In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), by bringing together the work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

UN Women has a triple mandate:

• to provide normative support to inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms
• to provide programme implementation support to Member States who request support in implementing these standards, by providing technical expertise and financial resources
• to coordinate the UN system’s work on gender equality to enhance coherence as well as to promote accountability, including through regular monitoring of system-wide progress

UN Women focuses on five strategic priorities:

• Strengthening global norms and standards
• Increasing women’s leadership & political participation
• Enhancing women’s economic empowerment
• Ending violence against women
• Engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes & Humanitarian Action