Progress made
In 2008, UNECE made further progress in the area of gender activities. Driven by member countries, this progress consisted of strengthening gender mainstreaming, launching the preparatory process for the Beijing +15 regional review, promoting a gender perspective in economic policies, including through subregional initiatives, and including gender in the Financing for Development process at the regional and global levels. The gender webpages on the UNECE website were also enhanced in 2008: http://www.unece.org/oes/gender/Welcome.html.
Strengthening of mainstreaming gender into UNECE work
• The discussions at meetings of the Executive Committee and the work of its Informal Group on the Economics of Gender have played a key role in further promoting this process, and the sectoral committees have been encouraged to consider a gender perspective in their work plans for 2008-2009
• A number of sectoral committees will include gender-related outputs in their activities, such as in the preparation of Environmental Performance Reviews and country profiles on housing, and the work of the Team of Specialists on Gender in Forestry
• Gender statistics continue to be a major UNECE activity under the Conference of European Statisticians. In addition to maintenance of the gender statistics website and database (http://w3.unece.org/pxweb/DATABASE/STAT/Gender.stat.asp), training tools on gender statistics have been developed and more work has been done, for example, on economic indicators
• There is also a strong focus on gender in the programme of work of the Population Unit under the Generations and Gender Programme
• Initiatives have been taken to improve cross-divisional cooperation; good practices include collaboration between the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Statistical Division and the Economic Cooperation and Integration Division in the implementation of the UNDA project on mainstreaming gender into economic policies in Central Asia (2007-2008); and between the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Population Unit in the preparatory process for the 15-year review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing +15 Review).
Launching the preparatory process for the Beijing +15 regional Review
The Review process will involve: (i) a questionnaire for member States that will be prepared in collaboration with all the regional commissions and the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women. The feedback will provide the basis for a regional report on progress which will in turn be an input into a session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2010; and (ii) a regional meeting focused on the economics of gender in a pan–European perspective.
The meeting will address the economics of gender in the context of the current economic situation and demographic change. It will discuss links between gender equality, competitiveness, economic growth and ageing as well as gender sensitive public finance, role of the private sector and other stakeholders and regional cooperation with a view to identifying good practices at all levels of policy design and implementation in the pan-European region.
It is expected that the meeting will address six thematic clusters:
• Regional overview of progress focused on the Women and Economy Area
• The economics of gender as a key factor of sustainable development in the context of the current economic situation and demographic trends
• Public finance and gender responsive budgets
• New partnerships for gender sensitive economic policies
• Corporate Social Responsibility: the business case for gender equality
• Pan-European architecture: the role of regional and subregional cooperation.
Promoting a gender perspective in economic policies to reach the Millennium Development Goals
The following work was accomplished under the UNDA project:
• A Knowledge Hub on Economics of Gender was established within the UNECE website. It provides information for policymakers on how to mainstream gender into economic policies at all levels. It includes information by region, topic, resource (e.g. background studies, reports, strategies, tool kits and manuals) and the United Nations global processes.
• MDG-related indicators to measure progress in the gender and economy area (conceptual and methodological framework providing a list of indicators and assessment of data availability in pilot countries – Georgia, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Moldova). This work was led by the Team on Social and Demographic Statistics of the UNECE Statistical Division.
Subregional initiatives
UNECE continued to support subregional initiatives promoting the economics of a gender approach in countries in Central Asia and South-East Europe.
Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) Project Working Group on Gender and Economy
In 2008, the Group continued work in two priority areas: promoting gender-sensitive economic policies and capacity-building to increase women’s economic opportunities in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector (www.unece.org/oes/gender/SPECA).
• National assessments of the business environment for women’s entrepreneurship were prepared for three pilot countries (Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) with policy recommendations to support rural women. The assessments were co-financed by UNECE (from the UNDA project) and the ILO regional office for CIS countries. The assessments were based on the UNECE/ILO framework and methodology.
• Two training workshops in Russian for women entrepreneurs supported by the Government of Israel were organized in response to the requests of member countries. In 2008, a total of 50 policymakers and representatives of women’s business associations and NGOs were trained during two workshops held in Haifa, on 26 March-10 April 2008 and 1-12 December 2008. The main themes were support measures for women’s entrepreneurship at national and local levels and the use of information and communication technologies. Training materials included the UNECE publication on Good Practices in Access to Financing and ICT for Women Entrepreneurs.
South-East Europe
• During the high-level meetings held between UNECE and RCC in Sarajevo in June and October, the economics of gender were identified as one of the priority areas for cooperation between the two organizations in countries of South-East Europe.
Contribution to the Financing for Development Process
• Gender aspects were part of the Financing for Development process during regional consultations in the UNECE region held in spring 2008.
• A high-level side event on economics of gender took place at the Financing for Development Conference (Doha, 29 November 2008). It was organized by Norway in collaboration with UNECE and other regional commissions. The event drew on recommendations from these consultations. The main message emanating from it was that the current global financial crisis has made it even more urgent for the potential of women and men alike to be fully utilized if the MDGs are to be achieved.
Challenges for 2009
Among the key challenges for 2009 are:
• Preparation of a regional report on progress and organization of a regional meeting in the context of the review of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (Beijing +15).
• Further strengthening of gender aspects in the work of the UNECE sectoral committees.
• Organization of a regional workshop to present the results of the UNDA project on mainstreaming gender into economic policies to reach the MDGs, including follow-up on recommendations from national assessments of the business environment for women’s entrepreneurship.
• Providing further support to the SPECA Working Group on Gender and Economy and developing at least one new project for South-East Europe under UNECE/RCC cooperation.
• Providing timely contribution(s) on region-specific gender aspects requested by the United Nations General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, in particular on women’s access to resources.
• Developing further cooperation with United Nations agencies under the One United Nations process at country and regional levels, as well as with other partners, in particular the European Commission.
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