While men continue to provide and struggle for the family, it is women who contribute more to eradicating poverty in the Muslim world, according to an academician today.

Director of the United Nations Millennium Project Professor Jeffery D Sachs said in developing countries women work longer hours than men because they have to care for their families and attend to household chores as well.

He was speaking at a public lecture on 'Poverty reduction in the Islamic world - lessons from the millennium project' in Kuala Lumpur. It was organised by the United Nations Development Programme and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Sachs, who is also the Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Millennium Development Goals (MDG), said empowering women in developing countries will result in changes to the economic growth.

According to him, women are ready to organise themselves and work towards eliminating their hardships.

"There is no way to do it (bring about economic changes) if women remain dis-empowered," he told the 100-odd audience.

Elaborating, he said to empower women, countries should allow opportunities for 'massive' investment in public health, maternity, family planning, education , environment protection and infrastructure.

Among other recommendations by the UN Millennium Project is to launch national campaigns to reduce violence against women, empowering women to play a central role in formulating and monitoring MDG-based poverty reduction strategies and other critical policy reform processes, particularly at the level of local governments, reforming and enforcing legislation guaranteeing women property and inheritance rights.

The MDG is an internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease and hunger by the year 2015.

Malaysia praised

Sachs cited Malaysia as an example and praised the authorities for reducing the 50 percent poverty rate to a mere five percent in three decades in an ethnically-diverse setting.

"Malaysia has shown that extreme poverty can be eradicated," said Sachs, praising the effort taken by the authorities.

He added that the next step is for Malaysia to rise as a leader in the technology and educational industries.

UN Millennium Project has been working with developing countries, like Malaysia, to help identify issues such as how many mothers need access to health clinics, how many children need immunisation, how many teachers should be in every district, how many roads need to be built and so forth, with a target by 2015.

He said with the civil society working with the government to deliver mechanisms for public education, it will help alter the cultural mindset of people.

Sachs essential message was that poor countries should stop defining their plans to combat poverty according to the limited resources available. Instead, they should draw up comprehensive strategies, and then determine the costs.

He also urged high-income countries to open their markets to exports from developing countries as well as help poor countries to raise export competitiveness through practical targeted investments in infrastructure, trade facilitation and science and technology.

Speaking at the same event, UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative, Dr Richard Leete also praised Malaysia for its achievements.

"Malaysia continues to play a leadership role in the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference), NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) and elsewhere...Malaysia's experience demonstrates that the MDGs are not utopian. They can be achieved with a clear development vision, the right people - centred policies and real political commitment to implement them," he said.

He also supported Sachs on getting rich nations to assist, with renewed determination, the world's poorest.

Minister in the Prime Minster's Department Mustapa Mohamed was the moderator at the public lecture.

Sachs, who hails from the US, had also met with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Putrajaya.