Press Release: IMF-World Bank Report Calls for Greater Attention to Gender Equality and Fragile States to Reach Global Targets by 2015

IMF News, April 13, 2007

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Press Release No. 07/73; April 13, 2007; IMF EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT.
Joint statement on the 2007 Global Monitoring Report: Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Core message: To reach key development objectives by 2015, women's equality and fragile states need concerted attention and the international community must scale up strategies for reaching the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Over 34 million more children in poor countries gained the chance to attend and complete primary school since 2000.
Over 550 million children were vaccinated against measles since 2000.
The number of HIV positive people with access to antiretroviral treatment rose nearly sevenfold from 2001.
An estimated 135 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty between 1999 and 2004 due largely to strong growth in developing regions.
The share of people living on less than US$1 a day in Sub Saharan Africa dropped by nearly 5 percentage points to 41 percent between 1999 and 2004, although the absolute number of poor remained near 300 million due mainly to high population growth.
By 2004, dollar-a-day poverty in all other developing regions had fallen, with the biggest drop in East Asia.
Gender parity in primary school enrollments was reached in most (83 of 106) developing countries.
Progress remains uneven for child mortality, disease reduction, and environmental sustainability; Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia contain a number of countries seriously off track to meet the MDGs.

MDG 3—promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women—is highlighted as essential both for fairness and for advancing other MDGs (halving poverty, achieving universal primary education, lowering under-five mortality).
Despite gains in girls' enrollments, the increase in women's participation in the economy and in political decision-making has been modest at best.
Report recommendation: a stronger role for donors and IFIs in monitoring gender equality and in scaling-up women's access to opportunities, rights, and voice.
Framing: "Investing in gender equality is smart economics."

Definition: nations particularly beset by weak governance and institutions, often compounded by conflict or crisis.
Scope and impact:
- An estimated 9 percent of the developing world's population (485 million people) lives in fragile states.
- Fragile states account for 27 percent of the developing world's extreme poor.
- Nearly one-third of all child deaths occur in fragile states.
Implication: Many fragile states are among those least likely to meet the MDGs and need urgent attention.
Recommendation: Donors and international agencies need to rethink how aid is delivered to make support to these countries more effective, particularly in turn-around situations where real opportunities for progress exist.

2005 official development assistance (ODA) from Development Assistance Committee members rose to $106.8 billion, but most of the increase reflected debt relief operations.
2006 ODA fell to $103.9 billion, raising uncertainty about the G8 Gleneagles promise to double aid to Africa by 2010.
In 2006, most developing countries saw little or no increase in real official aid flows.
Requirement: Donors must deliver an additional $50 billion in annual aid (over 2004 levels) by 2010 for scaled-up efforts to meet the MDGs.
Caution: Scaled up aid must be accompanied by technically sound and sequenced country plans for meeting the MDGs.
Concern: Aid fragmentation—proliferation in donors, global funds, and earmarking—distorts priorities and strains capacity in developing countries; improving aid coordination is necessary for aid to become more effective.
The report gauges progress in implementing the 2002 Monterrey Consensus and assesses the extent to which G8 countries are fulfilling their aid commitments and progress toward implementing the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

Scale up attention and resources to gender equality and fragile states to achieve MDGs by 2015.
Donors and IFIs should play a stronger role in monitoring gender equality and expanding women's access to opportunities, rights, and voice.
Rethink aid delivery modalities to improve effectiveness in fragile states, emphasizing turn-around situations with real opportunities.
Increase and stabilize aid flows: deliver an additional $50 billion in annual aid (over 2004 levels) by 2010, while ensuring aid is predictable and efficiently delivered.
Accompany aid scaling with technically sound and sequenced country plans for meeting the MDGs.
Improve aid coordination to address fragmentation from multiple donors, global funds, and earmarking.

Press Release No. 07/73, April 13, 2007, IMF EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT.