ECE INITIATIVE DESIGNED TO INCREASE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN, IMPLEMENT BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION
Press Release
ECE/465
ECE INITIATIVE DESIGNED TO INCREASE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN, IMPLEMENT BEIJING PLATFORM FOR ACTION
19960311 GENEVA, 7 March (UN Information Service) -- The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), in consultation with non-governmental organizations and other regional organizations, has launched a major new initiative designed to increase the empowerment of women in the ECE region and implement the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing from 4 to 15 September 1995.The new initiative on the part of international organizations active on women's issues in the ECE region lays the groundwork for the development of a comprehensive regional "plan of action" following the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is being held in New York from 11 to 22 March.
The measures, which include seeking financial support from public and private sources, including regional development banks, encouraging "mainstreaming", expanding information networks among United Nations and non- governmental organizations, and development of the new regional plan of action were adopted at the Third Meeting of European Representatives of Members of the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) held on 26 February in Geneva.
The Deputy Executive Secretary of the ECE, Dunja Pastizzi-Ferencic, stated, in concluding remarks to the regional group, that the ECE, in the present United Nations climate requiring agencies to "do more with less", was to direct it efforts towards implementing a "meaningful follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the establishment of a well-functioning network management" programme for empowering women.
Recommendations adopted at the 26 February meeting include: creating a working group following the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, to prepare a concerted regional plan of action; joining of forces by regional organizations to seek financial support from public and private sources, including regional development banks; further developing the exchange of information across the region in a systematic and regular manner; inviting non-governmental organizations to initiate a region-wide process of exchanging information on their respective follow-up activities to the ECE High-Level Regional Preparatory Meeting and the World Conference; highlighting priority
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areas of activities for the various organizations, with a view to promoting further reflection and policy discussion in those areas; encouraging collaborative efforts on concrete activities; and securing as much cooperation as possible with regional and subregional groupings, in order to encourage mainstreaming.
ECE Activities in behalf of Women: Mainstreaming and Assistance
The ECE has already achieved the mainstreaming of women in its work on women and statistics, within the framework of the Conference of European Statisticians. The ECE cooperated closely with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat on the development of gender segregated statistics, which would show the roles and situations of women in society more clearly than traditional ones. A first publication, a user-friendly statistical manual "Women and Men in Europe and North America" was published in 1995, and gender segregated statistics are the main subject of the 1996 special edition of the ECE Statistical Journal. At its next annual session, in April 1996, the Commission will consider possibilities of mainstreaming in the programmes of activities of its other Committees.
Following the ECE High-Level Regional Preparatory Meeting to the Fourth World Conference on Women, requests for the support of the advancement of women in a regional framework steadily increased, in particular from countries in transition. As envisaged at the inter-agency consultation, the ECE could assist in resource mobilization, through its cooperation with the relevant United Nations institutions and regional sources of funding. Workshops on all aspects of the role of women in societies in transition to be organized by the ECE, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and other bodies, were also requested.
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