Outcome NPL_O_2

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN Women’s mandate

The increased engagement of UN Women with seven partners helped strengthen its efforts on norm change, communication, advocacy, and innovative solutions for GEWE. UN Women continued its engagement with the World Design Organisation and Ncell to influence private sector companies to increase their funding in support of GESI and make their workplace gender responsive. UN Women also collaborated with diverse artists to explore the use of art and storytelling to capture stories of women and excluded groups using participatory approaches. The partnership with Srijanalaya helped narrate the stories of women human rights defenders using different art forms [We For Us (unwomen.org)]. The video competition titled “Changing Norms One Step at a Time” provided mentoring support to five youth to develop videos on discriminatory practices namely, child marriage, chhaupadi (practice of isolating females during menstrual periods), caste-based discrimination, gender identities, and disability (https://fb.watch/aAU8DeOEHI/). UN Women also partnered with Siddhartha Arts Foundation to support women artists engaged in traditional art forms to showcase their work, which is on the verge of extinction, in international level art platform to create economic opportunities for them. The relief mural created by artists will be displayed during the Kathmandu Triennale, international art festival, in March 2022. As a result of UN Women’s continuous engagement with the Government of Finland since 2019 on exploration of using storytelling approach to track social norms change, UN Women secured a funding of Euro 400,000 for 2021-2022, along with hard pipeline commitment for 2023 – 2026. This will allow UN Women to implement gender transformative programming for social norms change and to track the complex changes using innovative qualitative methodologies. Lastly, the UN Women’s partnership with UNICEF, the Advertisement Board and the Advertising Association has helped in initiating a dialogue on gender responsive advertisement thereby, creating a platform for sustained awareness of the public on norm change through advertisements. Through its strategic advocacy and visibility efforts, UN Women has established itself as a ‘go-to’ partner for gender equality. Some of the lessons learned for effective partnerships, are: (i) being responsive to partners, (ii) close engagement from ideation to implementation phase, and (iii) pursuing shared goals and visibility.

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN Women’s mandate

There has been some progress in increasing the engagement of partners in support of UN Women’s mandate in Nepal this year. The partnerships with CSOs/NGOs, media, international organizations and UN agencies enabled UN Women to reach 90,581 diverse stakeholders to leave no one behind in advancing movement building, valuation of unpaid work and ending GBV. First, about 20 CSOs/NGOs who are members of the Inter-generational Feminist Forum (IGFF) conducted the third “Thought Workshop on Making Visible the Invisible - the Different Dimensions of Women’s Unpaid Work Including Care: Implications for Policy and Practice”. The workshop, which was provided with technical and funding support by UN Women, engaged 41 diverse CSO members from all provinces of Nepal (17 from provinces and 24 from federal Nepal) in two-and-a-half days of intensive discussions that developed shared understanding and positions on unpaid work, including care, for policy advocacy. Of the 41 participants, 37 were women, two were women with disability, and two were LGBTIQ+ persons. This is in line with the UN Women’s on-going initiative to advance movement building to raise the voice of women and excluded groups through the IGFF network. The discussions focused on unpacking the concept of unpaid work, including care, and how it impacts on the daily lives of women and their personal and economic advancement as individuals. It highlighted the: (i) imperative of collective ownership and championship of the agenda of the women’s movement, (ii) gaps and opportunities for including women’s unpaid work into the system of national accounting (SNA), and (iii) exclusion of women’s unpaid contributions, including care work, in the present macroeconomic model. Two feminist economists who were contracted by UN Women served as resource persons in enabling the participants to attain shared and clear understanding of the definitional issues that skewed the assessment of women’s unpaid work in Nepal in the last labour force survey. As a follow up to this workshop, UN Women will continue to strengthen the capacity of key duty bearers and rights holders through its joint programmes with relevant UN agencies and movement-building efforts. This activity is expected to boost the capacity of the participants to mobilize support for the women’s movement and advance the advocacy on the inclusion of women’s unpaid work in macroeconomic frameworks and sectoral policies. Second, UN Women reached participants from diverse groups that are critical to collaborate on GESI issues to generate more partnership and support from various sectors. It published three human interest stories, featuring climate action activists from indigenous communities, which fostered public awareness on changing social norms and harmful practices. It also produced and published eight knowledge products titled, (i) ‘Invisible’ Violence, Visible Harms (ii), Gender Responsive Public Finance Management in Nepal (iii) Local Governance, Gender-Responsive and Socially Inclusive Public Finance Management: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices, iv) A Practitioner’s Guide on Financing for Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action as well as v) four Gender Equality updates. These publications provided perspectives and recommendations that are helpful to advocates and policy makers. In addition, as part of its joint communications strategy with the Government of Finland, UN Women developed and disseminated 12 videos (including a song) which reached an audience of 56,711 people on social media – Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, UN Women published two press releases, authored one article on women’s leadership in responding to climate crisis and co-authored two op-eds on ending GBV and the need for gender equality for sustainable development. The ad interim head of office of UN Women spoke in an AP1 television interview on women’s political leadership, implementation of the CSW-66 recommendations, and the “Stories of Resistance” art exhibition. The result of the interview was featured in three media pieces. Furthermore, in collaboration with UNDP, UN Women produced nine episodes on social issues in AP1 television, which reached over 24,044 people in YouTube. Thirdly, UN Women partnered with Homenet South Asia to organise the first ever Congress of HomeNet South Asia (18-20 October 2022). The Congress brought together close to 200 women home-based workers (HBWs), worker representatives, and civil society organisations from across the globe with delegates from South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and Government of Nepal. The Congress was a celebration of and showcase of solidarity of the home-based workers movement in South Asia. The congress highlighted the need for recognition of HBWs as workers and the establishment of workers’ rights. UN Women shared lessons learned from its pilot initiative with HBWs, focusing on economic security of HBWs A key outcome of the congress, was the drafting of country specific action plan to take forward the agenda of home based workers building on the rich experience, lessons learned and best practices shared during the congress around the theme of economic security and rights, climate change and disaster risk reduction and violence against women home based workers. Lastly, UN Women led three major campaigns on International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexphobia, Transphobia (IDAHBIT), International Women’s Day (IWD) and 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. The campaigns reached over 4,935 persons, including UN staff, youth, college and university students, civil society partners, and development partners. For IDAHBIT, UN Women collaborated with UN and IDPG to host a joint townhall meeting on making workplaces more inclusive for people from LGBTQI+ community and persons with disability. This was attended by over 85 participants comprised of UN as well as IDPG staff. As a result of the townhall meeting, the participants learned key recommendations on how to better support colleagues from LGBTQI+ community as well as colleagues with disability in the workplace and increase their representation in decision making bodies. Additionally, for IWD, UN Women collaborated with WFP, UNICEF, ICIMOD, and Ministry of Forests and Environment to organize a photography competition, “Changing Climate from Your Lens”. It featured 24 shortlisted photographs in a two-week exhibition that helped raise awareness among its more than 3,000 visitors. Lastly, marking the 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence, UN Women hosted an art exhibition, “Stories of Resistance”, featuring artworks based on the lived experiences of survivors of GBV. Based on the theme of the art products, the exhibition featured six audience participatory workshops, which used an innovative approach to facilitate internalization of key messages and encouraging attendees to play an active role in ending GBV. This, and the guided tours held throughout the 16 days of activism to end GBV, saw over 1,850 participants from schools, universities, civil society organizations, international development partners and media.