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New UN report unveils alternative policy agenda for gender equality
A major report from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) released in seven cities globally on Monday brings together human rights and economic policy-making to call for far-reaching changes to a global policy agenda that will transform economies and make womenâs rights and equality a reality
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major report from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) released in seven cities globally on Monday brings together human rights and economic policy-making to call for far-reaching changes to a global policy agenda that will transform economies and make women's rights and equality a reality.
The report, entitled 'Progress of the World's Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights', takes an in-depth look at what the economy would look like if it truly worked for women, for the benefit of all.
'Progress makes the case that the alternative economic agenda it outlines would not only create fairer societies. It would also create new sectors of employment, for instance in the care economy,' UN Women says in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The report is being published as the international community comes together to define a transformative new agenda for sustainable development, 20 years after the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. The conference set out an ambitious agenda to advance gender equality.
Since the Beijing Conference, significant advances have been made by many societies, particularly in advancing women's legal rights. However, in an era of unprecedented global wealth, millions of women are still consigned to work in low paid, poor quality jobs, denied even basic levels of health care, without access to clean water and decent sanitation.
Globally, only half of women participate in the labor force, compared to three-quarters of men. In developing regions, up to 95 percent of women's employment is informal, in jobs that are unprotected by labor laws and lack social protection, the report says.
Women still carry the burden of unpaid care work, which austerity policies and cutbacks have only intensified.
'Our public resources are not flowing in the directions where they are most needed -- for example, to provide safe water and sanitation, quality health care and decent child- and elderly-care services,' UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
'Where there are no public services, the deficit is borne by women and girls.' (ebf)(++++)
