27 February – 10 March 2006, New York

WIDE views the 50^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women as an important opportunity to voice our ideas and concerns regarding following issues:

Gender Mainstreaming:

In the framework of the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century’ a review of gender mainstreaming in organisations of the UN system will take place.

WIDE welcomes the report of the Secretary-general (E/CN.6/2006/2) that reviews the progress made in mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development, implementation and evaluation of national policies and programmes. We acknowledge that since 1995 many countries have developed policies and action plans on gender mainstreaming, however, gender mainstreaming has become a buzzword and WIDE is concerned that it is understood as only introducing gender into existing policies. This approach will not ensure that the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming is achieved.

WIDE wants to remind governments that gender mainstreaming must be understood in the agreed terms of CEDAW and the BPfA as a strategy towards transformation of unfair gender relations and gender stereotypes, and the empowerment of women. This includes challenging existing policy paradigms and asks for a fundamental re-thinking of the process of policy-making and its goals.

Enhanced participation of women in development:

A second issue of interest to WIDE is the evaluation of the implementation of strategic objectives and actions in the critical area of enhanced participation of women in development: an enabling environment for achieving gender equality and the advancement of women, taking into account, inter alia, the fields of education, health and work.

WIDE welcomes the report of the Secretary-General (E/CN.6/2006/12) that highlights that the elements and dynamics of an enabling environment are context-specific and influenced by factors such as, inter alia, the international political situation, including peace and security issues; the global and regional economic environment, (…). We also acknowledge that it is noted that globalisation had presented a significant challenge to the creation of an enabling environment for gender equality and the advancement of women. Economic liberalisation has had uneven impacts on women’s participation in development processes. WIDE’s particular concern is about the many ways in which neo-liberalism, including the promotion of a ‘free’ trade regime, economic globalisation and market liberalisation is actually counteracting an enabling environment: it has led to the feminisation of employment, intensified exploitation of women's unpaid work in the caring economy and has undermined the livelihood strategies of poor rural and urban women, including migrant women, disabled and displaced women in all areas of the world. The increasing impact of such policies on the lives and livelihoods of women is compounded in countries of the South by the structural inequalities between North and South. Therefore such policies play a central role in creating an enabling environment and have to be taken into account otherwise they can reproduce or even worsen inequality.

WIDE, in alliance with other women’s groups working on trade, macro economic, gender and globalisation, calls on Governments to recognise that gender aware macro economic policy, including the application of a gender analysis of trade and its impact on women globally, are essential if economic development partnerships are to be made real and effective. WIDE asks for far greater economic coherence among states, non-state actors and multilateral institutions in relation to development cooperation and financial, monetary and trade policies, so that the systemic inequities and power imbalances within the global economic system are addressed.

Multi-year programme of work:

At the CSW meeting a new multi-year programme of work, setting out the overall themes for the next five years (2007-2009) of the Commission on the Status of Women will be discussed.

WIDE is very pleased that in developing the proposals for a multi-year program of work that the Commission called on a number of regional networks, including WIDE, to identify priorities in the follow-up to the 10-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. However, WIDE is concerned that the final report of this consultation is not publicly available and that the Commission have not taken up a single priority issue identified during the Expert Consultation[1]. WIDE believes that the voices of women’s organisations from around the world need to be heard and that the Commission should not make ‘token’ their contribution to such debates.

WIDE believes that women’s economic justice should be a priority for the CSW’s programme of work in the next three years as it impacts on every aspect of a woman’s life. The Commission recognises that improving women’s economic status improves the economic status of their families and their communities and that women should have equal opportunities to achieve economic independence. However, WIDE is concerned that neo-liberalism, including the promotion of a ‘free’ trade regime, economic globalisation and market liberalisation, will not lead to economic justice for women.

Contact at WIDE Secretariat in Brussels:

Barbara Specht, Information Officer, barbara@wide-network.org

Meagen Baldwin, Executive Director, Meagen@wide-network.org

Visit the WIDE website: www.wide-network.org

WIDE is a European women’s network whose main activities are lobbying, advocacy and awareness raising; networking and capacity building on global trade agenda, macro-economic policy, gender and development policy and women’s human rights.

[1] WIDE was a member of the Expert Consultation alongside the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW), the Africa Women’s Development and communication Network (FEMNET), the Latin America and the Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), Isis- Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE); and the Asia-Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW). The Expert Consultation identified economic justice, women in armed conflict, women’s human rights and access to information as priorities. Migrant women was raised by a number of participants as a priority during the interactive panel which followed the consultation.