Across the Western Balkans, rural women are influencing local budgets and shaping progress

Date: Friday, October 13, 2017

Across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Moldova, UN Women works with governments to implement gender equality commitments and enhance women’s participation in decision-making. Funded by the Austrian Development Agency and Swiss Development Cooperation, the programme enables women to influence local budgets to address their diverse needs. More

In the words of Elena Kochoska: "Women bear a double burden because of their gender and disability”

Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Elena Kochoska is a vocal advocate for persons with disabilities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and works at the local organization, Polio Plus, Movement Against Disability. She participated in training and mentoring sessions on gender-responsive budgeting (GRB)—analyzing a budget to ensure women’s needs are met—organized by UN Women’s regional programme on GRB, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Austrian Development Agency. Thereafter, she prepared a report that did a cost-benefit analysis showing the benefits of including children with disabilities in mainstream education. More

In the words of Patricia Munabi: “Citizens must engage with the budget and hold leaders accountable”

Date: Monday, May 1, 2017

Patricia Munabi is the Executive Director of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), a women’s rights organization in Uganda. From 2010 - 2012, FOWODE was supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality to implement gender-responsive budgeting at a local and national level in Uganda. This involved training women in 16 local communities to form Village Budget Clubs to ensure that women are actively involved in budget allocation and decisions at the local level. Some 200 legislators and government officials were also trained to implement gender-responsive programmes at the national level. More

Making budgets work for women in Ecuador

Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016

In the province of Azuay, more than 1,000 women now take part in budget proposals, while at the national level a new tool reveals gender-related spending has reached over USD 364 million, up from just 34 million in 2011. More

“Gender equality is the biggest transformer and enabler for achieving sustainable development” — Lakshmi Puri

Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Opening remarks by UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri at “A call to action for gender equality and women’s empowerment” in New York on 17 May. More

Local budgets in Albania respond to community feedback

Date: Thursday, May 5, 2016

A UN Women-led campaign results in Albania’s first-ever community budget consultations and brings immediate benefits to those in need. More

Innovative financing to drive women’s economic empowerment forward

Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2015

UN Women Deputy Executive Director Yannick Glemarec attended an international forum hosted in Georgia to reflect on the implementation of SDGs through innovative financing. More

FFD3 Conference yields commitment to financing for gender equality

Date: Thursday, July 16, 2015

Emerging from the Third Financing for Development Conference (FFD3), was a clear recognition of gender equality as a critical element in achieving sustainable development. During the conference, UN Member States adopted the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA), a global framework for financing for sustainable development, committing to action to achieve economic, social and environmental changes by transforming global finance practices. More

“With these tools, we know WHAT needs to be done and HOW it can be done” – UN Women closing statement at FFD3

Date: Thursday, July 16, 2015

UN Women statement delivered by Letty Chiwara, UN Women Representative to Ethiopia, the African Union and UNECA, at the closing plenary in the General Debate at the third Financing for Development Conference (FFD3) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 16 July 2015. More

UN Women steers three high-level side events at the Financing for Development Conference

Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2015

On the second day of the Third Financing for Development Conference, taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 13-16 July 2015, UN Women organized three official high-level side events to highlight the importance of transformative financing towards gender equality More

Q&A with Nepal’s Finance Minister: “There is a need, now more than ever, for the international community to focus on gender equality”

Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2015

As the world community gathers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the third International Conference on Financing for Development this week, UN Women sat down with Nepal’s Minister of Finance Ram Sharan Mahat to discuss how this developing country has been able to prioritize gender equality in its planning and budgeting, as well as its achievements and the challenges ahead, particularly after the recent earthquakes. More

"The expectations of an ambitious post-2015 development agenda must be matched with transformative financing for gender equality" – Lakshmi Puri

Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Statement by UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri at high-level side event "Transformative Financing for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Catalysing Action on the Addis Ababa Accord", 14 July 2015. More

UN Women Deputy Executive Director: Only through a transformative financing for gender equality agenda, the commitments for the post-2015 will become a living reality

Date: Friday, July 10, 2015

Speech by UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Lakshmi Puri, at the women's forum on "Financing Gender Equality: The Road To Addis", held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 10 July 2015. More

Gender equality related aspects of the post-2015 development agenda and trade and development policies – a speech by Lakshmi Puri

Date: Monday, May 18, 2015

Remarks by Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Trade and Development Commission on “Trade and development policies and the post-2015 development agenda” held on 18 May 2015, in Geneva, Switzerland. More

Op-ed: Now that would be a mother’s day really worth celebrating

Date: Wednesday, May 13, 2015

As UN Women’s report, Progress of the World’s Women documents, women have become more visible in the paid economy in recent years in many countries. However, women’s other work – their unpaid work to produce and sustain families, which is no less valuable – is typically unrecognized and invisible. When they become mothers, women are penalized yet further: in a range of countries, when it comes to pay, there is a ‘motherhood penalty’, which results in even wider gender inequalities. In the United States, for example, unmarried women earn 96 cents to an unmarried man’s dollar, but married women with at least one child earn 76 cents to the married father’s dollar. More

“We urge you to place gender equality and women’s empowerment at the heart of the Financing for Development discussions and negotiations” – UN Women Executive Director

Date: Thursday, April 16, 2015

Opening remarks by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the joint-side event during the Second Drafting Session on the Outcome Document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development: “Transformative financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment: Expectations from the Financing for Development process” held on 16 April, in New York. More

Rural women access early cancer screening in Turkey

Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2015

“I would not have found the opportunity to even go [get screened at all had it not been for this service],” says 65-year-old Ümmügül, from a farming family in the village of Hamamkarahisar, located an hour away from Eskişehir – a central Anatolian city in Turkey. She is one of the 659 rural women living on the outskirts of the city that have already been screened at the Cancer Early Diagnosis, Screening and Information Centre in Eskişehir since rural outreach efforts began in October 2014. More

Georgia declares 2015 as Year of the Woman

Date: Monday, January 19, 2015

Georgian President George Margvelashvili declared 2015 as the Year of Women at a press conference on 15 January. More

Making it happen – financing gender equality and women’s rights in the post-2015 development agenda

Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Remarks by UN Women Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Programme, John Hendra, at the 69th UN General Assembly side event “Making it happen – financing gender equality and women’s rights in the post-2015 development agenda” on 22 September 2014, New York. More

A push to match rhetoric and reality to counter chronic underinvestment in gender equality

Date: Friday, April 25, 2014

At the first High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, held in Mexico City 15-16 April 2014, governments, business, private foundations and civil society assessed progress over the past two years towards implementation of the 2011 Busan Partnership Agreement, which re-affirmed global commitment to the principles of accountability, results, transparency, inclusivity and national ownership in development cooperation. More