UN Women impact stories: Women, peace, and security

Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2021

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.

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

Date: Thursday, September 16, 2021

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.

UN Women’s highlights from 2020–2021

Date: Thursday, September 9, 2021

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.

Guidance note: Preventing violence against women in politics

Date: Monday, July 19, 2021

The guidance note discusses key concepts and norms about violence against women in politics, including definitions and normative frameworks, and provides practical guidance for addressing violence against women in politics at country level through different interventions.

TRANSFORM – The magazine for gender-responsive evaluation – Issue 22, July 2021

Date: Thursday, July 15, 2021

This issue of TRANSFORM summarizes the “Corporate evaluation of UN Women’s UN system coordination and broader convening role in ending violence against women”. The evaluation provides an overall assessment of UN Women’s United Nations system coordination and broader convening role in the area of ending violence against women and includes a forward-looking analysis with a view to informing UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025.

Improvement in the status of women in the United Nations system: Report of the Secretary-General (2021)

Date: Thursday, July 1, 2021

This report assesses the status of women in the UN system for the period from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019. It contains recommendations aimed at assisting entities in the UN system to achieve gender parity, including through rigorous implementation of policies and a range of coordinated actions.

Corporate evaluation of UN Women’s UN system coordination and broader convening role in ending violence against women

Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2021

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.

Regular resources report 2020

Date: Monday, June 21, 2021

This year’s regular resources report analyses how UN Women mobilized its core contributions in 2020, rising up to the challenge of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Through the presentation of tangible results, this report presents case studies at the global, regional, and country levels to showcase the impact that regular resources have in the countries where UN Women is present.

TRANSFORM – The magazine for gender-responsive evaluation – Issue 21, June 2021

Date: Friday, June 18, 2021

This issue of TRANSFORM summarizes the “Corporate thematic evaluation of UN Women’s support to National Action Plans on women, peace, and security”. Through this evaluation, the Independent Evaluation Service assessed the criteria of coherence and coordination, effectiveness, organizational efficiency, sustainability, and the extent to which a human rights approach and gender equality principles were integrated into National Action Plans to meet women, peace, and security commitments and adopt accountability frameworks in conflict and post-conflict countries.

UN Women impact stories: Generation Equality

Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2021

This edition of the “UN Women impact stories” series features six briefs aligned with each of the Generation Equality Action Coalition themes, to mark the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, 30 June – 2 July 2021. The Action Coalitions are global, innovative, multi-stakeholder partnerships that are mobilizing governments, civil society, international organizations, and the private sector to deliver tangible impact on gender equality and women and girls’ human rights by 2026.

TRANSFORM – The magazine for gender-responsive evaluation – Issue 20, May 2021

Date: Monday, May 31, 2021

Issue no. 20 summarizes the “Effectiveness and efficiency assessment of UN Women flagship programme initiatives and thematic priorities of the Strategic Plan 2018 –2021”. As part of its implementation of the UN Women Corporate Evaluation Plan, the Independent Evaluation Service, in collaboration with the Internal Audit Service, assessed the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and coherence of the flagship programme initiatives and their integration as thematic priorities of the Strategic Plan 2018–2021.

TRANSFORM – The magazine for gender-responsive evaluation – Issue 19, May 2021

Date: Saturday, May 15, 2021

Issue no. 19 summarizes the meta-synthesis of “UN Women evaluations: Insights on organizational effectiveness and efficiency”. This meta-synthesis brings together evidence from evaluations on UN Women’s organizational effectiveness and efficiency outputs. In addition to highlighting progress, the synthesis captures commonly identified drivers of change in the form of good practices and innovation, as well as impediments.

New feminist activism, waves, and generations

Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2021

This paper examines the characteristics of past and contemporary feminisms and dissects the issues with periodizing feminism in terms of “waves”. Part two focuses on understanding the most recent wave of feminist activism by considering its antecedents and main characteristics. It presents three case studies of movements in the Global South; the cases of Brazil, India, and Malawi illustrate some of the ideas, campaigns, and organizational forms of “new feminists”.

System-wide strategy on gender parity: UN Women’s status report and updated implementation plan

Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2021

The Secretary-General’s “System-wide strategy on gender parity” includes six UN Women–specific recommendations, which were incorporated and highlighted in UN Women’s initial implementation plan (December 2017). As requested by the Secretary-General, this status report and updated implementation plan elaborates on the progress made and results achieved since 2017, based on the specific requests for UN Women. It also reports on UN Women’s system-wide work, as well as internal progress.

Universal basic income: Potential and limitations from a gender perspective

Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2021

This policy brief discusses the potential and limitations of universal basic income (UBI) from a gender perspective and points to some of the specific design features that policymakers need to consider to make UBI work for women and transgender and gender-diverse people.

IASC gender accountability framework report, 2019

Date: Thursday, April 1, 2021

This report marks the second monitoring cycle of the IASC’s 2017 gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian action policy. It provides a snapshot of the IASC’s output in the calendar year 2019 and allows for cross comparison with the baseline established with the 2018 report.

A guide to public investments in the care economy: Policy support tool for estimating care deficits, investment costs, and economic returns

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021

UN Women has emerged as a global leader in the promotion of the care economy, and this work has highlighted the urgent need to invest in childcare facilities through private and public partnerships to reduce women’s unpaid care work and to allow women to take an active role in the economy. This policy tool provides a blueprint for making a policy case for sustained investment in the care economy.

Assessing the gendered employment impacts of COVID-19 and supporting a gender-responsive recovery

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021

This policy tool is designed to document the extent to which gender inequalities in the labour market are being exacerbated by the pandemic, thereby informing a better understanding on how to protect workers and promote a gender-responsive economic recovery. The tool will also help identify policies for improving working conditions in female-dominated economic sectors and promoting greater inclusion of women workers in new promising sectors, thus widening their opportunities.

How to assess fiscal stimulus packages from a gender equality perspective

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021

UN Women continues to argue that it is important to ensure that adopted economic stimulus and recovery package are gender-responsive. Packages must be implemented in a way that does not disproportionally and negatively impact women and girls. Policies adopted in response to the COVID-19 crisis must identify areas that macro-level policies can effectively target to address gendered impacts of the crisis. This policy tool is specifically designed to achieve this.

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.