Gender gap figures must give us a sharper hunger for change — Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

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Your Excellency, Mr. Martin Schulz,
Ms. García Pérez, 
Mr. Köhler,
Mr. Lambrinidis,
Distinguished Members of Parliament, 
Colleagues and friends,

Good morning.

It is wonderful to have you all here.

This significant gathering is made possible due to the unique European Union-UN Women programme “Spring Forward for Women”.

Launched in October 2012 and funded by the European Commission, this programme supports women’s economic empowerment and political participation in the Southern Mediterranean region.

I warmly thank the European Commission and the European Parliament for organizing this important event with us.

This work has never been more important.

I say this because just last week the World Economic Forum published its ninth Global Gender Gap Report, for 2014.

Despite some progress, women’s participation in the economy and politics remains a big challenge. Progress is slow and deserves urgent attention.

The overall gender gap for economic participation and opportunity currently stands at 60 per cent worldwide.

It has closed by just four percentage points since 2006 when the Forum first started measuring equality for women in the workplace.

On this trajectory, it will take 81 years to close the gap. That’s the year 2095. No one here will see that day.

This is not the progress we were hoping for. It is incremental and slow. What is needed instead is big, bold strides.

These figures must give us a new and sharper hunger for change.

Because these figures describe institutionalized handicapping. 

In nearly every country, women remain underrepresented as leaders and candidates, excluded from leading positions, whether in elected offices, civil services, the private sector or academia.

Twenty years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, only one in five parliamentarians is female.  

Ladies and gentlemen,

As we meet here today in support of the Spring Forward initiative, let us consider what is to be done in both the European Union and Arab States.

Every region that succeeds is a victory for all women in the world, because we cannot afford to wait 81 years to reach genuine gender parity.

In the last EU Parliament elections (May 2014), 751 parliamentarians were elected to represent the interests and needs of the citizens of the 28 States of the European Parliament. 

Some 35 per cent of elected parliamentarians are women.

This an increase in comparison to the first parliamentary elections in 1979, when 16 per cent of elected parliamentarians were women. But the increase is a mere 4 per cent over the previous election and this is not yet parity.

In 2013 the Arab States registered its highest number of women in parliament. 

Due in many instances to the application of temporary special measures such as quotas, representation of women increased to 16 per cent.

Some might say that although 16 per cent representation is the same level as the EU had in 1979, it’s still progress. And a validation of the positive effect of the quota system. But we need to aim for much more, and faster.

Even with special measures, this region still ranks as one of the lowest in the world in political participation. Women have become marginalized even in the transition process. It’s clear we need to aim much higher and collaborate much better.
We need to work together and not accept mediocre outcomes anywhere in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, the global figures are scarcely better, at 22 per cent in 2014, up from 12 per cent in 1995. At this rate it will take 50 years to achieve gender parity.

We cannot be satisfied with this level of progress at this stage. The trajectory is unacceptable. When we celebrate mediocre progress we institutionalize failure.

We have to redefine our concept of progress. We have to change the narrative.

Equality means nothing less than 50 per cent.  After more than 100 years of fighting for this we must aim for genuine victory, or be prepared to wait for another 81 years.

Wherever there is no equality and limited empowerment we are stifling the possibilities for inclusive growth and transformational change.

We know from evidence around the world that women in political leadership have a positive effect on educational systems and infrastructure investment.

They make strides in areas relevant to women, including domestic violence legislation and employment rights, as well as being role models for young women and girls. 

Women are a proven powerful force for economic growth and a definite way to a better life for all.

A recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) study found that gender equality in labour participation rates would have a strong positive impact on GDP growth.

Other studies have shown that Fortune 500 companies with the most women managers have shareholder returns 34 per cent higher than those with the fewest women managers.

But there are barriers that we must remove.

A recent World Bank study of 143 economies found that 128 — almost 90 per cent — still have at least one legal difference in how men and women are treated. That includes laws that make it impossible for a woman to independently obtain an ID card, to own or use property, to access credit or to get a job.

Legislators have a crucial role to play in removing these barriers.

Change in these laws presents a massive opportunity to create the enabling environments within which women can flourish.

You can resolve to enact good laws that enable women's economic activity and repeal discriminating laws.

At this gathering of legislators we need your concrete commitment to this as a specific outcome that you can champion in your countries.

It is these kind of changes that can make the post-2015 an era of big and bold moves that truly change the world.

These changes could be an important defining feature of the new European Commission that has been in place for five days, the new European Parliament that assumed its duties earlier this year and the new President of the European Council.  

This is a great opportunity for this group of leaders to place gender equality at the heart of its work, and to adopt an ambitious — not incremental — agenda.

I invite you to align future strategies in ways that make the post-2015 and Beijing+20 processes building blocks to a new world. Make them barrier-crackers. 

For example, the new Europe 2020 strategy on the new Plan of Action for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development can play that role.

Member States have made good progress in preparing for post-2015. It is a platform we must seize and use effectively.

The Open Working Group proposal on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) includes a strong, dedicated gender equality goal.

This goal, along with mainstreaming of gender in all the other goals, should address key structural constraints to gender equality:

• Discrimination;
• Violence against women and girls;
• Harmful practices;
• Unpaid care work;
• A lack of participation in decision-making; and
• Violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights

Picture the impact of the gender goal if we implement it fully, starting strongly in 2015.

Here, too, you can play an important role in making the stand-alone goal a reality, by advocating for it as a Member of Parliament in your respective country and as a Member of the European Parliament within the European Union.

Distinguished parliamentarians,  

The gender funding gap remains a central problem. Less than 10 per cent of funding for development targets women, who face the greatest challenges and who are more than 50 per cent of the world's population. 

We are collaborating closely with the World Bank to encourage countries to adopt gender responsive budgeting.   

Laws without the necessary allocated budget are failing women.

In general, in crucial areas of development cooperation — especially economic empowerment, and peace and security — women benefit from only a small fraction of the investments.

Official development assistance and supplementary assistance from the private sector and foundations does not adequately target women.

The limited investment in women is clearly detrimental to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and is a strong contributor to delayed impact.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We know that since the uprisings started, women across the Arab States have continued to call for genuine and inclusive nation-building processes.

There has been some affirmative action in the form of constitutional, electoral and political party quotas for parliamentary mandates. 

But the economic and political situation of most of the countries in the region has remained fragile.

The security situation has also worsened in some of the countries and new challenges have risen, notably the situation in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, and the escalation of violence and its impact on civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Only with support for women’s voices and full participation can the coming years hold real promise.

You have a crucial role in ensuring that women’s rights and gender equality are at the forefront of the global, regional, national and local agendas. We all have to support a Middle East region that works for women. 

It is in this framework that today’s conference is a space to discuss, learn and exchange experiences and views among Arab States women parliamentarians and Members of the European Parliament.

I urge you to take this opportunity to create strong networks, both between the MPs from Arab States and the Members of the European Parliament, and among the MPs from Arab States.

We will be stronger and more effective if we work together.

We are already working closely with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Women in Parliaments Global Forum.

UN Women is determined to convene and support events that channel the energy of MPs and others around the world towards demolishing the structural barriers that perpetuate and sustain gender inequality.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is our most comprehensive implementation strategy and the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights.

As part of our joint efforts, I urge all of you to host Beijing+20 events in your parliaments and throughout the European Union.

In March next year, at the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, we will give you a report on the status of women 20 years after the  Beijing Declaration, based on the reports your countries have submitted to us — a record-breaking 158 so far.

In September 2015 we will ask each Head of State to commit to a better future for women 20 years after Beijing and — crucially — to indicate how the new commitments will be resourced.

My friends,

I have suggested that we redefine progress. 2015 to 2030 has to be the last stretch in the centuries-old fight for gender equality. 

This cannot be an open-ended battle anymore. We have the 2015 to 2030 time frame and we must push hard to achieve major progress during that time, starting in the initial five years 2015 to 2020.

You are uniquely placed to make the difference where it most counts:

• To lead the repeal of discriminatory laws that impede women’s participation;
• To  enact laws and provision of special measures that promote parity of representation  and that prevent violence against women;
• To address the funding gap that handicaps our success and institutionalizes failure;
• And we need you to support the post-2015 gender goal.

These are critical contributions that have global benefits.

2015 must mark the beginning of the end of gender inequality, with 2030 as the expiry date.

That will be progress, for us all.

Thank you.