Gender equality seen reversing

Pio Smith, the regional director for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is warning that gender equality is in danger of reversing after almost 30 years of hard-won gains as "economic instability, conflict and climate disasters are deepening inequalities, pushing women and girls into greater vulnerability."

- MARIANNE GO

In an opinion-editorial piece shared by the UNFPA, Smith recalled that 30 years ago, the world made a promise: gender equality for all. The Beijing Declaration, he recalls, set an ambitious agenda urging governments to accelerate progress. At the time, he said, doing so was more crucial in the Asia-Pacific region, which is home to over half the world's women and girls.

Decades of advocacy and investment, he said, led to tangible gains, with more women in leadership, stronger legal protections and improved access to health care and education.

Unfortunately, he warned, "today, those hard-won gains are unravelling. Gender equality is not just stalling—it is reversing. Reproductive rights are rolling back. Gender-based violence is rising. Women's political representation is stagnating and, in some cases, regressing. Economic instability, conflict and climate disasters are deepening inequalities, pushing women and girls into greater vulnerability."

Asia and the Pacific stands at a crossroads, he stressed, citing that "maternal mortality, once declining, has stagnated. In some countries, fewer than 30 percent of women have access to contraception. In the Pacific, one in two women has experienced intimate partner violence."

Climate change, he said, is exacerbating inequalities, uprooting families, and exposing women to exploitation and abuse. Women and children in the region are 14 times more likely to die in disasters.