UNITED NATIONS - WOMEN are outnumbered 4 to 1 in the world's legislatures, women earn 17 per cent less than men, and more than 500,000 women die every year from complications while giving birth, according to a UN report launched on Thursday.

After decades of national and international commitments, the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) said 'discrimination on this scale ... is symptomatic of an accountability crisis.'

The fund's biennial report on Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009 called for stronger measures to ensure that governments are held to account for the commitments they have made to the world's women.

It was released ahead of next week's ministerial meeting of the UN General Assembly which includes a special session on Sept 25 on the UN Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs.

They include eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and improving maternal health, all by 2015.

Ms Ines Alberdi, Unifem's executive director, told a news conference launching the report that to overcome the accountability crisis 'first women must be represented in much larger numbers in decision-making positions - in politics, in business and in public service.'

Second, she said, women's needs must be at the core of government action and public officials must be assessed against their record of addressing gender equality concerns.

'Without putting in place strong measures to track progress on gender equality, we run the risk that commitments, such as the MDGs, will remain words on paper,' Ms Alberdi warned.

The report focuses on five areas where the need to strengthen accountability to women is urgent: politics and government, access to public services, economic opportunities, justice, and the distribution of international aid.

While the percentage of women parliamentarians has risen by 8 per cent from 1998 to 2008 to a global average of 18.4 per cent, the report said at this rate female representation in developing countries 'will not reach the parity zone of between 40 and 60 per cent until 2045.'

It recommended quotas or temporary special measures 'as a proven way' to boost the number of women in parliaments.

As for services, Unifem noted that in sub-Saharan Africa women spend 40 billion hours each year collecting water - 'the equivalent of a year's worth of labour by the entire workforce of France - because many households lack access to water in or near the premises.'

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon called the world's record on maternal health 'dismal.'

Globally, the report said, maternal mortality is going down at a rate of just 0.4 per cent a year, which means every year more than 500,000 women die from complications of childbirth.

'It is unspeakable that one woman dies each minute from pregnancy or childbirth,' Mr Ban said.

'This is a silent emergency.'

'To fix the problem, we don't need a new vaccine, or a novel form of aid, or a 10-year research project and fancy technology,' he said.

'All we need is to ensure that developing countries have what developed states provide as a minimum: prenatal health care and skilled attendants to help mothers survive the ordeal of labour.'

The Secretary-General strongly backed the report's call for much greater accountability.

'If any man asks why I support better accountability to women, this is my response: because a government that answers to women will answer to you, too,' he said.

The report painted a grim picture for women in other areas as well, Women earn 17 per cent less than men and the gender pay gap is higher in the private sector, it said.

Men are five times more likely to enter managerial positions than women and over 60 per cent of all unpaid family workers globally are women. -- AP