The Global Citizen is a joint project of New Voices and the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Throughout the year, a group of former AJWS volunteers will offer their take on global justice, Judaism and international development. Opinions expressed by Global Citizen bloggers do not necessarily represent AJWS.
I believe I’m not the only one who is skeptical about our world community achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Looking through the lens of one goal in particular, it becomes apparent that some issues may not only be stagnant, but may even be getting worse. Yesterday, in the New York Times, a World Brief by the Associated Press (AP) entitled “W.H.O. Assesses Women’s Health” states as follows:
“In its first study of women’s health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that H.I.V. is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44. Unprotected sex is the leading risk factor in developing countries for these women of childbearing age; others include iron deficiency and lack of access to contraceptives, said the W.H.O., a United Nations agency. Throughout the world, one in five deaths among women in this age group is linked to unprotected sex, the agency said. The data was included in a report intended to highlight the unequal health treatment a woman faces from birth to death.”
Now, bear in mind that goal three is to promote gender equality and empower women, and goal six is to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. In light of this study, our capacity to accomplish these goals looks less than promising.
The Millennium Development Goals are eight overarching international goals established in 2000 by the United Nations (U.N.) to achieve by 2015. This includes loft goals in the realms of extreme poverty, healthcare, and gender equality. In September 2010, the U.N. is set to look at the progress towards these goals according to their road map set out at the World Summit in 2005. The U.N., in their synopsis on the 2009 Millennium Development Goals Report, states:
“More than halfway to the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), major advances in the fight against poverty and hunger have begun to slow or even reverse as a result of the global economic and food crises, a progress report by the United Nations has found. The assessment, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Geneva, warns that, despite many successes, overall progress has been too slow for most of the targets to be met by 2015.”
And looking at the state of women’s health in the world today, I’d say the international community is accountable for grievances on both gender and health inequality issues. I have heard two HIV/AIDS experts on opposite sides on the world, Rev.Gideon Byamugisha in Kampala, Uganda and David Munar with the AIDS Foundation Chicago, say that this is a disease of social inequality. To give a little context, I met the Rev.Byamugisha, who is featured in the book “28 Stories of AIDS in Africa,” with my volunteer summer group in Uganda and David Munar met with my Avodah cohort in Chicago. Both men said essentially the same thing, in all likelihood without knowing the other exists, that people in poverty and people who are homeless are most likely to contract HIV, and moreover, are unable to afford or even gain access to treatment. And this huge social injustice is before we even begin to touch on the revelations from this striking WHO research.
Though the New York Times brief does not go into how these women are getting HIV in such large numbers, spending time in the developing world makes this abundantly clear. In the cases of married women, typically husbands may be away for months at a time in larger cities, working by day and sleeping with sex workers by night. Condoms are often not used, with sex workers or wives. If women were to suggest to their spouses upon their homecoming that they use condoms, this would be insinuating suspicions about infidelity and incur dangerous consequences in most cases. In addition, sex workers themselves are often expected not to use protection as a part of their services, and may themselves be in compromising position that are conducive from contracting HIV as well as spreading it. And in all this, it is clear that internationally, it is much more common for men to have multiple overlapping sexual partners than for women, simply by the nature of communal and cultural norms and expectations.
The growing number of deaths of young women by HIV internationally brings to light the greater inequalities from which this reality is growing. As with HIV/AIDS in general, these numbers are a poignant litmus test for goals three and six of the MDGs and are indicative of the likely progress within all eight goals. Unfortunately, it seems clear this litmus test is a resounding failure.
