Gender Equality in the Earthquake Humanitarian Response for North West Syria

In May 2022, the UN Women Regional Office for Arab States and the Government of Finland organized a two-day workshop titled “Women Building Peace in the Arab States: Regional Synergies and Cross-Learning” to highlight women’s mediation efforts in their communities and the lessons learned from interventions under the regional WPS programme and the Syria WPS programme.

UN Women’s new report “Women's Participation in Local Mediation: Lessons from Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen” sheds light on the diverse mediation roles women have played to resolve conflict and restore social cohesion in their communities.

With thanks to the Government of Japan, who generously funded the regional LEAP and COVID-19 programmes as well as the resilience monitoring efforts, UN Women was able to roll-out the gender-sensitive resilience capacity index in 5 countries, namely Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen, through 11 of its implementing partners.

The objective of this regional assessment is to look at the implications of the macroeconomic response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arab region. The regional mapping allows for identification of the dominant trends and policy priorities across different areas of interventions and looks at the potential implications of [largely] gender-blind macroeconomic responses and investments during the first six months of the pandemic.

This desk review summarises global and regional trends and best practices and techniques for reaching out remotely to women and girls who experience violence, including during lockdowns and to survivors of online violence.

With thanks to the Government of Japan, who generously funded the regional ‘Women's Leadership, Empowerment, Access, and Protection (LEAP) project as well as the resilience monitoring efforts in 2020 and 2020, UN Women in Yemen was able to roll-out the gender-sensitive resilience capacity index in Al Hodaidah, Aden and Hadramout through its implementing partners, the Yemeni Women Union (YWU), Women Charity Association for Combating Poverty (WACP) and Youth Leadership Development Institute (YLDF).

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.

This analysis of the existing NAPs-WPS of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen was undertaken to assess and demonstrate the direct relevance of the plans to each country’s COVID-19 response. While NAPs-WPS are relevant in every crisis, the analysis highlights particular areas of overlap with specific global responses to COVID-19, thus providing critical evidence of the value of implementing nation action plans on women, peace and security in the current crisis.

The brief explores the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and its gender dimensions in conflict settings with a focus on gender-based violence (GBV), women’s participation in decision-making, labour markets and livelihoods. The paper outlines gender issues and recommendations for stakeholders and national/international actors with the aim of providing effective mitigation measures and actions in response to COVID-19.

Why Gender Matters in the Discussion on Returns to Syria

A brief highlighting UN Women’s Programme on supporting a meaningful Syrian Women Engagement in the Political Peace Process.

Conducted by UNDP, UN Women, UNFPA, and ESCWA, this study on Gender Justice & the Law in the Arab States Region provides a comprehensive assessment of laws and policies affecting gender equality and protection against gender-based violence in Arab countries. The report is composed of 18 country profiles, each of which maps a country’s key legislative developments and gaps regarding gender justice. This introduction provides an overall summary of these country chapters followed by a...

Displacement and shifting gender roles have aggravated the situation of Syrian female refugees in the region, putting them at critical risk of violence and exploitation.

Like their male counterparts, female refugees in Lebanon are struggling to meet even their most basic needs. But their challenges are aggravated by entrenched gender inequalities and norms.

This report aims to amplify the voices and experiences of Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi women who make significant contributions to the stability and security of their communities through resolving and managing local conflict, yet whose efforts are often marginalized, dismissed and misrepresented as insignificant. Presented as a series of case studies, the report examines how women in the region engage, influence and shape local processes for conflict and dispute resolution.

UN Women, with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative (IPTI) at the Graduate School Geneva, organized a three-day meeting entitled Mobilizing women in the MENA region: Roadmaps for peace in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The meeting was held in Beirut, Lebanon from 19 – 21 June 2018 and aimed to provide a space for women’s rights actors from conflict affected countries to engage in closed-door strategic planning around building momentum for inclusive peace.

The report also describes how the determinants of low female labour force participation in the region have been discussed in scholarly literature, prepares economic and gender profiles of 17 Arab countries and puts forward a synthesis of policy recommendations for female-inclusive growth in the future.

This study seeks to generate a sound understanding of women’s financial inclusion, and more specifically in conflict and post-conflict situations in selected Arab States; it assesses prospects for and challenges to the achievement of women’s financial inclusion and documents good practices and lessons learned to inform UN Women’s future interventions in this area.

This report outlines how women’s economic empowerment can be used as a strategic tool to assist policy-makers and companies to reach their growth-related goals.