UN Women, DESA launch 2026 SDG Gender Snapshot, warn no SDG 5 indicator is on track

UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs released the 2026 SDG Gender Snapshot on the margins of high-level week, presenting data the agencies say shows women's exclusion from power is undermining progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.

"When women lead, children can survive," Sarah Hendricks, director of policy and intergovernmental affairs at UN Women, said during the briefing introducing the report. Hendricks framed the publication around the question of who holds and who is denied power, and she said the snapshot shows "Not 1 single SDG 5 indicator is on track for being realized." The report also flags institutional erosion: one in three national gender-equality mechanisms has lost influence in the past two years and 42% of UN entities reported weakening gender-equality efforts amid funding cuts.

Hendricks warned that reduced financing has real consequences for service delivery and civil-society support: she said roughly 1,000,000 women and girls lost access to support as aid reductions dismantled women's-rights organizations in conflict-affected contexts. The briefing tied the findings to leadership within the UN, noting the organization has not had a woman at its highest ranks in eight decades and urging that the selection of the next secretary-general consider equal power-share for women.

The report is available on the UN Women website, the panel said, and the agencies called for renewed political commitment and financing to reverse the trends identified in the snapshot.