Gender Equality

La protection sociale occupe une place de plus en plus importante dans l’agenda du développement social en Afrique subsaharienne. Des systèmes de protection sociale complets peuvent contribuer à éliminer la pauvreté et à réduire les inégalités, stimuler une activité productive et la croissance économique, et créer une résilience face aux crises multiples et récurrentes, en particulier s’ils fonctionnent en tandem avec d’autres politiques sociales et du marché du travail. Récemment, les pays de la région ont largement utilisé les instruments de protection sociale pour faire face aux retombées économiques et sociales de la pandémie de COVID-19. Dans ce contexte, cette note analyse dans quelle mesure et de quelles manières les pays de la région intègrent l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans leurs efforts de protection sociale, tirant parti d’une base de données unique de stratégies nationales de protection sociale de 30 pays de la région, y compris 14 en Afrique de l’Ouest et centrale, et 16 en Afrique de l’Est et australe. Elle constate que si un nombre important de stratégies reconnaissent les risques et les vulnérabilités liés au genre, peu incluent des actions spécifiques pour y faire face. Cette note s’achève par un ensemble de recommandations pour une intégration accrue des préoccupations relatives à l’égalité des sexes dans les efforts visant à mettre en place des systèmes nationaux de protection sociale.

Women face persistent structural challenges to decent jobs and economic independence. Now their livelihoods are even more vulnerable because of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This vulnerability is due in part to a system of gender inequality that imposes unpaid care and domestic work on women through socially constructed gender norms, and that deprives women of effective universal protection systems. How can we cushion the adverse effects during the COVID-19 crisis while paving the way for structural transformation? This policy brief, part of UNDP's Development Future Series, examines the most at-risk elements of women's income-generation capacity, presents the possibilities and estimated costs of a temporary basic income (TBI) for women's economic security across the developing world, and discusses options for long-term commitments of economic protection and gender equality.

How long do impacts of the graduation-based social protection approach last after support ends? What factors affect the impacts’ longevity? What do these factors mean for those seeking to exit poverty sustainably? This brief explores such questions by revisiting women who participated in a UNDP social protection initiative in one of Bangladesh’s most climate-vulnerable districts between 2017 and 2019. Four years on, the brief unpacks how the women are faring in a context where they are exposed to climate-induced shocks. The insights contribute towards sparking discussion on the sustainability of impacts and on influencing factors while carrying key lessons for social protection to achieve sustainable outcomes.

This paper analyses the gender gaps in access to and use of ICT, as well as ICT-related training, education, and employment opportunities, with a focus on the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It argues that gender equality in access to digital technologies and basic and advanced digital skills, as well as to decision-making, will transform women’s ability to participate at every level in the future economy and influence the digital economy as ICT professionals themselves. Achieving gender equality in digital access and ICT professions requires efforts at institutional and policy levels to harness ICTs to serve the goals of equality and justice, so that the gender-based discrimination and segregation in the labour market are not reproduced in the digital economy, and so that the benefits of data and digitally-driven change accrue equally to all.

Small arms and gender are intrinsically linked. A rich body of research in South-East Europe has documented how gender norms and roles can, in a complex interplay with other factors, fuel demand for small arms and shape patterns of their misuse. Gender also conditions specific risks that women and men face with respect to small arms misuse, in particular the forms and extent of their exposure to armed violence. On the other hand, widespread availability and misuse of small arms exacerbate existing gender inequalities, both in conflict and non-conflict settings, and reinforce power imbalances between women and men, which is most evident in the context of violence against women. These patterns are remarkably stable and, until recently, policy and the operational response have been weak and have mostly failed to adequately address links between gender and small arms. However, institutions in the Western Balkans, with support from UNDP SEESAC, are increasingly making efforts to mainstream the gender perspective across arms control frameworks, providing a blueprint for more gender-responsive policy solutions and contributing to more resilient communities. Elaborating on such experiences, this brief provides an overview of key evidence which has shaped arms control debates in the region and facilitated making a case for mainstreaming gender in small arms control. The brief further outlines practical strategies for gender mainstreaming and highlights the importance of gender analysis in enhancing the gender responsiveness of arms control. Finally, it discusses policy implications of bringing gender perspectives into arms control policies as well as ways forward.

In recent years, the Government of Costa Rica has recognized the importance of promoting gender equality and women empowerment in the conservation and sustainable use of forests. Costa Rica recognizes that promoting gender equality implies not only mentioning the issue as a priority or as a principle, but also prioritizing the identification of relevant gender inequalities and proposing concrete actions to address them. This brief examines how the Government of Costa Rica, with support from UNDP, is addressing prevalent gender gaps, empowering women in the environmental sector, and comprehensively integrating gender into environmental policies, governance and finance. This, in turn, has resulted in an innovative and gender-responsive offer of environmental incentives in the country that are scaling up results at an influential level, simultaneously increasing women’s economic empowerment, promoting sustainable use of forests and combating climate change.

This brief examines how the women members of peace groups, established through a UNDP initiative in Iraq, overcame traditional barriers to play the role of peacemakers and social developers in their communities. From their perspective, the brief highlights the opportunities made available in post-conflict Iraq and identifies three realms that remained key in assuming their new roles in society: family dynamics, interactions with male community members and the media. Thus, it provides an understanding of the pathways through which women in traditional and conflict-affected societies like Iraq assumed the responsibility to rebuild their communities and initiate a structural shift in gender equality and social norms.

This discussion paper provides a ‘state of the evidence’ on social norms change within the field of gender and development. The paper presents findings from a scoping review of studies and evaluations of programmatic interventions to shift social norms, as well as insights from a broader body of evidence tracing how social change happens. It answers four questions: What are social norms?, How do social norms change?, How are social norms measured? and What role (if any) should global development organizations play in shifting social norms? In doing so, the paper traverses a divided evidence base that, on the one hand, does not adequately reflect the varied social, political and economic drivers behind historical changes in social norms, including the role of women’s and feminist movements, and on the other, grasps the complexity of social norms but does not lend itself to clearly defined theories of action. Key lessons include that social norms should be approached as one lever in a broader toolbox of programmatic options; that feminist and women’s rights movements are key agents of social norms change, and that sustainable investments in social norms programming requires shifts within development practice itself, including how change is measured.

والغاية من هذا الموجز السياساتي هو التطرق بتفصيل لمقترح منتدى الطوارئ الذي يرمي إلى التصدي للصدمات العالمية المعقدة، وقد أدرجت ضمنه التعليقات التي وردت من الدول الأعضاء ومن الجهات الشريكة المعنية الأخرى. ولن يكون منتدى الطوارئ هيئة أو كيانا دائما بل سيكون بالأحرى عبارة عن مجموعة من البروتوكولات التي يمكن تفعيلها عند الحاجة. ويعرض الموجز لبعض خصائص الصدمات العالمية في القرن الحادي والعشرين وبعض المخاطر التي يمكن أن نواجهها في المستقبل. ويسلط الضوء على قدرة تلك الصدمات على تقويض التقدم صوب بلوغ أهداف التنمية المستدامة وخطة عام 2030 وتحقيق الأهداف المتعلقة بحقوق الإنسان والمساواة بين الجنسين. ويستعرض بتمعن العبر المستنبطة من مواجهة الصدمات العالمية المعقدة الأخيرة ويقدم مقترحات لتعزيز التدابير الدولية للتصدي للصدمات العالمية من خلال عقد منتدى الطوارئ. ويقدم الموجز ختاما توصيات بشأن سبل المضي قدما بهذه المقترحات في ميثاق المستقبل.

ويتضمن هذا الموجز السياساتي اقتراحات بشأن الخطوات العملية اللازمة للإيفاء بالتزامنا الطويل الأمد بتلبية مطالب الحاضر بطريقة تصون مصالح الأجيال المقبلة وتحافظ على قدرتها على التمتع الفعلي بجميع حقوق الإنسان. وتشمل هذه الخطوات: )أ( تعيين مبعوث يكون لسانا مدافعا عن مصلحة الأجيال المقبلة على الصعيد العالمي؛ )ب( الاستعانة بالتبصر والعلم والبيانات على نحو أفضل؛ )ج( إصدار إعلان يحدد واجباتنا تجاه الأجيال المقبلة ويضفي عليها طابعا ملموسا؛ )د( إقامة منتدى حكومي دولي مكرس للنهوض بتنفيذ الإعلان وتبادل أفضل الممارسات. وتستند هذه الاقتراحات إلى خطتنا المشتركة وما جرى لاحقا من المشاورات الحكومية الدولية ومشاورات الجهات المتعددة ذات المصلحة، التي ورد بيانها في “ورقة عناصر الإعلان المتعلق بالأجيال المقبلة”، التي أعدتها البعثتان الدائمتان لفيجي وهولندا لدى الأمم المتحدة 1. ويجيب الموجز السياساتي على الأسئلة التي أثارتها الدول الأعضاء في أثناء المشاورات، وهي تشمل كيفية تعريف الأجيال المقبلة، وكيفية تحقيق التوازن بين التزامنا تجاهها وبين واجباتنا تجاه الأجيال الحاضرة، وكيف تنهض المقترحات بأهدافنا الحالية المتعلقة بالتنمية المستدامة والمساواة بين الجنسين وحقوق الإنسان، وما النتائج المنشودة من مؤتمر القمة المعني بالمستقبل بشأن هذه المسألة. والمنطق الذي تنهض عليه هذه المقترحات بسيط. فما نقوم به لمصلحة الأجيال المقبلة هو أيضا ما يتعين علينا أن نقوم به لمصلحتنا نحن أيضا، وهو أن نتعامل مع التحديات والفرص التي ينطوي عليها المستقبل بطريقة تفوق من حيث الحزمُ طريقة تعاملنا معها حاليا. ونحن نعلم أننا قادرون على التحلي ببعد النظر في عملنا الجماعي، كما يدل على ذلك النجاح الذي أحُرز في ترميم طبقة الأوزون.