Gender as an SDG Accelerator in Central Asia

As warned in the latest issue of the Sustainable Development Report (2023), progress on the achievement of SDG5 is currently “seriously off track”. The report shows that across countries and regions, women and girls face tremendous structural barriers that impact all aspects of their lives. For this reason, it is of paramount importance for governments to “double down” on their efforts, including by radically overhauling international financial rules. The report’s authors argue that $500 billion need to be mobilized per year by 2025 to fund policy integration, and that it is of paramount importance for countries to increase their commitment to multilateral integration, and sustainable development.

Global commitments

The 2023 Report of the Secretary-General (Special Edition) on the progress towards SDG highlights that if we do not change the way things are going it will take 286 years to close gender gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments. It consequently calls on the governments to advance concrete and targeted policies and actions to reduce inequality, with a particular focus on advancing the rights of women and girls and empowering the most vulnerable.

Actions are needed to accelerate progress, including through the promotion of laws, policies, budgets and institutions that advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. Those are enshrined in the global commitments, including in SDG5. Goal 5 has nine (9) targets and fourteen (14) indicators, focusing in particular on: combating harmful social norms and patriarchal stereotypes perpetuating gender disparities; eliminating violence against women and girls; addressing early and forced marriage; advancing women’s participation in the economy and society; ensuring equal opportunities for leadership; and securing universal access to sexual and reproductive rights. While SDG5 focuses on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, a twin-track approach, a globally recognized strategy built on gender-targeted interventions and gender-integrated efforts, where gender dimensions and perspectives are mainstreamed into all the 17 SDGs through 54 gender-specific indicators is a must.

Accelerating SDGs

The achievement of positive and long-lasting change in gender equality has proven to generate positive effects on economic growth and labour productivity (SDG8), health (SDG3) and education (SDG4), multiplying the efforts for poverty reduction (SDG1). Gender equality is also critical for attaining food security (SDG2) and addressing climate change (SDG13), while adopting a gender responsive approach contributes to strengthening resilience to climate-related disasters and ensuring a more sustainable management of natural resources. Finally, providing equal opportunities for women’s participation in decision-making processes is beneficial for ensuring more peaceful and inclusive communities (SDG 16). Moreover, to realize the potential of SDG5 as an accelerator for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, a transformative approach based on the use of factual evidence and data needs to be adopted. Currently, only 47 percent of data required to track progress on SDG5 is available. Sex-, gender- and age-disaggregated data allows to identify target audience and to better address their needs, while an intersectional approach to data allows the development of tailored analyses and interventions. Indeed, gender intersects with other factors in defining different conditions under different circumstances, which need to be taken into account when developing policies and strategies. Applying a gender lens is also a way to question power relations, and reveal the root causes of inequalities that put at risk the overall progress. For these reasons, all priority areas (from climate change to digital transformation, and so forth) must ensure the equal participation of women and girls, from different backgrounds and experiencing different needs and barriers, in decision-making processes, and their full access to and control over assets and resources.

Measures for consideration

The socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately hit women and girls and further amplified gender inequalities. Disproportionate unemployment and livelihood losses, education setbacks, increased burdens of unpaid care work, and rising gender-based violence rates are only some of the challenges that women and girls have experienced with more acuity since the start of the pandemic. Women were also disproportionately exposed to COVID-19, accounting for up to 70 percent of the healthcare workforce worldwide, and were more prone to completely exit the labour force (this is true particularly for mothers). For women and girls who experience various and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence based on their ethnicity, age, income, location, disability status, or other factors, the negative effects were exacerbated. Despite this, only a third of policy measures adopted by governments worldwide and in the Europe and Central Asia region to tackle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic integrated a gender lens.

Tackling the underlying causes of gender inequalities which substantially contribute to the stalling progress on the achievement of the Agenda 2030, requires concrete actions on different fronts, starting from the adoption of gender responsive laws, policies, institutions, programming, and budgets across different areas. Currently, in the Europe and Central Asia region, significant challenges remain in the achievement of SDG5, while progress is only moderately increasing. This is in line with global trends: worldwide, 380 million women and girls still live under the poverty line (SDG1), one in three women and girls experience moderate or severe food insecurity (SDG2), 102 million women and girls of reproductive age live in areas where abortion is prohibited (SDG3), more than 800,000 women and girls die every year because of the lack of clean water (SDG6), and 49 percent of women living in urban areas report not feeling safe when walking alone at night (SDG11). Understanding that without advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls, the achievement of all 17 SDGs is in peril, is key to developing effective strategies to accelerate overall progress, address current blind spots and prevent backsliding, with the ultimate aim of leaving no one behind and achieving the 2030 Agenda more broadly.

The 2023 Report of the Secretary-General (Special Edition) on the progress towards SDG points to the need for commitments to invest in women and girls and leave no one behind, notably by:

Partnerships for achieving the SDGs

To effectively achieve SDG5 and all the other Goals, it is imperative for governments to actively engage and collaborate with a broad spectrum of partners. Among these, civil society organizations (CSOs), academia, and media play pivotal roles in propelling progress. CSOs serve as catalysts for gender equality movements and contributing to transformative shifts in social norms. With their grounded presence within local communities, CSO leaders offer specialized expertise and an intimate comprehension of the nuanced needs and realities faced by women and girls across diverse experiences. Similarly, academia provides essential insights through cutting-edge research and trend analyses of the most pressing issues facing women and girls, offering guidance on gender-sensitive data collection and evidence-based recommendations. These inputs guarantee that policies are comprehensive, inclusive, and relevant for all. By collaborating with media outlets, governments can provide a platform for dialogues with the public on gender-related concerns, initiate awareness campaigns underscoring the significance of gender equality, and harness the narrative power to spotlight successful case studies of policies that advance gender equality. Such collaborations can be instrumental in developing guidelines and ethical benchmarks for gender-sensitive communications across both traditional and digital media platforms. Through consistent engagement with a diverse set of stakeholders, governments can enact policies that dismantle systemic barriers that continue to hold women and girls back, enabling them to unleash their fullest potential. This concerted approach empowers governments to embrace an informed, holistic, and intersectional strategy approach to achieving SDG5 and beyond, facilitating coordinated and innovative solutions that ensure women’s and men’s well-being, safety, and equitable access to education and employment opportunities.