UN Women Convenes Global Business and Philanthropic Leaders to Help Accelerate SDG Action Through Women’s Empowerment

The year 2030—and with it the deadline for achieving global gender equality—will be here before we know it, and at our current rate of progress, the goal seems out of reach. But since the Sustainable Development Goals were established in 2015, and with them Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, UN Women has been working tirelessly to achieve gender equality worldwide. The organization brought philanthropists and business leaders together at the SDG 5 Forum to bring together partners from diverse areas to organize and work together toward the common goal of gender equality. Forum participants included Al Waleed Philanthropies, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chanel Foundation, Ford Foundation, Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Unilever, WPP and Read on for more details; including how much work we still have to do and the public and private sector efforts to envision—and achieve—true global gender equality.

UN WOMEN—One thousand days into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and counting down to 2030, which is the deadline for achieving global gender equality under SDG 5, UN Women convened business and philanthropic leaders on the margins of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 73) to step up commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Global business and philanthropic leaders pledged more than USD 70 million in 2018 (USD 13 million of which was pledged at the UNGA 73 SDG 5 Forum today) to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through UN Women.

No single country has ever achieved gender equality, and according to industry estimates this failure will cost USD 28 trillion[1] by 2025. Forum participants focused on how public and private sectors can bolster efforts to achieve global gender equality by 2030.

“Every day there is more evidence of what the world is missing when it falls short of equality between women and men. Our globally agreed roadmap of the 2030 Agenda puts the drive for that equality right at the centre of all the goals to be achieved,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “Governments, civil society and the business world all contributed to that vision and must act together in shaping the solution. These combined forces are critical if we are to make unstoppable progress by 2020 and meet the 2030 target.”

UN Women was established in 2010 to help the world end gender inequality and the 17 SDGs were adopted by global leaders in 2015, with SDG 5 focusing on achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in every country of the world. The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 217 years to achieve gender equality at the current rate of progress.

The SDG 5 Forum builds on UN Women’s work across sectors, including this month’s launch of the Global Innovation Coalition for Change’s (GICC) Gender Innovation Principles, a global set of standards adopted by an alliance of 27 partners from private sector, non-profit organizations and academic institutions that takes a gender-responsive approach to innovation and technology. The financial commitments at the SDG 5 Forum and from UN Women’s strategic partnerships will support efforts toward innovation, eliminating violence against women and girls, generating gender equality data and evidence, fast tracking women’s economic empowerment, ensuring education, providing access to health services and protection of women’s livelihoods in crisis settings, as well as building climate resilience in sustainable agricultural food chains that benefit women farmers.

We're at the #UNGA #SDG5 Forum with a special group of private sector and philanthropic leaders. Follow along as we show the world that #TimeIsNow for gender equality! pic.twitter.com/jnSdmIy7bC

— UN Women (@UN_Women) September 27, 2018

Global business and philanthropy leaders that pledged support at today’s event through UN Women to countries around the world included: Al Waleed Philanthropies, Chanel Foundation, Revlon, WPP and Zonta International Foundation. UN Women continues to benefit from financial support from foundations and global organizations such as Alibaba Group, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, International Olympic Committee, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, as well as public sector funding that enables private sector engagement from the European Union and the NAMA Women Advancement Establishment.

UN Women has established several mechanisms to mobilize private sector and foundations in the world’s quest to achieve SDG 5 by 2030 including the 1,800 companies that signed onto the  Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), the HeForShe impact movement, Common Ground, the GICC, and the  Unstereotype Alliance participants.

As the world comes together for #UNGA we ask business and philanthropic leaders to stand with us on 27 September to act for gender equality. The #TimeIsNow. Will you join us? pic.twitter.com/qamcZtIM07

— UN Women (@UN_Women) September 27, 2018

To date, UN Women has continued to connect women, governments, and communities to foster change across sectors, from using technology to increase the income of women in agriculture to help them secure decent jobs, to supporting the reform discriminatory laws worldwide. UN Women has trained more than 7,000 women leaders in politics and governance last year alone, and over 1.5 billion women and girls in 52 countries are better protected from violence through stronger legal frameworks.

Follow the hashtag #TimeIsNow and @UN_Women on Twitter for updates.

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EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE: 17 Campaigns for 17 Goals – Synergizing Campaigns for Agenda 2030

sustainability.thomsonreuters.com - Just 14 years remain to accomplish the Agenda 2030 and the world still does not know. As we completed the first year of the implementation of agenda 2030 for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, there is a greater need to harmonize campaigns contributing to SDGs. There is massive opportunity for the international development community to work together in solidarity using campaigns to forward SDGs. However, there is more focus on specific goals and targets rather than on the entire Agenda. If we continue to operate in silos, we lose sight of the big picture and end up fragmenting the Agenda, wasting resources and hindering progress. We must bear in mind that the goal of the international community is to ensure the achievement of all 17 SDGs by 2030. Instead of competing for advocacy space and much-needed resources, we must all take ownership of the Agenda as a whole and cohesively work together towards the attainment of the WorldWeWant by the year 2030. The following are good examples of campaigns for 17 goals, increasing collaboration and raising awareness on SDG achievement:

Better Nutrition for Women and Girls Is Crucial to Achieve the SDGs

This article originally appeared on the Women & Girls Hub of News Deeply, and you can find the original here. For important news about issues that affect women and girls in the developing world, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list. By Steve Godfrey

The U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals make up an ambitious new agenda. But Steve Godfrey of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition writes that unless there is investment in improving the nutritional health of women and girls, many of the goals will never be realized.

The Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted last year during the 70th U.N. General Assembly set a new course for nutrition and human development. For the first time, the international community is committed to “ending malnutrition in all its forms,” as opposed to “halving” malnutrition, as stated in the Millennium Development Goals. This means that we have the opportunity to improve the health and lives of an estimated 800 million people who remain undernourished and of the billions of people who suffer from micronutrient deficiencies or obesity. It is a radical new agenda.

Women and young children are often those most affected by the negative consequences of undernutrition. Around half of all pregnant women in developing countries are anemic, which contributes up to 20 percent of all maternal deaths. In many developing countries, women and girls traditionally eat last and have lower quality food, which often leads to poorer nutritional intake. And when a crisis hits, women are generally the first to sacrifice their food consumption to protect the health of their families.

Women account for over 40 percent of the world’s labor force. Yet malnutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies, can diminish women’s earning power through low energy levels, illness and increased absence from work. It is estimated that tackling anemia alone could lead to increased productivity of up to 17 percent.

Moreover, many adverse health outcomes associated with malnutrition are determined by the health and nutritional status of women and adolescent girls. Without the proper nutrients from pregnancy through to the age of 2 – the critical 1,000 days – infants suffer long-term health and economic consequences. Poor nutrition before and during pregnancy is a major determinant of stunting – meaning that a child does not reach its full potential height – which also has lifelong effects on physical and mental development. Currently, a little less than 160 million children are stunted globally.

At the same time, women are leaders in the fight against malnutrition. First, supporting women to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of a child’s life, and to continue breastfeeding along with adequate complementary foods until at least age 2, is the best nutrition intervention for mothers and their babies. Breast milk provides the essential nutrients needed for healthy development, as well as the antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea and pneumonia, the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide. Exclusive breastfeeding, where this is possible, is also beneficial to the mother and is known to reduce risks of breast and ovarian cancer later in life.

Second, women are the world’s primary food producers. Giving women farmers more resources could bring the number of hungry people in the world down by 100-150 million people. What’s more, when women have greater control over household income, they are more likely to prioritize spending on nutritious foods, improving nutrition for the entire family.

Finally, focusing on women’s empowerment is considered to be one of the best ways to improve nutrition. Education is a proven and important means of achieving gender equality, the effects of which are felt throughout families and communities. This includes better nutritional outcomes. A 2011 hunger and malnutrition report estimated that mothers with 10 or more years of education were less likely to have underweight or stunted children. Educating girls not only increases their earning potential, but may also delay the age of marriage and childbearing, which has a positive impact on childhood stunting.

Although the numerous links between empowering women and improving nutrition are understood, more still needs to be done to address the specific nutritional problems of women, adolescent girls and young children. The barriers for women in accessing nutritious diets are numerous and encompass the cost and availability of healthy foods, knowledge about nutrition, as well as the social, cultural and regulatory barriers that shape behaviors and markets.

Over the last nine years, GAIN has been working with our partners through a combination of proven interventions – such as the protection and promotion of breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding – and novel approaches to promote nutrition-related behaviors.

For example, a program in East Java, Indonesia, in partnership with the Ministry of Health’s Directorate of Community Nutrition, seeks to improve the dietary practices of pregnant mothers and children under the age of 2 years. Understanding what influences women when feeding their children and the barriers they face has been crucial to developing motivational messages that empower women to make healthy choices. We found that the whole community – members, friends and neighbors – needs to be involved, as everyone plays a big role in determining the choices that mothers make about what they and their children eat. One major component of the program is a behavior change campaign called Rumpi Sehat (Health Gossip), which comprises of national TV ads; “Emo-Demos” (emotional demonstrations), community activation designed to provoke an emotional response; social media; and interpersonal communication.

Another example is our project in rural Rajasthan, India, where women’s groups have been trained to produce fortified blended foods. These foods are purchased by the state’s social welfare program, which then distributes take-home rations to mothers and children. This project is giving tens of thousands of women access to nutritious complementary foods for their babies, aged 6 to 23 months, which are needed in addition to breastmilk. Currently, similar women’s groups are being set up in the Indian states of Karnataka and Bihar.

Adequate nutrition is important for women not only because it helps them be productive members of society, but also because of the direct effect maternal nutrition has on the health and development of the next generation. Maternal malnutrition’s toll on maternal and infant survival prevents countries from achieving most of the Sustainable Development Goals. While there is no silver bullet or single model to follow, putting women and children at the heart of tackling malnutrition is the right thing to do, a core investment for the success of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Women & Girls Hub.