WHEREAS, in September 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration, a resolution establishing international development goals to reduce poverty and improve lives, now known as the Millennium Development Goals; and

WHEREAS, members of the United Nations, including the United States, pledged to meet established benchmarks for the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 to:

1. Reduce by fifty per cent the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and suffering from hunger;
2. Achieve universal primary education by ensuring that all boys and girls complete primary school;
3. Promote gender equality and empower women by eliminating disparities in primary and secondary education at all levels;
4. Reduce child mortality by two-thirds among children under five years old;
5. Improve maternal health by reducing the ratio of women's death during childbirth by seventy-five per cent;
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases by reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases;
7. Ensure environmental sustainability by introducing sustainable development principles to: reverse the loss of environmental resources; increase access to safe drinking water; and achieve significant improvements in the lives of at least one hundred million slum dwellers; and
8. Develop a global partnership for development through reform of the trading system and financial system to allow poor nations to sell goods at fair prices to obtain financial resources to create stable economies and eliminate poverty; aiding the special needs of least developed countries; addressing debt problems of developing countries; creating productive work for youth; increase access to affordable drugs; and make benefits of new technologies available;

and

WHEREAS, in March 2002, President George W. Bush unveiled the Millennium Challenge Account, a plan to increase significantly development assistance to poor, developing countries by an additional $10,000,000,000 in foreign assistance over fiscal years 2004-2006, ultimately doubling United States poverty-focused assistance when fully implemented; and

WHEREAS, initiatives to be funded through the Millennium Challenge Account have the potential to improve the nutrition, health care, education, and drinking water for millions of people in poor nations only if the Millennium Challenge Account is fully funded by Congress; and

WHEREAS, although studies uniformly report that the most effective use of international aid is the investment in women, the reports also indicate that women do not benefit from international development efforts unless they are included in all aspects of a development initiative from its beginning; and

WHEREAS, the involvement of women in any economic growth plan is critical because women and girls are more than half of the world's population and represent significantly more than half of the population in areas particularly devastated by prolonged conflict like Afghanistan; and

WHEREAS, it is critical that initiatives and programs funded through the Millennium Challenge Account include activities that enable women to play active roles in the economic and civic activities of their countries; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, that the United States Congress is urged to fully fund the Millennium Challenge Account to enable poor and hungry people around the globe become self-reliant; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that as the Millennium Challenge Account is implemented, it is crucial that our leaders understand and require that women be involved in all phases of establishment and implementation of programs funded to achieve the Millennium Development goals; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that adequate funding and meaningful participation of women and girls are essential for successful development assistance programs in poor nations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

Report Title:

Millennium Challenge Account; Funding and Involvement of Women