In July, Social Watch released its “Advance Social Watch Report 2005: Un-kept Promises - What the numbers say about poverty and gender.” While the full “Social Watch Report 2005” will not be released until September, the Advance version of the report provides numerical data on poverty rates around the world. This data, taken from over fifty countries, analyzes various factors influencing poverty including: education, health, child immunizations, gender equity and women’s reproductive health. The statistics are offered as a sobering reminder for world leaders about the amount of work needed to be done in order to accomplish “the goal of eradicating poverty in the world”, set forth ten years ago in the Copenhagen Convention. The two central themes of the Social Watch 2005 Report are Gender and Poverty. The report recognizes that poverty stems from unequal distribution of income, access to work and employment opportunities, access to information and political participation. Because women comprise a large percentage of those who suffer from such marginalization in the global economy, the report argues that achieving gender equality and equity are necessary steps towards ending world poverty.
Included in the advance report are commentaries on the status of the ratification of ILO Conventions and International Human Rights Treaties. The report also provides a summary on the performance countries who signed onto and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women in the World (CEDAW).
Compiled from: “Advance Social Watch Report 2005: Un-kept Promises - What the numbers say about poverty and gender.” Social Watch, (2005).