body-container-line-1
20.05.2016 Africa

EU announces €19 million new support for women and girls' empowerment at ''Women Deliver'' Conference

20.05.2016 LISTEN
By European Commission

Today, the EU has reconfirmed its support to women and girls' empowerment by announcing€19 million support to gender-driven international projects.

EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, made theannouncement at the ''Women Deliver'' Conference in Copenhagen today, one of the world's largestevents on women and girls' rights, health and well-being.

Commissioner Neven Mimica, said: ''The Commission is fully dedicated to ending all forms of violenceagainst women and girls, including early or forced marriages, which not only constitute a violation oftheir human rights but are blatant examples of discrimination rooted in gender inequalities. Put simply,gender equality and global development cannot be achieved until all forms of gender-based violenceare ended. Today's EU contribution of €19 million will further support this aim.''

The European Commission's new financial contribution is aimed at strengthening women'sempowerment and will benefit women and girls in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The envisagedgrants will provide support to three projects implemented with the help of the United NationsPopulation Fund (UNFPA) and theUnited Nations Children's Rights and Emergency Relief Organisation(UNICEF), targeting the sustainable end to child marriage, improving the sex ratio at birth and fightingfemale genital mutilation (FGM).

Background:

Some 700 million girls and women alive today were married as children, and a further 280 million girlsalive today will be married by age 18 if this issues is not tackled with urgency. This is one of thereasons forced child marriage was included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under goalnumber 5 on gender equality, on which the EU is a fierce defender and supporter together with manyinternational partners.

In addition, gender equality is at the heart of the EU's development cooperation policy. To address thiscomplex issue the EU adopted in autumn 2015 a new Gender Action Plan ''Transforming the Lives ofGirls and Women through EU External Relations'' (GAP) for 2016-2020. The financial supportannounced today is fully in line with the new Gender Action Plan (GAP) and the SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs). The European Commission is committed to the idea of building andstrengthening existing partnerships in achieving all the targets by 2030.

During the Women's Deliver Conference, Commissioner Mimica will take part in a discussion entitled''Men with Power: Delivering for Girls and Women”, which looks at the role of men and boys onachieving gender equality and eliminating gender stereotypes.

More information on actions supported by the European Commission:

The EU will support actions to end child marriage with the aim of contributing to a decrease of at least10% in the percentage of women 20-24 who are married before they reached maturity age at 18 in thetargeted areas by the end of 2020. Raising awareness among the community and educating parentsand offering economic incentives for girls and their families to empower girls with skills, whileadvocating for the need for a policy framework will also be supported.

The EU will help accelerate the abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), adangerous practice, which is still regionally widespread in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and LatinAmerica. Families and communities will be supported to understand and accept the elimination of FGMwhereas girls and women at risk of or having experienced FGM/C will be supported with appropriateand quality services.

Finally, the European Union will also support actions preventing son preference and gender-biased sexselection together with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to improve the sex ratio at birth inselect countries in Asia and the Caucasus. This matter is crucial to gender discrimination, since recentanalysis indicates a growth in sex-ratio imbalances in favour of boy children in some Asian countries,where levels of sex ratios at birth (SRB) may reach as high as 130 in some specific regions, whereasthe normal sex ratio at birth varies between 102 and 106 males per 100 females.

body-container-line