The UN Women in NGO Access

Team Members: L. Bing, K. Ward, and G. Xitco*

*Note: The team members contributed equally and are listed in alphabetical order.

Blog Post

The UN Women: Can NGOs Help With Education?

What is the UN Women and What is the issue?

The UN Women is an International Organization created by the United Nations. The goal of this organization is to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women worldwide. Founded in July 2010, UN Women has been focusing on improving the quality of life for women on a global scale. They work heavily to assist women in leadership positions, increase the economic power of women, and mitigate violence against women. UN Women is actually a merger organization created from four different branches of the UN: the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI), and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) (UN Women 2023). The merging was in hopes that consolidating goals and resources would be more efficient and they would see greater progress.

There has been progress in the last 13 years, but there is great room for improvement. The UN Women needs to improve on their educating the public on the incessant violence against women that is happening worldwide. It is hard to call for change to an issue that is unknown and not discussed in a large portion of the world. 30% of women aged 15 and above have been subject to physical and/or sexual intimate violence at least once in their lifetime (UN Women 2022). Mass awareness and education is the first step, but UN Women has given a lackluster performance in this area (UN 2022). The picture below is an early example of UN Women’s attempt to bring awareness to the public using an advertisement (UN Women 2013). Although this was a great step in the right direction, there is still more that is needed to be done. 

How the issue forms? 

Violence against women can be separated into two types; sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Nearly 1 in 3 women globally were victims of intimate partner violence between the years 2000 and 2018. The percentage of women affected by either domestic sexual violence is higher in “low-income” countries. Un Women currently cooperates with local governments and nongovernmental organizations to address and create solutions to the issue of violence against women. The current issue with such is that the UN Women has limited access to women in need of assistance in smaller communities. Countries referred to as low-income contain populations of women who are at higher risk of being victim to violence, according to the world health organization (World Health Organization 2021), and therefore in the most need of assistance, but are also the most difficult to reach. 

There exists a disconnect between smaller communities of women and the UN Women. In their report on violence against women the UN Women state that “at least 155 countries have passed laws on domestic violence, and 140 have legislation on sexual harassment in the workplace”, however challenges can be found in enforcing these laws. They go on to state that “not enough is done to prevent violence, and when it does occur, it often goes unpunished”, which is why cooperation with NGO’s targeted towards women in smaller and underrepresented communities is crucial to ensuring that this problem is addressed and solved.

Sources

“About UN Women” UN Women.

 https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/about-un-women (February 20, 2023).

“Facts and Figures: Ending violence against women”. UN Women.

https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures (February 20, 2023).

“UN Women ad series reveals widespread sexism.” UN Women.

https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/10/women-should-ads (February 20, 2023). 

“Ending Violence against Women.” UN Women – Headquarters. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women (February 20, 2023).

“Violence against Women.” 2021. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women (February 20, 2023).

NGO, NGO. 2022. “Want to Report Violence?” Medica Zenica. https://medicazenica.org/en/ (February 20, 2023). 

Women Center for Legal Aid and Counseling , NGO. مركز المرأة للارشاد القانوني والاجتماعي. https://www.wclac.org/ (February 20, 2023).