GENDER INITIATIVES AT UNITED NATIONS FALL SHORT DUE TO LACK OF COMMITMENT AT MANAGEMENT LEVEL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TOLD

9 July 1998

Press Release
ECOSOC/5769

GENDER INITIATIVES AT UNITED NATIONS FALL SHORT DUE TO LACK OF COMMITMENT AT MANAGEMENT LEVEL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TOLD

19980709 United Nations Urged Towards Action to Assure Gender Equality, During Council Debate on Follow-up to 1995 Women's Conference

Tangible results in gender mainstreaming could not be expected unless serious changes occurred in the mind-set of United Nations senior officials, the representative of the Republic of Korea told the Economic and Social Council this afternoon.

Addressing the Council as it continued debate on follow-up to the 1995 Fourth World Conference for Women, he also said the outcome of gender initiatives had fallen short at the United Nations due to the lack of understanding and commitment at the management level, he continued. The issue of gender mainstreaming, which was not regarded as a top priority, still remained at the initial stage in the overall activities of the Organization. Gender perspectives should be addressed as a major cross-sectoral priority at the United Nations.

There was a clear slant towards an excessively theoretical and abstract approach to mainstreaming a gender perspective in the United Nations, the representative of the Russian Federation said. The time had come to move from complex words about taking gender into account to concrete action to assure gender equity.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said new approaches and new ways of working were needed now that gender equality was firmly accepted as a United Nations system-wide goal. Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action required UNIFEM to develop synergetic partnerships and leadership approaches in its areas of comparative advantage. The UNIFEM's work would focus on fostering accountability to achieve a world free from poverty, violence and inequality, which was what the world had pledged when it met in Beijing in 1995.

Statements were made by China, Norway, Belarus, Viet Nam, India, Pakistan, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mongolia, Swaziland, Kazakhstan, Romania and Nigeria.

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The Council was also addressed by the representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The Council will meet again at 6 p.m. this evening to conclude the high-level debate of its operational activities segment.

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this afternoon to continue its segment on operational activities for international development cooperation. During this segment, which opened this morning with a high-level debate, the Council will address the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action adopted at the close of the 1995 Fourth World Conference for Women and enhancing the participation of women in development. (For more background information, see press release ECOSOC/5768 of 9 July.)

Statements

SHEN GUOFANG (China) said that to implement gender mainstreaming, United Nations operational activities must enhance policy dialogue and coordination among its various bodies to deepen the impact of assistance programmes at country level. The proposals in the Secretary-General's report, covering capacity-building, staff training, time-bound targets, accountability and evaluation mechanisms, were very unnecessary. The Chinese delegation supported the inclusion of promotion of women's advancement in the proposed United Nations development assistance framework and it emphasized the importance of the UNDP resident coordinator in giving expression to the idea of involving the gender issue in technical cooperation.

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women had given a strong impetus to the advancement of Chinese women. The Chinese Government was implementing a programme for women's development to the year 2000 to enhance the capacity- building of women and to get them more involved in social and economic development. Ten million women in poverty stricken areas had received education and training in production technologies. The Chinese Government had made women, especially those living in poverty, the priority beneficiaries of aid programmes provided by the United Nations development system and developed countries. Related assistance programmes covered women's basic education, health care and technical and vocational training.

LEE SEE-YOUNG (Republic of Korea) said gender mainstreaming had yet to enjoy the full-fledged support of the entire United Nations system. The issue still remained at the initial stage in the overall activities of the Organization. It was regarded as a possible example of a priority theme, and not top priority. Gender perspectives should be reflected in the various projects and activities of the United Nations and be addressed as a major cross-sectoral priority. The question of overlap should be solved by strengthening coordination and cooperation among United Nations agencies.

The reality showed that the gender focal point system required further improvement in its operational effectiveness and institutional support, he said. That system should operate on the basis of a clearer mandate. Also, it should be governed by institutional directives rather than by discretionary guidelines.

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He said resource mobilization was a key component in pursuing gender mainstreaming. Further efforts needed to be made in monitoring the appropriate disbursement of funds, especially those allocated for local level projects. That would help attract further financial support from donor countries and United Nations agencies. Tangible results in gender mainstreaming could not be expected unless serious efforts were made towards changing the mind-set of senior officials in the Organization. His delegation noted that the outcome of gender initiatives had fallen short due to the lack of understanding and commitment at the management level.

Last February, the Republic of Korea established the principle of gender mainstreaming as a basic tenet of its women's rights policies and incorporated it in the national five-year plan on women's policies. His delegation called upon governments to make further efforts to eliminate discriminatory practices based on gender in the labour market and to ensure the participation of women in the decision-making process of development.

LEIV LUNDE, State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Norway, said mainstreaming gender equality at the United Nations challenged the existing Organization and called for change. The momentum built after the United Nations conferences of the 1990s must be maintained at the national level and within the United Nations. Focal points and gender units were important tools in mainstreaming gender activities. Those instruments must, however, be used to benefit the whole Organization.

The true test of implementing the action plan for women would be in the field, he continued. Resident coordinators had an overall responsibility to mainstream the gender equality perspective into the United Nations field activities. The current situation in Afghanistan illustrated the need for increased attention to gender issues. Norway welcomed the appointment of a high-level adviser on this matter in Afghanistan. A better integrated gender perspective at the country level could improve the United Nations operational activities even more.

ALYAKSANDR SYCHOU (Belarus) said at the close of the nineteenth century, the goals of equal pay, jobs and employment for women had not been achieved. Today, there was a real danger that new forms of discrimination against women could emerge in the economies in transition. Belarus supported the gender mainstreaming approach advocated for those countries in the Beijing Platform for Action and had drawn up and implemented a number of measures aimed at removing discrimination against women. Belarus had received significant assistance and contribution from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). A number of programmes, seminars and research projects had been initiated to address the issues of gender.

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Belarus was dedicated to implementing the Beijing initiatives. Belarus, in cooperation with UNIFEM, was in a position to advise other countries with economies in transition on gender issues.

NOELEEN HEYZER, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said there were a host of new requirements now that gender equality was firmly accepted as a United Nations system-wide goal. There needed to be new approaches and new ways of working. Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action required UNIFEM to develop synergetic partnerships and leadership approaches in its areas of comparative advantage. Accordingly, UNIFEM was working to eliminate violence against women. The Trust Fund in Support of Action to Eliminate Violence against Women has allocated $2 million for 49 projects in its first 18 months.

Women's empowerment was a goal of all UNIFEM programmes, she said. The UNIFEM was working to strengthen the capacity of women's organizations to use the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as a tool for supporting rights-based advocacy. In the area of economic rights, UNIFEM supported the organizing efforts of home-based workers and the work of the self-empowered women's association's movement for the ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention on home work.

The UNIFEM and the UNDP were participating in a microcredit campaign aimed at providing 100 million of the world's poorest families -- particularly women -- with credit for self-employment by 2005. The UNIFEM's role was to ensure a strong focus on microfinance as a tool for women in achieving economic and political empowerment. The UNIFEM's work focused on fostering accountability to achieve a world free from poverty, violence and inequality, which was what the world pledged to do in Beijing in 1995.

LE LUONG MINH (Viet Nam) said his Government attached great importance to gender mainstreaming in political, cultural and social fields. Viet Nam was implementing a national strategy and plan of action for the advancement of women with assistance from the UNDP and the Netherlands. His Government had also adopted a plan of action towards the year 2000. Its overall aim was to improve the material and spiritual life of women; raise and promote the knowledge, capability and role of women; and ensure that women participated fully and equally in all spheres.

During three years since Beijing, Viet Nam had recorded several major achievements in its implementation of the Platform for Action, he said. Strategies and national action programmes were widely disseminated and publicized by various government authorities and organizations. Ministries, branches and provinces were carrying out detailed programmes as part of their socio-economic development plans. Jobs had been generated for 30 per cent of women and nearly one half of its provinces had met the national targets for the eradication of illiteracy. In addition, more than 26 per cent of the national assembly deputies were women.

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ATUL KHARE (India) said that over 1 billion Indian rupees had been earmarked this year by his Government for the provision of free college-level education for girls and women. The Government had also attempted to forge new social contracts and partnerships with the private and civil sectors. Full deduction of income tax was being allowed for investments made by those sectors in establishing and maintaining educational institutions exclusively for women in rural areas.

Female education had always been a priority and his Government envisaged the entire education system working for women's empowerment, he said. Gender concerns must be built into all educational process. Special provisions had therefore been incorporated in various schemes, such as the recruitment of rural women as teachers and the removal of the gender bias in the curricula.

He said there were other initiatives aimed at mobilizing women in self-help groups, and focusing on income and awareness generation. In addition, several programmes for employment and training continued to be implemented. The major thrust was to expand coverage and improve infrastructure and delivery systems under India's integrated child development services, as well as to focus on programmmes to enhance women's credit access, employment, training and support services. The Indian Constitution had been amended to provide for affirmative action through the allocation of 33 per cent of elected positions for women at local and municipal levels. That had put over 1 million women into responsible positions. Those women were now making a significant contribution to gender equality and women's empowerment. The Indian Government remained committed to introducing a bill for similar reservation in the Parliament.

He said India was in the process of formulating a national policy for the empowerment of women to enhance the status of women in all walks of life. The success of programmes to deal with the issue of women and gender would require the provision of adequate resources. It was therefore paramount to effectively address declining resources in funds and programmes.

VLADIMIR PARSHIKOV, Deputy Head of the Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights of the Russian Federation, said the agreed conclusions adopted by the Council last year had played a positive role in mainstreaming a gender perspective in the United Nations. While ensuring equality between men and women had become a priority for the Organization, there was a clear slant towards excessively theoretical and abstract approach to the situation. The time had come to move from complex words about taking gender into account, to concrete action to assure gender equity.

National plans of action were designed to adapt the sum of international experience to the needs of a particular country, he said. The Russian Federation's concept to improve the situation of women was based on the recommendations of global, regional and subregional bodies, as well as Russian women's forums. Many regions in the country had adopted their own plans of

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action that took into account the specific local characteristics and needs. Despite the growing level of involvement, technical assistance from the United Nations to improve the situation of women in countries with economies in transition should be increased, he said. It was important for United Nations agencies supplying that assistance to strengthen cooperation with government bodies. That would increase the effectiveness of the Organization's resources.

KHALID AZIZ BABAR (Pakistan) said no country could make progress without integrating women into the mainstream of its economic, social and political activities. While the primary responsibility for national policies and priorities lay with governments, the United Nations had to play a complementary role in the social and economic development efforts of countries. The main focus of the Organization's operational activities should be directed to key priority areas like poverty eradication, employment, health and education.

Regrettably, dwindling flows of financial assistance from donor countries had been a major impediment in the developing countries' efforts to fulfilling Beijing commitments, he said. The lack of resources was also hampering United Nations operational activities in a number of countries. The Organization, therefore, needed to strengthen its activities by ensuring more liberal flows of development assistance to developing countries on a predictable, continuous and assured basis commensurate with the needs of host countries.

He said that another important element which needed special attention was the improvement by the United Nations of its evaluation, monitoring, and accountability mechanism for assessment of its operational activities. Since the Beijing Conference, Pakistan had taken a number of steps to empower women in the economic, social and political fields including: the establishment of a full-fledged Ministry for Women Development; the enactment of appropriate legislation to safeguard women's rights; the preparation of a national plan of action to implement the Beijing Platform for Action; and the accession by Pakistan to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

FREDERICK WEIBGEN, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said women faced constraints and attitudes that undervalued their work and responsibilities, reduced their productivity and hindered their participation in decision- and policy-making. Unless urgent action was taken to remove those constraints and change those attitudes, food security would not be achieved for that or future generations. Increased coordination and linkage between policy, normative and operational activities provided a better opportunity for increasing and coordinating development cooperation, and for integrating cross-sectoral issues such as gender.

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In its efforts to strengthen the commitment of its staff to mainstream issues of gender, the FAO developed a comprehensive plan of action for women in development, he said. It reflected international initiatives concerning rural women. The key objective was to stimulate growth with equity, while reducing rural poverty and achieving food security. Efforts towards those objectives would focus on the provision of adequate and equitable access to productive resources and essential services for both rural women and men.

The FAO was providing technical support to its member countries, he said. That assistance included human and institutional capacity-building at national and sub-national levels, gender analysis training and gender responsive project formulation. The overall objective of those activities was to promote capacity-building for facilitating rural women's access to productive resources and service. That would enhance their participation in development.

MIRZA CRISTINA GNECCO (Colombia) said her country had created a directorate for women to implement the goals of the Beijing Conference. Colombia had made major efforts to comply with the Beijing Plan of Action, particularly in the area of eliminating poverty, with women constituting the major percentage of the poor in Colombia. The Government had also increased the number of childcare institutions in an effort to assist women and mothers. In the area of education, UNICEF and a number of other organizations were working collectively to put gender equity into the national 10-year education plan. Support systems had also been established for women heads of family in recognition of their special vulnerability.

She said that a nation-wide sexual and reproductive health policy had also been put in place. Its emphasis was on quality care for diseases and illnesses that particularly affected women. In other areas, people were being made aware of the sexual reproductive rights of women and being educated about HIV/AIDS. National policies also sought to address violence against women, with the law strictly being applied to the issue of violence in the family. Also, there were a number of inter-institutional forums, non-governmental organizations and grass-roots organizations involved in making people aware of the laws that protected women.

Unemployment hit women harder than men and the Government was seeking to improve access of women to jobs, she said. That included training, planning and showing women where to find jobs. In the area of women's human rights, there was now severe punishment for sexual crimes against women. The Government was also endeavouring to create a culture that supported the human rights of women and ensured the effective participation of females in public institutions.

LUIS VALENCIA RODRIGUEZ (Ecuador) said in recent years resources for development activities had declined constantly. The international community must turn that trend around and attain the 0.7 per cent of gross domestic

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product (GDP) objective for ODA. Such assistance was necessary in order to achieve sustainable development and sustained economic growth for developing countries. The Council must seek new sources of financing for development activities.

There was also a need to expand financing sources for fostering technical cooperation among developing countries, he said. Technical cooperation among developing countries should be complementary to traditional cooperation for development and not a substitute. Ecuador reaffirmed its support for United Nations Development Assistance Framework on the understanding that the framework for each country must be worked out with the respective governments. All funds and programmes working within any given country should be united under the resident coordinator. However, there should not be any decrease in resources earmarked for any specific programmes and projects of individual agencies.

The goals proposed for mainstreaming gender were not easy to attain and much work still needed to be done, he said. The programmes and funds should strengthen their systems in order to assure success in that process. Ecuador also reaffirmed its support for the work being done by the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. Research and training were fundamental tools of work in gender issues. The Institute should be empowered to receive additional and extrabudgetary resources.

KARIN SHAM POO, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said the majority of girls were still today defined and predestined by their gender, not their ability. Far too many of them would never be able to realize their full potential. Now, UNICEF-assisted programmes were increasingly cast in the framework defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

She outlined some of the lessons learned by UNICEF, namely that investment in social services and women's empowerment was central to achieving social goals. Also, adoption of an operational framework was essential to mainstreaming a gender perspective, which required a systematic strategy for capacity-building and awareness-raising, for building commitment and enhancing competence among staff and national counterparts. Support of national plans of action for implementing the Beijing Platform of Action, as well as the development of partnerships with civil society were also needed.

The key areas for action included quality assurance and accountability for gender mainstreaming in country programmes, she said. The UNICEF was developing a programmer's handbook on gender mainstreaming, which would be ready by the end of the year. It also supported the Secretary-General's recommendation identifying the United Nations Development Assistance Framework as a key instrument for inter-agency collaboration aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Beijing Platform. The availability and mobilization of

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resources was also crucial, in the light of dwindling official development assistance (ODA) flows and the breakdown of some national economies and social welfare systems. Moreover, budgets for women and children were hardest hit in times of economic crisis, severely jeopardizing social development.

PATRICIA DURRANT (Jamaica) drew attention to the suggestion that the Development Assistance Framework could prove to be the most effective way yet of enhancing coordination of United Nations gender-related activities. As one of the countries selected for the second pilot phase of the Framework, Jamaica would follow closely the outcome of that experiment. However, limitations of the Framework were already evident. Its application was only to the funds and programmes, and its potential for implementation might be limited only in some countries, leaving others without a coordination vehicle for gender mainstreaming.

Further, the reported weakness in the system of focal points was proof that gender mainstreaming must be an integral part of the training of all United Nations resident coordinators as well as other senior managers in the field, she said. Such training would also eliminate the tendency for some resident coordinators/managers to display only an "ad hoc" interest in gender mainstreaming. In the area of capacity-building, it was imperative in countries like Jamaica that non-governmental entities be empowered to undertake such activities and public education and skills training.

Also important were specific steps aimed at deepening the understanding of United Nations staff, governments and other partners on cross-cutting recommendations of the world conferences, she said. Her Government was avoiding the pitfalls of disjointedness and duplication among various operational activities by ensuring that the agency mandated with promoting women's issues was represented on key-government entities responsible for other major global conference themes, such as those dealing with the eradication of poverty, the root of women's vulnerability.

She urged United Nations agencies to continue to support the efforts of developing countries, through resource mobilization, in the areas of gender mainstreaming and women's development. The Organization was also urged to work more closely with the Bretton Woods institutions to ensure the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in their policies and programmes. It might also encourage States to comply with their reporting obligations to the operational activities. In that way, country reports on implementation of the Convention could be used in respective programming frameworks, thereby serving to "operationalize" the advancement of women and motivate reporting by other States.

TSOGT NYAMSUREN (Mongolia) said that following the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, her Government adopted the National Programme of Action for the Advancement of Women, which identified 10 critical areas of concern, including women and economic development. Women were still more likely to be

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employed in unskilled, manual and low-wage jobs and to work under less favourable conditions. During the transition period, female unemployment had increased, although considerable changes had taken place in the structure of their employment, such as a marked rise in the number of women employed in the private sector.

The Mongolian Government had also introduced in 1994 a six-year multi- sectoral poverty alleviation programme, which sought to reduce the "feminization" of poverty and promote income and employment opportunities through specific loans and welfare schemes for women, he noted. It also aimed to provide women with greater access to training and strengthen the national machinery for their advancement. Last year, the Government organized a national forum on microcredit in order to identify ways to provide the rural poor with greater access to resources and assets. It also envisaged enforcing existing discriminatory laws, and introducing specific provisions to guarantee women equal access to resources.

The current decline in ODA and in contributions to core resources was a matter of concern for Mongolia, he said. As a developing, landlocked country, it relied heavily on external resources for development. Increasing development needed additional funding. In that connection, Mongolia welcomed the cost-sharing practices in the operational activities of the United Nations and favoured increased non-core and earmarked funding, as well as the mobilization of private sector support. Core resources needed to be increased on a predictable, continuous and assured basis.

MOSES MATHENDELE DLAMINI (Swaziland) said the United Nations funds and programmes must play a key role in assisting governments in the follow-up, implementation and monitoring of the Beijing Platform for Action. Although resources were hardly adequate in most areas, the decision by the UNDP to allocate 20 per cent of its resources to gender mainstreaming was an indication of its commitment.

The programme of support articulated within the UNDP and Swaziland cooperation framework for the period 1997-1999 was geared towards poverty alleviation, he said. The provision of equal opportunities and legislation for the employment and empowerment of women and persons with disabilities in all sectors of employment, was pursued under his Government's capacity strengthening for good governance programme. Other areas of cooperation between the UNDP and his country included: the support of women parliamentarians in ensuring their full participation in the parliamentary process; the support of women in rural areas; and gender sensitization workshops targeting policy-makers, addressing solutions to gender violence, and women's economic empowerment, poverty eradication, culture, family and socialization.

He said UNICEF had also been engaged in an active approach towards the development of children and women in Swaziland. The United Nations Population

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Fund (UNFPA) had been supportive of the activities of the gender task force that was formed to produce a gender policy statement. A number of local people had also been trained by the UNFPA on the issues of gender. It was unfortunate UNIFEM was not involved in any of his country's programmes. He said that anomaly must be reviewed and corrected since Swaziland was a developing country.

KATHERINE HAGEN, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said the ILO had intensified its efforts to assist its constituents in their efforts to improve gender equality in the world of work. The ILO was concentrating on developing practical tools and strategies to promote economic empowerment and to combat poverty and vulnerability of women. Yet, it also recognized the importance of incorporating gender awareness into all of its programmes for the benefit of both women and men.

The ILO recently adopted a declaration of fundamental principles, she said. Of the declaration's four basic principles, one was the elimination of discrimination in respect to employment and occupation. The declaration ensured equity, social progress and the eradication of poverty worldwide. Principles contained in the declaration would guide ILO resource mobilization for technical assistance.

Over the past three years, the ILO had organized more than 25 seminars and training workshops in all regions, she said. The aim was to encourage constituents to adopt follow-up actions plans to strengthen sustainable institutional networks. It was also clear that senior management needed to be far more actively involved in the gender mainstreaming efforts. The ILO had intensified its efforts to enhance the capacity of its staff to better integrate gender aspects in policy and programme formulation and technical programmes. That would improve the quality of the ILO's assistance to its constituents in gender mainstreaming. Three additional posts of "Senior Specialists on Women and Gender Questions" had been created, which brought the total to seven.

AKMARAL KH. ARYSTANBEKOVA (Kazakhstan) expressed satisfaction over United Nations efforts towards capacity building for gender mainstreaming. She welcomed the intention of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, together with the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, to continue to implement the existing intergovernmental mandates, which allowed for a more focused provision of gender advisory services to governments. For the effective implementation of the directives on gender equality issued by the UNDP and the UNFPA there should be greater accountability at all levels, particularly with reference to high-level managers and quality staff training programmes. Such programmes needed financial support.

She said the gender perspective was acquiring greater significance in the political, economic and social life of Kazakhstan and the Government had

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adopted a national plan for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Practical activity by women's organizations was on the increase with more than 30 organizations which brought to the Government's attention the difficult issues relating to equal rights and the role of women in modern society. The Parliament had ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and now must work to bring national legislation into line with its provisions. In that regard, the Government would welcome the assistance of the United Nations system.

Unemployment hit women harder than men and the Government was seeking to improve access by women to jobs, she said. That included training, planning and showing women where to find jobs. In the area of women's human rights, there was now severe punishment for sexual crimes against women. The Government was also endeavouring to create a culture that favoured the human rights of women and ensured the effective participation of females in public institutions.

ION GORITA (Romania) said the operational activities of the United Nations should be an important source of assistance to women's empowerment and gender equality objectives at the country level. In that context, Romania appreciated the progress already achieved through the establishment of gender units, thematic groups and focal points at Headquarters, and the placement of gender advisers and specialists in the field. Continued United Nations reform had the potential to attain the goal of gender equality.

Particular focus should be placed on the assessment of gender equality as a cross-cutting theme in the integrated implementation of the follow-up to the major conferences and summits, he said. The UNIFEM also had played a remarkable catalytic role, despite limited resources, in promoting gender equality in the United Nations system and at the country level. His Government called on Member States to strengthen their support to the activities of UNIFEM.

In 1995, Romania established a department for the advancement of women, he said. It defined its main priorities in its national plan on women which included empowering women, ensuring equal participation in decision-making structures, combating violence against women and bettering women's health. While acknowledging that individual governments had the primary responsibility to promote gender equality, his Government believed that international cooperation and assistance were also indispensable. Romania, in cooperation with the UNDP, had undertaken various projects concerning women in development, rural women and elderly women. The UNIFEM recently launched a pilot project dedicated to economic empowerment of rural women in Romania.

GABRIEL SAM AKUNWAFOR (Nigeria) said his country had given special consideration to the full integration of women's priorities and concerns into the national and development processes through gender mainstreaming. The problem of inadequate resources, however, remained a major constraint to the

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effective participation by Nigeria in various gender workshops of the United Nations agencies. It was hoped that the Organization's agencies would accept the challenge to increase the level of their assistance to developing countries to enable effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Nigeria had produced and submitted its national action plan for the implementation of the Beijing initiatives, but inadequate resources had again hampered proper implementation, he said. His delegation welcomed the call for enhanced international cooperation to mobilize new and additional resources in order to contribute to the attainment of the goals of poverty eradication, particularly among women and girls.

He said that Nigeria had established several poverty alleviation programmes with the aim of improving the economic status of women. In addition, national financial institutions had been established by the Government to provide easy credit facilities to people including women.

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