World Survey on the Role of Women in Development 2014: Gender Equality and Sustainable Development

"For pathways to be truly sustainable and advance gender equality and the rights and capabilities of women and girls, those whose lives and well-being are at stake must be involved in decision-making and leading the way, through community groups, women's organizations and other forms of collective action and engagement."

Ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17 and on the heels of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General's Climate Summit in September 2014, UN Women released this in-depth analysis of sustainable development issues and associated challenges and solutions through a gender lens. The organisation notes that the effects of climate change are being felt in floods, droughts, and devastated landscapes and livelihoods that have tremendous social, economic, and environmental consequences. Women and girls are among the most affected by these changes, given the precariousness of their livelihoods and because they bear the burden of securing shelter, food, water, and fuel, while facing constraints on their access to land and natural resources. As the global community grapples with the challenges of charting trajectories to sustainable development and in defining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the World Survey, released every 5 years, in 2014 emphasised the centrality of gender equality to this endeavour.

Issues tackled in the report include: patterns of growth, employment generation and the role of public goods; food production, distribution and consumption; population dynamics and women’s bodily integrity; and water, sanitation and energy. The report uses 3 criteria to assess whether policy actions and investments towards sustainable development adequately address gender equality. These are: Do they support women's capabilities and enjoyment of their rights? Do they reduce, rather than increase, women's unpaid care work? Do they embrace women's equal and meaningful participation as actors, leaders, and decision-makers?

The World Survey 2014 brings analytical perspectives grounded in research that shows the deeply unsustainable directions of current patterns of production, consumption and distribution. According to the report, the causes and underlying drivers of unsustainability and of gender inequality are deeply interlocked. Dominant development models that support particular types of underregulated market-led growth rely on and reproduce gender inequalities, exploiting women's labour and unpaid care work. Similarly, they also produce environmental problems by overexploiting natural resources and generating pollution, further intensifying gender inequality as women and girls are often disproportionately affected by economic, social, and environmental shocks and stresses. While international debate has brought these issues into the spotlight, policy responses still tend not to focus on achieving women's human rights or gender equality.

Linking gender equality and sustainable development is important for several reasons, as detailed in the report. First, "achieving gender equality and realizing the human rights, dignity and capabilities of diverse groups of women is a central requirement of a just and sustainable world. Second, it is critical to redress the disproportionate impact of economic, social and environmental shocks and stresses on women and girls, which undermine the enjoyment of their human rights and their vital roles in sustaining their families and communities. Third, and most significantly, it is important to build up women's agency and capabilities to create better synergies between gender equality and sustainable development outcomes."

The overall messages of the report are:

• "Forging any sustainable development pathway must include an explicit commitment to gender equality, women's empowerment and women's rights in its conceptualization and implementation;
• Achieving sustainable development means recognizing the synergies between gender equality and sustainability and engaging with the tensions and trade-offs that inevitably arise between the three dimensions of sustainability and with the integration of gender equality;
• Addressing the trade-offs and negotiating the policy dilemmas to achieve sustainable development and gender equality requires inclusive deliberation processes and ways to monitor exclusions and trade-offs. The active participation, leadership and creativity of civil society and women's organizations, communities and concerned individuals are critical to such deliberations."

Chapter 2 articulates what sustainable development with gender equality means for policymaking purposes: economic, social, and environmental development that ensures human well-being and dignity, ecological integrity, gender equality, and social justice. The World Survey proposes that policies, programmes, and investments in the name of sustainable development should: (i) be assessed against compliance with human rights standards and their ability to enhance the capabilities of women and girls; refrain from increasing women's unpaid care work; and ensure the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women as actors, leaders, and decision-makers in the processes that shape their lives as well as the future of their households, communities, nations, and the world. In the area of food security, for instance, policy efforts aimed at national and local food sufficiency and low-chemical and environmentally sustainable agriculture, which are desirable objectives from the perspective of ecological sustainability, need to consult smallholder farmers, particularly women, about their priorities and constraints rather than assume that their interests are already aligned with preconceived policy aims and visions.

Each chapter thereafter shows how unsustainable development patterns and gender inequality reinforce each other. Each chapter also shows that alternative pathways that move in sustainable directions are underpinned by alternative visions and values that involve different combinations of public, private, and civil society institutions and require strong state action. Social movements are key in initiating and demanding such alternatives and in shaping forms of collective action that maintain them.

The report makes concrete recommendations, calling on Member States to:

• Develop and implement sustainable development policies that are in line with international norms and standards on gender equality, non-discrimination, and human rights;
• Ensure that macroeconomic policies create decent work and sustainable livelihoods and reduce inequalities based on gender, age, income, and other contexts;
• Promote decent green jobs and adequate wages for agricultural and informal workers, especially women, through labour market regulation and gender-responsive employment policies;
• Ensure that sustainable population policies are grounded in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights, including the provision of universally accessible quality SRH services, information, and education;
• Ensure universal access: to water, with a goal of reducing unpaid care work; to clean, private and safe sanitation for all women and girls that is responsive to gender-specific needs; and to efficient solid-fuel stoves or cooking technologies that use cleaner fuels and involve women in their design, testing, and marketing.

The World Survey 2014 was presented in New York, United States to the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly on October 20 2014. A lunchtime panel discussion [PDF] on the same day allowed an opportunity to discuss the key messages of this report with its contributing authors and other leading experts. "This report will strengthen policy actors in different parts of the world – whether in government, civil society, international agencies or the private sector — towards more robust and effective policy measures and investments", said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.