Women have the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, education and training. More than one billion people of the world population are living in unacceptable conditions of poverty. The great majority of these are women, mostly from the developing countries. In the past decade, the number of women living in poverty has increased disproportionately to the number of men. This feminisation of poverty can be observed particularly in developing countries.
Poverty is acute in rural households as a whole.
Due to the gender division of labour and responsibilities for the welfare of the household, women bear a disproportionate burden and attempt to manage households under conditions of increasing scarcity. Education is an essential tool for achieving the goals of equality, development and peace. Literacy of women is an important key to improving health, nutrition and education in the family and to empowering women to participate in decision-making in society. More than two thirds of the world's 960 million illiterate adults are women. The high rate of illiteracy prevailing in most developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and some Arab and Asian countries, remains a severe impediment to the advancement of women.