Outcome ECA_D_1.2

Women and girls fully and equally participate in leadership and decision-making processes and benefit from gender-responsive governance.

In 2024, women and girls across the ECA region strengthened their participation in leadership and decision-making processes and benefited from gender-responsive governance through UN Women ECARO’s targeted interventions and initiatives. 811 women in the region are more prepared for greater leadership roles and to run for elections through UN Women Campaign and Leadership Curriculum implementation in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Türkiye, and Ukraine, , of which dozens have been elected so far. Policymakers, the media, and civil society in Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, as well as in the wider region have better access to evidence-based research for policy making to address violence against women in politics (VAWP) through the launch of new qualitative and quantitative research on the prevalence of VAWP. Lawyers and policy advocates have increased skills to incorporate gender and political participation into Constitutional reform processes, including in the climate of gender pushbacks, through UN Women training on Constitutions and Gender. Women and youth peace activists, along with women-led organizations (WLOs), have significantly influenced the WPS agenda in the region. Through dialogues, they impacted frameworks like the Pact of the Future and the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review. In Chi?inau, Moldova, 60 women leaders and WLO representatives from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine shared best practices on implementing the WPS Agenda and agreed on a common vision for women's leadership in creating a more equitable and peaceful future, focusing on human security and gender equality. The first day of the WPS Forum in Kyrgyzstan provided as a platform for women activists and peacebuilders, including 39 Afghan women activists, for discussing regional security and cooperation on WPS. Additionally, 25 activists at the WPS Expert Consultation in Kazakhstan developed a justification for the WPS Regional Action Plan for Central Asia, to be finalized in 2025. The South Caucasus Women’s Think Tank, supported by ECARO, contributed to peace efforts by developing a unified approach to address common concerns in negotiations. ECARO also integrated WPS and Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) agendas, with youth activists contributing to COP29 discussions on gender-responsive climate security and peace. These efforts highlight the growing influence of women and youth in regional and global peacebuilding. Through ECARO’ s support , WLOs have gained critical opportunities to enhance their roles in disaster response, particularly considering the adoption of the Sendai Platform Gender Action Plan (GAP) in March 2024. This laid the foundation for a Community of Practice (CoP) dedicated to promoting women’s leadership in DRR and fostering collaboration for inclusive disaster management. Looking ahead to 2025, UN Women plans to institutionalize its engagement with WLOs through the CoP, further supporting women’s leadership and gender-responsive disaster management strategies. Expert consultations convened by ECARO, gathered over 50 representatives from WLOs and women’s rights organizations in Armenia, and resulted in actionable proposals addressing key priorities, gaps, and resource needs, which informed strategic discussions on the transition process and a gender-responsive Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. These proposals are intended to guide national and international stakeholders, including the Armenian government and the international community. 17 representatives from women’s and LGBTQIA-led organizations in Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia gained a deeper understanding of resource mobilization strategies and funding opportunities for gender equality initiatives in the Ukraine refugee response. It also facilitated valuable knowledge-sharing between WLO and women’s rights organizations, fostering sustainable collaborations and strengthening CSO capacity in the region. The Theory of Change (ToC) remains valid and applicable. In the final year of the SN implementation, UN Women will prioritize intensifying efforts to advance a progress on women’s participation and leadership, particularly in response to the ongoing war and multiple crises.

Women and girls fully and equally participate in leadership and decision-making processes and benefit from gender-responsive governance.

The outcome was not fully achieved, but important progress has been made. Women’s Political Participation (WPP): S ome progress has been made towards women and girls fully and equally participating in leadership and decision-making processes and benefiting from gender-responsive governance. Women in the region are more prepared for greater leadership roles and to run for election through the UN Women Campaign and Leadership Curriculum implementation in Türkiye and Kazakhstan . To support this, the RO provided high-level advocacy and technical support in Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and in regional fora where Member States, parliamentarians, civil society, practitioners, and academia convened to advance implementation of the normative framework on women’s political participation . ECARO also collaborated with regional partners, including the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), on contributions to knowledge products, regional events, and assistance for national partners to push for implementation of commitments on women’s leadership and gender responsive governance. M ore remains to be done to ensure that women can fully participate in decision making processes in ECA. Structural barriers, including threats and violence against women in politics hamper equal representation and participation of women in decision making. The proportion of women still falls well below parity. Harmful social norms still tightly restrict women’s engagement in the public sphere and persist in society. Women from marginalized groups and young people still need to be fully included in decision-making processes. Women Peace and Security (WPS): S ignificant progress has made in the region. Georgia and Kyrgyzstan adopted National Action Plans (NAPS) on 1325, Ukraine updated its NAP, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan drafted NAPs for the first time. ECARO provided support to offices and partners to share experiences and best practices. Over 450 women peacebuilders, mediators, activists, women leaders, women’s organizations, and diverse stakeholders enhanced their awareness of the WPS-HA agenda dialogues on WPS at the regional and global levels. The dialogues contributed to some new commitments, including through the COMPACT on Women Peace and Security in Humanitarian Action (WPD-HA). Advocates seeking to advance implementation of the WPS agenda have access to 16 knowledge products. UN Peace and Development Advisors have access to regional conflict and gender tools. UN Women contributed to these results through facilitation of dialogues and meetings and bringing its expertise and experience as well as providing a multi-stakeholders platform allowing a meaningful contribution by all respective partners. Based on the progress made to date, the theory of change (ToC) remains valid and applicable. ECA will intensify its efforts due to the ongoing war and multiple crisis to advance both WPS and WPP in the region.

Women and girls fully and equally participate in leadership and decision-making processes and benefit from gender-responsive governance.

UN Women ECARO made important progress towards achieving this Outcome. Under WPP, progress has been made towards women and girls fully and equally participating in leadership and decision-making processes and benefiting from gender-responsive governance; 657 women in the region are more prepared for greater leadership roles and to run for elections through UN Women Campaign and Leadership Curriculum implementation in Moldova, Türkiye, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 77 have been elected thus far. Policymakers, the media, and civil society in Georgia, Türkiye, Albania, as well as in the wider region better understand the how to end violence against women in politics (VAWP) through UN Women training on media and violence against women in elections. In six countries from the region was observed, more use of gender statistics, analysis, and policy relevant research for better policies toward addressing human and women rights. Thuse, the People’s Advocate, Parliament (Albania) are more aware about gender data on human rights violations, including those in detention centers, due to the annual report . Public Authorities from Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, North Macedonia producing and made available more gender indicators , publications , surveys and data portals on diverse gender statistics and by applying different ways of reaching public at large ( ex. Gender Data Bootcamp ). Women entrepreneurs (1,047) and 75 investors shared their opportunities discussed potential long-term partnership during, and hosting over 15,308 participants within 10 satellite events across the ECA region, following EXPO 2023 hosted by UN Women in Istanbul. ECARO partner with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Yildiz Holding and Mary Kay Inc through the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator. Buyers spent $1 million on gender-sensitive procurement from agricultural entrepreneurs, while investors spent 150,000 dollars on women's entrepreneurship and leadership training and 4.3 million dollars were invested in for 53 newly established women’s businesses. This resulted from a pilot program Gender Responsive Procurement and Investment launched by Yildiz Holding with UN Women, through which companies and the public better consider gender while purchasing services and goods. The program is one of the first and most comprehensive Gender Responsive Procurement and Investment programs worldwide and was awarded the "Best Global CSR Programme" by Deloitte in Geneva. WPS: UN Women continued to support women-led organizations (WLOs), peace activists and women’s human rights defenders (WHRDs) to have access and contribute to conflict prevention and peace building. It resulted to agreement on a vision for WPS multi-stakeholders platform for Central Asia and South Caucus where WLOs and WHRDs have an equal position, role and a safe space to share experience, raise voice and contribute to policy development. More specifically, the platform is expected to strengthen coordination on WPS and humanitarian assistance across all existing mechanisms, systems, networks, partnerships and capabilities; promote the development and application of the monitoring, reporting and financing mechanisms on the implementation of WPS commitments; ensure links with other agendas, including the youth, peace, and security agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its promise of inclusive and peaceful societies based on principles of gender equality. In November UN Women supported to set-up a Task Force including 18 WLOs’ representatives to follow up on the agreed actions to set up the WPS multistakeholder platform. UN Women continued its advocacy to bring more partners to Compact WPS-HA platform together with OSCE and Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. Jointly supported discussion on the key challenges faced by activists, their priorities and recommendations on how international and regional organizations can continue supporting civil society organizations in times of complex conflicts and crises, had provided better understanding how to operationalize the Compact’s agenda and actions in the region. UN Women specifically focused its interventions on needs to securing women’s civil society activism and making inclusion modalities more responsive to the specific context where people and their needs are. The Compact on WPS-HA will be further used by UN Women as a platform to bring more stakeholders together to find solutions for WPS-HA gaps. The Afghan women shared their position and requests with the international development actors, at one event hosted in Central Asia, which included: support for Afghan women presence in various processes and platforms of a regional nature in their respective host countries; to facilitate the exchange of information between countries on what governments and international organizations are doing to support women in Afghanistan; promote the creation of a new "human rights + security" narrative to protect women and human rights in Afghanistan; support the socio-economic initiatives of Afghan women in Central Asian countries, and joint initiatives with women in the region; and involve Afghan women as equal participants in dialogues and processes regarding the future of Afghanistan. T he ToC remains valid and applicable. ECA will intensify its efforts due to the ongoing war and multiple crisis to advance both WPS and WPP in the region