UN women’s report on SDGs through lens of gender equality

UN women work for women empowerment in workplaces, public spaces, and personal lives across countries. Every year, they release a report based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The report tracks how far the goals have made progress for women development, well-being, and empowerment.

Gender equality in the context of 17 Sustainable Development Goals

To assess the progress of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, UN Women released a snapshot report. Along with the report, they also released a feminist plan for sustainability.

The pandemic has affected women’s wellbeing on a global level. Thus, it is crucial to understand the degree of impact on women and the future generations to come.

The report emphasised the need for gender responsible laws, duties and budgeting.

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Specifications of the report

Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the report has exclusively analysed five goals:

• Good health and wellbeing (SDG3): Analysing how the pandemic has affected the wellbeing of women, the report suggested that during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 12 million women from 11 lower to middle-class income group countries went through disruptions. These disruptions led to more than 1 million unintended pregnancies. Additionally, calls for domestic violence help increased by 79% in Columbia, 50% in China, etc.
• Affordable and clean energy (SDG7): When it comes to the energy sector, as of 2019, women hold only 32% of renewable energy jobs. The traditional energy sector has about only 225 women in the sector.
• Decent work and economic growth (SDG8): There are no doubt how severely the pandemic has affected employability worldwide. But the repercussions based on gender are far more severe. According to the UN Women report, the number of employed women globally declined by 54 million, and about 45 million women left working altogether during the pandemic.

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• Sustainable cities and communities (SDG11): The matter of hygienic living for women has long been ignored. Unfortunately, women living or surrounded by slums have double the probability of dying due to COVID-19 than women living in hygienic areas.
• Peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDDG16): It is unfortunate to note that women account for only 18% of policymakers in foreign affairs, defence, and human rights worldwide.

It is unfortunate that out of all the Sustainable Development Goals, none of the goals for women is met or almost met. The ratio of women doing unpaid work, sex work, and care work is constantly disrupted. In most cases, sufficient data is not available to assess the progress of women’s well-being.

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The report also released a feminist plan for enhancing women wellbeing on the grounds of social justice, equal pay, gender equality and sustainability:

• Better investment in the sectors where more women are employed.
• Better investment in the renewable energy sector and more women should be promoted to take jobs.
• Women leadership in public spaces and policymaking should be promoted to take more women-centric decisions on a macro level.
• More funding for women organisations should be allotted so that better awareness can be spread across.

Bottom line

The pandemic has severely affected the state of women’s wellbeing globally. The UN Women report analyses how the 17 SDGs have been ignored during the pandemic. Women have lost jobs, social support, and lives in so many countries. Thus, efficient social, political, and financial infrastructure is needed for promoting women to take jobs that are sustainable and reliable for their future wellbeing.

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