UN Women is the United Nations agency for the empowerment of women. Gender equality is a human right, and empowering women strengthens the economy and raises productivity. Nevertheless, inequalities between the sexes remain deeply rooted in every society. Switzerland supported the creation of UN Women in 2010, and has been strongly engaged in the agency's activities ever since.
Gender equality is a fundamental human right, and investing in gender equality is vital for reducing poverty, achieving inclusive economic growth as well as sustainable development. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) focuses on this issue.
Switzerland is committed to ensuring that UN Women is not only active in drawing up international standards on gender equality and promoting women, but also operational in developing countries.
Despite significant progress at the legislative level, gender equality is far from being assured. Women are still under-represented in political and economic decision-making processes. They are often denied access to decent work, are affected by gender segregation in the labour market and gender pay gaps. Globally, one in five women suffers acts of violence and discrimination.
Facts and figures on gender equality in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals
In its Strategic Plan 2018-2021, UN Women contributes to four interdependent and interrelated outcomes:
UN Women has made a significant contribution to improving the legislative framework of gender equality and the empowerment of women. As part of its Strategic Plan 2014-2017, UN Women contributed to the achievement of the following results:
Laws have been adopted or amended to strengthen women’s rights in over 60 countries with a combined female population of almost 1.6 billion. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, UN Women contributed to the fact that the new constitution takes into account the different social and economic circumstances of men and women.
Nine countries, with a combined female population of 168 million, have adopted policy frameworks to foster the economic empowerment of women with the support of UN Women, including South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sri Lanka.
With the support of UN Women, 24 countries, with a combined female population of 1.05 billion, strengthened their legislation to combat violence against women and girls, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Honduras, Serbia and Tunisia.
Switzerland has supported UN Women since its foundation. Improving gender equality and strengthening the rights of women and girls is part of the international cooperation strategy 2021-2024. The FDFA’s Strategy on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights highlights the importance of gender equality as a human right, as a force for peace and security and as a contribution to sustainable development. UN Women’s mandate contributes to the achievement of these strategic objectives.
Switzerland’s objectives in relation to UN Women are the following:
As part of the regular monitoring of compliance activities, Switzerland will pay close attention to ensuring UN Women rigorously implements its zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and abuse.
Switzerland's international cooperation strategy 2021-2024
Strategy on gender equality and women's rights
Switzerland will make a basic contribution of CHF 48 million for the period 2018–20, which equates to funding of CHF 16 million a year. Switzerland also supports specific UN Women projects at country level. Switzerland is working, for example, together with UN Women on a project in the South Caucasus and is contributing to the achievement of the following three objectives:
As a member state and a strategic donor, Switzerland plays an active role in the monitoring and evaluation of the operational and financial accountability of UN Women. Moreover, through its involvement in the organisation’s Executive Board, Switzerland maintains regular dialogue with UN Women at various management levels.
Switzerland's engagement in UN Women contributes to creating stable societies and a secure international environment in the long term. As a strongly globalised and economically interconnected country, Switzerland relies on such international stability for its own security and well-being. UN Women is an important multilateral partner for Switzerland in respect of its international responsibilities and its objectives in the area of gender equality. Through its participation in UN Women, Switzerland brings the approaches and objectives of the FDFA Strategy on Gender Equality and Women's Rights to the UN agency and can work to strengthen the legal dimension of gender equality worldwide.
