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In a time when girls' and women's rights are under threat, girls face severe impacts. Urgent attention and resources are needed in areas such as maternal healthcare, adolescent parenting support, digital skills, comprehensive sexuality education, and violence prevention. Responding to girls’ calls for change, the global community must move beyond reaffirming commitments and invest boldly in the action needed to make that change. On this International Day of the Girl Child (11 October), let us amplify girls’ voices, and recommit to working together to build a world where every girl can thrive.

One important lesson from the pandemic is that countries can design policies that support gender equality; it is a matter of choice. Even in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis, we witnessed governments – from high-income to low-income countries – introducing measures focused on addressing women’s economic security and recovery. Building capacities to respond to the specific needs and priorities of women and girls in crisis has long been a priority for . UNDP, with support from the Government of Denmark, is supporting an all women construction initiative helping to rebuild war-damaged homes in Ukraine. The idea arose after the women found themselves being overlooked when volunteering in local construction groups. 

is the 51�Թ� sexual and reproductive health agency. Their is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The agency promotes gender equality and empowers women, girls and young people to take control of their bodies and their futures in more than 150 countries.

The world is more connected than ever, thanks to our always-evolving technology. But with such advancements come opportunities for harm, with predators finding new ways to perpetuate gender-based violence, using technology for harassment, cyberstalking, doxing, sextortion. brings us the stories of three world-changing women who are working to combat digital violence – creating new laws, technologies and support systems – and to end gender inequality, which creates an imbalance of power and a vulnerability to violence, both in the real and virtual worlds.

Everyone stands to gain from ensuring freedom for women. Social norms that impair women’s rights are also detrimental to society more broadly, dampening the expansion of human development, reports.

UN Women is partnering with FIFA on two calls to action: the first to “Unite for Gender Equality” and the second to “Unite for Ending Violence against Women, critical for a peaceful and sustainable world.

According to a launched by and , no country has achieved full gender parity and fewer than 1 percent of women and girls live in a country with high women’s empowerment and a small gender gap. Analysis of 114 countries has found that women’s power and freedom to make choices and seize opportunities remain largely restricted. Globally, women achieve, on average, 72 percent of what men achieve across key human development dimensions, as measured by the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI), reflecting a 28 percent of gender gap.

June 24, the International Day of Women in Diplomacy, recognizes women's contribution to peace, development and human rights.

Even though there is a timid improvement, the aviation sector faces a clear gender gap, especially in technical areas and leadership positions. Women holding positions as pilots, air traffic controllers, and maintenance technicians , according to the . The  (5-7 July, Madrid) is intended to call all stakeholders to work together to dismantle the barriers women and girls face and explore the enablers and solutions to achieving gender equality in aviation.

“It's not just food and assistance, you need to give these children a life, a life of full opportunities..."

When thousands fled the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, fearing the loss of millions of lives, stayed on. Every day since, the former UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in the country has fought to ease the acute suffering of its people. “I believe we are the last, best hope that humanity has. And we have to stand for it. For [many] we represent this larger world of justice, the moral compass. We must keep that.”

More than 9 in 10 Afghans now live in poverty, with 24.4 million reliant on humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, mounting restrictions on freedoms have excluded millions of women from work and study. In this episode, Dr. Alakbarov reflects on three painful years of Taliban rule, on the desperate need for long-term prospects, and on finding hope amid the darkness.

Photo credit: ©UN Afghanistan

Valdecir Nascimento tells , she wants black women of today to have the power and possibility to decide. 

Gender bias is alive and well in the 21st century, and it casts a shadow over our beliefs and how we act on them. No matter where women live, they are paid less, shoulder more unpaid housework and childcare, and are wildly under-represented in civic and business leadership. Men make the laws, lead the vast majority of governments, and run the biggest companies. undertakes regular assessment of the attitudes people have towards men’s and women’s societal roles. Its latest report on the , shows that biases remain persistent.

In the nearly two years since Afghanistan’s de-facto authorities seized power, the “ambitions, dreams and potential” of girls and women have perished, a rights activist has told the  in Geneva.

And in an with UN News’s Nancy Sarkis, Afghan civil rights activist Shaharzad Akbar explains that women and girls there talk of “being buried alive, breathing, but not being able to do much else.”

Audio Credit: Nancy Sarkis, UN News - Geneva

Photo Credit: UN Photo/Srdjan Slavkovic

Research shows that when women serve in cabinets and parliaments, they pass laws and policies that are better for ordinary people, the environment and social cohesion. Women also bring immense benefits to diplomacy, yet their contributions have often been overlooked. It's time to recognize and celebrate the ways in which women are breaking barriers and making a difference in the field of diplomacy.  On this International Day of Women in Diplomacy (24 June), we must all do everything possible to ensure women are at the table, their voices heard, and contributions valued.

's projects have supported women empowerment through education and training.