5.1% of women in North Africa and Western Asia experienced extreme poverty in 2023, based on the UN Women Gender Snapshot report for 2023.
The poverty rate for women will decline to 4.5% in 2025, and 4.1% in 2030, estimated the report.
These figures were featured in the jointly released report by UN Women and UN DESA. The Gender Snapshot report for 2023 was published on Thursday, reviewing gender equality development around the world.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the UN set for effectively achieving gender equality served as indicators to track gender equality’s progress.
26.9% of women experienced food insecurity in North Africa and Western Asia in 2023. The rate is anticipated to decline to 26.3% in 2025 and to 24.9% in 2030.
54% of nations still lack legislation addressing all significant aspects of gender equality, such as equal rights to get married and file for divorce.
28 countries still do not have legislation allowing women equal rights to enter marriage and initiate divorce, according to data available for 120 countries and regions.
Similar restrictions exist in the Moroccan family code, still not fully reflecting gender equality.
For instance, women solely are required to wait a specific amount of time after getting divorced before starting a new relationship, according to articles 129/130/131 of the Moroccan family code.
Article 142 of the family law grants filiation and lineage rights to men and fathers of the children solely; women can only obtain these rights if the father of the children has died.
53 countries do not require equal pay for work of equal worth, while 67 countries lack legislation that forbid both direct and indirect discrimination against women.
The UN analysis continued to provide data on indices of gender equality, like education and the number of women in positions of leadership.
Only 26.7% of seats in parliament, 35.5% of local government jobs, and 28.2% of managerial positions are held by women globally. Only 60% of women have finished upper secondary education.
In 2022, women made up 17% of inventors in worldwide patents compared to 83% of men.
Women will eventually devote 2.3 more hours per day to unpaid care and household duties than men, according to the UN Women report.
Only 61.4% of women of prime working age are employed, compared to 90.6% of men of prime working age.
Only 4% of all bilateral aid is designated for initiatives with gender equality as their main goal. In the field of humanitarian aid, funding for gender equality is very low.
“Gender equality is becoming a further away goal as the globe fails to achieve it”. The report urged multi-stakeholder cooperation and ongoing financial support as part of an integrated, comprehensive strategy for improving gender equality.