UNFPA State of World Population 2005

UNFPA State of World Population 2005: "It is a simple message but a powerful one: Gender equality reduces poverty and saves and improves lives.
In the year 2000, the nations of the world came together to forge a unique compact. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sketched out a bold plan to halve extreme poverty by 2015. This unprecedented global initiative holds great promise. During the next decade, hundreds of millions of people can be released from the stronghold of poverty. The lives of 30 million children and 2 million mothers can be spared. The spread of AIDS can be reversed. Millions of young people can play a larger role in their country's development and create a better world for themselves and future generations.
This year�s The State of World Population report stresses that gender equality and reproductive health are indispensable to the realization of this promise.
The UN Millennium Project, a panel of more than 250 experts from all over the world, identifies gender inequality as one of the primary drivers of poverty and social exclusion. This is because discrimination effectively squanders human capital by denying one half of humanity the right to realize their full potential. More than 1.7 billion women worldwide are in their reproductive and productive years, between the ages of 15 and 49. Targeted investments in their education, reproductive health, economic opportunity and political rights can spur growth and sustainable development for generations to come.
The report, The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, explores the degree to which the global community has fulfilled pledges made to the world�s most impoverished and marginalized peoples. It tracks progress, exposes shortfalls and examines the links between poverty, gender equality, human rights, reproductiv"/.../