Making gender equality a reality through UNESCO’s work

UNESCO’s commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is coordinated by the Division for Gender Equality in the Office of the Director-General, located at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

The Division ensures overall coordination of UNESCO policies, strategies and actions in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It builds individual and organizational capacity for a gender transformative organizational culture and programmes through mandatory GE training for UNESCO staff and through support for a gender friendly work environment. The division also develops and maintains a knowledge base for gender equality through the systematic collection of sex-disaggregated data and  analysis,   and sharing of good practices.

UNESCO promotes gender equality through a two-pronged approach comprising gender-specific programmes and gender mainstreaming within the organization’s five areas of competence, namely Education; Natural Sciences; Social and Human Sciences; Culture; and Communication and Information, guided by the Priority Gender Equality Action Plan for 2014-2021, a companion document for the Medium-term Strategy for 2014-2021.