Gender Issues and Poverty

Gender issues are deeply related to poverty issues we are dealing with because:

• 70% of those living in poverty are women 
• Two thirds of the adults who can't read or write are women 
• Every minute, a woman dies as a result of pregnancy complications - this is more than half a million women per year 
• Some 75% of young people in Africa living with HIV are women 
• Of the 113 million children who have no access to primary education, 60 % of them are girls 
• 1 in 5 women will be subjected to rape or attempted rape during her lifetime. 

Gender and environment are cross cutting themes of our FH programs. For example, our CIDA program indicators must specify the numbers of men and women in the training program - otherwise all men may attend those trainings even though typical farmers in developing countries are often women. In other words, women are the ones feeding the world.

Statistics from ActionAid UK, Why Women's Rights Matter