Global coordination
Globally, UN Women works through high-level UN interagency bodies to promote the integration of gender perspectives in system-wide policies, as well as those applying to specific issues and sectors. In intergovernmental forums, such as major world conferences, we help coordinate inputs from diverse UN entities to support expanded global commitments to gender equality.
UN Chief Executives Board
Leading global UN coordination bodies include the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, chaired by the Secretary-General, and its three pillars—the High-Level Committee on Programmes, the High-Level Committee on Management, and the United Nations Development Group. They set UN global policy on both strategic directions and specific operational and programmatic issues. UN Women works with them to ensure that these include gender equality perspectives, since firm corporate commitments can then be translated across the UN system at large.
UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality
Other forums that support global coordination of the UN’s gender equality work include the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE). Chaired by UN Women, it helps orchestrate the gender equality efforts of 25 UN organizations, including through advocating and setting standards for gender mainstreaming. Each year, the network meets before the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women to review activities of the previous year, provide feedback and propose improvements and follow-up actions. A series of task forces take up priority issues.
UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality
As part of ensuring that UN country-level development programmes incorporate gender equality standards and actions, the UN Development Group created the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality. With UN Women as chair, it links senior gender equality advisors from major UN organizations such as the UN Development Programme, UN Children’s Fund and the UN Population Fund. By providing a variety of tools and forms of expertise, the Task Team assists UN country offices in integrating gender equality provisions across their programmes, as well as in monitoring results.
Executive Committees
Other relevant inter-agency groups important to UN Women’s coordination work address particular themes relevant to gender equality. They include the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs and the Executive Committee on Peace and Security.
Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women Campaign
An important joint global UN initiative is the Secretary-General’s global UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, coordinated by UN Women. The campaign brings UN entities and diverse groups of people together to raise awareness, political will and resources, and advocate for ending all forms of violence against women and girls in all parts of the world.
Through global, regional and national initiatives, the campaign reaches out to governments, civil society, women’s organizations, men, young people, the private sector, celebrities in sports and the arts, the media and the entire UN system. Its social mobilization platform, Say NO–UNiTE to End Violence against Women, by July 2013 had recorded more than 5.6 million actions taken around the world.
In one initiative, UNiTE convened youth activists, sports personalities, human rights lawyers, journalists and pop stars to undertake a challenging five-day climb of Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro. The event underscored that, even though violence is pervasive, people can work together to “master the mountain” and stop it. A UNiTE activity at the Hanoi Children’s Palace in Viet Nam brought artists, young people and activists together to co-create paintings and murals about their commitment to ending violence together. A children’s painting contest was subsequently launched, attracting more than 2 million contributions from across the country, a hundred of which were exhibited in the Women’s Museum.
UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict
An important complement to the work of UNiTE comes through UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. It involves 13 UN entities, including UN Women.
