Gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa $95 billion: UN

There is an economic cost to keeping women in their place. It’s  $95B in Africa. You would think that would be incentive enough to change but it isn’t.

The West needs to adjust their incentive policies for developing countries to favor gender equality, family planning, and contraception. Until we incentive the behavior they’re not going to change on their own. And the whole world will continue to have problems as a result.

Sub-Saharan Africa loses around $95 billion a year due to gender inequality, jeopardizing the continent’s efforts for economic growth, according to a U.N. report launched Sunday.

Deeply-rooted structural obstacles such as unequal distribution of resources and political power, combined with social institutions that sustain inequality are holding back African women, and the continent, said the Africa Human Development Report 2016 by U.N. Development Program.

If gender gaps are closed in labor markets, education and health, it will accelerate the eradication of poverty and hunger, said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ee1e452bacf84e45adda495b134944d9/gender-inequality-costs-sub-saharan-africa-95-billion-un

NYTimes: Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar

Finally, woman are finding ways around the unscrupulous and devious barriers the right wing nuts put between women and the freedom to manage their own health.

Anything that helps women and families (and men) plan their pregnancies is a good thing for society over all. We just don’t need any additional unwanted children.

Unfortunately 37% of all pregnancies are unplanned (not the same as unwanted, but close enough). Worse is that the number hasn’t moved much at all in the last 40 years.

With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue. Experts increasingly encourage long-acting contraceptive methods, like intrauterine devices, but usage, while growing, remains low.

Birth Control via App Finds Footing Under Political Radar http://nyti.ms/2001Der