[New York, 14-15 June 2010] Charlotte Bunch, on behalf of the GEAR Campaign, spoke to the UN General Assembly, civil society organizations and the private sector on Monday, June 14th about the urgency in establishing the new gender entity. Ms. Bunch articulated the linkages between gender equality, human rights and the MDGs in an effort to address the gaps on the ground in implementing promises that have been made by governments and the UN. She noted the overall interest of international actors such as the World Bank and national development agencies in gender equality and the need for them to not only look at MDG 3, but rather see gender equality and women’s empowerment as an underlying aspect of all the MDGs. Civil society inclusion was another critical feature of Ms. Bunch’s presentation. The meeting was convened in order to provide input to the preparatory process for the ‘MDG summit’ (High-level Plenary Meeting) on September 20-22, 2010. For Charlotte Bunch’s full presentation, visit http://www.un-ngls.org/spip.php?page=amdg10&id_article=2638.

[London, 2 June 2010] The Guardian has published an opinion text by Hibaaq Osman called “Let an Arab woman lead way at UN,” advocating the new UN gender equality entity should be led by an Arab woman.

[New York, 26 May 2010] Member States met at an informal consultation yesterday to negotiate the part of the draft System-Wide Coherence resolution that is related to the new UN gender equality entity.