GEAR Campaign continues: Moving Ahead with the New UN Women’s Rights Entity

The ECE Regional consultation at the fifteen-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) will discuss, under Agenda Item 7 “New partnerships, networks, and alliances for gender equality”. These recommendations are targeted towards that discussion, as well as the overall review of the BPfA especially in regards to Critical Area H- Institutional Mechanisms.

Women around the world have waited for the United Nations and member states to fulfill the promises made since the first International Women’s Year in 1975, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) thirty years ago, as well as the UN World Conferences in Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995).

Overall Recommendation

Given the current economic and financial crisis and the disproportionate impact it is having on women, especially lower income women in every part of the world, the swift creation of a strong composite UN entity (combining policy and operational activities) focused on gender equality and women's empowerment that is well-resourced and led by an Under Secretary-General is critical. The new gender equality entity with its higher level leadership is necessary to ensure that gender equality issues are addressed and women's voices are heard at every decision making level, including globally at UN headquarters and the Bretton Woods institutions, regionally and at country level. While the crisis is having negative impacts on women’s situation and the existing women’s machineries, the creation of the new UN women’s rights entity is critical as it will advance the economic empowerment of women as called for in the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals.

Key points

The resolution’s provisions on the new UN women’s rights entity need to be implemented swiftly and effectively. In order to make this happen, the UN Secretary General has put a process in place that calls for a comprehensive report specifying the mission statement and organizational arrangement for the new gender entity by the end of the year 2009. We urge the SG to stay committed to this timetable.

UN member states still face a number of key issues concerning the mandate, mission, organisational structure, governance and funding which need to be addressed during the 64th General Assembly session. We call on UN Member States to stay committed to this process and ensure that the establishment of the much needed single women’s UN agency is moving ahead without any further delay.

The President of the UN General Assembly (PGA) needs to ensure that the formal intergovernmental process is ready to begin expeditiously once the report is finalized.

The new UN women’s rights entity must play a transformative role

The current UN women’s agencies must be consolidated to establish a transformative and visionary new gender equality entity. Combining and enhancing the normative and operational functions that will enhance synergies and promote an expanded field presence is essential to the success of the new entity. The entity must hold all countries accountable for women’s rights.

In addition, the new gender entity should take the lead in promoting gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and women in decision-making in the entire UN system, and should hold other agencies accountable to their commitments to women (UNICEF serves as a model for this in how they hold other agencies accountable to their responsibilities for children).

The new UN women’s rights entity has to be ambitiously funded

Existing funding for gender equality within the UN is completely inadequate.Therefore, we believe that the new gender equality entity must have an initial budget of $ 1 billion USD per year with annual increases. . The new entity should be funded from both voluntary and assessed contributions. Ensuring ambitious funding requires a broad donor basis involving all UN member states and countries that may not be part of the usual group of donors.

The new women’s rights entity needs the participation of civil society

The systematic and meaningful participation of civil society, especially women’s organizations, needs to be part of the governance and the accountability structures of the new entity. This means that civil society should be represented on the Executive Board of the new entity. Of equal importance is a strong formal CSO involvement with the entity at country and regional level. The role of NGOs on the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS is a precedent that should be a model in the governance board of this new entity.

Select the Under-Secretary General to lead the new entity by March 2010

The UN Secretary-General should immediately initiate a transparent global recruitment process for the Under Secretary-General who will lead the new entity. We urge that the USG should be appointed by March 2010.

Candidates for this important post that includes securing funding and leading the transition towards the creation of the composite entity must have a vision for and demonstrated commitment to achieving gender equality and securing women’s human rights. (See the selection criteria of the GEAR Campaign).

(The existing UN gender equality architecture comprises the following: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues (OSAGI), and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). In 2008 the income of these entities was the following: UNIFEM $215.4 million, DAW $1.15 million, OSAGI $0.418 million, and INSTRAW $4.12 million.)