This report offers an opportunity to learn about the implementation of the 15-per-cent financial target in multi-partner trust funds, UN entities, and UN country teams. Building on good practices and lessons learned, the report offers concrete recommendations for accelerating progress on UN-specific financing commitments.

These recommendations are the first of their kind and underline the critical role migrant women human rights defenders play in securing the rights of people on the move. Migrant women human rights defenders include women, girls, and gender-diverse persons of all ages who promote and protect the human rights of people on the move, whether they are migrants themselves or not, irrespective of whether they self-identify as a woman human rights defenders.

TRAMSFORM issue 24 features the corporate evaluation of UN Women’s apporach to innovation. In recent years, UN Women has increased its focus on innovation, based on the recognition that innovation and technology frequently do not benefit men and women equally, but can potentially be leveraged for women’s empowerment. This evaluation assessed what innovation means for UN Women, its innovation initiatives and the systems, and culture to support innovation.

TRANSFORM Issue 23 summraizes the Corporate Evaluation on UN Women’s work on policy advocacy. Policy advocacy work is central to UN Women’s mission of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service led this evaluation to assess UN Women’s policy advocacy efforts, understand what has worked well and identify how UN Women’s policy advocacy work can be strengthened around the world.

This publication explores the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s economic empowerment in the tourism sector which has disproportionately affected women due to pre-existing gender inequalities and women’s predominance in the sector’s workforce. The document examines emerging research and data, identifies innovative responses across regions, and makes concrete recommendations for action to ensure that women’s economic empowerment is central to the COVID-19 response and recovery in the tourism sector.

This publication discusses ways to broaden the scope of gender-responsive procurement from a focus on only promoting women’s enterprises to also including gender-responsive enterprises. The publication aims to inspire a transformative conceptualization of gender-responsive procurement that supports both equal market opportunities for women’s enterprises and equal outcomes for women in the labour market and the business environment.

This issue of TRANSFORM summarizes the “Corporate evaluation of UN Women’s UN system coordination and broader convening role in ending violence against women”. The evaluation provides an overall assessment of UN Women’s United Nations system coordination and broader convening role in the area of ending violence against women and includes a forward-looking analysis with a view to informing UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025.

This paper argues for investing in free universal high quality childcare services in order to reduce gender inequality in earnings and employment. It estimates the employment-generating and fiscal effects of investing in free universal childcare in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and the United Republic of Tanzania. The study estimates the total costs of investing in childcare services to increase the enrollment (coverage) rate for children in formal childcare services to different target levels.

This issue of TRANSFORM summarizes the “Corporate thematic evaluation of UN Women’s support to National Action Plans on women, peace, and security”. Through this evaluation, the Independent Evaluation Service assessed the criteria of coherence and coordination, effectiveness, organizational efficiency, sustainability, and the extent to which a human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated into National Action Plans to meet women, peace, and security commitments and adopt accountability frameworks in conflict and post-conflict countries.

Issue no. 20 summarizes the “Effectiveness and efficiency assessment of UN Women flagship programme initiatives and thematic priorities of the Strategic Plan 2018 –2021”. As part of its implementation of the UN Women Corporate Evaluation Plan, the Independent Evaluation Service, in collaboration with the Internal Audit Service, assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and coherence of the flagship programme initiatives and their integration as thematic priorities of the Strategic Plan 2018–2021.

Issue no. 19 summarizes the meta-synthesis of “UN Women evaluations: Insights on organizational effectiveness and efficiency”. This meta-synthesis brings together evidence from evaluations on UN Women’s organizational effectiveness and efficiency outputs. In addition to highlighting progress, the synthesis captures commonly identified drivers of change in the form of good practices and innovation, as well as impediments.

This global report provides a synthesis of the work of UN Women during 2020 to ensure a gender-sensitive response to the COVID-19 pandemic in ending violence against women, economic empowerment, leadership, gender data, and humanitarian contexts.

The brief highlights trends and impacts of COVID-19 on women’s safety in transport. It includes examples of strategies put in place to provide safer transport modes for women and girls throughout the global pandemic, with a focus on availability, accessibility, and affordability, and makes recommendations on how different sectors can contribute to a comprehensive approach to improve women’s mobility.

This issue of TRANSFORM is a special edition, presenting the Independent Evaluation Service’s recent publication on “Good practices in gender-responsive evaluations”. It also features contributed articles from IFAD, UNFPA, UNECE, and the African Development Bank, sharing their gender-responsive evaluations and reflections.

Grounded in a series of case studies from research and programming experience, this report offers a comprehensive framework for understanding how gender, climate, and security are inextricably linked.

This brief explains how companies are responding to the problem of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides recommendations on the measures that could be taken.

This brief provides background information on the root causes and risk factors that explain why violence against women occurs in the first place. It highlights how the context of COVID-19 is exacerbating those factors and the impact it is having on rates of violence against women and the ability to undertake evidence-based prevention work in the current context. It provides indicative interventions that can be undertaken during social distancing.

This brief highlights emerging trends and implications for women’s and girls’ safety in public spaces and cities, recognizing the continuum of violence against women and girls in private and public settings throughout different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This brief highlights emerging trends and impacts of COVID-19 on online and ICT-facilitated violence against women and girls (VAWG). It provides examples of strategies put in place to prevent and respond to online/ICT-facilitated VAWG and makes recommendations on how different actors can best address this issue. It is a living document that draws upon the knowledge and experience of a wide range of experts.

This brief explores the implications for the provision of essential services for women and girls who have experienced violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides recommendations for governments, civil society, and international organizations that are seeking to improve the quality of and access to coordinated health, police and justice, and social services for all women and girls during the crisis and provides examples of promising practices to date.