UNIFEM Canada

On July 2^nd 2010, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon accepted the motion from the general assembly of member states of the UN to create a new gender entity to accelerate progress for women’s rights and programs in the developing world and meet the increasingly important challenges facing women and girls across the world in the near future.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – known as UN Women, has been established as part of the UN reform agenda, to bring together resources and mandates for greater impact.

 UN Women, which will be operational by January, 2011, merges the four previously distinct parts of the UN system which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• +Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW, established in 1946)
• +International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW, established in 1976)
• +Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI, established in 1997)
• +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.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will appoint an Under-Secretary-General to head UN Women, so as to ensure the necessary authority and leadership. The Under-Secretary-General will be a member of all senior UN decision-making bodies and will report to the Secretary-General.

One of the main aims of creating UN Women is to strengthen the UN’s ability to provide coherent, timely and demand-driven support to UN Member States, at their request, in their efforts to realize equality for all women and girls. It will be up to each Member State to decide what kind of support UN Women will provide in that country.  UN Women will initially continue to work in the 80 countries in which UNIFEM currently has a presence.  Priority for enhanced capacity will be given to country-level efforts and, over time, UN Women will scale up to support every country that requests assistance. Achieving that goal, however, will depend on the availability of human and financial resources.

In the context of the changed circumstances within the UN System, UNIFEM Canada is looking forward to this new era of working towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in a more effective, collaborative and coherent way.  To optimize the success of UN Women, it is crucial that strong and dynamic relationships between UN Women and civil society partners be built across the globe in order for the goals of the UN to be achieved.

Referring to the decades of gender advocacy campaigning undertaken by UNIFEM Canada, Almas Jiwani, President of the Canadian Committee stated that UNIFEM had made significant progress in advancing gender equality, through landmark agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  She stated that “The committee recognizes that gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications.  Yet at the same time, gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society.”

The President also stated that “Women in all parts of the world suffer violence and discrimination, and are under-represented in decision-making processes. High rates of maternal mortality continue to be a cause for global shame. For many years, the UN has faced serious challenges in its efforts to promote gender equality globally, including inadequate funding and no single recognized driver to direct UN activities on gender equality issues.”

In order to counter the current situation, Ms. Jiwani highlighted the importance of Canada as being an integral future player in the creation, setup and operation of this newly created gender entity due to the country’s historical connection with international humanitarian work and civil society advancement with a focus on empowering women’s rights around the world.  Almas Jiwani thanked the Canadian Government and CIDA for their previous support and is currently in talks with the Government of Canada entities including the Canadian International Development Agency and Status of Women to support the cause of the new agency and to facilitate its projects by providing more funding and engaging in a comprehensive commitment to the United Nation’s top priority of furthering the agenda of gender-equality.

About UNIFEM and UNIFEM Canada:
UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations, dedicated to advancing women’s rights and achieving gender equality. UNIFEM Canada is one of eighteen national committees of UNIFEM worldwide.  UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that foster women's empowerment. UNIFEM works on the premise that it is the fundamental right of every woman to live a life free from discrimination and violence and that gender equality is essential to achieving development and to building just societies.