Dr. Maxine Olson United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative

Dr Olson arrived in India in September 2003, to head one of the largest core programmes of the UNDP, focusing on decentralisation, poverty reduction, natural resource management, human development analysis and HIV/AIDS. Prior to her assignment in India she held a similar position in Malaysia with additional responsibility for Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. Before this she was at UNDP Headquarters in the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific overseeing the work of 25 countries. Dr. Olson has varied experience in several UN organisations. During a stint as Deputy Director, UNIFEM (the UN Development Fund for Women), she focused on programmes for the political and economic empowerment of women. In this interview Dr. Olson shares her views on Millennium Development Goals with a specific importance to MDG 3 on Gender equality and women’s empowerment.

World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. How is UNDP’s India Country programme addressing MDGs?
UNDP, as the UN’s global development network, links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, in his capacity as chair of the UN Development Group, to be the coordinator of the Millennium Development Goals in the UN system — to make them an integral part of the UN’s work worldwide.

An important part of our strategy is to integrate the MDGs into various aspects of UNDP’s work at the country level. The UNDP Country Programme reflects a continued commitment to national priorities as articulated in the Tenth Five Year Plan. The goals and targets of the Tenth Plan are closely aligned with the MDGs and in several instances they are even more ambitious.

The Government of India-UNDP Country Programme 2003-2007 seeks to support the Tenth Plan goals of human development and people-centred growth in a manner consistent with the twin priorities of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), viz. strengthening decentralisation and promoting gender equality.

The Tenth Plan proposes “a shift in the focus of planning from merely resources to the policy, procedural and institutional changes which are essential for every Indian to realise his or her potential”. This resonates with the overarching goals of the work of the United Nations system in India – to work towards the promotion of sustainable human development and the elimination of human poverty and inequalities.

Within this framework each UN agency supports national efforts to achieve the MDGs focusing on their own mandate areas. For instance the on-going UNDP Country programme focuses on promoting human development and gender equality with support to advocacy on these issues at the national, state and district levels. This is achieved through State Human Development Reports and actionable research, developing programmes to promote sustainable livelihoods and natural resource management and programmes in support of strengthening local governance and pro-poor public policy.

Many academicians and practitioners say that the indicators given to measure MDGs do not cover all development aspects. According to you, what are the strengths and limitations of MDGs?
The MDGs are not a programmatic framework and at first glance appear to be almost simplistic. Also, several development sectors seem to be missing. However while critiquing the MDGs it is important to look at the Millennium Declaration as the MDGs are derived from this. The Declaration, which is the vision statement of 189 Heads of States and Governments, addresses the ‘missing areas’ of governance, human rights, equity and social justice. The MDGs are clearly inter-connected and cannot be achieved if related sectors are not addressed - achieving the education goal hinges on students proximity to schools, transportation and roads, toilets in schools, and quality of education. The poverty and hunger goal cannot be met if agriculture and rural infrastructure are not the focus of attention and so on. The health goals cannot be met without attention to education and women’s empowerment. The MDGs cover much more than immediately meets the eye, they are simple, which makes describing what is involved in improving the quality of life easier to understand.

Has India done enough to achieve the national development goal regarding MDG 3 to empower women?
India is among the few developing countries where gender equality and improvement in the status of women are specifically stated to be central goals of development and social policy. This commitment is buttressed by an explicit Constitutional mandate that reflects a substantive understanding of the various dimensions of freedom and equality for women. The Constitution also clarifies that affirmative action programmes for women are not incompatible with the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of sex. Despite these enabling factors, women lag behind men in most of the critical indicators of human development, and poverty in India increasingly wears a female face.

Women’s subordinate status is reflected in almost every sphere – Livelihoods, Education, Health, and Governance. A firm constitutional and policy basis exists, but much needs to be done.

How can ICT play a role, as an enabler, in overcoming the cultural, social and regional barriers bringing equality and empowerment for women?
ICTs, itself not a magic bullet, it is however an important tool. ICTs can empower women with knowledge on health, hygiene, sanitation and livelihoods opportunities. It can also be an enabler to access credit and finance. Access to IT and communications tools is a challenge. When gender barriers exclude women from accessing education, training and capacity building, ICTs are often themselves remote. To bring about social and attitudinal change communication tools like radio and television can be powerful tools to raise concerns and initiate dialogue - giving women a voice and identity but much greater use of these is necessary. The UNDP-supported Community Radio project in Kutch district of Gujarat demonstrated how KMVS was able to address sensitive issues like dowry and violence against women.

Ten years down the Beijing plan of action, not much ground was covered on the role of ICTs. A decade after, what are the UNDP supported major ICT initiatives targeting MDG 3? Is your India country programme 2003-2007 involved in gender equality projects?
The promotion of human development and gender equality is one of the five thematic areas of the new India Country Programme (2003-2007). Two sub-programmes will be supported under this thematic area, a) Strengthening State Plans for Human Development and, b) Promoting Gender Equality.

One of our UNDP-supported projects is aimed at supporting the Government of India in tracking and monitoring progress across sectors in achievement of national commitments to gender equality and empowerment of women. The areas of focus of this project are aligned to crosscutting strategies that are central to gender mainstreaming efforts in the country. The project will study and analyse the dynamics by which women have been able to bring a gender equality dimension into social change processes, and the factors that facilitate and hinder women’s engagement in and leadership of such processes. The project will also explore women’s access to rights and justice, through mapping/collation of gendered critiques of legal and regulatory frameworks and in-depth analysis of the process of administration of laws impacting on women’s status. An attempt will be made to further mainstream gender concerns into key policy instruments and the preparation of a “Status of Women Report”.

The project will be implemented in collaboration between UNDP and the Government, and a range of stakeholders including UN System organisations, women’s groups, civil society organisations and research institutions.

Can community radio be a powerful tool to empower women? What is UNDP doing to enable its licensing in India?
A handful of community radio projects around the country such as the Voices cable radio project, the AID project in Jharkhand and the KMVS project in Kutch have all shown remarkable results in terms of community empowerment.

In May, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in partnership with UNDP and UNESCO organised a consultation on community radio in Delhi, involving international experts and UN agencies. It was an important step forward and raised hope for a more enabling policy climate for genuine community radio to take root in India. At UNDP, we are convinced about the potential inherent in community radio to afford voices to the voiceless and the less privileged sections of society.

Can you share some landmark achievements this year for gender equality?
One of the landmark achievements this year has been the inclusion of gender budgeting in the Union Budget of 2005-06. This year’s Union Budget proposals include a separate statement on gender sensitivities of budgetary allocations under 10 different demands for grants. The total amount is Rs. 143,790 million (approx. USD 3343 million). Henceforth, all government departments will be required to present gender budgets. Gender-sensitive budgeting, as part of the larger impact of the macro policies on gender, is one of the focus areas of UNDP’s work on gender.

What role is UNIFEM playing to achieve MDG3 and how far is it using ICTs in its programmes?
UNIFEM is advocating on MDG Goal 3 in conjunction with advocacy on Beijing + 10 and CEDAW processes in the region. This includes facilitating high-level policy advocacy, multi-stakeholder dialogues and roundtables on development effectiveness in the context of MDGs in South Asia. In Nepal, there are plans to support establishment of a Gender Management system in the national planning processes.

UNIFEM and the Confederation of Indian Industry will be enhancing the effective utilisation of gendered guidelines on ICT and will support regional roundtables for empowering women in the ICT sector.

Have any government bodies like National Commission for Woman undertaken any specific activities to attain MDG3? In view of their mandate, all their activities, directly or indirectly promote gender equality (MDG 3). The NCW does not however, undertake projects. It plays a watchdog role in support of women’s rights.

What is your budget for gender and ICT programmes in India?
It is difficult to put a dollar figure to our work on Gender and ICT because both of these are cross cutting. Gender is mainstreamed into the work of the India country office not only in the programmes/ projects that are supported but also within the organisation and ICTs are an important tool in our programme strategy.