An additional $360bn (£290bn) a year is needed to achieve gender equality by 2030, according to UN Women, which blames a “lacklustre commitment” for the limited progress globally.
In a snapshot report, published on Thursday, the agency said the world was failing women and girls and was “way off track” to meet the 2030 deadline for gender targets set in the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), which were agreed by UN member states in 2015.
Tangible progress is prevented by “deeply rooted biases against women, manifesting in unequal access to sexual and reproductive health, unequal political representation, economic disparities and a lack of legal protection”, it said.
Of the 120 countries where data is available, 67 don’t have laws that prohibit discrimination against women and 28 are yet to implement laws granting women equal rights in marriage and divorce. Only 41 countries are deemed to have met, almost met or be close to meeting their targets on gender equality.
Progress to end maternal deaths has stalled since 2015, while one in five women are married before they turn 18. No country is close to eradicating domestic violence. Each year, 245 million women and girls over the age of 15 will experience physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner.
Women hold only 26.7% of seats in parliaments around the world.
Unless the pace of change increases, by 2050 women will still spend more than 9% more time or 2.3 more hours a day on unpaid care work than men. They will also hold only about 30% of management positions.
“That’s shocking,” said Ginette Azcona, the lead author of the report. “When we look at the current state of affairs in terms of gender equality around the world, we are seeing that progress has not been fast enough, and it’s been uneven across countries.
“It’s been a lacklustre commitment to gender equality that we need to change and we need to change it now. And there is a price tag if we are serious about gender equality. And when you look at the data, what we find is that the resources going to gender equality programming are very low, but they are also erratic, they’re not sustained over time.”
The report comes ahead of a high-profile summit to assess progress towards the SDGs, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York this month. The SDGs aim to address the global challenges of poverty, inequality, the climate crisis, peace and justice. The meeting will herald what the UN says will be “the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs”.
