No country meeting global goals for gender equality: study

Yahoo – AFP, June 5, 2019

The UN survey shows richer countries like Finland have made the most
progress on gender equality (AFP Photo/Roni Rekomaa)

Vancouver (AFP) - No country is on track to achieve the gender equality called for in the United Nations's development blueprint, a report released on Tuesday said.

In 2015, all United Nations member states adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve by 2030 in areas such as education, climate, and gender equality.

But the new report says countries aren't on the right track to meet the gender equality benchmark, which requires eliminating discrimination and violence against women and ending harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.

"We're literally failing to deliver on the gender equality promises made in the (SDGs) for billions of girls and women," said Alison Holder, director of Equal Measures 2030, which put together the SDG Gender Index report.

"Even more worrying for me is 1.4 billion girls and women live in countries that got a 'very poor' failing score on the index," she said, speaking on the sidelines of the Women Deliver gender equality conference in Vancouver.

Using data from 129 countries, the survey shows that wealthy nations like Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands were making the most progress while poor or unstable countries such as Chad, DR Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Yemen and Niger were falling behind.

Some poorer countries did make gains, with Senegal closer to achieving 

gender parity in its parliament than Denmark (AFP Photo/SEYLLOU)

There were also "pockets of good news even in struggling countries," said Holder.

For example, Senegal is closer to achieving gender parity in its parliament than Denmark, even though Senegal's GDP is 56 times lower.

However, no country has fully achieved gender equality, the report said.

The findings of the index indicate a lack of political will to invest in advancing gender equality, according to Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, chief executive officer of Plan International, a child rights charity that contributed to the report.

She hopes to see advocacy groups and activists take up the data from the gender index and use it to mount "clever political campaigns to generate actions."

The survey isn't the first to show the tough road ahead for the SDGs.

A report released last month said that despite 150 million people gaining access to electricity every year, the SDG of assuring affordable and clean energy was not on track to be reached.

Related Article:

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”