Championing Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Uganda's Refugee Response.

The Russia-Ukraine war has continued to cause major disruptions in global supply value chains. This has translated into increased commodity prices and cost of living, with disproportionate adverse impacts on the wellbeing of women and girls worldwide. This rapid assessment provides an analysis of the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on rural livelihoods in Tanzania with a focus on various vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls.

As gaps remain in efforts to stem the tide of global economic crises, having fiscal policies in place to safeguard spending for women is essential. Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) can ensure a gender-equitable allocation of resources and expenditure tracking to promote gender equality. This briefing note provides information on the foundation established to determine entry points for this work, key partnerships, and plans to advance systemic financing for gender equality in the country.

The assessment focused on HCTs and Cluster Working Groups (CWGs) in recognition of the central role they play in planning and coordinating humanitarian responses. Survey findings showed that the overall knowledge of Gender integration in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) was average, with just over half of the HCTs and Clusters reporting a working knowledge and only one third (33 percent HCTs and 25 percent clusters) reporting comprehensive knowledge.

Key initiatives in the ESA KM Strategy (2022-2025) include sustaining the review and update of country gender equality profiles by all the 13 countries in the region, increasing momentum on the use of established KM systems and tools; institutional learning; quantitative and qualitative research and analyses on GEWE; capacity strengthening for R/M/COs on KM interventions; quality assurance processes of knowledge products; evidenced based advocacy and documentation and development and repackaging of knowledge products.

The guide has been informed by the draft global humanitarian response strategy and by some of the recommendations from the initial humanitarian response team training conducted in October and November 2020.

This edition of our quarterly publication, aimed at keeping our esteemed readers abreast with the endeavors of UN Women Uganda, encompasses the period of October through December 2022. Within these pages, we have meticulously curated a selection of activities undertaken by our organization, as well as providing a platform for the voices of those whom we have had the privilege of serving, to be heard. We trust that the contents of this newsletter will prove to be both enlightening and informative. Enjoy the read!

This policy brief highlights the main findings of four academic research papers on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda that were presented during a workshop organized by UN Women Ethiopia Country Office in December 2021. The findings focus on protection of women from conflict-related sexual violence; gender-sensitive recovery programs; role of women human rights defenderds in supporting the WPS agenda; and awareness of Members of Parliament on the agenda.

There is a tendency to view the sheer volume of land certificates issued in Ethiopia in recent years as a proxy for improvements in women’s land tenure security. While getting land registered in women’s names is a significant step, evidence indicates that focusing on titling alone may not necessarily lead to greater tenure security for women. Control and transfer rights of land for women are affected by broader gendered norms and practices. It is high time to think more deeply around the post-certification agenda so that women can derive the full range of benefits from their land resources.

The purpose of the Global Minimum Set of Gender Indicators is to develop a common statistical measurement framework that could be used for the national production and international compilation of gender statistics and to track progress across countries and regions.

2021 marked the end of the latest UN Women Strategic Plan, and during the year UN Women’s West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) and Country Offices/Non-Resident Agencies continued to strengthen a comprehensive set of global norms, policies, and standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women; help end all forms of violence against women and girls; foster women’s economic empowerment; encourage and support women to lead; facilitate gender mainstreaming; and support women’s participation in peacebuilding and resilience efforts. Throughout the year, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact West and Central Africa, and women in the region were particularly vulnerable to the crisis.

This study explains why it is important to integrate a gender perspective into assessments of all the SDGs, and also shows how to approach this task as a way to enhance gender mainstreaming across the 2030 Agenda.

Consistent integration of a gender perspective into each SDG requires that the methodological approaches used to analyse targets should be capable of identifying gender inequality concerns in the ‘gender silent’ targets and when mapping interlinkages between them. Ths toolkit adresses sustinability issues by providing SDG researchers, analysts, and policy experts with the necessary tools to incorporate gender considerations throughout their Agenda 2030 related work.

The report “Lessons Learned, Promising Practices, & Challenges to Overcome” provides first-hand experiences from the eight African countries implementing the Spotlight Initiative in ending violence against women and girls.

The baseline survey on unpaid care work status among women and men in eight districts of Rwanda seeks to understand the care-related dynamics in households, this study utilized both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on Oxfam’s Household Care Survey (HCS) and the Harvard Analytical Framework (also referred to as the Gender Roles Framework). The survey helps to understand how women, men and children spend their time, how care activities are distributed in the household and the access that households have to basic public services and infrastructure that facilitate their everyday survival. The study also explored the social norms that shape power relations and gender division of care labor.

The current drought response in Ethiopia is being scaled up across sectors, including food security, nutrition assistance, provision of safe water and sanitation, and livelihood protection. In addition, other urgent humanitarian assistance to drought- stricken areas such as agriculture and livestock support for pastoralist communities are also being increased. Nonetheless, the needs of women and girls may not be met due to a number of compounding factors such as the breakdown of key services which are critical to the health, protection, and recovery of women and girls; weakened informal and formal protection and accountability mechanisms; disrupted livelihoods, increased displacement, power imbalances, and limited access to resources.

Despite the gender, climatic and conflict situation in Somalia, there are opportunities to ensure crop farming and livestock rearing. Women’s participation in agricultural activities also varies depending on where they live. Women living in their regular settings were more likely to participate in agriculture compared to their counterparts who live in IDP settings. The research is aimed at promoting women's resilience to climate and enhancing livelihoods.

Empowering women in the economy and closing gender gaps in the workspace is key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Somalia. The host community landowners and IDP casual laborers can jointly build their skills in climate-smart agriculture that can benefit the productivity of farms whilst also building the knowledge and skill set of IDPs.

This study builds on UN Women’s achievements and experience in supporting women and girls during the COVID pandemic within the East and Southern Africa Region and other parts of the world.

The five years in review publication captures the progress made from 2017 to 2021 across its different focus areas: Leadership and Political Participation, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence Against Women, Data and Statistics, HIV/AIDS and the response to the unfolding crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.