Photo credit: The Guardian
The UN has released this year’s Gender Snapshot report from the UN Women agency.
According to the report, the global cost of failing to adequately educate young women is an annual $10tn. Low—and middle-income class countries will lose $500bn over the next five years if they do not close the gender gap in internet use. Improving support for female farmers could add $1tn to global GDP. The report also found that at current rates, child marriage could continue until 2092.
Papa Seck, head of the UN Women’s Research and Data section, said, “The cost of not achieving gender equality is just way too high, but at the same time, the potential returns of doing so are also too high to ignore for societies.”
The annual report assesses the progress of gender equality across the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). It also found that 47.8 million more women than men face moderate or severe food insecurity and that it could take a further 137 years to end extreme poverty for women. It also found that climate change could force 158 million more women and girls into poverty than men and boys.
The report found that no country has all the laws needed to prohibit discrimination, prevent gender-based violence, uphold equal rights in marriage and divorce, guarantee equal pay and provide full access to sexual and reproductive health
