>> Good afternoon everyone, a
very warm welcome to all of you
in the UCL lunch
hour lecture series.
It's a great pleasure to welcome
Professor Maxine Molyneux,
who is an expert from the UCL
Institute of the Americas.
Maxine has worked for
the UN for a long time
and she's just finished
a DFID-funded projects
on poverty in Latin America.
And on the auspicious occasion
of International Women's Day,
she's going to talk to us
about progress towards
women's empowerments
and gender equality
in Latin America.
So, without further
ado, Professor Molyneux?
[ Applause ]
>> Well, thank you all
very much for coming.
And I'm really pleased that
we can commemorate this story
to UCL in celebration of women.
And this message still
resonates more than a century
since it was first proposed
by the Russian Revolution
with Clara Zetkin at the
International Conference
of Working Women in Copenhagen,
truly international birth.
So, it's appropriate that
this year, it provides us
of an opportunity
to look at what
in about has happened
in Latin America.
What has Latin America
achieved in regard
to gender equality
and women's rights?
And particularly, the role that
international standards set
in campaigns led by the UN
can play in promoting them.
My interest in these issues
arises from many years
of research in policy
involvement in the area
of Women's Human Rights.
The topic of my talk
today will relate to one
of my research interest
which is to think
about what makes more
effective international policy
interventions in the
area of women's rights.
So, if you like, what policy
environments produce positive
results for women in
developing countries?
So, in this talk,
I'm going to look
at how far the global campaign
to promote the millennium
development goals has
contributed to improving
the situation of women
in the Latin American region.
And I'll be drawing a little
on some of my recent research
in the Andean region and
in Mexico which looked
at whether gender equality
frameworks reached the very
poorest and made a
difference through the lives
of very poor women living
in rural communities.
But I won't have much time
to go into that in details,
so happy to talk about
that later in the Q&A.
So, I'll begin by
saying a few words
about the millennium
development goals.
Then I'll look at the Latin
American region and its progress
on MDG 3 that is
the goal on women.
And I'll conclude with a
discussion of where we are
at with the setting of the
Post-2015 Global Agenda.
So, what are the MDGs as
they've called for short?
What are the millennium
development goals?
How many people here
have heard of them?
Good, about a third
I'd say maybe, quarter.
That's pretty good actually,
good audience because honestly,
not many people have heard
of them in this country.
Because in a way, they don't
really have the same kind
of impact in a country
like the UK
as they would do elsewhere
in the global South.
I don't suppose many of you
know that David Cameron was
on the UN Secretary-General's
high level taskforce
for the MDG consultation.
Well, he was and he was there.
And he participated
in that process.
And I'll be coming on to
that a little bit later.
Now, the MDGs with the goals set
by the world's political leaders
of the UN Millennium Summit
in 2000, they was signed up to
by all countries of the world
which then constituted
189 countries.
And although they don't have
a very high profile in UK
as I said, they have claimed
quite an important impact
in various parts of the world.
And they are claimed by
people who follow those things
as the most important
and comprehensive set
of policy goals to have
achieved the global consensus
in recent decades.
Some people even go
as far as to say,
it's probably the first
time that we can speak
of a full global
consensus of this kind.
So, they are pretty important in
that sense because as you know,
lot of these frameworks,
a lot of these campaigns do not
achieve a full global consensus,
and that's one of the
reasons they may not have very
much effect.
OK. So, here are the eight MDGs,
the eight goals that was set
that conference in 2000.
Now, all the countries
that signed
up to committed themselves
to meet the goals by 2015.
And there are some people
of course, you know,
many perhaps even here who
doubted international campaigns
and policy frameworks of this
kind to make a real impact
on the ground that they
look good, that they--
I was a big fan for about them.
But do they really reach
the people who matter?
And there is some reason
for that skepticism.
It is after all governments that
have to implement these goals,
have to come with ways
to make them effective.
They have to resource
that implementation.
And they can all do often
just prefer to ignore them
or perhaps dilute them
or select a few of them.
They will go with
and ignore the rest.
The MDG campaign
does have a claim,
some significant advances.
And perhaps, it's worth
just having a look
at a couple of these.
And of course for the
year to run, still a year
to go before the
target date of 2015.
These successes are
already claimed globally.
And among them and the main
ones are that since 2000
that has occurred the fastest
reduction in poverty in history
with half billion, few
of people living below
in international poverty
line of 1.25 dollars a day.
It's very little low, isn't it?
We have to ask the
question, what does it mean?
But it's certainly something.
Child death rates have fallen
by at least 30 percent globally,
less three million children
also lives being saved each year
compared to 2000.
And as you will all know, if
you follow this campaign enough,
recall the deaths from malaria
have fallen significantly
by a quarter particularly
in Africa.
And part of these results, the
famous nets that were brought
in to protect people
from the mosquito,
the anopheles mosquito.
So, there are some significant
gains which can be attributed
to MDG impact and these
are measurable games.
Of course, there's lots of
things we don't really know
when we try to measure success.
We don't know how it
changes peoples' attitudes.
We don't know why some of
the achievements who made,
there's all sorts
of factors that go
in to explaining these things.
But it does certainly look as
if there has been some impact.
Now, in terms poverty, of course
these figures as I implied,
you know, can be sort of taken,
not exactly with
the pinch result.
But we have to subset
them in context.
Economic growth in China and
India certainly contributed
to that sort of figure
of reducing poverty.
Nonetheless, in Latin America,
it wasn't so much that,
but efforts that were made to
reduce poverty which again,
I'll come on to in a moment.
But as far as women's
empowerment in gender equality,
the evidence is very mixed.
And by 2010, a lot of countries
are falling well behind
on the indicators.
New targets were therefore
set for gender equality
and greater efforts were
made after meeting in 2010.
And much-- some four
years later,
one can say that there has
been a bit more progress.
So, that's again possible to say
that at least in some countries.
The MDGs have been
quite important
in highlighting women's right
and equality which is an area
of policy that is all
too often being neglected
or only very partially
addressed.
So, why is it that
international frameworks
and campaigns might
be effective?
Well, first of all, there
is the fact that they helped
to set policy priorities
within a given timeframe
so that they are a stimulus
to government action.
Secondly, there's
a funding question.
Overseas aid or development
money from the World Bank
and the UN and from governments
is channeled directly
into meeting these goals.
And there has been quite
a lot of buy-in if you
like to meeting these goals, so
money has followed that buy-in.
Thirdly, governments have
a political incentive
to meet them, as they can claim
success to their electorates
if they make progress
in achieving the goals.
Conversely, they can be named
and shamed in both national
and international arenas or
even on Twitter, on the web
and so forth if they
don't meet them.
And that can occur
both at national level
and international level
that certainly naming
and shaming is certainly part
of the game, and governments
that do fail to meet the goals
fall far behind them will be
duly brought up before
the global tribunal
so to speak of civil society.
Fourthly, lobby groups, NGOs,
donors can all put pressure
on countries to do better.
And civil society
organizations can mobilize
to pressurize the
policy implementation
and for improvements.
So, for all of these reasons,
these international
standards set in campaigns,
if they do get the kind
of buy-in the MDGs got,
they can be effective in
creating a policy environment
that brings about results.
So, let's have a look at
the Latin American region
from the vantage point of women.
And I'd just make a
few general points.
Latin America is a
very diverse region.
Although, it's a middle
income country in terms
of average economic
indicators such as GDP or income
of capital, its 20 countries
very greatly in size of economy,
territory and population
as you can see here.
We have some large
industrialized countries
at one end such as Mexico
which joined the OECD in '94,
and of course Brazil which
overtook the UK last year
to occupy the sixth
place in the list
of the world's largest
economies.
These giants also coexist
with some of the smallest
and poorest countries in
the world such as Nicaragua,
Honduras, and Guatemala.
Secondly, there is not any
diversity among countries,
but also within countries.
Average figures again
conceal very deep social
and regional inequalities.
Latin America has the highest
Gini coefficient of any region
of the world, and that means
that inequality is--
are very deep.
Latin America has six countries
in the top 10 in the world
for in common equality.
And in fact, inequality
has become far more marked
in recent decades.
In commonwealth are
sharply concentrated
in the hands of a
tiny percentage.
And the lower of 30 percent
of the population get
by on very low incomes.
Now, this general story of
course is when we're familiar
with in global terms
and the global trends
as shown on this slide.
So, we have got an increasing
concentration of wealth
and at the other
end and increasing,
increasingly large number
of people who are in poverty
or in some precarious
state of livelihood.
Now, as far as women
are concerned,
Latin America's diversity
is also reflected
in the gender inequality
index rankings.
And I'm taking statistics
for 2012 here.
And what we can see here, the
gender ranking takes a number
of indicates, quite
a complicated sort
of calculation just
to show, you know,
which countries have achieved
the greatest ranking in terms
of gender equality and which
ones are falling behind.
So, you can see that for
example, the top performance
in Latin America stopped
with Chile at around 40.
Just for comparison, the very
top performers are actually
Norway, Australia, the
Netherlands, Germany.
The UK is pretty far
down actually at 26.
Latin America stops
as I said in the '40s
but goes right up to 133.
So, you can, you know, get
a sense of that diversity
in particularly in regards
to how women are
positioned in the societies.
And I think that is both at
the kind of national level,
but also the kind
of regional level.
Poor people in Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Honduras,
and Paraguay will
be very poor indeed.
The women within those
sort of that those kind
of poor regions will be very,
very poorly off as
we'll see shortly.
So, despite this variation,
on average indicates
as the gender inequality.
Latin America is placed towards
the upper-middle rankings
in regional comparisons
of gender inequality.
So, it's obviously going
to be above Africa,
above the Middle East
and it's above Asia.
But of course as you'd expect,
it's below Europe and the US.
And Latin America is the
region in the South that has
in fact made the most progress
in terms or women's rights
in the last few decades.
There are several
reasons for these.
The obvious one would
seem to be economic.
Latin America is on average
richer than some regions,
parts of Africa,
Asia and so forth.
And this should give governments
more resources in theory
to spend on policies that
favor social advance,
putting women's rights.
But this doesn't
necessarily happen.
GDP alone doesn't explain
progress on gender issues.
You only have to think
of the Gulf Countries
of the Middle East which are
far richer than Latin America
but fair far less well in
terms of gender indicators.
And likewise, there are some
countries that are much poorer.
But they can do rather better.
Secondly, very important
for women is the birth rate.
And it's a fairly reliable
indicator of the potential
for women to improve their
situation, in particular,
the fertility level of
a particular country.
And we see for example
that in Latin America,
the total fertility rate has
fallen quite dramatically.
And you can just about see.
I hope the red line
which shows Brazil
at below replacement
level and the average
for Latin America at 2.27.
So, that does-- that's a very
important historic shift.
And that Latin America is
in a demographic
transition that's expected
that this will continue over
the next 20 years or so,
but it obviously has major
implications for women.
But it's interesting that it
probably reflects the fact
that more women are working.
And more women are educated
rather than reliable access
to fertility control because of
the restrictions that women face
in Latin America in
getting fertility--
access to fertility
control in some context.
Thirdly, political factors
are also critically important
even decisive.
This includes the political will
of governments whether the
policy environment favors rights
for genders and specially
women's rights,
and whether the country
is democratic,
whether it has an active civil
society and social movements,
the press for rights
and reforms.
And since the end of the period
of military dictatorship 30
or so years ago, Latin
America has been ruled
by democratic governments which
in their majority have been left
of center and committed
to human rights.
This is sometimes called the
"pink tide", there's a wave
of left-wing governments
that came in.
And you may see some
recognizable faces there,
the now deceased Hugo Chavez
on the right and Evo Morales
to the second left and so on.
And it's important to point
out and referring back
to Clara Zetkins in, you know,
as it where suggestion
all those years ago.
Parties of the left have
historically been more supported
of women's right than those
of the right, which attended
to align with the
conservative churches
on key issues affecting
policies on women.
The fourth factor would be that
Latin America has had a long,
long standing-- well, let
say long period of engagement
with feminist movements
and women's movements.
And in recent times,
women's movements
and feminist movements were
active in the opposition
to military dictatorships
that grew
in strength throughout the years
of democratic consolidation
that women's movements
started an opposition,
and gradually they became
consolidated during the period
of democracy.
Many of them got into
positions of power and were able
to affect policy changes.
And from the mid 1980's, Latin
American women were also active
in the global women's
movement that was growing
up around a number of UN
Agenda Setting Conferences
that took place whether in
Vienna, Copenhagen or Beijing.
And as a consequence,
Latin American feminist
who were participating in
that brought back demands
from that process and were
able to press governments
to incorporate if you
like, domesticate some
of these frameworks in
the new constitutions
that the new left governments
were bringing into force.
So, there were quite a lot
of things that went on prior
to the advent of the MDGs.
That's actually prepared the
way so to speak for us to see
that things in Latin America
were already somewhat different
at the time the millennium
development goals were in place.
So, just to sum up on
that point, Latin America
from the mid '80s benefited
from pretty favorable
political conditions
and from synthetic
democratic governments,
which adopted international
women's rights frameworks
and created the context
in which implementation
of those frameworks
could begin to be part
of the political agenda.
The political context I've
just described also favored the
MDG campaigns.
When it started in 2000,
Latin America was undergoing
a regional policy shift away
from the market-oriented
Washington consensus policies
that have been in place
for 20 or so years.
Left governments
made real efforts
to tackle some longstanding
social deficits and started
to spend more money on social
policies and poverty relief.
So, there was a convergence
if you
like between the
millennium development goals
and what these governments
wanted to do.
Let's move on now to have a look
at how Latin America is
third in meeting MDG 3.
That is the goal, to
promote gender equality
and empower women.
Millennium Development
Goals have goals and targets
and indicators, and these
are all very important.
The goal is a general goal.
The question is,
how is it measured
and what is taken as progress?
So, in this case, the target was
to eradicate the
gender gap in education.
That was the first target.
And the idea there was that it
was rather narrow goal nor the
narrow target to aim for.
And so, there was a great deal
of intense debate about trying
to extend these targets
to include a broader field
because just focusing
on one would simply
not going to do enough.
So, a lot of lobbyists in Latin
America and elsewhere to satisfy
that this focus on just the
one target and the indicators.
And eventually more indicators
were added with two on education
as here, one on employment and
one on political representation.
So, the Latin American region
has done quite well with respect
to missing these four targets.
And certainly, by the
time we get to 2015,
they can claim even
more success.
These are of course very
basic goals when it comes
to women's empowerment.
But nonetheless, they
are quite important ones.
Just to run through them
quickly, education--
on education, it's of
course everywhere is seen
as a magic bullet and in
terms to achieve progress
for particular groups and
or course for women too.
And it helps women to take
charge of their lives,
improve their life
chances and so forth.
But in Latin America, there
were considerable efforts
to improve girl's
access to education,
certain incentives were
provided and so forth.
And there has been
significant progress
in girl's enrollment
in Latin America.
So, most countries have
actually on average
that goes reverse the
gender gap in education.
Girls have in other words
caught up with boys.
And in some cases have overtaken
them in schools, both in terms
of enrollment and also
in terms in many cases,
not all in terms of results.
In fact, there's a
new concern about boys
and young men falling
further behind.
And of course, hydraulic
personnel of young men
from school, so this is
in effect being a
reversal of the gender gap.
Today in Latin America,
the problem is not
so much enrollment
but really a concern
with the very poor
quality of education.
So, Latin American country is
spending a lot of money to try
to improve the quality
of education,
and that is probably why
you're seeing quite a lot
of Latin Americans traveling
for their education abroad
once they reach tertiary level.
But the gender gap hasn't
been reversed everywhere.
And we do see that the
old gender gap reappears
with force once we move out
to the ABIN [phonetic] centers
and go to those poor areas,
the disadvantaged areas
where you see again
women, young girls
and young women being
disadvantaged largely
because of poverty.
Girls are often needs
to help out at home,
they drop out at school
on accountability marriage
and increasingly
early pregnancy.
This is a major problem
developing now in Latin America.
And of course, early pregnancy
is actually quite dangerous,
and is one of the
factors that can lead
to very poor health even to
an early death especially
if the services aren't
unavailable to help
with child birth--
safe child birth.
So, that is another-- as it
were let's say half-filled goal.
The other indicator, illiteracy
has also been falling among
young people.
Young people now are
attaining pretty much equal
literacy levels.
But of course, it still persists
amongst people over the age
of 15, where in the countries
which have got gender
gaps in literacy.
You can have a gap between 13
and 17 percent as in Panama
and Guatemala respectively.
So, illiteracy is still
a problem for women.
And those women are likely
to be the indigenous women,
the poorer women who
lived in the rural areas.
Despite these qualifications,
there have been very
clear improvements
in the education
status of women.
So, that the point would be,
if you want to do something
about it and you put
the resources behind it,
you can make a difference.
We come to the third target,
women's employment
in the urban areas.
This is supposed to
be a sign of progress.
But I think it's a
very tricky indicator.
Women have entered employment
and never increasing numbers
since the mid '80s
actually in Latin America.
And now, women make up
average between 52 percent
of the workforce with Cuba and
Chile with the lowest rates.
So, you have the
average of 52 percent.
And you have very low
rates in the countries
like Cuba surprisingly
'cause Cuba used
to have much higher rates.
But they're at now
around 40 percent
and you have higher
rates for example in Peru
and Bolivia at around
60 percent.
And that of course reflects
a lower rate of urbanization
in those countries with
more women still working
in agriculture.
But gaining an income is an
important step towards women's
greater autonomy, but it's
a problematic indicator
of progress for several reasons.
The entry of more
women into employment
in Latin America actually
reflects a decline
in the value of waged work.
So, whereas one wage
in the formal sector
in the olden days would
support a family, it sees to do
so in the last 20 years.
So, you have to have more
people, young girls too,
we're actually sometimes
going into work,
young boys quite
early on in order
to sustain the household income.
We also have the problems
of fragmentation employment,
the growth in the
informal economy,
all of which have
pushed incomes down.
And second question is
the type of employment,
in much of Latin America
majority of women are
in precarious informal
employment, in markets,
in low productivity
jobs and service sector.
30 percent of economically,
active women are unpaid family
labor, and a good portion
of those don't control the
income they generate entirely.
Informal sector workers lacks
social rights and have very,
very precarious conditions
and terms.
And so, we have to be
a little bit careful
when we say it's a good
thing that women entering
into employment without some
of these qualifications.
And of course today
in Latin America,
we still have the
biggest employer
of women as the domestic.
As domestic work, there are
around 12 million domestic
workers in Latin America,
90 percent or more
of whom are women.
And roughly 15 percent of
economically active girls
and women are domestics.
And many of those are from
racial and ethnic minorities.
So, this is a very,
very oppressed sector.
The domestic service sector pay
for domestics is legally allowed
to be less in the minimum wage.
And only handful of countries
grant domestic workers the same
rights as other workers as
far as salary, benefits,
and working hours are concerned.
So, it's difficult to
get those things changed.
And domestic workers
need very powerful allies
if they're going to
gain their rights.
Interestingly in Bolivia,
domestic workers allied
with the indigenous rights
movements to gain access
to their rights framing this so
as an indigenous rights as to,
because so many domestic
workers were indigenous women.
So, we have the usual
problems in Latin America
of gender segregation,
women going into--
women out in the jobs, less well
paid and so on and so forth.
And the pay gap in Latin
America is extremely wide.
A minimum of 40 percent and some
country is reaching between 60
and 70 percent because of
this gender segregation
in employment.
Markets, as we all know
do not function perfectly,
and markets are very sticky
when it comes to gender.
Also, quick point discrimination
against women shows
up in the fact that women
systematically failed
to get jobs commence root
with their educational level.
So, employed women's
qualifications tend
to be higher than men's.
And the educated women
earn only around 72 percent
of men's hourly income.
These are all figures taken
from the latest report by CEPAL
which is the Regional UN Agency.
So, machismo is still system
of masculine privilege
in many areas of social
life, and of course
as everywhere else, the
invisible constraints of care.
The work of the care
economy is also something
that is born largely by women.
And all the statistics show
there's been very little
alteration of the
division of labor for care
and domestic work in the home.
Democratic representation
of women has been some kind
of success in Latin America.
The average figure for women
in parliaments is 25 percent,
and that's the 2013
figure better than the UK
by the way at 22 percent.
And so-- And way down the lower
end of this funding office,
Brazil which has got a quite
a strong women's movement.
Brazil has only 80 percent.
And at the top end, we have
Cuba and Nicaragua at 49
and 40 percent representation
of women.
So, huge disparities again,
but an interesting
development is the advent
of indigenous women
into politics.
I have this slide up
here just to point
out that there has been a--
an early shift in the number
of women in parliaments
as a results of quotas
that were adopted
widely in Latin America.
And you can just see
significant increase
in just those three countries.
So, I think this is a very nice
slide of some indigenous women
in parliament, in Evo
Morales' parliament.
Evo Morales being the
President of Bolivia.
He's a former cocalero
[phonetic].
And he brought a lot
of indigenous women
into parliament.
So, Bolivia now has
an overall percentage
of women representatives of 24
percent, a bit more than the UK.
And that happens
to be the average
for the Americas as a whole.
And the world average
of course for women
in parliament is 21 percent.
Yet of course, 21 percent is not
very much, it's only a quarter
of seats taken up by women.
But attitudes are certainly
changing in Latin America.
And there is indeed, you
know, evidence from polls
that people have quite
well-disposed women serving
in positions of power,
although they want a President
to be a man.
They actually trust
women more in government
which is quite interesting.
Since 2006, women have
served as presidents.
Most recently reelected is
Michelle Bachelet of Chile,
feminist former President
of Chile
who in a previous
administration also served
as Minister of Defense.
She headed up UN women until
last year when she resigned
to stand in the elections and
she's about to be sworn in.
Now, apart from-- I think I'm
going to have to sort of wrap
up pretty quickly here.
But I just want to point
out two very quick things.
MDG-- The first MDG was the one
that achieved the
greatest global consensus
from across the world, and
that was poverty reduction.
And on that score as
I mentioned before,
there has been significant
progress and that is
because Latin America brought
in these antipoverty programs,
cash transfer as they're called
because they give cash
directly to poor people.
And they give the cash directly
into the hands of women.
Here is a number of women
queuing for the cash transfer.
And it has made some difference
as I mentioned before.
So, I think if we look
at the positive results
on poverty reduction,
you can see
that there has been
a significant fall
in Latin America.
But I think again, we
have to sort of hedge
that by saying there's 80
million people in Latin America,
half in Brazil and Mexico
to rich countries are still
in extreme poverty, right?
So, a long way to go.
These are World Bank
figures as it says there.
And so, one of the
developments goes at fails
to make much impact
with maternal,
cutting down maternal
mortality which is a fiscal
and that's being
the case worldwide.
I just want you to look at the
middle bar there, goal five.
And you can see the
three poor countries.
We still have very high
rates of maternal mortality.
That hasn't come
down a great deal
since these figures
were collected,
but there have been a few more
efforts to improve on that.
So, I think certainly research
as I did show that women
in these very poor
indigenous communities
in these three countries
were very distressful
of the services on offer.
They did not like going
to the central services,
they had preferred their
traditional birth attendance.
And they suffered a
great deal of racism
from the service providers which
have not being tackled despite
of great deal of fine language
being spoken by, you know,
various representatives
of the governments
that we're taking these
issues very seriously.
It haven't reached the
people right at the bottom.
And it's always very
difficult to do so.
But more effort definitely
needs to be made.
The other area-- this
is very lacking is
of course proper attention
to reproductive rights
and sexual rights, huge
problems with risky terminations
of unwanted pregnancy
in Latin America.
One source says something
like four million risky
abortions have carried
out in Latin America.
And there are significant
gaps in provision
as I mentioned before
of contraceptives.
So, these are very, very
serious unmet needs.
And of course, a great
deal of health problems.
So, moving then on to the
Post-2015 Development agenda,
will it do better in tackling
the remaining gaps in provision?
The last two years has
been a lot of discussion
in very high gear
about what the next set
of goals are going to be.
And there has been a global
consultation with really--
I mean thousands and
thousands of NGOs
and civil society
actors and organizations.
And the global consensus
that emerged with--
had some top priorities.
Eradicate extreme poverty again,
establish social protection
and tackle good governance
and accountability,
these are the top priorities.
And it's not surprising
as these things moved
up the agenda given the very
striking sort of emergence
of the-- our spring
and the enormous number
of anticorruption
movements across the world.
It's definitely felt that these
issues cannot live longer,
be postponed.
And these are therefore going
to be in the new MDG agenda.
The draft proposal for post-2015
has made these commitments
that they need to go
beyond the earlier ones.
They're going to tackle
some of these issues
of inclusive growth [inaudible],
good governance, conflict
and violence, they're
all very vague.
And so, until we know what
the targets are going to be,
it's not going to
stay very much.
But at least some of these
things are on the agenda.
On women, those are the
actual proposed goals
that have been agreed in
the latest document produced
by the high level
committee I mentioned
on which they become
[inaudible].
And these are the goals
that will now replace the old
MDG goals or carry them on us
in the case of poverty.
And you can see that the
second one is about women
and again empower girls.
And the targets are going
to be include violence,
eliminating violence, and
child marriage and so forth.
Violence of course is a huge
problem in Latin America.
Latin America accounts 30
percent of all homicides.
In Mexico alone, more
than 60,000 deaths to do
with narco-violence and
the very ugly phenomena
and of the femicides
which have been attacks--
brutal attacks on women, murders
of fairly large numbers of women
in countries like
Mexico and Guatemala.
So, you can see that there's
still an enormous amount
to be done.
But, you know, there has been
a little bit of progress.
But my wrap up point would
be that ultimately progress
for women is contingents
on a much bigger issue,
one that affects everyone and
goes beyond any specific targets
that might be included.
And it concerns what development
model will governments
and development agencies pursue.
The Millennium Development
Goals hint at some
of these bigger issues, but
it's still an open question
as to whether the Post-2015
Development framework will
really be enough
to get governments
to tackle central issues
such as inequality,
environmental sustainability
in formal labor markets,
and the lack of [inaudible]
law and of course rights
for the majority populations.
Popular protests in Brazil,
Chile and elsewhere show
that there are a number of these
questions already in the minds
of large numbers of people.
And this question is being
post very directly even now
in Latin America by
populations whose patience
with the development model
they have is fast running out.
Thank you much.
[ Applause ]
>> Thank you very much.
I'm afraid we have to make
room for our students.
So, there's no time
for question today.
But so, I hope this enticed you
to learn more about
Latin American.
Perhaps contact Professor
Maxine Molyneux
if you have any pointed
questions for her.
Thank you all for being here.
>> All right.
[ Applause ]
