Resolution

Be it resolved that population problems be addressed through the enhancement of the status of women throughout the world.

Extensive research has shown that improvements in the lives of adolescent girls translates into improvements in their health as well as that of their children. Reductions in fertility result in high returns to the overall economic productivity. In addition, the decisions this generation makes and the way they live their lives will shape the world of the future. Despite the validity of this research, there exists virtually no setting where a broadly conceived strategy is in place to make investments in adolescent girls and offer them social and economic alternatives and identities apart from becoming wives and mothers. The United Nations and affiliated organizations including UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, UNIFEM, UNAIDS and WHO in cooperation with NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations such as OXFAM and the Red Cross) must devise comprehensive interventions to increase the status of women through increased access to education, improved livelihood prospects, leadership opportunities and community responsibilities. A comprehensive plan could include the following possibilities:

Educate girls about their health and assist them in meeting these needs, including reproductive health and choices.

Provide education and career opportunities for girls and women

Improve girls' income generating skills and livelihoods (young women are disproportionately represented in emerging wage-earning opportunities but little effort has been made to make these opportunities as positive as possible).

Engage girls in community-based and leadership efforts.

Develop programs to build girls' physical strength and enable participation in sports.

Print Resources

World Prospects: Page 282 - 290

Online Resources

Infonation

United Nations Human Rights

Economic and Social Development

Global Issues

Countries of the World

State of the World's Children

Information Statistics on Countries of the World

Oxfam Take Action Projects

Media Resources

The People Bomb Video to be shown in class.