Today is the last day of the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61), a UN forum that is usually a global mobilising space for women’s rights. But this year the CSW was different.

The impact of the US travel ban

The article below is an opinion piece on the 61st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 61) written by Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury. Among other issues, Chowdhury discusses the main key gaps on the path to gender equality, including economic inequality and lack of available funding for women's civil society, and proposes ways to change patriarchal cultures to address these gaps.

This initiative by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs is an online platform for the countries who are taking part in the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of the High-Level Political Forms (HLPF) on Sustainable Development. This platform will help countries facilitate their successes and challenges while trying to implement the 2030 Agenda to complete the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).   

This article by Sophie Edwards from Devex is about the World Bank launching free online courses called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to teach financing for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how it can be mobilized.

Fragility Assessments: Where the Dialogue Needs to Go

This report from the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding provides an assessment regarding obstacles to the substance, process, and impacts of Fragility Assessments.

'This paper outlines overall principles and specific proposals for integrating gender into the IDPS mandate and work plan, so as to facilitate effective operationalisation of Stockholm commitments and Independent Review findings.'

Download the full report below or find the original here.