by Aileen Familara

Bangkok, Thailand – (17 November 2009) Nearly fifteen years have gone past since the Fourth World Conference of Women, when many of the world's countries committed their governments to implement changes that sought long lasting improvements on the lives of women and girls.

The continuing review process is a necessary exercise for all member states to undergo to ensure that all the commitments made in 1995 are being implemented and achieved. Much of the world has changed, and a review process also recognises new challenges emerging to hinder the drive towards gender equality.

Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP spoke at the opening plenary on the directions that the review may take:

“As we rejoice in the (BPFA's) coming of age, the achievements and the progress, we must continue with its implementation and ask for accountability for gender equality and women's empowerment...Despite our solid progress over the past 14 years, persistent obstacles and challenges remain.” She said that these obstacles include: maternal deaths, violence against women, a rise of extremism in the name of culture closing up women's spaces, and diminished accountability to women.

On emerging issues: that need to be addressed--the global economic crisis and climate change: “The world financial system is experiencing an unprecedented period of economic uncertainty. The global economic crisis has serious implications for women. While there are already signs of recovery, our experience with the 1997 East Asian crisis suggests that social recovery takes much longer. The ILO has estimated that 5.1 million women will become unemployed this year because of the economic downturn- in addition to the 32.6 million who are already without paid work.”

“Climate change will magnify a number of existing challenges to women. .. The Asia Pacific region accounts for 97 per cent of natural disaster fatalities worldwide. While climate change will undoubtedly affect everyone, women are among the most highly impacted due to gender-based division of labour and existing gender inequality. Women and children are 14 times more likely to be victims of natural disasters than men in societies where gender inequalities exist, thus further challenging MDG3 targets.”

On the Millennium Development Goals:

“We only have five years left before the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We cannot let the economic crisis or climate change reverse gains we have already achieved, particularly the freeing of more than 350 million people from extreme poverty between 1990 and 2004. Gender sensitive stimulus packages, access to credit, support for women's businesses, and an increased investment in agriculture to guarantee food, water and energy security measures that will support long term economic growth as well as improve outcomes for women.”

Ms. Carolyn Hannan, Director, Division for the Advancement of Women, UN-ECOSOC meanwhile emphasised strengthening gender mechanisms at the global level, particularly at the UN, to support regional and national level efforts.

“One of the important findings in the 10-year review of implementation in 2005 was the gap between the global policy development on gender equality and empowerment of women and implementation at national level. Addressing this gap has been at the centre of the General Assembly's consideration of the reform of the gender equality architecture in the United Nations over the past three years. The recent adoption of General Assembly resolution A/RES/63/311, endorsing the development of one composite gender equality through the merger of the four existing gender equality entities – OSAGI, DAW, UNIFEM and INSTRAW – has been hailed as a new milestone in the United Nations efforts for gender equality and empowerment of women. The composite entity, to be headed by an Undersecretary General, is expected to significantly enhance the support of the United Nations system to the efforts of Member States at national level.”

“The United Nations is therefore at the cusp of major change in its work on gender equality and women's empowerment. The adoption of resolution A/RES/63/311 is an indication of the willingness of Member States to move forward with implementation of needed changes in the gender equality architecture...We look to Member States for a swift decision. The finalization of this process on the fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action would indeed be a fulfulling achievement and a reaffirmation that the efforts of Member States, the United Nations system and women's organisations have been worthwhile.”

Finally, Dr. Patricia Licuanan, head of the Asia-Pacific Women Watch, presented the outcomes of the Asia Pacific NGO Forum held last October 2009. The forum was able to discuss the main areas for review of the BPFA as well as to raise issues such as disaster response and management and the impact of the global economic crisis. She highlighted how women's organisations attending the forum were keen to support the creation of a global UN architecture for gender equality. The women at the forum began a spontaneous campaign to raise funds that they hope would be matched by UN member states. “The money is not meant to absolve the united nations and governments form raising the necessary funds, but it will serve as the funding counterpart of the women's movement.” (Full audio recording of Dr. Licuanan's presentation is available here).

The opening plenary set the tone for the entire 3-day meeting with a presentation of the song “Keep on moving forward, never turning back” which is also the theme for the whole review.