SEVENTY per cent of the world's poorest people are women, according to a new publication on the challenges facing the female population in the developing world.
A Woman's World Beyond the Headlines, produced by Oxfam Ireland, also finds that the number of rural women living in poverty has increased by 50 per cent in the last 20 years, compared with 3 per cent for men; and that women produce half the world's food but own 1 per cent of the world's land.
The publication features a foreword by the President, Mrs Robinson, and contributions from development workers, academics and leading women journalists including Lorna Siggins and Siobhan Creaton of The Irish Times, Maggie O'Kane, and Trish Hegarty.
It was launched yesterday in Dublin's Mansion House by the Minister of State for Overseas Development, Ms Joan Burton. The Pakistani human rights activist, Ms Hina Jilani, was a guest.