The world needs a strong, credible UN more than at any point in a generation. Gender equality is not a side issue in that fight. It is one of the clearest tests of whether the institution can still turn its founding promise into practice.
We are asking the future Secretary-General to stand with the commitments the letter outlines and advance gender equality, not as a peripheral commitment, but as a defining one.
This call focuses on how the UN works: its systems, its policies, its budgets, its incentives. The purpose is not institutional reform for its own sake. It is a United Nations that delivers better outcomes for everyone, everywhere.
Once the final nomination is made, the campaign will direct the Open Letter and final list of signatories to the nominee.
Why now
The next Secretary-General will take office under acute pressure: a coordinated global rollback on women’s rights, shrinking civic space for feminist movements, the silencing of public commitment to intersectional gender justice, and a funding crisis that has fallen disproportionately on gender equality programmes.
Hundreds of individuals and organisations to date have signed. Among them are former Heads of State and former heads of United Nations agencies, International Gender Champions, editors of the world’s leading journals, leading academics, and the heads of universities, research institutes, think tanks and major women’s rights organisations. See who has signed.
Help spread the word and grow support for the campaign. Share the five asks.
Measure it. Every UN agency must report sex-disaggregated data as standard, without exception. You cannot manage what you do not measure.
Analyse it. Gender analysis must inform every UN initiative before it launches, not after. Retrofitting gender onto programmes designed without it does not work.
Centre it. Feminist voices must shape every UN process, not as guests, but as architects. Consultation is not the same as power.
Fund it. Gender equality needs dedicated resources in every UN budget. Mainstreaming without money is just words.
Institutionalise it. Gender equality must be a condition of leadership across the UN system, built in, not bolted on. What is optional will be skipped.
“Gender” is being deliberately erased from policy, data and funding, and that erasure costs lives. Kent Buse and Sarah Hawkes open the series, tracing the campaign against the word and setting out why the next UN Secretary-General must defend it.
We are building a broad, public coalition of organisations, advocates, practitioners and researchers who want the next Secretary-General held to these five commitments.
You can sign in your personal capacity, or on behalf of your institution.
To learn more about the campaign or to engage with us generally on advancing gender justice for everyone, contact us at: sg-campaign@global5050.org.
