GlobalSister.org would like to share this paper on civil society participation proposed by GEAR, which is mostly based on Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) proposal.

This post also provides an excellent summary of other models for civil society engagement used by other UN agencies.

The following recommendations will be presented today, November 2, 2010 by GEAR to Michelle Bachelet, the Head of UN Women. The Global Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) Campaign urges the UN an the Member States to create an agency that can operate with an impact, and make this agency operational without delay.

CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION AND UN WOMEN November 2010

Civil society has played an important role in shaping the work of the United Nations, especially since the world conferences of the 1990s (Rio, Vienna, Cairo, and Beijing). It has brought expertise, critical information, personal stories, and diverse voices to assist the UN and governments in addressing global challenges. This systematic participation has enhanced the credibility of the UN vis a vis other international institutions and helped it gain the trust of the peoples of the world. The synergy between the UN and civil society in addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment has been particularly productive.

One of the principles of the GEAR campaign has been to ensure that UN Women is both accountable to and informed by civil society, especially women’s organizations, through the establishment of mechanisms that include meaningful participation at headquarters and at the regional and country level. Women’s NGOs are best placed to provide programming and policy expertise on how the UN and governments can advance women’s human rights and achieve gender equality. Bringing in diverse women’s voices and building on this experience is critical to UN Women’s success and sustainability.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Throughout the creation of UN Women, there has been recognition of the important role of civil society and the expertise that women’s groups and others bring to programs to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, including the calls for the USG to “establish a mechanism for periodic consultations” with civil society (para 39 of the DSG’s Modalities paper).

The GEAR campaign calls for systematic and meaningful participation of civil society- particularly women’s groups- in UN Women through:


(1) Full participation on the Executive Board governing UN Women: UN Women’s first board meeting
should include representatives of civil society as non-voting members

(2) The creation of civil society advisory councils at the country, regional and global levels – these bodies could be made up of thematic experts as well as other stakeholders.

(3) Appoint Independent Thematic Experts (ITEs) from civil society to act as advisors in examining specific issues and situations pertaining to women’s rights. The ITE reports would be made available at country, regional, and global levels and submitted to the Executive Board. ITEs should communicate directly with relevant State and civil society actors and identify critical concerns, gaps and policy recommendations related to the issue/situation s/he is investigating. ITE’s need to be administratively supported by UN Women and could serve as a link between CSO Thematic Working Groups and the Executive Board.

(4) The establishment of Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) at the global and regional levels as accountability mechanisms to ensure that CSO expertise/voices shape UN Women’s program development,
allocation, and implementation.


(5) Hold dynamic Public forums or Hearings for UN Women to listen to and exchange with NGOS from around the world during the CSW and at key regional UN events.

Background Review of UN Processes

There are only a few examples in the UN system where civil society has actually been included as a full participant in the governance structure. One notable exception is the International Labor Organization (ILO) which is a real pioneer with its tripartite governance by governments, employers and workers. A more recent innovative example, and one which we use as our model, is the Programme Coordinating Board of the Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS). The GEAR Campaign has also reviewed the NGO consultation processes used by other UN agencies, funds and programmes, as well as the experience of the Commission on the Status of Women.

While unfortunately the Resolution establishing UN Women and its Executive Board does not formally give “seats” to civil society, the GEAR Campaign is hopeful that the Under Secretary General of UN Women will establish formal mechanisms whereby women’s rights organizations meaningfully engage in the development of policy and program priorities for the organization. At its first Board Meeting, the USG can include (a) representative(s) from civil society as non-voting members.

Approaches to Civil Society Participation

Most UN funds/programmes are overseen by a Governing Board or Council comprised only of member states. Many have developed other mechanisms for gaining input and advice from civil society but these are advisory only. For example, UNDP is governed by an Executive Board that reviews its program and operations, and which is comprised solely of member states without any civil society participation. The UNDP Administrator has set up a civil society (CSO) Advisory Committee to get the advice and input of civil society. Established in 2000, the CSO Advisory Committee, comprised of leading development NGOs from around the world, meets once a year and reports directly to the Administrator. Its mission is to advise senior management on program and policy directions, putting forth priority issues for discussion and debate. While the Committee provides a useful opportunity for discussion and dialogue, it is not involved in ongoing consultations or decision making. UNDP has begun to set up similar CSO advisory committees in some countries.

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) maintains a civil society unit, which is organized around nine major groups, a structure established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The major groups include women, as well as NGOs, youth, labor unions, farmers, local governments, and the private sector among others. UNEP organizes regional and then a Global Civil Society Forum prior to its biennial Governing Council (comprised only of member states) meetings. Accredited civil society organizations have access to reports and documents on the agenda of the Governing Council, which tend to be normative policy documents, and are intended to set standards for UNEP’s work. NGOs have an opportunity to give UNEP comments and also to give feedback and make suggestions to member states, but this is in an advisory capacity only.

UN Habitat has also established a practice of involving local authorities and other partners in a dialogue at its meetings of the Governing Council, comprised of member states. Representatives of partner groups, including non-governmental organizations, parliamentarians, the private sector, and labor unions, among others, are given an opportunity to make substantive presentations followed by a discussion with member states. Opportunities for consultation by the various groups prior to the Governing Council meeting are also provided. This process has enabled partners to contribute ideas and experiences to UN Habitat’s program of work.

The UNFPA Global NGO Advisory Panel is relatively new and therefore cannot be measured in its effectiveness, but this panel has been established by the Executive Director of UNFPA, and is served by a secretariat within the External Relations Branch. The purpose is to strengthen partnership between UNFPA and NGOs to advance UNFPA’s mandate and to advance the Cairo agenda. The Advisory Panel provides its views on UNFPA’s advocacy strategies and recommends programmatic areas for action.


In terms of intergovernmental processes, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has a long track record of CSO participation in its annual meetings, which often attract over 1000 civil society participants – the largest participation of any functional commission. Participants include ECOSOC-accredited NGOs and those accredited at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and its subsequent reviews. However, as this is an intergovernmental meeting which focuses on negotiating “Agreed Conclusions” and resolutions, NGOs have no decision making role. NGOs have the right to speak in the meetings at scheduled times and submit written statements; have access to documents and open discussions (but often are excluded from “informals”, or negotiating sessions); and can only provide comments and suggestions directly to member states outside meeting rooms.

As the CSW will continue its current role and mandate even as UN Women takes root, it is important that at least this accepted practice for NGO engagement with the intergovernmental negotiations continue. However, it is also important that UN Women create a more dynamic forum in which to listen to and exchange with NGOS during the CSW, as there has not been a fairly negative sense of marginalization and frustration among NGOS in recent years and this dynamic needs to be turned around.

Civil Society Participation and UN Women

The GEAR campaign believes that a formal mechanism that involves organizations committed to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment must be established in the first 90 days of UN Women. This mechanism should include full access to meetings and participation in policy formulation, agenda setting, strategic planning, resource mobilization, budgetary allocation, monitoring and evaluation, setting programmatic priorities and accountability mechanisms to ensure that women’s empowerment and gender equality are actively incorporated in the UN’s work at all levels.

Dilma Rousseff, the former chief of staff for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil has now been elected the first female president in Brazil. She is becoming part of a growing wave of democratically elected female leaders in the Latin America region which includes Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina and Angela Merkel in Germany.

Ms. Rousseff promised to build millions of low-income homes, expand a community-policing program pioneered in Rio de Janeiro, and substantially improve the quality of education and public health care. In the final debate between the two candidates on Friday, she called education — an area in which Brazil has lagged many other nations — “the most important issue facing Brazil.” Read the whole article in the New York Times. The Washington Post describes Dilma Rousseff as a “Marxist guerrilla turned button-down technocrat.” She won 95% of the votes.

Editor of Women Writing Resistance: Essays from Latin America and the Caribbean
MA, PhD, New York University
Great Barrington, MA US

Connect with Jennifer on GSO!

Interview by Outside the Margins: International Feminist Book Club contributer Simonette Swain. Connect with Simonette on GSO!

SS: Women Writing in Resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean holds a special place in my life. In the late 90s I attended Bard College at Simon’s Rock where Jenny Browdy de Hernandez taught a series of gender studies classes that had the theme of “women writing in resistance.” Though I had never intended to begin, much less continue, this journey into women’s studies – the voices of these authors called out to something deep in my soul. Jenny, along with most of the authors featured in Women Writing Resistance, helped to form the basis of my feminist awakening. The willingness of the authors to share their oppression and humiliation – and their joy and resistance – forced to me to do the same. Through their testimonials these women provided a bridge for me from silence to voice, from victim to survivor. I thank Jenny for bringing these truly amazing women into my life. I find myself returning to their words often, especially at the times when I most need strength and inspiration. Jenny has truly been a remarkable teacher, mentor, and friend to numerous young women trying to find the path to self-empowerment and empowerment for all.

GSO: How did teaching influence your decision to compile the WWR anthology?

JBH: I have been teaching comparative literature and gender studies for many years now at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. My PhD was in comparative literature (from New York University) and my dissertation was entitled “Hybrid Encounters: Autobiographies of the Americas.” I remember I had to fight my committee to be allowed to create the research category of “the Americas”; at the time Comparative Literature was very language-based, so it was unusual to compare Spanish, French and English-language literature from North America, South America and the Caribbean, not to mention also adding in Native American and indigenous texts from central and south America. I was very pleased, years later, to see the development of “hemispheric studies,” which is what I had been engaged in without being able to give it such a distinguished name! This early work in testimonials and autobiographies focused me on the nexus between personal narratives and political power, which is what animated my selection of the pieces in the Women Writing Resistance anthology.

GSO: If you had to choose, which piece in the anthology has most inspired you?

JBH: That is a tough question! I continue to return to Gloria Anzaldua’s “Speaking in Tongues” for inspiration, because I keep needing to be reminded to “put [my] shit on paper” and not worry about the conventions of academia and whether or not I’m going to shock my audience. Gloria said we need to write in “blood and pus and sweat,” and I think that is as true today as it was when she first wrote those words. If anything writers in the academy and the punditry have become more alienated from the experiences of ordinary working people over the years, and that’s why I think there is such a strong need for alliances between testifiers and scribes. I see myself as a scribe who one day hopes to become a writer in my own right.

GSO: The anthology is mostly composed of previously published pieces. Is there a reason you chose these pieces rather than ask the authors write original essays around a theme?

JBH: The anthology began as a “course pak” for a class, Spanish American Women Writers, which I eventually renamed Women Writing Resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean. So the initial manuscript did come together from previously published pieces that I felt deserved to be collected in the more permanent (and legal) form of a book. A few of the pieces were written for the anthology: Julia Alvarez’s endnote, Betita Martinez’s Preface, Marjorie Agosin’s poetry on the disappeared women of Mexico, Margaret Randall’s “One Precious Moment.” These came out of a conference I organized in 2001 to which those writers came, so I was able to ask them in person to contribute to the anthology, which was then just taking form in my mind.

GSO: Most of the contributors to the anthology originate from the Spanish speaking Caribbean or Latin America. Is there a reason why you didn’t include essays by writers from other parts of the Caribbean?

JBH: As I said, the initial impetus for this anthology was a course that was mainly focused on writers from Spanish Latin America and the Latin American diaspora, including Cuba and Puerto Rico. So that accounts for the bias towards women writers of Spanish-speaking heritage in the anthology. You are right, if I were to do it again I would include a broader range of Caribbean authors, and also make sure Brazil was represented. Maybe in an expanded second edition someday!

GSO: What impact do you think WWR has had on international feminist scholarship and activism?

JBH: I really don’t know. It might have more impact internationally if it was translated into Spanish. I think my intention was more to introduce these writers to a broader US audience and make it clear that stand-outs like Julia Alvarez and Edwidge Danticat were really part of a larger movement of Latin American and Caribbean “women writing resistance.”

GSO: What do you think (and hope) the legacy of WWR will be?

JBH: Now that I have produced another volume, African Women Writing Resistance, I am hoping that the idea of “women writing resistance” will gain more traction and become a theme that will be studied in more colleges and universities, not just in the Latin American or Caribbean context, but cross-culturally, worldwide. I would like to do more of these anthologies: Women Writing Resistance in the Middle East, in Asia (which might have to be two, because Asia is so big and rich), and Indigenous Women Writing Resistance. I am also starting to think about a broader approach linking women’s rights to human rights through literature, which I am calling Women Write the World, the title of this year’s International Women’s Day conference at Simon’s Rock and a new course I’ll be teaching in the spring. So I am hoping that the first volume will be the starting point of a whole series that will introduce the politicized, fighting words of women writers all over the world to a broader audience.

GSO: What drives/motivates you to do this work?

JBH: I sometimes ask myself this very question. Why have I been so drawn to reading and writing about and collecting stories of women’s suffering? I work with these texts because I know that the suffering and resistance of these women must not be forgotten; today’s young people need to hear their stories and learn from their examples of strength and courage. I want young women today to be able to name and talk about many inspiring women who have worked for social justice, just the way we can all name and talk about inspiring male figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Well, yes, those are great men, but let’s not forget about Wangari Maathai, Shirin Ebadi, and Rigoberta Menchu!

GSO: What kinds of projects are you currently working on, and are they in line with WWR?

JBH: I just published the anthology African Women Writing Resistance, which I co-edited with Pauline Dongala, Omotayo Jolaosho and Anne Serafin. I loved the co-editing process and found our collaboration made the end product much richer and more complete. This is a much bigger, more extensive volume, and has work from emerging writers as well as some established writers like Nawal El Saadawi and Wangari Maathai. It is multi-genre, like the first volume, and very political and strong.

Currently I am working on an anthology about the contemporary teen experience, with a group of teens and twenty-somethings—if you would like to contribute, please contact me! I am also working on a political memoir of my own, about the intertwinings of privilege, oppression and liberation in my life. And I am thinking about translating from the Spanish a testimonial by a Colombian woman who was caught up in the violence of the Pinochet coup in Chile. I am also working with two collaborators on a graphic novel about the 18th century women writers Anne Bonny and Mary Read. And I’m working on an illustrated lecture in the vein of politicized literary history on “Women Write the World,” which might very well be expanded into a book. So yes, I think the theme of women writing resistance continues to run through all my work, and always will.

GSO: What is your vision for the international women’s movement? Do you ever lose hope that your vision will be actualized?

JBH: On the contrary, I am always inspired by the work women are doing to increase their social and political power in their own communities and countries, and how it is becoming easier and easier for us to communicate with each other across national and even linguistic borders, through the internet. Now with the growth of inexpensive video equipment, we are also beginning to be able to learn from the stories of women who did not have the privilege of learning to read and write, and this brings us all much closer to the source of our strength—our voices. My vision has always been about all of us using our talents and gifts to help us all move forward. Increasing opportunities for a few elite women is not enough—those women always need to be looking around them and extending a hand to others on the path. That’s the only way we’ll achieve true social justice.

GSO: What advice would you give to a young person who wants to do the kind of work you do?

JBH: It’s very important to work on learning languages while you’re young and have the time for it. I learned Spanish and French quite well by studying and then going and living in Mexico and France. These language skills have been invaluable to me in my work, and I only wish I had been inspired to learn even more languages while still in college and grad school. Being able to read and communicate with people in their native languages is essential to understanding their cultures. Whatever academic or activist field you go into, languages are a basic tool that will serve you well. And just one more thing: don’t forget about the women! They may not be the loudest or most prominent people in the room, but they have a world of wisdom inside if we care to listen. Listen we must.

Urgent News!
Announced on September 20, 2010
Have your organization apply today!

A Call for Proposals for Fund for Women’s Property and Inheritance Rights in the Context of HIV/AIDS.

UNIFEM (part of UN Women), with the generous contribution of the Canadian International Development Agency, today launches a Call for Proposals for the Fund for Women’s Property and Inheritance Rights in the Context of HIV/AIDS. The Fund will provide small, catalytic grants totalling US$700,000 in 2010 to grassroots and community-based organizations or networks in sub-Saharan Africa working to improve women’s access to property and inheritance rights within the context of HIV/AIDS.

Interested applicants from sub-Saharan Africa are invited to apply. The Call for Proposals opens on September 20 and will close October 20 of 20 September 2010 and will close on 20 October 2010.

Visit the UNIFEM website for details and for related documents.

New York, New York US
Tuesday, September 21st – Friday, September 24th

The GlobalSister.org team will be attending the MDG Summit through the UN Week Digital Media Lounge, a fully-wired facility that will gather the best of digital journalists, bloggers, and NGO reps to engage with global leaders, advocates, and beneficiaries.

In September 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets- with a deadline of 2015. By 2015 all United Nations Member States have pledged to:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

This week world leaders will meet at the United Nations in New York to participate in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Review Summit. This year Mashable, the UN Foundation, and 92nd Street Y are hosting the first ever UN Week Digital Media Lounge MDG Summit. The GlobalSister.org team will be focusing on how the MDGs have impacted the lives of women and girls.

Join GlobalSister.org this week via live twitter discussions, news updates and blog posts. Make your voice heard! We want world leaders to hear what women have to say about the Millennium Development Goals.

See below for Tuesday’s Digital Media Lounge lineup, and post any questions/comments for the Digital Lounge speakers as a comment to this post, via Twitter at #GSO or email at info@globalsister.org

Stay Alert!
We will update the program daily for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.