African Woman and Child Feature Service

Women at CSW54 are busy rallying delegates and lobbying their governments to support the adoption of a resolution they say will play a critical role in the realisation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals before 2015.

Presented by the government of Columbia and reinforced by NGOs, the resolution titled Women’s Economic Empowerment, calls on member states to take radical steps and commit themselves to far reaching actions that would have substantial benefits to the women.

“This is the resolution we have to follow keenly and lobby our governments to support it if we need to see increased empowerment of women,” said a delegate from Latin America during one of NGO briefing sessions at the Salvation Army.

The resolution, which is being discussed before adoption on Tuesday, calls on the member states to incorporate gender perspectives into social and economic policies, including development of poverty reduction strategies as well as ensuring access and transferring appropriate technology to women.

If adopted, member states are to give priority to identifying and redressing women’s unequal access to economic and financial resources, including employment, social security and productive resources such as land, property and natural resources. They have to consider the adoption of legislation and the implementation of more effective national policies.

Says the resolution:

“While women represent an important and growing proportion of business owners, their contribution to economic and social development is constrained by, inter alia, the denial and lack of equal rights and lack of access to legal aid, education, training, information, support services and credit facilities including salaries, and control over land, capital, technology and other areas of production.”

To remedy this situation, the resolution proposes the implementation of positive steps that promote equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, which remains one of the causes of women’s marginalisation in the economic sector. It also suggests action to remove structural and legal barriers as well as stereotypic attitudes to gender equality at work, by redressing gender bias in recruitment, working conditions, remuneration, occupational segregation and harassment.

The issue of discrimination of women in social protection benefits, unequal career opportunities, and the inadequate sharing of family responsibilities are to be redressed as a matter of urgency.

The resolution calls on governments, the private sector, non-government organisations and other relevant actors of civil society to develop and strengthen policies, strategies and programmes that ensure women’s, particularly those in developing countries, access to formal, non-formal and vocational training as well as long-distance education.

If adopted, member states will be expected to develop and implement specific policies and programmes that promote women’s economic empowerment, including those that enhance their access to full and productive employment as well as support their entrepreneurial capacities through the provision of advisory services and access to markets.

Putting in place legislation, policies and programmes that eliminate the constraints faced by women in accessing formal financial services, including savings, credit, insurance and money transfer services, are other areas governments will need to act upon in the next five years.

To achieve this, delegates support the provision calling on the private sector, international cooperation agencies and NGOs to consider gender perspectives in the design of loans, grants, projects and programmes and any other strategies.

The resolution also requests the UN Secretary General to submit to the Commission on the Status of Women at its 55th session a report on the implementation of the present resolution.