Gender equality and women’s empowerment are not only fundamental human rights but also a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world and a precondition for realising all goals in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. There has been progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment over the past decades, but the social and economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse this progress and greatly increase deprivations for the most vulnerable girls and women (United Nations, Gender equality and women’s empowerment).
Gender equality is a pressing moral and social issue. It is also a critical economic challenge. If women — who account for half the world’s working-age population — were afforded the same equity as men in the labour market, the global annual GDP could potentially grow by as much as USD 28 trillion, or 26%, by 2025. Moreover, gender inequality in education prevents progress towards reducing unintended pregnancies and high fertility and child mortality rates, thereby compromising a country’s well-being. Societies that encourage women to hold political leadership positions have more gender balance in schools and are more peaceful and equitable overall (UNSDG, Gender equality and women’s empowerment).
The situation for women and girls remains challenging in our countries of focus, with issues such as child marriage and limited educational opportunities continuing to pose significant barriers. For example, 42% of women and girls are married by the age of 18 in Malawi, and of those, 52% have no education or only a pre-primary education (National Statistical Office, Malawi multiple cluster indicator survey 2019-20, MICS Survey findings report). In Mozambique the figure is much higher: 53% of women and girls are married by age 18 (Girls Not Brides, Child marriage atlas). Bangladesh’s drop gender parity indicators show that women and girls hold only 21% of seats in parliament and 8% of ministerial-level jobs. Sri Lanka has made slight improvements in its gender parity indicators, but women and girls still make up only 33% of the labour force (The World Bank, Labour force participation rate (percentage of population) – World Bank gender data portal).
