BBC World Service is launching BBC Global Women, a bold new commitment to highlight women’s storytelling across its global output.

Amid reductions in press freedom globally, the need to reach women and girls around the world with trusted news has never been greater. This new editorial priority will enhance the BBC World Service’s storytelling by listening, sharing and amplifying stories for women around the world.

BBC Global Women is dedicated to stories that resonate with women worldwide, all year-round.

Alongside new commissions, the initiative will elevate the editorial offer for women by starting conversations, building connections and challenging misinformation. The first commissions under Global Women include exclusive interviews with KPop Demon Hunters’ Arden Cho and the First Lady of Sierra Leone, and an investigation into how sexual violence is being used as a weapon in conflict in Ethiopian.

BBC Global Women will deliver fresh, original content throughout the year – including ground-breaking and access-led documentaries, interviews, and stories for women in every corner of the world – across BBC News and BBC World Service digital, social and broadcast channels.

Fiona Crack, Deputy Global Director, BBC News said, “Press freedom continues to reduce globally, making it harder for the BBC to reach audiences and for audiences to access independent news. Internationally, we also know women in particular view, read and listen to less of our news than men. This is an issue we must urgently address so sharing more stories that matter to women and commissioning stories that resonate with women will be at the centre of BBC Global Women.”

Audiences can look forward to a powerful mix of exclusive interviews, original documentaries and social investigations from all corners of the globe.

Upcoming highlights include:

• Exclusive interviews in the BBC Global Women Meets… series, featuring KPop Demon Hunters’ Arden Cho, and First Lady of Sierra Leone, Fatima Bio
• Groundbreaking documentaries including The Battle to Get My Child Back which follows Greenlandic parents fighting to reclaim their children taken under discredited “parenting competency tests”
• A BBC World Service investigation into the hidden conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara region where thousands of women have suffered in silence. With incredibly rare access to voices from a region largely closed off to the media, the BBC hears from three survivors of sexual violence which has been used as a weapon in this conflict.