Women’s economic empowerment is critical for sustainable peace and development in Libya. This study focuses on women’s empowerment in the economic track of Libya’s peace process. It considers the benefits of gender-mainstreaming and the normative framework that supports gender equality, including UN Security Council resolutions in relation to Libya and the Women, Peace and Security agenda, the peacebuilding framework for Libya and international human rights law.

Women-owned businesses (WOBs) in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region could make significant contributions to entrepreneurial activity and countries’ economic growth, but face challenges and barriers. This report examines access to finance in the United Arab Emirates for WOBs; describes government and private measures to promote women’s entrepreneurship; looks at global best practices and makes recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders to improve women-owned businesses’ access to financing.

L'étude de recherche participative vient répondre aux questions suivantes: Quels sont les besoins des femmes et des jeunes filles au sud Tunisien? Quel est leur rôle dans la cohésion sociale et quelles sont les opportunités économiques pour elles? Elle vient proposer des pistes de solutions pour renforcer l’autonomisation des femmes et leur potentiel de résilience et leur rôle dans la cohésion sociale pour la prévention de l’extrémisme violent.

This report on the proceedings of the global conference “Gender-inclusive peace processes: Strengthening women’s meaningful participation through constituency building” explores current challenges, best practices, and recommendations on how best to leverage the practice of constituency building to further gender-inclusive peace.

The paper considers the under-representation of women in high-level mediation and peacemaking positions. Set in the context of successive normative commitments to increase the representation of women in high-level mediation, the paper considers why peace process mediation appears to be an outlier in the general trend towards gender parity in UN senior posts in particular.

This report on the proceedings of the 2018 conference “Women’s meaningful participation in peace processes: Modalities and strategies across tracks”, explores innovations, trends, and challenges in the interplay between official, high-level processes and unofficial processes in which civil society plays a leadership role.

This brief addresses the importance of women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation to an effective pandemic response and to peacemaking efforts, and how the women, peace and security agenda can provide a critical framework for inclusive decision-making and sustainable solutions. It also provides preliminary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on women’s participation in ceasefires and peace processes and offers a series of recommendations, including on “building back better”.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Women Palestine Office conducted a flash online survey on the impact of COVID-19 on women-led MSME's employing up to 95 employees. The online survey was administered between 17-27 March 2020. In total, 301 women entrepreneurs from the West Bank and Gaza responded to the survey. The infographic report shows a summary of 301 women respondents across Palestine.

UN Women’s Regional Office for the Arab States, in collaboration with UN Women Country Offices in Iraq, Libya, and Yemen, organized a two-day meeting Women and Young People in Peace Processes: Synergies and Cross-learning, funded by the Government of Germany. The meeting was held in Beirut, Lebanon and sought to provide a space for inter-generational dialogue between women and young people from countries affected by the conflict in the MENA region, to exchange strategies that have been utilized to mitigate conflict, to broker dialogue and influence track 1 peace processes in the region. Through this exchange and dialogue, the meeting sought to identify opportunities for strategic alliances and to define common demands.

Around the world, young women are working to prevent violent conflict, recover from crises, and build peaceful, tolerant communities, yet most peace and security interventions are blind to the needs and contributions of young women. This paper examines the diverse roles that young women play in these contexts and offers recommendations for ensuring their meaningful inclusion and participation in building and sustaining peace.