Launch of the State of World Population 2005 Report

Good morning.

It is a pleasure, again this year, to be in London to launch the State of World Population 2005 report of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

This year’s report focuses on the promise of equality between men and women and turning the promise into reality. This report comes one month after the 2005 World Summit in New York, where world leaders pledged to reduce extreme poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. I am here today to say that world leaders will not make poverty history until they make gender discrimination history. We cannot make poverty history until we stop violence against women and girls. We cannot make poverty history until women enjoy their full social, cultural, economic and political rights.

This is the message of this year’s report. By increasing investments in women and young people—in their education, economic opportunities, human rights and reproductive health—we can free hundreds of millions of people from poverty, spare the lives of 30 million children and 2 million mothers, and reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS, in the next decade.

Many leaders call for free trade to spur economic growth. It is time to call for action to free women of the discrimination, violence and poor health they face in their daily lives. This will unleash the power of half of humanity to contribute to economic growth. Inequality is economically inefficient; it is a violation of human rights and it is a hazard to health. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals requires healthy men and women working together hand in hand as equals. As world leaders proclaimed at last month’s Summit, progress for women is progress for all.

There is agreement and a wealth of goodwill. But we need to close the gap between rhetoric and reality. This report is a reality check. It describes and analyses how widespread gender inequality consigns entire communities and countries to chronic poverty and poor health.

Today, reproductive health problems—including HIV/AIDS—remain the leading cause of death and illness in women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44. In no other area of health are the disparities between rich and poor so wide and the tragic consequences so utterly immoral. Every year, more than half a million women and girls die from pregnancy-related complications that are almost entirely preventable. Millions more are left to suffer out the remainder of their lives with injuries unheard of in wealthier countries.

Increased investments in sexual and reproductive health are urgently needed to improve maternal health, reduce poverty and combat HIV/AIDS.

Worldwide, the face of HIV/AIDS is increasingly female and increasingly young. Of the 40 million people known to be living with the virus, approximately 50 per cent are women and infection rates among women are rising in every region, particularly among young women. We will not reverse the AIDS epidemic until we end discrimination and violence against women and girls.

Without a cure, prevention is the first line of defence to halt the epidemic. Greater investments are needed for prevention, treatment and care. This would go a long way towards stemming an epidemic that proliferates amidst poverty, discrimination, neglect and violence.

Today, we are paying a price too high for gender-based violence. Worldwide an estimated 1 in 5 women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. One in 3 will have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused, usually by a family member or an acquaintance. More often than not, the perpetrators go unpunished. Violence kills and disables as many women between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer. The cost to countries is high as well: increased health-care spending, demands on courts, police and schools, and losses in educational achievement and productivity. Every country should have a national campaign to end violence against women; this is one of the ‘quick wins’ of the Millennium Project.

Another ‘quick win’ guaranteed to accelerate development is the education of girls. Although more women and girls are being educated than ever before, two thirds of all illiterate people are women. Education—particularly secondary education and higher—yields long-term benefits. Educated girls and women are more likely to delay child bearing, have smaller families, immunize and educate their children. They are also more likely to enjoy better job and income-earning prospects.

The report also calls for investments targeted at adolescents and youth. Young people today number nearly 3 billion and constitute almost one half of the world’s population. Today’s cohort of young people is the largest in history. Investments in their well-being will reverberate for decades to come. Yet, despite their huge numbers, their needs are too often overlooked by policy makers and the development community—even though young people aged 24 and under now constitute the majority in many developing countries.

Since 2000, armed conflict has erupted in more than 40 countries, with young people increasingly forced into rebel armies or exploited as sex slaves. Young people and women are extremely vulnerable during and after conflict, yet both groups are usually ignored when it comes to rebuilding their societies. This hinders progress for lasting peace. Decisions made today regarding their well-being, participation and prospects will define the future for all of us.

What will this cost? The answer may surprise all of you. For under $200 billion per year—the equivalent of 50 cents per person living in extreme poverty per day—less than most of us in this room spend on a cup of coffee—the world can make poverty history by 2015. The world can fulfil pledges made to the world’s most marginalized populations. That’s a mere fraction of the 1 trillion dollars currently earmarked for military expenditures, or lost in corruption, each year. And it is the same amount that is estimated for the reconstruction following Hurricane Katrina.

The launch of this report coincides with the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Charter, which, among other things, enshrined the equal rights of women and men. Today, we have an opportunity to fulfil the promises made more than half a century ago and reaffirmed throughout the 1990s—in Cairo at the International Conference on Population and Development, in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women, in 2000 with the signing of the Millennium Declaration and just last month at the World Summit. Do we enable the world’s most impoverished peoples to meet their own development goals or do we condemn millions to suffering and premature death simply because they are poor, female or young? Today, there are 1.7 billion women between the ages of 15 and 49.

And I can assure you that women all over the world are tired of promises, promises, promises. This report is a call to action to finally make the promise of equality reality. The time has come. We have the means; we have the stated commitment. Now we need action.

Thank you.