UN Commission on the Status of Women delivers road-map on ensuring women’s social protection, mobility, safety, and access to economic opportunities

Reaffirms access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure for women and girls as key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

[New York, 22 March]—After two weeks of intense dialogue, the 63rd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) concluded today in New York with a strong commitment by UN Member States to safeguard and improve women’s and girls’ access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure, ensuring that their design and delivery is transformed to prevent discrimination and create a ‘level playing field’ for women and girls.

The Executive Director of UN Women, which serves as the CSW Secretariat, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said: “This annual gathering has never been bigger nor more significant for the women and girls of the world. The Commission’s recommendations pave the way for governments to engage and invest differently; involving women in policy dialogue, and targeting initiatives that go to the heart of the largest barriers to the empowerment and voice of women and girls.”

The outcome of the two-week meeting, known as the Agreed Conclusions, adopted by Member States, puts forth concrete measures to bolster the voice, agency and leadership of women and girls as beneficiaries and users of social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure.

Key recommendations from the Agreed Conclusions include the following:

• Invest in social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure to support the productivity of women’s work, including in the informal economy;
• Ensure that progress in women’s access to social protection, public services and sustainable infrastructure is not undermined by budget cuts and austerity measures, and levels of protection previously achieved are not reversed;
• Build on multilateral commitments to gender equality, including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), to strengthen access to social protection, public services and infrastructure for all women and girls;
• Recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work by ensuring access to social protection for unpaid caregivers of all ages, including coverage for health care and pensions;
• Scale up investment in quality public care services that are affordable and gender-responsive;
• Identify and remove barriers to women’s and girls’ access to public services, such as physical distance, lack of information and decision-making power, stigma and discrimination;
• Guarantee the availability of safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation, including for menstrual hygiene, in homes, schools, refugee camps and other public places;
• Ensure that transport policies and planning are sustainable, accessible, affordable, safe and gender-responsive, taking into account the different needs of women and men, and adapted to be used by persons with disabilities and older persons;
• Promote the full and equal participation and leadership of women and women’s organizations in policy dialogues and decision-making relating to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure;
• Strongly condemn the impunity and lack of accountability rooted in historical and structural inequality that accompanies pervasive violence against women.

Universal access to an old-age pension, quality health-care services and safe and affordable public transport can enhance women’s income security and independence, shape whether a small entrepreneur will get her products to market on time, and at what cost; or whether an adolescent girl can get safely to her school and has access to a toilet. This can determine whether girls go to school at all, what markets a woman farmer can access, and how much time she has left in a day to pursue other paid work or leisure.

As the single largest forum on gender equality and women’s rights for UN Member States, civil society organizations and other international actors, this year’s CSW saw a record number of attendances. Participants included more than 5,000 representatives from civil society organizations around the world, nearly 2,000 Member State delegates and 86 ministers.

Social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure are integral to achieving the implementation of the landmark 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders.

The Agreed Conclusions will be made available shortly at http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw63-2019

Sr. Elsa Muttathu PBVM at the UN pictured below offers this Week 1 round up of the CSW63 at the UN.

Day 5 March 15th at the CSW63

Day 3 March 13th

Esperance escaped the war with her family to live in a refugee camp. This UN Women programme has given her an opportunity to gain new skills & financial empowerment: This is her story....

From where I stand: “I never gave up and I am learning everyday”

Globally, 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked, and 56 per cent of them are women, according to latest data from The World Bank. The trend continues in Africa, where up to 95 million unbanked adults receive cash payments for agricultural products, and 65 million save using semiformal methods. Lack of access to banking services and financial skills such as savings, budgeting and debt management, means women who are already poor, have little or no means to invest, retire or build a cushion against emergencies. In humanitarian crisis, these challenges are compounded. Esperance Mutegwaraba, 61, fled the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 along with 30,000 refugees.

Escaping war along with my four children and four grandchildren, and a young orphan girl I rescued...life was really tough… we had nowhere to sleep, and nowhere to go. My husband and I were separated.

I came to this refugee camp in June 2012. My children are my motivation to stay here, because if I take them back to Congo, they will not be able to finish their studies.

I was so excited when I was selected to be trained in UN Women’s programme in the refugee camp! We are learning how to weave beautiful baskets that Indego Africa sells all over the world. We receive orders and we get paid through personal bank accounts that we opened as part of the programme, a first for me. Our cooperative, Igisubizo (The Solution) earned around 300,000 Rwandan francs (USD 340) from its first order.

In the six years that I’ve spent in the refugee camp, this is the first time that I have somewhere to go and be productive, meet other women, share experiences and comfort each other. I am 61 years old; the other women call me “Taté” (granny). Earlier, people used to doubt that I was capable of working, because of my age. But the programme raised my confidence, and despite the many failed attempts at weaving baskets in the beginning, I never gave up and I am learning everyday with the support of the trainers.

In my hometown, the only available work for women would be farming or domestic work; we were not expected to work together in cooperatives or speak in public. Coming here really taught us a lot, this is knowledge that I will use if I go back to the Congo.

We have learned how to manage our finances and we save 10 per cent of what we earn in our accounts. Even though it’s just the beginning, I can already feel the impact on my family, and this gives me hope for their future…the programme opened doors for me that I never knew existed.”

Because of her age and illiteracy, Esperance Mutegwaraba wasn’t getting opportunities to work until she enrolled into a UN Women-supported programme run by Indego Africa, which trains refugee women in entrepreneurial skills. Funded by the Government of Sweden, the programme also teaches refugee women financial skills, has facilitated their membership in a cooperative and gives them access to credit and banking service.

Day 2 March 12th

Secretary-General's remarks to High-level event on Women in Power [as delivered]

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Madame President, let me begin by thanking you for this excellent initiative.

After having addressed this same room on Friday and Monday, I think my duty today is to be brief. Today what matters is to listen to the voices of those that are making a difference: the women leaders that are indeed contributing to the necessary shift of power in today’s world.

I will limit myself to repeat what has been my central message in relation to this issue.

As I said before and I will say again and again, gender equality is fundamentally a question of power, as we still live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture.

That is the reason why I have been pushing so hard for gender parity here at the United Nations.

When I took office, I said we should concentrate on a surge in diplomacy. But I believe that as important as the surge of diplomacy has been for us the surge in parity.

The President of the General Assembly has already said that it was possible to achieve very quickly parity at the level of the Senior Management Group or our Resident Coordinators around the world. It was simple for one reason – those are the people I can appoint myself without limitations. Where I am free to act, we are coming very quickly to full parity within the UN. But when we have to trickle down to go across the board in all structures of the United Nations, there we start to see the resistance, the obstacles, and the pushbacks. What I can promise you is we will pushback against the pushbacks, and we will not give up until we reach parity across the board in the United Nations.

And why parity? Why is it such an important objective? Why are we striving to open doors of opportunity for so many outstanding, talented, qualified women?

Yes, of course, it is about equality. Of course, it is about fairness. But it goes beyond that.

We need parity and let me repeat again, to change power relations in societies for gender equality to be a reality.

And we also need change in power relations to advance peace and security for all, as gender equality is a key instrument of peace and security.

To promote human rights for all, as gender equality is a central instrument for human rights.

To ensure development for all, as gender equality is a fundamental tool for development.

The truth is that when women are at the table, the chance of sustainable peace increases.

When women have equal opportunities at work, development accelerates tremendously.

And when gender is at the heart of humanitarian assistance, vital assistance has greater impact for everyone in a much fairer way.

The bottom line is simple: When we exclude women, we all pay the price.

When we include women, the world wins. We all win.

Dear friends,

I understand that you are now focused at the Commission on the Status of Women on sustainable infrastructure. But sustainable infrastructure is just a tool for a broader objective.

And the broader objective is to build better societies, to change power relations, to close gaps, to tackle biases, to preserve gains, and to push the boundaries of the possible.

I said yesterday, and I will repeat today, I am proud to be a feminist. For all those men that believe that gender equality is a necessity, I recommend that they are also feminists. We all need to be feminists in order to make sure that gender equality is achieved in our unequal societies.

Thank you especially to the women leaders present today in this room. Thank you for your leadership, for your example, and for powering the change the world needs.

Thank you very much.

And from UNIRL Youth

5 key areas to strengthen social protection for girls and women:

1. Birth registration.

2. Education grants and scholarship.

3. Enhancing girls' economic participation.

4. Strengthen data and research.

5. Redesign the workplace for the future.