Time to invest more in women
Almost half of humanity -- 3.4 billion people -- now live in countries that direct more revenues toward servicing interest on debt than toward education or health, where a lack of investment directly undermines economic opportunities for women and girls. Moreover, only 5% of ODA goes toward programmes with gender equality as the principal objective.
Women's options for improving their own economic circumstances are limited, not least because of limited access to finance. The total finance gap for women-led micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises is an estimated $1.7 trillion. Women running medium-sized enterprises, in particular, struggle to access both venture capital to support growth, and working capital, to support day-to-day operations. Some 740 million women worldwide lack access even to a bank account.
Compounding the problem is unequal access to the internet, which is essential for financial and digital literacy. It does not help that women continue to dedicate a disproportionate amount of time to unpaid care work, which, if properly compensated, would add at least $10.8 trillion per year to the global economy. Female labour force participation amounts to just under 47% globally, compared to 72% for men.
These problems are set to worsen. For starters, the algorithms underpinning AI tools -- which are being used in a growing range of areas, from assessing creditworthiness to making hiring decisions -- may perpetuate existing biases. Furthermore, many developing economies will struggle to create enough jobs for their burgeoning youth populations: while 1.2 billion people are set to reach working age within the next decade, only 420 million jobs are expected to be created. Young women are more likely than young men to be left out. At the current rate of progress, it will take 134 years to close the global gender pay gap.
There is now a large body of evidence showing that everyone loses when women and girls are not given the tools and opportunities to reach their potential. Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa lose $210 billion annually -- more than 10% of the region's total GDP -- as a result of girls leaving school early. Low- and middle-income countries stand to lose $500 billion over the next five years if they fail to close the gender gap in internet access and usage. Studies also show that gender-responsive approaches significantly increase the effectiveness of climate-adaptation finance. All told, investing in gender equality could increase global GDP by more than 20%.
FfD4 represents an important opportunity to build a global financial architecture that expands women's access to finance, increases their labour-force participation and contributes to shared prosperity. If done right, this process would harness the energy of young people and make the most of emerging technologies.
There is good reason for hope. The FfD4 outcome document (Compromiso de Sevilla), adopted on Monday on the first day of the conference, includes commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including through poverty eradication, female entrepreneurship and equal access to financial services.
But commitments are just the beginning; to deliver real progress, a robust framework for implementation and accountability will be essential. The "Sevilla Platform for Action" -- which will mobilise partnerships among government, civil society organisations and private sector actors to advance concrete initiatives -- is a promising step in this direction.
Promising initiatives are already taking shape as part of this platform. One of them -- called Investing in Care for Equality and Prosperity: A Global Initiative to Advance Gender-Responsive Financing for Development -- aims to expand impact investments in care policies, infrastructure and services. For example, partnerships with the private sector would focus on delivering supportive workplace policies and decent working conditions for care workers, and partnerships with financial institutions would drive investment in care infrastructure. This initiative is led by a small group of countries and civil society organisations, and has been endorsed by many more, including our organisation, GWL Voices.
Such initiatives have huge potential to advance gender equality. But closing the gender gap will require leaders to apply a gendered lens to policy debates across the board, not least when it comes to finance. And that can happen only if women have a seat at the table.
As it stands, women remain woefully underrepresented at the top of international financial institutions and in senior finance-related positions in public institutions. In 2023, only 26 of the International Monetary Fund's 190 members had female finance ministers, and only 23 central banks were led by women (though the total rose to 29 in 2024). Many international financial institutions, finance ministries, and central banks have never had a woman at the helm.
The development community must address the structural barriers women face head-on, at FfD4 and beyond. This is not just a moral imperative; it is smart economics. The time to invest in women and girls is now. ©2025 Project Syndicate
María Fernanda Espinosa, a former foreign minister of Ecuador and a former president of the UN General Assembly, is Executive Director of GWL Voices and Co-Chair of the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery Project. Anita Bhatia, a member of GWL Voices, is a former deputy executive director of UN Women and a former UN assistant secretary-general.
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Bangkok Post
07-07-2025
- Bangkok Post
Time to invest more in women
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, which ended on Thursday, has taken place at a time of escalating debt crises, rising poverty, declining food security and proliferating climate-related damage. These crises are all exacerbated by deep reductions in official development assistance (ODA), and they all disproportionately affect women and girls, especially in developing countries. Almost half of humanity -- 3.4 billion people -- now live in countries that direct more revenues toward servicing interest on debt than toward education or health, where a lack of investment directly undermines economic opportunities for women and girls. Moreover, only 5% of ODA goes toward programmes with gender equality as the principal objective. Women's options for improving their own economic circumstances are limited, not least because of limited access to finance. The total finance gap for women-led micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises is an estimated $1.7 trillion. Women running medium-sized enterprises, in particular, struggle to access both venture capital to support growth, and working capital, to support day-to-day operations. Some 740 million women worldwide lack access even to a bank account. Compounding the problem is unequal access to the internet, which is essential for financial and digital literacy. It does not help that women continue to dedicate a disproportionate amount of time to unpaid care work, which, if properly compensated, would add at least $10.8 trillion per year to the global economy. Female labour force participation amounts to just under 47% globally, compared to 72% for men. These problems are set to worsen. For starters, the algorithms underpinning AI tools -- which are being used in a growing range of areas, from assessing creditworthiness to making hiring decisions -- may perpetuate existing biases. Furthermore, many developing economies will struggle to create enough jobs for their burgeoning youth populations: while 1.2 billion people are set to reach working age within the next decade, only 420 million jobs are expected to be created. Young women are more likely than young men to be left out. At the current rate of progress, it will take 134 years to close the global gender pay gap. There is now a large body of evidence showing that everyone loses when women and girls are not given the tools and opportunities to reach their potential. Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa lose $210 billion annually -- more than 10% of the region's total GDP -- as a result of girls leaving school early. Low- and middle-income countries stand to lose $500 billion over the next five years if they fail to close the gender gap in internet access and usage. Studies also show that gender-responsive approaches significantly increase the effectiveness of climate-adaptation finance. All told, investing in gender equality could increase global GDP by more than 20%. FfD4 represents an important opportunity to build a global financial architecture that expands women's access to finance, increases their labour-force participation and contributes to shared prosperity. If done right, this process would harness the energy of young people and make the most of emerging technologies. There is good reason for hope. The FfD4 outcome document (Compromiso de Sevilla), adopted on Monday on the first day of the conference, includes commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including through poverty eradication, female entrepreneurship and equal access to financial services. But commitments are just the beginning; to deliver real progress, a robust framework for implementation and accountability will be essential. The "Sevilla Platform for Action" -- which will mobilise partnerships among government, civil society organisations and private sector actors to advance concrete initiatives -- is a promising step in this direction. Promising initiatives are already taking shape as part of this platform. One of them -- called Investing in Care for Equality and Prosperity: A Global Initiative to Advance Gender-Responsive Financing for Development -- aims to expand impact investments in care policies, infrastructure and services. For example, partnerships with the private sector would focus on delivering supportive workplace policies and decent working conditions for care workers, and partnerships with financial institutions would drive investment in care infrastructure. This initiative is led by a small group of countries and civil society organisations, and has been endorsed by many more, including our organisation, GWL Voices. Such initiatives have huge potential to advance gender equality. But closing the gender gap will require leaders to apply a gendered lens to policy debates across the board, not least when it comes to finance. And that can happen only if women have a seat at the table. As it stands, women remain woefully underrepresented at the top of international financial institutions and in senior finance-related positions in public institutions. In 2023, only 26 of the International Monetary Fund's 190 members had female finance ministers, and only 23 central banks were led by women (though the total rose to 29 in 2024). Many international financial institutions, finance ministries, and central banks have never had a woman at the helm. The development community must address the structural barriers women face head-on, at FfD4 and beyond. This is not just a moral imperative; it is smart economics. The time to invest in women and girls is now. ©2025 Project Syndicate María Fernanda Espinosa, a former foreign minister of Ecuador and a former president of the UN General Assembly, is Executive Director of GWL Voices and Co-Chair of the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery Project. Anita Bhatia, a member of GWL Voices, is a former deputy executive director of UN Women and a former UN assistant secretary-general.
Bangkok Post
02-07-2025
- Bangkok Post
Resetting development finance
At the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development this week in Seville, delegates are calling for urgent action to fix a system that has stopped working. Prior to the third such gathering a decade ago, in Ethiopia, we had witnessed unprecedented advances towards reducing poverty, increasing school enrolment, and providing clean water worldwide. Today, however, progress is not only slowing but potentially stagnating -- or, worse, reversing. Global growth this year is expected to slow to its lowest rate (outside of a crisis) since 2008. The outlook is especially problematic for developing countries that are already growing well below historical averages, and for those 35 countries, mostly in Africa, that are already in or at high risk of debt distress. One out of every three countries now spends more repaying creditors than on health or education. As debt payments crowd out money needed for development, these countries' futures are being jeopardised. Meanwhile, the global gap between the richest and the poorest continues to grow, with Oxfam estimating that the new wealth of the top 1% surged by more than US$33.9 trillion since 2015 -- enough to end poverty 22 times over. The situation won't change unless there are greater flows of finance to developing countries. Moreover, quality matters as much as the quantity: There has been far too much finance of the kind that leads to financial distress, and far too little of the kind that promotes sustained growth. We believe that finance for development is too important not to involve every stakeholder. As the late Pope Francis emphasised, doing so is a moral obligation. That is the message of the Vatican's new Jubilee Report on debt, reflecting the work of a global commission of experts -- which one of us (Stiglitz) chaired. But fixing development finance is also a matter of self-interest for most advanced economies. After all, poverty and inequality give rise to social tension, diseases, and conflicts, with spillovers that do not respect national boundaries. Moreover, a lack of finance in developing countries implies a lack of investment in climate-change mitigation, a global public good that is necessary for everyone's future prosperity. With the world so divided, and so afflicted by the exercise of raw power and by short-term thinking, the Seville conference should be seen as an opportunity to renew multilateralism for the common good. But it will need to be more than just an exercise in speech-making about the hope of a better future. Such rhetoric must be translated into tangible progress, and there are some signs that this could happen. The outcome document, the "Compromiso de Sevilla", forged at the United Nations in New York, gives us confidence that this gathering will lay the foundation for a new debt and financial architecture. Specifically, Spain has launched the Sevilla Platform for Action, providing a comprehensive framework for coalitions of the willing to advance ambitious, but feasible, initiatives that will drive material progress in addressing challenges related to sustainable development. For example, we should see the launch of a Global Hub for Debt Swaps to generate more fiscal space for investment in sustainable growth; a Debt Pause Clause Alliance, to ease pressure on vulnerable countries' budgets when they are squeezed by extraordinary events; a broad push to re-channel International Monetary Fund special drawing rights (SDRs) -- the IMF's global reserve asset, held mostly by wealthy countries -- towards more effective uses; steps to strengthen the voices of debtor countries through a borrower-country platform; and the start of an intergovernmental process on debt restructuring at the UN, following principles that were already agreed by an overwhelming majority of member states a decade ago. These steps represent just the start. In time, the Seville conference could be remembered not as a landing zone, but as a launchpad for further action. But for that to happen, we must continue to push for more ambitious, yet feasible, solutions. For example, creating a Jubilee Fund with $100 billion (3.25 trillion baht) worth of untapped SDRs for debt buybacks would provide the most vulnerable countries with resources that they desperately need to promote sustainable growth. Equally, one can imagine broader frameworks for debt-for-nature and debt-for-development swaps, as well as new and fairer green trade and investment agreements that enhance domestic resources and facilitate developing countries' participation in the global effort to address climate change. Seville represents an opportunity to look at finance and send a message of commitment to multilateralism. We remain optimistic, because we believe in the power of pragmatism. By focusing on workable solutions that go beyond the text of whatever agreement emerges, we can finally put development back on track. ©2025 Project Syndicate 1995–2025
Bangkok Post
30-06-2025
- Bangkok Post
UN chief urges aid surge in world of 'climate chaos, raging conflicts'
SEVILLE (SPAIN) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the world to "rev up the engine of development" at an aid conference in Spain on Monday at a time when US-led cuts are jeopardising the fight against poverty and climate change. Dozens of world leaders and more than 4,000 representatives from businesses, civil society and financial institutions are gathering in the city of Seville for the June 30-July 3 conference to seek fresh impetus for the crisis-hit aid sector. But the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change. Guterres told delegates at the opening of the conference that two-thirds of United Nations sustainable development goals set for 2030 were "lagging" and more than $4.0 trillion of annual investment would be needed to achieve them. US President Donald Trump's gutting of his country's development agency, USAID, is the standout example. But Germany, Britain and France are also making cuts while they boost spending in areas such as defence. International charity Oxfam says the cuts to development aid are the largest since 1960. More than 800 million people live on less than $3.0 a day, according to the World Bank, with rising extreme poverty affecting sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Disruption to global trade from Trump's tariffs and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have dealt further blows to the diplomatic cohesion necessary for concentrating efforts on helping countries escape poverty. The crisis meant children going unvaccinated, girls dropping out of school and families suffering hunger, said Guterres. He urged the international community to "change course" and "repair and rev up the engine of development to accelerate investment" in "a world shaken by inequalities, climate chaos and raging conflicts". A blistering heatwave that is scorching southern Europe welcomed the delegates to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, an example of the extreme weather that scientists say human-driven climate change is fuelling. - 'Colonial debt' - Kenya's William Ruto, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, Angolan leader Joao Lourenco and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan were among prominent Global South leaders in Seville. Among the key topics up for discussion is reforming international finance to help poorer countries shrug off a growing debt burden that inhibits their capacity to achieve progress in health and education. The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UN data. Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for reform to improve their representation of the Global South. Painstaking talks in New York in June produced a common declaration to be adopted in Seville that only went ahead after the United States walked out. The document reaffirms commitment to the UN development goals such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, reforming tax systems and international financial institutions. The text also calls on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urges lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion. Coalitions of countries will seek to spearhead initiatives in addition to the so-called "Seville Commitment", which is not legally binding. But campaigners have criticised the text for lacking ambition and have rung alarm bells about rising global inequality. Hundreds of demonstrators braved the sizzling heat in Seville on Sunday to demand change in international tax, debt and aid policies. "Global South countries will never be able to decide how they want to do development if they are bound to the new colonial debt," protester Ilan Henzler, 28, told AFP.
