It’s been 30 years since world leaders meeting in Beijing laid down a visionary blueprint for action to advance the rights of all women and girls.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted unanimously at the Fourth World Conference on Women, established a global roadmap and reinforced the world’s commitment to gender equality as a global goal.
And yet...
Thirty years of progress — with more work ahead
Despite progress, the economic inequalities women face remain deeply woven into societies and institutions, which can exacerbate other challenges that they face, such as domestic violence. From inadequate social protections like paid parental leave and childcare services, which prevent women from joining or staying in the labour force, to higher tax rates for second – often female – earners, a range of policies are negatively impacting women’s lives.
UNDP’s Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions is a voluntary programme in over 100 public institutions in more than 30 countries. It helps institutions, from environment ministries to finance and tax authorities, strengthen policy reforms, better meeting the needs of women, in all their diversity.
Making economies work for women
About 3.9 billion women face legal barriers to their economic security, while at the same time, women do at least two and a half times more unpaid work than men. Through its flagship Equanomics programme, UNDP supports countries as they expand care systems, reform fiscal policies and generate data to inform policy change.
Whether it is supporting firefighters in Indonesia, skills training in Moldova or solar energy programmes in Bolivia, our donors and partners are behind UNDP investments that are unleashing the economic power of women and helping to build a greener, more sustainable and more inclusive world for all.
Investing in an equal world
While progress has been made, there is still a long way to go. Some 612 million women and girls were living in the brutal context of armed conflict in 2023 –with conflict-related sexual violence skyrocketing by 50 percent, while 1 in every 10 women in the world live in extreme poverty.
A global backlash against women’s and girls’ rights is also threatening to reverse hard-won gains. Women have two thirds of the legal rights of men, and women leaders and human rights defenders face increasing violence, surveillance and harassment.
And despite vast global wealth, women are being asked to accept that it will take hundreds of years before they can take their place as equals.
The choices the world is making mean it will take about 137 years to end extreme poverty for women and 257 years to close the gender pay gap.
This is not only unjust but also comes at a high price for everybody. Instead of continuing to condemn even more generations of women and girls to poverty, UNDP is calling for greater investment and action to help build a more just and equal world.
Read the rest of this article on the UNDP website.
