This research is a product of the A Place Called Home – WeCare project, which is a joint project of UN Women China and IKEA China. The project is to address two interlinked issues that hinder women’s economic empowerment: unpaid care and domestic work, and violence against women.

This multi-country study on women-led MSMEs, with a focus on microenterprises in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Rwanda and Uganda, is a key output of the Together Digital Programme. It is intended to inform the design and implementation of programmmes, initiatives, and strategies supporting women’s entrepreneurship.

The last year has posed many hardships from the continued spread of COVID-19 and measures to stop it. Yet solidarity and support for realizing women’s rights never wavered in China. UN Women forged ahead through collective efforts and partnerships. We are proud to share some of our best results from 2022, knowing these are the foundation for much more to come in 2023.

Entrepreneurship is a catalyst for women’s economic empowerment. In China, as in the rest of the world, despite a recent surge in women’s entrepreneurship, women-owned businesses tend to be small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are more vulnerable in emergencies than larger companies are, and many women-owned SMEs are situated in the service sector, which was hit the hardest by the pandemic.

Despite recent progress in advancing economic justice, the world economy still suffers from a gender gap, and China is no exception. The private sector is an important catalyst for sustainable and gender-inclusive development and economic growth.

The guideline provides detailed instructions for companies to publicly report on progress of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment within the most widely used reporting frameworks including corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, sustainability reports, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports, in line with the women’s empowerment principles (WEPs).

The toolkit provides a grounding in risk control and business continuity, with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic response. With its step-by-step guidance, checklist, and various tools, the toolkit becomes a self-learning tool for SME leaders across the world, so that they can better address risks and build their own gender- responsive business continuity management system.

UN Women is a lead technical partner for supporting gender mainstreaming in the programme. In 2021, in addition to the establishment of partnership, as a result of UN Women’s advocacy and technical support, a Gender Action Plan has been developed, with an aim for enhancing the gender responsiveness of the programme interventions, at a total cost of USD 173 million. The Gender Action Plan has been integrated into the Project Management Manual for local government partners for guiding implementation at 10 pilot counties in Hunan from 2022 to 2026.

UN Women and the Rockcheck Puji Foundation are committed to upholding women’s rights and their leadership potential in pandemic preparedness, response and recovery. In May 2020 UN Women China, funded by the Rockcheck Puji Foundation, launched Supporting women to recover from the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, a project that focused on women entrepreneurs, workers and women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Preventing gender-based violence in schools: Classroom Programme for Students in Early Secondary School (ages 11-14) Students learn best in schools that provide safety and social support. However, some young people experience violence and harassment in, around, and on the way to school. This includes gender-based violence (GBV), which can take many different forms. As a teacher, you can play an important role in preventing the expression of gender-based violence in the school setting...

This technical report provides specific recommendations regarding provisions to be included in the Chinese national Family Violence Law. These recommendations are informed by international human rights treaties adopted by China that define the State’s responsibility to provide protection to victims of family violence and hold perpetrators accountable as well as by the gaps that exist in current Chinese law. The recommendations also integrate lessons learned from presentations made by international experts on national laws regarding family violence, children’s rights, disability rights and elder abuse from Austria, Australia, Finland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States at the UN International Family Violence Roundtable in April 2014.

Appendices of the report "Resilience for All? Towards Gender-Responsive Social Protection in South-East Asia"

Preventing and Responding to Domestic Violence through a Multi-Sectoral Approach

Violence and especially sexual violence against rural left behind girls is on the rise. Rural left behind girls have been left by their parents in rural areas while they go search for employment in urban areas. These girls do not have proper awareness of sexual violence or how to protect themselves, and with little or no guardianship are severely vulnerable to being taken advantage of. Rural left behind girls and migrant girls are China’s top two targeted groups for trafficking.

Women are often discriminated against and have difficulty accessing formal employment. Chinese women continue to receive lower pay than men for performing the same job, are more likely to work in the informal sector, and often confined to positions that are aligned with socially constructed gender roles.

Studies show higher numbers of women in parliament generally contribute to stronger attention to women’s issues. Women’s political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality. It facilitates women’s direct engagement in public decision-making and is a means of ensuring better accountability to women. One of the pillars of UN Women’s work is advancing women’s political participation and good governance, to ensure that decisionmaking processes are participatory, responsive, equitable and inclusive. Efforts are focused through strategic entry points that can advance the status of women by catalysing wide-ranging, long-term impacts.

The number of people living with HIV continues to steadily increase in China. In 2001, it was estimated that between 240,000-470,000 adults were living in HIV, and in 2009 the number more than double to 540,000 - 1,000,000. A similar trend applies to women in China. In 2001, 67,000-130,000 women were living with HIV, and in 2009 the number of women increase to 160,000-300,000.

Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence: Women's Home Handbook is a product of an EVAW TF programme activity implemented by All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) and UNESCO. This Handbook is to support community workers in the Women's Homes in delivering services to prevent and control domestic violence at community level.

The Police Handbook for Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence is a product of an EVAW TF programme activity implemented by All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and UN Women. The Handbook provides standards and guidance for police officers in order to improve their ability to prevent and respond to domestic violence.

The Handbook for Multi-sectoral Cooperation in Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence is a product of a programme activity implemented by the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) and UN Women under the EVAW Trust Fund Joint Programme “Preventing and Responding to Domestic Violence in China through a Multi-sectoral Approach” implemented by UN Women, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDP together with the ACWF, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA), Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Ministry of Health (MOH), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and China Anti-Domestic Violence Network (FanBao) in Hunan, Gansu and Sichuan provinces. The Handbook is to facilitate cooperation among the police, the health department, the justice administration department, the civil affairs department, women's organizations, and local level mass self-governing organizations against domestic violence.