The six PALOP-TL countries had in 2021 a total estimated population of 70.3 million, mostly concentrated in Angola and Mozambique (93.9 percent of the total), 50.75 percent of whom are women. In 2021, the average GDP for these countries was an estimated $1,831, which, as has become too evident in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, benefits men and women differently, with considerable gender imbalance.

Individually, these countries have varying demographics, human development, economic incomes and political development contexts (some are Small Island Developing States or SIDS; others are post-conflict and fragile). In this context, promoting gender equality and a more gender-equal economy in a sustainable way is not only a policy, economic and political imperative but an ethical one.