Global leadership meets to position UN Women on new global development agenda
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Strategically timed ahead of the high-level UN Summit later this month, when a new global development framework for the next 15 years will be adopted with a series of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Women leaders came together on 1–3 September 2015 in New York to discuss the positioning of UN Women within this context and calibrate the organization’s interventions for maximum impact.
“This should be the era to bring about unprecedented changes for women and girls,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, referring to the 15-year timeframe in which the SDGs are to be achieved. “By 2030 we want to have achieved substantive, transformative and irreversible gender equality, which depends on what we do from now, and building on the rock-solid foundation we have created over the past five years.”
Deputy Executive Director for Strategic Partnerships and Intergovernmental Support Lakshmi Puri detailed UN Women’s sustained advocacy ensuring that gender equality has been strategically positioned in the new global agenda, both through a stand-alone goal and as a cross-cutting issue.
“Nearly five years after UN Women was created, these normative developments mark one of the biggest opportunity moments … with unprecedented potential and power of possibility,” said Ms. Puri.
The meeting also came as UN Women will call on Heads of State and Governments to make bold 15-year commitments to gender equality at a Global Leaders’ Meeting on 27 September.
The meeting gathered approximately 120 senior UN Women staff, including country office directors from around the world, to focus, coordinate and scale up the organization’s efforts in the context of the sustainable development agenda, but also in light of growing inequalities, increasing extremism, shrinking space for civil society, and climate change. The event included rich discussions with country office representatives about how to achieve the SDGs nationally and ensure women’s full participation through new programming approaches and strengthened resource mobilization, as well as communications and public advocacy.
“We are facing a new reality, as the landscape of international development cooperation has shifted and more than ever the UN is expected to deliver results and show our value and comparative advantage,” said Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Programme Yannick Glemarec. “We have to be ‘fit for purpose’ and leverage our composite mandate that includes normative, coordination and programmatic responsibility and a rights-based approach to achieve transformative change.”
A series of innovative flagship programmes were presented for adoption to shape interventions in countries around the world. They include areas such as women’s engagement in climate-resilient agriculture and participation in political as well as peace and security processes. Other programmes will aim to provide access to justice for women as well as decent work and social protection, or focus on ending violence against women through prevention and the provision of essential services for survivors. Addressing women’s special needs in humanitarian scenarios will be a further emphasis of UN Women interventions.
