Advocacy & Development
On 2 and 3 July, Mexico City hosted the regional workshop “Advances in the Development of Gender, Environment and Climate Change Indicators and their Georeferencing,” organized by UN Women Mexico. The event brought together nearly 100 participants, both in person and online, from 16 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives from national women's machineries, ministries of environment, national statistical offices, international organizations, and research institutions came together with a shared objective: to strengthen the production and use of data to support more effective, gender-responsive public policies to that address the climate crisis.
The triple planetary crisis affects women and men differently. While women face disproportionate risks and inequalities resulting from climate change, they also play a critical role in the sustainable management of natural resources, biodiversity conservation, and the development of adaptation and resilience solutions. Yet these contributions remain largely invisible in the data that inform public decision-making. Producing evidence that captures both gender inequalities and women's contributions to climate action is essential for designing more effective and inclusive policies.
30 global leaders unveiled their groundbreaking solutions for gender equality today as part of UN Women’s HeForShe movement. Addressing critical policy issues, changing the course of business leadership and the futures of our next generation, these proven practices have the potential to see gender equality achieved within our lifetime.
HeForShe’s IMPACT Champions, comprised of 10 Heads of State, 10 global CEOs and 10 University Presidents, came together to share with the world the key obstacles they have faced on their journeys, as well as the innovative proven practices that can now empower the rest of the world. H.E. Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of Malawi, shared the story of how his country has ended child marriage once and for all, allowing more than 1500 girls to return to education. Bob Moritz, Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited shared the story of how his organization has gone from 18 per cent female representation in the Global Leadership Team in January 2016 to 47 per cent by December 2016. Paul Boyle, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leicester (U.K.) led a dynamic conversation on how students are generating solutions to address gender-based violence on their campuses.
“The results announced in today’s IMPACT 10x10x10 Parity Report are inspirational. In 2015, I challenged the Champions to ‘think big’ and commit to creative approaches that tackled the greatest barriers. We know that incremental steps do not bring us the benefits that we so urgently need,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women. “As leaders in their fields the Champions hold the key to breaking norms and making game-changing progress for both women and men. The report shares strategies, roadblocks and successes so others can follow suit.”
As part of the 2026 National Assembly Open Week, the House of Representatives convened the National Dialogue on the Electoral College Model for the Special Seats Bill, bringing together legislators, government officials, development partners, civil society organisations, women leaders, and governance experts to examine the revised proposal and build consensus around one of Nigeria’s most significant proposed constitutional reforms on women’s political representation.
Delivering the remarks of House Speaker Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, described the Special Seats Bill as a defining opportunity for the 10th National Assembly to expand women’s representation. While acknowledging the growing momentum behind the Bill, he stressed that advocacy must extend beyond the National Assembly to the State Houses of Assembly, where constitutional amendments must also secure approval.
In her welcome remarks, Honourable Kafilat Ogbara, Chairperson, House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, described the Bill as a practical response to Nigeria’s persistent gender gap in elective office. Chair of the dialogue, Rt. Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, urged stakeholders to build consensus around the reform and ensure that history remembers this generation for choosing inclusion over exclusion.
The year 2025 saw mixed progress on women’s overall representation in parliament, but a key development was the visibility and election of several women from historically disadvantaged groups, including women with disabilities, young women and women from indigenous communities, as shown in the IPU’s recently published Women in parliament in 2025 report.
United Kingdom: Towards a disability-inclusive parliament
In 2025, the Parliament of the United Kingdom embarked on a critical journey – the House of Commons Modernization Committee, under the leadership of its Chair at the time, Lucy Powell, launched an inquiry into how to make Parliament more accessible for those with disabilities.
This was not an isolated occurrence. A year earlier, the chamber had elected the highest number of MPs with disabilities in its history – at least 13 of the elected MPs either have a disability or long-term physical and mental health concerns. Nine of the 13 were women, including Marie Tidball, an MP with a congenital disability.
Since her election, Ms. Tidball has been pushing for the Parliament to become more accessible. This was not only about parliamentarians, but as she highlighted in an interview with a news website, over a fifth of the voting-age population in the country is estimated to have a disability, and it is essential to ensure that Parliament’s composition reflects those numbers. It is also important to ensure that Parliament is inclusive for other people with disabilities who might come through the doors in the future.
This development from the United Kingdom underscores an essential aspect of representative politics – as more and more diverse representatives enter politics and parliaments, they also push these institutions to become more responsive to the needs of their wider communities. In short, parliaments that look like the people are best placed to serve the people.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has published new guidance urging lawmakers to act faster and more decisively against non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including sexualized deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence (AI), a phenomenon that disproportionately targets women and girls.
Combating non-consensual intimate imagery: A parliamentary action guide warns that generative AI has made it easier, cheaper and faster to create abusive synthetic images from ordinary photos, while existing laws and platform safeguards often fail to keep pace.
The guide cites data from UN Women, which reports a surge in sexualized deepfakes, particularly affecting women and girls, with deepfake videos alone increasing by 550% between 2019 and 2023.
With little evidence that technology companies are doing enough to prevent the creation and circulation of such content – and indeed with commercial incentives pulling in the opposite direction – the guide underlines that parliaments are uniquely positioned to shape the responsible use of AI.
Hong Kong civil society has faced increasing challenges in recent years, including arrests and political prosecution, the disbandment of NGOs, shrinking funding sources, the erosion of the right to protest and assembly, and more, since the enactment of the National Security Law (NSL) in 2020.
LGBTQ+ activism has also been negatively affected. Since 2023, the city’s Pride Parade has been forced to move indoors, as organizers could not find public venues where they could freely celebrate. The venue issue also forced the Gay Games 2023 to scale down and the Pink Dot carnival to move indoors. LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have faced drastic reductions in government-related and charity funding.
To find out how the city’s LGBTQ+ communities are affected by the post-NSL political environment, Global Voices conducted a face-to-face interview with Peregrine (a pseudonym), a nonbinary activist who discussed the challenges they faced, their survival strategies, and their hopes for the future.
GV: How do you account for the clampdown on LGBTQ+ rights in recent years, especially since the enactment of NSL in 2020?
Violence against women in politics (VAWIP) is an urgent problem worldwide. At the time of this writing, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband had just been violently assaulted by a conspiracy theorist, shouting “Where is Nancy?” after breaking into their house. In Canada, women, Indigenous, Black, racialized, and queer political actors face harassment and threats on a regular basis. During the 2022 Québec provincial election, politician Marwah Rizqy received death threats from a man who allegedly called the police to inform them where they could find her body (she was pregnant at the time). In 2022, federal Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was accosted by a man who yelled profanities at her while she was with her all-women staff. These are not isolated incidents, and the political science community has an important role to play in addressing them.
Click here to read the article by Cambridge University Press on 15 September 2023.
In the vast landscape of Mongolia, the traditional nomadic lifestyle is deeply rooted in the fabric of its culture.
Gers, the round white felt tents, have served as the traditional homes of the Mongolian people. They have supported their nomadic way of life and culture since before the time of Chinggis Khan.
In the heart of these nomadic homes, two columns, known as "Bagana (Багана),” stand equally in their position. But these are not mere architectural elements supporting the Gers; they are like quiet messengers with a powerful story to tell. These columns serve as symbols of gender equality, with each one representing men and women, beautifully embodying the core principles of harmony and balance in Mongolian culture.
Despite this rich culture, gender inequality still prevails in Mongolia; men and women have not been equally seen in decision-making processes. The country currently ranks 133rd in terms of women's representation in decision-making, with only 17.1 percent of parliamentary seats held by women, falling below the global average of 26.5 percent.
But the narrative runs deeper. Today, Mongolian women continue to face insufficient support during their pregnancy and child-rearing while continuously battling against deeply ingrained gender stereotypes.
The recent UNDP Gender Social Norms Index report confirms this sobering reality. It shows that 97% of Mongolians hold biases against women, often believing men are better political leaders. These biases, rooted in patriarchal values, create systematic barriers for women in politics and public decision-making.
It is an undeniable reality that Mongolian women face every day.
Read here the full article published by the UNDP Mongolia on 13 September 2023.
In September 2022, I had the opportunity to organize a roundtable at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), connected to my 2021 APSA Distinguished Award for Civic and Community Engagement. First conferred in 2020, the award honors “significant civic or community engagement activity by a political scientist which merges knowledge and practice and has an impact outside of the profession or the academy.” In my case, it recognized work I had been doing since 2015 with the National Democratic Institute and other global practitioners to recognize and combat violence against women in politics as a distinct form of violence aimed at preventing and undermining women’s political participation.
Click here to read the full article published by Cambridge University Press on 9 August 2023.
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Somalia grapples with unique cultural, societal, and structural hurdles that hinder women’s access to political processes. Despite introducing a non-legally binding quota, the most recent federal elections in 2022 saw a decline in women’s parliamentary representation. Beyond this, women’s leadership in public spaces remains inadequate at all levels. Patriarchal norms, gender stereotypes, and cultural barriers hinder women’s full participation in decision-making, with women predominantly perceived as homemakers, with caregiving responsibilities.
Click here to read the full article published by Relief Web on 01 August 2023.
A core component of the three-year regional OECD-MENA Transition Fund project on “Promoting women’s participation in parliaments and policy-making,” is conducting a country-based, peer-reviewed assessment of the existing opportunities and current challenges faced by women candidates. The purpose of this report is to present the findings of this assessment, with a view to identifying targeted policy recommendations that can be implemented to accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s political empowerment in Jordan. Recommendations are based on findings of the assessment and international good practices.
This report presents both the enabling factors and obstacles in the election of more women to parliament and municipal councils. A second assessment analysed the parliament’s workplace operations, processes, internal procedures and policy-frameworks through a gender lens. The report reviews Jordan’s current legal framework, including adherence to international standards, and assesses the existence and effectiveness of the country’s institutions in promoting women’s political participation. Legal, institutional and social norms that serve as barriers to women’s political participation are highlighted in chapters 1, 2 and 4.
Click here to access the report.