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partner Yemeni Women Union (YWU) acted on a rumour about an 8-year-old girl getting married, by getting a district lawyer to appoint a legal consultant to investigate Iman’s case. Many girls aren’t rescued the way Iman was. More than 650 million women and girls around the world today were married or in informal unions before age 18. Child marriage is a human rights violation driven by poverty and gender inequality, among other factors. Girls entering child marriages or early unions tend to drop out of school. Without an education, economic independence is near impossible.

Global food and energy markets are feeling the strain of the war. According to the latest , the current disruption to the food and energy markets has only intensified gender disparities, causing rates of food insecurity, malnutrition, and energy poverty. The ensuing cost-of-living crisis has acutely threatened women’s livelihoods, health, and well-being. Empowering rural women means fighting poverty. This International Day of Rural Women (15 Oct) let’s claim rural areas with equal opportunities for all.

In 2022, we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the International Day of the Girl Child. Today more than 1.1 billion girls are poised to take on the future. Every day, girls are breaking boundaries and barriers, tackling issues like child marriage, education inequality, violence, climate justice, and inequitable access to healthcare. Girls are proving they are unstoppable. On this day, it is time for us all to stand accountable – with and for girls – and to invest in a future that believes in their agency, leadership and potential.

In theory, cities offer egalitarian opportunities. They are open to anyone who wants to take their best shot at a fulfilling, diverse, economically rewarding, and cultural life. In reality, most cities are built by men, for men, with little or no thought for women’s and girls’ needs, aspirations or safety. The ‘penalties’ women pay for living in cities include violence, poverty, unequal amounts of unpaid care work, limited job opportunities, and lack of power in public and private decision making. shows us what women see when they look at cities.

For the next 5 episodes of , is focusing on technological challenges and opportunities through the eyes of some incredible and inspirational women in tech, in the run up to and during the . This major event will gather policymakers from ITU’s 193 member states to take decisions that will shape the future of technology, making it greener, more gender and youth inclusive and more accessible to everyone on our planet.

1 year ago, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Every day since, life has become harder for Afghan women and girls as their rights and freedoms have been rolled back and their voices have been silenced. has been in Afghanistan for the last 10 years & continues to stay and deliver for Afghan women & girls in the midst of the world's gravest women’s rights crisis.

Though women and children make up 81 per cent of the nearly 1.53 million refugees in Uganda, refugee settlement leadership has historically lacked women’s representation. Cultural barriers, coupled with limited knowledge on rights and access to education, kept women from participating in decision-making processes. In 2018, began providing trainings for the women and youth of Adjumani and Yumbe districts, which host 30.1 per cent of Uganda’s total refugee population. The trainings included instruction in literacy, numeracy, women’s rights, leadership and life skills development, public speaking, debating and radio presentation. .

“I found it fascinating as a leader […] to be in an environment of collective fear […] people naturally go to a place of great horror […] yet you're trying to buffer it yourself, because you've got to function […] The second point is the ego of leadership […] you've got to be very careful that you're not letting the ego [... drive] you past the point of really solid judgement and solid reflection.”

knows how to keep a cool head in a crisis. In August 2021, when the Taliban seized power, in her former role as Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (), Deborah was responsible for ensuring the safety of staff across the country, among them many women. Since returning to power, the Taliban have severely curtailed women’s rights. Millions of women and girls are now excluded from work and school, contrary to initial assurances from Afghanistan’s new leaders. In this episode, Deborah Lyons reflects on the tragedy facing Afghan women, the trauma of the Taliban takeover, and what it takes to lead in turbulent times.

In the Yunnan Province, the Bai and Naxi women reached an agreement in favor of the sustainable collection of morille mushrooms. The mushrooms can only be picked when they are more than 5cm in size and are open and dispersed to allow the mushrooms to fully release their spores. Furthermore, the women patrol and supervise possible theft of wood and herbs. China’s ethnic minority women play a vital role in protecting traditional knowledge and cultural heritage. Since 2010, more than 41,800 people belonging to China’s ethnic minorities have been supported by the implemented by .

Viktoria is one of few women firefighters in Ukraine, and the only one in the Kyiv region. She said positive thinking helps her and her colleagues to face the daily demands of their risky job. “It doesn’t matter where you work now. With the current situation in Ukraine, there’s a risk everywhere,” she said. As of July, at least 41 Ukrainian rescue workers, including firefighters, have been killed, and 134 have been injured since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES).

The “What Were You Wearing?” art exhibit at the United Nations invites observers to see the outfits worn by sexual assault survivors at the time of their attack, confronting and refuting the implicit victim blaming in that question. Featuring contributions by survivors, including Paris Hilton, as well as the United Nations Deputy Secretary General and other officials, this video shows how the campaign by Rise and the Spotlight Initiative shifts blame for sexual assault to where it belongs: squarely on the perpetrators.

Almost one third of women in developing countries had their first baby while they were still in their teens,  shows, with nearly half of those new mothers aged 17 and younger – still children themselves. Gender-based and income inequalities are highlighted as key in fuelling teen pregnancies by increasing child marriage rates, keeping girls out of school, restricting their career aspirations, and limiting health care and information on safe, consensual sex. 

Globally, women’s participation rate in ports is only 18%. ’s is helping to bridge the gender gap by empowering more women in ports.

“We don't have to be naive, but we have to believe in change, because change has happened. And we can make it happen again.”

Despite monitoring multiple global crises, Rebeca Grynspan has never lost her faith in the power of change. As Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), she is assessing the impact of the war in Ukraine on cash-strapped countries still reeling from the pandemic. A trio of crises – climate change, COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine – are setting global development by decades, with vulnerable countries worst affected by global food and energy shortages. In this episode, Rebeca Grynspan reflects on these setbacks, their disproportionate impact on women, and why the world can never give up on the promise of development.

Photo: ©UNCTAD/Violaine Martin

Data show that restricting access to abortion does not prevent people from seeking abortion, it simply makes it more deadly. As  reveals, nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended, and over 60 per cent of these unintended pregnancies may end in abortion. A staggering 45 per cent of all abortions are unsafe, making this a leading cause of maternal death. Almost all unsafe abortions occur in developing countries, and  fears that more unsafe abortions will occur if access to abortion becomes more restricted.