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,
 

The report assesses progress in mainstreaming gender perspectives in the operational activities of the United Nations development system, and in the achievement of performance requirements set forward by accountability frameworks for gender mainstreaming of the United Nations system at the global and country levels.

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 UN Gender Theme Group Good Practice Compendium (2024) is a collection of examples from UN Country Teams collected during the rollout of the UNSDG Gender Theme Groups Standards and Procedures in 2022-2023. More than 300 UN colleagues at country level participated in the rollout, managed by UN Women and DCO regional offices with the support of UN Women's UN System Coordination Division, in close collaboration with DCO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA,  representing the UN Gender Equality Network, at a global level. The good practices are meant to strengthen the system-wide impact, efficiency, and results for gender equality led by Gender Theme Groups, currently operational in more than 100 country teams globally. The compendium provides useful and hands-on examples for the effective function and operation of Gender Theme Groups.

Preventing and responding to violence against women with disabilities requires a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach. It includes:

• strengthening legal frameworks,
• enhancing support services,
• ensuring that an inclusive lens is applied to prevention efforts,
• raising societal awareness,
• improving data collection, and
• promoting intersectoral collaboration.

It is also crucial to prioritize the voices, experiences, and agency of women with disabilities in developing and implementing policies and interventions.

This publication provides recommendations for policymakers to address the findings highlighted through the project “Addressing stigma and discrimination experienced by women with disabilities (ASDWD)”, which was developed in partnership with researchers from University College London, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women offices, local organizations of people with disabilities, and individual women with disabilities who contributed across Pakistan, Palestine, Republic of Moldova, and Samoa, with funding from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).

Women and girls with disabilities continue to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. When it comes to global normative standards for disability inclusion, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) includes provisions and obligations related to gender equality. To date, however, normative standards have not been consistently translated into national, sectoral, and/or local gender-responsive, disability-inclusive policies and corresponding budgets.

Drawing on a selection of country experiences, this policy brief identifies emerging trends and practices on gender- and disability-inclusive budgeting. These include, among others:

• collection, analysis, and use of data and statistics on intersectional discrimination;
• integration of gender and disability inclusion in laws, policies, systems, and institutional practice;
• integration of gender and disability inclusion in the planning and budgeting cycle; and
• enhanced participation of women with disabilities in policy, planning, and budgeting.

The brief aims to address these gaps and promote policy discourse and reforms at global and country level.

Seventy-three UN entities, which make up 96% of the UN system, reported against UN-SWAP 2.0 in 2022.
This web page contains a summary of 2022 UN system-wide reporting results, as well as the report scorecard per each individual entity.

One in five women is estimated to be living with a disability, making it crucial to study the increased risks of various forms of violence that they face.  

This synthesis review contains key insights and lessons from the experiences of 22 diverse civil society and women’s rights organizations in various contexts that were supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) special window to end violence against women and girls with disabilities between 2018 and 2023. In particular, it highlights the lessons learned about fostering collaboration, shifting mindsets, empowering women and girls with disabilities, engaging with legal and policy systems, and allowing for flexible adaptation and learning in addressing violence against women and girls with disabilities.  

These findings mean that the review: 

• contributes to developing programming that is disability specific and disability inclusive; 
• promotes the development of a knowledge base that is grounded in the realities of practitioners in the Global South; and 
• offers practical recommendations to practitioners, researchers, donors and policymakers. 

The latest UN system-wide achievements on gender equality and empowerment of women, collected via the 2022 UN-SWAP reporting. A total of 41 useful data points on the number and name of entities per detailed achievements, across 17 business functional indicator areas. 

UN Women, in its founding resolution, was mandated to ensure accountability and coordination across the UN system to lead progress on gender equality. The report reflects on the various forms in which it’s coordination efforts manifest across the UN system to advance gender equality, sharing also stories of good practice and the multiple drivers which catalyse and advance the work undertaken globally and in partnership with others

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.

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. 

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. 
 

The report assesses progress in mainstreaming gender perspectives in the operational activities of the United Nations development system, and in the achievement of performance requirements set forward by accountability frameworks for gender mainstreaming of the United Nations system at the global and country levels.

The study presents knowledge on the different forms of violence, its underlying causes, and the ability to access services as well as the experiences of women with disabilities in Egypt, focusing on the intersectionality between gender, disability and poverty.

UN Women conducted a research analysis of UN Joint Programmes (JPs) from an overall perspective and with a focus on gender equality and SDG results. The main source of this analysis comes from data included in the Common Country Programming Profile Joint Programme 2019 and collected through the UNSDG Information Management System (IMS).