FOR POVERTY ERADICATION  and  AGAINST INEQUALITY and DISCRIMINATION

October 17, 2014   We commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, together with the International Day of Rural Women (Oct. 15) and World Food Day (Oct.16), coming together to raise our voices under the banner of the World Poverty Day theme, Leave No One Behind:  Think, Decide and Act Together against Extreme Poverty, with a focus on the feminization of poverty:   Leave No Woman Behind     Leave No Girl Behind

Poverty eradication continues to be the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. It remains at the core of the UN development agenda, and central to the poverty eradication agenda is achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.

While the World Bank has proclaimed that the world achieved the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target—to cut the 1990 poverty rate in half by 2015 – five years ahead of schedule in 2010, it also estimates that 1 billion people will still live in extreme poverty in 2015.This figure remains unacceptably high particularly when more than half this number, an estimated 70%, are women in living in poverty.

Traditionally rooted to the family and the home, women generally rely on agriculture for their income. Due to climate change, large decreases in agricultural production have become noticeable. Therefore, entire livelihoods have been devastated, ultimately leading to increased poverty, most notably among rural women. Women are forced to walk longer distances in search of water for cooking and washing which once could be accessed close to homes.

Rural women face the worst consequences of globalization, corporate exploitation, feudalism, militarization, fundamentalism, and patriarchy.  Rural women suffer all forms of discrimination and violence, abuse, and exploitation, and lack the resources and access to power to make changes in the economic, social, cultural and political spheres at the local, national, and global level.

In addition to increased physical strain, longer absences from the home due to water scarcity have also caused disruptions in family cohesion, which hinders women’s social and economic empowerment.  Climate change-induced flooding, droughts, and other climate variability have led to loss of crop and animal life. Furthermore, due to cultural customs, such as prioritizing the nutrition needs of men and children, women in the global South suffer most.

Multinational agribusinesses, too, have infringed on the food sovereignty of the women and their communities. Coupled with abating agricultural productivity, food insecurity and food sovereignty are issues with which women must contend.

“Discrimination against women and girls remains a blatant injustice, robbing the entire development enterprise of one of the keys to progress,” said UN Secretary-General said on World Poverty Day. Moreover, he noted that women and girls were still largely excluded from opportunities of self-development and fulfillment, often isolating them, and their families, in pockets of poverty.

The Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace the MDGs, must emphasize removing the structural barriers to inequality as well as addressing gender discrimination and injustice, which exacerbate poverty conditions for women and girls, particularly the rural, marginalized and socially-excluded from society.

The Feminist Task Force salutes the IDEP 2014 mobilizations by our FTF partners around the world, and we highlight the following in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

FOR POVERTY ERADICATION  and  AGAINST INEQUALITY and DISCRIMINATION.

— In Central America, our partners celebrate the BIEN/BUEN VIVIR, PEACE AND SUSTAINABILITY, linking International Day of the Girl, International Day of Rural Women, World Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

CELEBRANDO EL BIEN/BUEN VIVIR, LA PAZ, LA SUSTENTABILIDAD   

OCT 11 – DÍA INTERNACIONAL POR Y CON LA NIÑA/DAY OF THE GIRL
OCT 12 – DÍA DE NUESTRA IDENTIDAD NACIONAL, CELEBRANDO LA DIVERSIDAD CULTURAL/NATIONAL IDENTITY CELEBRATE CULTURAL DIVERSITY
OCT 15 – DÍA INTERNACIONAL DE LA MUJER RURAL/DAY OF RURAL WOMEN
OCT 16 – DÍA INTERNACIONAL DE LA ALIMENTACIÓN/WORLD FOOD DAY
OCT 17 – DÍA INTERNACIONAL DE LA EDUCACIÓN PARA LA ERRADICACIÓN DE LA POBREZA/WORLD POVERTY DAY

       UN DIA PARA APRENDER Y GOZAR EN FAMILIA Y COMUNIDAD
MÚSICA, JUEGOS, ARTE, ARTESANÍAS, MEDICINA NATURAL, COMIDA NACIONAL
INTERCAMBIOS CULTURALES, APOYO BIBLIOTECA
       CENTRO DE ARTES DE ORIENTE (CAO) – TRADICIONES Y ESPIRITUALIDAD DE PUEBLOS ORIGINARIOS

GLOBAL MOVES FOR JUSTICE 2015 CAMPAIGN action/2015 POVERTY ERADICATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

COMO PARTE DE LAS CAMPAÑAS GLOBALES GLOBAL MOVES FOR JUSTICE 2015 Y ACTION/2015 – ERRADICACIÓN DE LA POBREZA Y CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO

ALIANZA PARA EL BIEN/BUEN VIVIR, LA PAZ Y LA SUSTENTABILIDAD, UNIVERSIDADES INTERNACIONALES LIBRES PARA LA PAZ, MUSEO AJA, SIGLO XXIII/SERR, CAO, COMITÉ DE DESARROLLO CULTURAL, CEEUS, ASOCIACIÓN NUEVA VIDA, INFORP-UES, LLAMADO GLOBAL CONTRA LA POBREZA (GCAP), GRUPO DE TRABAJO FEMINISTA (FTF), GRUPO SIN CUENTA (G50), RED+VOS 

FOR POVERTY ERADICATION  and  AGAINST INEQUALITY and DISCRIMINATION In Kathmandu, Nepal:

FTF Nepal Focal Point Sharmila Karki (left with white sign), Jagaran Nepal and Nepalese CSOs organized a demonstration in front of the Parliament demanding food security be included in the new constitution as part of a national campaign commemorating World Food Day and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

FOR POVERTY ERADICATION  and  AGAINST INEQUALITY and DISCRIMINATION In Niger Delta, Nigeria:

FTF Nigeria Focal Point, Caroline Usikpedo, President of the Niger Delta Women’s Movement for Peace and Development, organized a commemoration of International Rural Women’s Day with a skills training for rural women and girls in Ughelli, Delta State, Nigeria to commence on October 20^th. The six week intensive training in skills and vocations will end on December 21, 2014 and will empower women to reduce their economic vulnerability and increase their earning potential and financial security.

FOR POVERTY ERADICATION  and  AGAINST INEQUALITY and DISCRIMINATION In New Delhi, India:

FTF partner, Ashok Bharti, Chairman of National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) and convener of the Socially Excluded Task Force (GCAP) announces the launch of action/Nutrition 2015:

SOCIALLY EXCLUDED DALITS, ADIVASIS AND OTHER VULNERABLES LED BY NACDOR LAUNCH ACTION/NUTRITION 2015 ON WORLD FOOD DAY

On the occasion of World Food Day, National Campaign on Nutrition for Dignity (NCND), an initiative of National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) in India, along with Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) launched ‘action/Nutrition 2015’ through public action in 6 states in India:  Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.  p

National Campaign on Nutrition for Dignity (NCND) has been engaged in highlighting that India is facing a severe crisis of malnutrition despite major economic growth in recent years. According to the Third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3, 2005-06), 20% of Indian children under five years old are wasted and 48% are stunted (NFHS 4 has still to be completed). Importantly, with 43% of children underweight, rates of child underweight in India are twice higher than the average figure in sub-Saharan Africa (22%).  Age appears to be no deterrent to anemia, around 55% of all women in India are anemic in one form or another. More than one-third of Indian women suffer from chronic energy deficiency (CED); more than half suffer from anemia and one fifth from both CED and anemia.  There are significant disparities among social and economic groups. Institutional deliveries are reported to be 51% for the general social categories, whereas this figure for Scheduled Tribes is only 17.7% and for Scheduled Castes, it is only 32.9%. Infant Mortality Rate for general category of population is only 55.7. It is 71 for the Scheduled Castes. The highest wealth quintile of Other Backward Classes shows the percentage of women suffering from CED at 19.4, whereas the lowest wealth quintile for the same social group shows this figure at 48.1. It is evident that the crisis of malnutrition in India is serious and its main burden is carried by the most disadvantaged and socially excluded Dalits, Adivasis and other social groups facing social exclusion and extreme inequalities.