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-LBY_D_1.1
Governance systems promote women, young women including women with disabilities (WwD) political participation and leadership
Five women ministers have been elected and are part of the new Government of National Unity (GNU), however, governance systems are slow in promoting meaningful inclusion, participation and leadership of Libyan women and young women. Nonetheless, progress has been made on the normative and institutional front, in addition to the capacities of Libyan women have significantly improved for their meaningful and equal political participation. Specifically, the House of Representatives (HoR) passed legislation in October 2021, upholding the demand for 16% reserved seats for women in parliament, and the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) improved its gender sensitivity and support to potential women candidates. 257 women increased their capacities to participate in legislative elections and one of them, Layla Ben Khalifa, is one of the two women candidates running for the Office of the Presidency. Participants included internally displaced women, young women and women with disabilities, from various ethnic groups and different parts of Libya. They participated in a training workshop provided by UN Women for five weeks. They received training on various modules, including: Running for office as a woman; Transformative leadership; Public speaking; Messaging and voter outreach; Campaign planning; Fundraising and financial planning; Violence against women in politics (VAWP); Electoral law and the constituencies; Communication around COVID-19; Communication plans and the use of new and traditional media; and Navigating one’s political party in a time of elections. The feedback received from many participants was that fear of the unknown had kept them from running for office before, but with this knowledge, they were motivated to do so. All participants signed a “Women for Women” pledge in support of women’s rights and political participation, both on the campaign trail and, if elected into office. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the European Union (EU) provided technical and financial support for this work, including through the development of a survey and dissemination among women’s civil society in Libya, to expand their reach to women and youth candidates who would be eligible to register for the online training program. The aim was to contribute to the minimum 30% quota of women candidates stated by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF). HNEC supported these trainings and participated each week, explaining the electoral law and answering the candidates’ questions and also hosted a session on VAWP. This was possible, as 40 men and women staff members of HNEC had received two trainings hosted by UN Women on the foundations of gender, women’s leadership, and electoral monitoring bodies. The launch of a roadmap towards a National Action Plan (NAP) on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) was another significant step towards increased participation of women in political fields and position related to the WPS agenda, such as security and humanitarian assistance. In October 2021, UN Women signed an MoU with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for the development of a roadmap to a NAP on UNSCR 1325. In the ensuing months, conservative figures attacked the MoU and declared the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women – to which Libya has been a party since 1990 – contrary to Sharia. Despite a backlash campaign initiated by conservative groups around the signing of the MoU, UN Women continues to support the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs and Libyan civil society by providing technical expertise – as per the request from and with full ownership of national stakeholders-- to promote participation, prevention, protection, and relief and recovery. UN Women continues to work closely with women-led civil society organizations to ensure that peacebuilding and peacemaking efforts are gender-sensitive and fully integrate women’s voices.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBY_D_4.1
An enabling environment for women, young women and girls to lead, participate in and benefit equally from tracks I/II/III and conflict prevention measures including PVE
There is support from institutions and the international community for the meaningful participation of women and girls in building peace and preventing conflict and extremism. Several high-level national institutions have worked towards building an enabling environment for the participation of women and girls in all areas of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Notably, the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs in Libya has demonstrated its increased understanding and commitment to the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the WPS framework. An important step for this was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UN Women in 2021. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs hosted a high-level launch event for the roadmap towards a National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of the WPS agenda. The support for an enabling environment goes beyond the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs, to the Prime Minister, who explicitly mandated the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to work on UNSCR 1325. The launch event was also attended by the Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council, the Prime Minister, the Minister of State for Women Affairs & the Ministries of Youth, Culture, Foreign Affairs, Social Affairs, Interior and 70 women in presential and 30 women online. In addition, the Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mr. Abdullah Al-Lafi, participated in the dialogue with women about National Reconciliation during the last day. National stakeholders as well, have shown their support for the inclusion and participation of women and girls in implementing the WPS agenda. UN Women provided technical and financial support to host a series of consultations between September and October 2021 with Civil society to provide their recommendations on the role of civil society in the drafting of the roadmap towards a NAP in UNSCR 1325, and their vision for the launch. 177 women and men registered and participated online, whilst 70 women participated in-person in Tripoli (with 30 women attending online), which increased local ownership of the process. UN Women seconded three senior Libyan consultants to the Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs and provided technical expertise and research findings (a baseline study was launched) to identify priorities and key stakeholders. UN Women also participated in the dialogue sessions during the NAP roadmap launch event and Ambassadors came for a “meet and greet” with the women civil society members to show their support. At the local level, UN Women provided a 2-day training for 15 women municipal councilors that increased their awareness on gender-sensitive local governance and of their rights and roles in decision-making at the municipal level, which is crucial for managing security. As part of its coordination mandate to help strengthen effective UN action on gender and women’s empowerment, UN Women provided inputs to gender mainstream the Common Country Analysis (CCA). Through leveraging our UN System coordination role, UN Women ensured the attendance of six (6) women that it nominated in the Area Coordination Group (ACG) South Mayors Meeting chaired by OCHA and attended by UN Agencies from the Humanitarian Country Tea, as well as humanitarian agencies operating in Libya. This was the very first participation of women in the men dominated meeting, as all 14 mayors of the south are men. This was the very first participation of women in the male dominated meeting, as all 14 mayors of the south are men.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBY_D_4.2
Humanitarian/crisis response planning, frameworks and programming are gender inclusive & responsive
More people in Libya have the knowledge to provide gender-inclusive and -responsive humanitarian and crisis response planning and programming, and women and youth are engaged in voicing their demands and recommendations on the subject matter. UN Women has contributed to this progress by organizing a training, in partnership with OCHA who provided the trainer and UNFPA who provided financial support for 26 women from 20 municipalities to improve their skills and knowledge on mainstreaming gender in humanitarian action (GIHA). The participants, along with humanitarian activists and first responders, were trained to become trainers themselves (ToT), which will multiply the impact as they support their municipalities in the assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring of humanitarian response and recovery activities. The ToT was conducted as part of a UNFPA funded project on “Promoting Women’s Empowerment at the Municipal Level”. UN Women coordinated with women municipal councilors for the nominations of the trainees, who will in turn support their respective municipalities to be more gender responsive. The post-training assessment, revealed that 100% of the trained women noted that achieving gender equality in Libyan society is not only the right thing to do but the smart solution for sustainable development and peace. Moreover, six (6) women from the municipalities in the south of Libya, nominated by UN Women, have participated for the first time in the Area Coordination Group hosted by OCHA, that brings together the mayors of these municipalities. These meetings previously had no representation of women’s voices as all 14 mayors are men. The participating women presented the humanitarian needs of women in the south to the international community and representatives of UN Agencies and INGOs present at the meeting. OCHA also included information on women’s humanitarian needs collected and shared by UN Women in the meeting. In addition to this, 14 women from two delegations of the Ahali and Tebu of Murzuk enhanced their knowledge on the role of women in local peacebuilding and mediation by participating in a UN Women organized workshop held for the first time with women’s delegations in Tunis. The views and recommendations of the two delegations, as well as of members of the Libyan Women's Network for Peacebuilding, who have received mediation and negotiation trainings from UN Women in partnership with Clingendael, are included in a regional study on the role of women mediators in the MENA region. UN Women and Promediation delivered training sessions, whilst Promediation identified and brought the delegations from Libya. Members of the Humanitarian Country Team also increased their ability to provide more gender-inclusive and -responsive humanitarian and crisis response. According to the new 2021 Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), the Team commits to strengthening its efforts to integrate gender equality measures in the crisis responses, as well as preparedness, recovery and resilience-building processes, ensuring all have equitable access to and benefit equally from relief, services, information, community level activities and decision making.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBY_D_6.1
Government and civil society assess progress on the implementation of normative and policy frameworks on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
On WPS, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs officially announced its intention to work towards a National Action Plan (NAP) on UNSCR 1325 after assessing progress with the support of three seconded experts and through a launch event for a roadmap towards the NAP. The work towards a NAP on UNSCR 1325 was at the same time marked by high-level support and the commitment to the active involvement of civil society in the progress towards the implementation of the WPS agenda. The launch event was attended by the Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the Minister of State for Women Affairs & the Ministries of Youth, Culture, Foreign Affairs, Social Affairs, and Interior. The Prime Minister of the GNU mandated the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to work on WPS, and the Vice President of the Libyan Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, who participated in a dialogue with women about the progress of national reconciliation during the last day. 177 women and men civil society members participated virtually and in-person in the consultation sessions in September 2021 to give their recommendations on the role of civil society in the drafting of the roadmap and their vision for its launch, which increased local ownership of the process. . Consultations were also held for three days October 2021 in Tripoli, which was attended by 70 women in person and 30 women online. All recommendations were compiled in a draft report. This complemented other online consultations organized by UN Women, on the occasion of the 65th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), where youth assessed progress and voiced their demands for a full and effective participation and decision-making in peace processes and local governance. In addition, the Ministry of Finance submitted its first report on 24 November 2021 on progress towards SDG indicator 5.c.1 regarding the linking of national budgets with efforts to implement laws and policies on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. This SDG indicator falls under the custodianship of UN Women, UNDP and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). UN Women Libya has taken the lead on this activity with the government of Libya by supporting the Focal Point from the Ministry of Finance with the necessary documentation such as the methodology of data collection in Arabic and explaining the purpose behind the study in order to support coordination and communication with other ministries and directories for the data collection. Moreover, 20 women from the Libyan Women’s Network for Peacebuilding (LWNP) participated in a training from UN Women on CEDAW principles and shadow reports, which will allow them to assess progress on the implementation of the Convention in the future. UN Women will continue to ensure that state and non-stake actors are engaged in assessing progress towards the strengthened implementation of global normative frameworks at the impact level in the coming five to ten years, which will also significantly depend on the outcome of the next elections in terms of women’s participation.Showing 1 - 4 of 4
Disclaimer and notes
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).