Proposed UN Womens Agency Gains Key Ally
NEW YORK, 12 March (IPS): A coalition of over 140 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and womens groups is gratified (taknemmelige) that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expressing public support for the creation of a new UN agency for women.
– We believe the public support of the secretary-general is a very important step in moving closer towards the implementation of this new womens entity, June Zeitlin, executive director of the New York-based Womens Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), told IPS.
She said the secretary-general last week called on member states to take up this proposal, as did the women from around the world who were in New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which concluded a two-week session Friday.
The proposal for a new UN womens agency was made last November by a 15-member “High-Level Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence”, comprising heads of government, former world political leaders and senior government and U.N. officials.
On International Womens Day, which was commemorated at the United Nations and around the globe last Thursday, the secretary-general said such a new body should be able to call on all of the UN systems resources in the work to empower women and realise gender equality worldwide.
– I encourage member states to study the possibility of replacing several current structures with one dynamic UN entity, Mr Ban said.
The proposal for the creation of a new gender architecture includes the consolidation of three existing UN entities – the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women – under a single new UN agency to be headed by an under-secretary-general, the third highest ranking post in the world body.
But its implementation will require the blessings of the 192-member General Assembly, which has not given any indication of how it will respond.
Asked if she was confident that member states would support the proposal, Zeitlin said that women who spoke to their government representatives here at the UN last week will continue these discussions back at home in their nation’s capitals.
– To date, we have heard of no opposition by member states to strengthening the gender equality architecture. However, we do understand that countries have questions and want more information on a number of issues, including about how the new entity will operate, particularly at the national level, and where the new resources will come from, she noted.
The 140 NGOs, spanning all of the continents, included Asia Pacific Womens Watch, Canadian Federation of University Women, Centre for Womens Global Leadership, European Womens Lobby, African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, International Federation of Womens Lawyers and the World Federation of U.N. Associations.
Zeitlin said the three existing womens units have a total budget of about 65 million US dollar, compared to 450 million dollar for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and about two billion dollar for the UN childrens agency, UNICEF.
– These recommendations present the best opportunity to reduce the gap between the rhetoric on gender equality at the United Nations and the reality of womens lives, she added.
She pointed out that the panel had recommended an initial target of some 200 million dollars for the proposed new womens agency.
– We understand this number was taken out (of the reformpanels report) because some panel members believed it was far below what was needed for the UN to deliver on gender equality and womens empowerment, she concluded
Kilder: Inter Press Service og The Push Journal
