This document addresses the impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on women, particularly considering they are not included equally in the financial sector. It highlights how women’s levels of financial inclusion in the region were, and continue to be, a vulnerability factor that is hindering their economic autonomy and the post-COVID-19 recovery.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking working hours, increased care burdens, and heightened violence have exacerbated the challenges that women and girls face. Unless action is taken, by 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living in extreme poverty, including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19. This publication presents the latest evidence on the multiple impacts of the pandemic on women and girls.

This brief focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls in sports in five areas - Leadership, Gender-Based Violence, Economic Opportunities, Media Participation and Representation, and Girls Participation in Sport - and presents key recommendations to different actors in the sport ecosystem to respond to the crisis with a gender perspective and recover better in terms of gender equality.

The “Women in politics: 2020” map, created by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women, presents global rankings for women in executive, government, and parliamentary positions as of 1 January 2020. It shows all-time highs for the number of countries with women Heads of State and/or Heads of Government, and for the global share of women ministers, parliamentary speakers, and parliamentarians.

The Guide examines the role of electoral management bodies (EMBs) in encouraging the participation of women across the electoral cycle. The Guide is directed to electoral administrations and the international assistance providers, and highlights the important work being carried out by offering concrete examples of steps that can be taken to remove remaining barriers that continue to affect women’s participation in electoral processes.