Silver Spring, Maryland—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International pledged $1.5 million in new resources to improve women's literacy and girls' access to education worldwide at the Breakthrough: Women, Faith, and Development Summit to End Global Poverty held April 13 and 14 at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
ADRA International joined more than 70 organizations at the two-day summit, sponsored by the Women, Faith, and Development Alliance (WFDA) and attended by numerous leaders from women's, faith, business, international development, and public policy communities, to announce a commitment to implement programs worth over $1 billion to empower women to fight global poverty. This commitment is expected to impact as many as 1.2 billion women and girls around the world.
ADRA's commitment will provide funding and resources for initiatives that directly address existing gaps in women's literacy and girls' access to education. To do so, ADRA will identify and fund unmet needs in communities where its programs already exist, or for which new programs are planned.
Some of the principal goals outlined during this historic summit included the need to invest in the education, reproductive health, security, and financial independence of women and girls as a way to benefit individuals, families, communities, and nations at large, and to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) defined by the global community at the United Nations.
"We do not accept that poverty is an inevitable part of the human condition," said former U.S secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, keynote speaker and Breakthrough Summit co-chair, calling on women, faith, and development leaders to commit to work toward ending extreme poverty. "We look forward to the day when every girl can live in a world where her dignity is respected, her rights are protected, and her future is determined by her own will."
Around the world, 1.2 billion people live on less that $1 a day and approximately 70 percent of the world's poorest are women and girls. Women and girls also account for two-thirds of the world's illiterate people; earn only one-tenth of the world's income; own just one hundredth of the world's property; and die at a rate of 500,000 each year from preventable complications of pregnancy.
By contrast, agricultural productivity would increase by as much as 20 percent in some places, if women had equal access as men to fertilizer, seed, and land. Also, children whose mothers have five years of primary schooling would be 40 percent more likely to live beyond the age of five. In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, there would be 13.4 million and 1.7 million fewer undernourished children, respectively, if women had equal decision-making influence at home.
To achieve these goals, ADRA is implementing education and literacy programs for women and girls around the world to empower them not only to learn to read and write, but also to use those skills to improve their knowledge and understanding regarding a host of issues, such as disease prevention, nutrition, maternal-child health, gender violence, civic responsibilities, property ownership, agriculture, and business entrepreneurship.
"If you want a country to succeed, empower women, educate girls," noted Mary Robinson, former president of the Republic of Ireland and summit co-chair.
During the summit, ADRA and the other participating organizations declared publicly to improve gender equality. "We claim our responsibility and our power to create a new world, one that is worthy of all our daughters and our sons, where women and men, boys and girls, can grow into their full humanity."
In a special session attended by WFDA member organizations, leaders also discussed how the Alliance can be a continuing force for promoting and securing expanded investment in women and girls as key to reducing global poverty and achieving the MDGs; what WFDA can achieve collectively that cannot be achieved by any single organization or community; and what initiatives would be most significant for increasing investments in the development of women and girls.
Other noted summit speakers included Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada; Desmond Tutu, Anglican archbishop emeritus, South Africa (by video); Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of the Republic of Liberia (by video); Sheikh Shaban Mubaje, co-chair for the Religions for Peace African Council of Religious Leaders and Grand Mufti, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council; Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation; and Ashley Judd, actress and Global YouthAIDS ambassador.
The WFDA was created in 2006 to bring women, faith, and development organizations together to make an impact on global poverty and gender equality, secure breakthroughs in policy and budget commitments by governments, multilaterals, and donors on behalf of women around the world.
ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.
Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.
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Author: Hearly Mayr
Media Contact:
Hearly Mayr
ADRA International
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
Phone: 301.680.6357
Mobile: 301.526.2625
E-mail: Media.Inquiries@adra.org
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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