UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women assists UN member states in setting international norms and standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to develop laws, policies, programs, and services needed to implement these standards. The Generation Equality Forum is a civil society-centered, global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France. This global gathering, started in Mexico City in March 2021 and continued in Paris in June 2021. The initiative has two objectives: firstly, it brought actors together, especially young people, to chart forward a fresh and bold agenda to foster intergenerational, intersectional and multi-stakeholder movement for gender equality. Secondly, it launched the Action Coalitions: set of innovative multi-stakeholder programmes to achieve tangible results on gender equality across six key thematic areas, to support the UN Decade of Action (2020-2030) and accelerate results towards delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Generation Equality Action Coalitions are mobilizing governments, women’s, feminist and youth-led organizations, international organizations, and the private sector to: catalyze collective action; spark global and local conversations among generations; drive increased public and private investment; and deliver concrete progress on gender equality across generations for girls and women. Six specific themes are being addressed by the Action Coalitions: i) Gender Based Violence; ii) Economic Justice and Rights; iii) Bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); iv) Feminist action for climate justice; v) Technology and innovation for Gender Equality; vi) Feminist movements and leadership and vii) Women Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action. A Global Acceleration Plan for Gender-based violence Through its emphasis on partnerships which centers civil society, the Action Coalition on gender-based violence is mobilizing governments, civil society, youth-led organizations, international organizations, philanthropies and the private sector to deliver transformational progress towards the elimination and prevention of gender-based violence through four concrete actions: (1) Creating enabling policy, legal and resource environments; (2) Scaling up evidence driven prevention programming; (3) Scaling up comprehensive, accessible and quality services for survivors; and (4) Enabling and empowering autonomous girl-led & women’s rights organizations to exercise their expertise. A Global Acceleration Plan for Economic Justice and Rights Economic justice and rights affect all women and girls globally. Four ambitious actions for economic justice and rights, grounded in unmet asks from feminist activists, have been put forward. These actions leverage the SDG framework, contributing to its targets while enhancing the resources that have been mobilized to achieve them. Furthermore, these actions reflect the need to forge an intersectional approach that address the needs of women and girls in all their diversity, everywhere. Together, the four actions of the Economic Justice and Rights Action Coalition will result in accelerated progress towards gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. They approach the critical constraints from all angles – transforming systemic barriers, breaking down discriminatory norms, enacting and implementing transformative laws and policies, ensuring adequate financing and service delivery and insisting on accountability at all levels. The Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPS-HA) is working to realize a world for women and girls in conflict and crisis in which financing, participation in peace processes, economic security, leadership and agency, and protection of their human rights are all possible. But to succeed, peace and humanitarian action processes need to include their perspectives and uphold their human rights. Since its launch at the Generation Equality Forum in 2021, the Compact has welcomed more than 190 Signatories, including countries, regional organizations, UN entities and civil society: women and youth organizations and networks, academic institutions and private sector. Together, this multistakeholder process is driving five years of transformative action for sustainable and inclusive peace through strong partnerships, improved monitoring and assessment of progress and a focus on financing and advocacy. In 2021 Kazakhstan has joined and committed under the two Action Coalitions on Gender-Based Violence and Economic Justice and Rights demonstrating an active position and adherence to principles of Human rights, Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The coordination and monitoring mechanism has been established to monitor and coordinate national efforts in implementation and delivering on GEF commitments. Central Asian Women Leaders’ Dialogue In 2020 a prominent group of women leaders representing the Central Asian states and the United Nations launched a new platform, the Central Asian Women Leaders’ Dialogue to support women in the region to attain a more prominent political, economic and social role and enable them to increasingly influence the decision-making process on issues related to peace, stability and sustainable development in the region. Kazakhstan plays an active role in this initiative and plans further to accelerate the regional efforts related to strengthening women’s leadership and political participation. The Dialogue is supported by the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Virtual Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) Knowledge Resource UN Women and the Government of Kazakhstan finalise the work on a virtual GEWE Knowledge resource for the Central Asia to advance gender equality. It will operate as a virtual learning platform to convene knowledge on priority GEWE issues in the current context of COVID-19 recovery and building back better. It will provide a space for partners from national Women/Gender Equality mechanisms, Gender Focal Points from the sectoral ministries, parliamentarians, CSOs and experts to meet regularly and exchange views and ideas on how to effectively integrate gender mainstreaming in their work, promote gender equality in line with the international standards and norms. The links between policy and programming by bringing experts and practitioners together in regular dialogues will be ensured. Thus, the virtual learning platform is expected to support to exchange and network, enhance capacities, create a sense of community, develop and share innovation, and increase effectiveness and efficiency in knowledge management on gender equality and empowerment of women in Central Asia. The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946. The CSW is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Commission adopts multi-year programmes of work to appraise progress and make further recommendations to accelerate the implementation of the Platform for Action. These recommendations take the form of negotiated agreed conclusions on a priority theme. The Commission also contributes to the follow-up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development so as to accelerate the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
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