Overview of Preparations for Beijing + 5

Ms Angela King briefed members of the UN system, representatives of civil society, and international donors on the preparations for the Special Session of the General Assembly for the Beijing + 5 Review. She stated that the aim of the Special Assembly was to review the progress since the World Conference on Women in Beijing five years ago. The review was primarily based on the responses to questionnaires from 133 countries, which had been collated into an outcome document.

There have been many achievements since Beijing but many obstacles to gender equality remain. Some of the major achievements since Beijing include –

• Greater legislation for gender equality
• Greater awareness and the building of an enabling environment and
• Greater acceptance and awareness of women’s positive contribution to health, education and economic development

However, translating these policies and legislation into action on the ground would be the main challenge.

New issues have emerged such as the impact of globalisation, women’s access to new technologies and natural disasters and pandemics like HIV/AIDS, but the older issues such as violence against women, trafficking and stereotyping of images of men and women still persist. Although marginalisation of men is no longer a major issue, the question of the participation of men is still very important. The Review session would include a special session on the role of men in gender equality and the issues of masculinity.

Ms King emphasised that every effort had been made to maximise participation by NGOs taking into account constraints of space to ensure that new NGOS that have emerged since 1995 are also accommodated besides NGOS that participated in Beijing. Official delegations have also been requested to include NGOs in their teams.

Expected Outcome of Beijing +5

An Outcome Document would be prepared with clear action plans for Governments and the UN system. The Review should also result in clear time-bound, target-oriented goals for progress towards gender equality, which had not previously been set at the Beijing Conference.

Discussion session

The briefing by Ms King was followed by a lively session in which Ms King was questioned on a range of issues. Some of the major issues highlighted included: the need to prevent the roll back of sexual and reproductive rights achieved at Beijing, the development of more regional coalitions on gender issues, economic and political empowerment of women, the inclusion of grass roots women’s ‘voices’ in the Beijing + 5 forum, gender mainstreaming, and the role of women in conflict resolution and environmental conservation.

Concern was expressed on the new challenges that have emerged since Beijing such as the rapid spread of globalisation and its effects on women, especially women in the informal sector.

There was some discussion on the need for an enabling macro policy environment for micro-credit institutions. UNCTAD is currently undertaking a project in India to link micro-credit self-help groups.

Participants strongly advocated for the use of Information Technology to build momentum around gender issues. Although the Beijing +5 process had included on-line discussions and a global forum on the 12 critical areas of concern through the UN "Women Watch" site, these efforts could be intensified. A promising start has been made by the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) which has initiated the use of a Gender Awareness Information Networking System (GAINS).

The proposal to start a UN India gender portal (as part of the UN Development Assistance Framework-India action plan to promote gender equality) with easy access and links to the gender sites of USAID, DFID and other donors and NGOs was welcomed.

Promoting gender equality is one of the main thrust areas of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) in India. Ms King’s views on next steps for the implementation of UNDAF to achieve this objective were sought.

Commenting on achievements in promoting gender equality since Beijing, Ms King also discussed mechanisms such as gender budgeting for creating greater accountability of Governments and the UN system.

19 April, 1.15 p.m. - 2.30 p.m., UN Conference Hall, New Delhi - India