Women's Empowerment

Why gender matters to the MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are an integrated set of eight goals and 18 time-bound targets for extending the benefits of globalization to the world’s poorest citizens.

Why does gender matter to achieving the MDGs? In most developing countries, gender inequality is a major obstacle to meeting the MDG targets. In fact, achieving the goals will be impossible without closing the gaps between women and men in terms of capacities, access to resources and opportunities, and vulnerability to violence and conflict.

Making MDG reporting gender-sensitive

Gender experts and advocates have suggested several concrete ways to make the MDG implementation and reporting process more gender-sensitive. These include ensuring universal access to health services, eliminating gender inequality in access to assets and employment.

Best practices

UNDP best practices can be found in National Reports, a Look Through a Gender Lens.