That was the central message of the Manama Declaration, issued at the close of the World Entrepreneurs and Investment Forum (WEIF) held this week in Bahrain. The declaration places women at the heart of economic transformation, underscoring that empowering them within business and innovation ecosystems is essential to achieving inclusive and sustainable growth. It […]
Across the world, a significant gender gap persists at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines due to lack of research funding, gender stereotypes, and discriminatory workplace practices. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the gap is particularly pronounced in technology, where women represent just 26 per cent of the workforce in data and artificial intelligence, and 12 per cent in cloud computing. “Excluding women […]
Khabar Lahariya, literally “news waves”, is an all-women media organisation run since 2002 by rural reporters, many of them Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim, dispatching fresh stories from some of the most marginalised regions. “We faced challenges at every level,” founder Kavita Devi told UN News. “People would say women can’t be journalists, but we went […]
Now eight months pregnant and sheltering in a makeshift camp, the mother of three said her biggest fear isn’t the biting cold – it’s what will happen if she goes into labour. “I worry about my health, but I worry more about where to go if something happens,” said Fatima. “Displacement is not just losing […]
Women’s voices are rising with clarity and urgency, pressing negotiators to ensure the conference leaves a lasting mark on the link between gender and climate policy. At the heart of talks is the Belém Gender Action Plan – a proposed blueprint that acknowledges climate change hits women hardest and sets out measures for financing, […]
The world is retreating from gender equality, and the cost is being counted in lives, rights, and opportunities. Five years from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deadline in 2030, none of the gender equality targets are on track. That’s according to this year’s SDG Gender Snapshot report launched on Monday by UN Women and the UN […]
“All of us at the United Nations are suffering from a reinforcement of the ban on females working with us…We are simply unable to operate without females,” said Arafat Jamal, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Representative to Afghanistan, a day after agencies warned that the de facto authorities’ measures have impacted life-saving assistance for hundreds of […]
These measures are putting life-saving humanitarian assistance and other essential services for hundreds of thousands of people affected by a recent deadly earthquake at risk, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) warned in a statement. On Sunday, the de facto security forces prevented women Afghan staff members and contractors from entering UN compounds in […]
On Tuesday, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock will become the first European woman to hold the post and only the fifth female President in the Assembly’s history. On the eve of Baerbock’s inauguration, UN News spoke with one of her predecessors. María Fernanda Espinosa, a former Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, led the Assembly […]
Four years after Taliban fighters retook the capital Kabul on 15 August 2021, gender equality agency UN Women is warning that the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is increasingly untenable. And without urgent action, this untenable reality will become normalised and women and girls will be fully excluded. “The Taliban is closer […]
UN Women – which champions gender empowerment and equality – alongside the international humanitarian agency CARE International and partners, issued the call in a report published on Thursday that also highlights the key challenges and needs of women aid workers assisting the returnees. The Gender Alert comes amid a surge in returnees to Afghanistan, where […]
Risks to women and girls across this vast region are severe and systemic, as political instability, environmental collapse and a declining international presence take their toll. From abductions and child marriage to exclusion from schools and public life, their lives and opportunities are being steadily stripped away, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, told […]
“I used to easily receive aid distributed by the UN,” Abir Safi, a displaced person from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, told UN News. “Now, we get nothing. I risk my life by going to the Zikim crossing and returning with an empty bag. All I want is to return to my children with […]
This is just one way that the de facto authorities have restricted women and girls’ fundamental rights. Today, Afghanistan has the second largest gender gap in the world after Yemen. “Sometimes I wonder how to remain hopeful in these dark circumstances,” said Fariba, whose name was changed to protect her. Afghanistan is not the only […]
It recognizes their immense contributions to society but also acknowledges the challenges they face due to the double burden of racism and sexism. Although woman and girls of African descent embody strength, resilience, and untapped potential, they remain among the most marginalized groups globally due to the intersection of racial, gender, and socio-economic discrimination. For […]
In Gaza City, families living in tents reveal a shared, grim reality. Many have been forced to flee the fighting dozens of times. Most find themselves homeless and hungry while facing an uncertain future. Khadija Manoun and her daughter in the space she uses as a kitchen inside a destroyed building. Khadija Manoun: Kitchen of […]
“The playing field is still far from level,” Mr. Türk said. In the past few years, topflight women’s sporting competitions have achieved increased global prominence with around a billion people watching the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023. This visibility and attention have prompted important conversations about stereotypes and power dynamics in women’s sports. […]
In the past three months, a third of Gaza’s population (714,000 people) have been forced to move once again, separating families and dismantling local support systems. Women and girls are bearing a heavy burden, fearing for their lives on the streets – at delivery points, and in overcrowded, makeshift shelters that lack privacy and security […]
Ácora, located in the southeast corner of Peru almost 3,800 kilometres above sea level, is one of the Peruvian regions which has been most impacted by climate change – endangering crop production and biodiversity in addition to worsening food insecurity. “It was not like this before, the climate has changed a lot,” said Pascuala Pari, […]
Since September 2023, more than 2.43 million undocumented Afghan migrants have returned from Iran and Pakistan. Women and girls account for about half of the returnees from Pakistan, while their share among those returning from Iran has been steadily rising, reaching around 30 per cent in June. The escalating pace of returns is straining Afghanistan’s […]