Mandate for Gender Mainstreaming and Related
Institutional Arrangement
National and International
Mandate for mainstreaming is linked to the commitment to
pursue equality between women and men
• The goal of mainstreaming is equality
• The Commitment and mandate to pursue equality as
a critical goal through all endeavours such as
development policies , laws and programmes exists
at international and national levels.
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• Half of the apex decision-making bodies in Spain is
composed of women, with key cabinet positions assigned
to women. By allowing full participation and equitable
representation in the decision making process we are
taking a first step in the right direction. The Gender
Equality Law and the Integrated Protection against Gender
Based Violence Law approved by the Spanish Congress
allow us to introduce gender equality in all the other
spheres of public and private life, by fighting gender based
discrimination and gender based violence, allowing
positive action measures in collective bargaining,
encouraging reconciliation of work and family life,
promoting equality plans and fostering good practices.
Only by promoting the right policies, will we able to
answer this question.
• Who is accountable to women? EVERY ONE IN MY
GOVERNMENT IS. Prime Minister of Spain
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An example of the impact when equality of women is
not mainstreamed
Republic of Korea
• Trillion dollar economy: 13th largest in the world
• GDP per capita equal to many developed countries
• Tech advanced. Highest rate of broad band use
• Ranked among the top countries in intl assessment in
Maths and Science
• Transformed itself after the war with an
abundance of cheap labour it focused on
education and human capital development as a
means of increasing productivity to catapult itself
to developed nation status.
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Situation of women workers
Poor labour conditions and concentration of
women in unregulated low wage sectors.
CEDAW Review, 39th session 2007: Serious
disadvantgaes faced by women. High percentage
in non regular work such as out sourcing, flexible
forms of work, job insecurity significant wage gap
and deficit of benefits.
Insufficient compliance with labour legislation, lack
of monitoring mechanisms and complaints
procedures for women to claim their rights.
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Why Equality
• Because of current inequality. Recognition of
inequality in the 1995 Conference on Women:
• “ We, the Governments, participating in the
Fourth World Conference on Women,
Recognize that the status of women has advanced
in some important respects in the past decade but
that progress has been uneven, inequalities
between women and men have persisted and major
obstacles remain, with serious consequences for the
well-being of all people.” (paragraph 5 of the
Declaration- BPFA 1995)
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• In paragragh 13, the Declaration as agreed by
all participating governments, gives the
rationale as to why the pursuit of equality is
critical for peace and development. It states:
“Women's empowerment and their full
participation on the basis of equality in all
spheres of society, including participation in the
decision-making process and access to power,
are fundamental for the achievement of
equality, development and peace;”
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• “The Fourth World Conference on Women
(Beijing, 4-15 September 1995) brought
about a new international commitment to the
goals of gender equality, development and
peace for all women, and moved the global
agenda for the advancement of women into
the twenty-first century.”
Beijing plus 5 2000.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followu
p/session/presskit/gasp.htm
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• "The commitments made by governments in
Beijing reflect the understanding that
women's equality must be a central
component of any attempt to solve the
world's social, economic and political
problems. Thus, where once women fought
to put gender equality on the international
agenda, gender equality is now one of the
primary factors shaping that agenda."
Kofi Annan. Sec Gen United Nations: New York,
. Beijing Plus 5 Review. 5-9 June 2000
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Brief history of the concern for women at the
United Nations
• Commission on the Status of Women set up in
1946 parallel to the Commission on Human
Rights.
• Function:
Evaluate progress on gender equality, identify
challenges, set global standards and formulate
concrete policies to promote gender equality
and advancement of women worldwide.
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• Accomplishments
The CSW drafted several conventions and
declarations, including the Declaration on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 1967
and The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 1979.
Monitor every year implementation of the BPFA and
issue outcome documents thematically.
• We should note that Malaysia has been an elected
member of the CSW for many terms.
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Legally binding mandate to pursue equality between
women and men: Ratification of CEDAW
• Malaysia ratified CEDAW in July 1995.
• .This is a human rights treaty that currently
has 187 ratifications.
• Equality and non-discrimination are principles
of international customary law as most States
have accepted these principles through
ratification of this treaty.
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Obligations under CEDAW
• to incorporate the principle of equality of men and
women and to adopt the definition of discrimination
against women ,as given in the Convention, in their
legal system,
• to abolish all discriminatory laws and adopt
appropriate ones prohibiting discrimination against
women;
• to establish tribunals and other public institutions to
ensure the effective protection of women against
discrimination; and
• to ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination
against women by persons, organizations or
enterprises.
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Reporting obligations
• Under this treaty governments have to report
every 4 years to an expert committee at the UN
to show compliance. The Committee issues a
report on the government concerned called the
Concluding Observations .
• Since 1995, Malaysia has reported only once in
2006. There are recommendations from the
Committee to Malaysia (Concluding
Observations) which it is bound to implement.
Its reports have been due for some time.
• Others: MDGs
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National mandate for equality
• Constitutional mandate: Amendment to article 8.2
Gender as prohibited grounds for discrimination.
2001
• National Policy on Women 1989
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Objectives of the National Policy on Women
• (a) To ensure an equitable sharing in the acquisition of
resources, information, opportunities and benefits of
development for men and women. The objectives of
equality and justice must be made the essence of
development policies which must be people oriented so
the women, who
• constitute half the nations population, can contribute
and realize their potentials to the optimum.
• (b) To integrate women in all sectors of development in
accordance with their capabilities and needs, in order
to enhance the quality of life, eradicate poverty,
ignorance and illiteracy, and ensure a peaceful and
prosperous nation.
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• A major principle and guideline of the Policy
is:
• That this National Policy On Women shall be
aligned and coordinated with the National
Development Policy, the provisions of the
Constitution pertaining to the basic rights of
citizens, the right of protection under the law,
and the ideals of national unity and
independence.
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National Development Policy
• The Sixth Development Plan was the first to
highlight the need to focus on women. But
this was merely academic.
• Currently the Government Transformation
Programme is reviewing strategies for the
inclusion of women’s talent and to enhance
their fullest potential, realizing that this is
essential if Malaysia is to achieve its goal of
high income status by 2020 according to the
New Economic Model.
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• In 2004 the government adopted a policy to
ensure 30% of women in decision making.
• Hence the commitment arising from the
initiatives at the international level are
reflected at the national level.
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Why mainstreaming
• Mainstreaming is a critical mechanism to
achieve equality. The Beijing Platform for
Action provided the first mandate for
mainstreaming. In the Beijing Declaration it is
stated that:
• “Gender mainstreaming is a globally accepted
strategy for achieving gender equality and
constitutes a critical strategy in the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action.”
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• Commitments were also made by governments at
the 2005 World Summit (60th session of the UN
General Assembly) to ,
“actively promote the mainstreaming of a
gender perspective in the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and programmes in all political,
economic and social spheres and to further
undertake to strengthen the capabilities of the
United Nations system in the area of gender”.
Beijing Plus 5 Review
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• Since 2001 The Economic and Social Council of
the United Nations (ECOSOC) has been adopting
resolutions annually since 2001 promoting the
need for mainstreaming equality.
• ECOSCOC resolutions have also acknowledged
that,
“ enhancing women’s opportunities, potential and
activities requires a dual focus, namely, programmes
aimed at meeting the basic and specific needs of
women for capacity-building, organizational
development and empowerment, together with
gender mainstreaming in all programme formulation
and implementation.”
• (Malaysia has been the chair of ECOSOC.)
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• In adopting the Beijing Platform for Action, all
governments pledged to implement the BPFA
and gave the following undertaking :
• “ We hereby adopt and commit ourselves as
Governments to implement the following
Platform for Action, ensuring that a gender
perspective is reflected in all our policies and
programmes.”
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Institutional mechanisms
• The Ministry or Women, Community and Family
Development (MWCFD) is the nodal agency for
the achievement of gender equality. But this
ministry can only play a catalytical role.
• The nature of these commitments which span
every area of development endeavour, require
that all government agencies undertake
individually and collectively the fulfillment of the
obligations to women’s equality under these
commitments
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Hence the Mechanism of Gender Focal Points
• Established in 2004.
• There is a need for a process
- to create synergies between Malaysia’s national
and international commitments to equality
between women and men and its national
development goals
- to develop the competencies of the institution of
the GFPs.
- to institutionalise these processes for sustaining
the efficiency of this institution within the
government infrastructure.
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