Leadership, Women and the UN

Ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making is a central objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For the UN to remain a standard bearer of gender parity and equality, it became paramount to further establish and sustain the progress made within the organization by, inter alia, ensuring more women in senior leadership positions. In 2014, when the Agenda was still being negotiated, UNSSC was working towards the same vision with the design of a tailor-made leadership programme for female UN staff.   

These efforts were consolidated in early 2015 when the first interagency edition of the Leadership, Women and the UN Programme was launched. The aims underpinning the programme were to promote the expansion and renewal of prevalent paradigms of leadership and ensure a more gender balanced workplace across the UN system. The urgency for this change has been recently reinforced by the System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity and the UN reform agenda launched by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.   

The Leadership, Women and the UN Programme continues to invest in the potential of female staff at the P4 and P5 level to lead transformational change. Since its inception over 700 women leaders have taken part. UNSSC continues to nourish this community of women who are prepared to thoughtfully address the challenges that the world currently faces and those that will shape our future. We believe in the power of this community to tap into all potential opportunities for the creation of a peaceful and inclusive world.