Reuters: Gender equality and equity in Health will anchor drive towards sustainable national development



As the UNDP Administrator, Ms Helen Clark remarked, “Women are powerful agents of change – and empowering women benefits whole societies.”  A good place to begin is empowering Kenya’s youth, especially girls. The multiplier effect of girls’ education on several aspects of development is now well documented.  Education reduces high fertility rates, lowers infant and child mortality rates, lowers maternal mortality rates and increases labour force participation.
Empowering, educating and employing Kenya’s women and girls will launch our economy to new heights and ensure Kenya reaps a demographic dividend. His Excellency, President Uhuru Kenyatta, has stressed that “Progress for women is progress for all …….”
 For development to be sustainable and resilient, it must be inclusive and equitable, given that half of humanity are women, their empowerment is a must and not an option.
My take:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kenneth Frazier the CEO of Merck is the epitome of a humanitarian

Image
Mr Kenneth Frazier-CEO Merck Today is 19 August and it is World Humanitarian Day. At a time when the pursuit of profit seems to override any other corporate mission, Kenya’s fragile, unstable and hard to reach North-Eastern counties is about the last place any company would consider spending any amount of resources.   Consider this. In 2014, one of the North Eastern counties called, Mandera, had a maternal mortality ratio of 3,795 deaths per 100,000 live births, surpassing that of wartime Sierra Leone.  It is inhabited by a nomadic community, riven by internecine conflicts, pockets of extremism and  cross border terrorism .  Widespread illiteracy and cultural practices like female genital mutilation and child marriage ensured women and girls would remain trapped in poverty and desperation. Only the bravest and optimistic of humanitarian agencies maintained a presence, amid shrinking budgets for international development. In 2014, UN agencies in Kenya, like UNFP
Read more

Huffington Post: Gender equality is the missing link for India’s progress

Image
Consider this. Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, is the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India. Her parents, father Ajit Singh Randhawa and mother Raj Kaur Randhawa, hail from Amritsar District, Punjab, India. While Nimrata Nikki Randhawa may not ring a bell, Nikki Haley certainly will. She is married to Michael Haley a U.S. Army Officer and an Afghanistan veteran. Yes, Nikki Haley is Nimrata Nikki Randhawa who went on to become the first female Indian-American governor of South Carolina. Today,  Haley is the United States’ Ambassador  to the United Nations in New York, a cabinet level position and is the first Indian-American selected to join the new US administration. My take: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gender-equality-is-the-missing-link-for-indias-progress_us_58becef2e4b0abcb02ce223e?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004
Read more

Huffington Post: Kenya must create a million new jobs annually

Image
It is estimated that 3000 Kenyans are born every day, a  million a year . With a median age of 18 years, Kenya is witnessing a massive youth bulge, which could either be a  demographic dividend , or a disaster.  Consider this. In 1956, Kenya’s population stood at about 7 million, twice that of Norway. Today, Norway has a population of 5.2 million while that of Kenya stands at about 45 million. It is projected that  by 2030, the population of Norway will be 6 million while Kenya’s population will reach 65 million , and 85 million by 2050.  Africa’s youth bulge, and Kenya’s in particular, should largely be the basis for optimism offering great opportunity for socio-economic take-off. Six of the countries with the highest economic growth rates are in Africa.  Yet, for most countries, Kenya included, economic growth lacks the desired social transformation. Despite Kenya’s impressive economic growth, four out of ten people live in extreme poverty; and the  poorest 10
Read more