Women are the cornerstones of Families. WFO has always worked themes related to the MDG 5 - Gender Equality, especially in the World Family Summit +5, in 2009, held in Istanbul, Turkey.

WFO and Women is a section of our website where we select a series of news and important information regarding the well-being of women worldwide.

Updated monthly, this is another way for WFO to promote important information for its members and most important for Families all over the world and we do hope you enjoy it.

On 13 April a landmark System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) on gender equality and women's empowerment was adopted at a meeting of the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination, to be applied throughout the UN system. For the first time, the UN will have a set of common measures with which to measure progress in its gender-related work, including the mainstreaming of the gender perspective across all its operations.

One key aspect of UN Women's mandate is to guide the system's coordination on gender. The SWAP, as an accountability framework, will allow UN Women to deliver on this. Throughout 2012, the various UN agencies will continue to align their performance indicators on gender equality, along with their policies and work processes.

Speaking at the meeting of the Board, UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet celebrated the groundbreaking launch of the tool, but reiterated the need for its full and fast implementation.

In addition, she called for the development of gender markers and agency-relevant tracking data that can be compared among entities. "We urgently need to build on this and take it a step farther, to mainstreaming gender equality and women's empowerment across the full spectrum of UN activity," she said. "This is not about just ensuring that women and girls are mentioned in policies and programmes alongside "other issues". It is about ensuring that we fully integrate in our work, both the contribution of women, and the impact of what we do on women."

UN Women has been at the helm of the SWAP project since July 2011, during which 50 entities, Secretariat departments and offices have been consulted and eight entities have agreed to pilot it. The Secretary-General, who chaired the Board meeting, has fuelled the process by making women's empowerment one of five priorities during his second term.

Ms. Bachelet also urged that, as a first and critical test, gender equality and women's empowerment is highlighted as a priority in the final outcome document at Rio +20, The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012, as well as in any agreements on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the post-Millennium Development Goal agenda in 2015. "This is something that UN Women cannot do alone and for which we will need to deliver as one," she said.

The fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from Monday, 27 February to Friday, 9 March 2012.

Click here for more information regarding the CSW.

The President of the World Family Organization, Dr. Deisi Kusztra is currently in China for the International Forum on Women in Urban Development and Commemoration of the 15th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women organized by All - China Women’s Federation.

Before going into the subject, it is very important to understand how everything started.

In 1995, the United Nations convened the Fourth World Conference on Women on 4-15 in Beijing, China. Delegates had prepared a Declaration and Platform for Action that aimed at achieving greater equality and opportunity for women. The three previous World Conferences were in Mexico City (International Women's Year, 1975), Copenhagen (1980) and Nairobi (1985).

The official name of the Conference was "The Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace". 189 governments and more than 5,000 representatives from 2,100 non-governmental organizations participated in the Conference.

The principal themes were the advancement and empowerment of women in relation to women's human rights, women and poverty, women and decision-making, the girl-child, violence against women and other areas of concern. The resulting documents of the Conference are The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

The overriding message of the Fourth World Conference on Women was that the issues addressed in the Platform for Action are global and universal. Deeply entrenched attitudes and practices perpetuate inequality and discrimination against women, in public and private life, in all parts of the world. Accordingly, implementation requires changes in values, attitudes, practices and priorities at all levels. The Conference signaled a clear commitment to international norms and standards of equality between men and women; that measures to protect and promote the human rights of women and girl-children as an integral part of universal human rights must underlie all action; and that institutions at all levels must be reoriented to expedite implementation. Governments and the UN agreed to promote the "gender mainstreaming" in policies and programmes.

In March 2010, the Commission on the Status of Women undertook a fifteen-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly.   Emphasis were be placed on the sharing of experiences and good practices, with a view to overcoming remaining obstacles and new challenges, including those related to the Millennium Development Goals.  Member States, representatives of non-governmental organizations and of UN entities participated in the session.  A series of parallel events provided additional opportunities for information exchange and networking.

Ongoing national and regional review processes are feeding into the global review process.

The General Assembly is expected to mark the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in a commemorative meeting during CSW.

For more details click here.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization's goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization's goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It will merge and build on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system which focus exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment:

• Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)
• International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)
• Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI)
• United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
  

The main roles of UN Women are:

• To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms
• To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
• To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.

Meeting the Needs of the World's Women

Over many decades, the UN has made significant progress in advancing gender equality, including through landmark agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth.

Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society. Women lack access to decent work and face occupational segregation and gender wage gaps. They are too often denied access to basic education and health care. Women in all parts of the world suffer violence and discrimination. They are under-represented in political and economic decision-making processes.

For many years, the UN has faced serious challenges in its efforts to promote gender equality globally, including inadequate funding and no single recognized driver to direct UN activities on gender equality issues.

UN Women — which will be operational by January 2011 — has been created to address such challenges. It will be a dynamic and strong champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels.

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, UN Women will, among other issues, work for the:

elimination of discrimination against women and girls
empowerment of women
achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.