Pretoria - Parliament's two-day Women's Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) kicks off today.
The summit, which brings together delegates from civil society, provincial legislatures women members of Parliament, will discuss progress on the MDG's and how they impact women's lives.
The MDG's, which were adopted by world leaders in 2000, are time bound and aim to target poverty and hunger, gender inequality and the combating of disease among other things.
Progress, challenges and gaps in achieving the MDGs and the implications for women, mechanisms that should be put in place to ensure that South Africa meets its MDG obligations will be discussed.
In September, the 10th United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit is scheduled to take place in New York, where world leaders will assess progress towards meeting the eight international development goals by 2015.
The goals include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV and AIDS and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing global partnerships to meet the goals.
