11.12 Promote discussions about the changing
role of women, birth control, and religion.
Gender sensitivity should be increased among men and women. Both religious
and political actors should be involved in decreasing the birth rate. Policymakers
should be involved because the public needs to know why such actions should
be implemented. Religious leaders should be involved because they
are or have been against regulating birth rates.... It can be carried out
on the radio, Internet and other media.... It does not seem necessary....
Improve the quality of contraceptives. Poor quality of contraceptives
leads to family problems.
11.13 Give equal pay for equal work.
It is necessary, but should emphasize quantity and quality at the same
time. Women’s organizations need to be formed to help implementation within
the informal sector. This can be realized in some countries, particularly
in socialist countries. Women’s associations should lead.
ADDITIONAL ACTIONS
Create policy measures to redress persistent gender disparities in
command over resources. There needs to be government efforts to promote
equality of access to and control of productive resources -- whether they
are education, financial resources or land -- and to ensure fair and equal
access to employment opportunities to advance gender equality. Gender disparities
require changes in institutional reform. Given that active measures entail
economic costs, policymakers will need to be selective about which measures
require prioritization, focusing largely on where government intervention
has the largest social benefits.
Strengthen women's political voice and participation. Government efforts toward improving women's status should include strengthening women's political voice and participation. When women's numbers in decision-making positions grow, they gain greater political clout. To this end, there needs to be more programs targeted at increasing women's positions at higher levels. In order that these programs are effective, there needs to be greater contribution of women in the design of these interventions.
Increase expenditure targeted at women's programs. Across the world, typically expenditures allocated toward women's programs tend to be small in proportion to other forms of spending. Should expenditure on equal opportunities for gender in the public sector be taken into account, usually the total is not more than 5 percent of government expenditure. Here, it is vital to look at the 95% not targeted at women beneficiaries or programs that promote equal opportunity for women. The reason is because this spending is never gender-neutral in that it will ultimately have different impacts on women and girls and men and boys since they occupy different social positioning.
Create policies and programs that are culture-sensitive. It is critical that gender policies and programs are culture-sensitive, which means that successful designs for improving women's status in one context need not be applicable to another. In this case, policies and programs targeted at women as well as men can only be effective when informed by the cultural specificities of how gender is constructed in a society. For this reason, international organizations and NGOs should collaborate with governments and local NGOs in their efforts to increase women's status. However, in some instances, cultural norms themselves may be responsible for the perpetuation of gender inequality; in this case, steps have to be taken to address its negative implications, which may include establishing legal measures to counter the problem of gender inequality more effectively.
In a recent study, Save the Children, recommends policy changes in five areas. First, increase girls’ chances of completing primary school by raising the legal age of marriage and supporting policies that allow pregnant girls to stay in school. Second, ensure that adolescents have access to sexual and reproductive health education. Third, expand legal protections to protect young women and adolescent girls from forced sex and prostitution. Fourth, support women entrepreneurs. Fifth, link development aid to a country’s efforts at improving the status of women.
UNDP suggests redressing the imbalance between men and women by electing national legislatures with a minimum of 30 percent women.... In an effort to adequately cater to the global needs of women and implement effective development programs, reliable and accurate statistics need to be collected. This category also takes into account women’s unpaid work and strategies to place a monetary value on work so that it can be included in the GNP, which may enhance women’s status. Standards need to be set to stop the excessive portrayal of women as ‘pieces of meat’ because these attitudes carry over into the community and negatively affect women’s status and levels of violence.
Women’s World Banking is in over 40 countries, but with so much attention to the Grameen Bank, these Women’s Banks get less support.... Because a major percentage of income in poor regions goes to alcohol, some type of alcohol control is needed.
Changing consciousness is the most important way to improve the present autonomy of women. The cultural perception that men are superior to women has been here for a long time. It is a common worldwide problem.
Educate men. Develop their consciousness of intellectual and human equality and respect for women. Do this through the media, work ethics, and eventually law reinforcement.... Additionally, school curricula are a vital channel through which values can be conveyed. When children learn that they have equal rights irrespective of their gender, this worldview can be carried into their adult life. Removing stereotypes on gender in the media can also serve to emphasize women's equal position to men.
Men should be included in programs directly affecting women, such as health and reproductive rights, in order to increase their awareness of a shared-responsibility ideology in matters of family planning. In societies where there is a pronounced gender role specialization of certain activities in the home, men should be encouraged to help in managing the home as well as nurturing the children. The former is particularly important since women typically provide about 70 percent of work carried out in the home
Stress should be on rural women and employing their traditional knowledge gainfully. Instead of targeting specific groups it should be oriented towards the whole village.... More women need global scholarly experience of at least two or three years to improve self-determination and autonomy. This should be a great jump forward for all of society.
Build training in technology for the employment of women. Women’s associations should be created within the informal sector to open male-dominated jobs to women.
There is agreement that women should have equal rights with men, but they may not necessarily be involved in economic and business relationships in the same manner as men.... The division of Advancement for Women at the UN Headquarters is trying to promote women’s participation in decisionmaking in business and political areas. Men’s work needs to be reduced so women can do the same workload as men. This would allow men to contribute to household work. The Japanese corporate system of working extremely long hours was created under the assumption that men have wives at home as caretakers and housewives. Therefore, in order for the Japanese women to participate in the case economy men’s work also needs to be changed.
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