Gender and trade

The Human Development Report (HDR), published annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), explores global challenges and progress in human development worldwide. This edition of the report, Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping Our Future in a Transforming World, examines global inequalities and growing uncertainties that have shaped the lives of billions of people worldwide –and detrimentally impacted human development. The report draws on multiple crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, while describing many complex uncertainties affecting human development, including planetary pressures due to climate change, significant social and economic shifts, and widespread polarization. The report highlights the many facets of global insecurity and outlines recommendations focused on investment, innovation, and insurance – to address global challenges and reimagine systems that protect the health and future of people and the planet.

Without tackling biased gender social norms, we will not achieve gender equality or the Sustainable Development Goals. Biased gender social norms—the undervaluation of women’s capabilities and rights in society—constrain women’s choices and opportunities by regulating behaviour and setting the boundaries of what women are expected to do and be. Biased gender social norms are a major impediment to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Gender bias is a pervasive problem worldwide. The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) quantifies biases against women, capturing people’s attitudes on women’s roles along four key dimensions: political, educational, economic and physical integrity. The index, covering 85 percent of the global population, reveals that close to 9 out of 10 men and women hold fundamental biases against women. Nearly half the world’s people believe that men make better political leaders than women do, and two of five people believe that men make better business executives than women do. Gender biases are pronounced in both low and high Human Development Index (HDI) countries. These biases hold across regions, income, level of development and cultures—making them a global issue.

The first prize went to Egyptian Abdel Rahman Salah Akoush for the video clip “Kasra,” which adopted youthful music and lyrics that resonate with the repercussions of the practice on girls at all stages of their lives. The members of the competition jury praised the work that was characterized by innovation in presenting the topic, in addition to the high artistic value in directing and acting

The second prize went to Shazli Muhammad Al-Amin, head of the Retaj Theater Group from Sudan, for the video “Circumcision is a Crime.” The video ranged between comic drama and testimonies from male and female citizens, male and female specialists, about the psychological and social effects of circumcision on girls. In addition to mixing the comic side with the serious side in the treatment.

The third prize went to Amer Hassan Mohamed from Sudan for the video “Generation Salima,” which is a reportage statement that reflects the change brought about by the “Salima” campaign launched by the Child Welfare Council in Sudan in cooperation with UNICEF to combat female genital mutilation. The report was characterized by an alternation between the testimonies of specialists and parents of both genders, and a return to the most prominent stages of the campaign