More Gender Perspectives in Economic Policies Regional Symposium on Mainstreaming Gender into Economic Policies

Geneva

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: ewa.zimny@unece.org

Web site:  http://www.unece.org/oes/gender/gensymp.htm

Ref: ECE/GEN/04/P04