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United Nations Advocacy

Gender Equality Architecture

March 2008: Gender Equality Architecture Reform Campaign Statement and Key Messages
BUILDING A UNITED NATIONS THAT REALLY WORKS FOR ALL WOMENCAMPAIGN FOR STRONGER GENDER EQUALITY ARCHITECTURE REFORM (GEAR) AT THE UN English, French, Spanish

News

  • March 2008: UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Linkage Caucus Statement (PDF)
  • January 2008: UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) statement submitted on behalf of the global campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform in the United Nations by Amnesty International, Asia Pacific Women’s Watch, Association for Women’s Rights In Development, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Development Alternatives with Women in a New Era, African Women's Development & Communication Network, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Women’s Environment and Development Organization, WIDE - Globalising Gender Equality and Social Justice non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. Arabic, English, French, Spanish
  • October 2007: Women's rights advocates continue to press for a stronger gender equality architecture (GEA) within the UN system despite the fact that the 61st General Assembly did not take any action on implementing the Coherence Panel reforms Activists on a global level are demanding government support for a new women's entity within the UN, and  active engagement in the next stages of the process, including discussions on structure and funding. While allies could not secure GA movement on the GEA resolution, many more states are articulating support for the principles of the GEAR campaign (to be launched soon): creating a strong, well-resourced new women's organization that is headed by an Under-Secretary General, and that has a country presence that can deliver meaningful results to women. CWGL and allies recently met with the UN Special Advisor on Gender Issues and staff of the President of the General Assembly to strategize about advocacy leading into the Commission on the Status of Women.
  • June 11, 2007: URGENT ACTION needed on GEA
    We just received copies of the documents from the GA Co-Chairs on the schedule of consultations. It looks like the gender architecture recommendations will be discussed in a GA informal on Thursday, June 21. We believe it is still possible to gain GA approval of moving forward toward the strengthened gender architecture this year, but we will need a strong mobilization from women around the world. While we understand that a number of countries have raised concerns related to conditionalities and funding, we hope that they can be addressed in the discussion.
    Please send letters, emails, faxes, phone calls, etc. to your governments (particularly, the ministry of foreign affairs as well as the women's ministry) asking them to instruct their mission at the UN to speak in favor of moving forward on a process for implementing the gender architecture recommendations next Thursday. This is a critical step in the GA process.
    We are also seeking to meet with UN missions here in NY, including the Co-Chairs from Barbados and Luxembourg before Thursday so please keep us updated on what you find out. After Thursday we should have a better sense of the process for the rest of this GA session.
    • Letter dated 11 June from the Co-Chairs of the consultations on System-wide Coherence, H.E. Ambassador Hackett, the Permanent Representative of Barbados, and H.E. Ambassador Hoscheit, the Permanent Representative of Luxembourg.
    • Workprogram and note setting out the recommendations contained in the HLP Report.
  • June 7, 2007: Update on lobbying efforts regarding UN reform and the GEA
  • May 23, 2007: Updated Talking Points for Gender Equality Architecture Advocacy - Take Action Now!
  • On Monday, April 16, 2007, the Secretary General presented his report on the recommendations contained in the report of the High Level Panel on System-wide Coherence in development, humanitarian assistance and the environment to the General Assembly. The report A/61/836 can be found at (www.un-ngls.org). In paragraphs 17 and 18 of the report the Secretary General reiterated his previous statements in support of the Panel's recommendation to consolidate and strengthen the current structures into a single entity focused on gender equality and women's empowerment. However, he states that the creation of the new Under-Secretary General position to lead the new entity will be on hold pending the outcome of the intergovernmental process. Essentially, this means that he will not move forward with the proposal by Kofi Annan to the ACABQ at the end of last year to create the USG position until some action is taken to approve the creation of the new entity. The SG also reiterated that gender equality continues to be the mandate of all UN entities and that he will recruit "competent" women to his senior team. He also states that the Deputy Secretary-General will be charged with overseeing the implementation of the Coherence Panel recommendations.The President of the General Assembly will be forming working groups on the different issues raised by the report and appointing facilitators (generally ambassadors-one from the North and one from the South) to lead the different working groups. We understand that there is likely to be a group for the gender architecture and will let you know after the facilitators are appointed.The Statement of the SG during his presentation at the GA plenary, as well as his report are listed below:

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Statements on Gender Architecture

  • January 2008: Statement submitted on behalf of the global campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform in the United Nations by Amnesty International, Asia Pacific Women’s Watch, Association for Women’s Rights In Development, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Development Alternatives with Women in a New Era, African Women's Development & Communication Network, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Women’s Environment and Development Organization, WIDE - Globalising Gender Equality and Social Justice non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. English, French, Spanish
  • On March 8, 2007, in honor of International Women’s Day, CWGL and over 150 women’s organizations and allies delivered an Open Letter to the Secretary General of the UN and to UN Member States on the “gender equality architecture” of the UN (Spanish). The letter urges States and the SG to immediately support efforts to strengthen the UN architecture for women’s equality as recommended by the High Level Panel on Systemwide Coherence in its final report issued in November. These recommendations are likely to be discussed in the General Assembly in the coming months.

    The Letter also calls for
    • Significant and sustained funding for a new women’s entity in the UN as well as for other UN efforts to integrate gender equality in its policies and programs.Meaningful and ongoing civil society participation (particularly of women’s groups) in consideration and implementation of the Panel’s gender related recommendations.Integration of gender equality and participation of NGOs in design, implementation and monitoring of “One UN” Pilot Country Projects.
    • Establishment of a clear, expeditious and transparent process for the consideration and implementation of the strengthening of the gender equality architecture and securing of funds for ongoing work.

The Open Letter was developed from discussions in and endorsed by the Linkage Caucus of the Commission on the Status of Women in its annual meeting at the UN in New York. The Linkage Caucus was convened by CWGL, WEDO and the NGO Committee on the Status of Women.

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Resources & Timeline

  • June 2007: Women and Gender: The Evolution of Women Specific Institutions and Gender Integration at the United Nations by Charlotte Bunch
  • December 6, 2006: UN Reform and the Gender Equality Recommendations: The recommendations from the Coherence Panel on reforming the UN's gender equality architecture incorporate many of the suggestions made by women’s organizations and networks. Now the difficult work of implementation begins, including promoting their adoption during the inter-governmental processes at the UN, without having them weakened. A number of processes - both immediate and long-term - have been set into motion since the report's release, but unfortunately the timeline remains unclear and unpredictable. 
    The General Assembly Process: The GA is expected to review and debate the Panel's recommendations starting in early 2007, and right now the report is being translated so that it can be reviewed closely by all member states. While the informal discussions for the report now looks like it will run between late January - March, there will be a more formal process afterwards. Already some opposition is emerging to aspects of the Coherence Panel report including to the "One UN" at the country level. It is unclear how opposition to other parts of the Panel’s report will affect the creation of a new women’s entity with a new high level USG position.
    Fast-track Initiative: Recently, there was also an unsuccessful initiative undertaken by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan to "fast-track" some of the recommendations in line with what he announced at the Nov. 9 launch of the Coherence Panel Report, most importantly, the creation of the new Under-Secretary-General position to head the new women's agency. His proposal was essentially to create the position by the end of the year, with the idea that in 2007, the incoming SG Ban Ki Moon would appoint the new USG who would oversee the transition of consolidating UNIFEM, OSAGI and DAW into one new entity. Kofi Annan convened his Internal Policy Group to come up with this set of recommendations for the USG, which on the whole corresponded with what was laid out in "Delivering As One."
    There has been opposition, especially from the G77, to this “fast track” initiative, and it has been scuttled even before reaching the GA budgetary committee (the 5th Committee) whose approval would have been needed to create the position. It is not clear whether the opposition was related to concerns with the gender recommendations in particular, or concerns with other parts of the report, but there was definitely a concern with the process. The creation of the USG post would have sustained the momentum to push forward the creation of the new women's agency. It looks likely now that we will enter into a long inter-governmental process next year, and a lot of work remains to be done to ensure that the gender equality recommendations go forward and are not weakened during that stage.
    Meeting with the Secretary-General-elect: The SG-elect Ban Ki Moon has agreed to a meeting with women’s NGOs on the Coherence Panel recommendations, probably to be held in New York in mid-December. This is an opportunity to discuss the new agency, the new USG position and gender equality across the entire UN system. Women in South Korea have also briefed him on these issues, and paved the way for the New York meeting. We will report back when we know more from this meeting.
    Some of you have been involved in regional and national advocacy efforts to push for the implementation of the Coherence Panel's recommendations, and in particular the new women's agency and the creation of the USG position. If anyone has more information from these efforts or has prepared statements, we encourage you to send these to the SG-elect as soon as possible. Please copy us as we can hand-deliver these to the SG-elect in the meeting so he hears a range of women's voices from around the world. 
    Click here for the statement we sent in November, now signed by 157 organizations around the world. We continue to use this statement in our lobbying efforts. 
    Suggested Next Steps and Actions
    For quick action:
    1.   SG-elect Ban Ki Moon meeting: Send in regional or national statements (or create them) and copy them to Lexi Lenton at lexil@wedo.org so they can be hand-delivered to the new SG. Some key messages could encourage and welcome the creation of a new women’s entity, a USG position heading that entity, an open and transparent global search to fill the position, and a universal country presence with senior level staff.
    For longer-term action:
    2.   Fact-finding: It is important to map out positions of governments, and we encourage you to talk to your contacts to see what they are planning around this or get them engaged with if they are not. 
    *Would they champion the gender equality recommendations, or are they opposed to them? What issues do they have with the entire report? What are their concerns, and if any, alternative proposals? As you gather information during lobbying in December and January, please share it with all of us.
  • November 24, 2006: CWGL mention in U.N. Women Primed for Stronger, Central Agency by Bojana Stoparic, WeNews correspondent http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2972/context/archive
  • November 2006: Coherence Panel Issues Recommendations to Strengthen Work on Gender Equality in the UN!
    The UN High Level Panel on Systemwide Coherence released its final report on UN infrastructure on Thursday, November 9. Over the last nine months, the Center for Women's Global Leadership has been working with women's organizations from around the world to ensure the Panel made strong recommendations about strengthening the gender architecture of the UN. In its final report, the Panel has indeed made critically important recommendations, which, if endorsed by governments during this or an upcoming General Assembly session, would substantially increase the status and resources of work on gender equality within the UN. Since March of 2006, women from around the world, and our allies within and outside the UN, have made concerns about lack of proper attention to and resources for gender equality and the UN system known to Kofi Annan and the Panel itself. Our advocacy has been rewarded…
    The Panel recommends creation of a new high-level Under Secretary General position on gender who would serve as the head of an entity that would consolidate three already established departments of the UN: UNIFEM, the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues (OSAGI). The new entity would focus on both policy/global levels and would also strengthen focus on gender equality at the operational/country levels.
    CWGL and WEDO have initiated a sign on statement which calls for rapid endorsement and implementation of the Panel's recommendations related to the gender architecture of the UN. The statement has been endorsed by over 90 organizations from around the world. To read the "Statement on Reforming the Gender Equality Architecture of the United Nations," click here.
    CWGL, WEDO, the Baha’i International Community UN Office and DAWN organized and participated in a press conference at the UN on November 9th. To read the press release and other materials, click here. To see photos from the press conference, see photo 1, photo 2.
    To read the Coherence Panel's final report, official statements and other information, see links below:
  • September 2006: Briefing Note: Reforming the UN Gender Equality Architecture, prepared by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).
  • August 29, 2006: Fact Sheet on Reforming the Gender Architecture in the UN System, for consideration by the High-Level Panel on Coherence, Oslo Meeting, by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO).
  • July 2, 2006: Gender Equality Architecture and UN Reforms, for submission to the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on System-wide Coherence, by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and prepared by Aruna Rao, Founder-Director, Gender at Work. This paper briefly outlines the successes and failures of the current UN system in addressing gender equality and women’s rights, and puts forth several principles and characteristics that are critical to reforming the gender equality architecture in order to deliver consistent positive gender equality outcomes.
  • May 8, 2006: Briefing Note on Women's Rights and the "Coherence Panel" in the UN Reform Process, the purpose of this briefing note is to provide you with information regarding advancing gender equality at a time of fast-paced UN reform. A number of organizations that have been working together on the UN reform process focus here on women's architecture and machineries within the UN, especially on developments with the "Coherence Panel" since the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2006. (Spanish, French)

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