This brief provides evidence of the different ways in which women’s rights organizations have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the predicament that many of them face of increased relevance and demand at the same time as civic closure, restrictive work conditions, and diminishing funding.

UN Women conducted its first rapid assessment of the impact. of the COVID-19 pandemic on UN Women Oasis Centre beneficiaries in March 2020, when the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Fourteen months into the COVID-19 pandemic...

UN Women is at the forefront of the global drive to remove gender barriers because we believe in a world of justice and human rights for everyone. Towards that end, and as the only United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality, we marshal the world’s best gender expertise and the considerable resources of the United Nations. We connect people in many realms, the national and international, the public and private, activists and officials. Together, our efforts are more than any of us could pursue alone.

The aim of this report is to present evidence on the impact of UN Women’s interventions and provide in-depth analysis around resilience and factors critical for strengthening resilience. This will allow UN Women to expand its evidence based on resilience and help better design programmes, ensuring that they are mainly based on needs and vulnerabilities of the population of concern.

This assessment developed by UNW, UNHCR, WFP and UNICEF demonstrate gender inequalities across the Syrian refugee population, limiting access, rights and opportunities for women and girls, particularly as related to economic participation, education, food insecurity, humanitarian assistance, legal issues, and wider protections, including sexual and gender-based violence.

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe and throughout the Arab States. The coronavirus pandemic is challenging hard-earned progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and further exposing the detrimental effect gender inequality has on individuals, society, and the economy.

Ce Policy Brief met l’accent sur les différentes formes d’impact de la COVID-19 sur la santé des femmes en Tunisie. Durant la première période de l’épidémie, de nombreuses prestations sanitaires ont été reportées tandis que le personnel hospitalier se consacrait à la préparation des services de santé pour s’attaquer à la COVID-19.

Le rapport a pour objet une veille normative sur les différentes mesures prises en Tunisie pour faire face à la crise de la Covid-19 durant la première vague (mars - août 2020) sous l’aune de l’approche genre.

The results detailed in this country brief overwhelming speak to increased concerns for safety, both inside and outside the home (as a result of the pandemic), increased secondary trauma, specifically, the witnessing of violence against women, and online harassment. Most respondents believed tackling gender-based violence to be a priority in the COVID-19 response and voiced a willingness to report violations.

This brief presents emerging evidence on the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the care economy. Complementing a separate UN Women brief on COVID-19 and economic recovery, this brief highlights key measures needed to address the increase in unpaid care work as a result of the pandemic, ensure adequate compensation and decent working conditions for paid care workers, and enable the participation of paid and unpaid caregivers in the policy decisions that affect them.

This brief shines a light on the critical role of women’s leadership in responding to COVID-19 and preparing for a more equitable recovery. Across the globe, women are at the helm of institutions carrying out effective and inclusive COVID-19 responses, from the highest levels of decision-making to frontline service delivery.

This brief presents emerging evidence of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on women’s economic empowerment. Complementing a separate UN Women policy brief on “COVID-19 and the care economy”, it considers the immediate gendered economic impacts, including widening socioeconomic divides and shifting national and international priorities for the allocation of resources, as well as the long-term implications for women’s employment and livelihoods.

This report, based on answers to a questionnaire circulated amongst CSOs networks in the region, presents emerging evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality and VAWG in the Arab States. Developed through the perspective of women CSOs, the report documents major threats to women survivors of violence, associated with COVID-19, and the repercussions of the pandemic on vulnerable groups such as refugee and migrant women, and women with disabilities.

Women and girls admitted to COVID-19 community isolation centers are particularly vulnerable to be subjected to harassment, violence, exploitation and abuse due to specific gendered protection risks, including being confined to an isolated space, the gendered staffing of centers, the economic vulnerability of women and girls, and avenues to seek help being limited or hard to reach. WHO and UN Women are co-leading interventions within the isolation facilities to protection the needs of women and girls, through protection monitoring, ensuring complaint and feedback mechansisms, community messaging, and training and capacity building.

UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States partnered with RIWI corp. to conduct a web-survey in 9 countries in the region, (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen) to document the gendered impact of COVID-19 on men and women in the region, with a focus on gender roles and attitudes and practices related to gender equality and violence against women. This policy brief highlights the key findings from the regional study.

Through a regional assessment, UN Women has reached out to civil society organizations (CSOs) to understand the impact of COVID-19 on their work, the challenges they are facing and the solutions they are creating. This brief aims to highlight the key findings of this assessment. The brief also provides qualitative and quantitative data on the impact of COVID-19 on violence against women, including within the most vulnerable groups, through the lens of women CSOs from the Arab States region.

In light of these projections, UN Women, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and partner United Nations agencies have prepared proposals on formulating consistent policies and programmes for the short and long term, as part of an urgent regional response to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. For this response to be effective, it must take into consideration the social prejudices and gender norms that discriminate against women in the public and private spheres in the Arab region.

Arab Declaration on Progress in the Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action after 25 years

In 1995, over 17,000 representatives from 189 nations met in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women. The historic meeting resulted in the unanimous adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; an agenda considered to be the “Bill of Rights” for women. 25 years after Beijing, Member States, civil society organizations and women’s rights advocates from across the globe are coming together to review the implementation of this agenda. Our newsletter will focus on the individuals and institutions leading this global process in the Arab States region.

This brochure aims to provide a preliminary summary of the achievements of the Arab countries in implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 25 years after its adoption, focusing on the intersections of the twelve areas of concern with the sustainable development agenda.