The Commonwealth
  1. Home
  2. What's New
    1. Latest News - RSS
  3. Who We Are
  4. What we do
    1. Democracy and Consensus Building
    2. Economic Development
    3. Education
    4. Environmentally Sustainable Development
    5. Gender
    6. Good offices for peace
    7. Health
    8. Human Development
    9. Human Rights
    10. Rule of law
    11. Public Sector Development
    12. Sport
    13. Youth
  5. How we do it
    1. Policy Development
    2. Technical Assistance
    3. Advisory Services
    4. Development Network
    5. Case Studies
    6. Funding
  6. News
    1. Events
    2. News Archive
    3. Picture Stories
    4. Blogs
    5. Newsletter
    6. Around the Commonwealth
    7. Profiles
    8. From the Archives
    9. Connect with us
  7. Media Room
    1. Media Advisories
    2. Press Releases
    3. Media Contacts
    4. Broadcast Video
    5. CommonwealthTV
    6. Podcast: Pick of the Commonwealth
    7. Events
    8. In the news
    9. Updates
    10. Quotes on the Commonwealth
    11. Commonwealth Images
    12. Secretary-General Pictures
    13. Secretary-General Biography
    14. Commonwealth FAQ's
  8. Resources
    1. Documents
    2. Image Library
    3. Library & Archives
  9. Publications
  10. Employment
  11. FAQs
    1. Acronyms
  12. Contact Us

Gender

Gender and Human Development

9WAMM

Final Communiqué

The ninth Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting (9WAMM) was held in Barbados from 7-9 June 2010. Delegations from 32 countries attended the Meeting. The Meeting was opened by the Hon Freundel Stuart, Acting Prime Minister of Barbados and chaired by the Hon Stephen Lashley, Minister of Youth, Family and Sports, Barbados.

The theme of the conference was “Gender Issues in Economic Crisis, Recovery and Beyond: Women as Agents of Transformation".

Click here for the text of the final Communiqué

More...

 

Objective

Our objective is to ensure that gender equality and gender mainstreaming become legitimate, non-controversial and integral parts of the structure, systems, laws and culture of governments.

Relevance

Advancing gender equality and mainstreaming gender across the Commonwealth will directly contribute to the achievement of development goals and targets in a way that is meaningful in the lives of women, men, girls and boys. Gender equality is a key factor in:

  • Promoting economic growth and accountability in the management of public goods and services
  • Eradicating poverty and stimulating economic empowerment for marginalized groups especially women
  • Enhancing democracy and peace
  • Eliminating discrimination and violence against women
  • Ensuring education for all
  • Improving maternal health
  • Reducing child mortality
  • Combating HIV/AIDS

We respond to emerging global priorities and concerns relating to gender, and are accountable to mandates received from Commonwealth Ministers for Women, Law and Finance, and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings.

Impact

Since 1995 we have led the way in pioneering analysis, influencing policy work and developing frameworks which promote gender equality and mainstreaming. For example, we have developed a ‘Gender Management System’ (GMS) which provides a practical framework for applying gender analysis to sectors such as finance, education, trade and industry as well as handling cross-cutting development issues such as poverty, the Millennium Development Goals, and HIV/AIDS.