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.

- MARÍA FERNANDA ESPINOSA ANITA BHATIA

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, smalland 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.