This guidance note sets out common principles to ensure that UN gender marker systems are comparable and sets standards for gender equality marker systems that track and report on allocations and expenditures for gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. It will guide the development of an effective and coherent approach for tracking resources that support gender equality results with agreed upon parameters and standards inside the UN system. This will allow for UN system-wide reporting2 with regard to funds contributing to promoting gender equality. This guidance note is intended to provide direction for individual entities instituting or improving their gender equality marker systems.

The System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity balances accountability with incentives, recognises different starting points and challenges, and provides positive tools to empower and encourage staff and managers alike.

Key drivers and lessons learnt from the first implementation phase of the UN-SWAP (2012-2016)

This brief underlines the need to mainstream disability and address the rights and demands of women with disabilities as a matter of priority to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for all women and girls. Based on available data, the brief highlights key issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment (SDG 5), ending poverty (SDG 1) and ensuring healthy lives (SDG 3) for women and girls with disabilities; and calls for closing data gaps on gender and disability.

This resource book supports prioritizing and mainstreaming gender equality issues in UN common programming processes. Guidance and tips for UN staff, focusing on how to mainstream gender in the UNDAF (now the Cooperation Framework).

This background note provides an overview of existing gender equality markers and reviews issues relating to the tracking and monitoring of investments related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It is intended as an input into the development of a guidance note for the UN system on principles and standards for the design, implementation and reporting systems on investments that support gender equality and women’s empowerment in the UN system. The target audience is the staff and leadership of UN entities and their development and humanitarian implementing partners