Opinion: 2025 is the year to stop playing defense on gender equality

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka | Devex | 16 December 2024 

The “Predictions for Global Development” series offers insight from thought leaders for the year ahead. Here is what to expect for the fight for gender equality — and in a nutshell: We must dream bigger.

Our sector has long been on the defensive, fighting to hold the line while the rights of girls and women are relentlessly attacked. It’s easy to understand why. 

In the past three years alone, we’ve seen gender apartheid in Afghanistan that erased two decades of progress. We’ve watched genocide and crimes against humanity unfold in Gaza with girls and women bearing the brunt, met with silence and complicity from many global leaders. In Sudan, girls and women endure the horrors of sexual violence as war’s currency. Now, Donald Trump’s return looms, promising a resurgence of regressive policies that will harm girls and women everywhere.

Democracy is faltering, bodily autonomy is under siege, and the future of our planet is at risk. But here’s what I know: if there’s one thing that can transform global development in 2025, it’s our ability to dream bigger.

Grief and frustration are real and warranted, but we can’t let them stop us. What we do next, as a diverse global movement for gender equality, will define the future. With only five years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals — and the knowledge that we’re falling short — defense alone isn’t enough. We need to lead. Girls and women from the global majority must take the reins in dreaming bigger and crafting a bold new vision for what comes after the SDGs.

To read the full opinion piece, visit: https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-2025-is-the-year-to-stop-playing-defense-on-gender-equality-108803. This article was first printed on Devex.