- Conference
- 2010 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 20 October 2009
- Decision
- Carried
In the year 2000, at the Millennium Summit, 189 member’s states of the United Nations declared that they would spare no effort to achieve a set of eight goals aimed at raising the level of development, health and prosperity of the globe by the end of the year of 2015.
These goals were:
1)Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.
2)Achievement of universal primary education.
3)Promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women.
4)Reduction of child mortality globally.
5)Improvement in maternal health globally.
6)Accelerating the combat of HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases.
7)Ensuring global sustainability.
8)Development of global partnership for development.
The United Kingdom’s International Development Policy is closely aligned with the Millennium Development (MDGs). Our Government is the world’s second largest bilateral donor government, currently spending £8.5 billion per year in overseas development assistance.
Conference recognises that the realisation of the MDGs would transform the lives of millions of women and children around the world. Less women dying in childbirth, a reduction in child mortality rates, education and opportunity for women who have been denied even a basic education and the list goes on. We need to transform a wish list into a living reality.
Despite the passage of nine years since the MDGs were agreed:
1)Five hundred and Thirty Six thousand women continue to die needlessly every year in childbirth.
2)This equates to ten million women in our generation.
3)An estimated thirty two per cent of all maternal deaths could be averted through family planning and easy access to contraception.
4)Children are still dying of starvation.
5)Children continue to die from preventable causes such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and measles.
6)Sub Saharan Africa has one fifth of the world’s children under five but accounts for fifty per cent of all child deaths in the developing world.
7)Girls being denied access to basic education due to their gender.
In these times of global economic crisis, the voices of these women and children around the world will become harder to hear. We need to ensure that the MDGs are not placed on the back boiler waiting for a more favourable economic climate. Too many women and children throughout our world have died already, and will continue to die needlessly unless these goals are achieved.
Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to:
a)Work with Labour Link to lobby the Government to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are kept on track.
b)work with the Regional Women’s Committees and UNISON’s International Committee to ensure this issue is raised at all levels of UNISON.
c)To seek and include in UNISON’s activist publications to highlight the issue.