Outcome SSD_D_1.5

The UN system in South Sudan is effective in gender mainstreaming and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment

In 2024, UN Women continued to lead efforts to advance gender equality through its UN system coordination mandate in South Sudan. The Gender Theme Group (GTG) enhanced its functionality, with leadership provided by senior staff (50% of its members at middle and senior levels (P3, P4, NOC, and above) and the development of an annual work plan. Capacity-building efforts were expanded, with UNCT members’ enhanced skills on gender mainstreaming, gender marker application, and scorecard implementation, fostering improved collaboration and accountability. As a result, the UNCT South Sudan demonstrated significant progress in advancing gender equality through the implementation of the SWAP Scorecard recommendations. The submission of the first annual progress report highlighted key improvements, including the incorporation of comprehensive gender analysis in the Common Country Assessment (CCA), which now ensures gender considerations are integrated across all components. Leadership commitment was reinforced through the development and review of a robust framework for achieving gender parity, which outlines clear targets, monitoring mechanisms, and actionable steps for recruitment, retention, and creating an enabling environment. Furthermore, the number of indicators rated as "missing" dropped from four in 2021 to one in 2024, highlighting substantial progress in addressing gaps. Indicators rated as "approaches minimum requirement" reduced from five to four, while those rated as "meets minimum requirement" increased from five to six. Furthermore, indicators rated as "exceeds minimum requirement" doubled from one to two, signalling a strengthened commitment to and achievement of higher standards for gender equality within the UNCT.

The UN system in South Sudan is effective in gender mainstreaming and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment

In 2025, UN Women South Sudan contributed significantly to strengthening the capacity of the UN Country Team (UNCT) to systematically integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment across the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). Through strategic and technical support, UN Women enabled UNCT members and Results Groups to embed gender equality in joint planning, programming, and monitoring processes. This included providing guidance on gender mainstreaming, promoting the use of sex- and age-disaggregated data, and supporting gender-responsive approaches in joint programmes. A key achievement was UN Women’s leadership in the development and rollout of the Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP) and related sector-specific briefs, which provided a shared evidence base for the UNCT, informing UNSDCF implementation, policy engagement, and joint programming with national counterparts. UN Women also strengthened UNCT coordination through its leadership of the UN Gender Theme Group (GTG), facilitating inter-agency collaboration, peer learning, and joint advocacy on gender equality. Through this platform, UN Women supported alignment with UN-SWAP and other system-wide accountability frameworks, promoting coherence and accountability across UN interventions. In 2025, UN Women operationalized four key activities from the UN-SWAP Scorecard Action Plan to enhance UNCT capacity and accountability: Providing technical guidance to UNCT entities to ensure compliance with UN-SWAP requirements and systematic gender mainstreaming. Facilitating capacity-building and peer learning through the GTG, including dissemination of UN-SWAP tools, guidance, and good practices. Supporting gender-responsive planning and reporting, including the use of gender markers and disaggregated data to inform decision-making in joint programmes and UNSDCF results frameworks. Strengthening coordination and accountability mechanisms, aligning UN-SWAP implementation with UNSDCF priorities and inter-agency governance structures. Through these efforts, UN Women enhanced institutional capacity, accountability, and coherence within the UNCT, directly contributing to the systematic integration of gender equality across UN programming in South Sudan. Additionally, UN Women supported three key interagency thematic mechanisms that advanced gender mainstreaming across national and UN priorities: the UN Gender Theme Group (GTG), the UNSDCF Result Group 4 Working Group on Women and Youth Empowerment (co-chaired with UNFPA), and the Gender and Inclusion Taskforce (JIT). These platforms enabled joint advocacy, peer learning, and gender-responsive approaches across peacebuilding, governance, livelihoods, and humanitarian–development–peace nexus interventions.

The UN system in South Sudan is effective in gender mainstreaming and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment

The UN System in South Sudan committed in ensuring gender equality and empowerment of women- there is a UN Gender Thematic Group (GTG) in place with work plan and meet quarterly. The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) has maintained Outcome 4 for women and youth while ensuring mainstreaming gender in Outcome 1-3. The UNCT Gender Scorecard assessment conducted in 2021 is a basis for improvement in the indicators and the UNCT work in GEWE. For example, three out of the four indicators scored missing in 2021, status changed to either approaches minimum requirement, meets minimum requirement, or exceed minimum requirement following the gender analysis of the CCA, the gender parity pledge including the plans to develop an gender parity strategy the creation of the dashboard and the plans to train result group member including the HR, M&E, Communications and GTG member in UNCT SWAP scorecard and GEM. Going forward more efforts should be on mobilizing resources to support in the implementation of the recommendations /actions from the UNCT scorecard assessment.