Account, recommit, resource: Enhancing gender parity across the UN system

The Office of the Focal Point for Women in the UN System at UN Women leads and coordinates a network of more than 650 UN Gender Focal Points (GFPs), key agents of change who support the implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity.

This publication provides a summary of the 2024 Global Annual Meeting of UN Gender Focal Points, which took place on 14–16 October 2024, co-hosted by UNICEF. More than 200 Gender Focal Points from all over the UN system joined both virtually and in person to “account, recommit, and resource” to make gender parity a reality by 2028.

The annual meeting provides a unique opportunity for GFPs from across the UN system to accelerate through reflection, to activate through peer-to-peer and inter-agency knowledge sharing, and eventually to advance gender parity in their respective entities.

The three-day meeting provided an opportunity to discuss gender parity in the context of Beijing+30 framework. The meeting covered crucial topics such as:

• engaging men to empower change,
• overcoming resistance,
• generative spaces,
• intersectionality,
• advancing gender parity in regional and country contexts, and
• good practices in implementing the Enabling Environment Guidelines and the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines.

Furthermore, GFPs engaged with executive leaders, members of the Executive Group, and resident coordinators.

GFPs continue to play a key role to support their leadership and entities to advance gender parity.