Resources
Explore a wide range of valuable resources on GCED to deepen your understanding and enhance your research, advocacy, teaching, and learning.
104 Results found
UNESCO Women for Ethical AI: Outlook Study on Artificial Intelligence and Gender Year of publication: 2024 Corporate author: UNESCO The gender chapter of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI is a concrete commitment by 194 Member States to advance gender equality in the AI ecosystem. To track progress in the implementation of the gender provisions of UNESCO’s Recommendation, and to assess the impacts of AI on gender equality, the UNESCO Women for Ethical AI (W4EAI) Platform has been established. This report advances the workstream through evidence-based insights in three critical areas: women’s participation in AI development and deployment, the inclusion of gender equality concerns in AI governance and the impact of AI on gender equality. It highlights the significant underrepresentation of women in AI, the lack of gender-disaggregated data, and the compounded challenges women face in the field. The report also addresses the neglect of gender dimensions in AI policy, the risks posed by AI systems to women, and the need for responsible and ethical AI governance to promote gender equality. Finally, it outlines actionable recommendations to enhance gender equality through and in AI, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive data collection, targeted interventions, and inclusive policy-making. 
Fostering Women's Leadership Year of publication: 2024 Author: Mariagrazia Squicciarini | Anna Rita Manca | Garance Sarlat Corporate author: UNESCO No (leadership) share no gain (for societies and economies)! Leveraging UNESCO’s unique Gender-Based Resilience Framework, this report explores the role of women in leadership positions in both decision-making and high-tech, including in artificial intelligence-related innovations. It further highlights progress towards the G20 Brisbane Target, aimed to accelerate progress on gender equality by reducing the gender gap in labour market participation rates by 25% by 2025. Women remain underrepresented in decision-making, holding only about 26% of seats in national parliaments worldwide on average. In the world of work, female labour participation continues to lag behind men’s, at 47% for women against 72% for men on average. Despite progress by G20 members towards the Brisbane Target, a 2% average gap in absolute terms remained to be filled in 2022. In the high-tech world, women make up only 30% of AI professionals, and even less of leaders. Female inventors in AI account for about 37% of patents filed in 2022-23. 
Gender, Climate & Security: Sustaining Inclusive Peace on the Frontlines of Climate Change Year of publication: 2020 Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) | United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Climate change is a defining threat to peace and security in the 21st century – its impacts felt by everyone, but not equally. Gender norms and power dynamics shape how women and men of different backgrounds experience or contribute to insecurity in a changing climate. Grounded in a series of case studies from research and programming experience, this report offers a comprehensive framework for understanding how gender, climate and security are inextricably linked. The report assesses entry points for action across existing global agendas and suggests concrete recommendations for how policymakers, development practitioners and donors can advance three inter-related goals: peace and security, climate action and gender equality. 
Domestic Violence Escalated in the Time of Corona ... Who Protects Women? Year of publication: 2020 Author: Jaafar Abdul Karim Corporate author: DW Jaafar Talk A program of DW TV broadcasting from Berlin. The program talks about the physical violence experienced by some women in the Arab world during the time of the new Corona virus. The program is characterized by its review of multiple cases of violence during quarantine, and seeks to discuss the causes and solutions to this issue. 
Policy Brief: The Impact of Covid-19 on Women Year of publication: 2020 Corporate author: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) | United Nations (UN) The year 2020, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, was intended to be ground-breaking for gender equality. Instead, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, even the limited gains made in the past decades are at risk of being rolled back. The pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic.Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex.This policy brief by the UN Secretary-General explores how women and girls’ lives are changing in the face of COVID-19, and outlines suggested priority measures to accompany both the immediate response and longer-term recovery efforts. 
Egypt: Gender Justice and the Law Year of publication: 2018 Corporate author: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) The United Nations Development Program, in cooperation with UN Women, the United Nations Population Fund and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), has conducted a study on gender justice and the law. The study aims to provide an integrated assessment of laws and policies affecting gender justice and protection from gender-based violence. Gender in the Arab States Region This file focuses on Egypt. 
Beyond COVID-19: A Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice Year of publication: 2021 Corporate author: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) As the world learns to live with COVID-19, to emerge from the current crisis, and to “build back better”, UN Women’s new Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice is a visionary but practical roadmap for putting gender equality, social justice, and sustainability at the centre of the recovery. The Feminist Plan maps the ambitious and transformative policies – on livelihoods, care, and the environment – that are needed to build a more equal and sustainable future. To get there, calls for context-specific policy pathways, tailored political strategies, and financing. The plan identifies key levers that can create change and the actors at global, national, local levels that need to take action to move towards this vision. 
Bridging the Gap: Holistic Education Policy to Foster Opportunities for Girls in Rural Pakistan Year of publication: 2023 Author: Hina Saleem Corporate author: Center for Universal Education at Brookings Seven out of ten girls in rural Sindh are excluded from schooling. This happens for a myriad of reasons and occurs both in the presence and absence of operational school buildings. When schools are present, the challenges that children—especially girls—face due to their economic and social context often go unaddressed; children who are able to enroll in school often find their learning affected by classroom design and practices and experiences that mirror the exclusion they experience outside of school. At the broader level, this exclusion is reflected in limited representation of the needs and aspirations of sizable rural populations in Pakistan’s formal education system and the pathways beyond it. This policy brief presents findings from on-the-ground research in rural settlements in Sindh province that explores the disparities between boys and girls in enrollment and continuation of schooling in addition to overall inadequate education outcomes. It also provides policy recommendations to support all children and particularly girls in meeting their education needs and aspirations. Education policy must respond to these challenges of unmet education needs and aspirations by taking a holistic, welfare-based approach that supports children to overcome the effects of exclusionary conditions to meet their education needs. However, the benefits of such an approach can only be realized if teaching practices and learning experiences are contextualized, build a connection with local knowledge, question root causes of exclusion and support and prepare all children in negotiating pathways beyond education. 
Supporting women participation in higher education in Eastern Africa: building sustainable and equitable higher education systems in Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda Year of publication: 2023 Author: Winnie V. Mitullah | Sibrino Forojalla | Benon Basheka | Saidou Sireh Jallow | Endris Adem Awol | Scheherazade Feddal | Daniele Vieira do Nascimento Corporate author: UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) | UNESCO Nairobi <Executive Summary>Some takeaways from the Report:Policy frameworks and various legislations have enhanced the implementation of programs aimed at improving women’s education from primary school to university level. At the Higher Education (HE) level, some progress has been made, but the institutions are lagging behind in having gender parity, more so in top leadership positions. Men dominate leadership positions. At lower education levels, progress is hampered by socio-economic and cultural gender inequities, and limited resources. Socio-cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriages have also had a negative effect on women’s advancement to HE.There are multiple factors that hinder women’s participation in HE and in reaching leadership positions. These include fewer women having PhD, maternal household engagement, limited time for participation in research and related activities that are a requirement for upward mobility as well as lack of child care and women-friendly facilities within universities. Ongoing mainstreaming of gender in HE is improving the situation, albeit minimal. More effort is needed to increase the number of women in HE. In addition, there is limited administrative commitment on the part of the universities to address gender inequality in leadership positions.Overall, HE institutions have not fully exploited opportunities that exist for gender advancement in HE, including potential partnerships for supporting the advancement of women. There is need for effective governance to achieve gender equality and collaboration between HE institutions, and development partners through public-private partnerships. Such partnerships have the potential for making resources available and for funding opportunities to enhance the support to women students, in particular those undertaking STEM courses which require more time for study.In Kenya, higher education has evolved over time from the technical and commercial institute in Nairobi – the Royal Technical College of East Africa – established in 1951 to offer technical courses within the East Africa region. The college was transformed to Royal Technical College in 1961, and later to the University of Nairobi in 1970. From this initial one university, Kenya currently has 32 chartered public universities, 9 public university constituent colleges, 21 chartered private universities and 3 private university constituent colleges.In South Sudan, at its commencement, missionary education did not provide for girls. When schools re-opened in August 1956, the Sudanese government authorities maintained the closure of the girls’ schools, irrespective of whether government or missionary, for the following four to five years. The impact has been the severe retardation of girls’ education for almost a generation. Tradition and tribal customs regarding gender equity are still very strong and dominant in everyday life. Consequently, traditional male stereotypes also dominate within almost all higher education institutions, including the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHEST) itself. This research is in fact the first time an effort is being made to investigate the participation of women in HE and in leadership positions in universities and other tertiary institutions. This explains the very limited response to the questions sent out to the institutions outside Juba. Today, however, a good start has been made in advancing girls’ education in general.In Uganda, under similar circumstances, women do not have good access to higher level jobs, positions, voice and wealth like men. The low representation of women in leadership positions in higher education institutions in the country can be traced back to the late start in women’s enrollment in modern schooling due to a number of factors. 
Empowering women for the good of society: gender-based resilience Year of publication: 2023 Author: Squicciarini, Mariagrazia | Sarlat, Garance | Manca, Anna Rita Corporate author: UNESCO <Short Summary> Let’s change the resilience paradigmWhat are the root causes and drivers of resilience? Societal resilience is shaped by the unique roles that individuals play and their ability to respond to shocks, gender-based expectations and discriminations hinder women’s and girls’ ability to participate in, and contribute to, society. In times of crises, their vulnerability intensifies resulting in a weakened response that ripples throughout society.In response, UNESCO designed the first Gender-Based Resilience Framework. As a compass for inclusive policymaking, this report analyzes how differences in opportunities, needs and constraints impact resilience and proposes a measurement Framework based on: (1) fundamental human rights; (2) socioeconomic characteristics, such as health, education, work, political engagement, and climate justice; (3) contextual factors, such as values and perceptions.Moving beyond the standard approach of coping with and recovering from shocks; UNESCO calls for a gender-transformative resilience, which leverages the interrelations between individuals and institutions. Decision- and policy-makers, researchers, and gender equality advocates are invited to use and add to this Framework to effectively navigate through current and future crises.It is only by empowering all women and girls, and people of all genders, that we will be able to face the challenges ahead.