Commission on the Status of Women: General debate

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,
 

The world has started moving beyond the pandemic. The question is, will it be to a better place or back to business as usual?

Given the current situation, we are certainly not back to business as usual but neither on the way towards a better place.

The experiences of the last two years have taught us vital lessons about how a combination of unexpected shocks and growing inequality can generate economic fragilities and reinforce political divisions. Clearly, there is room and need to build a more inclusive and resilient path forward. But positive change requires deliberate and strategic use of policy, at all levels.

The pandemic has shown the glaring evidence of structural injustices in the existing social and economic system. A system which relies on taking advantage of many underpaid labourers, often without or little social protection: countless women and girls.  And a system which treats nature as if it were an infinite resource.

Gender inequality is the oldest, and longest-standing structural and systematic injustice. Throughout history and across countries, women have been responsible for the lion’s share of unpaid care and invisible work. This has been perpetuated with enshrined social norms and stereotypes which cause barriers, or at least hurdles, for women’s participation in the labour market and their empowerment through earning income and gaining financial independence.

In more recent history, inequalities, and gender inequality in particular, were exacerbated when state capacities were systematically shrunk from the 1980s onwards. The reduction in the public provision of health and education services, deregulation of markets and dissolving social-safety nets meant an increasing reliance on unpaid labour and good will, especially of women and girls. 

In some ways, COVID has helped to make invisible or undervalued work more visible. The phrase “essential worker” has been used often, but not to refer to the highly paid at the top of the career ladder, but to many in low or lower paid work – such as nurses and cashiers. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the crisis leads to societies that value more – and pay better - these jobs.

While COVID is hopefully a transitory phenomenon, the climate crisis is increasingly constraining our possibilities. A fundamental problem is, the richer we get, the more we emit and compromise the health of our planet.

Since UNCTAD was created in 1964, CO₂ emissions per year have almost quadrupled. Fish stocks were not depleted as they are today, extinctions of species have never been as fast.

It is the tropics, the home of the developing world, that are and will be most affected by climate change. And neither is climate change gender neutral. Women tend to have less mobility to react to climate change, fewer resources to adapt their businesses and less access to jobs that are technology intensive, such as many green jobs of the future. 

Decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation and CO₂ emissions is central for sustainable development. In fact, it is an imperative.

But currently, we are on the wrong track.

So, what needs to be done to recover better and move toward a more equal world?  A big question to which I want to provide three short reflections.

First, we need to apply gender as a lens into the social inclusion and development impact of our economic policies, such industrial or trade policies. This must be deliberate and backed up with the required resources.

Second, climate mitigation is not sufficient, we need adaptation. And adaptation requires an integrated policy approach aiming at low-emission sustainable economic growth. For such transformation, developing countries need additional finance, green technologies, capacity building and adequate policy space to design integrated policies.

Third, we need to have better data to design more inclusive policies, both in the area of gender and climate. UNCTAD has been doing innovate work on this front which we will discuss in a session this Thursday. I cordially invite you all to participate and thank for your attention.