The Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt MP, has just announced new support for the economic advancement of low-paid and ‘hard to reach’ women in the United Kingdom.
This is a significant step, as it will further the UK’s domestic progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, which aims to achieve universal gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.
Wearing her other hat – that of Secretary of State for International Development – Mordaunt is of course also responsible for the UK government’s support to the poorest and most marginalised women in low-income countries.
This dual mandate offers unprecedented promise to invigorate cross-government efforts and further ramp up support for the economic rights of left-behind women globally – an opportunity not to be missed.
What it means to leave no one behind
Leaving no one behind means deliberately targeting policies, programmes and funding to improve the lives of society’s poorest, most excluded and most discriminated-against people.
Our new report, developed in partnership with Age International, finds that older women are economically marginalised across the world: a perfect example of a group that UK support should focus on.
Our evidence is clear. Across lower and middle-income countries at least 1 in 7 older women is in the labour force – rising to more than 4 in 10 women in sub-Saharan Africa.
