Goal 5: Women and Gender balance and the Intersectional Philosophy of the UN SDGs
By Maya B. Garner
In 2015, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) set out 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to reach before 2030, addressing some of the most urgent priorities of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Goals were adopted in September 2015 by the UN General Assembly and include 169 targets measured in 232 indicators. The goals are broad, intersectional, and overlapping. In broad strokes, the SDG’s focus on eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting sustainability and green living in the face of climate change, and reducing inequalities among and within countries. Of these, Goal 5 sets out to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.” Some issues have greatly improved since the UNDP adopted a set of eight Millennium Development Goals in 2000; more girls now attend school in comparison with 15 years ago, and women comprise 41% of paid workers outside agriculture compared with the previous 35%. Yet what is the nature of the new goals, and what is the reality of the concepts and their implementation?
The targets as set out by Goal 5 are as follows:
1. End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
2. Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
3. Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
4. Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
5. Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
6. Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
7. Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws.
8. Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.
9. Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.
Each of these targets have one to two indicators, such as the proportion of women aged 20–24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18, and whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex. Initial criticism of the SDG’s dismissed them as far too numerous in comparison with the eight Millennium Development Goals, and was skeptical of their intersectional nature. However, is the intersectionality an obstacle, or rather a main driving force in the achievement of the 2030 goals?
Goal 5 intersect with other Sustainable Development Goals; eliminating poverty and promoting sustainability is inevitably tied with the achievement of gender equality. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, (or UN Women) statesthat “all the SDGs depend on the achievement of Goal 5.” For instance, women having control over their reproductive rights and access to reproductive services take part in reducing maternal mortality and have positive effects on education and employment. This empowerment of half of the population will undoubtedly change the societies as a whole. Furthermore, promoting female leadership in achieving the other SDG’s would create a two-way dynamic and underline the intersectional nature of the goals.
However, while seeking to understand gender equality as multidimensional, one glaring gap in the SDG’s and Goal 5 is the complete omission of discrimination and violence based on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation, for which many people are subjected to a high degree of sexualized violence, as well as murder and beatings, and a denial of services, education, healthcare, housing, and employment. This issue is undeniably part of gender-based discrimination, yet receives no attention in the SDG’s, effectively undermining the goal of gender equality.
Furthermore, the UN has been criticized for not adequately tackling the institutions (often religious or governmental) that perpetuate the discrimination against women, such as the Catholic church’s stronghold on reproduction rights. Additionally, there is no reference to critical civil and political rights, such as the freedom of expression and assembly, and protection against arbitrary arrest and detention. Without including these issues in the SDG targets and indicators, the SDGs lack an essential intersectional element and do not appear to effectively support the achievement of these goals through local activism and grassroots political movements. Analysts and activists speaking to the Guardian leveled criticism at the UN Women body for concentrating lobbying on a governmental level and for writing “endless reports at the expense of helping grassroots women’s organizations best placed to effect concrete change.” One emphasized this neglect of the civil society activists, and another proposed that the UN works towards linking grassroots to global lobbying and criticized empty rhetoric of “empowerment” lacking practical application. A third criticized UN Women’s report-writing as repetitive, and questioned the use of the term “advocacy” as opposed to effective action and change. Others stated that UN Women were underfunded and still struggling to establish itself politically. A weakness of the SDG’s then lies in the separation of humanitarian and political goals, rather than taking an intersectional approach, as expected by the SDG’s.
In the achievement of the 2030 goals, the call on the UN is to take an even more intersectional approach than it currently does. This approach is an essential part of the philosophy behind the SDG’s, yet the UN struggles with fully achieving it. The focus on gender-based discrimination and violence, as well as sexual violence, is incomplete without considering the discrimination and violence based on gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation. The humanitarian causes are undermined without intersecting political activism, and creating an intersectionality between governmental lobbying and women’s grassroots movements. In order to keep in line with the philosophy behind it, the SDG’s need a deepening of intersectional policies in policy-making as well as implementation.
Maya B. Garner, Spokesperson
International United Nations Watch
Phone: +447547 282209
E-mail: info@intunwatch.com