Realizing women's rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals depends on strengthening accountability for commitments to women and gender equality. For women's rights to translate into substantive improvements in their lives, and for gender equality to be realized in practice, women must be able to fully participate in public decision-making at all levels and hold those responsible to account when their rights are infringed or their needs ignored. UNIFEM's biannual flagship publication highlights promising examples for addressing existing accountability gaps and improving the responsiveness of power-holders to women in a number of key areas: politics and governance, service delivery, justice, markets, international aid and security institutions. Published at the half-way point to the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs, "Progress of the World's Women 2008/2009" presents new data providing clear evidence that women's empowerment and gender equality are key drivers for reducing poverty, building food security, reducing maternal mortality, safeguarding the environment, and enhancing the effectiveness of aid.