Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective Into All Policies and Programmes in the United Nations System

E/RES/2025/4View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A document of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 13c Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 2002–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	E/RES/2025/4	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system	4,460	94%Compare
2024	E/RES/2024/3	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System	4,241	93%Compare
2023	E/RES/2023/11	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System	3,961	96%Compare
2022	E/RES/2022/18	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System	3,818	85%Compare
2021	E/RES/2021/7	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System	3,404	8%Compare

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

11 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited
Subprogramme 6	Economic empowerment of women and youth	12
Programme 17	Economic development in europe	182
Programme 18	Economic and social development in latin america and the caribbean	234
Programme 16	Economic and social development in asia and the pacific	254
Subprogramme 2	Gender justice, population and inclusive development	26

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

11 entities

(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
Subprogramme 6	Economic empowerment of women and youth	12	—
Programme 17	Economic development in europe	182	—
Programme 18	Economic and social development in latin america and the caribbean	234	—
Programme 16	Economic and social development in asia and the pacific	254	—
Subprogramme 2	Gender justice, population and inclusive development	26	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

20 reports · 2003–2025

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2025	E/2025/58	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2024/3
2024	E/2024/58	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2023/11
2023	E/2023/82	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2022/18
2021	E/2021/52	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2019/2E/RES/2020/9
2020	E/2020/50	Mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General	E/RES/2019/2

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Coordination Within UN System Gender Equality Gender Mainstreaming Operational Activities Women's Advancement

What’s in this document?

42 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General¹⁷ and the recommendations contained therein, and appreciates that it continues to include comprehensive and systematic system-wide data collection and evidence-based analysis, allowing for comprehensive follow-up on progress made throughout the United Nations system in the implementation of resolutions of the Economic and Social Council on gender mainstreaming;

¹⁷E/2025/58.

Urges the United Nations system, drawing lessons, including from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its recovery efforts, to accelerate gender mainstreaming into policies and programmes in responding to other health emergencies, as well as in support of the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development¹⁸ at the global, regional and country levels;

¹⁸General Assembly resolution 70/1.

Also urges the United Nations system to further accelerate gender mainstreaming into its policies and programmes, in addressing emergencies and other global challenges, including poverty, conflict, climate change, hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, and water scarcity when delivering on respective mandates;

Reaffirms the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective in the process of implementation of the outcomes of major United Nations conferences and summits and the need for a coordinated follow-up to all major conferences and summits by Governments, regional organizations and all the bodies and organizations of the United Nations system within their respective mandates, and recognizes the need to increase cooperation among all relevant United Nations bodies, mechanisms and processes in this regard;

Underlines the importance of mainstreaming a gender perspective into the policies and programmes related to innovation and technological change, and to education in the digital age, with the aim of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Stresses that the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality constitutes a key forum for advocating, coordinating and monitoring progress in the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into the overall substantive normative, operational and programmatic work within the United Nations system, and looks forward to its continued role;

Also stresses the need for the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality, as well as other existing inter-agency networks and coordinating bodies, including the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, the High-level Committee on Programmes, the High-level Committee on Management, the United Nations Sustainable Development Group and its working mechanisms at the global and regional levels, the United Nations Evaluation Group, the Finance and Budget Network of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination and the Representatives of Internal Audit Services of the United Nations Organizations and Multilateral Financial Institutions, to continue, as appropriate, to take concrete actions to further promote gender mainstreaming in the United Nations system and to take increased responsibility for the implementation of relevant performance indicators of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and the United Nations country team System-wide Action Plan gender equality scorecard;

Welcomes the important and continued extensive work of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) for more effective and coherent gender mainstreaming across the United Nations, recognizes its role in leading, coordinating and promoting the accountability of the United Nations system in its work to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women as established by the General Assembly in its resolution 64/289, and also recognizes the role of UN-Women in assisting Member States, upon their request, in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at the international, regional, national and local levels;

Recognizes the importance of strengthening the capacity of UN-Women, including through adequate and sustainable funding, to carry out its mandates for normative support, coordination and operational functions, inter alia, for coordinating the United Nations system in the full and effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective and the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of its review and appraisal at the international, regional, national and local levels, as well as its contribution to the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including through systematic gender mainstreaming, the mobilization of resources to deliver results for all women and girls and the monitoring of progress with sex-disaggregated data and robust accountability systems;

Calls upon the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, to continue to work collaboratively to accelerate the full and effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels, in accordance with previous Economic and Social Council resolutions and General Assembly resolutions 64/289 and 79/226, commensurate with the 2030 Agenda, bearing in mind its universal nature and that the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is essential for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals, including by:

Ensuring, where relevant, that corporate and country-level strategic documents, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, or equivalent planning framework in accordance with programme countries’ priorities, are based on robust and systematic gender analysis and data disaggregation, and mainstream a gender perspective, through a dedicated gender equality outcome as well as the integration of gender equality and the empowerment of all women across all other Sustainable Development Goal-related outcome areas (twin-track approach);

Supporting the application of a gender perspective in the preparation of organization-wide and country-level documents, such as the strategic, programmatic and results-based frameworks and evaluations, and continuing to promote more coherent, accurate and effective monitoring and reporting on progress on gender equality, the impact of the promotion of gender equality and the use of common indicators on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, taking into account the situation of women and girls who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and those in vulnerable situations;

Continuing to strengthen results-based management and results-based budgeting to enable robust system-wide reporting and aggregation of gender-related results, including financial investments for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Fully implementing the System-wide Action Plan 3.0 (UN-SWAP 3.0) and enhancing the consistency and accuracy of reporting in order to achieve full annual reporting on results by the entire United Nations system, and continuing to promote the institutionalization of transparency and robust accountability systems, as well as implementing the United Nations country team performance indicators for gender equality and the empowerment of women (the UNCT SWAP scorecard);

Leveraging the United Nations System-wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan in addressing attempts to undermine gender equality and protecting women human rights defenders¹⁹ in line with relevant international norms and standards, in all parts of the world;

¹⁹The term “human rights defenders” applies consistent with the purposes, principles and provisions of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (General Assembly resolution 53/144, annex).

Ensuring that gender equality policies of United Nations entities, when established or updated, are aligned with their strategic and programmatic priorities, as well as the performance indicators of UN-SWAP 3.0, and are reflected in the results-based frameworks, and taking into consideration the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan;

Increasing investments to address issues in critical areas of UN-SWAP 3.0 and the UNCT SWAP scorecard, including policy development, strategic planning, resource tracking and allocation, the equal and meaningful participation and representation of women and men, including organizational culture, and capacity development and assessment;

Enhancing standards and methodologies for the use of the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels in order to improve the systematic collection, analysis, dissemination and use of accurate, reliable, transparent and comparable data and statistics and, where applicable and with due respect for confidentiality, open data and statistics related to achieving gender equality, disaggregated by, inter alia, income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographical location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts;

Increasing the investment in and focus on outputs and outcomes relating to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including through enhanced common budgetary frameworks, gender-responsive planning and budgeting, common methodologies for reporting on contributions to the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, joint funding mechanisms, including pooled funding, and joint resource mobilization efforts;

Collaborating with UN-Women to implement, by December 2025, a harmonized, quality-assured gender equality marker to allow for comparability and aggregation to set and meet financial targets on resources to be allocated for this purpose and to assess the resource deficits for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, also in the context of United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework common budgetary frameworks and inter-agency pooled funds;

Ensuring, as appropriate, that the United Nations Sustainable Development Group guides and supports United Nations country teams on mainstreaming a gender perspective in United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks, that all regional United Nations Sustainable Development Groups develop and maintain dedicated expertise on gender mainstreaming so as to provide integrated and coherent support to United Nations country teams, and that country-level coordination mechanisms, including gender theme groups or their equivalents, are fully empowered through clear mandates, capacity and sufficient resources to provide strategic support and advice to United Nations country teams in enhancing their gender mainstreaming efforts;

Assessing and addressing persistent capacity gaps on gender mainstreaming, including capacity-building, reskilling and upskilling, and using existing resources to assist in the development and application of a range and combination of different measures, including unified training modules on gender mainstreaming and on results-based management, in support of programming for gender equality;

Ensuring that adequate resources are allocated to capacity and technical helpdesks that support entities and United Nations country teams, including on demographic shifts, so as to ensure that policies address the needs of all women and girls throughout their life course;

Implementing substantive training, including mandatory training, for senior management, creating a leadership cadre that can better advance gender equality across the United Nations system;

Ensuring that United Nations entities retain a strong focus with resources on gender equality issues, and that gender equality units are able to do so with specific and dedicated resources and expertise, and that resource utilization and allocation is not diluted or compromised due to simultaneous focus on other cross-cutting thematic issues;

Continuing to better align gender equality programming with national priorities across sectors, including by supporting, upon the request of Member States, capacity-building for government institutions and the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into legislation, policies and programmes in relation to national gender equality priorities, including those addressing COVID-19 recovery and other emergencies;

Continuing to include gender equality networks in planning and programme implementation, as well as continuing to build strategic partnerships with relevant actors, including civil society and women’s organizations, as appropriate;

Continuing to achieve and, where appropriate, strengthening efforts to achieve gender parity, including through the implementation of the Secretary-General’s system-wide strategy on gender parity, in appointments in the Professional and higher categories within the United Nations system at the headquarters, regional and country levels, inter alia, in appointments of resident coordinators, humanitarian coordinators, Special Representatives of the Secretary-General, Deputy Special Representatives of the Secretary-General and other high-level posts, including, as appropriate, through the application of temporary special measures, giving paramount consideration to the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity in full compliance with Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations and keeping in mind the principle of equitable geographical representation, with due regard to the representation of women from developing countries;

Ensuring that managers provide strong leadership and support to promote and advance gender mainstreaming, and leveraging the leadership and convening role of resident coordinators, in accordance with the provisions of General Assembly resolution 79/226, to address gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as an integral part of the work of United Nations country teams, including through common country programming processes, joint initiatives, collective advocacy and strengthening of the coordination of gender-responsive operational activities across sectors;

Strengthening collaboration and coordination among United Nations staff working on gender equality and gender focal points to ensure systematic gender mainstreaming across the work of the United Nations in development, peace and security, and human rights, as well as in humanitarian action and in technical and non-technical areas of work where gaps and challenges remain;

Continuing to work closely with the humanitarian coordinators to integrate a gender perspective into all facets of humanitarian action and ensure the equal promotion and protection of human rights for all, with equitable access to services;

Continuing to make efforts and focus on preventing and taking immediate action on tackling sexual harassment to ensure that workplaces in the United Nations system and its field offices are free from discrimination, exploitation, including sexual exploitation and abuse, and violence, including sexual harassment, by, inter alia, ensuring that policies and procedures deliver impact and are resourced sufficiently;

Continuing to make efforts to implement the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations personnel in order, inter alia, to support the effective mainstreaming of a gender perspective;

Promoting strategic advocacy and coherent communications on gender equality issues within United Nations country teams;

Supporting efforts by the governing bodies of United Nations entities to devote adequate attention and resources to mainstreaming a gender perspective in their plans and activities, including through enhanced reporting on results and measures to be taken to improve compliance with the performance indicators of UN-SWAP 3.0;

Calls upon the United Nations system entities, within their respective mandates, and encourages international financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders, to support Member States, upon their request, in their efforts to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Requests the United Nations system, in particular UN-Women, in consultation with Member States, to address the issue of sustainable resourcing for the implementation of UN-SWAP 3.0 and the UNCT SWAP scorecard, and encourages Member States in a position to do so to support UN-Women in this regard;

Also requests the United Nations system to continue and increase support to Member States, upon their request, in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of national policies for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, inter alia, by providing support and capacity development to national machineries for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and all national entities, in accordance with their functions;

Requests the Secretary-General and the executive heads of the organizations of the United Nations system to ensure that recruitment strategies, promotion and retention policies, career development, anti-harassment and sexual harassment policies, human resources and succession planning, work/family policies, management and institutional culture and mechanisms for managerial accountability accelerate the achievement of gender parity and, in this regard, to coordinate with the Office of the United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services in addressing these issues;

Recalls General Assembly resolution 77/335 of 1 September 2023, in which the Assembly noted that there is yet to be a woman Secretary-General, and strongly encouraged Member States to bear this in mind during the next and in subsequent selection processes, when nominating candidates for the position of Secretary-General;

Notes that only five women have been elected as President of the General Assembly since the foundation of the United Nations, and strongly encourages Member States to nominate women as candidates for the position of President of the General Assembly, and encourages Presidents-elect to continue to strive for both gender and geographical balance within the Office of the President of the General Assembly;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Council at its 2027 session a report on the implementation of the present resolution, including on accountability of the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels and on progress made in the implementation of the United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?