b'Soroptimist InternationalReport for the High-Level Political ForumCall to ActionThisreportaddressesthecriticalimportancethattakingagender-transformativeapproachto addressingtheCOVID-19pandemichasfortheachievementofgenderequalityandsustainable development. SI projects show how women can be drivers of sustainable development, transforming the lives of individuals and their communities. Now states must step-up and commit to the gender-transformative policies to rectify the regression on gender equality and redress the fact that women and girls, especially those who experience intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination, have been hardest hit by the pandemic. SI calls upon states and all development actors to expedite efforts to achieve the SDGs and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic by: Ensuring programmes to achieve the SDGs are inclusive and accessible for allthis requires renewed and increased efforts to reach those who experience multiple forms of discrimination and those who live in vulnerable and marginalised communities.Requiring all actions to implement and achieve the SDGs and address the COVID-19 pandemic adopt a human rights-based approach, including the human rights of women and girls under international law. All states should ratify and remove their reservations from CEDAW and realise their obligations under other human rights treaties.Expediting action to remove all barriers to gender equal opportunities in the public, private, economic and social spheres and scale-up action to ensure womens full, equal, effective and meaningful participation in all levels of leadership, decision-making and implementation, including in all COVID-19 recovery efforts. Ensuring national budgetary spending and all forms of financing for development use gender-budgeting to use funds most effectively and efficiently for sustainable development and COVID-19 recovery, recognising that funds have been redirected away from essential services. Taking urgent steps to ensure that all states, communities and homes are free from all forms of gender-based violence, especially as rates of violence have increased during the pandemic. This will require cultural programmes, working with communities and the allyship of men and boys. Responding to the impacts of natural disasters, humanitarian situations and other crisis through systems and programmes that address the humanitarian-development nexus, ensuring gender-equal crisis-response, improved resilience and sustainable development. Continuing to develop capacities for data collection, interpretation and analysis, including the creation of new qualitative indicators. Understanding the quality of sustainable development activities is vital to assessing whether the SDGs have been achieved.ThecurrentglobalcontextoftheCOVID-19pandemic,impendingeconomicchallenges,climate change, increased migration, and conflict means that we need the SDGs more than ever. The success of the SDGs requires the concerted and collective actions of all stakeholders. As well as increased politicalwill,weneeddeterminedactiontoensurethegender-sensitiveandgender-responsive implementation of the SDGs. 42'