UNIFEM UK: Working for women's empowerment and gender equality

Progress for Women Is Progress for All

UNIFEM's four strategic goals:

  1. Reducing Women's Poverty and Exclusion
  2. Ending Violence Against Women
  3. Halting the Spread of HIV/AIDS
  4. Achieving Gender Equality in Democratic Governance

1: Reducing Women's Poverty and Exclusion

Poverty traps women in multiple layers of discrimination and hinders their ability to claim their rights. Not only do women bear a disproportionate burden of the world's poverty, but in some cases, globalisation has widened the gap, with women losing more than their share of jobs, benefits and labour rights. From tax systems to trade regimes economic policies and institutions too often fail to take gender disparities into account. With too few seats at the tables where economic decisions are made, women themselves have little chance of rectifying the inequalities.

UNIFEM Responds: Strategies That Make a Difference

UNIFEM helps women reshape conditions at both ends of the economic spectrum, enlarging their participation in the overarching policies governing resource flows and in the everyday practicalities of gaining secure livelihoods.

Bringing gender into trade and economic policies: The path out of poverty for most women requires economic frameworks that address their exclusion from the economic mainstream. UNIFEM supports efforts to make budgets, national poverty reduction strategies, data systems and trade policies close gender gaps and protect human rights. 

Expanding access to markets, goods and services: With many poor women either locked out of economic opportunities or into low-wage informal jobs, UNIFEM assists women in securing the tools that offer a way out, including job training, information on labour laws and rights, credit, and access to land and water. With a focus on fostering opportunities across economic sectors, UNIFEM also helps build the capacity of economic institutions and networks to provide women with these forms of support.

At Work Around the World

Africa

Women in nearly a dozen countries have begun working with UNIFEM on strategies to incorporate gender into national poverty reduction strategies; these have already been applied in Cape Verde, Niger and Senegal. In Rwanda, UNIFEM-brokered connections to the private sector have allowed groups of widows to sell their handicrafts on the international market. Support for the Platform for Women's Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa led the Southern African Development Community to set up a land desk to advocate for national land policies that protect women's interests and rights.

Arab States

UNIFEM has joined with the UN Population Fund, the League of Arab States and the Centre of Arab Women to train government officials and women's organizations in the region on how to insert gender into budgets. In Egypt, Jordan and Syria, UNIFEM has worked with national statistics departments to produce census data that reflects gender differences. A project in Jordan trained women entrepreneurs to capitalize on opportunities provided by tourism.

Asia and the Pacific

In the Philippines, UNIFEM and a migrant workers' organization have started a savings and investment programme for returnees. Across South Asia, UNIFEM has assisted with the formation of networks of home-based workers that are now discussing social protection proposals with their governments.

Central and Eastern Europe

A review of rural women entrepreneurs by UNIFEM and the UN Development Programme prompted the Romanian government to extend new forms of credit to women. In Bulgaria, Hungary and Kazakhstan, women's organisations are using UNIFEM research on the impact of globalisation on women to advocate economic justice.

Latin America and the Caribbean

After several of UNIFEM's partners in Mexico mobilised a national campaign by women's groups, the government agreed to assign a budget line for gender equality programmes and require 14 ministries to report quarterly on their activities and expenditures. In Ecuador, UNIFEM helped convene over 60 women's organisations into an advocacy network for micro-credit. Meetings with unions, civil servants and the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations raised understanding of the gender implications of the Mercosur trade negotiations.

How you can help:

The projects undertaken by UNIFEM make a difference to the everyday lives of women around and their families around the world. UNIFEM UK needs your support to help fund this work and to raise awareness of the issues affecting women's rights and security.

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UNIFEM UK – United Kingdom National Committee for UNIFEM

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