News & information on GEAR campaign

UN chief urges governments to adopt a resolution on GEAR

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:57:48 +0000

[New York, 4 March 2010] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged the member states to create the new UN gender equality entity without delay in the session of the Commission on 3rd March that marked the International Women's Day.

"We hope soon to have a dynamic entity for gender equality and women's empowerment within the United Nations system. That would provide more coherent programming and a stronger voice for women. I urge the General Assembly to create this new entity without delay by adopting a resolution," he said.

Ban's statement was cheered at by both the government delegates and the NGO representatives present in the room, and he hoped that the Ambassadors present would have heard the strong support.

The new UN gender equality entity has been the hot topic during the first week of the CSW. Many Member States have called for a swift creation of the entity in their statements, and the entity has been discussed in side events organised by governments, civil society organizations, and UN bodies alike.

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The New Times for Women – spoof newspaper on GEAR

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:28:47 +0000

[New York, 1 March 2010] Campaigners launched a spoof newspaper called The New Times for Women to mark the start of the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

The newspaper contains imaginary stories about the launch of the new UN women's rights agency, and promotes GEAR Campaign's vision for the agency.

The organizations behind the newspaper point out that governments have signed the deal to create the new UN women's entity last year, but it is not sealed yet, and that the key decisions are long overdue. This year the campaigners want more than the empty words they are hearing every year, and require the agency to be launched without delay.

The paper was widely distributed in the corridors of the UN main building, and given to the official delegates of UN member states and the NGO representatives entering the opening session of the CSW.

You can find an online version of the newspaper at www.newtimesforwomen.com

[Read the joint press release of the organizations behind the spoof newspaper]

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UN chief urges governments to adopt a resolution on GEAR

GEAR Campaign statement March 2010

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:19:16 +0000

[New York, 28 February 2010] The GEAR Campaign requires the UN Member States to GEAR UP and adopt a resolution setting up the new UN gender equality entity.

The GEAR Campaign statement for the 54th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women lines out the elements that the civil society sees as key for the success of the new entity:

The entity needs to be the driver in the UN system for women's empowerment and gender equality with strong, country-level operational capacity
The entity should be ambitiously funded with stable and predictable resources
The entity needs meaningful, systematic and diverse civil society participation
The transparent recruitment process for the Under-Secretary General to lead the entity must begin now.

Please use this statement if you have a chance to talk with the government officials or the UN representatives of your country about the creation of the new UN entity.

[Read the GEAR Campaign statement of March 2010]

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UN Member States discuss the new women’s agency

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:06:20 +0000

[New York, 22 February 2010] UN Member States are intensively discussing the setting up of the new UN gender equality, with three meetings scheduled within one week.

On February 16 the United Nations Member States met in a plenary session on the gender equality entity. Opening the meeting the Assistant Secretary-General spoke strongly for the Secretary General’s report and noted that any further delay with the establishment of the entity would have an impact on the UN’s work.

In their general statements, many Member States said that there is enough information on the table to establish the entity, and asked the co-chairs to start drafting the resolution that would move the process forward (Colombia, EU, Switzerland, South Korea). Other countries demanded more that details should be discussed about and decided on before the establishment of the entity (Russia, JCC, Japan).

There seemed to be a consensus between both the more careful countries and those requiring a swift establishment of the entity, that the Secretary-General to start the recruitment process of the Under Secretary-General to lead the entity immediately (Canada, US, Russia, JCC, EU).

On Friday 19th the Member States met in an informal session on the functions and the structure of the new entity. This time the aspects of the new entity were discussed in much more detail and solutions suggested for issues needing to be clarified, such as transition period, universal presence, and staff numbers.

The proposed limited approach to country presence (80 countries in the start-up) raised concerns in delegations that saw the universal country presence as important (Russia). It was discussed that if requests for assistance come from countries where the entity does not have presence, the possibility to assist would depend on resources available. It was suggested that developed countries demanding for assistance should fund the projects themselves.

EU and some other Member States noted the need to clarify how the entity would interact between civil society organizations working on gender equality issues, an issue that has also been the concern of the GEAR Campaign. More details were also required about the links of the new entity to other UN agencies and governing bodies.

The actual transition from the present situation to the new entity raised concerns. The EU called for as short transition as possible and wanted to know more about how the operational activities could be handled during the transitional phase.

Funding was discussed in connection with staffing. Some countries were concerned how the suggested increases in staff numbers could be funded from voluntary contributions, implying that some of the suggestions made in the report were maybe too ambitious. This is interesting, as the staff costs represent only 25% of the budget of the entity.

The role of the entity caused some debate. The SG’s report proposes that the new entity would be a subsidiary body of United Nations General Assembly. This means that it is establishes by the UN GA and that as such it has the same status than UNFPA and UNDP. Some Member States wanted to look for other solutions.

Another informal session, this time about governance and funding, will take place on 23 February.

According to the work programme made by the Co-Chairs of the System-wide Coherence process (Estonia and Tunisia), there will be more informal session about the gender equality entity in the end of March, and a plenary session in the first part of April. It has not yet been scheduled for when the actual GA resolution on the entity should be made.

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GEAR Campaign response to SG’s report

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:51:00 +0000

[New York, 20 February 2010] Secretary General's proposal for the new UN gender equality entity is a good guideline for taking action to set up the new entity. However, it falls short of what is needed in several important issues, says the GEAR Campaign in its response to the UN Secretary General's report.

According to the GEAR Campaign more clarity is needed in issues related to country level operational capacity, long term funding for the entity, civil society participation, and a clear timeline for the appointment of the Under Secretary-General to head the entity.

[Read GEAR Campaign's analysis of SG's gender equality entity proposal]

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European GEAR Campaign Working Group writes to EU foreign ministers

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:17:48 +0000

[Brussels, 17 February 2010] The European GEAR Campaign Working Group urges the European Union Member States to address the shortcomings of the UN Secretary-General's proposal for the new UN gender equality entity.

In a letter sent to the Foreign Ministers and UN representatives of the EU Member States on 17th February, the Working Group highlighted its key concerns regarding the proposal, and offered a detailed analysis of the text.

Intergovernmental negotiations about the setting up of the new UN gender equality entity started on 4th of February. The aim is to adopt a resolution that will mandate the UN system to consolidate the four existing UN women's rights bodies into one single entity.

[Read the letter sent by the European GEAR Working Group]

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European GEAR Campaign analysis of SG’s proposal for the new UN women’s agency

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:11:07 +0000

[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]

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Negotiations about setting up the new UN women’s agency started

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:37:13 +0000

[New York, 4 February 2010] A new round of intergovernmental negotiations about the new UN women's rights entity started on 4th February.

The negotiations aim at a United Nations General Assembly resolution that wold finally give the UN system the go-ahead to concretely set up the new entity. The starting point is UN Secretary-General's proposal about the details of the entity. The proposal also gives clear guidelines for the Member States on how to take the process further.

In the first meeting, the EU criticized the UN for progressing too slowly in setting up the new entity.

"If this decision is further delayed, the current gender agencies will be kept in limbo and unable to deliver for women around the world," warned Ambassador Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo of Spain, currently holding the Presidency of the European Union.

EU also urged the UN Secretary-General to "urgently advance" the process of appointing the Under Secretary General who will lead the future women's rights entity.

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EU women ministers pledge support for the new UN women’s agency

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:08:35 +0000

[Cadiz, Spain, 3 February 2010] European woman ministers pledged their support for the new UN women's rights entity.

23 women ministers representing seventeen European Union countries met in Cadiz, Spain in the 2nd European Summit of Women in Power on 3 February.

"We pledge to support the future United Nations Gender Entity in advancing the empowerment of women throughout the world and in supporting those whoface the greatest difficulties," reads one of the paragraphs of the final statement of the summit.

[Read the Cadiz declaration of the European Summit of Women in Power]

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Plans for the new UN Women’s Agency take shape

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:43:45 +0000

[New York, 18 January 2010] Plans for the new UN women's agency take shape as the much-awaited report about its details was given to Member States on 6th January. A new round of intergovernmental negotiations between UN Member States on the report and the next steps in establishing the women's agency will start shortly.

The report commissioned by the UN Secretary-General as mandated in the resolution of 14 September 2009 gives a detailed picture of how the new entity would look like once up and running: what would be its mission, how would it be governed and financed, and how its work on the ground would be organized.

For women and girls around the world, the most important question about the entity is whether it will make a difference in their daily lives. The programming that the new entity will undertake and the financial support it will provide to improve the lives of women and advance gender equality are key for finding the answer.

The report suggests that in the first phase the new entity could have county offices in those 80 countries where UNIFEM is present at the moment. The report does not propose a schedule to expand the country presence from here, but says that the level of support provided in the first phase countries should be improved: the number of national field staff would be tripled in comparison to current situation (from 200 to 600).

The report also proposes an increase in funding for the UN gender equality architecture. Whereas in 2008 the four existing women's rights entities had an income of around 220 million USD, the report sets the annual budget at 500 million USD.

375 million USD would be used for country-driven programming activities, 125 million USD would go for keeping up the basic operational capacity at regional and country level and at the headquarters.

The new entity would have the following functions: provide support for UN decision-making bodies, undertake programming at country-level, undertake advocacy efforts, monitor the implementation of intergovernmental agreements on gender equality, undertake research, lead and coordinate UN system’s actions on gender equality, strengthen the accountability of the UN system, and monitor gender balance within the UN.

The entity would have an UN Under-Secretary General as its Executive Director.It will be a body created by the UN General Assembly to assist it, and report to the Assembly through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).The Commission on the Status of Women will be the policy making body guiding its work.

An Executive Board will oversee the operational activities of the entity. The UN Secretary-General’s report proposes that the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board is used for this purpose, and that the arrangement could be reviewed after three years.

[Read the detailed proposal for the new UN gender equality entity]

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