Political Inclusion
Diverse leadership matters
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Women are systematically underrepresented in decision-making processes, including around COVID-19 response and recovery. Due in part to this disparity, many COVID response and recovery plans have failed to incorporate gender-sensitive policies.
What can governments do?
- Prioritize women’s representation and leadership in the creation, implementation and evaluation of COVID response and recovery plans.
- Ensure women’s involvement in COVID-19 specialized groups or task forces, as well as legislative, policy, and budgetary decision-making processes — even if this requires special measures, such as quotas, to guarantee their participation.
- Collaborate with women’s organizations and feminist activists and take their concerns into account in pandemic response and recovery measures.
- Design and implement gender responsive laws, policies and budgets for COVID support and recovery by identifying gender-specific needs and priorities.
- Assess the gender-specific impacts of COVID-19 support and recovery plans.
What is UN Women doing?
- Generating actionable policy recommendations through Rapid Gender Assessment Surveys (RGAs) and consultations with civil society organizations.
- Monitoring women’s participation in COVID-19 task forces through the COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker, created in partnership with UNDP.
- Supporting efforts to increase women’s representation in decision-making processes, including:
- Coordinating efforts to bring indigenous women to the forefront of COVID-19 prevention and response efforts in Guatemala and Mexico;
- Promoting women’s leadership in Fiji, Uganda and Moldova;
- Training women on gender-responsive and inclusive governance in Nepal;
- Facilitating women’s political participation and leadership in the Europe and Central Asia region and the Solomon Islands.
- Mobilizing, empowering and equipping women-led organizations and networks, including:
- Expanding support to women’s organizations through UN Women’s Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund, the Spotlight Initiative and the Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women;
- Partnering with women’s networks on relief efforts in Liberia, Myanmar and Bangladesh and anti-gender-based violence efforts in Tanzania;
- Providing support to women’s organizations in Kosovo, Albania, Turkey and the Pacific region;
- Supporting the establishment of a network of civil society and women’s organizations in the Arab States region.