Address violence against women in line with development agenda
An expert on gender mainstreaming, Dr Radhika Balakrishnan, has said any effort to address countries’ development agenda must include attention to violence against women and girls (VAW).
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The elimination of VAW, she said, must be seen as inseparable from achieving gender equality and national development.
The Director, Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University, New Jersey, Dr Radhika Balakrishnan, made the call at the ongoing conference on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York.
According to her, for countries to achieve a multi-dimensional approach to sustainable development, there should be universalism in policies, not just in name but one that recognises structural inequalities and allows for an intersectional and interconnected approach.
Financing gender equality
She said targeted financing for gender equality and women’s rights was a prerequisite for realising sustainable development.
She, therefore, called on governments to make public funds available for gender-equitable and sustainable development to support what the private sector was already involved in.
Dr Balakrishnan also called on governments to see the provision of adequate financing and support for women’s organisations as a priority for gender equity and women’s empowerment efforts, particularly sustained and unconditional support for women’s rights organisation and movements.
Gender responsive budgeting, she said, should become the norm to ensure that countries’ expenditure for sustainable development contributed to gender equality.
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Women’s collective action
Dr Balakrishnan called for the need to support women’s collective action, voice and participation at all levels.
Women, she said, must be recognised as key development actors in their own right.
“Women’s voices are essential in setting priorities and policies that align with respecting and fulfilling human rights commitments, including women’s rights.”
Women’s paid employment
She said there was the need to respect, recognise and fulfill the right for women to engage in paid employment, while operationalising and enabling “decent work”, saying that decent work for men and women and gender-balanced work and family commitments were the motor for socio- economic development and gender equality.
Women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights
Dr Balakrishnan called on states to provide comprehensive sexual education as a core subject in their national curricul and finance them through the educational system.
Access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, she said, should be made available for young people in and out of schools, adding that young people should have equal rights to prevent pregnancy, as well as ensure the right to education for girls who are pregnant or have children.
Writer’s email-rebecca-quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh