Kathmandu, December 11:

Eliminating gender discrimination and empowering wo-men will have a positive impact on the survival and well-being of children, said the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), report on The State of the World’s Children 2007 released today.

“Gender equality produces the ‘double dividend’ of benefiting both women and children and is pivotal to the health and development of families, communities and nations,” said the statement.

The statement quoted Ann M Veneman, UNICEF executive director, as saying: “Gender equality and the well-being of children are inextricably linked. If we care about the well-being of children, we must work to ensure that women and girls have equal opportunities to be educated, to participate in government, to achieve economic self-sufficiency and to be protected from violence and discrimination.”

The report says women’s influence in key decisions improves the lives of women and has a positive effect on development. Among 10 of 30 developing countries surveyed, 50 per cent women participate in all household decisions regarding major household spending, their own health care or their visits to friends or relatives outside their homes.

Despite progress in women’s status in recent decades, the lives of millions of girls and women are overshadowed by discrimination, disempowerment and poverty. Nearly one out of every five girls who enroll in primary school in developing countries does not complete a primary education.

Women in legislative bodies have been especially effective advocates for children. As of July 2006, women accounted for just under 17 per cent of all parliamentarians worldwide.

The report has put forward some key recommendations as roadmap to gender equality — free school education for girls, investment to eliminate gender discrimination to be integrated into government budgets and plans, national legislation in property law and inheritance for women, measures to prevent and respond to domestic violence as well as gender-based violence and legislative quotas.