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WOMEN’S GLOBALNET #341 ACTIVITIES & INITIATIVES
OF WOMEN WORLDWIDE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SET TO
ADVANCE PROCESS ON NEW UN GENDER ENTITY September
11, 2008 Mavic
Cabrera-Balleza
1. MEMBER STATES
EXPECTED TO DECIDE ON NEW GENDER ENTITY PROPOSED AS PART OF UN SYSTEM-WIDE
COHERENCE At an informal
consultation about the UN’s work on gender equality and women’s empowerment,
Member States were asked to decide next steps, before the end of the 62nd General
Assembly session on September 15, 2008, including the institutional option or
combination of options they wished to pursue with regards to the gender
entity. Countries that spoke at the September 8 consultation indicated an
emerging consensus on moving forward with the last of the
four options under consideration – Option 4/ D, which proposes the
creation of a composite entity of the four existing women-specific agencies,
i.e the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Office of the Special
Advisor on Gender Issues, the Division for the Advancement of Women, and the
International Research and Training Institute for Women. Even as this
option emerged as the most popular, countries requested the Secretary General
to develop the option further and present a concrete proposal to the 63rd
General Assembly session which opens on September 16, 2008. The framework
resolution moving the System Wide Coherence process forward in the 63rd
GA session and requesting the Secretary General to further develop Option 4/D
is expected to be adopted during this week.
The
other three options being considered as possibilities to strengthen the UN’s
work on gender equality and the empowerment of women are (A) maintaining the
status quo –women-specific agencies operating as they are now; (B) creating
an autonomous fund/programme; and (C) creating a department within the
Secretariat. All options were explored and analyzed in paper that was
circulated in the General Assembly by the UN Deputy Secretary General (DSG)
in July 2008 (see section 4 for a
fuller explanation). 2. COUNTRY POSITIONS France, on
behalf of the European Union, endorsed the co-chairs recommendations and
supports the creation of a new structure, headed by an Under Secretary
General. The EU believes that Options D best addresses gaps and challenges,
but further discussions are needed. On
behalf of the CANZ group (Canada, Australia and New Zealand), Canada stated
that the Composite entity option was more promising and a decision should be
made in the next GA session. A
number of African and Latin American countries including Kenya, Mozambique
and Rwanda; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay
also spoke in support of strengthening the gender equality architecture, and
some specifically supported Option D. 3. NGO POSITIONS Prior
to the September 8 consultation, a number of NGOs have stated their
preference for option D highlighting its combination of the normative
with the operational role and its potential to have a strong presence at the
country level. They however stressed that it should be led by an Under
Secretary General to guarantee representation at the highest decision-making
level of the UN. Some NGOs and women’s groups, including European
Women’s Lobby, OXFAM/novib, WIDE, WOMANKIND and GAD network UK, demanded
that in order to set in place a fully operational,
programmatic and efficient women’s agency the new agency must be funded to the minimum of
$1 billion USD and lobby for this budget to double to $2 billion
in 5 years. 4. INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS TO
STRENGTHEN UN WORK ON GENDER EQUALITY & EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN The four
options under consideration were based on the paper, Institutional Options to Strengthen United
Nations Work on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, prepared by
the office of the Deputy Secretary General. This paper was sent to the
President of the General Assembly on July 23 and circulated to Member States
on July 28 in response to the request of the General Assembly to address the
gaps and challenges in the work of the United Nations system on gender
equality. The paper presents four options: 1/A.
Maintaining the status quo
– This option would not entail any structural change in the UN’s gender
equality architecture. 2/B.
Creating an autonomous fund/programme – involves the establishment of an autonomous programme
that would consolidate the Office of the Special Advisor to the Secretary
General on Gender Issues, Division for the Advancement of Women, UNIFEM,
and INSTRAW 3/C.
Creating a department within the Secretariat – In this option, a Department will be
created within the UN Secreatriat to perform the functions including
leadership in country-driven programming, gender mainstreaming and capacity
building and provision of support to UN bodies such as the commission on the
Status of Women and the Economic and Social Council 4/D.
Creating a composite entity
– requires the creation of a new governing body (or bodies) reporting to the
General Assembly. It would be headed by a USG who is a full member of the
Secretary General’s policy committee. |
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