From vision to lasting impact: 16 Years of UN Women, 16 Milestones Advancing Gender Equality

On 2nd July, UN Women marks 16 years as the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. In Moldova, these years have been defined by strong partnerships, landmark reforms and tangible progress towards a society where all women and girls have greater opportunities to lead, participate and thrive.

Working alongside Parliament, Government, local authorities, civil society, women's organizations, academia, the private sector, development partners and communities, UN Women has helped strengthen laws, institutions and opportunities that have improved the lives of women and girls across the country. This collective progress culminated in a historic achievement, when the Republic of Moldova ranked 7th globally in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index. This progress reflects the country's sustained efforts to advance gender equality and women's empowerment, particularly in political leadership and decision-making.

As UN Women celebrates its 16th anniversary, we are reflecting on 16 milestones highlighting some of the most significant achievements that have helped shape a more equal, resilient and inclusive Moldova, and reaffirm the power of partnership in driving lasting change.

1. Embedding Gender Equality into National Policies

 UN Women has helped transform gender equality from a stand-alone issue into a national development priority by strengthening Moldova's legal and policy framework. Through strategic advice, technical expertise and advocacy, the organization has supported the integration of gender perspectives into legislation, national strategies and sectoral policies across education, healthcare, labour, justice, local governance and the security sector.

Alongside these reforms, UN Women has strengthened the capacity of public institutions to apply gender-responsive planning and budgeting, ensuring that public policies better respond to the different needs and priorities of women and men. Together, these efforts have laid the foundation for more inclusive governance.2. Driving Gender Equality Across the United Nations

As Chair of the United Nations Gender Theme Group, UN Women has led efforts to ensure that gender equality remains at the heart of the UN Country Team's work in Moldova. Through strategic coordination, technical guidance, and accountability mechanisms, the organization has strengthened gender mainstreaming across planning, programming, implementation, and monitoring.

Between 2019 and 2024, the UN Country Team improved its performance under the UN System-Wide Action Plan (UNCT-SWAP) Gender Equality Scorecard, increasing from 60 per cent to 75 per cent of indicators meeting or exceeding minimum requirements. This progress reflects stronger institutional accountability and a more coordinated UN response to advancing gender equality in Moldova.

3. More Women at Decision-Making Tables

UN Women has helped expand women's participation in political and public life by supporting legal reforms, leadership development and advocacy for inclusive governance. A landmark achievement was the adoption and implementation of the 40 per cent gender quota in Moldova's electoral legislation, helping create a more level playing field for women candidates.

Through leadership academies, mentoring programmes and capacity-building initiatives, more than 2,500 aspiring and elected women leaders, including Roma women and women with disabilities, have strengthened their leadership and campaigning skills. Today, women hold 40.6 per cent of seats in Parliament, while their representation in local government continues to grow. Alongside these efforts, UN Women has worked to prevent violence against women in politics through research, monitoring and advocacy.

4. Transforming Moldova's Response to Violence against Women

Ending violence against women has remained one of UN Women's flagship priorities in Moldova. Working alongside national institutions, civil society and development partners, UN Women has supported landmark legislative and policy reforms, including Moldova's ratification and implementation of the Istanbul Convention and the establishment of the National Agency for the Prevention and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in 2024. In February 2025, a new package of legislative amendments, developed with UN Women's technical support, entered into force, strengthening the legal framework by criminalizing digital violence, forced marriage and femicide, while expanding protection measures and access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence.

UN Women has also helped strengthen survivor-centered services, including the piloting of Moldova's first integrated regional service for survivors of sexual violence in Ungheni, where 119 women and girls accessed coordinated medical, psychological, legal and social assistance in one place. Complementing these reforms, international campaigns such as the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence and Denim Day have mobilized thousands of women and men to challenge harmful social norms and promote zero tolerance for violence.

5. Expanding Women's Economic Empowerment

UN Women has helped more than 10,000 women, including survivors of gender-based violence, women with disabilities, single mothers and women from rural communities expand their economic opportunities. Through entrepreneurship support, vocational training, financial literacy and business development programmes, these women have strengthened their skills, increased their incomes and built greater economic resilience.

As part of these efforts, UN Women has encouraged companies to build more inclusive workplaces by signing Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs). Today, 85 companies in Moldova have adhered to the WEPs, helping ensure equal opportunities for women, demonstrating that women's economic empowerment benefits not only individuals and families, but also businesses and Moldova's sustainable economic development.

6. Challenging Gender Stereotypes and Social Norms

Achieving gender equality requires changing the attitudes and stereotypes that shape everyday life. With this in mind, UN Women has led national efforts to challenge discriminatory gender norms through strategic communications, public awareness campaigns and partnerships with media, educational institutions, civil society and local communities.

By engaging women and men, girls and boys, UN Women has promoted equal relationships, encouraged the sharing of care responsibilities and fostered dialogue on respectful, violence-free communities. Through youth initiatives, educational activities and campaigns that promote positive role models, these efforts have helped reinforce the understanding that gender equality benefits everyone and is essential for building stronger, more inclusive and resilient societies.

7. Advancing Gender-Responsive Governance

UN Women has also helped integrate gender equality into Moldova's public governance by supporting gender-responsive planning, policymaking and budgeting. Working closely with the Ministry of Finance, the State Chancellery, Parliament, the Court of Accounts, line ministries and local authorities, the organization has strengthened institutional capacities to ensure that public policies and budgets better reflect the different needs and priorities of women and men.

A major milestone was the adoption of the Public Finance Management Strategy (2023–2030), which institutionalizes gender-responsive budgeting across the public sector. Together with strengthened regulations for strategic planning and policymaking, these reforms have enhanced institutional accountability and positioned Moldova among the countries making significant progress towards more inclusive and gender-responsive governance.

8. Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and deepened existing gender inequalities, disproportionately affecting women through increased unpaid care responsibilities, economic insecurity and heightened risks of gender-based violence. Throughout the crisis, UN Women supported gender-responsive recovery by providing evidence-based policy recommendations that helped national institutions better understand and address the different impacts of the pandemic on women and men.

At the same time, UN Women strengthened support for survivors of gender-based violence, assisted shelters and civil society organizations in maintaining essential services, and provided targeted economic and psychosocial assistance to women facing the greatest vulnerabilities. Through public awareness campaigns, the organization also promoted the equal sharing of unpaid care work and highlighted the vital contributions of women on the frontlines of the pandemic response.

9. Putting Gender at the Centre of Humanitarian Response and Peacebuilding

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, UN Women worked with Government, UN agencies, development partners and civil society to ensure that gender equality remained at the heart of Moldova's humanitarian response. As co-chair of the Gender Task Force, the organization integrated gender perspectives into refugee response planning and supported more than 40 women's organizations in delivering protection services, humanitarian assistance and economic empowerment programmes for refugee and host community women.

Beyond the emergency response, UN Women helped strengthen social cohesion through locally led peacebuilding initiatives across 55 communities on both banks of the Nistru/Dniester River, engaging more than 5,500 women and men in dialogue and community action. These efforts reinforced the vital role of women in building resilience, preventing conflict and fostering sustainable peace.

10. Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Moldova has made significant progress in advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, ranking 36th in the latest Women, Peace and Security Index, an improvement of 17 positions that placed the country in the top quintile globally. As a long-standing partner in this journey, UN Women has supported the implementation of two consecutive National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security, helping strengthen women's participation across peacebuilding, security and defense institutions.

Today, women represent more than 26% of personnel within the Ministry of Internal Affairs system and 21% of the armed forces, while reforms have strengthened equal opportunities, introduced measures to prevent discrimination and sexual harassment, and created better conditions for women's career advancement. Through support to the Women's Advisory Board and dialogue initiatives across both banks of the Nistru/Dniester River, UN Women continues to amplify women's leadership in building a more secure, resilient and peaceful Moldova.

11. Expanding Access to Justice for Survivors of Violence

Ensuring that survivors of gender-based violence can access timely, accessible and survivor-centred justice has been a key priority of UN Women's work in Moldova. In partnership with specialized civil society organizations, UN Women has helped provide free legal aid and counselling to hundreds of survivors of violence, while strengthening institutional capacities and supporting legal reforms that improve women's access to justice.

Complementing these efforts, UN Women supported the development of Moldova's first Situational Analysis on Women's Access to Justice, providing evidence to identify systemic barriers and inform future reforms. 

12. Strengthening Gender Data for More Inclusive Decisions

Reliable data is essential for advancing gender equality. This is why, UN Women has helped strengthen Moldova's capacity to collect, analyze and use gender statistics by supporting the National Bu6reau of Statistics, expanding gender-disaggregated data within the Sustainable Development Goals monitoring framework and developing the Gender Pulse platform, making gender data more accessible to policymakers, researchers and the public.

UN Women has also supported research on women's political participation, unpaid care work, gender-based violence, economic empowerment and other emerging issues, providing the evidence needed to inform public policies and monitor progress towards gender equality. 

13. Advancing Women's Digital Inclusion and Leadership in STEAM

UN Women has worked to expand digital opportunities for women and girls by promoting their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEAM). Through flagship initiatives such as GirlsGoIT, Women of the Web (WoW) and Digital Labs, girls and women, particularly those from underserved communities, have gained practical skills in coding, robotics, digital literacy and entrepreneurship.

In partnership with educational institutions, the private sector and civil society, UN Women has also challenged stereotypes that discourage girls from pursuing STEAM careers while connecting them with mentors and role models. These interventions are helping equip the next generation of women innovators and ensuring that Moldova's digital transformation is more inclusive.

14. Promoting Shared Caregiving Responsibilities

Access to quality care services is essential for women's economic empowerment, supporting their entry, retention, and return to the labour market. Through the #TogetherWeGrow campaign, UN Women has promoted an equal sharing of caregiving responsibilities between women and men. The initiative encourages employers across the public and private sectors to adopt workplace policies that enable women and men to better balance work and family life.

Since 2023, UN Women has supported the establishment of 15 nursery groups and 4 child-friendly spaces in public institutions and private companies, helping reduce barriers to women's participation in the labour market. By promoting greater investment in the care economy these initiatives are contributing to stronger families, a more productive workforce, and gender equality.

15. Partnering with Civil Society to Drive Lasting Change

Civil society has been at the heart of UN Women's work in Moldova. Working alongside women's rights organizations and community groups, UN Women has supported legislative reforms, expanded services for survivors of violence, strengthened grassroots leadership and ensured that the voices of women and girls from all communities help shape policies and programmes.

Over the past decade alone, UN Women has established more than 130 direct partnerships with civil society and women-led organizations, collaborated with over 200 sub-contracted organizations through implementing partners and supported local initiatives through more than 40 small grants. Together, these partnerships have expanded the reach of gender equality initiatives and demonstrated that lasting change is achieved through collaboration, trust and local leadership.

16. Advancing Women's Climate Resilience and Green Economic Opportunities

As Moldova advances its green transition, UN Women is helping ensure that women are not only protected from the impacts of climate change but are also empowered to lead climate resilience solutions. Working with national and local partners, the organization has promoted women's participation in climate-smart agriculture, sustainable natural resource management and green entrepreneurship, while supporting more inclusive policies and greater access to economic opportunities.

From equipping more than 500 farmers with financial management skills to supporting women-led climate resilience businesses through grants, improving access to finance and promoting gender-responsive vocational education in the agro-industrial sector, UN Women is helping women build more resilient livelihoods and contribute to a greener future for Moldova.

While significant progress has been achieved, gender equality remains an ongoing journey. UN Women will continue working with national and international partners to ensure that every woman and girl in Moldova can live free from violence, participate equally in decision-making, enjoy economic opportunities, and contribute fully to sustainable development, because when women and girls thrive, societies prosper.