Gender alert: Food security risks of the Middle East escalation for women and girls Publication year 2026

Gender alert: Food security risks of the Middle East escalation for women and girls Publication year 2026 https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/10/gender-alert-food-security-risks-of-the-middle-east-escalation-for-women-and-girls This publication explores the impact of the escalation in the Middle East and disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz on food security risks for women and girls. Based on analysis of data from 28 countries, UN Women estimated that an additional 11.7 million women and girls could face food insecurity by the end of 2026 as the escalation and disruptions drive up food, energy, fertilizer, and transport costs. Across the 28 countries analyzed, women and girls account for 53 per cent of the projected 22 million additional people who could face food insecurity by the end of the year. These scenario-based estimates and come on top of an estimated 208 million women and girls already facing food insecurity across the countries analyzed. The gender alert emphasizes the need for an integrated response to rising food insecurity that meets the needs of women and girls through food and cash assistance, nutrition, protection, livelihoods, and agricultural support. It calls for strengthening women’s access to land, credit, essential services, and other productive assets that can help households withstand food-price shocks and protect livelihoods. The publication also emphasizes the importance of targeting resources to countries and communities where women and girls face multiple, overlapping risks and delivering support at the right time, including ahead of key agricultural seasons. Timely assistance can help protect food access, livelihoods, and resilience as rising food prices and input costs place additional strain on households. Better gender data are critical to identifying where food insecurity is worsening and how women and girls are being affected. This includes understanding who is eating less, losing income or livelihoods, taking on additional unpaid care work, or facing heightened nutrition and protection risks within households. Together, these measures can help governments, humanitarian actors, and development partners strengthen food security responses that address the distinct needs of women and girls and ensure assistance reaches those facing the greatest risks.

Urban adaptation for gender equality and social justice Publication year 2026

Urban adaptation for gender equality and social justice Publication year 2026 https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/10/discussion-paper-urban-adaptation-for-gender-equality-and-social-justice This background paper, prepared for Progress of the World’s Women 2026, examines whether current approaches to urban climate adaptation are advancing gender equality and social justice. The authors draw on evidence from the 2023 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database covering 910 cities, a rapid review of peer-reviewed literature across 23 cities, and six illustrative case studies, including Barcelona’s feminist Superblocks, Manizales’ Guardians of the Hillside programme, and Shenzhen’s Sponge City initiative. Guided by a feminist climate justice framework, the analysis assesses progress across the three dimensions of recognition, representation, and redistribution. The findings suggest that, while urban adaptation efforts are expanding, they remain insufficiently responsive to gender equality objectives. The paper warns against the growing risk of a “feminization of responsibility”, whereby the burden of urban climate adaptation is shifted onto the unpaid labour and voluntary efforts of women and marginalized groups. It also highlights seven interconnected and actionable levers for change, spanning policy, multilevel governance, institutional capacity, collective action, behavioural change, finance, and technology, which are critical for scaling effective and gender-responsive adaptation. Following peer review, the paper will be published in the UN Women Discussion Paper Series.

Transforming care systems for equality and shared prosperity: TransformCare 2025 annual report Publication year 2026

Transforming care systems for equality and shared prosperity: TransformCare 2025 annual report Publication year 2026 https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/10/transformcare-2025-annual-report Care work is essential to the well-being of people, societies, and economies, yet unpaid care work remains largely unrecognized and unequally distributed, while paid care work is often undervalued and underpaid. Women and girls continue to undertake a disproportionate share of unpaid care work, limiting their opportunities to participate in education, employment, and public life. This report presents the 2025 results of UN Women’s TransformCare Global Initiative. Through TransformCare, UN Women is advancing a vision of care as central to thriving, sustainable, and just economies; societies in which care is valued as a public good, recognized as skilled and essential work, and understood as the foundation of equality and shared economic prosperity. TransformCare operates in more than 50 countries across six regions.

Care, climate and a just transition: Guidance note for UN Women and partners Publication year 2026 Author(s)/editor(s) Laura Cooper-Hall

Care, climate and a just transition: Guidance note for UN Women and partners Publication year 2026 Author(s)/editor(s) Laura Cooper-Hall https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/10/care-climate-and-a-just-transition-guidance-note-for-un-women-and-partners Climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation are increasing the demand for care while simultaneously weakening the systems that provide it. These impacts are felt most acutely by women and girls – who continue to provide the majority of unpaid care work and are heavily represented in paid care sectors – especially those in low-income households and rural communities in the Global South.

Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2026

Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2026 September 17, 2026 When women lead and power is shared, all SDGs advance. Yet equal representation remains out of reach, and hard-won gains are at risk as funding falls, civic spaces narrow, and violence against women in politics rises. Read the Gender Snapshot for the latest data on progress towards gender equality. https://www.unwomen.org/en/publications

We are the global champion for women’s rights Copyright © UN Women

We are the global champion for women’s rights As the lead United Nations entity on gender equality, UN Women shifts laws, institutions, social norms, and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls. https://www.unwomen.org/en Copyright © UN Women

Nearly 50,000 Women and Girls Killed or Severely Injured in Gaza in Three Years of War – One in 21 Gazan Women and Girls By UN Women Copyright © 2026 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved. - (+++)

Nearly 50,000 Women and Girls Killed or Severely Injured in Gaza in Three Years of War – One in 21 Gazan Women and Girls By UN Women https://www.ipsnews.net/2026/10/nearly-50000-women-and-girls-killed-or-severely-injured-in-gaza-in-three-years-of-war-one-in-21-gazan-women-and-girls/ UNITED NATIONS, Oct 9 2026 (IPS) - Since October 2023, 50,000 women and girls in Gaza have been killed or seriously injured. • UN Women estimates that nearly 50,000 women and girls in Gaza have been killed or severely injured since the onset of war in October 2023 [1], amounting to one in 21 Gazan women and girls losing their life or living with lifelong disabilities [2]. • More than 38,000 women and girls have been killed and 11,700 severely injured, the result of Israeli airstrikes and land military operations. • While most of the casualties recorded took place during the first two years of the war, women and girls continue to be targeted despite a ceasefire agreement entering into effect in October 2025. Two hundred seventy-seven women and girls are among those who have been killed in Gaza over the past year. Copyright © 2026 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved. - English Arabic Advocacy brief: The cost of war in Gaza on women and girls Publication year 2026 https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2026/04/advocacy-brief-the-cost-of-war-in-gaza-on-women-and-girls The war in Gaza has created an extreme humanitarian crisis, with civilians facing death, displacement, hunger, and the collapse of essential services. Women and girls have been particularly affected, experiencing both direct violence and heightened risks linked to displacement, poverty, and limited access to healthcare and education. This advocacy brief examines how the war has impacted women and girls since October 2023. It draws on recent data and analysis to track patterns of violence, displacement, and service breakdowns, with a focus on how these experiences differ for women and girls over time. The report highlights both the scale of harm and the gaps in available data, especially around injuries and long-term effects. Women head one in four households in Gaza as war tears families apart and reshapes household structures Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, six women and girls are among those killed every week in Gaza since October 2025. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2026/09/women-head-one-in-four-households-in-gaza-as-war-tears-families-apart-and-reshapes-household-structures