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BACHELET MAPS OUT UN WOMEN'S 100-DAY
ACTION PLAN
UN News Centre
24 January 2011
The head of the new United Nations agency
promoting women's rights and full participation in global affairs
laid out a 100-day action plan today, embracing a full spectrum
of issues form supporting national partners to promoting coherence
within the UN system.
"Women's strength, women's industry,
women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource,"
the Executive Director of UN Woman, Michelle Bachelet, a former
president of Chile, told the first regular session of the agency's
executive board. "The challenge then for UN Women is to
show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively
tapped in ways that benefit us all.
Stressing the need to "balance ambition
with common sense," Ms. Bachelet said UN Women would focus
on five core principles: enhancing implementation of international
accords by national partners; backing intergovernmental processes
to strengthen the global framework on gender equality; advocating
gender equality and women's empowerment; promoting coherence
with the UN on the issue; and, acting as a global broker of knowledge
and experience.
UN Women - known formally as the UN Entity
for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women - was established
by the General Assembly in July last year, with the merger of
four former UN agencies and offices: the UN Development Fund
for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women
(DAW), the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues, and
the UN International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).
The new agency is set to receive a large
boost in funding and be formally launched on 24 February during
the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the
global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality
and the advancement of women.
"I am determined that UN Women will
be a catalyst for change, offering new energy, drawing on long-standing
ideas and values, and bringing together men and women from different
countries, societies and communities in a shared endeavour,"
Ms. Bachelet said.
She noted that UN Women's approach will
be a global one, though its impact will be experienced primarily
at the country level, "thus UN Women's technical support
and expertise will be available, on request, to all countries,
developed and developing countries alike."
In her remarks to the board, Ms. Bachelet
also laid out five thematic priorities in the country-specific
context: expanding women's voice, leadership and participation;
ending violence against women; ensuring women's full participation
in conflict resolution; enhancing women's economic empowerment;
and gender equality priorities central to national, local and
sectoral planning and budgeting.
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