Political leadership and a comprehensive set of policy reforms are needed to dismantle systemic barriers to the achievement of SDG4.

Cascading global crises have highlighted and exacerbated existing gender inequalities, such as unequal access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that it will take up to 286 years to close gaps in leg al protection and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments. At the global level, none of the 18 indicators “met or almost met” the targets and only one is “close to target”. The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030.