This guidance note offers analysis and recommendations to the United Nations system on how to leverage the platform of the UN Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP) to advance the implementation of the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda. The publication highlights the existing and potential value of the GFP as a coordination mechanism for gender-responsive rule of law support, through which the United Nations can more effectively and efficiently promote the implementation of the WPS agenda, including the advancement of gender equality and women’s human rights.

RESPECT Women is a policy framework launched by twelve UN, bilateral, and multilateral agencies, which outlines steps for a public health and human rights–based approach to scaling up prevention programming on violence against women. It builds on the learnings compiled in the UN Prevention of Violence against Women Framework (2015), and in additional systematic reviews, to provide evidence-based strategies on preventing violence against women.

Access to justice is critical for the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. “A practitioner’s toolkit on women’s access to justice programming” was developed by UN Women, UNDP, UNODC and OHCHR to stimulate bolder gender-responsive justice interventions. It harnesses experiences, lessons learned, and promising practices for creating non-discriminatory and inclusive justice systems, empowering women and girls to claim and fully realize their rights.

This paper documents the pervasiveness of women’s lack of income security in old age across a large number of countries, but also points to a number of important policy measures that can be taken to address gender pension gaps. It was produced for UN Women's flagship report Progress of the World's Women 2015-2016 to be released as part of the UN Women discussion paper series.

This paper investigates the extent to which financial services offered through posts may serve women in the developing world better than financial institutions (FIs). We find evidence that posts do seem to include women to a greater extent than FIs. We conclude that a more deliberate attempt at the financial inclusion of women by postal operators has the potential to yield even more success in this regard.

This study examines the borrowing behaviour of women and men within households in Ecuador, Ghana and Karnataka, India, and investigates whether the correlates of having asset debt differ for women and men. It provides answers to interesting questions, such as where they borrow from (formal versus informal sources) and whether the person responsible for the loan is involved in the decision to take out the loan.

This study constitutes a pioneering effort to measure whether women accumulate physical and financial assets as either remittance managers or migrants themselves. Based on household asset surveys in Ecuador and Ghana, the authors find that women have fared as well as men in their ability to acquire assets through remittances or savings earned abroad, but overall, a relatively small share of migrant households are able to accumulate assets, a finding requiring the attention of policymakers.

Achieving the SDGs needs high levels of private and public sector investment. This paper demonstrates that gender relations and the distribution of unpaid care work affect and are affected by the investment climate. The paper offers a set of policy conclusions that would promote a gender-equitable investment climate.