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I’m writing from the 55th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, this year’s session of the annual progress review the United Nations conducts on the global global advancement of women’s empowerment and gender equality.
This year, the headliner is easily the launch of UNWomen, the new superagency tasked with leading these efforts within the UN system. The new body combines and elevates the four previous, under-funded and small UN gender to a larger, consolidated agency under the senior leadership of an under-secretary-general, Michelle Bachelet. The excitement surrounding the launch is palpable; the new agency is the much-anticipated result of years of lobbying by women’s groups, among them the GEAR campaign, to elevate and resource the gender portfolio within UN operations.
Last Thursday’s events were not only much-anticipated, but also much celebrated, with a considerable degree of pomp and circumstance—from speeches by high-profile leaders up to the Secretary General himself, to the attendance and endorsement by a woman’s rights activist from Nepal and a number of global celebrities, including Geena Davis and video messages from Nicole Kidman and Shakira.
In his remarks, Secretary-General Ban spoke of the new agency as the level of leadership that could actually achieve equality: “The challenges are great, but I believe that with the new energy, the new momentum and the new authority that UN Women brings, these challenges will be met. True gender equality should be our shared legacy in the 21st Century.”
This is no easy task. The World Bank has put a number on what it would cost to do just that – achieve gender equality—at roughly $83 billion. Civil society recommendations for a budget for the new agency spanned from $1-100 billion dollars, perhaps taking this into account. The GEAR campaign had settled on the $1 billion figure, still less than UNICEF’s $3 billion but considerably more than the combined $221 million the four preexisting gender agencies totaled together. Yet ultimately, the transitional budget for the agency was set at $51 million with the promises of additional resources to be pledged later. But when the prolonged and beleaguered global recovery from the economic crisis has donor states like the United States embroiled in political debates over where to reduce the deficit, including overt pressure to cut UN funding, there is a real danger indeed.
Hence, a sense of cautious optimism underpinning the headlines and excitement surrounding the launch. Admittedly, the launch of the new agency and the under-secretary-general level of leadership are both celebrated victories for many of the civil society voices that have been campaigning for it for years. But the work is not yet done – there is still a strong commitment amongst many civil society advocates watching the progress of the new agency to ensure other key priorities will be realized. Most importantly, activists are pushing to ensure the new agency will establish an effective system for civil society engagement in the development and execution of its strategy, and that the emergence of UNWomen will not result in other UN agencies reducing their existing women’s programming.
On the first issue, the GEAR campaign has been out in front of efforts to ensure that the agency consistently engages civil society partners, calling for UNWomen to be 'both accountable to and informed by civil society, especially women's organizations, through the meaningful participation at headquarters and a the regional and country level'.
Indeed, the new agency acknowledges civil society’s role in advocating for its existence and asserts that the sector will have a “strong voice” in its scope and operations. Yet rumors abound about lack of meaningful consultation of women’s organizations in the current drafting of UN Women’s global strategy. So far, five key priorities for the new agency have been publicly announced, but a consultative process inclusive of civil society voices, including women human rights defenders, is needed to further determine what policy and programs will look like under that umbrella.
Another activist, Polly Truscott with Amnesty International, a member of the GEAR Campaign, has emphasized that other UN agencies must not now cut any women’s programming just because UN Women is established: “We fought long and hard for UN Women not just as a champion for women’s groups on the ground, but also to strengthen women’s human rights work across the whole UN system.”
Bandana Rana, a civil society activist from Nepal, spoke at the launch and emphasized these key points, calling for strong civil society engagement, full funding, strong action on behalf of women in conflict, and for the agency to be a “supporter and a convenor” of the women’s rights agenda. “If this will happen,” predicted Rana, “I strongly believe, that UN Women, will be the medium that will fulfill the long-awaited dreams of millions of women from around the world.”
There is much more work to be done, but this 55th Session on the Commission of the Status of Women is one marked by well-deserved excitement over one of women’s rights activists’ wins: the launch of UN Women.
