Nov. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM
A landmark proposal for creating
a powerful new United Nations women's agency moved a giant step closer to
reality yesterday, with the endorsement of a high-level panel on reforming the
sprawling UN system.
"This is the most dramatic step forward in decades, for women and for the
UN," said Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy on AIDS/HIV, who has lobbied
vigorously for an agency that would deliver programs and services to billions of
women throughout the world on an unprecedented scale.
"It holds the prospect of transforming the lives of women — removing the
worst poverty and oppression, saving lives in the midst of the AIDS pandemic and
other massive health problems," said Lewis, who leaves his job at the end of
December, but will continue to promote the new body.
Its creation is part of a series of recommendations tabled yesterday by
the panel, which was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is expected
to ask the 192-country General Assembly to adopt it before his term ends Dec.
31.
"I am more than optimistic," said Ruth Jacoby, director-general of the
Swedish foreign ministry's development corporation, and a panel member. "This is
as close to victory as you can get."
The panel's report was a sweeping attempt to strengthen and better
co-ordinate the UN's work in development, the environment and humanitarian aid,
streamlining a six-decade-old organization many say is in need of radical
change.
The panel's 15 members were drawn from senior international politicians
and officials including British finance minister Gordon Brown, Pakistani Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, as well as
Robert Greenhill, president of the Canadian International Development Agency.
Its recommendations on women were the result of a year-long lobbying
process by more than 90 international advocacy groups.
At the UN yesterday women's groups said Canada and other countries that
backed the project should take the lead in fund-raising to get if off the
ground.
The current budget for women's issues is scanty, and split among a small
development fund, UNIFEM, a division for the advancement of women, and the
office of a special adviser on gender issues. Women's advocates have run up
against stiff opposition from donors opposed to budget expansion.
But in the future, the report said, "three existing UN entities ... will
be consolidated into one enhanced and independent gender entity." It would have
a stronger role in establishing principles for women's rights and equality.
It would also be "fully and ambitiously funded," a key point for
campaigners who point to the $2 billion budget of the children's agency, UNICEF.
They aim to raise at least half of that for the new agency.
The UN system now embraces some 17 specialized agencies and
organizations, 14 funds and programs and 17 secretariat departments and offices.
The panel's report called for consolidation to eliminate waste and duplication.
The new women's body would be headed for the first time by an
undersecretary-general — a top ranking official with the clout to lobby for
money, make decisions and plan wide-ranging programs for
women.