WUNRN
I. What is it?
II. Why is it necessary?
III. Who is involved in the project?
Collaborating partners
National partners
Countries
IV. What are the main activities?
V. What will it achieve?
VI. What is the project time line?
All contacts for the project at central and country level
EC/ UN partnership on gender equality in development and peace -- The project document
The “EC/UN
Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace” is an initiative that
involves the European Commission (EC), the United Nations Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) and the International Training Centre of the International Labour
Organization (ITCILO). It is a follow-up to the “Owning Development. Promoting
Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships” conference that was
jointly organized by the European Commission and UNIFEM in November 2005.
The EC/UN
partnership aims to identify approaches with which to integrate gender equality
and women’s human rights into new aid modalities, in accordance with the Paris
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
It also aims
to provide support for national partners’ efforts to fulfil international
obligations on gender equality and to match their commitment to gender equality
with adequate financial allocations in national development programmes and
budgets.
The project
will have a specific focus on the role of women in conflict and post-conflict
situations, and especially on the proper implementation of UN Security Council
Resolution 1325.
The
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) , the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) , UNSC Resolution 1325 and the Millennium Declaration are all international
instruments signed by the vast majority of national governments. Their adoption
has been followed by national policies and action plans on gender equality, but
these are often not fully integrated into the mainstream of national
development programmes and budgets. A 2005 review of the implementation of the
Beijing Platform for Action found that there was still a wide gap between
countries’ political statements in favour of gender equality and action to put
it into practice.
The last
five years have seen a number of milestones in establishing a new aid
architecture. In 2000, the Millennium Summit refined the focus of development
assistance by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In 2002, the Monterrey Consensus laid the groundwork for
promoting ownership, alignment and harmonization in development assistance. The
2004 Marrakech Roundtable on Managing for Development Results
reaffirmed the need to make aid more effective while increasing its volume. The
Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness , adopted in March 2005, is the latest
major initiative. The Declaration contains 56 partnership commitments based on
five main principles: ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for
results, and mutual accountability. The implementation of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness has led
to fundamental changes in the mechanisms and processes for planning,
coordinating, implementing and evaluating aid.1
The European Commission, together with the DFID and the Netherlands, is
spearheading new aid modalities. The EC has committed itself to an ambitious
target of channelling 50% of government-to-government assistance through
country systems. This commitment means that the EC will choose general budget
and sectoral budget support as the preferred aid modality whenever the country situation
permits and certain conditions are met.
The general
and sectoral budget support modality implies direct financial transfers into
the national budget on the basis of an agreed national strategy containing
progress benchmarks and a medium-term expenditure framework. To make sure that
these resources benefit the promotion of gender equality it is crucial that the
national budget itself provides mechanisms for the promotion of gender
equality. The accountability of national governments to gender-equality
advocates becomes essential for promoting gender equality through national
budgets and new aid modalities.
The European
Commission is strongly committed to promoting gender equality within the new
aid modalities. As stated in its Communication on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
in Development, adopted on 8 March 2007, gender equality is a goal
in its own right as well as a prerequisite for poverty reduction and
sustainable economic growth, and will be instrumental in reaching all the MDGs.
The Communication further recognized that it is imperative to ensure that the
new aid modalities empower women in partner countries by making gender equality
a core value and goal at all levels of development cooperation. The subsequent Council Conclusions reaffirmed this position
and the commitment of the European Union as a whole to gender equality and
women's empowerment, and emphasized the importance of sharing knowledge of best
practice through regional and international cooperation, consultations with
civil society and partnership with UN bodies.
UNIFEM and
the European Commission have worked together before on promoting gender
equality through new aid modalities. The EC/UNIFEM consultations on “Owning
Development: Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships”,
held in Brussels in November 2005, and EC support for UNIFEM gender budgeting
initiatives have brought promising new approaches to assessing the gender
implications of the aid effectiveness agenda. UNIFEM expanded this work by
holding regional and sub-regional consultations in Africa (Burundi, July 2006),
in East Africa in partnership with IGAD (Djibouti, November 2006), in West
Africa (Ghana, November 2006), in the Commonwealth of Independent States
(Almaty, May 2007) and in Southern Africa (Zambia, July 2007).
The main
recommendations were that the new aid architecture should include:
1. Adequate financing for programmes to meet women’s needs
2. Accountability systems for governments and donors to track and enhance their
contribution to gender equality
3. Gender-responsive progress assessments, performance monitoring and
indicators of aid effectiveness.
The EC/UN
Partnership is a response to these recommendations. It provides support to the
EC and its development partners in ensuring that sustainable gender equality
and women’s empowerment may be achieved through greater coordination amongst
donors and increased ownership of the development process by national
governments. These principles are contained in the new aid architecture. They
are also aligned with, and should accelerate the attainment of, the Millennium
Development Goals, particularly MDG 3. They apply to all countries, including
the most fragile. Significantly, non-discrimination and the promotion of gender
equality are included in the “Principles for good international engagement in fragile
states and situations” in recognition of the “challenges to achieve
the MDGs, especially concerning gender and fragile states”.2
III. Who is involved in the project?
The main
collaborating partners are the EC, UNIFEM, and the ITCILO, assisted by the
European External Policy Advisers (EEPA). As explained above, the EC sees this
initiative as a logical follow-up to its commitment to promoting gender
equality throughout its development cooperation, especially because of its role
in the implementation of new aid modalities.
UNIFEM is
the UN agency mandated to promote gender equality and women’s human rights
within the UN system and at country level.
The ITCILO,
as the training arm of the ILO, has a stake promoting the ILO Decent Work
agenda, embraced by the EC, as well as three years of helping the EC to bring
gender into the mainstream of its development cooperation.
European Commission
The EC chairs the Project Steering Committee and is represented by the
EuropeAid Cooperation Office, (Unit E4 Governance, Security Human Rights and
Gender, Unit F3, Central Management of Thematic Budget Lines), DG DEV (Unit
DEV/B/3, Human Development, Social Cohesion and Employment) and DG RELEX (Unit
RELEX/B/1, Human Rights and Democratisation) in Brussels. The EC Delegations in
the 12 pilot countries will also be fully involved in the project.
United Nations Fund
for Women
UNIFEM is responsible for overall coordination, project results and
reporting to the EC. UNIFEM’s sub-regional offices in Africa, Asia and the
Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean will run the project activities,
drawing on a network of partners and consultants as needed.
International
Training Centre of the International Labour Organization
The ITCILO will make its practical approach to capacity development for gender
mainstreaming available to project partners and stakeholders. It will
contribute to the Global Gender Help Desk, setting up and managing a project
website and on-line learning modules.
European
External Policy Advisers
EEPA is a Brussels based consultancy that functions as the Secretariat for the
Project Steering Committee. EEPA acts as the focal point for communications
between UNIFEM, the EC in Brussels and ITC/ILO, to ensure a smooth communications
flow between all partners.
Contact
Information
European
Commission
Daniela Rofi (AIDCO/E/4)
Thematic support on gender, EuropeAid
daniela.rofi@ec.europa.eu
UNIFEM
Letty Chiwara
EC/UN Partnership Programme Manager
letty.chiwara@unifem.org
ITCILO
Benedetta Magri
Activity Manager, Gender Coordination Unit
Eu-gender@itcilo.org
EEPA
Mirjam Van Reisen
Director
mvreisen@eepa.be
At country
level, there will be close collaboration with government departments (finance,
planning and other relevant ministries), national institutions for women and
gender equality, women’s NGOs and networks, other gender equality and human
rights experts, representatives of civil society and bilateral and
multi-lateral donors, including UNCTs. All of them are included by virtue of
their specific mandates and roles in national planning and development and in
fulfilling the gender equality commitments made by the country.
The project
will focus on twelve pilot countries. Selection criteria included their
involvement in new aid modalities, partners’ institutional gender-equality
capacity inside the country, and, for some, state or situational fragility.
The findings
from these pilot countries will generate models and application packages
comprising lists of resource requirements, best practices and strategies that
can be applied at global and regional levels.
The pilot
countries that were selected through consultation and agreement among the
project partners include:
AFRICA: Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
ASIA and the PACIFIC: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Nepal
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA: Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan
AMERICAS: Nicaragua, Honduras, Suriname.
The project
focuses on five strategies:
1. Knowledge generation:
mapping national priorities and budgeting processes to identify opportunities
and challenges for incorporating gender equality into all 12 pilot countries.
2. Capacity building:
enabling national stakeholders and development partners, especially the EC in
the pilot countries, to incorporate gender equality and women’s human rights
more fully into national development plans, country strategy papers, budgets,
programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
3. Information sharing:
setting up a project website, documenting best practices and lessons learnt,
and disseminating those documents at various forums.
4. Advocacy: making
attention to gender equality and women’s human rights part of the aid
effectiveness agendas of all development partners in the lead-up to Ghana 2008
and beyond.
5. Partnership building:
creating coalitions and networks of gender equality advocates that can work
together to develop key messages for advocacy at national, regional and global
levels.
Specific
deliverables will include:
1. Mapping
study reports on each of the pilot countries, and a consolidated regional
report on each region. The studies will assess and provide information on: (1)
the national macroeconomic development context for new aid modalities; (2) how
national development strategies, PRSPs and national action plans reflect gender
equality priorities; (3) the extent to which national budgets, including
general budget support, sector-wide approaches, multi-donor trust funds and consolidated
appeals, adequately reflect gender equality priorities; (4) the extent to which
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms exist to ensure that spending on gender
equality promotes development.
2. National
action plans identifying the technical and policy support needed by national
development partners if they are to strengthen their capacity for incorporating
gender equality and women’s human rights into national development plans,
country strategy papers, budgets, programme implementation, monitoring and
evaluation.
3.
Indicators with which to track the impact of the aid effectiveness agenda on
gender equality in the pilot countries.
4. Resource
materials to support in-country capacity-building activities, including the
following: (1) a training module and resource book on mainstreaming gender in
SWAPs and budget support; (2) advocacy materials on good gender mainstreaming
practice in national development plans and coordinated development aid; (3)
materials on women and peace-building, including information on UNSCR 1325 and
other relevant themes in national action plans; (4) guidelines for civil
society organizations on how to hold governments accountable for gender
equality in national development planning, partly through CEDAW “shadow
reports”; (5) guidelines and papers on how to monitor the gender-sensitiveness
of EC country strategies.
5. Gender
equality coalitions to strengthen advocacy of gender equality in aid
effectiveness processes, in the lead-up to the 2008 Ghana High-level Forum on
Aid Effectiveness and following it.
6. An
inter-active website (www.gendermatters.eu) to provide a one-stop shop for
information on gender and new aid modalities by making available the knowledge,
resources and tools produced worldwide. It will offer all project stakeholders
tutor-assisted learning modules, information resources, a discussion forum, an
on-line newsletter and a contact database.
7. A global
gender help desk which provides technical assistance with the integration of
gender equality and women’s human rights into new aid modalities and national
development plans. It will build on the other components of the project and
complement them.
Increased visibility of gender
equality and its acknowledgement as a key development objective within the
framework of the aid effectiveness agenda both before and after the 2008 Ghana High-level
Forum on Aid Effectiveness.
The
initiative is based on the recognition that the EU is one of the main bodies
working extensively on new aid modalities. Integration of gender equality into
its work will thus help assess what new aid modalities can contribute to gender
equality and what the challenges may be. A set of good practices and tools will
be compiled and disseminated to facilitate this assessment.
The
assessment will be used to identify the need to make the Paris Declaration
gender-responsive in the preparations for the Ghana High-level Forum. The Ghana
Forum will then produce results that will have an impact on the international
framework for aid effectiveness.
More
specifically, the project will increase the demand for, and supply of, greater
responsiveness to gender equality in aid. The project will have a direct impact
on the following key target groups:
(a) governments and policy makers
(including ministries of finance and planning, line ministries and
parliamentarians), increasing their understanding of the gender equality
implications of the aid effectiveness agenda;
(b) gender equality advocates,
increasing their capacity to integrate gender equality priorities effectively
into national planning processes and budgeting processes;
(c) bi-lateral and multilateral donors,
making them more inclined to translate their policy commitments to gender
equality into adequate, predictable financing.
The initial
phase of the initiative is a three-year project, starting in 2007 and ending in
2009. A follow-up phase will build on project outcomes and those of the Ghana
High-level Forum in 2008.
A full list of contacts for each of the collaborating partners in each of the
countries is available in EN, FR, SP.
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Footnotes
1. Carol
Guina, 2007, from a paper commissioned by UNIFEM on “Linking Aid Effectiveness
and Gender”
2. Statement
to the Development Committee by the OECD Secretary-General and Richard Manning,
15 April 2007 http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/29/3/38435815.pdf