Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 and women’s empowerment: Areas for U.S.-Japan cooperation

In September 2015, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the ambitious and innovative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With a focus on people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership, the world community agreed to deliver on 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, as U.N. Women has argued, investment in women stands to be the most consequential mechanism to make headway across the range of SDGs. Women disproportionately lack economic opportunity, access to basic services, and are often most vulnerable to conflict and violence. Together, the United States and Japan have the opportunity to make meaningful progress in empowering women through transformative investments, such as the bilateral cooperation effort launched in March 2015 to promote girls’ education in the developing world.

On March 20, the Center for East Asia Policy Studies hosted a panel of experts to discuss the achievement of SDGs through investments in women’s empowerment. Panelists discussed ways to deepen U.S.-Japan cooperation and to engage the international community at large in prioritizing investments in women to achieve sustainable development.