From the fight against poverty to access to education, political representation or economic opportunities, the world is failing women and girls, the UN says in a report on gender inequality published on Thursday.
The UN Women report reviews the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by UN member states in 2015 and designed to build a better future for all by 2030, and comes to a bitter conclusion.
“When you look at the data, it shows that the world is failing to advance and achieve gender equality," Sarah Hendriks, acting Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, told French news agency AFP. "It’s becoming an increasingly distant goal.”
One of the SDGs, specifically dedicated to gender equality, aims to end discrimination, eliminate violence against women, forced marriages and genital mutilation, achieve shared domestic work, guarantee access to sexual health and ensure effective participation in political and economic life.
Yet every year, 245 million women over the age of 15 are victims of physical violence at the hands of their partners, one in five women is married before the age of 18, women perform 2.8 hours more unpaid domestic chores than men every day and they account for only 26.7% of members of parliament.
To change the course of events, $360 billion in additional investment would be needed each year in around 50 developing countries representing 70% of the world’s population, the UN agency estimates.
According to the UN, at the current rate, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, a long way from the hoped-for eradication. About 342 million (60%) of them will be women. That's roughly 1 in 12 women in the world.
