[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]