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REPORT OF THE WORLD CONFERENCE TO REVIEW AND APPRAISE THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE
UNITED NATIONS DECADE FOR WOMEN: EQUALITY, DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE

Nairobi, 15-26 July 1985

United Nations
New York, 1986

...

Agenda

...

1. Opening of the Conference.
2. Election of the President.
3. Adoption of the rules of procedure.
4. Adoption of the agenda.
5. Election of officers other than the President
6. Other organizational matters:
(a) Allocation of items to the Main Committees and organization of work;
(b) Credentials of representatives to the Conference:
(i) Appointment of the members of the Credentials Committee;
(ii) Report of the Credentials Committee.
7. Critical review and appraisal of progress achieved and obstacles
encountered in attaining the goals and objectives of the United Nations Decade
for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, and the sub-theme: Employment,
Health and Education, bearing in mind the guidelines laid down at the World
Conference of the International Women's Year, held at Mexico City, and the
World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development
and Peace, held at Copenhagen:
(a) Progress achieved and obstacles encountered at national, regional and
international levels to attain the goal and objective of equality;
(b) Progress achieved and obstacles encountered at national, regional and
international levels to attain the goal and objective of development;
(c) Progress achieved and obstacles encountered at national, regional and
international levels to attain the goal and objective of peace.
8. Forward-looking Strategies of implementation for the advancement of women
for the period up to the year 2000, and concrete measures to overcome
obstacles to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the United Nations
Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, and the sub-theme:
Employment, Health and Education, bearing in mind the International
Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade and the
establishment of a new international economic order:
(a) Strategies and measures at the national, regional and international levels
to achieve the goal of equality;
(b) Strategies and measures at the national, regional and international levels
to achieve the goal of development;
(c) Strategies and measures at the national, regional and international levels
to achieve the goal of peace.
9. Adoption of the report of the Conference.

...

The Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women
Adopted by the World Conference to review and appraise the achievements of the
United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, held in
Nairobi, Kenya, 15-26 July 1985.


INTRODUCTION

A.  Historical Background

Paragraph 1

The founding of the United Nations after the victory in the Second World War
and the emergence of independent States following decolonization were some of
the important events in the political, economic and social liberation of
women. The International Women's Year, the World Conferences held at Mexico
City in 1975 and Copenhagen in 1980, and the United Nations Decade for Women: 
Equality, Development and Peace contributed greatly to the process of
eliminating obstacles to the improvement of the status of women at the
national, regional and international levels. In the early 1970s, efforts to
end discrimination against women and to ensure their equal participation in
society provided the impetus for most initiatives taken at all of those
levels. Those efforts were also inspired by the awareness that women's
reproductive and productive roles were closely linked to the political,
economic, social, cultural, legal, educational and religious conditions that
constrained the advancement of women and that factors intensifying the
economic exploitation, marginalization and oppression of women stemmed from
chronic inequalities, injustices and exploitative conditions at the family,
community, national, subregional, regional and international levels.

Paragraph 2

In 1972, the General Assembly, in its resolution 3010 (XXVII), proclaimed 1975
International Women's Year, to be devoted to intensified action to promote
equality between men and women, to ensure the full integration of women in the
total development effort and to increase women's contribution to the
strengthening of world peace. The World Plan of Action for the Implementation
of the Objectives of the International Women's Year, 1/ adopted by the World
Conference of the International Women's Year at Mexico City in 1975, was
endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 3520 (XXX). The General
Assembly, in that resolution, proclaimed 1976-1985 the United Nations Decade
for Women:  Equality, Development and Peace. In its resolution 33/185, the
General Assembly decided upon the sub-theme "Employment, Health and Education"
for the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women:  Equality,
Development and Peace, to be held at Copenhagen to review and evaluate the
progress made in the first half of the Decade.

Paragraph 3

In 1980, at the mid-point of the Decade, the Copenhagen World Conference
adopted the Programme of Action for the Second Half of the United Nations
Decade for Women:  Equality, Development and Peace, 2/ which further
elaborated on the existing obstacles and on the existing international
consensus on measures to be taken for the advancement of women. The Programme
of Action was endorsed by the General Assembly that year in its resolution
35/136.

Paragraph 4

Also in 1980, the General Assembly, in its resolution 35/56, adopted the
International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development
Decade and reaffirmed the recommendations of the Copenhagen World Conference
(General Assembly resolution 35/56, annex, para. 51). In the Strategy, the
importance of the participation of women in the development process, as both
agents and beneficiaries, was stressed.  Also, the Strategy called for
appropriate measures to be taken in order to bring about profound social and
economic changes and to eliminate the structural imbalances that compounded
and perpetuated women's disadvantages in society.

Paragraph 5

The strategies contained in the World Plan of Action and in the Programme of
Action were important contributions towards enlarging the perspective for the
future of women. In most areas, however, further action is required. In this
connection the General Assembly confirmed the goals and objectives of the
Decade - equality, development and peace - stressed their validity for the
future and indicated the need for concrete measures to overcome the obstacles
to their achievement during the period 1986-2000.

Paragraph 6

The Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women during the Period
from 1986 to the Year 2000 set forth in the present document present concrete
measures to overcome the obstacles to the Decade's goals and objectives for
the advancement of women. Building on principles of equality also espoused in
the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
3/ the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 4/ the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 5/ the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 6/
and the Declaration on the Participation of Women in Promoting International
Peace and Co-operation, 7/ the Forward-looking Strategies reaffirm the
international concern regarding the status of women and provide a framework
for renewed commitment by the international community to the advancement of
women and the elimination of gender-based discrimination. The efforts for the
integration of women in the development process should be strengthened and
should take into account the objectives of a new international economic order
and the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations
Development Decade.

Paragraph 7

The Nairobi World Conference is taking place at a critical moment for the
developing countries. Ten years ago, when the Decade was launched, there was
hope that accelerated economic growth, sustained by growing international
trade, financial flow and technological developments, would allow the
increased participation of women in the economic and social development of
those countries. These hopes have been belied owing to the persistence and, in
some cases, the aggravation of an economic crisis in the developing countries,
which has been an important obstacle that endangers not only the pursuance of
new programmes in support of women but also the maintenance of those that were
already under way.

Paragraph 8

The critical international economic situation since the end of the 1970s has
particularly adversely affected developing countries and, most acutely, the
women of those countries. The overall picture for the developing countries,
particularly the least developed countries, the drought-stricken and
famine-stricken areas of Africa, the debt-ridden countries and the low-income
countries, has reached a critical point as a result of structural imbalances
and the continuing critical international economic situation. The situation
calls for an increased commitment to improving and promoting national policies
and multilateral co-operation for development in support of national
programmes, bearing in mind that each country is responsible for its own
development policy. The gap between the developed and developing countries,
particularly the least developed among them, instead of narrowing, is widening
further. In order to stem such negative trends and mitigate the current
difficulties of the developing countries, which affect women the most, one of
the primary tasks of the international community is to pursue with all vigour
the efforts directed towards the establishment of a New International Economic
Order founded on equity, sovereign equality, interdependence and common
interest.

B.  Substantive background of the Forward-looking Strategies

Paragraph 9

The three objectives of the Decade - equality, development and peace - are
broad, interrelated and mutually reinforcing, so that the achievement of one
contributes to the achievement of another.

Paragraph 10

The Copenhagen World Conference interpreted equality as meaning not only legal
equality, the elimination of de jure discrimination, but also equality of
rights, responsibilities and opportunities for the participation of women in
development, both as beneficiaries and as active agents.

Paragraph 11

Equality is both a goal and a means whereby individuals are accorded equal
treatment under the law and equal opportunities to enjoy their rights and to
develop their potential talents and skills so that they can participate in
national political, economic, social and cultural development and can benefit
from its results. For women in particular, equality means the realization of
rights that have been denied as a result of cultural, institutional,
behaviourial and attitudinal discrimination. Equality is important for
development and peace because national and global inequities perpetuate
themselves and increase tensions of all types.

Paragraph 12

The role of women in development is directly related to the goal of
comprehensive social and economic development and is fundamental to the
development of all societies. Development means total development, including
development in the political, economic, social, cultural and other dimensions
of human life, as well as the development of the economic and other material
resources and the physical, moral, intellectual and cultural growth of human
beings. It should be conducive to providing women, particularly those who are
poor or destitute, with the necessary means for increasingly claiming,
achieving, enjoying and utilizing equality of opportunity. More directly, the
increasingly successful participation of each woman in societal activities as
a legally independent agent will contribute to further recognition in practice
of her right to equality. Development also requires a moral dimension to
ensure that it is just and responsive to the needs and rights of the
individual and that science and technology are applied within a social and
economic framework that ensures environmental safety for all life forms on our
planet.

Paragraph 13

The full and effective promotion of women's rights can best occur in
conditions of international peace and security where relations among States
are based on the respect for the legitimate rights of all nations, great and
small, and peoples to self-determination, independence, sovereignty,
territorial integrity and the right to live in peace within their national
borders.

Peace depends on the prevention of the use or threat of the use of force,
aggression, military occupation, interference in the internal affairs of
others, the elimination of domination, discrimination, oppression and
exploitation, as well as of gross and mass violation of human rights and
fundamental freedoms.

Peace includes not only the absence of war, violence and hostilities at the
national and international levels but also the enjoyment of economic and
social justice, equality and the entire range of human rights and fundamental
freedoms within society. It depends upon respect for the Charter of the United
Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as
international covenants and the other relevant international instruments on
human rights, upon mutual co-operation and understanding among all States
irrespective of their social political and economic systems and upon the
effective implementation by States of the fundamental human rights standards
to which their citizens are entitled.

It also embraces the whole range of actions reflected in concerns for security
and implicit assumptions of trust between nations, social groups and
individuals. It represents goodwill toward others and promotes respect for
life while protecting freedom, human rights and the dignity of peoples and of
individuals. Peace cannot be realized under conditions of economic and sexual
inequality, denial of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, deliberate
exploitation of large sectors of the population, unequal development of
countries, and exploitative economic relations. Without peace and stability
there can be no development. Peace and development are interrelated and
mutually reinforcing.

In this respect special attention is drawn to the final document of the tenth
special session of the General Assembly, the first special session devoted to
disarmament encompassing all measures thought to be advisable in order to
ensure that the goal of general and complete disarmament under effective
international control is realized. This document describes a comprehensive
programme of disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, which is important
not only for peace but also for the promotion of the economic and social
development of all, particularly in the developing countries, through the
constructive use of the enormous amount of material and human resources
otherwise expended on the arms race.

Peace is promoted by equality of the sexes, economic equality and the
universal enjoyment of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. Its
enjoyment by all requires that women be enabled to exercise their right to
participate on an equal footing with men in all spheres of the political,
economic and social life of their respective countries, particularly in the
decision-making process, while exercising their right to freedom of opinion,
expression, information and association in the promotion of international
peace and co-operation.

Paragraph 14

The effective participation of women in development and in the strengthening
of peace, as well as the promotion of the equality of women and men, require
concerted multi-dimensional strategies and measures that should be
people-oriented. Such strategies and measures will require continual upgrading
and the productive utilization of human resources with a view to promoting
equality and producing sustained, endogenous development of societies and
groups of individuals.

Paragraph 15

The three goals of the Decade - equality, development and peace - are
inextricably linked to the three sub-themes - employment, health and
education. They constitute the concrete basis on which equality, development
and peace rest. The enhancement of women's equal participation in development
and peace requires the development of human resources, recognition by society
of the need to improve women's status, and the participation of all in the
restructuring of society. It involves, in particular, building a participatory
human infrastructure to permit the mobilization of women at all levels, within
different spheres and sectors. To achieve optimum development of human and
material resources, women's strengths and capabilities, including their great
contribution to the welfare of families and to the development of society,
must be fully acknowledged and valued. The attainment of the goals and
objectives of the Decade requires a sharing of this responsibility by men and
women and by society as a whole and requires that women play a central role as
intellectuals, policy-makers, decision-makers, planners, and contributors and
beneficiaries of development.

Paragraph 16

The need for women's perspective on human development is critical since it is
in the interest of human enrichment and progress to introduce and weave into
the social fabric women's concept of equality, their choices between
alternative development strategies and their approach to peace, in accordance
with their aspirations, interests and talents. These things are not only
desirable in themselves but are also essential for the attainment of the goals
and objectives of the Decade.

Paragraph 17

The review and appraisal of progress achieved and obstacles encountered at the
national level in the realization of the goals and objectives of the United
Nations Decade for Women:  Equality, Development and Peace (see A/CONF.116/5
and Add.1-14) identifies various levels of experience. Despite the
considerable progress achieved and the increasing participation of women in
society, the Decade has only partially attained its goals and objectives.
Although the earlier years of the Decade were characterized by relatively
favourable economic conditions in both the developed and developing countries,
deteriorating economic conditions have slowed efforts directed towards
promoting the equal participation of women in society and have given rise to
new problems. With regard to development, there are indications that in some
cases, although the participation of women is increasing, their benefits are
not increasing proportionately.

Paragraph 18

Many of the obstacles discussed in the Forward-looking Strategies were
identified in the review and appraisal (see A/CONF.116/5 and Add.1-14). The
overwhelming obstacles to the advancement of women are in practice caused by
varying combinations of political and economic as well as social and cultural
factors. Furthermore, the social and cultural obstacles are sometimes
aggravated by political and economic factors such as the critical
international economic situation and the consequent adjustment programmes,
which in general entail a high social cost. In this context, the economic
constraints due in part to the prevailing macro-economic factors have
contributed to the aggravation of economic conditions at the national level.
Moreover, the devaluation of women's productive and reproductive roles, as a
result of which the status of women continued to be regarded as secondary to
that of men, and the low priority assigned to promoting the participation of
women in development are historical factors that limit women's access to
employment, health and education, as well as to other sectoral resources, and
to the effective integration of women in the decision-making process.
Regardless of gains, the structural constraints imposed by a socio-economic
framework in which women are second-class persons still limit progress.
Despite changes in some countries to promote equity in all spheres of life,
the "double burden" for women of having the major responsibility for domestic
tasks and of participating in the labour force remains. For example, several
countries in both the developed and developing world identify as a major
obstacle the lack of adequate supportive services for working women.

Paragraph 19

According to responses from the developing countries, particularly the least
developed, to the United Nations questionnaire to Governments (see
A/C0NF.116/5 and Add.1-14), poverty is on the increase in some countries and
constitutes another major obstacle to the advancement of women. The exigencies
created by problems of mass poverty, compounded by scarce national resources,
have compelled Governments to concentrate on alleviating the poverty of both
women and men rather than on equality issues for women. At the same time,
because women's secondary position increases their vulnerability to
marginalization, those belonging to the lowest socio-economic strata are
likely to be the poorest of the poor and should be given priority. Women are
an essential productive force in all economies; therefore it is particularly
important in times of economic recession that programmes and measures designed
to raise the status of women should not be relaxed but rather intensified.

Paragraph 20

To economic problems, with their attendant social and cultural implications,
must be added the threat to international peace and security resulting from
violations of the principles of the United Nations Charter. This situation,
affecting inter alia the lives of women, constitutes a most serious obstacle
to development and thus hinders the fulfilment of the Forward-looking
Strategies.

Paragraph 21

What is now needed is the political will to promote development in such a way
that the strategy for the advancement of women seeks first and foremost to
alter the current unequal conditions and structures that continue to define
women as secondary persons and give women's issues a low priority. Development
should now move to another plane in which women's pivotal role in society is
recognized and given its true value. That will allow women to assume their
legitimate and core positions in the strategies for effecting the changes
necessary to promote and sustain development.

C. Current trends and perspectives to the year 2000

Paragraph 22

In the absence of major structural changes or technological breakthroughs, it
can be predicted that up to the year 2000 recent trends will, for the most
part, be extended and adjusted. The situation of women, as it evolves during
the period 1986-2000, will also cause other changes, establishing a process of
cause and effect of great complexity. Changes in women's material conditions,
consciousness and aspirations, as well as societal attitudes towards women,
are themselves social and cultural processes having major implications and a
profound influence on institutions such as the family. Women's advancement has
achieved a certain momentum that will be affected by the social and economic
changes of the next 15 years, but it will also continue to exist as a force to
be reckoned with. Internal processes will exercise a major influence in the
economic sphere, but the state of the global economic system and of the
political, social, cultural, demographic and communication processes directly
affected by it will invariably have a more profound impact on the advancement
of women.

Paragraph 23

At the beginning of the Decade there was an optimistic outlook for
development, but during the early 1980s the world economy experienced a
widespread recession due, inter alia, to sharp inflationary pressures that
affected regions and some groups of countries, irrespective of their level of
development or economic structure. During the same period, however, the
countries with centrally planned economies as a group experienced stable
economic growth. The developed market economy countries also experienced
growth after the recession.

Despite the recovery in the developed market economy countries which is being
felt in the world economy, the immediate outlook for recovery in developing
countries, especially in the low-income and the least developed countries,
remains bleak, particularly in view of their enormous public and private
external debts and the cost of servicing that debt, which are an evident
manifestation of this critical situation. This heavy burden has serious
political, economic and social consequences for them. No lasting recovery can
be achieved without rectifying the structural imbalances in the context of the
critical international economic situation and without continued efforts
towards the establishment of a new international economic order. The present
situation clearly has serious repercussions for the status of women,
particularly underprivileged women, and for human resource development.

Women, subject to compound discrimination on the basis of race, colour,
ethnicity and national origin, in addition to sex, could be even more
adversely affected by deteriorating economic conditions.

Paragraph 24

If current trends continue, the prospects for the developing world,
particularly the low-income and least developed countries, will be sombre. The
overall growth in the developing countries as currently projected will be
lower in the period 1980-2000 than that experienced in the period 1960-1980.
In order to redress this outlook and thereby promote the advancement of women,
policies should be reoriented and reinforced to promote world trade, in
particular so as to promote market access for the exports of developing
countries. Similarly, policies should be pursued in other areas which would
also promote growth and development in developing countries, for example, in
respect of further lowering interest rates and pursuit of non-inflationary
growth policies.

Paragraph 25

It is feared that, if there is slow growth in the world economy, there will
inevitably be negative implications for women since, as a result of diminished
resources, action to combat women's low position, in particular, their high
rates of illiteracy, low levels of education, discrimination in employment,
their unrecognized contribution to the economy and their special health needs,
may be postponed. A pattern of development promoting just and equitable growth
on the basis of justice and equality in international economic relations could
make possible the attainment of the goals and objectives of the International
Development Strategy, which could make a significant improvement in the status
of women while enhancing women's effective contribution to development and
peace. Such a pattern of development has its own internal dynamics that would
facilitate an equitable distribution of resources and is conducive to
promoting sustained, endogenous development, which will reduce dependence.

Paragraph 26

It is very important that the efforts to promote the economic and social
status of women should rely in particular on the development strategies that
stem from the goals and objectives of the International Development Strategy
and the principles of a new international economic order. These principles
include, inter alia, self-reliance, collective self-reliance, the activation
of indigenous human and material resources. The restructuring of the world
economy, viewed on a long-term basis, is to the benefit of all people - women
and men of all countries.

Paragraph 27

According to estimates and projections of the International Labour Office,
women constitute 35 per cent of the world's labour force, and this figure is
likely to increase steadily to the year 2000. Unless profound and extensive
changes are made, the type of work available to the majority of women, as well
as the rewards, will continue to be low. Women's employment is likely to be
concentrated in areas requiring lower skills and lower wages and minimum job
security. While women's total input of labour in the formal and informal
sector will surpass that of men by the year 2000, they will receive an unequal
share of the world's assets and income. According to recent estimates, it
seems that women have sole responsibility for the economic support of a large
number of the world's children, approximately one third and higher in sone
countries, and the numbers seem to be rising. Forward-looking strategies must
be progressive, equitable and designed to support effectively women's roles
and responsibilities as they evolve up to the year 2000. It will continue to
be necessary to take specific measures to prevent discrimination and
exploitation of their economic contribution at national and international
levels. 

Paragraph 28

During the period from 1986 to the year 2000, changes in the natural
environment will be critical for women. One area of change is that of the role
of women as intermediaries between the natural environment and society with
respect to agro-ecosystems, as well as the provision of safe water and fuel
supplies and the closely associated question of sanitation. The problem will
continue to be greatest where water resources are limited - in arid and
semi-arid areas - and in areas experiencing increasing demographic pressure.
In a general manner, an improvement in the situation of women could bring
about a reduction in mortality and morbidity as well as better regulation of
fertility and hence of population growth, which would be beneficial for the
environment and, ultimately, for women, children and men.

Paragraph 29 7a/

The issues of fertility rates and population growth should be treated in a
context that permits women to exercise effectively their rights in matters
pertaining to population concerns, including the basic right to control their
own fertility which forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other
rights, as stated in the report of the International Population Conference
held at Mexico City in 1984. 8/

Paragraph 30

It is expected that the ever-expanding communications network will be better
attuned than before to the concerns of women and that planners in this field
will provide increasing information on the objectives of the Decade -
equality, development and peace - on the Forward-looking Strategies, and on
the issues included in the subtheme - employment, health and education. All
channels, including computers, formal and non-formal education and the media,
as well as traditional mechanisms of communication involving the cultural
media of ritual, drama, dialogue, oral literature and music, should be used.

Paragraph 31


Political and governmental factors that are likely to affect prospects for the
achievement of progress by women during the period 1986-2000 will depend in
large measure upon the existence or absence of peace. If widespread
international tensions continue, with threats not only of nuclear catastrophe
but also of localized conventional warfare, then the attention of
policy-makers will be diverted from tasks directly and indirectly relevant to
the advancement of women and men, and vast resources will be further applied
to military and related activities. This should be avoided and these resources
should be directed to the improvement of humanity.

Paragraph 32

To promote their interests effectively, women must be able to enjoy their
right to take part in national and international decision-making processes,
including the right to dissent publicly and peacefully from their Government's
policies, and to mobilize to increase their participation in the promotion of
peace within and between nations.

Paragraph 33

There is no doubt that, unless major measures are taken, numerous obstacles
will continue to exist which retard the participation of women in political
life, in the formulation of policies that affect them and in the formulation
of national women's policies. Success will depend in large measure upon
whether or not women can unite to help each other to change their poor
material circumstances and secondary status and to obtain the time, energy and
experience required to participate in political life. At the same time,
improvements in health and educational status, legal and constitutional
provisions and networking will increase the effectiveness of the political
action taken by women so that they can obtain a much greater share in
political decision-making than before.

Paragraph 34

In some countries and in some areas, women have made significant advances, but
overall progress has been modest during the Decade, as is evident from the
review and appraisal. During this period, women's consciousness and
expectations have been raised, and it is important that this momentum should
not be lost, regardless of the poor performance of the world economy. The
changes occurring in the family, in women's roles and in relationships between
women and men may present new challenges requiring new perspectives,
strategies and measures. At the same time, it will be necessary to build
alliances and solidarity groups across sexual lines in an attempt to overcome
structural obstacles to the advancement of women.

Paragraph 35 8a/

The World Plan of Action for the Implementation of the objectives of the
International Women's Year, 1/ the Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of
Women and their Contribution to Development and Peace, 1975, 9/ regional plans
of action, the Programme of Action for the Second half of the United Nations
Decade for Women:  Equality, Development and Peace, 2/ and the sub-theme -
employment, health and education - the Declaration on the Participation of
Women in Promoting International Peace and Co-operation 7/ and the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 6/ remain
valid and therefore constitute the basis for the strategies and concrete
measures to be pursued up to the year 2000. The continuing relevance of the
goals of the United Nations Decade for Women:  Equality, Development and Peace
- and of its sub-theme - health, education and employment - should be
stressed, as should the implementation of the relevant recommendations of the
1975 Plan of Action and the 1980 Programme of Action, so as to ensure the
complete integration of women in the development process and the effective
realization of the objectives of the Decade. The challenge now is for the
international community to ensure that the achievements of the Decade become
strong building blocks for development and to promote equality and peace,
especially for the sake of future generations of women. The obstacles of the
next 15 years must be met through concerted global, regional and national
efforts. By the year 2000 illiteracy should have been eliminated, life
expectancy for all women increased to at least 65 years of good quality life
and opportunities for self-supporting employment made available. Above all,
laws guaranteeing equality for women in all spheres of life must by then be
fully and comprehensively implemented to ensure a truly equitable
socio-economic framework within which real development can take place.
Forward-looking Strategies for the advancement of women at the regional level
should be based on a clear assessment of demographic trends and development
forecasts that provide a realistic context for their implementation.

Paragraph 36

The Forward-looking Strategies and multidimensional measures must be pursued
within the framework of a just international society in which equitable
economic relations will allow the closing of the gap that separates the
industrialized countries from the developing countries. In this regard, all
countries are called upon to show their commitment as was decided in General
Assembly resolution 34/138 and, therefore, to continue informal consultations
on the launching of global negotiations, as decided by the General Assembly in
decision 39/454.

D.  Basic approach to the formulation of the Forward-looking Strategies

Paragraph 37

It is necessary to reiterate the unity, inseparability and interdependence of
the objectives of the Decade - equality, development and peace - as regards
the advancement of women and their full integration in economic, political,
social and cultural development, for which purpose the objectives should
remain in effect in the operational strategies for the advancement of women to
the year 2000.

Paragraph 38

The Forward-looking Strategies are intended to provide a practical and
effective guide for global action on a long-term basis and within the context
of the broader goals and objectives of a new international economic order.
Measures are designed for immediate action, with monitoring and evaluation
occurring every five years, depending on the decision of the General Assembly.
Since countries are at various stages of development, they should have the
option to set their own priorities based on their own development policies and
resource capabilities. What may be possible for immediate action in one
country may require more long-range planning in another, and even more so in
respect of countries which are still under colonialism, domination and foreign
occupation. The exact methods and procedures of implementing measures will
depend upon the nature of the political process and the administrative
capabilities of each country.

Paragraph 39

Some measures are intended to affect women and others directly and are
designed to make the societal context less obstructive and more supportive of
their progress. These measures would include the elimination of sex-based
stereotyping, which is at the root of continuing discrimination. Measures to
improve the situation of women are bound to have a ripple effect in society,
since the advancement of women is without doubt a pre-condition for the
establishment of a humane and Progressive society.

Paragraph 40

The feasibility of policies, programs and projects concerning women will be
affected not only by their numbers and socio-economic heterogeneity but also
by the different life-styles of women and by the constant changes in their
life cycle.

Paragraph 41

The Forward-looking Strategies not only suggest measures for overcoming
obstacles that are fundamental and operational, but also identify those that
are emerging. Thus, the strategies and measures presented are intended to
serve as guidelines for a process of continuous adaptation to diverse and
changing national situations at speeds and nodes determined by overall
national priorities, within which the integration of women in development
should rank high. The Forward-looking Strategies, acknowledging existing and
potential obstacles, include separate basic strategies for the achievement of
equality, development and peace. In line with the recommendations of the
commission on the Status of Women, acting as the Preparatory Body for the
Conference at its second session, particular attention is given to "especially
vulnerable and underprivileged groups of women, such as rural and urban poor
women; women in areas affected by armed conflicts, foreign intervention and
international threats to peace; elderly women; young women; abused women;
destitute women; women victims of trafficking and women in involuntary
prostitution; women deprived of their traditional means of livelihood; women
who are sole supporters of families; physically and mentally disabled women;
women in detention; refugee and displaced women; migrant women; minority
women; and indigenous women". 10/

Paragraph 42

Although addressed primarily to Governments, international and regional
organizations, and non-governmental organizations, an appeal is made to all
women and men in a spirit of solidarity. In particular, it is addressed to
those women and men who now enjoy certain improvements in their material
circumstances and who have achieved positions where they may influence
policy-making, development priorities and public opinion to change the current
inferior and exploited condition of the majority of women ln order to serve
the goals of equality for all women, their full participation in development,
and the achievement and strengthening of peace.

I.  EQUALITY

A.  Obstacles

Paragraph 43

One of the objectives of the Decade entails the full observance of the equal
rights of women and the elimination of de jure and de facto discrimination.
This is a critical first step towards human resource development. In
developing countries inequality is, to a great extent, the result of
underdevelopment and its various manifestations, which in turn are aggravated
by the unjust distribution of the benefits of the international economy. The
United Nations systems, particularly the Commission on the Status of Women,
has worked for four decades to establish international standards and to
identify and propose measures to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex.
Although much progress has been made in legislation, measures are necessary
for effective implementation and enforcement. Legislative enactment is only
one element in the struggle for equality, but an essential one as it provides
the legitimate basis for action and acts as a catalyst for societal change.

Paragraph 44 10a/

The inequality of women in most countries stems to a very large extent from
mass poverty and the general backwardness of the majority of the world's
population caused by underdevelopment, which is a product of imperialism,
colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, racism, racial discrimination and of
unjust international economic relations. The unfavourable status of women is
aggravated in many countries, developed and underdeveloped, by de facto
discrimination on the grounds of sex.

Paragraph 45

One of the fundamental obstacles to women's equality is that de facto
discrimination and inequality in the status of women and men derive from
larger social, economic, political and cultural factors that have been
justified on the basis of physiological differences. Although there is no
physiological basis for regarding the household and family as essentially the
domain of women, for the devaluation of domestic work and for regarding the
capacities of women as inferior to those of men, the belief that such a basis
exists perpetuates inequality and inhibits the structural and attitudinal
changes necessary to eliminate such inequality.

Paragraph 46

Women, by virtue of their gender, experience discrimination in terms of denial
of equal access to the power structure that controls society and determines
development issues and peace initiatives. Additional differences, such as
race, colour and ethnicity, may have even more serious implications in some
countries, since such factors can be used as justification for compound
discrimination.

Paragraph 47

Fundamental resistance creates obstacles, which have wide-ranging implications
for the objectives of the Decade. Discrimination promotes an uneconomic use of
women's talents and wastes the valuable human resources necessary for
development and for the strengthening of peace. Ultimately, society is the
loser if the talents of women are under-utilized as a result of
discrimination. 
Paragraph 48

The sharp contrasts between legislative changes and effective implementation
of these changes are a major obstacle to the full participation of women in
society. De facto and indirect discrimination, particularly by reference to
marital or family status, often persists despite legislative action. The law
as a recourse does not automatically benefit all women equally, owing to the
socio-economic inequalities determining women's knowledge of and access to the
law, as well as their ability to exercise their full legal rights without fear
of recrimination or intimidation. The lack or inadequacy of the dissemination
of information on women's rights and the available recourse to justice has
hampered, in many instances, the achievement of expected results.

Paragraph 49

Some legislative changes are made without a thorough understanding of the
relationship between existing legal systems. In practice, however, certain
aspects of the law - for instance, customary provisions - may be in operation
in societies with multiple and conflicting legal systems. Emerging and
potential obstacles resulting from possible contradictions should be
anticipated so that preventive measures can be taken. When passing new
legislation, whatever its subject-matter, all possible care should be taken to
ensure that it implies no direct or indirect discrimination so that women's
right to equality is fully respected in law.

Paragraph 50

In some countries, discriminatory legislative provisions in the social,
economic and political spheres still exist, including civil, penal and
commercial codes and certain administrative rules and regulations. Civil codes
in some instances have not yet been adequately studied to determine action for
repealing those laws that still discriminate against women and for
determining, on the basis of equality, the legal capacity and status of women,
married women in particular, in terms of nationality, inheritance, ownership
and control of property, freedom of movement and the custody and nationality
of children. Above all, there is still a deeply rooted resistance on the part
of conservative elements in society to the change in attitude necessary for a
total ban on discriminatory practices against women at the family, local,
national and international levels.

B. Basic strategies

Paragraph 51


The political commitment to establish, modify, expand or enforce a
comprehensive legal base for the equality of women and men and on the basis of
human dignity must be strengthened. Legislative changes are most effective
when made within a supportive framework promoting simultaneous changes in the
economic, social, political and cultural spheres, which can help bring about a
social transformation. For true equality to become a reality for women, the
sharing of power on equal terms with men must be a major strategy.

Paragraph 52

Governments should take the relevant steps to ensure that both men and women
enjoy equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities so as to guarantee the
development of their individual aptitudes and capacities and enable women to
participate as beneficiaries and active agents in development.

Paragraph 53

Changes in social and economic structures should be promoted which would make
possible the full equality of women and their free access to all types of
development as active agents and beneficiaries, without discrimination of any
kind, and to all types of education, training and employment. Special
attention should be paid to implementing this right to the maximum extent
possible for young women.

Paragraph 54

In order to promote equality of women and men, Governments should ensure, for
both women and men, equality before the law, the provision of facilities for
equality of educational opportunities and training, health services, equality
in conditions and opportunities of employment, including remuneration, and
adequate social security. Governments should recognize and undertake measures
to implement the right of men and women to employment on equal conditions,
regardless of marital status, and their equal access to the whole range of
economic activities.

Paragraph 55

Effective institutions and procedures must be established or strengthened to
monitor the situation of women comprehensively and identify the causes, both
traditional and new, of discrimination and to help formulate new policies and
effectively carry out strategies and measures to end discrimination. These
arrangements and procedures must be integrated within a coherent policy for
development but cannot wait indefinitely for such a policy to be formulated
and implemented.

Paragraph 56

The obstacles to the equality of women created by stereotypes, perceptions of
and attitudes towards women should be totally removed. Elimination of these
obstacles will require, in addition to legislation, education of the
population at large through formal and informal channels, including the media,
non-governmental organizations, political party platforms and executive
action. 
Paragraph 57

Appropriate governmental machinery for monitoring and improving the status of
women should be established where it is lacking. To be effective, this
machinery should be established at a high level of government and should be
ensured adequate resources, commitment and authority to advise on the impact
on women of all government policies. Such machinery can play a vital role in
enhancing the status of women, inter alia, through the dissemination of
information to women on their rights and entitlements, through collaborative
action with various ministries and other government agencies and with
non-governmental organizations and indigenous women's societies and groups.

Paragraph 58

Timely and reliable statistics on the situation of women have an important
role to play in the elimination of stereotypes and the movement towards full
equality. Governments should help collect statistics and make periodic
assessment in identifying stereotypes and inequalities, in providing concrete
evidence concerning many of the harmful consequences of unequal laws and
practices and in measuring progress in the elimination of inequities.

Paragraph 59

The sharing of domestic responsibilities by all members of the family and
equal recognition of women's informal and invisible economic contributions in
the mainstream of society should be developed as complementary strategies for
the elimination of women's secondary status, which has fostered
discrimination.

C.  Measures for the implementation of the basic strategies
    at the national level

1.  Constitutional and legal

Paragraph 60

Governments that have not yet done so are urged to sign the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 6/ and to take all
the necessary steps to ensure its ratification, or their accession to it. They
should consider the possibility of establishing appropriate bodies charged
with reviewing the national legislation concerned and with drawing up
recommendations thereon to ensure that the provisions of the Convention and of
the other international instruments to which they are parties that are
relevant to the role, status and material circumstances of women are complied
with.

Paragraph 61

Governments that have not yet done so should establish appropriate
institutional procedures whereby the application of a revised set of laws and
administrative measures may be effectively enforced from the village level up
and may be adequately monitored so that individual women may, without
obstruction or cost to themselves, seek to have discriminatory treatment
redressed. Legislation that concerns women as a group should also be
effectively enforced and monitored so that areas of systemic or de facto
discrimination against women can be redressed. To this end, positive action
policy should be developed.

Paragraph 62

Agrarian reform measures have not always ensured women's rights even in
countries where women predominate in the agricultural labour force. Such
reforms should guarantee women's constitutional and legal rights in terms of
access to land and other means of production and should ensure that women will
control the products of their labour and their income, as well as benefits
from agricultural inputs, research, training, credits and other
infrastructural facilities.

Paragraph 63

National research institutions, both governmental and private, are urged to
undertake investigations of the problems associated with the relationship
between the law and the role, status and material circumstances of women.
These should be integrated into the curricula of relevant educational
institutions in an attempt to promote general knowledge and awareness of the
law.

Paragraph 64

In the past decade there have been significant advances in the development of
statistical concepts and methods for measuring inequality between women and
men. The capabilities of national institutions concerned with statistics and
women's issues should be improved to implement these concepts and methods in
the regular statistical programmes of countries and to make effective use of
these statistics in the policy-planning process. Training for producers and
users of statistics on women should play a key role in this process.

Paragraph 65

In-depth research should be undertaken to determine instances when customary
law may be discriminatory or protective of women's rights and the extent to
which the interfaces between customary and statutory law may retard progress
in the implementation of new legislative measures. Particular attention should
be paid to double standards in every aspect of life, with a view to abolishing
them.

Paragraph 66

Law-reform committees with equal representation of women and men from
Governments and from non-governmental organizations should be set up to review
all laws, not only as a monitoring device but also with a view to determining
research-related activities, amendments and new legislative measures.

Paragraph 67

Employment legislation should ensure equity and provide benefits for women not
only in the conventional and formal labour force but also in the informal
sector, particularly with regard to migrant and service workers, by providing
minimum wage standards, insurance benefits, safe working conditions and the
right to organize. Opportunities for similar guarantees and benefits should
also be extended to women making vital economic contributions in activities
involving food production and processing, fisheries and food distribution
through trade. These benefits should also pertain to women working in family
enterprises and, if possible, to other self-employed women in an effort to
give due recognition to the vital contribution of all these informal and
invisible economic activities to the development of human resources.

Paragraph 68

Civil codes, particularly those pertaining to family law, should be revised to
eliminate discriminatory practices where these exist and wherever women are
considered minors. The legal capacity of married women should be reviewed in
order to grant them equal rights and duties.

Paragraph 69 10b/

Such social and economic development should be encouraged as would secure the
participation of women as equal partners with men in all fields of work, equal
access to all positions of employment, equal pay for work of equal value and
equal opportunities for education and vocational training, and would
co-ordinate the legislation on the protection of women at work with the need
for women to work and be highly productive producers and managers of all
political, economic and social affairs and would develop branches of the
social services to make domestic duties easier for women and men.

Paragraph 70

Measures for the implementation of legislation relating to working conditions
for women must be taken.

Paragraph 71

Legislative and/or other measures should be adopted and implemented to secure
for men and women the same right to work and to unemployment benefits, as well
as to prohibit, through, inter alia, the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on
the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination in
dismissals on the grounds of marital status. Legislative and other measures
should be adopted and implemented to facilitate the return to the labour
market of women who have left it for family reasons and to guarantee the right
of women to return to work after maternity leave.

Paragraph 72

Governments should continue to take special action to institute programmes
that would inform women workers of their rights under legislation and other
remedial measures. The importance of freedom of association and the protection
of the right to organize should be emphasized, this being particularly
relevant to the position of women in employment. Special measures should be
taken to ratify and implement in national legislation the relevant conventions
and recommendations of the International Labour Organisation concerning the
rights of women as regards access to equal employment opportunities, equal pay
for work of equal value, equal working conditions, job security and maternity
protection.

Paragraph 73


Marriage agreements should be based on mutual understanding, respect and
freedom of choice. Careful attention should be paid to the equal participation
and valuation of both partners so that the value of housework is considered
equivalent of financial contributions.

Paragraph 74

The right of all women, in particular married women, to own, administer, sell
or buy property independently should be guaranteed as an aspect of their
equality and freedom under the law. The right to divorce should be granted
equally to both partners under the same conditions, and custody of children
decided in a non-discriminatory manner with full awareness of the importance
of the input from both parents in the maintenance, rearing and socialization
of children. Women should not forfeit their right to custody of their children
or to any other benefits and freedoms simply because they have initiated a
divorce. Without prejudice to the religious and cultural traditions of
countries, and taking into account the de facto situations, legal or other
appropriate provisions should be made to eliminate discrimination against
single mothers and their children.

Paragraph 75

Appropriate action is necessary to ensure that the judiciary and all paralegal
personnel are fully aware of the importance of the achievement by women of
rights set out in internationally agreed instruments, constitutions and the
law. Appropriate forms of in-service training and retraining should be
designed and carried out for this purpose, with special attention given to the
recruitment and training of women.

Paragraph 76

Special attention should be given in criminology training to the particular
situation of women as victims of violent crimes, including crimes that violate
women's bodies and result in serious physical and psychological damage.
Legislation should be passed and laws enforced in every country to end the
degradation of women through sex-related crimes. Guidance should be given to
law enforcement and other authorities on the need to deal sensibly and
sensitively with the victims of such crimes.

2.  Equality in social participation

Paragraph 77

A comprehensive and sustained public campaign should be launched by all
Governments, in close collaboration with non-governmental organizations,
women's pressure groups, where they exist, and research institutions, as well
as the media, educational institutions and traditional institutions of
communication, to challenge and abolish all discriminatory perceptions,
attitudes and practices by the year 2000. Target groups should include
policy-makers and decision makers, legal technical advisers, bureaucrats,
labour and business leaders, business persons, professionals and the general
public.

Paragraph 78

By the year 2000, all Governments should have adequate comprehensive and
coherent national women's policies to abolish all obstacles to the full and
equal participation of women in all spheres of society.

Paragraph 79

Governments should take all appropriate measures to ensure to women, on equal
terms with men and without discrimination, the opportunity to represent their
Government at all levels on delegations to subregional, regional and
international meetings. More women should be appointed as diplomats and to
decision-making posts within the United Nations system, including posts in
fields relating to peace and development activities. Support services, such as
educational facilities and day care, for families of diplomats and other civil
servants stationed abroad, of United Nations officials, as well as employment
of spouses at the duty station, wherever possible, should be strongly
encouraged.

Paragraph 80

As future parents, young people and children should be educated and mobilized
to act as stipulators for and monitors of changes in attitudes towards women
at all levels of society, particularly with regard to the need for greater
flexibility in the assignment of roles between women and men.

Paragraph 81

Research activities should be promoted to identify discriminatory practices in
education and training and to ensure quality at those two levels. One priority
area for research should be the impact of sexual discrimination on the
development of human resources.

Paragraph 82

Governments and private institutions are urged to include in the curricula of
all schools, colleges and universities courses and seminars on women's history
and roles in society and to incorporate women's issues in the general
curriculum and to strengthen research institutions in the area of women's
studies by promoting indigenous research activities and collaboration.

Paragraph 83

New teaching methods should be encouraged, especially audio-visual techniques,
to demonstrate clearly the equality of the sexes. Programmes, curricula and
standards of education and training should be the same for females and males.
Textbooks and other teaching materials should be continuously evaluated,
updated and, where necessary, redesigned, rewritten to ensure that they
reflect positive, dynamic and participatory images of women and to present men
actively involved in all aspects of family responsibilities.

Paragraph 84

Governments are urged to encourage the full participation of women in the
whole range of occupations, especially in fields previously regarded as male
preserves, in order to break down occupational barriers and taboos. Employment
equity programmes should be developed to integrate women into all economic
activities on an equal basis with men. Special measures designed to redress
the imbalance imposed by centuries of discrimination against women should be
promoted to accelerate de facto equality between men and women. Those measures
should not be considered discriminatory or entail the maintenance of unequal
or separate standards. They are to be discontinued when the objectives of
equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved. Governments should
ensure that their public service is an exemplary equal opportunity employer.

Paragraph 85

High priority should be given to substantial and continuing improvement in the
portrayal of women in the mass media. Every effort should be made to develop
attitudes and to produce materials that portray positive aspects of women's
roles and status in intellectual and other activities as well as egalitarian
relations of sexes. Steps also should be taken to control pornography, other
obscene portrayals of women and the portrayal of women as sex objects. In this
regard all measures should be taken to ensure that women participate
effectively in relevant councils and review bodies regarding mass media,
including advertisement, and in the implementation of decisions of these
bodies.

3.  Equality in political participation and decision-making

Paragraph 86

Governments and political parties should intensify efforts to stimulate and
ensure equality of participation by women in all national and local
legislative bodies and to achieve equity in the appointment, election and
promotion of women to high posts in executive, legislative and judiciary
branches in these bodies. At the local level, strategies to ensure equality of
women in political participation should be pragmatic, should bear a close
relationship to issues of concern to women in the locality and should take
into account the suitability of the proposed measures to local needs and
values.

Paragraph 87

Governments and other employers should devote special attention to the broader
and more equitable access and inclusion of women in management in various
forms of popular participation, which is a significant factor in the
development and realization of all human rights.

Paragraph 88

Governments should effectively secure participation of women in the
decision-making processes at a national, state and local level through
legislative and administrative measures. It is desirable that governmental
departments establish a special office in each of them, headed preferably by a
woman, to monitor periodically and accelerate the process of equitable
representation of women. Special activities should be undertaken to increase
the recruitment, nomination and promotion of women, especially to
decision-making and policy-making positions, by publicizing posts more widely,
increasing upward mobility and so on, until equitable representation of women
is achieved. Reports should be compiled periodically on the numbers of women
in public service and on their levels of responsibility in their areas of
work.

Paragraph 89

With respect to the increase in the number of couples in which both partners
are employed in the public service, especially the foreign service,
Governments are urged to consider their special needs, in particular the
couple's desire to be assigned to the same duty station, with a view to
reconciling family and professional duties.

Paragraph 90

Awareness of women's political rights should be promoted through many
channels, including formal and informal education, political education,
non-governmental organizations, trade unions, the media and business
organizations. Women should be encouraged and motivated and should help each
other to exercise their right to vote and to be elected and to participate in
the political process at all levels on equal terms with men.

Paragraph 91

Political parties and other organizations such as trade unions should make a
deliberate effort to increase and improve women's participation within their
ranks. They should institute measures to activate women's constitutional and
legal guarantees of the right to be elected and appointed by selecting
candidates. Equal access to the political machinery of the organizations and
to resources and tools for developing skills in the art and tactics of
practical politics, as well as effective leadership capabilities, should be
given to women. Women in leadership positions also have a special
responsibility to assist in this field.

Paragraph 92

Governments that have not already done so should establish institutional
arrangements and procedures whereby individual women, as well as
representatives of all types of women's interest groups, including those from
the most vulnerable, least privileged and most oppressed groups, may
participate actively in all aspects of the formulation, monitoring, review and
appraisal of national and local policies, issues and activities.

II.  DEVELOPMENT

A.   Obstacles

Paragraph 93

The United Nations Decade for Women has facilitated the identification and
overcoming of obstacles encountered by Member States in integrating women into
society effectively and in formulating and implementing solutions to current
problems. The continuation of women's stereotyped reproductive and productive
roles, justified primarily on physiological, social and cultural grounds, has
subordinated them in the general as well as sectoral spheres of development,
even where some progress has been achieved.

Paragraph 94 10c/

There are coercive measures of an economic, political and other nature that
are promoted and adopted by certain developed States and are directed towards
exerting pressure on developing countries, with the aim of preventing them
from exercising their sovereign rights and of obtaining from them advantages
of all kinds, and furthermore affect possibilities for dialogue and
negotiation. Such measures, which include trade restrictions, blockades,
embargoes and other economic sanctions incompatible with the principles of the
United Nations Charter and in violation of multilateral or bilateral
commitments, have adverse effects on the economic, political and social
development of developing countries and therefore directly affect the
integration of women in development, since that is directly related to the
objective of general social, economic and political development.

Paragraph 95 10d/

One of the main obstacles to the effective integration of women in the process
of development is the aggravation of the international situation, resulting in
a continuing arms race, which now may spread also to outer space. As a result,
immense material and human resources need for development are wasted. Other
major obstacles to the implementation of goals and objectives set by the
United Nations in the field of the advancement of women include imperialism,
colonialism, neo-colonialism, expansionism, apartheid and all other forms of
racism and racial discrimination, exploitation, policies of force and all
forms of manifestations of foreign occupation, domination and hegemony, and
the growing gap between the levels of economic development of developed and
developing countries.

Paragraph 96

The efforts of many countries to implement the objectives of the United
Nations Decade for Women were undermined by a series of grave economic crises
that have had severe repercussions, especially for many developing countries
because of their generally greater vulnerability to external economic factors
as well as because the main burden of adjustment to the economic crises has
been borne by the developing countries, pushing the majority of them towards
economic collapse.

Paragraph 97

The worsening of the social situation in many parts of the world, and
particularly in Africa, as a result of the disruptive consequences of the
economic crisis had a great negative impact on the process of effective and
equal integration of women in development. This adverse social situation
reflects the lack of implementation of relevant United Nations conventions,
declarations and resolutions in the social and economic fields, and of the
objectives and overall development goals adopted and reaffirmed in the
International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development
Decade.

Paragraph 98 10e/

The lack of political will of certain developed countries to eliminate
obstacles to the practical realization of such fundamental documents adopted
by the United Nations as the Declaration on Social Progress and Development
(General Assembly resolution 2542 (XXIV)), the Charter of Economic Rights and
Duties of States (General Assembly resolution 3281 (XXIX)), the Declaration
and the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International
Economic Order (General Assembly resolutions 3201 (S-VI) and 3202 (S-VI),
respectively), the International Development Strategy for the Third United
Nations Development Decade (General Assembly resolution 35/56, annex), aimed
at the restructuring of international economic relations on a just and
democratic basis, should be counted among the main reasons for the
conservation of the unfavourable and unequal position of women from the point
of view of development, especially in the developing countries.

Paragraph 99

The last years of the Decade have witnessed a deterioration of the general
economic situation in the developing countries. The financial, economic and
social crisis of the developing world has worsened the situation of large
sectors of the population, especially women. In particular, the decline in
economic activity is having a negative impact on an already unbalanced
distribution of income, as well as on the high levels of unemployment, which
affect women more than men.

Paragraph 100 10f/

Protectionism against developing-countries' exports in all its forms, the
deterioration in the terms of trade, monetary instability,including high
interest rates and the inadequate flow of official development assistance have
aggravated the development problems of the developing countries, and
consequently have complicated the difficulties hampering the integration of
women in the development process.

One of the principal obstacles now confronting the developing countries is
their gigantic public and private external debt, which constitutes a palpable
expression of the economic crisis and has serious political, economic and
social consequences for these countries. The amount of the external debt
obliges the developing countries to devote enormous sums of their already
scarce export income to the servicing of the debt, which affects their
peoples' lives and possibilities of development, with particular effects on
women. In many developing countries there is a growing conviction that the
conditions for the payment and servicing of the external debt cause those
countries enormous difficulties and that the adjustment policies traditionally
imposed are inadequate and lead to a disproportionate social cost.

The negative effects of the present international economic situation on the
least developed countries have been particularly grave and have caused serious
difficulties in the process of integrating women in development.

The growth prospects of the low-income countries have seriously deteriorated
owing to the reduction in international economic co-operation, particularly
the inadequate flow of official development assistance and the growing trade
protectionism in the developed countries, which restricts the capacity of the
low-income countries to attain the objectives of the United Nations Decade for
Women.

This situation is even more grave in the developing countries that are
afflicted by drought, famine and desertification.

Paragraph 101

Despite significant efforts in many countries to transfer tasks traditionally
performed by women to men or to public services, traditional attitudes still
continue to persist and in fact have contributed to the increased burden of
work placed on women. The complexity and multidimensional aspects of changing
sex roles and norms and the difficulty of determining the specific structural
and organizational requirements of such a change have hindered the formulation
of measures to alter sex roles and to develop appropriate perspectives on the
image of women in society. Thus, despite gains made by a few women, for the
majority subordination in the labour force and in society has continued,
through the exploitative conditions under which women often work have become
more visible.

Paragraph 102

The effective participation of women in development has also been impeded by
the difficult international economic situation, the debt crisis, poverty,
continued population growth, rising divorce rates, increasing migration, and
the growing incidence of female-headed households. Yet, neither the actual
expansion of employment for women nor the recognition that women constitute a
significant proportion of producers has been accompanied by social adjustments
to ease women's burden of child and household care. The economic recession led
to a reduction in investments, particularly in those services that allow
greater societal sharing of the social and economic costs of child care and
housework.

Paragraph 103

Insufficient awareness and understanding of the complex and multifaceted
relationships between development and the advancement of women have continued
to make policy, programme and project formulation difficult. While during the
earlier, part of the Decade the belief that economic growth would
automatically benefit women was more widely shared, an evaluation of the
experience of the Decade has shed considerable doubt on this over-simplified
premise. Consequently, the need to understand better the relationship between
development and the advancement of women and to gather, analyze and
disseminate information for the more effective formulation of policies,
programmes and projects has become greater.

Paragraph 104

Although throughout history and in many societies women have been sharing
similar experiences, in the developing countries the problems of women,
particularly those pertaining to their integration in the development process,
are different from the problems women face in the industrialized countries and
are often a matter of survival. Failure to recognize these differences leads,
inter alia, to neglect the adverse effect of the insufficient progress made
towards improvement in national policies or programmes and the present
international economic situation as well as the interrelationships that exist
between the goals and objectives of the International Development Strategy for
the Third United Nations Development Decade and the objectives of equality,
development and peace.

Paragraph 105

The lack of political will and commitment continued to retard action to
promote effective participation by women in development. Exclusion of women
from policy-making and decision-making made it difficult for women and women's
organizations to include in their preferences and interests the largely
male-dominated choices of progress and development. Furthermore, because the
issue of women in development has often been perceived as a welfare problem,
it has received low priority, viewed simply as a cost to society rather than
as a contribution. Thus, the specific formulation of targets, programmes and
projects concerning women and development has often received little attention,
awaiting the attainment of development rather than being instrumental to it.
This, in turn, caused a parallel weakness in the institutional, technical and
material resources devoted to the promotion of activities for effective
participation by women in development.

Paragraph 106

Appropriate national machinery for the effective integration of women in the
development process has been either insufficient or lacking. Where the
machinery exists, it often lacks the resources, focus, responsibility and
authority to be effective.

B.  Basic strategies

Paragraph 107

The commitment to remove obstacles to the effective participation of all women
in development as intellectuals, policy-makers and decision-makers, planners,
contributors and beneficiaries should be strengthened according to the
specific problems of women in different regions and countries and the needs of
different categories of women in them. That commitment should guide the
formulation and implementation of policies, plans, programmes and projects,
with the awareness that development prospects will be improved and society
advanced through the full and effective participation of women.

Paragraph 108

Different socio-economic and cultural conditions are to be taken into account
when identifying the foremost obstacles to the advancement of women. The
current economic situation and the imbalances within the world monetary and
financial system need adjustment programmes to overcome the difficulties.
These programmes should not adversely affect the most vulnerable segments of
society among whom women are disproportionately represented.

Paragraph 109


Development, being conceived as a comprehensive process, must be characterized
by the search for economic and social objectives and goals that guarantee the
effective participation of the entire population, especially women, in the
process of development. It is also necessary to work in favour of the
structural changes needed for the fulfilment of these aspirations. In line
with these concerns, one should endeavour to speed up social and economic
development in developing countries; accelerate the development of the
scientific and technological capabilities of those countries; promote an
equitable distribution of national incomes; and eradicate absolute poverty,
experienced disproportionately by women and children, with the shortest
possible delay by applying an overall strategy that, on the one hand,
eliminates hunger and malnutrition and, on the other, works towards the
construction of more just societies, in which women may reach their full
development.

Paragraph 110

As the primary objective of development is to bring about sustained
improvement in the well-being of the individual and of society and to bestow
benefits on all, development should be seen not only as a desirable goal in
itself but also as an important means of furthering equality of the sexes and
the maintenance of peace.

Paragraph 111

Women should be an integral part of the process of defining the objectives and
modes of development, as well as of developing strategies and measures for
their implementation. The need for women to participate fully in political
processes and to have an equal share of power in guiding development efforts
and in benefiting from them should be recognized. Organizational and other
means of enabling women to bring their interests and preferences into the
evaluation and choice of alternative development objectives and strategies
should be identified and supported. This would include special measures
designed to enhance women's autonomy, bringing women into the mainstream of
the development process on an equal basis with men, or other measures designed
to integrate women fully in the total development effort.

Paragraph 112

The actual and potential impact on women of macro-economic processes operating
at the international and national levels, as well as of financial spatial and
physical development policies, should be assessed and appropriate
modifications made to ensure that women are not adversely affected. Initial
emphasis should be placed on employment, health and education. Priority should
be given to the development of human resources, bearing in mind the need to
avoid further increases in the work-load of women, particularly when
alternative policies are formulated to deal with the economic and debt crisis.

Paragraph 113

With due recognition of the difficulties involved, Governments, international
and regional organizations, and non-governmental organizations should
intensify their efforts to enhance the self-reliance of women in a viable and
sustained fashion. Because economic independence is a necessary pre-condition
for self-reliance, such efforts should above all be focused on increasing
women's access to gainful activities. Grass-roots participatory processes and
planning approaches using local talent, expertise and resources are vital and
should be supported and encouraged.

Paragraph 114

The incorporation of women's issues in all areas and sectors and at the local,
national, regional and international levels should be institutionalized. To
this end, appropriate machinery should be established or strengthened, and
further legislative action taken. Sectoral policies and plans should be
developed, and the effective participation of women in development should be
integrated both in those plans and in the formulation and implementation of
mainstream programmes and projects and should not be confined solely to
statements of intent within plans or to small-scale, transitory projects
relating to women.

Paragraph 115

The gender bias evident in most development programmes should be eliminated
and the prejudices hindering the solution of women's problems removed.
Particular attention should be given to the restructuring of employment,
health and education systems and to ensuring equal access to land, capital and
other productive resources. Emphasis should be placed on strategies to assist
women in generating and keeping income, including measures designed to improve
women's access to credit. Such strategies must focus on the removal of legal,
customary and other barriers and on strengthening women's capacity to use
existing credit systems.

Paragraph 116

Governments should seek means to increase substantially the number of women
who are decision-makers, policy-makers, managers, professionals and
technicians in both traditional and non-traditional areas and sectors. Women
should be provided with equal opportunities for access to resources,
especially education and training, in order to facilitate their equal
representation at higher managerial and professional levels.

Paragraph 117

The role of women as a factor of development is in many ways linked to their
involvement in various forms and levels of decision-making and management in
economic and social structures, such as worker participation in management,
industrial democracy, worker self-management, trade unions and co-operatives.
The development of these forms of participation, which have an impact on the
development and promotion of working and living conditions, and the inclusion
of women in these forms of participation on an equal footing with men is of
crucial importance.

Paragraph 118

The relationships between development and the advancement of women under
specific socio-cultural conditions should be studied locally to permit the
effective formulation of policies, programmes and projects designed for stable
and equitable growth. The findings should be used to develop social awareness
of the need for effective participation of women in development and to create
realistic images of women in society.

Paragraph 119

It is vital that the link between the advancement of women and socio-economic
and political development be emphasized for the effective mobilization of
resources for women.

Paragraph 120

The remunerated and, in particular, the unremunerated contributions of women
to all aspects and sectors of development should be recognized, and
appropriate efforts should be made to measure and reflect these contributions
in national accounts and economic statistics and in the gross national
product. Concrete steps should be taken to quantify the unremunerated
contribution of women to agriculture, food production, reproduction and
household activities.

Paragraph 121

Concerted action should be directed towards the establishment of a system of
sharing parental responsibilities by women and men in the family and by
society. To this end, priority should be given to the provision of a social
infrastructure that will enable society to share these responsibilities with
families and, simultaneously, to bring about changes in social attitudes so
that new or modified gender roles will be accepted, promoted and become
exercisable. Household tasks and parental responsibilities, including
decision-making regarding family size and child spacing, should be re-examined
with a view to a better sharing of responsibilities between men and women and
therefore, be conducive to the attainment of women's and men's self-reliance
and to the development of future human resources.

Paragraph 122

Monitoring and evaluation efforts should be strengthened and directed
specifically towards women's issues and should be based on a thorough review
and extensive development of improved statistics and indicators on the
situation of women as compared with men, over time and in all fields.

Paragraph 123

Appropriate national machinery should be established and should be utilized to
integrate women effectively in the development process. To be effective, this
machinery should be provided with adequate resources, commitment and authority
to encourage and enhance development efforts.

Paragraph 124

Regional and international co-operation, within the framework of technical
co-operation among developing countries, should be strengthened and extended
to promote the effective participation of women in development.

C.  Measures for the implementation of the basic strategies
    at the national level

1.  Overall

Paragraph 125

Appropriate machinery with sufficient resources and authority should be
established at the highest level of government as a focal point to ensure that
the full range of development policies and programmes in all sectors
recognizes women's contribution to development and incorporates strategies to
include women and to ensure that they receive an equitable share of the
benefits of development.

Paragraph 126

To achieve the goal of development, which is inseparably linked to the goals
of equality and peace, Governments should institutionalize women's issues by
establishing or strengthening appropriate machinery in all areas and sectors
of development. ln addition, they should direct specific attention to
effecting a positive change in the attitudes of male decision-makers.
Governments should ensure the establishment and implementation of legislation
and administrative policies and mobilize communications and information
systems to create social awareness of the legal rights of women to participate
in all aspects of development at all levels and at all stages - that is,
planning, implementation and evaluation. Governments should stimulate the
formation and growth of women's organizations and women's groups and give
financial and organizational support to their activities when appropriate.

Paragraph 127

National resources should be directed so as to promote the participation of
women at all levels and in all areas and sectors. Governments should establish
national and sectoral plans and specific targets for women in development;
equip the machinery in charge of women's issues with political, financial and
technical resources; strengthen intersectoral co-ordination in promoting
women's participation; and establish institutional mechanisms to address the
needs of especially vulnerable groups of women.

Paragraph 128

Governments should recognize the importance of and the need for the full
utilization of women's potential for self-reliance and for the attainment of
national development goals and should enact legislation to ensure this.
Programmes should be formulated and implemented to provide women's
organizations, co-operatives, trade unions and professional associations with
access to credit and other financial assistance and to training and extension
services. Consultative mechanisms through which the views of women may be
incorporated in governmental activities should be set up, and supportive ties
with women's grass-roots organizations, such as self-help community
development and mutual aid societies and non-governmental organizations
committed to the cause of women should be created and maintained to facilitate
the integration of women in mainstream development.

Paragraph 129

There should be close co-ordination between Governments, agencies and other
bodies at the national and local level. The effectiveness of national
machinery, including the relationship between Governments and non-governmental
organizations, should be evaluated and strengthened with a view to improving
co-operation. Positive experiences and good models should be widely
publicized. 
Paragraph 130

Governments should compile gender-specific statistics and information and
should develop or reorganize an information system to take decisions and
action on the advancement of women. They should also support local research
activities and local experts to help identify mechanisms for the advancement
of women, focusing on the self-reliant, self-sustaining and self-generating
social, economic and political development of women.

Paragraph 131

Governmental mechanisms should be established for monitoring and evaluating
the effectiveness of institutional and administrative arrangements and of
delivery systems, plans, programmes and projects to promote an equitable
participation of women in development.

2.  Areas for specific action

Employment

Paragraph 132

Special measures aimed at the advancement of women in all types of employment
should be consistent with the economic and social policies promoting full
productive and freely chosen employment.

Paragraph 133

Policies should provide the means to mobilize public awareness, political
support, and institutional and financial resources to enable women to obtain
jobs involving more skills and responsibility, including those at the
managerial level, in all sectors of the economy. These measures should include
the promotion of women's occupational mobility, especially in the middle and
lower levels of the work-force, where the majority of women work.

Paragraph 134

Governments that have not yet done so should ratify and implement the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and
other international instruments relating to the improvement of the condition
of women workers.

Paragraph 135

Measures based on legislation and trade union action should be taken to ensure
equity in all jobs and avoid exploitative trends in part-time work, as well as
the tendency towards the feminization of part-time, temporary and seasonal
work.

Paragraph 136

Flexible working hours for all are strongly recommended as a measure tor
encouraging the sharing of parental and domestic responsibilities by women and
men, provided that such measures are not used against the interests of
employees. Re-entry programmes, complete with training and stipends, should be
provided for women who have been out of the labour force for some time. Tax
structures should be revised so that the tax liability on the combined
earnings of married couples does not constitute a disincentive to women's
employment.

Paragraph 137

Eliminating all forms of employment discrimination, inter alia through
legislative measures, especially wage differentials between women and men
carrying out work of equal value, is strongly recommended to all parties
concerned. Additional programmes should help to overcome still existing
disparities in wages between women and men. Differences in the legal
conditions of work of women and men should also be eliminated, where there are
disadvantages to women, and privileges should be accorded to male and female
parents. Occupational desegregation of women and men should be promoted.

Paragraph 138

The public and private sectors should make concerted efforts to diversify and
create new employment opportunities for women in the traditional,
non-traditional and high productivity areas and sectors in both rural and
urban areas through the design and implementation of incentive schemes for
both employers and women employees and through widespread dissemination of
information. Gender stereotyping in all areas should be avoided and the
occupational prospects of women should be enhanced.

Paragraph 139

The working conditions of women should be improved in all formal and informal
areas by the public and private sectors. Occupational health and safety and
job security should be enhanced and protective measures against work-related
health hazards effectively implemented for women and men. Appropriate measures
should be taken to prevent sexual harassment on the job or sexual exploitation
in specific jobs, such as domestic service. Appropriate measures for redress
should be provided by Governments and legislative measures guaranteeing these
rights should be enforced. In addition, Governments and the private sector
should put in place mechanisms to identify and correct harmful working
conditions.

Paragraph 140

National planning should give urgent consideration to the development and
strengthening of social security and health schemes and maternity protection
schemes in keeping with the principles laid down in the ILO maternity
protection convention and maternity protection recommendation and other
relevant ILO conventions and recommendations as a prerequisite to the
hastening of women's effective participation in production, and all business
and trade unions should seek to promote the rights and compensations of
working women and to ensure that appropriate infrastructures are provided.
Parental leave following the birth of a child should be available to both
women and men and preferably shared between them. Provision should be made for
accessible child-care facilities for working parents.

Paragraph 141

Governments and non-governmental organizations should recognize the
contribution of older women and the importance of their input in those areas
that directly affect their well-being. Urgent attention should be paid to the
education and training of young women in all fields. Special retraining
programmes including technical training should also be developed for young
women in both urban and rural sectors, who lack qualifications and are
ill-equipped to enter productive employment. Steps should be taken to
eliminate exploitative treatment of young women at work, in line with ILO
Convention No. 111 concerning discrimination in respect of employment and
occupation, 1958 and ILO Convention No. 122 concerning employment policy,
1964.

Paragraph 142

National planning, programmes and projects should launch a twofold attack on
poverty and unemployment. To enable women to gain access to equal economic
opportunities, Governments should seek to involve and integrate women in all
phases of the planning, delivery and evaluation of multisectoral programmes
that eliminate discrimination against women, provide required supportive
services and emphasize income generation. An increased number of women should
be hired in national planning mechanisms. Particular attention should be
devoted to the informal sector since it will be the major employment outlet of
a considerable number of underprivileged urban and rural women. The
co-operative movement could play an indispensable role in this area.

Paragraph 143

Recognition and application should be given to the fact that women and men
have equal rights to work and, on the same footing, to acquire a personal
income on equal terms and conditions, regardless of the economic situation.
They should be given opportunities in accordance with the protective
legislation of each country and especially in the labour market, in the
context of measures to stimulate economic development and to promote
employment growth.

Paragraph 144

In view of the persistence of high unemployment levels in many countries,
Governments should endeavour to strengthen the efforts to cope with this issue
and provide more job opportunities for women. Given that in many cases women
account for a disproportionate share of total unemployment, that their
unemployment rates are higher than those of men and that, owing to lower
qualifications, geographical mobility and other barriers, women's prospects
for alternative jobs are mostly limited, more attention should be given to
unemployment as it affects women. Measures should be taken to alleviate the
consequences of unemployment for women in declining sectors and occupations.
In particular, training measures must be instituted to facilitate the
transition.


Paragraph 145

Although general policies designed to reduce unemployment or to create jobs
may benefit both men and women, by their nature they are often of greater
assistance to men than to women. For this reason, specific measures should be
taken to permit women to benefit equally with men from national policies to
create jobs.

Paragraph 146

As high unemployment among youth, wherever it exists, is a matter of serious
concern, policies designed to deal with this problem should take into account
that unemployment rates for young women are often much higher than those for
young men. Moreover, measures aimed at mitigating unemployment among youth
should not negatively affect the employment of women in other age groups - for
example, by lowering minimum wages. Women should not face any impediment to
employment opportunities and benefits in cases where their husbands are
employed.

Paragraph 147

Governments should also give special attention to women in the peripheral or
marginal labour market, such as those in unstable temporary work or
unregulated part-time work, as well as to the increasing number of women
working in the informal economy.

Health

Paragraph 148

The vital role of women as providers of health care both inside and outside
the home should be recognized, taking into account the followings the creation
and strengthening of basic services for the delivery of health care, with due
regard to levels of fertility and infant and maternal mortality and the needs
of the most vulnerable groups and the need to control locally prevalent
endemic and epidemic diseases. Governments that have not already done so
should undertake, in co-operation with the World Health Organization, the
United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Fund for Population
Activities, plans of action relating to women in health and development in
order to identify and reduce risks to women's health and to promote the
positive health of women at all stages of life, bearing in mind the productive
role of women in society and their responsibilities for bearing and rearing
children. Women's participation in the achievement of Health for All by the
Year 2000 should be recognized, since their health knowledge is crucial in
their multiple roles as health providers and health brokers for the family and
community, and as informed consumers of adequate and appropriate health care.

Paragraph 149

The participation of women in higher professional and managerial positions in
health institutions should be increased through appropriate legislations
training and supportive action should be taken to increase women's enrolment
at higher levels of medical training and training in health-related fields.
For effective community involvement to ensure the attainment of the World
Health Organization's goal of Health for All by the Year 2000 and
responsiveness to women's health needs, women should be represented in
national and local health councils and committees. The employment and working
conditions of women health personnel and health workers should be expanded and
improved at all levels. Female traditional healers and birth attendants should
be more fully and constructively integrated in national health planning.

Paragraph 150

Health education should be geared towards changing those attitudes and values
and actions that are discriminatory and detrimental to women's and girls'
health. Steps should be taken to change the attitudes and health knowledge and
composition of health personnel so that there can be an appropriate
understanding of women's health needs. A greater sharing by men and women of
family and health-care responsibilities should be encouraged. Women must be
involved in the formulation and planning of their health education needs.
Health education should be available to the entire family not only through the
health care system, but also through all appropriate channels and in
particular the educational system. To this end, Governments should ensure that
information meant to be received by women is relevant to women's health
priorities and is suitably presented.

Paragraph 151

Promotive, preventive and curative health measures should be strengthened
through combined measures and a supportive health infrastructure which, in
accordance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk
Substitutes, should be free of commercial pressure. To provide immediate
access to water and sanitary facilities for women, Governments should ensure
that women are consulted and involved in the planning and implementation of
water and sanitation projects, trained in the maintenance of water-supply
systems, and consulted with regard to technologies used in water and
sanitation projects. In this regard, recommendations arising from the
activities generated by the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
Decade and other public health programmes should be taken into account.

Paragraph 152

Governments should take measures to vaccinate children and pregnant women
against certain endemic local diseases as well as other diseases as
recommended by the vaccination schedule of the World Health Organization and
to eliminate any differences in coverage between boys and girls (cf. WHO
report EB 75/22). In regions where rubella is prevalent, vaccinations should
preferably be given to girls before puberty. Governments should ensure that
adequate arrangements are made to preserve the quality of vaccines.
Governments should ensure the quality of vaccines. Governments should also
ensure the full and informed participation of women in programmes to control
chronic and communicable diseases.

Paragraph 153

The international community should intensify efforts to eradicate the
trafficking, marketing and distribution of unsafe and ineffective drugs and to
disseminate information on their ill effects. Those efforts should include
educational programmes to promote the proper prescription and informed use of
drugs. Efforts should also be strengthened to eliminate all practices
detrimental to the health of women and children. Efforts should be made to
ensure that all women have access to essential drugs appropriate to their
specific needs and as recommended in the WHO List of Essential Drugs as
applied in 1978. It is imperative that information on the appropriate use of
such drugs is made widely available to all women. When drugs are imported or
exported Governments should use the WHO Certification Scheme on the Quality of
Pharmaceutical Products Moving in International Commerce.

Paragraph 154

Women should have access to and control over income to provide adequate
nutrition for themselves and their children. Also, Governments should foster
activities that will increase awareness of the special nutritional needs of
women; provide support to ensure sufficient rest in the last trimester of
pregnancy and while breast-feeding; and promote interventions to reduce the
prevalence of nutritional diseases such as anaemia in women of all ages,
particularly young women, and promote the development and use of locally
produced weaning food.

Paragraph 155

Appropriate health facilities should be planned, designed, constructed and
equipped to be readily accessible and acceptable. Services should be in
harmony with the timing and patterns of women's work, as well as with women's
needs and perspectives. Maternal and child-care facilities, including family
planning services, should be within easy reach of all women. Governments
should also ensure that women have the same access as men to affordable
curative, preventive and rehabilitative treatment. Wherever possible, measures
should be taken to conduct general screening and treatment of women's common
diseases and cancer. In view of the unacceptably high levels of maternal
mortality in many developing countries, the reduction of maternal mortality
from now to the year 2000 to a minimum level should be a key target for
Governments and non-governmental organizations, including professional
organizations.

Paragraph 156 10g/

The ability of women to control their own fertility forms an important basis
for the enjoyment of other rights. As recognized in the World Population Plan
of Action 11/ and reaffirmed at the International Conference on Population,
1984, all couples and individuals have the basic human right to decide freely
and informedly the number and spacing of their children; maternal and child
health and family-planning components of primary health care should be
strengthened; and family-planning information should be produced and services
created. Access to such services should be encouraged by Governments
irrespective of their population policies and should be carried out with the
participation of women's organizations to ensure their success.

Paragraph 157 10g/

Governments should make available, as a matter of urgency, information,
education and the means to assist women and men to take decisions about their
desired number of children. To ensure a voluntary and free choice,
family-planning information, education and means should include all medically
approved and appropriate methods of family planning. Education for responsible
parenthood and family-life education should be widely available and should be
directed towards both men and women. Non-governmental organizations,
particularly women's organizations, should be involved in such programmes
because they can be the most effective media for motivating people at that
level.

Paragraph 158 11a/

Recognizing that pregnancy occurring in adolescent girls, whether married or
unmarried, has adverse effects on the morbidity and mortality of both mother
and child, Governments are urged to develop policies to encourage delay in the
commencement of childbearing. Governments should make efforts to raise the age
of entry into marriage in countries in which this age is still quite low.
Attention should also be given to ensuring that adolescents, both girls and
boys, receive adequate information and education.

Paragraph 159 11a/

All Governments should ensure that fertility-control methods and drugs conform
to adequate standards of quality, efficiency and safety. This should also
apply to organizations responsible for distributing and administering these
methods. Information on contraceptives should be made available to women.
Programmes of incentives and disincentives should be neither coercive nor
discriminatory and should be consistent with internationally recognized human
rights, as well as with changing individual and cultural values.

Paragraph 160

Governments should encourage local women's organizations to participate in
primary health-care activities including traditional medicine, and should
devise ways to support women, especially underprivileged women, in taking
responsibility for self-care and in promoting community care, particularly in
rural areas. More emphasis should be placed on preventive rather than curative
measures.

Paragraph 161

The appropriate gender-specific indicators for monitoring women's health that
have been or are being developed by the World Health Organization should be
widely applied and utilized by Governments and other interested organizations
in order to develop and sustain measures for treating low-grade ill health and
for reducing high morbidity rates among women, particularly when illnesses are
psychosomatic or social and cultural in nature. Governments that have not yet
done so should establish focal points to carry out such monitoring.

ParagraPh 162

Occupational health and safety should be enhanced by the public and private
sectors. Concern with the occupational health risks should cover female as
well as male workers and focus among other things on risks endangering their
reproductive capabilities and unborn children. Efforts should equally be
directed at the health of pregnant and lactating women, the health impact of
new technologies and the harmonization of work and family responsibilities.


Education

Paragraph 163

Education is the basis for the full promotion and improvement of the status of
women. It is the basic tool that should be given to women in order to fulfil
their role as full members of society. Governments should strengthen the
participation of women at all levels of national educational policy and in
formulating and implementing plans, programmes and projects. Special measures
should be adopted to revise and adapt women's education to the realities of
the developing world. Existing and new services should be directed to women as
intellectuals, policy-makers, decision-makers, planners, contributors and
beneficiaries, with particular attention to the UNESCO Convention against
Discrimination in Education (1960). Special measures should also be adopted to
increase equal access to scientific, technical and vocational education,
particularly for young women, and evaluate progress made by the poorest women
in urban and rural areas.

Paragraph 164

Special measures should be taken by Governments and the international
organizations, especially UNESCO, to eliminate the high rate of illiteracy by
the year 2000, with the support of the international community. Governments
should establish targets and adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.
While the elimination of illiteracy is important to all, priority programmes
are still required to overcome the special obstacles that have generally led
to higher illiteracy rates among women than among men. Efforts should be made
to promote functional literacy, with special emphasis on health, nutrition and
viable economic skills and opportunities, in order to eradicate illiteracy
among women and to produce additional material for the eradication of
illiteracy. Programmes for legal literacy in low-income urban and rural areas
should be initiated and intensified. Raising the level of education among
women is important for the general welfare of society and because of its close
link to child survival and child spacing.

Paragraph 165

The causes of high absenteeism and drop-out rates of girls in the educational
system must be addressed. Measures must be developed, strengthened and
implemented that will, inter alia, create the appropriate incentives to ensure
that women have an equal opportunity to acquire education at all levels, as
well as to apply their education in a work or career context. Such measures
should include the strengthening of communication and information systems, the
implementation of appropriate legislation and the reorientation of educational
personnel. Moreover, Governments should encourage and finance adult education
programmes for those women who have never completed their studies or were
forced to interrupt their studies, owing to family responsibilities, lack of
financial resources or early pregnancies.

Paragraph 166

Efforts should be made to ensure that available scholarships and other forms
of support from governmental, non-governmental and private sources are
expanded and equitably distributed to girls and boys and that boarding and
lodging facilities are equally accessible to them.

Paragraph 167

The curricula of public and private schools should be examined, textbooks and
other educational materials reviewed and educational personnel retrained in
order to eliminate all discriminatory gender stereotyping in education.
Educational institutions should be encouraged to expand their curricula to
include studies on women's contribution to all aspects of development.

Paragraph 168

The Decade has witnessed the rise of centres and programmes of women' studies
in response to social forces and to the need for developing a new scholarship
and a body of knowledge on women's studies from the perspective of women.
Women's studies should be developed to reformulate the current models
influencing the constitution of knowledge and sustaining a value system that
reinforces inequality. The promotion and application of women's studies inside
and outside and conventional institutions of learning will help to create a
just and equitable society in which men and women enjoy equal partnership.

Paragraph 169

Encouragement and incentives, as well as counselling services, should be
provided for girls to study scientific, technical and managerial subjects at
all levels, in order to develop and enhance the aptitudes of women for
decision-making, management and leadership in these fields.

Paragraph 170

All educational and occupational training should be flexible and accessible to
both women and men. It should aim to improve employment possibilities and
promotion prospects for women including those areas where technologies are
improving rapidly, and vocational training programmes, as well as workers'
educational schemes dealing with co-operatives, trade unions and work
associations, should stress the importance of equal opportunity for women at
all levels of work and work-related activities.

Paragraph 171

Extensive measurers should be taken to diversify women's vocational education
and training in order to extend their opportunities for employment in
occupations that are non-traditional or are new to women and that are
important to development. The present educational system, which in many
countries is sharply divided by sex, with girls receiving instruction in home
economics and boys in technical subjects, should be altered. Existing
vocational training centres should be opened to girls and women instead of
continuing a segregated training system.

Paragraph 172

A fully integrated system of training, having direct linkages with employment
needs, pertinent to future employment and development trends should be created
and implemented in order to avoid wastage of human resources.

Paragraph 173

Educational programmes to enable men to assume as much responsibility as women
in the upbringing of children and the maintenance of the household should be
introduced at all levels of the educational system.

Food, water and agriculture

Paragraph 174

Women, as key food producers in many regions of the world, play a central role
in the development and production of food and agriculture, participating
actively in all phases of the production cycle, including the conservation,
storage, processing and marketing of food and agricultural products. Women
therefore make a vital contribution to economic development, particularly in
agriculturally based economies, which must be better recognized and rewarded.
Development strategies and programmes, as well as incentive programmes and
projects in the field of food and agriculture, need to be designed in a manner
that fully integrates women at all levels of planning, implementation,
monitoring evaluation in all stages of the development process of a project
cycle, so as to facilitate and enhance this key role of women and to ensure
that women receive proper benefits and remuneration commensurate with their
important contribution in this field. Moreover, women should be fully
integrated and involved in the technological research and energy aspects of
food and agricultural development.

Paragraph 175

During the Decade, the significant contribution of women to agricultural
development has been more widely recognized, particularly their contribution
in working hours to agricultural, fishery and forestry production and
conservation, and to various parts of the food system. There are indications,
however, that poverty and landlessness among rural women will increase
significantly by the year 2000. In order to stem this trend, governments
should implement, as a matter of priority, equitable and stable investment and
growth policies for rural development to ensure that there is a reallocation
of the country's resources which, in many cases, are largely derived from the
rural areas but allocated to urban development.

Paragraph 176

Governments should establish multisectoral programmes to promote the
productive capacity of rural poor women in food and animal production, create
off-farm employment opportunities, reduce their work-load, inter alia, by
supporting the establishment of adequate child-care facilities and that of
their children, reverse their pauperization, improve their access to all
sources of energy, and provide them with adequate water, health, education,
effective extension services and transportation within their region. In this
connection it should be noted that the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and
Rural Development, held at Rome in 1979, 12/ recognized women's vital role in
the socio-economic life in both agricultural and non-agricultural activities
as a prerequisite for successful rural development policies, planning and
programmes, and proposed specific measures for improving their condition,
which are still valid. The Programme of Action for the Second Half of the
United Nations Decade for Women also included specific measures to improve the
situation of women in food and agriculture, which remain a valid guide for
action.

Paragraph 177

The General Assembly, in resolution 39/165 on the critical situation of food
production and agriculture in Africa, confirmed the growing concern of the
international community at the dramatic deterioration in African food and
agricultural production and the resulting alarming increase in the number of
people, especially women and children, exposed to hunger, malnutrition and
even starvation. Concrete measures and adequate resources for the benefit of
African women should be a priority. The international community, particularly
donor countries, should be urged to assist African women by continuing and,
where possible, by increasing financial assistance to enhance the role of
women as food producers, with an emphasis on providing training in food
technologies, thereby alleviating the problems of the continent resulting from
extended drought and a severe shortage of food. Donor countries should also
contribute to the special funds that have been launched by various
organizations - for example, the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
Emergency assistance should be increased and accelerated to alleviate the
suffering of starving and dying women and children under famine conditions in
Africa. Furthermore, given the critical food situation in Africa, aggravated
inter alia by demographic pressures, the international community is urged to
give priority to and provide support for the efforts of the African countries
to overcome this serious situation. These efforts include the Lagos Plan of
Action and the Nairobi Programme of Action, as well as the consultation by
African Governments on the role of women in food production and food security.

Paragraph 178

Governments should give priority to supporting effective participation by
women in food production and in food security programmes and should develop
specific plans of action for this purpose. This would ensure that resources
are directed towards women's programmes, that women are integrated in all
mainstream rural development projects and that projects are located within
technical ministries as well as ministries of social affairs. Governments
should promote integrated solutions, such as national food policies, which are
diversified according to specific natural regions for the improvement of
self-reliance in food production, instead of resorting to palliative or
fragmented remedies.

Paragraph 179

Mechanisms should also include monitoring and evaluation and, where necessary,
should modify the allocation of resources between women and men in mixed
projects; should restructure rural development schemes to respond to women's
needs; should assess women's projects in terms of technical and economic
viability, as well as on social grounds; and should develop gender-specific
statistics and information that reflect accurately women's contribution to
food staples. Women's participation in programmes and projects to promote food
security should be enhanced by providing them with opportunities to hold
official positions, to receive training in leadership, administration and
financial management and to organize on a co-operative basis. Research and
experimentation should be conducted on food production and storage techniques
to improve traditional knowledge and introduce modern technology.

Paragraph 180

Animal husbandry, fishery and forestry programmes should give greater
attention to the effective participation of women as contributors and
beneficiaries. Similarly, all other off-farm rural production programmes, as
well as rural settlement, health, educational and social service programmes,
should secure the participation of women as planners, contributors and
beneficiaries.

Paragraph 181

Also important are the dissemination of information to rural women through
national information campaigns, using all available media and establish
women's groups; the exposure of local populations to innovation and creativity
through open-air films, talks, visits to areas where needs are similar, and
demonstrations of scientific and technological innovations; the participation
of women farmers in research and information campaigns; and the involvement of
women in technical co-operation among developing countries and the exchange of
information.

Paragraph 182

Rural women's access to land, capital, technology, know-how and other
productive resources should be secured. Women should be given full and
effective rights to land ownership, registration of land titles and allocation
of tenancies on irrigation or settlement schemes and should also benefit from
land reform. Women's customary land and inheritance rights under conditions of
land shortage, land improvement or shifts into cash-cropping should be
protected. Implementation of inheritance laws should be modified so that women
can inherit a fair share of livestock, agricultural machinery and other
property. Women's access to investment finance to increase their productivity
and income should be supported by removing legal and institutional
restrictions and by promoting women's savings groups and co-operatives and
intermediary institutions, as well as training in and assistance with
financial management, savings and investments and reallocation of land
resources, with priority placed on production, especially of staple foods.

Paragraph 183

Women should be integrated into modern technology programmes that introduce
new crops and improved varieties, rotation of crops, mixed farming, mixed and
intercropping systems, low-cost soil fertility techniques, soil and water
conservation methods and other modern improvements. In this connection,
women's involvement in the construction, management and maintenance of
irrigation schemes should be promoted.

Paragraph 184

Appropriate food-processing technologies can free women from time- and
energy-consuming tasks and thus effect improvements in their health.
Appropriate technologies can also increase the productivity and income of
women, either directly or by freeing them to engage in other activities. Such
technologies should be designed and introduced, however, in a manner that
ensures women's access to the new technology and to its benefits and does not
displace women from means of livelihood when alternative opportunities are not
available. Appropriate labour-saving technologies should utilize local human
and material resources and inexpensive sources of energy. The design, testing
and dissemination of the technology should be appropriate also to the women
who will be the users. Non-governmental organizations can play a valuable role
in this process. Appropriate and affordable food-processing technologies
should be made widely available to rural women, along with appropriate and
affordable storage, marketing and transportation facilities to reduce
post-harvest and income losses. Information on improved methods which have
been ecologically confirmed of reducing post-harvest food loss and of
preserving and conserving food products should be widely disseminated.

Paragraph 185

Financial, technical, advisory and institutional support should be provided to
women's organisations and groups to enhance the self-reliance of rural women.
Women's co-operatives should be promoted to operate on a larger scale by
improving farm input provisions, primary processing and the wholesale
marketing of women's production. Comprehensive support should be given to
women's organizations to facilitate the acquisition of farm inputs and
information and to facilitate the marketing of produce.

Paragraph 186

Governments should set targets for increased extension contracts with rural
women, reorient the training of male extension workers and train adequate
numbers of female extension workers. Women should be given access to training
programmes at different levels that develop various types of skills to widen
the range of methods and technologies used for agricultural production.

Paragraph 187

Governments should involve women in the mobilization and distribution of food
aid in countries affected by the drought, as well as in the fight against
desertification, through large-scale afforestation campaigns (planting of
woodlot, collective farms and seedlings).

Paragraph 188

Governments should pay greater attention to the preservation and the
maintenance free from pollution of any kind of sources of water supply for
irrigation and domestic consumption, applying special remedial measures to
relieve the burden placed on women by the task of fetching water. To this end,
they should construct wells, bore-holes, dams and locally made water-catchment
devices sufficient for all irrigation and domestic needs, including those of
livestock. Women should be included by Governments and agencies in all policy
planning, implementation and administration of water supply projects and
trained to take responsibility for the management of hydraulic infrastructures
and equipment and for its maintenance.

Industry

Paragraph 189

The problems related to the industrial development of the developing countries
reflect the dependent nature of their economies and the need to promote
transformation industries based on domestic agricultural production as a
fundamental issue of development. Women are an important part of the
agricultural work-forces therefore, there should be special interest in the
promotion of the technical training of women in this particular field. In this
respect, Governments should take into account the following recommendations:

(a)  There should be a link between agriculture and industry;

(b)  Steps should be taken to eliminate the particular obstacles to
industrialization and to the participation of women in industry, such as
energy, the limited markets of some developing countries, the rural exodus,
poor infrastructure, a lack of technical know-how, the dependence of the
industries of some countries and a lack of financial resources;

(c)  Steps should also be taken to promote women's equitable and increased
participation in industry by enabling them to have equal access to and to
participate in adult education and in-service progresses that teach not only
literacy but also saleable income-generating skills, and by encouraging women
to participate in collective organizations, including trade unions;

(d)  Industrial co-operation among developing countries should be promoted by
creating subregional industries;

(e)  International organizations and developed countries should assist
developing countries in their industrialization effort and the integration of
women in that process.

Paragraph 190

Governments should ensure that, at all levels of the planning process, women
participate both directly in decision-making and indirectly through effective
consultation with the potential beneficiaries of programmes and projects. To
this end, reso