Geneva, 27 January
2004 - The Symposium on Mainstreaming
Gender into Economic Policies is a joint
event organized by the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe and the Office of
the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and
Advancement of Women (OSAGI/DAW). It will
be opened by Ms. Brigita Schmögnerová,
UNECE Executive Secretary and Ms. Carolyn
Hannan, Director, UN Division for the Advancement
of Women.
The Symposium aims at supporting
national efforts to implement the Beijing
Platform for Action (1995) and the recommendations
of the twenty-third special session of the
General Assembly (Beijing +5) especially
within the region-specific priorities agreed
at the UNECE Regional Meeting for the 5-year
Review of Implementation of the Platform
for Action (Geneva, 2000).
It will gather heads and
representatives of national gender machineries
as well as representatives of line ministries
in the area of economics, such as ministries
of economy, finance, and labour and social
affairs from over 35 UNECE member States
from North America; EU countries; accession
and non-accession countries of eastern and
central Europe; and countries of Central
Asia and South Caucasus.
The symposium will identify
approaches, challenges and entry points
for gender-sensitive policies in the economic
field based on good practices from individual
countries. The main areas of economic policies,
which will be addressed include: (i) access
to finance and assets; (ii) women's employability
and employment; (iii) gender budgets; and
(iv) pension systems. The participants will
also discuss institutional mechanisms for
mainstreaming gender into economic policies
as well as regional cooperation among international
organizations and NGOs in supporting gender
mainstreaming in the economic field. The
discussion will be based on two background
papers prepared by the UNECE secretariat
and four papers prepared by international
experts in their respective fields. All
papers are available at www.unece.org/oes/gender
Among the speakers are
Ms. Malisheva, First Deputy of Labour and
Social Development, the Russian Federation;
Ms. Barbara Helfferich, member of the Cabinet
of the Commissioner for Employment and Social
Affairs, who will present the EU draft directive
on equal access to goods and services, Mr.
Audrius Zelionis, Director Budget Department,
Ministry of Finance, Lithuania; Ms. Valérie
Suchod, Ministry of Employment and Solidarity,
France; Ms. Gabriella Matefi, Lawyer, Gender
budgets project, Basel, Switzerland; Ms.
Jela Bacovic, Assistant Minister for International
Economic Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro,
Ms. Sheila Regehr, Economic policy co-ordinator,
Status of Women, Canada.
The role of international
organizations in regional co-operation will
be also discussed among the representatives
of UNIFEM, UNDP, ILO, the European Commission
and OECD.
The Symposium is expected
to advance practical implementation of gender
mainstreaming in public decision-making
at the national level and policy convergence
based on good practices. It is expected
also to forge partnership among governments
and civil society at all levels to promote
gender mainstreaming into economic policies
and the Millennium Development Goals at
national and regional level. It will contribute
to strengthening synergies between the mainstreaming
work of the United Nations and efforts undertaken
at national and regional levels, and will
support the catalytic role of the UN Commission
on the Status of Women in gender mainstreaming
world-wide
The content of the debate,
together with conclusions and possible recommendations
based on lessons learned, will be presented
as a report to the Commission on the Status
of Women.
For further information
please contact:
Ms. Ewa Ruminska-Zimny
Senior Social Affairs Officer
United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe
Palais des Nations, Office 329-1
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: + 41 (0) 22
917 16 98
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.unece.org/oes/gender/gensymp.htm
Ref: ECE/GEN/04/P04