evaluation, using both quantitative and qualitative indicators, and an emphasis
on women as key actors, with an appropriate emphasis on the role of men.
65. In preparing the section on strategic objectives and actions, use should be
made of suggestions provided by Member States, by intergovernmental bodies, by
organizations of the United Nations system and by non-governmental
organizations, as well as the observations made during the thirty-eighth
session. The actions should also take account of the results of regional
conferences, as well as of the International Conference on Population and
Development and the preparations for the World Summit for Social Development.
A.
Enable women to overcome poverty
66. Actions that address women’s economic self-reliance and access to quality
education and to health services will also help to eliminate the factors that
accentuate poverty. Given appropriate resources and structural support, women
can themselves overcome poverty. However, poverty is different in degree and in
solution in developed and developing countries, between urban and rural areas
and for specific groups of women. Actions should be designed to take into
account these differences. Women should be incorporated in the design and
implementation of poverty alleviation policies and programmes. A target of a
50 per cent reduction in the population in extreme poverty by the year 2000
should be aimed at.
Develop gender-sensitive national and international economic policies
67. International financial institutions, Governments and intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations should assess the poverty and gender implications
of current macroeconomic policies, including structural adjustment programmes,
especially those that have a direct impact on women in poverty. National and
international financial institutions should study their effects on the poor and
develop gender-sensitive policies, appraisal and approval procedures and
monitoring, in particular programmes aiming at the achievement of a sustainable
livelihood for poor rural and urban women in developing countries. Governments
should prioritize efforts and take further concrete steps to quantify and value
the contribution of women’s unpaid work in agriculture, food production,
reproduction and household labour and to reflect the value of these
contributions in the gross national product and other economic statistics,
defining the unpaid worker as a worker in the System of National Accounts.
Target policies and programmes to poor women
68. Programmes to provide access to productive resources should be designed to
provide poor women with economic opportunities. Governments should give
increased priority to investments in education and training, including the
eradication of illiteracy, as well as to investment in health services,
including reproductive health and family planning, in areas where poor women
live and work. Special efforts should be made to reach the girl child. Child
and dependant care and other social support facilities should be made available
through action by Governments and non-governmental organizations. Alternative
women-friendly credit systems should be introduced, together with methods of
control on household resources, food security and adequate housing; self-help
organizations should be promoted and female-headed households assisted.
Assistance should be provided, of both a specific and a multisectoral character,
by the international community as well as by national sources.
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