Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) signed at the United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit in 2000 were formulated to end poverty and greatly reduce social, economic and political inequities in the global arena by 2015. Among the eight goals highlighted in this report, gender equity holds an important position and serves as the focus of the third goal to promote gender equality and to empower women. Other highlighted areas include education, health, HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnerships (UNDP, 2010). Indeed, all these themes relate to gender equity and emphasize the importance of women to the development process as a whole.