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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

UN Women impact stories series

Date: Monday, October 5, 2020

This series, updated quarterly, illustrates the human impact of UN Women’s work across the world, highlighting the partnerships that make this work possible. These stories share how we and our many partners are striding forward to realize a better world for women and girls

Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2020

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2020

The pandemic has interrupted progress on gender equality, but it can be brought back on course. This year’s edition of “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot” brings together the latest available evidence on gender equality across all 17 Goals, underscoring the progress made, but also the progress interrupted as a result of COVID-19.

Regular resources rise to the immense challenges of COVID-19

Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020

This brief summarizes how UN Women is deploying regular resources in response to COVID-19. It highlights how regular resources have enabled a faster and more comprehensive response and details the results of practical assistance to women and girls, especially those in vulnerable communities, and advocacy for a gender perspective in national, regional, and UN system efforts.

From insights to action: Gender equality in the wake of COVID-19

Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking working hours, increased care burdens, and heightened violence have exacerbated the challenges that women and girls face. Unless action is taken, by 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living in extreme poverty, including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19. This publication presents the latest evidence on the multiple impacts of the pandemic on women and girls.

COVID-19 and conflict: Advancing women’s meaningful participation in ceasefires and peace processes

Date: Monday, August 3, 2020

This brief addresses the importance of women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation to an effective pandemic response and to peacemaking efforts, and how the women, peace and security agenda can provide a critical framework for inclusive decision-making and sustainable solutions. It also provides preliminary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on women’s participation in ceasefires and peace processes and offers a series of recommendations, including on “building back better”.

Addressing emerging human trafficking trends and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020

Around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has created new risks and challenges to victims and survivors of trafficking and has also worsened the vulnerabilities of at-risk groups, especially women and children, to trafficking in human beings. Based on data collected through a global survey of survivors and frontline organizations, this publication analyses the emerging COVID-19 human trafficking trends and consequences and offers concrete policy recommendations to address them.

Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women: Report of the Secretary-General (2020)

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2020

The present report, submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 73/148, provides information on measures taken by Member States and activities carried out within the United Nations system to eliminate violence against women and girls. The report emphasizes the urgency of efforts to eliminate violence against women in the context of COVID-19 as well as reporting on advances in eliminating sexual harassment. The report includes conclusions and specific recommendations for future action.

Minimum requirements checklist for integrating gender equality in the implementation of the UN Framework for the Socioeconomic Response to COVID-19

Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2020

This checklist provides minimum requirements for the integration of gender equality in the implementation of the "UN framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19". In particular, this checklist is intended to support UNCTs that are undertaking gender/intersectional analyses and/or members of the Gender Theme Groups (GTGs) in UNCTs to effectively integrate gender equality in UNCT COVID-19 recovery and socioeconomic response plans.

Gender-responsive humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Date: Monday, July 13, 2020

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.

Spotlight on gender, COVID-19 and the SDGs: Will the pandemic derail hard-won progress on gender equality?

Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2020

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.

Decision tree: Data collection on violence against women and COVID-19

Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2020

This decision tree guides data collectors through the various considerations, viable options, and alternative data sources for obtaining information without jeopardizing participants’ safety or the data’s integrity. In doing so, it aims to identify data sources and methodologies that are useful for strengthening services and referral pathways for women experiencing violence during COVID-19.

COVID-19 and the care economy: Immediate action and structural transformation for a gender-responsive recovery

Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2020

This brief presents emerging evidence on the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the care economy. It highlights key measures needed to address the increase in unpaid care work as a result of the pandemic, ensure adequate compensation and decent working conditions for paid care workers, and enable the participation of paid and unpaid caregivers in the policy decisions that affect them.