Take five: “Women should lead the conversation on gender equality”

Date: Thursday, February 18, 2021

Hayat Mirshad is a 32-year-old Lebanese feminist, human rights activist and gender, communications and advocacy expert. As co-founder of the feminist collective FE-MALE in Lebanon, she advocates against discriminatory gender norms and policies and works closely with UN Women’s Men and Women for Gender Equality programme funded by the Government of Sweden. The programme works to change behaviours and social norms for gender equality in the Arab States. Mirshad is also a member of UN Women’s Gender Innovation Agora and was recognized as one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2020 for her activism on women’s rights. In this interview, she shares her journey of fighting gender inequity and explains how to rally for wide-reaching and sustainable impact.

Take Five: Taking stock of countries' progress on developing inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Kevin Blanchard is the Director of DRR Dynamics, a UK based research organisation focused on ensuring the inclusion and empowerment of marginalized groups in disaster risk reduction. He has over 14 years’ experience in developing inclusive disaster risk reduction and humanitarian policy for national governments, international agencies and non-governmental organizations. Mr. Blanchard is working with UN Women as a consultant in inclusive disaster risk reduction policy.

Take five: An intersectional approach to empowering women and girls with disabilities

Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2020

A.H. Monjurul Kabir is the UN Coordination Adviser on Gender Equality and Disability Inclusion. He leads UN Women’s Global Task Team on Disability Inclusion and Intersectionality. In 2019, 55 UN Women offices (in addition to our work through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women) supported women and girls with disabilities across all areas of work through the provision of normative guidance, integrated policy advice, knowledge management, operational support and capacity development. In this interview, Mr. Kabir talks about the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls with disabilities and the need for an intersectional approach.

Take five: Why we should take online violence against women and girls seriously during and beyond COVID-19

Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Cecilia Mwende Maundu is a broadcast journalist based in Kenya and a specialist in gender digital safety. She is also the current Secretary General of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television, Kenyan chapter. During COVID-19, women and girls are using the internet more than ever to stay connected with the world, but they are also the targets of online violence in the form of physical threats, sexual harassment, stalking, zoombombing and sex trolling.

Despite compounding challenges, women in Iraq play vital roles in the country’s COVID-19 response

Date: Monday, July 6, 2020

Despite the unprecedented challenges, Iraqi women are playing vital roles in the country’s COVID-19 response, serving as leaders, health and social workers, and responders to domestic and gender-based violence.

Take five: “This year’s Pride is marked by a critical need to not just stand but act in solidarity in seeking racial justice and equality”

Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Sophie Browne (she/her; they/them) is UN Women’s recently appointed LGBTIQ+ Policy Specialist. In this newly created, dedicated post, Browne will work across the organization, globally, and with external partners to integrate an LGBTIQ+ lens to UN Women’s work. Browne has long worked on gender and social justice causes in research, policy, advocacy, law reform and programming capacities . Sophie is also on the board of UN-GLOBE, the system-wide staff body for LGBTIQ+ personnel, and...

Take Five: “Women leaders around the world have demonstrated successful management of the pandemic”

Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Around the world, women are shining through as outstanding leaders as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates. From Germany to New Zealand and Denmark to Iceland, women leaders have shown clarity in their decisions and policies, they are compassionate, empathetic, strong communicators and they show solidarity. Her Excellency Vjosa Osmani, the first woman assembly president in Kosovo, has been praised for her professionalism in leading the assembly during the crisis. She is a Doctor of Legal Sciences, former professor and mother of two girls.

Take five: As Haiti battles COVID-19, services to protect women and girls with disabilities are critical

Date: Monday, May 18, 2020

Emanuela Paul is the Rethinking Power Program Coordinator with Beyond Borders/Depase Fwontyè yo. The programme focuses on preventing violence against women and girls, including women and girls with disabilities, in Haiti and implements a project with funding from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. In light of COVID-19, she explains how her organization has adapted its approach to community mobilization and the dialogues they create in the community.

Take five: COVID-19 will pass, but will anything change in the protection system?

Date: Monday, May 18, 2020

Meliha Sendic is President of the Center of Women's Rights, a grantee of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, that provides free legal assistance to women, primarily to women survivors of all forms of post-conflict violence against women in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). During an online Stakeholder Community Exchange on 16 April 2020 organized by the UN Trust Fund, she shared how her organization has adapted to COVID-19 measures.

Take Five: "What we are going through right now is a life lesson for everyone."

Date: Friday, May 8, 2020

Natalia Klinsky Amelunge is a 28-year-old doctor working on the front lines of COVID-19 at the National Health Fund in Bolivia and the Anita Leigue Municipal Health Center. She spoke with UN Women about the challenges that women face in the front-line response and what we can learn from them. In Bolivia, UN Women has launched public communication campaigns to make women’s role visible and to prevent the shadow pandemic of violence against women. In coordination with the government, UN Women is also distributing food, clothing and other necessities in migrant camps bordering Chile.