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Soaring sovereign debt in developing countries is deepening gender inequality.
Women are bearing the brunt of job losses, income decline and worsening health, as governments divert budgets to debt servicing.
Cuts to health, social protection and public services threaten to erase development gains
It also puts millions of women’s livelihoods and lives at risk worldwide.
Rising sovereign debt burdens are disproportionately harming women across developing countries, according to a new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). They are threatening jobs of women, reducing their incomes and worsening health outcomes, the report showed.
Rising debt repayments could lead to the loss of 55 million women’s jobs in the short term and as many as 92.5 million in the long term when countries move from moderate to high debt burdens, the researchers found.
Women’s per capita income is projected to decline by 17 per cent, while men’s incomes remain largely unchanged, further widening gender income disparities.
The report, Who Pays the Price? Gender Inequality and Sovereign Debt, is an analysis of data from 85 developing countries between 1990 and 2022. It showed how increasing debt servicing is reversing development gains, particularly for women.
In the report, the experts noted that global public debt has increased by more than 60 per cent in the last 10 years and more than 3.3 billion people live in countries where debt servicing exceeds spending on education or health.
As governments allocate larger shares of national budgets to debt repayment, spending on healthcare, social protection, welfare and public services is often reduced, the analysts explained.
They observed that increasing debt servicing pressures have significant gendered consequences. When countries shift from moderate to high levels of debt repayment, women are disproportionately affected through job losses and worsening health outcomes, the data showed.
The report also highlighted the economic potential of narrowing gender employment gaps. Increasing women’s participation in productive employment could generate substantial GDP gains, estimated at 58.2 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa, 22.1 per cent in South Asia and 7.3 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, debt pressures and fiscal tightening are undermining these opportunities.
The report underscored serious health consequences linked to debt crises. Reduced public spending on health systems could lead to a 32.5 per cent increase in maternal mortality, equivalent to 67 additional maternal deaths per 100,000 births. Life expectancy for both women and men is also projected to decline as healthcare systems face funding shortages.
The debt crisis is unfolding in a world already affected by conflict, inflation, climate shocks, food insecurity, high borrowing costs and reduced aid flows, all of which intensify pressures on developing economies, the authors of the report underlined
UNDP stressed that debt-management strategies must include gender-responsive policies. It called on governments and financial institutions to integrate gender analysis into borrowing and debt management decisions, protect investments in social and care infrastructure and prioritise employment, human development and gender equality instead of austerity-driven approaches.
