Annually, Gender Focal Points meet to exchange good practices and are recognized for achievements in advancing gender parity across the UN system in their respective entities. This report summarizes the Global Annual Gender Focal Point Meeting held on 17–19 October 2022. Gender Focal Points joined virtually from duty stations and remote working environments all around the world.

This guidance note is part of a series of guidance notes on gender analysis in technical areas that seeks to contribute to more effective gender mainstreaming in and beyond the UN system. The focus in this guide is the thematic area of digital inclusion, an area in which gender analysis has been less widely implemented than in some other sectors.

This guidance note is part of a series of guidance notes on gender analysis in technical areas that seeks to contribute towards gender mainstreaming. The focus in this guide is the thematic area of energy infrastructure, which is a sector dominated by men and where gender analysis can provide vital data to practitioners on the key entry points for integrating gender equality and social inclusion into energy infrastructure projects.

Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 74/235 on women in development, in the present report, the Secretary-General considers global evidence and trends and reviews and assesses measures taken at the national level, since 2019, regarding gender-responsive poverty eradication, social protection, and labour market policies; women’s labour and human rights and ending gender-based discrimination; women’s entrepreneurship; women’s and girls’ unpaid care and domestic work and women’s paid care work; gender-based violence and sexual harassment; universal access to healthcare services, including sexual and reproductive health; and the right to education throughout the life cycle, taking into account the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in these areas.

Gender mainstreaming continues to be the core strategy for accelerating progress on gender equality and the empowerment of women. This handbook aims to encourage and support more systematic and effective gender mainstreaming for the achievement of gender equality throughout the United Nations system and within all sectors.

This report summarizes the Global Annual Gender Focal Point Meeting held on 18–20 October 2021. Gender Focal Points met to exchange good practices and were provided with capacity building and training, tools and knowledge exchange, and opportunities to learn from leaders and experts from the UN system, civil society, and academia on how to drive change across the UN system.

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.

This discussion paper focuses on the interconnections between policies to move toward universal health care (UHC) as a key element of social protection and those to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment, and human rights. Based on an analysis of country experiences, it shows how gender is a key fulcrum on which all health system elements are leveraged and is hence central to achieving UHC.

UN Women leads and coordinates a United Nations system–wide network of more than 300 gender focal points. The Global Annual Meeting of Gender Focal Points and Focal Points for Women in the United Nations brings the network together in person and supports the gender focal points in their ongoing work to enhance gender parity and an enabling environment in their respective entities. This report provides a summary of the 2020 global annual meeting, key conclusions and best practices from the sessions.

Health emergencies such as COVID-19, and the response to them, can exacerbate gender inequality and derail hard-won progress not only on SDG 3 but on all the SDGs. This paper draws insights from emerging data and shines a spotlight on the long-term impact of the crisis on the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The paper concludes by outlining policy priorities drawn from the evidence presented.

This guidance note aims to support UN Women country and regional offices on strategic engagement with the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process at the national level to ensure that gender issues are considered and integrated throughout the VNR cycle and subsequently through the implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This rapid assessment examines how the impacts of COVID-19 are threatening women’s ability to access justice. The assessment reflects challenges faced by women and girls of diverse backgrounds and socio-economic groups, including those experiencing overlapping disadvantages and those facing amplified challenges in humanitarian settings. Cross-regional and local experiences are highlighted, and quantitative data is utilized where available.

This report calls on global, national, and regional stakeholders to expand opportunities for girls and young women to be the changemakers and designers of the solutions to their challenges and opportunities; invest in the skills development of adolescent girls so they can compete in today’s labour market; improve girls’ health and nutrition; and end violence in all its forms against them.

This report provides a summary of the 2019 Global Annual Meeting of Gender Focal Points and Focal Points for Women in the United Nations, organized in September 2019. It includes conclusions from the sessions and action points for accelerating gender parity efforts and implementing an enabling environment across the UN system. The report concludes with remarks by the UN Women Executive Director and recognition of good examples of implementing the “Enabling environment guidelines”.

This brief reviews a decade of feminist research on conditional cash transfers that has raised serious questions about the assumptions that underpin the use of conditionalities and their impact on poor women’s lives. It highlights concerns about the detrimental effects that conditionalities may have in contexts where quality public services are lacking and where multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination mean that well-intended programme requirements easily slip into coercive and disempowering implementation practices.

This guidance note offers comprehensive background information and resources, along with guidelines and guidance for the UN system, in supporting Member States in their efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism and terrorism (P/CVE)—with a primary focus on preventing violent extremism (PVE).

Recognizing the impact of gender inequality on the sexual and reproductive health of women and the health of their children, this programming guide provides practical guidance and tools to understand the influence of gender inequality on sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (SRMNCAH), and how to effectively integrate gender equality into programming.

This policy brief reviews the effects of cash transfers on the rights and capabilities of adolescent girls and boys, using a gender and capability lens and focusing on three key capability domains: education, sexual and reproductive health, and freedom from violence. Based on this evidence, the brief highlights the importance of a “cash plus” approach to enhancing adolescents’ multidimensional well-being and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This report provides a summary of the Global Annual Meeting of Gender Focal Points and Focal Points for Women in the United Nations, held in October 2018.

UNESCO, in collaboration with UN Women, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO, published an updated guidance which promotes health and well-being, respect for human rights and gender equality and the empowerment of children and young people to lead healthy, safe and productive lives.