UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
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This document has been prepared by the Secretariat of the United Nations
Inter-Agency Task Force on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of
Action. For further information please contact the United Nations
Population Fund, Task Force on ICPD Implementation, 220 East 42nd Street,
New York, NY 10017 USA or send E-mail to: pierce@unfpa.org
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GUIDELINES ON WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
FOR THE UN RESIDENT COORDINATOR SYSTEM
BACKGROUND
1. The 1990's have seen increasing recognition of the centrality
of women's empowerment to the success of development programmes.
The empowerment of women was essential to the declarations and
platforms for action of the 1990 World Conference on Education for
All, the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, the 1993 Human Rights Conference, the 1994
International Conference on Population and Development, the 1995
World Summit for Social Development, and the Regional Preparatory
Conferences for the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. This
increased appreciation for and understanding of women's pivotal
role in the development process has also been reflected in the
goals and priorities of organizations and agencies in the United
Nations system. In this regard, the United Nations Resident
Coordinators are being called upon to play a key role in
facilitating inter-agency cooperation on gender equality and equity
and the empowerment of women, with particular emphasis on
operational activities at the country level.
2. The Programme of Action of the International Conference on
Population and Development stresses that the empowerment and
autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social,
economic and health status is both a highly important end in itself
and necessary for the achievement of sustainable human development.
It states further that "Advancing gender equality and equity and
the empowerment of women, and the elimination of all kinds of
violence against women, and ensuring women's ability to control
their own fertility ...are priority objectives of the international
community" (Principle 4 of the ICPD Programme of Action).
3. The Programme of Action further recognizes that in all parts
of the world, women are facing threats to their lives, health and
well-being. They receive less education than men and are over-
represented among the poor and powerless. Achieving change
requires policy and programme actions that will improve women's
access to the scarce and valued resources of their societies
(particularly secure livelihoods and economic resources), alleviate
their disproportionate household responsibilities, remove legal and
social impediments to their participation in the public sphere,
eliminate the spectre of domestic and sexual violence from their
daily lives and raise social awareness through effective programmes
of education and mass communication.
WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT: A DEFINITION
4. Clearly, a common thread uniting each of the major
international conferences of the 1990's is women's empowerment.
Furthermore, the international community is now accountable to the
world's women for fulfilling the significant commitments it has
made to help make empowerment a reality of women's lives. What,
then, is women's empowerment? Women's empowerment has five
components: women's sense of self-worth; their right to have and
to determine choices; their right to have access to opportunities
and resources; their right to have the power to control their own
lives, both within and outside the home; and their ability to
influence the direction of social change to create a more just
social and economic order, nationally and internationally.
STRATEGY FOR COORDINATION
5. Recognizing that the successful implementation of the
Programme of Action at the national level depends upon an inter-
disciplinary approach, paragraph 10 of General Assembly Resolution
49/128, Report on the International Conference on Population and
Development, "calls upon the organs of the United Nations system
and the specialized agencies to undertake the actions required to
give full and effective support to the implementation of the
Programme of Action." In response to this resolution, the Inter-
Agency Task Force on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of
Action proposed that efforts to further the empowerment of women be
pursued within the United Nations coordination system led by the
Resident Coordinator.
6. The Resident Coordinator is expected to establish a modality
for inter-agency cooperation that would serve as a catalyst for
national initiatives designed to further the economic, social,
political and legal empowerment of women. The Guidelines are not
intended to hinder agencies from pursuing their respective
mandates. Rather, they will enhance the complementarity of
programmes; facilitate integrated planning within a national
development framework; foster dialogue among agencies and between
the United Nations system and governments, provide space for, and
legitimize the participation of NGOs and other actors of civil
society, and allow the United Nations system to contribute more
effectively to the achievement of women's empowerment. The
Statement on the Role and Functioning of the Resident Coordinator
System provides the framework in which this coordination will take
place.
7. Among suggested modalities for coordination and collaboration
among United Nations agencies and between the United Nations system
and its government and civil society partners are:
o standing inter-agency working groups on gender equality
and women's empowerment;
o training sessions in gender analysis and gender-sensitive
programming for national-level United Nations staff, as
well as government, NGO partners and individuals likely
to act as national consultants to the UN system;
o multi-donor coordination mechanisms;
o joint working sessions and planning meetings with
national officials and representatives of NGOs and
grassroots women's groups;
o standing advisory groups made up of gender experts from
government, NGOs, women's groups, and academia; and
o the establishment of national-level goals for, and
indicators of, gender equality and women's empowerment.
8. Heterogeneous groupings of representatives from different
disciplines, the public and private sectors, and a range of civil
society associations allow for the dynamic exchange of ideas,
sharing of lessons learned, consolidation of objectives,
rationalization of activities, coordination of funding and
identification of priorities. The inclusion of a range of civil
society actors will ensure that the voices and visions of women at
the grassroots level are brought into the policy-making process.
The inclusion of regional bodies in this expanded partnership is
also a necessity.
9. Given the resistance that still exists in many quarters to the
promotion of women's empowerment and the use of gender analysis in
development programming, as well as the widespread lack of
technical expertise in this area, inter-agency working groups,
particularly those that include government and civil society
representatives, will serve to consolidate a critical mass of
support for gender-sensitive programming. Often gender concerns
are handled by relatively junior staff, reflecting and reinforcing
the historical marginality of women's concerns to the development
process. When called by the Resident Coordinator, the highest
ranking United Nations official at the national level, however,
such meetings will highlight the seriousness with which the United
Nations system now seeks to promote gender equality and empowerment
of women. This high-level advocacy, which serves to legitimize
gender issues in the eyes of United Nations staff and development
partners alike, is among the most effective strategies available to
the Resident Coordinator seeking to foster women's empowerment at
the national level.
SPECIFIC AREAS FOR ACTION
Research, statistics and situational analysis
10. The creation of gender-sensitive development policies at the
national level is impeded by the lack of accurate and accessible
information about women at both the national and international
levels. In this regard, it is vital that a common data base of
gender and age-disaggregated statistics be available to all United
Nations agencies, and also that common methodologies and
statistical indicators be used in data-gathering. This
disaggregation is vital to follow-up actions targeted at the well-
being of girls, adolescents and women and to identify areas in the
life-cycle of women during which gender disparities are greatest.
The new volume of the World's Women, to be issued in August 1995,
can serve as a model. In addition, there is also a great need to
collate, analyse and make accessible statistics and data that
already exist. The Resident Coordinator has a key role to play in
coordinating multi-disciplinary national-level data-gathering; in
discovering what information is already available at the national
level (through United Nations and government studies, as well as
academia and research institutions) and ensuring its dissemination;
in pinpointing the information gaps; in establishing priority areas
for research; and in identifying areas where gender disparities are
greatest.
11. Areas for which sound statistical information is known to be
scarce are the effects of environmental degradation on women;
causes and effects of migration; adolescent pregnancy and
reproductive health; male roles and responsibilities in promoting
women's empowerment and reproductive health; and the socio-economic
implications of changing gender roles. There is also a great need
to promote research; gather facts and compile statistics concerning
domestic violence; encourage research about the causes, nature,
gravity and consequence of violence against women; and test and
analyse the effectiveness of measures to thwart gender-based
violence and document its recovery process.
12. Creating a roster of gender experts -- national consultants
with expertise in different fields, such as agriculture,
appropriate technology and health, including reproductive health
from a gender perspective -- for use by the United Nations system,
government ministries and NGOs, as well as compiling a directory of
studies and data bases available at the national level, are useful
first steps.
Training in Gender Analysis and Gender-Sensitive Development
Planning
13. A key area of concentration for Resident Coordinators should
be gender training. This training should be required of all United
Nations field staff, including the Resident Coordinator himself or
herself. In addition, the Resident Coordinator should work with UN
agencies and national-level ministries (not just ministries for
women, welfare or social services, but also finance, planning,
agricultural, energy and other "hard" sectoral ministries) to train
staff to help ensure that gender is more fully understood and
gender issues are incorporated within the scope of country- and
region-wide development initiatives. It will also ensure that
there are systematic plans at national levels to avoid duplication
and overlapping of the training efforts of various UN agencies.
The importance of ensuring high-quality gender training cannot be
overstated; those already sceptical of the value of gender training
find their worse fears confirmed and can become entrenched in their
opposition after a poorly designed or poorly run training session.
The relevance and practical applications of gender analysis to the
audience's day-to-day work must be stressed. Resident Coordinators
should take advantage of the methodologies that are being developed
collaboratively by several agencies (including FAO, ILO, UNDP,
UNIDO and UNIFEM).
Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights
14. The Resident Coordinator has a key role to play in promoting
the reproductive and sexual health and well-being and reproductive
rights of women, adolescents and girls at the national level.
Included under the rubric of reproductive health are the
traditional concerns of family planning, as well as issues coming
to the forefront of international attention more recently, such as
AIDS and other STDs, unsafe abortion, adolescent pregnancy,
practices that are harmful to the health of women and children
(such as female genital mutilation), discriminatory nutritional and
other practices based on male child preference, and early marriage.
Also included in the concept of reproductive health is women and
adolescents' control over their sexuality. Reproductive and sexual
health are affected by the economic, social, cultural and
educational environment in which girls are born, grow to womanhood,
marry and repeat the process in starting their own families. The
Resident Coordinator's interventions in this area should be
imbedded in a human rights framework and informed by several key
principles:
o Women have the right to autonomy and reproductive choice.
o Women have the right and social responsibility to decide
whether, how and when to have children and how many to
have; no woman can be compelled to bear a child or
prevented from doing so against her will.
o Men also have a personal and social responsibility for
their own sexual behaviour and fertility and for the
effects of that behaviour on the health and well-being of
their partners and children.
o Reproductive health issues should be addressed in the way
women and men experience them; not as isolated,
biomedical phenomena or matters of public policy, but as
an integrated part of everyday life.
o The fundamental sexual and reproductive rights of women
cannot be subordinated against a woman's will to the
interests of partners, family members, policy-makers, or
any other actors.
o Women must be respected to make their own reproductive
decisions; they must have both the information and the
authority to make decisions about reproduction and the
services that will enable them to satisfy their
reproductive health needs.
15. The goals of reproductive health programmes should be to
increase women and adolescents' control over their bodies, their
sexuality and ultimately their lives; to improve women's health,
including their reproductive and sexual health; and to change
socio-economic structures and norms that impede women's free
exercise of their human rights, including their reproductive rights
(such as women's legal status, access to education, decision-making
powers, poverty level, choice regarding marriage partners and
rights within marriage).
16. In practice, these goals and principles require that the
Resident Coordinator support reproductive health programming rather
than "target-oriented" population programmes by focusing on meeting
the needs of individual women and men; expanding standard services
to include prevention and treatment of AIDs, sexually transmitted
diseases, and violence against women; responding to women and girls
at all stages of the life-cycle; and emphasizing safe, effective
and affordable contraceptive methods that women themselves control
and that are of high quality.
Women's Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
17. Since the International Conference on Human Rights, held in
June 1993 in Vienna, and the subsequent General Assembly
ratification in December 1993 of the Declaration on the Elimination
of Violence against Women, political will and mobilization around
the issue of women's human rights has increased tremendously. The
debate has led to an expanded conception of human rights that
explicitly recognizes that women's rights are human rights. In
response to this expanded definition of human rights, in March
1994, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights agreed to
appoint a Special Rapporteur on violence against women and to
integrate the rights of women into the human rights mechanisms of
the United Nations. These advances have shown the potential of the
human rights framework for improving the status of women and the
condition of their lives.
18. Despite these substantial legal and procedural changes at the
international level, however, the majority of the world's girls and
women remain outside this enlarged vision of human rights due to
the pervasive, structural and systemic denial of their liberty at
the national and community levels worldwide. The Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, approved
in 1979, provides concrete ways to bring these international
principles to bear at the national level. Unlike other human
rights treaties, CEDAW specifically obliges states that ratify the
Convention to take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women by any person, organization or
enterprise. In addition, it provides a legal framework for women's
empowerment and participation in the development process. It not
only guarantees basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, it
also lays out policy measures and targets areas of particular
concern to women (such as sex roles and stereotyping, affirmative
action, trafficking in women, access to health care, education and
benefits, and the special needs of rural women).
19. Resident Coordinators can become involved with CEDAW at the
national level in several ways. They can play an advocacy role in
supporting the lobbying and public education efforts of NGOs in
countries that have not yet ratified CEDAW, working to generate
awareness and support, to build partnerships and to assist others
in their lobbying efforts.
20. In countries that have ratified CEDAW, the Resident
Coordinator can assist NGOs and parliamentarians in lobbying for
greater support to the CEDAW Committee, aid the Committee in
disseminating its important findings to a larger audience, work
with appropriate partners to produce materials that make the
Convention accessible and usable at the grassroots level, and
establish task forces of legal experts to design innovative uses of
the Convention and advise women and other groups on its
application. The Resident Coordinator can also support efforts to
revise the legal code to protect and promote the rights of women,
using CEDAW as a basis. Since women worldwide would be well served
by a strengthening of the Convention's mandate and power, Resident
Coordinators should also support the efforts of those seeking to
"give teeth" to the Convention.
Culture and tradition
21. It is important to make note of one of the concerns most
frequently raised regarding efforts to further gender equality and
the empowerment of women, i.e., that such efforts constitute undue
interference in the culture, religion, or traditional practices of
a country. Resident Coordinators have a special responsibility to
address these concerns and to draw distinctions among traditional
practices that harm women and girls and deprive them of their
universally recognized human rights, such as gender-based violence,
forced early marriage, and female genital mutilation, and those
that are socially valuable and benefit women.
22. Several points are key in addressing this issue of culture in
relation to efforts to foster gender equality and women's
empowerment. First, all development efforts, including those that
seek "merely" to introduce new technologies or promote economic
growth, imply social change, for, as the nature, modes, goals and
social relations of production are altered, structures of work and
family life are transformed. Second, women's empowerment was first
articulated and championed as an approach to development by
Southern women seeking to improve their lives and those of their
families. Third, culture is not a static, fixed entity, but a
confluence of beliefs and values continuously undergoing processes
of change and redefinition in response to external and internal
economic, political and social forces.
23. Fourth, cultures and societies are not monolithic; they are
made up of groups of people who often hold conflicting and
competing ideologies, beliefs and practices. What is called
"culture" can sometimes be more accurately understood as the ideas
and practices valued by the dominant group, often men. Social
movements that pose a particular threat to women (and which are, in
turn, particularly threatened by women's empowerment) often appeal
to this concept of cultural or religious tradition as a basis for
their attempt to extend their social control. Finally, the
argument that gender discrimination is a country or cultural matter
(which mirrors the claim that domestic violence is a private act
rather than a public crime) falls apart when one substitutes "race"
for "gender"; South Africa's past policies of apartheid demanded
and received an international response, as should policies and
practices of gender discrimination.
Education
24. The role of equality in education in bringing about equality
in all walks of life is well known and discussed in detail in the
Basic Education Guidelines. Girls' education is fundamental to
gender equality and women's empowerment. Key areas for the
Resident Coordinator's attention include life-long education and
training, including pre-school provision, the elimination of
stereotyped teaching and education materials, diversification of
the educational and training opportunities available to women and
girls, and the promotion of self-esteem and leadership in girls.
Providing employment and job training, as well as literacy
training, for women past traditional school age should be an area
of special focus, as should enabling pregnant adolescents to
continue their schooling. The Resident Coordinator could work to
raise awareness about the ancillary advantages of educating girls
and women, such as a reduction in fertility rates and a more
skilled labour force, as well as advocating for the right of women
and girls to equality and quality in education.
Violence Against Women
25. Violence against women is not the issue of any particular
region or group; it is an ugly universal, crossing the frontiers of
ideology, social class and ethnic identity. At the individual
level, violence disrupts the lives of women, limits their options,
undermines their confidence and self-esteem, and impairs their
health psychologically as well as psychically. It denies them
their human rights and hinders their full participation in society.
Violence against women deprives society of the full participation
of women in all aspects of development, not just in terms of hours
of labour missed due to violence, but also in terms of the cost of
services to the victims. It also has serious consequences for the
mental and bodily health of dependent children.
26. Despite its prevalence, some of the manifestations of gender-
based violence respond to, and are determined and patterned by, the
specific characteristics of different national and community
contexts. Therefore, the Resident Coordinator should ensure that
the design and execution of programmes are specifically attuned to
respond appropriately at the local, national and regional levels.
The Resident Coordinator has a key role to play in countering
violence against women by supporting advocacy, social mobilization,
institution-building and network strengthening. He or she can also
play a key role in coordinating multi-disciplinary approaches to
the problem, as well as multi-agency responses.
Women's NGOs and Networks
27. Among the best ways to aid the poor of the developing world
and to reach women at the grassroots level is to provide technical
and financial assistance to the organizations that they themselves
create and control. In this regard, the importance of local
institution-building to the process of development cannot be
overstated; no matter what problem a project seeks to address, its
ultimate success or failure often hinges upon the strength of the
implementing agency. Although strong organizations occasionally
fail, institutionally weak organizations seldom succeed.
28. The Resident Coordinator can play an important role in
strengthening the capacity of NGOs, particularly those at the
grassroots level, by providing them information regarding the
nature, norms and requirements of the international development
cooperation system. The United Nations Resident Coordinator can
also support networking of like-minded or complementary
organizations by calling meetings, conferences and seminars. By
advocating for the inclusion of NGO representatives in government
policy-setting dialogue and facilitating NGO participation in the
meetings he or she convenes, the Resident Coordinator can help
build partnerships, strengthen alliances between NGOs and
governments, and serve to legitimize the participation of civil
society. The Resident Coordinator should support NGOs in the areas
in which they have a comparative advantage, particularly reaching
women at the grassroots level, bringing women's concerns to the
attention of policy-makers and fostering the political
participation and leadership of women. Finally, the Resident
Coordinator's efforts to ensure that women and their concerns are
incorporated into NGOs that do not focus specifically on women are
also key.
Refugee, Displaced and Returnee Women
29. Refugee, returnee and displaced women and girls have two sets
of special needs: the first, because they have been displaced; the
second, because they are female. Refugee, returnee and displaced
women are particularly disadvantaged, as they are almost entirely
dependent on external sources of assistance. Programmes for them
must be targeted to ensure that women are not unintentionally
marginalized or further disempowered. When a gender perspective is
not employed in the design and implementation of projects and
efforts are not made to compensate for the power, status and income
differentials between men and women, these gender disparities can
actually be sharpened or further entrenched. Initiating gender-
sensitive programming in the first stages of an emergency is
particularly important and yet can too easily be given lower
priority in the very difficult first stages of large population
movements requiring immediate life-sustaining support. Given that
at least 80 per cent of the total current number of the refugee
population worldwide are women and their dependent children and
that a high proportion of refugee women are heads-of-household, any
negative impacts of development and reconstruction policies and
projects on women pose a serious threat to the overall success of
such policies.
30. Although they have been removed from their usual social
support systems and economic resource bases, and are often
emotionally devastated by fear and grief, refugee women are still
required to care for the sick, old, injured and young. Because the
health of migrant populations, including that of care-taking women
themselves, is generally poor, this burden is worsened. Physical
security is a particular problem for refugee women and girls.
They often face sexual violence (including the increasing
deliberate use of systematic rape to terrorize civilian
populations), sexual exploitation by guards and so-called
peacekeepers, and increased domestic violence triggered by
escalating stress and uncertainty.
31. Resident Coordinators must ensure that policies designed to
aid refugee, displaced and returnee women and girls are informed by
the reality of their lives. They must ensure that policy-makers
recognize that most refugee families are headed by women and so do
not limit distribution of resources to male heads-of-household,
that women are protected from sexual violence and exploitation, and
that the basic needs of women (physical safety, reproductive health
information and services) are provided within the context of
emergency operations. While refugee life might sometimes
reinforce cultural restrictions on women's empowerment, it may also
provide opportunities for development that might not have otherwise
occurred. Refugee workers are encouraged to be aware of these
opportunities and support whenever possible the efforts of refugee
women and girls to pursue these new opportunities. Resident
Coordinators should be familiar with the policies, guidelines and
training programmes developed to assist and protect refugee women
and use them when possible and appropriate.
Mainstreaming
32. The points set out above are examples of how a concern for
gender can be fully incorporated, or "mainstreamed," into tasks and
responsibilities at a senior management level. Resident
Coordinators should seek to ensure that the tasks of all staff
reflect gender mainstreaming in an appropriate form, and foster
similar efforts among senior United Nations system colleagues.
Instruments to ensure that gender mainstreaming occurs include: the
performance appraisal process; the programme review process; gender
training for staff; on-going consultation and dialogue with
representatives of civil society; and inter-agency workshops on the
mainstreaming of key concerns such as gender, the environment,
poverty, governance and the like.
==================================================================
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Women, Ink., a project of the IWTC, markets women and development
resource materials. Supported by its own sales and a grant from
UNIFEM, it is a source of both scholarly studies and practical
guidelines, training manuals and resource materials for policy and
programme design and implementation. Women, Ink. catalogue is
available through the IWTC at 777 United Nations Plaza, New York,
NY 10017: telephone: (212) 687-8633; fax: (212) 661-2704.
1. After Cairo: A Handbook on Advocacy for Women Leaders
(CEDPA). Organized as a simple, clear guide to help advocates shape
effective campaigns after ICPD, this Handbook presents advocacy
strategies in four sections: planning for advocacy; taking your
message to the public; forging alliances; and advocating for
resources. Renamed "Cairo, Beijing and Beyond: A Handbook on
Advocacy for Women Leaders", for the Fourth World Conference on
Women, the English version has been reprinted; language versions in
Chinese, French and Spanish are being issued.
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Statistics (UN/DESIPA). A gender statistics publication,
incorporating methods of computing and interpreting statistics and
formats of presentation. (UN/DESIPA). Work in Progress:
Publication date: In time for FWCW.
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Why and Knowing How (UNFPA).
A practical guide to enable those associated with UNFPA programming
to amplify the participation of women in the design and management
of population and development initiatives.
4. Gender Analysis for Project Design, prepared for UNFPA by J.E.
Austin Associates and The Collaborative for Development Action Inc.
A training manual designed as an educational and practical tool,
which can be used either as part of training workshops on gender
analysis or as a vehicle for self-education and reference by
individuals. The material is both conceptual and applied and
organized to maximize learning opportunities for the readers. 1989.
5. Gender Analysis in Development Planning by Aruna Rao,
Catherine Overhold and Mary B. Anderson. 1991. 102 pages (book);
25 pages (teaching notes). Available from: Kumarian Press, 630
Oakwood Avenue, Suite 119, West Hartford, CT 06110-1529, USA.
Price: Gender analysis book - US$18.25; Teaching notes - US$10.95.
Useful on an individual basis, as well as in workshops, this book
describes a framework for gender analysis, followed by case studies
designed specifically for gender training. The Teaching Notes
provide guidelines for using the cases and questions for
discussion.
6. Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and
Training by Caroline O. Moser. 1993. 285 pages. Available from
Women, Ink. Price US$17.95 This book focuses on the inter-
relationship between gender and development, the formulation of
gender policy and the implementation of gender planning practices.
7. Population Policies Reconsidered: Health, Empowerment, and
Rights, by Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
and IWCH. Gita Sen, Adrienne Germain and Lincoln C. Chen, Editors.
Published under an arrangement with the Swedish International
Development Authority and with 30 contributors, the book's 17
chapters address the cutting edge of current debates on population
policies. Throughout the volume, three major themes recur that
challenge the fundamental premises of current population policies -
- ethics, human rights and human development; women's empowerment;
and reproductive and sexual health. These themes together present
a new approach to population, based on a solid ethical foundation
and aimed at sustainable human development. Distributed by Harvard
University Press, 1994. Price: US$14.95.
8. The World's Women: Trends and Statistics - A joint effort of
UNICEF/UNFPA/UNIFEM/CSDHA, executed by the Statistical Division,
DESIPA. This publication presents comprehensive data on women's
conditions and contributions worldwide, providing data on economic
life, population and health, family life, education, public life,
and human settlements. First edition published by United Nations
Publications, 1991. Cost: US$19.95. Second edition to include
information on women and men and families; housing, human
settlements and environment; education, science, media and culture;
as well as issues related to women's reproductive health,
discrimination against the girl child, violation of women's civil
and political rights, hunger, malnutrition and poverty will also be
covered. Publication date: July/August 1995, in five official
languages.
9. Changing Perception: Writings on Gender and Development by
Tina Wallace and Candida March (eds). Oxford, Oxfam Press, 1991.
Blending theory and practice, the articles examine the effect of
global issues on women's lives and explores the conceptual basis of
gender-awareness planning and implementation of development
projects. It also includes a number of case studies.
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Jacobson. Washington, D.C., Worldwatch Institute, 1992.
This booklet explores the dimensions, causes and results of gender
bias in development interventions worldwide.
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Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 1990.
Examples of ways in which male bias operates in rural and urban
settings, agriculture, industry and services, self-employment and
wage labour are provided throughout this collection of articles.
The authors focus on the structures that perpetuate male bias and
the processes that change, intensify or diminish its impact.
12. Another Point of View: A Manual on Gender Analysis Training
for Grassroots Workers by Rani Parker. Published by UNIFEM. 1993.
Available from: Women, Ink. Price: US$15.95 Using a planning tool,
the Gender Analysis Matrix, this manual offers a step-by-step guide
for conducting a four-day workshop with community members. It
includes a pre-workshop questionnaire, case studies, handouts and
a workshop evaluation questionnaire.
13. A Commitment to the World's Women: Perspectives on Development
for Beijing and Beyond by Noeleen Heyzer, Sushma Kapoor and Joanne
Sandler (eds.) 1995. Published by UNIFEM. Available from: Women,
Ink. Price: $14.95.
This anthology includes articles by more than thirty thinkers,
organizers and leaders. In this book, they re-visit critical
issues and processes that have affected women and their families
and societies, and offer their recommendations and insights.
==================================================================
AGENCY PROFILES
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The Plan of Action for the Integration of Women in Development
embodies FAO's policies and programmes to improve the lives of
rural women. It is based on the Organization's commitment to the
Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies, which is a pledge by the UN
Member Governments to take concrete steps by the year 2000 to
eliminate all political, economic, social and cultural forms of
sex-based discrimination.
Focusing specifically on agriculture, food and rural
development, including fisheries and forestry, the Plan of Action
outlines three principal areas of activity:
o Gathering statistical data and research studies on all
issues related to women in agricultural development,
ensuring FAO's ability to monitor the status of these
issues in the field;
o Advising policy makers on women in agricultural
development at both the international national levels;
o Assisting in implementing women in agricultural
development projects and programmes, and in mobilizing
the necessary resources.
The Plan recognizes the women already make a crucial
contribution to agricultural production. It is dedicated to
enhancing their participation through projects and programmes that
systematically bring women into the mainstream of development
activities and national life. Within this framework, future
activities will give greater recognition to women's special needs
for income-producing activities and control of income, educational
and training opportunities, and technologies and other means to
ease the burden and increase the productivity of women's work.
FAO takes a two-pronged approach to women in development that
is reiterated in the Plan of Action: first, the implementation of
projects and programmes oriented exclusively to women (women-
specific projects and programmes); and second, the promotion of the
integration of women's issues and of women as participants in all
of FAO's projects and activities (mainstream programmes and
projects).
FAO recognizes the necessity of women-specific projects under
certain circumstances; where "women-only" projects can serve as
demonstrations to encourage national governments to include women
in their mainstream project; where cultural factors prevent women
from working alongside men; or where rural women have been
generally neglected. However, the success of "women-only" projects
is often constrained by small budgets, low government priority, a
lack of skilled project staff and concentration on marginal
enterprises. Therefore, while the Plan incorporates both
approaches, every effort will be given to including both men and
women as full participants in mainstream projects.
In adopting the Plan, FAO's Council requested that Member
Governments make all possible efforts to contribute to its
implementation. It is evident that without the interest and
commitment of governments, the actions envisaged in the Plan cannot
succeed. Comprehensive policy designs, programme and project
planning, implementation and evaluation, as well as legislation
related to women's issues, are requisites at the national level for
the Plan's success. In line with its mandate, FAO stands ready and
eager to assist Member Governments in the realization of greater
participation and greater equality for rural women.
The Plan revolves around four spheres: civil status, economic,
social, and decision-making. They are selected on the basis of
FAO's long experience in working with women in developing countries
and with Member Governments. Each sphere contains its own strategy
for increasing women's status at all levels of society-household,
community, national and international. Within each sphere,
numerous actions are presented that FAO envisages as essential to
the Plan's implementation.
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Within the context of ILO's mandate for the promotion of
social justice, the promotion of equality between men and women in
employment and the protection of the rights of women workers have
been issues of long-standing concern to the Organization. The
overall strategy of the ILO is to ensure that gender issues and
equality concerns are integrated across the board within its
programme and project objectives and activities, and are reflected
in the various means of action (e.g. standard setting, research,
information dissemination and technical cooperation). This
strategy is based on the recognition that women's equal and full
participation in all aspects of life is essential to the
achievement of all major development objects -- democracy and human
rights, sustainable development, poverty eradication, etc. In this
respect, a gender training programme for ILO staff and constituents
is currently being implemented, jointly funded by the ILO and the
Netherlands Government. The purpose of the programme under the
Office for Women Workers Questions, which is overseeing the
effective follow-up and use of the outputs of the Interdepartmental
Project on Equality of Opportunity for Women in Employment, is to
strengthen the capacity of the ILO and its member States to deal
effectively with equality for women at work.
The programme is focused on training ILO staff in management,
technical and programming positions, as well as representatives of
ILO constituents, with the object of creating a common
understanding and a basis for fruitful dialogue on gender issues
between staff and constituents; and to enlarge the pool of
expertise in counterpart institutions to develop ILO programmes
with a gender-sensitive approach. The priority target groups of
this training programme are the members of ILO's Multidisciplinary
Teams (MDTs) and staff of ILO Area Offices in the field.
These institutional arrangements have given added impetus to
the gender dimension of ILO's Labour and Population Programme,
especially in light of the concerns emphasized in the ICPD
Programme of Action. ILO's Labour and Population Programme has a
component on issues of Gender, Population and Development. The
essential elements of this component include an inter-regional
strategy:
o to enhance the gender sensitivity of population and
development policy-making and programme formulation.
This includes designing frameworks and guidelines to
facilitate and promote participatory gender population
and development analysis at the country level;
o to promote legal reforms, training and application of
International Labour Standards that advance the position
and protection of women workers (including protection of
maternity and promotion of Safe Working Mother
strategies);
o to improve the knowledge base in critical areas where
synthesis of evidence or creation of new information is
required through design and promotion of studies and
state-of-the-art papers;
o to collect, synthesize and disseminate information about
successful initiatives that have empowered women and
enhanced their productive and reproductive choices;
o to enhance the training of trainers opportunities
available to regional and national experts through the
development of special materials, methods and programmes
in close collaboration with specialized technical UN
agencies and the Turin Training Center; and
o to provide technical advice and support to potentially
replicable pilot projects that seek to empower women
workers through expansion of available productive and
reproductive choices, resources and opportunities.
United Nations, Department for Economic and Social Information and
Policy Analysis/ The Population Division
The Population Division of the Department for Economic and
Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA) provides gender-
disaggregated statistics, conducts a variety of analytic studies
that have a gender dimension, monitors population policies and
organizes expert meetings that deal with gender issues. Every two
years the Population Division/DESIPA produces population estimates
and projections, by age and sex, for all countries and areas of the
world. Apart from their direct interest, these statistics serve as
"denominators" for gender-disaggregated estimates and projections
in areas such as school enrolment and employment that are produced
within and outside the United Nations system. The Division also
regularly monitors fertility, contraceptive practice and mortality
levels, by sex, as well as Government policies related to
population concerns.
Since 1990, special studies and expert meetings have dealt
with female migration, education and fertility, abortion policy,
gender differences in age at marriage and living arrangements of
women and children, including women-headed households. The
Division also produces a manual on techniques of population
estimation and analysis, which provide the basis for production of
gender-disaggregated population indicators. These manuals and
reports are widely used in developing-country training programmes
in the areas of population and development. In addition, the
Division serves as global headquarters for the Population
Information Network (POPIN). With both global and regional support
from UNFPA, POPIN is a decentralized information and communication
network for regional, national and non-governmental population
information activities, including gender-and-population issues.
POPIN facilitates Internet access to population information through
the POPIN Gopher (Internet address:gopher.undp.org).
The Population Division serves as the substantive secretariat
for the Commission on Population and Development, which has been
assigned primary responsibility for monitoring the follow-up to the
International Conference on Population and Development (GA
Resolution 49/128).
United Nations Development Programme/Gender in Development
Programme (UNDP/GIDP)
In the ten years since UNDP's Governing Council mandated the
mainstreaming of women-in-development concerns and the subsequent
establishment of the Gender in Development Programme, UNDP has
developed a twin strategy that aims to mainstream gender in all its
programmes and to further the advancement of women as one of its
four major focus areas.
The following three principles guide UNDP's efforts to
mainstream gender: gender equality and equity objectives are built
into Country Cooperation Frameworks and other strategy and policy
documents; the equal participation of men and women is sought in
setting priorities in programme design, development,
implementation, direction and monitoring; and efforts are made to
ensure that programme outcomes benefit men and women equally (where
major inequities exist, equal benefits are considered inadequate
and affirmative action programmes are put in place). Gender
equality and equity at all levels and in all respects within the
organisation itself are also explicit objectives of UNDP's human
resource management policies and staffing.
GIDP works closely with Country Offices to ensure gender
mainstreaming. The assistance that is offered includes:
participation in programme reviews; participation in joint
programming missions; project and programme evaluation; assisting
with the preparation of gender situation analyses; development of
gender strategies or action plans, including follow-up to world
conferences; review of documentation; and gender training.
By fully mainstreaming gender concerns, UNDP also seeks to
assist Country Offices to empower women and contribute to an
enabling environment for their advancement, especially by:
achieving gender equity in decision-making; developing capacity;
recognizing women's power as agents of change; improving women's
access to economic resources and assets; arresting the feminisation
of poverty; advancing women in crisis situations; and creating
legal frameworks that facilitate gender equality and equity.
For UNDP, gender mainstreaming and focusing on the advancement
of women are complementary and mutually reinforcing strategies for
achieving gender equality and equity. Pursuing the advancement of
women requires a gender perspective, while even within a gender-
sensitive framework, provision must be made for a special focus on
the advancement of women to compensate for specific inequities.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO)
UNESCO has always endeavoured to promote equality between the
sexes and to improve the status of women within its fields of
competence through education, sciences, culture and communication.
In addition to specific activities, efforts have been made to
incorporate women's issues at all levels of programme design and
implementation. This approach will be followed-up in the
forthcoming Medium-Term Strategy (1996-2001), with particular
emphasis on the participation of women. Taking its cue from the
Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the
Organization's Medium-Term Strategy for women will be three-
pronged.
First, efforts will be made for the main-streaming of a gender
perspective in all policy-planning, programming, implementation and
evaluation activities. This will entail the production of refined
gender-desegregated data and analysis, as well as the revision of
normative instruments to bring them into line with the Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) and the development of gender-sensitive indicators to
monitor all UNESCO projects.
Second, UNESCO will encourage the broad and active
participation of women at all levels and fields of activity and pay
particular attention to women's priorities, perspectives and
contribution to the rethinking of the goals and means of
development across cultures and traditions. In this context, the
Organization will ensure greater involvement of women in its
programmes by supporting professional women's groups and
disseminating information about relevant research on women and
gender issues.
Third, UNESCO will endeavour to develop specific programmes,
projects and activities to benefit women, geared towards promoting
equality, endogenous capacity-building, women's full citizenship
and equal participation in policy-making. UNESCO will continue to
support action to combat discrimination against women in order to
make equal rights for men and women a de jure and de facto reality
in its various spheres of competence. It will promote information
on the human rights of women and legal literacy. Greater attention
will be paid to the eradication of sexist stereotypes in education,
particularly in textbooks, and practical measures will be taken, in
cooperation with the relevant professional organizations, to
promote a more diversified and non-stereotyped image of women in
and through the media.
As to specific action, the education of women and girls has
always been a top priority with special emphasis on rural women, on
projects that have a direct bearing on women's access to employment
opportunities, and on lifelong education for women's empowerment.
Particularly in regions where enrolment rates for women are
still low, UNESCO will encourage a review of legislation, policies
and programmes in order to identify the obstacles restricting their
access to education. Emphasis will be on diversifying
opportunities for education and training to benefit women without
schooling; on improving the access of girls and women to technical
and vocational education; and to strengthening women's role in
higher education through the establishment of UNESCO Chairs. The
organization will also support the training and informatics with
particular attention to ways of facilitating their access to posts
of responsibility in the media.
In view of the importance of the role and participation of
women in the management of natural resources and in environmental
concerns, special development projects designed to respond to
certain issues such as water resources management; environment,
population and development interactions; the improvement of
communications, particularly in rural areas; access to new
technologies; training and information, will be implemented.
UNESCO will pursue cross-cultural studies on the formation and
modification of attitudes, and on the consequences of changes in
the perception of women's and men's roles in the family and in
society, highlighting the role of women as agents of social change
and the cultural changes in women's life cycles. Findings that
lead to new concepts will be reflected in teaching and training
programmes and materials.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
In moving forward from Cairo, UNFPA will play an important
role in monitoring the implementation of the Programme of Action at
the country, regional and global levels. To this end, the Fund has
formulated a mission statement to serve as a framework for its
activities over the coming years; it reaffirms the importance of
providing quality reproductive health and family planning services,
implementing population policies as an integral part of sustainable
development, and undertaking advocacy for population and
development concerns, particularly for the empowerment of women.
The ICPD recognized that there can be no sustainable
development without the full and equal participation of women,
gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women. Gender
concerns will therefore be an integral component of UNFPA
programming and will be factored into all activities undertaken in
the three core areas (reproductive health, including family
planning and sexual health; population and development strategies;
and advocacy) as a "cross-cutting" dimension. Limited support will
also be provided to specific areas such as institution
strengthening, training and research.
The empowerment of women is a fundamental prerequisite to
sound reproductive health and requires that women have increased
access to resources, education and employment, and that their human
rights and fundamental freedoms are promoted and protected so that
they can make choices free from coercion and discrimination.
Family life education and public information for young people that
encourages responsible sexuality, respect for women, and gender
equity are also fundamental to improving the role and status of
women in society.
Women will, therefore, remain the focus of reproductive health
issues, since the burden of ill health associated with reproduction
affects women to a much larger extent than it does men. However,
all programmes and services will also pay special attention to the
role and responsibilities of men in reproductive health.
Thus, within the context of primary health care, UNFPA will
build upon its traditional support through the strengthening or
addition of services that seek to improve reproductive health by
reducing the need for abortion; preventing and treating
reproductive tract infections, including STDs; preventing HIV/AIDS;
preventing and treating infertility; providing routine screening
for other reproductive health conditions; and discouraging harmful
practices, such as female genital mutilation.
The Fund will also support the development of data systems
that generate information that is desegregated by gender as well as
by geographic areas, and undertake research studies focusing on the
acceptability of reproductive health and family planning practices
in various social, economic and cultural settings, and the role and
status of women and reproductive rights.
With regard to advocacy, UNFPA activities will be of two
types. First, UNFPA will address gender equality and equity;
education of women; reproductive rights; protection of the girl
child; and the role of men in matters of sexual and reproductive
health and in the family. Second, the Fund will work as an
advocate for human rights and development issues such as education,
poverty, basic health services, empowerment of women and people's
participation, all emanating from the Programme of Action and
agreements reached at other United Nations fora.
In recognizing that gender issues and concerns have been
expanded beyond women-specific activities to include gender
equality and equity, participation of both men and women in all
aspects of population and development, and including the role of
men in achieving women's empowerment, UNFPA has issued revised
guidelines on Gender, Population and Development, and is organizing
gender training workshop for all its field staff. The overall
objectives of these workshops are to create gender awareness, in
particular the strategic and analytical shift from a narrow women
in development concept to a broader gender focus, and to ensure
that gender issues are mainstreamed in all UNFPA programmes and
projects at the country level.
In addition, UNFPA is collaborating with the Royal Tropical
Institute (KIT) to organize regional pilot workshops in Egypt,
Indonesia, and Zimbabwe, the objectives of which are to: develop
the institutional capacity to provide GPD training as an integral
part of the Fund's regular training programme and as part of the
training and educational structures at local institutions in
selected countries; to build staff capacity to integrate gender
concerns in population and development among UNFPA field staff and
relevant national, government, CST and executing agency staff; and
to design flexible guidelines and a trainers' aid that could be
adapted by UNFPA field offices for future in-country GPD training.
UNFPA field staff will also be encouraged to collaborate
closely with governments and other entities involved in population
and development activities, particularly women's NGOs, to ensure
that gender concerns are taken fully into account in all
programming activities. Efforts will also be made to strengthen
the institutional and technical capacities of women's NGOs at the
local and grassroots levels to better their ability to undertake
gender-specific activities. A revised set of guidelines for UNFPA
collaboration with NGOs has been issued in this regard.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
UNHCR's follow-up activities to the International Conference
on Population and Development (ICPD) have centred on addressing
reproductive health (RH) issues in refugee situations. In
addition, an inventory has been made of UNHCR-funded projects to
identify the educational needs of refugee girls.
The traditional approach to reproductive health needs in
refugee situations has been mainly through mother and child
healthcare programmes that focus on reducing infant and child
mortality. While in the past refugee reproductive health needs
were either not fully addressed for socio-cultural reasons or were
overshadowed by competing demands in other life-saving sectors, in
recent years increasing concern over the number of unwanted and/or
unplanned pregnancies has brought to the fore the issue of family
planning and other related activities. Sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS, and widespread rape in armed
conflict have added new dimensions to the reproductive health needs
of refugees. The ICPD recognized the holistic nature of female
reproductive health needs in its conclusions, which expanded the
definition of RH to include the "..state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being." The conference also addressed the
need for inter-agency cooperation to fill the service and resource
gap and to harmonize technical approaches in implementing RH
programmes in refugee situations.
This new consensus on reproductive health provided UNHCR with
a fresh and expanded opportunity to combine expertise and
coordinate activities with other United Nations agencies and non-
governmental organizations on RH services in refugee settings. A
joint venture was launched initially with UNFPA (following their
policy on RH service coverage in refugee settings) to undertake a
preliminary survey of reproductive health needs and services among
refugee populations. The survey revealed crucial unmet needs in
the are of reproductive health of young adolescents and victims of
violence and trauma. Health service providers in the field further
signalled the need to develop technical guidelines of RH to help
identify target populations and design appropriate measures for
intervention.
As a further follow-up to the recommendation of the ICPD, and
as a result of the survey on RH needs, an inter-agency working
group has been established to prepare the first-draft technical
field guidance manual for standardizing a technical approach to RH
needs. The draft manual will be reviewed at the June 1995
symposium on reproductive health.
While efforts are still underway to develop systematic,
multifaceted and integrated RH programmes in refugee settings,
vertical programmes continue to address specific needs as and when
identified. Specific projects such as the STD/HIV/AIDS pilot
project in Ethiopia, psychiatric and social counselling of victims
of violence in Croatia, and training of traditional birth
attendants in the Sudan continue to meet the manifested needs of
targeted populations.
In addition to the ICPD-related activities mentioned above,
UNHCR has over the past five years developed extensive training
programmes and guidelines for its staff and implementing partners
to assist them in developing programmes that reduce dependency,
enhance the participation of refugee women and ensure their equal
access to the benefits of such programmes. Legal training for
women has been developed to raise their awareness of their human
rights. Human rights training aimed at police, military personnel
and government officials includes components on women's rights.
Proactive efforts have been made to ensure women's participation in
camp organization committees and their access to skills training
and literacy programmes. All of these activities are aimed at
empowering refugee women and enabling them to take an active role
in the rebuilding of their societies after their exile has ended.
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
The objectives and programme thrusts of UNICEF's actions in
gender and development are defined in its 1985/1987 policy on women
in development and in its recent 1994 policy paper on gender
equality and the empowerment of women and girls. UNICEF's policies
are guided by a growing understanding of the gender-based
discrimination that affects women and girls throughout the life-
cycle, the complementarity of CRC and CEDAW, the needs of the girl
child, and the needs of women in their multiple roles. The
operational approaches to implement its policies and strategies are
mainstreaming gender concerns both as a cross-sectoral dimension
and as an integral aspect in the sectoral programmes; promoting
gender-specific programme activities for girls and women; and
giving special attention to the girl child. UNICEF actions for the
girl child include programmes for the elimination of disparities in
health, nutrition and education for girls, initiatives for the
elimination of the harmful traditional practices of early marriage
and female genital mutilation, and innovative ways to reach
adolescent/young men and women with knowledge about and skills to
delay parenthood and to protect themselves against sexually
transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS.
UNICEF actions are targeted to the elimination of gender
disparities in the achievement of the mid-decade goals and those of
the World Summit for Children, advocacy and specific initiatives
for girls, and integration of gender issues through the application
of the Women's Equality and Empowerment Framework. Programme
activities will also include capacity-building for gender
responsive programme development; involvement of males in sharing
familial responsibilities, particularly parenting; and promoting
gender equity in the family with focus on early socialization and
youth. Other on-going activities for continued action are
collection and analysis of gender and age-disaggregated data and
development of indicators for gender-sensitive policies and
programmes; building capacities through training; advocacy and
women's social mobilization and organized participation at the
community, local and national levels; and alliance building among
government agencies, NGOs women leaders, social activist groups and
others to create a positive environment for the effective
participation of women in the emerging democratization and
decentralization processes in many countries.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
UNIFEM, the lead agency for the Inter-Agency Working Group on
Women's Empowerment, which produced these guidelines, is mandated
to use its resources for four priority areas:
o to serve as a catalyst with the goal of ensuring the
appropriate involvement of women in mainstream
development activities;
o to support innovative and experimental activities
benefitting women in line with national and regional
priorities;
o to play an innovative and catalytic role in relation to
the United Nations overall system of development co-
operation; and
o to implement the goals of the United Nations Decade for
Women: Equality, Development and Peace.
Within the framework of its original mandate, UNIFEM is
reshaping its directions and strategies to meet current challenges
and the priorities of women in the 21st century by focusing on
women's political and economic empowerment. To foster women's
economic empowerment, UNIFEM works to put resources directly in the
hands of women in developing countries to support their livelihoods
and to build their capacity to take advantage of new economic
opportunities. Another aspect of work is assisting in the
formulation of gender-sensitive macro-economic policies and
practices in key areas such as trade, structural adjustment and
transitional economies. Of special importance is the examination
of development models, best practices, principal constraints and
lessons learned for widening choices and opportunities for women's
economic participation at all levels.
To foster the political empowerment of women, UNIFEM advocates
for gender equity in decision-making structures from the household
to the international level and the reform of legal and policy
frameworks, codes and instruments that deal with issues such as
property rights and inheritance laws. The Fund supports the
efforts of those working to improve women's status, eliminate
violence against women and promote women's human rights. It also
seeks to strengthen women's organization and other civil society
actors to better their capacity to participate in the decision-
making process.
UNIFEM's comparative advantage lies in its knowledge of and
experience in gender and development, particularly in the following
areas: identifying emerging gender issues, such as trade,
population displacement and structural adjustment; developing
innovative approaches and strategies to address critical issues
affecting women; applying a gender perspective in development
interventions; supporting innovative operational programmes and
projects that benefit women directly; and acting as a catalyst
within the UN system and at the regional and national levels to
bring about women's empowerment. Another area of strength is
UNIFEM's long history of partnership with NGOs; UNIFEM has
extensive experience mobilizing and working with women's
organizations at all levels - grassroots, national, regional, and
global.
UNIFEM also works to ensure that UN Conferences address the
needs of women. UNIFEM works with others to create new political
spaces where women's voices can be heard and consensus can be
forged. It has also sought to empower women by training them to
negotiate in the international arena. UNIFEM works to keep women's
issues high on the agendas of mainstream UN organizations by
playing a mediating role between the international women's movement
and the UN system. UNIFEM also works to synthesize critical issues
and to ensure that the key recommendations of the various UN
Conferences, including the ICPD, are translated into catalytic and
innovative programmes that will empower women in the developing
world.