Women’s equitable access to services, goods and resources

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Sujata Sharma Poudel, a psychosocial counsellor, speaks with a local woman at the Women's Rehabilitation Centre in Panchkhal Nepal. Following the 2015 earthquake, Ashmita Tamang, district psychosocial counsellor with Nepal-based Centre for Victims of Torture reiterated that the number of domestic and sexual violence cases she dealt with increased. Photo: UN Women/Samir Jung Thapa.
Sujata Sharma Poudel, a psychosocial counsellor, speaks with a local woman at the Women's Rehabilitation Centre in Panchkhal Nepal. Following the 2015 earthquake, Ashmita Tamang, district psychosocial counsellor with Nepal-based Centre for Victims of Torture reiterated that the number of domestic and sexual violence cases she dealt with increased. Photo: UN Women/Samir Jung Thapa.

Women’s equal access to public goods, services and resources is crucial to achieving gender equality and sustainable development. To ensure equal access, UN Women works to strengthen the capacity of institutions and service providers, facilitate the implementation of relevant laws, policies and strategies, and remove women’s barriers to access, especially those furthest behind.

Women’s equitable access to services, goods and resources

Providing essential services and resources

Through partnerships with national actors and local women’s organizations, UN Women supports governments in providing quality essential services that respond to the needs of women and girls across sectors – for example in providing health, social, police and justice services for survivors of violence. We work to build the capacity of service providers and help to provide increased funding for women’s organizations.

Implementing gender-responsive laws, policies and strategies

UN Women works with national governments to develop, implement and monitor laws, policies and strategies that secure women’s rights to public services, goods and resources such as land, social protection and safe public spaces. This includes collecting and analysing sex- and age- disaggregated data to help monitor women’s access to and use of such services, goods and resources and to identify any implementation gaps.

Removing barriers to access

UN Women supports governments and other actors in removing barriers to accessing quality services and resources. We help to identify such barriers and develop solutions through analyses and research, and advocate for increased investments to implement them. UN Women also supports women’s participation in the design of services and in decision-making around how barriers are addressed, including as part of humanitarian and refugee responses.