The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) agreed a set of conclusions urging governments to take actions to integrate a gender perspective into financing for development (FfD) commitments. It recommends that countries implement gender-responsive economic and social policies to strengthen public institutions.

The Commission’s 68th annual session convened in New York, US, from 11-22 March 2024, on the theme, ‘Accelerating the Achievement of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls by Addressing Poverty and Strengthening Institutions and Financing with a Gender Perspective.’

UN Women warns that around 10% of women globally live in extreme poverty and that progress towards ending poverty needs to happen 26 times faster to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Data from 48 developing economies reveal that an additional USD 360 billion is needed per year to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key goals, including on ending poverty and hunger. “Over 100 million women and girls could be lifted out of poverty if governments prioritized education and family planning, fair and equal wages, and expanded social benefits,” the agency argues.

In its conclusions, the Commission reaffirms that the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of its reviews contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to achieving gender equality. It “reiterates that the 2030 Agenda needs to be implemented in a comprehensive manner, reflecting its universal, integrated and indivisible nature… including by developing cohesive sustainable development strategies to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”

Concerned about the negative impacts of the global economic and financial crises on sustainable development and the realization of the human rights of all women and girls, the Commission emphasizes the need for “an international financial architecture that is more fit for purpose, equitable, and responsive to the financing needs of developing countries and the needs of all women and girls living in poverty.”

To ensure that the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is accelerated, the Commission urges governments and stakeholders to expand fiscal space for investments to end poverty for women and girls, foster new development strategies towards sustainable economies and sustainable societies, engage and finance women’s organizations and collectives, and enhance multidimensional poverty data and statistics.

Created in 1946, the Commission on the Status of Women is a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) dedicated exclusively to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. [Publication: Accelerating the Achievement of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls by Addressing Poverty and Strengthening Institutions and Financing with a Gender Perspective] [68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women]