Planned Budget (Total)
Other resources (non-core)
Country Indexes
outcome XM-DAC-41146-CHN_D_2.3
Relative poverty and multi-dimensional poverty are reduced, and more coordinated development leads to reduction in gaps between rural and urban areas and among regions, as more people in China, including left-behind groups, benefit from sustainable, innovation-driven and shared high-quality economic development, with enhanced access to economic opportunities arising through innovation, entrepreneurship and rural revitalization, enjoying decent work, sustainable livelihoods, and the right to develop equally for both women and men. (UNSDCF Outcome 1)
In 2022, a joint study by China’s Ministry of Finance, the Development Rese arch Center (DRC) of the State Council, and the World Bank reported that more than 768 million people were lifted out of poverty , with the h eadcount ratio dropping 8.5% to 0.6% in the period between 2013-2019 . 4 China had reached its goal of pulling all 98.99 mill ion rural people out of poverty by 2020. In 2021, the government announced a shift from poverty alleviation to rural revitalization, emphasizing the priorities it places on addressing vulnerabilities faced by the rural population. 5 New data released in 2023 suggests progress to ward addressing ongoing disparities in rural areas: “ the per capita disposable income of rural residents that had been lifted out o f poverty increased by 7.5% year-on-year, and the per capita net income of the population that has escaped poverty grew by 14.3% year-on-year. ” 6 The government further reports that financial accessibility for mic ro and small enterprises has been improved; data released in 2023 indicates that, by the end of 2022, “ the balance of inclusive loans to MSEs nationwide was RMB 23.8 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 23.8%. ” 7 In 2023, UN Women China has made significant progress towards the intended outcome results. UN Women has worked to benefit women owned MSMEs, through capacity development, especially on digital literacy and enhancing their access to financial services and marketsA virtual women MSMEs training hub with eleven online training modules on gender equality and entrepreneurial skills was developed in collaboration with government partners for women MSMEs to learn at their own pace. Over 375,900 people participated in the digital training activities and opportunities for knowledge exchange. In Hunan, through UN Women and IFAD’s joint ‘ Hunan Rural Revitalization Demonstration Project ’, a total of 108,809 rural people, including 49,442 rural women benefited from technical and financial support to their agri-business development, inclusive public services on climate adaption and disaster risk reduction, and climate-smart infrastructure. To date, the project has directly benefited 153,736 rural people, including 44.8% rural women and 43.5% ethnic minorities. The project has granted approximately USD 95,000 to support 43 women-led start-up businesses. In Qinghai, through the new ‘ Women-led Rural Community Renewable Energy Transition and Governance Project ’, members from 7 women-led agricultural cooperations obtained technical training on renewable energy technology, e-commerce and finance, and gender equality. UN Women supported the development of Sanjiangyuan Female Environmentalist Network. One of their pioneers, Bayang, is recognized as one of the 2023 ‘ BBC 100 Women ’, to acknowledge her contribution to tackling climate changes. UN Women China supported a multifaceted approach for promoting transformative interventions around the care economy, including strengthening the evidence base for effective interventions, raising public awareness of key issues and possible solutions, and developing partnerships with diverse stakeholders for sustainable, effective action. UN Women China and the International Labour Organization China and Mongolia jointly finalized and published a study Care Work in China: Who Does Care Work, What is Its Economic Value and How Has it Been Affected by COVID-19? . The study was conducted to better understand care work and the economy of care in China and to present policy recommendations to strengthen the societal reorganization of care to help shape a more equal and inclusive society. This research provides a strong foundation for evidence-based policy advocacy efforts and programming interventions aimed at addressing unpaid care work. Building on the evidence, UN Women signed a two-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Women’s General Association of Macau (WGAM) in November of 2023. UN Women, as a technical advisory partner to the WGAM, aims to jointly incentivize care economy actors using the “5R” Framework in Macau, with the potential to expand to the Greater Bay Area. The MOU was launched through WeCare Immersive Exhibition that attracted over 40,000 onsite visitors and 60,000 participations online. Building on previous partnerships and results, UN Women and EU kicked off the project Women in Motion, aiming to enhance women migrant worker’s decent work and career development in Guangdong, one of the provinces with the largest migrant population in China. Working with ILO, and national partners including China Enterprise Confederation, Guangdong Enterprise Association, China Electronics Standardization Association and China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the project is expected to benefit 10,000 women in 100 factories/companies in the textile, automobile and ICT sectors. To enhance understanding and inform advocacy efforts, a total of 6 knowledge products were developed under WEE programmes, including online training course ‘ Promoting Gender Equality in Rural Revitalization’ ; ‘ Providing Innovative and Gender-responsive Digital Support to smallholder farmers In China’ ; ‘ the Gendered Distribution and Perception of Unpaid Care Work in China ’; ‘ Creating a Diverse, Equal and Inclusive Workplace’ training manual ; Care Work in China: Who Does Care Work, What is Its Economic Value and How Has it Been Affected by COVID-19? ; and a Multi-country study on women-led MSMEs, with a focus on microenterprises in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Rwanda and Uganda.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-CHN_D_5.1
China’s international financing, investments and business engagements, including through connectivity initiatives, programmes and projects, contribute to SDG attainment in partner countries
During 2023, some progress was made toward government bodies, research institutions and private sector entities in China having increased knowledge and capacity in gender-sensitive financing, and the ability to advance gender equality through gender responsive financing tools, guidance and practices. UN Women nurtured important relationships with research institutes, private sector entities, government partners, and sister UN agencies. Together with these partners, we implemented high-level dialogues; conducted foundational research; developed training tools; and launched new joint initiatives aimed at increasing knowledge and understanding of gender-sensitive financing and effective gender responsive financing tools among key stakeholders. UN Women forged strategic partnerships with think tanks and research institutions, including the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), with which we convened high-level multi-stakeholder dialogues on financing for gender equality, creating platforms for exploring issues including gender-smart investment and business practices ) and promoting financing for gender equality in innovation, technology, and digital education (2023 DigitALL - Symposium on Gender-Responsive Technology and Innovation in the 21st Century). UN Women and CCG co-hosted a dialogue “Promoting Gender-Smart Business Practices & Investment” on September 6 th as part of the 2023 Global Talent Sustainable Development Forum at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS). The event encouraged participants, including from the public and private sector, to share best practices, success stories, and strategies for promoting responsible and gender-smart business and investment practices in order to accelerate progress toward SDG 5. UN Women, together with the International Institute for Green Finance (IIGF), developed a landscape analysis, mapping existing sustainable financing initiatives through desk research and stakeholder interviews, analyzing opportunities and challenges for promoting gender financing in China, and identifying key stakeholders for engagement in high-potential areas. The landscape analysis is informing UN Women China office's future programming direction in the sustainable financing and has informed the design of a technical workshop for participants from government, IFIs, MDBs, academic institutions, and CSOs that will delve into different modalities for gender financing and raise awareness of best practices among key actors, as well as a series of learning salons and networking sessions aimed at building a network of diverse stakeholders working on gender financing and facilitating meaningful collaboration among these actors. A policy brief will be developed based on the landscape analysis and subsequent learning events. UN Women, together with UNDP, UNICEF, and ILO have come together to advocate for the UN and international standards and business practices on Responsible Business Conduct to be adopted and implemented by Chinese enterprises operating overseas to contribute towards achievement of the SDGs. Entities jointly developed a “Scoping Report: Collaboration on Promoting Responsible Business Conduct of Chinese Overseas Investment for the Contributions to the SDGs” and an accompanying practical Responsible Business Practices Handbook for Chinese companies, which will be piloted through learning sessions in the coming year. In support of China’s evolving role as an international development cooperation (IDC) actor and to promote demand-driven and gender-responsive IDC projects, a joint programme led by UNDP with UN Women, FAO, and WHO, in partnership with the EU has been developed —“ Effective Multilateralism in China towards advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.” UN Women is the lead partner for delivering on GEWE aspects of the joint programme, which will be formalized into agreement in early 2024 and come into effect the same year. Under the programme, UN Women will deliver tools and training to strengthen Chinese government, private sector, and financial sector capacities for SDG 5-aligned orientation.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-CHN_O_1
Assuring an accountable organization through principled performance: UN-Women China office is an accountable and trustworthy development organization that manages its financial and other resources with integrity and in line with its programmatic ambitions and fiduciary obligations.
In 2023, UN Women in China assured principled performance of being an accountable organization with smooth business transition and solid business continuity, effective management of its financial resources and other resources, despite all the challenges and constraints encountered from corporate transition on ERP system and further affected by the COVID infection peak wave in the beginning of the year. Moreover, the office achieved significant progress in advancing UN Women’s mandate on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) within the UN system. In 2023, the office implemented total planned budget of $3.0 million from regular resources and other resources, with delivery rate for total resources at 91% and budget utilization rate at 99%, due to diligent efforts to maintain effective management on financial resources and other resources with accountability, efficiency and transparency. In line with duty of care, the office provided PPE supplies and exercised maximum flexibility for all staff to be accountable whilst managing their personal lives in the challenging COVID peak wave period. When the situation became better, we standardized flexible working arrangement to continue promoting staff caring and well-being. Furthermore, the office achieved 100% compliance rate in Business Continuity and Crisis Management Application (BCCMA), Security and Safety Compliance Survey Certification (SSCSC) and Security Risk Management (SRM) in China. Business Operations Strategy (BOS) of UN China endorsed three gender specific actions incl. promoting Gender Parity, Gender Responsive Procurement (GRP) sourcing and prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), under the leadership of UN Women in China and with support of the Operations Management Team (OMT), which greatly strengthened joint business operations across UN system in China to promote GEWE. The first ever UN Gender Theme Group (UNGTG) retreat was organized in Feb 2023, under the leadership of UN Women and with support from UNFPA, through which stronger collaboration and trust were built among UNGTG members, and skills on leadership, influencing and advocacy were enhanced as well. As the chair of the PSEA Network, UN Women coordinated through the UN system and significantly strengthened the UNCT capacity in preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) in workplace. In October 2023, together with UNFPA and UNICEF, UN women facilitated a joint interactive 1-day workshop with 18 colleagues from 13 UN agencies to jointly elaborate on existing gaps in SEA victims’ assistance, to brainstorm possible solutions for the SEA survivors, to understand the collective benefits and importance of the UNCT joint actions, and to share good practices from different agencies. Following upon that, with partnership with UNICEF and UNFPA, UN Women has drafted the interagency PSEA community-based complaint mechanism (CBCM) standard operating procedures (SOPs) for complaint handling, assistance, investigation and monitoring and will be endorsed in 2024.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-CHN_O_2
Advancing Partnership & Resources: UN Women China office effectively leverages and expands its partnership, communications and advocacy capabilities to increase support for and financing the gender equality agenda, while securing sustainable resourcing for the delivery of its own mandate.
In 2023, UN Women in China continued to strengthen partnerships with the public and private sector in support of UN Women’s mandate and operations in China. Regular communications and exchanges of information was established with key line ministries of the Government of China (GoC), while multiple line ministries, entities and local counterparts have been proactively engaged in programs, policy engagements as well as advocacy in topics include major legislation amendment, women’s economic empowerment, climate change, science & technology and EVAW; Private sector partners were engaged for mobilizing resources and/or technical support to UN Women’s operation in China, and also for applying GEWE practices and norms and standards into their business engagements and operations; Strategic partnerships with financial institutions and policy think tanks were forged to untap the market and opportunities on niche topics such as gender finance; Partnerships with women’s organizations including foundations were strengthened to ensure that tailored technical assistance were delivered to those women and girls in need who had faced challenges. Effectively engaged partners from the GoC, Member States, CSOs, private sector and academia by engaging them on CSW67 and IWD advocacy efforts. Furthermore, we effectively expanded our communications and advocacy capabilities for gender equality agenda through several key aspects, incl. expanded and strengthened communications channels, strategic partnerships with wider partners to reach different target audiences, enhanced media relationship and monitoring effort, and more human-interest stories and knowledge sharing. In August 2023, UN Women China launched our official X account , accumulating 37,300 impressions in the first 4 months. In September 2023, we’ve also launched our fully upgraded UN Women China bilingual website , featuring our office introduction, highlights, and voices from women and girls’ beneficiaries. In 2023, we have produced 266 articles and posts in total. The posts and key campaign hashtags have attracted an estimated around 1.6 billion views across Weibo and WeChat. With the support from UN Women China, Bayang, a 22-year-old female environmentalist and a member of Sanjiangyuan Women Environmentalists Network, was recognized as one of the 2023 “ BBC 100 Women ”, acknowledging her contribution to tackling climate change at the grassroots level. On International Women’s Day 2023, our #DigitALL campaign attracted 20 million views and sparked around 10,000 online discussions across multiple platforms. During the annual 16 Days campaign, UN Women also initiated a creative gesture dance video and mobilized the UN system in China for joint actions on ending violence against women and girls. Representatives from 13 Agencies participated in the video recording, demonstrating solidarity towards a culture of zero tolerance of violence. The video received a total of 310,000 views across different platforms. In 2023, 5 knowledge products and 4 programme brochures were published. Led by UN Women, representatives from 10 UN agencies had a joint visit to the HEPS labs. A roundtable conversation was organized together with Institute of HEPS of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University celebrating the key role of female leadership and contribution in the STEM field, also raising awareness on barriers hindering women and girls’ full participation in digital era.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-CHN_O_3
Business Transformation: UN Women China strategically plans for and transforms its business model to deliver impact at scale, through agile and ethical leadership
The corporate business transition on ERP system from beginning of the year marked the start of challenging but fruitful 2023. In a situation of instability and unpredictable malfunctions of the new system, UN Women in China overcame the constraints and ensured a smooth transition, business continuity and project delivery with the diligence, team unity and mutual support and knowledge sharing among peer colleagues. The success of smooth transition is also benefited from the support and caring of office management promoting staff caring, mental health and exercise flexible working arrangement to promote work and life balance. In 2023, for the first time, Business Operations Strategy (BOS) of UN China endorsed three gender specific actions incl. promoting Gender Parity, Gender Responsive Procurement (GRP) sourcing and prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). This significant progress to advance UN Women’s mandate on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) within the UN system was achieved under the leadership of UN Women in China and with support of the Operations Management Team (OMT), which greatly strengthened joint business operations across UN system in China to promote GEWE. We continued to promote staff learning and team building. We organized annual office retreat to foster a Center of Excellence with enhanced principled performance and internal communication skills. We also made efforts on disability inclusion to promote the value of Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principle and organized an interactive learning session on disability inclusion in Dec 2023, initiated by our internal learning and staff wellbeing committee to better understand the needs and challenges of people with disability and integrate the needs into our work.Showing 1 - 5 of 7