The Republic of Moldova didn’t manage to achieve reachable progress in gender equality promotion and women empowerment, shows the Third National Report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), IPN reports.
The Third National Report on Millennium Development Goals presents the progress made by Moldova in achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals during 2010-2013 and identifies issues faced by the country two years before the deadline set for achievement of the objectives.
The authors of the National Report consider gender equality promotion and women empowerment as “a real chance to accelerate development”. Progress in this area consists in a trend of increase in the number of women in decision-making positions at local level. On the other hand, despite the progress, “women are still underrepresented in the electoral, political, and decision-making processes”; the percentage of women holding public offices is 25.4%, that of women holding high level public leading positions – 30%, and special status public positions – 15.8%.
The authors of the report show that the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger has so far been a success but also underline certain equity concerns. In the area of achieving universal access to general compulsory education, where Moldova “has made certain progress”, for instance by increasing continuously child enrolment in preschool education, “there are still some issues related to access to and quality of education”.
There is yet a discrepancy in development between urban and rural areas, and the all too frequent marginalization of small towns in terms of access to economic opportunities and clean water, healthcare and quality education. In the context of reducing child mortality, the Report reveals “an important progress that needs to be maintained”. The mortality of children under 5 years has decreased stably since 2009.
Apart from an analysis of the progress and the existing issues, the third National Report on the Millennium Development Goals sends some messages focused on the main development challenges faced by Moldova, which may be summarised as follows: “Two parallel realities: the rural life and the urban life”; “Emigration – a two-side phenomenon”; “Technologies: the main driver of change”; “From a patriarchal society to a modern one: different opportunities depending on the gender”.
The National Report was developed by the Government of Moldova with the support of the United Nations.
