Investing in women will boost economic development: UN chief

United Nations, Mar 8 (UNI) Greater investment in women and girls will help further economic growth and advance development, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated.

Criticising the failures in the implementation of programmes for women empowerment, he said a lack of political will in many countries was resposible for lack of resources and insufficient budgetary elect.

In his message, he stressed that achieving gender equality was not only a goal in itself, but a prerequisite for reaching all the other development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals and the global pledges to slash poverty, hunger, maternal and infant mortality, and other social ills-- all by 2015.

He called upon the international community, governments, multilateral organisations, bilateral institutions and private sector to calculate the economic costs of persistent gender equality and create mechanisms for tracking investments in gender equality.

UNI XC SYU ND1035