What is UN Women?
UN Women, officially the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, is a subsidiary body of the United Nations, The UN General Assembly, established by the UNGA decision in 2010 to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women around the world, increase the efficiency of the use of available resources and unite the mandates and functions of individual UN system units dealing exclusively with gender equality issues but also the empowerment of women. The leading body coordinating the work of the UN system in the issue of gender equality.
What are the UN Women鈥檚 main roles?
- To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms.
- To help Member States implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
- To lead and coordinate the UN system鈥檚 work on gender equality, as well as promote accountability, including through regular monitoring of system-wide progress.
It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women鈥檚 equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas:
- increasing women鈥檚 leadership and participation;
- ending violence against women;
- engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes;
- enhancing women鈥檚 economic empowerment;
- and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting.