UN Women’s work on women’s economic empowerment has a broad and ambitious mandate and aims to strengthen women’s economic rights and respond to pressing global needs. This independent corporate thematic evaluation was undertaken to assess the relevance, effectiveness, coherence, efficiency, and sustainability of UN Women’s contributions to women’s economic empowerment by advancing gender responsive laws, frameworks, policies, and partnerships, and proposes recommendations and insights to strengthen this area of work.

This policy paper explores the potential of social protection systems to provide a wide range of policy tools and mechanisms to address violence against women, including in the context of multiple overlapping crises.

This research paper provides an overview of the global estimates of gender-related killings of women and girls in the private sphere in 2021. It also features policy recommendations to support comprehensive and multisectoral approaches to prevent and address gender-related killings and other forms of gender-based violence against women and girls.

This policy paper highlights how the linkages between violence against women and girls and climate change have been integrated in the agreed conclusions and recommended actions coming out of the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, and discusses key opportunities drawn from examples of promising practices and adaptable resources for implementing them.

This paper provides a brief overview of the existing data and evidence on online and technology facilitated VAWG, outlines some of the key developments, gaps, challenges, and emerging promising practices, and makes recommendations to be considered by governments, international organizations, civil society organizations, and the technology sector.

The war in Ukraine has had devasting impact on women and girls worldwide, widening gender gaps, and increasing rates of food insecurity, malnutrition, and energy poverty. This policy paper reviews the available evidence, recommending urgent attention to its consequences for women and girls. It is complementary to the briefs produced by the UN Secretary-General’s Global Crisis Response Group on the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the global response and recovery.

This publication is a collaboration between the UN Women’s Independent Evaluation Service and the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health to explore the link between Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 and SDG 5 (gender equality), as part of a system of interconnected SDGs and indicators within these goals.

This publication addresses the importance of having a proactive gender-responsive framework for countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism. It offers guidance to UN Women’s community of practice to carry out due diligence, measures that respond to challenges identified, and most importantly, to support risk-aware decision-making at all levels.

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.

The Independent Evaluation Service conducted a meta-synthesis of UN Women's evaluations—evidence and lessons on types of UN Women support. This report collates insights and evidence on the key types of support provided by UN Women during the strategic plan period 2018 to 2021. The evaluative evidence is organized around normative support, integrated policy advice and thought leadership, capacity development and technical assistance, and advocacy and social mobilization.

In 2021, the Independent Evaluation Service condcuted the corporate evaluation on UN Women’s policy advaocy work. The evaluation team assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and coherence of UN Women’s policy advocacy work to deliver high-impact and transformative results in line with the UN Women Strategic Plan 2018–2021. Findings from this evaluation are expected to contribute to strategic decision-making, organizational learning and accountability, and implementation of the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022–2025.

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.

This policy paper explores the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by racially marginalized women, rooted in systemic racism, sexism, and other systems of inequality. It offers recommendations to States, international actors, and civil society organizations on ways to implement urgent reforms to improve access to services and human rights protections for women who are marginalized based upon their race, gender, and migration status.

The 2020 gender accountability framework report marks the third monitoring cycle of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)’s 2017 gender policy. It provides a snapshot of the IASC’s output in the calendar year 2020 and allows for cross comparison with the baseline established with the 2018 report.

This policy brief provides a critical assessment of the “men for gender equality” field, and proposes new directions for programming and policy on men and boys. This includes moving away from a focus on individual men’s identities, attitudes and behaviours, and towards a greater focus on the structures and systems that sustain gender inequalities.

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is central to children and young people’s health and well-being, equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy, informed, and responsible choices in their lives, including to prevent HIV and promote gender equality. This global status review of the CSE provides an analysis of countries’ progress towards delivering good quality school-based CSE to all learners and maps some forward-looking recommendations to countries.

Environmental emergencies threaten to destroy lives, economies, cultures, and societies. They harm a wide range of human rights, with differential effects based on gender. States and other actors have obligations and responsibilities under international law and policy to address environmental crises and to prevent their negative, gendered impacts on enjoyment of human rights. These messages highlight key human rights obligations and responsibilities with respect to gender and the environment.

The “Feminist plan” maps the ambitious and transformative policies—on livelihoods, care, and the environment—that are needed to build a more equal and sustainable future. To get there, it calls for context-specific policy pathways, tailored political strategies, and financing. The plan identifies key levers that can create change and the actors at global, national, and local levels that need to take action to move towards this vision.

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, the value added of UN Women’s work in this area, as well as its innovation initiatives, and the systems, processes, and culture to support innovation.

In 2021, the Independent Evaluation Service conducted the corporate evaluation of UN Women’s UN system coordination and broader convening role in ending violence against women (EVAW) as part of its Corporate Evaluation Plan. The evaluation provides an overall assessment of UN Women’s UN system coordination and broader convening role in the area of EVAW and includes a forward-looking analysis with a view to informing UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025.