SPECIAL ADVISER TO SECRETARY-GENERAL ON GENDER ISSUES TO HEAD INTER-AGENCY GENDER MISSION TO AFGHANISTAN
Press Release
AFG/74
WOM/1001
SPECIAL ADVISER TO SECRETARY-GENERAL ON GENDER ISSUES TO HEAD INTER-AGENCY GENDER MISSION TO AFGHANISTAN
19971107 The Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King, will lead an Inter-Agency Gender Mission to Afghanistan from 10 to 24 November. The aim of the Mission is to agree on a set of pragmatic, field-oriented guidelines addressing gender concerns that can be used by United Nations agencies, donors and non-governmental organizations when implementing their programmes, and also to establish key indicators to monitor compliance with the guidelines.Scheduled to take part in the Mission are representatives of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, and of a non-governmental organization which has projects, programmes or involvement in Afghanistan.
In order to assess the gender situation in Afghanistan, the Mission will review several key programmes and projects from a gender perspective and identify practical methods to implement them in the current circumstances. The Mission, which is scheduled to meet Afghan women and men, will also propose mechanisms for achieving, maintaining and monitoring gender equality within the framework of international norms and standards.
Ms. King's visit follows the findings of an inter-agency strategic framework mission, which was fielded from 22 September to 12 October, to provide a foundation for an overall strategy for international assistance to Afghanistan, as recommended by the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC). The Mission also comes after the Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs endorsed a "principle-centred approach" in response to continued restrictions on women's rights in Afghanistan, and their implications for the work of the United Nations, donors and non-governmental organizations.
That approach was adopted on 3 June, in response to the continued restrictions on women's rights in Afghanistan and their implications for the work of the United Nations, bilateral donors and non-governmental organizations in the country, and later endorsed by the Secretary-General and communicated to all United Nations agencies on 26 June. It enables continued engagement in life- sustaining and other humanitarian activities, including development and rehabilitation, but also envisages disengagement of United Nations agencies from certain institutional assistance programmes depending on their nature.
While in Afghanistan, Ms. King is scheduled to meet the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) fact-finding mission who will be at the time in the country. On her return to New York, she will present a report to the Secretary- General.
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