Symposium in China discusses how to increase investment in women
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Beijing, China — Increasing sustainable investment in women and girls is key to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and indeed, to achieving all the other 16 SDGs. But results thus far have disappointed.
So on International Women’s Day (IWD), on 8 March, a symposium on Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress, was jointly organized in Beijing by UN Women China, Global Development Promotion Center of China’s International Development Cooperation Agency, and the Center for China and Globalization.
The speakers came from over 30 organizations, including five Director-Generals from key line Chinese ministries, five ambassadors, representatives from United Nations agencies, representative from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, think tanks, financial institutions, the private sector, civil society, and academia. The event got over 600,000 views via online livestreaming platforms.
The symposium participants discussed innovative ways to bridge the financial gender gap and sought to encourage actions to achieve the SDGs, including Goal 5. It also facilitated substantive exchanges of good practices and lessons learned in financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment marking collective efforts to spark positive change.
Gender equality enhances economic growth and sustainable development but achieving it requires “explicit attention and dedicated resources,” says Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023, published by UN Women and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
But half way through the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an additional $360 billion per year in financing is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals, the report says. It warns that if current trends continue, over 340 million women and girls -- about 8 per cent of the world’s female population — will live in extreme poverty by 2030.
Smriti Aryal, Country Representative of UN Women China, said at the symposium that while the financing gaps are substantial, “it is possible to make policy choices aimed at accelerating progress towards ending poverty and achieving inclusive, sustainable development for all.”
“This will require investment in a comprehensive set of economic and social policies and gender-responsive, accountable institutions to address the systemic structural barriers and intersecting forms of discrimination that women and girls continue to face,” she said.
Tang Ying, Director-General of the Global Development Promotion Center, said that achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls is an important concern of the Global Development Initiative.
“We welcome both domestic and foreign parties to actively participate in the construction of the Global Development Project Pool and Capital Pool, explore new cooperation modality and contribute to the mobilization of development resources, and jointly accelerate action to promote gender equality and women's all-round development,” she said.
Mabel Lu Miao, Co-founder and Secretary-General of the Center for China and Globalization, said that “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress" is relevant to everyone and is an important issue for realizing gender equality in these challenging times. “It requires not only moral support but also tangible economic investment. “
Siddharth Chatterjee, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in China, said: “Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. As China continues to expand its development cooperation institutions, we see continued opportunities to draw from international best practices, norms and standards.”
“Together, we can build a gender-responsive infrastructure of development cooperation policies, guidelines and frameworks to effectively mainstream gender equality and women’s empowerment at the programmatic and institutional levels in order to achieve SDG 5 and all of the other cross-cutting goals.”
The symposium included panel discussions among experts on Financing for Gender Equality in International Development Cooperation, Financing for Gender Equality from a Public Policy Perspective, and Incentivizing Gender Financing Instruments through Public-Private Partnerships.
The discussions underscored the crucial role of international cooperation, the importance of enhanced gender-responsive national public policies, and the utilization of instruments, mechanisms, and tools by both private and public sector partners to promote gender equality and women's empowerment.
In video
