52/195 Women in development

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 50/104 of 20 December 1995 and all other relevant Assembly resolutions on the integration of women in development, and also the resolutions and the agreed conclusions ⁽⁸⁵⁾ adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women on the integration of women in development,

Reaffirming the Beijing Platform for Action ⁽⁸⁶⁾ and the outcome of recent major United Nations conferences and summits,

Reaffirming that gender equality is of fundamental importance for achieving sustained economic growth and sustainable development,

Recognizing the significant contribution that women make to economic activities and the major force that they represent for change and development in all sectors of the economy, especially in key areas, such as agriculture, industry and services,

Concerned that the continued discrimination against women, the denial or lack of equal rights and access to education, training and credit facilities, and the lack of control over land, capital, technology and other areas of production impede their full and equal contribution to and equal opportunity to benefit from development,

Recognizing that discrimination in education and training, hiring, remuneration and promotion, and horizontal mobility practices continue to restrict employment, economic, professional and other opportunities and mobility for women and impede women in achieving their full potential,

Reaffirming that investing in the development of women and girls has multiplier effects on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth,

Recognizing that the difficult socio-economic conditions that exist in many developing countries, particularly those in Africa and the least developed countries, have resulted in the acceleration of the feminization of poverty, especially in rural areas and among female-headed households,

Reaffirming that women are key contributors to the economy and to combating poverty through both remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the workplace, and that the empowerment of women is a critical factor in the eradication of poverty,

Recognizing the continued need to review the impact of structural adjustment programmes in order to reduce any adverse impact on women, especially in terms of cut-backs in social services, education and health and the removal of subsidies on food and fuel,

Aware that although globalization and liberalization processes have created employment opportunities for women in some countries, they have also created risks to and marginalization of women in developing countries,

Recognizing that the informal sector is a major source of entrepreneurship and employment for women in developing countries and that data collection on its important contribution should be improved,

Expressing its concern about the poor representation of women in economic decision-making, including in the formulation of monetary and fiscal policies as well as rules governing pay,

Emphasizing the promotion of programmes aimed at financial intermediation with a view to ensuring rural women's equal access to credit and to agricultural inputs and implements and, in particular, to easing collateral requirements for access to credit by women,

Stressing the need for a family-friendly work environment, including appropriate working hours, affordable childcare and flexible working hours, and emphasizing the principle of shared responsibility between women and men for the achievement of gender equality,

Stressing that neglecting a gender perspective in policy formulation and implementation exacerbates the feminization of poverty and economic inefficiency and has a high social cost,

Noting the importance of the organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, particularly the funds and programmes, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, in facilitating the advancement of women in development,

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General and the recommendations contained therein; ⁽⁸⁷⁾

2. Calls for the urgent implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action ⁽⁸⁸⁾ and the relevant provisions contained in the outcome of all other major United Nations conferences and summits;

3. Stresses that a favourable and conducive international and national economic and financial, political, social and legal environment and a positive investment climate are necessary for the effective integration of women in development;

4. Reiterates its call to all Governments and all actors of society to implement the commitment made at Beijing to create an enabling environment through, inter alia, removing discriminatory barriers and ensuring the full and equal participation of women in economic activities through, inter alia, the adoption of gender-sensitive policies and legal measures and the provision of other necessary structures;

5. Also stresses the importance of developing national strategies for promoting sustainable and productive entrepreneurial activities to generate income among disadvantaged women and women living in poverty;

6. Urges Governments to develop and promote methodologies for mainstreaming a gender perspective into all aspects of policy-making, including economic policy-making;

7. Stresses the need to ensure that women and girls have full and equal access to all levels of education, vocational training and retraining programmes in order to improve their employment opportunities;

8. Urges all Governments to ensure women's equal rights with men and access to economic resources, and to increase women's access to credit by instituting innovative lending practices, including practices that integrate credit with services and training for women and that provide flexible credit facilities to women, in particular rural women, women in the informal sector, young women and women who lack access to traditional sources of collateral;

9. Invites Governments to undertake legislation to ensure that women have equal access to and control over land, unmediated by male relatives, in order to end land rights discrimination, that women are accorded secure use of rights and are fully represented in the decision-making bodies that allocate land and other forms of property, credit, information and new technologies, and, in the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action, that women are accorded full and equal rights to own land and other property, inter alia, through inheritance, that land reform programmes begin by acknowledging the equality of women's rights to land and that other measures are taken to increase land availability to poor women and men;

10. Requests Governments to ensure that women's priorities are included in, and that women fully participate in, decisions on public investment programmes for economic infrastructure, technology, water supply and sanitation, electrification and energy conservation, transport and road construction, and to promote greater involvement of women beneficiaries at the project planning and implementation stages to ensure their access to jobs and contracts;

11. Urges Governments to promote and strengthen micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative enterprises, expanded markets and other employment opportunities; to facilitate, where appropriate, the transition from the informal to the formal sector, especially in rural areas; to provide outreach programmes to inform low-income and poor women, particularly in rural and remote areas, of opportunities for market and technology access; and to provide women with assistance in taking advantage of such opportunities;

12. Calls upon Governments to promote, inter alia, through legislation, family-friendly and gender-sensitive work environments and also to promote the facilitation of breastfeeding for working mothers;

13. Urges the international community, the United Nations system and other relevant organizations to give priority to assisting the efforts of developing countries to ensure the full and effective participation of women in deciding and implementing development strategies, through, inter alia, women's increased access to health care, capital, education, training and technology, and full and equal participation in decision-making;

14. Urges multilateral donors, international financial institutions and regional development banks to review and implement policies in support of national efforts to ensure that a higher proportion of resources reach women, in particular women in rural and remote areas;

15. Calls upon the United Nations system to support developing countries in their efforts to integrate gender concerns into national programmes and to implement those programmes, including by providing adequate resources for operational activities for development;

16. Calls upon the United Nations system to integrate gender mainstreaming into all its programmes and policies, including in the integrated follow-up of United Nations conferences, in accordance with the agreed conclusions on gender mainstreaming adopted by the Economic and Social Council at its substantive session of 1997; ⁽⁸⁹⁾

17. Requests the United Nations development system to continue working towards establishing a more coherent approach to its support for women's income-generating activities, in particular credit schemes;

18. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fourth session the sub-item entitled "Women in development";

19. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session a report on the outcome of the implementation of the present resolution, including the impact of the globalization and liberalization processes on the integration of women in development, the implementation of operational activities for development of the United Nations system in enhancing the participation of women in national development programmes and the gender mainstreaming of United Nations programmes and policies.

85. Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1997, Supplement No. 7 (E/1997/27), chap. I, sect. C.1, agreed conclusions 1997/3.

86. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II.

87. A/52/345.

88. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No.E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II.

89. A/52/3, chap. IV, para. 4.