This report, a joint document from ActionAid and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), draws attention to the knowledge, institutional capacity, and resources needed to address the intersection between HIV and AIDS and violence against women and girls (VAWG). Its aim is to stimulate debate and collaboration among practitioners and advocates about how to identify and promote effective prevention policies and practices that can be adapted to various contexts.To read the report, please visit here.

The State of the World’s Children 2007 examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives – and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls. It looks at the status of women today, discusses how gender equality will move all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) forward, and shows how investment in women’s rights will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children.To read the publication, please visit here.

Violence against women and girls is a pervasive violation of human rights that persists worldwide and cuts across all socio-economic groups. This new collaborative study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the magnitude, nature and context of violence experienced specifically by indigenous girls, adolescents and young women. Drawing on examples from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, the study assesses the interface between the historical, political, economic, social and cultural contexts of indigenous peoples, and examines the types of violence they face, their prevalence and the settings in which they take place. The report looks at different interventions underway and offers insights and comprehensive recommendations – including a set of guiding principles – to accelerate progress and action to protect and prevent violence against indigenous girls and women in all its forms.

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This report is a clarion call to decision makers, parents, communities and to the world to end child marriage. It documents the current scope, prevalence and inequities associated with child marriage and highlights that by 2020, some 142 million girls will be married by their 18th birthday if current trends continue. This translates into 37,000 girls married each day. Child marriage jeopardizes girls’ rights and stands in the way of girls living educated, healthy and productive lives. It also excludes girls from fundamental decisions, such as the timing of marriage and choice of spouse. Girls living in rural areas of the developing world are twice as likely to be married before age 18 as their urban counterparts, and girls with no education are over three times more likely to do so than those with secondary or higher education.

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The purpose of introducing the framework was to provide guidance for inter-agency progarmming to address the issues of marginalized and hardest to reach adolescent girls. The core principle of adolescent girls’ programmes is based on realignment of existing programmes with a focus on integrated approaches such as health, education, protection, social and economic asset building. The UN Adolescent Girls Task Force was established in 2007, to reorient youth programmes to better reach marginalized adolescent girls, Co-chaired by UNFPA and UNICEF, the task force includes UNESCO, WHO, UNWOMEN, ILO and UNHCR recently joined.

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In Senegal, the movement to end female genital mutilation/cutting is reaching the most remote places. On the sandy roads of the Fouta region and along the river, the information about the problems caused by the traditional practice circulates, inspiring people in dozens of villages to rise up in support of women’s and girls’ health. This photo essay documents a site visit by funders of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, which is supporting communities in abandoning the practice using culturally sensitive, rights-based approaches.

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This brochure provides an overview of UNFPA’s role in addressing gender-based violence, an enormous impediment to sexual and reproductive health, as well as a major human rights issue. Recognizing that gender inequalities and their most brutal manifestation – gender-based violence – inhibit women and girls from accessing reproductive health services, and acknowledging that proper reproductive health care in the aftermath of a sexual violence incident can be life saving, UNFPA has assumed a leadership role in addressing this major human rights issue.

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As the global spotlight has turned more sharply over the last decade on the persistence of violence against women and girls, the need for more and better data to inform evidence-based programming in order to address this human rights violation has escalated. As this brochure describes, advocates and defenders of women’s and girls’ safety and rights, as well as international agencies, national policymakers and donors, need to understand the nature and magnitude of the violence. They seek information and guidance on how statistically sound data can be collected on a subject that, though present and often pervasive in most societies and cultures, is sensitive and often hidden.

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This briefing paper examines the right to access contraceptive information and services for women and adolescents. It provides practical guidance for activists, scholars, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, governments and other actors working in the area of sexual and reproductive health to integrate human rights into programmes and policies on contraceptive information and services.

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In a compartmentalized world, the rights of women and those of children have often been promoted in isolation from one another. The purpose of this advocacy booklet is to explore the human rights links between these two groups, the practical implications of considering them together, and four areas for strategic action.

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From Access to Equality aims to raise public awareness of the importance of investing in girls’ and women’s education. It highlights relatively neglected areas of education that are interrelated: secondary education and literacy. Published within the framework of the UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls and Women’s Education – “Better Life, Better Future” – it provides the Partnership with a strategic vision and gives concrete examples of ways to tackle obstacles to both access and equality.

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To inform and refine its adolescent girl program, the United Nations Foundation launched a comprehensive learning and planning process in the fall of 2012 to examine the environment, in which it operates and contributes, assess its current strategy and progress, and map potential options for meaningful and effective program investment and action. As part of this process, the UN Foundation pursued an external landscape analysis to identify the current gaps and opportunities in the adolescent girl field.

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This summary of current literature on violence against women and girls in Pacific Island Countries is designed to give practitioners a concise and comprehensive overview of current knowledge and analysis. The evidence presented in this second edition presents a compelling case for more action and investment in preventing and responding to violence against women. It is intended to inform leaders, legislators, policy and decision-makers in government, and programme designers in government and civil society. It is also intended to be a ‘living’ source of knowledge, and will be regularly updated to ensure its validity.

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This note summarizes available research on the impact of schooling and employment of adolescent girls and young women on earnings and poverty reduction, demographic outcomes, child development outcomes, and female empowerment. It identifies key implications of this research for the formulation of public policy.

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