Millennium Development Goals 3, 4, & 5

Here is my report on gender equality, empowering women, child mortality, and maternal health.

I have edited this post to include the written transcript of this video.

The purpose of this report is to present solutions to problems related to gender equality, empowering women, reducing child mortality, and improving maternal health in Niger.

Niger is the largest country in West Africa, bordered by Algeria, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, and Mali.

Niger is number 186 out of 187 (hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/) on the Human Development Index, so it is extremely important that these goals be met because they deal specifically with human development.

During this video I’m going to give you a little background information on Niger and then go into key problems related to gender equality, child mortality, and improving maternal health. After that I’ll talk about what I think needs to be done, and the regional and global impacts these solutions will have.

So, gender equality.

Girls from Niger can legally get married at the age of 15. Statistics have shown that over 60% girls aged 15-19 were married, divorced, or widowed, while only about 3% of boys the same age were married, divorced, or widowed (genderindex.org). This means that girls are married off to older men, which results in a lack of control in the relationship. Marriage is meant to be a partnership, but marriage in Niger is more of a trade and women have no power over their lives. The laws in Niger also does not specifically recognize rape within marriage, so these young girls are subjected to abusive and controlling older men. Ignoring this issue makes it possible to view and treat women as property; once they are married, they belong to their husband to do with as he pleases. This way of thinking is primitive and must be eliminated in order for gender equality to gain any ground.

Such a young marital age also makes it more possible for women to become pregnant at a young age. While a woman can physically have a child at the age of 15, the stress it will cause to her body and her mind makes it important to wait. However, because girls are getting married so young, waiting seems impossible. Age is not the major issue facing maternal health, however. Niger is currently in the middle of a drought, and its people are forced to find water by any means necessary. It has been reported that children are even skipping school to look for water (nst.com).  If expectant mothers had access to clean drinking water, maternal health would improve greatly. Because maternal health is so important to the child’s health later in life, focusing on this issue would go a long way in reducing child mortality.

In order to fix these problems, several things need to happen. Before any steps can be taken in the way of gender equality, the immediate issue of water must be addressed. While volunteers and organizations can offer clean drinking water for a short time, the Niger government needs to form a plan so that this will not happen again. Once this issue is out of the way, laws need to be changed: one that does not allow women to be married until they reach a proper age, and one that recognizes spousal rape a serious crime. Both of these solutions will have a cultural impact, but one that I believe will change the country for the better.