Factsheet UN Women in Lao PDR

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the United Nations agency working to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that these standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls universally.It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas:

• increasing women’s leadership and participation;
• ending violence against women;
• engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes;
• enhancing women’s economic empowerment;
• and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting.