Soroptimist International’s current priority area of focus is the Sustainable Development Goals, which the UN set in 2015 as the agenda for the next 15 years, concentrating on Goal 4 – Education, and Goal 5 – Gender Equality, and other areas that relate to women’s empowerment. Soroptimist International believes promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is a central strategy for eradicating poverty, especially through access to education, financing, decision-making, formalised employment, child care, and protection from violence. To ensure full, equitable participation for all women and girls in society, SDG 5, should not be viewed as a standalone goal, but rather recognised as a means of providing interlinks between goals and targets of the SDGs. Gender inequalities are the most pervasive of all inequalities, and interactions between this goal and the other SDGs are strong.

Please click here to read an article which SI contributed to online magazine Impakter, which forms part of their ‘United Nations SDG series’.