Tracking Progress in the Implementation of Regional and International Agendas, Including NEPAD and Other Special Initiatives in the Subregion
The Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000 at the United Nations’ Millennium Summit, is guided by a set of specific, quantified, and time-set key targets on the various dimensions of human development: poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. These targets are to be achieved by 2015, from their 1990 level (United Nations, 2000).
The Millennium Development Goal 3 calls for gender equality and empowerment of women through measurement of the ratio of girls to boys in education, the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector, and the proportion of seats held by women in national legislatures. The Goal specifically commits member countries “to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable” (United Nations, 2000).