From the fight against poverty to access to education, through political representation or economic opportunities, the world “is failing women and girls”, deplores the UN in a report on gender inequalities. women published Thursday.
The UN Women report reviews the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by UN Member States in 2015 and intended to build a better future for all by 2030.
And the observation is bitter. “When you look at the data, it shows that the world is failing to advance and achieve gender equality. This is becoming an increasingly distant objective,” Sarah Hendriks, deputy executive director of the UN agency, told AFP.
Hundreds of millions of victims of violence
One of the SDGs, specifically dedicated to gender equality, aims to end discrimination, eliminate violence against women, forced marriages and genital mutilation, share domestic work, guarantee access to sexual health or even ensure effective participation in political and economic life.
But “halfway to 2030, the world is failing women and girls,” and most of the targets for this specific goal are off track, the report points out.
Each year, 245 million women over the age of 15 are victims of physical violence from their partner, one in five women is married before the age of 18, women carry out 2.8 hours of unpaid domestic work every day more than men and they represent only 26.7% of parliamentarians.
We would need to invest 360 billion dollars
To change the course of things, $360 billion in additional investments would be needed each year in around fifty developing countries representing 70% of the world’s population, the agency estimates. A sum that “would encourage all” of the SDGs, underlines Sarah Hendriks.
“We know what needs to be done and the world needs to pay for it. If we make gender equality a specific development objective, the trajectory can change,” she insists, calling for “placing women and girls at the center.”
In July, the UN estimated that the SDGs were “in danger”, calling for a “rescue plan” a few weeks before a summit dedicated to this issue on September 18 and 19.
According to the UN, at the current rate, 575 million people will still live in extreme poverty in 2030, far from the hoped-for eradication. However, 342 million (60%) of them will be women, that is to say approximately one in twelve women in the world.