## The Managing Director’s Remarks to the UN Security Council

_IMF News, March 8, 2022_

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## Bibliographic details
- Published: March 8, 2022

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### Crises threaten gender-equality progress and development
- Crises—be they pandemics, conflicts, or more traditional economic and financial crises—threaten to set back years of progress in gender equality and, thus, development.
- Pandemic impacts cited:
  - Globally, twice as many women as men lost their jobs due to the precarity of their employment, lower social protection, and often the burden of childcare and unpaid work.
  - 20 million girls in developing countries may never return to school, suffering potentially significant labor earning losses.
  - The pandemic saw a dramatic rise in gender‑based violence, with serious socio-economic consequences.
- Effects are even more harmful to women and girls in situations of fragility and conflict.
- Example of potential gains from reducing gender-based violence:
  - If sub‑Saharan African countries reduced gender-based violence closer to the world average, they could see long-term GDP gains of around 30 percent.

### Gender equality as critical for growth, resilience, and stability
- Improving gender equality can:
  - raise economic growth,
  - strengthen resilience,
  - enhance financial stability,
  - reduce income inequality.
- Societies with more gender equality tend to be more resistant to violence and conflict.
- Equal participation of women in socio-economic life is essential to prevent conflict and help transition out of fragility.
- When women participate in peace and state-building processes, chances for building resilience, enduring peace, and inclusive and prosperous societies significantly improves.
- Persistent problem: women remain under-represented and excluded from decision-making processes.

### Policy responses and the IMF’s role
- Collective action required: international partners, national institutions, and private actors all have an important role to play to bring peace, reduce fragility, increase resilience, and close gender gaps.
- IMF focus areas:
  - Helping countries design and implement macroeconomic and financial policies to ensure greater resilience and growth.
  - Ensuring that social spending is efficient and can last, supported by sustainable fiscal policies.
  - Developing country-tailored approaches in new strategies on gender and on Fragile and Conflict-Affected States.
- Fragile and Conflict-Affected States strategy (as presented to the IMF Board tomorrow) proposes:
  - Develop and implement tailored Country Engagement Strategies to better identify drivers of fragility such as gender inequality, climate change, forced displacement, or food insecurity.
- Commitment to scale up engagement with humanitarian, development, peace, and security actors—including UN agencies—to support transitions from fragility to stability.

### Closing appeal and examples
- Women and girls are described as powerful agents of change who help societies transition from fragility to stability and build a better future for all.
- Examples cited where women contributed to peace processes: Northern Ireland, Colombia, Liberia.
- Direct appeal to women and girls: "believe in yourself. Dare to reach your full potential. You have the power to forge a brighter future for our societies, our economies, our world. Believe in yourselves because we believe in you."

*The Managing Director’s Remarks to the UN Security Council — March 8, 2022.*

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## References

- [https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/kristalina-georgieva](https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/kristalina-georgieva)
- [Colombia and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/COL/index.htm)
- [Ireland and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/IRL/index.htm)
- [Liberia and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/LBR/index.htm)
- [Ukraine and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/UKR/index.htm)
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- [PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)
- [https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2022/03/08/sp030822-md-remarks-at-the-un-security-council_