This article is written by Sia Nowrojee, Senior Director, Girls & Women Strategy and Luisa Kislinger, Senior Manager, UN Engagement, Girls & Women Strategy, at the United Nations Foundation. Sia Nowrojee has over 30 years of advocacy, policy and programme experience working with stakeholders in multilateral settings, government and civil society to ensure that gender inequality is addressed in policies and programmes. Luisa Kislinger is a former diplomat with over 20 years of experience working on gender equality in different capacities — as a consultant for different UN agencies and civil society organisations, as well as an advocate, researcher, lecturer and writer at the national and global levels.

  • The problem: Globally, the rights of girls and women are in jeopardy.
  • Why it matters: Gender equality is a fundamental human right and is a necessary component of strong democracies and sustainable development.
  • The solution: Strong, coordinated policy leadership to gain back, secure and advance progress on gender equality.

The global community is facing a crisis of gender inequality. In key policy areas, such as health, education and representation, girls and young women, from Afghanistan to the United States, have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. Progress on Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) is fragile and lagging. UN Women reports that it will take close to 300 years to achieve full gender equality, and the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called attaining equal rights for women “the unfinished human rights struggle of this century”. Despite being a critical part of solutions, gender equality is often put aside in the face of crises, such as conflict, climate change and health emergencies.

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Globally, we are seeing the rise of authoritarian regimes that disregard and undermine gender equality, coupled with debilitated democracies constrained by debt, conflict and crisis. This creates an enabling environment for regressive groups to oppose progressive policies and spread misinformation and disinformation actively. The result is a rolling back of progress in key related policy areas, and outdated and regressive laws that undermine the ability of girls and women to reach their full potential.

Coordinated policy leadership is needed

Strong, coordinated policy leadership is required to gain back, secure and advance progress on gender equality. Many policymakers who are committed to gender equality and advancing the rights of their constituents face a formidable and well-organised opposition that is effectively using electoral, government and multilateral policy systems to advance their agenda. Women policymakers, who can be key to advancing progressive gender policies, face particular challenges in sustaining their leadership and advancing policies, including targeted gender-based violence, lack of mentorship, support and a lack of trust in women’s leadership, particularly among young people.

Policies that advance gender equality — both in its own right and as a critical solution to other related policy issues — are critically important in a world in which the rights of girls and women are in jeopardy.

Gender equality is both a human rights issue and a development challenge embedded in all life aspects. Overcoming gender inequalities requires specific interventions and policies that should stem from a broad political agenda to which different stakeholders contribute and that policymakers can move forward. In this context, policymakers need both technical skills and strategic political tools to build their capacity and effectively foster progressive gender policies.

Building skills in gender equality

Gender policymaking presupposes an understanding of gender relations and inequalities and the ability to analyse the differentiated impact of events and issues on people depending on their gender. Often this expertise is assumed. However, building skills in gender equality is an important building block for transformative gender policymaking. Additionally, the ability to connect the critical relevance of gender equality to broad political and policy goals requires skills development, alongside further knowledge on how gender inequality intersects with other forms of discrimination and how it manifests and interconnects with policy areas such as education, health and economic development. There are numerous resources available at the national, regional and global levels for building skills in these areas, including the UN Women’s Training Center.

A range of stakeholders and actors working on policymaking can benefit from building their skills, creating opportunities for collaboration and furthering gender equality initiatives. Parliamentarians, members of local and regional legislatures, civil servants and other government representatives can benefit from building their skills and knowledge on gender equality, as they hold the responsibility of designing and implementing policies and have critical links to local and regional constituencies and their realities and priorities. Enhancing their gender competence carries tremendous potential in ensuring that legislation and policies reflect the needs of communities, most particularly of women and girls. Civil servants, including diplomats, are involved in regional and global gender-related policy discussions in multilateral spaces. Their training might not often include gender competence so they could benefit from increased capacity for gender equality. This is particularly important as feminist foreign policy continues to develop as an emerging policy area.

Building solidarity & strength

Civil society organisations, academia and activists are key partners in policymaking, given their technical expertise and targeted work on specific issues within the gender equality agenda. They are also a pathway to increased and closer multisectoral collaboration in gender policy design and implementation, creating networks of support and solidarity for policymakers at all stages of the process — from setting the agenda, including understanding the needs on the ground and framing the issues requiring attention, to accountability when policies are implemented.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for creating networks and fostering support, solidarity and collaboration between policymakers and other stakeholders engaged in moving the gender equality agenda forward. There are however a number of initiatives and ideas that could be considered:

  • Creating safe spaces where policymakers can learn and strategise with other stakeholders honestly and candidly, nurturing solidarity and collaboration around the gender equality agenda. These could take the shape of retreats, workshops, or regular meeting spaces and can be conducted at the national, regional or global level.
  • Establishing links to women’s movements and organisations that can catalyse policy change and maintain political pressure for implementation and accountability can help policymakers working on gender policies. For example, the Black Tuesday Movement in Sierra Leone led to new, progressive laws and policies on sexual exploitation and violence against girls and women.
  • Support progressive women to enter and stay in politics and public service by providing funding, mentoring and support networks. Examples include the Amujae Initiative, the Council of Women World Leaders, the Nala Feminist Collective, Women Political Leaders, and the Open Society Foundation’s Women Political Leaders Fund.
  • Support greater collaboration across different branches of government involved in gender policymaking at all levels. For example, linking departments involved in multilateral negotiations within both ministries for foreign affairs and ministries of gender equality and parliamentarians.

Policies that advance gender equality — both in its own right and as a critical solution to other related policy issues — are critically important in a world in which the rights of girls and women are in jeopardy. Policymakers are uniquely positioned to make decisions and progress in transforming the inequalities that define the lives of girls and women. To do so, they need expertise, skills, and networks of support that can be built and sustained as a key part of the policy arena. With more than 50 countries holding national and regional elections in 2024, the biggest election year in history, it is more important than ever to support policymakers to hold the line and shift the balance.

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