This section  examines the  progress of  countries in reducing  poverty in  its income and non-

income dimensions and in improving the welfare of their people. Evidence confirms that expanding economic opportunities for poor people—through pro-poor growth policies—raises their incomes. The key to expanding their economic opportunities is to help them build up their assets. Human capabilities such as health and education are of intrinsic value and also have powerful effects on material well-being. Broad access to such basic infrastructure as clean water and adequate sanitation is also important to the material prospects of poor people. And a range of public interventions, such as old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, can reduce their vulnerabilities.

     The challenge for governments: formidable. The tables in this section track the progress of countries in reducing poverty and improving human capital. The expanded table on poverty (table 2.5) shows the poverty levels prevailing in countries and the longer term trends for regional and income groups. Other tables provide information on population size and growth, labor force participation, and employment by economic activity. Information is also available on the vulnerabilities in populations and government efforts to alleviate those vulnerabilities. The tables also provide information on improvements in education and health and some clues to remaining and emerging challenges. Together, the tables identify a country’s accomplishments and the tasks that still lie ahead.

The third Millennium Development Goal: Promote gender equality and empower women
     Gender issues are highly relevant to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals, from reducing poverty and hunger to protecting the environment. Because the Goals are mutually reinforcing, progress toward gender equality will advance other Goals, while success in achieving other Goals will positively affect gender equality. The target for the third Goal is to achieve gender parity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 but no later than 2015, and in tertiary education by 2015. The indicator for monitoring progress toward this target is the ratio of female to male gross enrollment rates in primary, secondary, and tertiary education.

     What do the statistics tell us about gender and equality? The 2005 milestone year for this goal is already upon us, so we need to map countries’ progress. But a three-year delay in the production of education statistics and a lack of baseline and recent data in many countries make it impossible to assess with certainty how many countries will have achieved gender equality in education. The most recent data refer to the school period 2002/03. So conclusions about where countries stand in 2005 are based on the progress between 1990 and 2002 and on hypotheses of what would happen if progress continued at the same rate.

     The data show that the prospects for achieving gender equality in education vary considerably between educational levels and regions. There has been more progress in gender equality in primary school enrollments than in secondary and tertiary enrollments (figure 2a). Still, more than a third of developing countries will not achieve gender parity in primary school enrollments this year, and most of them risk not meeting the target in 2015 if they do not take immediate action to increase girls’ school attendance. The risk is greatest for Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the regions reporting the slowest progress in closing the gender gap in primary schooling.  
   

Source: UNESCO and World Bank staff estimates.

Source: UNESCO.

    Third, the indicator does not reflect how many of the girls and boys who should be in school are actually attending school. Improvements in the gender ratio can result from an increase in girls’ school attendance or a decrease in boys’. In Cambodia, for example, the ratio of girls to boys in secondary school increased from 0.43 in 1990 to 0.60 in 2001. The improvement was the result not of an increase in girls’ gross enrollment—it fell from 19 percent to 17 percent—but of a marked decrease in boy’s enrollment, which fell from 45 percent to 27 percent.

    This analysis demonstrates the urgency to take action on two fronts as countries endeavor to achieve this target by 2015.

What needs to be done
     Promoting gender equality in education requires addressing the conditions that prevent girls and boys from attending school. Evidence shows that scholarships, lower fees, and subsidies in the form of food and cash transfers conditional on school attendance increase girls’ and boys’ enrollment rates. They also reduce the probability of dropping out of school and close gender gaps in school attainment. In countries where girls are less likely than boys to attend school, these subsidies have a larger effect on girls’ attendance than on boys’, even when girls are not targeted. Subsidies are even more effective in reducing gender disparities in schooling when they are directed to girls. For example, the Female Secondary School Assistance Program in Bangladesh paid tuition and stipends directly into a national bank for all girls attending school for at least 75 percent of the school year. An assessment of the pilot phase shows that girls’ secondary enrollment in the program area rose from 27 percent to 44 percent in five years—more than double the national average increase (World Bank 2001).

    Equally important is the need for countries to implement standardized concepts and methodologies of data collection. This is likely to place a stress on poor countries with weak administrative systems. Generally, statistical capacity is low in low-income countries, but several low-income countries have sustainable statistical capacity, including Albania, Armenia, India, Nicaragua, and Senegal (figure 2d).

Source: World Bank.