Gender Equality

Building on data from the Europe and Central Asia and Asia-Pacific regions, this brief argues that the time to invest in the care economy is now. Such investment helps advance multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by increasing women’s labour force participation and productivity, professionalizing the care sector and generating decent work for men and women, reducing gender inequalities in care work and ultimately ensuring inclusive and resilient growth. The paper offers recommendations based on emerging research and new policy tools for strengthening public policies and workplace measures to recognize and redistribute unpaid care work and build a care economy as a cornerstone of social and economic recovery.

Understanding how population trends are likely to unfold in the short, medium and long terms is critical for achieving a more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future as recognized in the Declaration on Future Generations. This policy brief provides an overview of some of the main findings of the recently released report, World Population Prospects 2024: Summary of Results (United Nations, 2024a) with the aim of helping countries prepare for population sizes, age structures and spatial distributions that may differ appreciably from those of their recent past.

The world has experienced multiple crises in recent years: the COVID-19 pandemic; food, fuel, and financial crises; climate-related disasters; and violent conflict. The need for universal, gender-responsive social protection systems is thus increasingly urgent. This paper employs quantitative panel data and qualitative interviews to present an analysis of gender, poverty dynamics, and social protection in three countries spanning different geographies—rural Bangladesh, Peru, and the United Republic of Tanzania—amid shocks and crises. It also examines the implications of the analysis results for social protection system design and implementation. Results highlight high rates of transient poverty in all three countries, reflecting the underlying vulnerability of households and crisis-driven downward income mobility. In the face of shocks, women’s resources (for example, education levels and ownership of phones or financial accounts) and agency within and outside of the household (for example, right to sell land and comfort in speaking up on public needs) are a critical means of supporting household resilience. However, adverse financial inclusion and other barriers constrain these efforts. Moreover, low social protection coverage has limited the ability of households, and women within them, to draw on social protection entitlements to maintain resilience during shocks. Although there was a surge in social protection responses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, results suggest that this remained largely inadequate in guarding women’s resilience. Based on the study findings, we derive implications for policymakers and practitioners regarding the gender-responsive design and implementation of social protection during shocks, stressors, and crises.

This discussion paper offers a counterpoint to the behaviour change strategies proposed by the Social Norms Approach in the field of international development. It discusses the community-led and multi-layered approach of the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) in Telangana State, India, to transforming social norms on child labour, education, and gender. The MVF’s programme on universalizing education for adolescent girls is rooted in the belief that it is possible to change the patriarchal values that rule society. It addresses a broad range of obstacles to girls’ schooling, such as: gender discrimination, child labour, early marriage, cultural barriers, lack of safety and security, inadequate facilities in schools, and restrictions to physical mobility. Credible and mounting evidence from the field shows that: adolescent girls in the programme areas are now able to exercise agency and demand their rights; parents have stopped forcing girls into early marriage and are allowing them to follow their aspiration for secondary education; public servants are defending the rights of girls; and even traditionally conservative bodies, such as caste panchayats and priests, are coming around to the idea that early marriage has negative effects and are refusing to solemnize the marriages of minors. Data from MVF field mobilizers and from an independent study of the adolescent girls’ programme are provided to confirm the success of the approach in bringing about sustainable norm change and concrete improvements in outcomes for girls. These positive results were shown to persist despite the COVID-19 lockdown.

Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation rooted in gender inequality and discrimination, unequal power relations, and harmful social norms. The gender-related killing of women and girls is the most brutal and extreme manifestation of such violence. With the aim of galvanizing global action against this all-too-pervasive crime, UNODC and UN Women have joined forces to produce this research paper on the global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls in the private sphere in 2021. The available evidence shows that there has been too little progress in preventing gender-related killings of women and girls. Concerted, urgent action is needed, to improve the knowledge base and strengthen responses to gender-related killings and other forms of gender-based violence against women and girls. By ensuring that every victim is counted, we can ensure that perpetrators are held to account and justice is served. By improving understanding of all types of gender-related killings of women and girls, we can strengthen prevention and improve responses. This paper features policy recommendations to support comprehensive and multisectoral approaches to prevent and address gender-related killings and other forms of gender-based violence against women and girls. Gender-related killings and other forms of violence against women and girls are not inevitable. They can and must be prevented, through early intervention and multi-stakeholder and multisectoral partnerships—including the partnerships that helped to produce this research paper, which we hope will support more determined action against this crime.

The Arab region is facing significant challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, with progress towards gender equality being particularly slow and uneven. Despite a doubling of data availability, substantial gaps persist in various areas. The present statistical brief provides a snapshot of gender disparities across various sectors, and presents data-driven insights for policymakers, researchers and advocates. The key topics covered include women in politics, finance, education, employment, child marriage, and violence against women. The statistical brief underscores both the progress achieved and the critical need for further efforts to accelerate change.

The present policy brief examines three main barriers to women’s political participation in the Arab region, namely the limited application of temporary special measures, discriminatory laws and practices against women in the private and public spheres, and institutional attitudes towards women such as negative views and stereotypes about women’s capabilities in leadership roles. The brief presents best policy practices from Arab countries and globally that have contributed to closing the gaps across these three main dimensions related to women’s political participation. It also offers policy options for Arab Governments using specific country examples from the region to address existing barriers to increasing women’s political participation. It illustrates how these policy options can support countries in improving their performance on international developmental and gender equality indices. This policy brief is the third in a policy briefs series on “the contribution of development indices in closing the gender gap and advancing social and economic development”.