United Nations Creates New Agency for Women

UNITED NATIONS – A separate and distinct umbrella organization for women was created in early July by the United Nations (UN) to accelerate the empowerment of women. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, or simply UN Women, will deal exclusively with gender-related issues.

Four existing women’s entities at the UN folded into UN Women, while taking into consideration the mandates of each entity. Merged into UN Women were: the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues; the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW); and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).

Goals of UN Women are to support the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and other inter-governmental bodies in devising policies; assist UN member states implement standards, provide technical and financial support to countries that request it, and forge partnerships with civil society and within the UN; and hold the world body accountable for its own commitments on gender equality.

The executive board for UN Women will be based on the geographical distribution of seats by UN member states, with a second category reserved for donor countries, made up of the four top contributors to the core budget and two from developing nations. Overall, the board will consist of 41 countries with seats distributed as follows: Africa-10; Asia-10; Eastern Europe-four; Latin America and the Caribbean-six; Western Europe and Other Groups-five; plus contributing donors-six.

The new entity is a result of years of negotiations among member states and advocacy by women’s groups globally. It comes years, and in some cases decades, after the UN created agencies to deal with specific issues related to children, population, refugees, food, environment, education, health and tourism.

The under secretary general is expected to be named in September, with the organization set to become operational in January 2011. 

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