More men than women may have contracted Covid-19 around the world, but experts have warned that the pandemic may set gender equality back by decades. Melinda Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a paper this week that policymakers risked prolonging the crisis and slowing economic recovery if they ignored the gendered...
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Rwanda office has concluded a two-week campaign that was aimed at creating awareness on the plight of women and girls who are affected by Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and defilement. The campaign dubbed “Against my will Campaign” or” Ntibiri mu bushake bwanjye” in Kinyarwanda started from June 30 and ended...
The COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone, everywhere, “but it does not affect everyone equally”, the UN chief said in his message for World Population Day, on Sunday. “It is deepening existing inequalities and vulnerabilities, particularly for women and girls”, said Secretary-General António Guterres. “With many countries on lockdown and health systems struggling to cope, sexual and...
Canada has announced additional funding for its ongoing Women’s Voice and Leadership project in light of the COVID-19 pandemic The 500,000 Canadian dollar increase, equivalent to approximately 1.3 million Ghana Cedi, will help to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on the rights of the poorest and most marginalized women and girls in Ghana. This...
Two years ago, South Africa’s government announced it would scrap taxes on sanitary pads from April of the following year. It was part of its plans to address an issue now referred to as period poverty and for which online and offline protests are frequent in South Africa. Period poverty is simply the inability to...
Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Date: Thursday, July 2, 2020 UN Women is 10 years old today. On 2 July 2010, the General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution to merge four parts of the United Nations system into the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of...
Urgent, and accelerated action is needed to end female genital mutilation, child marriage, and other “harmful practices” and abuses carried out against women and girls, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), said on Tuesday, in its latest major report on the state of the world’s population. Every year, millions of girls are subjected...
In just six months the COVID-19 pandemic has travelled the world, profoundly testing the resilience of even the most advanced health systems, and causing massive shocks to national economies. It has also deepened systematic and structural racial, ethnic and gender inequities everywhere. As the pandemic hit and countries grappled with how best to address the...
Date: Friday, June 26, 2020 Today we commemorate the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco. It is the text that formalized the fundamental concept of the United Nations, “We, the peoples’. It set out the determination of those peoples to avoid future wars, and reaffirmed the...
KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Data shows that in some humanitarian settings, there has been a drastic increase in online searches and requests for help due to gender-based violence (GBV) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Lebanon, after the implementation of a hotline, IRC saw the number of women and girls seeking support more...
