Sustainable Development Goal 5


Sustainable Development Goal 5 concerns gender equality and is fifth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by United Nations in 2015. Through the pledge to "Leave No One Behind", countries have committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind first. SDG 5 aims to grant women and girls equal rights and opportunities to live free of violence and discrimination, including in the workplace.
SDG 5 has nine targets and 14 indicators. Six of the targets are outcome targets:
The three means of implementation targets are:
  • fostering equal rights to economic resources, property ownership, and financial services for women
  • promoting empowerment of women through technology
  • adopting and strengthening policies for gender equality, and supporting legislation to enforce it.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 also posed a challenge in achieving gender equality. The impact of COVID-19 on women has been significant. Some examples include compounded economic impacts, increased unpaid care work, an increase in domestic violence and other factors.

Background

The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations. The broad goals are thematically linked, yet each has its own specific targets to achieve. The SDGs cover a broad range of social and economic development issues, including poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, water supply, sanitation, energy, urbanization, environment and social justice.

Targets, indicators and progress

The targets and indicators for SDG 5 are extensive and provide equal opportunity for females. Targets cover a broad crosscutting gender issues including ending all forms of discrimination against all females everywhere, violence and exploitation of females, eliminate practices such as female genital mutilation and forced marriages, increase value of unpaid care and promote shared domestic responsibilities, ensure full participation of women in leadership and decision-making, ensuring access to universal reproductive rights and health, fostering equal rights to economic resources, property ownership and financial services for women, promoting empowerment of women through technology and adopting, strengthening policies and enforcing legislation for gender equality.
Indicators represent the metrics by which the world aims to track whether these targets are achieved.

Target 5.1: End discrimination against women and girls

The first target of SDG 5 is Target 5.1: "End all forms of discrimination against all females everywhere."
This target has one indicator. Indicator 5.1.1: Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex.
This means the indicator works towards the legal frameworks which can be applied to promote and enforce non-discrimination on the basis of sex across various measures including hiring, equal pay, marital rape and property rights, among others.
Discrimination against women can be measured with a range of indicators such as early marriage, gender-based violence and women's property rights.
Child marriage has declined over the past decades. However, as of July 2025, 19% of women who are 20-24 years old were married before legal adulthood. While the global trend of child marriage is declining, in sub-Saharan Africa, child marriage rates are expected to increase by 2030. Girls from poorer families are more likely to be affected by child marriage than those from wealthier families.
The custodian agencies for Indicator 5.1.1 are UN Women and World Bank.

Target 5.2: End all violence against and exploitation of women and girls

The full title of Target 5.2 is: "Eliminate all forms of violence against all females in the public and private spheres including trafficking, sexual and other types of exploitation."
This target has two indicators:
  • Indicator 5.2.1: Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by form of violence and by age.
  • Indicator 5.2.2: Proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months, by age and place of occurrence.

    Target 5.3: Eliminate forced marriages and genital mutilation

The full title of Target 5.3 is: "Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation ". Evidence shows that there is no health benefit in the case of female genital mutilation.
Eliminating harmful practices women are able to live their live full potential lives without any harm.
There are two indicators:
  • Indicator 5.3.1: Proportion of women aged 20–24 years who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18
  • Indicator 5.3.2: Proportion of girls and women aged 15–49 years who have undergone female genital mutilation or cutting
According to a progress report in 2020: "At least 200 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, according to recent data from the 31 countries where the practice is concentrated. The harmful practice is becoming less common, but progress is not fast enough to meet the global target of its elimination by 2030".
The progress report in 2025 says that "only 38 countries establish 18 years as the minimum age of marriage without exceptions and only 63 countries have rape laws based on lack of consent". Evident progress against child marriage has been made in Southern Asia but countries in sub-saharan Africa are still behind with 31 percent.

Target 5.4: Value unpaid care and promote shared domestic responsibilities

The full title of Target 5.4: "Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate".
This target has one Indicator: Indicator 5.4.1 is the "Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location".
Unpaid care and domestic work includes cooking and cleaning, fetching water and firewood or taking care of children and the elderly. As of 2025, across the globe, women spend an average of two and a half times the hours as men on domestic work per day. Women in Europe, North America, and Oceana usually spend twice the amount of time as men, while in Northern Africa and Western Asia, women spend up to four times as many hours on domestic work.

Target 5.5: Ensure full participation in leadership and decision-making

The full title of Target 5.5 is: "Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life."
Indicators are:
  • Indicator 5.5.1: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and local government
  • Indicator 5.5.2: Proportion of women in managerial positions
As of 2020, "representation by women in single or lower houses of national parliament reached 25 per cent, up slightly from 22 per cent in 2015". After the elections in several countries in 2024, only 27.7% of parliamentary seats were held by women, and in local governments, women hold 35.5% of seats.

Target 5.6: Universal access to reproductive rights and health

The full title of Target 5.6 is: "Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Program-me of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences."
Indicators are:
  • Indicator 5.6.1: Proportion of women aged 15–49 years who make their own informed decisions regarding sexual relations, contraceptive use and reproductive health care
  • Indicator 5.6.2: Number of countries with laws and regulations that guarantee full and equal access to women and men aged 15 years and older to sexual and reproductive health care, information and education
Only 56.3 percent of married women between 15 to 49 years of age were able to "make their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights" There is a big difference in access of reproductive rights and heath in Central and Western Africa compared to countries in Europe, South- Eastern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. Data shows that only 36.8 per cent of women in sub-Saharan Africa to 87.2 in Europe have the ability to make decisions regarding their reproductive health.

Target 5.7: Equal rights to economic resources, property ownership and financial services

The full title of Target 5.a is: "Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws.".
The two indicators are:
  • Indicator 5.a.1: Proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land, by sex; and share of women among owners or rights-bearers of agricultural land, by type of tenure
  • Indicator 5.a.2: Proportion of countries where the legal framework guarantees women's equal rights to land ownership and/or control
Financial systems are important to ensure gender equality. Yet, only 26 per cent of 121 countries and areas have financial mechanisms that track resource allocation for gender equality since 2021. This still underlines the persistent gap in the commitment for measurable investment to achieve gender equality. As of 2025, out of 84 countries, "58 per cent lack adequate legal protections for women’s land rights across family, inheritance and land laws".