UN OWG Proposed Target 5.5
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RATING: GOOD. There have been various studies that show having female politicians affects health and education – and generally has a positive effect on policies and society, meaning that benefits of this goal are quite high. Costs, however, are very difficult to estimate (which doesn’t allow it to get a phenomenal rating). Other benefits outside policy level interventions, also include women simple acting as a positive role model for younger girls/women (based on studies in India). Further studies have shown that female politicians seem to be less corrupt than male politicians (therefore the costs are lower, increasing benefits). However, even if the cost of female politicians is equal to men – the benefits are still huge.
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In our recent report, not just the target above, but all 169 targets have been assessed by 60 teams of the world’s top economists. The targets have been categorized into five ratings based on evidence of economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits. While we applaud that the UN Open Working Group's final outcome document contains 43 fewer targets than the previous document, we are concerned that many targets have simply been combined, therefore reducing the number of both phenomenal and poor targets assessed according to our cost-benefit analysis. Our new assessment includes suggestions for how these can be improved as reported in this article by the Financial Times.
