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March 2008 – In This Issue:
UN Secretary-General
Launches Campaign to End Violence against Women
 UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a multi-year
global campaign to end violence against women, UNiTE
to End Violence against Women, on 25 February
2008, during the opening meeting of the 52nd session
of the Commission on the Status of Women. The campaign
aims to bring together the United Nations, governments
and civil society to commit to make concerted efforts
to eliminate a scourge that afflicts at least one
out of every three women in the world. “It
is time to focus on the concrete actions that all
of us can and must take to prevent and eliminate
this scourge … . It is time to
break through the walls of silence, and make legal
norms a reality in women’s lives,” said
the Secretary-General. The campaign will run until
2015, the same target year as the internationally
agreed aims known as the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
To
mark the launch of the Secretary-General’s
campaign, the UN Division for the Advancement
of Women (DAW) held a panel discussion on “The
Role and Responsibility of Men in Preventing
Violence against Women.” UNIFEM
sponsored two of the panellists: Captain Aimable
Mushabe, a Rwandan military officer implementing
measures to protect women against violence;
and Ms. Anne Sosin, a former grantee of the
UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. Read
the complete story.
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UNIFEM
and Avon Announce Partnership to End Violence
against Women
UNIFEM and Avon Products, Inc., announced
a public-private partnership to promote women’s
empowerment and end violence against women
on 4 March 2008 at the Global
Summit for a Better Tomorrow at UN headquarters.
As a result, Avon has committed US$1 million
to the UNIFEM-managed UN
Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.
The contribution will be made through the
Avon Empowerment Fund, which was launched
as part of the new Avon-UNIFEM partnership.
These resources will bolster the UN Trust Fund’s
critical work on the implementation of
laws, policies and government plans to
prevent and reduce the prevalence of violence
against women. To raise the funds and foster
awareness, Avon Global Ambassador Reese Witherspoon
unveiled Avon’s
first global fundraising product: the Women’s
Empowerment Bracelet. The bracelets sell
for US$3 each, and all net profits will
be donated. In 2008, the Avon Foundation
will match the first US$500,000 in bracelet sales
for a total donation of US$1 million for new
grant-making by the UN Trust Fund. Read
the complete story.
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Icelandic
and Austrian National Committees for UNIFEM
Raise Funds for UN Trust Fund to End Violence
against Women
National Committees for UNIFEM are mobilizing
to raise much-needed funds for the
UN
Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, which
is managed by UNIFEM. On
International Women’s Day, 8 March 2008, the
Icelandic National
Committee for UNIFEM handed
over US$1.4 million to UNIFEM Executive Director
a.i. Ms. Joanne Sandler, after Butterfly Week,
a week-long fundraising campaign that captured
the goodwill of the Icelandic people. “The
Icelandic National Committee for UNIFEM has
successfully mobilized Icelanders, not only
to contribute money but also to raise their
awareness,” said Ms. Sandler. “Gender
equality will not become a reality unless we
are successful in inspiring each other to take
action. The Butterfly Week has done this successfully
and it is one of the most creative fundraising
projects I have witnessed.” Read
the complete story.
The Austrian
National Committee for UNIFEM raised €10,000
at a fundraising dinner in November 2007 under
the patronage of the wife of the Austrian Federal
President, Ms. Margit Fischer, which was attended
by a number of leading business personalities.
The funds were presented to UNIFEM Deputy Director
Mr. Moez Doraid on 3 March 2008. Read
the complete story.
UNIFEM’s Say
NO to Violence against Women Campaign
Gets Boost from China and Senegal
More than 125,000 people in China signed
on to UNIFEM’s Internet-based advocacy campaign, Say
NO to Violence against Women. The signatures
were collected on a separate
web site created on a pro-bono basis by NetEase,
one of China’s leading Internet portals and
content providers. They were symbolically handed
over to UNIFEM at a ceremony in Beijing on 6 March
2006 to coincide with International Women’s
Day. With the Chinese signatures, the total
number of campaign supporters is at more than 200,000,
exceeding by far the challenge grant by the
UN Foundation of US$100,000 to the UN Trust Fund
to End Violence against Women for the first 100,000
signatures. Read
the complete story.
 The Say
NO campaign also got a major expression
of support from the Government of Senegal,
when members of the Cabinet, led by President
Abdoulaye Wade, signed on to the campaign.
The signatures of the President, Prime
Minister Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare, and 23
Government Ministers were handed over during
a ceremony on 4 March 2008 in New York
led by Mrs. Awa Ndiaye, Minister of the
Family, Women’s Entrepreneurship
and Microfinance. “I’m very
honoured to officially hand over the signatures
of the Senegalese government to UNIFEM,” the
Minister said. “For the President
as well as the Cabinet, it is an official
way to say no to violence against women
and to show our commitment to UNIFEM’s
important campaign.” The Minister
expressed her dedication to partner with
UNIFEM to create a society that is committed
to the promotion of gender equality and
women's empowerment. Read
the complete story.
We Need Your
Help to Promote the Say NO Campaign
Please encourage your networks to sign on
to UNIFEM’s Say
NO to Violence against Women campaign
to demonstrate that there is an ever-growing movement
of people demanding an end to all forms of violence
against women. The signatures collected through
the campaign website will be handed over to UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in conjunction with
the International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, 25 November 2008, to support his
efforts. The campaign
toolkit with basic fact sheets, banners and
e-cards will help you to spread the word.
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52nd Session of the
Commission on the Status of Women
In accordance with its multi-year programme of
work for 2007–2009, the Commission
on the Status of Women (CSW) considered the following
themes at its 52nd
session:
- Priority Theme: “Financing for gender
equality and the empowerment of women”
- Emerging Issue: “Gender perspectives
on climate change”
- Review Theme: “Women’s equal participation
in conflict prevention, management and conflict
resolution and in post-conflict peacebuilding”
The session, scheduled for 25 February to 7 March
2008, was extended until 13 March to conclude
negotiations and reach consensus on the agreed
conclusions on the priority theme.
Through the agreed conclusions, the Commission
provided substantive inputs to the following processes
on financing for development and aid effectiveness:
Agreed Conclusions
The agreed
conclusions on financing for gender
equality and the empowerment of women were
adopted by the Commission on 13 March 2008. The
text includes wide-ranging recommendations to scale
up investment, urging the integration of a
gender perspective — and
increased women’s participation — in
the design, implementation and monitoring
of economic plans and strategies across
all policy areas, including in national
development, social protection and poverty
reduction.
In
the preambular section of the text, the
Commission “recalls
the recognition in the Beijing Platform
for Action of the role of the United Nations
... in particular the special roles of the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and
the International Research and Training Institute
for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)” in
the promotion of gender equality and the
empowerment of women, and “expresses its
concern at under-resourcing in the area
of gender equality in the United Nations system,
including UNIFEM and INSTRAW, the Office of the
Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement
of Women and the Division for the Advancement
of Women,” stressing
the need for “more
effective tracking of resources allocated
to and spent on enhancing gender equality
and the empowerment of women across the United
Nations system, including on gender mainstreaming.”
The
text also highlights the role of national machineries
for the advancement of women and of relevant governmental
entities in financing gender equality, and calls
for strengthening institutional frameworks, accountability
mechanisms, and capacity building in order to systematically
incorporate gender perspectives into budgetary
policies and processes at all levels.
A number of the recommendations contained
in the agreed conclusions address components of
the 2002 Monterrey Consensus, recommending, for
example, that the differential impact of trade
policies on women and men be addressed; that the
focus and impact of development assistance specifically
targeting gender equality and the empowerment of
women and girls be strengthened; and that “development-oriented
and durable solutions which integrate a gender
perspective to external debt and debt-servicing
problems of developing countries” be identified
and implemented. Member States are requested to “integrate
gender perspectives in the preparations for and
outcome of the Follow-up International Conference
on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation
of the Monterrey Consensus.”
Draft Resolutions
On 7 March 2008, the Commission adopted five
draft resolutions:
- Release of women and children taken hostage,
including those subsequently imprisoned, in armed
conflicts (E/CN.6/2008/L.1)
- Ending female genital mutilation (E/CN.6/2008/L.2)
- Situation of and assistance to Palestinian
women (E/CN.6/2008/L.3)
- Strengthening of the International Research
and Training Institute for the Advancement of
Women (E/CN.6/2008/L.4)
- Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS (E/CN.6/2008/L.5)
Advance, unedited versions of these draft resolutions
are available on the CSW
website.
Theme for 53rd Session of CSW
The Commission also adopted the provisional
agenda for its 53rd session in 2009. In accordance
with its multi-year programme of work for 2007-2009,
the priority theme for next year’s session
is “The equal sharing of responsibilities
between women and men, including caregiving in
the context of HIV/AIDS.”
UNIFEM Economic Literacy Workshops at CSW
As in
previous years, UNIFEM organized or co-sponsored
a number of parallel
events during CSW. In particular,
in response to the priority theme, UNIFEM
and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service
(NGLS) organized a series of Economic Literacy
Workshops on the topics of Key Financing
Issues for Gender Equality and Key Policy
Issues Related to Financing for Gender
Equality. The sessions focused on the Paris
Declaration principles and their application,
national development frameworks, gender-responsive
development planning, macroeconomic policies,
sources of finance, and the budget cycle.
Due to high demand, the workshops were
repeated several times. Background materials
are available on the UNIFEM
web corner on the CSW. For more information,
please contact Ms. Marina Durano, marina.durano[at]unifem.org,
+1 212 907-6512.
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Recent Speeches and Statements
Recent Resources
 Financing
Gender Equality Is Financing Development (Discussion
Paper). Because gender equality is recognized
as being essential to sustainable human development,
macroeconomic policies, which influence the volume
and distribution of resources for development,
must promote both employment generation and productive
growth, reduce income and asset disparities,
moderate vulnerabilities related to changes in
the global economy, protect against environmental
and social risks, and explore innovative sources
of financing. This paper is a contribution to
the discussion on Financing for Gender Equality
and Women’s Empowerment at this year’s
session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
It is in the process of review; comments are
welcome. more »
 Gender
Equality and Aid Effectiveness Discussion
Papers. These discussion papers draw
on multi-stakeholder consultations on gender
equality and aid effectiveness led by UNIFEM
since November 2005. The consultations have
brought together representatives from government,
donor agencies and civil society to explore
strategies to ensure that aid effectively
delivers for gender equality in the context
of nationally determined development planning
and programming processes. more »
 Report
of the United Nations Development Fund for
Women on the Elimination of Violence Against
Women: Note by the Secretary-General (2007). This annual report to the Commission on the
Status of Women and the Human Rights Council
documents the activities undertaken by UNIFEM
in 2007 to eliminate violence against women.
It highlights, in particular, activities
funded through the UN Trust Fund in Support
of Actions to Eliminate Violence against
Women, administered by UNIFEM. more » et aussi » lea más »
 Policy
Briefing Paper: Gender Sensitive Police Reform
in Post Conflict Societies. This briefing paper
reviews UNIFEM and UNDP experiences in building
the capacity of police services to respond
to women’s
security needs. The paper stresses the importance
of women’s engagement in accountability mechanisms
to review police performance and support efforts
to correct for poor practice. more »
Upcoming Events
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About UNIFEM Currents
UNIFEM Currents is the electronic
news bulletin of the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
It provides up-to-date information briefs
on UNIFEM initiatives, successes, events,
projects and activities worldwide. It is
published several times per year and delivered
by e-mail. Click
here to subscribe to UNIFEM Currents.
UNIFEM is the women’s fund at
the United Nations. It provides financial
and technical assistance to innovative
programmes and strategies to foster women's
empowerment and gender equality. Placing
the advancement of women's human rights
at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM
focuses its activities on reducing feminized
poverty; ending violence against women;
reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among
women and girls; and achieving gender equality
in democratic governance in times of peace
as well as war. For more information, visit www.unifem.org.
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