by Kudzai Makombe
This is the second in a four-part series focusing on the Fourth World Conference on Women to be held in Beijing, China in September 1995.
After years of witnessing the increasing feminization of poverty globally and particularly in the South, addressing the issue has finally become imperative. Poverty is at the top of the agenda of the Draft
Platform of Action to be adopted at the forthcoming Fourth World Conference on Women (WCW) to be held in Beijing, China this September.
According to the Draft Plat Conn of Action, the global economic ca 1s1s, Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and civil strife have led to a substantial increase in the number of people living in absolute poverty. Among these, women constitute nearly 60 percent’ of the world’s one billion rural poor, while the total number of rural women living in poverty has been estimated to have increased by 47 percent between 1970 and 1988. The heavy burden of poverty mainly falls on female-headed households and, in Africa alone, the proportion of such households stands at around 35 percent.
The governments of the world will be asked in adopting this draft Platform of Action to commit themselves to rectifying this situation. Gertrude Mongella. Secretary General of the Fourth World Conference for Women stresses that. “We cannot hope that problems that have existed for such a long time can be solved in a mere ten days of the conference.” however, she says. “We expect to get a commitment from governments on issues of prime importance to women.
“We expect to get a commitment from people who will be going to Beijing. We expect women to become even stronger after we come from Beijing, to network and to make sure there is concrete follow-up to the actions which will be decided in Beijing.”
The improvement of standards of and access to education and health are the primary interdependent factors affecting women’s poverty globally and the Draft Platform of Action recognises this through its placement of education and health as the second critical area of concern.
Even the World Bank, generally regarded as the conveyor of poverty due to its tough stance on governments to reduce social spending under the auspices of SAPs, appears to be changing its spots.
In a paper produced for the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development held in March of this year the Bank noted that, “While incomes in developing countries have doubled, between 1.1 billion and 1.3 billion people in developing countries are still desperately poor, living on incomes of less than US$1 per day. Their poverty is not just a lack of income. It is a deprivation of welfare and, very profoundly, a lack of capabilities, social power and opportunities.
“Improvements in education, health and nutrition directly address the worst consequences of being poor. And, investing in people, especially in their education, also attacks some of the most important causes of poverty.”
For the women of southern Africa, this need for greater investment in their education and health is clearly evident. Despite encouraging trends in the health and education of women in the region, a lot remains to be done particularly when one considers the implications of women’s education to child and maternal mortality rates, use of family planning and incidence of HIV/AIDS.
Director of Zimbabwe’s Legal Resources Foundation, Dumisani Mashingaidze stated at a seminar to mark the launch of a report on Women’s Health in Zimbabwe – A Path to Development, which will be presented to the WCW, that, “An unhealthy population cannot offer anything towards economic growth and development. If the state wants to improve its nation’s health it should educate women”. This statement is easily applicable to any of the countries of the southern African region or indeed the world.
Further exacerbating the situation of women in southern Africa is the spiral of poverty and environmental degradation in which many rural households are trapped. Land inequality has resulted in overcrowding in severely degraded communal areas, notably affecting female-headed households most. This situation has been further compounded by severe drought which has plagued the region for four years. Oxfam UK, the British based charity points out in its report on poverty that a country cannot expect economic growth to bring improvement in human welfare when vast numbers of people lack the right to use land and other productive resources.
The problems of overcoming feminization of poverty may appear virtually insurmountable given the many interlinkages with other sectors but, at the very least it is an item at the top of the agenda. In addition. the Draft Platform for Action proposes some actions to enable women to overcome poverty.
These are:
+ promoting of women’s economic self-reliance and increasing their access to quality education and health services with a target for reducing populations living in extreme poverty by 50 percent by the year 2000;
+ developing gender sensitive national and international policies:
+ providing poor women with economic opportunities;
+ providing rural women with equal access to productive resources, including legal access to land, provision of credit and extension services; and, finally
+ addressing the needs of migrant and displaced women.
Many remain cynical as to whether the WCW can bring about enough commitment from the world’s governments to actually improve the situation of women. But, given the amount of interest that has been raised, by not only the WCW but also the World Social Summit and the Population Conference, there is now greater realization that women’s problems are problems of society as a whole. “I think we are moving towards a change — a dramatic change … ” says Mongella. (SARDC)
