| Historic UN action to create single agency for women |
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly: “This is truly a watershed day... By bringing together four parts of the UN system dedicated to women’s issues, Member States have created a much stronger voice for women and for gender equality at the global level.” UN Women will merge the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). A key motivating factor in the decision to create UN Women at this time is the pressure to accelerate progress towards gender equality in the final five years of the Millennium Development Goals. At the ministerial meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) where the establishment of the new agency was negotiated at the beginning of this month, a consensus was reached on the crucial role that women’s empowerment plays in the wider picture of development. Hamidon Ali, president of ECOSOC, stated: “This year ECOSOC has sent a clear message that gender equality and empowerment are at the core of development.” “Investment in women and girls should be at the centre of the national agenda coming out of the 2010 summit in order to meet the goals of 2015,” he added. “I take this positive outcome as a good omen for the Millennium Development Goal summit.” Sources:  |
Following years of campaigning by women’s advocacy groups and negotiations with member states, the UN General Assembly has voted unanimously to merge four separate UN bodies dealing with gender equality into one agency, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women. The new agency will have an annual budget of at least $500 million — double the combined budgets of the existing four agencies — and is set to become operational in January 2011.
