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	Polycrises are pushing more women into poverty by IPS, Commission on the Status of Women, agencies   March 2024   On International Women’s Day, UN Women calls for the world to “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress” as the best way to accelerate economic growth and build more prosperous, equitable societies.   This is particularly urgent when war and crisis are eroding the achievements of decades of investments in gender equality. From the Middle East to Haiti, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, women pay the biggest price for conflicts that are not of their making. The need for peace has never been more urgent.   Climate change is accelerating persistent poverty gaps. As competition for scarce resources intensifies, livelihoods are threatened, societies become more polarized, and women bear an increasingly heavy burden:   1 in every 10 women in the world lives in extreme poverty. The number of women and girls living in conflict-affected areas doubled since 2017, now, more than 614 million women and girls live in conflict-affected areas. In conflict areas, women are 7.7 times more likely to live in extreme poverty.   Climate change is set to leave 236 million more women and girls hungry by 2030, twice as many as men (131 million). At prime working age, only 61 per cent of women are in the labour force versus 90 per cent of men.   We cannot continue to miss out on the gender-equality dividend. More than 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.   Almost 300 million jobs could be created by 2035 through investments in care services, such as provision of daycare and elderly care. And closing gender employment gaps could boost gross domestic product per capita by 20 per cent across all regions.   The current reality is far from this. Programmes dedicated to gender equality represent only 4 per cent of official development assistance. An additional USD 360 billion in developing countries is needed per year to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. This is less than one fifth of the USD 2.2 trillion spent globally on military expenditure in 2022, for example.   The areas needing investment are clear and understood. First and foremost there must be an investment in peace. Beyond this, the investments needed include: laws and policies that advance the rights of women and girls; transformation of social norms that pose barriers to gender equality; guaranteeing women’s access to land, property, health care, education, and decent work; and financing women’s groups networks at all levels.   UN Women is also calling on Member States at the Commission on the Status of Women, starting in New York on 11 March 2024, to back up their commitments on gender equality with resources.   The world’s leaders have this opportunity to develop concrete and progressive agreed conclusions that reflect the crucial need for financing gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women´s organizations. They must seize it for the sake of equality, our planet, and the Sustainable Development Goals.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/international-womens-day http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/news/2024/03/financing-social-protection-and-care-systems-turbocharges-economies-reduces-poverty   Polycrises are pushing more Women into Poverty, by Jessica Henn, Channe Lindstrom Oguzhan and Angie Elizabeth Carrion Cueva. (IPS)   Let’s call her Anita. Four years ago, her life took an unexpected turn when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything she knew. As businesses closed and economic uncertainty loomed, Anita, like countless others, found herself forced out of work. Providing for her three young children became a daily struggle, prompting her to seek informal work as a subsistence agricultural worker to ease the financial burden.   Just as Anita began to rebuild her life, hoping for a semblance of normalcy, climate change left Anita’s village facing the worst drought in decades, destroying the crops on which they survived. With no social protection for informal workers like Anita, the aftermath left her grappling with the devastation, both emotional and economic.   Yet, through it all, Antia’s resilience shone bright. She sought opportunities, determined to shield her children from the harsh realities they faced.   However, the challenges did not cease. Against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions and global climate shocks, food prices began to soar. Anita, despite her tenacity, found it increasingly difficult to put food on the table for her children. In a difficult situation, Anita reached out for assistance, seeking a loan to navigate the financial hurdles.   Yet, discriminatory legal frameworks and gender norms prevented Anita from accessing the financial lifeline she desperately needed, pushing her further into poverty.   Anita’s story is not an isolated case. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 165 million people globally have fallen (back) into poverty, with an additional 75 million more people living in extreme poverty, on less than USD $2.15 a day. It is estimated that at least 8 per cent of the world’s female population (342.4 million women and girls) will live on less than $2.15 a day by 2030 if current trends continue.   In the Asia-Pacific region, existing gender poverty gaps have widened, particularly in South Asia which is forecast to have 129 women in the 25-34 age group living in poverty for every 100 men by 2030, rising from 118 women to every 100 men in 2021.   Yet, while recent polycrises have reversed hard-won gains towards poverty eradication, strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective can get us back on track to eradicate extreme poverty and close the growing gender poverty gap.   150 million women and girls globally could be lifted out of poverty by 2030 with increased spending on social protection, investments in the green economy, better infrastructure and education.   Strengthened gender-sensitive public institutions play a pivotal role promoting gender equality in all spheres, supported by investments in women’s leadership and political participation, alongside institutional initiatives aimed at overcoming biases and stereotypes.   For many women at the Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), the call to action rang loud and clear.   Accelerate 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.   * Jessica Henn, Channe Lindstrom Oguzhan and Angie Elizabeth Carrion Cueva work with the Social Development Division, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific:   http://www.ipsnews.net/news/gender/ http://unocha.exposure.co/women-shine-a-light-in-their-communities-amid-conflict-and-climate-shocks http://plan-international.org/campaigns/future-girls-want/ http://www.unicef.org/reports/delivering-and-adolescent-girls http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/over-230-million-girls-and-women-alive-today-have-been-subjected-female-genital http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/story/hunger-has-a-female-face/ http://gendernutritiongap.org/closing-the-gap/ http://www.unicef.org/reports/undernourished-overlooked-nutrition-crisis http://reliefweb.int/report/india/women-paying-cost-climate-crisis-their-wombs-quantifying-loss-and-damage-faced-women-battling-drought-debt-and-migration http://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/the-climate-crisis-is-unjust-for-rural-women--fao-gender-expert/en   http://www.unocha.org/news/un-deputy-relief-chief-warns-human-progress-impossible-unless-silencing-women-ends http://www.msf.org/women-frontline-defying-consequences-conflict-care-each-other http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2024/03/international-womens-day-podcast-women-peacebuilders http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/03/womens-day-enduring-peace-will-only-be-built-women-table-says-turk http://www.ohchr.org/en/edvaw/statements http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures   http://www.unfpa.org/news/five-reasons-why-women-and-girls-must-have-equal-rights-our-digital-world http://www.alignplatform.org/resources/shifting-narratives-and-norms-around-unpaid-care-work-csw68 http://publicservices.international/resources/news/psi-calls-to-rebuild-the-social-organisation-of-care-at-the-heart-of-gender-justice?id=14750&lang=en http://www.escr-net.org/news/2024/csw68-conversations-rebuilding-social-organisation-care http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/future-of-social-democracy/who-cares-1-7380/ http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2024/03/video-of-the-side-event-unlocking-gender-equality-the-power-of-universal-social-security-programs/   http://globaltaxjustice.org/news/upholding-womens-rights-by-taxing-fairly-for-gender-transformative-care/ http://giescr.org/en/our-work/on-the-ground/gi-escr-s-takeaways-from-csw68 http://giescr.org/en/resources/publications/a-care-led-transition-to-a-sustainable-future http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/03/global-demand-universal-social-security http://gcap.global/news/gcap-statement-on-international-womens-day-2024/   * Oct. 23, UN Women Expert Group report for the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women: 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: http://tinyurl.com/yraf5zx7 Visit the related web page
	Persistent gender gaps in the world of work by Pubic Services International, agencies   Jan. 2024   Global Unions have submitted a joint statement to the UN Committee on the Status of Women 68th session to be held in March 2024 calling for action to improve the state of poverty and inequality faced by women in the global workforce.   The world today has never been so rich (three times more wealth than thirty years ago), yet over 700 million people live in extreme poverty and hundreds of millions of people work in precarious and informal jobs, the majority of whom are women.   Inequality has reached record levels: the top 1 per cent has taken 38 per cent of all wealth whereas the bottom 50 per cent has gained only 2 per cent. In 2022, shareholders received record-high dividends, while billions of people around the world struggle to survive a cost-of-living crisis since workers’ wages are too low and more than half of the world lacks access to social protection.   A decades-long erosion of workers’ rights is driving poverty, inequality, inequity, exclusion and insecurity, further exacerbated by multiple crises including the global care crisis; the climate and biodiversity crisis; erosion of democracy; freedom of expression; and the rise of the far right.   Changes in work patterns, including through new technology and digitalisation, and the abusive use of temporary and short-term contracts have resulted in massive job insecurity and have undermined freedom of association, collective bargaining and access to labour protection.   This hits women the hardest. They are over-represented in poor and low-paying jobs, deeply affected by persistent forms of discrimination, exclusion, gender-based violence and intersecting systems of oppression based on class, ethnicity, race, migration status, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity and other grounds.   The gender gap in labour force participation remains stuck at 27%. On average, women continue to be paid 20 per cent less than men. At the current rate of change, it will take 257 years to close the global gender pay gap. Girls from the poorest households continue to be excluded from education.   At current rates of progress, it will take another 54 years to reach universal primary school completion for girls. 53.1 per cent of the global population – 4.1 billion people – have no social protection. Only 30.6 per cent of the working-age population are legally covered by comprehensive social security systems that include a full range of benefits.   When women do access social protection they experience a lower social protection coverage range and substantially lower benefit levels as contributory systems penalize women who are often responsible for a disproportionate share of unpaid care work. This burden increases when public services are absent, inadequate or privatized.   A large proportion of women experience profound impacts to access and maintain a paid job because of gender-based violence and harassment in their world of work.   One of the key factors for the persistent gender gaps in the world of work is the unfair distribution of unpaid care work, the inadequate social organization of care and decades of weakening the State responsibility in care policies and under investments in the care economy including public health, care and education services, deregulation, underfunding, and privatisation including corporate capture of health and care.   During the COVID-19 pandemic, 90% of women who lost their jobs in the first 18 months exited the labour force while women have lost around US$800 billion in income. This loss is comparable to the combined GDP of some 98 countries.   The pandemic revealed a 8 per cent gender-gap in social protection. While women already performed three times as much unpaid care work as men, these responsibilities increased during the pandemic. The pandemic showed as well the importance of public services, including front-line services.   The pandemic has further deepened inequalities in education for girls and young women, leading to increased drop -out rates, adolescent pregnancies, and girl marriages. Women saw a steep surge in domestic violence and gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work. Migrant women and refugees, young and older women, Indigenous women, racialized women, women with disabilities and LGBTI+ persons were particularly affected.   Breaking the cycle of poverty requires full employment and decent work for all, including the creation of millions of decent jobs, worker-led formalization of informal jobs, universal access to social protection systems and floors and equitable access to public quality services and free, quality, inclusive education and training opportunities.   Whether at a local, national, sectoral or global level, trade unions are at the forefront of the fight against poverty, including in-work poverty, and the effort to create a fairer society.   This can only be achieved when workers can effectively organise, campaign and engage in social dialogue and collective bargaining, with representation in all their diversity throughout negotiations and decision-making, around important economic and social issues for them and their families.   Against this backdrop, trade unions have achieved the adoption of ground- breaking laws and policies which have the potential to elevate women out of poverty by improving their opportunities to access and remain in paid, secure and decent work, free from gender-based violence, harassment and discrimination.   Trade unions engage in social dialogue and lobby and advocacy to ensure women’s access to adequate and universal social protection and quality public services to shifting the sole responsibility for unpaid care work from the shoulders of women and girls and ensuring a gender-transformative just transition.   Trade unions are fighting for wage justice and equal pay for work of equal value, especially in feminised sectors where jobs are undervalued, such as education, health and care sectors.   Social dialogue is essential in translating economic development into social progress. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the crucial role of social dialogue – based on the respect for freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining – in saving jobs, incomes and the lives of millions of workers.   However, fundamental workers’ rights, including the right to form and join a union, and trade unions themselves are under attack. The result is an erosion of collective bargaining, a decline in wages, weakening of labour rights and protections, reducing social protection, a backlash against equality laws, policies and measures, and rising inequality.   A strong and effective International Labour Organisation (ILO), driving the multilateral agenda, is essential. The ILO, the only UN entity with a tripartite constituency, has a principal role in labour standard setting which is essential for strengthening national law and policies and improving working lives, dignity and respect for fundamental rights.   The ILO’s transformative agenda elevates women out of poverty by advancing gender equality, equality of treatment and opportunity for all, non-discrimination and inclusion. This includes closing the gender pay gap, promoting decent work including in care and through care leave policies, and ending gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work.   Reform of the international financial institutions, in order to secure the conditions for both gender-transformative job creation and worker-led formalisation, is crucial. So too are the creation of a worker-friendly trade system and the design and delivery of industrial policy including international support for domestic industrial policy initiatives.   Global Unions call on governments to take concerted actions that will lift millions of women out of poverty, towards a life of dignity and equality with income security and equal opportunities to access paid, decent and formal work – free from violence and harassment – and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, accelerate the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action and implement the UN Global Accelerator for jobs, social protection and just transitions with its ambitious targets on decent jobs creation in the care economy and on realising social protection floors for all by 2030.   More specifically, we call on governments to engage with unions in social dialogue to:   Develop national jobs plans and invest in the creation of 575 million new decent jobs by 2030, including in the care economy and climate-friendly jobs, with a gender-responsive focus. Just Transition towards environmentally sustainable economies for all, as well as the worker-led formalisation of one billion informal workers.   Ensure long-term and adequate public investments for the creation of 300 million new decent jobs in education, health, care and social services. Guarantee equitable access to quality, gender-transformative public health, child- and long term care and education services as well quality public Guarantee decent work for all care workers.   To end public sector wage bill constraints including those imposed by the International Monetary Fund. To adopt inclusive labour market policies, family-friendly workplace polices and gender responsive social protection which grant an equitable sharing of care responsibilities and care jobs.   Secure fair wages for all, including through the establishment of minimum living wages, the realisation of equal pay for work of equal value, improving pay and working conditions including in feminised sectors, addressing intersecting discrimination based on class, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and migrant, indigenous, disability status and other grounds, and ending the occupational segregation of women and other marginalised groups; Guarantee women’s fundamental right to work;   Reform the world’s financial and trade systems that deny prosperity to billions of people and build a peaceful world and a just, rights-based development model realised through the promise of the SDGs and multilateral reform;   Strengthen public services which binds communities and provides dignity, a safety net and public protection floors. Gender-transformative public quality services are the greatest equalizer and leveller of equality in society – giving everyone equal and universal access to services across their life course from early childhood education to latter life.   Ensure gender-transformative universal social protection systems and floors and a global social protection fund in order to support low income countries develop and extend social protection systems, in line with ILO To redesign social protection schemes so that periods of care are credited fairly and to ensure that contributions continue to be paid during periods of care leave and to ensure adequate public non-contributory social protection schemes including basic pensions and guaranteed minimum unemployment benefits.   Ensure equitable access to free, quality, inclusive education and training opportunities, including skills development, training, and life-long learning, supported by education and training strategies with active labour market policies, for skilling, reskilling and This is essential to guarantee gender-transformative just transition plans in response to climate change and technological shifts.   Bridge the global digital divide, in countries and between the North and the South, to bring internet connectivity to all the world’s people as a human right and to ensure meaningful equitable access to technology for all; ensure gender transformative proactive digitalisation policies and Ensure that new and green technology guarantees decent work for all and gender equality and equity in the world of work.   Fully support the ILO with its normative mandate and tripartite structure and decent work agenda, and ensure the respect and the effective implementation of ILO’s fundamental principles and rights at work, including freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining (ILO Conventions 87 and 98), the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation (ILO Conventions No. 100 and 111); and a safe and healthy working environment (ILO Conventions No. 155 and 187).   And to further accelerate equality and equity in the world of work, to ratify and effectively implement the ILO Conventions on social protection (No. 102), family responsibilities (No. 156), Indigenous Peoples (No. 169), maternity protection (No. 183), Domestic Workers (No. 189) and Violence and Harassment (no.190 and Recommendation 206).   (Statement submitted by Education International, International Federation of Journalists, International Trade Union Confederation, International Transport Workers’ Federation, International Union of Food Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations, and Public Services International, non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council).   http://publicservices.international/resources/news/trade-unions-fight-poverty-for-a-gender-transformative-world-of-work?id=14380&lang=en http://www.ituc-csi.org/ILO-agreement-on-living-wage-definition http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/19/overlooked-crisis-domestic-violence-workforce http://www.wiego.org/news/workers-in-informal-employment-call-for-high-quality-care-services-for-all/ http://www.wiego.org/research-library-publications/observations-advisory-opinion-care-human-rights/ http://cesr.org/recognizing-care-as-a-human-right-and-a-public-good-a-call-to-action-from-global-civil-society/ Visit the related web page
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