Devex: Opinion: How to make progress on the SDGs? Prioritize gender equality
Ginette Azcona, policy specialist with U.N. Women’s Research and Data Team, and Silke Staab, research specialist at U.N. Women and manager of the global monitoring report Turning Promises into Action

“…[I]dentifying policy solutions that can leverage change across a number of different goals is vital to accelerating progress [on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)], and here addressing gender equality is key. … [W]hat are the policies that can unlock progress on women’s food security, but also on other goals, for the benefit of all? … [B]y prioritizing land rights for women, we could potentially see progress on five of the SDGs, on hunger, poverty, gender equality, health, and climate action. So, what’s stopping us? … [T]wo big barriers are money and ‘politics as usual.’ Governments need to be able to finance gender equality policies, and yet, the value of money flowing out of developing countries, including debt payments and illicit flows, is $3.3 trillion per year, 2.5 times the amount of resources flowing in. In comparison, donor spending on gender equality … is a drop in the ocean. Reducing outflows, increasing tax revenues, and ensuring that corporations pay their fair share of tax would provide all the resources and more to make the kind of gender equality investments we need to see. … Women and feminist organizations were pivotal in demanding Agenda 2030, and ultimately it will be their organizing and action that will also determine whether its promise is realized” (2/20).