Region:Asia Pacific
Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022
World Bank Income Classification:Low Income
The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. For this purpose it uses gross national income (GNI) per capita data in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method, which is applied to smooth exchange rate fluctuations.
Least Developed Country:Yes
Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized LDCs as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process, for structural, historical and also geographical reasons. Three criteria are used: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.
Gender Inequality Index:0.575
GII is a composite metric of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.
Gender Development Index:0.723
GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources.
Population:209,497,025
Source of population data: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects: The 2022 Revision
Male:19,976,265 (9.5%)
Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LKA_D_1.1
[Deactivated] National, provincial and local planning and budgeting processes are more gender responsive.
N/A. Impact Area 1 and its associated outcome and outputs were deactivated since 2020 due to completion of the related projects.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LKA_D_4.1
[Deactivated] State decision-making processes are more equitable and inclusive to enable women’s meaningful participation and leadership.
N/A. Impact Area 1 and its associated outcome and outputs were deactivated since 2020 due to completion of related projects.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LKA_D_4.2
Empowered military and war widows have sustainable livelihoods, and access social support services with dignity.
In 2022, women beneficiaries in Mannar - many of whom are women heads of households - have increased the resilience of their livelihoods and their social autonomy, as well as their access to local government officials and networks of mentors and peers through the support of UN Women, which in turn has contributed to strengthening their access to social support services and the prevention of gender-based violence against them. The latter objective continues to be pursued jointly by a multi-pronged approach adopted by UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women in their ongoing joint programme, collectively strengthening the prevention of and response to violence against women through access to sustainable livelihoods and social support, as well transforming norms within communities through dialogue and education. Up to 120 women engaging in or operating businesses - related to agriculture, food production, garments, animal husbandry etc. - from the target communities have strengthened their financial and business literacy skills, including in terms of market and digital engagement. Of these, 73 have been selected to receive in-kind assistance to sustain their livelihoods based on a competitive assessment of business proposals. Beneficiaries also have access to mentoring sessions and on-to-one coaching, as a result of which several women have formally registered their enterprises. UN Women has ensured that the work done on this front is relevant to the beneficiaries, including incorporating sessions on microfinance when it became apparent that this was a key issue faced by beneficiaries, and to build external partnerships including a session conducted by the Central Bank. The impact of this work goes beyond UN Women's primary beneficiaries to a broader societal level. In a context where women are largely excluded from livelihood activities and have limited resource, UN Women's work has strengthened a culture of women empowering women to play a more direct role in generating livelihoods for their households and communities. Anecdotal evidence shows that many of the women-led businesses continue to engage other women in the community in their activities as their businesses expand, and support livelihood generation for households - and women, in particular - in their vicinity. In UN Women's engagement with beneficiaries, the office has also observed greater entrepreneurial spirit and confidence in beneficiaries following UN Women's interventions, through which they have approached national standardization bodies, research institutions, financing institutions, and government administrators for support towards formalizing and expanding their businesses. There is also greater interest in accessing distant markets (including foreign markets), and many beneficiaries have already begun to supply products for export purposes. These results have broadly contributed to a community and local-government level recognition of the capacity and role of women in strengthening local economies and societies, as indicated in UN Women's engagement with local administrators and provincial leadership, who have request continued support from UN Women on similar interventions. The building of peer groups among beneficiaries has also begun to contribute to the development of social collectives and collective coping mechanisms, which UN Women sees as vital to the well-being and empowerment of women in the beneficiary communities. As the economic crisis continues to hit small and medium enterprises the hardest - including those operated by the beneficiary group, there is need for continued and responsive support, including further support on product and market diversification (including the use of e-markets), and marketing, which UN Women remains committed to providing as possible. Hence, the TOC considered to be valid and timely.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LKA_D_4.3
[Deactivated] Increased commitment of public institutions to prevent and respond to bribery and to protect military and war widows from sexual bribery and exploitation.
N/A. This outcome has been deactivated since 2020 due to completion of related projects.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LKA_D_4.4
Women, including those in particularly vulnerable situations, will be empowered to strengthen the peacebuilding process, promote social cohesion and contribute towards lasting peace in Sri Lanka.
In 2022, UN Women was able to complete its project on furthering the WPS agenda in Sri Lanka. Despite significant challenges to the programme implementation and policy advocacy due to the economic crisis and political turmoil, UN Women has been able to produce results exceeding those initially envisioned, particularly at grassroot levels. Broadly, UN Women has produced results in its direct engagement with beneficiary groups, whereby women have been simultaneously capacitated and empowered to strengthen and expand the economic engagement as well as their leadership within communities and at local levels on peace and conflict prevention, and supplemented this by cementing the ground for national programming on the same, through the preparation of a draft NAP on WPS as the complementary strengthening of government institutions and officials to implement the same and to develop parallel localized work plans in their communities. On this policy front, UN Women completed the handover of the NAP on WPS to the Government of Sri Lanka, through the State Minister of Women and Child Affairs. This was preceded by bilateral consultations with the Development Division of the Ministry in finalizing the draft which incorporated input received during the validation process (end 2021 -February 2022), and the translation and copyediting of the draft in three languages by parliamentary professionals. While this work was significantly challenged by the political turmoil from April to September, UN Women was able to build a working relationship with the office of the new State Minister and share the draft NAP and accompanying Cabinet Memorandum. This is soon to be presented to the Cabinet for approval and adoption. In support of institutions towards strengthening their accessibility and sensitivity towards vulnerable and marginalized women, UN Women has produced guidelines on the implementation of the NAP on WPS in preparation for when it is adopted. It has also capacitated 124 government officials on formulating and implementing WPS-oriented policies, towards the protection and empowerment of marginalized women, across the national and field offices of the Ministries of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment (MWCASE) as well as Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government. Towards ensuring adequate infrastructure for the protection of women and the furtherance of women's economic empowerment in rural areas, UN Women has continued to work with the MWCASE to refurbish and 13 government buildings including safe houses and business centres. 5 of these were completed and handed over to the government in 2022, contributing to much needed state infrastructure. The coordination of government field officers with the National Women’s Bureau, and tracking of data and results around gender equality has also been strengthened through the completion of a digital coordination/ reporting system developed by UN Women on behalf of the MWCASE. Towards supporting the empowerment of women in leadership, UN Women continued to support the multi-stakeholder dialogue process between elected local councillor and authorities and civil society and community based organizations, through capacity building sessions, sessions for participants to jointly develop localized workplans on peace and conflict prevention to be collectively implemented, and follow up dialogues across 6 processes engaging communities from 9 districts, and a total of 171 individuals (exceeding the number of participants initially envisioned). Immediate evaluations show that in some of these processes, there has been significant progress on the implementation of the joint work plans, signalling shift towards more people-centric and consultative governance and solutions. Towards supporting the empowerment of women through economic engagement, UN Women worked completed the training of 735 women engaging in medium and small enterprises, and following a competitive assessment of participants business plans, facilitated the provision of in-kind assistance to 384 of these women. This work included the strengthening of networks and mentoring processes as well as beneficiaries’ access to markets through Diversity Markets conducted in the project locations. These beneficiaries have also been recipients of relief packages of basic necessities, to enable their continued economic engagement and investment in long term progress. Towards strengthening the role of women in peacebuilding, UN Women conducted a training of trainers for 60 participants from 44 CSOs, and a second training for 164 women community leaders on peacebuilding and social cohesion. The latter has resulted in 90 small scale projects being implemented by community leaders, engaging a further 5406 volunteers at community levels. Recognizing the role of young women and new modalities of peacebuilding, 90 young women peacebuilders have been trained to combat online hate speech through social media, reflecting significant traction in their interventions following the training. Towards supporting regional and national dialogue and advocacy on WPS, UN Women conducted a large scale media campaign across mainstream media channels and social media; convened the first workshop for District-level women development officers and Directors/ Deputy Directors of Planning, to facilitate cross-country engagement and sharing of strategies, as well as developing priorities and coordination pathways for the year ahead; convened a high level meeting of approximately 60 development partners, government, and civil society to discuss the WPS landscape and ways forward, positioning its relevance in Sri Lanka’s crisis; and produced 5 knowledge products towards advocating for targeted support to, protection and empowerment of marginalized women. UN Women has also successfully closed a project on empowering women's resettlement following experiences of conflict-related displacement. Within this, government institutions in the target locations (Poonakary and Pachchilapali) have concrete data on the safety of public spaces, which is now being used to develop stronger local policy and planning around the protection of women and improving accessibility. Women - predominantly women heads of households with direct experience of the conflict - have been provided with financial and business literacy, mentoring around economic engagement, and access to markets, with 71 being provided with in-kind assistance towards their livelihoods following a competitive assessment of their business proposals. 20 CSOs and CBOs in resettled communities have been capacitated and empowered to fully engage with government processes and to advocate for rights and reforms, through the provision of technical training on gender responsive approaches and peacebuilding, as well as soft skills including leadership and advocacy skills.Showing 1 - 5 of 7
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References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
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