UNIFEMANNUAL REPORT 2002/2003 “Working for women’s empowerment and gender equality” United Nations Development Fund for Women PHOTO CREDIT GOES HERE UNIFEM ANNUAL REPORT 2002 / 2003 97 Mission and Mandate UNIFEM is the women’s fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that promote women’s human rights, political participation and economic security. Within the UN system, UNIFEM promotes gender equality and links women’s issues and concerns to national, regional and global agendas by fostering collaboration and providing technical expertise on gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment strategies. UNIFEM was created by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1976, following a call from women’s organizations attending the 1975 UN First World Conference on Women in Mexico City. UNIFEM’s mandate is to: • Support innovative and experimental activities benefiting women in line with national and regional priorities; • Serve as a catalyst, with the goal of ensuring the appropriate involvement of women in mainstream development activities, as often as possible at the pre- investment stage; • Play an innovative and catalytic role in relation to the United Nations overall system of development cooperation. (GA resolution 39/125) Contents Message by Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator, UNDP 2 Message by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM 3 Programmes and Priorities 4 A Focus on Action and Accountability 5 ECONOMIC SECURITY AND RIGHTS Making Laws Work for Women 6 Providing Data to Change Public Policies 8 Connecting for Business 10 GOVERNANCE, PEACE AND SECURITY Promoting Political Participation 12 Bringing Women to the Peace Table 14 Advancing Women’s Agenda in Afghanistan 16 HUMAN RIGHTS Implementing Commitments to Women’s Rights 18 Working for a World Free of Violence 20 Forging Alliances Against HIV/AIDS 22 Project Highlights 24 Financial Statements 28 UNIFEM at Work Around the World 30 A Worldwide Network of Support 32 COVER: RICARDO FUNARI—BRAZILPHOTOS. LEFT: CORBIS. 1 MESSAGE BY MARK MALLOCH BROWN • ADMINISTRATOR, UNDP A Key Player for the Millennium Development Goals n 2002 UNIFEM demon- where reliable statistics exist, the strated once again how its gender differences become obvious – Iimpact across the world reaches as do the policy responses. In the far beyond simple resources. In fight against HIV/AIDS, for Afghanistan and many other example, the great majority of those countries where gender issues have newly infected are young women, long been neglected, UNIFEM’s and our response to tackling the persistence and leadership in disease needs to be built around promoting women’s rights has been that fact. indispensable. And it has also, as Last but not least, UNIFEM has recognized by the Security Council, a proven role as a catalyst in played a very important role in developing and sharing best directing attention to the needs of practices on how to improve the women affected by armed conflict as daily lives of women all over the well as to their role in bringing world. This knowledge and gender issues to bear in finding to land and water, to education and experience on gender issues are a solutions. other social services. And too often vast resource for UNDP and all its More broadly, UNIFEM is women are excluded from decision- development partners to draw on playing a key part in seeking to help making, not only in governmental through our expanding development achieve the eight Millennium processes at the national, regional knowledge networks in the months Development Goals (MDGs) that and local levels, but even within and years to come, as we work arose out of the historic Millennium their own families. UNIFEM’s together to make the MDGs a Declaration in 2000. Not only is longstanding experience and reality. the promotion of gender equality advocacy around these issues is a and empowerment of women critical dimension of the broader entrenched as the third of these global campaign for the MDGs. goals, but the issue cuts across all As this report shows, UNIFEM the others, from reducing maternal also has an important technical and and child mortality, to halving operational role in the development hunger and putting all children in and analysis of gender-sensitive school by the deadline of 2015. statistics. Globally, the availability of Wherever we work around the gender-disaggregated data, a crucial world, we see that women are nearly tool to monitor development always the poorest of the poor. progress and target policies, is Mark Malloch Brown They disproportionately lack access terribly inadequate. In those areas Administrator, UNDP 2 UNIFEM ANNUAL REPORT 2002 / 2003 MESSAGE BY NOELEEN HEYZER • EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIFEM AVision for HumanSecurity he year 2002 brought the and values that inspired the vision of issues of peace and security the Millennium Summit in September Tto the forefront of the world’s 2000 and the agreement by the conscience. It is in this context that world’s nations on a set of eight the role of the UN Security Council – development priorities, known as the including its historic resolution 1325 Millennium Development Goals. The on women, peace and security – is common values and ethics that we reaffirmed. develop to guide our interactions with Addressing the Security Council in each other – whether as States or July 2002, I called on the Member communities, organizations or States to ensure that women, peace individuals – are also the best, and and security become a regular item on maybe the only, guarantors of human the political agenda and wherever security. UNIFEM worked to deliver security issues are discussed. on this vision not only through its Experience shows that one sure way to work on peace and security, but also achieve the consensus and Caucasus in this respect, but through our efforts to foster women’s compromise needed to create and UNIFEM’s efforts cover many other economic security, to secure their sustain peace is to involve women countries. We were involved in peace- human rights and to fight the spread throughout the peace-building related activities in 25 countries in of HIV/AIDS. This Annual Report process. Women more readily embrace 2002, including Kosovo and Timor- provides a snapshot of our work the collaborative perspective needed to Leste. What we have learned in these around the world in 2002 and cut through ethnic, religious, tribal countries is that we must demand a presents the voices of women whom and political barriers. They need new definition of global security, one we supported. And it shows the support, however, to translate their that focuses on economic and social results of UNIFEM’s interventions, pragmatic expertise into participation justice which makes development whether it be laws that protect and in formal peace negotiations, in peace- possible. In many countries, the empower women, improved statistics building and reconstruction, and concept of local, national and global that help guide policy decisions, or eventually in national governments. security has become virtually new skills that open better economic Decisions that exclude half the synonymous with weapon-based opportunities for women. population from political processes security. Women, however, insist on a At UNIFEM, we will continue to offer little hope of achieving a secure broader vision, one that puts human actively support this vision for human and peaceful future free from violence development and human rights at the security – in 2003 and beyond. and discrimination. forefront; one that includes lives free UNIFEM continues to stimulate from violence and HIV/AIDS. and support initiatives of women who Over the last decade, at a series of are committed to peace. This Annual UN conferences, all countries Report highlights our work in committed themselves to a core set of Noeleen Heyzer LEFT: SHAMSUZ ZAMAN—UNDP. RIGHT:UNIFEM. Afghanistan and the Southern norms and values. It is these norms Executive Director, UNIFEM UNIFEM ANNUAL REPORT 2002 / 2003 3 ECOMONIC SECURITY AND RIGHTS Programmes & Priorities NIFEM has programmes and regional initiatives in strengthened in 2000 during the more than 100 countries. The organization works in global five-year review of progress U close partnership with governments, women’s organiza- organized by the UN. tions and the UN system to assist countries implement their UN Security Council resolution commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment. 1325 on women, peace and security recognized that war impacts women differently, and reaffirmed the need to increase their role in decision- UNIFEM FOCUSES ON THREE AREAS OF making with regard to conflict IMMEDIATE CONCERN: prevention and resolution. Finally, 1. Strengthening women’s economic security and rights and the Millennium Declaration and empowering women to enjoy secure livelihoods. 2. Supporting women’s leadership in governance, peace-building and Millennium Development Goals the decision-making processes that shape their lives. (MDGs) outline a set of time- 3. Promoting women’s human rights and eliminating all forms of bound and measurable goals and discrimination against women; this includes initiatives to fight targets to promote gender equality violence against women and enhancing the understanding of the gender and human rights dimensions of HIV/AIDS. and to combat poverty, hunger, These thematic areas are addressed in relation to regional disease, illiteracy and environmental realities in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the degradation by 2015. Caribbean, and Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth Through its extensive experience of Independent States (CEE/CIS). in advocacy, building partnerships, capacity-building, piloting CARRYING OUT ITS WORK, innovative approaches and UNIFEM APPLIES FIVE CORE STRATEGIES: increasing knowledge about 1. Strengthening the capacity and leadership of women’s women’s human rights, UNIFEM organizations and networks. 2. Leveraging political and financial support for women from a wide supports positive change in women’s range of stakeholders. lives. UNIFEM strengthens women’s 3.