For the first time in history, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will focus on improving gender financing as the theme of its 52nd session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from February 25 to March 7, 2008.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is now gearing up for its annual session in 2008 to be held on February 25 to March 7, with the proposed theme “Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.”  The CSW's 52nd session will specifically look at:
- accelerating implementation of previous commitments at the national level, including sharing of experiences, lessons learned, and good practices;
- increasing attention to information and data needs;
- enhancing capacity to mainstream the issue; and
- identifying key policy initiatives to move implementation forward.

The Commission’s work will be geared towards the production of two reports to the Secretary-General focused on the same theme—the first will identify and discuss key issues in financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women and suggest policy recommendations; the second will provide an overview of mainstreaming gender financing efforts at the national level.

As part of efforts to increase its focus on national-level implementation, CSW will revisit this theme after two to three years to review the implementation of the policy recommendations that will be adopted and to identify remaining gaps and challenges.

This is the first time that the UN CSW has focused specifically on financial resources for gender, although the issue of resources has been considered as a part of many of the other priority themes since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The 52nd session will provide a unique opportunity to identify and address critical financial issues.

For more information on the upcoming CSW 52nd session, visit <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/index.html>.

FYI: Commission on the Status of Women

The CSW is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women and the principal global policymaking body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards, and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and the advancement of women worldwide. 

Source: Commission on the Status of Women, <http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/index.html>.