Authored by Pradeep Kumar Panda
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
is a landmark agreement negotiated and approved by the 193 Member
States of
the United Nations. Comprised of 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), 169 targets and 232 indicators, it aims to address the
economic, social, environmental and political dimensions of sustainable
development in a comprehensive and integrated way. The
SDG Agenda is clear that achieving gender equality is not only an
important goal in and of itself but also a catalyst for achieving a
sustainable future for all. Progress on gender equality has been highly
uneven across the different dimensions of the 2030 Agenda.
In some areas, such as girls’ access to education, global improvement is
undeniable yet insufficient, often leaving behind women and
girls in the poorest households (SDG 4). In areas such as labor force
participation (SDG 8) and innovation and knowledge creation
(SDG 9), significant gender gaps remain, and progress has been minimal.
In other cases, such as maternal mortality (SDG 3), progress
is too slow and uneven to achieve SDG Target 3.1 by 2030. Similarly,
while progress has been made towards eliminating the practice
of female genital mutilation (FGM) (SDG 5), this is not enough to keep
up with population growth, meaning the number of women
and girls undergoing FGM is likely to rise over the next 15 years.
Unless progress on gender equality is accelerated, the global
community will not only fail to achieve SDG 5, it will also forgo the
catalytic effect that gender equality can have for the achievement
of the 2030 Agenda more broadly. This paper shows that across countries
and regions, women and girls face tremendous structural
barriers that impact all aspects of their lives. Eliminating
gender-specific constraints, as well as other forms of discrimination
with
which they intersect, is hence critical.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a landmark
agreement negotiated and approved by the 193 Member States
of the United Nations. Comprised of 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 232 indicators, it aims to address
the economic, social, environmental and political dimensions
of sustainable development in a comprehensive and integrated
way. Building on a long history of international human rights and
gender equality commitments, its universal approach recognizes
the common challenges faced by all countries, developed and
developing alike, and reaffirms the responsibility of governments
to address them. The 2030 Agenda is clear that achieving gender
equality is not only an important goal in and of itself but also a
catalyst for achieving a sustainable future for all [1,2].
While this bold vision has the potential to transform the lives
of women and girls across the world, it is being implemented at a
time of global uncertainty and multiple challenges. Climate change
and environmental degradation are advancing at an unprecedented
pace; the global economy remains volatile after nearly a decade
of crisis; a shift towards exclusionary and fear-based politics is
deepening societal divisions, breeding conflict and instability;
and millions are being forcibly displaced due to conflict and
humanitarian catastrophes. In the midst of global socio-economic
and political turmoil, not only does the promise of gender equality
remain unfulfilled but women’s rights are also facing renewed
resistance from different kinds of fundamentalisms [3].
This state of affairs presents a real test for the 2030 Agenda. At
the same time, the mere fact that UN Member States have agreed
to strive for a more equal world where development is based on
sustainability, peace and human progress provides reason to be
cautiously optimistic. The SDGs are especially important now as
both a political agenda for global cooperation and a specific, timebound
set of goals for all countries [4].
Women and girls are half of the world’s population and as a
result hold half of the world’s human potential. When their lives are
improved, the benefits reverberate across society. Access to decent
work and regular income in the hands of women, for example,
contribute not only to poverty reduction (SDG 1) but also support
better education, health and nutrition outcomes for women and
girls and those who depend on them (SDGs 2, 3 and 4). Similarly,
eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls (Target
5.2) is not only an essential component of SDG 5 but also critical to
ensuring healthy lives and well-being for people of all ages (SDG 3).
Women subjected to sexual or physical intimate partner violence
are 1.5 times as likely to become infected with HIV (Target 3.3).
They are also almost twice as likely to experience depression and
alcohol use disorders (Target 3.5). The health consequences of
violence against women and girls extend to their children, who may
witness the abuse and suffer long-term trauma that impacts their
physical, emotional and social development [5].
Unless progress on gender equality is accelerated, the global
community will not only fail to achieve SDG 5, it will also forgo the
catalytic effect that gender equality can have for the achievement
of the 2030 Agenda more broadly. This paper shows that across
countries and regions, women and girls face tremendous structural
barriers that impact all aspects of their lives. Eliminating genderspecific
constraints, as well as other forms of discrimination with
which they intersect, is hence critical [6].
SDG 1: No poverty
Globally, there are 122 women aged 25-34 for every 100 men
of the same age group living in extreme poverty. Unequal access
to and control over economic resources lie at the root of women’s
poverty. Discriminatory legal frameworks and customary laws can
place significant constraints on women’s ability to earn an income
by restricting their access to inheritance, land, property and credit
as well as their mobility. But even where formal restrictions are
removed, women face multiple barriers to their ability to move
out of poverty. Labor market segmentation, gender wage gaps and
unequal access to social protection remain a persistent source of
economic disadvantage for women. Discriminatory social norms
and women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care work further
hamper their ability to earn a living. As a result, women are less
likely than men to have an income of their own, rendering them
financially dependent on their partners and increasing their
vulnerability to poverty [7].
UN Women partnered with the World Bank to produce new
analysis, using the recently developed Global Micro Database
(GMD) [8,9]. Building on the work of the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on the femininity index,
the analysis for 89 countries looks at the prevalence of extreme
poverty by sex, age and additional characteristics such as marital
status and educational attainment and by differences in household
composition (for example, mix of earners and non-earners by sex)
[10,11]. It shows that, at the global level, the percentage of women
and girls living in poor households (i.e., the female poverty rate) is
12.8%, compared to 12.3% for men and boys. This is equivalent to a
total of 330 million poor women and girls compared to 325 million
poor men and boys. When adjusted for the fact that men outnumber
women in the population, the results indicate that women globally
are 4% more likely than men to live in extreme poverty, while the
gender gap rises to 8% in Central and Southern Asia. At the regional
level, extreme poverty rates are higher among women than among
men in Central and Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean,
Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) and sub-Saharan
Africa. In Eastern and South-eastern Asia, women are less likely to
live in extreme poverty than men. However, differences in extreme
poverty rates by sex are small across regions and only statistically
significant in Central and Southern Asia, where the rate is 15.8% for
women compared to 14.5% for men.
Poverty rates are higher for children across the board
compared to other age groups and decline relatively rapidly until
the age of 24. The shift in trend after age 24 coincides with the
period of biological reproduction and family formation, during
which parents and caregivers may face increased expenses while
also experiencing a squeeze on their time. This is particularly true
for women who struggle to combine paid work and caring for
children or other dependents. As a result, women are particularly
vulnerable to poverty-and gender gaps are widest during this
phase of the life course. Globally, there are 122 women aged 25-34
for every 100 men of the same age group living in extreme poor
households, and the figure rises to 132 women for every 100 men
in Latin America and the Caribbean. By age 55, the percentage of
poor women is lower than that of poor men and thus they are no
longer overly represented among the poor. Further research is
needed to understand gender differences in poverty among older
women and men, as these vary substantially across countries [12].
SDG 2: Zero hunger
In nearly two thirds of countries, women are more likely than
men to report food insecurity. An estimated 789 million people,
11% of the world’s population, are undernourished. If trends
persist, the goal of ending hunger by 2030 will be missed. Data
collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), using
the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) in the context of the
Voices of the Hungry project for 141 countries in 2014 and 2015,
show that women are more likely to report food insecurity in nearly
two thirds of the countries. Across regions, the highest prevalence
of food insecurity is in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than half
of the population is food insecure at moderate or severe levels.
However, food insecurity is also prevalent in the largest economies
in the world. In the United Kingdom, for example, 10% of women
and 9 per cent of men reported food insecurity [13].
While women generally report greater food insecurity, the
gender gaps vary significantly across countries. Gender differences
are greater than 3 percentage points and biased against women in nearly a quarter of the 141 countries sampled and against
men in seven countries. In Albania, for instance, women were
4.4 percentage points less likely than men to say they struggled
with regular access to food for themselves and their families. In
Pakistan, however, food insecurity among women was a staggering
11 percentage points higher than that among men. Food insecurity
results in poor health and decreased nutrient intake. This is a
particular challenge for children as well as pregnant and lactating
women, who often suffer from anemia as a result. A leading cause of
maternal mortality, anemia was estimated to affect 29% of women
aged 15-49 globally in 2011. The figure is higher for pregnant
women (38%). Prevalence rates are also generally higher among
rural women, women living in the poorest quintile and women with
lower levels of education.
SDG 3: Good health and well being
Maternal mortality has declined since 1990, but much too
slowly to achieve Target 3.1 by 2030. Globally, about 303,000
women died from pregnancy-related causes in 2015, resulting
in a maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 216 maternal deaths per
100,000 live births. At the regional level, sub-Saharan Africa has the
highest MMR with 556 deaths per 100,000 live births and accounts
for two thirds of all maternal deaths each year. Globally, the lifetime
estimated risk of a woman dying from a maternity-related cause is
1 in 4,900, but the ratio rises to 1 in 180 in developing countries
and 1 in 54 in countries designated as fragile States, where health
systems are often broken or overwhelmed. Maternal mortality
ratios went down by 44% between 1990 and 2015, a decline of
2.3% per year. However, achieving SDG Target 3.1 by 2030 will
require a decline of at least 7.5% annually. To highlight the scale of
the challenge, the largest declines in the MMR between 1990 and
2015 were observed in Eastern Asia (2.9% annually), but this is
still less than half the annual reduction that is needed to achieve
the target. The United States is an outlier to the general downward
trend among developed countries. Deaths related to complications
from pregnancy or childbirth increased there between 2000 and
2014 from 18.8 to 23.8 per 100,000.
The rates of death are particularly high among African American
women as well as among low-income women and women residing
in rural areas regardless of their race or ethnicity. Most maternal
deaths can be prevented if mothers receive adequate antenatal
and post-natal care, if deliveries are attended by skilled health
professionals and if women have adequate access to medical care for
health conditions linked to elevated risk of obstetric complications,
including those arising from unsafe abortions. Expanding access
to quality health care and ensuring universal access to sexual and
reproductive health and rights for women and girls is therefore
essential for reducing maternal mortality rates. Globally, deliveries
attended by skilled health professionals are increasing, from 61%
in 2000 to 79% in 2016. But accelerated efforts are also needed in
related areas such as family planning, including access to modern
contraceptive methods, if Target 3.1 is to be achieved by 2030.
SDG 4: Quality education
Despite recent progress, girls continue to face significant
disadvantages in education. As many as 48.1% remain out of school
in some regions. Data from 2015 show that 90.3% of girls of primary
school age were enrolled in school that year, up from 82.2% in 2000,
compared to boys at 91.9% in 2015 and 87.6% in 2000. The gender
gap has thus narrowed globally by 3.8 percentage points over the
last 15 years. At the same time, between 2000 and 2015, girls have
made significant strides compared to boys, reducing the primary
out-of-school rate, a key indicator of exclusion from education,
from 17.8% to 9.7% compared to a reduction from 12.1% to 8.1%
for boys. However, despite such progress, girls continue to face
significant disadvantages in education: It is estimated that 15 million
girls will never get the chance to learn to read or write in primary
school compared to about 10 million boys. In secondary education,
girls have nearly caught up with boys at the global level, with net
enrolment rates rising from 53.1% to 64.8% for girls compared to
an increase from 57.7% to 65.3% for boys between 2000 and 2015.
Nevertheless, in some regions adolescent girls are more likely than
boys to be excluded from education (though in others boys risk
being disadvantaged). In sub-Saharan Africa and in Western Asia
and Northern Africa, 48.1% and 25.7% of adolescent girls are out of
school compared to 43.6% and 21.7% of boys, respectively. Poverty
plays a key role in driving exclusion from education. The high rates
of illiteracy, among other factors, contribute to deprivations in
other areas, including inferior employment opportunities.
SDG 5: Gender equality
Removing discriminatory laws and putting in place legislation
that promotes gender equality is a prerequisite to achieving equality
between the sexes [14]. Over the past 25 years, progress has been
made through, for example, legislation prohibiting discrimination
based on sex with respect to inheritance and citizenship, laws that
guarantee equality within the family and laws that address domestic
violence [15]. However, while progress has been significant,
discriminatory constitutional and legislative provisions remain in
place in many countries, leaving women without protection or legal
basis to claim their rights.
Under international human rights law and agreements, notably
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform
for Action, States have committed to eliminating discrimination
against women and promoting gender equality, including in the
area of legal frameworks. The five-year review and appraisal of the
Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing + 5) established 2005 as the
target date for the repeal of laws that discriminate against women.
This deadline has come and gone and still data from 2016 show
that in 18 countries husbands can legally prevent their wives from
working, in 39 countries daughters and sons do not have equal
inheritance rights, laws protecting women from domestic violence
are lacking in 49 countries and in 37 countries rape perpetrators
are exempt from prosecution if they are married to or subsequently
marry the victim.
1 in 5 women and girls aged 15-49 reported experiencing
physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the
previous 12 months. Available comparable data from 87 countries
show that 19% of women and girls aged 15-49 have experienced
physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the past 12
months. Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) is the
region with the highest 12-month prevalence of intimate partner
violence (IPV), with up to 40% of women aged 15-49 reporting
having experienced this. Women in the same age group living in
Europe and Northern America had the lowest prevalence rate,
estimated at 6%.
Trend data on violence against women and girls are not widely
available. Surveys are often only available for one point in time or
use different methodologies, hindering comparability over time
between and within countries. Comparable data for 17 countries on
prevalence of physical or sexual IPV against women (aged 15-49) in
the 12 months prior to the survey suggests prevalence is generally
falling, especially in countries with the highest prevalence. In
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, there was a
significant decrease from 59% (2007) to 37% (2013-2014). Despite
the general downward trend, however, a statistically significant
increase in IPV prevalence is observed in 5 of the 17 countries. For
example, in the Dominican Republic, prevalence rose from 12% in
2007 to 16% in 2013.
Women and girls of all ages are vulnerable to violence. Based
on comparable data from 50 countries, an estimated 15 million
adolescent girls (aged 15-19) report experiencing forced sex in their
lifetime. Data from 28 countries also show that 9 in 10 adolescent
girls who have experienced forced sex report being victimized by
someone close or known to them. In addition, adolescent girls and
young women face the risk of violence in other settings such as in
school or on university campuses. It is estimated that 246 million
girls and boys globally have experienced school-related violence
and one in four girls report never feeling safe using school latrines.
In a survey across 27 universities in the United States in 2015,
23% of female undergraduate university students reported having
experienced sexual assault or sexual misconduct.
Every year, 15 million girls under the age of 18 are forced into
marriage. According to 2017 figures, an estimated 750 million
women and girls were married before the age of 18. Every year, 15
million girls under the age of 18 are forced into marriage. Unless
progress on this target is accelerated, the figure will grow to 16.5
million in 2030 and to over 18 million in 2050. Among regions with
available data, Central and Southern Asia has the highest rates of
child marriage, with 16 per cent of women currently aged 20-24
married before they turned 15 and 43 per cent before age 18, while
Eastern and South-eastern Asia and Europe and Northern America
have the lowest child marriage prevalence rates at 15% and 8%,
respectively. Similarly, these regions also register the lowest rates
of marriage before age 15, at 2% and 0%, respectively.
Women do 2.6 times the unpaid care and domestic work that
men do. Data from 83 countries and areas show that women
perform most of the domestic work, such as cooking and cleaning,
and are the main caregivers of children and adults needing care.
Women on average spend 18% of their day on total unpaid care and
domestic work, while men allocate 7% of their day. Disaggregated
by age, the time spent on unpaid care and domestic work is highest
among women aged 25-44, compared to women aged 15-24 and
45-64. This peak in the care burden for women coincides with the
period during which they are most likely to have young children
at home. Where data are available, the evidence points to women
with younger children doing more unpaid work, including care
work, than those without children. Differences among women also
vary by other factors including household income, whether there is
access to drinking water and fuel in the home, and policies related
to childcare.
The expectation that care work is a women’s responsibility
starts at an early age. A study of 33 countries shows that girls aged
7-14 do more household work than boys the same age and perform
other tasks, including care of younger siblings. The division of labor
into ‘women’s work’ and ‘men’s work’ continues for many women
as they start their own families and reverberates into the workforce
(SDG 8). Gender stereotypes influence the kind of work women
do outside of the home, the conditions under which that work is
offered and the payment they receive. It also impacts women’s
ability to engage in other aspects of public life, including political
participation (Target 5.5).
Despite progress, women remain under-represented in
parliaments worldwide. While there has been progress over the last
decade, women continue to be under-represented in parliaments
worldwide. Globally, women hold 23.7% of parliamentary seats, an
increase of 10 percentage points since 2000. At the country level,
only in Rwanda (61%) and the Plurinational State of Bolivia (53%)
do women occupy more seats in parliament than men. The use of
electoral gender quotas and other temporary special measures
has raised the shares of women’s representation in national
decision-making bodies in many countries. In sub-Saharan Africa,
quotas have been shown to increase women’s representation in
politics, while countries in the region with few quotas experienced
considerable setbacks in 2016. In Latin America, gender quotas,
coupled with quotas targeting racial minorities, have increased the
representation of traditionally marginalized groups. Yet, despite the
demonstrated impact, less than half of countries around the world
have some form of legislated quota in place. While quotas and other
TSMs are effective at promoting women’s political representation,
periodic reviews are needed to ensure they do not inadvertently
impose a ceiling on women’s representation [16].
Women are under-represented in senior and middle
management positions in all countries with available data. In terms
of decision-making power within government, large enterprises and
institutions, women are under-represented in senior management
and middle management positions. Despite some progress, the
proportion of women in senior and middle management remains
below 50% in all countries except the Dominican Republic, where
it reached almost 53% in 2015. Globally, less than a third of senior
and middle management positions are held by women. Due to
break in statistical series (e.g., based on revisions to methodology),
change in the female share of employment in senior and middle
management is difficult to assess with certainty. Nevertheless,
trend data, available for 35 countries, point to improvements in
some countries but falling shares in others. Over the last decade,
11 countries have seen the proportion of women in senior and
middle management increase by 7.4 percentage points on average.
However, the proportion declined (by more than 3 percentage points) in 8 countries. In another 16 countries, the change in
the share of women in managerial positions has not exceeded 3
percentage point.
Women and adolescent girls face many challenges and risks
with respect to their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Only 52% of women married or in a union freely make their own
decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care
at present, there is no comprehensive global database on laws
regarding sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights,
but data on women’s autonomy in decision-making regarding
their sexual and reproductive health and rights are available for
a subset of countries. Based on data from 45 countries, mostly in
sub-Saharan Africa, only 52% of women aged 15-49 there who
are married or in union make their own informed decisions about
sexual relations and the use of contraceptives and health services.
For adolescent girls, in addition to barriers to access, sexual
and reproductive health and rights are also compromised by lack
of comprehensive sexuality education and harmful practices.
Complications related to childbirth and pregnancy are among
the leading causes of death for girls aged 15-19. States have an
obligation to provide accessible, quality and affordable sexual and
reproductive health services. Yet, even when services are available,
cost is often a hurdle that women find difficult to overcome. In a
sample of 65 countries, cost was repeatedly identified as a factor
that hampered women’s ability to access health care. For example,
this was the case for 11% of women in Egypt and 86% in São Tomé
and Príncipe.
Data on women’s role in the agricultural sector point to deep
gender inequalities. Women are far less likely to be agricultural
land holders: Their share ranges from 0.8% in Saudi Arabia to 51%
in Cabo Verde, with an overall global share of 12.8%. Available
evidence shows that, when women own land, their plots are
generally smaller and of lower quality than men’s and their rights
to the land are less secure.
Women lag behind men in Internet access and mobile phone
ownership. Access to the Internet is increasing exponentially. The
technology is being used to communicate and share information
in school settings, in workplaces and at home. But women are not
being reached at the same pace as men. In 2017, the proportion of
women using the Internet globally was 5.9 percentage points lower
than men’s. Eastern and South- eastern Asia has the largest gender
gap: Only 28% of women had access to the Internet in comparison
to 42% of men. In Europe and Northern America, where Internet
penetration is high for both women and men, usage among women
(75%) was lower than among men (82%). Only in Latin America
and the Caribbean region were women’s usage rates higher than
men’s: 67% compared to 65%. Despite the potential benefits, an
estimated 1.7 billion women in low- and middle-income countries
do not own a mobile phone: Women are 14% less likely than men
to own one [17].
SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80%
of households without access to water on premises. Although
billons have gained access to basic water and sanitation services
since 2000, progress has been uneven and some of the gains are
increasingly fragile as water stress intensifies due to climate
change, unsustainable consumption and intensified agricultural
activity and land degradation [18]. In 2015, 2.1 billion people
lacked access to safely managed drinking water services (i.e., water
that is accessible on premises, available when needed and free
from contamination). In fact, it is estimated that only 71% of the
world’s population uses safely managed services. Oceania and sub-
Saharan Africa have the highest proportion of people who rely on
unsafe water sources, including surface water from rivers, streams
or ponds as well as unprotected open wells. Across the developing
world, urban access to basic water is higher than rural access and
high- income groups have significantly better access than lowincome
groups. In Pakistan, for example, 41% of urban households
have access to safely managed drinking water compared to 32% of
rural households; large differences also exist across income and
ethnic groups.
When safe drinking water is not available on premises, the
burden of water collection and treatment largely falls on women
and girls, who are forced to allocate significant amounts of time
and limit their engagement in other activities such as paid work
and education. Survey data for 61 countries show that in 80% of
households without access to water on premises, women and
girls are responsible for water collection. This is particularly true
for the poorest households in rural areas. In Benin, for instance,
the average time to reach a water source for those who do not
have it on premises is 21.5 minutes, yet this time varies widely
across households: In rural households it takes an average of 24
minutes, while in urban households it takes 16. Among the poorest
households, the average time is 26.5 minutes, compared to 12.5
among the richest.
SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy
Access to affordable and clean energy is crucial for combating
climate change as well as for promoting poverty alleviation,
sustainable growth, industrialization and access to water. Yet, 1.1
billion people worldwide lack access to electricity and more than
3 billion rely on combustible fuels such as coal, kerosene and
biomass (wood, charcoal, agricultural residues and animal dung)
as their primary source for cooking, lighting and other household
energy needs. More than half of all households globally rely on solid
fuels that put women’s health and livelihoods at risk. Across 92
countries, 64% of households rely on solid fuels, including wood,
crop wastes, charcoal, coal or dung. Often, these and other unclean
fuels (including kerosene) are used with inefficient technologies
such as open fires and leaky stoves that lead to high levels of
household air pollution [19].
The use of solid fuels for cooking and heating is highest in
sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, where 85.7% and 86.2% of
households, respectively, rely on it. Households in Northern Africa
and Western Asia generally show the lowest reliance on solid
fuels, at 12.4%. Wealth and rural-urban disparities are important
across regions, with low-income and rural households relying on
solid fuels to a much greater extent than high-income and urban households [20]. The health and environmental impacts of unclean
fuels and inefficient technologies can be devastating for women and
children, who usually spend more time in the home. In 2012, indoor
air pollution caused 4.3 million premature deaths, with women and
girls accounting for 6 out of every 10 of these. As a cause of noncommunicable
diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, lung cancer and heart disease, indoor air pollution has
become a major environmental health concern [21].
Besides the adverse health effects associated with indoor
air pollution, the reliance on solid fuels means that women and
girls spend a significant amount of time collecting fuel. Girls in
households that use solid fuels for cooking spend 18 hours a
week on average gathering fuel, compared to 5 hours a week in
households using clean fuels. A recent study of 22 African countries
estimates that women and girls spend an average of two hours
each day just collecting fuel, an arduous task that puts them at
risk of injury, animal attacks and physical and sexual violence and
impinges on girls’ education and leisure time.
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
Globally, the labor force participation rate among prime
working-age women (aged 25-54) stands at 63% compared to
94% among their male counterparts, with stark variations across
regions. However, gender gaps in LFPR vary tremendously across
regions and countries. The widest gaps, of nearly 60 percentage
points, are found in Northern Africa and Central, Southern and
Western Asia, where female participation rates are also less than
40%. Over the last 20 years, the global gender gap in LFPR among
prime working-age adults (aged 25-54) has remained relatively
unchanged with the notable exception of Latin America and the
Caribbean. Since the 1980s, more than 70 million women have
entered the labor force in this region, resulting in an increase in
their participation rate. Data since 1997 show the LFPR of women
aged 25-54 increased there from 57% to 68%. Modest increases in
the female prime working-age LFPR have also taken place in sub-
Saharan Africa and the gender gap has declined, but this has taken
place against a backdrop of falling participation rates for men.
Central and Southern Asia is the only region where prime workingage
women’s LFPR has fallen consistently since 1997, from 42% to
37%, according to the latest 2017 estimates. Countries in the region
recording the largest declines in LFPR of women aged 25-54 are
Kyrgyzstan (14.7 percentage points), Bangladesh (10.3 percentage
points) and India (8.1 percentage points).
SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Globally, less than a third of all research positions are held by
women. Globally, women represent 28.8% of researchers, but with
wide variations across regions. In developing countries, there are
three times more men than women researchers, while in developed
countries there are twice as many. At the regional level, there are
wide variations, with high levels of representation observed in
Australia and New Zealand (52%) and Latin America and the
Caribbean (47%) and low levels in Eastern and South-eastern
Asia, Central and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where
women make up, on average, 25%, 33% and 31% of researchers,
respectively. There are wide variations across countries, with
women registering the highest share of researchers in Thailand
(56%) and Venezuela (55%) but only 10% or less in countries such
as Nepal and Togo. Only about one in five countries have achieved
gender parity, whereby 45% to 55% of researchers are women.
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
Across countries, women are more likely than men to live on less
than 50% of the median income. The latest available estimates of
global inequality suggest little change in the distribution of income
among the different countries in the world. Global inequality has
fallen in recent years, but under-reporting of top incomes suggests
the downward trend is at best marginal. The Global Gini Index
stood at 70.5% in 2008 but could be as high as almost 76% when
adjusted for the under-reporting. It is estimated that between 1988
and 2008, 44% of the global income went to the top 5%, while the
poorest saw little income gains in either relative or absolute terms.
Global economic growth has contributed to a decline in poverty but
has done so unevenly, with polarizing effects on the distribution
of income within countries. While the extent of global inequality
between countries can be difficult to discern, the rise of inequality
within countries is well documented [22].
In Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
countries, the average income of the richest 10% of the population
has grown over the last 25 years from seven to nine times the
average income of the poorest 10%, and income inequality is at
its highest level for the last half century. In developing countries,
income inequality rose by 11% between 1990 and 2010. Inequality
within the household, for example, between women and men, is a
strong contributing factor to the overall income inequality in society,
accounting for up to 30% according to a recent study. Women
generally earn less than men, have access to fewer assets and
consequently have less wealth than men. Across countries, women
are more likely than men to live below 50% of the median income.
Data shows the differences by sex in the proportion of people living
on less than 50% of the median income for a select set of countries
for which data are available. The largest gender differences are
found in the Republic of Korea, South Africa and the United States.
In all the countries in the sample, single-mother households are
most likely to fall below the 50% median income mark. The United
States stands out with the highest proportion of single- mother
households (44%) falling below the 50% median income mark
(followed by Brazil and South Africa with 43% and Luxembourg,
Italy and Spain with 42%, 41% and 40%, respectively).
SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
At present, more than half of the world’s population lives in
urban settlements. Estimates suggest that by 2030, urban areas
will house 60% of all people, with one in every three living in cities
of at least half a million inhabitants. Women living in urban slums
endure many hardships, with basic needs such as access to clean
water and improved sanitation facilities often going unmet. In
2014, 23% of the urban population lived in slums, down from 28%
in the year 2000. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, more than half
(56%) of urban dwellers continue to live in slum conditions. In 67%
of the countries with available data, more than half of the female
urban population aged 15-49 lives in slums [23].
That is, more than 50% of urban women live in conditions
where they lack at least one of the following: access to clean water,
improved sanitation facilities, durable housing or sufficient living
area. Many of these women endure not just one deprivation but have
several of these four basic needs unmet. In 30% of countries-most
of them located in sub-Saharan Africa-more than 5% of all women
living in cities had three of these four basic needs unmet at once.
In Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar,
Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Uganda and United Republic
of Tanzania, more than 10% did. In Chad, the proportion of urban
women who lacked access to three of the four amounted to a
staggering 24.8%. In countries where slum housing is particularly
widespread among urban women, the two most prevalent forms
of unmet household needs are a lack of durable housing materials
and lack of improved sanitation facilities, which impose significant
risks and burdens on women, as they spend more time in the home
and are thus more exposed to hygiene and health risks. Although
not as pervasive as lack of sanitation and durable housing, the
inaccessibility of clean water and the overcrowding experienced by
many slum dwellers make families more vulnerable to illness and
increase the time burden on women in charge of water collection
and caring for the sick.
SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
Unsustainable production and consumption patterns are the
key drivers behind the progressive depletion of natural resources
and the rapid advance of climate change, which are taking a
disproportionate toll on the livelihoods of women and girls,
particularly in developing countries. However, these take place
in an increasingly unequal world where as many as 767 million
people live on less than US$2 a day and struggle to cover basic
consumption needs. Travel ‘choices’ and their sustainability are
shaped by gender and other inequalities. Around the world, people
are consuming more goods and leaving greater material footprints.
Globally, per capita, this increased from 8 metric tons in 2000 to
10.1 metric tons in 2010.
It increased in almost all regions, but the material footprint per
capita of developed regions far exceeds that of developing regions.
In other words, much of the raw material extracted globally goes to
serve the consumption needs and habits of individuals in developed
regions. Passenger cars, which are heavily consumed goods, leave
large material and carbon footprints and are a major contributor
to air pollution. Moreover, driving is not only an unsustainable but
also a highly unequal travel ‘choice’. For example, while 85-89% of
households own a car in countries such as Italy, Germany and the
United States, this is true for only 2-3% of households in Bangladesh,
Uganda and Viet Nam. Even in emerging economies such as Mexico
and South Africa, only about a third of households own a car. Within
developing countries, too, travelling by car is a choice available
mostly to a privileged minority. In Brazil, for example, two thirds of
high-income households own a car compared to only one quarter of
low-income households.
While systematic sex-disaggregated data on modes of transport
is lacking, existing evidence suggests that women are less likely to
drive than men and more reliant on public transport. Where reliable
and affordable public transport options are lacking, the main
mode of transport for poor people, and for women in particular, is
walking. Data from Johannesburg-where race and income strongly
correlate-show, for example, that white women and men drive cars
for over 50% of their trips. African and colored women, in contrast,
literally never have a car available to drive (although about 7% of
African men and over 20% of colored men do) and are dependent
instead on walking (for just under 40% of trips).
SDG 13: Climate action
Human-induced climate change is having a profound impact
on the natural ecosystems on which all life depends. Significant
changes in the temperature of land and water bodies are increasing
the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and
natural disasters, including droughts, fires and floods. This has a
disproportionately negative impact on women and children, who
are 14 times as likely as men to die during a disaster. Women’s
livelihoods are also impacted by the adverse effects of climate
change, including through reduced crop and forest yields and
acidification of the ocean, which negatively affects the harvesting of
marine life. Globally, women are heavily engaged in agriculture (SDG
2), are largely in charge of foraging (SDG 7 and 15) and fetching
water (SDG 6) and play an important role in small-scale fisheries
and seafood marketing (SDG 14)-all areas facing disruption.
Mitigating actions are urgently needed to protect the health and
livelihoods of all people adversely impacted by climate change.
Poor women’s livelihoods are compromised by shrinking
agricultural yields. Those who are heavily dependent on local
natural resources for their livelihood, such as poor women living
in rural areas and indigenous populations, are disproportionately
affected by climate change. Globally, one fourth of all economically
active women are engaged in agriculture. Especially in heavily
agriculture-dependent Asia and Africa, the majority of employed
women work in agriculture, and agriculture-related occupations
represent a relatively larger share of women’s employment than
men. Projections indicate that by 2050, climate change will have
reduced the production of rice, wheat and maize by 15%, 49% and
9%, respectively, in South Asia and by 15%, 36% and 7% in sub-
Saharan Africa, resulting in higher food prices and heightened food
insecurity.
Reductions in crop yields will also affect food distribution
within households, with potentially gender-unequal nutritional
outcomes. The time needed for food production, processing and
preparation, to which women already contribute 60-70% of their
total labor time, is also likely to increase as a result of shrinking
agricultural yields. Many female agricultural workers also face
severe inequalities in their access to land, credit and essential
inputs such as fertilizers, irrigation, technology, information and
markets. Thus, climate change adaptation and mitigation practices
requiring the use of technical advances on heat-resistant and waterconserving
crop varieties are also less likely to reach them.
SDG 14: Life below water
The sustainable management of oceans, seas and marine
resources is essential for the protection of our planet and supports the
livelihoods of an estimated 12% of the world’s population,
or nearly 1 billion people. Oil spills, plastic waste, raw sewage,
pollutants from industrial runoff and methylmercury from coal
burning and mining are increasingly contaminating the world’s
oceans and inland waters. These pollutants impinge on women’s
and men’s livelihoods and health as well as the health of their
children. However, there is generally a lack of data and analysis of
gender in relation to marine resources. In fact, none of the targets of
SDG 14 address gender equality or the relation of marine resources
to the livelihoods of women and men, including the role they can
play in food security, employment and poverty reduction [24].
Fishing and aquaculture are critical for women’s livelihoods,
but occupational segregation looms large. Widespread occupational
segregation exists in the fishing and aquaculture industries. While
men are mostly involved in fish and aquaculture harvesting (81%
of workers in 2014), women are overwhelmingly involved in
secondary fields such as fish processing, marketing and fishing
machinery maintenance (90%), which are often low paid or unpaid,
and they face significant barriers to accessing financial resources
and entrepreneurial support. The degree of women’s reliance
on fishing and aquaculture, both inland and open water, varies
widely across regions. For instance, 20.3% of those involved in
fisheries and aquaculture in Oceania are women, while the figure
is 0.4% in Northern African and Western Asia. Women are a much
greater share of those involved in onshore tasks, for example, in
some regions, up to 60% of those involved in seafood marketing
and 72% of those involved in aquaculture production are women.
Lack of access to resources, including technology to keep fish fresh,
means that women sustain large losses post-harvest. Furthermore,
management is overwhelmingly male-dominated. In the maritime
industry, which includes jobs from fishermen and brokers to
marine administration and pollution mitigation specialists, women
comprise only 2% of the workforce and are largely absent from
decision-making positions. In 2016, only one of the top 100 seafood
companies was run by a woman, and 54% of all seafood companies
analyzed had no women on the board. Addressing the specific
constraints faced by women engaged in fisheries and the fishing
industry should be an integral component of strategies to achieve
SDG 14. Evening out the power imbalances could also enable
women to play a key role in marine conservation.
SDG 15: Life on Land
Women, particularly those from landless and land-poor
households, are most affected by deforestation. It is estimated that
1.6 billion people around the world depend on forests for their
livelihoods. Between 1990 and 2015, forest areas diminished from
31.7% of the Earth’s total landmass to 30.7%, mostly due to the
conversion of forest land into agriculture and infrastructure. This
amounts to a loss of 3.3 million hectares per year between 2010 and
2015 alone. Due to their lack of access to private land, poor rural
women depend more than men on common pool resources such as
forests and commons. Their responsibility for meeting household
food and fuel needs means that they are particularly affected by
the depletion of forests. A study in Malawi found deforestation was
forcing elderly women to walk more than 10 kilometers a day to
collect fuel wood. In Zambia, women spend on average 800 hours a
year on the same task, and in the United Republic of Tanzania, they
spend 300 hours a year. The expropriation of land for commercial
purposes, which has intensified in recent years, is exacerbating this
problem. Women’s specific knowledge and dependence on forests
makes them key contributors to forest conservation. Research
shows that the presence of a critical mass of women (between 25-
33%) in community forestry institutions has a positive impact on
forest condition and regeneration and strengthens their political
agency [25].
SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Female homicides, rape and other forms of violence against
women are pervasive during and after conflict. Although the vast
majority of global homicide victims are men, almost half of all
women victims of intentional homicide in 2012-the latest year
with available data-died at the hands of an intimate partner or
family member, compared to 6% of the murdered men: Almost
44,000 women were victims of intentional homicide by an intimate
partner that year, compared to 20,000 men [26,27]. According to
the latest available estimates, the global female homicide rate
stands at 2.3 per 100,000, although figures vary widely across and
within regions. The largest regional average is registered in Latin
America and the Caribbean, with the highest rates in countries in
Central America. High rates of female homicide are also observed in
sub-Saharan Africa, with conflict and post- conflict countries in the
region showing some of the highest rates [28].
In times of conflict, rates of homicide and other forms of violent
crime increase significantly. While men are more likely to be killed
on the battlefield, women are disproportionately subjected to sexual
violence, singled out for abduction, tortured and forced to leave their
homes. Targeted killings, rape and other forms of violence against
women are often used as weapons of war. In conflict and postconflict
countries, the proportions of female homicide victims are
usually larger than the regional averages. For instance, the conflict
or post-conflict States of Lesotho in sub-Saharan Africa, Papua New
Guinea in Oceania and Kyrgyzstan in Central and Southern Asia are
all at the top of their regional distributions.
Many conflict and post-conflict countries (Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Nepal and Uganda, among others) are also those with
some of the highest sexual violence rates worldwide. The likelihood
of sexual violence being committed by police or military personnel
is also higher during and after conflict. In Liberia, for instance, where
two civil wars have claimed the lives of thousands and forced many
to flee, the share of victims of sexual violence reporting having been
assaulted by national security personnel surpasses 8%, the largest
among the countries with available data.
SDG 17: Partnership for goals
Achieving the SDGs for women and girls requires an enabling
environment and a stronger commitment to partnership and
cooperation. In 2012, financial resources flowing out of developing
countries were 2.5 times the amount of aid flowing in, and gender
allocations paled in comparison to these outflows. Target 17.3 calls
for increased mobilization of financial resources for developing
countries. Monitoring this target from a gender equality perspective
requires assessing the extent to which financial resources from
multiple sources are being mobilized to support developing
countries and how much of these resources are designated for
gender equality commitments. However, of all the resources coming
into developing countries, overseas development aid (ODA) is the
only one that can currently be tracked from a gender perspective
[29,30]. Of the US$114 billion in ODA commitments coming into
developing countries in 2014-2015, US$40.2 billion had a focus
on gender equality. The sectors that received the most for genderrelated
programming were government and civil society (18%),
education (10%) and population and reproductive health (10%).
Much less was committed to gender equality in the economic
and productive sectors-for example, only 2% each were committed
for business and banking. While ODA remains an important
source of aid to low-income countries, non-ODA flows have gained
importance over the past years. Data shows diverse sources of
financing coming in, but equally important is the amount that is
simultaneously flowing out. In 2012, developing countries received
US$1.3 trillion in aid, investment and income from abroad but
US$3.3 trillion flowed out in the form of interest payments on foreign
debt, foreign investment, repatriated income and capital flight. It is
estimated that 84% of these net resource transfers are accounted
for by unrecorded capital flight, including illicit outflows. This loss
in resources reduces the capacity of countries to transform their
economies, protect their environments and invest in their people.
Aid committed to gender equality, while important, is too limited
to compensate for the loss in revenue that could otherwise have
been invested in infrastructure and services that benefit women
and girls.
Progress on gender equality has been highly uneven across the
different dimensions of the 2030 Agenda. In some areas, such as
girls’ access to education, global improvement is undeniable yet
insufficient, often leaving behind women and girls in the poorest
households (SDG 4). In areas such as labor force participation (SDG
8) and innovation and knowledge creation (SDG 9), significant
gender gaps remain, and progress has been minimal. In other
cases, such as maternal mortality (SDG 3), progress is too slow
and uneven to achieve SDG Target 3.1 by 2030. Similarly, while
progress has been made towards eliminating the practice of female
genital mutilation (FGM) (SDG 5), this is not enough to keep up
with population growth, meaning the number of women and girls
undergoing FGM is likely to rise over the next 15 years.
A revolution in democratic governance is needed for women
and girls to claim their rights and shape sustainable development.
Spaces for public debate and democratic decision-making must
be created to define national priorities, identify what is working
well and where the gaps are, agree on pathways for transformative
change and determine the roles and responsibilities of different
actors [31].
At the global level, open consultation throughout the post-2015
process engaged and mobilized people, countries and organizations
to identify common priorities and navigate tensions. Women’s
rights organizations were extremely effective in building coalitions
and alliances across different interest groups to put gender equality
at the centre of the new agenda. Such participatory processes and
strategic alliances are also needed to ensure effective and genderresponsive
implementation, follow-up and review. The systematic
monitoring of gender equality outcomes, policies and processes
at the national, regional and global levels can contribute to
catalyzing action, translating global commitments into results and
strengthening accountability for actions or omissions by different
stakeholders [32,33].
Despite increasing attention to gender statistics in recent
decades, the report identifies pressing challenges that stand in the
way of systematic, gender-responsive monitoring. These include
the uneven coverage of gender indicators across goals and targets;
the absence of internationally agreed standards for data collection;
and the uneven availability of gender statistics across countries and
over time [34].
Delivering on the gender equality commitments of the 2030
Agenda requires mobilizing and allocating sufficient resources for
policies and programmers that contribute to their achievement.
As countries roll out their national implementation strategies, it
is paramount that investments in these and other strategic areas
are prioritized. It is also important that policies and programmers
are aligned with the principles of the 2030 Agenda, including
human rights principles such as equality, non-discrimination and
universality [35,36].
Gender-responsive processes and institutions are critical to
turn the gender equality promises of the 2030 Agenda into action
and to ensure that progress is monitored in a transparent and
accountable way. States have committed to follow-up and review
processes that are open, inclusive, participatory and transparent,
as well as people-centered, gender- sensitive, respectful of human
rights and focused on those who are furthest behind.
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