Global Annual Results Report 2021: Gender equality
Addressing gender inequalities and promoting women’s and girls’ empowerment and well-being to build an equal future for all children
COVID-19, climate change and conflict: a crisis for women and girls
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s impact – compounded by escalating humanitarian crises fuelled by conflict and climate change – threatens to reverse decades of progress on gender equality, and to greatly increase deprivations for the most vulnerable girls and women.
Women and girls are bearing the brunt of negative socioeconomic impacts, with an aggravation of existing socioeconomic gender disparities rather than emergence of new inequalities. Challenges facing girls, especially adolescent girls, already considerable pre-pandemic, have worsened. With schools closed, or pivoted to remote learning, girls’ education gains made over the last 25 years are at risk; and their vulnerability to harmful practices has increased – by 2030, a staggering 10 million more child marriages may occur; and global efforts to end female genital mutilation may be set back by at least 30 per cent. Unemployment rates have affected women much worse than men, and gender disparities in unpaid care work continue to grow wider, barring women from economic opportunities and straining their mental health. Violence against women and girls has risen dramatically, driven by economic stressors, displacement, food insecurity, and deep-rooted social norms about females’ subordinate roles and status.
Less than a decade away from the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world is at a pivotal moment. Global efforts must come together with renewed vigour to drastically address systemic and underlying barriers that hold women and girls back, and accelerate action not only to redress current disparities but also close pre-pandemic gender gaps. To build back better, the focus must turn towards challenging the status quo of norms and structures that perpetuate gender inequality – with girls and women leading the call for action and pioneering solutions.
This is the final year in the implementation of the Gender Action Plan 2018-2021, UNICEF’s roadmap for promoting gender equality throughout its work. Over the last four years, UNICEF has substantially increased investment in resources, leadership, capacity and accountability to achieve meaningful results for women and girls. And while progress has been uneven, achievements over the GAP cycle are significant compared with baseline, highlighting UNICEF’s commitment amid concurrent crises.
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88 per cent of all benchmarks in the UN-SWAP – the United Nations gender equality scorecard were met compared to 76 per cent in 2018 |
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80 per cent of live births were attended by skilled personnel in 2021, surpassing the overall target of 79 per cent |
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21 million out-of-school girls accessed early learning, primary or secondary education through UNICEF-supported programmes versus 8.4 million in 2019 |
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3.6 million families across 97 countries benefited from support on positive, nurturing care, almost four times more than in 2017 |
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6.5 million girls were reached with WASH-in-schools services (including gender-segregated, child-friendly and accessible WASH facilities). |
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100 countries were supported to integrate specific gender objectives in their national social protection programmes, compared to 29 in 2019. |
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7.6 million adolescent girls across 47 countries benefited from child marriage-related interventions, nearly four times more than in 2017 |
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16.8 million girls participated in skills development programmes, compared to 3.2 million in 2020. |
UNICEF focuses on levelling the playing field for girls and boys by addressing gender inequality in key life outcomes; promoting gender equality in how children are supported and cared for, including in households and childcare-related fields; and promoting adolescent girls’ well-being and empowerment.
In 2021, UNICEF continued to accelerate positive outcomes for women and girls, despite ongoing disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises. UNICEF and partners focused on mitigating the effects of disruptions, prioritizing service continuity, while also reorienting and redesigning regular programming. Results were scaled up in several areas including: quality maternal care, ending child marriage, menstrual health and hygiene, social protection, learning access, and adolescent girls’ skills development.
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80 per cent of live births were attended by skilled personnel in 2021, surpassing the overall target of 79 per cent |
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40.4 million adolescent girls benefited from services and support for the prevention of anaemia and other forms of malnutrition |
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57.5 million caregivers of children under the age of 2 years received infant and young child feeding counselling and support |
In the health sector, UNICEF worked with governments to advance quality maternal health care, prevent malnutrition, and integrate community health workers (CHWs) – who are mostly female – into formal health systems. UNICEF also continued to expand support for caregivers’ mental health and well-being, not only as an essential part of the continuum of quality care, but also as an opportunity for transformative interventions – such as promoting equitable parenting and male involvement in childcare – that address the root causes of gender inequalities. Efforts in 2021 continued to be framed in the context of COVID-19, which heightened stressors disproportionately on female caregivers.
Preventing malnutrition in tea estates
UNICEF is partnering with the government and tea estate associations to improve the health and nutrition of women and children living and working in these communities. For example, essential nutrition services and information are delivered through monthly mother support groups and creches, where pregnant and lactating mothers can lean on their peers, learn about diet diversity and breastfeeding, and receive antenatal iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation. Adolescent girls meet weekly to discuss issues around child marriage, school attendance, life skills, and optimal nutrition; and they maintain community ‘nutri-gardens’, an activity helping to shift rigid norms around women’s and girls’ nutritional needs and food intake, by engaging community support for their equal access to nutritious diets.
Delivering lifesaving health services to remote communities
Kholod Hamod Abdul Wahid, joined a UNICEF and partners’ CHW training programme in Lahj, south Yemen, because she felt a strong urge to help her community. “The situation is very complicated in rural areas,” she said, “cars simply cannot reach rugged areas. Because of that, pregnant women and children often don’t receive help on time.” The course trains local women to detect diseases or epidemic threats, cases of malnutrition, pregnancy and birth complications, and provide health and vaccination information. Each CHW delivers these essential health services in hard-to-reach communities, serving a population of about 170 households on average. The CHWs themselves come from remote areas and are deeply connected to their own communities. By end-2021, the programme had trained some 2,900 women – 720 across six governorates in 2021 alone – reaching an estimated 2 million people.
Read more: Training Community Health Workers to Help Yemeni Children
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21 million out-of-school girls accessed early learning, primary or secondary education through UNICEF-supported programmes versus 8.4 million in 2019 |
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48 countries had gender-responsive education systems, increasing from 15 countries in 2017 |
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31 countries had systems that institutionalized gender-equitable skills for learning, personal empowerment, active citizenship and/or employability, versus 5 countries at baseline. |
The closure of schools has had a profound effect on girls’ lives, especially adolescent girls. Underlying barriers to learning related to harmful norms, violence, poverty, distance and disability have intensified due to COVID-19-related school closures and social isolation. To ensure continued education, UNICEF and partners invested in distance learning in diverse modalities to promote learning, in advocacy for reopening schools, and in promoting gender equitable skills-development for personal empowerment, active citizenship and employability.
Keeping learning going during emergencies
Fiji, particularly exposed to rising sea levels, floods, and landslides, is one of the most world's most vulnerable nations to climate change and climate-related disasters.
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4.4 million children experiencing violence were reached with health, justice and social welfare services in 129 countries, versus 2.5 million children in 2017 |
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3.6 million families across 97 countries benefited from support on positive, nurturing care, almost four times more than in 2017 |
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10 million people participated in community activities to promote FGM elimination across 18 countries, surpassing the target |
The COVID-19 crisis reinforced the need for urgent increases in investment in multisectoral services to prevent and respond to violence. UNICEF emphasizes strategic partnerships with coordinated interventions and targeted, large-scale investment to tackle gender-based violence across diverse contexts within the humanitarian-development nexus. 98 per cent of all UNICEF Humanitarian Appeals for Children in 2021 had a specific GBV indicator and funding ask, and nearly 13.9 million people across 89 countries were reached with GBV response, prevention and risk-mitigation programmes. This is 18 times the number in 2017, and an expansion from 43 countries.
UNICEF stepped up efforts to support national responses to sexual exploitation and abuse, including its specific digital dimensions, partly due to a rise in technology-facilitated gender-based abuse, especially directed at adolescent girls and young women. UNICEF also prioritized evidence-based caregiver support, which has the potential to break intergenerational transmissions of gender-based family violence.
Ensuring teen mothers can stay in school
Because of discriminatory norms, pregnant and parenting adolescent girls are typically barred from returning to school. Through the end-violence Spotlight Initiative, UNICEF, UNFPA and the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development are working to shift harmful norms that condone violence, and ensure that teen mothers – like Juliet and Mariam – get a second chance to continue their education or pursue vocational skills.
Women’s and Girls’ Safe Spaces
Women’s and girls’ friendly spaces are providing access to psychosocial support and life skills training – in 2021, 15 safe spaces were established by UNICEF and partners, reaching nearly 8,000 women and girls. These have proven vital in protecting girls and women during the recent crisis; enabling them to access information, counselling and peer-support networks amongst other services.
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20 million more people had access to basic sanitation services (10.2 million women and girls) |
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16.7 million girls and women benefited from UNICEF-supported water programmes in humanitarian settings |
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6.5 million girls were reached with WASH-in-schools services (including gender-segregated, child-friendly and accessible WASH facilities) |
To address ongoing disruptions to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in 2021, UNICEF supported service-delivery and government systems-strengthening across more than 100 countries. For example, by the end of 2021, almost 16,700 health-care facilities (up from 1,600 at baseline) had improved WASH services, a critical intervention to reduce incidence of both infant and maternal mortality. And, since 2017, UNICEF supported improved gender-segregated WASH facilities and programmes in over 21,100 schools in 94 countries (exceeding the target of 20,000).
UNICEF has also scaled up its efforts to address environmental degradation and the effects of climate change – critical considerations in programme design and implementation – including supporting the actions of young people, especially girls, who are leading climate activism.
Girl climate activists leading change
Environmental degradation and the effects of climate change are critical considerations in WASH programme design and implementation, with young people, especially girls, leading climate activism. Nicole Becker, 19, is an environmental activist, and a founder of Jóvenes por el Clima Argentina. She saw an Instagram video of young people in Europe speaking about the climate crisis, and decided to take action in her own country to organize young people who are passionate about climate action.
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94 UNICEF country programmes carried out interventions to challenge harmful norms and promote positive gender socialization |
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In 56 countries UNICEF assisted governments to support families to better care for their children, including through family-friendly policies like parental leave; quality childcare; and child benefits. |
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100 countries were supported to integrate specific gender objectives in their national social protection programmes, compared to 29 in 2019 |
Confronting the harmful social norms and stereotypes that are a root cause of persistent discrimination towards girls and women can be a powerful force for transformative change. In an ongoing pandemic context that has seen reinforced stereotypes and deepened inequalities in homes and workplaces, UNICEF has continued to focus on family-friendly policies and positive parenting; engaging men and boys; addressing gender discrimination in school curricula and norms related to harmful practices; and integrating gender considerations within social protection programmes.
UNICEF continued to expand support for gender-responsive social protection programmes, particularly addressing the gender norms that create barriers, preventing women and girls from benefiting from such programmes. This is especially crucial in the ongoing pandemic context, where the ‘care crisis’ is severely limiting women’s and girls’ access to learning and earning opportunities and resources.
Social protection for mothers and their infants
A joint programme between UNICEF, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) was launched in Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 2021 to improve health and child protection services for pregnant and lactating women and their children. The social protection initiative provided cash transfers to 982 beneficiaries in 46 villages in the Sanamxay district to encourage uptake of perinatal care and vaccinations. Beneficiaries receive monthly funds via a computerized system to ensure accurate targeting and timely payments; as well as routine visits by health workers to help them access essential services.
Read more: The Mother and Early Childhood Grant: first cash transfer to beneficiaries under the initiative kicked off in Attapeu
When disasters and emergencies happen, including public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, people not only are impacted differently, but they are unlikely to have equal opportunities to overcome the crisis. Women and girls are disproportionately affected. Pre-existing discriminatory norms tend to restrict them from life-saving resources and networks, and their risk of GBV and sexual exploitation escalates. Humanitarian action far too often does not prioritize actions to equalize opportunities and access to essential services for the most vulnerable women and girls. Intentional efforts are needed to compensate for gender-based disadvantages.
UNICEF has taken proactive steps to improve the effectiveness of UNICEF-supported humanitarian action by highlighting its gender dimensions, and setting key standards and benchmarks to hold itself accountable. In 2020, the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs) were revised to embed gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls across all humanitarian processes to deliver transformative change.
In 2021, catalytic funding through the Gender Thematic Fund allowed 14 countries to more intentionally integrate gender in their humanitarian efforts. Country offices collaborated on highlighting priority actions during the preparedness phase, such as identifying local women’s organizations to partner with, assessing GBV referral mechanisms, ensuring that supply plans included dignity kits and outlining plans for addressing gender capacity gaps at the onset of an emergency. As a result, such actions now form part of how UNICEF monitors gender implementation in humanitarian action institutionally.
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81 countries had an inclusive, gender-responsive national plan for adolescent health and well-being, increasing from 50 countries in 2018 |
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7.6 million adolescent girls across 47 countries benefited from child marriage-related interventions, nearly four times more than in 2017 |
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16.8 million girls participated in skills development programmes, compared to 3.2 million in 2020 |
UNICEF’s efforts to empower adolescent girls and amplify their roles as change-makers, target the interconnected challenges – and their underlying gender norms – that restrict girls from living to their full potential. Over the GAP cycle, through cross-sectoral approaches, strong partnerships and investment, and deliberate actions, UNICEF has helped advance results in areas such as adolescent girls’ skills development, menstrual health and hygiene (MHH), eradicating harmful practices, ending gender-based violence, and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) prevention.
Girls' health and nutrition
Since 2018, UNICEF has broadened its health programming for adolescent girls, particularly in pregnancy and maternal care, HPV prevention, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and anaemia prevention. While progress in quality care for adolescent mothers (aged 15–19 years) saw only modest increases in 2021, gains are notable against baseline data.
Progress in HPV prevention has been considerable. 2.8 million adolescent girls in target countries received the final HPV vaccine dose, almost triple the overall target; and by 2021, 18 UNICEF-supported countries had introduced the vaccine into their immunization schedules, a significant advance from the baseline of 4 countries.
Mother-to-mother peer support system to tackle HIV
Enita is part of a unique initiative between the health ministry, Africaid Zvandiri and UNICEF, called Young Mentor Mothers, which is helping to address the disproportionate vulnerability of adolescent girls to HIV infection, by training adolescent and youth mothers living with HIV to provide peer support. The mentors work alongside community health providers, engaging with girls and young women at health facilities, and through digital health platforms and home visits. They provide a safe space to discuss sexual and reproductive health issues, and help with adherence counselling, following up with missed appointments, sending reminders for early infant diagnosis, conducting couples’ HIV counselling and performing screening and referrals for nutrition, mental health and social protection. As of July 2021, in 38 health facilities across 17 districts, 97 per cent of the nearly 1,700 mothers participating had achieved viral suppression, and the rate of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV was less than 2 per cent.
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UNICEF met 88 per cent of all benchmarks in the UN-SWAP – the United Nations gender equality scorecard – compared to 76 per cent in 2018 |
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98 UNICEF offices met institutional gender results benchmarks compared with 63 in 2018 |
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UNICEF reached virtual gender parity in staffing in line with UN-system wide standards |
Over the last four years, UNICEF has made pronounced shifts in the way it works and within its organizational culture, towards becoming more gender-responsive, inclusive and ultimately more transformative. UNICEF continued to strengthen its institutional systems in 2021, including focusing on growing gender capacity and accountability across organizational levels, improving the scope and quality of evidence generation and gender analysis, expanding and developing new partnerships ensuring dedicated female leadership and promoting a more inclusive, diverse, gender-equitable workplace.
Female drivers join UNICEF’s team
The recruitment is strategic and intentional – to create more economic opportunities for women while also confronting restrictive norms about their roles. Among other duties, drivers help UNICEF’s humanitarian staff to access people displaced by the ongoing conflict. “My family know I love driving. At first, I was surprised that UNICEF would employ a female driver,” said Vivian, a mother of three. “My husband recently had serious health challenges, and his treatment wiped out our savings – so this gender equality campaign is life-saving.” Mercy said she jumped at the chance to turn her driving hobby into a job, and also serve a cause that she cares about. “Some people were happy for me, while others felt driving was a man's job. But I have met many women who were so inspired by my story that they also started commercial driving as a way to earn money for their families,” she said.
In 2022, UNICEF is embarking on a new GAP cycle with renewed commitment to promote gender equality and scale up transformative results for girls and women. To do this, UNICEF, with its partners, will apply bolder, gender-transformative approaches that seek to change the discriminatory social norms, stereotypes and structures that hold girls and women back, in order to achieve concrete and lasting progress on gender equality. UNICEF will step up investment and collaboration to tackle gender-based violence, and engage with men and boys to foster positive masculinities. UNICEF will also build on its work to advance the leadership and well-being of adolescent girls, prioritizing the areas of education and skills, HIV and sexual and reproductive health, and harmful practices, for accelerated action; and expanding partnerships with women’s and girls’ networks to amplify their leadership and voice.
A new gender policy and gender action plan
The new Gender Policy, 2021–2030 – and the Gender Action Plan, 2022–2025 that operationalizes it – embrace a more ambitious role for UNICEF as a global gender champion, taking a bolder approach to gender equality as fundamental to child rights in order to achieve transformational results for women and girls in all dimensions of their lives.
The new GAP elaborates the steps needed to accelerate progress on gender equality across the five Goal Areas of the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2022–2025, as well as within institutional systems and processes. Recognizing that gender discrimination has lifelong and intergenerational impacts, it advances gender equality throughout the life course. At the same time, it promotes targeted actions to advance the leadership and well-being of adolescent girls, since girls are both disproportionately affected by gender inequality and have tremendous potential to be leaders for change. This dual-track approach goes beyond responding to the manifestations of gender inequality to tackle its underlying drivers, including by engaging boys and men as allies; advancing upstream financing and policy solutions; and supporting girls’ agency and voice.
With thanks
This report highlights the achievements made possible by the generous contributions of softly earmarked thematic funding received from various partners. UNICEF would like to express it's sincere appreciation for these contributions.
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Highlights
The commitment of UNICEF to an equal future for all girls and boys recognizes that promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Gender Action Plan, 2018–2021 (GAP) is UNICEF’s road map for promoting gender equality throughout its work, guiding its contributions towards the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. Marking the final year of the GAP implementation cycle, this report summarizes how UNICEF, together with its partners, contributed to gender equality over the last four years, with an emphasis on results in 2021 to improve the lives of children and the communities in which they live.
Looking forward, UNICEF will embark on a new Gender Action Plan, 2022-2025, which envisions a bolder role for UNICEF in its effort to achieve more transformative results for girls and women in all dimensions of their lives. [link to new Gender Action Plan]
