Selima Ahmad is President of the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry
From September 20-22, I had the opportunity to take part in the United Nations High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly, commonly known as the Millennium Development Goals Summit, at UN headquarters in New York. The Summit was designed to give key stakeholders an opportunity to review progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), originally agreed upon in 2000 by the world’s leaders, and to renew commitments to the MDGs.
When the goals were first announced, against a backdrop of suffering among the world’s poor – high mortality rates during childbirth, children without schools, and deadly epidemics – people put their faith in the pledges made. They expected that the pursuit and realization of these goals, set for 2015, would help bring about more meaningful lives and productive futures. It was my honor to speak at one of the roundtables held during the Summit, on “Addressing the Special Needs of the Most Vulnerable,” a topic of special importance to my country, Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, along with many other countries, has achieved substantial gains in reducing poverty, increasing the enrollment of girls in schools and empowering women. We are on track to reach the MDGs related to poverty, universal primary education, gender equality, reducing child mortality, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and environmental sustainability, including improved drinking water and sanitation. Yet there are still formidable challenges in lowering maternal mortality and confronting chronic malnutrition.
In particular, the most vulnerable face uncertainties with respect to food production, agricultural employment, and food prices. It is possible for gains to be reversed, so technology and other resources must be leveraged to secure advances in agriculture. The issue of access to schools for the very poor and those in geographically disadvantaged areas demands special attention. Gains in maternal mortality can be achieved by providing trained birth attendants and expanding formal medical facilities. Wage discrimination against female workers must end to bring about gender equality and the empowerment of women. Climate change and environmental degradation also have a powerful effect on the most vulnerable, and steps must be taken to address these issues.
The private sector has an important role to play in meeting the MDGs, as does, of course, the government. In this sense, chambers of commerce can be an important part of the process, by strengthening civil society, advancing public-private partnership and dialogue on policy reforms that can help advance the goals, and building more inclusive economies.
One way that my organization, the Bangladesh Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) has been a part this process is by strengthening the capacity of women’s chambers across the country, which can thereby promote entrepreneurship among women, including securing the availability of capital and other assets that are needed to expand economic opportunities. For example, we have seen the most vulnerable among recent cyclone victims re-establish their livelihoods with only a small infusion of capital and professional mentoring.
Trade and investment can be real ways out of poverty, since any economic solution has to be sustainable. Economic cycles are a fact of life, but everybody, especially the poor, will be better prepared if expanded trade and investment are on the agenda. Further, BWCCI has been active with other organizations across the world, working in various UN networks to promote gender equality.
As a representative of a private sector organization, I shared with the participants in the Summit my concern that the financial crisis could severely affect the livelihoods of low-income women workers, their children and their families. These women have begun to see signs of hope, as they struggle to extricate themselves from poverty, but they are unaware of the problems that face our industrial sector, and the effect that this could have on their lives. On top of this, any weakening, after the crisis, of the world’s commitment to overcoming challenges of poverty and meeting the MDGs would be a tragedy for these women.
At BWCCI, we recognize the role of the private sector in meeting these goals, but the international community must also emphasize this role. For example, the current WTO talks must be completed, to remove constraints on energy resources that affect our productivity, competitiveness, market share and trade.
The MDGs represent a minimum step, but in human history, they are the first such commitment to eradicate poverty. They are a global response to the struggle against pestilence, hunger and disease. There is no nobler a task for the world’s leaders than providing the needed resources to achieve these targets.
Published Date: November 04, 2010