Sovereign debt repayments putting 55M women's jobs at risk: UN agency

The UN Development Program (UNDP) warned Monday that rising sovereign debt servicing could cost women the equivalent of 55 million jobs in the short term as governments cut social spending to meet repayment obligations.

"Sovereign debt is not a math problem. It is a human one. This analysis sheds new light on how crushing debt payments leave many governments across the world with limited fiscal space and lead to cuts to vital social services – with the heaviest toll falling on women," UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo said in a statement regarding the report.

De Croo noted that "when care services are cut, responsibility shifts back onto households – with women carrying most of it, often limiting their access to economic opportunities. Ultimately, debt management strategies must safeguard space for social and care investments that underpin resilient economies – and, in turn, human development."

The report, titled "Who Pays the Price? Gender Inequality and Sovereign Debt," draws on data from 85 developing countries and projects a 17% fall in women's per capita income compared to largely unchanged male incomes, alongside a 32.5% increase in maternal mortality when countries move from moderate to high debt repayment burdens.

In the statement, Raquel Lagunas, UNDP Global Director of Gender Equality, said "when public spending is squeezed by debt repayment, it is women who lose first — their jobs, their services, their economic security."

"This is why we must integrate gender-based impact assessments into decision-making, protect critical investments in social and care infrastructure, and use gender-responsive budgeting to track how debt servicing affects different economic outcomes for different people," she added.