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IWTC Women's GlobalNet #331 BE INFORMED, BE
PREPARED, BE ACTIVE: CSW 52 Natalie Raaber |
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The Report of the EXPERT
GROUP MEETING Financing for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the Report of the Expert
Group Meeting, is now out! This
report, along with the Report of the Secretary General on financing for
gender equality and the empowerment of women and the draft Agreed Conclusions
currently being formulated, will serve as the core documents for the 2008
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
The Report of the Expert Group Meeting and the Secretary General’s
report serve as a basic reference for government delegates to the CSW as they
work through the process of refining the Agreed Conclusions and are also
essential reading for NGOs. For NGOS, not only do both reports provide a substantive overview of
the issues and the recommendations that are being proposed, but they are also
essential for effective advocacy during the CSW. For example, you and your organization may
have very clear points you wish to raise regarding funding (or lack thereof)
for the work you are doing — if so, you will want to tie them to one or more
of the recommendations. If the issue
you want to raise is not directly related to financing for gender equality,
you will want to give some thought as to how you can make the
connection. Government delegates will
not consider issues that are not related to the issues at hand. Process note: While both
reports are available on line, the Agreed Conclusions are currently being
drafted by the Bureau of the Commission on the Status of Women. The bureau is comprised of five member
state representatives elected by the Commission for a two year term. The Agreed Conclusions will be available
to all on February 25th, the opening day of the CSW. While both documents are important to the CSW, due to limited space,
we are offering only a summary of the contents of the Expert Group Meeting
Report in this GlobalNet. If interested,
we encourage you to read the report in its entirety which is available for
download: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/financing_gender_equality/egm_financing_gender_equality.htm Additionally, should you wish to read the Secretary General’s report,
you can download it here: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw52/OfficialDocuments.html |
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BACKGROUND information Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women summarizes
key issues raised in the papers and discussions at the Expert Group Meeting
on this topic that took place in The 52nd session of the CSW comes at a time of worldwide
discussions on financing for development, including financing for gender
equality. From the Monterrey Consensus
of 2002 to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of 2005 and the
December 2008 meeting in |
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REPORT OVERVIEW The report begins with a background on the issue, noting that while
strong commitments to financing for gender equality on the international,
national, regional and community level exist, a gap between these commitments
and their full implementation on the ground remains. The Beijing Platform for Action, for
instance, called for the identification and mobilization of resources for the
financing of gender equality from all potential sources and across all
sectors. Yet, obstacles to the
realization of this goal continue to persist and research indicates only
limited progress has been made. What
is causing this gap between commitment and effective implementation? In order to shed further light on this question, the Expert Group
Meeting explored mechanisms of financing for gender equality and ways to move
forward. Macroeconomic policies, public finance, including gender responsive
budgeting, mobilization of international resources and new and innovative
sources of funding were key points of discussion. The report is broken down into four main themes, each of which
discusses a particular aspect of financing for gender equality and is
followed by a series of recommendations for action. A list of indicators is provided in the
Annex of the Report. The proposed
indicators measure the extent to which gender perspectives are adequately
included in public finance, trade and macroeconomic policy. Theme 1:
Macroeconomic Policies and Follow-up to the This section highlights the overall thrust of the Monterrey Consensus and
points to its key shortfalls, namely the “lack of coherence between the
economic policies for which it advocates (low inflation and mobility of
capital) on the one hand and its social commitment to poverty reduction,
human rights and gender equality on the other”. Recommendations are made on how
governments, decision-makers and international bodies can better meet the
objectives of gender equality and the empowerment of women. Note: One
of the challenges in participating in UN discussions is
understanding the “UNese” language which is
used, made up frequently of names of cities or by various letters of the
alphabet. The Monterrey Consensus is
the outcome of the 2002 United Nations International Conference on Financing
for Development in Theme 2: Public Finance and Gender Responsive
Budgeting Recognized as the largest single source of financing for gender equality
and women’s empowerment, government budgets, working through national and
sub-national budgets, are translated into practical policies and
programmes. This section looks at the
gendered impact of public finance systems and the need for gender responsive
budgeting and other public finance reforms to address the inequitable effects
of certain policies. Recommendations
are made on how governments can better integrate a gender perspective into
their public finance systems as well as increase the participation of women
in macroeconomic and budgetary policy formulation. Theme 3: Bilateral and Multilateral Aid The extent to which donor agencies have fulfilled the gender equality
dimension of the Monterrey Consensus is examined and trends observed in aid
delivery and the effect of the Paris Declaration are considered in this
section. Recommendations include increases in Official Development
Assistance, mechanisms for assessing the performance of the bilateral and
multilateral agencies and the push for the implementation of a dual approach
to achieving gender equality. Theme 4: Funding the Women’s Movement This section examines the funding environment for the women’s movement
and discusses the need for a complementary approach to funding, one which
recognizes the necessity of involving all stakeholders, including government,
civil society, women’s organizations and the private sector. Innovative funding approaches, such as diaspora funding and social enterprises, are examined and
recommendations are made, including a call for a significant increase in
investment in women’s rights organizations, a stronger move towards alliance
building and a greater exchange of information and training in fundraising. |
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PREPATORY ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS In preparation for the CSW, roundtable
discussions are held examining the thematic issues considered by the CSW that
year. The first roundtable was held on
The second roundtable will be held on |
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