How can economies be sustainable if the work that goes into “producing people” — healthy children and adults capable of learning and being productive — disproportionately falls on the shoulders of women and girls? What is real development when care work is compromised because the basic infrastructure — water, sanitation, health, energy — needed to implement it is not within reach? How can a food system be sustainable if large numbers of women and girls remain undernourished and do not have secure entitlements to nutritious food, and to the land where it can be grown?
We explore many such questions in U.N. Women’s 7th World Survey on the Role of Women in Development 2014: Gender Equality and Sustainable Development. To be officially launched on Oct. 20, the report argues that gender equality must be integral to sustainable development.
This survey comes at a critical juncture, when U.N. member states are moving toward defining the Sustainable Development Goals for the post-2015 era. There is ongoing debate on the inextricable links between climate change, water and food, and how they will be properly addressed. Meanwhile, the full integration of gender equality and women’s rights in the design and implementation of all other SDGs is a vital task on hand.
About the authors
Melissa Leach
Melissa Leach is the director of the Institute of Development Studies. She co-founded the ESRC STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre, with its pioneering pathways approach to innovation, sustainability, and development issues. She is also an independent member of the Strategic Coherence of ODA-funded Research (SCOR) Board.
Shahrashoub Razavi
Shahrashoub Razavi is the head of U.N. Women's Research and Data Section. She specializes in the gender dimensions of development, with a particular focus on livelihoods, agrarian issues, social policy and care dynamics. Before joining UN Women, Shahra led the Gender and Development Program at the U.N. Research Institute for Social Development.
