Giving Compass' Take:

• Thomson Reuters Foundation reports on the annual Human Development Index from the U.N., which emphasized how critical gender equality is to peace, stability and prosperity.

• What are NGOs and policymakers doing to make sure we don't leave women and girls behind when it comes to global development? It's no hyperbole to say the future of the world is at stake.

• Here are three actions we can take when it comes to women's economic empowerment.


Gender inequality is one of the greatest barriers to human development progress, U.N. officials said as they launched an index on Friday showing the countries making the biggest strides and those falling behind.

Niger came bottom of the annual Human Development Index followed by Central African Republic, South Sudan, Chad and Burundi — broadly the same as last year.

Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland and Germany topped the index, which ranks countries according to their progress in health, education and income.

"We cannot talk of human development without taking into account 50 percent of the population," said Selim Jahan, lead author of the Human Development Report.

"Gender equality and women's empowerment is absolutely critical. It's not a side issue."

Studies show that when girls stay in education they have more opportunities and healthier, better educated children, which in turn boosts national development.

Jahan said countries needed to address issues including child marriage, the lack of women in politics, the burden of domestic work and low levels of female land ownership.

Read the full article about gender equality essential to development progress by Emma Batha at Thomson Reuters Foundation.