Gender Equality And Women’s Leadership For Sustainable Development

Abstract

On 1 January 2016, the world officially began the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the SDGAgenda): the transformative plan of action based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to address urgent global challenges over the next 15 years. The SDG Agenda includes a comprehensive single-standing goal devoted to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (SDG 5). According to its targets, this goal requires ending discrimination, violence and harmful practices and enhancing equitable policy, opportunities and access to health, economic and technological resources by 2030.The author underlines that women and girls face these and others tremendous structural barriers that impact all aspects of their lives. Hence, eliminating these barriers is not only critical to achieve the SDG 5 – an important goal in itself– but also as an incentive for attaining a sustainable future for all. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the cross-dependence of the SDGs, based on the consideration that advances in gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are indispensable for progress in achieving them. The research is based on a review of the existing academic literature on the interactions between SDGs and their goals, a body of literature that is quite recent and small in comparison with other material areas of research.