Advocacy & Development
The decisions that shape everyday life, from the availability of childcare to investment in safe drinking water, are still made in political institutions where women hold a minority of seats. Figures supplied by UN Women show that women occupy just 27.5 per cent of parliamentary positions worldwide and 22.4 per cent of Cabinet posts leading policy areas, revealing the distance between commitments to equality and the distribution of political power.
Women's equal participation is central to the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, with representation carrying consequences far beyond the numbers recorded after an election. A seat in government gives women a direct role in setting spending priorities, shaping public services and writing the laws that affect their lives, responsibilities that remain unevenly shared across much of the world.
Iceland has retained first place in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for the 17th consecutive year. According to the 2026 report, 93% of the country’s measured gender gap has been closed.
It remains the only economy above 90% overall, ahead of Finland at 87.2% and Norway at 85.7%. Meanwhile, the report identifies continuing gaps in economic participation, senior leadership and earnings.
Iceland Closes 93% of Measured Gender Gap, While Economic Participation Remains Its Weakest Area
- Iceland ranks first globally for the 17th consecutive year with 93% of its gender gap closed.
- Finland ranks second at 87.2% and Norway third at 85.7%.
- Economic participation remains Iceland’s weakest of the four measured areas, despite gains over the past year.
KARACHI: Sindh has taken its first province-wide measure of the gender divide - and the numbers paint a picture of progress alongside some stubborn gaps, with millions of girls still out of school and women remaining heavily underrepresented in the police and judiciary.
The province's first-ever gender equality report, released by the provincial government on Friday, records gains in maternal health, women's employment and political participation, but flags persistent disparities in literacy, school enrolment, economic opportunities, digital access and representation in decision-making.
Unveiling the report, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah directed all provincial departments to undertake targeted reforms based on its findings, strengthen gender-sensitive governance and improve women's and girls' access to education, healthcare, employment and public representation. The report was presented at the Chief Minister House by CM's Special Assistant on Human Rights Rajveer Singh Sodho.
Describing the report as a new policy tool for the province, CM Shah said its findings would help the government identify areas where progress had been made and those requiring urgent intervention, while guiding evidence-based planning, resource allocation and institutional reforms.
Women have played an important role in Colombia’s efforts to build peace after more than five decades of armed conflict. The conflict had a particularly serious impact on rural women, as violence and displacement cost them their land, livelihoods and economic security. United Nations (UN) Women reported that rural and Indigenous women were pushed into severe poverty during the conflict. During peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), women’s organizations pushed for greater participation and demanded recognition of these experiences. Their involvement led to the creation of a Gender Sub-Commission and helped bring women’s rights and gender equality into the 2016 Peace Agreement. Women in peacebuilding in Colombia therefore play a role not only in building peace but also in addressing some of the social and economic effects left by decades of conflict.
For the past two decades, the Global Gender Gap Index has benchmarked progress towards gender parity across four dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The index continues to offer a consistent measure of the present state of gender parity, as well as the long-term evolution of global efforts to close the gender gap.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2026, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday, reveals that gender parity worldwide is closer than ever — standing at 69.2%.
However, the Geneva-based nonprofit warned that full parity may still be 120 years away and that the progress made so far remains "fragile."
The report, which looked at gender parity across workforce participation, education, health and politics in 145 economies, found that women now occupy senior leadership positions in government and business at levels that were rare globally when the index began in 2006.
Yet, while women's presence at the top of politics has grown since the first report, the past decade has seen that trend reverse. The percentage of countries led by women peaked in 2022 and has now fallen back to 2016 levels.
WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi warned that while parity is a foundation for growth and competitiveness, it is "not inevitable."
"To accelerate, governments and employers need to learn from the policies that work and apply them faster. A new economy demands a new approach to talent," Zahidi said in a press release to accompany the report.
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, digital platforms have become central to political participation in the country, enabling female politicians, elections candidates, activists and public figures to mobilise communities and shape public debate.However, this visibility has drastically exposed women in politics to various forms of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) : Online harassment, sexualised abuse, defamation, threats and coordinated smear campaigns are routinely used to undermine women’s credibility, silence their voices and deter their participation in political life. Beyond the severe harm inflicted on individual women in politics, TFGBV constitutes a structural threat to all women’s political rights, democratic pluralism and freedom of expression. By reinforcing misogynistic norms and normalising sexist intimidation, it erodes hard-won gains of women’s political participation in Tunisia.
What is at stake extends beyond Tunisia. The 2011 Revolution of Dignity which ended the Ben Ali dictatorship marked a historic turning point, igniting the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and positioned Tunisia as a symbol of democratic possibility in the region and on the African continent. Earlier milestones, from the Personal Status Code of 1956 to progressive reforms including Organic Law No. 58-2017 on the elimination of violence against women and girls (Law 58), have long cast Tunisia as a reference point for women’s rights and legal reform. Tunisia’s trajectory sends signals across Africa and the Middle East about what becomes possible when women’s rights are defended and what collapses when they are politically sacrificed.
This webinar focused on barriers, challenges and strategies pertaining to the issue of gender parity for women in politics. Our guest speaker for the discussion was Dr. Mona Lena Krook.
Applying an intersectional lens the webinar discussion drew on research from Dr. Mona Lena Krook’s book, Elect Women for a Change: The Path to Gender Parity in Politics, Dr. Krook presented a core thesis: the global political community must move beyond aspirational "critical mass" targets (typically 30%) toward a non-negotiable 50/50 parity framework. This shift represents a transition from viewing women’s participation as an elective "add-on" to recognizing it as a fundamental requirement for democratic legitimacy.
Over the past decade Somaliland has seen a worrying convergence of political exclusion for women and active pushback against progressive sexual-offences laws and gender-equity measures. The result is not only weaker legal protection for survivors, but social environments that enable sexual violence and silence victims. This article examines recent examples and reports, connects them to the rollback of protections and low female political representation, and outlines the human-rights and social costs for Somaliland’s women and girls.
This article is released by the Women’s Human Rights, Education & Environment Association (WHEEA), with KOMBOA through the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network. It aims to expose the growing impact of backlash against the women’s rights movement in Somaliland, particularly following the rejection of progressive sexual-offences legislation. By documenting recent cases of sexual violence, political exclusion, and institutional failures, the article highlights how resistance to women’s rights has deepened impunity and vulnerability for women and girls. In addition to analysis, the article provides concrete policy recommendations for lawmakers, religious leaders, civil society, and international partners to strengthen protection, accountability, and women’s political participation in Somaliland.
This brief provides an overview of how the UN system has advanced global efforts to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the past five years. Drawing from the contributions of 36 UN entities and mechanisms for the Inventory of United Nations activities to end violence against women and girls, the brief highlights collective progress achieved through coordinated action, joint programming and partnerships with governments, civil society and women’s rights organizations. The brief documents the UN system’s role in advancing global norms and standards, with notable developments in violence in the work environment, technology-facilitated violence, conflict-related sexual violence and harmful practices. It showcases how coordination mechanisms and flagship joint initiatives—such as the spotlight initiative, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and other inter-agency programmes—have mobilized resources, strengthened laws and policies, expanded access to survivor-centered services, scaled up prevention efforts and improved data and evidence. At the same time, the brief underscores persistent gaps, including uneven implementation of laws, limited financing, fragmented prevention efforts, data challenges and growing backlash against gender equality. It emphasizes the central role of women’s rights organizations and feminist movements in driving sustainable change. Looking ahead to 2030, the brief calls for the UN system to deepen coordination, strengthen accountability, invest in evidence-based interventions at scale and reinforce locally led, whole-of-society approaches to end VAWG.
Mitigating violence against women in politics in Africa – insights from Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe
A new book maps how electoral violence affects women in local politics in Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, showing how they are systematically targeted in ways that limit their participation and help maintain male-dominated political systems.
Drawing on 134 interviews with politically active women, this new book – Making politics safer –documents a wide range of violence and abuse, including physical and sexual attacks, psychological pressure, economic manipulation and symbolic humiliation. It also highlights intimidation, online harassment, disinformation and violence within political parties as common tools used to sideline women.
Younger and unmarried women, those from marginalised ethnic groups, and those in opposition parties are found to face the highest risks. Even in countries where gender quotas exist, such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, a higher number of women in elected positions has not resulted in safer conditions.
Publication date: 16 October 2025
Twenty-five years after the United Nations adopted Resolution 1325, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is both a landmark in diplomacy and a study in unfulfilled promise. Its most profound achievement has been to force open a conversation about the gendered power structures that fuel conflict. But that opening is narrowing. Escalating wars, a backlash against gender justice and a collapse in funding now threaten to strip the agenda of its transformative edge. The WPS agenda remains an essential tool for women peacebuilders. Whether it survives as a force for justice depends on whether the global community backs its principles with the resources and political will to make them real. Without that, the resolution’s 25th anniversary will mark the start of its decline, not its maturity.