[APWW-Meet] IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET #341

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IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET #341
ACTIVITIES & INITIATIVES OF WOMEN WORLDWIDE

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SET TO ADVANCE PROCESS ON NEW GENDER ENTITY

September 11, 2008

By Mavic Cabrera Balleza

1. MEMBER STATES EXPECTED TO DECIDE ON NEW GENDER ENTITY PROPOSED AS
PART
OF UN SYSTEM-WIDE COHERENCE
2. COUNTRY POSITIONS
3. NGO POSITIONS
4. INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS TO STRENGTHEN THE UNITED NATION'S WORK ON
GENDER EQUALITY

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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.

Iceland, on behalf of the Nordic countries, stressed the need for Member
States to take concrete steps and that Option D is the best option.

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.

Korea expressed its full support for strengthening the gender equality
architecture in the UN, and voiced that the Fund/programme and the
Composite entity were the two options that could be effective.

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 Adviser 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 Secretariat 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.
For a copy of the full copy of the paper prepared by the office of the
Deputy Secretary General visit
http://www.wedo.org/library.aspx?ResourceID=3D279=20

The analysis paper on this options prepared by the Gender Equality
Architecture Reform (GEAR) campaign is available at
http://gear.collectivex.com/discussion/topic/show/86809
=20
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