WUNRN
AWID - Association for Women's
Rights in Development
The
Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign
An update on
United Nations reform and the civil society campaign to reform and strengthen
UN gender architecture.
By Rochelle
Jones - AWID
United
Nations Reform and Gender
On February
16 2006, the UN Secretary-General created a new High-level Panel on UN
System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian
assistance and the environment. This panel, consisting of 12 men and
3 women, was tasked with recommending changes to the UN via a “study of the
UN’s operational activities [which] assessed how the UN system works, its comparative
advantages, and any areas of overlap between UN agencies.” The final report was
submitted to Kofi Annan in November 2006, which included extensive
recommendations on consolidating UN operations, but it was not formally
considered by the General Assembly (GA) until April 2007 when the new
Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, issued his own response to the Panel’s
findings.[i]
Gender and
women’s rights issues had not been included among the Panel’s responsibilities
until national and international women’s groups lobbied Kofi Annan and promoted
questions within the institution about the effectiveness of the current gender
architecture. During the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting
in March 2006, for example, concerned women’s groups released an Open Letter to
the Secretary-General and member states, highlighting and deploring the lack of
gender equality concerns in the Panel’s initial mandate. This was followed by a
number of regional statements and reports from women’s networks all over the
world, presenting proposals and recommendations on how UN reform could work for
women.[ii] Due in part to the concerns of women’s rights advocates
globally, the mandate of the Panel was extended to include an analysis of
gender equality architecture and gender mainstreaming.
What is
the GEAR campaign?
Led by the
Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) and the Center for
Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), “a stronger women's entity at the UN is the
focus of this campaign, fully funded to meet expectations and deliver results,
led by an Under-Secretary-General and supported by extensive field presence,
accountable at both the global and national levels, and active in promoting
gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system.”[iii]
In its first
submission to the Panel, WEDO and CWGL outlined the successes and failures of
the current UN system in addressing gender equality, and made several proposals
related to reform that would facilitate positive outcomes for women’s
empowerment. Signed by 116 women’s organisations and networks, this was the
beginning of an advocacy campaign that has continued since 2006. It has become
more organised, signing up over 270 women’s organisations and networks, and
officially launched as the Gender Equality Architecture Reform or GEAR campaign
in February 2008 during the 52nd session of the CSW.[iv]
GEAR
Campaign and milestones of the reform process
Reform of UN
gender architecture was always going to be a lengthy journey. Since the
creation of the Panel in early 2006 to now mid-2008, women’s rights
organisations have stood their ground and have been influential in such a
critical reform process for the future of gender equality. But there is still
some ways to go.
The first
major milestone of the reform process was the release of Delivering As One: Report
of the Secretary General's High Level Panel[v]. This report was released in November 2006, and
reflected significant input from women’s rights advocates. Women's
organisations from around the world worked together to ensure the Panel made
strong recommendations about strengthening the gender architecture of the UN.
As mentioned
earlier, CWGL and WEDO made their first submission to the Panel in July 2006
that discussed the failings of the current system and proposed a reformed
gender architecture that would be responsive to gender equality and women’s
empowerment. The key message of this submission was that the new gender
equality entity:
“must be a strong,
women-specific entity mandated to work across the whole UN system – one
that has the capacity to lead, monitor and to act as a driving force, or
catalyst, for the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights, at both
the global and country level. This system-wide women-specific entity must
perform three critical functions. It must have policy-setting responsibilities
on substantive issues of gender equality and women’s rights. It must have the
capacity to monitor, with the authority to ensure accountability, on
gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system. Finally, it must have a field
presence to conduct and shape UN operational activities to ensure that
gender equality and women’s rights programming are carried out effectively.”[vi]
CWGL and
WEDO sent a Fact Sheet to Panel members at the end of August 2006 to
re-emphasise their key message before the Panel finalised their recommendations
to the Secretary-General. This advocacy was rewarded with the final report
making important recommendations on gender and reflecting many of the concerns
of women’s rights movements.
Testament to
the efforts of women’s movements worldwide, in its report, the Panel
“recommends creation of a new high-level Under Secretary General position on
gender who would serve as the head of an entity that would consolidate three
already established departments of the UN: UNIFEM, the Division for the
Advancement of Women (DAW) and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender
Issues (OSAGI). The new entity would focus on both policy/global levels and
would also strengthen focus on gender equality at the operational/country
levels.”[vii]
The second
major milestone of the reform process is yet to pass - the GA endorsing and
taking action on the recommendations of the Panel. Soon after the Panel’s final
report was released at the end of 2006, the GEAR campaign was quick to initiate
a sign on statement calling for rapid endorsement and implementation of the
Panel's recommendations related to the gender architecture of the UN. The GA,
however, has not made any decisions to date relating to the gender
architecture. It was initially hoped that the inter-governmental process would
conclude by the end of the 61st Session, but recommendations from the Panel
have not garnered support from member states.
In saying
this, however, a number of steps have been taken since then to move forward on
the issue. In response to a request for more information by the President of
the GA, a Concept Note on strengthening the gender architecture was released by
the Deputy Secretary-General in August 2007, based on a consultation process
with an Inter-Agency Gender Taskforce. There was consensus amongst Taskforce
members that the “existing architecture for women’s empowerment and gender
equality is fragmented and under-funded and, therefore, inadequate to address
effectively General Assembly mandates on gender and women’s issues.[viii]
The 62nd
Session (Sept – Dec 2007) of the GA relaunched discussions on reform, but
gender was not discussed until May 2008 consultations. There has been some
significant back and forth between the GA and the Secretary-General, with a
further note on gender released in June 2008[ix], and a final Concept Note proposing institutional
options for gender architecture just released (July 23, 2008)[x]. Parallel to the work taking place within the GA, the
GEAR Campaign submitted a statement to the 52nd Session of the CSW. At the
conclusion of the Session in March 2008, it was clear that support for a new
and improved UN gender architecture was overwhelming: “In their national
statements, over 40 countries spoke to the need to strengthen the United
Nations’ institutional mechanisms on gender equality and called for a
consolidated women’s entity led by an Under Secretary-General and with
extensive country presence.”[xi]
Next
steps?
All Member
States have acknowledged the importance of gender equality and the need for
implementing gender-related policies, but they disagree on implementing the
specific actions recommended by the Panel. The three institutional options
proposed by the Secretary-General entail consolidation of UNIFEM, OSAGI, DAW
and INSTRAW, and are: a single autonomous fund/programme; a department of the
Secretariat; or a composite entity.[xii].
Now that the
Concept Note from the Secretary-General outlining institutional options for the
gender architecture has been released, it is expected that the GA will consider
these options and eventually make a decision. How long this will take is
unknown, but the GEAR Campaign will continue its advocacy in order to garner
the best result for women.
NOTES:
[i]Reform
the UN: http://www.reformtheun.org/index.php/issues/2063?theme=alt4
[ii] Choike. ‘The UN Reform… and what about women?’ http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/5439.html
[iii] WEDO: http://www.wedo.org/campaigns.aspx?mode=beijingbeyondemail
[iv] Read the GEAR campaign’s key messages and campaign
statement at: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/policy/unadvocacy/GEAR%20Campaign%20Statement%20&%20Key%20Messages%2008%20eng.pdf
[v] ‘Delivering as One’ can be downloaded at: http://www.un.org/events/panel/resources/pdfs/HLP-SWC-FinalReport.pdf
[vi] Gender Equality Architecture and UN Reforms. July
17, 2006. http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/policy/unadvocacy/Gender%20Equality%20Architecture%20and%20UN%20Reforms%20July%202006.pdf
[vii] See the CWGL’s website: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/policy/unadvocacy/gea.html#News
[viii] The first Concept Note from the DSG to the GA is
available at: http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/letters/SDOC1599.pdf
[ix]Secretary-General's Concept Note on Current UN System Support to
Member States on Gender Equality
[x]Secretary-General's Concept Note on Institutional Options to
Strengthen UN Work on Gender Equality
[xi] The Statement of the 52nd Session of the CSW Linkage
Caucus: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/policy/unadvocacy/CSW%2008%20Linkage%20Statement.pdf
[xii] The major differences between these options are in the
areas of governance and funding – as outlined in the Concept Note (see Note 10)
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