Gender Equity and MDG Progress: A Comparison between Africa and Asia-Pacific

Jean Louis Rallu, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include more than 60 indicators on gender, development and demographic processes. The contrast between Africa and Asia-Pacific illustrates the relationship between women empowerment and outcomes in reproductive health as well as development. Countries with lower proportions of literate females, women in non agricultural wage employment or lower gender equity in primary and secondary education have higher fertility, lower contraceptive prevalence rates and lower coverage of health and education services which is directly related with higher infant and maternal mortality and altogether poorer health indicators. Some of these indicators are already well acknowledged to be related with development and they also appear to be related with dependency ratio or advancement in the demographic window. The relationship between MDG indicators and trends, and population and socio-economic variables for countries in Africa and Asia-Pacific (including Pacific Island countries) will be presented.