As world leaders gathered in Sevilla, Spain, for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), a sobering reality emerged: developing countries face a staggering annual shortfall of USD 420 billion in funding needed to achieve gender equality under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For African countries, this gap is not just a statistic; it is a deepening crisis that threatens the continent’s development ambitions and the rights of millions of women and girls.

UN Women welcomed the consensus adoption of the Compromiso de Sevilla, which reaffirms global commitment to inclusive and sustainable development. The agreement marks a step forward, recognising the centrality of gender equality in financing strategies. But the path from declaration to transformation remains steep, particularly for African nations grappling with limited fiscal space, mounting debt, and insufficient investment in public services.

According to UN Women, most global financing continues to bypass the poorest countries, where the majority of low-income women reside and where investment is most urgently needed. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the highest rates of gender inequality in the world, particularly in access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities, and political representation. Without targeted and sustained investment, closing these gaps remains out of reach.

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, emphasised the urgency of the moment:

“We cannot close gender gaps with budgets that are lacking a gender lens. Governments must back their commitments with real investment and track how money is spent and what it achieves. Gender equality must move from the margins of budget lines to the heart of public policy. It takes money. It takes reform. And it takes leadership that sees women not as a cost, but as the future.”

Only one in four countries globally has a system in place to track how public funds are allocated to gender equality, according to UN Women. Without this, planning and budgeting for national development goals becomes a shot in the dark. For African governments, expanding gender-responsive budgeting is not just good practice; it is essential. Yet it requires both political will and institutional strengthening, areas where international support could make a meaningful difference.

At FfD4, UN Women outlined several recommendations that could help close the financing gap. These include:

• Expanding gender-responsive budgeting to ensure that national priorities reflect the realities and needs of women and girls
• Implementing urgent debt relief and fairer global financing rules
• Reforming tax systems to be more progressive and gender-responsive
• Rebalancing public spending toward long-term human development goals
• Investing in public care systems such as childcare and eldercare

For African countries, these are more than policy suggestions. They are prerequisites for a just and equitable recovery. Public care systems, for example, are largely underdeveloped across the continent, yet they are key to unlocking women’s participation in the workforce. According to UN Women, investing just 10 per cent of national income in care services could reduce poverty, raise household incomes, and generate millions of decent jobs.

The issue of debt looms particularly large in Africa. Many countries spend more on debt servicing than on healthcare or education. Without urgent debt relief and fairer financial rules, the space to invest in gender equality will continue to shrink. The compounding effect of austerity measures risks reversing hard-won gains and pushing women and girls further into poverty and exclusion.

The Compromiso de Sevilla offers a moment of political alignment. But UN Women has made it clear that alignment without action is not enough. As the FfD4 conference concludes, the call is not just for more money but for better money, financing that is transparent, accountable, and reaches the women and girls who need it most.

If African countries are to meet their commitments under the 2030 Agenda and the Beijing Platform for Action, the USD 420 billion gap cannot be ignored. The stakes are high. Gender equality is not just a moral imperative; it is the foundation of sustainable development and economic resilience.

It is time to move from rhetoric to results. For Africa’s women and girls, the cost of inaction is simply too great.

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