UN Millennium Development Goals - Essay Example

Gender equality and empowering women is one of the most important goals of the Millennium Development Goals because ensuring gender equality is the very basic requirement for the eradication of poverty, hunger and disease. Since women make up almost half of the population of the world, achievement of MDGs is not possible without the empowerment of women. According to the targets the gender disparity in primary and secondary education should have been removed by 2005 and gender disparity in all other types of education must be removed by 2015.

Considerable progress have been achieved with regards to gender equality in primary and secondary education and most regions of the world including the developing countries have equal enrollments of boys and girls in primary and secondary education institutions (Sweetman, 2005). The case of tertiary and advanced education is different because there is a marked gap between the enrollments of boys and girls in higher education institutions, particularly in the developing world. Poverty, marginalization, food insecurity, armed conflicts and disease are the various different reasons of such trends of disparity in male and female higher education.

The Gross Enrollment Ration in tertiary education institutions in Africa is 4.8% for women and 7.3% (Nwonwu, 2008). Financial issues are one side of the picture; there are many cultural and religious issues which are barring women for acquiring education and in some of the regions women eager to acquire education are subjected to violence. Education is one sector, gender disparity can also be observed in other spheres of life as well. Most of the developing countries have a very meager female population having paid jobs.

The recent global recession has further aggravated the situation because the unemployment rates for women which rose up during recession did not fall down during the economic recovery of 2009-2010 however the unemployment rates for men fell down significantly (World Bank, 2011). Lack of representation of women in the legislative and administrative bodies is an issue being faced by the developed as well as the developing world. The target of equal representation of women in the legislative bodies of the world is still far from being achieved, according to 2011 UN report on MDG, the women shared only 19.

3% of the total parliamentary seats in the world (United Nations, 2011). Education indicators in the United Arab Emirates show that the women are getting a remarkable share in the educational institutions but disparity still exists because the women in tertiary educational institutions outnumber men at a ratio of 5 women to 3 men. The reason behind this trend is the fact that men in the United Arab Emirates are quite satisfied by getting only secondary level of education which helps them in getting jobs and joining services.

The trends in primary and secondary education are better with 92.9% and 106.7% female to male proportion respectively as recorded in 2005. Women have already been empowered in UAE as far as education is concerned, however for the complete eradication of disparity in education, the education of men needs to be promoted on urgent basis. The fields where UAE needs large improvements for ensuring equal representation of women include economy, politics and administration. Despite the remarkable improvement in the education, women of UAE only make up 22% of the total workforce of the country.

The trend is much better in the stock market where women investors hold 43% of the total shares. The Department of Citizens’ Human Resource Development and Employment is introducing policies to encourage women to acquire professional education so that they can contribute towards the human resource of the country; moreover steps are being taken to ensure better working environment for women by providing incentives and creating awareness through media (Oxford Business Group, 2009).A significant number of women have been working in the civil society and welfare organizations in UAE; however their representation in the legislative assemblies and administrative setups is very low with only 23% women members in the Federal National Council.

However the women who have managed to reach the legislative councils have paved the way for the coming generations by introducing legislations which safeguard the rights of women and encourage them to participate in all fields of life (UAE Ministry of Economy and UNDP UAE, 2007). Creating awareness about the importance of contribution of both male and female members of the society towards the advancement of the nation is the most feasible solution to eliminate the prevailing disparity because fortunately there are no financial constraints with regards to development in the country, adopting a positive approach can solve the issues.

The government has taken various steps to ensure the eradication of gender disparity and the recent developments in this regard are encouraging. ReferencesNwonwu, F. (2008). Millennium development goals: achievements and prospects of meeting the targets in Africa. African Books Collective.Oxford Business Group. (2009). The Report: Abu Dhabi 2009. Oxford Business Group.Sweetman, C. (2005). Gender and the millennium development goals. Oxfam.UAE Minsitry of Economy, & UNDP UAE. (2007). Millennium Development Goals: United Arab Emirates Report.

United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy Publications.United Nations. (2011). The millennium development goals report 2011. United Nations Publications.World Bank. (2011). World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. World Bank Publications.