UNDER THREAT : ''EQUALITY 2.1 BILLION WOMEN''

Equality for 2.1 billion women under threat.

NEW YORK : More than two billion women and girls around the world face missing out on the advantages of their male peers as progress towards global gender equality goals stalls, advocacy groups warned on Thursday.

About half of the countries that signed up to the UN target achieving gender equality by 2030 - home to 2.1 billion women and girls - are on course to fail on all five measures, research by the Equal Measures 2030 partnership of advocacy groups found.

''The takeaway from this report is clear : At the current pace of progress, none of us will live to see a world where men and women are truly equal,'' said Mark Suzman, CEO of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the group's partners.

World leaders agreed in September 2015 on Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs], designed to tackle the world's most vexing problems including extreme poverty and inequality.

The study found more than a third of countries studied have been moving slowly - or even in the wrong direction - on at least four of the five key measures of gender equality since 2015.

They are access to contraception, education, representation in political leadership, workplace equality laws and perceptions of safety. [Reuters]