Tag: UN Women

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association partners with UN Women to promote gender equality through parliamentary engagement

Stuart Mitchell

Commonwealth Parliamentarians will benefit from a new partnership that will provide training and development programmes on gender equality. A new agreement between the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), with its membership of almost 180 Parliaments and Legislatures across the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) network, and UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, aims to ensure that the legal needs of women and girls are better addressed through parliamentary debate and legislation. A joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by…

Read More

In Lebanon, women fight period poverty and taboos to promote menstrual health

Stuart Mitchell

Safe and affordable menstrual hygiene products are essential to ensuring the sexual and reproductive health of women, girls and all people who menstruate. But for those without sufficient economic resources, obtaining access to such products is an ongoing struggle. Known as period poverty, this lack of access—exacerbated by longstanding taboos around menstruation—remains a key barrier to menstrual health around the world. It can also have social and economic consequences, forcing those who can’t afford menstrual hygiene products to stay home from work or school while menstruating.   In Lebanon, where…

Read More

The Elsie Initiative Fund launches new call for proposals to continue investing in women’s meaningful participation in peacekeeping

Stuart Mitchell

At an event that brought together more than 350 representatives from Member States, UN organizations, academia and civil society, the Elsie Initiative Fund (EIF) launched a third call for funding proposals to support the meaningful participation of uniformed women in UN peace operations.  “A more gender-responsive mission builds trust with the communities they serve and improves its effectiveness,” said UN Women’s Executive Director Sima Bahous while opening the event. Further, she highlighted the vital role women play in today’s multidimensional peacekeeping missions and stressed the need to ensure women’s equal…

Read More

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women join forces for gender equality

Stuart Mitchell

  The agreement will provide a strong framework for UNODC and UN Women to work together to strengthen joint efforts in promoting gender equality and meeting the specific needs of women and girls when addressing the world drug problem; implementing the Women, Peace, and Security agenda; countering gender-based violence, organized crime, corruption, and terrorism; and strengthening crime prevention and building effective criminal justice systems. Recognizing the different ways in which women are affected by violence, corruption and other crimes is an essential step towards devising more effective strategies to achieve…

Read More

International Women’s Day spotlights massive costs to GDP and innovation caused by the exclusion of women from the digital world

Stuart Mitchell

Under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, UN Women, the United Nations, and its partners and allies around the world celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March 2023, calling on governments, activists and the private sector to “power on” in their efforts to shape a safer, more inclusive, and more equitable digital world for all. A paradigm shift is needed to harness the potential of technology and innovation to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Today, a persistent gender gap in…

Read More