Empowering mothers: a key strategy to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development

Mothers are directly concerned by the different facets of poverty

These different facets of poverty are reflected in the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which aggregates indicators in 3 areas:

• Health (nutrition, child mortality)
• Education (school attendance, years of schooling)
• Living standards (sanitation, drinking water, cooking fuel, electricity, floor, assets).

These different facets relate to mothers’ abilities to ensure the basic health and education of their children, a necessary condition to escape poverty. Living standards also relate to the time mothers spend on unpaid family care work, and their own economic empowerment.

MMM statement also highlights and provides recommendations on:

• the importance of birth registration;
• the central role of mother and child health to ensure the development of children to their full potential and thus possibly break the intergenerational cycle of poverty;
• as well as the imperative of supporting the economic empowerment of mothers: mothers, much more than men, invest their money and time in the welfare of their family, in the health and education of their children.

Mothers are key levers of change

“Every mother cares about her children and her family. Tackling poverty issues is very much linked to the empowerment of women and mothers; it is about them getting the adequate support for health and education issues, also for the achievement of their economic autonomy, and thus helping them to make their family thrive.“

Mothers should, therefore, be at the center of any strategy and policy-making for poverty eradication. Focusing on mothers has the potential to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

MMM submitted its written Statement ahead of the 56th Session of the UN Commission for Social Development that will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 29 January to 7 February 2018 – Main theme:  “Strategies for eradicating poverty to achieve sustainable development for all”

MMM Statement as submitted in November 2017

MMM written statement as UN Document: ref, E/CN.5/2018/NGO/67