UN Women works within the UN Country Team to lead and convene national government stakeholders, funding partners, UN entities, and international financial institutions to develop and implement integrated solutions to advance women’s rights, in line with national priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals.
In Jordan, expert staff like the RR-funded Country Representative and the partially RR-funded Deputy Representative champion and guide this work, leading the efforts of programme-funded technical staff. In 2023, this meant that UN Women could provide coordinated support to the Jordanian Government to ensure GEWE was central to the country’s new 10-year Strategic Planning Framework, including through the adoption of an Engendered Strategy under the Economic Modernization Vision to support the goal of doubling
women’s labour force participation by 2033. The UN Women Country Office coordinated with UN agencies, facilitating agreement to prioritize joint efforts to support the economic empowerment of women and youth in Jordan within the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2023-2027. It also worked with development partners, such as the World Bank, to focus GEWE aid on increasing women’s employment.
Using RR, UN Women joined forces with the Resident Coordinator’s office and the Center for Legal Civic Initiatives to lead a review of Albania’s legal codes. The review provides a roadmap for Albanian legislators on the reforms required to address barriers to women’s rights in the lead-up to the country’s updates to the Criminal Code in 2024 and planned updates to the Family and Civil Codes in 2025.
UN Women coordinated the legal review, convening the UN Gender Thematic and Results Group, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the Albanian State Police, National Human Rights Institutions, and more than 40 civil society
organizations.
The Ministry of Justice’s new draft Criminal Code, is expected to be approved in 2024, reflects recommendations from the review on crucial aspects like defining rape and sexual violence in the workplace. As Nadia Guni a Jurist at the Center for Legal Civic Initiatives, said, “[the legal review has] already proven to be an essential tool for us to advocate for critical legal changes in the Albanian law, which will help all women and girls enjoy their rights.”
Through the Colombo Process policy discussion platform on the management of overseas employment and contractual labour
among labour-sending countries in South and Southeast Asia, UN Women’s RR-funded WEE Advisor and Migration Lead co-organized technical meetings that strengthened capacities to integrate gender issues in labour migration management. This contributed to the Government of Bangladesh’s decision to license recruitment actors, with licensing contingent on meeting specific conditions
and criteria. The result was complemented by UN Women projectfunded efforts to localize gender-responsive employment contract and recruitment agency guidance tools.
RR also enabled UN Women to provide sustained technical support to integrate gender, including gender-responsive tools
and balanced gender representation, in the programme activities of the joint programme “Governance of Labour Migration in South and Southeast Asia”. Through these efforts, gender advocates became more actively engaged in labour migration discussions, fostering connections with policymakers, worker organizations, employer groups, and recruitment agencies.
An initial RR investment of roughly USD 47,000 in Latin America supported the development of a Regional Protocol to Combat Sexual Violence against Women. The Regional Protocol was approved in November 2023 by the Gender Specialized Network of the Iberoamerican Association of Public Ministries. Building on it, UN Women channelled RR to spearhead a similar process in
Argentina.
Since 2021, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Argentina has received support through the Spotlight Initiative from UN agencies, including UN Women. Leveraging insights and partnerships from the UN Women-led UN Interagency Group on Human Rights
and Gender, vital additional technical support was provided to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Violence against Women.
RR-funded staff helped craft the protocol to investigate and litigate cases of sexual violence from a gender perspective. Recently adopted by the province of Chaco, the protocol will help Argentinian women like Maria Maldonado who expressed “It’s a miracle I’m
alive” having survived years of abuse from an intimate partner.6 The protocol strengthens prosecutorial action and due diligence; provides a standard framework for handling cases of sexual violence from a victim-centred approach; and incorporates consent as part
of the definition of sexual violence.
UN Women’s RR-funded Country Director secured other resources funding to deploy a gender expert to help draft Ethiopia’s Transitional Justice Policy. Through the leadership of the Country Director and the gender expert, UN Women consulted women, including conflict-related sexual violence survivors, bringing their experiences into the policymaking process. “We need to consider women as part of the solution in peace making and transitional justice processes”, said Inku Asnake, a member of the Transitional Justice Working Group of Experts. UN Women was recognized by the Ministry of Justice for its contributions. As of May 2024, a gender-sensitive draft policy awaits adoption. It includes reparations for sexual and gender-based crimes and provisions on incorporating women’s rights in traditional mechanisms of transitional justice.
RR, with other resources funding, allowed UN Women to establish a presence in the Tigray region for the first time, improving collaboration with UN sister agencies, where UN Women integrated gender into the interagency framework for peacebuilding and stabilization in the context of the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The injection of roughly USD 200,000 in RR
was also pivotal in reaching 200 women ex-combatants with hands-on skill building training for livelihood opportunities as
they reintegrate into society.
Cumulative key results from 2022-2023
laws across 39 countries, home to 1.4 billion women and girls, were adopted, revised or repealed with UN Women’s support
across 79 countries, including many survivors of violence and internally-displaced women and refugees, accessed information, goods, resources and/or services with support from UN Women
in 92 countries have increased capacities to safeguard women's rights, including delivering quality goods, services, and resources for women in humanitarian and development settings