The initiative aims to understand pathways for social norm change and the factors that spur transformative shifts toward gender equality. It builds on Sustainable Development Goal 5 to empower women and girls by increasing their voice, choice and security, and features three main components: research, community-based programming interventions and advocacy that uses storytelling to challenge dominant narratives.

This policy brief is an analysis of the situation as it pertains to the Philippines. It also offers a practical guide to stakeholders, particularly the government, on how to maximize the WEPs as a framework to stimulate public and private sectors actions that will accelerate the progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDGs 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

The Women living under the pandemic and military rule survey looks at the way that women are affected by macro developments and trends. It is important to understand the real-time social and economic impacts of COVID-19 and the military rule, not just for measures of income poverty but also for vulnerability more generally and for how the double crisis is impacting Myanmar’s women both at the family and individual levels.

This report explores the barriers women face in the Pacific to entering the energy workforce, completing energy-related education, and accessing different forms of clean energy. It looks at the potential benefits that the use of clean and sustainable energy could bring across the region, and presents new gender data and analytical insights to assess challenges and opportunities for a Pacific shift to sustainable and clean energy use.

The publication brings into focus the paucity of gender data and calls for greater investment and prioritization of data for tracking progress towards gender equality and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ASEAN in line with the ASEAN Complementarities Initiative between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, and this report takes stock of the progress that has been made since by member States to realize women’s and girls’ rights. It reflects a synthesis of member State actions to implement the Beijing Platform for Action and identifies areas where significant progress has been made on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The 20th anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is a critical moment for the agenda and its relevance, which has been tested by the extensive impacts of COVID-19. This publication takes stock of the progress as well as the gaps in implementing WPS in the Asia Pacific region over the last 20 years, and builds upon the lessons learned to move the WPS agenda forward in the years to come.

The 8th Constitutional Government adopted the second Maubisse Declaration on the 12th of October 2018 in commemoration of International Day for Rural Women. This poster highlights the commitments made by 17 institutions who signed the Declaration for improving the lives of rural women and girls over a five-year period (2018-2023).

Following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the Timor-Leste Council of Ministers in 2015 , the Government created an SDG Working Group to promote the localisation and rollout of the SDGs at the national level. Gender has been prioritised as a cross-cutting goal in a variety of short, medium and long-term plans for development. As Timor-Leste works to achieve the 2030 Agenda, this Brief presents snapshot of key issues and actions that are needed to translate existing...

Since 2014, UN Women has played a significant role in convening diverse stakeholders to respond to and localize the emerging and new global paradigms on women’s unpaid work, with a special focus on Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A loose alliance called the Collective on Women’s Unpaid Work was formed to support the development of a common roadmap for policy and action, which included the recognition, reduction and redistribution of women’s unpaid work...

Pressure has been building on addressing the needs of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) survivors in Sri Lanka, but political will is needed to deal with CRSV in a cohesive manner. The proliferation of National Action Plans and policies does not ensure their implementation. Resources need to be allocated for the specific needs of CRSV survivors to be addressed. Cases of CRSV must be documented in a more systematic manner, maintaining the confidentiality of the survivor, so that...

Sexual violence is a widespread characteristic of conflict and post-conflict environments globally and within Asia-Pacific. Recognition of sexual and gender based violence in conflict has grown in recent years with national governments, civil society, the United Nations, practitioners and academics increasingly acting to prevent and respond to it. However, the immediate and mid-term needs of victims/survivors have often come secondary to advocacy efforts and pursuing...

There is growing acknowledgment of the need to address the social, security, legal, health and economic impacts that multiply and sustain the repercussions of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in the lives of women and girls globally. Less recognition has been given to the needs of the children of victims/survivors of CRSV, including those born of rape. An intricate set of rights impediments and needs arise for both victims/survivors and their children that require urgent attention and...

The formulation and use of this publication requires close collaboration with other UN agencies, which have different leading roles in various priorities areas under the SDGs, as well as a wide range of partners, including governments and civil society representatives. Simultaneously, regional multi-stakeholder consultation is required to enhance strategic partnerships and ownership of the SDGs Baseline Publication as well as its policy recommendations among the Member States, civil society and...

On 25 September 2015, the UN Member States adopted a roadmap to sustainable development by 2030.  In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the accompanying Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), gender equality and women’s empowerment is recognized as a vital means to help accelerate sustainable development through a key stand-alone development goal (SDG5) and through gender mainstreamed in all other goals. This booklet builds on UN Women's analysis on Women and the...

On 2 August 2015, the outcome document of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 was agreed by consensus by Member States. The outcome document will be presented to the Summit for adoption in September 2015. From a gender perpective, the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets address many concerns and therefore represent a significant step forward compared to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As a result of a wide-ranging consultation process with...

Global processes towards the achievement of gender equality

UN Women Pacific Newsletter Issue 2

This report enables experts to develop gender policy tools and address the negative impact of climate change.