Paid care work around the globe: A comparative analysis of 47 countries and territories

Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2021

This paper uses harmonized collections of national labor force datasets to compare the size and shape of the paid care sector around the globe. The paper then explores the relationship between the size of the care sector and various measures of need for care, finding very little evidence of relationship. Finally, the paper explores wages and working conditions for paid care workers in a subset of countries for which data is available.

COVID-19 and fiscal policy: Applying gender-responsive budgeting in support and recovery

Date: Monday, April 12, 2021

This policy brief presents entry points for the application of gender-responsive budgeting to COVID-19 support and recovery packages. Drawing on country examples, the brief provides recommendations on the use of gender budgeting tools to identify gaps in policy responses and direct spending towards gender-responsive COVID-19 support and recovery packages.

Beyond COVID-19: The feminist plan for sustainability and social justice

Date: Monday, April 5, 2021

As the world learns to live with COVID-19, to emerge from the current crisis, and to “build back better”, UN Women will launch The Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice, a visionary but practical roadmap for putting gender equality, social justice, and sustainability at the centre of the recovery. It will feed into UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum and Action Coalitions, aimed at accelerating commitment, action, and financing for gender equality.

COVID-19 and women’s rights organizations: Bridging response gaps and demanding a more just future

Date: Monday, March 22, 2021

This brief provides evidence of the different ways in which women’s rights organizations have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the predicament that many of them face of increased relevance and demand at the same time as civic closure, restrictive work conditions, and diminishing funding. The brief also identifies a set of recommendations to strengthen these organizations in the immediate term and to pave the way for a more equal future.

Women in politics: 2021

Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021

The IPU–UN Women “Women in politics: 2021” map presents global rankings for women in executive, government, and parliamentary positions as of 1 January 2021. The data shows all-time highs for the number of countries with women Heads of State or Heads of Government, as well as for the global share of women ministers.

Strengthening gender measures and data in the COVID-19 era: An urgent need for change

Date: Thursday, March 4, 2021

The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing gender data gaps that undermine our ability to intentionally craft gender-responsive policies and programmes. Filling these data gaps poses a significant challenge as many data collection efforts have been disrupted due to COVID-19 control measures, but without addressing these gender data gaps and collection obstacles, we cannot fully understand or mitigate the gendered impacts of the pandemic.

Key stakeholders’ perspectives for UN Women’s next strategic plan

Date: Friday, February 12, 2021

This report presents key stakeholders’ perspectives around UN Women’s strategic plan 2022–2025 based on a survey conducted in 2020 as part of global, regional, and country consultations. The report covers key reflections on UN Women’s work to-date and strategies for achieving greatest impact, and for ensuring the next strategic plan navigates the entity well into its second decade and throughout the first half of the Decade of Action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

A training manual: Women in preventing and countering violent extremism

Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021

This training manual is designed for actors involved in the prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE) in Europe and Central Asia including state officials, members of non-governmental organizations, community activists, staff of UN agencies, international and regional organizations to help them understand violent extremism’s gender dimensions.

Report on the UN Women global response to COVID-19

Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2021

This global report provides a synthesis of the work of UN Women during 2020 to ensure a gender-sensitive response to the COVID-19 pandemic in ending violence against women, economic empowerment, leadership, gender data, and humanitarian contexts.

Handbook on gender-responsive police services for women and girls subject to violence

Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Under the framework of the UN Joint Global Programme on Essential Services, UN Women, together with UNODC and the IAWP, have developed a handbook on gender-responsive police services for women and girls subject to violence. The handbook is based on and complements existing global and country-specific handbooks and training materials for law enforcement and covers areas such as gender-responsive police investigations, prevention, intersectionality and institutional change.

Make parity a reality: Field-specific enabling environment guidelines

Date: Monday, January 18, 2021

These field-specific enabling environment guidelines provide tailored guidance for personnel in the field, especially in mission settings, to help increase the representation of women and accelerate efforts to reach gender parity in the UN system. The guidelines support the implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s system-wide strategy on gender parity and complement the enabling environment guidelines for the UN system and its supplementary guidance.

Shaping the international agenda II: Progress on raising women’s voices in intergovernmental forums

Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Women’s full and equal participation in all decision-making processes is necessary to achieve gender equality and drive progress towards sustainable development. A follow up to Shaping the international agenda publication (2017), this publication is a useful tool to raise awareness and promote gender parity in intergovernmental bodies and processes.

Addressing exclusion through intersectionality in rule of law, peace, and security context

Date: Monday, December 28, 2020

This brief discusses the global context for intersectionality in conflict or crisis and transition settings, and considers the specific barriers faced in relation to the Women, Peace and Security and the Rule of Law agendas. It provides recommendations to overcome these barriers and points to positive actions to ensure that policies and programmes are inclusive and accessible for all.

Recommendations into action brief COVID-19: Safe cities and safe public spaces for women and girls

Date: Monday, December 21, 2020

This brief details some of the ways safe city partners from different sectors, in a short six months, have taken action in line with the recommendations set out in UN Women’s Policy brief on COVID-19 and ensuring safe cities and safe public spaces for women and girls.

Women’s economic empowerment in the Indian Ocean Rim: Progress and challenges

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020

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.

Universal health coverage, gender equality and social protection: A health systems approach

Date: Thursday, December 10, 2020

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.

Fifth UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders’ Forum: Proceedings report

Date: Thursday, December 10, 2020

This report includes the main proceedings of UN Women’s Fifth Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders’ Forum on the theme “Integrated Action and Building to Scale: Safe and Empowering City and Public Space Initiatives with Women and Girls”. The report includes insights from a wide array of speakers, detailed rapporteur reports, key takeaways from programme sessions and participant discussions, good practices and tools, and links to several presentations.

COVID-19 and ensuring safe transport with and for women and girls

Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2020

The brief highlights trends and impacts of COVID-19 on women’s safety in transport. It includes examples of strategies put in place to provide safer transport modes for women and girls throughout the global pandemic, with a focus on availability, accessibility, and affordability, and makes recommendations on how different sectors can contribute to a comprehensive approach to improve women’s mobility.

New insights on women, peace and security for the next decade

Date: Monday, November 30, 2020

This brief series recognizes that, despite advancements, we have to build a stronger bridge between empirical scholarly work, new policy directions, and actual practice on the ground. The series seeks to address that gap and contribute to the realization of the women, peace and security agenda through the promotion of evidence-based policy and practice.

Reflect. Realize. Respond. Rising to new challenges: Accelerating gender parity in times of crisis and beyond

Date: Monday, November 30, 2020

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.