Consultation in (WHERE)
(DATE)
UN Women was created by General Assembly resolution A/64/289 on 2 July
2010.
Para 49: “as a composite entity, to be operational by 1 January 2011, the
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women,
to be known as UN-Women, by consolidating and transferring to the Entity
the existing mandates and functions of the Office of the Special Adviser on
Gender Issues and Advancement of Women and the Division for the
Advancement of Women of the Secretariat, as well as those of the United
Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and
Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, to function as a
secretariat and also to carry out operational activities at the country level”
•Sets overall direction for UN Women for the next two
years (2012-2013)
•Identifies the results that UN Women will assist partners
to achieve and how it will track progress
•Strengthens UN Women’s accountability by clarifying its
organization-wide commitments
•Presented to the UN Women Executive Board in June
2011 for approval of the plan and budget
•Articulate and validate key country and regional gender
equality priorities and opportunities;
•Clarify what type of support Governments (programme
countries and donors), women’s groups and others in civil
society, and UN orgs require from UN Women;
• Build on the 100 Day Vision and Action Plan to generate
agreement around the broad outcomes to which UN
Women should contribute;
•Understand where within the UNCT, UN Women leads,
where it supports and where it partners
UN Women was established to “provide, through its normative support
functions and operational activities, guidance and technical support to
all Member States, across all levels of development and in all regions,
at their request, on gender equality, the empowerment and rights of
women and gender mainstreaming” and to conduct its work in ways
that “lead to more effective coordination, coherence and gender
mainstreaming across the United Nations system”.
UN Women is guided by global and regional inter-governmental
agreements, such as CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, Security
Council resolutions 1325 and others, and the Millennium Development
Goals.
The General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the
Commission on the Status of Women constitute the multi-tiered
intergovernmental governance structure for the normative support
functions and provide normative policy guidance to the Entity;
The General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the
Executive Board of the Entity constitute the multi-tiered
intergovernmental governance structure for the operational activities
and provide operational policy guidance to the Entity;
Composed of 41 UN Member States, including:
Africa: Angola, Cape Verde, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Lesotho, Libya, Nigeria
and Tanzania
Asia: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Malaysia, Pakistan, Republic of Korea and Timor-Leste
Eastern Europe: Estonia, Hungary, Russian Federation and
Ukraine
Latin America and the Caribbean: Argentina, Brazil, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Grenada and Peru
Western Europe: Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg and
Sweden
Contributing Countries: Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Spain,
United Kingdom and United States
1) Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation,
2) Ending violence against women
3) Strengthening implementation of the women, peace
and security agenda,
4) Enhancing women’s economic empowerment,
5) Making gender equality priorities central to national,
local and sectoral planning and budgeting
1) Providing demand-driven support to national partners to
enhance implementation of international agreements and
standards
2) Supporting intergovernmental processes to strengthen
the global normative and policy framework on gender equality
3) Advocating for gender equality and women’s
empowerment, championing the rights of women and girls —
particularly those who are most excluded
4) Leading and promoting coherence in UN system work on
gender equality
5) Acting as a global broker of knowledge and experience,
aligning practice with normative guidance
• UN Women mandate to support national partners to implement
global commitments (e.g., in the General Assembly, UN Commission
on the Status of Women, Security Council, etc.)
•Mandate to lead and coordinate the UN system response on gender
equality towards a more robust and coordinated support to gender
equality priorities at country level
• Close ties to interests and aspirations of women and women’s
groups worldwide. UN Women was created in response to advocacy
by women’s networks in all regions of the world.
• With leadership at Under Secretary-General level – UN Women
able to bring voices of women directly to the highest level UN
decision making
• Gender discrimination is pervasive in every
country and society. The demands and
expectations of women worldwide are diverse
and UN Women’s current capacity is limited
• Early days of UN Women mean that many
aspects of the organization – staffing, budget,
presence, etc. – are still being worked out
•Comparative advantage: What are UN Women’s unique
strengths?
•Change / results: What are the primary changes to advance
women’s rights and empowerment that UN Women and the
UN should be supporting (in this country/region/globally)?
•Accountability: How should government, UN and nongovernmental organizations be involved in advising UN
Women on its programmes and policies?
UN Coordination: What are the most effective ways that UN
Women can support improved coordination, coherence and
accountability within the UN on GE?
For representatives of women’s organizations:
•What is the unique role that UN Women can play?
•How can UN Women support, partner with and add value to your work?
•For governments, women’s organizations and the UN:
What should be the focus of UN Women’s work in your
country or region over the next two to three years?
What type of collaborations would you like to see
involving different UN agencies?
For Governments and women’s organizations:
What are the main gender equality priorities that you would like to see UN
Women focus on over the next two/three years
What are the primary changes to advance women’s rights and
empowerment that UN Women should be supporting within these priority
areas?
Who are the key partners in your country or region with which UN Women
needs to connect in order to drive implementation?
What recommendations would you give to UN Women to improve its
support to countries to make progress on gender equality and women’s
rights?
•How could partners be involved in tracking progress in
implementing the Strategic Plan as relevant at the country
level?
•What kinds of consultations and documentation would be
most helpful to report on progress? How often?
•How would partners like to be involved in reviewing the
progress of work on gender equality of the entire UNCT?
For UN organizations:
Given UN Women’s mandate of leading and
coordinating the UN system on Gender Equality, what
are the expectations from UN Women?
For governments, women’s organizations and the UN:
In which areas do you see UN Women taking a lead
role among UN and other partners, and in which areas
do you see others as having a greater comparative
advantage in your region or country?