A Campaign for Stronger Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) at the United Nations.
Overall Goal The establishment of a consolidated, stronger, and fully-funded entity for women led by a USG that combines normative and operational functions to effectively deliver for women on the ground. GEAR promotes gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system and through national policies which includes civil society, in particular women’s NGOs, in all functions. Background Currently, there are four separate women's entites within the UN system that are overlapping and compete for resources, impeding their ability to effectively address women’s needs worldwide:
Other larger agencies sometimes do important work on gender equality, but it is a small part of their mandate, and often receives low priority. In 2006, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened a High-Level Panel to explore how the UN system could be strengthened in terms of coherence and coordination in the areas of development, humanitarian affairs and the environment. After women from around the world pressured the UN to better address gender equality in the reform process, Kofi Annan asked the Panel to include gender equality as its mandate. The Panel’s report included recommendations on strengthening the gender equality architecture (GEA), and was endorsed by the current Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in March 2007.
GEAR Campaign
In March 2007, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), together with the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) convened a meeting of 50 women activists from around the world, to develop a comprehensive and multi-faceted strategy for global, regional and national action to gain UN General Assembly’s approval of a stronger and single, fully-resourced women’s entity at the UN. As a result of that meeting and the continued need for women’s collaborative advocacy on this issue, in February, 2008 the GEAR Campaign was launched. The GEAR campaign, a network comprised of more than 275 women's, human rights, and social justice groups from around the world have been following the Gender Equality Architecture (GEA) process very closely. Led by the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) and the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), the focus of GEAR's campaign is to build a stronger women's entity at the UN, fully funded to meet expectations and deliver results, led by an Under-Secretary-General and supported by extensive field presence, accountable at both the global and national levels, and active in promoting gender mainstreaming throughout the UN system. Together, WEDO, CWGL and other activisits call on United Nations member states to create this strong, fully resourced women’s entity at the UN so that governments can better deliver for women on the ground. 4 Institutional Options to Strengthen UN Work on Gender Equality The four institutional options to strengthen the UN work on gender equality and the empowerment of women under consideration were based on the paper, Institutional Options to Strengthen United Nations Work on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, prepared by the office of the Deputy Secretary General. This paper was sent to the President of the General Assembly on July 23 and circulated to Member States on July 28 in response to the request of the General Assembly to address the gaps and challenges in the work of the United Nations system on gender equality. The paper presents four options:
At an informal consulation about the UN's work on gender equality and women's empowerment, Member States were asked to decide next steps, before the end of the 62nd General Assembly session on September 15, 2009, including the institutional option or combination of options they wished to pursue with regards to the gender entity. Countries that spoke at the September 8 consultation indicated an emerging consensus on moving forward with the last of the four options under consideration- Option 4/D, which proposes the creation of a composite entity of the four existing women- specific agencies. On Monday, September 15th, 2008 at a final meeting of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, member states adopted by consensus a resolution that will officially move forward the gender architecture discussion into the next GA session. This means that states have agreed to take next steps toward strengthening the UN system in relation to gender equality and women’s empowerment. States also called for the Secretary General to provide a further, detailed modalities paper in respect to the options set out in the Deputy Secretary-General’s paper focusing in particular on the 'Composite Entity' option with a view to facilitating substantive action by the General Assembly within the 63rd session. The Composite model (which was formerly called the hybrid or option 4/D) is the one supported by the GEAR Campaign as the most promising; it could potentially create a new women’s entity that, if developed as GEAR supporters have been advocating for, would have strong country presence, significant funding capacity, high level leadership and a strategic normative and policy making function. The GEAR campaign endorses Option D because it holds the most promise as a consolidated stronger entity by combining the crucial normative, policy making, and operational elements that could deliver better results for women on the ground.
Information taken from: http://www.wunrn.com/news/2008/09_08/09_08_08/090808_un3.htm http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/globalcenter/policy/unadvocacy/gea.html#Resources http://www.wedo.org/category/learn/campaigns/governance/unreform |
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