PROMOTING EQUALITY AND REALIZING POTENTIAL OF WOMEN IN ALL UNITED NATIONS ACTIVITIES DISCUSSED BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Press Release
ECOSOC/5716
PROMOTING EQUALITY AND REALIZING POTENTIAL OF WOMEN IN ALL UNITED NATIONS ACTIVITIES DISCUSSED BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
19970709 (Reissued as received.)GENEVA, 9 July (UN Information Service) -- Achieving equality for women and tapping their as-yet unrealized potential around the world -- and, as a beginning, within the United Nations -- was the focus this morning of a panel discussion of the Economic and Social Council. The official title of the session was "mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes of the United Nations system".
At the podium were Angela King, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, who served as moderator; Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); Rafeeuddin Ahmed, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Catherine Ann Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP); Kerstin Trone, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and Mary Chinery-Hesse, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO).
Ms. King, in an introductory statement, said that activities by the United Nations that did not take into account the specific situation and specific effects of those actions on women would not be as successful because they would not take advantage of a wealth of special expertise and untapped potential; and that as long as programmes were aimed at "people" rather than at both women and men, discrimination against women would continue.
Ms. Ogata said UNHCR staff grappled daily with such issues as protecting women from the violence and the trauma of war, enabling them to return home without fear or coercion, ensuring their equal access to basic assistance and helping them become self-supporting, but that progress had been piecemeal despite the organization's best efforts.
Mr. Ahmed reported that inter-agency collaboration on women's issues was occurring in many countries, and that in India, for example, five United Nations agencies were supporting a national community-based primary education programme aimed at increasing girls' education rates.
Ms. Bertini told the meeting that food was a women's issue and there should be more women involved in dealing with it. Managers in WFP country
offices had been told of the importance of hiring women in 1995, she said, and there had been an increase in the number of women staff.
In fostering attitudinal changes, said Ms. Trone, approaches which involved community participation and responsibility often had a greater impact. In Uganda, for example, communities that had been resistant to changing female genital mutilation practices when approached in a legalistic manner were receptive to change when the approach involved discussions with the male elders and other members of the community.
And Ms. Chinery-Hesse remarked that self-esteem and confidence necessary for empowerment of women could be applied only if women had their own resources. Gender-related programmes had to be preserved, she said, even when budgets were being trimmed.
The discussion that followed focused, among other things, on efforts to reach 50-50 gender-staffing levels within the United Nations system; on how the reform process under way in the organization could affect positively or negatively women's issues, including the possibility of reductions in employment that might affect female staff; on how the situation of women migrant workers, who often were low-paid and subject to sexual harassment, was being improved under United Nations programmes; on the results of a study of 20 countries and "lessons learned" on mainstreaming carried out by UNDP; and on whether recruitment of junior professional officers, or JPOs, was "donor driven" of late, resulting in few of such jobs going to women from developing countries.
The panellists said, among other things, that they were indeed concerned about the effects of the United Nations reform process on gender issues and women's employment levels, and that they were awaiting with great attention the details, soon to be announced, of "stage two" of the reform process; that efforts to hire women for United Nations agencies and activities also had to accommodate demands for regional representation and depended to some extent on the candidates proposed by various countries, but that in general representation of women at professional levels and in promotions was improving; that recruitment "freezes" were hindering hiring and promotions of all types, but that when positions were available extensive efforts were being made to hire and promote qualified women; that much indeed was being done to protect the rights of women migrant workers; and that the current economic and funding situation often led to hiring of women on temporary contracts or for "external" posts, as those were the only possibilities available.
Among those participating were representatives of Brazil, Austria, Philippines, India, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Uganda, United States, Swaziland, China, Turkey, Bangladesh, Spain, Norway, Dominican Republic, and Malaysia.
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The Council will reconvene at 3 p.m. to consider documents prepared for it on the subject of "mainstreaming the gender perspective" into United Nations programmes and activities.
Mainstreaming Gender Perspective into United Nations System
The Council this morning considered a report by the Secretary-General on mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system (document E/1887/66). The report provides an overview and makes recommendations relating to mainstreaming a gender perspective in a coordinated manner at the intergovernmental level. It points to the need to bring a gender perspective not only into socio-economic areas and activities falling within the responsibility of the Council and its subsidiary bodies, but also into areas where gender issues have not or have only infrequently been considered. The report briefly describes efforts at mainstreaming by the Secretariat and the funds, programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system. Steps to ensure that the impact of gender as a key variable is integral to research, planning, policy-making and institutional development are proposed, building on initial proposals before the General Assembly.
The report makes a number of recommendations relating to the General Assembly, including directing all its main committees and bodies to take gender factors into consideration; ensuring the Committee for Programme and Coordination visibly mainstream a gender perspective in all its programmes; encouraging the Secretariat to define issues in a gender-sensitive manner, and encouraging the Commission on the Status of Women to play a catalytic role. Other recommendations relating to the Economic and Social Council call on its functional commissions to adopt explicit decisions on mainstreaming a gender perspective in their work. The report also suggests that the Council may advise functional commissions to make maximum use of the work of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Statements
ANGELA KING, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, said this was the first panel discussion of senior United Nations officials on the topic of mainstreaming gender perspective into United Nations activities; the purpose and goal of gender mainstreaming was to achieve full gender equality, and the outcome of the debate should be a set of clear guidelines developed by Economic and Social Council to achieve that goal.
Activities by the United Nations that did not take into account the specific situation and specific effects of those actions on women would not in the end achieve their full potential because they would not take advantage of the special expertise and untapped potential of women, she said; as long as programmes were aimed at "people" rather than at both women and men,
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discrimination against women would continue. Gender equality was not only crucial in implementing the plans of action of recent United Nations global conferences, but also was crucial in the context of the ongoing reform of the United Nations; the reform would not succeed without strong basic efforts to empower women. It was necessary to start internally, with these programmes, as a first step in the process of changing traditional ways of thinking around the world that relegated women to second-class status. Gender analysis and gender factors should be included in all activities of the United Nations as a matter of course, she said -- the organization must get past the stage at which it was necessary to push for such approaches again and again as each programme or activity was established.
SADAKO OGATA, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said UNHCR staff grappled with issues such as protecting women from violence and the trauma of war, enabling them to return home without fear or coercion, ensuring their equal access to basic assistance and helping them become self-supporting. However, progress on these fronts had been piecemeal, despite the best efforts. Refugee women were portrayed as particularly vulnerable, which did not do justice to their pivotal social and economic roles.
Ms. OGATA said women were particularly vulnerable in humanitarian crises but noted that gender based persecution was now a ground for receiving refugee status. Food distribution was often controlled by men and women were the last to receive their share; assistance programmes should be made self-supportive and sustainable by empowering refugee women. Appropriate reproductive health services to help with problems of sexual violence, unwanted pregnancies, family planning and sexually transmitted diseases, should be part of any preventive strategy.
There was a need to underline the need to strengthen partnerships among agencies, governments, host communities and refugees in regards to gender mainstreaming, an issue that also related to the responsibilities of men, she went on. The commitment to ensure the full mainstreaming of gender issues in UNHCR policies in cooperation with all implementing partners, both externally through full involvement of women in the design and implementation of programmes, and internally by improving programme delivery and further increasing the number of female staff, should be underlined. Special attention also needed to be given to providing adequate security to all humanitarian staff, in particular female staff who appeared to be specially targeted.
RAFEEUDDIN AHMED, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that among other things the organization had allocated 10 per cent of its global funds directly to gender concerns, and anticipated that other allocations would also have strong gender dimensions, so that actual global allocation to gender mainstreaming would be closer to 20
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per cent. UNDP regional programmes also had committed between 15 and 20 per cent to such issues. In addition, UNDP Resident Representatives had been requested to discuss with host Governments the feasibility of allocating approximately 20 per cent of their resources to gender-mainstreaming activities. United Nations Resident Coordinators and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) also had supported national dialogues with women's organizations. And among the outcomes to the Beijing women's conference, he noted, had been inter-agency collaboration on women's issues in many countries. In India, for example, five United Nations agencies were supporting a national community-based primary education programme aimed at increasing girls' education.
CATHERINE ANN BERTINI, Executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said there was a need to collect gender statistics and formulate gender action plans such as the one WFP already had. The agency also counted a gender task force and a system to encourage gender-specific skills profiles for management. WFP had an office of evaluation to look at how objectives made at the Beijing conference were met; training staff in gender issues was a key point, as was financial accountability and putting resources into programmes for women.
None of the United Nations agencies had met the 50 per cent women-in-the-workforce criteria, but they were working on it, she said. This applied to the WFP -- food was a women's issue and there should be more women involved in dealing with it. Thus, recruitment managers in country offices had been told of the importance of hiring females, and there had been an increase in the recruitment of women. Mainstreaming gender issues had to be part of programmes of agencies, which then had to be accountable through rigorous monitoring. There had to be agreements with governments on this.
KERSTIN TRONE, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said programmes must aim at changing the attitudes and thinking of individuals, and take the realities of individual lives and conditions into account. For women, it was necessary to internalize the conviction of gender equality so that they themselves had the self-esteem and confidence to take advantage of the choices and opportunities open to them. For men, it was necessary to internalize the conviction so that they would be open to and accepting of the changes emanating from the empowerment of women and the attainment of gender equity and equality. UNFPA, as far back as 1976, had issued its first guidelines for incorporating women's concerns into population and development activities.
Currently, among other things, with its focus on reproductive health and rights and gender equity and equality, UNFPA had been working closely with Governments, she said; to help change attitudes in Tanzania it had sponsored a radio soap-opera series, developed with the assistance of research findings, that had showed signs of having a positive impact on the sexual and
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reproductive health behaviours of young men. In fostering attitudinal changes, approaches which involved community participation and responsibility often had a greater impact. In Uganda, for example, communities that had been resistant to changing female genital mutilation practices when approached in a legalistic manner were receptive to change when the approach involved discussions with the male elders and other members of the community. This participatory approach resulted in some village elders changing their attitudes, and over 300 young girls deciding not to undergo such mutilation in 1996.
MARY CHINERY-HESSE, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), said the ILO was focused on gender issues because its guiding principle was the promotion of equality for all workers. The importance of mainstreaming gender issues was recognized at the ILO as far back as the 1950s. Gender training packages were used by ILO staff at all levels, and had involved its constituents in these packages as part of the capacity-building at country level. Such gender-related programmes had to be preserved, even when budgets were being trimmed. Gender sensitization procedures should be made standard to researchers and staff members in specialized agencies who were involved in policy and guideline formulation and training. The appreciation of mainstreaming of specialized agencies should be equally inculcated in the members of their governing bodies, as United Nations work was ultimately decided by those bodies.
Ms. CHINERY-HESSE added that the self-esteem and confidence necessary for empowerment of women could be applied only if women had their own resources.
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