UNIFEM Statement at the 2009 Annual Session of the UNDP/ UNFPA Executive Board

UNIFEM Statement at the 2009 Annual Session of the UNDP/ UNFPA Executive Board

Executive Director Inés Alberdi, Deputy Executive Director Moez Doraid, UNIFEM

Mr. President, Members of the Executive Board, Colleagues and Friends,

I want to thank Helen Clark, the new Administrator of UNDP and Chair of the UN Development Group, for her kind introduction. On behalf of UNIFEM I also want to express our appreciation to the Secretary-General for appointing the first woman leader of the UN development agency. We know, from our work with her when she was Prime Minister of New Zealand, that her commitment and vision for social and gender justice is unparalleled.

I am pleased to provide this first report on the implementation of the UNIFEM Strategic Plan 2008-2011. I will focus on four elements: the contextual factors that influence implementation; progress towards supporting countries to achieve development results for gender equality; achievements and gaps in UNIFEM performance to support countries and UN system partners to advance gender equality; and an update on its integrated financial resource framework.

Introduction

The year 2008 marked the mid-term of national and global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The Accra Action Agenda and the Doha Declaration were agreed as frameworks for development partnerships and financing development. The Security Council agreed to resolution 1820, recognizing threats to women’s security as a concern for national and international security. And Member State discussions on strengthening the institutional framework in support of gender equality in the United Nations advanced in important ways.

By last fall, however, it was clear that the global economic and financial crisis would have reverberating impacts in most, if not all, of our partner countries. Coming on top of the food and energy crises, it has seriously challenged conventional approaches to development — including key assumptions underlying the aid effectiveness and financing for development agendas. Like previous financial crises, this one will have different and serious consequences for the lives and livelihoods of women and girls, particularly those most excluded.

For this reason I appeal to all countries to ensure that, particularly in this context, investments in gender equality and women’s empowerment continue to grow. If they do not, the long-term effects on communities and families will endure long after economies begin to show signs of recovery. There is no quick fix for achieving gender equality, but there are effective long-term solutions. We see this clearly, for example, in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan where long-term initiatives with Imams and villages leaders on women’s land rights are generating concrete results for thousands of women, particularly widows and poor rural women, who now have formal title and can ensure greater food security for their families. Such initiatives must be sustained.

The programmes UNIFEM supports to assist partners to change the options and opportunities for women home-based workers, for indigenous women and other ethnic minorities, for HIV-positive women, for migrant women and women informal cross-border traders, for rural women, women with disabilities, women survivors of violence and conflict are assuming a high priority.

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Source:UNIFEM