Women and girls still remain largely ignored by development aid
New York, September 23
Despite the rhetoric about female empowerment, adolescent girls remain largely underserved in many areas of the world. More than 600 million girls live in developing countries where they struggle with a myriad of life-threatening issues. Yet, less than two cents of every development dollar is spent on them. The lack of resources available to girls in developing countries can result in continued poverty across generations and cost economies billions of dollars.
At the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative leaders said that the developmental aid for girls and women is still dismal. "Money is not the problem...it's available. But the political decision to say 'we need to actually invest much more in girls and women' is not fully there yet," said Zainab Salbi, founder and chief executive of Women for Women International, a group that helps female survivors of war rebuild their lives.
Former US President Clinton said, that Women make up half of the world's population and they do two-thirds of the world's work, are producing 50% of the world's food and earn 10% of the worlds' income, but they only own 1% of the world's property.
"Whether the issue is improving the involvement of young women and girls in education to climate change and all political and social economic issues in between, I think empowering women is central to what the world has to do in the 21st century," Clinton said.
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