Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women (MDG 3)

Overview

MDG 3, the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment, is the only Millennium Development Goal that is both a goal in itself and is recognized as essential to the achievement of all other Millennium Development Goals. Evidence compiled by the World Bank from 73 countries shows that the incidence of poverty tends to be lower and that economic growth tends to be higher in countries with greater equality between women and men.

Nonetheless, global progress on achieving MDG 3 is lagging. The target of eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 has already been missed, although progress has been made. In the developing regions as a whole, 96 girls were enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys in 2008, compared to 91 in 1999. Eliminating gender disparity at all education levels by 2015 may still be possible, but the other indicators for MDG 3 show progress to be slow. For example, in parliamentary representation, while global proportion of seats held by women continues to rise slowly, averaging 19 percent as of January 2010, a third of developing countries still have less than 10 percent or no female representation in parliament at all.

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Canada's Contribution

International bodies and partner countries recognize Canada as, historically, a leader in equality between women and men, in part because of CIDA's consistent focus, engagement, and innovation in this area.

In 2008, the Minister of International Cooperation renewed Canada's commitment to women around the world and became a champion for MDG 3, joining Denmark's MDG 3 Global Call to Action along with other leaders from both developed and developing countries, multilateral organizations, civil society, and the private sector. Equality between men and women is integrated into all programming CIDA undertakes in developing countries.

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Contributions from CIDA and its Partners

A stronger role for women in economic decision making: CIDA's support to women in Rwanda has contributed to considerable progress for women as decision makers in the country's major economic sectors. In 2007, women represented 45 percent of decision makers in a provincial chapter of Rwanda's national agricultural union-a major advance compared to the 18 percent of positions women originally occupied. Similarly, in Rwanda's National Fishing Federation, women now hold 30 percent of decision-making positions, up from 18 percent, and a woman is now elected as the federation's vice-president.

Greater equality in education: A CIDA-supported project in Egypt provides girls with computer training using an innovative and interactive method to build the girls' software design skill, a skill the girls themselves identified as key to fostering their career development. This method also helped to overcome community resistance to girls participating in this project and brought girls together with boys to achieve a common goal.

Supporting the human rights of women and girls: In Haiti, CIDA supports Haitian organizations and institutions that promote, protect, and defend the human rights of women and girls and work to prevent violence against women. With CIDA's support over 2007-2008, 30 shelters across the country provided medical care and legal advice to female victims of violence, and the Haitian government passed a new law that made rape a crime.

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