Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s)

Sustainable development goals (SDG’s) or can also be termed as global goals for sustainable development are set of 17 goals that are developed by the United Nations General Assembly 2015. These sustainable goals are an integral part of Resolution 70/1 of the United Nations General Assembly: “transforming our world the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development’ (Lu, Nakicenovic, Visbeck and Stevance, 2015). This agenda has been shortened to 2030 Agenda. The 17 goals that are developed are very broad and also independent yet each goal has its own various targets that are required to be attained. Approximately there are 169 goals and accomplishing the same will be the signal of the attainment of accomplishment of the 17 goals.

The prime objective of the report is to analyze the sustainable development goals developed by the United Nations General Assembly 2015. The further focus of the report is diverted towards the goal no 5 that is ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ (Moreno and Amin, 2016). The main objective for which the analysis will be executed is to find out the issues in the mentioned goal. Developing recommendations for solving the issues in the presented goal can also be considered another purpose of the report.

Gender inequality has been observed to be one of the biggest and one of the history’s most tenacious and prevalent forms of prejudice and eliminating the same will be considered as history’s one of the biggest movement for change (Leach, 2015). Women and girls are continuously suffering fierceness and discernment in every part. Gaps in gender equality are a major part of concern in every sector. For instance, in South Asia only 74 girls were enrolled in primary school in comparison to every 100 boys in the year of 1990. However there were no changes in the the ratio, till 2012 the enrollment ratios were the same.

Gender equality is not only recognized as a fundamental human right but is also a necessary foundation for a sustainable and peaceful world. The prohibition of women places half of the world’s population outside the monarchy of opportunity to partner in building affluent societies and nations (Costanza et al., 2016).

Majorly there are two research methods that can be used for executing the research for this topic that is SDGs (sustainable development goals). The selected research method that has been used for extracting the data is Qualitative research method (Lee et al., 2016). This is a market research method that is focused on obtaining the data through open-ended and conversational communication methods. For instance, the data on fifth goal of SDG was also extracted by executing open-ended communication with audience. Qualitative research methods are designed in a manner that they will aid in revealing the behavior and perception of a target audience with the concerned topic.

The SDG Goal No 5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

There are various limitations or challenges that were faced while collecting the data. As the topic is of global concern and is also a broad concept the expenses incurred in collecting the data were high. Qualitative method was used for conducting research and which comprise of methods such as one-on-one interviewing, ethnographic research (Bryman, 2017). These methods are time consuming and quite expensive.

The assumptions are concerned with the content analysis method that is used for executing the research and the same has mentioned below:

• The collected data will be appropriate.
• The process of content analysis will be used in a proper manner so that the data will be relevant and accurate (Bryman and Bell, 2015).
• The participants will provide appropriate and relevant information.

Literature review

According to Le Blanc, (2015) Gender equality is one of the basic and integral human right and same has become a major topic of concern (Hair, Wolfinbarger, Money, Samouel and Page, 2015). In the presented literature the focus is on developing gender equality and women empowerment which is one of the goals of SDG (sustainable development goals). The presented article is based on the challenges faced by women. The articles are analyzed for extracting the data on the concerned topic Women and girls should have equal rights and opportunities and should be able to live freely of ferocity and discernment. Women’s empowerment and quality is one of the major concern and is one of the 17 sustainable development goals, but also significant to all scopes of comprehensive and sustainable advancement (McNabb, 2015). According to the analysis executed by the author this goal plays a crucial role in the development process all the SDG’s depend on the attainment of this goal that is gender equality and women empowerment. Gender equality is a major concern and by 2030 some urgent actions are required to be taken for eliminating the root causes of discernment that still restrain women’s rights in private and public spheres. There are many other such issues and challenges that are faced by women due to discrimination on the basis of gender. The article is further focused on the recommendation that will be made for changing the conditions such as the discriminatory laws required to be changing and updating and legislation adopted to proactively advance equality (Sreejesh, Mohapatra and Anusree, 2014). The authors noted that yet there are 49 economies that are lacking laws and legislation for protecting women for domestic violence, while 39 bar equal inheritance rights for daughters and sons. Elimination of gender based in-equality is one of the

The inequality always holds back women from achieving something in their lives and deprives them of any opportunity and they are not able to do anything even if they have the talent for the same This is the first issue that is analyzed after the execution of the research (Thomas, Silverman and Nelson, 2015).

Challenges in achieving gender equality

Marriage of women at an early age before 18 is another issue that is kept at priority in the list of issues.

Women do more un-paid domestic work as compared to men still they do not get enough credit and respect for it.

Procedures

Secondary data collection has been used to collect the data, in which no specific data collection procedure is being used. Both external and internal sources have been in used to obtain data. There is no as such collection method (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). It can be both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative research method allows for in-depth and further probing and questioning of respondents based on their responses, where the interviewer/researcher also tries to understand their motivation and feelings.

Three articles have been used in this review. Three sample articles have been used to prepare this final research proposal.

Non probability sampling method has been used, under which the convenience method has been applied.

It is necessary that women or girls everywhere must have equal rights, a life free of violence and discrimination (Wilson, 2014). There are17 sustainable development goals and women equality and empowerment is one of those. But it is not possible to achieve any of those goals before ensuring this one. Thus it is necessary to achieve goal5. Rest of the sustainable development goals depends on this one.

While with growing times, gender inequality or it can be said that discrimination against women has been diminished to some extent, but there is much more which needs to be done. This inequality always holds back women from achieving something in their lives and deprives them of any opportunity. They are not able to do anything even if they have the talent for the same. There is a need to address such issues in order to empower women. Unfair social norms should be challenged openly (Esquivel, 2016). The legal frameworks which support and ensure gender equality should be promoted. According to a data record of 2015-2016, in 56 countries across the world, women between age group of 15 to 19 years have been in a sexual relationship have experience violence (it can be either physical or physical) from their partner. There are social practices like child marriage, with this every year 1.5 million underage girls lose their childhood and are forced to live a life which they have to survive.

According to a survey of 2017, it has been found out that 21% of the women were married before age 18. So this amounts to 650 million women who are suffered by child marriage. Although in southern Asia the numbers have been dropped down and it has been 40%. Still there are a large number of girls who are married before 18 or are into any kind of informal relationship. Sexual and reproductive rights are the basic rights of women and should not be compromised. Any kind of shortfall in these rights further increase the inequality and discrimination against women (Fredman, Kuosmanen and Campbell, 2016). It deprives them of education and finds some decent work in order to earn their own bread. It has been found out that across the world there are only 52% women who are allowed to take their own decisions when it comes to sexual life, contraceptive use and even healthcare.

Methodology

According to a survey, in the year 2000 to 2016, in approximately 90 countries, the hours spent by women in doing the household work is thrice than men in any workplace. They also do the work but don’t get enough respect or credit for it. Women do more unpaid domestic `work than men. It is normal that the entire family, society or we can say the economy depends on this work. Women are kept engaged by the work and they do not even get any earning for this. They do not get time to get engaged in any other work. There is law prevalent for the equal distribution of economic resources. This means that men and women have equal share. This is not only a right, in fact it can increase the development in various areas. There should be a balance between the unpaid works also. Men and women should share that also. There should be a fair balance of responsibility. Then only we will be ready for the larger goal.

Around the globe, the percentages of women who are engaged in the national parliament in the lower and higher houses have increased. In the year 2010, it was 19% to around 23% in the year 2018. There has been a significant rise in this. Many women have entered the political positions during the recent years; it has been facilitated by the women quota, after that also they still hold a mere 23.7per cent of the parliamentary seats, far short of parity. In fact the situation is not so good in the private sector also. There is no doubt much engagement in the private sector, but on those places also there are only one third seats occupied in the senior and middle managements positions.

The data in this article is relevant. As the data that has been used in this literature review is reviewed by the peer journal articles. It is also obtained by the secondary data collection method also.

Conclusion

The UN women acts which are introduced to empower women and girls in all sectors of society. By stepping up in order to ensure the gender equality, every part of the society can progress with this. All other sustainable development goals surrounds around this one. Every country should progress towards this, leaving no one behind

The one of the crucial factor behind the women empowerment is among the various sections ranging from adolescent to elderly people. The history of well stabilized social changes or social momentum lies behind the wall of grassroots grip amongst the masses. Thus social awareness is the key sector.

The next step to make women empowerment up to the zenith of success depends on institutional framework changes. A lot of needed in the terms of institutional changes ranging from family to the society to the government. There should be exclusive institutions like special departments, counsels, complain committees for the protection of woman rights. They needed to be implemented securely. These institution changes are crucial to fructify the seeds of social awareness.

References

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