Upcoming-Event - January 31, 2011 - UNIFEM

Hi everyone,
Just a reminder we will be meeting on Monday, Jan. 31st, 7:00 at the University Women's Club, 54 West Gate.

We are really happy to welcome Lisa Michell, a supporter of UNIFEM (now UN Women), who is the organizer and coordinator of the Women's Memorial March

There has been quite a bit in the news about the launch of UN Women. Let's continue to do our small bit here in Winnipeg and Manitoba - the local to global connection will continue I know with all your support!

Excerpts from a speech delivered by  Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, at the opening of the First Regular Session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), 24 January 2011.Vision and 100 Day Action Plan
I am determined that UN Women will be a catalyst for change, offering new energy, drawing on long-standing ideas and values, and bringing together men and women from different countries, societies and communities in a shared endeavour. I want to underline that this endeavour will be a global one, though its impact will be experienced primarily at the country level; thus UN Women's technical support and expertise will be available, on request, to all countries, developed and developing countries alike.

 UN Women will centre its work around five core principles: 1) providing demand-driven support to national partners to enhance implementation of international agreements and standards; 2) supporting intergovernmental processes to strengthen the global normative and policy framework on gender equality; 3) advocating for gender equality and women's empowerment, championing the rights of women and girls - particularly those who are most excluded; 4) leading and promoting coherence in UN system work on gender equality; and 5) acting as a global broker of knowledge and experience, aligning practice with normative guidance.

Five thematic priorities:
1) Expanding women's voice, leadership and participation, working with partners to close the gaps in women's leadership and participation in different sectors and to demonstrate the benefits of such leadership for society as a whole;

2) Ending violence against women by enabling states to set up the mechanisms needed to formulate and enforce laws, policies and services that protect women and girls, promote the involvement of men and boys, and prevent violence;

3) Strengthening implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, through women's full participation in conflict resolution and peace processes, gender-responsive early-warning, protection from sexual violence and redress for its survivors in accordance with UN resolutions;

4) Enhancing women's economic empowerment is particularly important in the context of global economic and environmental crises. UN Women will work with governments and multilateral partners to ensure the full realization of women's economic security and rights, including to productive assets and full social protection;

5) Making gender equality priorities central to national, local and sectoral planning and budgeting: working with partners, UN Women will support national capacities in evidence-based planning, budgeting and statistics.

In addition to these five priority areas, UN Women will support UN partners who are leading the response in areas such as HIV and AIDS, migration, the Rule of Law, environmental degradation and climate change, social protection, and maternal and child health.

UN Women has identified a number of actions over the next three months which are fully outlined in the Summary Vision and 100 Day Action Plan you have all received. Let me highlight just a few:

To promote UN System coherence, we will work with the UN Development Group (UNDG) to develop a UNDG coordination strategy on gender, and to adopt and implement a gender resource tracking system, building on work by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

To expand women's voice, leadership and participation, we will partner with the Global Colloquium of Universities on an initiative called "Empowering women to change the world - what Universities and the UN can do." We will continue to provide grants - US$16 million in the coming months - to government and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners to advance women's political and economic empowerment.

To combat violence against women, we will continue to work closely with other UN agencies and departments such as the UN Population Fund (UNFPA); we will link our Safe Cities for Women programme with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Safe Cities for Children initiative, to create synergies in our combined efforts to empower local authorities, and the efforts of women's and youth groups, to combat violence against women and girls in public places.

To strengthen the women, peace and security agenda, we will lead the development of a Strategic Framework for UN system implementation of UNSCR 1325 in partnership with UN entities and support further development of indicators to measure progress. Together with the Department of Political Affairs, we will support women in peace negotiations, increase numbers of senior women mediators and gender experts, and finalize guidance for mediators. With the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), we will test innovative pre-deployment training for peacekeeping troops.

To enhance women's economic empowerment, UN Women will work closely with partners (UNDP, FAO, ILO and IFIs) to develop a transformative UN strategy to advance women's economic empowerment with a special focus on rural women. Together with the World Bank, we will also regularly produce a global "Women's Economic Opportunity Index."

To advance gender equality priorities in development planning, budgets and statistics, working together with ILO, we will broaden the UN-European Commission Partnership focusing on Financing for Gender Equality at national level. We will partner with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to provide technical expertise where countries request help to link monitoring with actions to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Also wanted every one to know, i'm doing a blog again this year for the meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations (UN) The theme is women and girls and education. You can read the regular updates and watch for news and photos, right from the UN at http://csw-2011.blogspot.com/.

See you Monday,



MaryMary ScottNational Committee for UN Women - Canada/Winnipeg chapter

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women
winnipeg@unwomencanada.org
http://winnipeg.unwomencanada.org