UN Women China

We work with key partners so that all women are able to fully and equally participate in decision-making, and women and girls can benefit from gender-responsive laws, policies, budgets, services, and accountable institutions. Our work in this thematic impact area is channeled through the China Gender Fund for Research and Advocacy (CGF), a rolling trust fund modality that awards periodic grants through an open and competitive process.

We work to advance the economic empowerment of women so that they have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy. To achieve this, we partner with a range of allies, from UN agencies to government ministries, to regional bodies and international financial institutions, to women’s entrepreneurship organizations. Together, we work to transform the care economy by pushing for women to be recognized and paid for their work. We also advocate for equal pay, support women as leaders and entrepreneurs, and work to close the digital divide to ensure women and girls have equal access to opportunities, including through capacity building and reskilling in the context of rural revitalization in China.

Ending Violence Against Women and girls is a key priority for UN Women in China and globally. It is one of the four thematic areas in the New UN Women Strategic Plan (2022-2025) and a key area of focus under the United Nation Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for China (UNSDCF) Outcome Two. UN Women in China has been working on this area for over a decade with a comprehensive approach towards strengthening women’s equitable access to VAWG services and advocating for positive social norms changes by fostering a multi-stakeholder engagement including men, boys, and young people.

Working with key stakeholders, including government agencies, research institutes, private sectors and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), UN Women China aims to support China’s international cooperation, investment, and business engagement towards the realization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially to contribute and achieve Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the world. Leveraging UN Women’s global and regional networks and platforms, we carry out research, develop guidelines based on international standards and norms, support capacity development, and facilitate exchanges of knowledge and information, to increase gender responsiveness in China’s public and private collaboration with other countries.

As a co-chair of the UN Gender Theme Group (UNGTG) and an active member of all UN interagency working groups, including Results Groups, UN Women leads technical and coordination support to ensure gender mainstreaming across all areas within the wider UN system to implement a gender responsive UNSDCF. UN Women also co-chairs the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) network of UN in China, lead the development and implementation of UN China PSEA Action Plan, hold PSEA training for UN personnel and implementing partners, strengthening the collaboration on PSEA between UN and partners in China.

UN Women works with partners on strategic, high-value, and innovative partnerships that increase investment in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) and enhance our programmatic impact in China. Together with governments, women’s organizations, businesses and foundations, and committed individuals, we bring our expertise and resources together, we become a powerful force for progress. We work with (i) key public and private sector partners to develop innovative programmes to promote GEWE within workplaces and across value chains (ii) supporting the Chinese government, CSOs, and the private sector in aligning China’s overseas aid, investment, and development financing with the SDGs, with a particular focus on SDG 5. (iii) convening industry leaders to promote knowledge sharing, innovation, and peer learning.

As a core element of UN Women’s activities in China, the office’s communications and advocacy is focused on two key objectives: (i) advocating for gender equality and women’s empowerment; (ii) increasing UN Women’s visibility in China in support of UN Women’s mandate and resource mobilization on promoting gender equality. The office has been continuously making great efforts in establishing and enhancing UN Women’s brand value and strengthened advocacy through active media outreach, flagship campaigns and events, strong partnership visibility support, key opinion leaders and advocates engagement on supporting UN Women initiatives and documenting powerful human success stories from UN Women programmes. With over 600,000 followers in total across Chinese social media platforms, our signature campaigns are reaching millions online. As a key member of the United Nations Communications Group (UNCG), we actively lead the joint UN effort for communications and advocacy on promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, especially on key events and international campaigns such as the International Women’s Day Campaign and the UNiTE Campaign: 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls.

Operating in China originally as UNIFEM since 1998 and then as UN Women in July 2010, with twenty-five years of development, UN Women China has been expanded increasingly with aspects to programme implementation, partnership engagement, communications and advocacy capacities, and operations management. In Oct 2021, UN Women China was granted by UN Women the full Delegation of Authority (DoA) to operate as a full-fledged country office, which marked remarkable progress in terms of its operating capacity, oversight, and management.