SDG-5: Gender equality in planning and reality

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The  17 SDGs planned for achieving by 2030, are  built on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) concluded in 2015, while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities.
The SDGs are an inclusive agenda. They address the root causes of poverty and unite all players together to make a positive change for both the people and the planet. The goals are interconnected - often the key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another. The SDGs provide a common plan and agenda to tackle some of the pressing challenges facing the world such as poverty, climate change and conflict. They provide clear guidelines and targets for all countries to adopt, in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large.
SDG 5 states its target by way of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but is also crucial to accelerating sustainable development. It has been proven time and again that empowering women and girls has a multiplier effect, and helps drive economic growth and development across the board. The SDGs aim to build on these achievements to ensure that there is an end to discrimination against women and girls everywhere. There are still huge inequalities in the labour market in some regions, with women systematically denied equal access to jobs. Besides, sexual violence and exploitation, discrimination in public office -- all remain huge barriers.
Affording women equal rights to economic resources such as land and property are vital issues for realising this goal. So is ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health. Today, there are more women in public office than ever before, so encouraging women leaders will help strengthen policies and legislation for greater gender equality.   
MILESTONES OF THE MOVEMENT FOR GENDER EQUALITY
1946:    Commission on the Status of Women
1975:    World Conference of the International Women's Year
1979:    Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
1994:    20-year Programme of Action (POA)
1995:    Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
2000:    Millennium Declaration MDG Goal 3
2010:    UN Women
2015:    Beijing +20 and 2030 Agenda: SDG 5
PROGRESS OF SDG 5 in GLOBAL PERSPECCTIVE: Gender equality and women empowerment have advanced in recent decades. Girls' access to education has improved, the rate of child marriage declined and progress was made in the area of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, including fewer maternal deaths. Nevertheless, gender equality remains a persistent challenge for countries worldwide and the lack of such equality is a major obstacle to sustainable development. Assuring women's rights through legal frameworks is a first step in addressing discrimination against them.
As of 2014, 143 countries guaranteed equality between men and women in their constitutions; another 52 countries have yet to make this important commitment. In 132 countries, the statutory legal age of marriage is equal for women and men, while in another 63 countries, the legal age of marriage is lower for women than for men.
Violence against women and girls violates their human rights and hinders development. Most such violence is perpetrated by intimate partners, as reflected in available data from surveys conducted between 2005 and 2015 in 52 countries, (including only one country from the developed regions) indicating that 21 per cent of girls and women aged between 15 and 49 experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner in the previous 12 months. Estimates on the risks of violence experienced by women with disabilities, women from ethnic minorities and among women above the age of 50 are not yet included, owing to data limitations. Additionally, human trafficking disproportionately affects women and girls, since 70 per cent of all victims detected worldwide are female.
Globally, the proportion of women aged between 20 and 24 who reported that they were married before their eighteenth birthday dropped from 32 per cent around 1990 to 26 per cent around 2015. Child marriage is most common in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with 44 per cent of women married before their eighteenth birthday in Southern Asia and 37 per cent of women married before their eighteenth birthday in sub-Saharan Africa.
The marriage of girls under the age 15 is also the highest in those two regions, at 16 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. Social norms can and do change, however, with the rate of marriage of girls under the age of 15 declining globally from 12 per cent around 1990 to 7 per cent around 2015, although disparities are found across regions and countries. The most rapid reduction in child marriage was recorded in Northern Africa, where the percentage of women married before the age of 18 dropped by more than half, from 29 per cent to 13 per cent, over the past 25 years.
In every region, women and girls do the bulk of unpaid work, including care-giving and household tasks as cooking and cleaning. On average, women report that they spend 19 per cent of their time each day in unpaid activities as against 8 per cent in respect of men. The responsibilities of unpaid care and domestic work, combined with paid work, means greater total work burdens for women and girls and less time for rest, self-care, learning and other activities.
GLOBAL SDG 5 TARGETS: Targets as envisioned by  Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) which developed the  global indicator framework as a practical starting point at the 47th session of the UN Statistical Commission held in March 2016. The report of the Commission, which included the global indicator framework, was then taken note of by ECOSOC at its 70th session in June 2016.Targets set for SDG 5 are: (1) End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere; (2) Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation; (3) Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation ; (4) Recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate; (5) Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life;
(6) Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
REPORT CARD: BANGLADESH: In the Bangladesh constitution (Articles 26, 27, 28 and 29), equal right of the women is recognised. The 5 targets of Goal-5  pursued  by the Government of Bangladesh include ending all forms of gender discrimination, eliminating violence against women and harmful practices like early, forced or child marriage; recognising the value of unpaid care and domestic work; and ensuring equal participation of women in leadership positions. Meeting these targets will be an uphill task in Bangladesh because of the social realities, citizens' outlook and value systems in society. The ministries of women and children affairs, home affairs, labour and employment, and social welfare are relevant for realising these targets.
Since 2000, UNDP, together with our UN partners and the rest of the global community, has made gender equality central to their work in Bangladesh. Remarkable progress has been observed  since then. More girls are now in school compared to the situation 15 years ago, and most regions have reached gender parity in primary education. Women now make up 41 per cent of paid workers outside of agriculture, compared to 35 percent in 1990.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid is a  
former Secretary and Chairman, NBR. mazid.muhammad@gmail.com