Context:
A $420 billion annual shortfall is undermining efforts to achieve gender equality in developing countries, according to the United Nations agency UN Women.
More on the News
- At the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, world leaders adopted the Compromiso de Sevilla, affirming a joint commitment to inclusive and sustainable development.
- UN Women welcomed the agreement as a sign of global unity but emphasized the need for concrete financial measures to back the commitment.
- UN Women attributed the shortfall to chronic underfunding, poor spending oversight, and unfair global financing that diverts resources from the poorest nations, home to the most low-income women.
- The agency stressed that without sustained, transparent, and accountable financing, global commitments such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Platform for Action risk falling short.
Key Recommendations
UN Women put forward a set of recommendations to address the crisis, including:
- Expanding the use of gender-responsive budgeting to ensure public funds meet the specific needs of women and girls.
- Implementing urgent debt relief and progressive tax reform to free up revenue for investment in health, education, and care.
- Rebalancing public spending to prioritise long-term development goals, including peacebuilding and inclusion.
- Investing in care infrastructure such as childcare and eldercare, which the agency said could reduce poverty, raise household incomes, and create millions of jobs if countries allocated 10% of national income to the sector.