WHAT IS GEAR? On February 26, 2008 sixteen non-governmental organizations (NGOs) launched the ongoing Campaign for a Stronger Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR), at the United Nations, comprising of over 250 members from around the world. The GEAR campaign calls on United Nations Member States to create a stronger United Nations entity for women: one with greater status, an expanded field presence, and a high level of funding. Sponsors of the campaign include the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), Development Alternatives for a New Era (DAWN), the Association of Women’s Rights and Development (AWID) and the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL). The launch coincided with the 52nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which was dedicated to financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment. For the past three decades, women’s organizations and movements have seen the United Nations as a galvanizing force for our efforts to define a comprehensive global agenda for peace and security, human rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment, poverty eradication and sustainable development. Many important advances have been made for women, yet governments have failed overall to implement the commitments to women’s rights they have made in the CEDAW Convention, Beijing Platform for Action and in agreements from many UN world conferences, including those on human rights, population and development, sustainable development, HIV/AIDS, the Millennium Summit, including the Millennium Development Goals, and the 2005 World Summit. The UN lacks an effective mechanism to deliver on these promises; it needs an independent, women-specific agency with adequate stature, resources, operational capacity in the field, and a mandate and high level leadership to drive this agenda, including for making financing for gender equality more effective. A lead women’s agency is necessary, along with well-resourced, effective mainstreaming efforts throughout the system. Currently, the UN has several small under-resourced agencies focused exclusively on women’s issues; other larger agencies sometimes do important work on gender equality, but it is a small part of their mandate, and often receives low priority.
The sexual and reproductive health community must engage in the efforts to strengthen the United Nations gender equality architecture because gender equality and women’s empowerment are crucial to ensure that women are able to make informed decisions about their bodies, sexuality, and reproduction. Women are the most vulnerable and fastest growing population infected with HIV. Women die during pregnancy, childbirth, and as a result of unsafe abortions. These tragedies continue to happen due to lack of policies and programs to make sexual and reproductive health services widely accessible, but also due to severe inadequacies in the policies and programs to empower women and promote gender equality. From Cairo to Beijing and the five and ten year reviews, women’s empowerment has been integrated into population and development strategies and there is international recognition that reproductive rights are fundamental human rights. Although there have been significant advances in this regard, the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women around the world continue to be unmet. THE SOLUTION Many UN agencies do important work on gender issues and these efforts must continue as there is not one single entity that can do all the work for half the world’s population. UNFPA, one of the strongest advocates for women’s rights in the UN system, is a vital promoter of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. UNFPA should continue to be well funded and to execute its mandate fully, while a strong, women-specific entity will complement UNFPA’s work. They can mutually reinforce their agendas through great collaboration at the policy level and in its operational capacity over the world. Within the larger UN mandate, a stronger women’s agency will better direct the promotion of women’s rights within each existing agency’s mandate and will build on the important achievements in this regard. This will allow for real gender mainstreaming. The interaction of all UN agencies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment is in high order. The synergy created by a strong women’s entity will help the world deliver on the international commitments to promote, protect and fulfill women’s human rights.
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GEAR: Gender Equality Architecture Reform
