The UN’s 2026 report highlights a growing $4 trillion financing gap threatening Sustainable Development Goals, with declining aid and rising pressures disproportionately impacting developing countries, especially women and girls. The Report Nobody Wanted to Write On April 9, the UN released its 2026 Financing for Sustainable Development Report, which was the first comprehensive assessment of…
India has increased women’s participation in politics, business, and finance, but real decision-making power remains limited. The “agency gap” highlights the need to move from symbolic inclusion to true authority and control. Along the path to becoming a global economic power by 2047, women’s empowerment in India has shifted from a social welfare concern to…
Women’s empowerment is not just about access but about agency, control, and decision-making. Across rural and urban India, true empowerment remains constrained by deeply rooted structural and social barriers. What if women’s empowerment is not about lifting women up rather about examining what has been holding them down? Who is being empowered? How? Under what…
The article highlights how older women remain overlooked in gender equality efforts, especially in ESG and CSR frameworks, despite facing compounded lifelong inequalities. It calls for inclusive policies and corporate action to address their economic security, care needs, and social protection. CSW70’s Ministerial Round Table specifically addressed older women as an emerging focus area. Women…
Unpaid care work, worth $10.8 trillion globally, remains invisible in economic systems despite sustaining the workforce and corporate productivity. Investing in care infrastructure is essential for gender equality, higher female participation, and inclusive economic growth. Unpaid care work produces $10.8 trillion in annual economic value. CSW70 called for care infrastructure investment. The corporate sector extracts…
The anti-ESG backlash is weakening accountability systems and cutting funding for gender-focused programmes globally. As ESG rollbacks and aid reductions grow, women are disproportionately bearing the impact, slowing progress on equality. Trump-era ESG rollbacks and global aid cuts are hitting gender programmes hardest. The UN has the numbers. The corporate sector is looking the other…
At CSW70, a historic 37–1 vote preserved women’s rights at the UN, but it exposed growing global divisions and coordinated challenges to gender equality. While seen as a win, the outcome reflects a shift where defending existing rights is replacing real progress. The Vote That Shouldn’t Have Happened On March 9, 2026, inside the UN…
The G20 Social Summit in Brasilia is pushing for a “Universal Care Floor” to formally recognize unpaid care work. This policy could transform millions of caregivers—especially women—by integrating them into social protection systems and redefining how societies value care. Take a moment to think, about the first person who woke up in your home today….
India’s WASH transformation through the Swachh Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission has significantly expanded sanitation and safe drinking water access, improving public health, gender equality, and rural livelihoods. The next phase focuses on sustaining these gains through resilient systems, community ownership, and climate-sensitive water management. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is not only a…
At the Commission on the Status of Women 70th Session, the United Nations warned that women worldwide hold only 64% of the legal rights enjoyed by men, highlighting persistent gender inequality in global laws. UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged governments to remove discriminatory nationality laws and turn legal equality for women from promises into real…
