WUNRN
Ahead of High Level Forum on Aid
Effectiveness, UNIFEM, EC and ITC/ILO Call for
Strengthened Efforts to
Address Women’s Priorities / “Opportunity not to be Missed”
New
York, 2 September 2008 — At the start of 3rd High Level Forum on Aid
Effectiveness, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, and the
European Commission call for strengthened efforts to address gender
inequalities in a quest to end global poverty.
“Over a
billion women worldwide continue to be trapped in poverty,” said UNIFEM
Executive Director Inés Alberdi. “Where women can’t thrive, national
development strategies and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals
are in jeopardy. There can be no aid effectiveness without a focus on gender
equality.”
European
Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, added: “Today,
we know how important the role of women is to society, to health, nutrition and
education of children, to economic growth and the development of a country. The
Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness offers a unique opportunity for
governments and donors to come together and commit to accelerate achievements
in gender equality. This opportunity is not to be missed.”
The European
Commission, UNIFEM and the International Training Centre of the International
Labour Organization (ITC/ILO) have for the past two years worked to support
government, civil society and donor partners efforts to advance gender equality
and aid effectiveness. Based on this work, they urge that the following steps
be undertaken:
Country-level
data gathered through the EC/UN Partnership programme shows that the aid
effectiveness agenda has helped to open some spaces to allow gender-equality
advocates to actively participate in national development planning. For them to
have measurable impact, however, governments and donors must go further and ensure
that gender equality advocates are part of the entire development planning,
programming, budgeting and monitoring process.
The EC/UN
Partnership programme on Gender Equality for Development and Peace focuses on
ensuring that gender equality and women’s empowerment are fully incorporated in
national development planning and will disseminate widely the results of
concrete and successful countries experiences in this field.
Gender-responsive
budgeting, which UNIFEM has supported in some 40 countries, at times together
with the EC, has been an effective tool for ensuring targeted allocation of
resources to women’s development needs. With increased use of country systems
and new aid modalities particularly Budget Support, gender responsive budgeting
holds the key for equitable distribution of resources and achievement of
inclusive development results.
Note
to Editors
Developing countries and donor partners are meeting in Accra, Ghana from 2 to 4
September to take stock on progress towards implementing the Paris Declaration
on Aid Effectiveness, which was signed by 100 donors and governments in March
2005. The Paris Declaration commits partners to reform aid management and
delivery and strengthen its impact on development outcomes by adhering to five
basic principles — ownership of development strategies by aid recipients;
harmonization and alignment of donor support to national development
priorities, institutions and procedures; managing for results by adopting
results based management and reporting systems; and mutual accountability
through joint monitoring of development results.
Contact
Information:
|
EUROPEAN COMMISSION |
UNIFEM |
ITC/ILO |
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