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47. More than 1 billion people in the world today, the great majority of whom are women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty, mostly in the developing countries. Poverty has various causes, including structural ones. Poverty is a complex, multidimensional problem, with origins in both the national and international domains. The globalization of the world’s economy and the deepening interdependence among nations present challenges and opportunities for sustained economic growth and development, as well as risks and uncertainties for the future of the world economy. The uncertain global economic climate has been accompanied by economic restructuring as well as, in a certain number of countries, persistent, unmanageable levels of external debt and structural adjustment programmes. In addition, all types of conflict, displacement of people and environmental degradation have undermined the capacity of Governments to meet the basic needs of their populations. Transformations in the world economy are profoundly changing the parameters of social development in all countries. One significant trend has been the increased poverty of women, the extent of which varies from region to region. The gender disparities in economic power-sharing are also an important contributing factor to the poverty of women. Migration and consequent changes in family structures have placed additional burdens on women, especially those who provide for several dependants. Macroeconomic policies need rethinking and reformulation to address such trends. These policies focus almost exclusively on the formal sector. They also tend to impede the initiatives of women and fail to consider the differential impact on women and men. The application of gender analysis to a wide range of policies and programmes is therefore critical to poverty reduction strategies. In order to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, women and men must participate fully and equally in the formulation of macroeconomic and social policies and strategies for the eradication of poverty. The eradication of poverty cannot be accomplished through anti-poverty programmes alone but will require democratic participation and changes in economic structures in order to ensure access for all women to resources, opportunities and public services. Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure a sustainable livelihood; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increasing morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries – as mass poverty in many developing countries and as pockets of poverty amidst wealth in developed countries. Poverty may be caused by an economic recession that results in loss of livelihood or by disaster or conflict. There is also the poverty of low-wage workers and the utter destitution of people who fall outside family support systems, social institutions and safety nets.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
With the Beijing Declaration, we can note the emphasis on the international perspective at some points, on the national view or the state actors as some notes, and, furthermore, the emphases on the non-state actors such as the non-profit organizations (NGOs). Paragraph 48, in particular, looks in general terms at the total population of the world, with the main subsection of the world’s poor who are disproportionately women.
One of the explicitly mentioned reasons for this disproportionate poverty of women came in the structural arguments. However, there is an acknowledgement as to the complex nature of the problem facing us. Now, we can see the origins throughout the systems facing 1995 peoples and those of us alive in the prime of life today.
The increasingly interdependent and globalized world means the multidimensional nature of poverty disproportionately affecting women then alters their life course even more now, especially as the rapid technological changes can render entire fields or disciplines obsolete in a very short amount time and, thus, gutting sectors of society rather quickly.
Where there can be also rapid economic growth, it tends to be rendered unto Caesar and his cronies in disproportionate amounts in the global economic system now; those who worship mammon and God. The structural adjustment programmes, for instance, up until 1995 did not take into account the concerns and lives of women and, as a result, their lives were disproportionately negatively impacted by the conscious policies and programmes set out for the international system.
There is a system of consistent “unmanageable levels of external debt and structural adjustment programmes.” The subsequent economic policies and consequent environmental degradation have been disproportionately negatively affecting women as well. The benefit of this paragraph, in particular, is the depth of explication for plumbing on the nature of the problems facing women stricken by poverty as defined by 1995 standard, I assume.
The kinds of social development mentioned here, probably, incorporate environment precautions and preparatory measures of the state actors or the “Governments” because the basic premise here is the way in which the poverty of women impacts their entire lives, and the social development of the country could be severely impacted by the changes in the systematic provisions of the state for the needs of the citizens as climate catastrophes began to pick up steam leading up to 1995.
Then there are the social issues to do with the disparities in the relationships of men and women all over the world to varying degrees, though Iceland for about a decade now has been quite an outlier and pioneer in the gender equality movement, that bind themselves in the socio-cultural context of the nation-state.
Women, often or even very often, have less economic independence – so more financial dependence – compared to the men in their lives. Indeed, in less developed times of some nations and still many today, a crime against a woman was not defined as a crime against a woman, or even the significant other of the man, but, rather, a property crime because women were seen as simply chattel of the men, the family, and the community. That’s what made, and makes, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so extraordinary in its progressive social voice – then and now.
This is in need of a social movement and also the education of women for the work to be able to attain higher-income and more prestigious jobs, because the freedom in most societies is bound by the dollars, to a significant degree. If you have money, you have more degrees of freedom within the society.
The work for sustainable development is also mentioned in the is important, as the areas here should be emphasizing women; as women tend to be the majority of the functionaries at the lower level of societies, if programs were to focus on and provide for women, women are, statistically as an international norm, more probable to contribute these resources back into the family, which benefits the next generations, the communities, and the nation-states – so, in turn and by logical necessity, the global standard of living and quality of life.
The poverty eradication programs could be an important part of all this. The forms of social ills that could be eliminated with the incorporation of some of these programs of actions can be important to reduction of, for example, “hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increasing morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion.” All associated with the reduction in quality of life, but as eliminated then the improved in it.
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- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash