‘Institutional change’ needed to meet gender equity goals

[CAPE TOWN] Gender researchers say urgent action is needed, including targeted funding, data collection, and institutional policy changes, to ramp up progress on gender equality, dealt a major blow by COVID-19.

A report by UN Women warns that the world is far off track to meeting its goal of gender equality by 2030, with more than 340 million women and girls still expected to be living in extreme poverty by then.

The Gender Snapshot 2023 calculates that an additional US$ 360 billion per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across the global goals, including ending poverty and hunger.

Institutional policy and culture will enable a leapfrogging to support gender equality.

Dorothy Ngila, National Research Foundation (NRF)

It says a gender specific stimulus would have a “transformational impact” on the course of the 17 SDGs, most of which are off target.

Joan de Klerk, former director of programmes at South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality, says the report highlights three critical areas to be addressed: equality between men and women in time spent on unpaid work and domestic work, equality in decision-making, and sexual and reproductive health rights.

She says it is clear that global goals are not on track to be met and “any acceleration programme for implementation of the SDGs might not succeed in the current climate of wars, pandemics and the economic climate we find ourselves in”.

In South Africa, which is ranked 110 of 166 countries in the 2023 SDG index for achieving the overall 17 SDG goals, de Klerk says there have been some improvements in decision-making, but not enough.

Dorothy Ngila, director of strategic partnership at South Africa’s National Research Foundation, says factors like poor funding and the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the slow progress in achieving gender parity.

“We went back many, many years during and now post-COVID […] and it will take a lot more consistent advocacy and actions to self-correct and then move forward on a more equitable path,” says Ngila, who also manages the Sub-Saharan Africa-based multi-lateral Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI).

Ngila says the SGCI member councils engage in capacity-strengthening to embed gender equality across the sustainable development goals.

“I think that it is institutional policy and culture that will enable a leapfrogging to support gender equality,” she says, adding that SGCI is working with donors to influence government policy and increase funding for projects that promote gender equality.

“There is a need for fundamental recognition that the rights of women are completely tied to the global developmental trajectory”, Ngila adds.

“If we cannot enable women and minority groups to access, in an equitable way, things like education, health, water and sanitation, and livelihoods, then the world is much poorer for the missed numbers and opportunities for innovation that women bring to the world.”

Ingrid Lynch, senior researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council, says research is fundamental to creating policies that can drive gender equality.

“Science Granting Councils are essential to this, as they are able to fund research that speaks to local realities, and that offers tailored solutions for countries to take forward,” she says.

Lynch believes that the reality could be even worse that the UN report indicates.

“This recent report is bleak, but the true picture is likely even bleaker, (as) we do not have access to the necessary data to fully understand the challenges,” says Lynch, adding that more funding for research is a big part of the solution.

De Klerk believes higher-income countries should increase funding dedicated to achieving gender parity.

“As humanitarian organisations operate on funding available, I think humanitarian organisations need to intensify their request for additional funding from the developed countries,” she says.

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors.