Women in St. Lucia will benefit from a social protection project, funded by Global Affairs Canada, that will boost women’s economic resilience by tackling the barriers that exacerbate their vulnerabilities to achieving economic empowerment. Co-led by UN Women and UNFPA, in partnership with the Government of St. Lucia, the Build Back Equal project was launched today at the Bay Gardens Inn to provide sustainable opportunities for women’s economic growth that will contribute to COVID-19 recovery.

Under the EnGenDER Project, UN Women is aiming to conduct a Geospatial Analysis on Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Poverty and Climate Change Impacts. Proposals are invited from companies/firms outlining the methodology for gender analysis data for the design of a model for geospatial mapping of GBV and climate hazard impacts. The firm is also expected to train senior technical officers from EnGenDER beneficiary countries on the design and application of the model for geospatial mapping of GBV and climate hazard impacts.

Evidence of women’s increased vulnerability is in the pre-existing social and cultural demands on women and girls as primary caregivers with the imbalanced responsibilities for care of the elderly, children and the sick. This care work increases in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and continues long after.

UN Women and the CARICOM Secretariat recently held preparatory meetings ahead of CSW66 – “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes”.

On the eve of the 16 Days of Activism to end gender-based violence, 54 young women participated in a simulated all women parliamentary sitting through the support of The Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago and the European Union-United Nations Spotlight Initiative.

Development of a Rapid Gender Analysis that aims to provide humanitarian actors with recommendations to address the needs of women and girls to ensure their rights and needs are at the core of recovery and reconstruction efforts.

This past year, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the tourism and hospitality sector – one of the key economic drivers of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – due to border closures or restricted movement. This economic shock also extended to craft traders, many of whom are responsible for their families’ livelihoods and are women. What did this mean for those whose livelihoods were reliant on tourist arrivals?

As the country remains in a state of national emergency, UN Women, along with its national partners and the entire UN and international cooperation system, joins the efforts in response to the earthquake. Immediate humanitarian support, protection of rights, food security and early recovery are the priorities for women's organizations and Haitian women.

The UN Women Multi-Country Office Caribbean is seeking to contract an Institute to provide virtual Gender-Responsive Disaster Risk Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation Training for at least 50 Senior Technical Officers in selected priority areas in nine Caribbean Countries in the period August to December 2021.

In the Caribbean and around the world more people are at home due to the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns and/or the subsequent unemployment, as a result care work responsibility in the home has multiplied. In the absence of measurement, women’s total contribution to social and economic development is not being captured.

Ryancia Henry is originally from Antigua and Barbuda, she moved four months ago to Montecito, California, to take up the position of Director of Housekeeping, managing a team of 60 people, at a hotel that has now closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. With international travel disrupted, and movement restrictions within the United States of America, Ryancia is among millions of workers in the hospitality industry considering what the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on her, her staff, her family and her friends.

The promotion of women in leadership positions, the gender pay gap - which can reach 30% on average -, social responsibility to support women in communities and the role of companies to eliminate violence against women are some of the issues that are beginning to come increasingly into the pattern of discussions of important companies and institutions in the public and private sectors.

Six months on, since the Category 5 hurricane battered the small island nation, UN Women assessment shows what women want is assistance to get back on their feet and back to work, not handouts.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced that the government, due to its commitment to empower women economically has signed the instrument of ratification of ILO Convention C 189 (also known as the Domestic Workers Convention) according to an official statement from the Office of the Prime Minister.