This publication summarizes the key challenges women-owned and women-led businesses are facing when competing for public procurement opportunities and presents the main approaches and policies that have made a difference across the globe. Examples from several countries are highlighted, including Dominican Republic, Chile, Colombia, Kenya, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates.

This edition of the “UN Women impact stories” series focuses on women in leadership. Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, is crucial to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. These stories feature some of the women leaders who are paving the way.

This report explores some key indicators of women’s economic empowerment in labour markets and women’s political participation and economic leadership in the Indian Ocean Rim region through three dimensions: resources, agency, and achievements. It highlights good practices, case studies, and challenges and opportunities for investments and initiatives, and provides key recommendations for Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Member States and other stakeholders to realize women’s economic empowerment in the region.

This edition of the “UN Women impact stories” series includes stories of UN Women’s selected programmes to end violence against women and girls across the world, highlighting the impact of our work and the partnerships that make it possible.

This report examines the roles of women in fisheries and aquaculture in countries of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the challenges and opportunities for their economic empowerment. The report provides a set of recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders to further advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in this sector.

Complementing the Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19, this accompanying gender programme from UN Women seeks to support the whole of the humanitarian system to deliver better for women and girls in the midst of this global pandemic. The programme’s overall objective is to ensure that the most affected and at-risk women and girls play their fullest role in response to COVID-19 and are protected from its impacts.

Issue 15 of TRANSFORM focuses on governance and national planning (GNP), an area of work that has contributed to UN Women’s identity and for which it is recognized and valued. The evaluation of UN Women’s GNP portfolio from 2011 to 2017 assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and extent to which human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated adequately in UN Women’s approach to GNP.

Governance and national planning (GNP) is an area of work that has contributed to UN Women’s identity and for which it is recognized and valued. The evaluation of UN Women's GNP portfolio from 2011 to 2017 assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and extent to which human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated adequately in UN Women’s approach to GNP.

This brochure showcases some of UN Women’s thoughts and practices around innovation that could accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment. The examples range from pilot programmes with marginalized beneficiaries to partnerships with start-ups; from frontier technologies to non-tech interventions that challenge mindsets; and from procedural improvements to capacity-building.

UN Women’s project, “Promoting and protecting women migrant workers’ labour and human rights: Engaging with international, national human rights mechanisms to enhance accountability”, is a global project funded by the European Union (EU) and anchored nationally in three pilot countries: Mexico, Moldova, and the Philippines. This brief draws from the project’s knowledge products and provides an overview of the key situational and policy concerns for women migrant workers in each of the three pilot countries.

Based on research and lessons learned from UN Women’s EU-funded global project “Promoting and protecting women migrant workers’ labour and human rights: Engaging with international, national human rights mechanisms to enhance accountability”, which is piloted in Mexico, Moldova, and the Philippines, this Brief explores the economic and social contributions of women migrant workers to development.

Based on research and lessons learned from the joint UN Women–EU-funded global project, “Promoting and protecting women migrant workers’ labour and human rights: Engaging with international, national human rights mechanisms to enhance accountability”, which is piloted in Mexico, Moldova and the Philippines, this Brief considers the different ways that women transfer and spend remittances, and provides recommendations to better understand and maximize these remittances.

This brief provides an overview of the international human rights system as it applies to the promotion and protection of women migrant workers’ rights. Using examples from the joint UN Women–European Union project, “Promoting and protecting women migrant workers’ labour and human rights”, this brief illustrates how these mechanisms can be used by governments, civil society and development partners to enhance the rights of women migrant workers in law and practice.

Based on research and lessons learned from the joint UN Women–European Union project, “Promoting and protecting women migrant workers’ labour and human rights: Engaging with international, national human rights mechanisms to enhance accountability”, which is piloted in Mexico, Moldova and the Philippines, this brief provides an overview of a methodology for developing gender-responsive migration laws.

The International Men and Gender Equality Survey is the first multi-country study of its kind and size in the Middle East and North Africa. Coordinated by UN Women and Promundo, in collaboration with local research partners, the report takes a never-before-seen look at what it means to be a man in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine today. Exploring key issues at home and at work, in public and private life, and their attitudes towards gender equality, and it also provides women’s perspectives on the same issues.

This report illustrates the nuanced interaction between women’s migration for labour, their scope of contributions to development and the economic, social and personal costs incurred throughout their migration highlighting the importance of labour and human rights to realizing the human development potential of women’s labour migration while critically considering what constitutes development: by whom, for whom, and at what cost. The report illustrates how gender mainstreaming of the migration for development model can enhance the protection of rights and opportunities for women migrant workers, and contribute to more inclusive and sustainable development.

This report reviews migration systems through the use of legal reviews and legislative comparison, providing an analysis of existing mechanisms, frameworks, legislation and policies vis-à-vis women migrant workers, with particular attention paid to the alignment of national legislation with international frameworks, like CEDAW. The report concludes by providing a set of recommendations aimed at global and regional actors, including the ratification of international treaties, enforcement of CEDAW and the creation of a new international instrument to promote the rights of women migrant workers.

This report provides a detailed account of the lived realities of women migrant workers. The report focuses on specific sectors with high concentrations of women migrant workers, as well as the global issue of trafficking, to illuminate the gender-specific vulnerabilities and risks faced by women throughout their migration trajectory, and highlights the agency of women workers as they navigate challenges to claiming labour and human rights across borders.

This publication presents results from a Moldovan study on services provided for migrants, including returnee women. It provides key recommendations for actions to improve services destined to migrants, particularly to returnee women, and to create a dialogue platform for migrant women to access existing services. Furthermore, it includes a list of the most relevant NGOs that provide services for migrants in Moldova, including contact details and information about specific services offered.

This brief focuses on providing legal recommendations for the formulation and implementation of gender-responsive migration, labour, and trafficking laws. After summarizing some background information, the brief provides general recommendations for governments and related agencies. It further gives more detailed suggestions for countries of origin, transit and destination.