Thematic Global Strategies and Efforts for Gender Justice

Woman's Economic Empowerment

A set of Women’s Empowerment Principles developed by UN Women and the UN Global Compact, launched in 2010, set out guidance for how to empower women in the workplace and marketplace. These principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

• Principle 1  Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality
• Principle 2  Treat all women and men fairly at work – respect and support human rights and non-discrimination
• Principle 3  Ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of all women and men workers
• Principle 4  Promote education, training and professional development for women
• Principle 5  Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women
• Principle 6  Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy
• Principle 7  Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality

Climate Change and Gender Commitments and Funds

The Paris Agreement (on climate change) has been ratified by more than 170 countries.

Its preamble acknowledges that climate change is a common concern of humankind, and that Parties should, when taking action on climate change, respect their obligations on human rights, the right to health, gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity. In the context of adaptation to climate impacts and climate resilience (Article 7.5), Parties acknowledge that adaptation action should follow a country-driven, gender-responsive, participatory and transparent approach.

• The Paris Agreement is built around a set of national commitments and policy development processes, particularly the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in which all governments laid out their (voluntary) plans to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and to address climate change impacts (e.g. adaptation). Many refer to the impacts of climate change on agriculture. The NDCs are becoming the framework for national climate policies, investments and budgets in various ways. The gender and climate community has been highlighting the gender gap and opportunities to bring gender equality and justice to the table.
• As countries develop National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), sectors will build plans and investments that CARE could influence. For example, the risks and opportunities in the health sector, and health and adaptation debate, could shape SRHR advocacy at the country level.

The Green Climate Fund is an increasingly relevant funding tool (currently $ 10 billion), and its Gender Policy has four key objectives:

• To ensure that, by adopting a gender-sensitive approach, the Fund will achieve greater, more effective, sustainable and equitable climate change results, outcomes and impacts in an efficient and comprehensive manner.
• To build equally women’s and men’s resilience to, and ability to address, climate change – and to ensure that women and men equally contribute to and benefit from activities supported by the Fund.
• To address and mitigate against assessed potential project and program risks for women and men associated with adaptation and mitigation activities financed by the Fund.
• To contribute to reducing the gender gap of climate change-exacerbated social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities.

Gender and Health Commitments

The Every Woman Every Child movement, launched in 2010 by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon aims to mobilize action to address the major health challenges facing women, children and adolescents, aiming to both protect their wellbeing, and end preventable deaths. The Global Strategy is built in alignment with the SDGs, with one of the key action areas to assess risks, human rights and gender needs in humanitarian and fragile settings.

The UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health is a global multi-stakeholder process and roadmap that brings together UN, governments, donors and other stakeholders to accelerate momentum for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health from 2016 to 2030.[1] The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health was originally launched in 2010 as the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. This strategy brought together 127 global stakeholders, including governments, NGOs and private sector to push forward momentum needed during the end of the MDGs to end preventable maternal and child deaths and also sought to close the estimated funding gap of US $88 billion for maternal, newborn and child health.[2] An updated Global Strategy, which was launched in 2016 to align with the 15–year span of the SDGs now also puts adolescents at the center of a movement to accelerate progress to a multi-sectoral and integrated approach to health and sustainable development[3]

In 2012, the London Summit on Family Planning brought together over 20 governments and NGOs, private and bilateral donors to committing to address the financial, service and policy gaps relating to women’s access to contraceptive services and information. Out of the London Summit, Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) was created to work with the global community to ensure that 120 million women and girls fulfill their right to access and use contraception. FP2020 is a global partnership working in 69 countries around the world, with 38 countries having made financial, policy or service commitments.