Leveraging digital finance for gender equality and women’s empowerment

Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2019

This working paper provides a basis to review the barriers, risks, and opportunities related to gender and the accessibility and utilization of digital finance, and to help identify pathways that could be leveraged for potential impactful investment returns for women.

Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2019

Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Are we on track to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls? This report brings together the latest available evidence on gender equality across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, underscoring the progress made as well as the action still needed to accelerate progress.

Improvement of the situation of women and girls in rural areas: Report of the Secretary-General (2019)

Date: Thursday, July 25, 2019

This report provides reviews of the activities undertaken by Member States and United Nations entities to enable women and girls, especially the poorest and most marginalized, in rural areas to improve their livelihoods, well-being and resilience in a changing climate.

World survey on the role of women in development: Report of the Secretary-General (2019): Why addressing women’s income and time poverty matters for sustainable development

Date: Monday, June 17, 2019

The 2019 “World survey” is focused on the reasons for the high levels of income poverty and time poverty among women and contains an analysis of the rationale for taking an integrated policy approach to addressing the double bind experienced by women in that regard, as a timely and relevant means of achieving sustainable development, in particular in low-income contexts.

Expert Group Meeting on “Tackling global challenges to equality and inclusion through the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Spotlight on SDGs 10, 13 and 16”: Report and recommendations

Date: Friday, June 14, 2019

UN Women, UNODC, and the UNFCCC Secretariat organized an expert group meeting (EGM) on the gender perspectives of SDGs 10, 13, and 16 on 27–28 February 2019, in Vienna. The EGM report and recommendations are an input to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and highlight key strategies to be taken by governments, with the support of other stakeholders, to reduce inequalities, tackle climate change, and promote peaceful societies.

A tale of multiple disconnects: Why the 2030 Agenda does not (yet?) contribute to moving German gender equality struggles forward

Date: Friday, May 31, 2019

This study addresses the percolation and domestication of the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Transforming our World” in Germany with a view to understanding its impact on domestic gender equality policies. Concentrating on federal-level policymaking, the main finding of the study is that the 2030 Agenda and SDG 5 have, as of yet, not had a discernible impact on domestic gender equality struggles.

Equality in law for women and girls by 2030: A multistakeholder strategy for accelerated action

Date: Thursday, March 14, 2019

Globally, more than 2.5 billion women and girls are affected by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protections. This policy strategy seeks to fast track the repeal of discriminatory laws in 100 countries between 2019 and 2023, focusing on six thematic areas, and will address the legal needs of more than 50 million women and girls.

Gender and age-responsive social protection: The potential of cash transfers to advance adolescent rights and capabilities

Date: Friday, March 8, 2019

This policy brief reviews the effects of cash transfers on the rights and capabilities of adolescent girls and boys, using a gender and capability lens and focusing on three key capability domains: education, sexual and reproductive health, and freedom from violence. Based on this evidence, the brief highlights the importance of a “cash plus” approach to enhancing adolescents’ multidimensional well-being and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The SDGs and feminist movement building

Date: Friday, December 21, 2018

This discussion paper views the whys and hows of feminist engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals in a broader context: the key UN-related processes from the time women began getting involved with them in the 1970s. It was produced for the UN Women flagship report, “Turning promises into action: Gender equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, and released as part of the UN Women discussion paper series.

Gender equality and poverty are intrinsically linked: A contribution to the continued monitoring of selected Sustainable Development Goals

Date: Friday, December 21, 2018

This discussion paper provides an updated analysis of gendered economic inequality in high- and middle-income countries. A review of the literature demonstrates that such an analysis needs to explicitly recognize that gender, poverty, and (economic) inequality are intrinsically linked. It was produced for UN Women’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2019”, and also released as part of the UN Women discussion paper series.

Making women and girls visible: Gender data gaps and why they matter

Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2018

This brief summarizes Chapter 2 of UN Women’s flagship report, “Turning promises into action”. Investment in national statistical capacity is central to improving the coverage, quality, and timeliness of data for monitoring gender equality and the SDGs. Making sure data represent the lived reality of women and girls in all their diversity by addressing deep-seated biases in concepts, definitions, classifications, and methodologies, is essential to making women and girls visible.

TRANSFORM – The magazine for gender-responsive evaluation – Issue 14, December 2018

Date: Friday, December 14, 2018

TRANSFORM Issue 14, “Working together to empower voices”, is a special edition focused on the inter-related themes of gender, evaluation, transformative change, marginalized voices, and leaving no one behind in pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal 5.

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

Date: Saturday, December 1, 2018

This report includes the main proceedings of UN Women’s Fourth Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders’ Forum on the theme “Leadership and Catalytic Partnerships: Delivering Integrated Safe City and Public Spaces Programmes with and For All Women and Girls”, co-hosted by the City of Edmonton in October 2018. The report includes insights from diverse speakers, rapporteur reports, key takeaways and participant discussions, good practices and tools, and links to presentations.

Towards a gender-responsive implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Date: Thursday, November 15, 2018

This research paper explores the gender dimensions of biodiversity conservation and the global norms on gender equality and natural resource management within the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The paper further identifies the main entry points for strengthening gender considerations in decisions of the Parties to the CBD and in the implementation of the Convention, as well as in the future work of Parties and other stakeholders.

Inclusive Systemic Evaluation for Gender equality, Environments and Marginalized voices (ISE4GEMs): A new approach for the SDG era

Date: Saturday, September 1, 2018

This evaluation guide brings together innovative systemic evaluation practice with intersectional analysis of three of the cross-cutting dimensions of the SDG era. The guide provides an introduction to the ISE4GEMs (Inclusive Systemic Evaluation for Gender equality, Environments and Marginalized voices) approach and provides a summary of the key theoretical concepts and practical guidance and tools to support evaluators to applying it in practice.

Report and recommendations of the Expert Group Meeting on “Building sustainable and resilient societies through the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”

Date: Friday, July 6, 2018

This publication summarizes the discussions of the Expert Group Meeting, held on 5–6 June 2018 in Nairobi, and highlights a set of actionable recommendations to support the accelerated gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UN Women, UN Environment, and UN-Habitat prepared the report and recommendations as a contribution to the 2018 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

SDG key messages

Date: Sunday, July 1, 2018

In preparation for the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) each year, UN Women drafts a set of two-page briefs related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under review. The briefs contain facts and figures on recent trends and key messages on the gender perspectives of each SDG.

Making Every Woman and Girl Count: 2017 annual report: Planning phase

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2018

The 2017 annual report of the flagship programme initiative, Making Every Woman and Girl Count (MEWGC), describes the key achievements during the reporting period, including a review of activities and progress in implementing the MEWGC programme at the global, regional, and national levels. It also contains an update on resource mobilization and advocacy, a review of challenges and lessons learned, and a brief overview of plans for the forthcoming year.

Gender equality in the 2030 Agenda: Gender-responsive water and sanitation systems

Date: Friday, June 29, 2018

What is needed to make water and sanitation systems truly gender-responsive? This issue brief shows how the promotion of gender-responsive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) can be a catalyst for change across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It equally provides insights into how the synergies between WASH and gender equality can be harnessed more effectively.

Towards inclusive cities for all: How to protect the rights of women in informal self-employment

Date: Friday, June 29, 2018

This policy brief synthesizes research findings, analysis, and policy recommendations on the gender dimensions of informal employment in cities. It focuses on three groups of informally self-employed women working in urban areas—street vendors, home-based workers, and waste pickers—to show how organizations of informal workers engaging with local and national policymakers are working to advance these workers’ rights and help to create more inclusive cities for all.