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.

This is the second report issued that synthesizes the priorities and recommendations of Afghan women from consultations undertaken by UN Women, UNAMA and IOM. The aim of the consultations is to bring in the voices of a diverse cross-section of Afghan women on policy and programming challenges facing Afghanistan, to ensure that their perspectives inform decision-making.

Developed by UN Women China in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) China

Since August 2021, the Taliban have implemented a consistent and continuously expanding assault on women’s rights in Afghanistan. An assault which, with each passing day, decree after decree, sees the Taliban move closer to approximating their period of rule in Afghanistan during the 1990s. This Gender Alert brings together publicly available gender data and analysis covering the period between August 2022 and February 2023.

The purpose of this brief is to present the key priorities of Afghan women across the country and their recommendations on what the international community and national stakeholders can do to change the current situation.

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.

This Gender Alert concludes that the 24 December 2022 ban: (1) is discriminatory and dictates who humanitarian actors can(not) employ, and who they can reach with assistance; (2) has multilayered implications that go beyond the inability of reaching women and girls with life-saving assistance, including dealing a further blow to the Afghan economy amid the ongoing crisis; and (3) speeds up the erasure of Afghan women and girls from all aspects of Afghan public and private life.

Findings and recommendations from the RNA are intended to serve as a source of information for actors supporting women’s livelihoods in Afghanistan, including UN agencies and other international organizations.

This Gender Alert maps gender trends and recommendations in connection to the evictions of internally displaced persons and the destruction of informal settlements in Badghis. It has been developed by the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) Working Group and the Women Advisory Group (WAG) to the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in Afghanistan

The complex and protracted humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan affects persons of all genders, at-risk and marginalized groups differently. Women and girls are disproportionately affected because of gender-specific restrictions that directly impact their ability to realize their rights. Traditional gender norms and patriarchal cultures have long reinforced discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan, increasing their vulnerability and decreasing their capacity to recover from shocks, leaving them disproportionately affected during crises.

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.

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 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.

A study looking at Promoting the Recruitment and Retention of Women Humani­tarian Workers in Afghanistan. The study aims to identify specific barriers faced by Afghan women in their work for humanitarian aid agencies. It also aims to share best practices and recommendations for reversing these barriers, and for enabling more women to participate in humanitarian action. This will be vital for ensuring access by women, chil­dren, and marginalized groups to life-saving assistance.

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).

A week ago, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Central Region of Afghanistan impacting Paktika and Khost provinces. Humanitarian assistance is being delivered in the most affected districts.

On 22 June, at 01:30am, an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 has struck the southeastern provinces of Paktika and Khost (Central Region of Afghanistan), killing at least 770 people and injuring another 1,500. 1,500 homes have reportedly been destroyed and damaged in Gayan2 (Paktika Province). According to OCHA and humanitarian teams delivering the response in the two provinces, immediate needs identified on the ground on 22 June include emergency trauma care, emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance and WASH.