International Women's Day

Maldives Messages

MDG 3 – Maldives is yet to achieve goal 3 on gender equality by 2015. Work has to be accelerated in the 3 areas below if we are to achieve this goal as agreed in the Millennium Declaration.

Economic power

We should reflect that that gender equality is good economics. Lack of women’s participation in the workforce across Asia-Pacific costs the region an estimated US $89 billion every year. In the Maldives, although the share of women in the labor force has increased over the past years, men continue to have almost twice as much presence in the labor force compared to women (Population and Housing Census, 2006).

Political voice

Promoting political voices of women is important for democracy to flourish. Democracy rests on fair and equal representation. If half of the population constitutes of women, their participation is critical for proper democratic functioning. For Maldives to consolidate democracy, women’s representation is a necessity. In the recent local election, out of 1086 seats, women secured only 57 (just 5%). We have only 5 women out of 77 elected members in the parliament. There are 3 women in the cabinet and 2 female judges in the country.

Access to justice

Laws, legal practices and access to justice affect how men and women are able to seek opportunities and make choices to better their lives.  The United Nations commends the cross-political party collaboration on the Domestic Violence bill and appeals for the bill to be passed as soon as possible.