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Gender equality and the price of violence
2007-04-22 10:25:34
By Rayner Ngonji
Gender-based violence knows no boundaries - be they economic, social or geographic. It is pervasive, pernicious and is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women and girls.
It both reflects and reinforces gender inequity and compromises the dignity, autonomy and health of women to a degree that is truly staggering.
Recent report on `State of Population 2005` says worldwide, one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into unwanted sexual relations or abused - often by a family member or an acquaintance.
Gender-based violence kills and harms as many women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer. The toll on women`s health surpasses that of traffic accidents and malaria combined.
The costs to countries - in increased healthcare expenditure, legal fees, policing and losses in educational achievement and productivity - are commensurately high. In the United States, that figure adds up to an estimated $12.6 billion (about 16.03 trillion Shillings) each year.
Genger-based violence takes many forms - both psychological and physical, the report points out, and includes domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation/cutting and ``honour`` and dowry-related killings.
Violence can begin even in the womb through prenatal sex selection and, later, from female infanticide, neglect and abuse. In Asia alone, at least 60 million girls are ``missing`` as a result of the habit.
Every year, an estimated 800,000 people are trafficked across borders for exploitation, the majority in the commercial sex trade.
Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Many more are forcibly recruited, tricked or abducted to face the same fate within their own country.
National campaigns against gender-based violence are one of the ``quick-win`` solutions recommended by the UN Millennium Project. In some countries, efforts are already under way.
Because gender-based violence is so widely tolerated, successful action ultimately requires social transformation: Effective law enforcement and a strengthened judiciary aimed at ending impunity, gender-sensitive education, and the mobilization of communities and opinion leaders are needed to prevent violence.
Needless to say, men must be engaged to take a strong stand on the issue.
Since the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, conflict has erupted in more than 40 countries.
Almost two billion people were affected by natural disasters in the last decade of the 20th Century, 86 per cent by floods and droughts.
Late in 2004, a single disaster-the tsunami is Southeast Asia - swept away entire villages and claimed the lives of an estimated 280,000 people and displaced a million more.
In the wake of wars and natural disasters healthcare and educational infrastructures collapse, the risk of HIV infection increases and the levels of gender based violence skyrocket. Of the 34 countries farthest from reaching the MDGs, 22 are in, or are emerging from, conflict.
The nature and scope of war has changed, with more conflicts occurring within, as opposed to between, countries. During the 1990s, of the 118 armed conflicts, the majority were civil.
These tend to last longer than conflicts between countries and take a huge toll on civilians. Abuses include rape, mutilation, massacre and the forcible recruitment of children to serve as combatants, sex slaves and ``camp wives``.
Many civilians are forced to flee their homes and sexual violence is widespread. Eighty per cent of the world’s 35 million refugees and internally displaced persons are women and children.
Following conflict, reconstruction provides an opportunity to forge societies anew and address pre-existing inequities.
Indeed, a number of post conflict countries are actively promoting the rights of women and young people in order to forestall the very conditions that can lead to further marginalization and impoverishment following conflict`s end.
With 49 per cent of seats, Rwanda now has the highest proportion of female parliamentarians in the world.
Today, in the first decade of the 21st Century, the world has an opportunity to ``make poverty history``.
Doing so, however, will require targeted investments in the empowerment of women and young people; the provision of universal reproductive health alongside HIV prevention, and the strengthening and transforming of health care systems.
In Africa, the ratio of doctors to patients can be as great as one for every 10,000. This compares to one for 500 in the United States. Sub-Saharan Africa will need an additional one million more health workers in order to achieve the MDGs.
Making healthcare systems more responsive to the needs of women, young people and indigenous or otherwise marginalized groups, is critical to meeting poverty reduction goals.
In 2003, donor governments spent $69 billion on development aid. That same year, global military spending totalled approximately one trillion dollars.
Given this disparity, it is clear that the cost of meeting the MDGs is more a matter of political will and commitment than scarce resources.
Considering what it will accomplish, the cost-$135 billion in 2006 and rising to $195 billion by 2015 - is modest and feasible.
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