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)

The document outlines the organization’s strategy to implement the UN Women Strategic Plan (2022 – 2025) and specifically its Systemic Outcome 7 which - in the main1 - frames the organization’s UN system coordination work on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) as reflected in its development results framework.

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.

This guidance support UNCTs in the application of the GEM within UN INFO and the UNSDCF. The UNCT GEM tracks the resources allocated collectively by the UN system under the UNSDCF cycle, making clear the level of commitment and the degree of resources allocated by the UNCT in support of national GEWE priorities.

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

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

This table is to facilitate UN-SWAP focal points to collect data from business owners for the 2023 UN-SWAP reporting, in word format.

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 2 - Reporting and Use of Data on Gender-related SDG results

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 8 Gender-responsive Performance Management

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 9 Gender Equality Marker

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 7 Leadership 

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 4 Evaluation

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 6 Policy

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 5 Audit

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 14 Tackling the Protection from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (PSEA) and Sexual Harassment (SH)*

Guidance for UN-SWAP 3.0 Performance Indicator 16 Knowledge Management and Communication