Advocacy & Lobbying
From 19 to 23 January 2026, UN Women organized an exchange visit on integrated and gender-responsive gender-based violence (GBV) services, with support from the European Union (EU) under the Deliver Justice Project, bringing a delegation from Pakistan to Thailand to strengthen learning, dialogue and South-South cooperation on coordinated responses to violence against women and girls.
The visit brought together government officials, law enforcement representatives, health professionals and civil society actors from Pakistan, alongside UN Women teams from Pakistan, Thailand and the Asia-Pacific Regional Office (ROAP). Over five days, participants engaged with Thailand’s multisectoral approach to GBV response while sharing experiences from Pakistan’s own efforts to strengthen coordination, accountability and survivor-centred services.
Read More Here.
Today, the European Union and UN Women Ukraine signed a project agreement to establish the Gender Equality Facility (GEF), to drive Ukraine’s gender responsive and inclusive recovery and European integration.
The ceremony took place in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka and EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová.
The GEF is a technical assistance initiative. It is designed to accelerate gender-responsive reforms as Ukraine advances on its path to EU membership. The EU-backed project will provide the Ukrainian government with the necessary expertise and tools to mainstream gender equality across all sectors of public policy, recovery planning, and legislative development.
Read More here.
The Conference of African Traditional and Cultural Leaders on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention have reaffirmed commitment to accelerate coordinated action towards ending Gender-Based Violence across the African continent. The made the commitment at a conference convened by the Ford Foundation and UN Women, in collaboration with the Nigerian government in Lagos.The conference drew eminent leaders from across Africa, including traditional authorities, government representatives, and development partners to mobilise cultural authority as a force for protection, justice, and social transformation.
Read more here.
More than 150 participants – including political party representatives, government officials, civil society leaders, young people and aspiring women candidates – gathered on 3–4 December in Port Moresby for the National Forum on Women’s Political Leadership. Convened under the Women Make the Change programme, which is funded by the Australian Government, the two-day event marked a pivotal step in strengthening inclusive political pathways ahead of the Papua New Guinea (PNG) 2027 national general elections.
Convened in partnership with the country’s Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates Commission (IPPCC), the Department for Community Development and Religion (DFCDR), UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from the Government of Australia, the Forum spotlighted the role of political parties and institutions in enabling women’s full participation and leadership in political processes.
On Saturday, January 17, the Ministry for the Status of Women and Women's Rights (MCFDF) took a decisive step for 2026. The Ministry launched a three-day strategic and professional retreat at the Montana Hotel in Pétion-ville. This retreat brought together the institution's senior staff to structure future actions in support of gender equality in Haiti.
Objectives of the 2026 Annual Work Plan (AWP) :
The main objective of this meeting was to validate the Annual Work Plan (AWP). Directors, Coordinators, and staff members worked on several key areas:
Strategic Alignment with the National Action Plan resulting from the National Consultations :
The 2026 AWP builds upon the actions undertaken during the National Consultations, ensuring their concrete implementation and impact on the ground;
Institutional Strengthening of MCFDF Entities :
The AWP includes actions to consolidate the capacities of MCFDF entities, enabling them to better meet the needs of the population and contribute effectively to the country's development.
Administrative Roadmap for the Adoption of New Organic Decrees :
A detailed roadmap has been developed to support the adoption of the new organic decrees, ensuring smooth and effective implementation.
Women's Political Participation and the Electoral Context :
The AWP pays particular attention to promoting women's political participation, especially in the context of the upcoming elections. Actions will be implemented to prevent Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and advocate for equitable representation of women in decision-making bodies.
The empowerment of women in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is increasingly being seen as a social goal only, it is viewed as the ‘enabler’ of the above-mentioned development and the source of overall economic growth for the nation.(Arab News) The principles of justice, dignity, and equality that are established in the Constitution of Pakistan and the national policy discourse, which are the very core of Islamic teachings, serve as the support for women’s complete involvement in the economic, social, and political spheres of life.(UNFPA Pakistan) As Pakistan is getting ready to have the 9th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Conference on Women in 2026, the country’s emerging role as a leader in the promotion of women’s empowerment in the Muslim world is becoming more and more important.(Dawn)
Women empowerment in Pakistan has been envisioned since the inception of the country when the founder of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, highlighted the indispensable contributions of women to the development of the state and called for their equal rights and opportunities. (UNFPA Pakistan) Gradually over the years, this vision has been realized in the form of important policy measures that included the National Policy for Development and Empowerment of Women (2002) which was the first step towards subsequent legal, economic, and political reforms aimed at broadening women’s rights and participation. (pakistan.unwomen.org)
In 2016 at the launch of the #NotTheCost campaign, NDI presented a list of strategies to address and prevent violence against women in politics, focusing on a wide range of potential change-makers, from the global to the grassroots levels. While a deeper understanding of the issue has emerged, new problems have arisen. The world is grappling with a global pandemic. Many countries have seen their democratic institutions severely weakened. Technological innovations have created new contexts and means of perpetrating violence against women. On the fifth anniversary of the #NotTheCost campaign, NDI is renewing its call to action and presenting new opportunities to end both prevailing and newly emerging types of violence against women in politics. In the 2021 call to action, NDI identifies new opportunities to end both prevailing and newly emerging types of violence against women in politics.
Click here to read the full report.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organized the conference "Promoting the political participation of women with disabilities" in Vienna on 16 and 17 April 2018. The event was held as part of ODIHR’s project “Our right to participate – Promoting the participation of Persons with Disabilities in political and public life (Phase II)”, implemented across the OSCE region.
The conference served as a platform to raise awareness about the limited participation of women with disabilities in political life across the OSCE region and to identify positive measures which can facilitate more diverse and inclusive democratic institutions and parliaments. It explored ways to strengthen linkages between the women’s movement and the disability movement, drawing on common experiences, challenges and opportunities.
Click here to read the meeting report.
Inclusive politics remains an elusive goal in Pakistan, which has a history of military interference in governance institutions, unstable elected governments and internecine conflict. Women’s voices, within the corridors of power or as constituents whose interests must be accounted for, have been weak but are growing stronger.
Activism, led by the women’s movement and civil society advocacy groups since the 1980s, has yielded results. The state has opened up democratic spaces to women in elected legislatures and local bodies through an expanded reserved seats quota; and recently legislators revised electoral rules to mandate a minimal level of women’s greater inclusion as candidates and voters.
This paper aims to contribute to the growing body of literature around how feminist mobilisation and political voice leads to progressive policy outcomes. It does this through exploring three questions:
How did the women’s movement lead to the decision to restore and increase the quota for women in elected bodies?
How have women used their elected positions, and worked in caucuses, to promote their interests? What other measures will further strengthen their political voice?
Can we gain insight into pro-women policymaking by looking at women’s activism, political voice, and other factors within a broader contextual framework to identify patterns that may predict further progress?
Click here to see the paper.
Given that 2018 is the centenary of some women gaining the vote in the UK, the British Council has commissioned this research to map and understand the key developments in women’s role in politics in the UK and around the world over the last 100 years, contrasting the UK’s progress with international examples.
This report will form a basis for developing international discussion and debate about these vital issues and generating opportunities to do even more to support women’s political participation. This is in furtherance of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.5 – ‘Women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life’ and supports the British Council’s role of creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust as the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
The research engaged a range of participants from the UK as a whole, the nations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and internationally through 40 individual interviews; six roundtables with 77 stakeholders and over 60 talking head short films to reflect many different experiences and a range of expertise. There was a desire to understand the direct experiences of participants, and their voices and views were drawn on directly throughout. Participants were mainly women and ranged from those with direct experience as politicians, to those who are experts as academics, international consultants and activists in the field of women’s political participation.
Click here to read the full report.
Today’s political landscape poses complex global challenges to democracies.
The landscape is shaped by globalization, geopolitical power shifts, changing roles and structures of (supra)national organizations and institutions, and the rise in modern communications technologies. Transnational phenomena such as migration and climate change influence the dynamics of conflict and development, citizenship and state sovereignty. Rising inequalities, and the social polarization and exclusion they generate, skew political representation and voice, reducing the vital moderate centre of the electorate.
These dynamics have contributed to a widely contested view that democracy is in decline. Events around the world continue to challenge the notion of democracy’s resilience and make democratic systems appear fragile and threatened. Yet democratic values among citizens, and within institutions at the national and international levels, continue to be expressed and defended.
This Overview of International IDEA’s The Global State of Democracy 2017: Exploring Democracy’s Resilience outlines the key current challenges to democracy and the enabling conditions for its resilience. Based on newly developed Global State of Democracy indices as a key evidence base to inform policy interventions and identify problemsolving approaches, the publication presents global and regional assessments of the state of democracy from 1975—at the beginning of the third wave of democratization—to 2015, complemented by a qualitative analysis of challenges to democracy up to 2017.
A single moment can spark a revolution, collective actions can transform laws, creative expression can change attitudes and an invention can alter the course of history. It’s these threads that weave together to propel the women’s movement — even in the face of obstacles. Discover how some of these strands, big and small, have shaped your lives, and the rights and lives of women and girls worldwide.
Explore women’s activism from generations past and present with this UN Women interactive platform.