WUNRN
Based
on lessons learned from MDGs as well as based on evidence gathered through work
of the UN system, the OECD, and the World Bank, achieving progress towards
various development targets very much depends on enhancements of women’s
empowerment and gender equality. Gender inequalities are often reinforced
by combination of inequalities in income, unequal access to paid work, lack of
property and ownership rights, difficult access to basic services, on ethnicity
or disability. They are detrimental to women and men, girls and boys,
families, communities and for society as a whole. The obligation to address and
tackle (gender) inequalities is born out of international human rights
standards against which policies, including macro-economic policies should be
held accountable.
A
post 2015 development agenda should therefore pay attention not only to
inequalities (including those gender based), but make their causes explicit,
aiming at formulating realistic goals and targets (in various areas, including
in economic, social and political spheres) which will lead to reduction of
inequalities and more sustainable progress in inclusion.
Thepost-2015
development agenda should retain a standalone gender equality goal because a)
gender equality is often a pre-requisite of achieving progress in other
development areas/ goals, and b) achieving gender equality is important human
rights goal by itself. In this respect UN Women aims at cooperating with other
development partners, including UN agencies, who work on women’s empowerment
and gender equality.
Enhanced
focus on gender equality in the entire post-2015 framework is necessary if
progress towards reducing poverty and social exclusion, promoting development,
human rights and peace and security should be achieved. Therefore mainstreaming
gender in post-2015 framework requires to develop gender sensitive targets and
indicators for each goal/ area and to ensure that sex-disaggregated data are
available, including those capturing budgetary allocations for addressing
inequality gaps.
In
this respect at a country level UN Women will closely cooperate with other UN
agencies in Turkey and support their efforts to mainstream gender in their
planning, programming, and monitoring processes.
Gender
equality must be a central goal of any post-2015 Development Agenda. The
expectations from the process include:
• To take stock on how progress towards MDGs has
been helped by promoting gender equality and to identify key gaps, especially
root causes and barriers in achieving gender equality as a prerequisite for
strengthening progress in other areas
• To stimulate discussion and achieve consensus how
to include gender equality goals in the post-2015 agenda and how to formulate
targets and indicators measuring progress in this area
• To build understanding among different
stakeholders that inequalities, including gender inequalities, are bad for all;
and strengthen political commitments to make the promotion of equality and
non-discrimination a center of post-2015 agenda
The
Post-2015 process provides unique opportunity for CSOs, including women’s
organizations, that deal with different type inequalities to work together and
strengthen their understanding of various forms of inequalities and to
understand better what are the root causes of inequalities, strengthening thus
CSO’s evidence based advocacy for transformative ways of social inclusion and
poverty reduction.
The
Post-2015 process also provides an opportunity for CSOs to articulate their own
needs and recommendations to be included in national and international agendas.
This can lead to strengthened coordination among various stakeholders and
more effective allocation of resources to achieve post-2015 goals and targets
related, among others, to women’s empowerment and gender equality.
One
of the challenges but also great opportunities is to reach and make visible
voices of the most marginalized groups, among them women with multiple
disadvantages (living in rural areas, low educated, disabled, with low income,
etc.).
Being
part of the consultations and co-shaping post-2015 agenda may create new opportunities
for CSOs to monitor national plans, programs and budgets and make governments
accountable for their implementation. Being included at the very beginning of
the process would increase CSOs ownership of the post 2015 agenda and ensure
that CSO priorities are articulated. This ownership is the core of the success
of the post 2015 agenda.
Moreover,
we believe that post-2015 consultation process can revitalize civil society.
Being important part of multi-stakeholder consultative process, being able
articulate their needs and expectations – may lead to their improved
institutional and technical capacities and experiences working at national and
global level.