In 2023, two billion women and girls and 1.8 billion men and boys had no access to social protection. Even when women are relatively well covered, benefit levels remain inadequate.

Repeated shocks from intersecting crises -- including pandemics, escalating climate shocks, food scarcity, conflict, rising inequalities and the erosion of democracy -- have taken a devastating toll on communities around the world.

Progress on gender equality has stalled. Poverty has worsened.

It seems increasingly unlikely that the 2030 agenda for sustainable development , with its core principle of leaving no one behind, will be achieved -- more so given current economic systems.

These systems have embedded inequalities by failing to generate enough decent jobs and limiting investment in human wellbeing. This, while driving climate change and environmental destruction.

Women and girls bear the brunt of the turbulent, often unjust world. Fewer economic resources, greater responsibilities for unpaid care and domestic work, and limited voice and agency push many of them behind.

Thus, there is a great need for social protection systems to address these challenges, to reduce poverty among women and girls, increase their resilience to shocks and help transform the norms, structures and institutions that perpetuate their disadvantage.