Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

212 Appendix 6
commented on gender-responsive infrastructure and quotas. This was primarily
because discussion questions specifically focused on these issues (as requested
by the International Center for Research on Women, questions on only three of
the six matters were asked). One reason the dialogue favored education is that
education specialists working on gender matters were more heavily represented
on the list. Although the list of more than 300 names provided by the International
Center for Research on Women was intended to balance this membership,
more than a third of the email addresses were incorrect, and the onus was
on the potential participants to subscribe to the discussion. This list was sent
to the moderator two days into the dialogue. Past experience shows that people
are likely to join and stay engaged if involved at the beginning of the dialogue
rather than asked to join once it has begun. Finally, the International Center for
Research on Women was not able to advertise the dialogue on their web page,
which could have been an ideal opportunity to attract participants.
Recommendation 1: focus on why the target for Goal 3 has not been met,
and galvanize action toward achieving the target by 2015
Participants requested that the task force call on the international community
to redouble efforts to achieve the gender parity target by 2005 or as soon thereafter
as possible. The report itself states that missing the target for Goal 3 is the
first visible Millennium Development Goal failure. “But instead of serving as
an opportunity to underscore the failures of the international community, 2005
should be used to issue a clarion call for re-energizing efforts so that the second
deadline for the target—2015—is honored” (UN Millennium Project 2004d).
A strong report that exposes the failure to achieve this target and proposes
radical action to achieve it (such as, a global movement to abolish all user fees
in primary and secondary education) could make a real difference in ensuring
the target is reached sooner rather than later.
Recommendation 2: do not emphasize secondary education to the
exclusion of primary
There is a debate about which level of education (primary or secondary) is
most beneficial to girls and women. Participants overwhelmingly agreed that
more education is better, and applauded the task force for widening the definition
of empowerment to include education at all levels, in different situations
(such as nonformal education), as well as recognizing the importance
of quality, and not just access. But they also reminded the task force that
most children (the majority of them girls) drop out during primary school, in
which case the question of promotion to secondary school is irrelevant. The
report’s “progress toward the goal” section clearly and comprehensively states
this fact. This further confuses the reader—the facts say one thing, but the
recommendation says another. As the above analysis explained, focus on getting
one thing right first.