Education and training
of women
to allocate, on average, 20 per cent of official development assistance and 20 per cent of the national
budget to basic social programmes, should take into
account a gender perspective.
1. There is wide consensus that education and train-
5. Governments and other actors should promote
ing for girls and women, in particular, provides
high social and economic returns and is a precondition for the empowerment of women. Education
should be aimed at raising and promoting awareness of the rights of women as human rights.
Governments, national, regional and international
bodies, bilateral and multilateral donors and civil
society, including non-governmental organizations, should continue to make special efforts to
reduce the female illiteracy rate to at least half its
1990 level, with emphasis on rural, migrant and
refugee women, internally displaced women and
women with disabilities, in keeping with the Beijing
Platform for Action.
an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes,
addressing, inter alia, unequal access to educational
opportunities and inadequate educational opportunities, and taking into account girls and women
in especially difficult circumstances. The education,
training and lifelong learning of women should
be mainstreamed in policies at all levels, in equal
opportunity policies and in national human development plans, where they exist. National machinery for the advancement of women and policy
makers in Government, employers' organizations,
labour unions, non-governmental organizations
and the private sector should collaborate to ensure
that all policies are responsive to gender concerns
and that women and their organizations participate in the policy-making process.
2. Governments and all other actors should make
special efforts to achieve the benchmarks set in
the Platform for Action of universal access to basic
education and completion of primary education by
at least 80 per cent of primary school-age children
by the year 2000; close the gender gap in primaryand secondary-school education by the year 2005;
provide universal primary education in all countries
before the year 2015; and consider providing multilateral and bilateral assistance.
6. Integrated policy-making must highlight the inter-
linkage between education and training policies,
on the one hand, and labour market policies, on the
other hand, with an emphasis on the employment
and employability of women. In order to enhance
the employability of women, basic education and
vocational qualifications, in particular in the fields
of science and technology, are of great importance.
In view of the high presence of women in flexible
work-time schemes and atypical work, it is particularly important to facilitate women's participation
in "on-the-job training" so that they can secure their
jobs and promote their careers.
3. Governments that have not yet done so should
formulate national strategies and action plans for
implementation of the Platform for Action that indicate how relevant institutions coordinate action to
meet the goals and targets for education. The strategies should be comprehensive, have time-bound
targets and benchmarks for monitoring, and include
proposals for allocating or reallocating resources for
implementation. Mobilization of additional funds
from all sources to enable girls and women, as well
as boys and men, on an equal basis, to complete
their education, may also be necessary.
7. Consciousness should be raised about the need for
a new allocation of responsibilities within the family, in order to alleviate the extra burden on women.
8. National statistical offices, responsible govern-
mental ministries, research institutions, women's
groups, employers and workers' organizations
should provide women, government, policy makers and training providers with the best available
labour market information. A redesigned, relevant
and up-to-date system of labour market information should provide data disaggregated by sex on
4. Donor Governments should strive to meet the agreed
target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product for
overall official development assistance as soon as possible; and interested developed and developing country partners, having agreed on a mutual commitment
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