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Female stars to launch new global poverty fight
2008-04-11
A high-powered alliance of women leaders from government, faith-based organizations, advocacy groups and Hollywood launch a major drive Sunday to help impoverished women and girls around the world. The alliance, which has the backing of the president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Queen Noor of Jordan and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright among other luminaries, was to unveil new fundraising commitments of 1.481 billion dollars Washington this weekend. The Women, Faith and Development Alliance (WFDA) says the funds which have been raised so far will cumulatively benefit one billion poor women and girls around the globe. "Women have enormous difficulties in situations of poverty and very often poverty plus conflict," Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, told reporters on a conference call Friday. Hundreds of supporters were expected to attend a summit at Washington's National Cathedral on Sunday where the WFDA ramps up a campaign aimed in part at changing the policies of governments and multilateral institutions to help eradicate female poverty. The alliance is also supported by Laura Bush, wife of US President George W. Bush, the former prime minister of Canada, Kim Campbell, and Hollywood actress Ashley Judd. "This represents new money for programs and cumulatively we are estimating that this will affect over a billion women and girls worldwide," said Ritu Sharma Fox, a co-founder and president of Women Thrive Worldwide, who also participated in the call. Fox said WFDA is lobbying governments and international agencies to provide several billion more dollars to support the female anti-poverty push. The United Nations Population Fund is one of the biggest backers so far and has made a commitment of 500 million dollars over several years to address maternal mortality and to stop violence against women. Islamic Relief has pledged 43 million dollars to improve education, basic health care and water access for over one million women and girls. Catholic Relief Services and World Vision have also signed up to the inter-faith grouping which is being supported by the US healthcare products giant Johnson & Johnson and other large corporations. Activists from Dominica, India, Kenya, Uganda and Jamaica have also joined the growing campaign. Fox said the financial commitments have been vetted and that program spending in Africa and the Middle East, as well as other locations, will be closely monitored. The women- and girl-focused campaign, like other global anti-poverty drives, faces daunting challenges. UN figures show that women represent 70 percent of the world's poor, own just one percent of titled land, and make up two-thirds of the world's illiterate people. Experts say there are between 1.0 and 1.2 billion people around the world who survive on less than one dollar a day, many of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Advocates say impoverished women and girls face particular hardships, especially in conflict zones where they are raped and abused. Skyrocketing global food prices are also hitting the poor hard. But champions of empowering women say mothers are often more careful with family finances and create important social support networks. "Over 500,000 women die giving birth, or shortly after birth, it wouldn't happen in modern Ireland, the modern United States, it shouldn't happen, it's cruel that it does and it's because of poverty," Robinson said. The UN estimates that half a million women die every year due to preventable complications from pregnancy. Information on the campaign is available at the www.wfd-alliance.org website.
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