Women and Gender Issues
State of World Population 2024
This year's report takes the 30th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development as an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come in achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for all. While the report celebrates the significant gains made it also considers who has been left out of that progress arguing that a more equitable future for all requires a renewed commitment to empowering those furthest behind.
Women are the thread
In an ideal world the advancement of women’s reproductive rights and the promotion of equitable access to sexual and reproductive health and rights would be inherently motivated by the principles of human rights and social justice. But real-world sociopolitical contexts often demand quantifiable arguments on the short-term and long-term returns on investments in such programmes. Indeed this was understood to be the case in 1994. Though the ICPD Programme of Action represented a monumental pivot away from population control policies and towards prioritizing the rights of all individuals the economic rationale nevertheless remained critical for justifying investments in these rights.
Foreword
Thirty years ago governments around the world agreed that reproductive health and rights are foundation stones of global development – a groundbreaking consensus that paved the way for decades of progress. Since then the global rate of unintended pregnancies has fallen by nearly 20 per cent globally. The number of women using modern contraceptive methods has doubled. Today at least 162 countries have adopted laws against domestic violence and maternal deaths have decreased by 34 per cent since 2000.
Weaving a collective future
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine then let us work together.” These were the words of Lilla Watson an indigenous activist from Australia at the 1985 United Nations Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi.
A work in progress
A safe birth. A choice of contraceptives. Protection from gender-based violence. More people than ever before have realized these essential life-sustaining rights. But the number of people denied these rights has not yet reached zero – as it can and as it must.
Technical notes
The statistical tables in State of World Population 2024 include indicators that track progress towards the goals of the Framework of Actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the areas of maternal health access to education and reproductive and sexual health. In addition these tables include a variety of demographic indicators. The statistical tables support UNFPA’s focus on progress and results towards delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted every birth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.
Unravelling inequality
The ICPD Programme of Action emerged in the aftermath of the Cold War a time of upheaval and uncertainty. That year 1994 saw both the end of apartheid in South Africa which held its first multiracial democratic election in April and the eruption of genocide in Rwanda that same month. Sweden legalized civil unions between same-sex partners – making it the third country ever to do so – as the global rate of new HIV infections was reaching its highest-ever peak (UNAIDS n.d.). The promise of collective action and the perils of failing to take such action could not have been more prominent in the minds of ICPD attendees in Cairo.
Counting every stitch
The 1994 ICPD and its resulting Programme of Action not only represented a moment of remarkable consensus around the value of universal sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights (Brown and others 2019; Sen and others 2019; Corrêa and others 2015) it also represented a powerful call for better and more transparent data – a contribution to global standards that has seldom been recognized. In fact an entire chapter of the Programme of Action Chapter XII (UNFPA 1994) is devoted to the need for “valid reliable timely culturally relevant internationally comparable data” including “gender and ethnicity-specific information”. It also called for research into the views of less-empowered groups of people and those in different cultural settings.
Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy
The “Women’s economic empowerment strategy” articulates UN Women’s vision for enabling women’s economic agency autonomy and well-being. The strategy assesses the global landscape and UN Women’s role in realizing the economic rights of women and girls. It lays out the global context for work on women’s economic empowerment provides a rights-based and transformative definition of economic empowerment identifies gaps in current global efforts to achieve women’s economic empowerment and then situates UN Women’s work on women’s economic empowerment within these broader efforts. Drawing on UN Women’s unique mandate and comparative advantage it then lays out the opportunities for accelerating progress. Its objective is to provide a framework that galvanizes internal and external stakeholders to work together at the local national and global level through transformative solutions that improve the lives of women and girls with no one left behind.
Panorama Social de América Latina y el Caribe 2023
En esta edición del Panorama Social de América Latina y el Caribe se abordan los desafíos de la inclusión laboral como eje central para el desarrollo social inclusivo. A pesar de una recuperación en 2022 de los indicadores sociales (reducción de la pobreza y la desigualdad recuperación del empleo) se enfrenta una doble trampa de bajo crecimiento y altos niveles de pobreza y desigualdad. La inclusión laboral es clave para combatir la pobreza reducir la informalidad y la desigualdad y avanzar hacia el desarrollo social inclusivo. Las brechas de género en la inclusión laboral están determinadas por la desigual distribución de la carga de trabajo de cuidados que recae sobre las mujeres. En el caso de las personas migrantes la sobrecalificación y la discriminación también afectan su inclusión laboral. Los esfuerzos realizados por los países respecto de la inversión en políticas laborales que en promedio llegan al 034% del PIB resultan insuficientes. Es necesario transitar de la inserción laboral a la inclusión laboral garantizando el acceso a empleos de calidad ingresos laborales mayores al salario mínimo y acceso a la protección social en particular para las mujeres y las personas jóvenes.
De la inserción a la inclusión laboral: claves para reducir la desigualdad y la informalidad
América Latina y el Caribe vive una crisis del mercado laboral en cámara lenta profundizada por las crisis en cascada que han golpeado a la región desde 2020 como la pandemia de COVID-19 la espiral inflacionaria y la desaceleración económica. Estas crisis se superpusieron a las tensiones ya existentes relacionadas con importantes transformaciones tecnológicas y diversas tendencias ambientales y demográficas que exacerban brechas históricas y cuyos efectos acumulados tienen un impacto sin precedentes en particular en las personas y la población más vulnerables (CEPAL 2022a; OCDE y otros 2022; Salazar-Xirinachs 2016).
Desigualdad del ingreso, pobreza y vínculos con la inclusión laboral
En 2022 continuó el proceso de recuperación tras la crisis económica ocasionada por la pandemia de enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID19) y ese proceso abarcó con distinta intensidad prácticamente a todos los países de América Latina. La recuperación conllevó un incremento de la participación en el mercado laboral y la ocupación así como una caída del desempleo. Los cambios en el mercado laboral dieron lugar a un aumento de los ingresos de las personas ocupadas y del ingreso de los hogares en la mayoría de los países aunque la inflación se mantuvo elevada lo que afectó con mayor intensidad a los hogares de menores ingresos.
La inclusión laboral frente a los desafíos de la igualdad de género en el trabajo de cuidados y las migraciones internacionales en la región
América Latina y el Caribe se caracteriza por un nivel elevado de desigualdad estructural que se ha mantenido y reproducido incluso en períodos de crecimiento y prosperidad económica. La desigualdad atenta contra el desarrollo y es un obstáculo poderoso para la reducción de la pobreza la ampliación de la ciudadanía y los derechos la cohesión social y la gobernabilidad democrática. Históricamente la matriz productiva de la región se ha caracterizado por una pronunciada heterogeneidad estructural que ha contribuido al alto grado de desigualdad social y de género. La falta de diversificación y la gran heterogeneidad de las estructuras de producción (con sectores poco productivos que proporcionan alrededor del 50% del empleo) son algunos de los principales factores que fomentan la desigualdad desde el sector económico. El mercado laboral en particular es un eslabón clave en el vínculo entre las estructuras productivas y la consiguiente desigualdad que hay en el ingreso de los hogares y el acceso estratificado a la protección social (CEPAL 2010 2012 y 2014).
Institucionalidad y gasto social: desafíos para la inclusión laboral
La capacidad transformadora de las políticas sociales entre otros factores depende de sus bases institucionales es decir de la pertinencia y la legitimidad de sus mandatos legales la coherencia de estos con su estructura organizacional y su nivel de coordinación así como de sus capacidades humanas técnicas y financieras. Atendiendo a estos elementos para el análisis de la institucionalidad social la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) ha destacado cuatro dimensiones analíticas: i) jurídico-normativa; ii) organizacional; iii) técnico-operativa y iv) financiera con el objeto de dar seguimiento a los requerimientos y desafíos de los países para lograr un desarrollo social inclusivo (CEPAL 2015 2016 y 2023a; Martínez 2019). La consolidación de estas cuatro dimensiones conforma un marco institucional central para avanzar hacia un desarrollo social inclusivo. Por esa razón la Agenda Regional de Desarrollo Social Inclusivo aprobada por los países de la región en 2019 tiene a la institucionalidad social como uno de sus cuatro ejes de acción un eje que se destaca como medio de implementación clave de la Agenda 2030. El desarrollo social inclusivo solo podrá alcanzarse mediante compromisos de Estado de la mano de una institucionalidad sólida que dé continuidad coherencia y legitimidad a las políticas y programas sociales (CEPAL 2020).
Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean 2023
This edition of the Social Panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean addresses the challenges of labour inclusion as a key axis for inclusive social development. Despite a recovery in social indicators in 2022 (reduction of poverty and inequality recovery of employment) the region faces a double trap of low growth and high levels of poverty and inequality. Labour inclusion is key to combating poverty reducing informality and inequality and moving towards inclusive social development. Gender gaps in labour market inclusion are driven by the unequal distribution of the burden of care work which is largely borne by women. In the case of migrants overqualification and discrimination also affect their labour market inclusion. The efforts made by countries in terms of investment in labour policies which on average amount to 0.34% of GDP are insufficient. What is needed is a shift from labour market integration to labour market inclusion guaranteeing access to quality employment income above the minimum wage and access to social protection particularly for women and young people.
Institutional frameworks and social spending: challenges for labour inclusion
The transformative capacity of social policies depends partly on their institutional underpinnings in other words the relevance and legitimacy of their legal mandates the consistency of these mandates with their organizational structure and their level of coordination and their human technical and financial capacities. Taking these elements into account the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has highlighted four analytical dimensions for studying the institutional framework for social policy: (i) legal and regulatory; (ii) organizational; (iii) technical and operational; and (iv) financial in order to follow up on the requirements and challenges facing the countries in achieving inclusive social development (ECLAC 2015 2016 and 2023a; Martínez 2019). The consolidation of these four dimensions forms a central institutional framework for progressing towards inclusive social development. For this reason the Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development adopted by the region’s countries in 2019 defines a strengthened social institutional framework as one of its four axes to serve as a key means of implementing the 2030 Agenda. Inclusive social development can only be achieved through State commitments hand-in-hand with a solid institutional framework that gives policies and programmes continuity coherence and legitimacy (ECLAC 2020).
Labour inclusion amid the challenges of gender equality in care work and international migration in the region
Latin America and the Caribbean is a region with deep structural inequality that has been perpetuated and reproduced even in periods of economic growth and prosperity. Inequality is an impediment to development and a major obstacle to poverty reduction the expansion of citizenship and rights social cohesion and democratic governance. Historically the region’s production matrix has been marked by sharp structural heterogeneity that has helped to produce great social and gender inequality. The lack of diversification and the highly uneven production structures (with unproductive sectors providing around 50% of employment) are key factors driving inequality in the economic sector. The labour market in particular is a key link in the relationship between productive structures and the resulting inequality in household income and stratified access to social protection (ECLAC 2010 2012 and 2014).