Citing ‘Brazen, Organized Pushback’ against Women’s Rights, Deputy Secretary-General Briefs Member States on Progress of UN’s Gender Equality Acceleration Plan

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the occasion of the briefing for Member States on the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan: The United Nations system-wide shift for Gender Equality, in New York today:

I want to start with thanks to Qatar, Rwanda and Denmark. As members of the Advisory Group, you have helped shape the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan into what it is today.

At this very moment that we are seeing the most serious threat to gender equality in a generation, Member States have remained firm in recent key processes. Only this week, we saw Member States come together to protect hard-won gains and to call for increased efforts to overcome the headwinds.

Last year's milestones - the thirtieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, all reaffirmed that equality for women and girls is still a unifying global commitment. So too has the revitalization of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Yet, we have increased awareness that we are living through a brazen, organized pushback against women's rights. The space and resources that have propped up the fight for gender equality are shrinking. Hard-won rights are being reversed as funding is being cut. Women and girls who speak up face harassment designed to silence them - online and off. And we are called to act.

The Secretary-General launched the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan to answer a fundamental question: how does the UN system deliver more effectively for women and girls?

The starting point is honesty about what is at stake. Without delivering for half of humanity, we cannot credibly claim to deliver on sustainable development, human rights or peace and security. The Gender Equality Acceleration Plan is built on that recognition and on the conviction that we can do better.

Two years in, the picture is encouraging. Resident coordinators and country teams are using the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan as a practical tool, and it is showing. Thirty-nine per cent of UN entities now provide direct funding to local women's organizations in peace and humanitarian contexts. Sixty per cent of Cooperation Frameworks designed in 2025 mainstreamed gender equality. In 84 per cent of UN country teams, gender analysis directly shaped their Cooperation Framework. Meaningful progress, though not enough.

In November [2025], we launched a guidance note for resident coordinators and country teams to strengthen that country-level work. None of this works without you. Governments, civil society, the private sector, communities - this is a shared endeavour. Gender equality will not be delivered by the UN system alone. It will be built, together, or not at all.

In this climate, the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan is also a stabilizer. As we reform and reconfigure the UN system through UN80, the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan ensures gender equality is structurally embedded, not treated as an add-on, nor the first thing cut when budgets tighten.

It keeps us anchored to our commitments: the Pact for the Future, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and above all, SDG 5.

In the interactive dialogue to come, your insights will shape the next phase of this work, meaning what we prioritize and how we hold ourselves accountable. I am looking forward to hearing from you.