Progress on women’s rights and the Sustainable Development Goals – Takeaways from UN Women’s Gender Snapshot 2024
Gender equality is good for people, planet and peace, and investing in women and gender equality is urgent. If we don’t, it will cost us. That is the resounding message of UN Women’s latest flagship report, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024.
With only six years remaining until the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations in 2015 and endorsed by governments everywhere, UN Women’s new flagship report highlights gender equality trends and points to six actions that could be game changers.
The report comes at a crucial juncture, as world leaders meet at the Summit of the Future during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly to discuss priorities, and as the world gears up to mark the 30th anniversary of the visionary Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the blueprint for women’s and girls’ rights adopted by 189 governments in 1995.
Here are some key takeaways from the Gender Snapshot report.
1. The economic cost of gender inequality: The world is missing out on $10 trillion every year by not investing in women’s rights.
Gender inequality affects economic growth, and every other aspect of sustainable development. The report shows that while there has been some progress, the pace is too slow, and there is a very high cost of not realizing women’s rights.
- Failing to to invest in education and training for young people, especially girls, costs the world over $10 trillion, shows latest UNESCO data. In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost rises to $210 billion – more than 10 per cent of the GDP in the region.
- Closing the digital gender divide is especially crucial for low- and middle-income countries, as it could save an estimated $500 billion over the next five years.
2. With the right policies and investments, achieving equality is within reach, and there is evidence that it makes for a better world and healthier economies.
- Countries with domestic violence laws reported lower rates of intimate partner violence (5 per cent), compared to those without such laws (16 per cent).
- Closing gender gaps in farm productivity and food system wages would increase global GDP by nearly $1 trillion and save 45 million people from food insecurity.
- When households are connected to electricity, women are 9 to 23 percentage points more likely to work outside the home, increasing their income and contributing to their families and economies.
- Investing in the care economy could create nearly 300 million jobs by 2035 and increase women’s labour force participation.
3. Progress on gender equality globally is too slow to achieve SDG 5 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 aspirational goals set by the United Nations in 2015 and endorsed by governments everywhere. Gender equality – the fifth goal – underpins all other outcomes. Although some progress has been achieved, the world is off track to achieve SDG 5 by 2030.
Key takeaways from this year’s Gender Snapshot on SDG 5–gender equality–progress:
- Positive legal reforms: Between 2019 and 2023, 56 positive legal reforms were recorded, such as establishing gender quotas for women’s political participation, removing gender discrimination in nationality laws, promoting non-discrimination in the labour code, guaranteeing property rights for women, and domestic violence legislation, among others.
- Persistent gender gaps in legislation: None of the 120 countries with data have all the necessary laws to prohibit discrimination, prevent violence, ensure equal rights in marriage and divorce, guarantee equal pay, and provide full access to sexual and reproductive health.
- Gender-based violence: 1 in 8 women and girls aged 15 to 49 experienced intimate partner violence in the past year. At the current rate, girls will continue to be married as children until 2092.
- Political representation: In 2024, women held only 27 per cent of seats in national parliaments and 35.5 per cent of seats in local governments, and 107 countries have never had a woman Head of State.
The SDGs span issues that impact everyone’s life, everywhere – from poverty, hunger, equal pay, and health to climate change, peace and security, economic growth and more. Gender inequality is holding back progress in all these areas.
4. Six investment priorities to unlock change
Investing in gender equality is about achieving a world where all women and girls are empowered and can enjoy their human rights.
The path to equal is within reach, and the dividends are too high to miss.
The political resolve to act and invest is urgent.
The Gender Snapshot Report outlines six investment priorities to turn the tide:
- Ensuring women farmers have access to land and resources, climate-resilient agroecology for sustainable food systems and food security for all.
- Clean energy transition that includes gender-responsive financing and puts women in leadership.
- Closing the digital gender divide, addressing digital violence, and increasing women’s and girls’ leadership in science, technology and innovation.
- Making sure girls go to and stay in school to close the gender gaps in education and opportunities.
- Investing in social protection systems and the care economy to reduce poverty and create green jobs.
- Climate policymaking led by women, redistributing resources to build their resilience to climate change and loss of biodiversity, and providing reparations for harms caused by carbon emissions.
Read the full report for the state of gender equality and take action now.