This report assesses progress towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women across the Commonwealth in five key areas, and presents recommendations for how to advance that progress.
Successive Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGMs) have confirmed their commitment to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. This report informs Heads about progress on the commitments made in the Commonwealth Declaration for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women 2022–2030.
Progress is presented for the five priorities in the Declaration:
- women in leadership
- women’s economic empowerment
- ending violence against women and girls
- gender and climate change
- accountability for gender equality.
For some priorities, progress has been achieved, for others it has stalled.
In general, there are more women in leadership positions across the parliaments of the Commonwealth, but potentially declining numbers in managerial roles in the private sector.
Goals set for the percentage of girls enrolled in secondary education will not be achieved at the current rate of progress. There is a reduction in female graduates in information and communication technology (ICT) programmes, and unpaid household labour continues to be a barrier to women’s economic empowerment.
Rates of violence against women and girls remain staggering high across the Commonwealth. While global data indicate that rates of early, child and forced marriage declined between 2000 and 2021, such data suggest rates have increased in Commonwealth countries.
Including women in planning and decision-making about climate change at the national and local levels will ensure that climate plans and decisions are more likely to
be effective for the whole population. More nations are doing so, but progress is slow.
The report discusses where analysis was limited by gaps in the collection of gender- and sex-disaggregated data across the Commonwealth, and concludes with a series of recommendations for Heads of Government for how to seize opportunities to accelerate gender equality and the empowerment of women.
