NZ welcomes consolidated UN gender agency

Women's Affairs Minister Pansy Wong said today that strong advocacy from New Zealand was a factor in the announcement at the weekend that UN member states have agreed to establish a single entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Mrs Wong said that New Zealand, Australia and Canada had worked closely over a number of years to help to get the agency established.  "I lobbied strongly for the agency when I attended the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York in March, and I am delighted that the UN has chosen to move unanimously and quickly.

"I'm also pleased that the important work of UNIFEM will continue during the transition to the new, consolidated agency."

Under the agreement all UN agencies that work for gender equality - the Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women - will be consolidated into one body.

New Zealand welcomes the resolution establishing the entity as a major step in efforts by the Secretary-General to reform the UN system to make it more coherent and effective, and in implementing one of the remaining recommendations from the Beijing Platform for Action.

"We expect that strong leadership of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women will provide the support and care of women and girls to assist them to participate more fully, which will have a huge impact on families, communities and countries. Everyone benefits, girls and boys, women and men," said Mrs Wong

"The evidence shows that most of the world's poor are women, and most women are poor. But when women are empowered educationally, legally and financially, there is good evidence a country's GDP rises, agricultural practices improve, and children are healthier and better educated. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has shown that income earned and controlled by mothers has a 20 times greater effect on the health of their children compared with the same income controlled by fathers. Healthy children have a better ability to learn and therefore a better chance to become economically productive. Empowered women are the drivers of economic development."

The new entity - called UN Women - is expected to be operational by January 2011.