A more powerful UN agency for women

Progress for Women Is Progress for All

A more powerful UN agency for women

October 2009

After much speculation in the run-up to the debate on 14 September, there was unanimous support on the day when the UN General Assembly considered a resolution which will create a single UN entity to promote the advancement of women. The resolution means that the four existing UN agencies and offices dealing with issues concerning women, including UNIFEM (the UN Development Fund for Women), will be merged and the new agency will be headed by an Under-Secretary General.

In a statement issued after the vote, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said that he was particularly gratified that the Assembly had accepted the proposal for a ‘more robust promotion’ of women’s rights. ‘An important step has been made in strengthening the UN’s work in the area of gender equality and empowerment of women, as well as ensuring the effective delivery of its operational activities for development, which constitutes the other key component of the resolution’, the statement added. The resolution tasks the Secretary General with providing a comprehensive proposal outlining the mission statement, structure, funding and oversight of the new agency so that it can be established as soon as possible.

UNIFEM welcomed the unanimous strong support among member states for the changes, which follow three years of extensive consultations about merging the four existing UN bodies with responsibilities for women’s issues. Ines Alberdi, Executive Director of UNIFEM, pointed out that member states and women’s groups will now have clear expectations that the UN’s capacity to serve women will be substantially enhanced and several elements will be critical. The agency must have a significant operational presence on the ground to lead innovative country-level programmes, and it must have the resources, human and financial, and the authority within the UN to ensure systemwide delivery on gender equality commitments.

The Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) campaign, involving a global network of civil society organisations, has been campaigning for a new UN gender entity for several years. GEAR sees the General Assembly resolution as a historic step which has the potential to start a new era for women’s rights globally. However, it is concerned by the lack of detail in the final resolution and believes that swift and effective action must be taken. GEAR has written to Ban Ki-moon urging him to take the necessary steps now to secure a budget allocation and start the selection process for the Under-Secretary General position at the head of the new agency.

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