The latest UN system-wide achievements on gender equality and empowerment of women from 75 UN Entities, collected via the 2023 UN-SWAP reporting. A total of 50 useful data points on the number and name of entities per detailed achievements, across 17 business functional indicator areas.

A series featuring in-depth analysis of the 2024 UN-SWAP results, organized by indicator sets. 

The second issue focuses on UN-SWAP 2.0 PI 8, 13 and the new indicator under UN-SWAP 3.0: Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and Sexual Harassment (SH).

A series featuring in-depth analysis of the 2024 UN-SWAP results, organized by indicator sets. The first issue focuses on results-related indicators: PI 1, 2, and 3,
 

Concept note for the side event on Reigniting the Beijing+30 Agenda: Strengthening Financial Accountability and Partnerships through Inter-Agency Pooled Funds and the Gender Equality Marker

Event handout for the side event on Reigniting the Beijing+30 Agenda: Strengthening Financial Accountability and Partnerships through Inter-Agency Pooled Funds and the Gender Equality Marker

This paper serves as a think piece to initiate and drive strategic discussions and action with key partners on ageing, emphasizing a life-course approach that integrates perspectives on the status and rights of older women. As global demographics continue to shift, it suggests actions to promote the rights of older women, and the incorporation of their perspectives into all policies and programmes at the global, national and regional level.

This policy paper is focused on diverse groups of socially marginalized women with diverse disabilities. It highlights how the 12 critical areas of concern from the Beijing Platform for Action have progressed or faced continuing entrenched barriers and dealt with new challenges in the 30 years since the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.

The focus is specifically on how gender inequality and disability exclusion both compound and create unique concerns for women and girls with disabilities. As they are not homogenous, this paper takes an intersectional approach, identifying the impacts for women and girls with disabilities facing numerous forms of discrimination while having different and multiple types of disabilities. Stereotypes and social and cultural norms are discussed in relation to stigma and discrimination.

The paper also features the voices of diverse women leaders with diverse disabilities, with case studies from various low- and middle-income countries.

The paper was produced as part of the development of the global report on accelerating disability inclusion in a diverse and changing world as well as a set of accompanying documents prepared for the Global Disability Summit 2025. Funding was provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany through UNICEF.

The United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender and Disability Inclusion (UNWGGDI) collected case studies for the Beijing+30 review process, looking at lessons learned and good practices on gender, disability inclusion, and intersectionality. UN Women received a total 32 case studies from six UN entities (UN Women, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, and UNOPS) and two UN Country Teams represented by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Offices in India and Honduras.

In reflection of the 12 critical areas of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, violence against women and women in power and decision-making were equally the most addressed critical areas in the case studies, while the critical areas around women and the environment as well as the girl child were equally the least addressed.

This knowledge compendium aims to share reflections for UN entities, Member States, policymakers, and civil society organizations. It synthesizes best practices, innovative approaches, and collaborative efforts to enhance sustainable development and human rights for all. By ensuring that the rights and needs of women and girls with disabilities are adequately addressed, this document reinforces the commitment of the UN system and its stakeholders to a more equitable and inclusive future.

The list highlights key recent knowledge products developed by the UN System Coordination Division of UN Women to support the integration of gender considerations into strategic system-wide processes at global, regional, and country levels. It covers topics spanning from gender mainstreaming, UN-SWAP, UNCT-SWAP, Gender Equality Marker, UN Gender Theme Groups, to Disability Inclusion and Intersectionality.

This is a presentation on the GEM and financial targets in the UN System as part of the ITC-ILO Course  “Gender Responsive Budgeting within Organizations”, made by UN Women in December 2022. The aim of the presentation was to inform participants about the use of the GEM and financial targets as UN tools for ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women at entity and country levels and at pooled funds. 

Check the programme of the 2022 UN-SWAP Annual Conference, 8am-12pm EDT, November 15-17.

UN-SWAP 2.0 Technical guidance that guides reporting and is updated with references and good practices annually.

Empowered by the UN-SWAP 2.0, UN Women is able to identify and coordinate the system-wide adoption of good practices and harmonized products that can be scaled from one entity to another. UN Women selects and publishes a series of good practices from various entities on annual basis, normally through the UN-SWAP review reports and the updated technical guidance. This catalog aggregates various best practices under UN-SWAP 2.0 indicators, updated in 2022.

The implementation of the strategy of gender mainstreaming is specifically called for and guided by mandates elaborated by Member States through negotiations in United Nations inter-governmental bodies. This is the full list providing the legislative basis, mandate to support gender mainstreaming at the global level.

This report presents a rapid gender analysis of Joint Programmes (JPs) reported in the UNSDG Information Management System (IMS) exploring the extent to which gender and SDG 5 are reported as a focus of the JPs and what the proportion of overall funding is to JPs with a gender or SDG 5 focus. The analysis was developed by the UN Women UN System Coordination Division to strengthen evidence-based analysis, provide a baseline for similar follow-up analysis of IMS data from 2022 and identify trends with the overall objective to inform UN System policies and engagement with UNCTs on strengthening gender equality in JPs. 

This brief seeks to explain the status of the implementation of the Gender Equality Marker (GEM) in the UN system (at the entity level, UN Country Team level, and in the inter-agency pooled funds level).

The current study is a part of the 2019-2021 Mapping and Costing Studies of Gender Equality Architecture - the existing arrangements and resources within UN entities to implement the gender mainstreaming function in the UN system. This results has been enormously revealing, including the implications of expanding gender remits, the emerging discussion on gender staffing standards, and the harmonized implementation of the gender equality marker and financial targets allowing for better understanding of investments on gender equality. 

This is the powerpoint presentation of the 2019-2021 Mapping and Costing Studies of Gender Equality Architecture - the existing arrangements and resources within UN entities to implement the gender mainstreaming function in the UN system. The results have been enormously revealing, including the implications of expanding gender remits, the emerging discussion on gender staffing standards, and the harmonized implementation of the gender equality marker and financial targets allowing for better understanding of investments on gender equality. 
 

This publication is part of a capacity-building initiative aimed at enhancing the capacity of sector specialists and gender focal points to produce and utilize gender analysis in their work. The focus of this guide is Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI), a thematic area where gender analysis has been less widely implemented than in some other sectors. The guidance provides practical tips, steps, and checklists to conduct a gender analysis and examples of good practices. It is relevant for a variety of international development interventions, supporting CDRFI use for and with partner governments in programmes such as a National Adaptation Plan advisory, national disaster risk management and disaster risk financing strategies, and in areas such as financial inclusion, insurance, and agriculture, among others.

The new Handbook on Gender Mainstreaming for Gender Equality Results prepared under the leadership of the UN System Coordination Division seeks to promote and propel systematic and effective gender mainstreaming throughout the United Nations system and within all sectors.

In line with our new Strategic Plan, the Handbook contributes to UN Women’s thought leadership and capacity building on gender mainstreaming that will benefit the UN system and Member States.  Notably, the Handbook comes at an opportune time when ECOSOC marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption its Agreed Conclusions on gender mainstreaming this year, and systematic gender mainstreaming is increasingly recognized as critical to accelerating progress on gender equality, including in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Our Common Agenda where the emphasis is on a new social contract that is inclusive of women and girls.

Specifically, the Handbook identifies the key concepts, principles and approaches underlying the gender mainstreaming strategy. It outlines opportunities to apply gender analyses across different contexts and manage for gender equality results. It also shows how to identify opportunities for organizational change, enhance financing for gender equality, and strengthen monitoring and evaluation for the oversight of the results of gender mainstreaming.

While the Handbook is focused specifically on the more traditional areas of development policy and practice, the discussions, findings, and recommendations are equally applicable in the context of humanitarian responses and programmes in conflict and peace-building contexts.