Society & Future of Work: What are the challenges in making society and the future of work more sustainable?

A more sustainable, inclusive world is one in which all people – including women and girls and the most vulnerable – survive and thrive. This includes equal rights and access to services like healthcare and education, and a life free from violence. It also entails the opportunity to own a business or property, hold management or elected government positions and fully participate in all levels of political, economic and public life.

Unfortunately, many challenges remain to realizing this world. Millions of children still don’t go to school. Technology is making work more efficient, but we urgently need to increase access to the skills, tools and financial services needed to thrive in the new digital economy. On top of a wide pay gap, women around the world face risk of violence every day, including domestic violence, sex trafficking, child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).

Now, the COVID-19 pandemic is making it more difficult for everyone to obtain decent work, education and even basic rights – especially women, the poor and the LGBTQI+ community.

"In addition to the immediate concerns related to increases in unpaid care work, domestic violence and exposure to the weaknesses of the healthcare system, the pandemic’s long-term economic repercussions are also likely to disproportionately affect women’s productive lives compared to men’s," according to several experts from the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The pandemic has also created an environment in which the rights of the [LGBTQI+] community "are further being violated," said Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

As we embark on the Great Reset, it’s important to keep these societal challenges in mind, and work to close gaps in access to education, work and basic necessities.

Eliminating disparities in access to education, skills and full participation in all levels of political, economic and public life are key to a more sustainable and inclusive world. This depends on achieving the targets of three SDGs in particular:

SDG 4: Quality Education. By 2030, targets include:

SDG 5: Gender Equality, which focuses on ending all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful practices (like child marriage) against women and girls everywhere, as well as ensuring equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of political, economic and public life. Additional targets include:

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, which focuses on promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all. Specific targets include:

While there has been progress, the world is not on track to meet most education and gender targets by 2030, according to the UN SDG Progress Report 2020 – and the COVID-19 pandemic puts them further out of reach.

Before the pandemic, the number of children out of primary and secondary school had been declining, from 26% in 2000, to 19% in 2010, to 17% in 2018 – and more children (85% in 2019, from 70% in 2000) were finishing primary school. Pre-primary education was rising, too, from 62% participation in 2010 to 67% in 2018.

However, with 258 million children out of school in 2018 – including 5.5 million more girls than boys – more progress is needed. Among those in school, more than half “were not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and numeracy.”

Adult education needs work, too, including both basic education as well as reskilling for the jobs of the future. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that 1.1 billion jobs could be transformed by technology over the next decade, making access to new technological skills essential to compete in the workforce.

More laws are in place to ensure all people, especially women, have greater autonomy over their sexual and reproductive health. Furthermore, before the pandemic, child marriage had been declining: one in five women between the ages of 20-24 was married before the age of 18 in 2019, compared with one in four a decade earlier. Still, one in three girls in sub-Saharan Africa was married as a child, according to the progress report, and at least 200 million girls worldwide are still subjected to FGM, a number expected to continue to increase with population growth.

In the workplace, more women hold managerial positions (28% in 2019, up from 25% in 2000) – but according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2020, none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes.

Similarly, in politics, the number of women in national parliaments increased from 22.3% in 2015 to 24.9% in 2020, including more than 30% in Australia and New Zealand, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe, says the progress report. However, only 13% of countries have reached gender balance (40% or more) in national parliaments, and 15% in local government.

COVID-19 threatens to take society backwards. More than 90% of students worldwide have been affected by school closures – and the most vulnerable, including students with disabilities and those without computers or internet access for remote learning, will suffer the most.

The pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on workers in the informal economy, with income estimated to have dropped as much as 81% in the first month of the pandemic in some regions. Women have been hit especially hard. Accounting for 70% of health and social workers globally, women are on the frontlines of the pandemic. Women already “spend about three times as many hours in unpaid domestic and care work as men,” according to the progress report, and with school closures, these hours have increased. Lockdowns and school closures have also put more women and girls at risk of domestic violence.