This report on the proceedings of the global conference “Gender-inclusive peace processes: Strengthening women’s meaningful participation through constituency building” explores current challenges, best practices, and recommendations on how best to leverage the practice of constituency building to further gender-inclusive peace.

This background paper was prepared ahead of the high level seminar, organized by UN Women in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on “Strengthening women’s participation in peace processes: What roles and responsibilities for States?” in Rome, Italy, on 3 and 4 December 2019. The paper analyzes policies and strategies adopted by Member States and other international actors to foster women’s meaningful participation, particularly related to mediating peace.

This report reflects the main arguments presented during the the high-level seminar, organized by UN Women in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on “Strengthening women’s participation in peace processes: What roles and responsibilities for states?” in Rome, Italy, on 3 and 4 December 2019, including the persistent barriers to women’s meaningful participation in peace and mediation processes and the opportunities that exist to remove them.

This research stems from the development of Regional Women Mediator Networks and the increased value these networks have acquired in recent years. With a focus on the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, the paper aims to analyze the significant contribution this initiative can offer to the global agenda of Mediation for the 21st century and its unique added value for the next 20 years of the women, peace, and security agenda.

This research explores the causes of the under-investment in gender-inclusive peace in conflict and post-conflict settings and the significant gaps in financing that make the implementation of Women, Peace and security commitments more difficult. This paper focuses on the three case studies of Colombia, Iraq, and the Philippines.

This report on the proceedings of the 2018 conference “Women’s meaningful participation in peace processes: Modalities and strategies across tracks”, explores innovations, trends, and challenges in the interplay between official, high-level processes and unofficial processes in which civil society plays a leadership role.

This brief series recognizes that, despite advancements, we have to build a stronger bridge between empirical scholarly work, new policy directions, and actual practice on the ground. The series seeks to address that gap and contribute to the realization of the women, peace and security agenda through the promotion of evidence-based policy and practice.

Confidence building is an area that is receiving significant attention in mediation processes around the world. Meanwhile, feminist analysis of the theories and practices of confidence building is nascent. Based on conference discussions, this report summarizes perspectives and early analysis on confidence building from a women, peace, and security perspective. It also offers preliminary recommendations for further research and action.

This brief addresses the importance of women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation to an effective pandemic response and to peacemaking efforts, and how the women, peace and security agenda can provide a critical framework for inclusive decision-making and sustainable solutions. It also provides preliminary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on women’s participation in ceasefires and peace processes and offers a series of recommendations, including on “building back better”.

Around the world, young women are working to prevent violent conflict, recover from crises, and build peaceful, tolerant communities, yet most peace and security interventions are blind to the needs and contributions of young women. This paper examines the diverse roles that young women play in these contexts and offers recommendations for ensuring their meaningful inclusion and participation in building and sustaining peace.

The 2015 Gender Chart details how women are faring in global progress in 2015, as the MDGs wrap up and the Sustainable Development Goals begin to take their place. It was jointly produced by UN Women and the UN Statistics Division for the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDGs Indicators.

The biennial MDGs Gender Chart depicts the situation of women and girls in developing regions as reflected in a number of indicators that are used to monitor the MDGs. This is a special edition of the MDGs Gender Chart produced by the UN Statistics Division and UN Women, with contributions from other agencies, such as ILO, OECD, UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics and UNAIDS, for 58th session of the Commission on the status of women whose priority theme is Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.

This publication and photo-essay aims at sharing the 'lived experiences' of women and girls in India and works to ensure that the voices of those who remain socially, economically and geographically marginalized are meaningfully reflected in the emerging post-2015 development discourse and agenda. The analysis contained in this report is based on in-depth interviews with women and focus-group discussions with a constituency of over a million strong in India who are considered as equal and important stakeholders in helping shape the post-2015 global development agenda.

Advancing Gender Equality: Promising Practices — Case Studies from the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDGF) presents lessons and results of specific relevance to shaping the post-2015 development framework derived from 20 Joint Programmes supported by the MDGF. These studies contain lessons to enhance knowledge of both why results for gender equality and women’s empowerment are critical to advance an overall development agenda, as well as practical examples of how to make this a reality.

In the midst of a global conversation about the legacy and next steps after the MDGs, UN Women calls for a commitment to achieving gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment in the post-2015 development framework and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To make a difference, the new framework must be transformative, by addressing the structural impediments to gender equality and the achievement of women’s rights.

This inter-agency study is a call to action based an overview of existing evidence from Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. It highlights that the forms and nature of violence that women and girls experience are shaped and influenced by the often multiple forms of discrimination they face. They can be based on factors such as age, ethnicity, geographic location, or disability, and intersect with gender inequality and discrimination.

The joint study Two Roads, One Goal, funded and supported by the Spanish MDG Achievement Fund (MDGF) and conducted by UNDP and UN Women examines the MDGF’s application of its dual strategy for the achievement of gender equality through joint programming.

This report takes stock of progress made by countries in Europe and Central Asia in reaching the MDGs and offers decision-makers policy-oriented, operationally feasible suggestions for bolstering progress towards fully achieving these goals by 2015.

Gender Justice shows how addressing inequalities, including gender inequality, will be essential to achieving the MDGs.