WUNRN
Oxfam and VSO UK Country Level Survey on UN Women: Final Report
At CSW 55, Oxfam and VSO
The views of 100 civil society organizations,
including grassroots and women’s rights organizations, from 75 countries on the
priorities for UNW and its approach to working at country level are now made
available in a report.
The report, called A
Blueprint for UN Women, can be downloaded via:
See also the
joint VSO/Oxfam press release:
Background to this project
In September 2010, Oxfam and VSO
As UN Women proceeds at country level, the
challenge is to ensure the operational capacity of UN Women and its expansion
built on the needs of women and girls at country level. The operational
capacity of UN Women should present a change over the way the UN’s development
system currently works for women and girls.
We received an overwhelming response to our call for
expressions of interest- more than 1000 organizations signed-up to be
interviewed. Between October and November 2010, MDF a development consultancy
based in the
Survey results and recommendations
Our
survey marks the first time that civil society, including women’s rights and
grassroots organizations at country level have been surveyed on how UN Women
should proceed to make most impact at country level. In order to be effective
at country level, UN Women should build its work around these priorities:
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The top
priority that UN Women must address is all forms of Violence against Women
(VAW). 98% of survey respondents said urgent action is needed on this issue and
72% selected it as the number 1 issue for UN Women to tackle.
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UN Women
should focus on the empowerment of rural women as they are least aware of their
rights and have fewest resources and access to services.
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UN Women
should adopt a different approach to working at country level to that of UN
agencies in the past. Its approach should be transformative, leading to actual
change.
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A
central element of UN Women’s strategy should be the collaboration with and
inclusion of CSOs as genuine partners at country level. Civil society wants UN
Women to support their efforts to empower women, strengthen their rights and
ensure they play a role in the development of their countries.
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UN Women
needs to examine its relationship with governments at country level and use its
access to government to open up spaces for CSOs to participate in the political
processes of their countries.