Seven women entrepreneurs from the Western Balkans stepped into the dynamic environment of GITEX AI Europe to network, explore partnerships, showcase their businesses and attract investment at one of Europe's largest technology and AI events. We joined them at GITEX AI Europe to hear the practical lessons they learned while building their business and how participating in Capital Quest help shape their entrepreneurial journey.

For decades, Lyazzat Kaltayeva has been one of Kazakhstan's leading voices for the rights of people with disabilities. In June 2026, she was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) with the support of 157 States Parties. In this interview, Lyazzat Kaltayeva reflects on the progress made towards disability inclusion, the barriers that persist and why the meaningful participation of women and girls with disabilities is essential to achieving equality.

When women lead, communities are more resilient, institutions are more responsive, and peace is more sustainable. Across Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, the partnership between UN Women and the Government of Denmark is helping turn that principle into reality through the Lead4Peace regional programme “Women’s Increased Leadership for Resilient and Peaceful Societies”.

Women use public spaces every day, but cities are not always designed around their daily realities. In Serbia, nearly half of women report concerns about their safety in public spaces and fear sexual violence. To ensure these experiences inform local planning and decision-making, UN Women supports Safety Audit Walks in several cities in Serbia. During these walks, women and girls come together to explore familiar streets, parks and public areas through the lens of their own lived experiences.

Today, more than 13 million women born in Europe and Central Asia live abroad, while the region is home to over 9.5 million migrant women from across the world. The new UN Women report “Women on the Move in Europe and Central Asia: A comparative analysis of mixed migration dynamics, structural constraints and pathways” shows that women are increasingly migrating independently in search of education, decent work, safety and economic opportunity rather than accompanying family members, marking a fundamental transformation in migration across the region.

From the stage of the ZEG Storytelling Festival, an annual international event held in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 19 to 21 June, women’s voices rang out loud and clear. The festival featured renowned writers, artists, journalists, and thinkers from around the world to share stories that matter on women’s rights and gender equality. Here are our key insights from this year’s ZEG storytelling festival.

Strong partnerships are essential to making sustainable development work for women and girls in Europe and Central Asia. But partnerships alone are not enough. Financing, data, technology and international cooperation must actively support gender equality, rather than overlook it. UN Women works with governments, civil society, the private sector and international partners across Europe and Central Asia to ensure that women and girls are at the centre of financing, policymaking, innovations and partnerships. Here are five ways to make global partnerships work better for women, and how UN Women is putting them into practice across Europe and Central Asia.

Our cities are not gender-neutral, leaving many women to navigate everyday safety concerns and infrastructure gaps that overlook their needs. Ahead of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, discover how women across Europe and Central Asia are leading the charge to build safer, more inclusive, and resilient communities. Read the full story to see how putting women's realities at the center of urban development is transforming our cities for everyone.

As the international community reviews progress on the 2030 Agenda, one truth remains clear: gender equality is not just a standalone objective, but a critical multiplier for achieving every other global goal. Explore our interactive visual guide to the unseen gender dimensions of water, energy, infrastructure, urban development, and global partnerships.

UN Women Europe and Central Asia and Henkel, represented by Persil have launched a new partnership under the HeForShe movement, bringing together the private sector and global advocacy efforts to challenge gender stereotypes and promote a more equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work.

Infrastructure, inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and innovation shape how people live, work and access opportunities. Yet these sectors continue to overlook the needs and talents of the leadership of half of the population – women. Investing in women and ensuring they have equal access to these opportunities is not simply a matter of fairness; it is an economic necessity and essential for building more resilient communities.

200 women and men pledged to support gender equality and women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan after visiting UN Women’s interactive Gender Equality Station at EU FEST 2026. The space encouraged visitors from all walks of life to challenge stereotypes and commit to creating safer, more equal homes and communities.

New UN Women research supported by the UK Government shows that women entrepreneurs in Albania have ideas and skills to grow their businesses, but still face structural barriers that hold them back. Shqiponja Leci’s story shows how these barriers intersect in everyday life.

Care work – whether paid or unpaid – includes the daily labor of supporting the physical, emotional, and developmental needs of women and men across all ages. Care is a human right, and that reality is becoming clearer across Western Balkans economies, where 40 decision-makers - ministers, parliamentarians, and civil society leaders - looked to Spain’s experience to rethink how care systems are designed, funded, and valued.

Despite the clear social and economic benefits of sustainable energy, progress remains uneven. Millions of people still lack access to clean and modern energy.

When Yulia Zenchenko fled Ukraine with her seven-year-old son on a cold morning in March 2022, she believed they would be away from home only briefly. Like thousands of Ukrainian mothers crossing into Moldova after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, she hoped to give her child a short break from air raid sirens and constant fear. She never imagined that one week would become years.

UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina is piloting medical rehabilitation initiatives as part of a broader package of support measures to improve the well-being and mental health of women survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

Water is essential to life. But for millions of women and girls, access to it remains unequal—shaping their health, time, safety, and opportunities. In Europe and Central Asia alone, an estimated 15.2 million women still lack access to safely managed drinking water, with rural women disproportionately affected. Behind these numbers lies a deeper truth: water is not gender-neutral. It both reflects and reinforces gender inequalities.

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous welcomed Olympian and Türkiye Women's National Volleyball Team Captain Eda Erdem to UN Women Headquarters in New York, marking her first engagement at the global office since her designation as UN Women National Goodwill Ambassador for Türkiye in October 2025. The visit reinforced UN Women's commitment to advancing women's leadership, equality and the empowerment of women and girls in and through sport, and the central role of National Goodwill Ambassadors in carrying these messages to wider audiences in their own countries and globally.

Renowned feminist economist María Ángeles Durán challenges us to rethink the very foundation of our macroeconomy. Read her compelling keynote address from the Europe and Central Asia Care Forum, where she unpacks why unpaid care work must be recognized, valued, and fundamentally redistributed.