Global: World leaders must end gender apartheid

Global efforts to "make poverty history" will fail unless world leaders act now to end gender discrimination, according to The State of World Population 2005 report, released October 12 by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. The report, The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, calls upon world leaders to fulfil promises made to the world's women and young people in order to meet poverty reduction goals agreed to at the 2000 Millennium Summit and reaffirmed by last month's World Summit in New York. Investing in women and young people-who constitute the majority of the world's population-will accelerate long-term development. Failure to do so may entrench poverty for generations to come.