Last year "Myropolis" gathered nearly 200 young people from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (regions) to build city of peace: teenagers participated in educational and artistic activities that helped them to learn how to conduct negotiations for peace and recovery – important knowledge when you live in the conflict affected areas. Many of participants never left their villages before "Myropolis" sessions. Situation in these lands is really fragile and challenging: no descent roads, villages are very difficult to reach, parents do not allow children even to leave the houses.

The project for sustaining peace in Tunisia through the inclusion of young people at the local level is being implemented by UNDP, UN Women and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), with the support of the UN Peacebuilding Fund, and in partnership with seven different municipalities. Each of the UN Volunteers is responsible for the coordination of the project in one municipality, where social cohesion and resilience are promoted through the inclusion of the most marginalized young women and men.

These are just examples of why gender equality matters in the context of COVID-19, emphasizing the need to ensure the world’s response to the pandemic is gender-sensitive.

"Women and girls are disproportionately affected in times of crisis. It is essential to recognize the gendered dimension of pandemics, in order to strengthen COVID-19 responses at the national, regional and global level, " says UN Volunteer Fanny Arendt (Sweden). Fanny serves as Programme Analyst for Governance, Peace and Security with the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Thailand. She supports programmes preventing violent extremism, strengthening women’s leadership roles in peace and security efforts, and enhancing women’s access to justice.

Q.  What is your take on gender equality in the region?

Being volunteer gave me, as an indigenous woman, the opportunity to be an agent of change, coherent with my community’s cosmovision. Volunteering is an ancestral treasure that should be transmitted from generation to generation. This guarantees good living, with respect and harmony between humanity and nature. Let’s boost our communities to gain awareness of gender equality, as a pre-condition to progress towards sustainable development. --Ingrid Sierra, UN Volunteer with UN Women

To mark the theme of International Volunteer Day 2019, Volunteer for an inclusive future, volunteers from Senegal is organizing a sensitization day on gender-based violence with sixty high school students in Guédiawaye. We will showcase a film produced for IVD and engage in discussion with volunteers and partners, including UN Women, the Association des Femmes Juristes and the African Leaders Factory Initiative. When: 4 December 2019, Guédiawaye, Senegal  

The implementation of Agenda 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean requires an intercultural approach that favors integration and inclusion, especially relevant for the establishment of joint work and dialogue with communities identified values and traditions of the vast and varied range of indigenous peoples that inhabit the region

Last year in West and Central Africa, 54 UN Volunteers out of 230 globally contributed to UN Women’s missions towards reducing discrimination against women and girls, empowering women and achieving equality between women and men.