Post-2015 Consensus: Gender Equality Viewpoint, ACDI/VOCA

Viewpoint Paper

Jones commends Clots-Figueraz for her evidence-based approach, providing realistic, yet ambitious, analysis of the post-2015 development agenda for gender equality. However, there are some important issues not sufficiently well addressed, and the ACDI/VOCA’s recommendations for inclusion in the post-2015 agenda are:

• Aim to reduce gender gaps in agricultural sectors as part of economic empowerment targets
• Draw on additional evidence that supports a target related to gender equality in working conditions and labor force participation
• Encourage the use of targets that seek to reduce gender gaps in lieu of zero-targets
• Reconsider targets related to gender-based violence and violence against women

More than 52% of economically active women in developing regions work in the agricultural sector where they face significant gender inequities and discrimination and this issue deserves to be prioritised. To quote the FAO ‘If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent.’

ACDI/VOCA would support a post-2015 development target related to reducing gender-based violence by placing the burden on governments to ensure that there are policies and implementation procedures to prevent, mitigate, and address violence against women in business, government, public, and personal spaces. Therefore, the measurement would be of the laws and policies put in place to prevent, report, and adjudicate cases of violence against women and protect recipients of such violence.