Businesses and philanthropies

UN Women believes in the ability of business and philanthropy to play an active and central role in transforming our world to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UN Women is committed to working with the private sector on common agendas leveraging collective strengths. Our multi-faceted partnerships are integrated into public affairs, philanthropy, marketing and communications strategies.

Ways to partner with UN Women

UN Women’s Private Sector Team assists businesses and philanthropies in identifying the best partnership structures to achieve their goals in alignment with UN Women’s objectives. We shape high-impact partnerships in several ways:

• We work closely with corporate partners to set standards such as the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). The WEPs offer practical guidance to businesses on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community. To help assess an organization’s gender equality performance, we have the “WEPs gender gap analysis tool“.
• Leveraging UN Women’s convening power, we bring together industry leaders to engage in peer-to-peer learning by sharing best practices and innovative approaches that are being implemented with a view to advance gender equality. Believing in the power of collective action, UN Women also forms key alliances and coalitions such as the Unstereotype Alliance and the Global Innovation Coalition for Change, which mobilize a variety of partners towards a shared agenda.
• We encourage partners to join our global campaigns, which reach mass audiences and are designed to inspire them to action on a range of concerns vital to women and the SDGs. UN Women’s campaigns include HeForShe, and Planet 50–50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality.

• We make use of the support of partners to develop knowledge products that are designed to further gender equality and women’s empowerment.

• We help strengthen avenues by which employees in our partners’ organizations can engage with causes close to their hearts. UN Women promotes secondment and skilled volunteering to our teams, where there is a match of skills and requirements. We also encourage partnerships on employee giving and matching gift programmes.
• We seek commitments by partners to donate to UN Women and work through our country offices to change the status of the most underprivileged women and girls. Partners can do this by supporting UN Women through:
  • unrestricted funding in support of UN Women’s global mandate;
  • earmarked funding for specific countries or regions, or specific programmes or initiatives; and
  • cause-related marketing campaigns.

Members of our Private Sector Team have extensive experience working with some of the world’s biggest businesses and philanthropies. The team works closely with colleagues in UN Women’s headquarters, regional offices, country offices, and National Committees to leverage the strength of our organization to deliver a high-impact partnership.

Contact us

To discuss how your organization can partner with UN Women, please contact theat UN Women.