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UN Women report urges immediate global action to close critical gender gaps

UN Women Australia

Investing in women and girls and ending discrimination are key to fulfilling the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

 

Sydney, 17 September 2024 - The latest edition of Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024, was launched in New York today by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and reveals that progress has been made worldwide on gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. Women hold one in every four parliamentary seats, a significant rise from a decade ago. The share of women and girls living in extreme poverty has finally dipped below 10 per cent following steep increases during the COVID-19 pandemic years. Up to 56 legal reforms have been enacted worldwide that seek to close the gender gap since the first Gender Snapshot.

 

However, the data presented in the report shows that none of the indicators and sub-indicators of Sustainable Development Goal 5—the goal for gender equality—are being met. At current rates, gender parity in parliaments remains a distant dream, potentially not achievable until 2063. It will still take a staggering 137 years to lift all women and girls out of poverty. And about 1 in 4 girls continue to be married as children.

 

As world leaders prepare for the Summit of the Future on September 22-23, they are urged to forge new international consensus to close the gender gap, achieve gender equality, and advance the empowerment and rights of all women and girls – a distant but achievable goal.

 

"Today’s report reveals the undeniable truth: progress is achievable, but is not fast enough,” said Sima Bahous, UN Women Executive Director. “We need to keep pushing forward for gender equality to fulfill the commitment made by world leaders in the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing almost 30 years ago and the 2030 Agenda. Let us unite to continue dismantling the barriers women and girls face and forge a future where gender equality is not just an aspiration but a reality.” 

 

 

The report stresses the astonishing cost of gender inequality. For example, the annual global cost of countries failing to adequately educate their young populations is over USD 10 trillion. Low- and middle-income countries can lose another USD 500 billion in the next five years by not closing the digital gender gap.

 

"The costs of inaction on gender equality are immense, and the rewards of achieving it are far too great to ignore. We can only achieve the 2030 Agenda with the full and equal participation of women and girls in every part of society,” said Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

 

The report includes a set of recommendations to eliminate gender inequality across all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals such as legal reform, highlighting that countries with domestic violence legislation have lower rates of intimate partner violence – 9.5 per cent compared to 16.1 per cent for those without.

 

The report calls for decisive action at the Summit of the Future taking place 22-23 September, and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 2025; to increase investments and end discrimination against women and girls; and to fulfill the promise of the 2030 Agenda.

For more information on the report:

https://unwomen.org.au/publications-and-resources/progress-on-the-sustainable-development-goals-the-gender-snapshot-2024/ 

Key Facts:

- 1 in 8 women and girls aged 15 to 49 experienced intimate partner violence in the past year.
- Countries with domestic violence laws have lower rates (9.5 compared to 16.2%).
- 18.7% of women aged 20 to 24 were married before age 18; the rate soars 14.4 percentage points higher in conflict-affected areas.
- Over 230 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation.
- A 15% increase in the practice over the last eight years has affected 30 million more girls and women.
- Women spend 2.5 times more hours on unpaid care and domestic work than men, with even higher ratios in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, Central and Southern Asia, and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
- Women hold 26.9% of parliamentary seats and 35.5% of local government seats.
- Only 56% of married or in-union women make their own health decisions, with significant disparities across countries and regions.
- Women own less than 40% of agricultural land in 32 out of 49 countries.
- Nearly half of 68 countries with available data lack sufficient legal protections for women's rights to land ownership and control.
- Women are less likely to own a mobile phone in 58 of 90 countries. Addressing affordability, literacy and safety can help close this gap.
- Only 26% of 105 countries and areas with data for 2018 - 2021 have systems tracking budget allocations for gender equality and making them publicly available.

About us:

About UN Women Australia

UN Women Australia is a non-profit organisation committed to achieving gender equality for all women, empowering them to contribute their unique knowledge and skills to help create a better world for themselves, their families and their communities. Working in over 100 countries across the globe, UN Women runs vital programs that provide women and girls access to technology, training programs and safe spaces, empowering women and girls to obtain an education, become leaders in their community and build a brighter, more equal future for us all.

Contact details:

UN Women Media Team:  media.team@unwomen.org

Bingjie Wang, UN Department of Global Communications, bingjie.wang@un.org

Helen Rosengren, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, rosengrenh@un.org

UN Women Australia: Jessica.lewington@unwomen.org.au