[Brussels, 16 February 2010] Although the new UN women's rights entity as described in the Secretary-General's proposal is an improvement in comparison to the existing UN gender equality bodies, the proposal lacks vision in many important issues, such as operational activities, civil society participation, and funding, says the European GEAR Campaign Working Group.

The Group believes the new women’s rights entity should be the driver for gender equality at country level. On this point, the SG’s proposal represents a step backwards in comparison to previous papers about the future UN composite women’s rights entity and its functions.

The Group asks UN member states to strengthen the entity’s mandate to lead the UN’s gender equality work at country level through catalytic programming.

According to the Group's analysis, the report does not propose satisfactory mechanisms for cooperation between the new entity and civil society, especially women’s rights organizations. The SG’s report proposes a civil society advisory board to the USG. However, no proposals are made for collaboration and liaising with civil society organizations at country level. This issue needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency when the report is discussed.

The Working Group believes that 1 billion USD is the most effective start-up funding for the new gender entity The report, however, sets the funding benchmark at 500 million USD which accounts for less than 2% of the UN’s expenditure based on 2008 figures. Although this presents an increase over existing funding, this figure falls short of the existing financial needs to foster gender-mainstreaming within the UN system, and to achieve gender equality at country level.

Clear targets and timelines for scaling up funding for the new entity must be agreed during the intergovernmental discussions of the proposal.

[Read the European GEAR Campaign Working Group's analysis of the Secretary General's report]