Tag Archives: gender

Women and girls in science: Dismantling barriers, closing gender gaps

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Across the world, a significant gender gap persists at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines due to lack of research funding, gender stereotypes, and discriminatory workplace practices. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the gap is particularly pronounced in technology, where women represent just 26 per cent of the workforce in data and artificial intelligence, and 12 per cent in cloud computing. 

 “Excluding women from science weakens our collective capacity to address urgent global challenges, from climate change to public health to space security,” he warned. 

Greater inclusion 

As societies continue to grapple with widening inequalities, the UN believes that the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), social science, STEM and finance provides a way to accelerate inclusive and sustainable development.  

The approach is being highlighted on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, observed on Wednesday. 

Synergizing these four domains can help dismantle persistent barriers by closing gender gaps in digital skills, catalysing women-driven start-ups, advancing gender-responsive AI governance, and mobilising finance that embeds social inclusion as a performance metric. 

“From advancing renewable energy to preventing the next pandemic, our future hinges on unlocking as much human talent as possible,” the Secretary-General said. 

“Today and every day, let us ensure that women and girls can realise their scientific ambitions – for their rights, and for the benefit of all.” 

Scientist, entrepreneur, ambassador 

Chemist and entrepreneur Asel Sartbaeva from Kyrgyzstan is a role model in this regard. 

She is an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and co-founder and CEO of the biotech company EnsiliTech. 

Her work tackles one of global health’s most persistent challenges: how to make vaccines stable at high temperatures so they can be transported to the most remote communities without complex refrigeration. 

Supporting girls in STEM 

Alongside her research, Ms. Sartbaeva works with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as an ambassador for the Girls in Science programme in Kyrgyzstan, encouraging girls to pursue higher education and careers in STEM. 

She told UN News that in many communities, decisions about a girl’s future are shaped by her family – particularly her father. 

“Most of the time, the biggest worry I’ve heard, especially from fathers, was that they thought that if their girls would go into science, they will not have a family,” she said.  

“For me, really, the first thing was to show that actually that is not true. They can have both and it’s not mutually exclusive.” 

‘We need you’ 

The UNICEF programme combines science masterclasses with mentoring, communication training and confidence-building. Thousands of girls have taken part, and many have gone on to pursue university degrees in STEM. 

Ms. Sartbaeva believes opportunities for women in science are improving. Women professors were rare when she was at university, but today she sees far more balance and stronger policies supporting inclusion.  

Still, more talent is still needed and she had a clear, simple message for girls considering STEM: “We need you.” 

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From waste pickers to courtrooms: Women demand a gender focus at COP30

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Women’s voices are rising with clarity and urgency, pressing negotiators to ensure the conference leaves a lasting mark on the link between gender and climate policy.  

At the heart of talks is the Belém Gender Action Plan – a proposed blueprint that acknowledges climate change hits women hardest and sets out measures for financing, training, and leadership roles.

“Climate justice only exists when gender equality does too,” says Ana Carolina Querino, Acting Representative of UN Women in Brazil, echoing a sentiment heard across the halls and venues since the summit opened last Monday, 10 November.

If adopted, the plan would run from 2026 to 2034, embedding gender-responsive approaches into just transitions, adaptation and mitigation strategies, and mechanisms for loss and damage.

UN News/Felipe de Carvalho

Nanci Darcolete is an autonomous waste picker from São Paulo and advocacy advisor for Movimento de Pimpadores.

Waste pickers on the frontline of emissions cuts

On the streets of São Paulo, Nanci Darcolete has been a waste picker since 1999.  

Today, she leads Pimp My Carroça, an organisation fighting for the rights of workers who turn discarded materials into resources – preventing mountains of waste from being dumped or burned.

Waste pickers, she says, played a historic role at COP30 by showing how their work slashes emissions and eases pressure on natural resources.  

“We now see how important it is for waste pickers to also work on composting organic waste,” she explains. “That’s going to save municipalities money, provide income for waste pickers, and capture tons and tons of gases [and] delivering major mitigation by removing heavy pollutants from the environment.”

Women leading the recycling chain

In Brazil, women make up most waste pickers and head most cooperatives. Yet they still face racism and gender-based violence on the streets, often while juggling care for homes and families.

For Nanci, climate change is making their work harder. Rising heat and flooding hit low-income neighbourhoods hardest, adding strain to already tough conditions. She wants COP30’s adaptation agenda to recognise waste pickers as “agents of transformation,” with better urban logistics, hydration points, and paid contracts.

Litigation as a weapon for climate justice

Across the Atlantic, 24-year-old Portuguese lawyer Mariana Gomes is using the law as what she calls “the most important tool” to fight the climate crisis. She founded Último Recurso, the group behind Portugal’s first climate litigation case – now leading more than 170 lawsuits.

Mariana believes litigation can turn promises into binding action, especially after the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) recent opinion requiring states to act to keep global warming under 1.5°C.  

“I believe that in the future we’ll see many lawsuits against States, especially those who must raise ambition, adopt climate laws, and align their targets with the Paris Agreement. Because now, more than ever, we are carrying on our backs the weight of the International Court of Justice,” she tells us.

UN News/Felipe de Carvalho

Portuguese lawyer Mariana Gomes is a social entrepreneur and climate activist.

The right to a clean, healthy environment

Mariana argues citizens can demand their governments guarantee the right to a clean, healthy environment and a stable climate. In Portugal, she is pushing for Municipal Climate Action Plans to help local authorities prepare for droughts, wildfires, floods, and other disasters.

For her, adaptation and mitigation must recognise that climate disasters hit women hardest, increasing risks of gender-based violence, displacement, and care burdens. Litigation, she says, can do more than cut emissions or stop extractive projects, it can unlock funding and compensation for affected communities, protecting women’s rights along the way.

UN News is reporting from Belém, bringing you front-row coverage of everything unfolding at COP30. 

Gender Equality: UN Women Body Calls For Political Will and Accelerated Global Action

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The world is retreating from gender equality, and the cost is being counted in lives, rights, and opportunities. Five years from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline in 2030, none of the gender equality targets are on track.

That’s according to this year’s SDG Gender Snapshot report launched on Monday by UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which draws on more than 100 data sources to track progress across all 17 Goals.

2025 marks three major milestones for women and girls: the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, but with the new sobering data, it is urgent to accelerate action and investment.

Other findings in the report reveal that female poverty has barely shifted in half a decade, stuck at around 10 per cent since 2020. Most of those affected live in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia.

A two-year-old girl suffering from malnutrition is fed by her mother at their shelter in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh / © UNICEF/Ilvy Njiokiktjien

In 2024 alone, 676 million women and girls lived within reach of deadly conflict, the highest number since the 1990s. For those caught in war zones, the consequences extend far beyond displacement. Food insecurity, health risks, and violence rise sharply, the report notes.

Violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive threats. More than one in eight women worldwide experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner in the past year, while nearly one in five young women was married before the age of 18. Each year, an estimated four million girls undergo female genital mutilation, with over half cut before their fifth birthday.

Prioritizing gender equality

Yet, amid the grim statistics, the report highlights what is possible when countries prioritize gender equality. Maternal mortality has dropped nearly 40 per cent since 2000, and girls are now more likely than ever to finish school.

Speaking to UN News, Sarah Hendriks, Director of the Policy Division at UN Women, said that when she first moved to Zimbabwe in 1997, “giving birth was actually a matter of life and death”.

“Today, that’s no longer the reality. And that’s an incredible level of progress in a short 25, 30 years”, she added.

Technology, too, holds promise. Today, 70 per cent of men are online compared to 65 per cent of women. Closing that gap, the report estimates, could benefit 343.5 million women and girls by 2050, lifting 30 million out of poverty and adding $1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

“Where gender equality has been prioritized, it has propelled societies and economies forward,” said Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women. “Targeted investments in gender equality have the power to transform societies and economies.”

At the same time, an unprecedented backlash on women’s rights, shrinking civic space, and growing defunding of gender equality initiatives is threatening hard-won gains.

According to UN Women, without action women remain “invisible” in data and policymaking, with 25 per cent less gender data available now due to survey funding cuts.

A girl uses a tablet during class at her school in Safi, South Niger.

“The Gender Snapshot 2025 shows that the costs of failure are immense but so are the gains from gender equality,” said Li Junhua, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

“Accelerated action and interventions focused on care, education, the green economy, labour markets and social protection could reduce the number of women and girls in extreme poverty by 110 million by 2050, unlocking an estimated $342 trillion in cumulative economic returns.”

But progress remains uneven, and often painfully slow.  Women hold just 27.2 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide, and their representation in local governments has stalled at 35.5 per cent. In management, women occupy only 30 per cent of roles, and at this pace, true parity is nearly a century away.

Marking 30 years since the Beijing Platform for Action, the report frames 2025 as a moment of reckoning. “Gender equality is not an ideology,” it warns. “It is foundational for peace, development, and human rights.” Ahead of the UN high-level week, the Gender Snapshot report makes clear that the choice is urgent: invest in women and girls now, or risk losing another generation of progress.

Ms. Hendriks shared UN Women’s message for world leaders: “Change is absolutely possible, and a different pathway is before us, but it is not inevitable, and it requires the political will, as well as the determined resolve of governments right around the world to make gender equality, women’s rights and their empowerment a reality once and for all”.

Anchored in the Beijing+30 Action Agenda, the report identifies six priority areas where urgent, accelerated action is needed to achieve gender equality for all women and girls by 2030, which include a digital revolution, freedom from poverty, zero violence, full and equal decision-making power, peace and security and climate justice.

 

UN officials warn of starvation amid ‘gender emergency’ in war-torn Sudan

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Particularly hard hit is El Fasher, where hunger is growing, with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warning of a deteriorating situation that is putting even more civilians’ lives at risk.

OCHA’s Director of Operations and Advocacy, Edem Wosornu, who is currently in the country, said the suffering is immense, with people trapped, displaced or returning to face communities in ruins. She called for unimpeded access and urgent support to reach those on the frontlines of hardship.

Briefing reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said “with increasingly alarming food shortages and spiraling prices, people in El Fasher are reported to be resorting to eating animal feed in what is an increasingly catastrophic situation.”                       

Thousands face starvation, cholera threat

El Fasher has the highest cost of basic goods nationwide at nearly $1,000 per household per month, which is far beyond the reach of most families. This includes more than $700 for food alone – more than eight times the cost of basic food items in other parts of the country, Mr. Haq said.

“These steep costs, coupled with the siege and lack of aid delivery by road for over a year, have left thousands facing starvation,” he added, noting that engagement around the calls from the Secretary-General and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator for a pause in the area is “more important than ever.

In an effort to curb public health risks in North Darfur, UN humanitarian partners and local authorities launched a sanitation campaign on 5 August targeting 11,000 people in the localities of El Fasher and Dar As Salam with a goal of preventing disease outbreaks in overcrowded displacement sites during the ongoing rainy season.

They are also scaling up efforts to respond to a cholera outbreak in the locality of Tawila, which has absorbed 330,000 displaced people fleeing conflict in Zamzam and El Fasher since April.

In Blue Nile State, cholera cases have surged to nearly 2,800 since late June, with over 40 new infections recorded yesterday alone, with 14 deaths have been reported, the UN Deputy Spokesperson said.

‘Gender emergency’

Warnings also came from gender equality agency, UN Women.

“This crisis is a gender emergency,” said Salvator Nkurunziza, the agency’s representative in Sudan, told UN News.

“Displaced women and girls can be subject to the risks of exploitation and abuse, especially during the delivery of aid, where protection mechanisms are weak or absent in some locations,” he said.

According to the agency’s Unit for Combating Violence Against Women in Sudan, as of March 2025, there have been 1,138 cases of rape recorded since April 2023, including 193 children, most of whom were in conflict-affected areas, he said.

“The actual number may be higher as fear of stigma and other social and security reasons prevent accurate reporting of gender-based violence crimes,” he warned.

Women, girls ‘most affected’ by food insecurity

“Certainly, these crimes including rape and harassment can prevent women and girls from access food assistance,” he said.

Unreported gender-based violence crimes in besieged areas can be higher than shown in recent statistics, he continued, emphasising that women and girls are the most affected by food insecurity in those areas, and the situations there indicate a looming hunger crisis.

“Women are central to the survival of their households, especially in displacement settings, but their ability to access food assistance is deeply compromised,” Mr. Nkurunziza said. “Female-headed households, already three times more likely to be food insecure, are now the hungriest group in the country.”

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‘By women, for women’: 15 years of the UN agency championing gender equality

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This is just one way that the de facto authorities have restricted women and girls’ fundamental rights. Today, Afghanistan has the second largest gender gap in the world after Yemen. 

“Sometimes I wonder how to remain hopeful in these dark circumstances,” said Fariba, whose name was changed to protect her.

Afghanistan is not the only country where gender equality is losing ground. Worldwide, one in four countries is experiencing a backlash against women’s rights.

These are the challenges that UN Women confronts on its 15th anniversary, making its mandate and work more urgent than ever. 

“This is not the moment to pull back. It is the moment to step forward,” said Sima Bahous, the agency’s Executive Director.

Progress in peril

Established in July 2010, UN Women is currently working in 80 countries to empower women and girls to achieve their full potential.

Despite previous hard-won gains in accessible education for girls and advocacy for legal rights, funding for gender equality is drying up and progress is moving at a snail’s pace.

One in 10 women and girls lives in abject poverty, something the world will not eliminate for another 137 years at the current rate.  

The number of women living near and in conflict zones has doubled in the past decade, putting them at greater risk of gender-based violence, food insecurity and malnutrition.  

Additionally, 103 countries have never had a female Head of State, and gender parity in top governmental leadership will not be achieved for another 130 years.

While a digital revolution and increasingly high-powered artificial intelligence is sweeping the world, the gender digital divide is widening, making it hard for women and girls to access the tools around which the future will be built.  

However, despite such bleak circumstances, or perhaps because of them, UN Women continues to be a “powerhouse for gender equality and women’s empowerment”.

War and peace

Over 600 million women and girls live within 50 kilometres of a conflict, making them key stakeholders in any peace building process. More than that, evidence suggests that peace processes with women signatories are more durable.  

Despite this, between 2020 and 2023, 80 per cent of peace talks did not include women.  

However, in some countries, there are promising shifts towards great gender inclusion and parity in peace-related activities.  

For example, in Ukraine, demining, a profession which has historically excluded women due to normative perceptions of danger, is attracting more women.  

“What seems ‘not a woman’s job’ may turn out to be your mission,” said Tetiana Rubanka, the head of a demining team there.  

This is especially important in Ukraine, where the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) estimates that at least 20 per cent of land is contaminated with unexploded ordnance.

A collective voice

Despite clear proof that quotas in government work to ensure gender parity, women remain excluded from many policy making conversations.  

Because of this reality, UN Women works to support collective action by and for women whose voices are heeded more when they speak together.  

In the Pacific, women make up the majority of vendors at markets, but the markets themselves are managed and run by municipal councils, which tend to be predominantly made up of men. In the past, this meant that women’s concerns, including poor ventilation, security concerns and refrigeration infrastructure, went unaddressed.

With the support of a UN Women project launched in 2014, over 50,000 women vendors have formed associations that enable them to bargain collectively and achieve lasting changes.  

“We are not ordinary women who have nothing. We are women who are important. We just never thought of it that way in the past,” said Joy Janet Ramo, the head of a vendors’ association in the Solomon Islands.

 

SDG 5

SDG 5: EMPOWER ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS

 

  • End all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls
  • Eliminate such harmful practices as early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation
  • Adapt and strengthen legislation to promote gender equality and empower women and girls
  • Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership in political, economic and public life
  • Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care

 

Globally, almost half of all married women currently lack decision-making power over their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

 

Finding hope

In Afghanistan, there are over 80 edicts that curtail women and girls’ fundamental rights, or 80 ways in which their potential is being restricted and 80 reasons to lose hope.  

“The colours of the rainbow have dimmed in my life, and I no longer see any colours to paint,” said Anita, a woman who used to be an artist and a teacher.

But still, they refuse to lose hope, instead forming local grassroots organizations that work to promote women’s leadership and prepare them for a time when they can again enjoy fundamental rights.  

Currently, there is a $420 billion annual gap in financing for gender equality globally, making the work of UN Women increasingly untenable. But, after 15 years, the agency insists that it is “doubling down” on the commitment to gender equality.

“My fellow women: never lose hope in the ups and downs of life, in the lows and highs,” Anita said. 

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Seeding gender empowerment: Women farmers in Peru contend with climate change

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Ácora, located in the southeast corner of Peru almost 3,800 kilometres above sea level, is one of the Peruvian regions which has been most impacted by climate change – endangering crop production and biodiversity in addition to worsening food insecurity.

“It was not like this before, the climate has changed a lot,” said Pascuala Pari, head of the Sumaq Chuyma Association in Ácora.

Around the world, women farmers like Ms. Pari, who already face a series of intersectional challenges, are working tirelessly to secure their livelihoods despite an increasingly untenable climate situation.

“Women in particular shoulder the burden of food insecurity as traditional caregivers which is intensified during climate crises,” said Bochola Sara Arero, a youth representative from the World Food Forum, at a side event during the ongoing UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on Monday.

Intersecting goals

The forum in New York has been convened to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 to promote global development for current and future generations.

“[The forum] is going to be a major way to assess how we’re doing with respect to the critical issues of sustainability and achieving greater prosperity globally,” said Bob Rae, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), at a press conference for correspondents in New York on Tuesday. 

With only 18 per cent of these internationally agreed upon goals on track to being met by 2030, the Secretary-General António Guterres has called for urgent action and sustained multilateralism to address this gap.

Mr. Guterres has also said that this forum is a unique opportunity to discuss the intersection between various goals, including the intersection between gender equality and climate change.

A bipolar climate

Last year in Ácora, dealing with a climate that oscillated between drought and torrential rains was next to impossible for the women who relied on the land.

Crops would not grow and agrobiodiversity was under threat. In a country where 17.6 million people already experience food insecurity, this dual threat had the potential to wreak havoc on livelihoods.

In response, Ms Pari and other women in Ácora formed seed banks. Not only do organizations like seed banks preserve indigenous agrobiodiversity, they also help sustain the livelihoods of women in the region.

“Our crops were in danger of extinction, but now people are harvesting again and we are changing that,” said Fanny Ninaraqui, leader of the Ayrumas Carumas Association.

Seeds that are not planted can be traded or bartered with other seed bank owners. Over 125 varieties of native crops have now been preserved across the region.

“I am happy with my little seed bank … Now I have all kinds of quinoa: black, red, white. This supports me economically because I preserve and sell my products at local markets,” Ms. Pari said.

© UNDP/MINAM/PPD/Nuria Angeles

Aymara communities in Ácora are working to recover and conserve their agrobiodiversity.

Once shut, doors open for women farmers

In addition to climate challenges, women farmers also face a lack of legal rights. Specifically, they often do not have titles to their land.

According to the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Development Report, released Monday, 58 per cent of the countries with available data lacked sufficient protection for women’s land rights.

“Women’s land rights are fundamental for women’s voice and agency, livelihoods and well-being and resilience as well as for broader development outcomes,” said Seemin Qayum, policy advisor at UN Women.

The in-depth report also noted that less than half of women had secure rights to land, with men being twice as likely to have land deeds and other protected property rights. [1]

Experts say that insufficient legal protections not only negatively impact economic outcomes for women, they also sideline women’s needs and voices in policymaking. Therefore, it is essential to institute legal protections which formally recognize women as farmers.

“When you are recognized as a farmer, a world of possibilities, a world of resources – opportunities for representation and rights – become available to you. Doors open,” said Carol Boudreaux, Senior Director of Land Programs at Landesa.

© UNDP/MINAM/PPD/Nuria Angeles

Another method implemented is the rehabiWaru warus in Thunco: an ancient farming technique with canals and raised beds to manage droughts and floods.

Beyond legal protections

While legal land rights are essential, they are not in and of themselves enough to empower rural women.

“Initiatives that aim to change discriminatory social norms and institutions are also needed,” said Clara Park, senior gender officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Women in Ácora recognize that it is not just climate change which is negatively impacting their livelihoods – they are also grappling with unequal social norms.

“When you are young and a woman, someone always tries to limit your progress,” Ms. Ninaraqui said.

In Ácora, international and civil society organizations, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), have worked to help women establish their seed banks and ensure that these women have the capacity to manage them long-term.

“I can lead, I can teach what I have learned, now I feel I have this capacity,” Ms Pari said.

Intergenerational knowledge

Women like Ms. Pari and Ms. Ninaraqui are part of the Aymara indigenous community in Ácora. For them, the seed banks are a form of innovation which allows them to build upon indigenous knowledge regarding agrobiodiversity.

“We are recovering the seeds from our grandparents’ time,” said Ms. Pari.

And as they save these seeds, Ms. Pari said they are also thinking of the future.

“Today, I would tell more women to keep going, to not be discouraged by what others think, and to take initiative like I did,” said Ms. Pari.

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UN forum to spotlight health, gender equality, oceans, in critical bid to meet development goals

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The 2025 High-Level Political Forum, or HLPF, follows two recent successful UN conferences focused on vital development issues: one in June in Nice, France, dedicated to ocean protection, and another held in Sevilla, Spain, centred on boosting financing for sustainable initiatives.

The Sevilla meeting ended with a strong call to action: to urgently address the massive $4 trillion annual shortfall in financing needed to achieve the SDGs. It also highlighted the pressing need for greater investment and deep reform of the global financial system.

Held under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the forum will take place from 14 to 23 July at UN Headquarters in New York.

Here are five key things to know about this year’s forum:

1. It’s all about accelerating action

The HLPF is the United Nations’ main platform for tracking global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. It meets each year to review countries’ efforts, share solutions, and push for faster action to meet the 2030 targets

The 2025 forum is convening under the theme:

Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals leaving no one behind.

This reflects a growing sense of urgency. With the 2030 deadline fast approaching, the forum will emphasise practical, data-driven strategies to close implementation gaps– particularly in the face of intersecting global crisis including climate change, inequality, and economic instability.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are all interconnected, for instance progress on SDG 2 to end hunger is closely tied to advances in health and education.

2. Five SDGs in the spotlight

Each year, the HLPF conducts in-depth reviews of selected Goals. In 2025, the focus will be on:

SDG 3: Good health and well-being

SDG 5: Gender equality

SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth

SDG 14: Life below water

SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

These Goals span a wide range of issues – from public health and gender equity to economic resilience and marine conservation.

SDG 17, which is reviewed annually, highlights the importance of revitalising global partnerships and enhancing means of implementation – including financing, which nations committed to just last month in Sevilla.

© UNICEF/Lasse Bak Mejlvang

3. Countries will share their progress, voluntarily

A hallmark of the HLPF is the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) – self-assessments by Member States on their progress toward the SDGs. In 2025, dozens of countries are expected to present their VNRs, offering insights into both achievements and persistent challenges.

These reviews foster transparency, peer learning, and accountability. They also provide a platform for civil society and other stakeholders to engage directly with governments on development priorities.

VNR Labs – interactive sessions focused on national reviews – create space for dialogue, innovation, and collaboration

4. It’s not just governments

While the HLPF is a UN intergovernmental platform, it brings together a diverse range of voices, including youth groups, local authorities, indigenous peoples, NGOs, academics, the private sector, and UN system agencies.

A rich programme of side events, exhibitions, and roundtable-discussions. This inclusive approach reflects the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, which recognises sustainable development is a universal, shared endeavour.

A wide view of the opening of the 2023 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development convened under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held in the General Assembly Hall.

5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 The Final Countdown

With only five years left to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, the 2025 HLPF marks a critical inflection point.

It is more than a yearly check-in. This year’s session comes at a time when science, solidarity, and urgent action must converge. It will help set the tone for the next Sustainable Development Goals Summit in 2027, where world leaders will take stock of collective progress and determine the final push toward 2030.

What happens now – at this two-thirds deadline moment – will shape whether the SDGs will realise a global promise or become a missed opportunity.

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‘The margins of the budget’: Gender equality in developing countries underfunded by $420 billion annually

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“The money simply is not reaching the women and girls who need it most,” UN Women said in a news release issued on Monday.  

This estimate comes in the midst of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development underway in Sevilla, Spain.

There, world leaders are working to revitalize the international financing structure to better support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which is gender equality.  

“We cannot close gender gaps with budgets that are lacking a gender lens … Gender equality must move from the margins of the budget lines to the heart of public policy,” said Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.

Move from promise to action

In order to remedy this shortfall, UN Women said that the world needs a decade of targeted and consistent investment to end gender gaps and ensure that no one is left behind.

This includes expanding gender-responsive budgeting which carefully tracks where funding is most needed and supporting programs which target those areas.

Currently, three-fourths of countries do not have systems to track the allocation of public funds in relation to gender equality.  

Specifically, investment in public care systems – such as child and elder care programmes – is essential to ensuring that women can enter the workforce.

Overwhelmed by debt

Additionally, UN Women called for urgent debt relief, citing that many countries are so burdened by debt financing that they cannot dedicate money to advancing gender equality.  

In this vein, UN Women welcomed the Compromiso de Sevilla, the outcome of the Conference adopted by Member States, which lays out new commitments to development financing, including on promoting gender equality.

Ms. Gumbonzvanda emphasised the need for governments to back the commitments they made in this document with real action.  

“[Gender equality] takes money. It takes reform. And it takes leadership that sees women not as a cost, but as a future.”

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‘We are women like you’: UN honours peacekeepers for work in gender empowerment

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There, alongside civilian gender units, Ms. Syme met a group of local community members – both men and women. Partway through, she realised something was different.

“The women were not talking,” she told UN News. “They were very quiet.”

Then she remembered that local cultural norms dictated women do not speak in public.

“We are women like you. We want to be able to help, but we don’t know how we can help you,” she told them in a separate meeting. “Can you please tell us what your problem is so we can see how we can help?”

It is for this sort of work founded in community trust building and a relentless belief in the importance of gender perspectives and empowerment in peacekeeping, that the UN will honour two exceptional women peacekeepers on Thursday as part of International Peacekeepers’ Day.

Ms. Syme is this year’s winner of the UN Military Gender Advocate of 2024 Award.

“[Ms. Syme’s] dedication has not only improved the effectiveness of UNISFA’s operations but also ensured that the mission is more reflective of and responsive to the communities it serves,” said Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

The other honouree is Chief Superintendent Zainab Mbalu Gbla of Sierra Leone who has been named Woman Police Officer of the year for her work with UNISFA.

“Chief Superintendent Gbla embodies the work of the United Nations to improve lives and shape futures,” said Mr. Lacroix.

Gender and peacekeeping

The UN Woman Police Officer of the Year Award was established in 2011 and the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award was first presented five years later.

Both awards recognize peacekeepers whose work has substantially advanced the integration of gender perspectives and empowerment into peacekeeping.

In 2000, the Security Council passed a resolution which affirmed the essential role women play in peacebuilding, peacekeeping and humanitarian responses. Since then, the United Nations has worked to fully integrate gender perspectives into peacekeeping.

According to Ms. Syme, applying gender perspectives should be a “daily task” for all peacekeepers.

“We need to understand the gender dynamics within our area of operation, otherwise, we might not be able to have the right intervention, we might not be able to carry out the right activities,” she said.

Intergenerational legacy

Ms. Gbla experienced the impact of peacekeeping herself as a civilian in Sierra Leone in the wake of a war that ravaged her country.

“I saw people coming from different parts of the world just to bring peace to my country… That’s why I told myself that one day I’d love to be a peacekeeper – to help other people, to return the favour,” Ms. Gbla told UN News.

As a UNISFA gender officer, not only did she create a school programme and female mentorship network where none had existed before, she also worked diligently to ensure that learning was fun, incorporating performing arts and visual aids.

“[The women of Abyei] are ready to work, they are ready to do things for themselves if peace allows them. The children are ready to go to school, if peace allows them,” she said.

A health campaign in Abyei

Ms. Syme’s meeting with the women of Sector North was the beginning of an enormously successful health campaign in the region which discussed harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, the two issues which the community women had identified.

The campaign engaged both men and women, and Ms. Syme said that she was deeply impressed and moved by the response of the male leaders who, through the campaign, realized the harm that practices of child marriage and female genital mutilation had caused.

“[The leaders] promised that they are going to revise these cultural practices so that going forward, they will not do it again,” Ms. Syme said.

This campaign happened in June 2024 and has driven Ms. Syme’s work since then, work which includes training over 1,500 UNISFA officials in gender-responsive peacekeeping.

“It has motivated me,” Ms. Syme said. “It has motivated me a lot.”

The future of peacekeeping through gender

Both Ms. Syme and Ms. Gbla will receive their awards on International Peacekeeping Day. This year, Member States and UN officials will be asked to consider the future of peacekeeping.

For both Ms. Syme and Ms. Gbla, the future of peacekeeping and security cannot be disentangled from gender perspectives and empowerment.

“If you don’t know the gender dynamics of the area, if you don’t know who is in charge, if you don’t know what will benefit who…you may think you are providing security, but you are not really providing security,” Ms. Syme said.

Ms. Gbla, in discussing her award, paid homage to all the women who wear a UN uniform, underlining their tireless work in the pursuit of peace.

“Each of us [women] faces unique challenges in our respective missions, yet our collective goal remains the same – to foster peace and protect the vulnerable.”

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Health, education, opportunity at stake, amid stubborn digital gender divide

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Closing this gap is not optional. There were189 million fewer women than men online in 2024.  

The disparity is about more than access, it reflects deeper systemic barriers, according to ​Doreen Bogdan-Martin who heads the UN telecommunications agency, ITU.

“That’s too many missed opportunities to learn, to earn and to shape our shared digital future,” she said in a message for Thursday’s International Girls in ICT Day.

She underscored that connectivity alone is not enough to ensure true digital transformation.

“It must be meaningful – being able to afford digital devices and services, having the skills to use technology and feeling safe in online spaces. Everyone deserves the chance to thrive in an increasingly digital world.”

ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s video message.

2025 Theme

Celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of April, Girls in ICT Day encourages girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Since its launch in 2011, more than 417,000 girls and young women have participated in over 11,500 celebrations across 175 countries.

This year’s theme is Girls in ICT for inclusive digital transformation. The ITU is calling for more investment in girls’ digital education and expansion of access to technology.  

More young women need to become creators – not just consumers in the digital world, the agency argues.

“Whether you are an entrepreneur, launching an AI startup, a teacher incorporating digital skills into your classroom or a policymaker shaping our shared digital future, you can help ensure every woman and girl has the chance to connect, create and lead in digital spaces,” Ms. Bogdan-Martin emphasised.

A participant at a UN-supported training on STEM for girls and young women.

Global observance

The 2025 global observance will be co-hosted this year by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Eurasia together with States from the Arab region, featuring a live-streamed hybrid event linking Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Nouakchott, Mauritania.

The programme includes an intergenerational dialogue bringing together girls, women leaders, and ICT experts to discuss practical strategies for closing the gender gap.

Events are also being organized worldwide, including Girls in ICT in Solomon Islands in the Pacific, the Melon Girls Club in North Macedonia and STEM Supergirls in Croatia.

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Ministry of Women and Child Development to celebrate the BBBP Week from 09th to 14th October

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National wide activities and awareness generation campaigns to mark the celebration of BBBP Week.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will be celebrating the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Week from 09th to 14th October, 2017. The week is being celebrated in view of the International Girl Child Day on 11th October, 2017. The theme of the program will be “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Week- The Daughters of New India”.

Briefing the media in New Delhi today, Secretary WCD, Shri Rakesh Srivastava said that the International Girl Child Day is celebrated every year to promote empowerment of girls and reinforce gender equality. It also provides a platform to raise issues, concerns and challenges faced by girls. In order to influence national and mainstream discourse in favour of girls and women and visibility to BBBP, which is one of the flagship programmes of Government of India, Ministry of WCD will be celebrating the BBBP Week, he explained.

BBBP Scheme (Celebrate Girl Child, Enable her Education) was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 22nd January, 2015 at Panipat, Haryana as a comprehensive programme to address the declining CSR and related issues of disempowerment of women over a life-cycle continuum. The Scheme is being implemented in 161 districts of the Country and has completed two and half years of its implementation on ground. During this period, the States/UTs/Districts have undertaken several innovative initiatives to address the issue of declining child sex ratio and promote value of girl child.

The collective and coordinated efforts undertaken at national, state and districts level has been successful in establishing a substantial improvement in the number of girls being born in the target districts. As per the HIMS data for the 161 districts of BBBP, an increasing trend in Sex Ratio at Birth is visible in 104 BBBP Districts during 2016-17 as compared to the period 2015-16. Similarly, 119 districts have reported progress in registration of pregnancies in the first trimester during 2016-17 as compared to 2015-16. During the same period, Institutional deliveries against the total reported deliveries have improved in 146 districts in comparison to the previous year.

In this background, the BBBP districts have been requested to organize activities in a campaign mode to observe the Week starting from 9th October – 14th October 2017 to create awareness and sensitize community in their respective districts. The week-long celebration will witness various awareness generation activities and community engagement programmes such as Oath ceremonies, prabhat pherries, rallies, nukkad natraks, street plays, joint door to door campaigns by AWWs and ASHAs, Posters/Slogan-writing/ Drawing/Painting competition among school children, tree plantation in the name of girl child, distribution of birth certificates, opening of Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts, sensitization/orientation/counseling sessions and talk shows on gender, health and nutrition, legal rights and Acts.

At the National level, the occasion will also be marked by a Panel Discussion to be held on 11th October, 2017 coinciding with the theme for this year’s International Day of the Girl –“Girls Progress=Goals Progress: What Counts for Girls” to engage key sport influencers and women and girls role models from the field, to generate support through their voice and reach. Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Minister of WCD will be addressing the audience at the Panel Discussion, in whichsome of India’s leading women Sports Icons and local BBBP Champions will take part. Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Dr. Virendra Kumar will kickstart the BBBP week celebrations in New Delhi on 09th October, 2017.

Welfare of Transgenders taken up

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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has constituted an Inter Ministerial Committee to pursue implementation of the Expert Committee’s recommendations. So far, four Inter Ministerial Committee meetings have been held.

The Registrar General of India (RGI), during Enumeration of Census 2011, for the first time provided three codes i.e. Male-1, Female –2 and others -3 for enumeration. This was at the discretion of the respondent. In case the respondent wished to record neither ‘1’ nor ‘2’, then enumerator was instructed to record sex as ‘other’ and give code ‘3’. Still, it is important to note that the Census on India does not collect any data specifically on ‘transgender’. Thus, the category of ‘other’ would not only include ‘transgender’ but also any person who desires to record sex under the category of ‘other’. It is also possible that some transgenders would have returned themselves either male or female depending upon their choice. The population of ‘other’ as per Census 2011 is 4,87,803.

The Bill titled “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016” was introduced by the Ministry in the Lok Sabha on 2.8.2016. The Bill was referred to the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment for examination and report. The Committee has submitted its report on 21.07.2017.

The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) has informed that they are providing employment opportunities to 23 transgenders who work alongside the Kudumbashree women in customer service operations.

This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Vijay Sampla in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

Women show cognitive advantage in gender-equal countries

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Women’s cognitive functioning past middle age may be affected by the degree of gender equality in the country they live in, according to new findings from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

“This research is a first attempt to shed light on important, but understudied, adverse consequences of gender inequality on women’s health in later life,” explains researcher Eric Bonsang of University Paris-Dauphine and Columbia University, lead author on the study. “It shows that women living in gender-equal countries have better cognitive test scores later in life than women living in gender-unequal societies. Moreover, in countries that became more gender-equal over time, women’s cognitive performance improved relative to men’s.”

Bonsang and colleagues Vegard Skirbekk (Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Columbia University) and Ursula Staudinger (Columbia University) had noticed that the differences in men’s and women’s scores on cognitive tests varied widely across countries. In countries in Northern Europe, for example, women tend to outperform men on memory tests, while the opposite seems to be true in several Southern European countries.

“This observation triggered our curiosity to try to understand what could cause such variations across countries,” says Bonsang.

While economic and socioeconomic factors likely play an important role, Bonsang, Skirbekk, and Staudinger wondered whether sociocultural factors such as attitudes about gender roles might also contribute to the variation in gender differences in cognitive performance around the globe. They hypothesized that women who live in a society with more traditional attitudes about gender roles would likely have less access to opportunities for education and employment and would, therefore, show lower cognitive performance later in life compared with men of the same age.

The researchers analyzed cognitive performance data for participants between the ages of 50 and 93, drawn from multiple nationally representative surveys including the US Health and Retirement Study; the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; and the World Health Organization Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health. Together, the surveys provided data for a total of 27 countries.

All of the surveys include an episodic memory task to measure cognitive performance. Participants heard a list of 10 words and were asked to recall as many as they could immediately; in some of the surveys, participants again recalled as many words as they could after a delay. Additionally, some of the surveys included a task intended to assess executive function in which participants named as many animals as they could within 1 minute.

To gauge gender-role attitudes, the researchers focused on participants’ self-reported agreement with the statement, “When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women.”

Overall, the data showed considerable variability in gender differences in cognitive performance across countries. In some countries, women outperformed men–the female advantage in cognitive performance was highest in Sweden. In other countries, however, men outperformed women–the male advantage was highest in Ghana.

As the researchers hypothesized, increasingly traditional gender-role attitudes were linked with decreasing cognitive performance among women across countries. In other words, women in countries with less traditional attitudes were likely to have better cognitive performance later in life relative to women in more traditional countries.

Bonsang and colleagues noted that changes in gender-role attitudes within a country over time were associated with changes in women’s cognitive performance relative to men.

Although the data are correlational in nature, several more detailed analyses point toward a causal relationship. These analyses suggest that gender-role attitudes may play a notable role in important outcomes for women across different countries, the researchers argue.

“These findings reinforce the need for policies aiming at reducing gender inequalities as we show that consequences go beyond the labor market and income inequalities,” says Bonsang. “It also shows how important it is to consider seemingly intangible influences, such as cultural attitudes and values, when trying to understand cognitive aging.”

“In future work, we plan to disentangle the effect of gender-role attitudes on gender difference in cognition–via the impacts of those attitudes on institutions, politics and labor market characteristics–from the impact of beliefs of women associated with gender-role attitudes,” Bonsang says.