74 DEVELOPMENT
GENDER EQUALITY AS AN
INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF
GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator and Chair
of the UN Development Group
In September 2015, world
leaders launched the
new global development
agenda encompassing the
Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). In December,
at COP21 in Paris, a new
international climate
agreement is expected
to be reached. These
agreements offer a once in
a generation opportunity
to achieve the sustainable
and inclusive development
people everywhere seek.
Gender equality and women’s
empowerment must be
priorities in these agendas.
Despite notable progress in some
areas, gender inequality remains a major
impediment to the advancement of
women and to development. While the
number of women in paid employment
has increased, women do remain
disproportionately represented in
vulnerable employment. Women’s wages
continue on average to be between four
to 36 per cent lower than men’s. Overall,
women are less likely than men to have
access to decent work, assets, and formal
credit. And women comprise only 22 per
cent of the world’s parliamentarians.
Nations have made many commitments
to gender equality from the time of
agreement to the provisions of the United
Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women, the Beijing Declaration
and Platform for Action, right through
to the Millennium Declaration. Their