Logo: Strategy for a feminist development policy
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Gender equality Feminist development policy for sustainable development
Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development
Copyright© BPA/Steffen Kugler
Half of the world’s population is female. Equality is a human right. Being clear on that and raising awareness continues to be an ongoing task.
Strong women – strong societies
30 %
increase in agricultural yields thanks to equal access to agricultural inputs
Maternal mortality could be brought down by
1/3
if medical care for women improved
Mother and child ward in the hospital in Almalik, Uzbekistan
Copyright© Grigoriy Aisenshtat/ADB, via flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
70 %
of health professionals worldwide are women
20 %
increase in likelihood of peace agreements being upheld if women are involved in negotiations
A knotted pistol: The work “Non Violence” by the Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd has stood as a peace symbol in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York since 1988.
Copyright© Foto: Thomas Köhler/photothek.net
Better education
for women and girls reduces child marriages and unplanned pregnancies.
28 trillion US dollars
increase in global economic growth by 2025 if women enjoy equal participation
Two women at the Co-Creation Hub in Lagos, Nigeria
Copyright© Thomas Imo/photothek.net
Details
- When women are actively involved in peace processes, the probability that a peace agreement will last at least two years rises by 20 per cent. It is also more likely that agreements are implemented.
- A McKinsey Global Institute study (External link) says that 28 trillion US dollars could be added to global economic growth by 2025 if women were to participate in the economy to the same extent as men.
- Child marriages and unplanned early pregnancies drop if women are educated. Education improves maternal and child health, and the nutrition and wellbeing of children.
- Maternal mortality could be reduced to one third of its current rate if all women had the access to health care that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.
- If women had the same access to agricultural inputs as men, yields could increase by up to 30 per cent.
- Women make up 70 per cent of all health professionals worldwide. Their expertise is indispensable to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
Equality of women and girls, men and boys and persons with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities has not yet been fully achieved anywhere in the world.
Discrimination against women and girls
130 million
girls are denied the human right to education
Pupil at a school in Bangui in the Central African Republic
Copyright© Thomas Köhler/photothek
75 %
of all unpaid care work and household duties is done by women
26 %
of all seats in parliament worldwide are held by women
Plenary hall of the German Bundestag in the Reichstag building in Berlin
Copyright© Thomas Koehler/photothek.net
One in
three women
experiences physical or sexual violence at least once in her life
14 %
of landowners are female
A woman in Togo harvesting lettuce
Copyright© Ute Grabowsky/photothek.net
214 million
women have no access to modern methods of family planning
Details
- Worldwide only 26.1 per cent of all the members of national parliaments are women.
- Only 13.8 per cent of all landowners are female, even though women shoulder the brunt of the work in agriculture and forestry.
- The situation is much the same for another elementary social task, i.e. care work and domestic work. Women do about 75 per cent of this work and it is practically always unpaid.
- Some 130 million girls are denied the human right to education.
- 214 million women in developing countries have no access to modern methods of family planning.
- According to various estimates, one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence at least once in her life; in some regions it is as many as 70 per cent of all women. And during the COVID-19 pandemic gender-based domestic violence has significantly increased.
Feminist development policy – what is it all about?
Fighting hunger, poverty and inequality and asserting human rights, ensuring climate protection, sustainable use of our natural resources and fair globalisation are aims of Germany’s development policy. It is pursuing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its pledge to Leave No One Behind.
That is why the BMZ takes care in all its development activities to actively address gender inequalities and explicitly promote women, girls and other marginalised groups and ensure their equal participation.
The BMZ is currently drawing up a new strategy for feminist development policy. The new strategy builds on an extensive consultation process that the BMZ conducted this year, especially with civil society organisations and experts from the Global South and North. A summary of the key consultation results can be found here.
Feminist development policy is centred around all people and tackles the root causes of injustice such as power relations between genders, social norms and role models.
Feminist development policy enhances equality for people of all genders and thus is to the advantage of the whole of society – including men.
Feminist development policy is a powerful approach to take sustainable development forward and assert human rights – worldwide and regardless of gender and any other personal traits.
The key objectives of our feminist development policy
Gender inequality does not appear just by chance; it is the result of certain power structures, discriminatory norms and role models.
The aim of the BMZ’s feminist development policy is to eliminate structural inequalities, unequal treatment and discrimination in the long term. This also includes racist structures and power relations.
To that end, the BMZ is working at various levels.
As at: 01/04/2022