UN Oceans Conference: Analysis of Socio-Economic and Gender Dimensions in Countries’ and UN Agencies’ Contributions

Women are key to safe, secure, sustainable, and equitable use and access to the ocean and all its resources as decision-makers, fishers, researchers, traditional knowledge-holders, rights defenders, caretakers, and consumers. Women face unique circumstances and challenges due to entrenched sociocultural norms, including ocean policies, plans, and programming exacerbated by the climate and biodiversity crisis. No SDG is attainable without simultaneous effort and accountability on SDG 5: Gender equality. This includes SDG 14 on Life below water, the focus of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference taking place in June 2022.

Our team analyzed the contributions submitted by countries and agencies ahead of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference to examine how gender was being addressed in ocean sustainability. The analysis identifies which nations and agencies reference gender in their contributions, as well as which Conference dialogues were most often connected to gender and areas for improvement.

Click here or see the brief report below to read the analysis on how countries and organizations are engaging with gender equality, women’s empowerment, and other socio-economic dimensions ahead of the UN Oceans Conference.