The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the World Food Programme (WFP) will be implementing the US $1.1 million joint programme “Modernization of the Social Protection Systems in Jamaica: Towards an Adaptive, Shock Responsive, Inclusive System”.

"How can we make sure women and marginalised groups are part of the ecosystem creating employment and also accessing the opportunities for economic growth?" This was one of several topics of discussion during the “Road to the Summit: A Green and Equitable Future for the Americas” panel discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, in partnership with the US Department of State leading to the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

On her inaugural mission to the Caribbean, UN Women Regional Director for the Americas and Caribbean Maria Noel Vaeza, accompanied by the Representative - UN Women Multi-Country Office–Caribbean, Tonni Brodber, met with Governments and development partners in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The Caribbean mission was focused on sharing on UN Women’s new 4-year strategic plan, particularly strategies towards building forward from COVID-19 in a gender-responsive way.

The Joint Programme on Universal Adaptive Social Protection in the Eastern Caribbean is providing support to Governments to strengthen their capacities to among other things, narrow gender gaps in poverty rates, enhance women’s income security, and boost female-headed households resilience to climate-related shocks. A response measure which has come up for review is Universal Basic Income (UBI), which may have both pros and cons if implemented as a gender-responsive social protection initiative.

‘Expanded income support, the provision of liquidity for small businesses to preserve jobs and the design and implementation of gender responsive social policy’ are three of the recommendations outlined in the new UN Human and Economic Impact AssessmenT (HEAT) Report for the British Virgin Islands.

Every country in the world has been touched by COVID-19. This unprecedented health-related crisis “has exposed the fragility of our societies to global shocks such as diseases or the climate crisis,” according to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres. Countries of the Eastern Caribbean, like many other Small Island Developing States, are especially vulnerable to the social and economic impacts of the crisis that is affecting all segments of the population.

After two weeks of intense dialogue, the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 63) concluded today in New York with a strong commitment by UN Member States to safeguard and improve women’s and girls’ access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure, ensuring that their design and delivery is transformed to prevent discrimination and create a ‘level playing field’ for women and girls.

“We count on parliaments to ratify and implement Convention 189”—Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women, on the occasion of the announcement by the Government of Jamaica of its ratification of ILO Convention 189 on Domestic Workers, 22 September 2016

Building on the lessons learned from its pilot work with rural women small farmers and decent work interventions with Caribbean domestic workers, the MCO Caribbean is broadening its partnerships to address the economic vulnerability of poor rural women-headed households.

Every minute, a young woman is newly infected with HIV. As a result of their lower economic, socio-cultural status in many countries, women and girls are disadvantaged when it comes to negotiating safe sex, accessing HIV prevention information and services.

UN initiated gender and child assessments of Country Poverty Assessments of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis and the British Virgin Islands, the final results of which will be available in a few weeks, will further enrich the evidence base to inform gender and child responsive social policies in the sub region.