The UN global snapshot on the status of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on gender equality provides a concise summary of global data and where things stand. Some key findings in the 2023 Snapshot:
* Halfway through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world is failing to achieve gender equality
* On current trend, over 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to 1 in 4 will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
* Progress in reducing maternal mortality reduction has stalled and many women continue to face challenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health care.
* No country is within reach of eradicating intimate partner violence
* Only 27 countries have comprehensive systems to track and make budgetary allocations for gender equality and women's empowerment.
* Recent setbacks, particularly among women and girls living in fragile or conflict-affected countries, and growing vulnerability brought on by human-induced climate change, are worsening the outlook
* 614 million women and girls lived in conflict-affected contexts in 2022, 50% higher than in 2017. In 2023, women and girls in extremely fragile countries and areas were 7.7 times more likely than those in other contexts to live on less than $2.15 a day.
* Halfway to 2030, aid for programmes dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment as the principal objective remains low, amounting to $5.7 billion per year (4% of total bilateral aid - down from 5% in previous years).
* $6.4 trillion per year is needed across 48 developing countries, covering nearly 70% of the population in developing countries to achieve gender equality. The current shortfall is $360 billion per year.
* UN Women's research <https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2023/07/the-paths-to-equal-twin-indices-on-womens-empowerment-and-gender-equality> finds that high human development does not automatically translate into women's empowerment and gender equality, and small gender gaps do not automatically translate to high levels of women's empowerment. Gender equality must be specific objective of development.
