|
Online
Discussion
Welcome to the UN website of the online discussion on “Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women”. The online discussion, which will be conducted in English, will run for four weeks from 18 June to 15 July 2007. Each of the first three weeks of the discussion will be devoted to one theme, while the last week will provide the opportunity to raise additional issues and wrap up. The purpose of the online discussion is to contribute to a further understanding of the existing mechanisms and processes of financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women at the national, regional and global levels; identify good practices and lessons learned and highlight gaps and challenges requiring further action. The online discussion is part of the preparatory process of the 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held 25 February to 7 March 2008, which will consider “Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women” as its priority theme. We encourage you to share your ideas and experiences as an input to further development of global policy in this area. There are two ways to participate in the discussion. You may post a message by clicking the “post message” button on the website or you may reply to the email messages sent to the group by the Moderator. The messages will remain available for viewing on the website during and after the dates of the discussion. Commitments have been made on financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women by Governments at the international level, including through the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (2000), the Millennium Summit (2000), the Monterrey Consensus (2002); and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005). However, limited progress has been made in channeling and allocating resources to translate these commitments into action. A large number of Governments have taken initiatives to integrate gender perspectives into their national budgets in order to reflect the differentiated needs of women and men. Despite these efforts, there are insufficient resources to adequately support policies and programmes that promote the advancement of women. In the area of development assistance, there has been a shift in the way it is delivered, with increased focus placed on sector-wide approaches or large programmes. Much of the funding for gender equality and the empowerment of women has been limited to the social sector, with fewer funds allocated in the agriculture, infrastructure and finance sectors. In addition to public finance and donor funding, funds and foundations have been established to raise resources for activities promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Women’s development funds have been set up in many countries and regions to fund local, national and regional organizations working towards gender equality and the empowerment of women. Private sector companies have also established foundations to provide funding for development activities, including gender equality. Contributions made to this online discussion will serve as a resource to the work of the Commission on the Status of Women in developing concrete recommendations on the issue of financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women. Themes of the online discussion Week 1: 18-24 June
2007 Week 2: 25 June – 1 July
2007 Week 3: 2 July – 8 July
2007 Week 4: 9 July – 15 July
2007 Registration for the online discussion To register, please click here to fill out an online registration form. You will receive an email with your online discussion username and password before the start of the online discussion. If you have any questions or experience problems when registering, please contact Mr. Rajkumar Cheney Krishnan (cheneykrishnan@un.org) Ground rules for the online discussion The ground rules for the online discussion are the following. Messages must:
|
