2030 Agenda & The Goal of Gender Equality – European Approaches in Comparison: Germany, Estonia & Sweden
Author: WUNRN
Date: May 8, 2017
The 2030 Agenda & The Goal of Gender Equality – European Approaches in Comparison
Overview: Germany – Estonia – Sweden
Working Paper No. 16 – March 2017
Nele Reich – nele.reich@iss-ffm.de
Direct Link to Full 40-Page 2017 Document:
Abstract
With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 193 member states of the United Nations committed themselves to gender equality as an important aspect of sustainable development. The responsibility for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, is at the national level. The member states are confronted with the task of formulating national measures to translate the SDGs into concrete action. This working paper provides an overview of the current developments in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Germany, Estonia and Sweden.
The focus is on SDG 5 on gender equality and the target 5.4 on recognizing and valuing care work, since the gendered division of unpaid and time-intensive care is one of the main obstacles to gender equality. The target presents two approaches for how care work can be recognized and valued. They can be described as reorganisation – between the state, the market and the family – and redistribution of care work within families. The approaches must be substantiated on the national level by means of clear and quantifiable as well as time-bound targets so as to unfold their effect.
Since the national implementation processes commenced in 2016, the working paper provides a first overview of the national approaches and the progress in implementation:
In Germany, the updated National Sustainable Development Strategy forms an integrated framework for the 17 SDGs; in Estonia existing strategies are used to achieve the individual SDGs. In Sweden, a national action plan is currently being drafted by an independent Committee of experts that specifies how the 2030 Agenda is to be implemented, nationally and regionally.
The three European member states provide different structural framework conditions for a gender-equal division of care work and represent different gender regimes, which also influence how care work is divided between women and men.
The German updated National Sustainable Development Strategy, encompasses the goal of an equal partnership, i.e. a more equal division of responsibility for work and family life, in German “partnerschaftliche Vereinbarkeit”. Existing and planned measures aim at a reorganisation and redistribution of care work. Clear and quantifiable, time-bound targets to recognize and value care work are, however, not part of the updated strategy.
Estonia aims at a change of traditional gender roles to enable a redistribution of care work within families. The Welfare Development Plan 2016-2023 also provides for measures that aim at alleviating the care burden for family carers (reorganisation). Reform initiatives are expected to be presented in November 2017.
Sweden is in a preparatory phase. It generally has a positive development trend to-ward a more gender-equal division of care work. A combination of measures for the reorganisation and redistribution of care work has so far supported this trend.
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