Each year, developing countries face a $420 billion shortfall in funding for gender equality. This stark reality, outlined by UN Women, highlights a critical gap: due to a lack of resources, millions of women and girls are deprived of essential services, support, and full participation in society.
“The money simply isn’t reaching the women and girls who need it most,” the UN agency lamented in a statement released on Monday.
UN Women’s warning, which coincides with the agency’s 15th anniversary this month, comes as the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development is underway in Seville, Spain. While high-level discussions at the summit promise to overhaul the global financial architecture to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the gap between rhetoric and reality continues to widen.
“We cannot close gender gaps with budgets that ignore gender perspectives,” said Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. “Gender equality must no longer be sidelined in budget lines but become a core pillar of public policy.”
A Decade to Act, Not to Wait
In response to this critical lack of resources, UN Women is calling for ten years of targeted and sustained investment. It’s a race against time to address structural inequalities and transform gender equality from aspiration to reality.
It starts with gender-responsive budgeting—allocating public funds to areas where needs are most urgent. Yet today, three out of four countries do not even have a system to track gender-related spending.
Another priority is major investment in public care services—such as childcare centers, eldercare facilities, and home care support—to relieve women from the invisible burdens that often keep them out of the labor market.
Trapped by Debt
However, in many countries, these ambitions hit a wall: debt. Debt repayments are consuming national budgets, pushing gender equality further down the list of priorities. UN Women is therefore advocating for urgent debt relief measures.
At the opening of the Seville conference, a key agreement was adopted. The Seville Commitment, welcomed by UN Women, includes ambitious pledges on financing for development, including gender equality. But now, the challenge is to turn words into action.
“Gender equality requires funding. It requires reform. And it requires leaders who no longer see women as a cost, but as the future,” emphasized Ms. Gumbonzvanda.
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