Gender Equality in Crisis Settings

Impacts on gender equality and women’s empowerment in crisis settings

23%

of parliamentarians, on average, are women in conflict-affected countries, compared to 26.5% globally (UN Women, 2023)

1 in 5

women refugees and internally displaced persons have experienced sexual violence (Vu et al., 2014)

4 x

Women spend four times as much time as men on unpaid care work in fragile settings compared to three times as much in other developing settings (OECD, 2022)

94%

of UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2022 targeted women and girls (UN, 2023)

16.5%

of negotiators in major peace processes that took place between 1992 and 2023 are women (Council on Foreign Relations)

0.3%

of USD 48.7 billion in bilateral aid to fragile and conflict-affected countries in 2021 supported feminist, women-led, and women's rights organizations and movements (UN, 2023)

UNDP Gender Team in Crisis Settings

It is now clear from more than two decades of evidence gathered following the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325, that gender inequality is both a consequence and driver of crises, and that women's full and equal participation in all decision-making is one of the key factors in sustaining peace and building resilience.

UNDP commits to harness its considerable strengths and resources to tackle some of the persistent drivers of gender inequality and crisis head-on. UNDP Gender Team's work in crisis settings aims to move from inclusion to transformation. It challenges the status quo of norms, and supports interventions that address patriarchal values and institutions.

How we work

The 10-Point Action Agenda for Advancing Gender Equality in Crisis Settings

UNDP is fully committed to putting gender equality at the center of all its interventions, on the basis that gender inequality drives conflict and crises and that conflict and crises negatively impact inequalities. Sustainable peace, recovery and development will only be attained if root causes of inequality are addressed through the full suite of UNDP engagements in crisis settings.

UNDP has developed a 10-Point Action Agenda for Advancing Gender Equality in Crisis Settings (10PAA), a roadmap to guide its development programming towards results that will help transform and advance gender equality in crisis contexts and achieve the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The 10PAA is central to UNDP's new Crisis Offer, as well as its new Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025. It represents a strong corporate commitment to addressing the most stubborn roots of gender inequalities. The 10PAA highlights the components of an integrated framework needed to support a whole-of-system approach. Innovation, digitization, data, technology and behavioural science are seen as key enablers of our work.

Read the 10-Point Action Agenda