The November 2021 edition of the UN Women impact stories sample UN Women's work on ending violence against women and girls globally, together with our partners, in Fiji, Morocco, Haiti, Ukraine, and Rwanda.

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 brief primarily focuses on reasonable accommodation and accessibility with the objective to develop a greater understanding of these in institutional contexts, to strengthen organisations and institutions’ internal awareness and capacities, and to promote more detailed attention to accessibility and reasonable accommodation in the intersection with gender.

This publication presents, through case studies, how leading public development banks (PDBs) have committed and are delivering on the gender equality agenda. The analysis covers what it takes to adopt gender-responsive principles, mechanisms, and tools, as well as foster gender mainstreaming approaches in the programming and funding cycles of PDBs. The publication concludes with 10 actions that PDBs can take now to enhance their commitments and practices.

UN Women’s tenth anniversary publication, “A decade of daring”, celebrates the milestones of the organization’s first 10 years.

The impact of gender inequality on the HIV response efforts is widely acknowledged, yet, efforts to rectify this are lagging. UN Women, with the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, convened an Expert Group Meeting on financing for gender equality in the HIV response and commissioned seven discussion papers to identify existing gaps and map recommendations for action.

This policy brief explores the ways in which being a migrant accentuates the risks of women and girls to various forms of gender-based violence at all stages of migration and examines how this has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief concludes with a set of recommendations on how to reduce the risks of gender-based violence and improve the provision and coordination of essential services for women and girls.

This working paper analyses how women leaders at the national and subnational levels of government managed COVID-19 response and recovery from January 2020 through March 2021. The paper finds that women decision-makers demonstrated effective leadership, rapid response, and implemented socially inclusive policies and provides recommendations on how to ensure women’s participation and contribution to the pandemic response and recovery.

This brief describes the Women’s Resilience to Disasters programme, which proposes a comprehensive package to strengthen the resilience of women and girls with the goal of ensuring that the lives and livelihoods of women and girls are resilient to disasters and threats, contributing to sustainable, secure, and thriving communities.

This report details key results UN Women achieved in 2020 in collaboration with partners. A reflection of UN Women’s commitment to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian and disaster contexts, these results also underscore the need for greater investment from stakeholders to meet the needs of women and girls in all their diversity and support their capacities as agents of change.

The September 2021 edition of the UN Women impact stories is dedicated to women, peace, and security. These impact stories illustrate part of UN Women’s work on implementing the WPS agenda through programming and partnerships that support the meaningful participation and leadership of women in building long-lasting peace in Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Georgia, and Lebanon.

The pandemic has tested and even reversed progress in expanding women’s rights and opportunities. “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2021” presents the latest evidence on gender equality across all 17 Goals, highlighting the progress made since 2015 but also the continued alarm over the COVID-19 pandemic, its immediate effect on women’s well-being, and the threat it poses to future generations.

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.

The Strategic Plan 2022–2025 will guide UN Women for the next four years—with an eye toward the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It articulates how UN Women will leverage its unique triple mandate to mobilize urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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 study highlights the laws and policies in G7 countries that impact the lives of women. It showcases the progress of 350 companies (largest 50 companies in each G7 country) against Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) indicators, underscoring the importance of WEPs as a framework in providing concrete steps to advance women’s economic empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community.

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 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 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 global report presents results of the Safe City and Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls initiatives from a range of cities across the globe. It illustrates what governments, grassroots women, women’s organizations, and other community partners can do to implement interventions that form part of a comprehensive approach to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces.