The newly released Gender Snapshot 2025 report by UN Women and the UN DESA shows that the world is at a crossroads. If current trends continue, the world will reach 2030 with 351 million women and girls still living in extreme poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, missed. However, where gender equality has been prioritized, it has propelled societies and economies forward, with girls now more likely to complete school than ever before and maternal mortality declining by nearly 40 per cent between 2000 and 2023.
The data makes clear that a different path is still possible — if we chose to invest even in just one concrete action on closing the gender digital divide, 343.5 million women and girls globally could benefit, lifting 30 million women and girls out of poverty and generating a USD 1.5 trillion windfall in global GDP by 2030. In the past five years, 99 new or reformed laws helped to remove discriminatory laws and establish gender equality legislative frameworks across the world. Rates of intimate partner violence are 2.5 times lower in countries with comprehensive measures on violence compared to those with weak protections, and women's leadership in climate talks has doubled.
The Gender Snapshot report is the world's leading source of data on gender equality and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, drawing from more than 100 data sources to track progress for women and girls across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. With only five years remaining to achieve the SDGs, the report outlines bold investments and collective actions to power faster progress, noting that accelerated action in social protection, the green economy, education, labour markets, innovation and effective governance could unlock an additional $35.6 trillion in global GDP by 2050
For more information and to download the full report visit the UN WOMEN website.
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