Gender equality progress is failing for 1.1 billion women and girls

No country on Earth is on track to meet gender equality targets outlined in the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Worse, there are more than one billion women and girls living in countries that have seen either stalled or declining gender equality progress in the three years from 2019 to 2022, according to Equal Measures 2030, measuring 139 countries on gender equality goals.

The report finds that nine years after the ambitious agenda of the SDGs was outlined in 2015 — and agreed on and signed by 193 countries — the pandemic, armed conflict, climate change, and a loss in global solidarity have resulted in “more hostile, more inward looking, and less cooperative” societies.

Gender equality has fallen far from being at the top of the priority list, with Equal Measure reporting that its own coalition members and the champions it works with globally are “finding it harder to elevate gender equality on policymakers’ agendas”.