"There is good news on #gender #equality – if you look to the developing world" - Toyin Saraki

Last weekend the United Nations completed its annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence – a global campaign aimed at raising awareness of what is the rawest, most visceral example of gender inequality. That such an effort still needs to be made in 2016 highlights the size of the problem – one in three women globally still suffer from gender-based violence in some form in their lifetime. The wider fight is equally stark. Some 62 million girls annually are denied access to education, four out of every five children trafficked are girls, and women continue to suffer in terms of pay and representation in the workplace.

Politics and public life seem little better. The poisonous rhetoric brought to the surface during the US presidential election is just the latest example of how the internet has empowered keyboard misogynists to vent their anger against women. Take a study by this newspaper earlier in the year: of the 10 most abused writers on the Guardian platform eight were women.

But there are some small chinks of hope. A reminder that while the status quo is unacceptable, the longer-term trend is pointed towards gender equality. And this trend is global, not simply confined to the western world. Just look at healthcare. Maternal mortality remains a mass killer in the developing world. It may not be as newsworthy as gender-based violence or as stark and immediate as disease or starvation, but it is the second biggest killer of women of reproductive age in the developing world. This is changing.

Due to a concerted focus not least through the recently concluded UN Millennium Development Goals, the amount of women dying in childbirth has fallen by 45% since 1990. A staggering achievement. Gender-based development campaigns aimed at educating women have also pushed aside outmoded approaches to pregnancy and family planning, empowering women to take control of their own welfare in one of the most vulnerable periods of their lives.

Through the work of my own foundation in Nigeria, we have found that relatively small interventions (such as our MamaCare Antenatal and Postnatal Education Curriculum) can have a huge impact on the wellbeing of a mother, and in turn have a ripple effect on the communities which these mothers lead, thus improving and transforming the health of families slowly but effectively.

Improvement is also being made in education. While secondary education remains a critical problem in many developing countries, the challenge of primary school enrolment has virtually been solved. Enrolment rates globally are now on a near parity between boys and girls.

And what of the workplace? The top-line figures may be bleak, but there is evidence to suggest slow change is happening. A study of 70 countries, including many in the developing world, showed that since 1995 the gender wage gap has narrowed from 28% to 20%. The gap is still far too big. But it is falling.

But what of politics and public life? There has been one story and one story only this year. The failure of the US to elect a female president. Regardless of the merits or pitfalls of the victor, the symbolism of a woman leading the most powerful nation on Earth would have been a touchstone moment for gender equality from New York to Nairobi.

But in this respect the developing world can again provide some hope. Look at the great surge of democracy and representative government in Africa, Asia and Latin America that began in early 1990s. In virtually every new constitution that followed, guarantees of gender equality were enshrined in law. And while the US is still yet to elect its first female head of state, countries as diverse as Brazil, Chile, Malawi, Liberia, Bangladesh and South Korea have all done so. General political participation is also on the rise. Rwanda’s parliament has the largest number of female representatives on Earth.

The reality is that the life chances (and quality of life) for millions of women are still bleak. But while there has been backsliding, we must also remember the progress that has been made. If we allow the narrative of gender equality to become too negative we risk allowing that negativity to be self-fulfilling.

In my own country of Nigeria I don’t want attention to be focused on the failure of a woman to reach the White House. I want attention to be on the gradual, incremental victories. Like the fact that our country has passed the second reading of the gender and equal opportunities bill in the senate, a level of reform now becoming the norm in Africa. While western countries are reappraising their progress on gender equality, many countries in the developing world are quietly writing their own stories on the issue, which remain largely untold beyond their borders.

We have so far to go on the journey to true gender equality that it can sometimes seem daunting. But the long-term trend is in our favour, and if 2016 teaches us anything, it should be to stay the course. The fight for gender equality within a generation is winnable. Battles may be lost, but the war will be won, eventually.