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Nicaragua

Nicaragua: Gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women in emergencies

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Towards Gender Transformative Programming: Experiences from Latin America and the Caribbean

UNICEF’s new Gender Action Plan 2022-25 (GAP) commits to integrating gender equality programming for transformative results in all areas of work across the humanitarian-development nexus. While the GAP promotes gender equality throughout the life course, it places specific emphasis on advancing adolescent girls’ leadership and wellbeing, noting that girls are disproportionately impacted by gender inequalities, and yet also hold significant potential to be agents of change.

At its core, gender transformative programming seeks to address the structural and social root causes of gender inequality. A gender transformative approach will account for power dynamics and gender roles, norms, and relations at multiple levels of society and across the life cycle. In practice, this requires a multi-pronged approach that includes advancing upstream financing and policy solutions; implementing institutional and organizational change; engaging with men and boys; and promoting gender equitable norms, behaviour and practices, including by transforming discriminatory beliefs and stereotypes.1 Given UNICEF’s focus on gender socialization processes, presence and operational capacity in 190 countries across the humanitarian-development nexus, and long-standing strategic partnerships with an array of relevant stakeholders, UNICEF is uniquely positioned to be a champion in advancing transformational change in favour of gender equality.2