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women and girls in 110 countries gained legal rights
countries boosted service delivery to women and girls
fuelled civil society action and advocacy
organizations in 128 countries empowered women leaders
countries adopted gender equality plans for 2.9 billion women and girls
women and girls in 34 countries are better protected from violence
women and girls in crises accessed life-saving services and resources
women and girls covered by humanitarian plans with gender-specific measures (2025)
more women and girls in 36 countries with monitored women, peace and security plans to prevent and reduce conflict impacts
businesses in 168 countries signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles, with membership up 98%
increase in UN country teams reporting on gender equality actions
We deliver what women and girls demand. Equality, Justice. Peace. Courage. Action. Together. We are the United Nations engine for women’s rights and gender equality. In 2025–2026, with governments, women’s movements and all who stand strong for gender equality, we turned collective power into powerful change. We drove gains in politics and economies, at peace tables and in communities struck by crisis. No matter what, no matter where, our mission never wavers: equality everywhere.
Women won’t wait for power to be handed over – and neither will UN Women. Together, we are claiming power and changing how it operates.
A starting point is governance that delivers for all women and girls. In 2025, we helped countries adopt or amend 69 laws to advance gender equality. Albania expanded legal protections to stop violence in public spaces, workplaces, politics and online. Ecuador amended its electoral code to mandate gender parity in politics. UN Women backed 73 actions in 25 countries to stop violence against women in politics. The Central African Republic initiated robust incident monitoring; electoral management bodies and political parties in Colombia, Libya and Malawi applied new anti-violence protocols.
Across the Arab States, women gained power in the business world as the number of companies signing the Women’s Empowerment Principles surged to 877. Not only do these firms have women in a third of their leadership positions, but they created nearly 15,000 new jobs for women in 2025, triple the number from the previous year.
With and for women and girls, UN Women and its partners have reset the balance of power at the United Nations. From 2022 to 2025, 82 per cent of Human Rights Council resolutions included gender, along with nearly half of General Assembly resolutions. At the 70th Commission on the Status of Women, 37 government members urged all countries to repeal all remaining discriminatory national laws.
In over 100 countries, we rallied UN country teams to keep focused on gender equality, even as international funding dropped. We stood up to power through new UN human rights standards to counter worsening reprisals against women human rights defenders. And we spoke out, fearlessly and globally, against aid cuts decimating women’s organizations that end gender-based violence and save lives in crises.
Only 1 in 7 countries is led by a woman. The face of power must change in politics, businesses and everywhere else.
Modern economies, no matter how rich, keep women and girls out and down. UN Women champions a better model where gender equality is an economic fundamental, leading to equal pay and better productivity, more security and a shared burden of unpaid care.
Our advocacy has set in motion a next generation of equalizing economic policies. In 2025, Cambodia improved women’s access to financial services and public procurement bids. Kenya steered nearly $300 million in public contracts to women-owned enterprises. Eight countries advanced women’s rights to access land, including the United Republic of Tanzania via a revised national land policy.
By 2025, UN Women’s global TransformCare initiative had mobilized 52 countries to establish care systems critical to women’s economic rights. Twenty countries implemented new care frameworks and strategies; over 800 institutions gained skills to establish related legislation and policies. In Chile, one of 18 countries in Latin America where UN Women supports progress on care, over 150 municipalities now deliver public care services, with national implementation expected in 2026. UN Women’s continued advocacy pushed care to the top of international agendas in 2025, with the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly passing its first resolution on the care economy and its contribution to sustainable development. Some 43 countries endorsed the European Union—Latin America and the Caribbean Bi-regional Pact for Care to increase cooperation in building care systems.
We are shifting investment in gender equality, both public and private. A gender-lens investment framework in Georgia, one of 83 such innovations globally in 2025, guides businesses and markets towards gender equality goals with financial returns. Public gender-responsive budgeting in Ethiopia provided funds for reproductive healthcare, including HPV vaccinations offering lifelong cancer protection for 8 million girls.
UN Women shares experiences like these globally, providing evidence that resets international norms. Gender-responsive budgeting features in the 2025 Sevilla Compromise, a development financing blueprint for nearly 200 countries.
Women lag on almost every economic indicator, a trillion-dollar drain on economies. Real prosperity means everyone thrives.
Every place should be safe for all women and girls. Right now, no place is. Not homes or workplaces, streets or social media feeds. UN Women links laws and services to end violence against women and girls, and advocates zero tolerance everywhere.
Our global presence has led to stronger legal protections against violence than ever before. Now we’re helping to shape a new generation of laws to stop digital violence, faced by up to 60 per cent of women and girls. Moldova in 2025 adopted landmark legislation to protect women from stalking and online abuse. Through ACT to End Violence Against Women, 179 women’s rights organizations brought front-line expertise into 20 global and regional policy processes to end violence. These included a model law setting tough new standards for stopping digital violence in Latin America. From 2022 to 2025, some 33 countries globally produced new data to rev up action on violence against women, including through innovations to track digital violence and femicide.
Through UN Women’s campaigns and community engagement, awareness of violence against women and girls as a human rights violation has swept across Europe and Central Asia, reaching over 8 million people in 2025. In Kazakhstan, improved services for survivors resulted in a nearly 52 per cent jump in use. Growing momentum across East and Southern Africa has stemmed from coordinated national actions assisting nearly 187,000 survivors from 2022 to 2025. Over 10,000 male champions mobilized to shift harmful gender norms in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Convened by UN Women, the first High-Level Network on Gender-Responsive Policing doubled in size in 2025, engaging forces from 22 countries. It’s a chance to share what works in putting laws into action and ending impunity for violence against all women and girls.
One third of women and girls experience violence. It’s time to move the share to zero and uphold all the rights that violence denies – to safety, health, education and choice.
Where women lead, peace takes off – and lasts in stable, just societies that serve everyone. That recognition, embedded in UN Security Council resolutions and advocated by UN Women, has changed history. It’s a rallying cry for women to never give up, no matter how dire the times.
In just the last four years, some 83 countries made strides on the women, peace and security agenda, including by developing 36 monitored national action plans. These reach nearly 560 million women and girls, driving gains such as women’s greater leadership in security institutions and new legal protections for survivors of sexual violence. In 2025, Bolivia unveiled its first plan. Ukraine in 2026 became the only country to update its plan during an active conflict. It set a new legal requirement for gender-responsive budgeting, applicable to 75 national and subnational government entities. This steers funds for women to lead and recover.
Through UN Women, the United Nations today is more active on women, peace and security than at any previous point. Nearly 60 per cent of Security Council decisions from 2022 to 2025 included references to women and gender equality. The number of uniformed women in peacekeeping operations has doubled. Every United Nations-led peace process in 2025 included women’s participation, civil society consultations and gender expertise. In Libya’s peace talks, women represented 35 per cent of delegates, five times the global average. In the Sahel, women built coalitions that resolved disputes and influenced national dialogues.
In 2025, women worldwide were just 7 per cent of peace negotiators. Peace is not possible based on the blatant denial of women’s rights.
Humanitarian crises reached unprecedented heights in 2025 – just as funding for humanitarian action collapsed. UN Women stepped up, demanding a rights-first focus on women and girls.
Our advocacy through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the world’s primary crisis-coordination body, resulted in 84 per cent of humanitarian action plans identifying means to address the needs of women and girls, up from just half a few years ago. Through these plans, humanitarian actors in 2025 provided lifesaving services, protection and relief to nearly 98 million people; over half were women and girls.
Locally grounded and globally connected, UN Women steers international humanitarian funds to community women’s organizations – the first and best crisis responders. In the State of Palestine, UN Women supported over 25 local organizations in extending humanitarian assistance to 323,000 people, including 252,000 women and girls. We pushed for a twentyfold increase from the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund for nearly 200 women-led organizations in 2025. They provided some of the only available services for 350,000 women and girls to develop livelihoods, obtain healthcare and protect themselves from gender-based violence. Amid unrelenting oppression, these organizations remained strong and effective, courageously modelling how women lead and decide, no matter what.
Through UN Women, civil society platforms led by women have become a best practice in humanitarian action. We helped women-led organizations in the Syrian Arab Republic convene a 150-member platform to deliver essential services nationwide. It’s also mobilizing for an inclusive peace, one where women’s voices are heard, always and everywhere.
Women-led organizations on the front lines of crises save lives, restore stability and keep the drive for equality alive. Yet recent cuts have hit them hardest.
In 2025, amid pushback, UN Women stood up for gender equality and made gender equality visible, viral and impossible to ignore. We inspired supporters everywhere: governments, media, businesses and whole societies.
The momentum behind equality for all women and girls is not just here. It’s unstoppable. Over 100 governments took the strongest multilateral stand for gender equality in 30 years, making 205 bold commitments to change under the six priorities of UN Women’s Beijing+30 Action Agenda. They reminded the world that gender equality is a unifying force. Achieving it carries us all to greater freedom, safety and prosperity.
The business world also met the moment. The Unstereotype Alliance, convened by UN Women and led by global giants in advertising, saw the biggest growth in positive gender portrayals since 2021. Scores on the Gender Unstereotype Metric jumped 30 per cent as companies reaped higher returns from inclusive advertising.
Record communications and advocacy results reflected the power and urgency of UN Women’s voice and vision for all women and girls. We seized the chance to bring the world on board at critical rallying points such as International Women's Day and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Web audiences doubled to 14 million; social media followers grew by 1.2 million, topping 16 million.
To counter insidious online misogyny, UN Women issued attention-grabbing explainers on the manosphere, its appeal to young men and how to stop the toxicity. In the United Kingdom, the UN Women National Committee launched the Same Side campaign. It mobilized sports heroes for a new kind of locker room talk, one encouraging boys to abandon discriminatory norms that hurt them – and the women and girls in their lives.
Where gender equality is a reality, not a fantasy. For every woman and girl, all 4 billion strong.
I highly commend UN Women's leadership in advancing gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls globally.
Initiatives such as HeForShe are indispensable in these uncertain times.
Women play an important role in creating, promoting and carrying forward human civilization.
If women have the same rights and opportunities as men, there is less poverty, less hunger, and more stability in the world.
The Unstereotype Alliance really has radically changed the advertising industry.
The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls is a vital partner in supporting locally led women’s rights organizations.
Progress towards gender equality does not happen on its own.
UN Women’s existence signals that gender equality is a standalone priority, not subordinate to any other agendas.
Gender equality is a core leadership responsibility and will never just be a 'nice-to-have'.
Finland defends gender equality and the rights of women and girls, and pursues active international cooperation based on our values.
UN Women’s mandate – to advance women’s empowerment, economic participation and the full realization of gender equality – is more relevant than ever.
UN Women plays a crucial role in standing firm and pushing back against pressures, including ideological forces and a shrinking civic space.
In 2025, UN Women delivered. So did our donors and partners.
Together, we resisted backlash and refused to retreat. We stood up for gender equality and the rights of all women and girls. Difficult times have deepened our trust in each other. They have ignited our resolve to do better. Because women and girls demand that we act on our commitments, always.
In 2025, official development assistance contracted sharply, but partners continued to prioritize investments in UN Women. Our donors provided $530.4 million in total contributions, exceeding the $500 million benchmark for the seventh year. While funds overall fell 10 per cent from 2024, this was significantly below broader declines in international aid. We are grateful to all partners whose contributions sustained UN Women in 2025, and particularly to all regular resources partners for their continued trust and commitment at a moment of significant global financing headwinds. Their flexible and predictable support was critical to this year’s relative resilience and to UN Women’s ability to deliver for all women and girls where needs were greatest.
We are rising to a moment that tests us. It also reminds us that we must deliver on the promise of gender equality. Together, we will.
2014 to 2025