Commitments to Generation Equality Forum

As the world met at the Generation Equality Forum, UNESCO launched a set of concrete commitments to achieve tangible progress towards gender equality in key areas over the next five years while COVID-19 has magnified deeply rooted structural gender inequalities

The  is a landmark global initiative, hosted by the governments of Mexico and France and convened by UN Women in partnership with youth and civil society. The Forum is driving commitments in 6 thematic areas 鈥  鈥 that include gender equality as a central component of Building Back Equal from COVID-19 and fuel significant and lasting change for generations to come.

These commitments are essential to accelerating investment in and implementation of concrete actions on gender equality across the world and they will be made public at the Paris Forum through a virtual World Map of Commitments.

Generation Equality Forum Logo

"I call upon women worldwide to be inspired by the extraordinary achievements of the Beijing Declaration and to take control and full leadership in every aspect of life and domain of society to build back a better future for all."

UNESCO Director-General
Audrey AzoulayDirector-General of UNESCO
Photo by Lea L on Unsplash

GE Action Coalition on Technology and Innovation

UNESCO commits over the next 5 years to further close the digital gender divide by increasing access of women and girls to STEM education, giving visiblility and leadership oportunities to women scientists, and promoting the ethical use of AI that is free of gender bias, sexism and stereotypes.

  • increase access for girls and women to digital skills and competencies, STI and STEM education opportunities, including engineering, computer science and informatics, to ensure gender equality in emerging STI fields such as nanotechnologies, engineering for the SDGs and Artificial Intelligence;
  • provide access to STEM education to at least 2000 girls/year in Africa through hands on micro-science;
  • enable at least 2000 women physicists/year globally under a programme 鈥榩hysics without borders鈥 to take leadership roles among relevant university research programmes;
  • advance the scientific careers of young women scientists and give visibility to their scientific work in all related fields of technology and innovation through its partnership with L鈥橭r茅al-UNESCO 鈥淲omen in Science Programme鈥 and the Organization for Women Scientists in Developing Countries;
  • support member States to review their national STEM education systems from a gender perspective; develop, monitor and evaluate gender transformative STI policies and systems, particularly in Africa;
  • support Member States to close the digital gender divide, promote universal digital literacy, and ethical use of AI that is free of gender bias and stereotypes through the implementation of the Global Recommendation on the Ethics of Al;
  • UNESCO will invest 24 million USD.

  • provide funding for PhD researchers from developing countries through  (OWSD). OWSD also grants awards to early career fellows such as the .

  • promote the scientific careers of young women scientists and give visibility to their work through the annual  that recognized the achievements of 5 laureates and 15  in 2020 and in 2021. The programme is enriched by  chapters implemented around the world with the support of UNESCO National Commissions and Field Offices.
  • give visibility to the scientific research of women through thematic exhibitions, and documentary films projects such as VISIONS, a film project of  with women scientists in Cameroon, Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

  • support Member States to review national STEM education systems with particular attention to gender transformative and inclusive policies and strategies, including national STI policies
  • implement a Flagship Programme on Women and Artificial Intelligence to promote gender bias free AI and gender equality in digital technologies in line with the . A road map to provide evidence-based guidance to AI developers and regulators will be developed with a particular emphasis on fighting gender bias. A policy network to ensure that digital technologies and AI fully contribute to achieving gender equality will be established to support the implementation of this roadmap as well as to promote opportunities for the participation of girls and women in AI education programmes, provide support for female entrepreneurship as well as advocacy activities to fight gender stereotyping in AI.

  • target women scientists through the Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme for Skills Building in Sustainability Science of . In 2021, a Gender Advisory Committee for the TWAS was created to promote gender equality.
  • provide women physicists with research grants and support their active involvement and leadership roles in university research programmes through the 鈥淧hysics without Borders鈥 programme
  • create a critical mass of science teachers trained in gender responsive teaching of STEM subjects
  • provide STEM mentorship programmes for high school girls to nurture their interest in the sciences through STEM role models as well as provide courses in coding, robotics and AI (in partnership with Google, Microsoft, Airtel and Huawei)

GE Action Coalition on Economic Rights and Justice

UNESCO commits over the next 5 years to economically empower women artists and those working in the creative industries in Africa, by improving their access to audiences, funds, social protection schemes and increasing the number of creative industries enterprises owned and led by women.

  • expand decent work and employment for women working in formal and informal creative economies in Africa through the implementation of a business accelerator programme to increase the number of creative industry enterprises owned and led by women in Africa;
  • on a policy level, provide technical assistance to African countries to introduce gender responsive social protection measures to alleviate the impact of COVID-19 and similar economic shocks on the creative industries in Africa and especially on women artists (in accordance with their obligations under the 1980 Recommendation on the Status of the Artists and the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions);
  • develop, promote, and campaign for women鈥檚 freedom to create, free of violence, sexism and sexual harassment in the creative industries in Africa;
  • UNESCO will invest 5 USD.

  • enhance the visibility of women artists and cultural professionals, create space for networking and improve their access to markets, notably in the film, music and digital sectors through major cultural events, support for the mobility of women artists and digital campaigns.  

Examples of past and relevant advocacy actions include  (launched in 2021),  (launched in 2020) ;  (launched in 2019 at FESPACO to address violence against women in the African film industry); Dakar Declaration on Gender Equality in Music, Launch of the  and gender-focused debates around UNESCO鈥檚 publications on gender and creativity.

  • position gender equality and diversity of cultural expressions firmly on the political agenda
  • promote multistakeholder dialogue and the collection of sex-disaggregated data to support the design and implementation of gender transformative policies and measures for creativity
  • provide technical assistance and peer-to-peer learning mechanisms to effectively reduce the gender divide in the creative industries, notably in the digital environment

  • create mentoring and training schemes supporting women artists and cultural professionals to promote gender equality in the culture and creative sectors and combat horizontal and vertical discriminations, notably in Africa

Examples of past and relevant examples:  established with Japanese film director Naomi Kawase, , starting with a pilot diploma programme to provide women with business, financial and communication skills in Senegal, ResiliArt Accelerator pilot project in Zimbabwe.

  •  with a chapter on economic rights and social protection measures for women artists (2019, 2023)
  •  (2021)
  •  (2021)
  • Re|Shaping Cultural Policies (, , )

Girls鈥 education and achieving gender equality in and through education

UNESCO commits over the next 5 years to lead a multi-stakeholder global coalition to support girls鈥 education in the wake of COVID-19 as a cross-cutting strategy to achieve all the goals of the six .

  • reach 28 million learners in 80 countries with quality gender-transformative teaching and learning that promotes gender equality;
  • hold countries to account on their commitments to gender equality in and through education in our role as the officially recognised source for cross-nationally comparative data on SDG 4 and through annual in-depth analyses of trends and strategies to address gender disparities in education;
  • monitor the status of 195 countries鈥 legal frameworks on girls鈥 and women鈥檚 education and support national legal and policy reforms and sector plans to ensure girls鈥 and women鈥檚 right to education;
  • lead global coordination to support girls鈥 education in the wake of COVID-19 through UNESCO鈥檚 Global Education Coalition鈥檚 Gender Flagship;
  • UNESCO will invest 30 million USD.

  • strengthen education systems to be gender-transformative and promote gender equality and empower girls and women through education for a better life and future.

  • work with media and other partners to lead global, regional and national-level advocacy, awareness-raising and the delivery of high-impact and gender-transformative messages for strategic action, including through UNESCO鈥檚  global campaign which has already reached over 360 million people.
  • co-convene with UN Women the , to generate knowledge and standards, and undertake joint evidencebased advocacy.
  • recognise and award outstanding and innovative practice and leverage learning and action through the .

  • support national partners to establish better legal, policy and planning frameworks to advance girls鈥 and women鈥檚 right to education.
  • provide technical assistance to national partners to formulate, implement and monitor gender-responsive education sector plans and budgets, including through , supporting 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • lead efforts to support planning that considers the gender dimensions of COVID-19 school closures and catalyse cooperation, including through the 鈥檚 and our .

  • through the , lead the global monitoring of progress towards SDG 4, and support greater accountability for commitments to gender equality in and through education.
  • promote the integration of evidence-based curriculum content on prevention of gender-based violence in 80 countries, and invest in training of teachers notably through our landmark  programme in 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa where 1 million teachers will be reached by 2026.
  • support national partners to address gender gaps in educational choice and achievement, particularly in technical and vocational education and training and STEM in over 30 countries.

  • publish annual in-depth analyses of trends and strategies to address gender disparities in and through education through the 
  • analyse, map, monitor and serve as the global clearinghouse for internationally comparable data on legislation to on girls鈥 and women鈥檚 education through , which aims to cover 195 countries.
  • undertake forward-looking quantitative and qualitative  to better understand threats to gender equality in education including forthcoming research on the gender dimensions of COVID-19 school closures.
Photo by Lea L on Unsplash

UNESCO Publications

To be smart, the digital revolution will need to be inclusive
Bello, Alessandro
Blowers, Tonya
Schneegans, Susan
Straza, Tiffany
2021
UNESCO
0000377456
Gender & creativity: progress on the precipice, special edition
Conor, Bridget
UNESCO
2021
Publication supported by Sweden
0000375706
Beijing+25: generation equality begins with adolescent girls' education
UNESCO
PLAN International
France. Minist猫re de l'Europe et des affaires 茅trang猫res
2020
UNESCO
0000374579
Artificial intelligence and gender equality: key findings of UNESCO鈥檚 Global Dialogue
UNESCO
2020
UNESCO
0000374174
The Chilling: global trends in online violence against women journalists; research discussion paper
Posetti, Julie
UNESCO
Shabbir, Nabeelah
Maynard, Diana
Bontcheva, Kalina
Aboulez, Nermine
2021
With financial support from UNESCO鈥檚 Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists and the Swedish Postcode Foundation
0000377223
An unfulfilled promise: 12 years of education for every girl
Global Education Monitoring Report Team
UNESCO
UNESCO
0000377997