Empowering women and investing in gender equality is essential for economic resilience and growth. To do this, governments need to invest in legal reform, campaigns to challenge social norms, and strong workplace legislation.
The world has seldom been in a tighter spot. Across the globe, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, with greater economic damage, even in the wealthiest countries. Food insecurity is on the rise — and climate change is making it worse. In 2022, about 2.4 billion people — nearly a third of humanity — lacked year-round access to enough safe and nutritious food, with women and girls bearing the brunt: They account for nearly 60% of people facing severe hunger.
It takes a global economy firing on all cylinders to overcome threats of this magnitude. Today, however, growth is slowing nearly everywhere across the world. By the end of 2024, people in more than 1 out of every 4 developing countries will remain poorer on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet policymakers in most countries continue to leave a potentially transformative economic force on the sidelines: women.