Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
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in school. Parents are more likely to withdraw the girls from
school if they are cash-strapped – or if the girls are going to
get married. The other problem is that pregnancy in schools
is very high and girls will drop out to have the babies. Girls
also tend to have more work to do in the home, so they have
less time to study and therefore tend to have a lower passing
rate than the boys.
Southern Africa has the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world.
How are women affected?
So much money has come through for programs against HIV
and AIDS. But the work has not taken into account the clear
connection between gender inequality and the spread of HIV/
AIDS. In some southern African countries, there are 5 percent of
men with HIV, but you find 20 to 22 percent of young women
of the same age group with HIV. When you do the research, it
is very much: “I didn’t want to sleep with him, but he forced
me.” And then there is the whole issue of “survival sex” in
southern Africa, where young girls will sleep with older men
so that they are able to go to school.
And women are also more likely than men to be in poverty …
It seems as though even our governments have now acknowl-
edged that development is not going to happen without the
full involvement and participation of women in the economy.
But they have not just all of a sudden become benevolent.
It is because of the advocacy that has been coming from the
women’s movements and from the ministries responsible for
women and gender issues.
At UN Women we are working with five governments in the
sub-region in a pilot program to see exactly what women are
doing to get out of poverty. Most of these women are in what
is called the informal sector, and their work is not recognized.
The women who kept the Zimbabwe economy going at the
lowest point in its history are not recognized even today. Yet,
they ensured the survival of their families and the economy.
It is absolutely essential to deal with the economic empower-
ment of women, because we know that when women have
that economic independence, they are more likely to be able
to make decisions about their dignity, their security, and
their welfare.
Does UN Women work with rural women?
We are currently looking to raise $33 million in funds for a
project to do exactly that, to work with rural women, particu-
larly rural women farmers. It is a major challenge. At least
70
percent of the labor in agriculture is provided by women.
When we seek $33 million, that is a drop in the ocean re-
ally – it is nothing in terms of the need. And what happens
when the $33 million is gone? We need to be able to define
programs that governments include in their own national
development plans. And governments must be able to desist
from corruption. It is not that the national resources are not
there, but they are misused.
UN Women has just been created, merging four different UN entities
that dealt with women. For women here in southern Africa, what dif-
ference can UN Women make?
What I see already is just an amazing amount of renewed
energy for women’s empowerment in the various areas of
work since the creation of UN Women – renewed hope in-
deed that UN Women will do things better and faster in pro-
moting women’s rights globally. It is a very tough call for us
in UN Women to deliver on that.
This interview was originally published
in Africa Renewal, Special Edition
on Women 2012, produced by the
Africa Section of the United Nations
Department of Public Information.
www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine
/
special-edition-women-2012/‘renewed-
energy-women’s-empowerment’