Governments reaffirm their commitment to place gender equality at the centre of global progress
The newly adopted Ministerial Declaration underscores that gender equality and the empowerment and rights of all women and girls are vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The empowerment of all women and girls was firmly upheld at the 2025 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) – the United Nation’s central platform for reviewing progress on the Sustainable Development Goals – as world leaders adopted a new Ministerial Declaration placing gender equality at the centre of global development.
UN Women welcomes the Declaration, which reaffirms the Beijing Platform for Action and calls for women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in public life, leadership, peacebuilding, and crisis response. It addresses long-standing barriers including poverty, unpaid care work, discriminatory laws and social norms, harmful practices, and multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. It underscores the rights of rural and Indigenous women, their access to land and natural resources, and the importance of integrating gender into climate action, as well as women’s critical role in small-scale fisheries and coastal economies and in the strengthening of food security and commits to address the structural barriers that they face.
In the Declaration adopted at the HLPF, Governments pledged to eliminate all forms of gender-based violence, including child marriage and female genital mutilation, and to ensure universal access to inclusive education and to sexual and reproductive health and rights, as agreed in international frameworks. The Declaration also calls for investment in care systems, gender-responsive social protection, equal pay, women’s access to decent work, and support for entrepreneurship and digital inclusion.
With only five years to implement the 2030 Agenda, the Declaration sends a clear and important signal: Gender equality is still high on the global agenda – and without investment in the rights and empowerment of all women and girls through concrete actions, we won’t be able to achieve the SDGs.
As the world approaches the Beijing+30 anniversary in September, this renewed commitment must translate into real change – backed by resources, accountability, and the meaningful participation of women and girls in shaping the future.
