Push forward dialogues, series 2 reflections: Effective practices in advancing rights, equality and justice in a constrained and contested global context

Efforts to advance gender equality are unfolding amid intensifying backlash, shrinking civic space, political polarization, and pressure on multilateral institutions. This reflections paper draws on Series 2 of the Push forward dialogues, co-sponsored by UN Women, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and convened on the margins of the seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) in March 2026.

It examines effective practices in three areas:

• building broad-based coalitions
• expanding access to justice in constrained contexts
• advancing narrative change

Across these areas, the paper identifies a shared strategic approach based on distributed leadership, mutually reinforcing strategies and engagement across formal and informal systems of influence. It also considers implications for governments, UN entities and donors, including the need for flexible funding, stronger protection for actors operating under risk, closer links between locally grounded practice and global processes, and more enabling and connective institutional roles.