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GEO/ICAE
2.- THE SECRETARY-GENERAL REMARKS TO
THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
4.- Launch of the Gender Equality
Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign within the framework of the 52nd.
Session of the CSW
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1.- Opening of the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women
Prepared by Marcela Hernandez from GEO/ICAE and Alejandra Scampini, Regional Director of Women’s Rights Programme in Actionaid
Queuing, and waiting and hoping BUILDING A UN THAT WORKS FOR ALL WOMEN
Thousands of people, mostly women, queued up at the visitors’ entrance of the United Nations on this cold but sunny morning of September 25th. More people than expected gathered in New York to attend this 52nd. Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The conference room where the official opening session was held was packed and nearby conference rooms were used to show on big screen the opening session.
It is really unfortunate that the representation of the regions is so unequal. We could see women from Africa, Europe and US but this time, for us coming from Latin America is really sad not to see the large group of feminists and women’s groups that used to follow up these processes.
We heard that many groups asked for registration but it seems they were not lucky at raising funds and that is a reality we have to analyze.
The CSW opened this time with a very important issue: RESOURCES and women’s groups and feminists groups have not always been very visible in the places where finance and resources are the main issues. So CSW comes in a good time to provide more spaces to discuss these issues knowing that 2008 is also the year for other meetings related to the Follow up of Monterrey Consensus and Aid Effectiveness.
Reading the brochure on the CSW parallel events, it is a good sign that there are so many parallel events planned by AWID, WIDE, DAWN, UNIFEM that tackle how the financing for gender equality intersects with ongoing processes around trade, aid, debt and those spaces look as critical spaces to improve our debates on these issues from a gender perspective. It would be interesting to see what other groups are doing specially those more based at the level of national and local work.
Gender responsive budgeting is also high in the agenda of CSW and we hope we can hear more about what are the lessons on this and how these lessons are also responding to the macroeconomic framework that very much affect the decisions of our governments around what to spend and when.
Violence against women and girls is also very much present here in the agenda and discussion. May be what in the agenda so far is missing is what are they referring to when they say Violence. Let’s hope this unfolds in the discussions and we see much more debate on how poverty is also a denial of women’s rights and therefore violence and also the intersection of HIV AIDS and violence that has been so visible in other fora and raised by many groups in the campaign Women Wont’ Wait. End Violence against women and HIV AIDS. NOW!
There are some key groups working on rural women and land and natural resources that are really trying to also create a space to discuss the financing specially for the rural women in developing countries. We really hope as Actionaid to engage with those groups in the discussions and see synergies we could create around women’s rights to land and livelihoods in the year of the 60th celebration of Human rights Declaration and the year of the launch of Hungerfree Campaing of Actionaid
There is a permament call for women’s and feminist organizations and CSOs to be at the table when issues around the financing is on the table. Let’s wait what the official delegates have to say on that these two weeks.
ICAE will be actively participating in these debates and we welcome the proposal of GRAIL , Ecumenical women, Methodist women 2000, women’s institute for social transformation , southern dispora research and development centre for putting forward the panel on financing for gender equality: what’s race, class , and gender got to do with it. The accumulation of how to work around the intersectionalities of ICAE will benefit of this dialogue to incorporate a more economic dimension to it. And think about what is the price attached to these intersectionalities.
Last but not least some groups here are really hoping that the CSW becomes the space for the Secretary General to appoint the new Executive Director of UNIFEM and that there is a creation of political leadership around the new Gender architecture reform.
Some groups signing on Gender Equity Architecture Reform as really using the space to call attention on this.
We cannot move backwards, UN is in debt with women, we need to have a space that is really strong and that can really champion on women’s rights
It is the time to create the institutional mechanisms that are required to make a stronger unity both at international and national level.
At the opening of the session, the United Nations, Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon launched the campaign to end violence against women: “Unite to End Violence Against Women”, to a high-level audience of Government Ministers and Ambassadors, as well as numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and representatives of the UN System.
“Violence against women and girls makes its hideous imprint on every continent, country and culture,” said the Secretary-General. “It is time to focus on the concrete actions that all of us can and must take to prevent and eliminate this scourge -- Member States, the United Nations family, civil society and individuals -- women and men. It is time to break through the walls of silence, and make legal norms a reality in women’s lives.”
Below you will find the full statement of the UN Secretary General.
On the other hand Rachel Mayanja, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women gave her support to this campaign to end violence against women and stated that the forthcoming events: The Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, in September 2008, the follow up International Conference on FFD to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus in Doha, Qatar, etc, are unique opportunities to go on pushing for gender issues. She said that although the Monterrey Consensus considered the gender perspective, this was not strong enough for the implementation of actions. She also mentioned climate change as a priority in the development agenda and how this impacts particularly on women, recognizing gender equality as a cross-cutting issue. Rachel Mayanja also expressed her concern on widows, as a result of conflict processes and on the selling of organs as a lucrative business where women and children are the main victims.
See http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/eventos/52.html --
Mr.
President of ECOSOC, Distinguished Ministers, Mr. Chairperson of the
Commission, Excellencies, Civil society representatives, Ladies and
Gentlemen, --
Prepared by Marcela Hernandez, GEO / ICAE
Panel’s Chair: Gita Sen Panelists: Mariama Williams, Aldo Calliari, Gigi Francisco
Gita Sen – DAWN - opened the panel explaining that the four pillars of financing for development are divided in 2 international and 2 domestic:
- Domestic resource mobilization (for eg; taxes) - Debt (borrowing from abroad) - Development assistance - Trade
Plus a fifth element, only for middle and high income countries which is private capital flows. These elements are crucial for financing for development.
FFD can be looked in terms of volume and quality. If we talk about quality we understand reliability, predictability, sustainability. Quality depends on how those finances impact on gender equality.
Another important element, which never gets counted as a resource for development is women’s unremunerated work. Such money is not paid to women and goes somewhere else. In lots of the official documents of this 52nd. Session of the CSW this last point is not mentioned and this is really disappointed, said Gita Sen.
Mariama Wiliams - IGTN, DAWN - from Jamaica talked about gender equality and financing and the challenges in the global economy. As part of these challenges, she mentioned financial volatility, the financial crisis in the market, the lack of adequate regulations of banking structure, the fuel crisis, and all these elements increase the impoverishment in the global south. She also mentioned the environmental crisis and the choiceless democracies (for eg. the upraising in Kenya and the ethnic tensions).
Mariama mentioned at least 3 threats facing the south: deindustrialization, deagriculturalization and depopulation.
What’s most important of aid and trade reforms is that all of them are focusing on the budgeting processes of the developing counties. What is unchangeable and remains the same is the macroeconomic framework.
She also said that there are also several keys to development that we need to look at within FFD: - The function of an agile and mobile welfare state - The state needs to focus on ensuring employment, decent work - That gender equality and women’s empowerment be able to promote gender equality interventions necessary to get good outcomes for women and girls. - The ability to finance public services such as water, health, sanitation, etc. - Social compact on development. - Decentralization and enhancement of local and regional governments. Building community infrastructure. The state must be able to provide public investment.
Gigi Francisco - DAWN - talked about gender equality and aid effectiveness, questioning if it is just about the money. She questioned which are the concerns that the feminists have on aid effectiveness and if women are able to determine and control the projects that are being funded. In this sense Gigi remarked the need of more CSO women in the discussions, political debates. That is to say, the capacity building of women’s CSO which does not mean professionalizing them.
Aldo Calliari - Centre of Concern - focused on aid for trade, mentioning that the problem with aid for trade is that it can become a counterforce for undoing a lot of what the feminist movement has been doing. He remarked that a lot of money has been poured on countries assuming that they would be able to pay back and this hasn’t been the case. The WTO has generated a lot of imbalances and constraints.
Finally, Roberto Bissio - Social Watch - who was not a panelist but gave his perspective on gender equity mentioning that gender equity in education has been achieved worldwide but the problem is to be able to keep it up. At this moment some countries are regressing.
He also stated that there is no correlation between poverty and gender parity and mentioned the case of Rwanda that is one of the poorest countries and has gender parity while Luxembourg is richer and has a bad level of gender parity.
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4.- Launch of the Gender Equality Architecture Reform
(GEAR) Campaign within the framework of the 52nd. Session of the
CSW 26th. February, Church Center, New York
Charlotte Bunch, from the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, chaired the meeting and explained that the campaign started two years ago, back in 2006, in a CSW session. The emphasis of this campaign is a stronger women’s organization that can deliver results on the ground. The Campaign is trying to create an ongoing structure to represent women’s energy and efforts. (See below more information about the campaign)
Peggy Antrobus from DAWN was a panelist who focused on a perspective from the global south. She remarked the importance of the UN as the only forum where representatives from the south, particularly the G77, have a voice, and as the UN is under threat, the G77 women must come here to defend it because it is the only place where they have a voice. She went on saying that the UN has meant a great deal to women because of the work done by UNIFEM and specialized agencies. In the field, one can see UNIFEM, UNICEF, ILO, committed to issues of development, social justice, etc. UNIFEM has limited resources and is only in 15 countries but it is the only one that has a special relationship with women’s organizations and does work on the ground.
Finally she concluded that money for gender equality is being held hostage by other interests and that people from the north have brought gender equality as a conditionality. A clear statement from the European Union is needed to strengthen the operation side of the gender equality architecture. Calling for a stronger entity, we expect a stronger operational side.
Lydia Alpizar from AWID stated that the institutionality of gender equality and women’s rights, at the UN, is very weak, and that the lack of funds is a real lack of political will from the north and south. So it is a good moment to mobilize women to put pressure on the UN, when we say that we want a new UN that works for women on the ground. Other processes related with FFD and other issues are also seeing a weakening UN. Lydia expressed her concern about the UN pilot projects of ONE UN and wondered what would happen if there is no UNIFEM on the ground.
She said that AWID is interested in the campaign for its potential to mobilize people on the ground and listed concrete actions that groups joining the campaign, will carry out at national and regional level: - organize a meeting with the head of the national machinery to talk about gender equality architecture - share the information of the campaign with other groups - get in touch with UN agencies that work in your country to see what kind of alliances can be built. - Develop your own materials, and state why it is important to have a new UN - Create e-lists, bloggers, etc. - Meetings and consultations with grassroots women - State where the UN is working appropriately on the ground.
Lydia ended by saying that this campaign should not only focus on doing advocacy in New York.
The representative from International Planned Parenthood Federation, that has adhered to the GEAR campaign, added that new money is needed for this reform, and that they should not take away or transfer the money from sexual and reproductive rights to the GEAR campaign.
The focal point of the campaign in Asia mentioned that within this framework they are lobbying with government and national machineries and argued that we must ensure that there is an entity that actually works for women and has adequate resources.
The focal point of GEAR in Europe expressed that Europe is a very strong player and has a strong voice within the UN, so, as women’s activists, they are talking to EU and non EU members to see how they can strengthen the GEAR. They are lobbying and sending letters to national governments and they have even talked to the President of the General Assembly (Macedonia) to try to bring his attention to this issue.
The focal point in Africa also reconfirmed its commitment and adherence to the campaign in the hope that it will bring women’s gains and will confront human rights problems. They will work with other organizations in the region and, beyond them, they will contact UN agencies, the African union , etc.
The focal point in the Caribbean focused on the fact that a campaign must touch the people’s soul and for that they must have a beat and should have a song. She also stated that this campaign means different things for different people. Each one has to think what it means to each other. Finally she ensured that they would push the campaign through alliances with major partners.
The focal point in Latin America stated that they would like to open up the debate to more women from this region and also to open the debate on gender mainstreaming and how it relates to national contexts.
In plenary session, Ana Agostino from GEO/ICAE and the IFT of GCAP, raised the issue of the delay in the appointment of UNIFEM’s executive director. Peggy Antrobus replied that it is scandalous, disrespectful to women and that it shows that the UN does not care about women so it says a lot about UN’s commitment to women. She went on saying that a strong person and leadership is needed to make sure that this GEAR has a strong operational side. On the other hand Peggy said that there are people who say that it should wait until the gender equality architecture is done and that the post might have been held hostage to the GEAR. But this is cannot be possible because GEAR will take some time.
In this respect, Charlotte Bunch, from CWGL, agreed on the fact that a strong leadership is needed in UNIFEM but did not agree on the fact that it was held hostage to the GEAR. Further on she said that she had seen a lot of appointments taking too much time. She concluded saying that a strong Executive Director for UNIFEM is needed and it is needed NOW.
-- BUILDING A UNITED NATIONS THAT REALLY WORKS FOR ALL WOMEN CAMPAIGN FOR STRONGER GENDER EQUALITY ARCHITECTURE REFORM (GEAR) AT THE UN A stronger women’s organization that can deliver results on the ground: An Under-Secretary-General should head this entity for women, to ensure the necessary status required for representation and decision-making at the highest levels both in policy-development and program operations at the global and country levels. The new Under-Secretary-General post would provide higher level leadership than at present to more effectively drive the gender equality and women’s empowerment agenda. Extensive field presences and a strong policy and programmatic mandate is essential for a strengthened UN entity for women to effectively improve the lives of women on the ground. Substantial and predictable resources to ensure that the new entity for women has the capacity to meet expectations and deliver results at all levels. It must be funded initially at a minimum level of $500 million to $1 billion USD with increases over time. Accountability within the new entity for women, at both national and international levels, including through meaningful involvement of civil society, in particular non-governmental organizations for women. The new entity should also promote gender mainstreaming by the integration of gender equality and women’s human rights throughout the UN and especially in the UN Country Pilots and in all UN reform processes. Strengthening the UN’s gender equality machinery is a crucial part of financing for development. It will better enable the UN and governments to deliver on promises made to advance gender equality and women’s human rights at the global and country levels
TO JOIN THE GEAR CAMPAIGN, EMAIL: gearcampaign@gmail.com
GEAR CAMPAIGN KEY MESSAGES:
The following “talking points” address the most current arguments for and against strengthened gender architecture. Some of the points below are responses to arguments we’ve recently heard against moving ahead.
This is not a process that is driven by donors ! The initial call for action was from women’s groups around the world, not from governments. Reform of gender architecture is supported and driven by NGOs and a range of states, including those from the global South.
A strong womne’s entity will help to integrate gender throughout the UN system. Other UN agencies will still have the responsibility to integrate gender into their own programming and policies, but a new entity can help make this happen. A strong women’s entity will not “getthoize” gender, as some have feared, but should expand attention to this issue within and outside the UN.
Creating a strong women’s entity will not detract from other development goals, but will enahance – and work in tandem with those development efforts, as women’s equality is a key component of development.
A stronger UN gender entity will make financing for gender equality and financing for development more efficient and effective. A stronger gender entity will deliver better results and streamline official development assistance (ODA) delivery at the country level, including in providing gender-disaggregated data.
There has been no susbstantive resistance mounted against strengthening the UN’s gender architecture. The resistance has been grounded in other issues related to UN politics and UN reform. It is imperative that governments move ahead on institutional arrangements that give public support to the actual gender issues.
A new women’s entity must have core responsibilities at national/operational and global/policy levels. It is imperative to strengthen the functioning of the UN on gender equality “on the ground”, as well as at the global level.
A new women’s entity must be “built to win”. It must be adequately funded or it simply will not be able to do the work it needs to do. It needs to be led by an Under Secretary General to ensure representation at the highest levels within the UN system.
The system as it now exists is simply not working well enough to deliver effective results for women’s lives around the world. It needs to be improved and strengthened, with urgency.
All UN agencies need to strengthen their own work on gender simultaneously with the process of creating a new entity. Agencies and offices must bolster and evaluate their current gender work, collect relevant and sex-disaggregated data, present annual reports to the GA, etc.
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