International Alliance of Women cautiously greets the new UN Gender Architecture called UN Women.

Too many questions remain unanswered.

  • How will the new Entity fit into the system-wide coherence efforts of the UN system?
  • How will the Entity operate as part of the Resident Coordinator System, as part of the UN Country Teams and under the overall leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator? What if this person is not interested in women’s concerns? Will the UN Women representative operating as part of this Resident Coordinator System have enough power to get women’s concerns heard amidst overall development cooperation concerns and projects (even if she is not appointed at senior level as proposed in the draft resolution text, a proposal that disappeared in the final version)?
  • Who will be elected to the 41 member Executive Board of the Entity, and will this appointment also take place according to agreed governmental slates?
  • How much will depend on the personality of the new Under Secretary-General, head of the Entity, in this transition period between adoption of the resolution on 2 June and January 1, 2011, date at which the Entity is supposed to be fully operational?

Please support at all levels GEARS efforts advocating for four major critical elements:

  • meaningful, systematic and diverse civil society participation at all levels, and in particular participation of women’s international NGOs.
  • strong, country-level operational capacity and universal coverage.
  • ambitious funding with stable and predictable resources aimed at reaching $1 billion within a few years.
  • strong leadership at the top with an Under Secretary-General who combines a global vision with gender equality expertise on the ground.

The UN creates a new entity to promote the empowerment of women

On 2 July 2010 United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously to create a new entity to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide. It is also important to note that this General Assembly resolution creating UN Women also covers broader issues related to UN system-wide coherence, laying out a new approach to the funding of UN development operations, streamlining the work of UN bodies, and improving methods of evaluating reform efforts.

The establishment of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – to be known as UN Women – is a result of years of negotiations between UN Member States and advocacy by the global women’s movement. It is part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It will become operational by January 2011.

UN Women merges and will build on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system which focus exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment: the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW, established in 1946), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW, established in 1976), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI, established in 1997), and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, established in 1976).

UN Women will have two key roles: It will support inter-governmental bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms, and it will help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, as well as forging effective partnerships with civil society. It will also help the UN system to be accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

Secretary-General Ban will appoint an Under-Secretary-General to head the new body and is inviting suggestions from Member States and civil society partners. It is very important to know that the Under-Secretary-General will be a member of all senior UN decision-making bodies and will report to the Secretary-General.

The operations of UN Women will be funded from voluntary contributions, while the regular UN budget will support its normative work. At least US$500 million – double the current combined budget of DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM – has been recognised by Member States as the minimum investment needed for UN Women.