Ebola outbreak in Central Africa: UN Women WCARO strengthens community preparedness, protection and resilience in West and Central Africa As the Ebola outbreak continues to spread across parts of Central Africa, UN Women West and Central Africa is working with governments, women-led organizations and communities to strengthen preparedness, protection and resilience. Recognizing that women and girls are often on the frontlines of health emergencies, the organization is advancing gender-responsive approaches to prevention, response and recovery efforts across the region.

The UN Women East and Southern Africa (ESARO) Strategic Note 2026–2029 outlines a vision to advance gender equality and empower women and girls across 25 countries. While the region has made significant progress in women’s political participation and legal reforms, challenges such as economic inequality, gender-based violence, climate shocks, and humanitarian crises persist. The Strategic Note focuses on four key priorities: promoting women’s leadership and accountability for gender commitments; integrating gender equality in peace, security, humanitarian and climate action; expanding women’s economic empowerment opportunities; and strengthening prevention and response to violence against women and girls. Through its integrated normative, coordination, and operational mandate, UN Women aims to drive system-wide coherence, strengthen partnerships, and enhance gender data and accountability mechanisms.

Faced with complex challenges from insecurity to climate pressure, the UN Women West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) works across 24 countries to drive systemic change. This institutional brochure highlights our core levers of change, key impact results from 2024–2025, and strategic priorities for 2026.

This Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP) was first developed in 2021 and updated in 2025. It provides a comprehensive evidence-based assessment of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) across political, economic, legal and social domains. It is intended to inform policy, advocacy, budgeting and programming to advance Liberia’s commitments to international, regional and national gender equality frameworks.

Since the introduction of county governments in 2013, county spending has increased from Ksh. 242.5 billion in FY2014/15 to Ksh. 497.5 billion in FY2022/23, reflecting an average year-on-year growth of 11 percent over the last 10 years of devolution—a significant change that has contributed to improved service delivery and increased investment.

The Sustaining the Gains project in Zimbabwe is a two‑year, US$4.5 million initiative launched in 2026 to strengthen accountability for gender equality and women’s rights, building on the EU‑UN Spotlight Initiative (2019–2023). It focuses on consolidating progress against gender‑based violence (GBV), improving governance, and ensuring sustainable financing for women’s empowerment. Budget: ~US$4.5 million

The Feminist Agenda for Peace: Thematic Areas and Call for Actions captures the collective vision of Sudanese women for a just, inclusive and sustainable peace amid the ongoing conflict in Sudan. The Agenda highlights the structural inequalities, discrimination and exclusion affecting women and girls. This report is grounded in feminist and intersectional approaches, it calls for women’s equal participation in peacebuilding, leadership and decision-making, while addressing gender-based violence, justice, economic empowerment and humanitarian response. The Agenda outlines ten thematic priorities and emphasizes survivor-centered justice, women-led action and investment in grassroots feminist leadership. It serves as an advocacy and action framework for advancing gender equality, accountability and lasting peace in Sudan.

The Care Snapshots provide a comprehensive overview of the care economy and care systems in ten countries in West and Central Africa. They highlight existing policies and reforms, identify gaps, and make the case for investing in care systems as a driver of women’s economic empowerment and sustainable development.

The policy briefs (English and Amharic) presents the findings of the Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting (GRB) Assessment conducted across federal ministries and five regional governments in Ethiopia: Amhara, Oromia, Gambella, Sidama, and Dire Dawa. Covering key sectors such as health, education, agriculture, and trade, the assessment highlights both progress and persistent challenges in integrating gender equality into planning and budgeting processes. While Ethiopia has strong legal and policy frameworks supporting gender equality, implementation gaps remain significant due to limited technical capacity, weak accountability mechanisms, and inadequate gender-disaggregated data systems. The study found that many institutions continue to rely on traditional budgeting approaches, with gender priorities often lacking dedicated financial allocations. The brief recommends strengthening institutional capacity, standardizing GRB practices across all levels of government, improving data collection and monitoring systems, and increasing budget allocations for gender-responsive initiatives to ensure measurable progress toward gender equality and inclusive development.

The report assesses how gender equality is integrated into government budgeting at federal and regional levels. Despite strong legal frameworks, implementation faces challenges: technical capacity gaps, lack of gender-disaggregated data, inadequate accountability, and insufficient budget allocations. The report recommends standardized practices, capacity building, and dedicated funding to strengthen gender-responsive budgeting nationwide.

This policy brief examines how Ethiopia’s tax system affects women and men differently, highlighting structural inequalities that place a disproportionate burden on women. Drawing on government tax records, employment data, and household expenditure surveys, the analysis focuses on employment income tax, taxes on small businesses, and consumption taxes such as VAT and excise duties. The findings show that women are disproportionately affected due to lower incomes, concentration in informal and low-paying sectors, and limited bargaining power in tax assessments. Inflation and outdated tax brackets have increased employment tax burdens on women, while women-owned businesses often face higher presumed profit margins. Female-headed households also pay more consumption taxes on essential goods frequently purchased by women. The brief recommends gender-responsive tax reforms, including adjusting tax brackets for inflation, revising profit assumptions, exempting essential goods from taxation, and strengthening support for low-income women entrepreneurs to promote equitable and inclusive economic growth.

This report examines gender biases in Ethiopia's tax system. It finds women face higher tax burdens due to outdated tax brackets, assumptions about business profitability, and taxation of essential goods, and recommends reforms to create a fairer system.

This report highlights UN Women Nigeria’s key interventions during International Women’s Day 2026, under the theme “Rights, Justice, and Action.” It documents a coordinated, nationwide effort to move beyond commitments and advance tangible outcomes for women and girls through advocacy, policy engagement, community mobilization, and strategic partnerships.

With support from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, UN Women Ethiopia, in collaboration with New Millennium Women Empowerment Organization (NMWEO), a women-led organization, delivers lifesaving protection services for displaced, returnee, and host community women and girls in Amhara and contested areas. Through Women’s Empowerment Centers, the program provides holistic prevention and response to CRSV/GBV, strengthening safety, dignity, and resilience across high-risk communities.

This special edition of the Gender Newsletter highlights UN Women Niger’s activities carried out as part of the 16 Days of Patriotic Action 2025. It showcases collective awareness-raising efforts to prevent digital violence against women and girls through advocacy, partnerships, and community mobilization.

The Operationalizing ESARO 2026–2029 Integrated Policy Support (IPS) framework addresses fragmented programming by aligning UN Women’s normative, coordination and operational roles into a unified, results-driven model. IPS strengthens policy coherence, accountability, financing and data systems to enable sustainable change. The framework promotes evidence-based, multi-sectoral collaboration and embeds gender equality in laws, policies and institutions. It supports outcome-level delivery with clear leadership, theories of change and tracking systems, tailored to diverse country contexts. Guided by inclusivity and data-driven decision-making, IPS enhances coordination, partnerships and learning through a phased approach. Ultimately, it positions ESARO as a policy integrator, delivering more coherent, efficient and impactful gender equality results.

The UN Women ESARO Coordination Strategy (2026–2029) strengthens UN system-wide coordination to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in East and Southern Africa. It positions UN Women as a regional leader supporting Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams through technical assistance, policy engagement, capacity building, and joint programming. Using key coordination tools, it enhances coherence and accountability. The strategy prioritizes six areas, including economic empowerment, ending violence, governance, and gender data. Through a phased and inclusive approach, it seeks to improve coordination, mobilize financing, and accelerate progress so that no woman or girl is left behind.

Femicide in Kenya is rooted in structural gender inequalities, harmful social norms, economic vulnerability and gaps in institutional response. Many cases occur within a continuum of violence characterized by coercion, control and limited access to protection or justice. Weak data systems, underreporting and the lack of clear classification reduce visibility and limit effective policy and programmatic action, underscoring the need for stronger data, institutional coordination and survivor-centred justice. Economic insecurity significantly increases risk. Limited access to decent work, property, financial services and social protection restricts women’s autonomy and ability to leave abusive relationships. Expanding women’s economic opportunities and social protection can reduce vulnerability. Addressing femicide requires strong political commitment, adequate financing and coordinated multi-sectoral action. A comprehensive approach combining legal reform, economic empowerment, institutional strengthening, and social norm change is essential to protect the rights, safety and dignity of women and girls.

This mapping report presents a comprehensive overview of care initiatives in Rwanda, aimed at addressing the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic responsibilities on women and girls. Commissioned by UN Women under the “Transformative Approaches to Recognize, Reduce, and Redistribute Unpaid Care Work in Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme (Phase II: 2023–2026)”, the study provides evidence on the scope, effectiveness, and gaps of existing care interventions, and identifies opportunities to build a sustainable, inclusive, and gender-transformative care systems in Rwanda.

This end-term impact assessment evaluates the outcomes of the UN Women supported 3R Project aimed at improving the lives of rural women in Rwanda through the distribution of time- and energy-saving technologies namely water tanks, improved cooking stoves with related key accessories, and refurbished Early Childhood Development (ECD) canters. The assessment also considered how the project’s work on engaging men through sensitization and awareness meetings, might have changed their participation in care work. The project started in 2023 covering 8 selected districts in the country.