As the population growth increases, human rights advocates also called on national governments to prioritise the needs of their respective citizens. Picture: Freepik.com
Stakeholders have used World Population Day to highlight the challenges faced by many women across the world.
Human rights advocates called a sharp focus on "unleashing the power of gender equality."
United Nations secretary -general António Guterres on Tuesday called on national governments and the global community at large to uphold womens' rights.
"Let us stand with women and girls fighting for their rights. And let us intensify our quest to make the SDGs a reality for all 8 billion of us," Guterres said.
He added: "Gender-based discrimination harms everyone – women, girls, men, and boys. Investing in women uplifts all people, communities, and countries.
While Goal 5 of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals calls for gender equality to be adhered to, research has also shown that it would take 40 years for women and men to be represented equally in national political leadership.
Research also shows that gender-responsive budgeting by governments needs to be strengthened at government level.
Meanwhile, some experts have warned that the continued upward spike in global population figures could result in high poverty levels and high unemployment rates as communities battle it out for dwindling resources coupled by socio-economic challenges.
GM, GM to the entire 8+ billion world population #WorldPopulationDay2023 https://t.co/n5sAdGC5ex
— sk369.eth (@StepheneKlein) July 11, 2023
Previously, the US Census Bureau's world population clock estimated that there would be a global population of 7,922,312,800 people in the world by September 2022 and that the number would "reach 8 billion by mid-November of 2022.
This number was said to "far exceeded" the world population figure which stood at 7.3 billion people in the year 2015.
IOL