Outcome 5: Women’s voice, leadership and agency

We must work together to formulate a clear vision to achieve the aspirations of the Sudanese people, bringing back security, peace, and the establishment of a civil state where all citizens are equal, and opportunities are provided regardless of their gender, ethnic, religious, or tribal backgrounds.”

Those are the words of Samia Argawi, a lawyer and founder of “Women Against War” and member of the “Peace for Sudan Platform”, a peacebuilding initiative by Sudanese women-led organizations and initiatives supported by UN Women. Read more>

In Rakhine State, Myanmar, the productive fields are left unharvested. Normally teeming with agricultural workers—the majority of whom are women and girls from the local villages—the fertile landscape has become another deadly battlefield.

Landmines, planted after the military coup in 2021, are causing soaring numbers of civilian casualties. Women and girls who dare to venture into rural fields alone, also face threats of sexual violence. A UN Women survey of 2,200 women in Myanmar found that half of them were afraid to leave their immediate neighbourhoods. Read more>

UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) has partnered with Nokia since 2021 to increase women’s leadership in the tech sector in the Arab States region. The partnership has included technical support to Nokia’s collaboration with its retail clients to grow a pool of talented women employees and foster their leadership capacities.

On 30 May, Nokia and e& held the closing session of its joint Action for Leadership initiative, at e& headquarters in Dubai. The initiative was sponsored by Rima Manna, Vice President of Middle East Unit at Nokia, and Dena Almansoori, Chief Human Resources Officer for e& Group. Read more>

A pesar de sus capacidades y contribuciones a la sociedad ecuatoriana, la participación política y el acceso a posiciones de liderazgo para las mujeres afrodescendientes siguen siendo limitados. En las elecciones de 2023, menos del uno por ciento de las candidaturas fueron de mujeres afrodescendientes y ninguna resultó electa. La representatividad en cargos ministeriales y de alto nivel ha sido escasa en las últimas décadas, revelando una brecha significativa en términos de inclusión y oportunidades.

Pese a esta realidad, existen mujeres afroecuatorianas que luchan y alzan la voz en contra de todas las formas de discriminación y desigualdad que sufren muchas de las mujeres negras y afrodescendientes de Ecuador. Una de estas mujeres es Irma Bautista, una mujer negra, que desde muy joven ha estado inmersa en la lucha por los derechos y la igualdad de su comunidad, enfrentando con valentía la discriminación y la violencia que, lamentablemente, aún prevalecen en la sociedad. Read more>

“Even if I feel like a drop in the ocean, being that drop can make a difference”, says Valentina Urtan, a human rights advocate in Ukraine.  

Urtan, 28, recently discussed her beginnings as a youth activist in 2014 and how her work has changed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 on “Holosy” (“Voices” in Ukrainian), a new podcast by UN Women and The Hague Humanity Hub. Read more>

"Thanks to the training I received, I learnt that girls have the same rights and opportunities [as boys]” – schoolgirl 

More than 246 million children are subjected to school-related gender-based violence every year. Girls are particularly at risk of violence in school settings, including sexual violence, as a result of harmful gender norms and stereotypes. According to a UNICEF report, 46% of Congolese schoolgirls reported experiencing sexual harassment, abuse, and violence committed by their teachers or other school personnel.  

Supported by a grant from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women under the EU/UN Spotlight Initiative, the women-led organization Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaises (FFC) runs a girl-led project to prevent sexual violence and harmful practices against schoolgirls in 10 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read more>