Seven actions to advance women’s role in peace and security and humanitarian efforts in Europe and Central Asia
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This year, UN Women, the youngest UN organization, proudly celebrates its 15th anniversary. As the UN’s engine for gender equality and women’s rights, we are here to deliver for women and girls across Europe and Central Asia.
Over the past three years, women and girls have been bearing the brunt of conflicts around the world, including in Europe and Central Asia. In 2023, the proportion of women killed globally in armed conflicts doubled compared to the previous year, and the number of UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent. Yet women continue to be excluded from peace negotiations, making any achieved peace more likely to be short-lived.
Moreover, in 2025, nearly 305 million people require humanitarian assistance and protection, and 123 million were forcibly displaced worldwide by mid-2024. In Ukraine, 3.6 million people remain internally displaced, 80% of whom are women and children. Women and girls living in humanitarian contexts face some of the most severe gender inequalities, including limited access to decision-making, education, work, sexual and reproductive health services, and a greater risk of gender-based violence.
Despite these dire circumstances, international aid committed to supporting gender equality in conflict-affected contexts has declined in recent years. Programmes focused on preventing gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies remain dramatically underfunded. Nevertheless, here is how we are advancing women’s role in peace and security and humanitarian action in Europe and Central Asia.
1. Empowering women through national and regional Action Plans
UN Women provides direct technical support to countries to develop, monitor, and align their National Action Plans (NAPs) to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS). These NAPs outline steps to integrate women's perspectives and needs into peace and security efforts and facilitate knowledge-sharing within and beyond the region.
As of 2025, 44 Member States and territories in the UNECE region, which covers 56 countries across Europe, North America, Central Asia, and Western Asia, have developed or implemented NAPs on Women, Peace and Security. This includes eight states that adopted their NAPs in 2023–2024.
In Europe and Central Asia region, Serbia approved its new NAP in April 2025, while Armenia is expected to adopt its third NAP later in the year. Next NAP development is currently underway in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, all of which initiated efforts in 2024. Azerbaijan has drafted its first NAP and submitted it to the government for approval in 2024. The forum for Central Asia resulted in the agreement to develop the first-ever Regional Action Plan on WPS for Central Asia, launched in 2025.
In Ukraine alone, 1,500 women were empowered through 14 local WPS action plans.
Additionally, 265 women peacebuilders and civil society organizations convened in three subregional forums to provide critical recommendations for the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review. They also exchanged practices and lessons learned from NAP implementation, offering practical solutions to move it forward.
2. Promoting women’s participation in peace processes
In Georgia, UN Women supported local peace ambassador networks in implementing 30 community-based initiatives and advocating for 115 municipal policy changes to address the needs of internally displaced and conflict-affected populations.
Since 2008, the Geneva International Discussions – bringing together key stakeholders to address major issues like security guarantees, the return of displaced persons, documentation, and freedom of movement - have served as the main platform for promoting peace after the conflict in Georgia. Co-chaired by the United Nations, OSCE, and the European Union, the discussions reached their 64th round as of June 2025.
Traditionally dominated by male voices, the peace process has increasingly felt the influence of women’s civil society organizations, particularly from Georgia. Since 2014, over 1,000 women and civil society representatives have engaged in these processes, offering their perspectives and shaping peace policy from the ground up.
One major breakthrough came in 2021 with the launch of a national Women, Peace and Security Consultation Platform, which institutionalized women’s participation in peacebuilding. Now integrated into Georgia’s National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325, this platform ensures that women’s voices continue to inform security policy at the highest levels.
3. Strengthening gender-responsive recovery
UN Women, in partnership with the Governments of Ukraine and Germany, co-launched the Alliance on Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery in June 2024 to promote women’s leadership and drive political and financial investment in gender-equal recovery processes in Ukraine.
Since its inception, the Alliance has significantly expanded its reach from around 60 members at the Berlin Ukraine Recovery Conference to over 80 active commitment-makers today. These include national governments, international organizations, civil society, and private sector actors. Alliance members have used their collective voice to advocate for gender-responsive recovery across key global forums in Kyiv, Geneva, and New York. The first annual report for the Alliance, released in July 2025, outlines the commitments made by members upon joining and details the initial steps taken by the Core Group to monitor and report on these pledges.
Another key achievement has been the growing commitment from the private sector. Over the past year, ten Ukrainian public and private companies signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles, reflecting increasing recognition of the private sector’s role in advancing inclusive recovery.
4. Advancing justice for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence
Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence must have full access to sexual and reproductive care, including emergency care for pregnancies resulting from rape, especially in light of the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
In Kosovo1, since 2018, over 1,800 survivors have been granted official status and receive financial support, thanks to a dedicated government commission and long-standing advocacy by UN Women and civil society. Survivors are also receiving economic support through small business grants, helping them rebuild their lives with dignity. This progress follows years of advocacy, including the adoption of a landmark 2014 law and the new Transitional Justice Strategy (2024–2034), which places survivors at the center of post-war recovery.
In the broader region, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine are also making major strides. Bosnia recently signed a key justice agreement to strengthen war crimes accountability, while Ukraine passed new laws to better support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, with strong backing from UN Women. In Ukraine, more than 2,000 civil servants have been trained on conflict-related sexual violence.
5. Supporting women’s organizations for humanitarian response
Three years into the Russian full-scale war in Ukraine, women-led and women’s rights organizations have been on the front lines of humanitarian response, providing essential services from the earliest days of the war. To strengthen their role and amplify their voices, coordination platforms have been established at the regional level and in Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland.
In Ukraine, the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) Working Group brings together over 400 organizations, including more than 100 women’s rights organizations. Co-chaired by Girls, CARE, and UN Women, GiHA has enhanced the institutional and technical capacities of over 100 local organizations and strengthened their participation in humanitarian coordination and response.
In Moldova, the Gender Task Force, co-chaired by UN Women and the Platform for Gender Equality, supported gender mainstreaming across the refugee response. One key achievement was the development of a mapping of local civil society organizations to identify their priority needs, particularly around access to funding, capacity strengthening, and operational effectiveness.
In Poland, 68 representatives from public institutions, local administrations, and NGOs assisting refugees enhanced their gender mainstreaming capacity, thanks to UN Women and the NGO Forum “Razem.”
Moreover, 17 representatives from women’s organizations in Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia strengthened their knowledge of resource mobilization and advocacy for gender equality as part of the 2024 initiative “Adaptive Strategies for Resource Mobilization in a Changing Landscape: CSO Capacity Building in the Ukraine Refugee Response, ” led by the Regional Gender Task Force, co-chaired by UN Women and Oxfam under the Refugee Coordination Forum.
6. Informing humanitarian planning through quality gender data
In crisis settings, gender-sensitive data is essential to shaping effective and inclusive responses. Since the onset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, rapid gender analysis and dedicated gender chapters in multi-sector needs assessments have directly informed both humanitarian and refugee response plans.
UN Women led the consolidation of gender analysis from seven refugee-hosting countries - Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Bulgaria—into four inter-agency thematic reports on protection, education, health, and livelihoods. These reports directly informed the 2024 and 2025 Regional Refugee Response Plan, embedding gender perspectives from the outset.
Following the 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye, UN Women produced four gender briefs on the disaster’s impact on women and girls. These complemented post-disaster needs assessments and informed a more inclusive recovery process. In Armenia, early insights from women’s organizations were captured in a UN Women Gender Alert and expanded into a joint gender analysis with CARE Caucasus.
7. Ensuring protection and livelihoods for women and girls in crisis
Across Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Poland, Slovakia, Armenia, and Türkiye, UN Women and its partners are delivering protection and livelihood support to crisis-affected women through integrated, locally driven approaches that bridge humanitarian response and long-term recovery.
In Ukraine, over 74,000 women received mentorship to access decent employment through the Women for the Future initiative. More than 10,000 women entrepreneurs completed digital skills training through the Dream and Achieve Academy. An additional 160 displaced women received start-up vouchers to launch businesses, while others revived local enterprises like bakeries, farms, and cafés through micro-grants and training.
In Moldova, more than 3,500 Ukrainian refugee women accessed employment-related services, and over 190 were supported in launching entrepreneurial ventures. In Georgia, refugee women improved their language and digital skills, with several starting businesses through targeted start-up support.
In Poland and Slovakia, over 1,000 Ukrainian refugee women participated in language and job-readiness training, including digital skills development. In Slovakia, women requalified in 3D design and digital manufacturing, while 80 mothers accessed childcare services to participate in livelihood programmes.
In Armenia, following the 2023 refugee crisis, 85 displaced families received winterization items, 28 improved hygiene conditions with new appliances, and 150 survivors of violence from shelters were supported with dignity kits and clothing.
In Türkiye, more than 15,000 women and girls affected by the 2023 earthquakes received essential goods and multi-sectoral services as part of a gender-responsive response and recovery effort.
1 All references to Kosovo on this website shall be understood to be in full compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).