Every now and then we are starkly reminded how babies skulls crushed, women and girl children raped and taken as wives of war-lords or forced into slavery and other sexual violence. UNICEF is still at the forefront, but it hard to imagine that in spite of many decades of the agency's existence, the problems of women and children are only increasing.
Without wars the problems of women and children will obviously be a lot less. Obviously, wars do have a strong statistical correlation to the suffering of women and children. So what is that statistic? Not only that, wars also destroy all infrastructure, huddle people together in camps and cause the spread of disease for lack of nutrition, food, shelter, water and sanitation. Please read the account from the Economist of February 21, 2009 on how women and children are affected in war zones. In spite of the liberation of women in the west (and some other parts of the world) it is still hard to be a woman.
What causes wars is one issue and how to stop them is a bigger issue. Nevertheless, the power of public policy can have the greater influence in starting wars or preventingg them, including minimizing poverty.
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