At the 2021 Generation Equality Forum, world leaders and partners committed to eliminating gender inequalities and to financing and implementing laws, policies, and programmes to meet priority actions and targets in a Global Acceleration Plan for Gender Equality. Through a survey of commitment-makers, this report sheds light on the nature of the commitments made and assesses measurable progress. It highlights trends and notes where more work is needed.

In this report, the UN Secretary-General provides information on the global prevalence of female genital mutilation and its impacts on women and girls, referencing recent data and evidence on what works to eliminate it. He provides an analysis of progress made to date by Member States, the UN system, and other relevant stakeholders. He also includes information on efforts to anticipate and address the impacts of global humanitarian crises and ongoing conflicts on the elimination of female genital mutilation. He draws conclusions and proposes recommendations for future actions.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) and climate change are two of the most pressing global emergencies and sustainable development challenges of our time. This paper provides a brief overview of the evidence of the impact of climate change on VAWG and makes recommendations across both the climate change and ending VAWG sectors.

UN Women’s highlights from 2020–2021 samples our top 2020 results showing how UN Women has effectively delivered for women and girls around the world, and presents some of the people who have inspired us most over the past year.

This edition of the “UN Women impact stories” series features six briefs aligned with each of the Generation Equality Action Coalition themes, to mark the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, 30 June – 2 July 2021. The Action Coalitions are global, innovative, multi-stakeholder partnerships that are mobilizing governments, civil society, international organizations, and the private sector to deliver tangible impact on gender equality and women and girls’ human rights by 2026.

This series, updated quarterly, illustrates the human impact of UN Women’s work across the world, highlighting the partnerships that make this work possible. These stories share how we and our many partners are striding forward to realize a better world for women and girls

UN Women organized an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “Data and violence against women in politics” (VAWP) on 4–5 December 2019, in New York, as a part of its ongoing efforts to tackle this issue. This report provides an overview of the expert discussions and the key takeaways identified during the meeting. It also highlights key discussion points to inform future efforts to collect data on VAWP.

On the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, using striking images and bold typography, this series of posters contrasts key gaps with concrete actions to close them, sending a graphic message that the commitments made 25 years ago can and must be met. The posters echo the call across generations of feminists, from those just joining the movement to those who brought Beijing to life.

This manual provides step-by-step guidance to Parties to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on integrating gender issues and promoting gender equality in the design of transformative land degradation neutrality (LDN) projects. It builds on work launched by UN Women, the UNCCD, and the International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in advising governments on transformative efforts to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation through gender- and socially equitable means.

This research paper explores the gender dimensions of biodiversity conservation and the global norms on gender equality and natural resource management within the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The paper further identifies the main entry points for strengthening gender considerations in decisions of the Parties to the CBD and in the implementation of the Convention, as well as in the future work of Parties and other stakeholders.

This report provides a summary of the discussions of the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on violence against women in politics (VAWP), held on 8–9 March 2018 in New York. It contains key points and priority actions to inform interventions to address violence against women in politics.

This publication summarizes the discussions of the Expert Group Meeting, held on 5–6 June 2018 in Nairobi, and highlights a set of actionable recommendations to support the accelerated gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UN Women, UN Environment, and UN-Habitat prepared the report and recommendations as a contribution to the 2018 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

TRANSFORM Issue no. 12 focuses on UN Women’s contribution to women’s political participation and leadership from 2011 to 2017. It summarizes learning from past practices that can inform and strengthen future work in this area. It also addresses UN Women’s strategic niche in promoting women’s political participation and leadership in the context of the UN Secretary-General’s call for the United Nations Development System reform to deliver on the 2030 Agenda.

The purpose of the corporate evaluation was to assess UN Women’s contribution from 2011 to 2017 towards women’s ability to “lead and participate in decision-making at all levels”, and to provide evidence from past practice to inform its future strategic planning and implementation in this area. It analysed UN Women’s contribution across its integrated mandate at the global, regional, and country levels against four criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability.

More than one third of the Earth’s land is currently degraded, affecting 2.6 billion people. Land degradation impacts men and women differently, making it imperative to address the persistent gender inequalities that fuel women’s extreme poverty. This paper analyses land degradation with a gender perspective and concludes with recommendations for the gender-responsive implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification.

This guide focuses on the scourge of violence against women in elections. It identifies specific components of violence against women in elections, including types, tactics, victims and perpetrators, and presents policy and programming options based on current good practices to ensure that women can exercise their political rights.

This research report, the second edition to ‘The Full View: Advancing the goal of gender balance in multilateral and intergovernmental processes’ (2013), examines developments in women’s participation in decision-making processes and expands on the lessons learned from the first report. It includes a set of recommendations for Parties, observers and the secretariat to the UNFCCC on ways to advance the goal of gender balance to promote women’s voice and agency.

This report identifies some of the key trends and critical issues for the Indian Ocean Rim Association Member States to address in support of women’s substantive gender equality and economic advancement. It provides an overview of existing data on key aspects of women’s economic empowerment in Indian Ocean Rim countries using publicly available and comparable data.

This toolkit is designed to support climate change practitioners in the Pacific islands region to integrate gender into their programmes and projects. It is aimed at climate change professionals working in national governments, non-governmental organizations, regional and international organizations who are involved in managing and implementing climate change programmes.

The Guide examines the role of electoral management bodies (EMBs) in encouraging the participation of women across the electoral cycle. The Guide is directed to electoral administrations and the international assistance providers, and highlights the important work being carried out by offering concrete examples of steps that can be taken to remove remaining barriers that continue to affect women’s participation in electoral processes.