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 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.

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.