Women
Women
In times of displacement, women and girls face an increased risk of discrimination and gender-based violence.
UNHCR works to prevent this by ensuring fair aid distribution, access to safe shelters and facilities, and helping displaced and stateless women overcome barriers to education and employment.
UNHCR works to prevent this by ensuring fair aid distribution, access to safe shelters and facilities, and helping displaced and stateless women overcome barriers to education and employment.
© UNHCR/Ola Kabalan
How UNHCR supports localization and engagement with women-led organizations
In 2024, UNHCR partnered with 255 women-led organizations (WLOs) – primarily local women’s groups – representing 18% of all UNHCR-funded partners.
These partnerships accounted for 15% of the total funding provided to partners, amounting to over USD 186.1 million. More than USD 2 million was allocated through grant agreements, with 20% of those recipients – around 50 partners – self-identifying as WLOs.
Recent publications and highlights
Further resources
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UNHCR's good practices
- Promising practices: Harnessing the power of organizations led by forcibly displaced and stateless women (2025)
- Gender equality promising and emerging practices: From inspiration to implementation (2023)
- Learning from Experience and Seizing Opportunities: UNHCR and partner practices in advancing gender equality in sub-Saharan Africa (2021)
- UNHCR Gender Equality Promising Practices: Syrian Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa (2017)
- Learning from experience to advance gender equality - promising practices in Asia (2017)
Handbooks and other resources
- UNHCR's Commitment to Gender Equality
- From 1975 to 2013: UNHCR's Gender Equality Chronology
- IASC Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action
- UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls
- UNHCR Gender Training Kit on Refugee Protection and Resource Handbook
- Refworld's special feature on Gender Equality and Women
- Tearing down the walls – Confronting the barriers to internally displaced women and girls' participation in humanitarian settings
Publications
- Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness (2025)
- Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness (2024)
- Background Note on Gender Equality, Nationality Laws and Statelessness (2023)
- Gender, Displacement and Climate Change Factsheet (2022)
- Protection Forcibly Displaced Women and Girls During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021)
- Protecting Forcibly Displaced Women and Girls during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)
- Refugee girls' education (2018)
- Cash Assistance and Gender – Key Considerations and Learning (2018)
Gender audits
- Gender Audit of the 2020 High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges: Protection and Resilience during Pandemics
- Combined Gender Audit Report of the Five meetings comprising the 2020 High Commissioners Dialogue on Protection Challenges: Protection and Resilience during pandemics and the 2020 NGO Consultations
- Gender Audit of the 2019 Global Refugee Forum
- Gender Audit of the Meetings in Preparation for the 2019 Global Refugee Forum
- 2017 Gender Audit Report on the Second and Third Thematic Discussion on the Global Compact on Refugees
International gender champions
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