Global Goals: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
IWDA welcomes the recognition of the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment to achieving sustainable development within the Sustainable Development Goals. This is reflected in a standalone goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment (Goal 5) and in the recognition of gender dimensions in targets across other goals including those related to health, agriculture, education, climate change and economic inequality.
IWDA particularly welcomes the inclusion of targets in relation to recognising and valuing unpaid care, eliminating violence against women, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. It is also significant that the target in relation to women’s participation in decision-making extends beyond the national level to include all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
Within this Policy Brief, IWDA urges the Australian Government to lead on the new Global Goals agenda by:
- Increasing targeted resourcing for gender equality and women’s empowerment
- Adopting a transformative approach to measuring progress
- Fostering ongoing collaboration with women’s rights organisations
- Introducing a coordinating mechanism to drive a whole-of-government approach