UNB :
Women leaders at the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) have highlighted the urgent need for feminist financing to advance gender equality and women’s economic justice and rights.
The session, which concluded on Friday, emphasized the importance of increasing investments in gender equality to ensure sustainable development and reduce women’s poverty and violence against women globally.
During the twelve-day session, women leaders and civil society members focused on robust measures to strengthen financing, institutions, and social protection systems with a gender perspective. The UN Secretary-General’s report to the Commission highlighted that 10.3 percent of women currently live in extreme poverty, underscoring the need for accelerated progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
In such a situation, women’s economic empowerment was a central theme at CSW68, with discussions highlighting its crucial role in enhancing autonomy, security, and sociopolitical lives. Closing all gender employment gaps could lead to a nearly 20 percent increase in GDP per capita and the creation of almost 300 million jobs by 2035 through investments in care services.
At CSW68, Generation Equality hosted an event highlighting feminist financing and calling for collective action for women’s economic justice.
“If we are not ambitiously proactive, women’s economic empowerment and autonomy will be continuously stalled,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
She underscored the need for governments to prioritise gender-responsive financing and gender equality, especially in light of recent cuts in official development assistance to support women’s rights organisations and movements.
“Women’s economic empowerment is not only critical to pave the way for individual freedoms,” said Sofia Calltorp, Sweden’s Ambassador for Gender Equality, “it is essential to many of the global and domestic challenges we face today, and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”