EDITORIAL: In its latest review report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, which replaced the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, signed on by all members of the world body, the UN Women regrets the fact that gender equality remains a distant target.
Among other things on the SDGs list was elimination of gender discrimination, violence against women, forced marriages and genital mutilation (rampant in many African countries).
The aim was also to make education and reproductive health more accessible, and to ensure women’s participation in political and economic life. But “half way to 2030”, notes the report, “the world is failing women and girls.”
Every year, 245 million women over age 15 become victims of physical violence by their partners, one in five are married before age 18, women spend 2.8 more hours per day doing unpaid housework than their male counterparts, and represent only 26.7 percent of all lawmakers worldwide.
These manifestations of gender discrimination are most common in developing countries, including, of course, Pakistan. Thanks to some female representatives in the national parliament as well as provincial assemblies several pro-women laws are now on the statute book, such as the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act; the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act; the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Act; the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act; and the Women, Violence and Jirgas Act. Laws alone, however, are not enough to pave the way for gender equality in patriarchal societies.
Nor can a few women occupying highest positions in power structures change social attitudes towards the female kind, as seen in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Change can come through better access to education/skill training, opening doors to economic self-reliance, which is the key to women empowerment in both homes and society.
The UN Women report reckons that altering the present trend would cost some $360 billion in additional investments per year in 50 developing countries, representing some 70 percent of the world’s population. It does not say though where such large investments are to come from.
Holding women back are not just these countries’ financial constraints, but the low priority assigned to gender issues. There are some successful examples of developing nations achieving almost all the SDGs by setting their agendas right.
In its “Global Gender Gap Report 2023”, the World Economic Forum put out last June, among the top nine countries found to have closed at least 80 percent of the gap figured two developing ones, Nicaragua in Latin America and Namibia in Sub-Saharan Africa. They are where they are by providing equal access to education, healthcare, and work in all fields. Such steps can help women and girls everywhere claim their rightful place and contribute to their respective countries socio-economic progress — a goal all governments need to strive for.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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