Financing for Gender Equality and the Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Abstract

In 2019, the Secretary-General put forward a set of directives for the UN system on women, peace and security (WPS), including commitments on financing. Financing for women, peace and security was also included as one of the Secretary-General’s forward-looking goals on women, peace and security (Box 1). Progress on the implementation of these commitments is reviewed on an annual basis by the Secretary-General’s Executive Committee (EC) under its agenda item on WPS. At the 2021 review, the EC tasked UN Women to provide an updated assessment of implementation related to the UN system’s commitment of a 15 per cent financial resource earmark and amplify efforts to raise awareness of this specific commitment as well as share updated figures during the annual EC WPS item for more consistent tracking (Decision 2021/49). The Secretary-General emphasized the UN’s commitment, in which he obligated the full compliance of all UN entities and country teams, “to reach the target of allocating a minimum of 15 per cent of programmatic budgets to gender equality and to improve the mainstreaming of gender in all areas of expenditure.” This brief responds to that request, provides an assessment of the status of implementation, and puts forward a set of recommendations to accelerate the pace of progress.