This brochure summarizes UN Women’s strategic note (SN) for Albania, 2022–2026, which provides a roadmap for improving the lives of women and girls in Albania. The SN articulates UN Women’s multi-year strategy, rationale, envisioned results, targets, and resource requirements for the next five years. It is developed in consultation with key partners and in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, and key national, regional, and global gender equality priorities.

The SN contributes to the achievement of UNSDCF priorities, based on UN Women’s expertise and comparative advantage in the country:

• Equitable investment in people,
• Productive and inclusive development, and
• Gender-responsive governance.

Link: Brochure: Strategic note 2022–2026: Albania | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

This brochure summarizes “UN Women’s strategic note (SN) for Libya, 2022–2025”, which provides a roadmap for improving the lives of women and girls in Libya. The SN articulates UN Women’s multi-year strategy, rationale, envisioned results, targets, and resource requirements for the next four years. It was developed in consultation with key partners and in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, and key national, regional, and global priorities for women’s rights.

The SN contributes to the achievement of two UNSDCF priorities, based on UN Women’s expertise and comparative advantage in the country:

• Women’s leadership and participation in elections, peacebuilding, and policy making
• Rule of law, reconciliation, and peacebuilding with a focus on ending violence against women

Link: Brochure: Strategic note 2022–2025: Libya | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

This brochure summarizes UN Women’s strategic note (SN) for Viet Nam, 2022–2026, which provides a roadmap for improving the lives of women and girls in Viet Nam. The SN articulates UN Women’s multi-year strategy, rationale, envisioned results, targets, and resource requirements for the next five years. It was developed in consultation with key partners and in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, and key national, regional, and global priorities for women’s rights.

The SN contributes to the achievement of three UNSDCF priorities, based on UN Women’s expertise and comparative advantage in the country:

• A safer and cleaner environment;
• Sustainable, gender-responsive economic transformation; and
• A just, safe, and inclusive society

Link: Brochure: Strategic note 2022–2026: Viet Nam | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

This brochure summarizes UN Women’s strategic note (SN) for Bolivia, 2023–2027, which provides a roadmap for improving the lives of women and girls in Bolivia. The SN articulates UN Women’s multi-year strategy, rationale, envisioned results, targets, and resource requirements for the next five years. It was developed in consultation with key partners and in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, and key national, regional, and global priorities for women’s rights.

The SN contributes to the achievement of three UNSDCF priorities, based on UN Women’s expertise and comparative advantage in the country:

• Consolidation of parity in democratic processes and institutions,
• Women exercise their rights as economic agents, and
• Reduction and prevention of violence against women and girls.

Link: Brochure: Strategic note 2023–2027: Bolivia | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

This brochure summarizes UN Women’s strategic note (SN) for Côte d’Ivoire, 2021–2025, which provides a roadmap for improving the lives of women and girls in Côte d’Ivoire. The SN articulates UN Women’s multi-year strategy, rationale, envisioned results, targets, and resource requirements for the next four years. It was developed in consultation with key national partners and in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, and key national, regional, and global gender equality priorities.

The SN contributes to the achievement of the following two agreed UNSDCF priorities, based on UN Women’s expertise and comparative advantage in the country:

• Access to socio-economic opportunities and ending violence against women and girls and
• Rule of law, labour rights, gender equality, peace, and security.

The SN aims to ensure that women and girls in Côte d’Ivoire fully enjoy their rights, realize their potential, and benefit from development.

Link: Brochure: Strategic note 2021–2025: Côte d’Ivoire | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

UN Women is fully committed to mainstreaming disability inclusion and intersectionality throughout its work, as laid out in the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022–2025. The goal is to ensure a more systematic approach to ensuring the rights of women and girls with disabilities across UN Women’s areas of work.

Disability, gender, and discrimination are closely interlinked, with one in five women experiencing a disability-related exclusion. To address this, UN Women developed a corporate strategy for the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities built on a multi-pronged approach that includes providing normative guidance, integrated policy advice, operational support, and technical assistance for programme and capacity-development. The approach helps ensure that initiatives are both gender-responsive and inclusive of the rights of persons with disabilities.

This brief overviews UN Women’s approach to disability inclusion and intersectionality.

Link: A Synthesis Review of the UN Trust Fund’s special funding window on ending violence against women and girls with disabilities | Publication | UN Women – United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women

One in five women is estimated to be living with a disability, making it crucial to study the increased risks of various forms of violence that they face.  

This synthesis review contains key insights and lessons from the experiences of 22 diverse civil society and women’s rights organizations in various contexts that were supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) special window to end violence against women and girls with disabilities between 2018 and 2023. In particular, it highlights the lessons learned about fostering collaboration, shifting mindsets, empowering women and girls with disabilities, engaging with legal and policy systems, and allowing for flexible adaptation and learning in addressing violence against women and girls with disabilities.  

These findings mean that the review: 

• contributes to developing programming that is disability specific and disability inclusive;
• promotes the development of a knowledge base that is grounded in the realities of practitioners in the Global South; and
• offers practical recommendations to practitioners, researchers, donors and policymakers.

Link: A Synthesis Review of the UN Trust Fund’s special funding window on ending violence against women and girls with disabilities | Publication | UN Women – United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women

Women and girls with disabilities continue to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. When it comes to global normative standards for disability inclusion, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) includes provisions and obligations related to gender equality. To date, however, normative standards have not been consistently translated into national, sectoral, and/or local gender-responsive, disability-inclusive policies and corresponding budgets.

Drawing on a selection of country experiences, this policy brief identifies emerging trends and practices on gender- and disability-inclusive budgeting. These include, among others:

• collection, analysis, and use of data and statistics on intersectional discrimination;
• integration of gender and disability inclusion in laws, policies, systems, and institutional practice;
• integration of gender and disability inclusion in the planning and budgeting cycle; and
• enhanced participation of women with disabilities in policy, planning, and budgeting.

The brief aims to address these gaps and promote policy discourse and reforms at global and country level.

Link: Gender- and disability-inclusive budgeting: Issues and policy options | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

The “Women with disabilities stigma inventory” (WDSI) was developed as part of the project “Addressing stigma and discrimination experienced by women with disabilities” (ASDWD) project, which was jointly led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women, with funding from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN PRPD).

The ASDWD project focused on the intersection of disability and gender-based stigma and discrimination. A key objective was to create a survey tool to assess the experiences of women and girls with disabilities regarding stigma, discrimination, and gender-based violence. To this end, alongside developing the WDSI using a participatory approach, a methodological note and ethical guidelines were also produced to ensure a human rights–based approach and minimize harm.

This toolkit includes:

• Women with disabilities stigma inventory (WDSI)
• WDSI methodological note
• Ethical standards guide for the ASDWD project

The WDSI is a stand-alone, self-reporting survey tool that can be used to collect data about the experiences of women with disabilities globally in relation to stigma, discrimination, and violence.

The purpose of the methodological note is to provide an overview of the WDSI, its development process, and how to implement the tool and analyse results.

The “Ethical standards guide” was used throughout the ASDWD project to minimize the risk of harm while engaging women with disabilities. The human rights–based approach and the “Do no harm” principle guided the conceptualization and implementation of these guidelines.

Link: Women with disabilities stigma inventory (WDSI) | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters

Preventing and responding to violence against women with disabilities requires a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach. It includes:

• strengthening legal frameworks,
• enhancing support services,
• ensuring that an inclusive lens is applied to prevention efforts,
• raising societal awareness,
• improving data collection, and
• promoting intersectoral collaboration.

It is also crucial to prioritize the voices, experiences, and agency of women with disabilities in developing and implementing policies and interventions.

This publication provides recommendations for policymakers to address the findings highlighted through the project “Addressing stigma and discrimination experienced by women with disabilities (ASDWD)”, which was developed in partnership with researchers from University College London, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women offices, local organizations of people with disabilities, and individual women with disabilities who contributed across Pakistan, Palestine, Republic of Moldova, and Samoa, with funding from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).

Link: Addressing stigma and discrimination to eliminate violence against women with disabilities | Publication | UN Women – Headquarters