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An Assessment Of Millennium Development Goal (Mdg) 3 In Least Developed Countries Of Asia

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to measure progress towards Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women in Least Developed Countries (LDC) of Asia. We study a group of countries which suffer particularly from poverty, or in the terminology of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), countries with profound economic and social inequalities, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Yemen. To achieve this goal, we use the DP2 distance method to compose a synthetic indicator of MDG 3 for 2011, the last year for which data are available. The index comprises information on different MDG 3 indicators that enables classifying the LDCs of Asia, as well as examining the impact of each individual indicator to determine territorial disparities in MDG 3 levels.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the Government of Spain, under grant number MEC-2010-17049/ECON, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Correspondence to José Antonio Rodríguez Martín.

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Martín, J.A.R., Molina, M.d.M.H. & Fernández, J.A.S. An Assessment Of Millennium Development Goal (Mdg) 3 In Least Developed Countries Of Asia. Applied Research Quality Life 10, 49–62 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-013-9298-7

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