New Releases

UNFPA has released this compendium on social norms change to achieve gender equality, which provides a framework for programmatic approaches to norms change at scale.

This document presents some of the most promising strategies for changing social norms and achieving gender equality. A greater understanding of the conceptual background of social norms and norms change provides a schematic – a skeleton outline – for social transformation. The compendium presents the tested processes of social norms change and a programme design framework, as applied to programming to end female genital mutilation. These processes are iterative, simultaneous and self-reinforcing and can be applied to other thematic areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Every year, millions of girls around the world are subjected to practices that harm them physically and emotionally, with the full knowledge and consent of their families, friends, and communities, according to the State of World Population 2020, released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

At least 19 harmful practices, ranging from breast ironing to virginity testing, are considered human rights violations, according to the UNFPA report, which focuses on the three most prevalent ones: female genital mutilation, child marriage, and extreme bias against daughters in favour of sons.

We have the power to defy the forces that perpetuate harm and to realize a world where every woman and girl is free to chart her own future.

It is anticipated that that COVID-19 (the disease caused by the novel coronavirus named SAR-CoV-2) will occur in most, all countries. A key fact about COVID-19 is that the vast majority of infections will result in very mild or no symptoms. Not everybody is at risk of severe disease. Persons of advancing age and those with existing respiratory, cardiac and/or metabolic disorders and immunodeficiencies are at higher risk of moderate to severe disease.

Limited data are available on COVID-19 in pregnancy, but the studies published to date do not show an increased risk of severe disease in late pregnancy or substantial risk to the newborn. These findings are reassuring, and are quite different from other recent pandemics, like the 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic which resulted in more severe disease in pregnant women, or Zika virus which is teratogenic. Information on the impact of COVID-19 on early pregnancy outcomes remains unavailable at the time of writing. Non-pregnant women of childbearing age are also at low risk of severe disease.

UNFPA focuses on human rights, health and protection of older persons in light of COVID-19, and this document highlights relevant initiatives underway in offices worldwide. Responding to the rights and needs of older persons is fully in line with one of the accelerators of the UNFPA COVID-19 Global Response Plan, i.e. to leave no one behind.

The document underscores UNFPA’s role in supporting the UN COVID-19 response at the country level, under the leadership of the United Nations Resident Coordinator system and the World Health Organization (WHO). UNFPA also supports civil society to advocate for older persons’ participation in the policy arena, and for their voices to be heard in preparedness and response to a crisis in which they are the most affected.