Leprosy is still a thing. The number of new cases reported globally to the World Health Organization in 2019 was more than 200,000. An estimated 2 to 3 million people are living with leprosy-related disabilities globally. In 2019, the countries with the highest number of new diagnoses were India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Over half of all new cases of leprosy are diagnosed in India, which remains home to a third of the world’s poor, a group disproportionately affected by the disease.

Many organizations and governments seek to achieve female empowerment through education. Although it is not the only means of achieving it nor the only one stakeholders should be focusing on, it is certainly an important aspect of female empowerment and a powerful tool for change, especially because it allows women to gain access to knowledge that will help them in the agency processes that play a big role in empowering women (Kabeer 2005, 16).

Gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa is a large issue that has not yet been adequately addressed. According to the UN, women in sub-Saharan Africa are at greater risk of intimate partner violence than in most other regions of the world.

Female empowerment is often thought of as a critical aspect of achieving gender equality. Gender equality has been one of the UN’s greatest priorities for a few decades now: the organization has given it strong consideration in the Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda, in the Millennium Development Goals established in the year 2000, and in the still relevant Beijing Platform for Action from 1995. Worldwide, progress has been made, but Sub-Saharan Africa still remains one of the regions further behind in terms of gender equality and related issues affecting women.

Women’s empowerment can be defined in simple terms as “the process of increasing women’s access to control over the strategic life choices that affect them and access to the opportunities that allow them fully to realize their capacities” (Chen and Tanaka 2014). Because of its positive connotations, the word “empowerment” has become a comfortable and indisputable term, which has led to a wide range of institutions, organizations, and governments to adopt it as something they aspire to work towards (Papart, Rai, and Staudt 2003, 3).

So here we are - this is the above-mentioned famous stand-alone goal SDG-5, aiming to achieve gender equality and empower all girls and women by 2030. Among its accompanying targets you will find: "End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere“ as well as „Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation."

I was married to an impoverished boy when I was hardly 11 years old. When I even didn’t know the meaning of the word marriage or the word responsibility. I had a brother who was older than me, but nobody married him forcefully. Because he was a boy and earning money, unlike me, he was not a burden on my parents.

GIZ is Germany's leading service provider of international cooperation since 2011. The federal enterprise supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and is also engaged in international education work around the globe. 

The first of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly commits to ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions everywhere by 2030. As of today, this remains one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Extreme poverty is currently defined as living on less than $1.90 a day.