WomEn EmpowERmEnT

Women bear almost all responsibility for meeting basic needs of the family, yet are systematically denied the resources, information and freedom of action they need to fulfill this responsibility.

* The vast majority of the world's poor are women.

* Two-thirds of the world's illiterates are female. Of the millions of school age children not in school, the majority are girls.

* And today, HIV/AIDS is rapidly becoming a woman's disease.

The current world food price crisis is having a severe impact on women. Around the world, millions of people eat two or three times a day, but a significant percentage of women eat only once. And, now, many women are denying themselves even that one meal to ensure that their children are fed. These women are already suffering the effects of even more severe malnutrition, which inevitably will be their children's fate as well. The impact of this crisis will be with us for many years.

Studies show that when women are supported and empowered, all of society benefits.Their families are healthier, more children go to school, agricultural productivity improves and incomes increase. In short, communities become more resilient.

In India, our Women's Leadership Workshop has empowered 71,000 women elected to local councils to be effective change agents in their villages. They are forming district- and state-wide federations to ensure that their voices are heard at top levels of government.

When women, who have traditionally been denied a voice in decision-making, come to power, they transform the development agenda toward the human component - focusing on health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and better family income. They tackle long-ignored problems such as domestic violence, alcoholism and corruption.

Effective bottom-up strategies for ending hunger and poverty combine three factors: mobilizing people at the grassroots level to build self-reliance, empowering women as key change agents and forging effective partnerships with local government. In India, these come together in our Panchayati Raj Campaign.

National Girl Child Day is a national strategy that seeks to improve the status of and end discrimination against girls in Bangladeshi society.Since 2000, Bangladesh has celebrated National Girl Child Day each September 30. It has been chosen as one day of the annual Children's Rights Week. Actions are organised at both the national and local levels.

A unified campaign. The Hunger Project is working with a broad network of government ministries, NGOs, women's organisations, schools, colleges and the media to awaken people across the nation to the critical importance of providing better health, education and nutrition to girls as the highest leverage investment for the future of the country. This network, called the National Girl Child Advocacy Forum, joins more than 300 organizations.

Panchayati raj refers to India's local democracy, based on elected local councils known as panchayats. The 73rd amendment to India's constitution, passed in 1993, mandates local elections every five years and reserves one-third of all seats for women.

So to keep the nation working, women of the nation should keep working......