Globally, there is growing recognition that policy should be informed by indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous knowledge frameworks and methodologies have been used productively to inform health policies, to support mental health and well-being, to foster sustainable development, and respond to climate change. These topics have some relevance for Filipino migrant workers, and we can therefore expect indigenous approaches to understanding their experiences and issues to be fruitful. Having a better understanding of context, culture, and patterns of communication can lead to improving our responses, their relevance, and their accessibility

The second thematic brief looks at the legal and justice system changes and implications for gender equality and women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban take-over on 15 August 2021. While incremental progress was made prior to August 2021 to advance access to justice for women and girls in Afghanistan, there has been an observable and swift backslide. Institutions and infrastructure supporting the legal rights of women, such as legal aid and shelters, have been largely dismantled.

Implementing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has long been recognised as essential to achieving sustainable peace and prosperity in the ASEAN region. ASEAN member states remain committed to gender equality and the full protection of women’s rights. They also remain steadfast in their aim to maintain regional peace, address shared security concerns and advance development and prosperity for all citizens. Member states consider the development of this Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security (RPA WPS) as a critical step to making progress on these commitments. The RPA WPS aims to mobilise the whole of ASEAN to advance implementation of the WPS agenda to promote sustainable peace and security for all citizens.

This Think Piece: Innovations in Childcare to Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment explores the question “Can inclusive Care Entrepreneurship be a pathway to address gaps in the childcare sector in Asia and the Pacific?”. It offers promising entrepreneurship models emerging in Asia and the Pacific that could be replicated and scaled to fill childcare gaps to contribute to efforts to rebuild economies and to recognize the care economy as a vehicle to create more jobs and increase women’s economic participation.

The brief concluded that the indirect ramifications of dismissing women staff in the media sector removes them from public space, contributing to the retreat of women into domestic environments. The justification underpinning this retreat is often that of protecting women, which normalizes the narrative that women are inherently vulnerable and require protection, erasing their agency and vital contribution to a pluralistic society.

Pathways for women’s meaningful participation, across all levels of decision-making in politics, the media, the security sector and conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms which, despite challenges, had previously been possible, are currently non-existent. In the lead-up of the Global Open Debate, UN Women Afghanistan run a serios of in-country consultations with Afghan women leaders from diverse sectors in October 2022. The infor­mation presented in this briefs captures the views and policy recommendation of Afghan women on the relevance of the WPS agenda to Afghanistan.

The report aims to strengthen country-driven processes by presenting more evidence of the links between gender equality and climate change in the priority sectors of crop agriculture, water resource management, forestry, and renewable energy.

This brief will help stakeholders formulate workable strategies to develop gender-responsive plans, projects and programmes at the local or national level and to allocate the necessary budgets for the effective implementation of those strategies.

This report identifies both the persistent trends and changing gender dynamics of violent extremism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on an expert survey and interview research conducted between July and November 2021. It examined how and to what extent misogyny and hostile beliefs are fuelling violent extremism in the Southeast Asian region during the pandemic, the degree to which misogyny and hostile beliefs in the ASEAN region are fuelling violent extremism, and how these manifest themselves in the offline space.

The policy brief highlights the key barriers that women entrepreneurs and MSMEs are facing in Bangladesh; and how the overall situation deteriorated further due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building on its strong partnerships as well as previous work done in this area, UN Women Pakistan supported the provincial Women Development Departments in all 4 provinces to develop implementation plans for their Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment Policies. These policies had previously been developed with support from UN Women, but needed detailed implementation plans and strategies to make them actionable.

There is widespread recognition that preventing violence against women and girls requires working with men and boys as allies, partners and activists.

Investing in women’s economic empowerment is intrinsic to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication, and inclusive economic growth. Yet despite the important progress that has been made in these areas, large gender gaps in economic opportunities and outcomes still remain across all countries and regions.

This is an easy-to-understand toolkit that has been developed with the aim to enhance awareness and knowledge about harassment and sexual harassment. More specifically, it is a toolkit to get to know antiharassment concepts, normative frameworks/ instruments as well as procedures for creating a safe working environment for all, in accordance with the laws in Pakistan.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries in the ASEAN region have implemented measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic, including lockdowns, quarantines, and border closures.

Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex. This policy brief explores how women and girls’ lives are changing in the face of COVID-19, and outlines suggested priority measures to accompany both the immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts.

The Solomon Islands Domestic Violence Counselling Guidelines have been developed in accordance with Sections 54 and 55 of the Family Protection Act (FPA) 2014.

[POLICY BRIEF - 3] Implementing Gender-Responsive Employment Contracts analyses current methods used to monitor the implementation of contracts and makes recommendations to strengthen accountability against the terms of employment contracts...

[POLICY BRIEF - 2] Promoting the Rights of Women Migrant Workers through Employment Contracts identifies and compares existing contract provisions in the South Asia - Middle East corridor and summarizes strengths and gaps in protection in line with common right violations reported by women migrant workers themselves. It makes recommendations on addressing these gaps by creating enforceable rights-based, gender-responsive employment contracts...

[POLICY BRIEF - 1] Implementing Gender-Responsive Employment Contracts analyses current methods used to monitor the implementation of contracts and makes recommendations to strengthen accountability against the terms of employment contracts...