No single country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, according to a new index.
The world is way off track to meet a 2030 deadline for achieving gender equality, with no country having reached the "last mile".
Even the Nordic states, which topped the list, would need to take huge strides to fulfil gender commitments in the 17 UN sustainable development goals, which 193 countries signed up to in 2015.
Philanthropist Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, described the report as "a wake-up call to the world".
The new index ranks 129 countries on dozens of SDG targets related to women, be it health, education, violence or work.
Whilst Denmark, Finland and Sweden came top, countries like Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad came bottom of the index.
The researched showed nearly 40 percent of girls and women - 1.4 billion - live in countries graded "very poor and another 1.4 billion in countries graded "poor".
Only 8% of girls and women live in countries ranked "good" but country achieved an "excellent" score, while the global average was "poor".
But Equal Measures 2030 (EM2030), the partnership behind the index, also noted some surprising success stories.
Senegal has a greater proportion of women in parliament at 42 percent than Denmark at 37 percent, while three in four Kenyan women use digital banking, higher than many wealthier countries.
"Many countries with the most limited resources are making huge strides in removing the barriers for girls and women ... demonstrating that when it comes to gender equality, governments shouldn't have excuses for inaction," Mrs Gates said.
Researchers said richer countries did not always live up to their promise.
Georgia, Malawi and Vietnam had higher scores than expected based on their GDP per head - a gross domestic product measures the value of a country's goods and services - while the opposite was true of the United States, Switzerland and South Korea.
EM2030 said the index, which will be regularly updated until 2030, would help advocates to identify gaps and drive change.
