Outcome CHN_D_2.2

(Link to SN Output 1.4 and 1.5) 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.

In 2022, UN Women China has made significant progress towards the intended outcome results. 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. UN Women has continuously promoted gender equal employment, by supporting private sector companies to promote gender responsive policies and practices based on women’s empowerment principles (WEPs), mainly through WeEmpowerAsia, a programme supported by and partnered with EU, and ‘A place called home-Wecare’, a project funded by and in partnership with IKEA China. As of December 2022, 352 companies from the Chinese mainland have committed to promoting women’s decent work by signing the WEPs. Among them, 30 have integrated gender into their corporate policies and practices under UN Women’s support on implement gender responsive policies and practices in line with Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). This benefits over 100,000 employees, including at least 50,000 women. Strategic partnership is developed between UN Women and ILO, China Enterprise Confederation, ICT and Textile industry associations. UN Women has made good efforts to benefit women owned SMEs, through capacity development, especially on digital literacy and enhancing their access to finance and market, through 'Supporting Women to recover from socio-economic impacts of COVID-19' a programme working with All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) and WeEmpowerAsia. Over 550 women-owned SMEs and 6,000 women employees in Wuhan and Tianjin (among the COVID hardest-hit regions in China) directly benefitted from all-round model recovery support schemes including capacity development, training, dedicated business support and cash grants in 2022. A total of 53 women-owned SMEs increased their income by 70,000 CNY on average. The trainings on gender equality, WEPs, as well as on how to enhance SMEs’ access to market, have been provided to 1052 women entrepreneurs from SMEs. In 2022, UN Women and the Ant Foundation launched the Together Digital five-year partnership, with the purpose to support over 30,000 women to establish, maintain and expand their businesses in the digital era. UN Women continues to support rural women economically with enhancing their climate resilience through programme. Partnering with IFAD, Hunan Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Hunan Women’s Federation, we are working to improve the well-being of over 320,000 rural population. A comprehensive gender-disaggregated survey of 1,500 households showed that women’s unpaid care burden, less access to information and services, and lack of opportunities to move up along value chain, hindered their economic empowerment. Informed by these findings, gender-responsive interventions are being implemented, including climate-smart irrigation to sustain agriculture and public services to prevent natural disasters. A total of 26,824 rural women are benefited from infrastructure construction and public services. In addition, the office is able to secure new programme in Qinghai focusing on advancing rural women’s access to clean energy and strengthening their actions in green rural governance with support from ClimateWorks Foundation. This will help strengthen the implementation of commitments made in Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice by engaging with women led CSOs and cooperatives in the context of China’s rural revitalization and green transition. UN Women China convenes partners for collective climate actions through policy dialogues and public advocacies. Aligning with CSW 66 theme 'Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow', UN Women and Center for China and Globalization, a leading global think tank, hosted a high-level policy dialogue on 'Biodiversity and Climate Change from a Gender Perspective ' on 8 Mar 2022. The dialogue brought over 60 representatives including 3 Chinese ministries, 3 ambassadors, and 4 UN agencies, reaching over 320,000 participants via livestreaming. The dialogue fostered a strategic partnership between UN Women and Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP) of Ministry of Ecology and Environment, for joint research to look at China’s climate and environmental policies through gender lens. The initial findings were shared on the Gender-just Green Transitions workshop, co-organized by UN Women, UNDP and GIZ on 15 November 2022. Prof. Ge Chazhong, Chief Scientist of CAEP shared current gender gaps and suggested “incorporating gender perspectives into the ecological, environmental protection and climate change laws and policies”. UN Women leveraged interagency mandate to substantively engage the UN system, specifically UNDP, IFAD, UNFPA and UNEP, for joint advocacy on the importance of gender just climate governance, action, and mitigation. Besides, a UN system wide International Women's Day campaign on the theme of 'With Her A Greener Future' was organized, attracting 24 million views and discussions on social media. UN Women, together with RCO, UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, FAO, IFAD, ESCAP, WHO, UNV, UNHCR, UNFPA, UNIDO, ILO, and World Bank made joint video for public advocacy, with concrete recommendations for fully reflection of women’s roles and rights in climate policies, programmes and investments. And three CSOs brought voices from the field through video too, revealing women’s great contribution and pressing needs for supports in biodiversity conservation and climate response.

(Link to SP Output 8) 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.

This outcome has not been achieved. However, with UN Women’s convening power and social influence, good progress has been made towards promoting policies on decent work and social protection for women among companies, as well as in public awareness raising. Results achieved under two projects (WeEmpower Asia and A Place Called Home-WeCare) include: 270 companies from mainland China have committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment by signing WEPs as of end 2021; an increase of 167 from 2020. 6 companies have been selected as pilot companies by China Enterprise Federation (CEF) to implement WEPs Principle 2 and 3. UN Women launched a campaign on unpaid care work “SharetheCare” in partnership with IKEA generating 15 million social media views through online campaigns and another 6,000 visitors visiting and participating in the offline exhibition at IKEA premise in Beijing. Two studies focusing on: 1) gender equality and new economy in China; 2) value of care work in China are underway, in partnership with Peking University, National School of Management and the ILO respectively. These will form a strong evidence base for policy recommendation in these areas in 2022 and beyond. UN Women has contributed significantly to integrate gender equality into policies and regulations for companies and industries. With UN Women’s technical support, two sectors (ICT and textile) have integrated gender equality and women’s empowerment into their industrial CSR guidance.. In addition to this, 14 companies are developing gender action plans to integrate WEPs into company policies or practices. In 2021, three partnerships for women’s economic empowerment were forged by the office. This included: 1) MoU with Hunan Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (DARA) to implement a tripartite programme involving UN Women, IFAD and DARA for rural economic empowerment; 2) Partnership Agreement with China Enterprise Confederation for implementing WEPs principles 2 and 3 in selected Chinese companies; 3) Partnership Agreement with the China Center for Promotion of SME Development for the development of toolkit for emergency preparedness by SMEs and increase women entrepreneurs skills on business management and access to market.