• Comment,

Ayear ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to engulf the world, we at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned of dangerous consequences for the health, human rights and the well-being of women and girls.

Among the most serious concerns: a greater number of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and unsafe births; and a sharp escalation in gender-based violence and harmful practices including child marriage and female genital mutilation — potentially reversing hard-won gains which have improved the lives of women and girls in recent decades.

Our forecasts have unfortunately come true in a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region and globally. The severe disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis to health services, pandemic lockdowns and other movement restrictions, and economic deprivation have combined to retrench previous progress.

As we marked International Women’s Day 2021 on Monday, we face a more urgent need than ever to invest in women and women’s leadership for strengthening gender equality and women’s empowerment. This is a key commitment the nations of the world have made as part of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. The time frame for achieving this is less than a decade away. Our collective challenge is to ensure we regain lost ground.

Still, despite the setbacks COVID-19 has wrought, we have also witnessed women’s strong, inspiring leadership in responding to the crisis and mitigating the harms. Family planning service providers such as Kabita Bhandari have trekked across remote reaches of farwestern Nepal, visiting rural outposts amid pandemic quarantines to convey critical information and distribute contraceptives, enabling choices for women and couples.

Psychosocial health counselors such as Anjuman Hossain in Bangladesh have ensured that Rohingya women in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar can benefit from interventions for survivors of gender-based violence, needed even more so in the midst of the pandemic.

Midwives such as Zhang Jinling in China have provided care to critically ill COVID-19 patients and ensured necessary preventive and protective measures were taken to minimize occupational safety and health risks.

These and other examples underscore that to strengthen women’s leadership, we must acknowledge — and act upon — a basic truth. To enhance a woman’s ability to lead, and realize their potential in the fullest sense, they must first be empowered to be fully in charge of their own lives and bodies.

This dictates that women be able to exercise the rights and choices embodied in the landmark Programme of Action that stemmed from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo where 179 countries agreed, for the very first time, that human rights and individual choice lie at the heart of sustainable development.

The Programme of Action placed special focus on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, emphasizing that women and girls must be free to shape their own lives — including when or if to marry, or have children, and with whom.

The commitment by governments and civil society partners to the Programme of Action was further reinforced at the 25th anniversary of the 1994 ICPD in November 2019. Made explicit was that achieving the SDGs, including SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing, and SDG5 Gender Equality, requires accelerating the attainment of the ICPD.

The ICPD has not only underscored that women’s rights are human rights, it has also been instrumental in helping build a bridge connecting health and human rights. Over the years since Cairo other human rights resolutions and frameworks have built upon this connection. This has led to governments investing more in reducing maternal deaths through strengthened midwifery and other essential services, and expanding family planning programs including access to contraceptives. Countries are also tackling the challenge to eliminate gender-based violence, including by establishing factbased data to inform both legislation and concrete action plans.

However, International Women’s Day 2021 confronted the unprecedented harsh reality that in just several months, the pandemic has rapidly undermined years of progress made toward the ICPD and the SDGs, with women and girls bearing the brunt.

Increases in maternal and newborn deaths, unintended pregnancies and gender-based violence have added to the significant socioeconomic toll of the pandemic. Governments must urgently review, invest in and strengthen policies that can effectively address these issues, transforming legislation on paper to tangible, impactful implementation in real life.

And, as the stories of Bhandari, Hossain and Zhang illustrate, we must fully capitalize and build upon the lessons learned and best practices acquired while responding to the pandemic.

Let International Women’s Day 2021 be a call to action.

We must urgently regain the momentum and progress COVID-19 has robbed from women and girls in our societies. We must also individually choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality, whenever and wherever we see it — including in ourselves.

In doing so, we also recommit to a world where a woman’s ability to freely lead her own life, and build her ability to lead and support others, is grounded in genuine gender equality and human rights, truly leaving no one behind.

Countries are also tackling the challenge to eliminate gender-based violence, including by establishing fact-based data to inform both legislation and concrete action plans.